A CONSOLIDATION OF BUEL’S CULTIVATOR AND THE GENESEE FARMER. 
“ AGRICULTURE, AT ONCE THE CAUSE AND EVIDENCE OF CIVILIZATION.” _ 
Cult. Yol. YII — No. 11. ALBANY, N. Y. NOVEMBER, 1840. Cult, and Far. Vol. I — No. 11. 
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■MU OTMEFATOMo 
WILLIS GAYLORD & LUTHER TUCKER, Editors. 
THE CROPS OF 1840. 
That the crops have been bountiful, almost beyond 
any former precedent, appears to be granted by all who 
have taken pains to inform themselves on the subject. 
The season has been peculiarly favorable, and the 
growth, ripening, and gathering of grain, has been per¬ 
formed, with hut few exceptions, in the best manner. 
On the ripening and safe gathering of a crop of grain, 
scarcely less is depending than on its growth, of which 
the harvest in England for 1839, furnishes a striking in¬ 
stance. The crop was large, but the weather at har¬ 
vesting, and a short time previous, was so unfavorable, 
that the grain was unfit for the better qualities of bread 
when ground alone ; and wheat from this country and 
Germany to the amount of five or six millions of bush¬ 
els, was imported by the millers for the purpose of mix¬ 
ing with their damaged grain. The greater heat, and 
almost invariably fine weather of our summers, if it 
ripens the wheat more rapidly, and prevents the berry 
from obtaining the size arid fairness of British wheat, 
prevents also the great danger of loss in harvesting, to 
which they are exposed. 
The experience of the last few years has shown 
that the great danger to be apprehended to the wheat 
crop in this country, arises from the blight, or rust, and 
in some section or other of the country this disease ap¬ 
pears each year, to the great damage or destruction of 
the entire crop. The grain worm and the Hessian fly 
are more limited in their depredations; while the mil¬ 
dew this year appears in New-York, the next in Penn¬ 
sylvania, or Ohio, or perhaps Indiana, or, as is some¬ 
times the case, more or less in all of them. No method 
of preventing the mildew has yet been discovered; in¬ 
deed the cause of it is still a matter of doubt and dis¬ 
cussion. Some contend that as the rust is a fungus or 
plant, it fixes itself on the surface of the wheat leaf or 
stem, without any preparation, and its roots at once 
penetrate into and feed on the juices of the interior, to 
the great injury of the plant. Others maintain that 
owing to peculiar causes, such as too great quantities 
of heat and moisture, the vessels of the plant become 
gorged, the epidermis or outer covering of the plants, 
unable to resist the pressure, cracks, and the juices ex¬ 
uding, furnish a nidus or place where the minute spo- 
rules, or seed of the fungus floating in the air, find a 
place to grow and flourish, shooting their roots through 
the crevices already made into the interior. Whichever 
of these theories are adopted, (or if they are united the 
supposition would, perhaps, be as near the truth as 
any,) one thing is certain, the juices that should go to 
the forming of the berry and the perfection of the 
straws are lost, and both remain immature and worth¬ 
less. As a general rule, it is found that wheat sown on 
good conditioned land, not freshly manured, and free 
from any excess of moisture, is less liable to be injured 
than that in which those conditions are not observed. 
It is found also, that wheat eoming to maturity early, 
before the great heats and frequent showers of the sum¬ 
mer come on, is much less liable to injury than that 
which from any cause is later in arriving at maturity. 
This is particularly observable in spring sown wheat, 
in which of two adjoining fields the one sown early will 
wholly escape, while the late sown will be injured. 
Heavy manuring with fresh manures, by giving a too 
rapid and vigorous growth to the plant, renders it liable 
to fall, or rust. The true method of manuring, then, 
would be to apply it to crops, such as corn or roots, 
where high manuring is always useful. 
On the Wheat crop of the year, we have little to add 
to the remarks made on the subject in a previous num¬ 
ber. All the information since received, and it has been 
most ample, goes conclusively to prove that our esti¬ 
mates of the amount of the crop were well founded. 
From the south, west, north, and east, with few excep¬ 
tions, the accounts concur in giving the quantity of 
wheat grown as very great, and of this fact the prices 
in the interior are perhaps the strongest proof. The 
quantity exported the present year will be large, and its 
beneficial effects on the exchanges and trade of the 
country are already sensibly felt.. The amount which 
will yet arrive on the sea-board is very great, and the 
very extraordinary crop of corn grown this season will 
furnish a bread to millions preferred to wheat, and thus 
add essentially to the stock which can be spared for ex¬ 
portation. Partial failures in the crop of wheat have 
indeed occurred, and it would he little short of a mira¬ 
cle, if in a country as wide spread, and with such varie¬ 
ties of cultivation and climate, such instances should not 
occur. With the exception, however, of some small 
part of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, no failure wor¬ 
thy of notice has occurred; and the crop has been al¬ 
most universally fine as well as ample. 
