ii2 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



btxshels of carrots, and about two-thirds as many 

 beets, may be raised on an acre. They will better 

 compare with pumpkins in nutriment, but have the 

 advantage of a greater yield, and are longer keeping. 



.With turnips, I have had less experience. I think 

 them economical, but they are less sure, less palata- 

 ble, and less productive, and, for cows, objectionable 

 on account of the flavor they give to the milk and 

 batter — but they are more hardy, and require less 

 care. Cattle should never be fed enough of these roots 

 to destroy their appetite lor hay or corn stalks ; if 

 they are, you may expect them to grow poor. My 

 breeding cows were ted less than a peck each, per 

 day, thj^past winter, with hay once and stalks once, 

 per day, and on the loth of March were fair beef; 

 but, like most of my neighbors, I did not calculate 

 for so late a spring, and they lost flesh in April and 

 May, for veant of their full feed. Agricot.a. 



Gorham, JV. Y. 



SOWING WHEAT AFTER BAELEY. 



Messrs. Editors : — I understand a great quan- 

 tity of barley is sown west of the Genesee River this 

 season, and suppose many intend sowing the barley 

 ffTOund with wheat next fall, as the farmers in general 

 did in all the counties east of them alter the advent 

 of the wheat roidge, hoping that, from the two crops, 

 they might get pay for their laboi*. But, in my opin- 

 ion, they were only making bad worse. The true 

 way would be to seed heavily with clover along with 

 the barley, and then give the land rest for two or 

 more years. There is not a farmer in the country, 

 who, if his horses or oxen were so exhausted by hard 

 work that they could not do a day's work in ten 

 hoars, would be so cruel as to make them work thir 

 teen hours to make up, and that, too, day after day. 

 Xo; they would give them rest, and feed them well, 

 so that, after a time, they would be enabled to per- 

 form their usual labor. Now, if farmers would do 

 the same by their land as I know they would do by 

 their horses and oxen — or rather if they had done so 

 by their land — no county in the State would have 

 been obliged to give up the raising of wheat But 

 the truth is, the land was worked more and longer 

 without food than it could endure, and at last it gave 

 crat producing the great staple of our country. Every 

 farmer knows that if he keeps his cattle, .sheep and 

 horses poor, they become overrun with iice, and so it 

 is with the human species. I have always observed 

 that animals and vegetables need the same kind of 

 care — that is, they both require to be kept dean and 

 fed well-^mxA then they will both look well, and both 

 do all that can be expected of them; and I have no 

 doubt that, if the land had been properly fed, and not 

 overworked, the cry of weevil, or rather midge, would 

 not have been so long, or so loud, at least. This is 

 ifiy candid opinion. Now, to sow wheat after spring 

 crops, is making matters still worse. The business 

 of the farmer ought to be, to improve the condition 

 of his land, by rest anfl good food; and the land only 

 asks the refuse and filth of his farm and yards for 

 food. And if every farmer would only prefer a load 

 of good manure to a dollar, and would give the laud 

 more rest, with a good covering of grass when rest- 

 ing, my word for it, you would soon see a different 

 state of farming. Far better feed ten acres to raise 

 three hundred bushels of wheat, than to starve thirty 

 Botjl they can only raise the same amovint. Now, 



this can be done. / do it ; and I know what I can 

 do, others can, if they try. i^ut you will hear many 

 say, " My land is rich enough — I get plenty of straw, 

 but the weevil takes the wheat." But the land is like 

 the starved sheep and cattle; the skin and bones are 

 there, but the lice, together with hunger, have taken 

 the flesh — so the straw is left on the laud, but the 

 lice have taken the wheat. Farmer?:, drain your land, 

 and put all your manure on one-fourth the land you 

 formerly did, and, if your land is a natural wheat soil, 

 you will have paying crops ot wheat. Give the re- 

 maining three-fourths of the land rest; stock it lightly 

 with cattle or sheep, and it will make them fat, and 

 the land will be getting fat at the same time. / 

 /aiow it uiU, and there is no arguing against experi- 

 ence, if the experiments are thoroughly laadc. 



Letting timothy get ripe is a great scourge to tte 

 land, and I would rather have good straw, for either 

 sheep or cattle, than have timothy cut, when it is 

 seeded on mowing land. When the gi-ass is cut white 

 green, I think it does not impoverish the land macL 

 But farmers must have hay, unless they feed largely 

 on grain. I am convinced that I can keep any kind 

 of stock better, and far more profitably, with part 

 grain and part hay, than with either separately. Such 

 is my experience, after many years of trial. It is 

 over thirty years since I commenced feeding grain to 

 all my stock during the winter, or oil-cake, which k 

 as good. In that way I feed my land— and it has 

 been very grateful, for it baa repaid me bouatifnlly. 



JYear Geneva, JY. ¥. John Johnston. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF SYSTEM IN FAEMING. 



System seems to have been the great aim of the 

 Creator. Eyes that see, and minds that reason, dis- 

 cover and admire it in the heavens above us; minds 

 that philosophise, discern a geological system below 

 us; the schoolboy learns the system and harmony of 

 bodies, animate and inanimate, around us. The sys- 

 tem of the upper world is such, that the deviation of 

 a planet a single hair, in each turn of its accustomed 

 round, would, long ere this, have created the wildest 

 disorder and the most lamentable results-^a collision 

 of worlds would have beea the fearful consequene*. 

 The creeping babe loves order ; see the system as be 

 arranges his marbles in squares. God gave the wild 

 bird an instinctive system, with which to build her 

 nest— the beaver to build his dam — and the fox to 

 dig his hole. Why, then, shall we not wonder to see 

 the farmer so loose and unsystematic in his modus 

 operandi ? It is to be deeply regretted that many 

 of my brother farmers convert the enchanting face 

 of a beautiful mound — that which might be an earthly 

 paradise — into an Egyptian ruin, as the serpent of 

 the Garden of Eden converted that bMssful garden 

 into a scene of misery. 



Farmers, let me address you with all the power of 

 a sincere and earnest tongue. Do you not all see 

 whereiEf you can improve your system (or rather 

 want of system) in farming ? Is it not policy for 

 you to exercise those God given qualities of taste in 

 the arrangement of your buildings, the grading, seed- 

 ing and cleanliness of yards, the building of fences, <fec.? 

 Do you not wish to delight the eyes of the passer by? 

 When we see a farm house surround d by tasteful 

 barns and other buildings, we can but consider them 

 typical of the general character of the proprietor. 



Agriculture is as old sa the oldest time. The 



