John Moreland, esq., Havana-Cuba tobacco. Jeremiah Balthorpe, esq., Salem, Virginia-large Indian corn. Lewis W. Busher, esq., Avon, New York-superior tobacco, of fine flavor, and very productive." Calvert, esq., Prince George's, Maryland-white corn. B. P. Johnson, esq., Secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society-an assortment of seeds. A. Denny, esq., Eaton, Preble county, Ohio-sample of a new spe cies of flaxseed. Milton A. Haynes, esq., Cornersville, Giles county, Tennessee-a paper of catalpa seed." Hon. J. M. Bernhisel, delegate from Utah-specimens of Californian, New Mexican, and seven-eared wheat. H. R. Day, esq., Indian agent in Utah-wheat in the ear; three varieties. Messrs. Warren & Co., Sacramento city, California—a small package of flower seeds. Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison-a package of grass seed collected in the Utah valley. Wm. D. Gillespie, esq., Lexington, Tennessee-specimens of stock pea grown by the Indians in Florida, of upland rice, flour, corn, and water-melon seed. John B. Robinson, esq., Elk Creek, Erie county, Pennsylvaniasome yellow corn. Correspondence relating to Sugar-cane brought from the East Indies. NAVY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Transmitted herewith, for your information, is a copy of despatch No. 21 and its enclosures, received from Commodore Jolin H. Aulick, commanding the United States squadron in the East India and China seas, in relation to the sugar-cane which he has sent home in the "Marion," in obedience to instructions from this Department. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WILL. A. GRAHAM. U. S. STEAM FRIGATE SUSQUEHANNA, HONG KONG, February 12, 1852. SIR: In my despatch No. 20 I mentioned having touched at Penang, on my way through the Straits of Malacca, and procured cuttings and roots of the Salangore sugar-cane for seed, in obedience to your order of the 9th of May last. I also obtained a few samples of the Otaheite and Mauritius canes, which some planters at Penang prefer to the Salangore. I had them all selected, and put up in various ways for transportation, by an experienced late manager of a sugar plantation there, as is shown by the enclosed letters from our consul at Penang, and Mr. Vermont. Some of these roots and cuttings are now growing finely in boxes and tubs. They will be sent on board the Marion to morrow, and I think they may, with great care, reach home alive. I enclose a list and description of the cane from Mr. Simons, the gentleman who procured them for me. I have the honor to be, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, J. H. AULICK, Commanding U. S. Squadron, East India and China Seas. Hon. WILL. A. GRAHAM, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. PENANG, January 16, 1852. SIR: According to the request I received from you through C. C.. Currier, esq., the American consular agent at Penang, I have the honor of sending you No. 1. One box, marked S, containing 139 Salangore sugar-cane tops. No. 2. One box, marked S, containing 137 Salangore sugar-cane tops. No. 3. One box, marked O, containing 85 Otaheite sugar-cane tops. No. 4. One box, marked O, containing 71 Salangore sugar-cane tops. One open case, marked S, containing 6 Salangore cane plants. One open case, marked O, containing 6 Otaheite sugar-cane tops. One open case, marked O, containing 2 Salangore cane-roots. The tops in the boxes Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 are packed in their native earth, according to the way in practice here and other sugar colonies, for im portation and exportation of sugar cane tops, and of the best description. Should these boxes be placed in a dry and cool place, most of the tops they contain may arrive in good order, although I would have more confidence in the two open cases if on board they may be kept free from contact with salt water, watered now and then, and filled with earth as the canes grow. By the latter mode the Mauritius cane has been imported here from the Mauritius in 1845. I beg, also, to send two Salangore cane-roots. Allow me to add that all due attention has been paid to the choice and packing of the cane tops. Here enclosed I beg to forward the certificate supplied to me by the manager of the estate on which the Salangere cane-tops have been cut and the roots procured. I have the honor to remain, sir, your most obedient servant, Late Manager of Kream Estate, in Prince Wellesley. Commodore AULICK, U. S. Steam Frigate Susquehanna. PENANG, PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, January 16, 1852. I, the undersigned, manager of the sugar estate called "Otaheite," belonging to Messrs. Brown & Co., of this place, certify to all whom it may concern, that the cane tops supplied by me to Captain H. Simon, for the United States war steamer Susquehanna, are taken from ripe canes, cultivated here upon the generality of European and native sugar estates, as the real Salangore cane described by Mr. Leonard Wray in his "Practical Sugar Planter." The two roots are also from the Salangore cane. JAMES VERMONT. PENANG, PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, SIR: I have the honor to reply to your requisition relative to the Salangore sugar-cane, having made every inquiry regarding that description of cane. I find, from the best authority, that the largest portion of cane now under cultivation in this island and the settlement of Province Wellesley is of that description; and that at Salangore (which is a native Malay State) sugar-cane is cultivated merely for supplying the wants of the inhabitants of that section of the country, and not for the production of sugar as an article of merchandise. I would therefore strongly recommend that the plants which you require should be selected and taken from the plantations of this island and Province Wellesley; and I have employed Mr. Henry Simon to procure and put up, in the best possible manner, six boxes of cane cuttings, of which he has given a full description in a letter of this date addressed to yourself, which I beg herewith to hand you. Mr. Simon is a practical sugar planter; and having had the advantage of superintending an estate in this settlement under the direction of the author of the publication entitled the "Practical Sugar-Planter," I have full confidence in his knowledge of the particular description of cane you require, as well as of all other descrip. tions now under cultivation in the Straits of Malacca. