1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



285 



Mode of Cleaning Wheat for Seed. 



As the wheat crop this season is unusually foul, 

 abounding in chess and cockle, I will, with your 

 permission, make known to the readers of your 

 paper a plan I have adopted for cleaning my 

 wheat for several years past with much success. 



After passing the wheat once through the wind 

 mill in the ordinary way, take a common news- 

 paper of good quality and place it double over 

 two-thirds of the surface of the fine riddle, leaving 

 one-third or about four inches of the front side 

 uncovered. One good tough paper will last long 

 enough to clean 100 bushels if the grain is not 

 damp. 



The operation is as follows : — The grain on 

 falling through the coarse riddle on to the paper, 

 accumulates a certain quantity before it will be- 

 gin to fall over the margin of the paper ; by this 

 means the cockle is carried forward so as to fall 

 on front of the screen, and thus have a chance 

 to run the length of it, and is more likely to fall 

 through, and the chess and white gaps, being 

 lighter than the wheat, as they fall over the mar- 

 gin of the paper are mostly blown out in front of 

 the mill, and the chess that is not blown out runs 

 the whole length of the screen and seldom es- 

 capes falling through. Care must be taken to 

 give the riddle its proper inclination, and the 

 mill must stand level, so that the grain will fall 

 evenly over the margin of the paper. 



To farmers whose grain is foul, I would say, 

 clean your wheat for seed twice or thrice accord- 

 ing to the above plan and if there is still an oc- 

 casional grain of cockle in it, pass through your 

 fields next summer when the plant is in blossom 

 and a little labor will eradicate it. — Ohio Cult. 



Animal Food for Swine. — There cannot be 

 a doubt but these are highly fattening in their 

 nature and also that swine, being somewhat al- 

 lied to the carnivora, will greedily devour them ; 

 but the question is, do they not tend to make the 

 flesh strong and rank, to inflame the blood, to 

 create in the animals a longing for more of such 

 food, and thus lead them to destroy fowls, rab- 

 bits, ducks, and even the litters of their compan- 

 ions 1 Many will give blood, entrails, scraps of 

 refuse meat, horse flesh, and such like to swine, 

 but we should decidedly discourage such practi- 

 ces ; the nearest approach to animal food we 

 would admit, should be pot-liquor and dairy re- 

 fuse. Animal food is bad for every kind of 

 swine, and tends to make them savage and fever- 

 ish, and otlten lays the foundation of serious in- 

 flammation in the intestines. — Youatt on the Pig. 



Kindness. — No man hath measured the pow- 

 er of kindness, for it is boundless : no man hath 

 seen its death, for it is eternal. In all ages of 

 the world, in every clime, among every kind, it 

 hath shone out a bright and beautiful star — a 

 beaming glory. 



Wool. — The history of the growth of wool is 

 very curious. Fifty years ago not a pound of 

 fine wool was raised in the United States, in 

 Great Britain, or any other country except Spain. 

 In the latter, the flocks wefe owned exclusively 

 by the nobility or the crown. In 1764, a small 

 flock was sent to the elector of Saxony, as a pres- 

 ent from the King of Spain, whence the entire 

 product of Saxon wool, now of such immense 

 value. Before the breaking out of the last war 

 between this country and Great Britain, Colonel 

 Humphreys succeeded in getting a few merino 

 sheep brought out of Spain ; then their exporta- 

 tion was prohibited under penalty of being sent 

 to the galleys for life. 



In 1809, during the second invasion of Spain 

 by the French, some of the valuable crown flocks « 

 were sold to raise money. Our Consul at Lis- 

 bon, Mr. Jarvis, purchased fourteen hundred 

 head, and sent them to this country. Previously, 

 however, Mr. Livingston obtained a few sheep 

 of the Spanish breed, as a present, in 1792. A 

 portion of the pure unmixed merino blood of 

 these flocks is to be found in Vermont at this 

 time. Such was the origin of the immense flocks 

 of fine-wooled sheep in the United States and 

 Great Britain. — Selected. 



Harvests without Previous Sowing. — In 

 the Schnellpost we find an account of a method 

 of compelling the wheat plant to become peren- 

 nial, like grass, and to perfect its grains annual- 

 ly without the yearly sowing of seed, which has 

 been successfully practised at Constance, in Ger- 

 many. It was discovered by a steward of an es- 

 tate named Kern. His method, after plowing 

 and manuring the land and sowing it with sum- 

 mer or winter wheat, is, to mow it in the spring 

 before the ear makes its appearance. This pro- 

 cess is repeated several times in the season, and 

 the product is used as hay. The plant is then 

 allowed to grow and be cut in the ordinary man- 

 ner. The next year it ripens earlier and bears 

 more abundantly than wheat treated in the ordi- 

 nary manner ; from one field four successive har- 

 vests have been gathered. — Agriculturist. 



Importance op Deep Tillage. — However 

 skillfully and philosophically we may carry on 

 our saving and application of manures ; howev- 

 er well we may select our seed, and choose our 

 seed-time, without deep tillage we can by no 

 means receive the maximum result. Drained 

 land, deeply stirred, and thoroughly pulverized, 

 becomes a kind of regulator of the weather for 

 itself ; it is not soon soaked in wet, and it forms 

 a store house of moisture in dry weather. It is 

 a bad conductor of heat, and is therefore not ea- 

 sily over-heated ; but on the other hand it is not 

 soon cooled, and so keeps up an equal tempera- 

 ture by night and by day, in cloud and in sun- 

 shine, in the highest degree favorable to the heal- 

 thy development of plants. — Farmers Herald. 



