THE GENESEE FARMER. 



11 



ously attempt to beat their spears into pruning-liooks 

 ;md their swords into plow-shares. Through what 

 civil commotions, what protracted pangs of travail, 

 have the nations of Europe to pass before they can 

 reach the enviable position now occupied by the Ameri- 

 can people! Providence has given us these great 

 blessings not without imposing on that popular sov- 

 ereignty, which is at once our pride and our safetj^ 

 corresponding duties. By walking humlily in the jjath 

 pointed out by duty, the pilgrim lathers and their 

 descendants have made our country and its institu- 

 tions what they ai'e. Many a reader will share both 

 our hope and our anxiety for the future of this latest 

 born and most extraordinary nation of tlirmers. Pub- 

 lie opinion in great cities is always impulsive, often 

 wrong, and never reliable, to guide the helm of state. 

 In rural districts, wisdom is of slower growth ; but 

 with proiwr culture it will never cease to grow — 

 never fail as a salutary, conservative element in our 

 repulilicau system. To attempt to make public opin- 

 ion in the countiy what it ought to be, is a task that 

 involves no light responsibility. AVhen, in our hum- 

 ble way, we talk to an audience of 500 or 1000 per- 

 sons, more or less, it is comparatively of little moment 

 what is said ; but when we write for the perusal of 

 100,000 or 500,000 readere, and the matter is to be 

 kept in a book for reference and the reading of indefi- 

 nite numbers hereafter, thoughts at once pure, truth- 

 ful, and instructive, would alone seem to be worthy 

 of record. 



In discu-ssing "Our Agricultural Prospects," we 

 feel bound to say that they would be greatly improved 

 if we had in the United States a thousand truly com- 

 petent teachers constantly engaged in the work of 

 imparting all needful professional knowledge to the 

 millions of farmera in our thirty-one states and six 

 territories. But instead of a thousand men wisely 

 and properly ^^repared to teach the true principles 

 of tillage and husbandry, gardening and orchard cul- 

 ture, our country can not claim one such teacher in 

 the whole republic ! Deprived as we all have been 

 of thoroughly educated instructors, let us, brother 

 farmers, one and all, do our best to instruct each 

 other. The principle of mutual interchange of expe- 

 rience, and of the most diversified observations, made 

 by practical men, may render the farming interest an 

 invaluable ser\ice. Every person should be alike 

 willing to learn, and willing to teach what he has 

 learned. In this way we shall cultivate our social, 

 intellectual, and moral faculties, and rapidly improve 

 both ourselves and the community in which our lot is 

 cast, and that of our children and friends. There is 

 something of a public nature for every one to do, 

 if he would have the public protect either his life, 

 his property, or his civil and religious rights as a citi- 

 zen. A man who does nothing for the improvement 

 of society deserves to be cast out from all human 

 associations, and to herd with wild beasts ; for if all 

 persons were to follow his poHcy and practice, human 

 society would soon degenerate to a condition worse 

 than that of common brutes. It is not enough that 

 a few give up their lives to the public service, to make 

 the masses eveiy where labor for their own elevation. 

 Costly aa'sueh sacrifices often are, something more is 

 needed to inaugurate a reform that shall embrace the 

 deep, iron-bound subsoil of the community. Shallow 



culture, whether of the earth, the human heart, ci 

 understanding, jdelds but a scanty, unprofitable har- 

 vest. The millions must become in part their own 

 teachei-s — do their own thinkmg and studying. 



Milk. — The richness, or proportion of butter and 

 cheese, contained in cows' milk, is well known to de- 

 pend upon the food of the animal, and the period of 

 gestation, and the time of her giving the milk. That 

 taken last from the cow during the same milking con- 

 tains much the larger proportion of butter. To the 

 naked eye it seems a pure, white liquid ; but when 

 viewed through the microscope, an infinite number of 

 minute globules appear, which contain the oily part, or 

 the butter. When the milk is set away in the dairy, 

 these oily particles, bemg the lightest, gi-adually rise 

 to the surface and form the cream. But when milk 

 is exposed to the atmosphere, the sugar it contains 

 slowly changes into an acid called lactic acid. This 

 causes the casein or curd to coagulate, prevents the 

 separation of the cream, and the milk becomes sour. 

 As this acid is usually formed before all the buttery 

 globules have risen to the surface, the curd always 

 contains more or less butter ; sometimes as much as 

 two per cent., or one-half the whole quantity con- 

 tained in the milk. Hence, the longer we can keep 

 the milk sweet the more cream we can obtain. 



SOUND AND UNSOUND POTATOES. 



There is no other vegetable that will fully com- 

 pensate the loss of the potato, and if it be possible 

 to prevent the premature decay of this tuber, no 

 pains should be spared to attain that object. The 

 Journal of Commerce says : " Mr. Barret, of Cayu- 

 ga Bridge, sowed a,shes over his potato field once a 

 week for six weeks, commencing shortly after the sec- 

 ond hoeing. That field was saved, while others ad- 

 joining were extensively subject to the rot." 



A writer in the Patent Office Report for 1845 (in 

 which the potato malady alone fills some 200 pages), 

 over the signature of " Chcmico," says: "Dr. Lee, a 

 scientific gentleman of New York, who is at present 

 engaged by the New York State Agi-icultural So- 

 ciety, to ^^sit every county in tliat State and deliver 

 lectures on Agricultural Chemistry, in a letter to the 

 editor of the Albany Cultivator, remarks: "More 

 than one-half of the ash of potatoes is potash. A 

 sugar maple, a grape nne, a potato plant and an ap- 

 ple tree need a soil that abounds in potash. In every 

 town I have found scientific farmers, who, by the use 

 of unleached ashes, lime and plaster in equal parts, 

 placed in the hill with the seed, and on the hill aa 

 soon as the tops are well gTOwn, have wholly escaped 

 the rot." 



At an agi-icultural meeting, at the old State Hall 

 in Albany, April 25th, 1844, our remarks axe thus re- 

 ported in the Cultivator of that year: " Dr. Lee ob- 

 served that the defect which was complained of here 

 last year (1843) had prevailed in parts of Europe 

 several years, and he referred to the theory of some 

 ^vriters there, that the defect was occasioned by the de- 

 generacy of varieties from age. The facts brought out 

 by the meeting, did not seem to support the idea thai 

 the defect here could properly be attributed to that 



