206 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



and those of poor quality, and very few sheep. — 

 When I hear a fanner say, " My cows are poor this 

 spring, and don't make much butter," the spectacle 

 of mouldy straw and no hay comes up before me ! 

 How cruel to the poor bovine — how unprofitable 

 to the farmer I — I got a letter the other day from 

 a happy farmer, who, on his hundred acre farm, 

 plows but from four to six acres ; I call him rich, 

 because he is out of debt, and his wealth is in the 

 unexhausted soil of his farm, no less than in the 

 simplicity of his wants. He says that his farm is 

 now richer and will bring larger cereal crops than 

 it would thirty years ago. True, our hundred acre 

 grain-growing farmers made money faster than this 

 man twenty years ago, but it was done at the ex- 

 pense of their soil, and where is their money now, 

 and what is their laud ? Verily, they have eaten 

 the calf in the cow's belly I How few men ycleped 

 farmers, estimate the difference between their farms 

 as they were and as they are. 



The New Yoek Distillery Cows. — Tliere is, as 

 tlie Spaniards say, '■'■cosas cuidado''' enough in the 

 confinement and ill-treatment of these cows, to 

 warrant the present excitement against swill-milk, 

 ■R-ithout arraigning the analysis of the slop. And 

 the assertion that such milk will not make butter, 

 is as untrue in practice as it is in theory ; we might 

 as well say it would not fat beef or pork. The slop 

 is certainly as rich in oil, phosphate of lime, and all 

 the protein compounds, as hay or grass. It has 

 lost nothing by distillation but the starch of the 

 grain, which has gone to sugar, and then to alcohol. 

 And this starch may be compensated for by small 

 rations of good hay or grass. In proof of it, hun- 

 dreds of cows were kept on still slop here, and in 

 this vicmity, all last year and a part of the year 

 before, and" they never gave more milk cr that 

 made more butter. The fact that such milk does 

 not coagulate as soon as other milk, is in its favor, 

 at least for edible purposes in the cities and large 

 tiSwns. But the most farcical charge is italicised in 

 a New York daily, as one of the gravest., to wit; 

 that the cows are never treated with fresh water ; 

 ^ast as though a cow could be compelled to drink 

 water when she could get slop. 



An Impeoved Tn.E MAcmxE. — There is a Tile 

 Machine made at Latoueette's Foimdry, in this 

 tillage, which moulds seven hundred tile an hour^ 

 two horses are hitched to a sweep or wooden shaft, 

 that turns the mill and presses out the clay through 

 dies, five on a side. It Ls a cast iron machine, cost 

 $270. One is now in operation at Union Springs, 

 Cayuga county, and another at Penn Yan. 



Tile Good sells the Bad — Thereby giving no 

 encouragement to fine wool growers or good butter 

 makers; so says J. C, Adams, in the last Farmer. 

 But all this is about being changed now ; for truth 

 with its leaden heels has not failed to ovort^ake and 

 overthrow rampant ■ error. Fine and well made 

 butter now brings its price i in New York, while 

 tliousands of mixed firkin butter sells for grease. 

 The same with wool. " You are getting very par- 

 ticular," said a farmer to a wool-sorter here the 

 other day. " You used to give me nearly as much 

 for coarse as for finer wool, and I got rid of my 

 finest wooled sheep." The fact is that our Eastern 

 wool-buyers, through their agents, liave, as Mr. A. 

 asserts, taught the farmer bad tricks, which it will 

 be for his interest now to abandon, as it will be a 



long time probably before wool-buyers will get 

 crazy again. 



— In my last "Notes for the Month," I adverted 

 to the lands on the central plateau of Long Island, 

 advertised in the last Farmer for sale by Dr. Peck, 

 at the very low price of $20 the acre. I have just 

 received a letter from Dr. Peck, saying, in proof 

 that said lands are not deteriorated by a sea-washed 

 sub-soil, that fifteen years ago this tract of land 

 was heavily timbered. He also demonstrated tliat 

 no other tract of the earth's surface had been so 

 thoroughly misrepresented and foully slandered, 

 not only by tlie Long Island farmers generally, but 

 by the grave historians of the Island, who could 

 give no other reasons for their opinion than com- 

 mon report. He now avers that the statements 

 made in his advertisement cannot be controverted, 

 and that the land in question needs no organic or 

 mineral amendment, to enable it to bring even large 

 crops of grass and grain, as late experiments have 

 fully proved. 



Waievloo, N. T.. Jum, 1S53. 



GEASS CULTUKE. 



That " he is a benefactor of his race, who makes 

 two blades of grass grow where but one grew be- 

 fore," is very readily admitted, and yet how few 

 are the farmers who make grass culture the direct 

 object, — who give meadows and pastures the atten- 

 tion they need— the attention which they would 

 repay so profitably. The fact is, the grasses get 

 little or no culture ; we sow only clover and timo- 

 thy, (sometunes applying plaster to the latter,) 

 which is about all the care given, or fertilizing ma- 

 terial applied. We take from them, hoAvever, less 

 scrupulously, hay and pasture, early and late, — de- 

 manding much and bestowing little upon our ever- 

 patient grass lands. 



The farmer — and our '■'■Farmer'''' — ought to give 

 more attention to the subject. We lose much by 

 spreading our grass over ticice the land it need to 

 occiqnj. Culture and drainage would more than 

 double the average yield of grass throughout the 

 country. A knowledge of the characteristics and 

 value of the different varieties which we should 

 grow would be valuable, and this our '•'•Farmer''^ 

 should give us, and urge the subject upon the at- 

 tention of its readers. I would attempt the t,ask, 

 myself, but I have grown only the two varieties 

 named above, save as self-sown upon my meadows. 



As to clover — on all land suited to its production 

 — it should be sown with every grain crop; and 

 with me, its growth is more certain, as well as 

 largely increased, by a top-dressing of plaster — one 

 bushel per acre — as soon as it appears above ground. 

 It succeeds best with winter wheat or rye, oats and 

 barley having a thicker undergrowth of leaves. — 

 Last season we sowed plaster on part of a meadow 

 seeded to clover three years since, and now, of 

 course, nearly all June grass and timothy, and Avere 

 surprised to see a heavy growth of clover wherev'^ 

 the plaster was applied. 



Manure-^well rotted is best — will not injure the 

 yield of grass, if applied at almost any setison ; we 

 would try it after harvest — spreading and harrow- 

 ing, and putting on grass seed, if necessary. Bro- 

 ther farmers, give us your views on grasi cuUv/re. 



B. F. 



