66 



THE GEXESEE FAR:MER. 



A FEiEXD in Canada calls our attention to the fact that 

 plowing generally in the State of New Tork, is inferior in 

 workmanship to that done bx Scotch farmers there, " whose 

 pride it is to excel in the rural art of guiding the plow.' 

 All we can say is, that we have some Scotch farmers in 

 Caledonia, Wheatland, and other towns in 'Westem New 

 York, and others innocent of any connection with the 

 " land o' cakes," who excel the mass of cultivators in the 

 Provinces, in breaking and turning " the stubborn glebe." 



Mr. Hebvet Johnson, of Holland, in this State, who 

 has taken the Geiieste Farmer stventem years, and is 

 seventy-eight years old. is entitled to our best thanks for 

 the interest he still takes in " the noble cause of agricul- 

 ture." If New York had one hundred thousand such men, 

 its forming lands would soon be worth four times their 

 present value ; for tillage and husbandry would then be 

 studied and practiced in the most successful manner. 



Mb. a. Chapin, of Carroll, has sent us a very satisfac- 

 tory answer to the common objections to subscribing for 

 and reading agricultural papers ; but our patrons stand in 

 small need of such arguments, however meritorious, and 

 our friend will excuse the omission of his remarks. How 

 to make people read and Improve, who have no taste for 

 knowledge, and no desire to improve themselves and fami- 

 lies, is a difficult problem to solve. 



Mr. N. Pa*ik, of Beaver (Pa.), says that he lives on a 

 lot only 50 feet by ISO, and that hints derived from our 

 paper, have enabled him to make a highly productive 

 garden, and to have the promise of a very profitable fruit 

 vard. Thousands of house-keepers in a small way, find 

 recipes worth to them many times the cost of this monthly 

 visitor. 



of South Carolina, informed us whUe going over his exten- 

 sive plantation, that he had applied over 200,000 bushels 

 of such marl ; and we have visited a score of farms in dif- 

 ferent States on which it has been tried for many years with 

 beneficial results. Six years ago we analyzed the marl at 

 1 Shell BluflP, on the Savannah, in Georgia, and found it to 

 contain from 60 to 93 per cent, of carbonate of lime. If 

 our correspondent wUl get up a good club of subscribers 

 , to the Farmer, and send us fair samples of two of his 

 j largest beds of marl, we will analyze sufficiently to indicate 

 its agricultural value, and charge him nothing for our 

 trouble. Send some two ounces in each package, by mail, 

 and pay postage. It is now nearly forty years since Mr. 

 Edmcnd Kuffin, of Virginia, began to use and commend 

 shell marl for the improvement of poor lands. We have 

 heard intelligent Virginians say that his experiments and 

 suggestions in this matter had been worth several million 

 dollars to that part of the State where marl abounds. Its 

 effects are not always immediate, but seldom fail to be seen 

 in two or three years. It is customary to apply from 100 

 to 200 bushels per acre, spread broadcast, before plowing. 

 As a top dressing on meadows and pastures it is highly 

 beneficial, for rains dissolve the lime and convey it into the 

 sou that needs it. We are hauling oyster shells several 

 miles, to burn and apply to our experimental farm in the 

 District of Columbia. 



The Postmaster at Colden. Erie county, N. Y., who en- 

 quires if the Genesee Farmer is published in the German 

 language, is respectfully informed that it is not. We are, 

 however, translating from the best German authors, valu- 

 able articles into English for the readers of this journal. 



Inpfiits anb SlnsSntrs. 



Shell Marl. — I desire some information in relation to the value 

 of shell marl as a fertilizer, as there has? been a large quantity of it 

 discovered in this town the pa.st summer. There are a number 

 of suV'Scribers to the Farmer that would be glad to hear your 

 opinion about shell mavl, and some directions in regard to applying 

 it^ and how much to the acre. There has been a number of beds 

 of marl discovered in this county quite recently, and you will con- 

 fer a srreat /aror on the farmers here by givijig your opinion in 

 relation to it through the pages of the Farmer. J. H. Dye.— 

 BalUton Spa, Saratoga county, N. T. 



Shell marl, when pure, is a valuable fertilizer in all cases 

 where the soil lacks lime ; and when the marl is impure, it 

 b useful in the same degree that it partakes of the cal- 

 careous element. In Saratoga county and the counties 

 adjoining it, the soil generally contains no more lime than 

 exists in the drift formation of New England and Eastern 

 New York, which is only about one-tenth of the quantity 

 found by us in the best soOs of Westem New York. In 

 Eastern and Southern Virginia, in parts of Maryland, North : 

 an! South Carolina, and in Georgia, shell marl has been 

 used with the most satisfactorv results. Gov, Hammond, 



Frou one-half to three-fourths of nearly every village garden 

 within my knowledge is planted year after year with potatoes, and 

 it is generally found convenient to plant them in the same part of 

 the garden every year, rather than disturb the arrangement of beds 

 of flowers, and other vegetables. In this manner it must be that 

 the soil has become quite deficient in some of the ingredients neces- 

 sary to produce potatoes, and it is not convenient to renovate it by 

 rotation of crops. What would be the most appropriate manure to 

 use on a strong clay soil, to supply such a continual demand for 

 one set of ingredients ? Has guano generally proved beneficial to 

 potatoes ? H. K. ^.—Clay, N. Y. 



Wood ashes liberally applied wUl supply all the earthy 



elements taken out of the ground by the culture of potatoes. 



If the soil is poor in organic matter, add well-rotted stable 



manure. Forest leaves yield rich manure for potatoes, as 



do decaying turf. On soils that naturally lack Ume, this 



mineral should be mixed with ashes. 



If I clear off five acres of good timbered land in the "green," 

 and grass the .same five years, and " deaden" a like quantity of the 

 same kind of land at the same time, then in five years clear it off 

 and burn all the wood on the ground, which would produce the 

 best crops for the longest time, without artificial means (the wood 

 of the first all being removed off the ground) ? — A, B, — Leeeville, 

 Indiana. 



The above is an interesting inquiry, and we hope that 



some of our intelligent readers wiU take up the subject, 



and give us for publication their experience and views on 



clearing land of its native forests. 



It would be interesting, and a matter of much importance to 

 many readers of the Farmer, to know whether the assertion that 

 " water under ground can be found by means of a crotched stick," 

 is truth or fiction. I see it is put down for a fact in the Patent Office 

 Report for 1851, but I always thought it a consummate humbug. 

 N. H, Y.— Auburn, Pa. 



Our opinion of the art of telling where water may be 

 found by any " divining rod," differs not much from that 

 of our correspondent ; yet we allowed the writer in the 

 Patent Office Report referred to, to have his say in the 

 matter. In former years the subject attracted a good deal 

 of attention. A sharp lancet will point as unerringly to 



