THE GENESEK FAIi.UER. 



835 



hune, that the failure of the cotton crop this year 

 on account of the early frost, is no argument 

 agaiast the feasibility of raising it in ordinary sea- 

 sons. " The fact is," he says " that for m^>re than 

 forty years cotton lias been raised in Illinois as far 

 north as Vandalia, and during all this time it has 

 done first rate except one year only, when it was 

 killed in June. Within this region are thousands 

 of families, who, during the whole time, and up to 

 the present moment, have worn scarcely any other 

 cotton-cloth than such as they themselves raised, 

 spun and wove. If the frosts of this year prove 

 that cotton can not be raised here, they also prove 

 that corn can not be raised in Central Illinois. I 

 never saw finer fields of tobacco than I saw last 

 week near Cleveland, on Lake Erie. If frosts 

 prove anything, they prove that tobacco can not be 

 raised in Kentucky, but that it can be raised in 

 Northern Ohio." 



"We know nothing of the merits of the question, 

 but it would seem that the experiment the present 

 year does not prove whether cotton can or can not 

 be profitably raised in Illinois. 



BBINING WHEAT. 



Eds. Faemkr: At page 314 of the current (Oc- 

 tober) number of the Genesee Farmer^ you say, 

 "We should be afraid to soak the seed in strong 

 brine." I have used brine as strong as it could be 

 made, and the seed has lain in the pickle from a 

 half to tliree-qnartersof an }iour, and until, by con- 

 stant stirring, all the light material had risen to the 

 surface and been skimmed off. The wheat has 

 then been dipped into a basket and drained for a 

 minute or so, and emptied into a tight wagon box. 

 When about twenty bushels had been thus washed, 

 caustic lime has been sprinkled in, and the mass 

 shovelled over until entirely dry. In that condi- 

 tion I have had it remain for a week, witheut any 

 detriment to its germinating power. I generally 

 had it shovelled over once in two days, so that it 

 could not lieat. Treated in this way, I "forever 

 warrant and defend" against smut. 



The lime ought to be slaked the day beforehand, 

 and should be caustic — which I understand to be 

 from fresli burned atones. t, 



Darian, October, 1863. 



Kemarks. — These experiments of our esteemed 

 correspondent seem conclusive. We thank him for 

 his communication. The reason why we thought 

 it best to caution our readers against the use of 

 salt, was this : Some years ago the father of the 

 writer in sowing his wheat, found that he had not 

 •nough seed to finish the field. The seed already 

 sown had been " pickled" with chamber-lye and 

 dried with caustic lime. He had no more cham- 

 ber-lye, and for the small quantity of seed required 

 W finish the field, he used aalt-brine instead — raak- 



ing tlie brine strong ennugii to swim an egg. The 

 wheat was dried with lime as before. Tliere was 

 no difference except that chamber-lye was used on 

 one, and salt brine on the otlier. When the wheat 

 came up, that portion of the field where the salted 

 seed was sown was much thinner than the other, 

 and it was thought at the time that the salt had 

 injured the germinating properties of the seed. 

 There may have been otiier reasons for the thinness 

 of the crop, but our father ever afterwards was 

 careful to save enough chamber-lye, so as not 

 to be compelled to use salt for pickling his 

 wheat, — Eds, 



Birds and Inskots. — A correspondent of an 

 English paper says : 



In the county of York there is a rookery belong- 

 ing to W. Vavasour, Esq., of Weston-in-Wliarf- 

 dale, in which it is estimated that there are 10,000 

 rooks. One pound of insect food a week is a very 

 moderate allowance for each bird — nine-tenths of 

 their food consisting of worms, insects and their 

 larvaa. Here, then, there is the enormous quantity 

 of 468,000 pounds, or 209 tuns of worms, insects 

 and their larvas, destroyed by rooks of a single 

 rookery in one year I Each rook, in his calcula- 

 tion, is given to have picked up one pound of food 

 per week, nine-tenths of which was of insect mat- 

 ter, the wire-worm and larvae. I have kept rooks 

 tame, and to my certain knowledge, they will con- 

 sume itore than the. quantity above stated." 



Repairing a Chain Pump. — A correspondent 

 of the Oermantown Telegraph shjs: 



"For some time my chain pump has been out of 

 order, the pipe having become too large tor tha 

 boxes, I could not find a carpenter who had th« 

 tools or the material for making a new one,, and 

 had worried myself for weeks about it, when I met 

 a boy, who told me to put leather upon the chain, 

 so as to enlarge the boxes to the size of the [)ii)e — 

 if I could not lessen the pipe to the boxes-, I: 

 thought of poor Robinson Crusoe, who,, when he 

 could not get his boat to the water, concluded it 

 would be wise to get the water to the boat— and 

 did as the boy suggested, and have thus a much 

 better pump than when it was new, 



"It is the little things which are the most dif- 

 ficult to be seen," 



Large Pumpkins. — Mr. A, Farquhar, of Can- 

 ada, writes us that about ten years ago he raised 

 on one plant three pumpkins weighing respectively 

 268, 278 and 318 pounds. In addition to these 

 three large ones, there were several others, varying 

 from 4 pounds to 124 pounds. The vine expended 

 to about 30 feet, Mr, F, adds, " I have no doubt 

 if the whole had been weighed they would have 

 been very near a tun I Can any readers of th« 

 Genesee Farmer beat this ? " 



