82 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



April 



5 



seed with clover. Give the clover a top-dressing of 

 100 lbs. of jrypsum per acre, and not plow again in 

 two yearp, if the clover takes well. Unless the 

 clover is quite thick on the ground, sow timothy. It 

 is a point of great importance always to have clean 

 clover, timothy, and herds-grass seed on hand, to sow 

 on every half naked spot on the plantation. In low 

 grounds sow red-top ; and be sure to make food for 

 stock to grow every where. An acre of decently 

 managed grass will yield a clear profit of $3 per 

 annum, which is 6 pe'r cent, interest on $50. 



The dairymen of New York are making money 

 quite as fast as the wheat-growers : and skilful wool- 

 growers and growers of good carriage horses are 

 doing as well as either. To rear fine mules and 

 roadsters, both for home service and for the cotton 

 growing States, will pay a good profit in two-thirds 

 of the counties in Virginia. Every branch of agri- 

 culture can be made to pay the good husbandman a 

 liberal profit in that State. Tobacco culture is now 

 quite remunerative. Grain growing is perhaps less 

 profitable than any other department of agriculture ; 

 but even that will gire a fair living if properly con- 

 ducted. In regard to sheep husbandry, we must say 

 that the best grass fed mutton which we have seen 

 in America, came into Washington city from the 

 grazing districts of Virginia. Sheep are remark- 

 ably healthy and fine. The native cattle arc gener- 

 ally mean, having large long legs, big Iieads and 

 horns, thick necks, with precious little of good pieces 

 for roasting or steak. Cattle of this character ought 

 to be driven out of the United States, and those infi- 

 nitely better take their places. First rate milch 

 cows sell at a round profit to the breeders. Lime 

 and gypsum, guano and good husbandry, must give 

 a plenty of good fornge the year round. 



Among other truly valuable plants, turnips and 

 corn may be cultivated with great facility and in 

 quantities. They will add largely to the stock of 

 manure and the means of enriching the soil. All 

 corn, peas, oats, rye, and barley fed to hogs, mules, 

 or horses, had better be boiled before feeding. With 

 one or two cauldron kettles set in an arch, it could 

 be attended to by the help in the house, and corn, or 

 other small grain cooked with very little trouble or 

 expense. Next in importance to the economical con- 

 sumption of food, stands the art of saving and skil- 

 fully using all the manure produced on the plantation. 

 For this purpose, working mules, oxen and horses, 

 (for all are worked in Virginia,) should be fed in sta- 

 bles or under sheds where their droppings can be 

 saved under shelter and protected from washing 

 rains. All manure should be covered and kept from 

 loss by volatilization and leaching. Manure is the 

 very cream of the soil, and the right use of this 

 cream is what many cultivators do not understand, 

 although they believe they do. We have traveled a 

 good deal over the United Stated for the express pur- 

 pose of seeing with our own eyes, and learning from 

 practical men who never write for the press) how 

 they manage straw, corn-stalks, and whatever else 

 adds to the compost heap; and, when we say that 

 about half of the elements of fcrtilty in the organized 

 substances used as manure is lost before these sub- 

 stances are fairly buried in the soil, taking the coun- 

 try together, wc are under the truth. We believe 

 It will pay on farms where so much wheat is grown 

 that farmers cannot well consume the straw, to cut 

 It in pieces about six inches long, in larrre cuttin<r 

 boxes driven by horse power, and then spread the 



straw and plow it in. It is apt to make bad work to 

 attempt to plow under long straw, as we know from 

 experience. With cut straw there would be no seri- 

 ous impediment, while the straw, rotting, would yield 

 soluable silicates and all its organic elements for the 

 production of new crops. We say to our Virginia 

 friends, and to our readers everywhere, if you fail to 

 feed the land it will certainly fail to feed you, sooner 

 or later. If corn-stalks were chopped up and covered 

 with earth by the plow, they would rot and greatly 

 enrich the soil. Don't be afraid to trust your com- 

 mon mother. Earth. When she ceases to yield her 

 annual fruits, there will be no place for us bipeds, or 

 quadrupeds on this planet. 



So soon as her numerous railroads are completed 

 which are now in progress, Virginia will place her 

 native salt and gypsum at the command of all her 

 farmers. These fertilizers, with the aid of lime, gu- 

 ano, and salts drawn from the ocean, obtained in a 

 way hereafter to be described, will enab!e her to be- 

 come one of the richest farming States in the Union. 



POTATO CULTURE. -THE MALADY. 



A CORRESPONDENT of thc Boston Cultivator has the 

 following remarks on a topic which eminently de- 

 serves the consideration of every farmer : 



Mr. Editor : — I have perused the address of Dr. Lee 

 before ihe Hampshire Society at Northampton, with the 

 greatest pleasure, and I am .sure, to my own improvement ; 

 but there is one thing that I would ask tlie Doctor, and that 

 is, is he prepared to grow large crops of potatoes free from the 

 rot — while that distemper is wasting the crops around him — 

 by the information derived from chemical analysis, whicli 

 shows precisely the quantity of alkali con'aii.eu in the ashes 

 of the tuber after incineration, and by which he has made it 

 appear, that the rot is the consequence of the waste of that 

 article in the .soil? If so, he had better turn his attention to 

 the business while the price of sound potatoes is so high , I 

 know of no crop that would pay equal to this, as by his 

 extensive information he need not lay his crop at less than 

 tJOO bushels per acre, I presume. But is it not strange, that 

 every one does not see at a clance the futility of such argu- 

 ments ? Let but a congenial season occur the coming spring, 

 and away goes nil chemical reasoning on the subject, and wc 

 shall nil grow sound crops, although another year of mis- 

 management—according to the above reasoning — has been 

 added to the list of our misdeeds. I speak it reverently, but 

 if the Almighty should see fit thus to visit our infirmities the 

 coming season. I know of no way in which he could so eflect- 

 ually proclaim man's weakness ! If the Dr.'s reasoning be 

 correct, our learned friends ought long ago to have taught up 

 by example, and not have confined their labors to prec pt. 



In illustration of the practical part of this potato 

 question, we copy the following remarks from thc 

 Patent Office Report for 1845. A writer over the 

 signature of "Chemico" (unknown to us) says : 



Dr. Lke, a scientific gentleman of New York, who is at 

 present engaged by the New Vork State Agricultural Soci- 

 ety to vi.sit every county in that State, and deliver lectures 

 on agricultural chemistry, iu a letter to the edtior of the 

 Albany (Cultivator, remarks: "More than one-half of tlie 

 ashes of potatoes is pure potash. A Sugar maple, a grape 

 vine, a potato plant, and an apple tree, needs n soil that 

 abounds in potash. In every town i have found scientific 

 firmers. who by the use of UMlcaclied ashes, lime, and plas- 

 ter, in equal parts, and placed in the hill with the seed, and 

 on the hill so so(m as thc tops are well grown, Jiavc wliolly 

 cicaped llie potato rot, and harvested fur several years from 

 JUO to GUO bushels per acre.'' 



Although in writing to the Cultivator we followed 

 the statements of our informants, wc regret that we 

 did not reduce the figures one-third before committing 

 them to the press. We have read of crops equal to 

 1000 bushels per acre, and many of more than 600 ; 

 nevertheless, a good cause is always injured by state- 



I 