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, Commodore AULICK, Commanding U. S. Squadron, East India and China Seas, Steam Frigate Susquehanna. Letter respecting Wheat brought from the Cape of Good Hope. U. S. STEAM FRIGATE SUSQUEHANNA, HONG KONG, February 10, 1852. MY DEAR SIR: I send to your address by my son, an officer of the United States sloop Marion, a box containing about half a bushel of Cape of Good Hope wheat, said to be of very superior quality. It is cultivated but in no considerable quantity-in about the latitude of 33° south. I learn from our consul at Cape Town, that a sample of this grain has been tried in one of our northern wheat-growing States, but did not turn out very well, owing, probably, to the too great severity of the climate. It may, however, answer better in the more congenial region of our southern grain States, and I beg the favor of you to cause its distribution accordingly. I would also be much obliged to you if you would send a few samples of it to my brother, Mr. Charles A. Aulick, for himself and his three sons, all farmers, near Falmouth, Pendleton county, Kentucky. I am, with great respect, yours, &c., THOMAS EWBANK, Esq., J. H. AULICK, Commanding East India Squadron. Commissioner of Patents. ON CHESS IN WHEAT. BROOKVILLE, INDIANA, January 8, 1851. SIR: Though not actively engaged in agricultural operations now, I have spent the greater part of my life on a farm, and, whatever others may have thought, considered myself a skilful farmer. Since I have been differently employed, I have always felt much interest in that occu pation, and have cast many a delighted look over luxuriant fields and well tilled and productive farms, and have made many an inquiry as to the method of cultivation which had produced such valuable results. I trust, therefore, that I shall not be considered an intruder in this department of science. I am a passionate admirer of good farming. I think that we may always judge with unerring certainty of the character of a man by seeing his farm. If I were a money lender, which, by the way, I am not, I would ask no better security for a loan than to see the borrower's house and barn in good repair, fences well kept up, fence-corners clear of bushes, wet lands thoroughly ditched, corn free from weeds, and wheat from chess, rye, and cockle. Such a farmer, if he has a neat and tidy wife, is sure to prosper. One who neglects all these never can. My present object is to state some facts concerning the culture of wheat, in opposition to the belief that wheat will change to chess. This notion, once so prevalent, has, if I mistake not, lost many of its advocates since the days of better farming have come, and, I believe, will some day be entirely exploded. It is a very convenient theory, though, to cover up the faults of careless wheat culture; and many advocates of it will still, no doubt, be found among those who will not take the trouble to fully test the matter. Much time will be required to wholly disprove the theory. The greater portion of wheat is full of chess, and considerable labor is necessary to separate them. The fields, too, are full of it; for successive crops have fallen upon them, and it has often been sown there. It is known to be a hardy plant, the seeds of which will probably germinate after having lain in the ground several years. That seeds of many varieties will thus lie in the ground for a long period, and then send forth their plants, is an undisputed fact. For instance, every farmer knows that white clover will spring up abundantly in fields where none has grown or been sown for five or ten years, and where it must have lain in the earth during the whole period; unless we adopt a still more extravagant theory than that which we have been considering, and suppose that not only wheat, but corn, rye, oats, barley, pumpkins, and potatoes, all change to chess. It is a curious fact in point here, that wheat found in the folds of linen enclosing an Egyptian inummy, germinated and grew luxuriantly, though it had, doubtless, been lying there 3,000 years. This fact has been several times published. I am clearly of opinion that if no chess was in our fields, and none was ever sown in them, or carried there by birds or other animals, we would never again hear of such a change as of wheat to chess, even though all the seed sown were shrivelled, (as was the case in 1849,) or sown on the top of the ground, or injured by a severe winter, or pastured off in the spring-all of them supposed to contribute to this result. I will state some of the facts which produced in me such a conviction of the truth of the above opinion, that conclusive testimony alone could change it. It is now probably 15 years since my father determined to raise wheat alone, instead of wheat, rye, chess, and even cockle, as he and his neighbors had been doing. The rye, being taller than the wheat, was easily destroyed by cutting it out before harvest, and the cockle was likewise soon overcome. As to destroying the chess, the neighbors laughed at him, saying that the first hard winter would again change the wheat to chess, and his labor would all be lost. Nevertheless, he undertook the experiment. I was then a youth at home. We picked the seed carefully, head by head. Lest a single grain might have got into it, we run it two or three times through a fanning mill containing a good screen, each time entirely separating the screenings from the seed. We then sowed it on the cleanest ground that we had. We went through a similar process the two succeeding years. Whenever a head or grain of chess was found in harvesting, threshing, or winnowing the wheat, it was carefully pocketed, carried to a fire, and burned. By this time it was almost perfectly clear of the noxious weed, and would have been entirely so, I have no doubt, had there been none of the seed in the ground. After this, it was only necessary to screen the seed well in order to secure at harvest a crop of almost pure wheat. Several years have passed since then, and I think I may safely say that not a grain of wheat has changed to chess on that farm, though it has been exposed to all the casualties that are commonly supposed to produce the change. I will even venture the prediction that not a grain ever will change. It matters not what field has been sown, what the circumstances of sowing, what the character of the winter may have been, what casualties may have befallen it-such as cattle pasturing it, or fly eating it-the result has been invariably the same; as far as chess was concerned, almost entire freedom from it. Our neighbors, seeing the success of the experiment, have adopted a similar practice, and with like result; so that the opinion, once generally entertained, has now few advocates among them, or in the adjoining counties. |