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258 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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ov. 



iJnqulrics antr ^Tlnsiucrs. 



Mfssrs. Editors : — Tlie frnme barn of Mr. John Brush 

 was burnt on Sabbath evening, August 31st, from an un- 

 known cause, as there was no lire within reach, and no per- 

 son near except the owner, who was within a few rods when 

 llie tlanios l)ur.st out through the roof and siding. Tlie barn 

 was crowded full of hay and grain ; the last had been put 

 in tiie evening before, (it was oats.) and the niglit following 

 was warm and sultry, sprinkling a little rain about daylight 

 on the d.iy of the fire. It cleared olT in llie morning and 

 was clear and warm. About live o'clock the fire look place. 

 The barn stooJ in a meadow. 



Can you give any information, through your valuable 

 paper, whether the hay. oats, or straw, would ignite. W. K. 

 h'vUTO^.—Exrhaiigevil/e, Pa., Se])t., 1851. 



This was doutjiless an instance of what is denominated 

 spontJineous combustion, the causes of which should be well 

 underotc.od by every farmer. Many a reader has seen a mow 

 of hay, which was put up in too moist a condition, turned 

 black— literally burnt— although never on fire. Under favor- 

 able circumstances, manure heaps not only generate heat 

 and burn very slowly, but sometimes burst out into ablaze. 

 Some, we dare say, have seen a bin of grain get wet, the 

 grain sprout and evolve considerable heat. In all similar 

 phenomena, the slow combustion arises from the chemical 

 combination of atmospheric oxygen with carbon, and proba- 

 bly hydrogen, in the decomposing vegetable matter. The 

 intensity of the chemical action is promoted in cases where 

 hay in stacks and barns takes fire, by a variety of causes, 

 prominent among which is the condensation of oxygen in the 

 innumerable sponge-like cavities in the mass subject to 

 decay. If it was thinly spread out, ic would not burn. 



Pievc7iiio/t.— 'Sever put green or wet hay, grain, or corn- 

 stalks, in a compact heap. 



Messrs. Editors :— I have been lately drawin-^, from a 

 marshy hollow, a quantity of rich black muck. How should 

 It he treated? How applied? If piled with barn-yard ma- 

 nure, should hme be mixed in ? Should lime ever be mixed 

 with manure, or always ai)plicd alone? Please answer 

 these inquiries and oblise a subscriber. J. L. S —Whites- 

 toion, N. K, Sept., 18.11. 



It would probably be better to mix lime with .swamp muck 

 in a heap without manure, and apply this compound sepa- 

 ratelj'. When muck is mixed with manure, it ought to be 

 dry to ab.sorb the urine from domestic animals, in which 

 case ammonia enough is generated from urea and other ni- 

 trogenous matters in the dung, as well as urine, to neutral- 

 ize all the acids in the muck. Lime may be applied to 

 coarse, long manure, like that from straw and cornstalks, 

 with advantage, but never to the excremfents of animals, ex- 

 cept as gypsum or a muriate. 



Mkssrs. Editors :— I have been a reader of the Farmer for 

 several years, with a good degree of satisfaction. I wish 

 now to make one inquiry, that it may be answered through 

 the columns of your valuable paper. " 



Suppose the soil to be removed from a pip.;e of land to the 

 depth of live feet, how long will it take to bring it to a cood 

 state of cultivation again? and what is the best courie to 

 pursue in order to effect the object 7 A l-ARMv.R.-Adam, 



Manure well, plow up the subsoil, sow peas, harrow thor- 

 oughly, and let the hogs eat the peas that grow, without 

 harvesting. Apply a top dressing of lime, turn under the 

 pea vines, and you may grow either grass or grain on the 

 land, unless it is worse than an average of earth four feet 

 below the surface. 



™''"o!""7"'*' --l^'"'' >•"'» ^vould publish a request for 

 nr^! r '* ^f'^'T "'^^"'^'lofll'e diirerent Slates togivo the 

 fZT, ['^'T-^- "^r^- ^"'"''- '""'«-«' ""'' ou-n, in their l.f" 

