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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



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S. W.'S NOTES FOR THE MONTH. 



The Seneca County Fair at Waterloo has jnst clo?cf] 

 this l<Hh (lay of October. I have no time for details. 

 Suffice it to say that our village was never before thus 

 animated by all sorts of animated nature, biped and 

 quadni])ed of both sexes, including even the tiny, pu- 

 ling babe whose age is reckoned by weeks and days, 

 not months. All agree that it was the best show 

 and plowing match ever before witnessed in this lit- 

 tle snperfertile county of Seneca. The address by 

 Editor Si;.NTELL, of the "Clarion," was capita], but 

 nothing more than might have been expected from a 

 man who adds to a trained pen a practical knowledge 

 of tlic farmer's labors and the farmer's wants. The 

 President of the State Society, Mr. Dklafield, Judge 

 Sai-kktt, and other rural voterans, were on the spot 

 — not dawdling spectators, but aiding the officers of 

 the Society, and at ail times auftiil lo the best inter- 

 ests of the Fair. The county of Seneca has a right 

 to bo proud of giving such a President as John Del- 

 AFiELD to the parent Society, of whom it has been 

 said, (maliciously perhaps.) that he vv'as almost the 

 only speech maker at Rochester who made farming 

 and th« farmer the sole issue, or rather that he was 

 the only speaker who came there with no other than 

 the woodsman's axe to grind on the great festival 

 grind stone. 



New York as ft is. — Go into a tliirty thousand 

 dollar house ; as you step on the thick Wilton car- 

 pet — without noticing the lesser cl ccleras — ^cast your 

 eyes up to the lofty ceiling supj)Ofted by pillars like 

 a cathedral ; then look at the superb sofas, the soft 

 rocking chairs, in their variegated silk covers, scat- 

 tered about tlie spacious saloon in promiscuous con- 

 fusion ; then ask yourself how this man's grand- 

 children are to improve on this style of living, as he 

 has improved on the homely simplicity of his grand- 

 father. Here is a question for the political econo- 

 mists : as the social history of young America has 

 ever been progressive in luxury, which no money 

 panic or revulsion in trade has ever yet been able to 

 check. 'Tis true that the rich grandfather is not 

 often blessed with industrious, thriving grandchildren, 

 but those who have at length got ricli by catering 

 for the wealthy, now take wealth's place and do its 

 pageant drudgery. Thus industry in turn changes 

 places with luxurious ease, which it improves upon, 

 as if to convince the world that it has outgrown its 

 plebian origin. But reader, if I mistake not. New 

 York contains witliin itself a great and growing con- 

 servative power in its mechanical industry, physi- 

 cally groat, and mentally improving, which is one 

 day to modify that sickly form of society which opu- 

 lent case and pretension is ever prone to engender. 

 Thirlv years ago it was no satisfaction to spend time 

 talking wiiii a master mechanic in the city of New 

 York, but now, within the last short montli, I have 

 had to admire tiie general information, the varied 

 learning, n)odest bearing, superior tact, science, skill 

 and industry of some of the young mechanics of New 

 York. 



FiiF.F. Trade i.n Cohn. — M. B. Bateham, of the 

 Ohio Cultivator, writing from England, adverts to 

 the embarrassment of the farmers since the abroga- 

 tion of the English Corn Laws. He says, wisely, 

 that the landlords should lower tiicir rents, and the 

 government its taxes. But the traditionary farmer, 

 on the contrary, looks to the goverinnent for the re- 

 newal of the tax en foreign corn, a consummation 



not likely to be accomplished. Mr. B. says that he 

 has not found a single intelligent, disintrrcsled per- 

 son in England who believes that the people there can 

 ever be brought back to eat taxed bread. This is 

 encouraging to American agriculture. fFaterloo, 

 .V. F., Oct., 1831. 



THE CULTURE OF FLAX 



Messrs. EniTORS : — As but very little has been writ- 

 ton in our agricultural journals about Flax, perhaps 

 what follows may be properly inserted in your valu- 

 able paper. 



That the cultivation of flax in Central New York 

 is to become, within a few years, a prominent feature 

 in our farming, I feel quite assured, and as there is 

 but little known as to its culture in this country, I 

 feel called upon to give to the public some conclu- 

 sions which I have arrived at after some little expe- 

 rience in the growing of it. That we in this part of 

 the country have a soil whose natural capacities are 

 in every way sufficient to produce flax in perfection, 

 I think will be proven in a very short time to the 

 most hard of understanding. Even in toe present 

 state of flax manufacturing, we wil. ai^vays find a 

 fair crop a paying one, and should the c tlonizin^ oi 

 flax prove to be as practicable as we arc ^o-^ assured 

 that it will, we may pick up the do^larc rroin o;i* 

 our fields almost as easily as it ever has been Jojip 

 in California. ' 



In order to grow good flax, it is quite necessary /) 

 have a good deep and melk^w soil of moderate fertilny. 

 Now as there are a great many farmers in this good 

 State of New York who do not know exactly how to 

 produce such a condition of the soil, I will just state 

 a manner by which they can turn most any of their 

 old pastures or meadws into line fields of flax ; also, 

 how they can harvest it best. 



As early in the fall previous to the spring when 

 the flax is to be sown, as is convenient, the ground 

 should be plowed about five inches deep, being care- 

 ful to have every inch cut and turned, and to have 

 every stone larger than a goose-egg picked up and 

 carried off. This ground should remain so until late 

 in the fall — the later the better — when it should be 

 well harrowed and once more picked. In the spring 

 as early as the ground is in condition to be worked, 

 get on with the teams and plow it across the first 

 furrows ; then it should be harrowed smooth and 

 sown with one bushel of flax seed and again harrowed 

 until it is very fine. When the crop is grown four 

 or five inches in height, it is well to go through it 

 and pull out all the large weeds. Nothing further 

 need be done until it is fit to pull, or when the bolls 

 are quite brown, when it should be pulled and laid in 

 thin swathes. .As soon as these swathes arc dry, 

 they should be rolled up in large bundles, bound 

 loosely, and set up in Dutch shocks to dry more. 

 Tiiese bundles can be taken into the barn and thresh- 

 ed with a flail at the farmer's convenience. If the 

 threshing is performed carefully, the sheaves will re- 

 main in good shape and the flax straw unbroken. 



Again, these threshed bundles should be taken to a 

 smooth grass ground, and spread in thin swathes, say 

 an inch thick. When the top of these swathes is so 

 rotted that the shiors break out easily, they should 

 be turned over and left until the other side is in the 

 same condition, when it should be dried again, bound 

 in large bundles, and stored. The turning can be 

 readily done by running a smooth pole about ten feet 



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