1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



203 



the honor of rural science, we hope neither the 

 love of money nor of popularity will betray our 

 Albany contemporaries, unconsciously, into the 

 ranks of those that foster and profit by the follies 

 of the age. It is so much easier and pleasanter 

 to sail with the current than to, grasp the laboring 

 oar and roe with might and main up stream, for 

 no other compensation than the consciousness of 

 doing good, that not one in ten thousand is wil- 

 ling to forsake the former and adopt the latter 

 course. 



Hessian Fly — {CecidomyJa desfructcr.) 



Great complaint has been made this season 

 of the ravages cf this well known insect. As 

 the fly lives only some teia or fifteen days during 

 the last weeks in September or the first in Octo- 

 ber, if no wheat was up, and prepared as a nidus 

 wherein to deposit its eggs, very few, if any, 

 Hessian flies would be found in the spring. Un- 

 til farmers shall come to some understanding, 

 and make a common and simultaneous elTort to, 

 destroy this insect, it will continue to increase, j 

 Sowing a land in a field early, to furnish young j 

 plants for the fly to work on, and then bury with 

 the plow in the earth, both the wheat and the 

 larvcE of the fly, will destroy countless millions 

 of them. 



Late seeding is indispensable unless the wheat 

 grower desires to propagate more insects than 

 grain. No wheat sliould be sown before the 20th 

 of September. One man may raise flies enough 

 on a 20 acre field, sown in the first week of 

 September, to destroy half the grain in a whole 

 township the spring and summer following. — 

 We have been surprised at the indifference with 

 which many farmers regard the increase of in- 

 sects injurious to their field and garden crops. — 

 The annual loss to the agricultural intei-est from 

 this source alone is many millions. 



The man that raises a large crop of Canada 

 thistles, or of Hessian flies, injures a whole 

 neighborhood by their spreading, as well as him- 

 self. 



Plowing only once for Wheat. 



Many good farmers are adopting the practice 

 of plowing both stabble and pasture lands only 

 ®nce before seeding with wheat. The after cul- 

 ture is performed- with the common, or the 

 wheeled cultivator. Mr. C. H. Raxdall, of 

 Portage, Livingston county, put in fifty acres 

 last autumn with once plowing, which has turned 

 out equal to any in the town at the recent har- 

 vest. He plowed twelve inches deep with a stout 

 four horse team in the first instance. 



Deep and fine plowing (by fineness we mean 

 not running too far to land,) are giving larger 

 crops with less labor than were raised three or 

 four years ago. Every man sho«ld lime hi« 

 wheat before he sows it; and instead of wetting 



the seed with simple water, it is better to use a 

 strong brine of common salt. Those that believe 

 in the doctrine that it always takes something 

 from the soil to make 30 bushels of good wheat 

 grow on an acre, will do well to try the experi- 

 ment of applying 10 bushels of unleached ashes, 

 a like quantity of slaked lime, 3 bushels of salt, 

 1 of gypsum, and 2 of burnt bones, to an acre of 

 this grain. The ashes, lime, salt, gypsum, and 

 bones, will contain all the earthy elements found 

 in a good crop of wheat. Any time before snow 

 goes off will answer 1 3 scatter the compost over the 

 field. Some prefer to apply the ashes, lime, &c., 

 at the time of seeding, covering all with the har- 

 row, or cultivator. 



Seeding with Timothy after Barley. 



Mr. Editor : — Last year I sowed a piece of 

 ground that I was calculating to lay down for 

 meadows, part with spring wheat and the re- 

 mainder with bailey, and seeded the same with 

 clean timothy seed. This spring I began to no- 

 tice that the grass on the barley stubble appear- 

 ed to be all timothy — while that on the wheat 

 ground was a mixture of timothy, small clover, 

 and red top. When the grass came to maturity, 

 another striking difference became apparent — 

 the timothy on the barley ground grew thriftily, 

 turning out a good swath and all headed out — 

 while on the wheat stubble it was little dwarfish 

 stuff"", very little of it heading out. Indeed the 

 difference was so apparent that one would have 

 supposed there must have been a difference in 

 the seed, which was not the case. I think it 

 could not have been mere accidental, at any rate 

 I have come to the conclusion that by seeding 

 with timothy after barley we can again raise it 

 and make it profitable. I submit the above state- 

 ment to your consideration, and if you think it 

 worthy of notice, you will oblige a subscriber 

 and perhaps benefit others by giving it a place 

 in your columns, with your opinion upon the 

 same. Young Joe. 



Groton, N. Y., Atigust, 1847. 



Remarks. — We are always glad, to receive 

 short communications giving new facts on rural 

 subjects. Barley exhausts the soil of the most 

 important elements in the formation of perfect 

 timothy plants less than wheat. Hence this 

 grass will head out and do much better after the 

 former than the latter crop. Return to the land 

 where the wheat grew, all the straw in manure, 

 and as much night soil as the wheat would make, 

 and timothy will grow most luxuriantly. Be 

 careful not to let any of the fertilizers that ac- 

 crue from the consumption of the barley and 

 timothy be wasted. And never forget that ashes, 

 lime, gypsum, salt, and burnt bones well pulver- 

 ized will make either timothy, clover, or wheat 

 grow almost anywhere if judiciously applied. 



Ke-ep farm tools under shelter when not in use. 



