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AGRICULTURAL. DANIEL LEE, EC. D., Editor. SATURDAY MAT 88,1559. introductory remarks. In assuming the editorial duties of the agri cultural department of a new paper, it is due to its readers and the public that I state briefly the policy to be pursued, and the objects to be at tained. It is my purpose to make the Southern' Field exceedingly fruitful, every way pleasant and re liable, and at all times creditable alike to the intelligence and the dignity of Southern agricul ture. The light of experience will be used with care and caution to point out the errors of the past, and to illuminate the path of the future. In telligent men of close observation, whose lives are happily devoted to the practice of tillage, hus bandry and wise farm economy, will lend their valuable aid to give character and success to this new enterprise. They will rejoice to culti vate this unworn Southern Field, and thereby greatly increase that knowledge, rural taste and improvement, which are bettor than gold and silver. The undeveloped treasures of the soil and climate of the beautiful and prolific South, will bo.studied with energy and devotion; and it is believed that much may be done through the medium of a weekly family paper, to dissem inate correct views on all agricultural subjects, keep alive a warm and generous interest in rural progress, and secure to all, those higher advan tages and attainments, which both elevate and adorn society. While connected with a monthly agricultural journal, it was impossible for the undersigned to reach the farming community through its pages more than twelve times in a year. In this weekly journal, the public judgment may be ap pealed to in behalf of agricultural reform and enlightenment, fifty-two times in twelve months. One who has reached the down lull side of life, and somehow feels that he has yet much to do for the advancement of agriculture, may well seek increased facilities for the accomplishment of the work before him. It consists mainly in separating truth from error; and in making the former the common property of all. Daniel Lee. ——> » » I BEWARE OE HUMBUGS 14 HONEY BLADE GRASS.” A correspondent in Missouri informs the editor of the Country Gentleman that the seed adver tised as the “ Hungarian Honey Blade Grass,” was purchased by its present proprietors last fall in St. Louis, at fifty cents per bushel—the same seed which they now advertise, put up in bags stamped with the Hungarian coat of arms, at nine dollars per bushel. This German Millet has been cultivated in central New York for many years; and the seed recently brought to this country by inunigrants differs in no respect, except in the want of accli mation, from that introduced into the valley of the Mohawk by early Dutch and German set tlers. The writer has been familiar with it as a forage plant, and with its seed as food for hogs, from his boyhood. It is well worth cultivation; although the seed is less valuable per bushel than corn. — MILDEW, RUST AND SMUT ON WHEAT AND OATS. It was not until after botanists and other sci entific observers had come into the possession of microscopes, that they learned the true nature and mode of propagation of these most destruc tive parasitic fungi. It is somewhat difficult for farmers to believe that rust, smut and mildew are real plants, which grow on cereals and other grasses, and blight and blast their seeds, by withdrawing and appropriating to their own use those nutritive juices out of which all seeds are formed. Yet, the large misletoe that grows on trees is no more a parasite than that species of wheat mildew known by the name of “ rust,’’ (uredo mbigo ,) and those other species called ‘•smut " (uredo segetem and uredo fatida.) Fun gals, whether microscopic or as large as mush rooms, differ widely in their anatomical struc ture and habits from vascular plants of a more advanced organization and functional develop ment. Cryptogamie botany has become a dis tinct branch of science, in which those fungi most injurious to the farmer, gardener and fruit grower, form an interesting department. Mil dew on grapes and other fruit, is hardly less known than rust on grain, cotton, and the leaves and stems of Irish potatoes. All plants and all animals, winch are not themselves parasites, ap pear to be subject to the seemingly unpleasant dilemma of nourishing other plants and other animals, by their blood or other fluids. Life is built on life until millions of living germs spring from one, which may be too small to be seen by the naked eye. There are several varieties of rust, differing in color and in the form of their spores. The most common is of a light red, and resembles the rust of iron, from which circumstance it takes its name. The spores, or reproductive germs of this variety, are said to be spherical 1 "Another vari ety has a darker ccAor and oval spores. It is not, however, necessary that we study