22 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



S. W.'s NOTES FOR THE MONTH. 



Like in thk City ok Nkw York.— Get up as soon 

 as you can see in the morning;, and go into a corner 

 o-roccry ; there you will have the first reacling of a 

 mornin"-' paper. The floor is already swept and 

 sanded with clean sea-beach sand. Directly in comes 

 a female for a ready soak'ed mackerel, or a slice of 

 ham, or a cotalctle and a loaf for breakfast. When 

 you hear her rich brogue, you will marvel tliat she 

 demurs not to the extreme high price, which is here 

 clmrged for each edible, the loaf exxepted ; but your 

 surprise ceases when you are told that she is only a 

 sarvaiit. " if you want to hear cheapening of prices," 

 says the host, "come in the evening, when the Irish 

 women are buying for themselves." For the next 

 half hour, the shop is full of customers buying a 

 modicum of all sorts for a single breakfast, from a pen- 

 nyworth of salt or pepper, to bread, butter, and steak. 

 liere are poor windfall apples, sold at 18^ cts. the 

 half peck, which cost only $1 50 the bbl. from the 

 boats. Ohio grease, call it not butter, 22 cts. a lb., 

 a line or leg of mutton, or a chop, at 12^ cts. a lb., 

 a beePs tongue for 63 cts., and a pair of chickens for 

 75 cts. There are thousands of families here, in 

 costly brick houses, constructed with iron balconies 

 and all the modern ornaments, who live in this ex- 

 pensive, shiftle.-=? manner, wMtiiout a tub of pork, a 

 cheese, a crocK of butter, or a whole ham in the 

 house, to say noihuigof a barrel of potatoes or apples. 

 But that whicti str kes one from the country most 

 painfully, in thy ife, is the confined, impure air. 

 Here is no yard room fit either for a child to breathe 

 or play in, ano how can a child acquire a physical 

 education wi'.ijout pure air, room to play, and grass 

 to fall upon, instead of a stone flag or curb-stone. 

 In the more tidy parts of the town, the sidewalks are 

 washed every morning, in fact half ( f Biddy's busi- 

 ness seems to be swabbing the sidewalks, or running 

 of errands, while another female attends to the 

 mniage within. But such near neighbors are filth 

 and neatness, that often in the same gtreet you pass 

 in a few moments from clean gutters and well scrub- 

 bed flags, to sidewalks fetid and slippery, and gutters 

 of black alkaline mud, giving ofl" an effluvia an inval- 

 uable to vegetable life, as it is poisonous to the genus 

 Hunio. One of the comforts of city life is the ease 

 and cheapness with which you can travel for miles 

 together in the omnipresent omnibus : only one cent 

 for a ferriage, and six ceuts for a ride, if you please, 

 of almost as many miles. 'Tis true that those stage 

 horses do not trot as fast as an unsophisticated coun- 

 try mare, but then you have the novelty of seeing a 

 constant change of faces at all stopping places, and 

 the comfort of riding, almost vvithout exception, with 

 well dressed, tidy people, more than half of whom are 

 fresh looking females in their best attire. 



The influence o^ California gold in N. Y., at this 

 time, is apparent in many business transactions, and 

 more especially in the increased prices of many arti- 

 cles of luxury, and the avidity with which they are 

 sought. I have been in Wall street, in panic times, 

 when almost every other face looked care-worn and 

 anxious — and in a jobbing house when every five 

 minutes after noon till three o'clock, some agitated, 

 sorrowing man would come in pud put the query, 

 <• anything over to-day ?" At this time such a needy 

 sentence was never uttered in my presence. Instead 

 of thoughtful faces in Wall street, every visage there 

 looked happy, contented, and uiuntt'llectual enough, 



as Grrely said our farmers' faces looked at the State 

 Fair. So much for California gold. May we never 

 have cause to exclaim auri sacra fames .'.'. 



Indian Corn. — Twenty years ago very little more 

 Indian Corn was grown by our farmers than sufliced 

 to fat their pork and beef, and to make a little hasty 

 pudding : the little surplus sold to distillers was never 

 threshed before Jaiuiary — no one dreamed that corn 

 was fit to shell until seasoned by the frosts of winter. 

 But, as the French say, "all things are changed 

 now." At this time, 20th November, more than 

 15,000 bu, of new corn have already been purchased 

 by our distillers from the farmers, and the quantity 

 now coming in daily from Seneca and Wayne, often 

 exceeds 1000 bu., all of which is paid for at. 47 cts. 

 per bushel. 



The day has at length arrived, when our farmers 

 begin to appreciate the value of a crop of Indian corn, 

 not less for its intrinsic value, than from its cenainty 

 to mature, even in adverse seasons. They have also 

 learned, by dear experience, that time and labor, and 

 the use of land, in a half-manured, half-tended field 

 of corn, brings no remuneration ; while the best of 

 culture, and a judicious manuring, is bountifully paid 

 for by the redundant crop. 



Waste Fields or Undrained Land. — An Oneida 

 county farmer, who has just passed through the 

 south towns of Seneca county, says that ditching and 

 more farm stock, are the two" great wants, or rather 

 lacks, of the farmers on the great plateau of Varick 

 and Romulus. It was painful to him to see fence 

 rotting around large and arable fields, grown up with 

 aquatFc weeds, incapable of producing even grass, in 

 their present unditched state. He seemed to think 

 that throughout one county, there was a paucity of 

 farm stock, without which the grain-bearing pabulum 

 in the soil would soon fail from the lack of nitroge- 

 nous matter. In counting the cost of stock raising, 

 few farmers give credit for the manure made, and 

 capable of being made by the growing animal. I 

 once heard a farmer in Rhode Island say, that every 

 hog at a year old, had made seven dollars worth of 

 marmre in his pen. Waterloo, A'ov., 1850. 



TAKE CARE OF THE CATTLE. 



Messrs. Editors : — Few realize the importance of 

 providincr shelter for live stock during the colds and 

 storms of winter. T hazard the opinion that the 

 savin<r in food, and the benefit to cattle, will pay the 

 cost of constructing suitable shelter in two years. 

 And then the satisfaction of knowing that the cattle 

 are comfortable, makes the farmer himself comforta- 

 ble. I never see live stock in a yard, during the 

 hard storms of winter, without feeling pain, and set- 

 tintr down the owner as a shiftless or heartless man. 

 Perhaps in this I am not always correct ; but I can t 

 help feelinfr so. If we endeavor to cheat our land, 

 we cheat ourselves : and if we are cruel to our cattle, 

 neo-lectinT to provide them suitable food and shelter, 

 we°arc unjust to ourselves : and our punishment is 

 sure and certain, and in proportion to our crime. 

 This is the order of Providence, and it is just. 1 

 know of no better way to waste food than to let stock 

 winter out, in which case thev will eat a third more 

 food than if well housed, and then be much poo-.-r in 

 the sprintr. Perhaps a hint on the subject at this 

 season of'' the year, may not be thrown vvvay. In 

 these remarks I liave stated the or.i..-.ori. derM.-ed fj-om 



5 



my own experience. 



J. 



