264 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Nor. 



The frost had cut oil all the out-door flowers, 

 but Mr. Jeckel!, of Port Hope, and Mis. Boul- 

 ton, of Cojfpurg, embellished the hall with choice 

 collections of plants. 



On the whole, the display was one that Cana- 

 dians may well be proud of, and they may take 

 encouragement from it to prosecute with in- 

 creased zeal the great work they have so well 

 commenced. A grand Agricultural Dinner, at 

 which some 5 or 600 persons were present, 

 closed tlie fete. It was prepared after the most 

 approved democratic style, in a temporary build- 

 ing of rough boards, open to all, at -Si e^ch, 

 and the visitors from this side were presented 

 with free tickets. This compares well with the 

 contemptible, exclusive affair which was said to 

 have come off at the close of our State Fair at 

 ButTalo, from which the bona fide tillers of the soil 

 were almost wholly e>;clu:led. Democracy is not 

 confined to the United States. The dinner was 

 excellent in itself, and was enlivened by wit, 

 eloquence and song. There is no danger of 

 any affair becoming very dull where the Hon, 

 Adam Fergcson presides. L. F. Allen Esq., 

 of Black Rock, was present, and made a good 

 speech, in reply to the toast of the N. Y. State 

 Agricultural Society. Frof. Coppock, of Buff- 

 alo, was also present, and being called upon, 

 made a few pertinent remarks. 



We are indebted to Mr. Evans, of Cobourg, 

 Mr. Edmundson, of Toronto, as well as many 

 others, for much kind attention. Sheriff Rattan, 

 of Cobourg, was elected President for the en- 

 suing year, and the next exhibition is to be held 

 at Kingston, on the first Tuesday of Sextember 

 next. P. B. 



Notes for the Month. 



That part of my last month^s comments on 

 the late State Fair, v/hich related to the social 

 and political respectability of the American Far- 

 mer, has been demurred to by sundry bipeds 

 professional, &c. " Well, W.," exclaims one, 

 •'you have done it now ; 'sugar'd o'er the devil 

 himself.' I wish you had to eat some of my pot 

 of f'-owy butter, rank as Cuffy's ear, bought of 

 farmer A. for best May butter." Anon a miller, 

 or a produce buyer, says that a farmer's " word 

 may always be depended on for the price of his 

 crop, on a falling market," and vice versa "on 

 a rising market." It should be recollected that 

 my eulogy extended only to the farmers congre- 

 gated to hear J..C. Spencer's address at the 

 great Fair at Buffalo, without any reference to 

 that part of our rural population who peddle 

 strong butter and sour peaches. Such men very 

 rarely attend agricultural fairs ; they are the 

 hereditary enemies of rural progress — setting 

 down all as empiricism that puts their practice 

 to shame, or casts a doubt upon the infallability 

 of their forefathers. 



The two cuts in the last Farmer, illustrative 

 of the unlucky and the lucky farmer, convey 

 not to the superficial observer the full truth of 

 the representation. How often have I heard the 

 unlucky farmer, mendaciously, if not impiously, 

 excuse his own stupidity and laziness, by plead- 

 ing the untowardness of the season — too dry, or 

 too wet. I did once, but never but once, hear a 

 farmer, a philosophical man, laugh at his own 

 laziness — averring that he had mowed the weeds 

 v/hich overtopped his potatoes, after they had got 

 too strongly rooted for the hoe or the plow. — 

 But hadinage apart, there are thousands of far- 

 I mers who approach both illustrations without 

 properly representing either. Such is the ho- 

 mogeousness of our German population that 

 they are very generally good farmers. If they 

 do not improve much upon their fathers' practice, 

 neither do they deteriorate ; as the majority are 

 plodding, economical, and industrious, so are the 

 great aggregate. Labor omnia vincit, is the 

 German motto ; his equanimity is never dis- 

 turbed by the labor-saving experiments of his 

 Yankee neighbor ; neither can he be induced to 

 follow the peddling practices of the Yankee. If 

 you see a man vending green pumpkin?, or bad 

 apples, you may be sure that he is not of pure 

 German blood. Such is the pride, even of the 

 smallest German farmer, that if by chance he 

 has a few apples or cabbages in his wagon, he 

 will tell you to give him what you please for 

 them — that his wife-or his daughter "would send 

 them along." 



Weeds. — As much as the presence of weeds 

 is deprecated by gardeners generally, I have 

 only to admire the wise provision of nature in 

 filling the soil with puch elements of vegetable 

 life. Those weeds which grow up in a garden 

 after the crop has matured, cover the exposed 

 soil from the exhausting effects of the sun. — 

 When turned under late in the fall, or in early 

 spring, they become the best manure, chemically 

 and mechanically. After the garden is planted 

 in the spring, tire first appearance of weeds is 

 the true signal f^r the first hoeing; when weeds 

 again appear, the earth needs another stirring, 

 and so on, the incumbent vegetables receiving 

 more life from the stirring of the soil than from 

 the removal of the weeds, both of v/hich are com- 

 passed by the same process. 



TuRNEPS. — Since the repeated failure of our 

 potato crop, there is an extra demand for tlie flat 

 Norfolk Turnep tosu[ii)ly its place on the table. 

 Many farmers who have tried the experiment, 

 say that turneps will be destroyed by worms if 

 sown on old land. A compost of ashes, salt, and 

 plaster, liberally applied to a turnep patch will 

 effectually prevent the mischief of the fly or 

 worm. I have twice tried the experiment in a 

 garden with complete success. Turneps may be 

 thus sown as a second crpp, but earlier sowing is 

 more certain in our dry climate. 



