THE CULTIVATOR. 
The early May wheat will do well sown any time in October, or on very 
rich land in November. In short, I think it not improbable it would suc¬ 
ceed with you as a spring wheat sown in February or March, fully as well 
as the Florence. 
Yours with high regard and esteem'. 
JOHN H. COCKE. 
«d-We thank our highly respectable correspondent for the interest | 
he takes in the improvement of the agriculture of our country—of ourj 
whole country. When the wheat arrives, it will be freely divided with ( 
any of our careful brother farmers, who are disposed to give it a fair trial. < 
We have experienced palpable benefits from the change of seed, al- j 
though we are careful to save the best from our own crop; and the re-1 
mark applies to fruits as well as to grains and roots. Varieties of the ap¬ 
ple and pear, after they have become old and deteriorated in their original 
district, have been found to renew their healthfulness ar.d vigor on being 
transferred to a new soil or a new climate. This has been the case w ith the 
famed golden pippin of England, the no less famed Spitzenbergh of our 
neighborhood, and to the Vergaleu or St. Michael’s pear. The interchan¬ 
ges of seeds and fruits, between agricultural societies and individuals, 
should be encouraged, and may result in the highest public benefits.— 
Conductor. 
LIVE FENCES. 
Willoughby , Ohio, October 15, 1837. 
Sir _In your paper this month, you draw attention to a most important 
subject, the raising of nr ve fences'; and you invite those who have had 
experience in this country, in cultivating hedges, to furnish you with facts. 
Two years ago, when I first cante here, there was an abundant crop of 
berries on the wild thorns of the country, and I plucked nearly a bushel 
for seed. These were sown in the spring of 1836; hut none of them vege¬ 
tated that season, and only a few plants have yet appeared. The fault 
w as in want of due preparation by rotting; and you would'do w'ell to in¬ 
struct your readers as to the best mode of effecting this. In Scotland I 
have seen the berries of white thorn buried in large heaps during winter, 
sown in spring, ani come up the same season abundantly. 
You say that after a trial of seven years you have been obliged to give 
up the European quick set thorn, and substitute native plants, as better 
adapted to the climate north of latitude 42°—will you be so good as to say 
in what they were deficient, as several friends of mine in Ohio, have im¬ 
ported plants from England, which, with several years growth are promis¬ 
ing well. 
Observing the English sweet brier growing luxuriantly in the door- 
yards of several neighbors here, I gathered some handfuls of the berries 
twelve months ago, rubbed out the seed in dry sand, and, thus separated, 
sowed the whole in a hedgerow, which came up in May, and now ave¬ 
rages a foot in height. This plant I am convinced may be rendered ex¬ 
tensively useful in fencing, either alone or mixed with thorn, locust, &c.; 
these giving strength to the hedge, while the sweet brier thickens it at 
bottom. The growth is so rapid that in three years this plant will be six 
or eight feet high; and if, on a bank, between ditches, two feet deep, or 
strengthened with a rail supported on posts seven or eight feet apart, will 
be a tolerable fence. Trial can easily be made in and around gardens; 
and there, the fragrance of the foliage, with the beauty of the flovvers and 
berries, will alone compensate any trouble or expense. Yours, &c. 
ROB. F. GOURLAY. 
Remarks. —We have found no difficulty in growing the haws or seed 
of the English white thorn; but the seeds of the native crataegus, indi¬ 
genous in the north, grow badly, and a great portion of them do not grow 
at all, the haws being abortive, or not well matured. The English white 
thorn does hot succeed, by reason of our dry and hot summers and cold 
winters_its natural climate being humid, and not subject to our ex¬ 
tremes of either heat or cold. The sweet brier grows freely from seeds; 
but the question is yet to be decided whether it will thrive in hedge with 
the thorn or other hedge plants, it not being strong enough for a hedge of 
itself.— Conductor. 
SIOUX. BADEN AND DUTTON CORN—EXPERIMENTS— 
ITALIAN WHEAT, &c. 
Cedar Creek, Plainfield, JV. J., 6th Oct. 1837. 
J. Buf.l Esq. —Mv Dear Sir. — I am desirous to obtain grass seed 
free from noxious weeds, commonly called in Connecticut, spear or Eng¬ 
lish grass. It is indigenous, common to all N. England, esteemed by 
many, as forming the best pastures, and making the best quality of hay, 
in distinction from clover, timothy, &c., but I do not know the botanical 
name. I have supposed it was “ poa pratensis,”* and have once ordered it, 
which proved, on sowing, to be blue grass. Will you be so kind as to di¬ 
rect me, if you understand my wishes? The native grasses here resem- 
* This is believed to be the botanical name of the grass described. We have 
not noticed the seed for sale in any of our seed shops. It may be gathered at 
maturity, by children, by stripping it from the culm. 
bling it are of two kinds, one a medium in appearance between N. E. 
spear grass and red top, the other dwarfish, with a more wide spread top. 
