146 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



ner. He shears about the first of June. He gets 

 more for wool than those of his neighbors who do 

 not take as niucli pains with it. 



The President asked Mr. Bristol what he 

 thought would be the result if Western New York 

 sheep were taken to Ohio and kept there for a few 

 years. Would not the wool grown in Ohio be 

 worth more? 



Mr. BiusTOL thought it was in the men, and not 

 in the soil and climate. 



Mr. WiiiTAKKR, of Yates, indignantly denied that 

 farmers were dishonest. 



Mr. Bristol had not made such a charge. He 

 would ask Mr. W., however, if he thought it was 

 houest to bind up the tags and to pick up rubbish 

 from the barn-yard and conceal it in the wool, 

 tying up the whole with heavy hemp twine ! 



It was then proposed to take a vote, and the 

 President requested all in favor of the resolutions 

 to staud up. Eight members stood up. Those op- 

 posed were then asked to stand up, and about the 

 same number arose in their seats I The President 

 did not say whether the resolutions were passed 

 or not. 



The first resolution was the only one discussed. 

 A resolution wa^ offered and passed to the efiect 

 that wool buyers ought not to pay as much for poor 

 ■wool as for good ! 



The members seemed impatient to leave. A 

 resolution was offered to appoint a committee of 

 one in each county in Western New York to as- 

 certain the names of those who were willing to 

 dispense with washing and those who were not, 

 and to have them published. The resolution was 

 declared carried. Members were constantly leaving 

 the room. There seemed to be a general rush for 

 the door. They were reijuestcd to remain a mo- 

 ment. A motion was made to appoint Elisha 

 Harmon, D. D. T. Moore and A. MoPherson Jr., a 

 committee to correspond with manufacturers and 

 ascertain what they would pay for unwashed as 

 compared with waslied wool. It received three 

 votes, and was declared carried. And thus ended 

 the Western New York Wool Growers' Conven- 

 tion. Wlien we left, the Secretaries were appoint- 

 ing the committee of one in each county. 



Hioii Price of Sheep. — The American Stock 

 Journal says : 



"The excitement in stork sheep seems to be run- 

 ning IiikIi all over the CDUutry, and sheep of all 

 kinds are bringing alniDst ti:bul'jns prices. Edwin 

 Hammonh, of Middh.'liury, Vr., wns recently offered 

 twenty ihousnnd dollars f-ir fit'iy \^>( his best slieep — 

 four hundred a head I — and the oiler wa^ declined." 



CULTIVATION OF BARLEY. 



Barley should be s6wn as early as tlie ground 

 can be got into good condition. Fine tillth is par- 

 ticularly needed. It selduin does well on sod land. 

 If corn has been planted on an old ricb sod and 

 well cultivated, it is one of the best crops to pre- 

 cede barley. In England barley always follows a 

 turnip crop, and tliere is nothing better, provided, 

 as is almost invariably the case in England, the tur- 

 nips are eaten off by sheep on the land. The drop- 

 pings of the sheep enrich the soil, and a large crop 

 of barley is the result. 



Barley likes a warm, active soil, such as a 

 gravely loam. It does not do as well on low, 

 swampy land as oats; neither does it do as well on 

 heavy clays as wheat. On a rather heavy loam, 

 when thoroiigMy i)ulverized, large crops liavebeen 

 grown — as, for instance, when barley has been 

 sown on heavy land summer-fallowed the previous 

 season. As a rule, however, a rather light loam is 

 the favorite soil of the barley crop. 



As we have before said, barley requires good 

 tilth. Tliis is essential — far more so than for wheat 

 or oats. It is also important to have the soil in 

 good condition. The barley crop matures early ; 

 Vapid growth, therefore, is essential. The roots, 

 too, do not extend nearly as far as wheat. For 

 these reasons a rich soil — one abounding in the 

 element of plant-food in an available condition, is 

 indispensable for a large crop of barley. Early 

 sowing, so as to lengtiien the season as much as 

 possible, is also important. With this object in 

 view, some good farmers in this section plow tJie 

 land in the fall, and then sow the seed in the spring 

 without again plowing. In this way they can get 

 the crop in by the middle of April. Unless this 

 course is adopted, it is not often that we can, in 

 this section, get the soil in good condition for sow- 

 ing before the last of April or first of May. 



Two bushels of seed per acre is about the rule 

 in this section ; but two and a halt' to t hree bushels 

 are more frequently sown by our most successful 

 barley- growers. In England, where clover is al- 

 most invariably sown with the barley crop, it is 

 usual to roll the land when the barley is just out 

 of the ground. Thi-* is done, not so much because 

 it is tlionglit to help the barley, as for the benefit 

 of the clover, (which likes a firm seed-bed,) and to 

 make the land smooth to facilitate gathering the 

 barley at harvest time. The same practice is com- 

 mon in this section, but if the land is tine and 

 mellow, and is not seeded with clover, the rolling 

 is not essential. 



