1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



83^ 



Morgan Horses.— The following extract from a letter 

 lately received from Mr. Benjamin Thurston of Lowell, 

 Mass., is deserving attention. Mr. T. has had great oppor- 

 tunities for observation in regard to horses. 



"Twenty-two years since. I bought several of the old 

 (first) Morgan colts. They were raised by Mr. Goss, of 

 Vermont, who was at one time the owner of the old horse. 

 I found they showed traces of better blood — their action 

 was finer, they moved more easily and gracefully, and could 

 endure more than most of those I have had since. They 

 had a bony head, with sharp ears, and were close, hutpoint- 

 ed horses. The difference between the former and many of 

 the present Morgans, I attribute to the French blood in some 

 of our maies, from which the latter have come. I have 

 noticed that Black Hawk's progeny, when there has been 

 French blood in the dam. have not quite that simplicity of 

 action which those have whose dams have better blood. — 

 Some of those partaking of the French or Canadian blood, 

 have, as I think, a little too much action — or rather a labor- 

 ed motion, which is apt to make them leg-weary in a long 

 days's drive. — Cultivator. 



Time of pqtting Colts at Work. — The common prac- 

 tice on this point is pretty generally wrong. It is not unu- 

 sual to find colts put to harness at two years ; and at three, 

 many consider them fully fit for steady work. A colt is not 

 fitted for this at four ; and his strength should never be 

 tasked at three. The breaking process should be com- 

 menced before he is weaned, by accustoming him to the 

 halter, and to handling. This should never be intermitted ; 

 but the animal should always know and be accustomed to 

 his master. If this is attended to, he will never be other- 

 wise than gentle, and will never give trouble in breaking. 



If he is not put to work too young, with fair usage, the 

 horse will be as good at twenty years of age as he is com- 

 monly at fifteen. One year's delay of work when a colt 

 will be compensated by three or four when a horse. — Prai- 

 rie Farmer. 



Clay Houses. — A gentleman from McHenry county in- 

 formed us some time since, that in his neighborhood this 

 sort of building had become already quite common ; and 

 that the top soil from the barrens was used instead of clay; 

 and that it was found to answer an excellent purpose. 



Instead of mortar of the same sort, lime mortar is there 

 used for laying them up ; and when this is done, no diffi- 

 culty is found in getting the cement used for covering to 

 adhere. — lb. 



Onions. — J. W. Proctor, Esq., President of the Essex 

 county (Mass.) Ag. Society, states that, from inquiries 

 made, it appears that the average yield of onions in the 

 town of Dan vers the past year, (where 200 acres were cul- 

 tivated,) was 180 barrels, or from 400 to 500 bushels per 

 acre. That the average value for several years has been 

 $1 per barrel. That the average cost of cultivating an 

 acre of onions, does not exceed $75 — leaving a net income 

 from the land of $100 per acre. 



Just the Cheese. — An establishment in New Orleans, 

 has received a cheese from New Jersey, weighing 1,700 

 pounds — a regular mill-stoue affair. 



Farming and Reading. — Do you take and read an agri- 

 cultural paper 1 Strange that a farmer, or planter, should 

 think of doing without one. The merchant surrounds him- 

 self with his shipping lists, price currents, and all the means 

 that can communicate information and ensure success ; the 

 lawyer's shelves are loaded with law journals, law reports, 

 law commentaries, and law precedents, for he is sensible 

 that without understanding what others have done, he can 

 not hope for triumph at the bar ; so with the other profes- 

 sions, they must and do read, if they hope for eminence or 

 usefulness. All are anxious to understand their own busi- 

 ness, the farmer excepted, and too many of these are con- 

 tent to follow on in the beaten path, never reading, scarcely 

 thinking, and showing no anxiety to know what science is 

 doing for them, and what discoveries and improvements 

 are making to aid and accelerate their progress. No man 

 needs extensive, varied knowledge, more than the farmer ; 

 none can turn it to more profitable account. The whole 

 growth of a plant from the germination of the seed to the 

 ripening of the fruit, is purely a chemical process, and one 

 that may be understood and known. The farmer is admi- 

 rably situated to study and to interrogate nature. Let him 

 read, observe, compare, reflect, and practice accordingly. 

