178 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



THE SUBJECTS FOR PRIZE ESSAYS. 



The following article briefly alluding to some of 

 the subjects which have been suggested for Prize 

 Essays, will be read with interest : 



Messes. Editors. — All I know on the several 

 subjects which you mention shall here be given. 



Never raised a hop for market. 



Best harrow I ever used was a Geddes harrow. 

 I have tried several different harrows lately, be- 

 cause I have borrowed all the same kind — the 

 square hinged harrow, teeth round on what should 

 be the point, and usually cultivating the ground to 

 the depth of one to two inches. My land has some 

 stone. It is so much work to raise that part of the 

 drag to which the team is attached to clear it of 

 stone, that I don't do it, and my men wont. ( We 

 all pretend to.) A harrow should go as deep as a 

 plow, and we fail wonderfully in the use of them, 

 hecaiise we are not Avilling to jsut another team to 

 draw a good one. 



My sheep never had bean straw but once ; then 

 they broke into the field and consumed the crop. 

 Did not see any particular elFect on the sheep. 



On stacking and feeding out straw — no experi- 

 ment — of course not; but I guess straw is better 

 worth saving than farmers usually imagine. My 

 loss in stacking straw has been in not keeping the 

 middle of the stack sufficiently full and well trod- 

 den. Stacks are built in a hurry ; the weight is 

 mostly in the centre, and when it settles it leaves 

 the stack inclined to talce water instead of shedding. 

 The best place to stack is in a straw-barn, or to put 

 the straw back in the place it came from, which, 

 latter can be done at small expense. Feed it plen- 

 tifully in racks, with grain besides, and clean the 

 racks at every foddering. 



A farm-house cellar should be high enough to 

 allow the swinging of the cleaver in cutting up 

 pork; cement bottom; double outside doors and 

 double windows ; the bottom smoothed with a 

 straight edge, and a channel left around the out- 

 side, to carry away water which may get in, to 

 the drain. 



Never colored any butter excepting by feeding 

 iry cows with rich food. 



Barn-yards should be warm and dry. 



Should milk my cows twice a day, if they give 

 much milk, because — because — I have always been 

 in the habit of it — as was my father before me. 



One of my neighbors told me that by bandoging 

 and covering the cheese with cloth, the flies did not 

 trouble them; hxxt I donH hiow. Save my cheese 

 by eating them. 



No man can keep stock profitably without shel- 

 ter, and certainly not as a christian. 



1 have cut corn stalks with Burrall's cutting box, 

 (sickle edge to the knives,) by horse power, and the 

 well cured stalks were eaten clean, and the stock 

 did well; but poor stalks might as well be fed 

 whole, excepting they are inconvenient to draw 

 out, spread, and plow under. Best time in the 

 winter; best place in the stable; best way, in a 

 manger. 



Never tried about the value of milk churned as 

 compared with the churning of cream. 



Did not know there was any poison sumac, and 

 glad there is one weed that is new to me. 



It would be impracticable for me to adopt the 

 ten hour system, and imprudent. 



Don't know about taking off all the stone, but 

 don't think any of my land has been injui-ed as yet, 

 and I have picked a " power" of them. 



It would not pay me to cook the feed for my 

 stock, I guess. I hate a mule, and like a horse, 

 which would decide which I would raise. I doubt 

 whether mules are more profitable than oxen. 



Farmers should adorn their homes before they 

 become weathy, if they ever intend to do it. Make 

 home pleasant, and you have lived to some purpose. 

 Beautify with white wash, and hop-vines, and 

 healthy children ; afterwards with paint, and green- 

 houses, and statuary, and fountains. By the by, 

 one of my neighbors has a fountain through which 

 the water rises in beautiful jets, and I must con- 

 fess to a little pride in it myself, that it is in my 

 town. It is refining and civilizing in its effects. — 

 How may it be done ? By taking a little time that 

 you never will miss, and doing wliat your wife 

 want you to, and wJien she wants it. 



Six months in the year is as long as my cattle 

 want to be in the stable. I fancy it does them 

 good to get out; but I don't ^^lowiinything about it. 



It is desirable to have as much stock of all kinds 

 as you can keep well. Farmers should not have all 

 their eggs in one basket. 



Have a house within your means, and barns and 

 sheds enough to hold all you raise, to stable all 

 your cattle, and shelter all your sheep and colts. 



You want good tools, and plenty of them. I have 

 tried this. I have owned plenty and good ones, 

 and I have borrowed. I am glad that I have tried 

 one thing. 



Make fruit stealing something more than trespass; 

 put a man in jail or prison for it, and you have 

 done something to encourage fruit growing. A 

 better and more efficacious way would be to teach 

 children not to steal. 



From all that I have read about transplanting, I 

 should think either spring or fall, whichever time 

 you had most leisure to do it well. 



The dollar book I will furnish you when you call 

 for it at my house, provided yov read this letter all 

 tlirough. 



I told you I was ditching some. By Thursday I 

 shall have completed my thousand rods of ditch, or 

 thereabouts, this spring. It is doing a great work 

 for my field — ditches average about 40 ft. apart, 2^ 

 ft. deep. Get my tile in Rochester, and bring them 

 up by railroad. saml. l. fullee. 



Conesm Centre., JV Y. May 185S. 



Preparing Fire Wood in the Fall. — Mr. B., in 



his " suggested items. No. 19," says : " Get up your 

 wood in the winter, enough to last a year; saw and 

 split it in the spring." For many, this advice is 

 very good ; but for my part, I prefer getting my 

 wood in the summer, or early in the fall, and for this 

 reason, that I can gather a great deal of good wood 

 at that time which I can not get at in the winter ; 

 and then all I gatlier is dry, and by tliis practice my 

 farm is cleared up of all roots and chunks, and 

 moreover, chopping, sawing, and si^litting, is saved, 

 and you have Avood that can easily be kindled on a 

 cold morning. Mr. B.'s plan is good where wood 

 is plenty, and where green wood is relied on. S. 

 K. — Wrychnan's Corners., C. TF., Aj^ril, 1858. - 



