120 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIS1 
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Mew-York, Thursday, May 3. 
$3^ This paper is never sent where it is 
not considered paid foi—and is in all cases 
stopped ivhen the subscription runs out. 
We occasionally send a number to persons 
who are not subscribers. This is sometimes 
done as a compliment, and in other cases to 
invite examination. Those receiving such 
numbers are requested to look them over, and 
if convenient show them to a neighbor. 
WHEAT CROPS, &C. 
Editorial Correspondence. 
Locktort, Niagara Co., N. Y., May 1, 1855. 
The spring in this section, as elsewhere, 
has opened somewhat later than usual, but 
with a very good prospect, especially for 
wheat. We have very closely watched the 
fields of wheat along the route between this 
and Syracuse, and have also examined many 
fields hereabouts, and our own observations 
fully agree with the general report of the 
farmers themselves, that the present pros¬ 
pect of this important crop, in what is known 
as the “ Genesee Country,” has seldom, if 
ever, been better than now, at this season of 
the year. The high prices induced farmers 
to sow a large breadth, and the deep mantle 
of snow upon the ground during the entire 
winter, has been almost a perfect protection 
against “winter kill.” 
Snow has been called “ the poor man’s 
manure”; and whether on account of its 
protection, or from the ammonia it has fur¬ 
nished, or from both causes combined, the 
wheat crops of both poor and rich bear evi¬ 
dent marks of having been greatly aided by 
the unusual snows of the past winter. In 
many instances the snow fell before the 
ground had frozen, and the plants appear to 
have grown during the entire winter season. 
We have seen a few fields which were 
covered with water, and the ground being 
unfrozen, the plants have literally rotted out. 
This is also the case along the fences in 
many other fields, where the large drifts of 
snow accumulated. These patches are gen¬ 
erally being plowed up for other crops, or 
have been sown with spring wheat. The 
chief apprehension of wheat-growers here 
is, now, from a fear of the insects, which 
made considerable ravages upon the last 
crop. Should they fortunately escape any 
great degree of loss from this source, they 
can scarcely fail to gather a yield of wheat 
at the incoming harvest almost unprece¬ 
dented. 
In this County (Niagara) the generality of 
farms consist of a heavy soil, lying compar¬ 
atively level, and the most important object 
to be secured is a system of thorough drain¬ 
age. Many farmers have become aware of 
this, and have commenced draining on a scale 
as yet limited, but with the happiest results. 
The universal desire to maintain “ respecta¬ 
bility ” by the breadth of acres owned, in¬ 
stead of by the profitableness of their labor, 
is the chief obstacle to successful farming. 
We hope soon to see farmers convinced of 
the advantages of reducing the amount of 
surface gone over, and increasing the pro¬ 
duct per acre by a more thorough system of 
cultivation. If every farmer having 100 
acres of these heavy, but most valuable soils, 
would sell off 25 acres, and expend the en¬ 
tire proceeds in draining, subsoiling, deep 
plowing, &c., upon the remaining 75 acres, 
he would, in nearly every instance, find that 
the smaller farm, with less plowing, seed, 
and harvesting, and with less fencing, taxes, 
&c., would give a larger aggregate yield of 
produce. A field now held at $50 per acre, 
and yielding an uncertain crop of 12 to 15 
bushels of wheat, would, by an expenditure 
of $20 to $30 per acre in draining, etc., pro¬ 
duce an almost certain crop of 25 to 35 bush¬ 
els. Why not then, if necessary, dispose of 
one-fourth, or one-third of it, and make the 
necessary improvements upon the remain¬ 
der? J. 
From Virginia. —A correspondent writing 
to us from the Old Dominion, says : “ We 
have an excellent show for fruit of all kinds. 
At present wheat is looking remarkably well 
—very strong, and promises a fine yield. 
Vegetables are still rather scarce, owing 
principally to the severe drouth of last sum¬ 
mer. Potatoes are expensive—so much so 
that many prefer going without to buying 
seed to plant. It is a treat to see fresh but¬ 
ter in market, which, like other things com¬ 
mands a high price. This is chiefly owing 
to the scarcity of feed, in consequence of 
which cows are cheap ; but we look for 
brighter prospects the ensuing year.” 
