210 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



ROTES FOR THE MONTH.-BY S. W. 



The Season for Corx. — This has been thus far, 

 12th of August, a warm and growing, but very wet 

 summer. Indian corn would have been a good crop 

 if this month had been as warm and dry as the pre- 

 ceding one; as it b, corn, even on a drained soil, ears 

 slowly, as the heat of the sun by day hardly over- 

 comes the eflects of rain and longer and cooler nights. 

 A. good crop of well-filled ears of Indian corn must 

 be a rare show this fall in Western New York. 



Sorghum. — The wet weather does not prevent this 

 plant from attaining a monstrous growth on a rich, 

 drained soil. It now stands over six feet high, suck- 

 ers and all, without any appearance of preparing to 

 seed. It is evidently more hardy than Indian corn, 

 and of much slower growth when young. 



Potatoes. — Farmers complain that early potatoes 

 do not yield as well as last year, and there are indi- 

 cations of rot in some fields. 



Grass. — The hay crop has rarely been so large, 

 and pastures continue as green as they were in June, 

 prima facie evidence that it is a bad corn season. 



Barley. — This is said to be as large, if not a 

 larger, crop than wheat this year; but Seneca neither 

 sows nor reaps the best varieties of wheat now. John 

 Johnston and a few others still grow large crops of 

 white wheat on their well manured, tile-drained fields, 

 but the ^inferior Mediterranean wheat is generally 

 grown now. 



Ohio Corn Sower in Drills for Fodder, — Jo- 

 seph Wright grows many acres of corn-fodder every 

 year. He says it must be cut after the ears are set, 

 and the tassels begin to droop; but the best test of 

 the right time is by tasting: when too green, the 

 juice will be bitter or tasteless at the joints of the 

 stalk. Wait until the whole stalk is sweet; cut and 

 lay it down to wilt; if no rain, turn it over once; 

 then put six bundles in a shock, and bound at the 

 top. After a week's dry weather, make them into 

 twelve bundle shocks, and let them stand until want- 

 ed to feed in winter. He says he has let the shocks 

 stand in the field until March, and then found the 

 stalks dry and sweet to the butt end. He has now 

 one large field of corn in a very green state, over 

 eight feet high, but it matures slowly this wet wea- 

 ther. 



How TO make Grass take the Place of Weeds. 

 — Pull up around your premises every weed before 

 it blossoms, and you will be surprised to find how 

 soon white or red clover, or some grass, will fill up 

 every vacant spot, thus adding beauty to usefulness. 



Drilling in Wheat — I noticed, in passing on foot 

 over wheat fields this spring, that the wheat which 

 had been sown broadcast was much winter-killed, 

 while that which had been drilled, or plowed in, 

 looked well. The editor of the Ohio Cultivator, af- 

 ter a journey of 600 miles through Ohio, says: 

 while the wheat drilled in looked well, that sown 

 broadcast was a general failure. When drilled in, in 

 a dry time the seeds find moisture enough to insure 

 vegetation, and it will not so readily freeze out as when 

 sown broadcast. 



That Tw'extt-three-Pound Fleece o-f Wool. — 

 The fleece of a Merino Buck very full of gum, and black 

 on the outside, with dirt, was weighed, and then careful- 

 ly scoured at Waterloo Woolen Mills; when thor- 

 oughly dried, it weighed but six pounds, or a trifle 

 under. The ordinary waste in good Merino wool in 



cleansing is only 33 per cent, while this fleece lost 

 more than 70 per cent. Let farmers beware of such 

 dirty bucks, as such wool is unsaleable at half price. 



The Waterloo Woolen Mills have thus far taken ia 

 and paid for, in cash, 240,000 pounds of fine wool, a 

 part from Upper Canada and Ohio. The average 

 price paid thus far is 44 cents a pound, against 41 

 cents last year at this time. 



Apples are falling from the trees stung to death. 

 I set my wide-mouthed bottles under my Sweet 

 Bough tree; caught flies only in June to 20th July, 

 since which millers of every size cover the surface of 

 each bottle daily. Plums are stung as badly as 

 apples. S. W 



JVaterioo, Aug. 12, 1857. 



CONVEOTENT PIG-STY. 



The annexed plan of a well arranged pig-sty, we 

 received from a gentleman residing in Bayham, C. 

 W. We give his description below. 



Description. — " A is the main room, for storing 

 roots, grain, &c. It also contains a large fire-place, 

 where the feed can be cooked and water heated for 

 butchering, &c. The women folks think it is a fine 

 place to make soap, and do many odd jobs. It is 14 

 teet by 24. B, B, are the sties, 10 feet by 8. The 

 floors of the sties are on an incline of two inches in 

 ten feet, to carry off the wet to the rear, where there 

 is an opening, 6 inches by 8, to shove out the manure. 

 This mi»y be closed in winter with a board, if neces- 

 sary. C is the fire-place, which is provided with two 

 cranes, hung so that two kettles may be over the fire 

 at once, without interfering with each^other. d, d, 

 are the feeding-troughs, made in the usual manner, 

 of two inch plank, and spiked to the floor, e, e, are 

 bins, made for storing roots, &c. There are morticed 

 holes in the floor and ceiling, in which false posts 

 may be put to hang the slaughtered hogs on. 



" The partition between the main room and the 

 sties is made by spiking a plank on the posts, wide 

 enough to come up to the top of the troughs. Thea 

 one, nine inches wide, is spiked on above this, but 

 with a space left between, to put the feed through. 

 Above these, nail brackets on the posts, so that 

 boards may be slipped down, and can be easily re- 

 moved when you want to butcher, as you will want 

 to bring your hogs over in case of bad weather, 

 which can be easily done by turning the boards 

 around so as to form a slip, to draw them over the 

 troughs." 



The main body of the building is built with s 

 gable roof, and is a story and a half high. The pari 

 containing the sties is built as a "lean-to," with 8 

 I common shed roof. 



