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THE GENESEE FAEMEK. 



cattle, and horses. Oata are a good crop, averaging forty-five bushels per acre, and are worth in 

 Paris 12| cents per bushel. There is little demand for tliom. Wheat is a very uncertain crop, on 

 account of freezing out ; but last year we had a fine crop in this county. It sells at home for 40 to 

 to 45 cents, and in Terre Haute, Ind., 50 to 55 cents per bushel. Prospects tolerably good for the 

 coming crop. Wheat sown on clover sod, oat stubble, or prairie sod, is more certain to hit than on 

 any other ground^ in this prairie country. The Mediterranian wheat does not stand the winter so 

 Avell, and is more liable to. rust than the smooth wheat, which yielded last year twenty bushels per 

 acre. There is difterence of opinion I'especting the best quantity of seed to sow — about si.x peeks is 

 perhaps the average. I think this is not sufficient, and sow one and half bushels. Corn is our staple 

 produce, having a greater demand for it than for oats, on account of feeding out to cattle and hogs. 

 Farmers seldom raise more wheat than tliey require to make bread for their own family, and oats for 

 feeding calves and sheep. The farmer that has 200 bushels of wheat, is looked upon as a great wheat 

 grower. As to stock, the mule, hog, and steer, is about all that is raised here. A mule two years 

 old is worth from $60 to $65 ; a steer four years old, $18 to ^20 ; and hogs are now worth 3-J- cents 

 per lb., gross, and sold here last winter, fatted, at $4.25 per hundred. Potatoes sufficient for tlie 

 family's own consumption only are raised, though we have never had the potato rot in these parts. 

 But little rye or barley is grown, no flax or hemp, and but little buckwheat, the farmers thinking it 

 hurts the ground. For threshing wheat, we pay $5 per hundred bushels; and for oats, $3. All cash 

 for pay. D. J. Coxxey. — Paris, III. 



Large and Small Potatoes for Seed. — In some former numbers of the Farmer I have observed a 

 difference of opinion in reference to the selection of potatoes for seed, some contending for large whole 

 potatoes, some for large ones cut, and others tliat small ones are equally as good, if not better. Kow, 

 my own views have been, and still are, that like produces like ; or, that every thing in nature brings 

 forth after its kind ; and not only after its kind, but also, as a general principle, after its quality : and 

 in order to improve either animal or vegetable, we must propagate from the best specimens to be 

 obtained, potatoes not excepted. Tliis I think is a correct theory, agreeing with ray experience, and 

 corroborated by the following exjjeriments : 



A few years since, I tried an experiment with large and small potatoes for seed. Tlie result was 

 nine bushels from the small seed and twelve from the large, all other things being equal. Subse- 

 quently I tried the relative value of large and small potatoes for seed, in connection with an experi- 

 ment with and without plaster. I selected four rows through the field, which I planted and harvested 

 jn the following order: No. 1. Large Avhole potatoes, plastered; harvested seven bxishels. No. 2. 

 Large whole potatoes, not plastered ; harvested four bushels and twenty-eight quarts. No. 3. Small 

 seed, plastered ; harvested five bushels. No. 4. Small seed, not plastered ; harvested three bushels 

 and twenty quarts. This, as far as my observation extends, is about the average benefit of both seed 

 and plaster. Daniel Lott. — Lottsville, Pa. 



I believe it lias long been a mooted point among practical farmers, whether large or small potatoes 

 are better for plantiog. Circumstances, it is true, may favor the one or the other position, according 

 10 the experience of diiferent men. The simple theory, respecting the matter, I have never seen 

 advanced by any writer upon the subject. The error in the reasoning lies, I think, in the assumption 

 that the potato itself is the seed. If this were true, we might indeed think the potato a single excep- 

 tion to the universal law that "like begets like." But the potato is not a seed, and therefore not an 

 exception. It is simply a root, propagated — not by reproduction, but by continuation ; and the only 

 advantage which I can conceive the large has over the small potato, is in the nutriment its greater 

 bulk would supply to the germ. If this reason is satisfactory, we hope small potatoes may hereafter 

 be reccarded as of some value, and at least be preserved for planting in times of great scarcity. Our 

 f:irmers in tliis quarter may be signally benefitted by practicing upon the above hint, until our potato 

 harvests shall be more propitious. J. A. Preston. — Hartland, Wis. 



CoiiPosT Manure. — I have about thirty acres of peat, or vegetable mold, on my farm. About five 

 yeare ago I took six loads of it, mixed it with leached ashes and phister, let it lay a year and turned it 

 once. I applied it to grass land in very low condition. The result was, I have taken eight crops of hay 

 in four years, and three times as much to each crop as the year previous to its application. I have 

 used the compost in the hill with broom corn, by the side of barnyard manure, and the same quantity 

 of ashes and plaster in each. That dressed with the compost was about a week forward of the otlier 

 when the brush came out, and the seed was worth double. Hiram Root. — Beerfield, Mass. 



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