For a great number of years there has not been a 
finer season for Corn than the past. Every where the 
eye is greeted with the cheering sight of fields of gol¬ 
den ears, a prospect, than which there is none more 
gladdening to the heart of the husbandman, or speak¬ 
ing more conclusively of abundance for man and beast. 
Some apprehensions were entertained, in a few places, 
that the corn would suffer from drouth ; but we are con¬ 
vinced such instances will be rare. The proportion in 
which corn suffers from wet and cold, compared with 
injury from heat and drouth, is as ninety-nine to one 
hundred. Com is a plant that without great heat never 
arrives at maturity, and clouds and rains are invariably 
productive of low temperature and soft corn. The 
third week in August, averaged a greater degree of 
heat than any week since we commenced our tables, 
and corn ripened with a rapidity that demonstrated how 
congenial such a temperature was found. Nearly all 
kinds of corn have ripened here at the north, and the 
earlier kinds gave ears for roasting and boiling by the 
time in which they have been generally received from 
Delaware or Long Island. Unless we are much mis¬ 
taken very great yields of this fine grain will be this 
year reported. The seasons for two or three years 
have been rather unpropitious to the large eared corns, 
such as the Dutton and large white, hut never have we 
witnessed finer specimens of corn than the former now 
exhibits in many fields of this section of the United 
States. Of all the crops cultivated by the American 
farmer, there is not a richer looking one than the well 
cultivated corn field presents, when during the dry and 
balmy air of the Indian summer, the husks fall from 
the ear, and the thick standing corn gives the semblance 
of fields of waving gold. 
Last spring we procured from Gov. Hill of New- 
Hampshire, a bushel of the celebrated Brown corn, 
which is such a deserved favorite in that region, and 
of which such large crops have been there frequently, 
within a few years, grown. This corn we divided with 
two of our farming friends, and we are gratified to state 
that with all it has fully sustained its high reputation. 
It is a capital corn and no mistake. Owing to some de¬ 
lay in the transmission, the corn did not reach us until 
so late a period that many fields planted with the com¬ 
mon varieties of corn were fit for the first hoeing. Un¬ 
der those circumstances, the corn had the best chance 
that could be given at a period too late for any extra 
preparation. In forty days from planting, some had 
showed its tassels ; in fifty it had silked, and it came for¬ 
ward to maturity with such rapidity, that notwithstand¬ 
ing the lateness of the planting, the corn will be of ex¬ 
cellent quality. Our experience the present year has 
convinced us, had additional proof been required, that 
there is little use in planting corn on ground not tho¬ 
roughly manured, or that is not in a good state of dry¬ 
ness and pulverization. Much is depending on the start 
which corn gets at its first germination. If the ground 
is rich, dry, and warm, the corn springs quick and vigor¬ 
ous, the roots strike quickly, and it escapes many dan¬ 
gers to which it is exposed, when it germinates slowly, 
comes up weak and sickly, and appears as if hesitat¬ 
ing between life and death. 
We have again seen the value of manure from the hog¬ 
pen, tested in comparison with others, and its superior¬ 
ity is as apparent as heretofore. The man who wastes 
the manure of his pig-pen, or who does not, by giving 
them weeds, stable straw, or fresh earth, furnish the 
means of increasing it as much as possible, is sadly 
neglectful of his own interest. Attention to this point 
will materially add to the gains of fattening pigs. 
Considered in reference to the whole United States, 
it will be found that the corn crop is very little, if any, 
inferior in importance and value, to the wheat crop. It 
furnishes to New-England a large part of its bread, and 
the entire south relies tipon it almost wholly. In the 
former, the culture of wheat is considered too uncertain 
to be profitable; and in the south, the weevil destroys 
the berry after harvest, or the heat sours flour so quick¬ 
ly, that corn alone can be depended upon for bread. As 
food for animals, it is unrivalled; and though good 
pork can be made without corn, every farmer knows 
that with it, it can be made much quicker, and of a su¬ 
perior quality, than without it Such a crop, then, of 
Indian corn as we are favored with the present season, 
furnishes abundant cause for gratulation in many re¬ 
spects. 