nice bo tanical distinctions in organs which can only be seen by a good microscope. The fact is gener ally known that the epidermis, or outer covering of the leaves of forest trees, and of the leaves and stems of grain and grasses, abound in small apertures, called stomata. Through these pores much water is evaporated into the atmosphere, which operates to keep up, as a general rule, the flow of sap or water from the fertile soil to the loaves of trees and of smaller plants, and thus supply them ■with all needful nutriment. But plants require a great deal of water; and sometimes much more than the parched earth can furnish. To lessen this deficiency of mois ture, when th? air around plants is damp, or not S*K SOUSKJSRW ffXS&B Il» 9XRKBXDX. dry, these millions of stomata, or moutlis, open and freely imbibe water —a fimetion which, is strikingly favored by a high dew point in a hu mid atmosphere. While these open mouths in the epidermis on the leaves and culms of wheat, oats, and other cereals, are imbibing vapor, or dew, in the cool of the morning, the living germs of grain mildew, or rust, enter freely and attach themselves to the pores in the cells below the cuticle ’of the plant upon whose juices they are to prey and wax fat. A dry atmosphere, and an unclouded sun, so destroy mere dew-formed rust on wheat, that little or no injury results from it. But one or more days of warm, cloudy, and “muggy” weather, give these parasites such a growth tliat cool, clear and bright weather will only check their development. Grass, weeds, law grounds, and even stout crops, favor humid ity in air, and therefore promote the attacks of all kinds of mildew. Damp linen and cotton goods often mildew; but if dry, and kept in a dry place, nothing like mildew is ever seen. Mould, which is a plant of the same char acter, grows luxuriantly in a damp atmosphere, on leather shoes, bread, cheese, milk, beer, and on nearly all organised substances. Plants so largely dependent on atmospheric humidity for their multiplication as the parasitic fungi, must have a rapid growth and early maturity, or they would soon become wholly extinct They are thus endowed; and when the weather favors them, neither art nor science is able to arrest their almost miraculous extension over all fields of cultivated crops adapted by nature to their subsistence. Wheat and oats, however, grow ing on limestone land, usually have more silica or flint in their stems, and a bright straw, which is less favorable to the growth of rust than the same crops on land comparatively free from lime. Lime, and the alkalies, potash, soda and ammo nia, promote the solution of flint in rain water to strengthen the culms of all cereals. The wa ter passes through their vessels and cells, and escapes into the air, leaving flint behind. Hence, draining to remove all excess of moisture from the ground and the air above it, and liming with tliin seeding and horsc-hoing, to keep the plants cultivated, clear of grass and weeds, are the remedies now most successfully practiced in England, Scotland, and on the continent of Eu rope. The spores, or germs of the fungus called “ smut,” find their way into the blighted seeds of wheat and oats in a different manner. They are sown with the seed, and adhere to the sur face of the grain when put into the ground. Hence, all seed wheat and oats ought to be thoroughly washed in strong lime water, or in a solution of bluestone or copperas, to kill the germs of the smut-fungus, and then dried in recently slaked lime, before sowing. If the rust-fungus could be destroyed as readily, it would be worth indefinite millions to the country; but, unfortu nately, we have no means of killing the ’germs of this parasite. Vitality takes up its abode in almost a mathe matical point when it isolates itself in a smut cell on a seed of wheat, so inconceivably minute that this living cell enters an open pore in the root of a wheat plant, as if it were a particle of pure water, ascends through tubes almost infinitely small to the head of the plant, and finally passes through the still smaller apertures in the cells that surround the forming germ of wheat, which is to be utterly blasted, and give place and being to a mass of black, unctuous and poisonous fungi. How mysterious and wonder ful are the operations of Nature! "Without the seeds of grasses, and especially cereals, man, and all the higher orders of animals, would most likely perish. “All flesh is grass”; of which the seeds of wheat, oats, maise, and rice, are certainly not the least valuable. Why, then, should thousands of species of insects, and un known tribes of miscroscopic plants, devour the daily bread of man. which he is willing to cat in the sweat of his face ? Wheat mildew, or blight, has produced more famines in the world than all other causes combined. At another time we will trace its history from remote antiquity. The literature of grain-culture is far more curious, and elevating, to both young and old, than the monotonous story of human wars and vulgar dynasties. Nature is as infinite in beauty as in variety; and every cultivator of the soil should be a naturalist, and a close student of his honor able calling. That the Rubigo of the Romans was the same as the nist in our own times is easily shown.