DOGMATICAL. 
Reader, should it ever be your misfortune 
to come in contact with a person who is dis¬ 
posed to enforce his peculiar views on any 
and all subjects—one who esteems himself 
as infallible—set it down as a safe inference 
that he is dogmatical. To simply declare 
that you are right, when there is a possibility 
of your being wrong, is prima facie evidence 
that you do not know all the mysteries of 
the world ; and to say that another man is 
wrong, merely because what he advances is 
contrary to your own experience or concep¬ 
tion, is equally foolish and absurd. No two 
minds are exactly alike, and hence no two 
can interiorly (or imaginatively) view things 
in the same forms, positions, or colors. 
Let two men pass what is termed a vacant 
lot, in a town or city. One sees nothing but 
vacancy; while the other, being an architect, 
with vivid imagination, sees a structure, 
beautiful in all its proportions, towering 
aloft; doors, windows, arches, domes—all 
the exterior of a splendid palace. The 
architect might call the attention of his com¬ 
panion to the fact of what he saw, and al¬ 
though known to be a truthful man, his 
protestations would be looked upon by his 
companion, in this instance at least, as an 
evidence of insanity or mental hallucination. 
Nevertheless, let twelve months elapse, and 
then both could see what but the one could 
see before. One would see a combination 
of marble, brick, mortar, wood and glass— 
merely the solids or material substances— 
representing what his mind had constructed 
a year previous without them. The other, 
being a material man, or incapable of seeing 
anything except that visible to the organs of 
sight of any beast, could now see the house, 
exactly as described to him by the architect 
on their previous walk over the same 
ground. 
The winds blow, and their wild music 
echoes through the silvan arcades; and 
when the storm gathers, the tall masts and 
the giant oaks quiver like the strings of a 
delicate lyre. Tax the eyes to their utmost 
powers ; use microscopes and magnifiers, 
and yet you can not see them. And shall 
we dispute the fact of their existence be¬ 
cause of their invisibility? The magnet at¬ 
tracts the steel, but it will not attract a cork. 
Shall the cork therefore declare disbelief in 
magnetism ? Electricity—a subtile fluid— 
descends in concentrated shafts from the 
ethereal depths and circulates through the 
solid globe, causing the metallic nerves of 
the mountains to vibrate, the earth to quake, 
and cities to tumble into ruins—but shall 
the insulator or nonconductor set up the 
hypothesis that these effects are all “ illu¬ 
sion ”? 
Look at the dress of the thousands who 
throng a city ; scarcely two exactly alike— 
unless from necessity. Their fancies all 
have certain peculiarities. Their minds are 
still more diverse, for there is a broader, 
deeper, higher scope on things contemplative 
than material. How full of theories and 
speculations are the whole human race, on 
all questions where there is a possibility of 
difference ! Notwithstanding an individual 
will give a general assent to a particular 
doctrine, there are many points upon which 
his mind is unreconciled, and unreconcila- 
ble. 
As every head is as different in structure 
as the physiognomy of the race of man, it 
is little wonder that one should hold to this 
particular creed, and another to that. It is 
little wonder that one should prefer the color 
of blue, another green, and another red. 
But to say that your particular fancy of color, 
your peculiar party predilections or your 
especial religious tenets are alone correct 
and right, is essentially dogmatical. To say 
that one is a fool for thinking what he does 
—what perhaps he can not help—is dogmat¬ 
ical. To aver that a man is insane because 
he can not see as you see, and feel as you 
feel, is decidedly dogmatical—and before 
giving public utterance to that which you 
think right, rather than that you bring your¬ 
self into contempt as being a narrow-minded 
bigot, it would be well to couch your ideas 
in language inoffensive to those who may 
be privileged to differ in opinion. J. 
Artesian Wells. —Inquiry is made wheth¬ 
er any one in this vicinity bores Artesian 
