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THE GENESEE FARMER 



April 23, 1931. 



acre. From one to two bushels is the common 

 quantity sown. This renders the crop coarse 

 and harsh like hemp. I sowed last year eight 

 bushels per aero, and received at the rate of 

 twelve hundred pounds per acre, of first rate 

 flax — the ground was in fine order, and the crop 

 pulled when about two thirds of the capsules 

 were formed. I shall make further experi- 

 ments this spring in the preparation of the 

 ground, and shall put ten bushels of seed per 

 a cre — which will make about twelve seeds to 

 the square inch. Flax in this region of coun- 

 try, shonld be sown as early as the frosts will 

 admit, that the plants may be well started be- 

 fore the dry and hot season comes on — and 

 here we find one of the peculiar advantages of 

 thick seeding : it prevents evaporation from 

 the ground, and enables the crop to defend it 

 selffrom the scorching rays of the sun. I 

 have made experiments on various branches of 

 Agriculture, which perhaps I may notice on 

 some future occasion." 



quality. No better time for pruning peach 

 trees perhaps can be selected than about the 

 1st of June. The mode and time o( pruning 

 may appear to those who have never made the 

 attempt at variance with their ideas; but it is 

 experience, not theory, that has dictated the 

 above remarks. Seth Davis. 



Netcton, March 1, 1831. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



BARLEY. 



The two-rowed bailey, if it can he had, is 

 decidedly preferable for mellow ground — if 

 not, the four-rowed is next to be preferred. — 

 It should be prepared by steeping in cold wa- 

 ter some twelve hours, carefully skimming all 

 the oats and foul stuff which rises to i lie top of 

 the steep ; the water may then be drained off, 

 and the barley thrown into a heap upon the 

 floor, where it must remain twelve hours : then 

 some house ashes are to bo mixed with the 

 barley and sown immediately, three bushels to 

 the acre. Barley from clay land should be 

 sown on sandy or alluvial soil, and vice versa 

 The time for sowing is from the 20th to the 

 last of April. 



I am aware that this manner of treating seed 

 barley is very different from the customary 

 mode; but let the farmer act upon these in- 

 structions, and I shall endeavor to sustain the 

 propriety of them in a subsequent essay by 

 what I conceive to be sound reason. 



" Wayne.' 1 



April. FLORAL CALENDAR. 



19th — Do^-tootli violet, Erythronium dtnscanis) — Lea- 

 ther-wood, iDirca palustris) — Blood root. (San' 

 guinaria canadensis) — Chock weed. (Als'nit me- 

 dia)— Tootli-root, \Dcntaria diplujlla]~Duffoi\i[, 

 [lYarcissus ' pseudo narcissus] — Hyacinths, [7fya- 

 cinthus oricntalis\ in flower. 



PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT. 



A general rule among farmers should be, to 

 keep the best and sell the poorest living pro- 

 ductions of a farm. The most indifferent fowls, 

 pigs, lambs and calves should be selected and 

 sold. The best kind of seeds and grain de- 

 signed for sowing, should be preserved. The 

 choico butter and cheese, the best of the hams 

 and salted meat, and the finest domestic cloth 

 should be sent to market.— Am. Farmer. 



Front the New England Farmer. 



TURNING PEACH TREES. 



One remark will bo offered as to the mode 

 of pruning. This ought to be effected by head- 

 ing Anon, that is cut ofFaM the top, to within 

 five or six feet of the ground once in four years 

 at least; no injury will result, but more heal- 

 thy and vigorous wood will be foimed, and a 

 greater quantity of fruit be produced ; as peach 

 trees seldom bear moro than one or two years 

 in succession, the succeeding spring alter a 

 bearing year should be selected to perform the 

 operation. Young wood will then bo produ- 

 ced, and if the season be favorable, yield a 

 good supply of fruit the 7te:?:/year, as the sec 

 ond year's growth is that which mostly, if not 

 always, produces fruit in the peach tree. The 

 evils of a contrary course of pruning consist 

 in the limbs towards the bottom of the tree 

 becoming sickly and dying; the top running 

 up so high as to be exposed to the wind and 

 consequently being broken off, and often split- 

 ting the trunk to the botttom, and affording a 

 'ess quantity of fruit and that of an inferior 



Prom tho New England Farmer, 

 BEr.S. 

 Mr. Fcssenden : — In August of last year, a 

 gentleman from Kentucky called with a friend 

 to see me, and observing I kept bees, mention- 

 ed that a friend of his in that state had for 

 several years kept them in a dark room in one 

 end of his garret, (a brick house) with some 

 small holes cut through to admit the passage 

 of the bees; by this means he was saved the 

 trouble of hives and swarming . (which they 

 never do as long as they have room to work 

 in,) and that he could at any time go into the 

 room (properly guarded) and take ten or fifty 

 pounds of comb at a time Early in Decem- 

 ber, I wrote a letter asking man) questions, 

 with an intention of giving to your paper the 

 results of my enquiries, but presume I did not 

 get a proper direction, as I have not received 

 an answer. During the winter I have made 

 some inquiries, and reflected much on the sub- 

 ject, and herein give you an extract of a letter 

 from T. W. Sumner, Esq. of Brookline, Mass. 



'In the summer of 1827, a swarm of bees 

 entered by a small hole under the shingled 

 gutter which is on the top of the cornice of 

 one of the dormer windows of my house; — 

 when in, they found abundance of room for 

 working, and no one could disturb them, but 

 by taking down tho plaistered ceiling of my 

 upper rooms. You will recollect my house 

 has what is termed a gamble roof; the space 

 above the level plaistering forms a flat Irian 

 gle, of seven feet wide, twenty inches high, 

 and at least sixty feet long. I think had they 

 not been disturbed, they might have worked 

 twenty years. 



