160 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug, 



Extract from a Practical Farmer's Letter. 



"Your remarks about stirring the earth, in- 

 stead of complaining of drought, are true. I 

 never saw corn injured by drought in Oneida 

 county, that was early and well tended. 



When Noah's Sunday time arrives, I drop the 

 plow handle instinctively ; when the mind gets 

 transported with his happy criticisms, it requires 

 an etibrt to resume the plow. 



For three successive years I selected the first 

 ripe ears of Indian corn for seed. The result 

 is that I get roasting ears full two weeks earlier 

 than my neighbors. 



Soaking corn in ditierent solutions, was tried 

 in Bridgewater (Oneida,) twenty years ago — 

 but such is our cold moist climate, that it is un- 

 safe to soak corn before planting ; even the peas 

 I soaked and planted, on the lUth of April, will 

 not half sprout, while the unsoaked are doing 

 well. By sowing oats early, (4th of April,) I 

 get more oats and less straw than my neighbors; 

 'tis true they grow slow, and turn yellow at first, 

 but it would seem that this only favors the subse- 

 quent growth of the berry. 



So short is our warm weather that we must 

 make our coi-n in 75 days, if we would escape 

 early frosts. If our farmers neglected their corn 

 as yours do in Seneca, we should rarely ever 

 get a sound crop. Wheat is entirely different 

 from corn ; the longer it is growing the better 

 the crop. Those extraordinary crops in Eng- 

 land are frequently 13 months growing. In the 

 year 1816, my father grew very plump winter 

 wheat in Bridgwater, which was not cut until the 

 last of September. No general rule in farming 

 should be always acted on, as long as seasons, 

 soils, and above all climates, are so variable. 



If you could place your manure one or two 

 inches under the surface, which is nearly impos- 

 sible, it would be preferable to either top dress- 

 ing or deeper covering. 



W. B. for three or four years has sown in un- 

 equal proportions, oats, barley, and spi-ing wheat. 

 He gets from 40 to GO bushels to the acre ; the 

 mi.xture brings a cent a pound for distilling. — 

 Last year, as an experiment, he put with the 

 mixture half a bushel of flax seed to the acre ; 

 cradled, raked and bound together. He got 16 

 bushels of flax seed, without apparently diminish- 

 the rest of the crop in the least. 



Agricultural papers generally advise thorough, 

 deep plowing. This may do to bring the wealth 

 of the soil within the reach of the plant; but in 

 cold Oneida we want no corn roots to go more 

 thant hree or four inches deep." * 



* The above was written (under date of April 27, 1846,) 

 by a fanner of Oneida county to our esteemed friend and 

 correspondent " S. W.," of Seneca county. — [Ed. 



The Season and the Crops in Seneca Co. 



This has been one of the best growing sea- 

 sons I have ever witnessed. It commenced full 



two weeks earlier than usual. Green peas were 

 eaten at Aurora on the 30th of May. We have 

 had just enough of heat and moisture to suit all 

 crops; even pasture and potatoes have not need- 

 ed rain until now, the "iOth of July. Coi-n, bar- 

 ley, oats and flax never looked better. Our 

 barley and wheat crop is now being cut. A few 

 weeks ago it was supposed that tlie yield of wheat 

 would this year be below the average, owing to 

 the ravages of the fly ; the result is that the thin- 

 ned plants have yielded double in length of ear, 

 and size of berry. In the north part of our 

 county the wlieat crop is good ; one farmer told 

 me he sliould get more pounds of good wheat 

 this season, to the acre, than he ever got before. 



Plums. — Our plum trees, Green Gages except- 

 ed, are now the victims of a new and fatal enemy 

 which attacks the limbs instead of -the fruit. — 

 The hard excresence which fornns, or rather ex- 

 udes from the poisoned limb, has of late been 

 found to enclose a yellow worm about .5-8 of an 

 inch in length. 



Potatoes. — I believe there is no vegetable so 

 difiicult to be grovv'n in perfection on our warm, 

 calcareous, clay loams, as potatoes. It is easier 

 to grow a busliel of corn, than a peck of pota- 

 toes, on such a soil. The tops grow enormously 

 large, and take the necessary moisture from the 

 tubers. An ordinary summer shower is convert- 

 ed into steam, and escapes from a clay surface, 

 when a sand, or gravelly loam, would be thor- 

 oughly saturated by it. S. W. 



Stone Wall. 



A GENTLEMAN who subscribos himself "W," 

 asks, in the last number of the Farmer, infor- 

 mation on the subject of making "stone wall." 

 Having myself been born and bred in a part of 

 the country wliere stones and stone-walls abound, 

 I will venture to give an opinion on the subject- 

 Much will depend on the nature bf the soil, 

 and the quality of the stones. R the stones are 

 long, flat, square, &c., as quarried stones usually 

 are, the question will be one of less consequence. 

 Even then, however, I would prefer to bank the 

 wall, rather than to build it "on an embankment." 

 If the soil is of a kind that heaves, we cannot 

 prevent the heaving, but may prevent, in some 

 measure, its effects, by banking the wall, or some 

 other means. If the stones are such as are com- 

 monly called "boulders," i. e. common field 

 stones of various shapes and sizes, (as I suppose 

 them to be,) the best method of making them 

 into a wall, is to dig a ditch or trench an inch or 

 two wider than the wall is intended to be, and 

 from six to twelve inches deep, (or even deeper, 

 if the soil is very soft,) according to the nature 

 of the soil ; fill it with small stones, and build the 

 wall upon them. Tlie writer has seen walls of 

 various kinds, built in this way, that stood 10 or 

 15 years, and even more, in situations not very 

 favorable to permanency, requiring but little oc- 



