AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
21 
Before the weevil or wheat-midge came, my 
drained land was noticed by every one who 
saw them, as producing far better crops of 
wheat than farms not drained, of precisely 
the same character of soils. But since the 
midge became so destructive, many farmers 
have almost given up the raising of wheat, 
excepting for their own bread—and some not 
that. Those who continued the raising of 
wheat have only got from seven to ten bush¬ 
els per acre, when my drained land has been 
not less than twenty-three bushels per acre, 
and from that up to twenty-seven bushels 
per acre. Last season some other drained 
land in this neighborhood raised fully as 
much as mine. 
I have thirty-one acres of my farm yet to 
drain, which I shall endeavor to do this sea¬ 
son. On drained land the wheat grows 
much earlier in spring, and ripens a few days 
earlier than undrained land, and much of it 
gets so hard that, when the midge makes its 
appearance it can not be so destructive to it 
as later wheat. Were it not for rust, I 
think wheat might be grown so late as to 
head out after the midge is gone. 
John Johnston. 
Near Geneva, March 17, 1855. 
Jiortkrfiral geprtaiti 
The attention of Horticulturists is special¬ 
ly directed to the advertisement of the ad¬ 
ministrators of the late Thomas Hogg. 
HOVEY S MAGAZINE FOR MARCH. 
In looking over the advertising columns, 
we are glad to see that the famous Concord 
grape is put down to three dollars each, and 
by the dozen to two dollars. This, we have 
no doubt, will be much better econonomy 
for the producer, and certainly much more 
satisfactory to the purchaser. Vines at five 
dollars each must be dull of sale, even 
though they were warranted to bear golden 
clusters the same season they were set out. 
A few verdant gentlemen, who believe all 
that is told them, would buy of course, even 
at double that price. But the mass of fruit¬ 
growers prefer to wait. A plant so easily 
and so rapidly multiplied as the vine, can be 
furnished cheaper than almost anything else 
sent out from the nursery. 
The leader is upon the importance of deep 
cultivation. A contrast is drawn between 
our American climate and that of Great 
Britain, showing that the average tempera¬ 
ture of our summer months is several de¬ 
grees higher than theirs, while we have on 
an average 15 more inches of rain in a sea¬ 
son. Our rains fall principally in spring and 
autumn, before and after vegetation is in its 
highest activity. There, the rains fall in 
moderate and drizzling showers, often for 
several days in succession. Our summer 
weather is much more clear, our atmosphere 
more dry, and the heat of the sun intense. 
Deep and thorough trenching of the soil is 
recommended as the only effectual remedy 
for these infelicities of climate. 
We are happy to add our testimony to this 
recommendation. The very best invest¬ 
ment we ever made in garden implements, 
was a trenching spade with which the soil 
could be worked from twenty inches to two 
feet deep. : Putting jn the manure at that 
depth we have reached astonishing results 
in the root and cabbage crops. This deep 
working of the soil turns the drouth itself to 
good account, and renders mulching an irri¬ 
gation less necessary, or if used, more effi¬ 
cacious. During a dry spell, and in trenched 
ground, roots strike deeper in search of food 
and moisture, become more’extensively ram¬ 
ified, and sooner find the rich loam and ma¬ 
nure intermingled with the soil. We never 
raised so fine carrots as during the fierce 
drouth of last summer, in an old gravel pit, 
where the soil was three feet or more deep. 
Capillary attraction is increased, and evapo¬ 
ration from the cold, damp earth below is 
increased. It is also a great safeguard 
against excessive rains. The more rain, the 
more heat, ammonia, carbonic acid, and other 
organic elements are left in the soil as it 
descends. The trenched and porous soil 
holds water like a sponge, notwithstanding 
the drainage. It retains or can command 
enough for the wants of vegetation. 
Trenching, or its substitute, subsoil plow¬ 
ing, is one of the great wants of our gardens 
and cultivated fields. The cold, wet lands, 
with their deep black soils, are often the 
richest on the farm in all the elements of 
fertility, and only need drainage and thor¬ 
ough working to yield great crops. 
