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TIIE GEKESEE FARMER. 



"•" - "iWL 



clieaper here than in tlie vicinity of large towns, 

 Pat soon becomes seized in fee as the lawyers have 

 it, and sets up his shanty. 



Here, at the south of the village, at Payn's Creek, 

 I saw a rich intervale of some acres thrown up into 

 high, broad ridges and deep trenches by the spade. 

 It looked beautiful ; yet I could not help but feel 

 that the "increase would not pay the malting," 

 where land is so plenty and cheap, and vegetables 

 ad libitum in every man's garden. But the farm 

 belongs to an amateur farmer from New York, one 

 of the editors of the Journal of Commerce^ a man 

 of taste, a gentleman, and a scholar. When money 

 comes easy, it is iimocent and even commendable 

 to employ it thus. I could be as enthusiastic in 

 praise of the blue and green Avaters of Cayuga 

 Lake, as of the all fertile, picturesque country that 

 surrounds it, had I not so long lived by the side of 

 the prolific ocean, whose waters teem with a ma- 

 rine vegetation and consequent profuse animated 

 nature, unknown even to the largest lakes. True, 

 among the feather ieds of the Cayuga outlet and 

 Seneca river, both Zoophytes and Crustacea may he 

 found; and bull heads, perch, pike and pickerel, are 

 at times to be caught, with now and then a few lean 

 herring and poor whitefish, with an occasional salmon 

 trout from the bottom of the deep lake waters. But 

 what are they, compared to the vegetable and pisca- 

 torial wealth of old Ocean's borders ? 



TO DESTROY CANADA THISTLES, 



Editors Genhsee Faemku: — Among the prize 

 essays published in the January number of the 

 Farmer^ I find one on the destruction of Canada 

 Tliistles; and although it contains many good ideas, 

 yet some of the methods your correspondent recom- 

 mends for their extirpation I know from experience 

 to be entirely fallacious. 



One of the means which he recommends for their 

 destruction is to "fallow with a green crop — of 

 Swedish turnips, carrots, mangel wurzel, potatoes, 

 OT with Indian corn." Now, sirs, unless it is in- 

 tended to cultivate and hoe these crops from the 

 time they are above ground until tliey are ready 

 for the harvest, the thistles will only grow the 

 faster for the good cultivation which the crop 

 receives. 



A crop of corn will destroy thistles, will it ? Let 

 us see. "We generally finish hoeing corn in the 

 fore part of July. In August, we never touch it. 

 Men may write as much as they please against 

 destroying Canada thistles by cutting tliem in cer- 

 tain stages of the moon or in certain months in the 

 year, and I can kill more thistles by cutting them 

 in the month of August alone than they can in all 

 the rest of the year. "Why this is so, I explain as 

 follows: The great object of Nature is the multi- 

 plication of the species both of plants and animals ; 

 and as the season draws to a close, she puts forth 

 all her powers to accomplish that object. Take 

 the burdock, for example. When cut in the fore 

 part of the season, it will throw up long, slender 

 stalks, similar to those cut off; but in the latter 

 part of the season, numerous short, brancldng 

 shoots, will be thrown out, each laden with its 

 embryo seed, ready to grab hold of every passer- 

 by, and thus be scattered broadcast over the earth. 

 This is the great object of Nature ; whether for a 



good or an evil purpose, it is not our design to 

 iufpiire at the present time. This eifort on the part 

 of Nature to produce seed, draws hard upon th« 

 roots, and weakens them. Hence, if they are ciTt 

 often and thoroughly in the latter part of the sear 

 son, they are pretty sure to die. But in planting 

 corn or roots among them, during this part of th« 

 season they are not disturbed, but left to grow and 

 produce seed unmolested ; and for any one to think 

 of eradicating them by such means as that, is all 

 sheer nonsense. It looks very well on paper ; hni 

 when you come to give it a trial, it fails. 



Everyone fainiliar with clearing land knows thffit 

 if trees are chopped in the spring, the stumps will 

 sprout and grow, because the sap is in full circula- 

 tion and the tree is vigorous from root to leaf; but 

 in the latter part of the season. Nature having 

 accom])lished her mission in the production of seed, 

 if tlie tree is cut, the stump or root does not sprout, 

 but dies ; and land that is choi)ped at this seasqn 

 of the year will be clear from stumps much soojj^ 

 than when chopped in the spring, c. c. wiLSOJf. 



N*\c/ane, Ifiag. Co., N. Y., Jaii'y, 1858. 



CANADA THISTLES. 



Editors Genesee Farmer : — The essay of W. Ht, 

 of Cobourg, C. AV., in your January number, on the 

 methods of destroying this troublesome weed, coi>- 

 tains valuable suggestions; and it were well for the 

 country if they were generally adopted and prao- 

 ticed by our farmers. I have known, in my own 

 experience, the entire success, in eradicating the 

 thistle, of a thorough summer fallowing — plowing 

 and dragging five or six times. The season of ray 

 experiment was a very dry one. No thistles weie 

 seen in the lot after that operation, within my 

 knowledge, covering a period of some six years. 



I would suggest a method I have lately practiced 

 with equal success, and at less cost of labor. It is 

 to plow the thistle patch or lot in the tall, early in 

 November; then, in the spring, go over the ground 

 with a cultivator or gang-plow, and repeat tbe 

 operation two or three times, as circumstances maj 

 require — that is, as often as the thistles show them- 

 selves — until tlie 20th of June, when the ground 

 should be sown with buckwheat at the rate of on© 

 bushel or more to the acre, to secure early shadinu 

 of the ground. This done, and you have disposed 

 of the thistles and almost every other foul weed, 

 and may have a good crop of buckwheat. After 

 harvesting the buckwheat, it will be well to go 

 over the ground with a gang-plow, to make moro 

 certain the destruction of the thistles, and to sprout 

 the buckwheat that may be scattered on the ground, 

 that it may not infest the next spring's crop. I hav« 

 found oats or barley to do very well as a crop to 

 succeed the buckwheat. 



I performed this operation, the past season, on 

 six acres of ground badly infested with thistles, and 

 harvested 225 bushels of the best quality of bucfc- 

 wheat, beside about 30 bushels that must have beea 

 wasted by reason of the incessant rains at the tiinft 

 of harvesting and threshing. Not a sign of a this^o 

 was to be seen on the ground this last fall. e. 



Calves which come early are to be preferred ft^ 

 rearing. Those which come late, frequently do nol 

 acquire sufficient strength to bear the cold of wint^. 