— Virgil in the first book of his Georgies, says: “Mox et frumentis labor additus: et mala cuhnos esset Rubigo.” The student will see that the “ evil Rubigo ” affects the “culms” of the plant, just as rust now does. See HORACE_Carminum liber. 3, ode 23, for the following words; “ Fiecuuda vitis, nec sterilem seges Rubigem,” Ac. See, also, Flint, lib. 18, cap. 28 et 29: Histo ry of Plants. Schxeider’s Scriptorum Re: Rus tics?, VoL 1, part 2, page 246. The festival, en titled Rubigalia , was instituted by Numa in the eleventh year of his reign, and 704 years before the birth of Christ. It was celebrated annually on the 25th of April on the Claudian way, at the time when rust, or the Rubigo, generally first made its appearance. The following is nearly a literal translation of the prayer addressed by the priest to the Rubigus Deus: “Oh! blightning Rubigo, spare the wheat plants, “And let the ear wave gently over the surface of the earth; “Suffer the crops which have been nourished by the pro pitious, “Stars of Heaven, to grow until they become fit for the sickle. “Thine is no small power: the crops thou bast marked, “ The dispirited cultivator reckons aS" lost. “Neither winds nor showers so much injure the wheat, “Neither when bitten by the frost does it acquire a hue “As if the Sun fervently heats the moist stalls: “Then, oh! dread Divinity, is the opportunity for thy wratb: “Be merciful, I pray, and withhold your rusting hand from the crops; “Nor harm the cultivated land; it is sufficient to be able to harm.” The ideas advanced in the above prayer, which was written some twenty-six hundred years ago, differ but little as to the character of this grain blight from the popular notions of onr own time. Last year, a writer in the Southern Homestead. started the mistaken opinion that rust on oats is caused by a small insect: and we have had smut heads of wheat sent to us in which the fungus seeds contained minute black bugs, called by fanners ‘‘smut bugs.'’ It was confidently asserted that these insects caused the malady in the grain; as others are said to produce mst — All such ideas are entirely erroneous. Subsist ing on rich food, fungals are generally full of the elements of muscle and nerve which are required alike by all animals. Hence, whether mush roons growing on rich land, or parasites living on the elaborated fluids of cereals, this class of plants is so eagerly eaten by animals as to poi son many, not excepting man himself. Cattle, deer, and hogs, often suffer from the consump tion of poisonous agarics. Insects flourish best on aliment that would prove fatal to most warm blooded animals. A little rust or smut on straw fed to stock, or on oats and wheat, cannot do se rious injury; but taken in large doses these fungi are known to prove fatal. The masses of smut fungi, often seen in harvesting corn, ought al ways to Ixs cut or broken off and kept clear of food for man or beast. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. There is no error, relating to agriculture, more general, both at the North and South, and few moro injurious to the whole country, than the notion that slave labor and planting industry are more impoverishing to the soil than free labor would be in the same climate. In the first num ber of the Journal of the United States Agricul tural Society—edited, published, and sterreo typed by the writer—on page 19 may Ixs found the following remarks, copied from the “Pro ceedings of the Massachusetts Board of Agri culture”: “Although there have been added to the lands under improvemeiU since 1840, in the State, more than three hundred thousand acres, and although the upland and other mow ing lands have been increased more than ninety thousand acres, or nearly fifteen per cent, yet the hay crops have increased only about three per cent, showing a relative diminution of twelve per cent; and although the tillage lands have been increased more than forty thousand acres in the same period, yet there has been no in crease in the grain crops, but an absolute dimin ution of more than six hundred thousand bushels; and although the pasturage lands liave been in creased more than one hundred thousand acres, yet there has been scarcely any augmentation of neat cattle, while in sheep there has been a re duction of more than one hundred and sixty thousand, and in swine of more than seventeen thousand.” Massachusetts has a flourishing agricultural society in every county; abounds in excellent froo schools, in cities and villages, so that every farmer has a reliable market at his door for all lie can raise to sell ; anti, at the same time, those cities