Martinsburg Gazette

THE GAZETTE.

Agricultural.

THE following excellent remarks are from the pen of the Hon. Andrew Stevenson, one of the Vice Presidents of the Virginia State Agricultural Society, extracted from a recent letter addressed by him to the Editor of the Farmers' Library and do honor to his discernment and patriotism:

Of the importance of Agriculture, in a physical, moral, or political point of view, I need say little to you. If, with the wisest, the richest, and the most powerful nation, Agricultural pursuits have ever been esteemed the most honorable, as well as the most useful employments of man, how much more should this be the case in a country like ours, where the Institutions, Government and the People depend so essentially upon their successful operation. Indeed, Providence seems to have decided for us the great question of preference, so long agitated by political economists. We are, and must continue, if we expect to remain free and prosperous, emphatically an Agricultural People. And does not self-interest, as well as patriotism, combine to stimulate us to the improvement of our systems of husbandry? What nation has ever existed celebrated for its advancement in civilization and the arts, in which the marked encouragement of Agriculture has not been admitted? And yet, what country on earth so deeply interested in its success, has shown less attention to it than our own? The spirit of improvement has not only been suffered to languish, but its essential and vital interests, have been shamefully neglected. Who can witness, my dear sir, without mortification, the stream of emigration from the whole of our Atlantic border to the Western portions of our Union? How many persons now we daily see selling their farms at low prices and relinquishing their birth-places and friends to settle in the rich valleys of the West, from a supposed inability to support themselves on their poor and exhausted lands. Is not this the result of gross mismanagement and a continued perseverance in the old and wretched system of cultivation? How long are we to be doomed to this state of things? And are we never to profit from the experience of other nations? Whilst in Great Britain nine-tenths of the lands are leased to tenants who pay from 30 to 60 shillings sterling per acre, and find every thing for husbandry, they can even on these terms grow rich; yet we, (at least at the South,) without tithes or heavy taxation, and with numerous laborers, can barely make out to support ourselves from the products of our estates. I have seen it stated very recently on the authority of some eminent British statist, that to supply the United Kingdom of Great Britain with the article of wheat alone, would take the employment of the whole British Navy; and to bring all their Agricultural Products, as now enjoyed, would take the navy of the whole world. To ascertain this, it would only be necessary to take the average consumption of each inhabitant, and multiply the annual amount by the whole number of the population. England, as you know, has been called a garden spot, and such it may be justly regarded, when, with a territory not larger than that of New York or Virginia, it can support a population nearly equal to that of the whole United States. It is alone by skill and industry that they resist the danger of excessive population pressing upon the means of subsistence, and thus enable them to supply an increasing population, not only with the same but a much better description of food from the same districts of country. Now, to what is all this attributed, but to superior productiveness, occasioned by superior cultivation, and the additional fact, that they cultivate no more land than they can manure and improve. It was, I think, the late Lord Leicester [Mr. Coke] who once said that the great and prevailing error in English Agriculture was what he called over plowing and having more land under tillage than the quantity of manure would justify. This, I think, is one of the great evils in our system of cultivation. If, on the contrary, we were to limit our tillage to our supply of manure, what an increase of old and exhausted fields should we witness? and yet I am convinced that our planters and farmers would be in much better and more prosperous circumstances. Our rule, however, seems to be, that having so many laborers we must necessarily cultivate a great deal of land, whether it is rich or poor. This is one of the errors of our Agriculturists, and it therefore becomes important to convince them that means exist by which their poor lands may be fertilized and rendered profitable at much less expense, and by which their landed property, as well as the comforts of life, might be greatly increased; and that these means are in their own power.

We commend to the attention of our readers the following article upon Wheat Culture, extracted from the September number of the Albany Cultivator, 1840:
Wheat Culture.

Of all the crops cultivated in the northern or middle part of the United States, the crop, par excellence, is unquestionably wheat. Its intrinsic value as an article of food, its importance as an item of export, its influence on trade, and its vast sway in regulating the exchange and commerce of the world, render it every where a crop of the greatest consequence, and particularly so in this country.

To raise good wheat, many things must be kept in view; the nature and texture of the soil—its quality, so far as richness or poverty is concerned—the kind of wheat most suitable for cultivation under the circumstances of the case—the cleanness and preparation of the seed—the time and method of sowing—and in short all the things that go to ameliorate the soil and secure a crop, must be attended to, rendering the growing of wheat one of the most arduous as well as profitable occupations of the farmer.

