THE CULTIVATOR 
303 
1846 , 
VARIETIES OF WHEAT. 
Mr. Tucker —I perceive an advertisement of seed 
wheat for sale in your August number, upon which I wish 
to offer a few remarks. I think those who offer seeds of 
any kind for sale, should give a short description of the 
general characteristics of the plant. The Soule wheat 
is a very prolific variety—large stiff straw, more liable 
to blight or rust than the White Flint; shells very easy, 
and there is much more complaint of its being injured 
by the wheat worm. I think it ought to be sown only 
upon rather dry or rolling land. The White Flint is 
less liable to rust, and will not waste in harvesting, even 
if it stands several days after it is fit to cut. 
The Mediterranean wheat is the surest wheat that is 
grown, and the least liable to rust; straw rather small, 
and is quite apt to fall. For those who wish to grow 
for their own domestic use, it is preferable to any other 
variety, because more sure of a crop, and will make 
more flour to the bushel. The objection to this wheat 
is, that the flour is of a reddish cast, and does not sell 
well in our market. The writer of this sent several 
barrels to Albany last spring, and it would not fetch 
within one dollar per barrel, what flour of the WhL-rf 
Flint variety brought; yet I have not the least doubt it 
would have made several pounds more bread than the 
other. 
Spring Wheat. —I have tried the Black Sea wheat. 
The straw is very limber—so much so that it was im¬ 
possible to cut it with a cradle; soil, sand and gravelly 
loam. Possibly it may stand better on a more calca¬ 
reous soil. The yield, I think, will be good. 
I perceive your enterprizing correspondent, S. W- 
Jewett, has produced, as he supposes, a new variety of 
winter wheat from the summer variety of Black Sea 
wheat. I fear he has drawn his conclusions too soon. 
And why ? The winter of 1841 was very mild here, 
and hundreds of stools of the common two-rowed bar¬ 
ley, where wheat was sown after said crop, stood through 
the winter, and produced fine long ears, which ripened 
ten days earlier than the wheat—and yet I do not think 
any one would think of calling it a winter variety on 
that account. Wayne. 
WINTER WHEAT DERIVED FROM SPRING- WHEAT. 
Mr. Tucker. — In a communication from S. W. 
Jewett, Esq., in the August number of the Cultivator, 
he gives the process by which he obtained a good yield 
from a fall sowing of the Odessa or Black Sea wheat. 
In confirmation of his experiments, tending to show that 
it may be cultivated as a winter variety, I will state a 
few facts that have come within my own observation. 
On the 1st of Nov., 1843, Mr. Jared Goodale sowed 
one bushel of Black Sea wheat. The ground froze soon 
after the sowing, and remained so until the opening of 
the spring, when the wheat came forward finely, and at 
harvest gave twenty-eight bushels from the one. The 
berry was lighter colored, but heavier than the spring 
sown gra n. 
In the fall of 1844, Mr. A. Smith sowed about two 
acres with the Black Sea wheat. I saw it just before 
harvest, and thought it promised fair for at least thirty 
bushels to the acre. I never learned how much it ac¬ 
tually did yield; but will say it was such a piece as far 
mers might be proud to raise. Mr. Smith afterwards 
told me that it made superior flour. Both of the above 
pieces were sown with seed raised from spring sowing 
that season, without other preparation than is usual for 
common winter wheat. 
In the fore part of September, 1845, Dr. D. C. Good- 
ale, having harvested from a field of twenty-three acres 
a fair crop of spring sown Odessa wheat, carefully turn¬ 
ed under the stubble, and excepting about three-fourths 
of an acre, for which he lacked seed, sowed the field 
with the Harmon wheat, as it is called with us. The 
seed was genuine, the Doctor having procured it from 
General Harmon the season before, and taken much 
pains to keep it pure. At harvest the part not sown 
was a fair growth of Black Sea wheat, somewhat un¬ 
even, as might be expected, but yielding an average of 
fifteen bushels to the acre. That part sown with the 
Harmon wheat, is about two-thirds of that variety, the 
remaining third was Black Sea produced from the scat¬ 
terings of the first harvest. 
The last I will now notice, was a small lot of an acre 
and a half on the farm of Ira Strong, which was of 
spontaneous growth, or sprung from the droppings in 
gathering the previous crop. The land not having been 
plowed, or in any way cultivated, the grain stood thin, 
with long heads, remarkably well filled, the straw hard 
and stiff, compared with the spring sown. 
The foregoing, I think establishes the point that the 
Black Sea wheat may be successfully cultivated as a win¬ 
ter variety, and that it is thus improved in weight of 
grain and quality of flour; and farther, that the straw 
being more solid, it is not as liable to lodge. 
J. W. Strong. 
CURING PROVISIONS. 
A writer with the signature Zea, gives some direc¬ 
tions in the Montreal Witness in regard to curing provi¬ 
sions for the English market, which may be both useful 
and interesting. He is in favor of dry salting, as it is 
called, that is rubbing the meat with salt, instead of put- 
ing it into brine. This mode, he thinks of great im¬ 
portance; for he observes, “ it takes away the blood, 
cures the meat, condenses it, coagulates the albumen, 
and renders it not so liable either to spoil or to become 
salt. Hams and bacon, it is well known, cured with 
dry salt, can be kept perfectly well, though not one 
quarter as salt as those prepared in the brine tub, indeed 
scarcely to to be considered as salt food at all.” 
The quality of salt he deems of the next consequence. 
The salt made in “the States,’* he thinks, is too often 
impure, though he says the manufacturer might refine 
it so as to be as good as any other. 
Cleanliness is another point which he considers as 
deserving much attention. He says, “ washing the 
meat in water before finally packing it up for sale, should 
never be neglected; and care should also be taken to 
avoid all kinds of dirt. The people of Britain, correctly 
enough, are very particular in this respect; they like to 
see the color of meat, and so, partially, to be able to 
judge of its quality.” 
Beef, he says, should be cut into sii pound pieces, 
and pork into four pound pieces, the former to be packed 
in tierces of 300 pounds, the latter in barrels of 200 
pounds, each containing fifty pieces. “The reason for 
this,” it is said, “ is that beef being generally served out 
to men at sea in greater quantities than pork, it is more 
convenient to have it in larger pieces, without weigh¬ 
ing; pieces of those sizes are also more perfectly cured 
through than larger pieces, and when of a uniform size 
they pack better. The pieces of beef being larger than 
those of pork, it is obviously better that larger casks be 
employed to hold them more conveniently. Even when 
intended for domestic use, uniformly sized pieces are 
more convenient than those of various dimensions, re¬ 
quiring to be cut before being used, the piece left being 
thrown back often carelessly into the cask, and liable to 
get rusty in consequence.” 
He is not in favor of the use of saltpetre. Its only 
value, he thinks, is to give color to the meat. Th-e 
points most deserving attention, he sums up as follows: 
“First, The pieces must consist of, for beef, six 
pound pieces, and pork, four pound pieces. 
“Second, The salt must be good, and but very little 
saltpetre must be employed. 
“Third, The meat must be dry rubbed for three or four 
days, at least once a day, to extract a certain quantity of 
water, and to chemically alter the meat. 
“ Fouith, The meat must be put into pickle, so as to 
cure it sufficiently; in this it should remain ten days, or 
until it is required to hie packed. 
“ Fifth, It must be well washed in water, if neces¬ 
sary scraped or cut. 
“Sixth, Packed away, if beef, in tierces; if pork, in 
