12 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan, 



European Extracts. 



Under this heading, we design giving, each 

 month, condensed extracts from our European 

 exchange publications. We have only room, 

 in this number, for the following : 



Potato Rot. — M. Van der Trappe, of Wes- 

 sel, Prussia, planted a large field of potatoes, 

 one half in the usual method, and the other on a 

 plan of his own discovery. Those cultivated by 

 the usual method were diseased, and the foliage 

 failed and dried up early ; while those cultivated 

 by his peculiar plan remained green till late in 

 autumn. The tubers were sound, and a great 

 yield. So palpable was this experiment, that 

 delegates were appointed by the town to exam- 

 ine the result ; and they have officially promul- 

 gated the facts, and requested the discoverer to 

 publish his secret. 



Great Crop of Wheat. — Mr. Whitjng, of 

 Monmouth, England, has the past year grown a 

 crop of wheat, on a field of GJ acres, which pro- 

 duced 61 imperial bushels, (equal to 71 bushels 

 and 10 lbs. of our measure,) per acre. It was 

 drilled in, early in January — five pecks to the 

 acre. 



Sheep Pox. — This very destructive and in- 

 fectuous disease, which arose in Germany, has 

 been introduced into Great Britain by importa- 

 tions from Hamburgh, and proves very fatal to 

 sheep. From the frequent intercourse and im- 

 portations of stock from England, there is great 

 danger that this disease will find its way across 

 the Atlantic. Its ravages are great and rapid. 

 It seems to be extremely contagious and epidem- 

 ical, making its appearance in wide spread local- 

 ities. Inoculation is the great remedy for pre- 

 vention, and safety during the disease — saving 

 nine-tenths of the cases, and rendering the 

 symptoms lighter of those incipiently diseased. 

 A pamphlet is about to be published, giving its 

 history, symptoms, prevention and cure, for free 

 distribution. It is also to be tried on the human 

 system, as a preventive against tlie small pox 

 and varioloid. 



Great Yield of Wheat. — Mr. Culland, of 

 Reculver, Kent Co., selected one acre of wheat 

 from a field ; it was reaped and gathered with 

 great care, for the purpose of deciding a wager, 

 and was found to produce ten quarters and three 

 bushels, or 83 English bushels — equal to 96 

 bushels and 50 lbs. of our measure. 



The largest amount on record, as gi'own in 

 the Genesee country, was raised at Mt. Morris, 

 by Gen. Mills, it being 66 bushels and some 

 pounds. 



SUde Rule and Cattle Gavge. — This is an 

 instrument lately introduced among the buyers 

 of fat cattle, by which they can at once ascer- 

 tain their weight with a very great degree of 

 certaintv. 



I Remedy for Hoven or Bloat, occasioned by 

 ' the eating of wet or luxuriant clovers, and 

 j young grasses, turnip tops, &c. — Two to three 

 table spoonsful of liquid ammonia, (hartshorn,) 

 diluted in a half pint of water instantly stops 

 fermentation, and causes the gasses (carbonic) 

 to discharge. 



Book Farming. 



I We do not know whether the following was 

 intended for publication or not, but it is so perti- 

 nent to the subject that we venture its publicity ; 



Sir : — Enclosed you will receive $8 for 20 

 subscribers to your coming volume. I do not 

 enter for the premiums, but am willing to do all 

 the good I can to the agricultural community, for 

 I am free to say that 1 am actually benefited, in 

 dollars and cents, more than 50 dollars this year 

 from the information that has accrued fi-om read- 

 ing your useful paper. One of my neighbors 

 tells me that he saved himself $20 by a single- 

 suggestion. It seems to me that the cry of 

 I " book farming" is a mere cover for ignorance 

 and idleness — a wilful determination against im- 

 provements, and fi setting up of perfectibility. 



Supposing that I were a person of common 

 observation and industry, and that I had spent 

 twenty years of my life in the cultivation of to- 

 bacco, or hemp, or quinces, or melons, or straw-, 

 berries, and tried all varieties and manures and 

 methods, until I had arrived at almost the per- 

 fectibility of the art — and that I could give, 

 intelligibly, the whole of my experience in one 

 page of your paper — would it not be ridiculous 

 of any one who wished.,.to commence raising the 

 same crop to say, " Oh, it's book farming, I 

 won't read it," when five minutes attention would 

 save him 20 years practice to arrive at the same 

 conclusions I had. How does the physician, the 

 lawyer, the scholar, procure his knowledge, ex- 

 cept by that all powerful engine — Books ? 



It is not to be supposed that all, or even a 

 moiety of what is printed is true, or judicious ; 

 a great many articles are suggestive, specula- 

 tive, and suppositious. Let all read, and use 

 their best judgments to select the wheat from the 

 chaff. If a writer says that wheat will or won't 

 turn to chess, or that he has found out the cause 

 of the potato disease, or that the barberry blasts 

 wheat, or that the tree corn grows so big you 

 can't harvest it, or that the morus multicaulis will 

 make your fortune — or any other improbabh^ or 

 self evident assertion — why eschew it — say stit.[f\ 

 fudge, or any other expletive ; but experimental 

 facts, which are borne out by reason, and en- 

 dorsed by a respectable name, ought not to be 

 rejected merely because it has the misfortune, 

 according to some individuals' views, to hare 

 been printed. Your friend, 



December, 1847. — . . 