and villages give him far greater facilities for obtaining manure to keep up the fertility of his land, often a mere garden watch, than South ern planters possess. State «uUiatics. however, prove that the old colonial habit of wearing out the virgin soil still predominates in the Bay State. The large addition of 300,000 acres to its improved land, in place of augmenting its annual crops of grain and its live stock, kept on pastures and meadows, was followed by a dimi nution of both. Free labor, home markets and small farms, are not sufficient to prevent the im poverishment of farming lands. But to place this truth beyond the reach of a reasonable doubt, we will briefly cite facts drawn from the statistics of New York and Ohio. In 1845, as chairman of the committee on ag riculture, the writer drew up a bill with sched ules annexed, for collecting the agricultural sta tistics of New York that year, in a more search ing manner than had ever been done before.— Some of the results of this census may be found in the Patent Office Report for 1849, from which we copy, (pages 25 and 20:) “ In an exceedingly interesting work, entitled 1 American Husbandry,’ published in London in 1775, the following remarks may lie found on page 98, Yol 1: ‘ Wheat in many parts of the province (New York) yields a larger produce than is common in England. Upon good lands about Albany, where the climate is the coldest in the country, they sow two bushels and better upon an acre, and reap from twenty to forty; the latter quantity, however, is not often had, but from twenty to thirty are common; and with such bad husbandry as would not yield the like in England, and much less in Scotland. This is owing to the richness and freshness of the land.’” “According to the State census of 1845, Al bany county now produces only seven and a half bushels of wheat per acre, although its farmers are on tide water, and near the capital of the State, with a good home market, and pos sess every facility for procuring the most valua ble fertilizers. Dutchess county, also on the Hudson river, produces only five bushels per acre; Columbia six bushels: Rensselaer eight. Westchester seven; which is higher than the average of soils that once returned larger crops than the wheat lands of England, even with bad husbandry. Fully to renovate the eight million acres of partially exliausted lands in the State of New York will cost at least an average of twelve dollars and a half per acre, or an aggre gate of one hundred million dollars.” The statistics of Ohio show that, where thirty five bushels of wheat once grew per acre, thir teen bushels are the present average. The sta tistics of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon sin differ in no respect from those of Ohio, New York and Massachusetts. With volumes of official returns made by farmers themselves, be fore us, all corroborating the statements already cited, how can one who searches only for the truth, avoid the conclusion that the impoverish ment of the soil in the United States is peculiar to no section, and wholly independent of both slave labor and free labor ? To add four million laborers to the industrial force of the South can do no greater harm to Southern agriculture than a like addition of laborers lias done to Northern agriculture. In the present state of society, whether North, South, in Europe, Asia, or Africa, it is impracticable to separate everything that is good in tillage and good husbandry, from everything tliat is bad. Considered as a whole. Southern agriculture is fully equal to that of the North, and beats the world in the production of cotton. Having, however, five hundred million acres of wild, uncultivated land, the South must have more laborers before she will fairly begin to develop her vast material resources. Rail roads cannot plow, sow, nor reap; they cannot work mines, nor build and sail ships. Men must do this work. But with the population we already possess ) and their natural increase, it is our purpose to show in future numbers of this paper that it is quite practicable to render both our land and our labor far more productive and valuable than they now are. Every possible improvement in South ern agrieculture will be considered, so far as it is known; and suggestions having that object in view are respectfully solicited from our readers. We must learn to make our uncultivated old fields yield us a good income, from the live stock which they support In tliis way, millions of acres of impoverished soil may be rendered more fruitful than they ever were, and become objects of in terest and pride to every friend of human pro gress. By carefully studying the climate and soil of the sunny South, and adapting our hus bandry and tillage to the great requirements of nature, we shall speedily achieve success and honorable distinction. A kind Providence has done much for us; let us now prove to the world what we are both able and willing to do