I OS 



GENESEE FARMER. 



July, 1845 



In stacking, or mowing away in a barn, calculate 

 for yourself how much salt your sheep, cattle, and 

 horses will need while eating a ton of your hay : 

 and then spread, as you unload, that quantity evenly 

 over the stack or mow. The writer of this has 

 cured a good deal of hay, and has often put on too 

 much salt to avoid injury to a pretty* green mow, 

 which was not exactly hay nor grass. While you 

 put on salt enough, remember that cattle don't need 

 to be scoured in cold weather with salted hay. 



REDUCTION OF TOLLS ON PLASTER. 



We have received a note from Mr. J. A. Thorn- 

 eon, of Cayuga, asking our views as to the prob- 

 able increase of agricultural products to be sent 

 through the Erie canal, and consequently the in- 

 crease of revenue that might be realized by a large 

 reduction of tolls on plaster. 



We think the view taken of this subject by Mr. T. 

 to be entirely correct. As a writer for the press in 

 the city of Buffalo, and a member of the legislature, 

 we have done what we could to call the attention of 

 the public to the importance of reducing the tolls on 

 the produce grown in Western New York. We 

 regard the Erie canal precisely as we should a good 

 public highway leading from Buffalo to Albany. It 

 is gross mjustice, to compel the people using this 

 highway, to pay an extra toll to raise money to be 

 expended in constructing and keeping in repair pub- 

 lic roads, in locations where the tax-payers have not 

 a particle of interest. If the people of the Chenan- 

 go valley, for instance, deserve two and a half mil- 

 lions, to build them a t urnpike or a canal, the money 

 should be raised by a general tax on all the property 

 in the state, and not by a local tax in one section, 

 for a local henrfit in another section. 



We disclaim any mere sectional feeling on this 

 subject, and are far from desiring to discuss, in this 

 agrricultural journal, the canal policy of the state. 

 We trust, however, that the tolls on plaster will 

 be reduced. 



Lord Torrington has just issued from the Lon- 

 don press a small work " on the Agriculture of Kent,'' 

 in which he says that for ten years he has never fail- 

 ed to grow a good crop of Swede turnips " by inva- 

 riably putting charcoal in the drills with the seed." 

 He pulverizes the soil very fine before planting, and 

 scatters after the seed are in the ground, and before 

 they are up, a top dressing of common salt, at the 

 rate of 200 lbs. per acre. Wood ashes, bone dust, 

 and guano are all used in Kent for both turnip and 

 wheat crops. Ashee, coal saturated with urine, and 

 salt are the cheapest and most valuable fertelizers to 

 be had in th is country. 



ONLY FIFTY CENTS A YEAR ! 



Proprietors of the Genesee Farmer — 



You have done much to acquaint all who should 

 take your paper, that the old price has been reduced 

 from one dollar to fifty cents ; but I find that many 

 who formerly took it when at fifty cents and discon- 

 tinued it when abvanced to one dollar, have never 

 found out that it is back to the old price. Let eve- 

 ry one then who does know the fact, tell his neighbor 

 that he can now get in your agricultural paper for 

 fifty cents, what at the lowest calculation is worth 

 twenty dollars a year, were we deprived of the paper. 

 ^ff^ Sound it abroad I O.nly FirxY cents a year. 



W. 



For the Genesee Farmer. 



CULTURE OF PEAS. 



Mr. Editor — I wish to make a few inquiries thro' 

 the Farmer concerning field peas. They are not 

 much raised here, though I think they can be to ad- 

 vantage. I wish to knov/ what kind of soil they 

 want, and the time of sowing — whether they areas 

 good for fatting pork as corn — how many bushels 

 are an average crop from an acre, and whether they 

 are a profitable crop — and their weight per bushel. 



Your obedient servant, CONRAD MILLER. 



Jackson, Luzerne Co., Pa., May 23, 1845. 



In reply to our correspondent as to the advantages 

 of the pea crop, we answer: that in very many 

 cases, we consider it a very valuable item in hus- 

 bandry, especially in wheat farming, when it is not 

 desirable to go extensively into the wheat crop. — 

 Indian corn is a costly and laborious crop to produce; 

 and when land will with a tolerable certainty pro- 

 duce wheat, there is no other excuse for raising 

 much corn, except to use up the time occurring be- 

 tween spring sowing, haying, and harvesting, and 

 the fall months not otherwise employed. It is a 

 hard feeder on land, and wheat does not follow well 

 after it, except it was highly manured at planting, or 

 fallowed by well rotted manures, or composts after 

 the corn is ofF; while the pea is a light feedei, and 

 a most capital preparation for wheat. Fall plowed 

 swards, or even spring plowed clover leys, put into 

 peas early in the spring, will be gathered and off the 

 land before fall wheat sowing, and leaves the soil 

 loose and free from weeds, and apparently richer 

 than if it had laid idle all summer in the summer 

 fallow. 



One of the great advantages of the pea prop over 

 their value in fattening hogs, is, they come in early, 

 before corn or potatoes, and are only a trifle behind 

 corn in the nutriment contained <n equal quantities. 

 Experiment and nice analysis show that peas contain 

 more material for forming muscle or flesh than Indian 

 corn, although corn excels in forming fat — qualifi- 

 cations exactly conforming to the necessity of the 

 case. Peas are also raised with one half the actual 

 expense and labor that corn is, and may be profita- 

 bly fed to hogs in the straw. 



The soil best adapted to peas, is a loom a little 

 inclining to clay. Early sowing is important, even 

 if before snow and frosts are past. Sow at the rate 

 of 2 to 3 bushels per acre, according to size, and 

 even more if hvggif. They succeed best when plow- 

 ed in with a light furrow, from four to five inches in 

 depth, and harrowed down smooth for convenience 

 of gathering. On good soil, the general yield is 

 from 30 to 40 bushels per acre, and weight about 

 50 pounds. *** 



Profits of Farming. — We often hear it re- 

 marked that there is no profit in farming. Well — 

 if there be no pecuniary profit, there is pleasure, and 

 we know of no more rational way of enjoying the 

 competency, which a man may have obtained by his 

 industry and enterprise, than in cultivating and em- 

 bellishing the earth, improving and increasing its 

 products, and tlius adding to the aggregate of hu- 

 man happiness. A gentleman farmer — and all farm- 

 ers are or should be gentlemen — belongs to an order 

 of nobility, that is not indebted to kings or princes 

 for its institution, and mav, if he chooses, be ranked 

 among the greatest benefactors of the human race, 

 — Boston Courier. 



