1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



257 



Letter from Wyoming. — Farmer's Clubs. 



D. D. T, Moore — Dear Sir : I forward you 

 the names of forty-seven subscribers for the 

 Genesee Fanner, for the ensuing year. By this 

 you will perceive that we are beginning to ap- 

 preciate the benefits of your valuable paper. It 

 is perhaps unnecessary to speak particularly of 

 its merits, so generally are they admitted. But 

 should you deem the publication of a few remarks 

 a source of encouragement to others, I would 

 say that the farmers of this town are beginning 

 to take an interest in the great sabject of agri- 

 cultural improvement. 



A farmer's club has been organized here con- 

 sisting of nearly fifty members — meetings once 

 a week. The discussions have been interesting 

 and profitable, and the interest is increasing. — 

 We have as important matters to talk about as 

 the N. Y. Farmer's Club, and if we have not 

 eloquence, we have at least experience on these 

 matters. We are favored with the assistance of 

 Mr. Sanpord, recently a teacher in the Agri- 

 cultural School in Wheatland, now a tutor in the 

 Academy here. We earnestly recommend the 

 formation of these associations in every town ; 

 not only for the information thus acquired, but 

 for the greater advantages that will result from 

 creating a spirit of investigation and inquiry. 



Though I am not a fanner, but a mechanic, 

 still I am induced to favor the cause in view of 

 the general good to community ; also with the 

 confident expectation that when the farmers 

 prosper I may be permitted to partake of their 

 benefits, in return for harnesses and such other 

 *' fixins" in my line as they may need. 



Yours, &c., I. H. Gould. 



Wyoming, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1847. 



Remarks. — The above should have appeared 

 before, but was filed with numerous other letters 

 containing remittances. We trust the sugges- 

 tion relative to the formation of Farmer's Clubs 

 will receive attention. 



Mr, Gould is entitled to much credit for his 

 exertions in the cause of Improvement. We 

 shall be glad to receive similar favors in behalf 

 of our next volume. How many of our friends 

 will do as well on or before the 31st of Decem- 

 ber this year? We offer several large premi- 

 ums for new subscribers, as will be seen by ref- 

 erence to the last page of this number. 



Large Tomatoes. — A few days since I pick- 

 ed from my plants three -very large tomatoes, 

 which weighed one pound and ten ounces each. 

 I do not know but others may have seen larger, 

 but these were the largest that I had ever seen. 

 They were the large red ; or, as I have called 

 them, the " mammoth." Many of them weighed 

 a pound, or more ; and some of the plants pro- 

 duced, I doubt not, more than fifteen lbs. of fruit. 

 H., OF Faibport. 



Cob Meal. 



Mr. Editor : — In your October number, "A 

 Subscriber," dating at Canandaigua, inquires if 

 there is any nourishment in the Cobs of Corn. 

 During the winters of 1845-6 I had about 300 

 bushels of Corn in the cob ground, and fed the 

 same to sheep, hogs and horses. The results of 

 this experiment satisfied me that the Cob meal 

 was not only useless, but positively injurious. 

 Horses fed upon corn and cob meal were not in 

 as good condition as those fed upon hay alone. 

 1 think it is only necessary for a farmer to exam- 

 ine a cob to see that its particles must necssarily 

 be almost as indigestible as pounded glass. If 

 corn meal is too concentrated and requires bulk 

 to fill the stomach, I should decidedly prefer 

 sawdust to cob meal, as being safer and more di- 

 gestible. 



Allow me to recommend Indian meal shorts 

 as an excellent feed for horses ; say 1 bushel of 

 meal to 3 bushels of shorts. But by all means, 

 if you use the cobs at all, substitute them for 

 pounded srlass in the destz-uction of sharks. 



G. W. Pratt. 



Greece, Oct., 1847. 



Slobbers in Horses. 



Editor GexN. Farmer : — I have read an ar- 

 ticle in the N. Y. Courier and Enquirer, ex- 

 tracted from your paper, the writer of which ac- 

 counts for the slobbering of horses from their 

 eating Lobelia. In this region we have always 

 charged it upon the second crop of clover, either 

 red or white ; it cannot be Lobelia, for none or 

 very little grows here. Horses that feed exclu- 

 sively on Timothy and Blue grass never slobber, 

 in this section of Kentucky. 



I have ascertained the horse weed to be a cer- 

 tain preventive ; and if horses can get it they 

 will be cured in a few hours. The horse weed, 

 as we call it, (not knowing its botanical name,) 

 grows very abundantly in grain fields, but is soon 

 exterminated in pastures, by all kinds of ani- 

 mals—and, in its absence, slobbering soon fol- 

 lows. But if a sufficient quantity of this weed 

 can be procured, the disease may always be ar- 

 rested in a few hours. 



Yours, Jeffrson Scott. 



Bourbon Co., Ky., 1847. 



Onions. — Most gardeners now prefer sowing 

 their onion seed in the fall. September is the 

 month most commonly selected for this purpose, 

 but as considerable inconvenience not unfre- 

 quently attends the adoption of this practice, 

 many prefer sowing in October or November ; 

 the onion being a hardy production is in no way 

 liable to injury from cold or frost. — Selected. 



Do not keep a horse too fat, or too lean, as ei- 

 ther disqualifies him for hard labor. 