for our selves. Our conquest ovej the elements of hu man food and raiment has hardly commenced; for we have hardly begun to investigate the in finitely wise laws which govern the elements of all crops, and the vitality in every cultivated plant, and in every domesticated animal. In all nations, and in all districts, one may trace the impoverisliment of farming lands to a lack of sound principles in domestic and rural economy. Wherever a knowledge of these principles does not exist, whether in Europe or America, in New York or Georgia, the bad effects of this lack of scientific information are as visible as the sun at noon day to one who sees things as God has made them. Agricultural wisdom consists in learning the wisodm of Him who has created the natural fruitfulness of the earth we inhabit, and com manded man to eat bread in the sweat of his face. All cultivators of the soil, no matter where they live, must learn obedience to duty. This is no idle abstraction, but a fundamental agricultural truth. Man owes something to his mother earth that yields him bread, meat, fuel, luscious fruits, and clothing, when he tills the ground; and not to pay this debt is at once brutal, mean, and rebellion against his Maker. Man cannot possi bly enjoy, in perpetuity, all the blessings of civ ilization, and at the same time evade the perorfm anee of those great duties Imposod by his elevated condition. Bnites, in a state of nature, nowhere impoverish the soil which supports them; nor does the savage, while he remains such. But let him rise into g higher state of social comfort and existence, as a gardener and farmer, and he has many things to study and learn (hlly to meet all the new wants which grow out of his ele vated sphere of action. A large increase of knowledge has now become not a matter'of choice, but a stern necessity. A savage system of agriculture, whether practiced in Massachu setts or South Carolina, renders the land so treat ed poorer than it was when Indian savages alone occupied this part of North Araorica. Perverted industry is far worse than no industry, if long continued; for it ultimately destroys the life and value of all its subjects. The amount of human labor which is worse than thrown away would soon transform the inhabited parts of the globe into something like a paradise, if wisely directed. The right use of all agricultural labor would make every rood of land under human control more productive in all coming time than nature formed it Instead of exhausting, or even im pairing the original fertility of a field, its capacity for the support of mankind would increase about as fast as population. The most prominent error in both Southern and Northern agriculture is the habit of running over with the plow about twice the surface that the cultivator is able to till prop erly. Just so fast as the people learn the true principles of husbandry, they appreciate the ad vantages of working rich land rather than that which is poor. If the latter cannot be made rich then one had better work at some other calling than the unrequited cultivation of a barren soil- True agricultural progress implies a steady gain in the fruitfulness of every field, by making the raw materials of crops deeper and more abundant from year to year. Few men, in any part of the United States, understand the art of wisely accu mulating capital in long cultivated ground; and this is the true reason why so few attempt to practice it. Science and more extended observa tion are showing that it is both profitable and every way desirable, to give to the earth such a quantity of the elements of crops as will add two, three, and often four fold to the annual harvests which unassisted nature would yield. The raw material actually consumed in making a bale of cotton, when grown on an acre of land, should be as familiar while yet in the soil, and in the atmosphere, to every planter, as cotton itself. It is only by understanding the things that form ou r great Southern staples that we can hope to a A,u ' mutate the elements of fertility, needful ir eve T soil, in the most economical way. If c«*° n i 00111 and wheat are money, so also are t l ** substances that make cotton, com and whee* Misfortune. — when it crushes a great soul, is a thunder*®* destroying a temple. GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE WlfoßT, \ FARMER. We lmve the satisfaction of laying before the < readers of the Southern Field and Fireside, a let ter never before published, of that great man who was “ first in peace, first in war, and first in the heart’s of his countrymen.” • ' For this privilege we are indebted to the courtesy of Mrs. Thomas Gardner, Bay street, Augusta, who has the original in the bold, clear and legible autograph of the immortal author. It is on letter paper, seven and a half pages. It « 1 was given to its present owner, who holds it in priceless value, by her friend, the late Mr. ; Gueathmet, of Norfolk, Va., who