96. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Tws Dkmand por Farms.— Gold has advanced fully 20 

 per ceutdni-ing the past lew weeks. It is uow (Feb. '25,) 

 quoted at 72 p«r cent, preuiium. The etfect of this is to 

 advance the price of everything a farmer has to sell. 

 Strangely enough some people do not seem to comprehend 

 il. One fact ought to satisfy them of its truth. In To- 

 ronto wheat sells for 00 cents to $1 per bushel. Here iu 

 Rochester the same wheat is worth §1.70 to $1.80, and yet 

 there is uo duty, and the freight amounts to only a few 

 cents per bushel. The truth is, and we may as well ad- 

 mit it first as last, our moMy has depreciated. Gold has not 

 advanced. It never was so cheap as now. A Canadian 

 dollar bill is worth only a dollar, and yet any one will give 

 one of our three dollar bills for a two dollar Canada bill. 



As our readers know, we hav^all along predicted that 

 the war would advance the price of land. That prediction 

 seems to be on the eve of fulfilment. AH over the country 

 there is a great movement in real estate. Every day we 

 hear of some one who has sold his farm. A friend of ours 

 had a nice farm of 300 acres. A gentleman from New York 

 asked him how nuich he would take for it. " Fifty dollars 

 an acre," he repfied. '' IwUl take it ;" andour friend found 

 himself without a farm! Another farmer sold his farm 

 and brought the money to this city. At the Bank they 

 told him they would take his money, but could not pay 

 any interest. He immediately went back and bought 

 another farm from a man who had not heard the news. 

 Real estate is advancing rapidly, but by no means in the 

 same proportion to the advance in gold. 



"Spirit of thb Agricl'ltiral Press."— This depart- 

 ment of the Farmer we regard as one of its most valuable 

 features. We receive all the leading agricultural journals 

 of Europe and America, and endeavor each month to ex- 

 tract iheir "spirit" for the benefit of our readers. We 

 hare this moment read the " proof" of our page of 

 "spirit" for the present month, and were rather sur- 

 prised to tiiid nothing in it but wool! Every article is 

 abiiut sheep I We must unconsciously have caught 

 the fever. It is quite prevalent in this section, but we 

 thought "cheese" was a preventive. Such does not 

 seem to be the case, though it is the best remedy yel 

 disWovcred. 



It is possible, after all, that it is not our fault. Per- 

 hapa there is nothing in the papers except sheep, and we 

 had to take such as we found. We do not make the 

 '•spirit," we only extract it. Had we been a.sked, how- 

 ever, what subjects were most discussed by the aL'ricul 

 tural pre.ss, we should have said, sorghum, sugar beet, 

 tobacco, whit« willow and sheen, in this country, and 

 stenm plowing in Europe. On reflection we are satisfled 

 that the fault is in us. We have caught the sheep fever. 

 We hope to recover by next month. 



Eli.wanorh a IUrht's Cataloqub.— We have received 

 from MesHrs. Ki.lwanokr A, Harrt, the great Nur.-ierv 

 men of this citv, a copy of their new descriptive 

 CHtaloi{ue of Ornamental Treex and Shrubs, Roses, Flowers. 

 Plaiitf. Ac. It is miperbly illu<traled with beantilul 

 drawing* of Oniamenial Trees. Ac. With the exception 

 of the h'ural Annual & IhrticuHural Directo'-y, there is 

 nothing which has yet appeared iu this country that ap- 

 proaches il iu this respect. 



"What shall I do with mt MonkyV" — A few days ago 

 a fanner ';ame into our otlice to inquire what be should d( 

 with some money he wished to invest. 



"If you have a mortgage on your farm," we replied, 

 " pay it up." 



"My farm is all clear, and I do not owe a cent to anj 

 one." 



"Buy another farm, if you can meet with one to suit." 



"I have land enough." 



"Is there any land on your farm that needs draining?" 



"I guess not. It is mo.stly rolling land." 



"It may be, and yet need underdraining. There are 

 thousands of acres of land in Western New York that 

 look dry, but which is nevertheless full of stagnant 

 water." 



" Perhaps so, but I do not believe my laud needa 

 draining." 



"The fact that j-ou have money to invest would indi- 

 cate as much. Bnt when you go home take a spade and 

 dig a few trenches in different parts of the farm, three 

 feet deep, and see if the water will not remain in them. 

 If it does the land needs draining. And if so, you had 

 better tile-diain at once. The money so inrested will pay 

 a good interest, with no danger of depreciation. You 

 will iiet back interest and principal in specie." 



"The Banks here don't pay any interest." 



" The banks on your farm will, if the money is properly 

 invested. Is there no low land that needs ditching— no 

 old meadow that could be improved— no land where the 

 reaper and mower can not be used';" 



" Yes. I have an old meadow that is too rough to 

 mow, and the grass in spots is so coart.e that the cows do 

 not like it.'' 



"Just the place for your spare money. Snch a field 

 when drained and improved, often proves the richest and 

 most productive land on the farm. You can not fiud a 

 better investment— certainly not in this city." 



Febding Calves. — A friend ^jf ours who has great suc- 

 cess in raising calves on skimmed milk and "coru 

 pudding," adopts the following method : He never lets 

 the calf suck the cow, but teaches it to drink out of a 

 pail. Wh' n tlie calf is three or four days old, he takes 

 about a teacupful of corn meal and pours a pint of hot 

 water over it, stirs it up and lets it scald for a few 

 minutes. He then pours on three or four quarts of skim- 

 med milk, or as much as the calf wi'l drink. In the 

 meantime he has had a ]iiece of iron heating in tfie stov •. 

 When red hot he stirs the milk with it. This " scorching 

 the milk" he considers of the greatest importance when 

 calves are fed on skimmed milk. It prevents it from 

 scouring the calves. As the calf grows older he increases 

 the quantity of corn-meal. Whe:) three weeks old he 

 gives at least a pint at each meal. The skimmed milk, at 

 first, is only twelve hours from milking, but when the 

 calf is older the milk may be allowed to stand twenty-four 

 oi" thirty-six hours before it is skimmed. 



A FARMRn sends his subscription to the Ohio Ci'ltimtor- 

 and remarks : "Other folks may get along without, bnt I 

 am satisfied that unless I h»ve u religious iind an agricul- 

 tural paper to lighten up my mind and heart, I shall be fti 

 vain man, a cripplo aad a botch!" 



