THE GENESEE FARMER. 



311 



drive to the wood aud back a few times empty ; 

 then fasten a pole as large as my arm and ten or 

 twelve feet long I thus use him gently, until he 

 is able to take a big load. Teach him what you 

 wish liim to do, and when he knows what you de- 

 sire he will do it with all his might. I never use a 

 whip, only on the road when a horse gets dull. 

 Bayfield, C. W. A. B. BKOWNSON. 



CKOPS m CANADA WEST. 



Editors Genesee Farmer : — In this age of steam 

 and electricity, when the state of the markets in 

 almost every nation in Europe may be known once 

 in every 24 hours by both buyer and seller on this 

 continent, and when, also, we have such tacilities, 

 by raU and steamboat, for the transportation of 

 produce to every market, we can not, in case of 

 universal failure, expect to get such extremely 

 high prices for our surplus produce. As the crops 

 are generally good in Europe this year, the partial 

 failure in wheat on this continent will not affect 

 the markets there ; and as we have more than 

 enough to supply our own markets for home con- 

 sumption, the prices surely can not be very high. 



Winter wheat might be, almost, called a failure 

 in this part of Canada "West, and as far as I can 

 learn from authentic sources, it is but little better 

 in any part. There were some good fields, but 

 " very few and far between." The light soils, and 

 where limestone gravel is abundant, bore the most, 

 and the best samples. 



We have felt the effects of both the midge and 

 weevii ; but the evils arising from both these pests 

 were small when compared with the rust and the 

 excessive heat through the month of June. Our 

 harvest was two weeks earlier than usual, on its 

 account, and lasted but a short space of time; for 

 some took the short method of harvesting by fire; 

 others turned their cattle and hogs into theirs; 

 many stacked it in the barn yard for fodder; but 

 the majority have thrashed it, and the yield, as I 

 have ascertained by inquiry, in two or tliree coun- 

 ties, ranges from one to twelve bushels per acre of 

 chicken feed, and in a few instances to 15 or 18 

 bushels of pretty good wheat per acre. 



I know one instance where a man sowed 22 

 busliels of good seed last fall, and from the crop 

 when thrashed, he got from the grist mill 150 lbs. 

 of flour. Another sowed 28 bushels, and got back 

 30 bushels of chicken feed; but, strange as it may 

 seem, a field here and there in every township pro- 

 duced fair crops and good samples — the Blue-stem 

 being the best, and the Soules almost useless. 



We have sown our wheat very early this season. 

 Some fields are quite green at present. The Blue- 

 stem variety is sown generally, but a considerable 

 quantity of the Mediterranean has been imported 

 from York State, and bought up freely at $2 per 

 bushel, being represented as the " cure for the 

 midge and weevil," and we may hope to add, the 

 rust also. 



Spring crops were pretty good; hay excellent. 

 Potatoes are affected by the drouth more than any 

 other cause, and will be scarce. Apples, and fruit 

 generally, quite scarce, but the great want of money 

 by farmers, and the absence of marketable wheat, 

 wherewith to raise the "dust," is keeping our 

 markets pretty full of apples, and consequently the 



price is low. A pressure more powerful than the 

 hydraulic power used in launching the great Levi- 

 athan, will, I fear, be brouglit into operation this 

 fall, and from the effects of which many of our 

 respectable but speculating farmers can not escape. 

 However, we keep pretty cheerful, as yet. 



Woodstock, a W., Sept., 1 1858. E. W. S. 



PLOWING BY STEAM. 



Yes, reader, plowing by steam has actually been 

 accomplished. After the laying of the Atlantic 

 Cable, what else was to be expected, in this year 

 and age of great enterprise? Under the stimulus 

 of a $5,000 premium, offered by some publie- 

 spirited Western gentlemen, Mr. Fawkes, of Lan- 

 aster. Pa., presented a steam plow at the Illinois 

 State Fair. Of its operation, Emerifs Journal oj 

 Agriculture discourses as follows : 



" Soon after the hour appointed, the engine, with 

 the plows attached, guided and controlled by Mr. 

 Fawkes, trundled out on the open prairie. The 

 ground has hard — 'hard, and harder,' some said, 

 'than a brick.' They started; the plows would 

 not go in; men mounted the beams; they started 

 again ; the furrows rolled off the mold-boards de- 

 lightfully. By altering their position slightly, they 

 went all right. There seemed to be the elements 

 of success in the man and his horse. The draft 

 was nothing. In ground of the usual plowing con- 

 dition it could have drawn twice as many plows. 

 The six furrows were turned straight, and deep 

 enough, and well laid over. After each one of sev- 

 eral repeated trials, the people shouted. It was 

 meet they should." ^ \ 



" Mr. Fawkes engineered his machine out to his 

 plows to satisfy their curiosity. He drove out in 

 front of the plows, turned, backed up, and stationed 

 the engine in front of them with precision. He 

 then turned around and set in for a new furrow ; 

 turned the back furrow handsomely, as if done by 

 horses ; made the entire turn at the opposite end 

 in three-quarters of a minute, and plowed the dis- 

 tance of thirty rods in two minutes, carrying six 

 twelve-inch plows. The operation was conducted 

 with as little detention as could be expected." 



" The inventor remains at Centralia for the pres- 

 ent, making some slight alterations, and expectsto 

 meet two other steam plows in competition with 

 him, next month, in the neighborhood of Mattoon 

 —one from Dayton, O., and one from Buffalo, N.Y." 



Effect of Potatoes in Rotation with Corn. — 

 A correspondent of the Ohio Cultivator says:— 



" In 1856 we had a field of corn in which were 

 four rows of potatoes, extending across the lot and 

 near the middle of the field, so that the soil must 

 have been about the same on each side of the pota- 

 toes. The next year the whole lot was in corn, 

 but where the potatoes were raised it was not 

 more than half as large as in the rest of the field. 

 The lot was equally manured and cultivated ; and 

 now what was the reason of such difference in the 

 corn ? Are potatoes more injurious to the soil than 

 other crops ?" 



Have any of our readers observeda similar effect ? 



