GENESEE FARMER. 



citv impure and pestilential. The vsame dissolving 

 elements of imman food that poison the air and water 

 consumed b)- the denizens of a city, will form the 

 cheapest wheat, corn, and potatoes, a farmer can 

 prow. Both parties must labor tojicther, and for a 

 common purpose, if both would prosper. 



A FEW SUGGESTIONS TOR THE N. Y. STATE 

 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This Society stands at the head of all agricultural 

 progress in America. It occupies a proud and en- 

 viable position, a«d if true to itself and the great 

 cause to whicli it is devoted, its distinguished friends 

 will be remembered with honor long after mere politi- 

 cians, whether Governors or Presidents, arc forootten. 

 It labors not for the things of a day, but for interests 

 that will be as fresh and commanding a ihousand years 

 hejice as they are at the present moment. Ti)e min- 

 isters of the enlightened nations of Europe, at Wash- 

 ington, seek copies of its Transactions as a work of 

 rare value, for the instruction of the friends of agri- 

 cultural improvement in their respective countries. 

 We have just given our last copy to Sr. Vo?; Gf-^rajlt, 

 Minister Resident of H. M. the King of Prussia, who 

 takes a deep interest in all our agricultural organiza- 

 tions. If the Executive Committee of the N. Y. S. 

 Society will place a dozen copies of its Transactions 

 at our disposal to go abroad, it will enable us to se- 

 cure valuable contributions to its Lil)rary — an object 

 of no inconsiderable importance. We are happy to 

 say that Mr. Wkbstkr enters cordially into the pol- 

 icy of advancing American agricalture, by obtaining 

 through our representatives at foreign coin-ts, and 

 consuls in al! commercial cities, whatever seeds, cut- 

 tings and books may contribute to the promotion of 

 rural arts and sciences in the United States. As 

 our national ships visit every port, their officers, 

 without inconvenince, can bring home any thing 

 which may be useful and desirable, free from charge. 

 American seamen are particularly interested in hav- 

 ing the provisions on which they subsist for months 

 in the tropics, as well put Up in this country as in 

 any other — a thing not now done. 



What is there to prevent the N. Y. State Society 

 obtaining 1000 life memberships at ten dollars each, 

 under the wcw fee, and applying the sfel 0,000 derived 

 from that source to the purchase and equipment of 

 an Experimental Earm ? There is not now such a 

 farm in America, and the honor of putting the first 

 in complete operation, would be equally great and 

 enduring. Unless the leading men in that Society 

 move soon, the State Societies of Ohio, Michigan. 

 Maryland, Georgia and Kentucky will take the lead 

 in this important matter. The Kentucky Agricul- 

 tural and Mechanics Association held its first Fair 

 last October, and it has already raised and invesbMJ 

 eight thousand dollars in twenty-iivo acres of land 

 and buildings. 



A little well directed effi>rt in the State of New 

 York, (which has some 205,000 more people within 

 its limits than all New England,) will command 

 810,000 for the purchase of a small farm of one 

 hundred acres, and a few animals of the best breeds 

 to stock it, as well as all needful imnlpinents of hus- 

 bandry. Now truths in rural science and practice, 

 can only be elicited by the agency of new operations. 

 Farmers may go on stepping forever in the same 

 tracks, like a horse on a tread-wheel, without advan- 

 cing in knowledge a particle ; but is it creditable or 



desirable to vegetate in that way ? The time has 

 come when the true powers of difTcrent kinds of soils 

 and manures should bo tested in the most exact and 

 satisfactory manner. So too the precise value of 

 dilFcnt kinds of food fir dairy cows, sheep, hogs, hor- 

 ses, and oxen, should be universally knou-n. The 

 annual additions made to our professional knowledge 

 are small indeed. They can be doubled and trebled, 

 if we will only make a common effort in the right 

 direction. Next to nothing has been done in this 

 country to unite the best practice with the best sci- 

 ence on the same farms. In Europe, art and science 

 are studiously brought together to tmprove the soil, 

 domestic animals, and, particularly, young men devo- 

 ted to the profession of agriculture. We must 

 experiment in fifty difi'erent ways, if we would deve- 

 lop new facts relating to rural afl'airs ; and the plan 

 of such experiments must be laid down by some one 

 familiar with all the light that science has already 

 given to the subject. Manures arc destinod to be- 

 come as much an article of inland and foreign com- 

 merce, as cotton, tobacco, breadstufls, and provisions. 

 Hence their concentration, (like guano,) and skilful 

 manufacture, are objects of vast national importance. 

 The great truth that one hundred pounds of manure 

 can produce three hundred of good wheat on such 

 poor, exhausted lands as abound in Maryland and 

 Virginia, is no longer questioned. The economical 

 production of artifiicial guano, equal to the best Peru- 

 vian, is a desideratum which ought not to be over- 

 looked by the officers of the N. Y. State Agricultural 

 Society. They have the position and means to do 

 an incalculable amount of good ; and the farming 

 community will hold them to a strict accountability 

 for the " ten talents" committed to their care, for a 

 wise and urofitable investment. 



MAPLE SUGAR. 



Those that intend making a crop of sugar from the 

 "sugar tree,*' have no time to lose in getting every- 

 thing ready for tapping the trees, hauling and evap- 

 orating the saj). Buckets or troughs are indispensa- 

 ble to catch the "sugar-water" as it flows from 

 the cut in the sap-wood, and these often need clean- 

 sing and repairing. It is not every youth that can 

 go into the woods, cut his timber and hoop ten, twenty 

 or a hundred sap-buckets ; and, as a general thing, 

 it is best to emjjloy a cooper to do the job. To make 

 troughs is a somewhat less difficult undertaking, pro- 

 vided one has trees of the right size that are free-rif- 

 ted and split well through the heart. We have had 

 some experience in making troughs, hooping buck- 

 ets and large tubs for storintj sap, and know that 

 good timber is the important part of the opera- 

 tion. The complex and beautiful machinery that 

 manufactures water pails, keelers, and wash-tubs, so 

 rapidly, would be just the thing to work almo.-<t any 

 .soft wood into convenient ves-sels to hold sap, as it 

 flows from the trees. Assuming that one has a sup- 

 ply of good clean troughs or buckets, a reservoir at 

 iiis works perfectly tight for holding one or two days' 

 run of the bush, he should then provide a hor.'se or 

 ox-sled rigged with a sixty gallon cask, (this is large 

 enough for a single hor.se, a pair of oxen or horses 

 can easily haul a much larger one,) for gathering the 

 liquid which is to yield the sugar. A cask with two 

 heads entire, fastened to the sled and having a large 

 fininel made of a bucket which will hold a pailful, 

 placed over the bung to receive the sap, as it is taken 