 Never act without system, nor do a thing because others 

 have done it. — Cult. Almanac. 



See what the Giuls of the Bay State do.— We have 

 received the statistics of the various branches of industry in 

 Manchester, for 1845, taken with the State census for that 

 year, 'i'o show our young ladies that it is no disgrace to 

 work in the Pilgrim land, we give them the particulars of 

 the straw bonnets and hats, and straw braids, and palm leaf 

 hats, made there in one year : 



NUMBER. VALUE. 



Straw bonnets and hats, . 



Value of straw braid, 



Palm leaf hats, - . 



1,047.954 



$1,0.57,892 

 102-,367 

 480,337 



$1,640,596 



All this by females, mostly farmers' daughters. Wor- 

 cester, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, do the most. — 

 Are not such industrious girls worth going after. Instead 

 of street yarn, they care for dollars and cents. They don't 

 constantly bollier their parents or husbands with teasing for 

 a new dress or $40 shawl. They have the money in their 

 purse, from their own industry. There are lots of rosy 

 cheeks who have their hundreds deposited in banks, from 

 the straw braid employment. We once knew two sisters 

 who bought a farm for $4000 for their parents, from the 

 savings of braid. 



Bite of the Rattlesnake.— Dr. Lee, of Hartford, Ct., 

 who has practiced extensively at the south, states that he 

 has treated five cases of rattlesnake bite successfully. His 

 remedy is alcoholic liquor — either rum, brandy, or gin — 

 given in large doses. A half pint in every fifteen minutes, 

 making a quart in an hour, is not too much, to be given as 

 soon as possible after the bite. This remedy has been used 

 at the south to a great extent, and has never been known 

 to fail of a cure. The liquor absorbs or deadens the fatal 

 virus, and never intoxicates the subject as long as the virus- 

 of the reptile is in the system. 



There is a violent war rising between Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky, as to which can raise the biggest hog. Ohio seems 

 to get rather the best of it— but there is such a squealing 

 and grunting, that one can hardly tell which is the biggest 

 hog. Ohio puts down one of 939 lbs. 



They have industrious cows in Pennsylvania. Some- 

 thing over a million gallons of milk go over the Pittsburg 

 railroad, annually. 



Ohio Wheat Crop.— The Ohio Cultivator of Feb. 15 

 says ; In a trip to Cincinnati via Xenia, and back via Ports- 

 mouth and Chillicothe, we noticed that the wheat fields 

 presented generally a healthy appearance, giving but little 

 evidence, as yet, of injury from the winter. 



Farmers and their Children. — One of the first duties 

 of the agriculturist is, to endeavor to elevate himself and 

 the class to which he belongs. And this can be done only 

 by intelhgence and faithfulness to all his duties. No idea 

 is more injurious to the best interests of the farming popu- 

 lation than that of educating some one child for what is 

 called a " learned profession," and then regarding him as 

 on this account superior to the other members of the family. 

 Let our farmers endeavor to educate all their children thor- 

 oughly, not giving bread to one and stones and serpents to 

 the others. 



Let them bear in mind that education is as necessary to, 

 and as much adorns and improves the cultivator of the soil, 

 as the lawyer, the physician, or the minister. The more 

 intelligent the man, the better the Farmer— and, if virtuous, 

 the more 'espected and useful the Citizen. 



Another Remedy for the Potato Rot. — Robert Van 

 Amburgh, of Poughkeepsie, has raised two successive crops 

 of Mercer potatoes, viz : one crop in 1846 and one the pres- 

 ent year( 1847,) perfectly sound and without any rot. The 

 potatoes planted in 1846, were the small potatoes of the 

 year before, and about the size of a hickory nut, or a trifle 

 larger, and dug when green and before the usual time of 

 digging, and preserved through the winter. Those planted 

 last spring were of the same kind, and were planted without 

 regard to size. 



Ohio Hogs for Canada. — The Detroit Free Press says : 

 — We noticed a few days since, a drove of three hundred 

 hogs going across the river into Canada to be slaughtered. 

 They came from Ohio, and are the first of a lot of about 

 three thousand, that have been bought in that State des- 

 tined for the Canada market. 



Gates.— If you have bars at the entrance of your fields, 

 substitute gates for them. 



