1T8 



THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



a day dawns, he has no plan for the day's work; 

 perhaps a dozen different kinds of work will engage 

 his attenfion. The consequence is, that nothing is 

 done well — nothing in season. He raises poor crops; 

 briars, brambles and thistles disfigure his fields; his 

 fences invite his neighbors' cattle to gratify their ap- 

 petites within his enclosure ; loose boards upon his 

 barn, as well as swinging doors, raako harsh music 

 whenever the wind blows; his slock shivers with the 

 cold during winter; his wagon and other implements 

 become rheumatic ; his dwelling looks like the 

 drunkard's house; he soon comes to the conclusion 

 that " agricultural editors and professors, in the en 

 joyment of salaries, are almost the only men who 

 think farming profitable." 



Mr. Orderly is a farmer who exercises forethought. 

 During his leisure hours, when nature sleeps, he plans 

 for the busy season. When his farm work does not 

 hurry, he paints and repairs his tools, prepares his 

 seed, rebuilds his fences, makes a compost of his ma- 

 nure, and decides upon a plan for the rotation of 

 his crops. Forethought enables him to perform 

 every kind of labor, just at the proper season; it en- 

 ables him to guard against destructive insects, to 

 make every kind of soil friable and productive, to 

 counteract the disastrous effects of drouth, to pre- 

 vent disease in his stock, and to raise only remu- 

 nerative crops. His dwelling and other buildings all 

 present a neat, substaQtial and attractive appearance; 

 his abundant harvests reward his toil; his cheerful 

 and happy family doubly reward him for all his la- 

 bor and forethought; his granary groans beneath its 

 burden ; his purse becomes plethoric with gold ; and 

 his table is loaded with the many luxuries of the field 

 and the garden. He will tell you that farming pays. 

 His sons and daughter?, virtuous and intelligent as 

 they have become, will reassure you that farming, 

 with forethought, pays. 



With forethought, farming is a delightful occupa- 

 tion; without it, it is slavish drudgery. Forethought 

 prepares the farmer's pathway for a healthy, invigo- 

 rating drive over it during a prosperous and happy 

 earthly career; without it, it will be filled with ob- 

 structions and frightful images. 



I cannot close without acknowledging the indebt- 

 edness of farmers to the agricultural press for a large 

 amount of the forethought that is now exercised. It 

 is Hap-hazard that does not read as much as one 

 agricultural paper. E. Hodges. 



Marion, Minnesota. 



CULTIVATION OF POTATOES m OHIO. 



Messrs. Editors: — I am no scholar, and am not 

 much of a writer, neither am I much addicted to 

 troubling the public with my views upon any sub- 

 ject; but having received the first four numbers of 

 the present volume of the Genesee Fanner, and 

 finding in all of them several communications upon 

 the best method of raising potatoes, I have con- 

 cluded to give you an account of some experiments 

 made by myself. I have examined the different 

 methods proposed, minutely, and find nothing that 

 eatisfies me as well as my own experience. The 

 methods proposed by your correspondents are all 

 good, and yet they are all objectionable in a measure. 

 Some of them are adapted to particular localities 

 only, such as clover sod, a high and dry piece of 

 ground, &c.; others are attended with too much ex- 



pense, although they might answer on a small scale 

 for early potatoes, yet would be too expensive for a 

 field crop. 



I commenced renting farms in the north-east por- 

 tion of Ohio, and have been moving at short inter- 

 vals, and a short distance at a time, until I find myself, 

 for the last four years, located in the woods, a few 

 miles from the Indiana line; consequently, my expe- 

 rience covers almost every variety of soil to be found 

 in Northern Ohio — and that I believe would include 

 nearly every variety to be found in the United States-; 

 and whenever I could follow the method hereafter 

 described, I have never failed to obtain from four to 

 six hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, and I have 

 never had the misfortune to raise one peck of potar 

 toes that were affected with the dry rot, when this 

 method was adopted. During the years of 1848 and 

 '9, when all my neighbors lost their entire crop with 

 the rot within four or six weeks after digging, I 

 raised as good potatoes as I ever saw, from a heavy 

 clay soil. I have raised them on black prairie sand, 

 on prairie muck, on yellow and white sand openings, 

 on gravelly loam, and on limestone land, and they 

 were invariably as sound when new potatoes came 

 again as they were when dug in the fall. The modus 

 operandi is this : 



The first great principle is to know that yonr 

 ground is rich enough to produce a good crop, for it 

 is a well established fact that no man can produce a 

 good crop of potatoes unless his land contains a suf- 

 ficient amount of those ingredients necessary to feed 

 the growing plants. If my ground is not rich enough, 

 I make it so with manure. I then plow at least from 

 ten to twelve inches deep, harrow, and if necessaiy, 

 plow again, until my ground is thoroughly pulverized 

 — that is, if there is no sod. I then, after harrowing 

 smooth, mark out the ground in rows four feet 

 apart, and invariably run the rows the way the ground 

 descends, taking care to mark out very deep. I then 

 drop small potatoes, or pieces of large ones, from ten 

 to twenty inches apart, according to the strength of 

 the soil. I then turn a deep, heavy furrow from each 

 way on to the seed; this, if done with care, will cover 

 the seed some four or five inches, and leave the 

 outer edge of the ridge higher than it is in the cen- 

 tre; the ridges will be some two feet broad at the 

 top and four feet at the base. As soon as the pota- 

 toes begin to show themselves, I take a light harrow, 

 and harrow the surface lengthwise of the ridges, then 

 cover the ground from six to eight inches deep with 

 dry straw, and my work is done until digging time. 

 The deep farrows being turned each way, form quite 

 a respectable ditch, which will carry off any surplus 

 water that may fall in a wet season, and the straw 

 will protect the crop from the scorching dry weather, 

 and will arrest and detain about the roots of the 

 plants all of the ammonia that would naturally es- 

 cape into the atmosphere; consequently, the potato is 

 never checked in its growth, from the time it comes 

 up in the spring until it is ripe, which will be from 

 two to three weeks earlier than those planted the old 

 way. If I have a piece of sod, either clover or 

 timothy, the first thing I do is to mark out the ground, 

 by plowing a light furrow, say from two to three 

 inches deep, drop my potatoes as before, and then 

 baek-furrow as before, taking care to have the edge 

 of the two furrows just. meet over the seed. Thia 

 will throw the light furrow back on to the seed, which 

 will rot and form a good manure. The object of 