A good wheat soil always contains considerable clay, but it is so balanced and corrected by other ingredients as never to be cold and sour; if such is the character of any soil, good wheat need not be expected. Freedom from superfluous moisture or stagnant water, is an indispensable condition of a good wheat soil: and when such exemption does not naturally exist, it must be produced by draining. A moist cool climate is found not to be unfavorable to wheat, if the roots are preserved from stagnant water, and are allowed to range in a pervious soil; but in any climate wheat will fail where the soil is saturated with water that does not circulate. To give the requisite dryness and depth where they do not exist, draining and deep plowing may be relied upon, and where these go together, with proper manuring a soil can scarcely fail to improve, or to be productive.

Deep plowing, on most lands as they naturally are, and on all lands as they should be made, is essential to good wheat crops. The roots of this plant penetrate in a permeable soil to a great depth, and spread to a considerable distance. The single fact of its being provided with two sets of roots, one of which spreads near the surface, and the other strikes deeply, is a sufficient proof of the necessity which exists for deep plowing in its culture. In a few instances subsoils may be found which will not admit of deep plowing, being composed of materials injurious to the wheat crop; but great crops of wheat are not to be expected on such soils.

The application of manures is a very essential point in growing the wheat crop. Land can be too rich, as well as too poor for wheat, or rather the manure in the soil may be in that condition which renders it unsuitable for wheat. There are some crops on which fresh or unfermented manure exercises a good effect, and to which it can scarcely be applied in too large quantities, corn for instance; while on others they produce results of the most unfavorable kind. Nearly all the cereals are injured by fresh manures, the stalk growing too vigorous, while the berry is usually imperfect. Compost manures, or such as are made by layers of turf, stable manure, vegetable mold, lime, &c., in which the decomposition is already effected, can scarcely be applied too abundantly to land otherwise well constituted. The great crops obtained around old barns, or other decayed or removed buildings, is a proof that large quantities of decomposed manure may safely be used, while a much less quantity of fresh or undecomposed would be fatal. One of the greatest evils of direct manuring for the wheat crop arises from the liability of the grain so manured to lodge. The rapid growth of the stem renders it unable to support its own weight, it is soft and flexible, contains much less silica than those grown in a poorer soil; the wheat does not usually perfect its berry, and at all times, from the thinness and weakness of its skin or cuticle, is more liable to mildew or rust. These things render it certainly unadvisable, unless the land is very poor and reduced, to apply unfermented manure to wheat.

The rotation of crops, has furnished the means of applying fresh manure advantageously to crops, and at the same time retaining its principal value for wheat. The cultivation of corn or roots in alternation with grain crops, clover, &c., gives the farmer the means of greatly increasing his crops, and at the same time constantly improving his soil. It may be considered as a settled maxim in agriculture, that land improves little or none while nothing is growing upon it. It is the general acknowledgment of this truth, that has substituted hoed or green crops for naked fallows, in the preparation of lands for wheat. Peas and clover are among the best green crops to precede wheat, and the latter may be considered inseparable from the successful culture of this grain. Corn would be one of the very best crops to precede wheat, could it in all cases be removed from the land in season to get in the wheat properly. The thorough manuring and tilling required for corn, puts the ground in good condition for wheat; and should experience prove that very late sown wheat is more safe from danger in winter, and more productive than that sown a little earlier, a result said to be established in some of the best wheat countries of Europe, the crop of corn would cease to be objectionable, and might be considered as nearly a clear gain.

There is a practice which has prevailed to a considerable extent in our wheat producing districts, of growing wheat after wheat several times in succession. Such a system of farming deserves the severest reprehension, and will never be adopted, except by those who are in a haste to be rich, no matter at what price, and in defiance of acknowledged consequences. Farmers may have succeeded in raising good crops in this way, where the soil was of the fine quality and excellent adaptation to wheat of much of our western land, but nothing short of the most imperious necessity can justify this procedure, or tolerate such a departure from the correct principles of cropping. Land, which has once produced good crops of any kind of grain, may again be made to produce them; and under skilful treatment lands would never cease to yield good crops, where their first cultivation proved the adaptation of the soil to that particular one. The worn out and exhausted soils of New England can be made to produce as good and as plentiful crops of wheat as they formerly did, but the labor and cost of restoring would be infinitely more than would have been required to have kept them continually fertile and productive. Crops have a specific food, which may be more or less plentiful in a soil, and without which they cannot be brought to perfection. Take for instance a worn out eastern farm. A liberal supply of fresh manures will give all the growth necessary for a great crop of wheat; but will it fill the berry? will it make such flour as the wheat of western New-York? We know it will not. The principal essential to the perfection of grain can only be restored by time and skilful cultivation to such soils; it would be wise then, where it exists, to prevent its decrease or its exhaustion.

