158 [Senate 



the growth of young animals. Potatoes and ruta bagas are the prin- 

 cipal varieties cultivated, to the growth of both of which our soil 

 seems to be well adapted. I raised 1,040 bushels of the latter, in 

 the summer of 1840, on a single acre of land. The past summer I 

 adopted the method of covering, principally cultivating and harvest- 

 ing my potatoes with the plow, subsequently confining the store hogs 

 in the field to dig those left by the plow. To those who cultivate 

 the potatoe largely, as a feeding crop, I would strongly recommend 

 this practice. 



Meadow and pasture lands are not generally suffered to lie as long 

 as formerly without plowing. It was noticed during a drouth, which 

 was felt severely by our grass lands during the past season, that 

 newly seeded lands suffered far less than old meadow and pasture. 

 Gypsum is used extensively as a top dressing. It is principally ob- 

 tained from Jamesville, in Onondaga county. 



Summer fallowing, as has been remarked in a former part of this 

 article, has given place pretty generally to fallow crops. 



In do not know that plowing is more imperfectly performed here 

 than in neighboring counties; but I am satisfied that it is not usually 

 carried deep enough, and in other respects, well enough performed 

 for the profit of the farmer. The surface is merely "skinned," and 

 much of the riches even of that thin surface is left locked up in the 

 lumps and clods which have escaped disintegration. Four inches is 

 probably the maximum depth of plowing in this county, and at that 

 depth an artificial pan is formed in our old fields, impermeable to a 

 great extent to the roots of vegetation. If, instead of inquiring so 

 assiduously for " wide cutting plows/' our farmers would select those 

 which " cut deep," they would be the gainers by it. 



The principal grass sown is timothy. White clover springs up 

 spontaneously in great abundance on all our lands, even after sum- 

 mer fallowing. Small quantities of red clover are sown by some, 

 mixed with timothy seeds; and a few are beginning to sow fields ex- 

 clusively of red clover. The crops of grass on the meadows of our 

 best cultivated farms, frequently equal from two to three tons to the 

 acre. The average product, however, even in the valley of the 

 Tioughnioga will not probably exceed one and one half tons; and on 

 the remote hills not to exceed one ton. 



Weeds, fortunately, in our grazing county, are not spreading with 

 the fearful rapidity with which they are overruning the wheat grow- 

 ing regions. Canada thistles, johnswort, and oxeye-daisy are the 

 principal ones. The latter does not prevail to any considerable ex- 

 tent, and the two former are combatted with energy by our better 

 class of farmers. But so long as one neglected farm may continue to 

 stock a whole town with Canada thistles, I see no way to eradicate 

 them until the man is made punishable by law who allows them to 

 go to seed on his farm, and that law is rigidly enforced. 



The manures used by our farmers are principally those of the 

 stable, gypsum, and some leached ashes. There are many who suffer 

 their stable manures to lose much of their fertilizing properties before 

 they are applied to the land; but the practice is gaining ground 



