1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



39 



food. The experiment was tried three times, 

 with the same result, which was a trifle each time 

 in favor of the dry food— not enough perhaps to 

 pay the labor of curing, but sufficient to show 

 there was no loss in nutriment, and only in the 

 water of vegetation. 



Grain in Russia. — A traveler in northern 

 'Russia, finds that summer rye and barley are 

 cultivated with success ; where the average tem- 

 perature is only 26, (ours is over 50,) and where 

 the earth at 7 feet depth is continualy frozen and 

 never thaws. The season is only from 2i to 3 

 months from plowing to harvest. In this neigh- 

 borhood, but on a plateau of much higher land, 

 the shaft of a mine was sunk through 175 feet of 

 frozen earth. The springs that this high land 

 produced ran the whole year at a temperature of 

 ^6, only 4 degrees above freezing. 



Gleanings from Foreign Journals. 



A RECENT experiment made with the follow- 

 ing substances, makes their constituent values for 

 nutriment as fellows : 107 parts of Wheat, 111 

 of Rye, 117 of Oats, 130 of Barley, 895 of 

 Potatoes, and 1,335 of Turnips, are equal as to 

 nutritive power. 



Trotting. — -The knowing ones in England 

 have been nicely taken in, by a trotting horse 

 taken over from this country by an eastern com- 

 pany. He was backed to perform 18 miles 

 within an hour upon a mile course, at the Belle 

 Vue Gardens — which he performed, and a half 

 mile over, wanting 60 yards. The rider not 

 hearing the pistol at the expiration of the hour, 

 put him round the course once and a half more, 

 and until tiiey had to interfere to stop him. There 

 is nothing on the English trotting records to 

 equal it, and it is certainly a most extraordinary 

 performance, as the horse was not at all distressed 

 and came out quite fresh. The horse, owner 

 and rider are all American, and with this single 

 race bagged a fortune. 



Potatoes. — In digging the crop of potatoes 

 in the land attached to the Darlington Work- 

 house, the production was found to he at the 

 rate of 450 imperial bushels per acre. The po- 

 tatoes were of ihe kind denominated " Green 

 Tops." They were set with salt and ashes, 

 and when taken up were sound, and the earth 

 quite moist. Note. — We have an instance 

 in a field near this city, which had a large hand- 

 ful of ashes strewn upon the seed before cover- 

 ing, that almost entirely escaped the rot. 



Draining. — It is worthy of notice, to attest 

 the estimation in which thorough draining is held, 

 that one individual in England has had cut on 

 his estate upwards oi' fifty miles, or 16,000 rod* 

 of drain within the last twelve months. It is con- 

 fidently asserted that the top and under-drain 



system now pursued in the flat and retentive 

 soils of that country, and the introduction of the 

 turnip culture, has doubled its agricultural pro- 

 <luctions in the last twenty years. 



Living Threshing Machine — A man of 58 

 years of age, by the name of Carthew, threshed 

 for Mr. Rule of Cambourne, 920 sheaves of 

 barley in 11 hours actual labor, and offers to un- 

 dertake the same task o)i a wager, for six suc- 

 ce.-sive days. He last year threshed at the 

 Manor of Coppenhouse 400 sheaves of wheat in 

 12 hours — cleaning up over 30 bushels of seed. 



Adulterating Food. — A respectable corn 

 dealer, of Glasgow, Scotland, has been sentenced 

 to 4 months imprisonment, and £300 ($1500) 

 fine, for wilRilly adulterating the Oatmeal in- 

 trusted to his care for distribution among the 

 poor of the Highlands by a charitable society of 

 Glasgow. Served him right. 



Thick and Thin Sowing. — The Society of 

 Arts in England, have offered their Gold Iris 

 Medal for the best Essay on ''thick and thin 

 sowing,^'' to be tested on not less than 5 acres, 

 side by side, for a series of years, with a de- 

 scription of soils, manner and time of getting 

 in, &c. Note. — This is a suPjject which has ex- 

 cited much s[)eculatioii among the wheat grow- 

 ing community. Three pecks when dibbled in, 

 or planted one seed in a hole, at exact distances, 

 have produced 70 bushels per acre. If one ker- 

 nel will produce one head^ and that 40 kernels, 

 which is an average, then one bushel sowing, 

 without any tillering or side shoots, should pro- 

 duce 40 bushels per acre ; and yet we mostly 

 sow 1^ bushels, and get from 15 to 30 bushels. 

 Where is the loss 1 Our opinion is, that one 

 bushel sown the first of September, is as good 

 as two bushels sown very late. 



Artificial Silk. — It is stated in an English 

 paper that old pieces of silk, dissolved in caustic 

 ley, (strong solution of potash, or concentrated 

 ley of wood-ashes,) and cotton thread immersed 

 in it and allowed to dry, has a coating of the 

 animal matter of silk deposited on every fibre, 

 and so complete is the deception that it is woven 

 into lace and other fabrics, without detection. 



The value of the mercliantiise, the growth and produce 

 of the United States, exported for the year ending 1st of 

 .fuly, 1847, was 1.50,687.404, of which $97,747,1:30 was ex- 

 ported to England, and $19, 277, 99:2 to France. The v;ilue 

 of the importations was $115,298,572. \\ e received from 

 Kngland for the six months ending 1st .July, 1847. goods to 

 the amount of $54,797,468 . from France. $14,388,742 ; 

 from Spain, $12,617,113. — From these tables it would ap- 

 pear th:u halance of trade in our favor for the past year, 

 amounted to $35,388,892. The number of American ves- 

 sels which entered the United States, was7,7.')9 : tonnage, 

 2,101,350. Foreign vessels, 6,499 ; tonnage, 1,220,346. 



In Wayne Co., Indiana, out of an adult population of 

 9,319, there are but 42 that cannot read and write. This 

 is owing to the influence of the " Friends," of whom there 

 are many in that country. 