married a grand-daughter of Mr. Howell Lewis, the nephew of Gen. Washington, to whom it is addressed. Mr. Lewis was at the time a young man, and liad the charge of his Uncle’s exten- i sive and well managed farms at Mt Vernon. We publish this letter, not to gratify a pru rient curiosity as to “the inner life ” of Wash ington, the farmer, but for the salutary and ) most useful lessons it teaches. It is a volume of valuable thought and instruction to the agricul- < turists of the South. Every planter and farmer should read it. He should read, mark and in wardly digest It discloses the secret of Wash ington’s great success in that peaceful and noble calling in which he so much delighted. It shows system, a lucid order, close economy, and accu racy of accounts, even to the minutest things. It shows a desire to improve on past ideas by careful experiments. It shows tireless vigilance in supervising each department of business, guarding against neglect and waste, and holding each person in his employment to a just respon sibility. This letter was written while Washington was President, and at Philadelphia, immersed in affairs of State. How marvellous that then and there, with all the cares of the Young Republic on his mind, at this most exciting period in the world's history, he should have found time for such close and skillful attention to his farming operations 1 Men who thus understand the value of time, of method, of accuracy—men who truly appre ciate the importance of minute attention to busi ness, have in them the sure elements of success in all their aims. They are the born rulers of the world. * To Correspondents. A communication from Mr. LaTaste, on En tomology', and others, are unavoidably deferred, and will appear in our next issue. Letters rela ting to the condition of the crops, their cultiva tion, and other agricultural topics, are respect fully solicited. BPECLAX*RKPORT Os the Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute on Scientific Education in Europe. The above is a pamphlet of seventy pages principally from the pen of Col. Smith, who has been several months in Europe to visit and study their scientific and educational institutions, from which much information of equal interest and value was obtained. Hitherto the systematic cultivation of th» natural and exact"sciences has been sadly neglected in this country. ; and the Report of CoL Smith, with the suggestions of Major Gilham, is calculated to promote a much needed reform. Considerable space is given to the important matter of agricultural education. The South has too long overlooked the duty of giving to overseers and young planters greater facilities to learn the true principles of agriculture. RECIPES. Two pounds of Milestone (sulphate of copper) dissolved in three gallons of hot water Is the quantity used by the wheat growers in England to kill the smut on eight bushels of wheat. The water is sprinkled on the grain as the latter is shoveled over, so as to wet the whole mass alike. In tliis country most farmers put their seed wheat into a solution of Milestone. If kept in brine of any kind too long, the germs of the wheat will be killed. How to Obtain Good Lye for Soap. —To every barrel of ashes use a peek of recently slaked lime placed on pine straw, broomsedge, or some thing of the kind, in the bottom of the barrel or ash-hopper; .so that the water which has passed through the ashes will percolate through the lime before it is boiled for making soap. If the lye is too weak, it should be evaporated be fore the grease is added. fST* Correspondents will bear in mind that all letters on business should be addressed to the Publisher of the Field and Fireside, and all let ters and communications intended for the Lit erary and Agricultural Departments, should be addressed to the respective Editors. Clark County Agricultural Society. —The enterprising fanners of Clark county, Geocj lß , have recently organized a county agric'dural society, and raised between three four < thousand dollars to purchase and improve fair grounds, and place the societv-m a permanent basis. Col. John Billups w* 1 * chosen President, and Captain W. H. Secretary. It is hoped that W cultivators of the soil generally at the So* 4 * will follow tliis example. Mildew in tMS Gooseberry.— Professor Berk ley, the gr«d cryptogamic Botanist, says of the . goose be r/ mildew: “Our American friends should mke a lesson from the grape mildew in bejolf of their gooseberries. As the disease in ys first stage, like the grape mildew, is an Odi um, there is every reason to believe that the same treatment will have similar results, and as i sulphur (at least sublimed sulphur) property ap plied, is a sure remedy in the one case, we have no doubt about its efficacy in the other. We have in Great Britain an allied Fungus which attacks gooseberries. It seldom, however, does , any material injury, and never assumes the dense matted form of the Spcerotheca. t 5