" We did not disturb them, neither did they 

 disturb us, till I took them up in Jan. 1829, on 

 a very cold day I took down the plastering 

 about a yard square under the comb, and smo- 

 thered them in the usual way with sulphur. — 

 We got 29G lbs of comb, bread and honey. I 

 have often regretted I did not try to propagate 

 them, for honey in a family is a very conven- 

 ient article." 



A friend of mine, as much as fifteen years 

 since, in taking a house to pieces in Boston, 

 found a swarm of bees over one of the dormer 

 windows in the garret, which he had carefully 

 sawed offand secured and carried to Brighton, 

 where he kept it several years. 



1 understand there has been in the roof of a 

 house in Brighton, a swarm of bees for seven 

 years past. They have not much room to work 

 in, but will not be driven away. 



All these circumstances had determined mo 

 to prepaie a place in my barn, when your pa- 

 per about a month since stated it was a com- 

 mon praetice in Ohio. 



I have mado a tight closet of near ten feet 

 square and about six feet high in the centre, 

 at the southwest end of my barn, immediately 

 under the ridgepole. The floor is about twen- 

 ty five feet from the ground, and is approach- 

 ed by a fixed ladder from the second floor, and 

 kept under lock In this I have placed two 

 hives purchased this season from Mr. Beard, 

 from the interior of Maine, where, as 1 under 

 stand, they have not been troubled with tho 

 bee moth. I approhend from the great eleva- 

 tion of my bee house, I shall not be troubled 

 with them again, as I believo they do not often 

 rise so high from the ground. 



1 have kept more or less boes for twenty 

 years; till about six years ago, wo were so 

 much trouBled by the bee moth that I gavo 

 them up. La6t year I began again in the hope, 

 with some of my improvod hives to succeed 

 better, and still intend keeping some in the 



usual way near the ground. If the chamber 

 plan succeed.of which I see no reason to doubt, 

 we shall be saved a great deal of trouble, as we 

 shall no longer be obliged to watch and hivo 

 them I hare put in some extra rafters, also 

 a shelf and standards to enable the bees more 

 readily to attach the comb 



Any persons having a wish to see the meth- 

 od adopted by me, I shall be happy to show it 

 to them. The bees appear perfectly satisfied 

 with their elevated situation 



1 am somewhat apprehensive that a south- 

 west aspect may be ralher too warm in sura< 

 mer, and ralher regret I had not put the room 

 even at the northeast end of the barn. 1 should 

 haye preferred a southeast front, taking the 

 morning sun and being cooler in the afternoon. 

 I do not think 'here is any danger to be appre- 

 hended from severe cold, if they are only kept 

 dry. Very truly yours, John Prince. 



Jamaica Plain, April 11, 1831. 



Erom the American Farmer. 



A MARKET FOR COCOONS. 



The Editor of the American Farmer is au- 

 thorized to say that any quantity of cocoons 

 will be purchased the ensuing season, by a gen- 

 tleman who is preparing to erect a filature in 

 Baltimore. From forty to fifty cents a pound 

 will be given for them, according to quality. — 

 Particular care -hould be taken in killing 

 tho crysalis, that the fibre of the cocoons be 

 not injured by heat, and that all the crysalis 

 be certainly killed. If the cocoons be put in- 

 to a tin vessel, the cover closed perfectly, and 

 the vessel be placed in a kettle of boiling wa- 

 ter for half an hour, tho crysalis will bo all kil- 

 led, and the cocoons receive no injury from 

 too high a heat, as the water will prevent tho 

 temperature rising above the boiling point. 



We have thought it proper to give this notice, 

 that those who have been deterred from raising 

 silkworms by the absence of a market for co- 

 coons, might he induced to commence. At 

 forly cents a pound cocoons will be avery pro- 

 fitable article. One person with a boy to as- 

 sist during the last ten days, csn attend to one 

 hundred thousand worms : which, if well at- 

 tended to. — kept clean and well fed with 

 mulberry leaves, will produce 800 pounds of 

 cocoons, which will bring at the minimum 

 price $120 ; and if really first quality, which 

 they will be by proper attention, they will 

 bring $150, — and the time occupied will not be 

 over six weeks. What more profitable em- 

 ployment can females pursue ? The gentle- 

 man will give notice in a future advertisement 

 of the place at which the cocoons will be pur- 

 chased. In the mean time, the Editor will 

 take pleasure |n giving all necessary informa- 

 tion on the subject. — All lettters must be post 



paid. 



HORTICULTURE. 



The Rensselaer Horticultural Society, 

 recently organised, has commenced ope- 

 rations with a good spirit, that promises 

 to do much for the interests of this ele- 

 gant art. We would direct the atten- 

 tion of farmers and gardeners to the co- 

 pious list of premiums they haveolTeied 

 to horticultural competition, lo he award- 

 ed next nutumn. 



Early Products. — We are informed 

 i that at a meeting of the Inspecting Com- 

 imitlee of the Horticultural Society yes- 

 terday, at the Rensselaer r louse, Mr. 

 David C. Norton of Lansingburgh, pre- 

 sented two bunches of radishes, the 

 growth of the present season, one of 

 which, containing eig'n, weighed four- 

 teen ounces. The other contained ten, 

 and weighed 10 ounces. He also presen- 

 ted a fine bunch of Asparagus. — [Troy 

 Sentinel. 



