252 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



Letter from Europe. 



Dr. Lee — Sir: Having been spending my 

 time for four or five weeks past in the north of 

 England, I thought perhaps the following com- 

 mujiication might possess some little interest to 

 your readers, and if you should deem it worthy 

 of an insertion in the Farmer, it is at your dis 

 posal. 



The country between Carlisle and Newcastle, 

 (the part through which I passed,) is beautiful 

 and interesting to the traveller ; and it is well 

 adapted to the cultivation of grains. Yet in 

 some places 1 observed that the soil was quite 

 shallow, having a claj^ hard pan underneath. 

 The soil generally did not appear to be in any 

 way superior to the soil in the county of Mon- 

 roe, and yet the average yield of bushels per 

 acre is much above what farmers obtain in said 

 county. Thirty bushels of wheat per acre is a 

 very common yield, I was informed, and the 

 yield of other grains bore a like proportion. 

 This thirty bushels is an average yield, and they 

 often obtain forty and sometimes fifty bushels. 

 I think that this superior yield may be attribut- 

 ed in a great measure to the climate, and per- 

 haps in some degree to the mode of cultivation. 



The weather at the time that grains are ripen- 

 ing here, is peculiarly favorable or at least was 

 so this year. It is cool, attended with occasion- 

 al showers, and the time that it takes to ripen 

 from the time that the head makes its appearance, 

 is fully double of what it takes in Monroe. This 

 allows the grain to fill well and to come to great 

 perfection, whereas with you at the time of rip- 

 ening, the weather is often excessively dry and 

 warm, and the grain cannot fill as well. 



The most common and I may say general 

 practice is to sow the ground to wheat only once 

 in four years — so that they have only one-fonrth 

 of their tillable land sown to wheat each year. 

 The bare fallow they plow from four to six times 

 during the summer ; and after the first plowing 

 they do not plow more than six inches in depth. 



Draining with the draining tiles is quite gen- 

 eral, and they experience great benefit to the 

 land from it ; though it is expensive to lay the 

 drain, yet the farmer is soon repaid by the extra 

 crops, and has his drains left as clear profit. 



Although the seasons are often very dry in 

 Western New York, I think that the farmer 

 would experience much advantage from draining 

 in some soils. The clay soil I think would be- 

 come much looser by draining and would endure 

 drouth better. 



Great use is made of lime as a fertilizer, but 

 none of plaster. As there are more frequent 

 showers in this country and not so warm weath- 

 er as with you, the plaster is not so much need- 

 ed ; but for this same reason, as it appears to me, 

 the lime is necessary to give to the soil a warmth [ 

 that it otherwise might lack ~ 



erally applied before the wheat crop, which is 

 very judicious. 



The principal agricultural productions are 

 wheat, barley, oats, beans, turneps, and potatoes. 

 I saw none of the field beet cultivated, but the 

 turnep is raised extensively for keeping sheep 

 and cattle. The short horns are the favorite 

 breed of cattle for fattening, as far as I learned, 

 and the Leicestershire and Cheviot sheep are 

 the kinds generally kept — the Leicestershires 

 mostly, though for killing a cross between the 

 Leicesters and the Cheviots is preferable. 



Though farmers do not own the land which 

 they cnltivate here, as they do in America, yet I 

 think that their profits are greater. They bear 

 a more just propoi-tion to the profits received by 

 people engaged in other occupations, because 

 there is a good market for all agricultural pro- 

 ductions. Since I came to England I am doubly 

 convinced of the great importance of building up 

 the manufacturing interest in America that the 

 farmer may receive an adequate compensation 

 for his labor; for a foreign market can not be 

 depended upon. 



The following prices will perhaps give you 

 some idea of the profits of farming in this coun- 

 try. Though prices have continued to decline 

 for two and a half months past, the following 

 prices in sterling money were paid in Edinburgh, 

 yesterday, for the best samples : Wheat 8s. per 

 bushel; Barley, 4s. 6d.; Oats, 3s. 9d.; beans, 

 6s. 6d. 



The following prices of Sheep and Cattle were 

 furnished me by an intelligent butcher living 

 near Newcastle : Leicester fat lambs from 2.5 to 

 26 shillings sterling per head. When 15 months 

 old, £2 per head. When the prices were high, 

 and before the sheep were shorn, full grown fat 

 sheep sold as high as 3 guineas, or £3 3s. per 

 head — nearly equal to $14. Present price of a 

 two year old beef, that would weigh 40 stone 

 when dressed, £15 



The harvest in the part of which I have been 

 writing commenced on the 19th of August. — , 

 The cradle I observed was used to a small ex- 

 tent, but those which I saw were the most awk- 

 ward and clumsy tools of the kind that I ever 

 beheld. I would also mention here that I have 

 seen no plow as yet in this country that I 

 considered equal to the plow generally used in , 

 the State of New York. 



Yours with respect, 



G . 



Banockburn, Scotland, Sept. 9, 1847. 



The Farmers' Cabinet says: "We are advi-| 

 sed that a dairy farmer in Lancashire, England, 

 lately realized £42,125. dd. by the sale of 131 

 cwt. of cheese, the product of thirteen cows, in 

 thirty eight days — full 40 cents a day for each 

 cow." A profitable dairy, indeed, — and rarely 

 The lime is gen- 1 equalled we imagine. 



