Vol. 6. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



u: 



materials in proper proportion, and upon those where 

 there was some deficiency ; and to illustrate the ef- 

 fects ol' funding plants on proper food, showed some 

 heads of timothy, 8 or 9 inches long which he had 

 been able to produce by furnishing a sufficient sup- 

 ply of such food. 



He said that a state agricultural school and exper- 

 imental farm are wanted, where this science may be 

 studied, and the laws which regulate the transfor- 

 mation of the substances of the earth into useful 

 plants, may be fully educed; that lor the last 26 years 

 efforts have been put forth to accomplish this end, 

 but to no effect ; that the state has amply endowed 

 institutions for the benefit of other professions, but 

 left the great science of agriculture alone to the 

 care of individual enterprise. 



With regard to the present effort there can be but 

 one upinion. The physical wealth and strength of 

 a nation must depend upon the value of its produc- 

 tions, and certainly none can be more valuable than 

 those of agriculture ; and since it is an object of 

 wise legislation to develope the resources of the 

 country, is it not the duty of the Legislature to en- 

 courage the efforts of that class constituting the 

 strength of the nation, in their efforts to understand 

 the hidden laws of nature? The state of New 

 York possesses all the elements of agricultural 

 greatness, yet no one will assert that its productions 

 have yet attained the maximum of its power to pro- 

 duce. 



Individual effort has accomplished much, but there 

 is required a concentration of effort which can be 

 obtained in no way so easily or justly as by the pat- 

 ronage of the State Legislature. 



F. COOPER. 



Union School, Camillus, July 25, 1845, 



QUINCE TREES, SALT, PLASTER, Uc. 

 Ovid, September 15tb, 1845. 



Mr. Editor: — Will yoii permit me to ask you tlirough 

 the Farmer, Q few questions, which you wdl have the 

 goodness to answer. 



1st. VVjII Peach or Plum Stones produce the same kind 

 of fruit as the parentstock, aad what the process of plant- 

 ing. 



2d Can you tell me the causa of decay in the quince, 

 by the small brandies dying, for the rirst 1 have discovered 

 this eeison ; and is tbere any remedy by washing the 

 trees with any liquid. &c. 



3 How, or to what should salt be applied, and in what 

 quantity; what is your opinion on this suliject. 



4. Will plaster be more beneficial sown on wheat or 

 grass in the fall or spring. 



5. Do you, or do you not tbiidi it makes a difference 

 with respect to the age or size of the moon, when wheat 

 or plaster is sown. A. B. D. 



ANSWER. 



1st. Peach and plum stones " will not necessarily pro- 

 duce the same kind of fruit as the parentstock," although 

 the chances are in favor of obtaining similar seedlings. — 

 The pits may be planted in a bed, nursery, or where one 

 widhea to have the trees come to maturity. We prefer 

 planting in autumn, after the fruit is ripe, as the most natu- 

 ral season ; covering the stones only two or three inches, 

 that they may freeze ; giving them at the same time the be- 

 nefit of a deep, fine, mellow soil. 



2. We have paid some attention to the alarming malady 

 which affects so many quince bushes or trees, in Western 

 New York. The disease seems to be anal'gous to the blast 

 in pear trees. There are some plausible theories advanced 

 by writers on this subject, which are not altogether satis- 



factory. Some reirard the evil as the work of insects, and 

 others, with perliaps, a butler sliow of reasoning, treat it 

 as the result of frost acting on the immature wood of the 

 [)revious or present season We can throw no new light 

 on the subject. 



3. In regard to the use of salt as a fertilizer, there is no 

 crop which will not be benefitted by the judicious use of 

 common salt in combination with lime. On limestone soils 

 it may happen that no additional lime is needed. JVtr. S. M. 

 Brown of Elbridge, Onondaga County, informed us a few 

 (lays since, that he harvested over 400 bushels of superior 

 white flint wheat, the seed of which cami; from Gen. Har- 

 mon, on 8 acres, this season ; the large yield being ascril)ed 

 to the use of 3 bushels of salt per acre, as a top dressing. 

 We are not sure whether this salt was sown in the fall or 

 spring, but shall have an opportunity to learn, as Mr. B. is 

 President of the Onondaga A. Society, before which, the 

 Editor is soon to deliver an address. 



Salt is a compound of two simples — Chlorine and Sodi- 

 um — both of which are found as constituents of mo.st cul- 

 tivated plants ; and as salt is very soluble in water, these 

 elementary constituents of plants are very prone to be 

 washed or leached out of the soil. When farmers come to 

 regaid as they should do, all their plants as livui-g things, 

 which must be fed properly to do well, then they will begin 

 to salt them a little, and often. The salts found in the li- 

 quid excretions of all animals, coming from their food, and 

 their food taking them from the soil, if the soil lack them, 

 their supply of food must be wanting in an equal ratio. 



4. Plaster is a salt, and both on wheat and grass it should 

 be sown in the fall, if on band. But it had better be sown 

 in the spring than not at all. Note well that you must 

 drain all wet land before applying common salt or gypsum, 



5. " The age and size of the moon " have little or nothing 

 to do with t!ie sowing of wheat and plaster. 



AGRICULTURE IN WESTERN NEW YORK~ 



THE CENSUS. 



Many eastern papers express surprise, that soveral of 

 the best farming counties in Western New York should bo 

 on the decline in point o{ pojiulation. This fact is wor- 

 thy indeed of our consideration. " Coming^ events cast 

 their shadows before." 



We have long contended that the farmers of Western 

 New York were, unconsciously, violating a fixed law of Na- 

 ture — that the result of this violation must be disastrous, 

 not only to the cultivators of the soil, but to the whole com- 

 munity. According to the late census, Genesee county 

 contains fewer people by 1079 than it did in 1840. — 

 Twelve towns in Ontario county have lost 765. The com- 

 paratively new county of Chautauqua has also lost 1 375 of 

 its population within five years. In all western counties, 

 there are more or less towns whose rural population has 

 greatly diminished. Why should farming in this part of 

 the State bo less profitable and attractive now, than at any 

 former period ? Our eastern cities and markets are expan- 

 ding with unabating rapidity. 



There is a potent reason why Scipio, and 200 other 

 towns in this State, are loosing that best of all wealth, 

 their industrous, and upright inhabitants. It is with unaf- 

 fected regret, that we impute much of this growing i-vil to 

 a lack of foresight and wisdom on the part of New York 

 politicians, legislators, and the farmers themselves.— 

 We have long been pained to witness how lew public men 