It is unhappily too true, that on a large portion of our best cultivated wheat lands, the soil has become so infested with a variety of foul and noxious plants, that a course of naked summer fallow, thoroughly performed, has become necessary to counteract them, and prevent their increase and spread. On clean soils this would not be required, but some valuable crop might take its place, and thus add essentially to the profits, while it lessens the labor of the husbandman, so far as the operation of summer plowing was concerned. The only alternative of such fallows is hoed crops, and these must of necessity for the reasons before given, be too limited, to seriously affect the propriety of fallows on weeded land. Spring crops, such as barley, oats, spring wheat, or even peas, do not allow of sufficient cultivation to check the spread of weeds. The sowing of such crops on land where the Canada thistle for instance abounds, is precisely the treatment to make it spread and flourish. The thistle, smartweed, charlock, &c., will succumb only to plowings and hoeings so often repeated that the mutilated plant has no time to recover from one blow before another is given.

The preparation of seed, and the quantity of that sown, are objects of the greatest consequence. In the most favored sections of our country there are but few fields of wheat in which smut cannot be detected, and in a country so favorable to the perfection and purity of this grain, as the best wheat districts in the United States are, none at all should be suffered. In Europe, continual care is requisite to keep their wheat free, and in the best wheat countries the crop is almost wholly exempt from smut; here but a trifling attention is requisite, and the consequence is, it is found almost every where, and in some places to the serious injury of the crop. Now it is well understood, that soaking or washing wheat in brine, and drying it with caustic slaked lime, will effectually prevent smut, as well as benefit the crop in other respects; to sow wheat therefore, without such preparation, is voluntarily to incur the risk of smutted wheat, and the inevitable consequent loss. There are some other substances that, used as a wash for wheat, appear to possess the power of destroying smut, such as copperas, vitriol, arsenic, &c., but as none are more certain in their operation, or can be used with less trouble or danger than lime, the application of that substance is undoubtedly to be preferred.

The kind of seed used, and its quality, are things of too much consequence in the culture of wheat to be left to chance. There are many varieties of wheat cultivated, some very productive, and some very hardy; some ripening later and others earlier; and these kinds in sowing should be chosen with reference to the soil and location. Varieties which ripen at the same period, may sometimes be advantageously mixed, for sowing in the same field; but those that ripen unequally should be carefully kept separate. Some varieties of wheat may stand in the field longer than others before cutting, without danger of the seed shelling or wasting. Thus of the two kinds of flint wheat, the white and the Canadian, (the latter a comparatively new variety) if the last should be allowed to stand after arriving at maturity as long as the first can be permitted with impunity to do, the loss by shelling would amount to no small portion of the crop. The first may stand almost to suit the convenience of the husbandman, while the last must be cut as soon as its maturity will admit, or certain loss will be incurred; and nearly the same remarks will apply to some other kinds. There are some farmers who seem to think that any thing that is in the shape of wheat, however imperfect or defective the berry, if it will only grow, may be used as seed. This is very mistaken policy. It is impossible that the young plant should be as vigorous and as perfect, when springing from defective and shrunken seed, as when growing from that in which the peculiar principles of the plant are fully developed, and the germination commences without check or hindrance. The seed that ripens first in the ear, and is separated with the greatest ease, is the most proper for seed, as these circumstances show it is the most mature. A farmer in one of the northern States, a few years since was in the habit of selling large quantities of seed wheat annually and at high prices, as his wheat was of a superior quality, very heavy, and productive, and supposed to be a new variety. It appeared, however, that he had brought his wheat to that degree of perfection, by selecting some of the finest ears from a field in the first place, and then instead of threshing the whole crop grown and using the seed promiscuously, he gently beat the sheaves over a barrel, by which only the best and most perfect grains were separated, and by repeated sowings had rendered the qualities so desirable permanent.

