THE GENESEE FARIVIER. 



275 



with the kiad of crop desireJ, is not all that the 

 farmer must take into consideratien. Ilis time and 

 means, the present and future use of that field, to- 

 gether with the manner he desires to cultivate the 

 remainder of his little domain, ought all to be an- 

 ticipated — thought of beforehand. 



Again, upon the subject of rotation of crops, and 

 the proper amount of manure, as also the kind of 

 manure most practical for the intended use, nothing 

 should be left to chance or guess tvork. He should 

 study incessantly, that he may hit right the first time, 

 and not lose his seed and labor by ill-digested and 

 senseless experiments. 



The country is full of professing philanthropy 

 towards the farmer; yet many of these eminent Pro- 

 fessors are, in fact, his deadliest foes, who use their 

 eminence of position to aid in robbing him of his 

 money. Lurking enemies meet him at almost every 

 corner. The inventor, and the vender of tools, im- 

 plements, labor-saving machines, instruments, special 

 manures, seeds, and humbugs of every description, 

 like Satan, are constantly tempting him. I would 

 not place all these things in the same category of 

 humbug. Some are of real, practical utility, with- 

 out doubt; but the fact is equally true that some are 

 impracticable, while others are not only humbugs, 

 but arrant frauds — vide the leached ashes shipped 

 from Rochester to New York, and there transformed 

 into guano and sold at forty dollars per ton; also, 

 the saw-dust scraped up in the marble yards near 

 New York, and sold to farmers as No. 1 plaster. 

 These swindlers accomplish their frauds by sheer 

 foroe of mental action over the credulous, unsuspect- 

 ing and unthinking farmer. 



" Those who think will always govern those who toil." 



To think beforehand — to anticipate in the mind — 

 is the Pole star to successful husbandry. Thought 

 — tJiought systemized and subjected to regular laws — 

 is the key-stone in the arch, without which labor and 

 toil are uselessly spent Labor, without method and 

 forethought, is like casting the mariner abroad upon 

 the trackless ocean without a rudder or compass. It 

 is as much the attribute of man to use his brains as 

 his hands — it is his mental power that distinguishes 

 him from the brute, excites in him a laudable spirit 

 of ambition, fires his soul, and rouses all his latent 

 energies to action. Thought, systemized, succeeds — 

 captivates the eye with extensive landscapes and 

 splendid scenery — whitens our hills and valleys with 

 the ripening grain — in short, invigorates life by the 

 pleasing prospects it throws around us, and elevates 

 the farmer to competency. Hiraji C. Smith. 



Oakland Lodge, Fairport, JY. Y. 



^ »■— — ■ 



How TO Cleak and Keep Faeming Tools Bright. 

 -^Take No. 2 or 3 corrundum sandpaper, and rub 

 off all the dirt and red rust, and continue until quite 

 emooth. Then use a little spirits of turpentine, with 

 the same paper, until polished and dry. Nothing 

 more is necessary to clean hoes, forks, plows, culti- 

 vator teeth, (fee, to have them work nice and easy. 

 Bat to lay up and keep from rusting, first clean them 

 as above, then rub over with a preparation made by 

 dissolving beeswax in spirits of turpentine by a gen- 

 tle heat. It fills the pores, and keeps water from af- 

 fecting the parts where the wood and iron come in 

 contact. N. N. 



Barien, A*. Y, 



GREAT FECUNDITY OF WHEAT. 



Messrs. Editors:- — In an article on "The Age of 

 Seeds," from the Springfield Ttepuhlican, mention is 

 made of some wheat which was found with some 

 mummies. The wheat, supposed to be 2,000 years 

 old, "produced the astonishing amount of 1,200 

 grains to one." This seems almo-st incredible, yet I 

 doubt not is true, since, from a field of Mediterra- 

 nean wheat which I have growing, I took a root 

 bearing twenty-five stallvs, each containing fifty-nine 

 perfect grains, making a product of 1,475 from one. 

 This goes far to verify the Tullian plan of hand-hoe- 

 ing this grain, giving plenty of room for the grains 

 to tiller. AVill not some of our careful farmers try 

 one acre, or half an acre ? In my middle field, I 

 pulled out a root of rye having forty-nine stalks, 

 and an average head of one of these stalks produced 

 fifty-six grains, giving 2,744 gi-ains from one, or 

 2,744 bushels from one. Corn sown broadcast at 

 the rate of two bushels to the acre, yields from eight 

 to fifteen or twenty bushels of nubbins per acre. 

 The same two bushels, planted on sixteen acres, pro- 

 duces from thirty to one hundred bushels per acre, 

 or from four hundred and eighty to sixteen hundred 

 bushels from the two '^bushels. Will not wheat do 

 the same ? I think it will — in fact, I know it will. 

 The fact is self-evident. The grains and stalks of 

 rye were carefully counted in the field by Messrs. F. 

 Kendrick, J. Miller, Moyer and myself; yet Kk.v- 

 DRioic will not admit that the rule which holds goou 

 for corn is applicable to wheat or rye. But this is a 

 mere matter of opinion. I have a head of wheat from 

 my middle field, the grains, Kexdrick has just count- 

 ed, are eighty-four, and I will demonstrate to hiir. 

 with those eighty-four grains the truth of what I 

 have written above, by planting a bed in my garden, 

 in rows both ways, eighteen inches apart, that wheat, 

 as well as corn, will produce a thousand fold, more 

 or less, according to season, &c. 



The editor of the Springfield Republican proba- 

 bly has never paid very close attention to these mat- 

 ters, as he says " it is suggested that the immense- 

 productiveness of this wheat [the mummy wheat] is 

 owing to the long rest of the seed." That is, as th^ 

 seed had been so long idle it was necessary that ir 

 should make up lost time by increased fecundity. 

 But let us give Jethko Tcll his due, and raise mort- 

 and better wheat, with a saving of seven-eighths ot 

 the seed. Charles Bsackett. 



Rochester, Fulton Co., Ind, 



CHESS AND COCKLE. 



Messrs. Editors: — I can cheerfully add my feeble 

 testiniony to that of your experienced correspond- 

 ent, John Johnston, of Geneva, with regard to sow- 

 ing clean seed, if we wish to raise wheat free from 

 chess and cockle. I have not been much troubled 

 with the pests since I got them out of my land, it 

 being very foul when I purchased it about twelve 

 years ago. 



Many farmers (and this was the practice of the 

 one of whom I purchased) when harvesting their 

 wheat throw out the cockle, and leave it upon the 

 land, and by so doing, they leave plenty of it in the 

 next crop, and then vronder where the cockle comes 

 from, as they are sure they sowed clean seed. Others 

 feed their screenings to their hogs in their barn 



