THE GENESEE FARMER. 



87 



Growing "Wheat on Old Lands. — The Albany Eve- 

 ning Journal says : " After an almost entire ' total absti- 

 nence' for twenty years, our farmers begin to profitably 

 resume the cultivation of wheat. We have a fine sample 

 from near New Baltimore before us, which returned over 

 forty bushels to the acre. It would trouble the Genesee 

 Valley to do better." Before the Revolution, Albany coun- 

 ty produced a good deal of wheat, it being the staple of 

 the Dutch settlers under the Tatroon, for several genera- 

 tions, yielding, according to autlientic history, from 20 to 

 40 bushels per acre. Anxious to make all the farmers 

 in the State tell their own stories as to the amount of their 

 respective crops in 1845, we so prepared the census sched- 

 ules for that year as to attain that object. In Albany coun- 

 ty they reported 233,295 acres of improved land. Of this 

 only 0,112 acres were in wheat, producing 34,149 bushels ; 

 being an average of 7J per acre. The average in Colum- 

 bia county, which lies just below Albany on the east side of 

 the river, was but 7 bushels ; and in Dutchess, 5 bushels 

 ^er acre. Such were common crops on the Hudson river 

 eight years ago. Now, by manuring and skillful tillage, the 

 average yield is said to be double what it was at the last 

 State census. 



In all sections where the laud has been partially exhaust- 

 ed, it is very important that a better system of husbandry 

 be introduced, and patronised by Agricultural Societies un- 

 til a general reform is brought about. Liming and manur- 

 ng are so expensive that many farmers, not entirely free 

 Tom debt, do not feel able to embark in these operations ; 

 md it is only by slow degrees that wheat culture can be re- 

 istablished on old and badly impoverislied fields. This aus- 

 jicious result, however, is attained wherever guan-o is in- 

 . reduced ; and where farmers keep stock enough to make 

 I fair supply of manure for the use of the farm. By the 

 teeping of hogs and neat cattle many a poor farm has been 

 o improved that its crops that once averaged only 15 bush- 

 ils per acre, now average 45 bushels ; and they will readily 

 ■eU for four times the money that could have been obtained 

 'or them 12 years ago. Railroads are entitled to much 

 iredit for raising the value of farms long ago deteriorated 

 )y excessive croppings. Giving the husbandman a better 

 lome market for every kind of produce, they foster deeper 

 )lowing, more thorough cultivation every way, and render 

 he collection and economical use of manure a matter of 

 lertain profit. — D. Lee, in Southern Cultivator. 



Christian Advocate and Journal. — In a large ex- 

 shange list, there is no paper more esteemed, or so often 

 aken home to our family for perusal as the Christian Ad- 

 vocate and JournaL We have been in the habit of read- 

 ng it for twenty-eight years, not from any partiality to 

 tfethodist tenents, which it may be presumed to inculcate, 

 )Ut because it is edited with taste and ability, and may al- 

 ways be read in the family circle with interest and profit, 

 .t is a large weekly, handsomely printed, and sold to single 

 lubscribers at the remarkably low price of $1.25 a year. 

 P. Carlton and Z. Phillips, New York, Publishers. 

 rsoMAS E. Bond, Editor. 



Labor, honest labor, is mighty and beautiful. 



Lightning Conductors, — Mr. Merriam, in a commu- 

 nication to the New York Courier and Enquirer, says that 

 the Gem of the Seas, which arrived at Melbourne, Aus- 

 tralia, August 2d, from New York, was struck by lightning 

 during a hail storm on the Sth of July, which shivered tba 

 rod to atoms, and melted it in several places. Several of 

 the ])assenger3 were benumbed by the shock, and one of 

 the passengers was transfixed in his chair for some minutes 

 — about the same time the vessel was knocked on her beam 

 ends, while under storm sails. 



Tliis adds another to our list of vessels furnished with 

 conductors that have been struck by lightning, in which the 

 conductor was destroyed, but the ship and its inmates were 

 saved. Had the rod been in one entire piece, it would not 

 have been rent, bat such rods cannot be used on board ship. 

 The period in which this ship was struck by lightning was 

 almost simultaneous with an earthquake, felt rn the Sand- 

 wich Islands, and with a profuse fall of meteors in the vi- 

 cinity of New York, and succeeded by a hailstorm in France, 

 in which two women and a child were killed by the hail. 

 The sparrows and swaUows which were flying in the air at 

 the time, were killed by the hail. A storm of thunder and 

 lightning extended over a large surface in North lat. 43 

 deg. at the same time. Thus we see electric energies ex- 

 erted at the same time in both hemispheres, showing the 

 great extent of atmospheric currents. — Scientijic Amer. 



The People's Journal. — The first and second numbers 

 of this publication have been issued in an attractive form. 

 It is designed to be an Illustrated Record of Agriculture, 

 Mechanics, and Useful Knowledge. It will contain a des- 

 cription of new inventions of practical importance, accom- 

 panied with superior cuts. It is to be published monthly, 

 each number consisting of 32 pages, and is furnished at the 

 low price of Fifty Cents a volume, two volumes being is- 

 sued yearly. 



Address Alfred E. Beach, Editor and Publisher, 86 

 Nassau street. New York 



The better animals can be fed, and the more comfort- 

 able they can be kept, the more profitable they are — and 

 all farmers work for profit. 



Inquirits anif gtns5njrs. 



The Promotion of Aoricultcral Science. — " We wish to find 

 one thousand men who feel able and willing to give a dollar a year 

 to promote agricultur.-vl science." " After the Society Js organized, 

 it will determine the investigations to be undertaken, the length 

 nf time they are to fip prosecuted, and the reports to bo made for 

 the instruction of each member whose name will stand recorded 

 as one of the first patrons of agricultural science in the United 

 States." — Extracts from the Genesee Farmer, November, IS53, pa^es 

 330, 331. 



A reader for some years of your paper, and a farmer also, I can 

 feel the want of a more scientific education, in order to become 

 what I should be — mMter of the soil and the action of the elements 

 upon it. I live among those who are following the same occupa- 

 tion for a livelihood, and who are more prone to object to "book 

 farming," as they call it, than myself, and who are afraid that every 

 attempt at fathoming the .art and mystery of agricnlture is but a 

 "catch penny," to make dollars. Yet, notwithstanding, there are 

 to be found here and there one wlio will take a paper and read for 

 himself; and possibly there might be one or more found to p.iy 

 over the dollar and help to make up " the thousand men " yoa 

 want to find. I am, at least, ono of them. I not only wish to b« 

 one, but would like to induce more than myself to be of the num- 

 ber ; and for a more perfect understanding of the project, I writa 

 these few lines. 



