82 



GENESEE FARMER. 



June, 1845 



WHEAT GROWERS, DO YOU HEAR THAT? 



The good people of Ireland have commenced 

 grinding Russian and Poland wheat in a large way, 

 with the view of sending the flour to the British 

 West Indies for a market. A cargo of flour, made 

 from wheat purchased on the Baltic, has lately been 

 sent to Barbadoes, and sold at a good profit. Coal 

 is cheap on the coast of Ireland, and owing to the 

 low price of freight out, flour can be sent from Dub- 

 lin to Barbadoes, or South America, cheaper, it is 

 said, than irom New York or Baltimore to the same 

 places. So cheap is the serf and peasant labor in 

 the north of Europe, and so great are the facilities 

 for sending grain to the seaboard, that the inhabi- 

 tants of the world, now mainly supplied from the 

 United States, will soon purchase ihe cheaper bread- 

 stuffs of continental Europe. Wheat can be deliv- 

 ered at 50 cents a bushel on the Baltic. 



The emperor of Russia is doing much to advance 

 the rural industry of his subjects, in the way of ag- 

 ricultural surveys, railways, model and experimental 

 farms, schools, &,c. The empress, Catharine II, es- 

 tablished an " Imperial Economical Society," so ear- 

 ly as 1765, which is mainly devoted to the improve- 

 ment of Russian Agriculture. The New-York State 

 Agricultural Society lately received a letter from 

 its perpetual secretary, accompanied by a small vol- 

 ume of its transaction for the year 1844, in the Ger- 

 man language. 



From this volume we learn, that there is in the 

 vicinity of St. Petersburg, between nine and te* 

 thousand acres, in model and experimental farms, in 

 connection with agricultural schools. At these col- 

 leges, as they are called, no fewer than 3,725 young 

 men are studying both the science and the practice 

 of rural economy. The course of practice and study 

 embraces a period of from four to seven years . — 

 These young men are to become the overseers of 

 the estates of noblemen, and direct aright the labors 

 of serfs and peasants. 



When will the farmers of New-York wake up to 

 the importance of teaching their sons the science of 

 agriculture? If a knowledge of the unerring laws 

 of nature, which govern all the results of rural in- 

 dustry, is so valuable in Russia, where human toil 

 is so very cheap, can this same knowledge be worth- 

 less to the cultivators of the earth in the Empire 

 State, where labor is, comparatively, very expensive? 

 Heaven preserve the next generation of farmers in 

 New-York, from whose minds the light of modern 

 science has been most cruelly excluded. We must 

 teach our children how to feed and clothe the human 

 family, with as little labor, and as great an improve- 

 ment of the soil, as is done elsewhere, or their un- 

 profitable, unwise toil will hardly bring three good 

 meals a day, with comfortable clothing and a fair 

 shelter at night, on an average, from the cradle to 

 the grave. 



"AN ACT FOR THE PROMOTION OF 



AGRICULTURE." 

 The above is the title of the law passed in 1839, 

 granting $8,000 a year for five years to the State 

 and county agricultural societies. This law was re- 

 newed by the late legislature for three years, and 

 vntil repealed. Only about $6,000 are taken by it 

 from the treasury — many counties having never or- 

 ganized societies, and raised by voluntary subscrip- 

 tion the sum required to entitle them to aid from the 

 State. 



SHEEP ON THE PRAIRIES. 



We learn, from persons familiar with the facts, 

 that several thousand sheep have, thus early in 

 the season, been driven from central and southern 

 Ohio on to the prairies in Illinois. A gentleman of 

 Buffalo has a flock of 3,000 in the neighborhood 

 of Ottawa, on the Illinois river, which has been , 

 kept there for three or four years, with the loss of 

 very few, (less than 100,) and with great success. 

 The wool of this flock was made into cloth at the 

 West, last year, and consumed at home. 



The quantity of wool to be sent into this State 

 from the almost boundless prairies of Illinois, Wis- 

 cousin, Ohio, and Missouri, will soon render the 

 wool-growing business in New York a matter of 

 small profit. Our farmers must study and practice 

 the most rigid economy in providing both summer 

 and winter forage for their flocks. Those that have 

 a piece of ground well adapted to the production of 

 turnips, should raise enough to supply their sheep 

 with this root during all the cold season of the 

 year. 



There are not many dry sheep pastures but what 

 will be much benefited by a top-dressing of gypsum. 

 Leached ashes scattered over pastured fields will in- 

 crease the yield of grass, and improve its quality. A 

 pasture treated in this way, and fed by sheep a few 

 years, will be in a finer condition to give a large 

 crop of wheat. With skillful management, a flock 

 of sheep can be made extremely serviceable to a 

 farm, in the way of improving the soil. Hence, in 

 this State, where the carcase is valuable for the 

 butcher, and the manure for enriching the land for 

 cultivation, we may still compete with the prairie 

 wool-grower, who must depend exclusively on his 

 fleeces for profit. We must study to grow 50 per 

 cent, more grass, hay, oats, peas, beans, potatoes, 

 and turnips for our sheep, on an acre of land, than 

 we now do. A few oats and peas fed regularly to 

 sheep during the winter are very valuable to keep 

 them in condition, and develop a large clip of wool. 



The manufacture of wool from the ingredients 

 that go to form this animal substance is a matter of 

 deep interest to the farmers of Western New York. 

 It is practicable to increase both the weight and 

 the quality of the fleeces, by judicious breeding and 

 keeping. It is also practicable to increase the aggre- 

 gate yield of mutton and tallow from any given 

 quantity of food now consumed by 100 sheep. The 

 living machinery that transforms grass, hay, Sic, 

 into lean and fat meat, wool, and the like, can be im- 

 proved so as to do its work to a better advantage. 

 The operations of this machinery should be well un- 

 derstood by every wool-grower that hopes to prosper 

 by changing his cultivated plants into wool and mut- 

 ton. Sheep should be regalarly salted twice a week, 

 and have a good shade to protect them from a hot 

 mid-day sun. This remark will be more important 

 to those having large flocks on the open prairies at 

 the West than to the wool-growers in this State. 

 We have seen several sheep that had been bitten by 

 rattlesnakes in Illinois, some of which died, and 

 others recovered. 



Thk late Frosts. — The recent frosts have been 

 very destructive to apples and peaches in several 

 counties in Western New York. The corn crop is 

 not far enough advanced to be much injured by this 

 untimely freezing. The weather is still cold — (May 

 20th) — any thing but favorable to summer crops. 

 Wheat genreally looks well. 