Wilson Flagg has an article on illusive 
distances and magnitudes in his usual happy 
vein. It is artistic, too much so for the 
common reader perhaps, going into the 
philosophy of laying out grounds so as to 
coax the owner of a few acres and his visi¬ 
tors into the belief, that he is the proprietor 
of an extensive domain. Grounds may be 
so improved, or so let alone, if Nature has 
been happy in her work, that they will seem 
much more extensive than they are. If we 
would imitate nature, we must draw no per¬ 
fect mathematical lines or figures, and the 
approximations to them should be few. Our 
own country is full of these charming land¬ 
scapes, and perhaps no other country on earth 
has received so many external advantages, 
and such a variety of scenery from the hand 
of nature. We need not visit England to 
study and learn the work we have to do ; 
for nature, who is the only correct teacher, 
is here before us, undespoiled as in the 
mother country, by the vagaries of ostenta¬ 
tious improvers. The English artists in 
landscape have made only a few advances 
towards what may be styled the natural sys¬ 
tem of laying out grounds. 
Our landscapes, which nature has made so 
beautiful, ought to be preserved, from the 
besom of “ enterprize,” which is so rapidly 
sweeping them away. They are numerous 
and characteristic in these old bouses which 
have been long occupied almost exclusively 
by farmers, and which have not been ex¬ 
posed to the ravages of a more advanced 
civilization, for what the Goths and Vandals 
were to the cities of Greece and Rome, the 
enterpnzing classes of the Anglo-Americans 
are to all these beautiful haunts of the Rural 
Deities. They lay in ruins, with remorse¬ 
less sacrilege, every object that would de¬ 
light the heart of a true lover of nature, and 
then point exultingly to the bald hills and 
plains, as if their ravages were proofs of 
their civilization. 
Andrew Gray has an article on the gar¬ 
dens of the south, and speaks for the latitude 
of Savannah. Oranges and lemons grow 
luxuriantly, but are liable, in severe winters, 
to be killed down to the ground. Their 
roots survive, and throw up shoots six or 
eight feet in a season. Pears are uncertain. 
They often blossom in January, and the 
young fruit is killed by the frosts of Feb¬ 
ruary and March. They blossom again in 
October, and are again cut off by the frosts 
of November. The foreign varieties of the 
plum are subject to the same calamity. The 
peach is short-lived, but does well while it 
lasts. Pomegranates thrive well. Summer 
apples mature, but none are grown that keep 
well. Apricots are like the plums, and 
olives have been tried, and the experiment 
encourages the hope that olive oil may be 
raised in this country. Figs are the certain 
fruit in the south, and sometimes two crops 
are gathered. This is certainly a rather 
beggarly account of the orchard fruits of the 
south, and we think some Yankee fruit-grow¬ 
er, trained in the vicinity of Boston, might 
find a wide field of usefulness in that region. 
Pomological science would probably'do much 
to remedy these difficulties of climate. 
The article on the improved varieties of 
the shellbark furnishes valuable suggestions. 
This delicious nut may be improved in size, 
and, by the experiments on record in regard 
to other nuts and fruits, we may look for 
shellbarks a few years hence as large as 
hen’s eggs—indeed, the “ Perkiomen” shell- 
bark, a native of Pennsylvania, Avhich has 
been noticed by Dr. Brinckle in his horti¬ 
cultural reports, is nearly of that size al¬ 
ready. A specimen measures an inch and 
three-quarters long, one and five-eighths 
wide, and one thick, or fourinches round one 
way, and four and a half the other. Let our 
horticultural societies take the hint, offer 
premiums for the finest hickory nuts, to be 
distributed amdhg those who will plant and 
grow them. The nut is the richest of all 
indigenous to the north, and its improve¬ 
ment is an object worthy of the attention of 
our fruit-growers. 
ORIGIN OF THE OPAL. 
A dew-drop came, with a spark of flame 
He had caught from the sun’s last ray, 
To a violet’s breast, where he lay at rest, 
Till the hours brought back the day. 
The rose look’d down, with a blush and frown, 
But she smiled all at once to view 
Her own bright form, with its coloring warm, 
Reflected back by the dew. 
Then the stranger took a stolen look, 
At the sky so soft and blue, 
And a leaflet green, with a silvery sheen, 
Was seen by the idler too. 
A cold north-wind, as he thus reclined, 
Of a sudden raged around, 
And a maden fair, who was walking there, 
Next morning an opal found ! 
Rose Rivers. 
“ When is a broker,” queried Jimmy Grimes, 
“ Like to a vagrant in the olden times 1” 
■< D’ye give it up ?—Well, when by fortune’s shocks 
The poor unfortunate gets ‘ stuck in stocks!’ ” 
