130 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



June 



PREMIUM CHOPS. 

 REQUISITIONS OF THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



'Y H . i . ls off red in New York has just been 



published. The minimum of crops fixed upon, under which 



no premium is to be awarded, is— of winter wheat, not less 



i ing wheal, 30; Ind 10 



{, 40; rye,35; oats, 70; buck wheat, 25; peas, 2"; po- 



tatoes for the table, ', I eld crop, 300; 



D pounds to the bushel,) I ■ Id-wurtzel (same 



•lit.) 400. We don't see that any premium is offered for 

 hay. 



These quantities being fixed as the minimum pn 

 when we look at tb ivi rage erop of the whole State as her 

 official returns show, what a v id irgin we find to be filled 

 up by higher skill and heavier manuring, as thus: in 1846, 

 according to returns from each county by State authority, 

 the averages were as follows: winter wheat averages 14 

 bushels per acre; oats, 26; barley, 16; rye, 9J; Indian corn. 

 25; buckwheat, 14; peas, 15; beans, 10; and potatoes, 90. 

 Thus it would seem that the crops in most cases do not come 

 loa third, in .some cases not a fourth of the smallest quantity, 

 which the Society have determieed should be distinguished 

 by a premium. This might leave some doubt about agricul- 

 tural progress in the Empire State, were it not that the 

 State Society, by its President, le.st year, reported "that the 

 State of New York is improving its agricultural condition 

 every year testifies. 1 ' If it be improving every year, and has 

 yet readied only to the averages we have stated — 14 of 

 wheal, 25 of corn, 9| of rye, 90 of potatoes, Sic. — how low 

 must it have been 25 years ago ? Yet in 1821 Karl Stimson 

 of that State, made throughout his farm — of oats, CI) bushels 

 per acre; Indian corn, on 8 acres 112 bushels; on 10 acres, 

 90; spring wheat 34; barley. 60. And we have accounts 

 before the revolution, of 11,000 bushels of potatoes from 1(1 

 .acres — being 687 bushels to the acre, on new red land on the 

 Hudson river; third year, 8,496 bushels of potatoes — being 

 531 bushels to the acre; fourth year, in wheat gave 37 

 bushels to the acre; fifth year, in barley gave 730 bushels, 

 or 45 bushels to the acre; sixth year, 630 bushels of peas, 

 or 39 to the acre. All this was without manure, and that 

 by a miserable system of the most exhausting rotations, as 

 — potatoes, wheat — potatoes, wheat — barley, peas; all in six 

 years ! Is it to be wondered at, that the crops throughout 

 the State have been brought down to the miserable averages 

 we have stated .' Still we are told, on the highest authority, 

 that the condition of New York agriculture is improving, as 

 << every year testifies !" — and who knows how low it might 

 have gone, if it had not been for the premiums distributed 

 from year to year ? 



After all, these facts bring to mind the doubt once ex- 

 pressed by one of the wisest, wealthiest and best men the 

 Empire State ever boasted — James Watjsworth. Said he 

 — " I am doubtful as to the expediency of small premiums 

 for cattle. I think the raising of these animals may be left to 

 self-interest. Suppose you take a hint from Napoleon, and 

 offer very liberal rewards for agricultural implements;" and 

 might not crops be left to the dictates of self-interest as well 

 as cattle ? The Agricultural Society of New York appears 

 to entertain a very different opinion, for while they have 

 offered some 150 or 200 premiums for cattle and sheep — and 

 nearly 100 of the amount of $10 and upwards, many as 

 high as $20 and $25 — under the head of "Farm Implements," 

 $10 is the highest for any single one, and ihat only in one 

 case — a thrashing machine. For the others they offered a 

 <: dip," and sometimes $2 or $3, or $5, besides the " dip;" 

 but, done by such high authority, it must be " O. K." 



We copy the above from the May number of "The 

 Plow, the Loom and the Anvil,"' (conducted by J. S. 

