338 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



She likes the "Hallelujah" strain. It soothes her 

 Drain, which seethes under this thunder like lead 

 in a red-hot cauldron. Ha ! ha ! give her the rein ; 

 she'll go — hurrah! we're in time— hurrah ! there 

 has been no such singing since Timotheus sang at 

 the feast of Alexander. 



We had made a discovery. Hart's voice would 

 control the old mare in her tantrums like the lyre 

 of Orpheus the trees; and while he lived with my 

 father, a Methodist hymn would always start her. 

 She was a Methodist from instinct, and Hart de- 

 clared that "Tib" knew a Methodist from a Pres- 

 byterian hymn instanter. 



NOTES FROM CANADA WEST. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — For the last five or six 

 years I have furnished you with " notes " on the 

 weather, crops, &c. — embracing a considerable por- 

 tion of the central counties of this peninsula — 

 from actual observation ; but this summer I have 

 been too busy to leave the farm but little — conse- 

 quently my knowledge of the appearance of crops 

 when growing is very limited, except through re- 

 port. My last " notes," dated the middle of July 

 and published in the August number, was a cor- 

 rect picture of the then state of affairs in this 

 immediate neighborhood, and was sent to you as 

 such, stating that it was not true of many locali- 

 ties — only a few miles on either side of us, where 

 they had been blessed with copious showers, thus 

 showing how very partial the rain had been. 



I find by the Farmer for September that the 

 season has been more favorable in Niagara county, 

 and because my description of the state of affairs 

 here did not agree with things there — a distance of 

 ninety miles away — your correspondent, in an un- 

 geutlemanly manner, tries to throw doubts on its 

 correctness. I have seen some truly deplorable 

 accounts from some of our northern counties, 

 where the frost had cut off nearly every green 

 plant, and the drouth setting in immediately there 

 was no prospect before them but starvation, and in 

 some places they even had to cut down trees to 

 feed their cattle on the leaves. Now, though 

 neither this or your correspondent's glowing picture 

 is true of this locality, I should certainly be an 

 ignoramus to doubt the truth of either without 

 some tangible evidence of its being incorrect. 



Since the middle of July we have had all the 

 rain we need, and the late crops will be an average 

 yield. Clover has been cut the second time, giving 

 about fifteen hundred pounds per acre. Early 

 sown spring wheat suffered some from midge, and, 

 in my opinion, some from the aphis ; for it is badly 

 shrunken, and, as far as I have seen threshed, 

 yields only from ten to fourteen bushels per acre. 

 The winter wheat yields from thirty to forty 

 bushels per acre, but very few ventured to sow 

 any last year. This fall a large breadth of land 

 will be sown. Oats are unusually light — not half 

 filled. We attribute it to the aphis, as the oats 

 were literally covered with them. Potatoes are 

 ■ excellent in quality and enormous in size; but the 

 indications of disease are pretty general in the ap- 

 ; pe&rance of the stalks. 



The rain has had a marked effect on apples. 

 What appeared to be a thin crop in July, shows to 

 be sufficient for the trees now they have their 

 growth. Carrots were a failure then, and were 

 generally plowed up ; therefore we can not note 

 any improvement. There will be a fair crop of 

 turnips, though late. Hungarian grass has done 

 well, and will become a favorite crop ; still, I like 

 vetches better. Mine scarcely covered the ground 

 in July, and I am safe in saying that by the 1st of 

 September there was. more than two and a half 

 tuns per acre of dry hay — equal to the best timothy 

 for any purpose. 



Since writing the foregoing I have obtained the 

 following authentic particulars from those who 

 have threshed their grain: One neighbor has 

 thirty bushels of fall wheat per acre, and another 

 forty bushels. These are nearly all who have any 

 near here. One farmer, five miles from this place, 

 threshed eighteen acres of spring wheat, and got 

 only one hundred and fifty bushels of inferior 

 wheat. My nearest neighbor has ten bushels of 

 wheat and twenty bushels of oats per acre. My 

 own gives fourteen bushels of wdieat and thirty- 

 three bushels of oats per acre. From this we still 

 believe that the season has been unusually good 

 for winter and very, very bad for spring wheat. 



Woodstock, Sept. 15, 1862. R. w. s. 



American Forks and Hoes. — For lightness and 

 finish, combined with strength and durability, 

 American forks and hoes are superior to all others. 

 The English, French and German forks are rough, 

 heavy, clumsy things, that make a man's back ache 

 to look at them, much less to handle and use. A 

 week or two ago we saw r , at Toronto, some three 

 and four-tined forks, recently imported from Eng- 

 land, which had iron enough in one of them to 

 make a dozen American forks! The editor of the 

 Wisconsin Farmer, who has just returned from a 

 visit to the Great International Exhibition, says : 



"Among the minor implements of agriculture 

 we were both surprised and gratified to find a col- 

 lection of American forks and hoes. The exhibitor 

 was a sensible English dealer, who, discovering the 

 superiority of this class of American implements 

 as compared with articles of the same description 

 manufactured in his own country, has for years 

 been importing and selling them to his customers. 

 On being asked why English manufacturers did not 

 make them, he replied : ' We can't do it. Have 

 been trying ever since the Great Exhibition of 

 1851, but somehow don't succeed. It is a mortify- 

 ing admission to make, but it is nevertheless true 

 that you Yankees have a knack of doing some 

 things which we have not the skill to imitate.'" 



Hallet's Pedigree Wheat is mentioned several 

 times by the Gardeners Chronicle of September 

 13. It says : " We feel justified in calling the at- 

 tention of agriculturists to this new variety, as an 

 instance in which unusual care, attention and per- 

 severance are being successfully directed to the 

 improvement of the wheat plant." 



