1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



85 



Hints for April. 



Don't play the fool ; the work of this month 

 is the starting point of a year's operations. 



Sow your clover and grass seeds the first fall 

 of snow, that you may be enabled to sow it even; 

 and do it at any rate before the hard frosts are 

 passed, as the heaving of the earth is important 

 to the covering of the seeds. 



Regulate fences that are down, or want repair- 

 ing. Stake and rider them if possible ; it won- 

 derfully improves a low fence, and bothers unru- 

 ly cattle. We prefer the process of placing the 

 stakes in the middle of the rail, and not at the 

 corners, ami ridering with long poles, or even 

 heavy and mis-shaped rails — they are out of the 

 way of the plow. 



Make two more farm gates this month, and if 

 that is the extent of your ability we will forgive 

 you, dear reader, for this year ; but those bars 

 have got to come down — Delenda est Cathargo. 



Sow oats, spring wiieat and barley — and plant 

 a few potatoes, sound ones and defective, and 

 note the result. 



Clear some ore field of stumps; and when 

 you come to plow it, say if you are pleased with 

 the operation ; if not, charge the expense — not 

 to us, but the town pump. 



Look to the furroios and ditches in your win- 

 ter wheat; perfect drainage is so iniportant that 

 it cannot be neglected with impunity. One 

 hour's hot sun on a wheat plant immersed in wa- 

 ter, scedds it, and turns it to chess — as some dun- 

 «ler heads think. 



You may prune orchards this month, that is, 

 thin out and properly balance the bearing wood; 

 not by simply cutting off the lower limbs and 

 sending up the top so high that you will need 

 Jacob's ladder to reach the fruit. 



Cut scions, if neglected to this time, and per- 

 form the grafting, particularly cherries and plums. 

 In grafting old trees, use the lower limbs, and 

 cat out the old center or large reaching arms. — 

 About one half of the old wood may be cut away 

 t})e first year, and the balance the year after. ^ 



Indian Corn for Exportation. 



Mr. Editor : — In my estimation, the attention 

 of the farmers of Western New York should be 

 called to the increasing importance which Indi- 

 tlian Corn, as an article of export, is likely to 

 assume. It is but two years since it began to at- 

 tract attention, for this purpose, to any consider- 

 able degree, and it has already increased to such 

 an extent that the amount is measured by mil- 

 lions; and, if it continues to increase in a pro- 

 portional ratio, it will quickly be exceeded by 

 no agricultural production, except cotton. Its 

 price likewise has been higher, in proportion to 

 the cost of production, than that of any other ag- 

 ricultural production. Independent of the extra 

 demand occasioned by the failure of the potato 



crop, it will hereafter enter largely into the con- 

 sumption of the people of Great Britain, both a;^ 

 an article of human food, and ai^o for consump- 

 tion by domestic animals. 



In this state of facts if an annua! average of 

 fifty or sixty bushels per acre can be raised, witii; 

 a considerable increase in the amount of laou* 

 laid down witli this grain, (which may be done 

 without materially decreasing our other grain 

 crops,) it will add many millions to the value of 

 our agricultural productions — and, by inevitable 

 consequence, to the wealth, comfort, and conve- 

 nience of all other classes. All admit the value 

 and excellence of Indian Corn, yet most farm- 

 ers pay but little attention to it here. The most 

 common objection we hear raised against it is, 

 the great amount of labor required to produce it ; 

 but this objection vanishes at once, if we only 

 get good pay for the labor we do perform — f&f 

 every man knows that it is only by labor that h^^ 

 attains any thing valuable. Therefore, if yoa 

 get pay in proportion to the time and labor em- 

 ployed, the more labor the greater profit. It is 

 true that with crops averaging l>om twenty to 

 thirty bushels per acre, which is as much as 

 many farmers get, the profit will be nothing, be- 

 cause it requires about that amount of grain i& 

 pay the expense of production. But with a very- 

 small additional amount of expense and labor,, 

 the produce may be doubled, making tiie average 

 from forty to sixty bushels per acre — leaving a 

 good profit to the producer. The writer of this 

 thinks this can be done on most of the good grain 

 growing lands of Western New York, in ordi- 

 nary seasons, as he has verified it in his own ex- 

 perience. 



Beside the value of the grain, there is no grain 

 we produce of which the stalks or straw is of st> 

 much value as feed for domestic animals. An. 

 acre of good corn stalks, well saved, will gener- 

 ally be wortii as m\v^h as one and a half tons o^7 

 hay, which, in Monroe County, will be as high s&> 

 six dollars a ton — making the stalks worth abouc- 

 nine dollars — n-> inconsiderable item towards de- 

 fraying the expense of its production. 



He is the wise man, Mr. Editor, who uses tlit^ 

 blessings Providence has bestowed ui)on him to-- 

 the best ad\ antage for his own and the benefrt of 

 his fellow men. If our climate is not so conge- 

 nial to the growth of this great staple as that of u 

 more southern latitude, we have a soil amply fer- 

 tile, and our commercial position, and our means 

 of getting our productions cheaply and expedi- 

 tiously to market, are unrivalled. Why, tlien, 

 should we not bestir ourselves and reap the gold- 

 en harvest God has laid open to us ? Let us be- 

 diligent, then, and labor for our own and the 

 public good, and our children will rise up and 

 call us blessed — and the children of other }\iidi> 

 will rise up and call us blessed — and the blessing- 

 of him that is ready to perish shall be upon us. 



Wheatland. March. 1847. W. S^ 



