48 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Tfomen. And how cau it be done better than by 

 furuirihing good books; not works of fiction which 

 poison •^he mind, and leave it in a worse condition 

 than it was before, but works v;hich contain fj^oodjSub- 

 staa'iiid reading, that inform :md invigorate the^mind. 

 I have often thought tha,t it would be a good idea 

 for farmers to expend the money they receive at the 

 a'dtu;nusil fairs for premiums, in books and papers 

 a.'Qapted to their busines-J, and 1st their families have 

 fi'ee access to them, for the more they read the better 

 v/ill they be fitted to follow what Washington calls 

 " the m.ost healthy and honorable, as it is the most 

 natural and useful, pursuit of man." D. Knox. 



WIKTES BASLEY 



Eds. Farmeu: — Some inquiry has been made in 

 regard to the cultivation ot \Vinter Barley, but as 

 yet we hear no reply. It is well known that ia the 

 milder districts of Europe, and even in the south of 

 England, some varieties of barley are sown in the 

 fall. Watson s Practical Husbandry says, " this 

 tillage may be pursued in any country which is not 

 exposed to severe changes of freezing and thawing, 

 which produces heaving of the land; or, when the 

 earth remains covered by snow during the winter." — 



^his would indicate that it is peculiarly sulyect to 

 winter-kill, and that the soil for it should be a well- 

 drained one. The winter barley is beginning to be 

 cultivated in Western New York, but as yet little is 

 known of its adaptation to this region. 



In southern Indiana this crop is one of the most 

 profitable. It is sown the last of August or early in 

 September among the standing corn, (so stated by a 

 writer in the Patent Office Report) from on^ to one 

 and a half bushels per acre, and covered with a 

 iight plow or cultivator. Borne farmers, when the 

 corn will admit, plow it in one way and cross with 

 the cultivator. The yield is from 40 to 50 bushels 

 par acre. It ripens the last of June, and is used 

 for feeding horses, coarsely ground and mixed with 

 cut barley straw; or fed to fattening hogs, cooked 

 or fermented. The barley fields are used as pastures 

 for colts and calves during the winter, and afford a 

 good Eupply of excellent fodder. 



Some winter barley was sown last fall in this neigh- 

 borhood; I shall be able to give you some experi- 

 ence in season for next autumn's sowing. — B. S. F. 



AGPvICULTURAL PAPSRS, AlfTD THE DUTY OF 

 FARSIEES TO V/S,IT£ FOK THEM. 



Agricultural Science h still in its infancy. 

 "Darkness as darkness it?elf" hangs over the path- 

 way of him who attempts to tApioie its fields. In 

 itd present stage of development, some of its most 

 important truths are incapable of demonstration. 

 What one approves both in theory and practice, an- 

 otU?-r condemns. Philosophical deductions and prac- 

 ti'al experience are arrayed against each other. And 

 yi. t its principles are as fixed in their operation as are 

 the pnuciples of any science; and when they shall 

 have received the careful and philosophical attention 

 which the coming years are destined to bring them, 

 tkey w"ri be found as deaionstrable as are the truths 

 of mathematics. 



In attaining so desirable and important a result, 

 we must rely in no small degree upon agricultural 

 papers. It is their peculiar proriucs to awaken in- 



quiry, direct it in proper channels, and stimulate the 

 energies of the laboring masses. That they hare 

 accomplished very much in this respect during tllfe 

 last decade, cannot be denied. We are indebted tb 

 them to a great extent for the increased attention 

 which has of late been given to agricultural science; 

 But broader and richer fields, sparkling with rarest 

 gems, are opening before them; all the sciences are 

 coming to their aid in clearing away the mists that 

 have so long enveloped the great truths of Agricut 

 ture; educated intellect is anxious to pay its devoirs 

 to those truths; the best disciplined minds of the age 

 are reckoned in the lists of practical Agriculturista 

 But whatever offerings science may bring, whatever 

 discoveries she may make, actual experience must 

 attend her pari passu. 



Upon farmers, therefore, devolves a sort of moral 

 obligation to give to the world, through the medium 

 of agricultural papers, the results of their experience. 

 And, dear farmer, when you experiment let me per- 

 suade you to do it with the utmost care and exact" 

 ness — thus the refiex influence of your experiments 

 will be no small part of the benefit resulting there- 

 from. "When we can bring to bear upon the dispu- 

 ted points of Agricultural science the careful experi- 

 ence of thousanils of practical' men, we shall ha'v^ 

 done much towards their settlement, and therefore, 

 much for the benefit of the world. Xo subject offers 

 a richer reward to patient investigation. Senior. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH iHS CHINESE SUGAR CANE 



EnxTORS Oenk^-.^ Fakmkr: — On the 5th of May, 

 I planted some seed ot the Chinese Sugar Cane, ih 

 rows three feet apart. It came up, and [ ihii.ued it 

 out to six inches in the row. It grew to the height 

 of eight to ten feet. I fed part of it to my cows and 

 hogs, and they eat it with great avidity. On the IGth 

 of September, I cut 40 stalks, and pressed the juic'e 

 out by passing them through a pair of tinsmiths' 

 rollers; the produce was seven quarts of juice, which 

 I boiled to one quart of good syrup, or at the ra,t6 

 of 181 J gallons per acre. 



I concluded to try it again, in order to determirie 

 at what stage of its growth the stalks contain the 

 greatest amount of sugar. On the 23d of October, 

 the seed being fully ripe, and after some light frosts I 

 cut up 60 stalks, stripped off the leaves and pressed 

 the canes as before, but as the rollers are very small, 

 fully ten per cent, of the juice remained in the stalks; 

 I also spilled four or five quarts of the juice. After 

 all mishaps, the result stands thus: weight of 60 canea 

 102 lbs.; juice 14 quarts; good molasses 5 1 pints; dry 

 fodder 4 tbs. ; seed 6 quarts. Rate per acre of cane 

 49,368 tbs.; juice 1,694 gallons; molasses 332 gallons 

 and 3 quarts; dry fodder 1,936 tbs.; seed 90 bushels 

 — good seed weighs 40 tbs. to the bushel. 



Farmers keep up your spirits for the sweet times 

 are coming. R. D. — Deerfield Street, JV. Jersey^ 



Remarks. — AYe are much obliged to our corres* 

 pondent for the results of his experiments. The 

 Chinese Sugar Cane is attracting considerable atten*- 

 tion, and it is desirable to ascertain from careful ex- 

 periments what are its true merits. There seems to 

 be no doubt that in the Southern States it will prove 

 useful for the production of molasses, — as it has in 

 France for the manufacture of alcohol; but that it 

 will be as useful for this purpose at the North as sftme 



