THE GENESEE FARMER. 



311 



; next year you have a big crop. The only -©bject 



plowing in his section, is to get more grass. 



Mr. Walker, of Oswego county, said in his district 



iy cultivate land merely to get grass. If a field 



IS out, they break it up and then seed down again 



;h rye. They plow merely to get in manure and 



eed. 



lev. Mr. Looms, of Cayuga county, thought one of 



I most important questions for the farmers »i i^is 



■te, was in what way and with what products could 



best compete with the West. He thought we 

 >uld have least to fear in cheese and butter making 

 I in raising fruit. Mr. Loosiis mentioned an inter- 

 ng fact: He top-dressed an old meadow — that 

 aid not produce over three-quarters of a ton per 

 i — with straw, and it increased the crop of hay 

 ■wo tons per acre. He top-dresses his meadows, 

 . also his pastures, with straw, and it has. an excel- 

 , effect, 

 [on. Geo. Geddes, of Onondaga, said his rotation 



pasture, plowed in the spring and planted to corn ; 

 1 oats ; next wheat, seeded down in the fall — at 

 time of sowing the wheat — with six quarts of tim- 

 f seed per acre, and six or eight pounds of clover 

 I in the spring. Formerly he allowed his grass 

 I to lie two or three years, but now, on account of 

 cut-worm, he only lets it lie one year. 



THURSDAY EVENING. 



be subject for discussion on Thursday evening was 

 testtnethod of husbanding and applying manure. 

 )LON Robinson thought that the best way was not to 

 )and it at all. He would draw it out as fast as it 

 made. 



r. Van Alstine, of Columbia county, agreed with 

 Robinson. He would apply it on the surface. Na- 



was a safe guide, and she spreads manure on the 

 ace. 



on. Geo. Geddes did not think nature a safe guide, 

 were at war with nature. He believed in top-dress- 

 but thought the fact that trees deposited their leaves 

 he surface was no proof that it was best to apply ma- 

 ! the same way. 



:th Walrath, of St. Lawrence county, had practiced 

 dressing for twenty years. But he liked to have the 

 ure well rotted before using it. Composting 

 ure added 25 per cent, to its value. He thought it 

 killed the seeds of weeds— and in the dairy districts 

 Is were a great nuisance. On many farms half the 

 is weeds. White daisies form two-thirds of the produc- 

 of much grass land. He would pile his manure in 

 s and turn it two or three times to kill the seeds 

 eeds. Would apply it on grass or spring crops. If 

 le latter would cultivate it in.| 



)u. T. C. Peters would like to hear from some Long 

 id farmers as to their method of using manures. He 

 d that the yield of wheat on Long Island was eight 



els per acre higher than the average in the State. 

 *. Cox, of Long Island, was called out, and said they 

 based stable manure in New York. It cost them 



$3.00 per load on the farm. They apply twelve loads per 

 acre. This gives them twenty bushels of wheat per acre. 

 The wheat does not pay for the manure, but after the 

 wheat they get two or three heavy crops of hay which 

 brings a good price. Some farmers manure for corn on 

 sod land. They draw out the manure in the winter and 

 spread it on the land, and plow it under in \he spring. 

 At the time of planting they also apply some well rotted 

 manure in the hill to eive the corn a good start till it can 

 reach the manure and sod plowed under. Others manure 

 for potatoes and sow wheat after the potatoes are har- 

 vested. Some cart sod from the old fences and place it- 

 in the bog pens and cow yards to absorb the liquid, and 

 they use muck in the same way when it can be obatined. 

 Prof. Nash thouglit one reason why the Long Island 

 farmers showed so well in our agricultural statistics was 

 because some of them were wise men and some of them 

 were not as wise. Immense quantities of leached ashes 

 were brought from Western New York. Some farmers 

 use 1,500, 2,000, 2,500 bushels per annum. They are wise. 

 The ashes do good. Fish, too, can be purchased at a 

 cheap rate, and they are extensively used as manure. 

 He had said some were unwise. Perhaps the remark 

 needed qualifying. To illustrate what he meant, he 

 would say there were ma.ny fancy farmers on Long 

 Island ; men who had made large fortunes in the city. 

 They raise large crops regardless of expense. A good 

 lady sometime since was bantering with her husband 

 about the expense of his farm. "Every man must have 

 some pleasure," be said. " My farm does not cost me 

 over $-3,000 a year, and it affords me more enjoyment than 

 I can get for the money in any of the fashionable amuse- 

 ments of the city." The Professor kcew a man of this 

 character who has a farm of sixty acres on Long Island, 

 and he makes it produce more than six hundred acres of 

 the same land produced a few years ago. The crops are 

 raised at a loss, but they help to swell the general aver- 

 age. As a general rule, however, the farmers on Long 

 Island are very successful. They pay great attention to 

 composting everything that will make manute, and keep 

 up the feitility of the soil. 



Hon. Geo. Geddbs remarked that the Long Island far- 

 mers sell everything they raise. They even sell tluiir 

 straw, and consequently they are obliged to buy manure 

 even if it costs $86 an acre to raise twenty bushels of 

 wheat. Farmers in Onondaga county are wise enough 

 not to sell manure in the form of straw and hay. He 

 knows some who raise several hundred bushels of grain, 

 and cut one hundred tuns of hay a year, who do not sell 

 a particle of it. It is consumed on the farm and the ma- 

 nure keeps up the fertility of the soil. Taking into con- 

 sideration the amount of produce raised, aiid the little 

 that is sold off the farm, he thought the farmers of West- 

 ern New York manured their land more highly than thosa 

 of Long Island. There was more fertilizing matter in a 

 good clover sod than in any twelve loads of manure you 

 could purchase in New York. He had a field that had 

 never had a shovelful of manure applied to it for sixty- 

 five years, and by growing clover and pasturing it with 

 sheep, &c., it gets richer instead of poorer. Every farm 

 should be self-sustaining. We cannot afford to draw 

 manure a mile. In regard to husbanding manures he 



