VOL fi. 



GENRSEE FARMER. 



135 



been from the beginning, the never failing lever of 

 success ; an enthusiasm, which not only lightens his 

 own labors, but which, while it says, come boys, infu- 

 ses it j own true spirit of light and progress, in the 

 agricultural art, into the minds of his working men? 

 An enthusiasm I may say, which, while it robs la- 

 bor of its ignorance, its curse, leaves with it, its gen- 

 erous spirit, its intelligent experience, its physical 

 blessings. 



I must dissent from Mr, Delafield, in his estimate 

 of the ability of our Seneca county soil, to produce 

 Indian corn in its fullest perfection ; his corn was 

 well manured, planted on a first rate loam, but it was 

 hilled and plowed too much ; in a warm dry season, 

 and all our corn seasons are dry ; corn should not be 

 hilled on a dry soil, and the plow should only be us- 

 ed early ; the cultivator and hoe, is better than the 

 plow for Ind an corn. But Mr. Delafield is on the 

 high road to scientific farming ; he has his tons oJ 

 crushed bones, his compost heaps are in progress : 

 he will this fall sow wheat in drills, and he will apply 

 inorganic manure to his soil, until it gives the maxi- 

 mum yield of wheat. 



I visited this farm in company with a very intelli- 

 gent, warm-hearted planter from Bufort district, 

 South Carolina, who, himself, plants 100 acres of 

 cotton, and one hundred acres of corn. If I may 

 ^'idge from the spontaneous eulogy on Mr. D's farm- 

 ing, which came from him in all the earnestness of 

 southern eloquence, such an example of agricul- 

 tural life, management and success, was a more po- 

 tent argument to his mind in favor of the value of 

 free labor, than a hundred abolition lectures would 

 have been. S. W. 



For the fJenpspe Farmer. 



HIGH PRICES OF CHOICE FRUITS .—A 

 PREVENTIVE. 

 Why shoulJ a reason exist, that while in this re- 

 gion the finest qualities of fruit can be cultivated 

 and grown, that we should have to pay from two to 

 four dollars per bushel for peaches ? and from one to 

 three cents for a single one ? The time was, within 

 our recollection, that peaches of a good quality went 

 begging in our streets at 25 cents the bushel. The 

 reason is, that the early growers of this rich fruit 

 (the price being so low) gave up the cultivation, and 

 their trees have gone to decay without new ones to 

 fill their places, and the few sagacious ones wh,o did 

 plant are now reaping high prices. The preventive 

 must be to plant new trees, and let every man who 

 has orchard room, go into the cultivation at once. 

 The early Jo. apples, (a choice one to be sure,) is 

 selling at thirteen shillings per bushel. Every one 

 will admit it is too much, but it will always be that 

 rare peaches and apples will cost high prices, with- 

 out the remedy of planting new trees. W. 

 Rochester, Sept. 1, 1845. 



P.S. — Bissell k. Hooker, on Main street, in Brigh- 

 ton, are propagating the best kinds of fruits, and no 

 other, as is the case with Elwanger Si Barry, of Mt. 

 Hope Garden, and J. J. Thomas, of Macedon. 



For the Geoesee Farmer. 



RUST ON WHEAT. 



As wheat has suffered, partially, this season, frm 

 the attack of rust, the question is again asked, what 

 is rust ? Perhaps only two opinions have place, 

 at present, among thinking men. The one is, that 

 ruil is a fungus, uredo linearis of botanists, which 



is propagated like all similar vegetables, and grows 

 withm the stem and bursts it outwards ; the other is, 

 that is a deposition of sap in cons-jquence of the 

 bursting of the vessels and of the outer covering of 

 the culm. So far as can be discovered, the circu n- 

 stances of the appearance of rust comport w;th ei- 

 ther supposition. The rust is rapidly formed in very 

 hot weather immediately after the fall of rain or a 

 heavy dew. This season the rust appeared without 

 rain, in dry, hot weather, after dewy nights. If the 

 rust is a fungus, hot weather attending rain or dew, 

 promotes its growth and developement; or, if the sap 

 exudes from the burst vessels, the same is true. In 

 either case, the sap is prevented fro;T» ascending into 

 tho head, and the shrinkage of the kernel is thJ ne- 

 ossary result. 



I have letely examined the rusted straw by a high- 

 ly magnifying pov/er of the compound microscope. 

 The outside covering is manifestly burst open, ani 

 the rust protrudes from the rent, a very thin layer of 

 the covering being raised up and divided, or divided 

 and then raised up. There is not the appearance of 

 organized structure m the rust as it is seen in veget- 

 ables; but it looks like dried gelatinous or mucilaMri- 

 nous matter. The culm is not split through to th? 

 inside, but the inside is entire and firm, and the rust 

 is wholly on the outside and in the divided covering 

 of the stem. The form, appearance and position are 

 all consistent with its being the dried, exuded sap ; 

 more so than with its being a fungus or uredo . 



It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this ru=t is 

 very diflferent from the red rust, as it is often calleJ, 

 which is entirely external and easily rubbed off or 

 washed away. 



If rust is a fungus, it is not obvious by whatmsans 

 it can be prevented. If it is exuded sap, ih^ u=!e of 

 salt, gypsum, and such substances as may give a 

 firmer texture to the culm, would be valuabl'^. 



C. D. 



PRAIRIE RONDE. 



Kalamazoo, August 19, 1845. 



Mr. Editor— 'In the midst of the wheat hf.rvest, in 

 the month of July, I paid a visit to Prairie Ronde, in 

 this county, and have had an itching ever since to 

 send you a description of the way they do up the har- 

 vesting on a large scale — premising that the prairie 

 contains about 24,000 acres of plow land, literally as 

 level as a house floor, of the richest quality. 



My first inquiry was for the Harvesting Machine 

 of Hiram Moore, the inventor. I was directed to an 

 80 acre field of wheat, and found it in full blast. It 

 is a ponderous affair, moved by eight spans of horses, 

 two abreast — four drivers; one hand to graduate tho 

 height of the sickle, one to tie up the bags, one to 

 carry the bags to the wagon in attendance, and one 

 who has a general oversight of the whole concern. 

 It cuts ten feet wide, thrashes and chaffs wheat, ani 

 what is better still, does it in first rate order, cutting 

 cleaner than any cradler that I ever saw work, an.l 

 will cut five acres to each man employed. They 

 commence by cutting with cradles a gangway to the 

 centre of the field, and then a circle larire enough to 

 begin operations; after which they peel it off as you 

 d) an apple skin. They have been cutting for five 

 bushels wheat to the acre, which is $2 50 in cash. 



I also saw Hussey's Reapers, cutting 30 acres per 

 day with four horses, employingr nine binders. The 

 farmers thrash much of their wheat in the field from 

 the shock, with a machine \vhich gears on one of the 

 wagon wh'jels. There were six thousand acres of 