The quantity of seed sown differs much in different parts of this country and in Europe. Perhaps the English use a greater amount of seed than any other people, and their crops are certainly not often excelled. From two and a half to four bushels per acre are there used; while here the quantity varies from one to two and a half bushels per acre. The general quantity is about a bushel and a half. Where wheat is sown late, more seed is required, as the wheat does not tiller or spread as much as when sown early; and when the berry is unusually plump and full, more is required than when the kernel is lighter. As on soils too, that are not rich, a single plant will not throw out as many stalks as where the land is very rich and fertile, it would seem that on such lands more seed would be necessary to seed it properly; as it is clear that where but one or two stalks shoot from a root, these must be more numerous than when a root produces half a dozen.

Opinions among farmers have been somewhat variant on the subject of changing seed; but we think unless more pains is taken to originate and preserve good seed on a farm, than now usually is, there is essential benefit derived from such changes. Wheat is certain to succeed better on lands not naturally adapted to its production, when the seed is brought from good wheat soil or district. For many years the farmers of large sections of the western district of New York, where the wheat crop at that time was apt to fail or smut, found a profit in sending some twenty or forty miles to procure seed from the best grain districts, and the crop from such wheat rarely failed in producing grain of good quality. There is also decided advantage secured in bringing seed from lower land and a milder climate, to elevated lands, or a cold moist climate. Such a change of seed renders the mountain crop earlier and better than it would be if seed from the same neighborhood was used. Professor Brown has on this subject the following remarks, which are undoubtedly correct, as they are founded on the experience of husbandmen in the high and low lands of Scotland:

"We are convinced that the cultivator of a mountainous district, if he always used seed from his own crops, would reap later and later harvests, so that at last they would with difficulty be brought to maturity; a circumstance easily explained by the comparative shortness of summers in mountain districts. If, on the other hand, the cultivator of a flat country, the climate of which is mild, and the soil dry and light, continually made use of his own seed, it would head every year sooner, the stalks would become shorter, and the heads and grain smaller and smaller, and in time there would result but a poor produce. In this last case, the cultivator brings his seed with advantage from a country or district more cold, the soil of which is good and substantial."

The instances in which benefit has been derived, on what are called beech and maple lands, by using seed from oak lands, are so numerous that almost every one must be familiar with them. The advantages in this case, however we may choose to explain them, cannot with propriety be disputed.

As to the time of sowing wheat, it may be remarked, that very early sown wheat gets more firmly rooted, than later sown, and in consequence is less liable to injury from freezing out. Wheat may be sown so late as not to germinate until the severity of the winter is past, or the greatest danger from frost is gone by; but such late sown wheat is far more liable to the attacks of blight or rust than that which ripens early, or which is so far advanced before the close, hot, showery weather, that marks the advent of blight commences, as to be safe from injury. On the other hand, late sown wheat is very certain to escape the Hessian fly, which in some parts of the country is the greatest enemy wheat has to encounter. It would seem then, that where wheat is liable to winterkill or blight, early sowing is to be preferred; and that where the fly is prevalent, sowing should be delayed as long as possible. It may be added, that some experiments would seem to prove, that in districts where the wheat worm has been so fatal to spring wheat, very late sowing, by delaying the earing of the wheat until the period of the worm fly was passed, would preserve the crop.

There is more wheat lost to the husbandman from the single cause of winter-killing, or freezing out of the ground in the winter or spring, than there is in this country from all other causes put together. The worst period is in the months of February or March, where the ground is bare of snow, and thawing mild days are succeeded by sharp freezing nights. This freezing expands the surface water, lifts the roots from their place a little at each time, and by successive freezing and thawing, leaves the plant without any hold upon the soil, and consequently to perish. Heavy soils are more apt to winterkill grain, than gravelly, or light ones, as these can retain little water. It would seem to be a necessary inference, then, that thorough draining such soils as are apt to winterkill wheat, would prove a remedy, and theory and fact in this case are found to agree. We have lately had the pleasure of seeing beautiful fields of grain growing on lands, from which a few years since the production of wheat would have been impossible. Thorough draining had removed the water that formerly saturated the soil, and by freezing the surface, prevented the lifting out process that always accompanies the freezing of wet grounds. It is usually the case that such wet grounds contain a large supply of vegetable matter, and draining renders them so productive, that the profit of a single crop not unfrequently repays all the expense incurred in the improvement, leaving the land, which in its former state was nearly worthless, a clear gain to the husbandman. If on common farms the means of trench or thorough draining are not at hand, surface drains made in such a manner as to carry off the water that falls on the land, should be constructed immediately after the sowing is completed. By preventing such water remaining in, and consolidating the land, grain is less liable to be thrown out; and though far less beneficial, or permanent in its effects, than thorough draining, surface drains should not be omitted where there is the least danger from excess of water.
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