 ferent localu.es. I think that a page of the iarmer . e o ted 

 ^ a report of prices of thi. kind, once a year, would i^eof 

 much use to the farmer. W. H. G.-llJnby, iV. F J851 



Messrs. Editors :— You invite your readers to make any 

 inquiries they wish, or give any information they can. I 

 avail myself of this permission, to ask a question or two I 

 am now on the wrong side of fifty, am a mechanic, and' am 

 getting too old for the hard labor I have to undergo, and wish 

 to live on my land, but it is a small lot of five acres of young 

 Iruit trees and six acres of arable land. How shall I gS 

 about It to make the six acres support me moderately, as the 

 fruit IS all young and for some years will not amount to much 

 I h.ave tried some experiments to get large crops on a little 

 land, and sometimes have failed ; for instance. I put in half 

 a bushel of wheat, some years ago, in drills, eighteen inches 

 apart in the drill ; I forked through it twice in the summer 

 lop-dressed it well with hog dung, and it grew five and six 

 feet high, but when I came to reap it, there was not a grain 

 of wheat in the whole. Can you tell the reason of this ?— 

 The ground had been trenched one foot and a half deep 

 when sown, and planted out with small plum trees. The 

 year before last 1 tried it again, omitting the trenching al- 

 though 1 put it all in (that is the half bushel of wheat) vvith 

 the spade, digging, or sowing or drilling, as I went along.— 

 This I dug through twice during the summer, and it grew 

 the finest, to look at, in the country— five to six feet high • 

 but when threshed, only produced two bushels. I should 

 say that I gave this a top-dressing of bone dust. The land 

 it was sown on is considered as good as any land about as 

 the young trees on it grow very finely. Now there is some 

 reason for its lading to produce wheat. Can you, or any of 

 your readers, solve the difficulty for me? 



Would it pay me to raise or fat cattle, on Mr. Mf.chi's 

 plan, as stated in the January number. I can buy hay out 

 of the meadow, in summer, for seven or eight dollars per 

 ion,- and out ol the stack, in winter, for ten ; corn for As 6d 

 per bushel ; and oil-cake for 12.?. per 100 lbs. Will liiispay 

 so as to enable me to raise manure, without which I am cer- 

 tain I can raise no crop. Would spent tan, thrown under 

 the hogs, fix the ammonia 7 as I can get plenty of that Will 

 It pay to give 2.i to 3 cts. per lb. fur guano ? What is the 

 value of a bushel of hair from the tan yard, compared to a one 

 horse load of twelve bushels of stable manure / Will land 

 vvell manured, and plowed eight inches deep, do as well as 

 il subsoiled ? This, or any other information you can give, 

 so as to enable me to maintain myself and family on a farm 

 of SIX acres, will much oblige me. N. Chatfield.— Ca/i- 

 terbury, N. Y., 1851. 



Messrs. Editors :— The enclosed is a sample of grain which 

 I received with some marine plants, sliells, &c., presents 

 from a friend on Turks Island, labelled '■ Turks Island Corn." 

 The stalk on which it grew resembled that of broom corn, 

 the seed or corn growing upon the bush, and, judging from 

 the quantity on the stalk which I received, must yield largely. 

 I will plant what I have and report the result to you. Will 

 you plant these, or give ihem to some one who will, and in- 

 form me of his success ? I would send you a larger quantity, 

 but for the postage. Is nut the agricultural interests of this 

 great country sufficiently deserving of the favor of the "ov- . 

 ernment, to be entitled to the conveyance of seeds, grafts 

 &c., of limited weight, through the mail at low rates ? Can 

 you not urge the friends of .agriculture, through your widely 

 circulated journal, to demand this of our government^ 

 A. G. n.— Waukeaha, Wis., 1851. 

 We shall plant the seed. 



Messrs. Editors :— Being a subscriber to j'our ably con- 

 ducted and valuable paper, I feel at lihertyAo ask of you, or 

 some of your western patrons, through its medium, some 

 information relative to the habits of an animal called the 

 Gopher, which abounds to a considerable extent in most 

 parts of this State, particulary on bottom prairies, and the 

 best mode of exterminating them. They being very numer- 

 ous and troublesome on my place, I am extremely anxious to 

 dispose of them in some way, and will feel under lasting ob- 

 ligations for the desired information. K. M. Vi.—Albia, lawn. 



Ens. Gen. Farmer :— Beinu' a subscriber to your truly val- 

 uable paper, I take the liberty to trouble you with the fol- 

 lowing question, viz : Do you know any sure remedy for 

 the disease known here as gargit. in cows ? Being a young 

 man. and having lost the use of one cow by that disease, if 

 you know any remedy it would be truly acceptable. Carl- 

 ton Graves. — Madison, O., Sept.. 1851. 



Will not some experienced stock-grower suggest a remedy 

 for the malady above named, or give an account of the 

 proper treatment 7 



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