212 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



his stalks in larpe double stacks in the field, draw- 

 ing thetn in as they are fed out during the winter. 

 He sows dent corn in drills for soiling and for early 

 winter fodder; but it is so full of juices tliat the 

 curing is very difficult. It can rarely be made dry 

 enough to keep from souring and mold, unless it is 

 very thinly distributed on racks in the mough. 

 But every farmer in our warm dry climate should 

 grow a small Jiighly- manured patch of corn for 

 soiling and keeping up the milk of his cows during 

 the late summer and dry autumn months. 



AMERICAN OHKESK IN ENGLAND. 



Every dairyman and woman should read the ar- 

 ticle in the May number of the Farmer under the 

 above heading. It seems that American cheese is 

 > invariably sold in England at from three to four 

 cents a pound lower than English clieese. Thus it 

 appears that the English cheese-makers can not 

 afford to keep cows to make poor, slovenly cheese. 

 What a loss to American cheese-makers on the 

 fifty-two million pounds of cheese exported from 

 this country to England the last year! and all for 

 the want of skill and management. 



We had a backward spring until the first of 

 May, since which the mercury has hardly fallen to 

 the freezing point a single night. A larger breadth 

 of wheat is growing now in little Seneca than has 

 gladdened the eye before since the first years of 

 the midge. Some fields look well, but on others 

 the wheat is thin and yellow. The late much- 

 needed rain, however, has benefitted all. Garden 

 corn, planted on the 1st of May, is now up and 

 ready to hoe. We rarely have a frost along this 

 warm lake outlet severe enough to kill corn planted 

 on the 1st May, and it never rots in a warm drained 

 soil ; but beans and cucumbers are not safe until 

 after the Ist June, should a white frost occur; 

 yet it well pays to cover for a night or two a row 

 of beans for early eating. 



PEAS AS FOOD. ' 



A bushel of peas contains much more strength- 

 giving nutriment, nitrogen, than a bushel of In- 

 dian corn ; but as the corn contains more available 

 carbon it is more fat-forraing. It is also better 

 relished by hogs, poultry, &c. But as peas, like 

 oats, are more strengthening tlian fat-forming, why 

 would not peas ground with Indian corn form a 

 much belter and cheaper food for working animals 

 than oats? There is one advantage in feeding 

 peas which many farmers have not yet taken into 

 the account of profit and loss: the manure from 

 peas is worth much more, if not double of that 

 made from Indian corn. 



WaUrloo, y. r., ifay tC, 1858. 



m m 



To Keep Butter Cool without a Cellar. — A 

 correspondent of the Boston Cultivator says: 

 "Cover the bottom of a large jar with coarse salt. 

 Put the butter in a bag, place it in the jar and cover 

 it with coarse salt; place the jar in a north room, 

 and the salt will keep the butter nearly as cool, 

 through the summer, as a common cellar." 



BEST TEAMS EOB FABM FUKFOSES. 



The Iri$h Farmers'' Qmette says the scarcity of 

 young stock is causing considerable appreiiension 

 in that country. Not only is there a scarcity caused 

 by disease, but there is also a serious falling off in 

 the number annually raised. 



At a late meeting of the Greenfield (Mass.) 

 Club, the question for discussion was: "What 

 kind of a team is the most economical for the 

 farmer to use !" 



The opinion of those present, according to tlie 

 Greenfield Gazette^ generally seemed to> be that if 

 a farmer kept but one team, that an ox team was 

 decidedly the most economical, for the following 

 reasons : 



1st. It wonld not cost near as much at the ont- 

 set to purchase cattle as horses, nor as much to get 

 yokes and carts as harnesses and wagons. 



2d. Young, thrifty cattle would increase in 

 value from twenty-five to fifty dollars per yoke, an- 

 nually, while horses would remain about the same 

 in value. 



3d. Horses are more liable to meet with acci- 

 dents, and many injuries that would render the 

 horse worthless would prove but a slight damage 

 to the ox or loss to the owner, 



4th. There are many kinds of work in many 

 places that can be performed to better advantage 

 with cattle than horses. 



But all were not in favor of cattle. Several 

 gentlemen present preferred a horse team because 

 they could do more work in a given time, with 

 about the same expense for feed. 



They also stated that one horse must be kept on 

 every farm, and that it was cheaper to furnish one 

 extra horse and make a team of the two, than to 

 keep one horse and a yoke of cattle. Otte man 

 even suggested that mules wonld be preferable to 

 any other animals for a team. Nearly all thought 

 that if two teams were necessary on a farm, one 

 must be of horses and the other of cattle. 



CHEAP FIELD FENCE. 



Eds. Gknesee Farmer: A good and sufficient 

 field fence can be made with fifteen inches in width 

 of boards, or fifty rods of fence to the thousand 

 feet of boards. Set the posts, and nail the first 

 board nine inches from the ground ; then make the 

 spaces five, six, seven and ten inches, five boards 

 three inches each in fifteen inches; now turn a 

 furrow six inches deep toward the fence on each 

 side. This brings the earth within three inches of 

 the bottom board, and adds six inches to the hight 

 of the fence, measuriug from the bottom of the 

 furrow, and the ditch or bank make it very un- 

 handy for animals to get at tlie fence. This makes 

 a fence four feet ten inches high. 



I have several hundred rods of snch fence. The 

 first was built five years ago. It ])as proved per- 

 fectly safe and sufficient against cattle that were 

 unruly. It is not racked by the wind like a fence 

 of wider boards. Fonrteen-foet boards, with one 

 post in the middle, take a less number of posts, 

 and make as good fence as twelves. I have used 

 white oak board at about twelve dollars per thou- 

 sand, and swamp oak split posts at four cents each. 

 Jatkim, Mich, B. SUARPE. 



