10G 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



May 



For the same reason, clover, peas, and all legumi- 

 nous plants, yield valuable food for a crop of wheat. 

 But to begin at the beginning: How is a farmer to 

 raise large crops of grass, clover or peas on poor 

 land ? The thing cannot be done without manure, 

 or good ashes to furnish the constituents of the crops, 

 which nature demands, and the soil does not contain. 

 It is silly to believe for a moment that two tons of 

 timothy or clover hay, or 20 bushels of wheat, can 

 be organized out of nothing, or from any other mate- 

 rials than such as the Creator of all things has ap- 

 pointed for that purpose. So far as the subsoil pos- 

 sesses lime, potash, phosphorus and sulphur, deep 

 plowing and subsoiling will render these elements 

 available to cultivated plants. But on most soils, it 

 will be found good economy to apply lime, plaster of 

 paris, ground bones, salt, forest leaves, wood ashes, 

 and all the manure one can possibly save, or make on 

 the farm. There is just as much propriety in laying 

 up raw materials for making wheat, corn and pota- 

 toes, as there is in having a crib or store house full 

 of grain for making bread. Lands thickly set in 

 grass and not injudiciously fed, nor mown, i. e. not 

 robbed of their products, will gain from the subsoil 

 and atmosphere, the organic and inorganic elements 

 of human food and clothing. To scarify old pas- 

 tures with a sharp harrow, sow more seed, and apply 

 a top dressing of gyp-sum, is often followed with the 

 happiest results. Similar treatment of meadows, or 

 a top dressing of ashes, or one of lime alone, will 

 greatly increase the product, in most cases. 



It will not do to be ever removing grass in the 

 stomachs of domestic animals from pastures, and hay 

 and grass from meadows, and make no return. This 

 is the right way to impoverish an estate, and render 

 it comparatively worthless. Remember that, by im- 

 proving land, you lessen the expense of raising eve- 

 ry thing of a vegetable or animal nature which it 

 yields. Very few men make the difference large 

 enough between the price of poor, and that of good 

 land. Every acre should be reasonably certain to 

 give 50 bushels of corn and 25 of wheat. A plenty 

 of lime, of potash, and of the mold formed by pea 

 vines and clover, will achieve such a consummation. 



If the surface and subsoil naturally lack lime, its 

 sulphates, phosphates and carbonates — if the earth 

 has a small allowance of potash, magnesia, soda and 

 chlorine in its composition — it is unreasonable to ex- 

 pect large crops annually, which consume in grow- 

 ing, a good deal of these indispensable elements. 

 Soils poor in alkalies and alkaline earths, must not 

 be expected to yield much bread and meat per acre, 

 no matter how large a quantity of swamp muck is 

 added, unless lime, potash, phosphorus and sulphur 

 are added also. Bones, gypsum and salt, or good 

 wood ashes, will give rich mold, by the aid of clover, 

 peas, grass or corn ; and a mold rich in the elements 

 of flesh and bones, will be certain to furnish the far- 

 mer with cheap potatoes, cheap bread and meat. In 

 raising wheat, it is not desirable to have a soil large- 

 ly stocked with organic matter. Hence, it is often 

 better to have the 40 per cent, of clover voided in 

 the dung and urine of sheep, evenlj spread and dis- 

 tributed in the soil of a wheat, field, than to plow in 

 the whole crop without permitting any animal to feed 

 upon it. In the latter operation, more than twice as 

 much organic matter is added to the soil, as in the 

 former. Whenever an agriculturist has reason to 

 believe that a held lacks mold, he should grow crops 

 and plow them in, rather than pasture it, or other- 



wise consume the vegetables that it produces, 

 will augment its mold. 



DAIRY BUSINESS. 



This 



Our northern friends must look sharply to their 

 cows, their pastures, meadows, root, corn and other 

 forage crops ; for Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, 

 and Tennessee are already in the field as competitors 

 in the dairy business. There is not a State in the 

 Union in which both cheese and butter can not be 

 made. Like all other arts, that of rearing good milk- 

 ers, keeping them well and cheaply, and at the same 

 time manufacturing choice butter and cheese for mar- 

 ket, demands experience, care and study. The opera- 

 tion is mainly performed in those seasons of the year, 

 when all animal substances, like milk, whey, butter- 

 milk, and curd, are extremely liable to chemical 

 changes which injure the products of the dairyman. 

 Only a small portion of the butter and cheese made 

 in the United States is really first rate. And why 

 not ? The milk is good when drawn from the udder, 

 but it is badly handled ever after. Less attention is 

 paid to keeping milk pails, pans, churns, cheese tubs 

 or vats, perfectly sweet and clean than is required to 

 secure the best results. Butler when taken from the 

 churn is not properly worked over ; nor salted with 

 pure salt ; nor protected from the influence of at- 

 mospheric air, as it should be. The germ of that pe- 

 culiar change, known by the common name of "frowy," 

 is early planted in a mass of butter, although unde- 

 veloped for weeks or months. 



Butter and cheese which are put up wrong, if kept 

 any time, will never come out right. The changes 

 which they undergo present a subject for close and 

 curious study. As in curing meat, good salt, pure 

 air, and the entire exclusion of oxygen from butter 

 in kegs, and cheese in a well oiled, impervious rind, 

 are the leading matters to be attended to. In cheese- 

 making, the heating of the milk, the condition of the 

 rennet, the quantity used, and the quantity of salt, 

 the degree of pressure on the curd, the time for it to 

 be in press, the turning of cheese, surrounding with 

 cloth, &,c, &c, are all details of great importance. 

 To incorporate into the cheese all the casein (curd) 

 and butter which the milk contained, and preserve 

 both sweet and delicious with aroma, peculiar to each, 

 are the objects to be attained. Keeping milk too 

 long, bad skins, using too much rennet, too much 

 scalding, impure salt, excessive pressing, neglect in 

 turning and oiling, and an offensive atmosphere in 

 the dairy room, are among the most common causes 

 which injure cheese. 



Butter is damaged by permitting cream or milk to 

 stand too long before churning ; by the defective 

 working out, of the buttermilk : had salt ; and too 

 long exposure to the atmosphere before it is packed 

 down in crocks or tubs. Keep the air from your but- 

 ter as much as practicable. 



Plant carrots and corn in drills for your cows ; and 

 see that they are milked regularly and clean. A lit- 

 tle labor will often produce a good crop of pumpkins. 

 The main point is to raise a full supply of good food, 

 and take are to husband all their manure as well as 

 other products. 



Kf.kp Bkes. — Bees cost nothing for their food, 

 neither for their pasturage in summer, nor for their 

 provisions in winter. 



