160 [Senate 



axle, is by far the best, and will annually nearly repay its first cost. 

 When the rollers are " turned" and properly mounted, its cost is not 

 far from $20. 



The revolving horse rake is in general use on our more level lands, 

 and is justly regarded as a labor saving machine of the first impor- 

 tance. 



The threshing machine^ (if this is to be included among farm imple- 

 ments,) is less in favor than formerly. Where grain is principally 

 raised for home consumption, as with us — where the crop of each far- 

 mer is not large, and where there is no necessity for haste in getting 

 it ready for market, — there is certainly far less advantage in the em- 

 ployment of these machines. In the judgment of most of our far- 

 mers, they do not diminish the expense of threshing, and they lead to 

 a great waste of straw. The straw of oats and barley especially, is 

 eaten readily by cattle if fed when newly threshed. If these crops 

 are cut and cured, as they always should be, when the the straw is 

 somewhat green, and the straw is daily fed out, " fresh and bright," 

 cattle will thrive on it about as well as on hay. The writer's cattle 

 have been fed hay but once a day during the present winter. Straw, 

 and to breeding stock a small daily allowance of roots, has consti- 

 tuted their remaining food. This is cheaper than feeding hay exclu- 

 sively, and the cattle do equally well. Other farmers in the county 

 have fed straw exclusively, w'ith a small allowance of roots, with the 

 same results. This could not, in my opinion, be done successfully if 

 the straw' was al. threshed out at once, though stacked with the great- 

 est care. 



The chaff-cutter is a most valuab'!-^^ implement. Gilson's is the fa- 

 vorite one in this county. On this point 1 shall have more to remark 

 under a subsequent head. 



Although the hay-fork does not rank in the first class of agricultu- 

 ral implements, I cannot here omit to say, that probably the best arti- 

 cle of this kind manufactured in the United States, is made in Cort- 

 land county, and " by hand," by an aged mechanic named Lewis 

 Sanford. They were exhibited, awd received a flattering discretion- 

 ary premium at the first State Fair, and were acknowledged unequal- 

 ed for material, temper and finish, by all who saw them. 



What agricultural changes are requisite.- -The principal changes 

 necessary to advance the agricultural prosperity of the county are, 

 1st. The further continuation and more general diffusion of those 

 improvements, which, under another head, have been stated as al- 

 ready having been commenced in some of our most important agri- 

 cultural processes, viz : in a division of agricultural labor, — in the 

 rotation of crops, — in the method of seeding, — in the abandonment 

 of summer fallowing, — in the increase and judicious application of 

 manures, — in the abandonment of the old meadow and pasture sys- 

 tem on arable lands, — in the improvement, by selection and cross- 

 ing, of our breeds of domestic animals, &c. These several points 

 are so much and so ably discussed in our agricultural periodicals, 

 that it will be unnecessary to take them up at length on this occa- 

 sion. There is, however, one point to which I wish to call atten- 



