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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



HfFLTJENCE OF AGRICTJLTUKAL PAPERS. 



Messrs. Editors: — 1 take great pleasure in wit- 

 nessing the good influence exercised by your paper 

 among our farmers, manifested by the improved ap- 

 pearance of their farms. I have seen it, as by en- 

 chantment, bring order out of chaos. There are a 

 great many men in our country who are styled farm- 

 ers, that appear to think there is no way to do any- 

 thing, except just as father did. They plow and 

 sow the same field year after year, until they scarce 

 get their seed, because father did. They leave the 

 same islands around which they plow; the same rows 

 of thrifty briars and elders along their old, rotten, 

 tumble-down rail- fence; use the same inconvenient 

 barn, generally doorless ; keep the same kind of 

 scrubby, half-starved cattle, reminding one of "Fka- 

 koah's lean kine ; " and very sure to tell the same 

 story about what a dog's life the poor farmer has to 

 lead — a great deal of work, and small returns. His 

 cattle die; the dogs kill his sheep; the cattle break 

 in and destroy his crops, or the land is so poor they 

 fail altogether; and worst of all, the store-keeper 

 wont wait any longer, and so he sells out and goes 

 West, I suppose to repeat the operation. Or, what 

 is vastly better, he or his boys take the Genesee 

 Farmer, which roots out those islands and hedges 

 of briars and elders; repairs his fences, or replaces 

 them with substantial board fences or stone walls; 

 puts up some barn doors; builds a good barn-yard, 

 surrounded by comfortable sheds, under which repose 

 a score or more of fine, sleek-looking cattle, content- 

 edly and slowly chewing their cud, and winking their 

 satisfaction at the change that has taken place, no 

 doubt wondering what has wrought it. 



Cameron Mills, JV. Y. S. Mitchbll. 



DEEP PLOWING. 



Messes. Editoes: — I see much is said oh the sub- 

 ject of deep plowing, and much well said ; but 1 

 wish to call the attention of plowmen to one idea 

 not often adverted to — that is, to study the quality 

 of the soil, to see whether ihey had better plow deep 

 or not. Every farmer knows, or ought to know, that 

 different soils should have different treatment; for in- 

 stance, deep gravelly soil may be plowed deep to 

 good advantage, but any soil resting on a cold, life- 

 less subsoil, had better not be plowed so deep as to 

 fetch up much of that cold, lifeless earth for the pre- 

 sent or first crop; but judicious treatment, and rich 

 manuring, will increase the depth of the soil, and of 

 course increase its productiveness, especially in a dry 

 season. I remember I once scraped off a piece of 

 land to fill a small pond in a field, and took the top 

 soil all off, perhaps one or one and a half feet deep, 

 and, by manuring and plowing, restored the spot as 

 good as the surrounding land; but have no idea it 

 would have produced much at first, by simply plow- 

 ing. I approve of deep plowing in general, but not 

 always. I once was plowing a gently sloping side 

 hill, in the spring, for corn; of course some turned 

 up hill, and some down. That turned up hill al- 

 ways produces the best crop, provided it is thoroughly 

 plowed. The reason is, that turned up does not fall 

 so fiat, and leave the cold bottom on top. A neigh- 

 bor came along, stopped, and made me a farmer's 

 field visit, as we frequently do. He said if I would 

 plow twice aa deep, I would get double the crop. 



He was plowing a kind of mound-shaped hill, across 

 the road, and went right around the hill, turning the 

 furrow all the time down hill. Kotwithstanding %sj 

 neighbor'o advice, 1 plowed my way, and he his ; h\» 

 corn came up weak and yellow, mine strong and 

 green, which kept ahead of his, and produced, I 

 think, one-third more. A. Dkyol. 



Gansevoort, JY. Y. 



-MS^*-*^ 



GOOD TWO YEAR OLD STEEES-THE WHEAT CEOP. 



Messes. Editoks:-— Some folks can raise two year 

 old steers as well as Mr. Joseph Wright. A nei^'h- 

 bor of ffiine sold one the other day, three-foujths 

 Durham, to a butcher in Geneva, for $60, He was 

 two years and one month old, and was fed Eothing 

 but very good hay daring the last sis months. And 

 I sold one a few days ago, to Messrs. Thomas & Van 

 Houghton, for |?60, and he will not be two years old 

 until the 5th of June. I have fed mine two quarts 

 of oil cake meal, daily, since the 2Sth of last No- 

 vember. He was raised on skimmed milk and a lit- 

 tle oil meal until four months old, and on hay, witb 

 two handfuls of meal daily, the first winter, good 

 pasture through the summer, and fed on corn stalks 

 since the 28th of November, with the meal,, as above 

 stated. 



I am sony to say that the wLeat generally m this 

 neighborhood is miserable. The drouth last fall 

 prevented its getting root enough to withstand the 

 severe frosts early in February, when we had no snow 

 to shelter it. I never saw a worse prospect for a 

 crop, except where it was sheltered from the west 

 winds. On loamy and sandy soils it is better, but on 

 clay soils bad. I am plowing up seven acres that 

 was sown with wheat, and would have plowed up five 

 acres more, had it not been sown with grass seed. 

 That fallow from old sod looks pretty well; but there 

 will be a bad account of the wheat in Seneca and 

 Ontario counties, and by a letter from Northern 

 Ohio I find it is equally bad there. 



JYear Geneva, JV. Y. John Johnston. 



Th3 Way I Made a Fence on HfLi^vY Ground. — 

 I set the posts in blocks of old oak timber, from the 

 frame of an old oak house,- — because I had such, not 

 because I think it any better than new. I cut the 

 blocks two feet nine inches long, six by eight inches 

 square, morticed them with a two inch auger, and 

 beat out between the holes. I made a tenon on the 

 post to fit the mortice, and draw bore it fast; and then, 

 for a picket fence, let in the lower rail about six 

 inches from the block, laid the other on the top of 

 the post, about two feet from the lower one, and put 

 on the pickets as usual. For board fence, the blocks 

 should be longer, because it will hold more wind. I 

 made another piece, by digging a ditch two feet deep; 

 then sharpened the lov/er end of the post, and stuck 

 it in the bottom sufficiently to bold it up; then tilled 

 the ditch with small stones nearly to the top; covered 

 the stones with leaves (straw or shavings are just as 

 good) ; then covered with earth deep enough to raise 

 it a little above the common level, because wet land 

 heaves up the posts, not dry. I think it will answer 

 the double purpose of keeping the posts from rais- 

 ing, and form an underdrain. The lower end is left 

 open, and water has run from it all winter, whea 

 there has been any to ruu. A. DfiVOiU. 



Gansevoort, JV. Y, ^r»-jsa » 



