THE GENESEB FARMEK 



FARMERS' CIUBS. 



It is a fact already recorded on the page of history, 

 thiit those towns that have sustained the best Farmers' 

 Chibs, have made the most progress in the art of good 

 husbandry, and have taken the greatest number of the 

 premiums awarded by the county societies. The Far- 

 mers' Club should, and does sustain about tlie same 

 relation to the county society, that the district school 

 does to the academy. It will be found that the towns 

 that sustain the best clubs, furnish relatively a greater 

 number of active members to the county societies, than 

 those where these primary organizations do not 



There is not a farming town in this, or any other 

 Commonwealth, that may not, if it will, sustain a club 

 that shall prove highly beneficial to every farmer who 

 interests himself in it, by becoming an active and 

 working member. 



Now is the time to form these clubs. But, says an 

 inquirer, how can it be done ? The answer is ready. 

 After reading this article, just name the subject to your 

 neighbor, ask him to sugger.t it to his neighbor, and 

 when a little interest and curiosity is aroused, call a 

 meeting at the town hall, school house, or at some 

 neighbor's house, and organize by appointing a presi- 

 dent, vice president, secretary, and an executive com- 

 mittee, whose duty it shall be, with the advice and 

 consent of the members, to arrange the order of busi- 

 ness and entertainment of each succeeding weekly 

 meeting. 



Select some subject for a public debate, appoint some 

 one or more upon each side to speak upon the suV)ject ; 

 also some one or more to write an essay, or essays, up- 

 on some subject or subjects connected with agriculture 

 ©r domestic econotny, extending the invitation to the 

 mothers, wives and daughters, for without their aid and 

 presence, you wlil not be likely to succeed, while with 

 them you cannot fail. 



After completing your organization, you will find it 

 profitable to enlist your minister, your lawyer, doctor, 

 and schoolmaster, to lecture occasionally before the 

 club ; and by introducing the system of exchange now 

 practiced among ministers, you may have numerous 

 lectures, while each lecturer will not be under the ne- 

 cessity of preparing more than one good lecture during 

 the season. 



The club being foi-med, a desire for books for study 

 and for reference, will soon be awakened, and the steps 

 will soon be taken to secure these, which will serve as 

 a nucleus for a Town Library, where such does not al- 

 ready exist. Every club will need a Cyclopedia of Ag- 

 riculture, practical and scientific, developing both the 

 theory and the art of good husbandry, relative to both 

 farm vegetables and animals. There are two good 

 works of this kind now before the public, ready for 

 use, to wit, " The Rural Cyclopedia," by J. M. Wilson, 

 and another, by J. C. Morton.* Either of these is 

 worth more to the farmer than the entire list of publi- 

 cations by some of the modern book-makers and pub- 

 lishers. * * * While it is desirable to have and 

 to read and study good books, all others are worse 

 than useless, for they serve botlr to kill time,' and mis- 

 lead the reader. With an outlay of $50, a club may 

 furnish itself with all the works necessary to begin 

 with. Then let such additions be made from time to 

 time as the wants of the members shall demand. This 

 Is the dictate of good economy and practical experi- 

 ence. — Massachusetts Ploughman. 



• Tho latter is by far the best work of the two ; in fact, it is the 

 best work extant. Wo heartily unite with the PUni ghman in rec- 

 ommendiug it to Farmers' Clubs, and we will somi it or Wilson's 

 Encyclopedia, or .any other agricultural ar.d horticultural works, 

 to any Farmers' Club at twenty per cent, less than the usual rates, 

 which see ia our advertising colomnB. — Ens. Genesee Fakmer. 



EXTEAORDINAIIY FECUNDITY OF WIiE/'" EAS- 

 LEY AKD OATS. 



We have received from Messrs. Hardy & Sons, of 

 Maldon, Essex, specimens of difierent grain in the 

 straw (wheat, barley and oats) grown by them, with a 

 request that we would examine them. They are in- 

 tended to show the effect of their system of thin sow- 

 ing, and of more care than is usually experienced in 

 the cultivation. The specimens were placed in the 

 hands of a jjerson well qualified to examine minutely, 

 and to report upon them, and we now give below the 

 results, with all the details connected with the several 

 parcels ; and without pledging ourselves in the slight- 

 est degree to the applicability of the system upon a 

 broad scale, we feel justified in saying that those rt- 

 sults are such as to deserve the attention of practical 

 men, and a rigid inquiry how far the system of thin 

 and careful sowing or planting of cerearls is capable of 

 being carried out generally under the present course of 

 husbandry : 



a 





\^ 



Explanations. 



No. 1. Twenty specimen ears of Egyptian wliii'i 

 wheat as cut from one stub, growing at a wide distanv.e 

 casually in a field of five acres. 



No. 2. Ten ears with thin straw of Hardy's selected 

 and improved red wheat, from one acre transiilanted 

 with plants sown by the sparrows in a stubble in Au- 

 gust, planted in October, at one foot apart, a little more 

 than one-fourth peck of seed per acre. 



No. 3. Four (out of 8) single roots, 240 ears, aver- 

 aging 35 each, grown casually at one foot apart, on 

 common plowed land and no manure, was very foul ; 

 one peck of seed sown, and thinned out singly quite 

 half, rather blighj.ed. 



