246 



THE GEKl\;SEE FARilEB. 



AN INTEEESTING LETTES FROM INDIANA. 



Eds. Genesee Farmeu: — 1 have been a reader 

 of voiir valuable paper for some years, and I have 

 tliouirht of many questions which I would like to 

 liave argued through it, but the idea of having both 

 the Farmer and questions answered for fifty cents, 

 w;is, I thought, too much of a good thing. I have 

 tried to get others to subscribe; but their answer 

 is, I am taking one or more weekly newspapers, 

 and can not take any more. Now, I can not, nor 

 will not, do without a paper containing the general 

 jiL'ws; but I do not consider the Genesee Farmer 

 as interfering with those papers, for when they are 

 rend they are destroyed; for although they con- 

 tain a vast anrount of useful matter, it is almost 

 iriipossible to find anything for the want of an 

 iiidex. I have often seen valuable receipts in those 

 IKxpers, but when they are needed they can not be 

 found. Now I would say to all persons, give your 

 recei{)te to a paper published in the form and man- 

 ner of the Genesee Farmer, and the receipts, paper 

 and all, will be preserved, for such a paper is 

 nothing more nor less than an unbound book. 



I am surprised at not seeing more advertisements 

 of forming and other labor-saving implements in 

 your paper. Very often such advertisements come 

 at a time when the fanner has no idea of ever 

 wanting anything of the kind; but perhaps in the 

 course of a few months something may turn up that 

 will cause him to want something of the kind, and 

 all he has to do (if the advertisement has not been 

 continued up to the time) is to consult some of his 

 lack numbers; whereas, in a paper containing 

 general news, it would have been destroyed. 



I would like to liave a little advice from you, or 

 some of your correspondents,, upon the manner of 

 fittening hogs. I believe it is generally considered 

 tliat farmers are not a very intelligent class, or at 

 least not very scientific. Now, if' some of those 

 persons entertaining these opinions were to visit 

 our part of the country, they would come to the 

 conclusion that we had constructed our hog pens 

 on a scientific princijde — provided our principal 

 object was the Avaste of manure. I will describe 

 one of these pens — and they are all about alike, — 

 not that I want any of your readers to copy after 

 tlicm, but that tliey may assist us in remedying 

 tljis great evil, namely, the waste of manure. The 

 pi\'at oljject in making the selection of the ground 

 foi- the pen, is to get a rolling piece of land, with a 

 stream of water flowing through. It is fenced, and 

 a pen made of rails, generally without a roof, for 

 the reception of the corn. This land is nice and 

 dry until the rains set in; then if you could see us 

 with a basket of corn on our shoulders, wading 

 through the mud, hunting for a place where the 

 corn will not sink so deep but that the hogs may 

 find it by taking considerable of a dive into the 

 nnid, you could give us another chapter in the ex- 

 pei'ience of former Slapdash. 



8iime years ago, an article was published in the 

 Geuisee Farmer, showing the great benefit it would 

 be to the western farmer to feed his grain to hogs 

 and cattle, it costing so much less to send the meat 

 than the grain to a distant market. But one great 

 object of the article was to show the large amount 

 of fertilizing matter that was left upon the farm ; 

 tut so far as the manure is concerned, we gain 

 •nothing, for it is all washed off by the stream of 



water. Now what I want you to do is to convince 

 us, if you can, by facts and figures, that hogs can 

 be fattened in a small wooden pen cheaper, to say 

 nothing about the manure, than by our mode. 

 Some of our best farmers believe that swine will 

 not fatten well on a wooden floor. A pen could 

 be built of wood to feed in, but unless the corn wa» 

 shelled or crushed, they would carry it into the 

 mud. Then of course we must provide oui-selves 

 with a crusher, and in that there is some difiiculty. 

 I have consulted our report of the State Fair for 

 1854 and 1855. The reporter says he inquired of 

 the exhibitors of fat cattle whether they used 

 crushers, and how they liked them. Their answers 

 were that they had not mucli of an opinion of them, 

 for they require too much labor for the profit, and 

 that they wear out too soon. I, of course, do not 

 expect you to give an opinion concerning the last 

 or value of any particular crusher, but Tdo think 

 the manufacturers ought to satisfy the public that 

 their machines will not only crush well, but that 

 they Avill last long enough to repay the purchaser. 

 Pike Co., Iiul. GEO. W. MASSEY. 



LETTER FROM NEBRASKA. 



Messrs. Editors: — I am situated on the Platte 

 Valley, the "Garden of Nebraska" — so called by 

 Nebraskians — about sixty miles west of the Mis- 

 souri river, on the north side of the Platte or Ne- 

 braska river, which is from half to one mile wide, 

 current swift, water shallow and turbid, full of 

 sand bars and shifting sands, which render it un- 

 navigable. The valley is from three to ten miles 

 wide ; soil various, from river sand to a stilF b}-ick 

 clay, but mostly of a black sand and clay inter- 

 mixed, overlaying a stratum of black clay, which 

 rests on quicksand. Timber is scarce, mostly Cot- 

 tonwood, with a few elms, oaks, etc., mostly on 

 islands and along the borders of the streams. 



As it is but two years the first of April last, since 

 the first settler located in this vallej^ west of the 

 Elk Horn river — a tributaiy of the Platte, about 

 thirty miles west of the Missouri — we have done 

 but little towards raising our own supplies, but 

 have large crops of corn, potatoes and buckwheat, 

 and some fields of spring wheat and oats. The 

 grains look fine. Corn, although got in very late, 

 owing to wet weather in May, is doing well, — ex- 

 cept that on sod, which is backward and does not 

 promise much. 



The valley, for about a mile and a half along tlie 

 river and military road, is all claimed, with all the 

 islands and timber on the north shore to the mouth 

 of the Loup Fork, about ninety miles from the 

 Missouri ; also up the Loup for twenty-five miles to 

 the old Mormon fording-place, where they have a 

 town of some eighty families. There is also a set- 

 tlement of Germans at Grand Island, about thirty 

 miles east of New Fort Kearney and ninety mile?- 

 west of the Loup. Both the above settlements 

 were commenced last season. There is considera- 

 ble game here, consisting of elk, deer, and antelope. 

 Wolves are also plenty. e. h. bliven. 



Buchanan, Platte Co., 2i^. T., June 2", 3858. 



To RID SnEEP OF Ticks, and cure the scab on 

 cattle, feed sulphur with the salt, at intervals of a 

 few days, three or four times. 



