1850. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



107 



they were fertilizers like marl, from a common bed 

 at different depths ; when in trnlh, one was from the 

 Cherokee country end the other from Nova Scotia. 

 The analyses were entirely satisfactory, although we 

 had not the remotest suspicion at the time, that the 

 eubstances had been prepared to test the skill of the 

 analyst. We have found soils so poor that 5,000 

 grains would give but one of sulphate of lime, or 

 gypsum- 



HINTS FOR MAY. 



As the work of the farmer is about to begin in good 

 eornest, it is well that he should look about him to 

 see that he has all things in order. No sensible and 

 prudent gciKTal would take his soldiers into action 

 before he ascertained that his powder was dry. No 

 captain would undertake to cross the Atlantic until 

 he had first ascertained not only that his ship was in 

 good condition, but well stored with provisions. No 

 farmer should commence the contest for abundant 

 crops, against foes large and small, animate and inan- 

 imate, sleepless and untiring, without having first 

 surveyed the whole ground, marked out his mode of 

 operation, examined every implement to see that it is 

 in working order, and paid particular attention to 

 the breastworks, (fences.) 



In the first place, remember to feed your crops 

 well, whatever they are, and never leave them to 

 starve while you have enough foo;l wasting in your 

 barn-yard, to nourish and sustain them. 



liOok over the back numbers and volumes of the 

 Farmer a little, of an evening or two ; it will refresh 

 your memory, and remind you of many things that at 

 the time you had determined to do, but will have for- 

 gotten. If there is any point on which you have 

 doubts, talk it over with your hoys, or your neighbors. 

 Try experiments caiefuUy, but generally on a small 

 scale. We have heard many farmers complain that 

 their sons have no taste for farming — and who can 

 wonder at it ? If a farmer lias a son more thought- 

 ful than the rest, more inclined to I'cad and think, 

 that son leaves the farm and enters some city to 

 study a profession, or to engage in commerce or the 

 mechanic arts — and wo say again, who can wonder 

 at it, or who can blame him. lie had been tauglit 

 that a little manuring, plowing, sowing, and reaping, 

 a few rules handed down from generation to genera- 

 tion, was the whole of a farmer's business — that it 

 was a mere mechanical operation. He becomes dis- 

 gusted with it, disdains to become a mere machine, 

 and longs for a more intellectual business — a busi- 

 ness that will alford food for thought — a field for the 

 exercise of talents which he feels burning within 

 him — an opportunity to gain distinction — to impress 

 his character upon mind or matter. But give your 

 sons agricultural papers and books — teach them that 

 the farm calls for the exercise of the highest skill — 

 that it is Nature's laboratory, and a knowledge of 

 the natural sciences is necessary to the perfection of 

 farming — that talents can be as successfully and as 

 honorably employed in cultivating a farm, as in prac- 

 ticing law or medicine, and you will have no difficulty 

 in getting your sons to love farming. They wi' 

 engage in it with a zeal and a knowledge that will 

 leave their fathers fa- behind them. 



Attention should be given to prvning fruit trees 

 aiyi manuring ; but as our Horticultural editor attends 

 promptly to this department, our hints on the subject 

 will be hardly necessary. 



Corn should bo planted as soon as there is no 

 apprehension of frost, in hills three to five feet apart. 

 Thick planting gives fewer ears upon a stalk, and 

 those of less size. 



Potatoes it is well to plant early. In fact, it is 

 always better to be a little before the season in your 

 work, than a little behind. All work with a better 

 spirit when they know they are aheod — when they 

 feel they are not driven, but driving. A stern chase 

 is a hard one. It is easier to hold up a day or two 

 if you get too far ahead, than it is to gain lost time. 



In the Kitchen Garden, peas, if not already sown, 

 should be immediately. Unions, if not sown last 

 montli, should bo attended to. Beets, radishes, let- 

 tuce, early corn, and beans, should receive attention. 

 fitrawherry-beds should be f iit in complete order — 

 the weeds all cleaned out, the earth lightened around 

 the plants, or between the rows, and apply well rotted 

 manure, if it was not done last fall — and in a month 

 or so you will reap a delieiuus reward. Every farmer 

 shoidd have a small and uell-kept kitchen garden. 

 The man that has no fruit and vegetable garden, 

 don't know much about good living. 



THE PLOW. 



TiiE pages of the Genesee P^armer bear witness to a 

 zeal and desire to promote the improvement of every 

 agricultural implement. Every volume e.\hibits an 

 effort to diminish resistence and gain power. In tho 

 conflict of opinions, we nece.^sarily find the admix- 

 ture of undigested ideas with vigorous thought 

 ending in disappointment — the darling fancy of a 

 visionary unsupported by a single mechaniclc prin- 

 ciple; and not unfreq'icntly the claim of perfection 

 stoutly maintained by a half instructed artisan, for 

 the machine of his own invention and construction. 



In no agricultural implement has ignorance and 

 fancy had greater sway, than in the form and con- 

 struction of the PLOW. In no other farm implement 

 has prejudice and presumption caused more vexation 

 or loss to the fanner. And yet there is much cause 

 to be satisfied with our present condition : nut that 

 the plov/ is perfect — no, for the best is yet an imper- 

 fect implement ; but when we remember the rude, 

 rough plow,- of a few years ago, we should be thank- 

 ful for the improvements now at our command. 



The m.ovcment made by the farmers of one of our 

 central counties, last summer, seemed to give an 

 additional impetus to ingenuity, touching a new chord 

 among scientific mechanics. The notice of the State 

 Agricultural Society for a trial of plows in June next, 

 at Albany, is another and more powerful sign of im- 

 proveiuent in the use and manufacture of the plow ; 

 and the coming trial may be hailed as an era in tho 

 history of the plow. 



While in this country great effi:)rts a're being made 

 to improve our system of agriculture, we notice the 

 urgent demands upon British ingenuity, to maintain 

 their ascendency and power of producing greater 

 crops than tee have yet accomplished as an average 

 product. The encouragement offered in Great 

 Britain, by large premiums, has at last produced a 

 STE.\M PLOW — a working steam plow, of admirable 

 construction, and said to be perfect in its work. It 

 is the invention of Mr. Usher, of Edinburgh, and 

 unites the processes of plowing and digging. It 

 consists of a series of plows in the same plane around 

 an axis, so arranged that the plows come successively 

 into action. The power is applied to give a rotary 



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