2?8 



THE GENESEE FARSf^. 



Such is the service of Science to man in a desert 

 of Africa. la a thousand ways, it renders his life 

 more valuable to hiiaself and to his posterity; for no 

 one will deny that an existence at Sidi Bached is 

 truly worth more with a living fountain that yields 

 a thousand gallons of pure water every minute, than 

 it would without any advantage of the kind. There 

 are already nearly one hundred such Artesian wells 

 in the United States; and tens of thousands might 

 aid in fertilizing American soil. In connection with 

 the improvement of land, the readers of the Genesee 

 Farmer will permit an old friend to commend to 

 their favorable consideration the subject of Agricul- 

 tural Engineering. D. Lee. 



Athens, Ga. 



. ITEMS STTGfOESTED BY THE JULY. NITMBER, 



A WEEK of " real summer weather " has brought 

 vegetation forward amazingly — corn is coming on 

 under its influence — clover is in blossom, and the 

 wheat already in the ear. The midge is here, too, 

 but time must determine what share ol our crop it 

 takes this year. Our fields laok like twenty-five 

 bushels per acre, though the wire-worm has made 

 some thin spots too poor for five. 



Buckwheat. — A " precarious crop," truly, aceord- 

 ing to my experience. Sowed some last year on a 

 good, but heavy soil — the weather was too dry to 

 bring it op for a long time, and at last it was cut off 

 ia all its luxuriant growth and blossoming by an early 

 fi'ost Plowed it under and sowed on wheat, and 

 looked for our breakfast-cakes from our more fortu- 

 nate neighbors. Shall try it again in a few days — 

 some have sown already. 



Cptting and Curing Clover. — There never was 

 brighter, better clover hay made, than we saved last 

 season. It was cut when fully in bloom, allowed to 

 wilt in th« swath^then raked up and cocked to stand 

 over two nights^— and drawn ia generally without 

 farther stirring. Thus placed in \he mow, still damp, 

 not with water, but its own sweet juices, most of it 

 came out in the winter like well preserved specimens 

 from an herbarium, its colors bright, its leaves all 

 clinging to the stalks, and all of it was of superior 

 quality. To the old-style farmer, this hay seemed too 

 damp to keep in the mow — but it did keep, and 

 several years' trial of the same method has convinced 

 me that it is ao use to dry clovej until the leaves half 

 crumble to powder^^-that its value is nearly double 

 in the fresher state. 



Cheaf and CojiMODious Stable.— I like this plan 

 of J. F. F's-^it ia suited to the wants of the farmer, 

 and hence a real addition to the valuable contents 

 of your journal The manure should be taken from 

 the stalls twice each day, and intermixed with that 

 from the cows' stable, under some of the sheds sur- 

 rounding the barn-yard. A better supply of win- 

 dows for lighting the stable, would be advisable, in 

 my opinion. A dark stall injures the sight of the 

 horse kept therein. 



WoMBX Folks Milkino. — This subject is pretty 

 fully discussed in the July number. Apropoa^oi T. 

 M. W.'s remarks on the testimony of the cows them- 

 selves against women milkers — some cows speak just 

 as strongly the other way— refusing to let a man 

 come near them. 



BuTTHR Making. — Your Jefferson Oo. correspon- 



dent gives us a truly suggestive article on this sub- 

 ject, and he reasons it out well. I mean to give \m 

 plan a trial — for I have often thought it a needless^ 

 thing to put in extra salt just to work it out again 

 as soon as dissolved, as is the general practice. His 

 hints in setting milk are also worth heeding. I have' 

 noticed that the cream did not ri&e alilie on different 

 shelves in the dairy, and now see that it was because- 

 the fresh milk was set under that set the morning or 

 evening before, and its heat affected it. 



Wheat after Barley.— 'I plead guilty to sowing 

 wheat after barley, but the clover seed failed, and we 

 gave an intermediate dressing of muck, twenty-five 

 two-horse loads to the acre. The wheat is now look- 

 ing very well. I shall probably do the same on a- 

 small scale this fall; but when the farm is an-acged 

 and improved as I am trying to have it, I shall not- 

 sow wheat after barley, and only after clover, with 

 fine manure harro'wed in with the seed! 



Farm Accounts. — I heartily agree with Mr. Rey- 

 nolds in regard to farm accounts. It is no great 

 trouble to keep them, and it is a great satisfaction to 

 know the results of your labor — besides giving many 

 useful lessons to the farmer himself. 



— Pleasant as the task is, I can itemize no further. 

 I have hurriedly written this while watching by the 

 sick-bed. The reader will please excuse all failui-e, 

 as you, Mr. Editor, will sympathizicgly do^-I am sure^ 



Niagara Co., JV. Y. B-. 



JfOGffiS FOB THE MONTH, BY S. W. 



Corn Eotting in the Grovno. — The co:n and 

 sorghum planted on the tenth of May came up well, 

 after ten days of cold, wet weather, ami several frosty 

 nights. This ia another proof that it is not cold, wet 

 weather that rots corn in the ground. But other 

 rows of corn on the same tile-drained soil, plaated on 

 the fifth of June, did rot in the ground this season, 

 owing to ten days' continuous floods of warm rain. 

 PJence I take it the corn remains safe in the cold, 

 wet weather,, and only rots in warm and very wet 

 weather. 



Turnips among Corn — ^Radishes and Beets be- 

 tween Sorghum. — The American Agriculturist saysr 

 " Sow turnips at the last hoeing among corn." I 

 have done this repeadly after suekering the corn, and 

 never got anything but wormy little- turnips, with 

 large tops; but I have no turnip soil, and do not live, 

 thank Heaven, in a turnip dimate, where,, as Greeley 

 says, the sun resembles a boiled turnip. The best 

 turnips I ever saw, were grown at foggy Newport-, 

 R. I., ia the spring. In this dry climate I could never 

 grow a good one; they grow so slow that insects de- 

 stroy them. But turnips grow large, even here, o» 

 a new, porous, vegetable soil; but they have so sweet- 

 ness, and turn pithy in a week after they are marketed. 

 Sorghum is of so slow a growth that radishes or beets 

 may be grown fit for the table before the former is a 

 foot high. My early planted corn is now, this sixth 

 of July, more than two feet high; sorghum, in the 

 next rows, planted the same day, is only eight inches 

 high, but it ia healthy, strong, and full of suckers. It 

 is a very hardy grass that does not wilt in transplant- 

 ing. Methiuks it must be both thinned and suckered 

 before it can grow to sugar cane. 



Tomatoes among Corn. — Some of the best toma- 

 toes I have, are left where they come up from self- 