I have never seen any thing in this vicinity exactly corresponding with 
Connecticut spear grass. By my remarks you will understand that I am 
a lull blooded Yankee: I have, therefore, a privilege of asking questions: 
Can you inform me what is the cause of smut on corn? I mean the mon¬ 
strous fungus, protuberances that sometimes shoot out where the ear 
should be. I planted last spring about an hundred hills of Sioux corn in my 
kitchen garden, which grew very large, from eight to nine feet high, an d 
generally set for three, and in some instances for four ears; in no case 
were there but two good ears to a stalk, the others filled out with smut. 
I also planted a few hills of Baden, corn; the seed was received from H. L. 
Ellsworth, Esq. of Washington city. This kind set from three to nine 
ears on a stalk, but none had more than five sound ears, the others gene¬ 
rally filled with smut. The Baden corn has grown to a great size, about 
fourteen feet in height. I have not yet gathered it, but counted 117 ears 
that look sound, on about 140 square feet of ground. This, however, is 
no criterion for a field crop, as the ground was very rich, and I hoed this 
and Sioux perhaps a dozen times. I doubt not the latter, if it had not 
been mostly picked for green corn, would have yielded, being planted 
three feet each way, more than at the rate of an hundred bushels to the 
acre—some of the ears reserved for seed, were ten to twelve inches long, 
twelve rowed, well filled, bright yellow. It was fit for use in August, 
and is a valuable early corn. The Baden corn I think will not do for a 
field crop in this region. 
I tried this season about half an acre of Sioux, Dutton and Connecticut 
corn, each in the field. Neither were as large as the N. Jersey of early 
planting. The Sioux and Dutton fell but little.short in sound corn. The 
N. J., I judge, is too late, the stalks too large, which exhausts the soil. 
I am calculating to plant another year about ten acres of Sioux and Dut¬ 
ton. The former is the earliest and largest. I have tried this season the 
experiment of a few rows, of about forty-five rods in length, in the centre of 
a field of N. J corn. -First with a compound of two-thirds unleached 
ashes to one-third plaster, a full handful thrown upon the corn when 
dropped and immediately covered. Second, a shovel full of good barn¬ 
yard manure. Then a handful of ashes alone: next a small handful of 
unmixed plaster: then a handful of slacked lime: and lastly without any 
kind of manure. The rows are cut up but not yet husked. The land and 
cultivation were very equal. Where the compound of ashes and plaster 
was applied the corn through the whole season was visibly best: next to 
it was where the ashes w’ere applied. The barn-yard manure and plaster 
stood about equal: where the lime was put ibwas inferior to that which 
had no manure of any kind applied to it. The land was a dark brown 
loam„resting on a tenacious subsoil. I sowed a few acres of wheat last 
season late, about the middle of October, to avoid the flies. It was much 
winter killed, and the flies destroyed about half the residue, so that I 
think we-shall not get more than ten to twelve bushels to the acre. In 
the spring I sowed about two acres of Italian spring wheat It came up 
well, and looked very promising, until about the middle of May, when it 
began to wane. When I examined it there was one to nine larvae at 
work in most of the stalks. I considered that my crop was lost; but as 
the land was in good heart, sprouts soon shot up from the roots, and not¬ 
withstanding many of them were attacked, yet it came forward well, and 
yielded a fair crop; by estimation from what we have threshed, about 
twenty bushels to the acre, of plump grain. The question is settled, in 
my mind, that the fly is not confined to the early part of the fall in de¬ 
positing her eggs. I expect if the experiments were fully made she 
would be found to be active from early in the spring to late in the fall. 
I would take leave respectfully to suggest the propriety of raising the 
next volume of the Cultivator to one dollar per annum—as it would then 
be the cheapest periodical I am acquainted with. The object of the sug¬ 
gestion is, to give you the benefit of an assistant, that you might have an 
opportunity for travelling more to make personal observations, and to give 
to the Cultivator more embellishment. I do not believe that one to twen¬ 
ty of your subscribers would withdraw or object, as-we should all get 
double the value of the extra expense. 
I am very respectfully yours, &c. 
, _,_ DAVID L. DODGE. 
DUTTON CORN. 
Philadelphia, Sept. 23, IS37. 
Hon. J. Buei, — Dear Sir—Early last spring, you shipped tome, at 
my request, a box of Dutton Corn. I was induced to give it a trial, by 
the various favorable accounts of it, in the “ Cultivator,” and the reputa¬ 
tion it had otherwise acquired. The result of the trial is accurately stat¬ 
ed in the annexed note, and may be relied on. The appearance of the 
crop in July, so early and so prolific, was gratifying to all w’ho saw it— 
The applications for seed are so numerous, that I shall dispose of the 
whole crop for that purpose. Very respectfully, 
W. L. HIRST. 
“ I planted the Dutton Corn in a thin orchard, of 2£ acres, preparing 
the ground by ploughing in the green sward and harrowing; no manure 
was applied. The seed was steeped, and rolled in tar and ashes, and 