The Wheat Crop.—All accounts, from every part of the country, agree that the Wheat Crop is larger this year than it has been for many years, and that the quality of the grain is superior. With this accession of quantity, without any corresponding demand from abroad for it, we apprehend that prices will rule low the ensuing year. From every information we can derive—and we have sought it in various quarters—the chief reliance for the sale of this great staple article, will be upon the home-market.—Amer. Farmer.

Mediterranean Wheat.—The price of this wheat is about 5 to 7 cents less than other varieties, and the flour made from it, to considerable extent, has been reduced by the inspectors in the standard. In a recent visit to Washington county, Md., we mentioned this fact to our friend, Mr. J. Funk, on Beaver Creek, a gentleman noted for the excellence of his Wheat crops, having raised 33 bushels per acre in succession off the same field, with no other manure than that obtained from the barn-yard. He informed us that such had been the case in his vicinity, but that when his grain was sent to mill, he directed that notice should be given a day before grinding; accordingly, he repaired to the mill, spread out the wheat and sprinkled it with water, and thus left it till the following day, when it was sufficiently dry to grind—and his flour was equal at least, if not superior, to that from wheat of any other variety.—American Farmer.

Harvesting of Corn.—As the grass crop in many parts of our country has proved unusually short, we deem it our duty to call the attention of farmers, wherever it may have so proved, to the propriety of harvesting their corn by cutting off the stalks at the ground, so soon as the grain upon the ears shall have become glazed and somewhat hardened. Corn stalks, thus cut, while the sap is still present, will carry on the ripening of the grain fully as well as if the stalks had been left standing; while the stalks, thus cured, make a highly nutritious provender or stock. When cut up, and fed cut, they especially are relished, where a little salt and water is sprinkled over them: so also when they may be steamed and salted in the mass, or where a small portion of meal or bran is mixed up with them in the form of slop. In this latter mode, they made a rich milk and butter yielding mess for milch cows. If saved with the fodder and tops on, and properly cured, we hold it that, weight for weight, they are as nourishing for cows and will go as far, as the best clover hay. No one who will take pains to save his stalks, need be at a loss for provender—nay, every acre of his cornfield will enable him to carry a head of his cattle through the winter in good health and condition. In cutting up stalks, every fifth hill of corn should be let standing, against which the preceding four hills, as cut, should be placed, being first bound together with one of the stalks, or a whisp of straw. In this position, the whole should be left until it is time to crib the corn. As the corn is hauled in, the ears should be pulled off, and the stalks, with the fodder and tops on, packed away under cover; each layer of which should be salted, say in the proportion of a peck of salt to a ton of stalks. The stalks as used for food, should be cut into pieces about 2 inches in length, and steamed, so as to soften the outer crust and render them easy of mastication and digestion.

Whilst on this subject, we would take occasion to advise those who have not done so, to obtain a Corn and Cob Crusher from some of our manufacturers, in order still further to supply the demands of their stock the coming winter.—Amer. Farmer.

Soaking Seed-Wheat.—A. W. (Huntington, L. I.) The length of time the grain may safely remain in the solution, depends much on the degree of temperature in which it is kept. Mr. Campbell soaked his seeds in muriate and sulphate of ammonia, from forty to sixty hours, in a temperature of 70 degrees. We presume there would be no risk in soaking wheat twenty-four hours at that temperature.

DEPTH OF PLANTING CORN.

Nos. 8, 9, and 11, were dug in 22 days; No. 8 was an inch below the surface, and 9 and 11, 3 inches below. No. 10 was very weak and died in 10 days.—Burger.

No.	1, 1 inch deep, come up in 8 1/2 days
2, 1 1/2	" "
3, 2	" "
4, 2 1/2	" "
5, 3	" "
6, 3 1/2	" "
7, 4	" "
8, 4 1/2	" "
9, 5	" "
10, 5 1/2	" "
11, 6	" "