1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



55 



The Last Wheat Crop of Michigan. — A. Finney, of 



Lenawee Co., Michigan, writes to the Cultivator as follows : 

 "Our crops here have been good this season, and prices 

 fair. My son's wheat last year averaged thirty-four and a 

 half bushels to the acre. This year his and mine together 

 averaged thirty bushels and one pound to the acre, not- 

 witiistanding the unusual severity of the winter. Tliis 

 quantity is rather above the average of the farmers gener- 

 erally in this vicinity. Much depends upon the manner of 

 getting in — the lime — the kind of wheat, and quantity put 

 on the acre. We use a Iritle more than one and a half hush- 

 els, and think we shall increase it to one and three-fourths 

 to the acre. Our lime is from the 8th to the 20th of tSep- 

 tember, and we use the Soule's wheat only, having care- 

 fully noticed since its introduction here, that it has stood 

 the rust and winter better than any other variety." 



Largs Yield of Corn.— Writing to the editor of the 

 Massaclmselt's Ploughman, (under date of Nov. 1847,) John 

 DAy, Jr., of West Boxford says : " Last fall about the 20th 

 of ISeptember, I ploughed and subsoiled two acres of rather 

 tough, swarded gravelly land, and in the spring I spread on 

 seventy oartfuls of manure from the barn cellar, and 

 ploughed it in. After cross ploughing I harrowed it well, 

 and furrowed it both ways, three feet and a half iipart, 

 and put twenty-seven loads of good compost manure in the 

 hill ; I planted it the 12th and 13lh of May. I hoed it 

 well twice. This fill gathered it and husked it out, and 

 had enough for 217 bushels of good corn." 



WiNTER-Kii.LEi) Wheat. — Wm. Little, in the Ohio 

 Cultivator, says that his late sown wheat on corn ground, 

 was much "winter-killed." that is thrown out by frost, 

 which is chiefly remedied by using a heavy roller, pressing 

 the half-killed roots into the ground, which caused them 

 again to vegetate. Such wheat yielded about 20 bushels 

 per acre. 



Irrigation. — The wonderful fertility of Egypt is, per- 

 haps, more universally recognized than that of any other 

 portion of the globe. For more than three thousand years 

 the lands inundated by the annual overflow of the Nile 

 have continued to produce the usual crops without any 

 perceptible impoverishment or diminution of fertility. 



If a meadow is rather dry from its soil or situation, loam 

 may be applied with profit, and if very dry, clay is preferable. 

 In some cases clay has been used with great advantage. 

 In many cases wet lands will not not admit of access ex 

 cepting when frozen ; therefore farmers should embrace 

 the favorable opportunity to attend to this business during 

 winter. — Bost. Cultivator. 



Improve Wet Lands. — The winter is a convenient 

 time for removing wood, trees and bushes from Wft lands, 

 and for hauling sand, gravel, loam and manure on to them. 

 Where there is a large quantity of peat or mud, gravel is 

 preferable to sand or loam, and sand is the next best ingre- 

 dient. Gravel and sand contain a large portion of sifex, 

 which is necessary to give firmness to the stem of grass or 

 grain ; they are necessary even if there is an abundance of 

 vegetable mould and manure. Without gravel, sand, or 

 loam containing a large portion of sand, grass and grain 

 will not have sufficient firmness to stand upright, but will 

 fall to the ground. 



Fat Animals and Large Crops result alike from 

 Abundance of proper Food. — The profits of crops as 

 well as as of cattle, depend mainly upon the return they 

 make for the food and labor bestowed upon them. The 

 man who grows a hundred bushels of corn, or makes a hun- 

 dred pounds of meat, with the same means and labor that 

 his neighbor expends to obtain fifty bushels, or fifty pounds, 

 has a manifest advantage ; and while the latter merely 

 lives, the former, if prudent, must grow rich. He gains 

 the entire value of the extra fifty bushels or fifty pounds. 

 This disparity in the profits of agricultural labor and expen- 

 diture is not a visionary speculation — it is a matter of hict, 

 which is seen verified in almost every town. We see one 

 farmer raise 80 bushels of corn on an acre of land, with the 

 same labor, but with more foresight in keeping his land in 

 good tilth, and feeding better his crop, than his neighbor 

 employs upon an acre, and who does not get 40 or even 30 

 bushels. This difference results from the manner of feed- 

 ing and tending the crop. — Vt. Chronicle. 



