1840. 



THE GENESEE FARjMKK. 



71 



Spirit of tl)c 3lgrkttltttral ]hcss. 



Mum ^ Sugar. — V good man will make m\ or seven hun- 

 <;,- d pounds in. three weeks. The man that took the pre- 

 . * iburn in 1846, kept all vessels clean. He run the 

 . put into conii \ia\ ing a ball inch holt . plug- 



ged ai the bottom, until tin- sugar was thoroughly narol 

 then put three layers of woolen i Goth on top, and poured on 

 a pint of water every morning for three weeks in succession. 

 The water looked like brown molasses, and the sugar when 

 like loaf sugar. 



Earliest Food fob Bees. — In a conversation the other 



day with a worthy and observing farmer, he remarked thai 



the earliest food for lues, in the spring, is maple sap. He 



. seen them gather round the sap troughs, 



in the wood9, during the warm days in the spring, before the 

 buds or tassels id' the willow and other trees and shrubs had 

 put out, sipping and unking themselves glad with the sweets 

 -, find there. It wouldn't be a bad plan, if n person 

 had any maples in the vicinity of his hives, to tap them for 

 the use of his bees. — Maine Farmer. 



Goon Subject for Preaching. — Wc learn from the 

 Birmingham (England) Gazette, that the late .Mr. Thomas 



i mi. of Tieknell. near Bewley, by his will left a 

 . the interest of which is to lie applied to procure 

 three sermons in as many different churches, in or near Bir- 

 mingham, yearly, "on the kind and merciful treatment of 

 all dumb animals, but more especially that of the horse," 

 and "that on Monday, previous to the preaching of such 

 sermon, Qi tice be inserted in the Birmingham Gazette, re- 

 questing the masters of families to direct their servants, hav- 

 ing t'ue care of their horses> to attend divine service on that 

 day.' It w ould be a good subject for preaching in this coun- 

 try, by men who can preach truth and duty without the 

 stimulus of a premium from vested funds. 



Large Production. — Mr. Allen Dyer, residing in By- 

 icrry. this county, gathered and thrashed this season, from 

 five bushels sowed, ninety-three a/id a half bushels of wheat. 

 exclusive of the gleanings. The wheat was of the variety 

 known as the Genesee white wheat, recently introduced 

 into this neighborhood by George 31. Ivins, and weighed 

 sixty-six pounds to the bushel ! With such a result as here 

 recorded, this must be a most valuable variety of wheat, 

 and ought to be generally known to and used by our far- 

 mers. — Germantoum Telegraplu 



Duty on American Wheat. — After the 1st of February, 

 1849, the fixed duty on wheat in England is to be one shil- 

 ling per charter, or about three cents per bushel ; on flour 

 it is to be four pence half-penny per cwt., or nine pence per 

 barrel, of 200 pounds — equal to about eighteen pence per 

 barrel. 



Effect of Domestication on Birds. — Professor Low, in 

 speaking of the effect of domestication on birds says, "They 

 lose the power of flight by the increase of size of their ab- 

 domen, and the diminished power of their pectoral muscles 

 and other parts of their body are altered to suit this confor- 

 mation. All their habits change ; they lose the caution and 

 sense of danger, which, in their native state they possessed. 

 The male no longer retires with a single female to breed, 

 but becomes polygamous, and his progeny lose the power 

 and the will to regain the freedom of their race." 



Curious Mode of Grafting the Grape Vine. — A gen- 

 tleman in the neighborhood of Oporto, split a vine shoot, 

 (white grape,) very carefully down the middle, cutting the 

 bud in half, and then split a corresponding shoot on a black 

 vine, and united them as in common grafting, and after 

 many experiments, succeeded in making the graft grow, and 

 the produce of the vine was white and black fruit on the 

 same bunch, and on others variegated fruit. — Foreign paper. 



A Great Product. — The Newark (New Jersey) Adver- 

 tiser states that a farmer has raised this season on his farm at 

 Clinton Place, in that vicinity, 603 bushels of white, or 

 Belgium carrots to the acre — an amount of produce never 

 exceeded in that climate. 



To Quiet Bees.— A correspondent of the Ohio Cultiva- 

 tor says that a little alcohol or almost any kind of ardent 

 spirits, placed on the bottom boards around and under a hive 

 of beligerent bees, will idlay their fury, and cause them to 

 cease fighting. If an article which sets the human race by 

 tlie ears, will produce peace and harmony in a hive of bees, 

 the fact certainly is anomalous. 



