12 



Premium Farm, in A''eio ForA*. 



Vol. XI. 



experiments to test the comparative value 

 of different breeds of cattle. 



2'S. No account is kept of the butter and 

 cheese made on the farm, as it is mostly 

 consumed on the premises. 



24. There have been but eighty sheep 

 kept on tiie farm the past season. My flock 

 has recently been very much reduced, with 

 a view to substitute pure Merinoes. My 

 sheep yielded a little over four pounds of 

 wool each, for the whole flock. The pure 

 Merinoe ewes each raised a lamb, and they 

 averaged a little over five pounds to the 

 fleece. I think that about ninety lambs 

 may be expected to be raised from one hun- 

 dred ewes. I have heretofore raised mutton 

 sheep, but have disposed of all my sheep 

 whose chief value was for mutton, and in- 

 tend to turn my attention to the raising of 

 wool, as the first consideration. Two dol- 

 lars have been about the average price I have 

 received for mutton sheep fattened on grass. 



25. There have been thirty-three swine, 

 of grade Berkshire, kept on the farm this 

 year. About one-half of them have been 

 slaughtered. Our hogs weigh from two 

 hundred and fifty to five hundred, averag- 

 ing over three hundred and fifty, when 

 dressed. 



26. No accurate experiments have been 

 made by me, to test the value of roots as 

 compared with Indian corn. I fattened my 

 hogs and cattle on corn ground with the cob. 

 Cooked for hogs, and sometimes cooked and 

 sometimes raw for eattle, being governed in 

 this particular by the amount of grain I am 

 feeding. I think corn the most economical 

 grain I can raise to feed, in view of the 

 prices coarse grains usually bring in market. 



27. There are about two hundred apple 

 trees on the farm, most of them grafted — 

 Kpitzenbergs, russets, pippins, &e.,^^most of 

 the approved varieties. 



28. Pears, peaches, plums, cherries, 

 quinces, &Le., are raised in abundance for 

 our own consumption; and we have many 

 of the best varieties of these fruits; five or 

 six of pears, twenty of peaches, seven or 

 eight of cherries, and four or five of plums. 



29. Various insects common to this coun- 

 try have depredated upon the fruit trees; 

 the most troublesome of all, is the common 

 apple tree worm. Strong soap-suds applied 

 by means of a piece of sheep skin with the 

 wool on, attached to a pole, is the most ef- 

 fectual means of destroying them. 



30. My general management of fruit trees 

 is, to prune them annually, keep them free 

 from insects, and see personally to the selec- 

 tion of scions for grafting. 



31. I have applied leached ashes to wheat. 



grass, and corn land, without being able to 

 see any benefit. 



32. Besides the mansion house, I have 

 four houses occupied by men that work on 

 llie farm. Two of these houses have barna 

 connected with them. In a central position 

 is a grain barn, fifty-four feet long and forty 

 wide, twenty feet high, with a stone wall 

 under it — making a granary and sheds. 

 Near the mansion house are the hay barn, 

 sheep barn, and a grain barn fifty-four feet 

 long by thirty-four wide. Basement stories 

 to all these buildings, furnish sheds and sta- 

 bles for the stock ; so that every animal I 

 winter, is fed all the valuable food in a rack 

 or manger, and under cover. 



Besides these buildings, is the wagon- 

 house, forty-two feet long, with a basement 

 under it; and the tool-house, carriage-house, 

 corn-house, milk-house, smoke-house, ice- 

 house, hen-house, &c. A small mill upon 

 the brook grinds my coarse feed. My yards 

 around the buildings near the mansion, are 

 all supplied with water in tubs, sent there 

 by a powerful force pump under the mill, 

 driven by the same wheel that grinds the 

 feed and saws the wood. 



33. The common fence on the farm is 

 posts and boards, the posts set three feet or 

 more in the ground. Of red cedar posts I 

 have about three miles — and of other timber 

 for posts, about two miles. I have some- 

 thing more than a mile of stone wall, made 

 from stone quarried from the quarries men- 

 tioned. These walls are built four feet ten 

 inches high, two and a half feet thick on 

 the ground, and eight inches thick on top, 

 having the same slant on both sides, and laid 

 straight and strong. This fence costs me 

 Si 50 a rod, and I build fifty rods or more 

 every year, upon a system of fencing that 

 in time will put an end to further expense. 

 The board fence costs 88 to 100 cents a rod. 

 There is a considerable portion of my fences 

 of rails, mostly cedar, but no new rails are 

 made. As to the condition of my fences, I 

 would respectfully refer to the report of the 

 committee on farms for this year, for the 

 county of Onondaga, a copy of which report 

 is attached. 



34. Most of my fields have been measured, 

 but sometimes more than one kind of grain 

 is raised in a field — and thus the amount of 

 ground covered by each kind of grain is not 

 always accurately known. All the grain 

 raised on the farm is measured, and the 

 measurements entered in books kept for that 

 purpose, by proper men. The work hired 

 by the day is entered in these books, and 

 any other thing that appears of suflScient 

 importance. 