Of the Barley and Oat crop, we spoke in a former 
number. The large quantities of the former grain, that 
have already appeared in market, and its fine quality, 
have demonstrated the correctness of the opinion we ex¬ 
pressed of the excellence of the crop. There is little 
question, but that it is at least equal to that of any for¬ 
mer year; and as the demand has been brisk, at favora¬ 
ble rates for the farmer, a large part of thq, crop has al¬ 
ready passed from his hands. But little, comparative¬ 
ly, will this year be required for making pork, the corn 
crop having rendered its use unnecessary with many 
farmers, consequently the greater part will find its way 
to the markets. The oat crop is good; has been har¬ 
vested in fine condition ; and the demand, as well as the 
price, is already fair. Oats are raised with more cer¬ 
tainty and less trouble than any other crop; indeed 
this very certainty has a tendency to give their culture 
a more slovenly and careless aspect, than that of any 
other grain. We think that better culture, and more 
attention to the condition of the soil allotted to oats, 
would be to the advantage of the farmer. Oats are not 
unfrequently put up in such a state, that heating en¬ 
sues to an extent seriously injuring their value for seed; 
yet there is no grain grown in which so little inquiry 
or care, about seed, is used as about the oat. 
Rye and Buckwheat have given fair yields, and mate¬ 
rially contributed to the stock of materials from which 
the country derives its bread. Rye is more extensively 
used in the New-England states than in any other part 
of the country, and when of good quality, and mixed 
with Indian corn, it affords a bread which for nutritive 
properties is inferior to none. During our winter 
months, buckwheat cakes, hot and light, may be consi¬ 
dered ever welcome on the farmer’s table, and no one 
who has enjoyed the luxury for one season, will wil¬ 
lingly consent to its absence the next. 
Of the root crops, the Potato is decidedly the most 
important to the country ; and as a whole may be pro¬ 
nounced good. In some limited districts, the drouth has 
affected the crop injuriously; in other cases, some few 
farmers have complained of the curl and the black 
rust; but such occasional appearances of disease can 
have but a limited effect on the whole crop. The pota¬ 
to as an article of food is second only to wheat and corn ; 
and if, as many experimental farmers assert, two bush¬ 
els of potatoes are equal to a bushel of corn, the potato 
will be a formidable rival in contesting the place of the 
latter grain, as the quantity grown is incontestibly much 
larger. For ourselves we are inclined to the belief that 
the formidable disease known as the curl, is the natural 
result of the old age of the variety, and indicates the 
failure of its vegetative powers. That it is not caused 
by an insect, and is not the result of any peculiar quali¬ 
ties of the soil in which the roots are planted, is evi¬ 
dent from the numerous experiments made in Scotland 
and Ireland, where the curl has occasioned great da¬ 
mage, as well as those instituted in this country by Mr. 
Bement and others, in which some kinds planted side 
by side with others, were wholly destroyed, while the 
rest escaped. The new varieties of this valuable root, 
those lately originated from seeds, of which the Rohan 
may be given as an instance, have not to our knowledge 
been affected by the curl in the least. The inference, 
then, seems to be a fair one, that in the production of 
the potato, as in many other plants, a recurrence to the 
fundamental law of propagation, that from seeds must 
be occasionally resorted to, in order to prevent deterio¬ 
ration. The new varieties of the potato that have been 
introduced into culture in England and in the United 
States, from the seeds, exhibit a vigor and strength 
which none of the long cultivated kinds show. Thus 
the Rohan gives out vines of six or seven feet in length, 
and the Sommeiller, a still later seedling, of which a 
very few reached this country last year, shows the 
same appearance. The introduction of new varie¬ 
ties from seed, is, moreover, the surest way to im¬ 
provement, as the production of such potatoes as the 
Rohan, Downton white, Sommeiller, and others incon¬ 
testibly prove. It is worthy of remark, that by this law 
of nature which so easily intermixes through their seeds 
the peculiar qualities of different varieties of the same 
species of plants, d means of progressive improvement, 
apparently ad infinitum , is produced ; and to the action 
of this law, managed by skilful hands, or, perhaps, in 
some instances by accident, are we owing some of our 
most valuable roots and fruits. 
The Ruta Baga has this year been cultivated to a 
considerable extent; and where too dry weather has not 
injured the young plant, or the insect, which such high 
temperature is apt to produce, has not appeared, the 
roots appear well and the crop is heavy. The turnep 
is a most valuable root, and it is to be regretted that ex¬ 
perience seems to indicate, that in some sections of our 
