76 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



incipiency, as it disturbed that happy equilibrium of 

 organic matter which nature leaves in her best virgin 

 soils. Crude, unfermented manure, if I mistake not, 

 destroys what Berzelius calls the " electro chemical 

 relation of bodies," and the proportions with which 

 -they combine with each other. Unfermented ma- 

 nure is worth more intrinsically than that which is 

 fermented, but it ia not so readily available; hence, 

 I trench mine in deeply for those gross feeders, sweet 

 corn, mangel wurzel, &c., planting cucumbers and 

 cabbages on the same ground next year without 

 manure. If cabbage plants are set out early on such 

 a soil, every cabbage will head well, without a single 

 exception, and many of ihem will have to be turned 

 down in early fall to prevent the head from cracking 

 open. Cucumbers and melons will do nearly as well, 

 but I can say with your correspondent that the maxi- 

 mum crop of cucumbei's I ever got was among Urge 

 oak stumps, on a pure virgin soil of vegetable mould. 

 Hence, it is safe to say that the analytical chemist is 

 not yet born whose receipt for soil ingredients can 

 equal Nature's mechanical and chemical combinations, 

 when she is supplied with the means in the debris of 

 her own organism. 



Shali, we Abandon Wheat Growing in Western 

 New York ? — Your February leader was to the 

 point on this subject. Your plea for more nitrogen, 

 as the indispensable renovator of this cereal, than 

 the plowing in of green clover can give, is well sus- 

 tained by experiments in this best of wheat-growing 

 counties. Here is an old Pennsylvania Deutsche 

 farmer, who has paid for two or three large farms 

 from the avails of wheat and clover seed, sold from 

 his two hundred acre clay farm on the Cayuga Lake 

 shore. I asked him why he could not get the same 

 bright, plump wheat he did twenty-five years ago. — 

 Strange to say, instead of charging his failure to the 

 weevil, he replied that he had depended too much on 

 manuring with green clover, because this system an- 

 swered 80 well at first he thought it would last al- 

 ways ; hence, he kept no other animals than four 

 heavy plow-horses, two or three cows, a few sheep, 

 and hogs to make his family pork, on his two hun- 

 dred acre farm. When his wheat began to deterio- 

 rate, it wa3 too late — his habits had been too well 

 confirmed for him to turn stock farmer all at onCe, 

 and he is now too old. He now admits that he al- 

 ways kept too few sheep; and that had he kept more 

 stock, plowed in less green clover and pastured it 

 sometimes instead, his wheat crops would not hare 

 thus sadly deteriorated. I well remember the time 

 when this man exchanged his beautifui ridge farm of 

 friable clay loam, only one hundred acre?, for this clay 

 farm of two hundred acres. Some shiftless farmers 

 thought he had made a hard bargain, but the Ger- 

 man knew what he was about. He set two steel- 

 coultered Pbacock plows to work in one large field, 

 plowing that virgin soil which his predecessor had 

 only harrowed over, and then the interminable drag- 

 ging and rolling. That quiet farm, which seemed to 

 enjoy a perpetwal Sunday before, now seemed to me 

 in a fair way to be plowed and harrowed and rolled 

 to death; but at harvest the wheat came ofl", not in 

 hundreds, but in thousands of bushels, and then the 

 green clover was turned under in full bloom, while 

 other large fields were cut before wheat harvest for 

 hay, and again in the fall for seed. That this fine 

 surface drained farm now fails to produce even me- 

 dium crops of inferior wheat, only gives significance 



to the old Scotch adage, " N o cattle, no manure- 

 no manure, no corn." 



A Plea for Lima Beans. — Your correspondent 

 recommends the Horticultural bean as the best pole 

 beau. Without disputing the fact, I must gay that 

 the Lima bean is the greatest bearer and the best 

 pole beau I have ever cultivated, and as early as any 

 other pole bean; yet, like a tropical plant, it bears 

 early and late, and to hare early beans you must ?ave 

 for seed the earliest ripe and the largest pods. Pinch 

 off the vines after they have reached the top of an 

 ei,^ht foot pole. A few of the later product ma.y be 

 killed by an October frost, bnt the yield without 

 them is legioa. Along this outlet they may be 

 planted by the 20lh of May, but farther back a week 

 later. Plant shallow. S. W. 



Waterloo, JV. Y. 



eOKEECTIOK-PLASTER FOR CLOVES, &c. 



Editors Geneskk Farmer. — I notice you have 

 made a great mistake in my aiticle in the February 

 number. You say I plastered every seventh year; it. 

 should have said every year. Plaster, I consider, 

 has done a great deal of good on my land. It was 

 the first thing that enabled me to raise good erops. 

 Plaster gave me plenty ot clover; clover hay made 

 good cattle, excellent sheep, good manure, and this 

 made good corn and wheat, and plenty of straw, and 

 this kept increasing my manure, and still increasing 

 my crops, or, at least, keeping them up when the 

 crops of those who did not take the same course 

 were failing. I sow all my grass land with plaster 

 nearly every j'ear, and it gives me abundance of grass, 

 which not being too closely fed off, enriches, at very 

 little expense, the land for grain crops. Thirty years 

 ago I said I would sow plaster if it cost forty dollars 

 a ton, and I would do so still. I never pay over four 

 dollars, and generally but three, per ton, and yet, 

 strange to say, many fanners never sow a bushel I 



The true way is to sow plaster on all the grass 

 land every year. By so doing you are feeding for 

 grain. At least all the grass and clover land that is 

 dry should be dressed with plaster; on wet or very 

 damp land, it has little or no effect. Thirty-five yearsi 

 ago, a very worthy neighbor told me I should ulti- 

 mately ruin my land if I sowed plaster; but I find he 

 was mistaken — it conlinvally increases in fertility. 



When I said Mr. Wright should not plow up sub- 

 soil in spring for corn, 1 did not wish to be under- 

 stood as opposing deep plowing. When I want to 

 deepen my soil, I do it when I fallow, — and that I 

 can best do after corn, being less draft than breaking 

 up a sod. I have noticed for some twelve years that 

 the plows are generally made for easy draft, in place 

 of doing justice to the land ; that is, they are made 

 rather to please the plowman than to make good 

 crops. The land-side is made to run a good depth, 

 bnt the right hand side of the share runs quite shal- 

 low. It makes the plowed land look smooth, but it 

 is a great injustice to the crops. It makes the plows 

 sell well to those who do not look under the furrow. 

 I suppose you have seen ribbing done before sowing 

 peas, in order that they might be thoroughly covered. 

 I have done it for both peas and wheat; but, thanks 

 to large wheel cultivators, we can loosen the surface 

 at one-fifth the labor. Now, many plows in use are 

 ribbing the lan<3 under the furrow. This fault should 

 be remedied without loss of time. The first time I 



