50 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
best and most ably conducted agricultural journal 
in our country, and have bad much to reget in the 
demise of some of its ablest contributors. 
I have always been an ardent advocate for the 
improvement, elevation, and prosperity of those 
engaged in that most useful, substantial, and no¬ 
ble pursuit of mankind—an enlightened agricul¬ 
ture ; and also a friend and supporter of 11 science 
and chemistry ” in their proper connection with 
agriculture. 
Yet I have thought that there has sometimes 
been a too prominent position assumed among ag¬ 
ricultural writers, by a class of persons, who, after 
having been successful in speculative, mercantile, 
or other pursuits, retire to a rural life, thinking 
they know more on almost every subject than their 
brothers, who, not having forsaken the calling of 
their fathers in the days of their youth, but with 
increased facilities of education, and a proper ap¬ 
plication of their talents, have devoted their en¬ 
ergies so the advancement of the great cause of 
agriculture. Some of these, I fear, too often con¬ 
sider themselves qualified to communicate their 
ideas and their theories—or their (limited) expe¬ 
rience, which not unfrequently leads astray. I 
do not believe, that because one gentleman has 
been successful, even eminently so, in one business, 
that of course he needs must be in all other bran¬ 
ches. 
Our agricultural journals are increasing over our 
land, which is a good sign; and my desire is, that 
an increasing care may be exercised in increasing 
the merits of their productions. And as the rural 
class are emphatically industrious, and many of 
them have but a limited portion of their time for 
reading—and that reading necessarily more or less 
varied in its character, it is not so much the quan¬ 
tity, as it is the quality, that is wanted by them. 
N. Dec. 1852. —s>— 
The Zimmerman Wheat. 
As I do not recollect seeing any notice in the 
Cultivator, of a favorite wheat of this county, I 
shall give you a short description of it. 
The Zimmerman Wheat was first propagated by 
Mr. Henry Zimmerman, about four miles south¬ 
west of Frederick, Md., about fifteen years ago; 
he discovered three heads of singular wheat in 
the edge of one of his fields. When ripe he gath¬ 
ered them, and the following fall sowed their pro¬ 
duct carefully between two ledges of rock, where 
the ground mice destroyed most of it, and it only 
yielded, the second year, about a dozen heads. 
Their product was again sowed, and the yield was, 
the third year, about two quarts; fourth, nearly 
a bushel; fifth, about 10 bushels; the sixth, be- 
60 and 70 bushels, after which- it became 
public property. When standing in the field ripe, 
it is undoubtedly the handsomest wheat grown in 
this part of the states. The stalk is very erect, 
head square and plump, without beards; grains 
close set, very round and plump—of a rich yellow 
when not injured by the fly, (to which it is consi¬ 
dered very obnoxious,) It will perhaps out-yield 
any wheat grown in this county. It has a strong 
resemblance when growing, to a wheat formerly 
grown here, called the “ Rock Wheat/ 7 but it 
ripens earlier, and is not, like it, subject to rust. 
I have had the above description of its propaga¬ 
tion from the mouth of the old gentleman, who, 
as he says, is “ the author of that wheat.” Re¬ 
spectfully yours, Wm. C. Hoffman. Pomona, 
Frederick co., Md., Dec. 27, 1852. 
Experience in Raising Corn. 
Mr. Tucker— My farm lies on the Esopus 
Creek, near Kingston. When I came in posses¬ 
sion, some seven years since, about twenty acres 
were in corn, and I was informed by my neigh¬ 
bors, that the same land had been cropped with 
corn for several years witout any manure. I 
planted the same land every season without ma¬ 
nure till the present,—plowed and hoed the corn 
twice in the usual way, and at harvesting always 
found the field full of weeds and grass, the crop 
of corn ranging from forty to sixty bushels to the 
acre. Last spring I came to the conclusion that 
however good the soil, so many weeds must be 
injurious to the crop, and determined to give the 
corn my personal supervision, and .see if I could 
not obtain a larger crop. I accordingly top-dressed 
about seven acres, of the twenty, with five loads 
of rotten manure to the acre, harrowed the whole 
field carefully, and planted the corn from 20th 
May to 1st June, three feet apart each way. Re¬ 
membering a remark made years ago, by one of my 
neighbors in Duchess county, that 5 or 6 thorough 
plowings were as good as a coat of manure, I 
thought I would try the effect of this treatment on 
my corn. I put into my field two plows, (half mold- 
board) and two cultivators (Elmendorf’s; the 
best I have seen,) and contiued to use them, with 
hands to hoe the weedy, grassy spots, till the corn 
became so large that we could not work with a 
team without injury, when all hands went over 
the entire field with hoes, cutting up all the weeds 
which had escaped. IVhen this was done, the 
corn was topping, and the whole lot was as clear 
of weeds as an onion bed ought to be. 
I may remark here, that the cultivator should 
follow the plow, as in this way the plow enables 
the cultivatior to clear everything before it, and 
leaves the soil more mellow. 
On the manured land the stalks were more 
bulky, but on the unmanured part the yield was 
