1846. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



273 



pose. Many wouUi purchase more clover seed, 

 timothy seed, gypsum, salt, ashes, lime, bones. 

 &c., if they liad less land and more money. If 

 they had fewer acres to fence and cultivate, they 

 would buy more rails, and better farm imple- 

 ments. It is not often that we tell our friends of 

 their faults ; and we hope now not to give of- 

 fence. There are some wounds tliat require to 

 be probed a little, before they will heal soundly 

 at the bottom. We aro thoughtlessly driving 

 too many young men out of New York, who 

 have been born and raised in the State, by a per- 

 nicious practice of adding farm to farm, to be 

 cultivated by foreigners, either as hirelings, or 

 tenants. We do not object to foreigners coming 

 among us to work at any pursuit whatever. We 

 object only to the expulsion of the best talent, 

 the noble enterprise, the pride, and hope, of the 

 Commonwealth, because a foolish spirit of land 

 monopoly denies them soil to cultivate in New 

 York on such terms as Humanity and Virtue de- 

 serve. 



We do not consider these remarks as out of 

 place. It must be borne in mind that in very 

 many of our most fertile towns, our rural popula- 

 tion is on the decrease ; and the character of the 

 inhabitants is undergoing a rapid change, by the 

 removal of young men, and tlie incoming of oth- 

 er persons from abroad. Let as man}^ come in 

 from abroad as will. 



We shall undertake to show, at another time, 

 that money earned in Western New York, can 

 be more profitably employed here in growing 

 wheat for New York and Boston markets, than 

 at any point west of the State. Still, this fact by 

 no means justifies that craving spirit which grasps 

 at all the land that joins the estate where it frets 

 and chafes a lump of living clay. Smal], Avell 

 tilled, and highly productive farms, occupied by 

 an intelligent, virtuous, and independent people, 

 is just the condition of the society that we desire 

 to witness. The greatest good to the largest 

 number, is our motto. When this maxim shall 

 be acted on in good faith by the community, the 

 wheat and corn fields of the Empire State will 

 produce twice as much as they now do ; and a 

 double population will be twice as comfortable 

 and happy as is now seen by the traveller in go- 

 inff from tide water to lake Erie. 



Sheep Husbandry on the Prairies. 



A correspondent writing from Lafayette Co., 

 Indiana, asks for information on the subject of 

 keeping sheep on the praries, in regard to shel- 

 ter in the winter, the value of wild grass after 

 autumn frosts, &c. 



We have spent only two winters on the prai- 

 ries in Illinois, and then in the latitude of St. 

 Louis ; but we have often visited the State in 

 the winter season. A prairie range for caUle or 

 sheep is nearly worthless, after cold weather has 

 fairly set in. Both alike need other forage than 



wild grass, as well as good shelter to protect them 

 from the strong, cold, and almost continous 

 winds of that vast, open country. In southern 

 Illinois and Indiana, where there is more timber, 

 and the climate is naturally milder, less attention 

 need be paid to guarding against the inclemen- 

 cies of the seasons. But even there cold rains, 

 sleet and snow are quite too severe on sheep for 

 them to be out with impunity. Sheds are un- 

 common, but clumpa of trees, and dense 

 groves serve as substitutes which are better than 

 nothing. Red clover does not take readily and 

 grow well ; but turnips, blue grass, timothy, 

 oats, peas, beans, corn, &c., make excellent 

 food for sheep. White clover is indigenous on 

 the banks of the Little Wabash river. At Albi- 

 on, in Edwards county, are flocks of Merino 

 sheep that have been kept for 30 years, or 8 

 months each year, on wild prairie grass, and 

 have continued in good health and vigor. The 

 progenitors of these sheep were imported by 

 wealthy Englishmen, who purchased and settled 

 a large tragt where the village of Albion is loca- 

 ted, at the close of the war in 18L5. The quali- 

 ty of the wool of these fine Spanish sheep has 

 not deteriorated, although Albion is a little south 

 of the latitude of Washington city. The writer 

 of this knows of no better country for wool 

 growing than southern Illinois, if one is proof 

 against fever-and-ague. 



Any quantity of choice land can be had at 

 Congress price, both timber and prairie. Much 

 of this land is high rolling prairie, and makes 

 capital sheep walks. They need a shepard, 

 however, to protect them from the depredations 

 of the little, mean prairie wolf, and from dogs, 

 which are meaner still. The climate is the same 

 as that of St. Louis, and most admirably adapted 

 to the growria of apples, pears, peaches, and 

 grapes. The society is not so good as it might 

 be ; consisting mainly of persons too poor to 

 hold slaves in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennes- 

 see, who have emigrated north to settle on Con- 

 gress lands. 



Useful to the Ladies. — One of the most 

 important of all household duties, is to keep the 

 door knobs, the lamps, the spoons, the plates, 

 "and all that sort o' thing," in brightly polished 

 order. If instead of the chalk, and prepara- 

 tions, ladies will use camphene oil and rotten 

 stone, a far brighter, more durable and quicker 

 polish can be obtained than in any other way. — 

 Camphene is the article used for producing the 

 exquisite polish of the daguerreotype plates, and 

 nothing has ever been found to equal it. 



CouoH IN Horses. — The boughs of the com- 

 mon cedar, cut fine, and mixed with the food of 

 liorses, are said to be an effectual remedy for the 

 troublesome and very prevalent disease called 

 " cough." 