 Skinner & Son, of Philadelphia,) that New York 

 farmers may see what ht of their 



progress of improvem ts in other Slates; and for 

 the purpose of making a few comments. 



The fact that the Executive Committee of the N. 

 Y. State Society refuse to pay any premiums on 

 grain crops, except in cases where the product is 

 unusually lanre, indicates a disposition to curtail 

 expenditure in that direction, that more money may 

 be offered to encourage improvements in other de- 

 partments of rural industry. The writer of the 

 above criticism seems not to be aware that New- 



York is rather a grazing than a grain-groiving 

 State; and that the "improvement in its agricultural 

 condition," to which the late President of the Society 

 referred, is more conspicuous in the increase of its 

 dairy products and flocks of sheep, in its richer pas- 

 tures and meadows, than in its crops of wheat, corn, 

 rye, oats and barley. It would not be difficult to 

 show that the eleven hundred thousand cows now 

 annually milked in New York, yield about twenty 

 millions of dollars worth of milk, veal, pork, butter 

 and cheese. This, certainly, is a great improvement 

 on what was done when the State Society was 

 organized. 



The number of farmers in New York, and its 

 strictly rural population, increased very little from 

 1840 to 1845; yet the number of sheep kept in the 

 State was augmented 25 per cent. Their yield of 

 wool per head was also increased. In regard to the 

 census returns of the bushels of grain harvested in 

 1845 or '44 as the case may have been, they are 

 indeed not creditable to the farmers of the Empire 

 State. In addressing assemblies of farmers at the 

 South, we have frequently been met by the statistics 

 of New York, in a way not flattering to the pride of 

 a native son of that enlightened and populous com- 

 monwealth. The truth is, as the writer of this be- 

 lieves, that those that till the earth in New York go 

 over too much surface as a general thing, and sadly 

 neglect to apply lime and plaster to their land; to 

 turn in grass, clover and other green crops, and oth- 

 erwise fertilize the soil. There are too many farmers 

 that take no agricultural paper; who keep aloof from 

 all agricultural societies; and who never read a book 

 on rural affairs. However unconscious of the fact, 

 such men are gradually impairing the productiveness 

 of the land which they plow, sow, plant and hoe. 

 They have no idea of the substances in the soil 

 which are necessary to form a large crop of wheat, 

 corn, barley, oats or potatoes. Hence, the elements 

 of all cultivated plants are wasted and lost in many 

 ways, which they do not understand, nor appreciate. 

 Too many farmers are more anxious to own large 

 fields and many of them, than to drain, subsoil, 

 manure, and make rich a smaller estate. 



Our New York friends are probably not aware how 

 much their brothers of the plow are doing in other 

 States, by deep tillage, the use of ashes, guano, 

 stable manure, lime, forest leaves, and by turning 

 in green crops, by soiling domestic animals, irrig;. 

 &lc, &c, to improve their cultivated fields. The 

 agricultural statistics of your "Model State," are 

 studied by thousands quite as closely as by the vete- 

 ran editor of the "Plow, the Loom and the Anvil." 

 We feel not a little anxiety that the official returns 

 of 1850 shall prove that the wheat, corn, oat and 

 potato crops of New York have greatly improved 

 within the five and ten annual harvests that will 

 immediately preceded the census of next year. As 

 the crops of this season, 1849, will have to be given in. 

 provided the marshals go round before the harvest 

 of corn and potatoes, try and make good showings, 

 if you can. 



Let your corn and potatoes have all the ashes, 

 bones boiled to a powder in strong lye. adding to the 

 compound a little common salt and lime, which you 

 can well procure. Mix pulverized charcoal and gyp- 

 sum with the contents of the vault under the privy, 

 and scrape the stables, barn-yard and hog-pen anew, 

 and do your best in plowing, manuring, hoeing and 

 cultivating your summer crops. 