It is not known where he who invented the plow was 

 born, or where he died ; yet he lias effected more for the 

 happiness of man than the whole race of conquerors. 



Rules for Milking. — A writer in the Maine Farmer 

 gives the following rules for milking cows ; Having milked 

 more or less, every season since I was a boy, and having 

 seen it done so poorly as to injure the cow, I purpose to 

 give a few rules for it which I have learned from my own 

 and other's experience. They are as follows : 



\. Have a good stool to sit on. 



2. Have all your finger nails pared short and smooth. 



3. Sit down and clean the bag, and wet the teats with 

 the first stream of milk. 



4. Then set your pail under, and milk as fast as you can 

 conveniently, the faster the better. A cow will give more 

 milk when milked fast than when milked slow. 



5. Milk as though the teats were full lo the last, other- 

 wise it makes them long to " strip in a little while." 



6. Never scold or strike a cow for running about the yard 

 or kicking. It generally does more harm than good. 



7. If she runs about, have patience, talk kindly to her, 

 and tie her up as a last resort till she is not afraid. 



8. If she kicks, sit forward far enough for your knee to 

 come forward of her leg, and she cannot easily hurt you or 

 spill the milk. 



9. If she switches you with her tail, in "fly time," fasten 

 it by parting her hair and tying it round her leg. Use a 

 string, if the hair is not long enough. 



10. If she holds up her milk, butt with your hands. 

 What else does a calf butt for, but to make the mother 

 give milk down ? 



A Good Bank — We are not particularly in favor of banks 

 as a general thing for certain reasons of our own, but we 

 have somewhere read of a bank that we would vote for ; 

 the vault should be mother earth, secure and always profit- 

 able, the exchanges the traiisplantiiig of th' nursery and the 

 garden, always natural and therefore equal in value. The 

 deposits should be hajipiness, sobriety and nohleindepe7idence, 

 a reliable source of investment ; the assets would be 

 smiling fields waiving tvith goldeii harvests to gladden th^e- 

 holders' hearts, the liabilities would be unavoidable yet 

 agreeable indebtedness to God alone, while dividends would 

 be health, wealth, and honest joy. This is a bank worth sus- 

 taining, and one that may have a million of branches and 

 still the business would never be overdone. — Farm. S^' Meek. 



Maple Sugar. — Every man who can conveniently at- 

 tend to it should make maple Sugar. It can be done when 

 the farmer has little else to do, so the labor should not be 

 reckoned high. In some sections fuel is of little conse- 

 quence, and where it is high, strict economy should be 

 practiced as to the mode of boiling. For catching sap, 

 birch buckets answers a temporary purpose, and the cost is 

 a mere trifle. Troughs made of lighi soft wood cost but a 

 few cents each, where timber is cheap ; and they will last 

 long if housed, or turned upside down, in a pile and shel- 

 tered from the sun and storms. But the most convenient 

 and cheapest vessels in the end, are buckets with iron 

 hoops. — Bost. Cultivator. 



Founder in Horses. — A writer in the S, W. Farmer 

 says thas he rode a hired horse 99 miles in two days, re- 

 turning him at night the second day. In the meantime he 

 had been deeply foundered, but so effectually cured that 

 the owner would have known nothing of it, if he had not 

 been told. In other cases he was nearly as successful. 

 This is his method of cure : — Bleed him immediately in 

 the neck, according to the severity of the founder — in 

 extreme cases, as long as he can stand. Then draw his 

 head up, and with a spoon put back on his tongue salt 

 enough till he has swallowed a pint. Let him drink mod- 

 erately. Then anoint the edges of his hoofs with turpen- 

 tine, and he will be well in an hour. The salt operates 

 as a cathartic, and with the bleeding, arrests the fever. 



Iron Fences.— Iron wire is now used in the construction 

 of fences, and the Westminster, (Md. ( Carrol Ionian gives 

 the following description of the manner in which it is 

 adapted to this purpose : — The posts are about one half of 

 the ordinary size, planted firmly at the distance of ten feet 

 apart, with nine strands of wire drawn tightly through a 

 half inch auger hole, and tightly plugged at each hole ; the 

 wire is of the size of that used for a Yankee bucket, and 

 to combine them more firm, wire of a lighter description is 

 wound through the middle, which prevents the hogs from 

 separating them and creeping ihrough. The whole ex- 

 pense of this fence does not exceed twenty-five cents per 

 pann|l, and for neatness and dnrability cannot be surpapsed 

 by anything in timber. 



