228 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Oct. 



Hints for October. 



It is of great importance to those who intend 

 to follow corn with wheat, to do it early. It is 

 quite a labor to remove a large field of corn pre- 

 paratory to plowing, and we plant so close that 

 it is impossible to sow between the rows £is they 

 do at the west on the prairies; therefore cut 

 your corn by the roots, and make it into stouts, 

 in straight and parallel rows ; plow all but the 

 three feet occupied by the stouts, and if you 

 please, snake plow between thexo. Sow your 

 wheat, and drag both ways, and the loss is but 

 trifling. Remove the corn with a team at your 

 leisure. 



Dig Potatoes early. The rot is abroad. The 

 fii-st symptoms are rusty-colored rough spots, 

 which only aflect the skin, and soon corrodes 

 the pulp, particularly in wet weather. If dug 

 early and kept dry — entirely dry — it will extend 

 no farther. Moisture and heat are the very ele- 

 ments of eremacaxisis, or vegetable decomposition. 

 Dig in dry weather, and house or bury them in 

 a dry state. If you have a dry sandy knoll, dig 

 a hole 2 or 3 feet deep, run a pole; over the cen- 

 ter, and cover with boards and straw and a suffi- 

 ciency of earth to prevent freezing. Cover the 

 ends of the boards to prevent mice getting in. 



Gather winter apples before axij severe frosis, 

 to prevent premature ripening in the barrels or 

 i)ins. Apples that are intended for market, or 

 for long keeping, must be carefully hand picked, 

 and put into good tight barrels, well headed, and 

 laid on their sides. Apples carefully picked and 

 put into water-tight casks, and allowed to stand 

 over winter, in any building sheltered from sun 

 and rains, will open in May as fair as when 

 barreled, notwithstanding freezing and thawing. 



Cider is very much improved by putting a pint 

 of mustard seed into each barrel ; it fines beau- 

 tifully and never gets hard. 



Save your own seeds — cucumber, melons, 

 lettuce, &c., &;c. It will save a great deal of 

 grumbling at seed men. 



Fall plowing for spring crops is a very im- 

 portant item ; but if your land is in June or other 

 foul grasses, or if you have reason to apprehend 

 the wire-worm, or grub, don't do it till the last 

 minute before freezing up. In the first instance, 

 if you plow too early, the grasses come up to see 

 the stale of things above ground and get a bit of 

 fresh air, and never dream of going back again 

 — and before winter your field is as green as 

 before you plowed it. Secondly, the larva; of 

 all the troublesome insects descend to the roots 

 and are perfectly at home again; but if plowed 

 late, in cold weather, the insect is paralized and 

 frozen, and makes its exit. 



Keep cattle oiT from new meadows, as soon as 

 the ground becomes wet and soft. 



Begin to increase the feed of your hogs in- 

 tended for fattening; shut thera up in all of this 



month. Fallen apples, cooked with a little mill 

 feed, or barley or corn meal, will push them 

 ahead finely — and one week now, with good 

 feed, good shelter, and dry beds, is worth a 

 month in cold weather, particularly if they have 

 a six rail fence for a pen, and the sky for a 

 covering. * 



Wagon Shelvins. 



The following kind of wagon shelvins I have- 

 used for 28 years, and believe them to be handier 

 and better than any others I ever saw, and they 

 are not a few. 



I take two sills or side pieces 12 or 14 feet 

 long, and 3 J inches thick by 6^ wide ; I put 

 three mortices through each of these sills, 6< 

 inches wide and 1^ thick. Two of these mor- 

 tices are about one foot from the end of each sill^ 

 the other in the middle ; these should be near 

 the bottom of the sills as they lay on the wagon 

 bolster. Into these mortices in the sills are 

 framed three cross piec&s, and mortices through 

 them slanting close to the sills, into which arms 

 or upright pieces are fitted, resting on the sills- 

 to support them. These arms are raised or low- 

 ered just high enough to keep all the loading- 

 clear from the wheels. On these arms put two 

 or three boards, and fasten them with nails or 

 screws, so that in removing the shelvins from- 

 the wagon these sides are taken off separate from, 

 the bottom or sills. 



Put one mortice, 3 or 4 inches wide, in tke- 

 forward end of each sill. Into these mortices 

 fit two upright pieces about 7 feet high, with two^ 

 or three cross bars of a suitable length. This, 

 answers for a ladder for building a load against,, 

 for fastening lines, and for putting the fore end 

 of the boom when binding is necessary. 



Nath'l S.MITH. 



Gorham, N. Y., 1847. 



Vermont Farming. — The largest farm in 

 Vermont is said to be that of Judge Meech, at 

 Shelburn, eight miles south of Burlington. A 

 correspondent who has been over it, says this 

 year he will mow over .500 acres and cut 1000 

 tons of hay. He keeps 300 sheep, and has now 

 400 head of neat cattle. A few days ago he sold, 

 fat oxen enough to amount to the sum of #2460. 

 He has also sold this season 1000 bushels of rye. 



Crops in Wisconsin. — The Buffalo Com- 

 mercial Advertiser says: "The Brig Giddings 

 arrived here on Saturday with a cargo of 10,000 

 bushels of Wisconsin wheat of this year's crop, 

 which for plumpness of berry and general ap- 

 pearance, exceeds anything ever before receiv- 

 ed from that quarter." 



Recipes. — For drunkenness, drink cold wa- 

 ler ; for health, rise early ; to be happy, be hon- 

 est ; to please all, mind your own business. 



