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246 



THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 



with the juice of the maize stems is much liked by the cattle. The milch cows improve by it ia 

 their milking qualities. 



In Styria green maize is always fed with dry fodder ; the cattle will seem to have a desire for 

 hay and straw whilst they are fed with green maize. Experiments have shown that cows loose 

 much in their milking qualities when fed entirely with green mazie, but when hay is added they 

 regain it soon again 



Tlie American maize has been found not so favorable to the production of milk as the native 

 maize. 



Maize does not feed much better than old clover and lucerne. 



In Kariuthia the horses are fed with maize which is soaked in salt water ; its nourishing quality 

 is considered to that of oats as 2 : 1." 



Experiment with GrtiANO, pure and mixed, on Wheat. — A correspondent of the 

 Heio York Agricultor, dating Accoma C. H., Va., June 18, 1853, says : 



" Last fall, when sowing my wheat, I laid off four contiguous parcels, of one-sixth acre each, to 

 which I applied the following substance, viz. : 



No. 1. Guano alone, 25 lbs. 



No. 2. Guano 25 lbs., and Plaster 6 lbs. 



No. 3. Guano 25 lbs., and one peck charcoal in half the quantity of guano by measure. 



No. 4. Guano 25 lbs., moistened with strong lime. 



otherwise they were treated precisely alike. The substances were mixed the day before appli- 

 cation. 



" I have observed them closely, and the results are as follows : Until this spring, I could perceive 

 no difference ; then I found No. 1 and No 3 taking the lead of the others, and they have continued 

 to do so till the present, when my wheat is nearly ready for the scythe. If any difference exists 

 between No. 1 and No. .3, I think No. 1 is rather taller and ranker, while No 3 has rather longer 

 heads. 



" My object in these experiments was to ascertain whether the effects of guano are enhanced by 

 admixture with " fixers " of ammonia. I was, on chemical principles, an advocate for adding plater 

 or chivrconl ; but thv^se experiments seem to indicate no improvement in the case of one of the sub- 

 stancei, and a dettrioration in that of the other, as compared with guano alone. This guano and 

 plaster qut-e'rcn has- been a bone of contention among chemists and agriculturists. Only one 

 eirperijQcn'v, however, I do not consider conclusive, and next fall I intend to institute others." 



It iiiust(not be supposed that because the so-called "fixers of ammonia" did no good, 

 that thoso oyp*;riments militate against the ammoniacal theory. The fact is, as we have 

 often stated, that gypsum, when mixed with guano, instead of fixing the ammonia 

 which it contains, has a tendency to set it free, whereby it is lost. For wheat we prefer 

 to sow guano alone, in the fall, dragging it in with the seed. Any of our correspond- 

 ents who have used guano, would oblige us by sending the results. — H. 



"Ten Bushels to the Acre." — In occasional excursions through parts of our own and the 

 adjoining counties, we have made it a point to inquire concerning the yield of wheat, and the 

 answer has'almost invariably been, that "the farmers generally get about ten or twelve bushels to 

 tlie acre." We speak now of wheat-growing districts where every farmer sows broad fields, year 

 after year. With careless farming and poor land, this miserable yield might excite little surprise. 

 But we have received the same report from farmers whose lands were once rich, and were evidently 

 intended by Nature to bo always rich, and well adapted for wheat. 



Is not this proof of an unskillfulness such as Adam might have exhibited the first time he turned 

 up the earth and began to " earn his bread by the sweat of his brow," after being expelled from 

 Paradise ? We can tell- these farmers that, although they believe they understand all the niystei-ies 

 of their venerable profession, while a city editor is utterly ignorant of them, wo know they could 

 very easily average twenty bushels per acre. Do not suppose, gentlemen, that we are about to 

 preach "book-farming" to you, albeit you may stand in gre.it need of such instruction. We do 

 not mean that you should study agricultural chemistry, or import guano, or expend as much labor 

 upon your wheat-fields as if they were flower gardens ; but we mean that you should merely 

 practice those simple rudiments which your great ancestor, before referred to, was no doubt 

 perfectly master of, five years after his unwilling exit from Eden. Merely resting your lands, 

 alternating crops, plowing as if you were not afraid of hurting the grub-worms, paying common 

 attention to your seed, and other little matters that add nothing to your labor, are all that would 

 be required. You may answer tliat you do attend to all these things. We do not believe it. It 

 is a slander upon Mother Earth, who is not so poor in Western Pennsylvania as many people 

 suppose. 



it is time that this rudo scratching of a miserable pittance from the ground should be brought 



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