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TUB GENESEE FAEMER. 



answer this question to our own mind. Will some of our experienced correspondents 

 ■give us their views on this point ? We would premise that it depends somewhat on the 

 relative prices of the various crops. 



Barley is usually sown after corn. It seldom doeS well on a recently inverted sod. 

 It delights in a gravelly, light, warm soil ; requires fine tilth and early sowing — the 

 earlier the better. Two bushels seeds per acre is none too much. If the soil has been 

 well worked the past year with corn and is free from weeds, we would seed it down with 

 clover. Barley is often followed by good wheat crops, but strong fertile land is required, 

 or such a course of cropping will soon impoverish it. 



Oats should be sown as soon after the barley as possible. Two bushels per acre is 

 the usual quantity sown in Western New York. A little more seed would be better 

 on most soils. Oats do better on heavy soil than barley or corn. It is a general opinion 

 here, that wheat does not do so well after oats as after barley. We are by no means 

 satisfied that such is a fact. Let us have your experience on this point ? If such is the 

 case, it is probably owing to oats yielding a much large^ crop than barley. Thus 60 to 

 80 bushels of oats per acre is a not uncommon crop, while 20 to 30 bushels of barley 

 is a first rate average yield. We cannot see how the production of 100 bushels of oats 

 should impoverish the soil any more than the production of 100 bushels of barley. 

 Don't sow clover with oats if you can possibly avoid it. The oats grow so thick at the 

 bottom that the clover seldom does well. 



Peas. — On all wheat forms, well established theory commands us to sow several acres 

 with peas. Except clover and turnips, no crop removes so little of the substance speci- 

 ally required for the production of wheat as peas. We told a friend this last year, and 

 induced him to sow eight acres of peas — four acres Scotch grey, and four acres the 

 common Avhite pea. He had a first rate crop — twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre. 

 They were harvested in fine order. Our friend was pleased with his " experiment," and 

 began to think that we did know a little about practical farming, even though we talked 

 about phosphate of lime and ammonia, and edited a paper. The peas were threshed in 

 February, and alas for our scientific credit, nearly every pea was destroyed by bugs. 

 But we will not give up our theo7y yet. It will pay to sow peas if they are good for 

 nothing but to plow under for manure for wheat. But they are. The bug damages 

 them but little till November or December, and ere this they may be all fed out to hogs, 

 producing at least as much pork as the same quantity of corn, and leaving a large 

 quantity of manure that is far superior to that made from corn, while the peas have 

 been produced at comparatively no injury to the soil. Some farmers who sowed peas 

 last year as late as the last of May, obtained good crops ; yet the earlier you sow tliem 

 after getting in barley and oats, the better. They need to be sown early in order to be 

 otf the land in season for sowing wheat in the fell. Two bushels per acre sown broad- 

 cast is the common way. It is far better to drill them in rows twelve inches apart and 

 hoe them. The increase of the crop will pay the extra expense, while the land is left as 

 clean as if it had been summer fallowed. 



Clover. — On wheat, clover seed is often sown on the snow and does very well. We 

 like to sow about twelve pounds per acre on wheat, as soon as the land will do to roll. 

 The rolling not only covers the seed, but is of great advantage to the wheat. On heavy 

 wheat soil we prefer to harrow in the clover seed. The benefit to the wheat will aston- 

 ish all who who have never tried harrowing their wheat in the spring. You cannot sow 

 too many acres with clover. We admit the direct profit is small, but the indirect gain is 

 very considerable. At least one-fo»rtli of the arable land should be seeded with clover 

 each year. 



Carrots. — The value of carrots as an auxilliary food for horses and milch cows is very 

 great. No crop that we know of pays so well in this neighborhood. • No farmer should 

 be without them. For the best method of cultivation see Mr. E.S. Hayward's valuable 



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