I!m .iiivK Cost of Mattresses. — //air Mattresset — 

 These are generally sold by weight, and cost from GO to 75 

 cents per pound; 30 or lo pounds will cost si S to | 



Wollen Mottresti , — 30 pounds of wool] at 80 cents per 

 pound, $9 , IS yard* oi ticking, at L2j cents per fatd, si 50 

 labor, thread. &c., $ S.75 — total, $13.25. 



I '■ ither Beds. — lo pounds of feathers at 30 cents a pound, 

 $12.00 15 yards of ticking, at L2J cents per yard, $1,874. 

 labor, thread &c., $2.73— total, $16.62}. 



Moss, or Corn-shuck Matin tea. ready made, $12. The 

 labor of properly preparing the shucks constiutes its mnin 

 cost, and which cannot be done for less than the above price, 

 all materials furnished. 



Cotton Mattresses. — 30 pounds of cotton, even at 8 cents 

 per pound, $2.40; 12 yards of ticking, at 12J cents per yard. 

 $2.50; labor, thread, &c, $2.75— total. $6.65.— JV. O. Papei. 



Rich Dairies. — The Prattsvillc (Green Co.,) Advocate 

 says : " One day last week, no loss then 280 butter wagons 

 passed through our village ; and one day this week as many 

 more — making in two days 560. The average number of 

 firkins was 20 for each wagon making a total of 11,200 

 firkins of butter. This multiplied by $15, the average value 

 of a firkin of butter, amounts to the large sun of $134,000 — 

 and all from the dairies of Delaware and Otsego, 



Improved Strainers for Pails. — Mr. William Cooley, 

 of Geneva, N. Y., has invented and applied for a patent for 

 a new and useful improvement of attaching a strainer to 

 milk pails, which appears to be as valuable as the improve- 

 ments lately made on churns. His plan is to have the strai- 

 ner fit on to a tube or spout on the pail by a screw or slide, 

 so that it can be put on and taken off at pleasure, thus ren- 

 dering the strainer easier cleaned, and at the same time one 

 strainer will answer a number of pails better than a sieve, 

 and at one-fifth the expense. 



Cultivation of Cotton in Africa, — It is said that an 

 association formed at Graham's Town, in the Brirish colony 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of promoting the 

 growth of cotton in the colony, intends to send immediately 

 to the United Statssfora few of the most approved gins, and 

 to provide also a supply of those varieties of seeds which are 

 supposed to be most suitable to the soil and climate of the 

 colony. 



Weeds in Gravel Walks. — For more than 10 years I 

 have used salt (but not in solution) for destroying aud keep- 

 ing down weeds in my gravel walks, with perfect success, 

 and without perceiving that the application acted as a stim- 

 ulant to reproduction. The contrary is the case. I sow 

 the salt by hand : " dry weather, and sweep it about thin, and 

 as regularly as por; '<•' I have seldom occasion to do this 

 more than once in tweivc months. — English Paper. 



How to Catch Hawks. — The following method for de- 

 stroying these pests to the farmer is given by S. Webb, Esq. 

 of Waldo county, Maine : 



" Erect a pole, twelve or fifteen feet high, in a place 

 where there will not be anything else near for them to light 

 upon, and upon it set a common fox-trap on which they will 

 alight. A strong rat-trap will answer the purpose, by tying 

 it to the pdle lengthwise, with the jaws raised above the end, 

 the pole being a little leaning, so that the jaws will not fall 

 together. When the hawk is taken, tie it on the ground 

 near the pole, and its mate will be in the trap in a short time. 

 The season is near for the hawks to re-appear, and if far- 

 mers do not wish to have their chickens destroyed by them, 

 they will do well to adopt this method of putting a stop to 

 their depredations. — Scientific American . 



How it is Done.— The editor of the Mass. Plowman, 

 speaking of the progress of improvement among the farmers 

 of the Old Bay State, thus explains the manner in which it 

 is done : — 



" Farmers read vastly more on the subject of farming than 

 they have ever done. The prejudices against written agri- 

 culture are fading away as fast as farmers of practical know- 

 ledge are coming forward and giving the results of their own 

 experience. They hold meetings and reason together on 

 various matters relating to their business, and none can fail 

 to improve by intercourse and free converse on any branch 

 of farming." 



To. teach a Horse to Lie Down. — First with some 

 soft handkerchief or cloth tie up one fore leg ; then with a 

 stick lap him on the other and say " kneel/' Sometimes by 

 rubbing him on the head and patting him on the leg, you 

 will induce him to lie down. — Domestic Animals. 



