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Vol. XV., Second Series. 



EOCHESTER, N. Y., APRIL, 1854 



THE GENESEE FAEMER, 



A MOXTULY J0rR.VA7, OF 



AGRICULTU RE & HOR TICULTURE. 



VOLUME XV., SECOIVD SEIRES. 1854:. 



EACH NUMBER CONTAINS 32 ROYAL OCTAYO PAGF9 TV 



DOUBLE COLUMNS, AND TWELVE NUMBERS FORM 



A VOLUME OF 384 PAGES IN A YEAR 



Terms. 



Single Copy,.... __ g„ . 



Five Copies, ... -*"-^" 



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of^I^ibUsher*"" P'"°P®'''^ '"^*'^' ^'^'^ postage paid, at the risk 

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DANIEL LEE, 



J'ublig/ier and Proprietor, Rochester, If. Y, 



HINTS FOR APRIL. 



April is an important month to the farmer In 

 large sections of our extended countiT the plantin<^ 

 ot corn and cotton will be completed this month 

 and m eveiy part plowing and seeding will be )3er- 

 tormed. On thousands of farms, some fields will be 

 troubled with an excess of water in the soil, and need 

 at least surfoce draining. We can not too earnestlv 

 urge attention to this subject; for to sow or plant or 

 even to plow, land that is too wet, involves a pro- 

 digious loss which ought to be avoided. Earth satu- 

 rated with stagnant water can never devolop fertilitv 

 or the healthful growth of agricultural plants. It is 

 in vain that the farmer cultivates a soil from which 

 the air is nearly excluded, l^ecause the earth does not 

 break up into an open, friable, pulverized mass. It is 

 true that sandy and gravelly soils are sometimes too 

 porous— present too large spaces between the parti- 

 cles of solid matter. To such, the application of good 

 clay as a top dreasing, especially where land is valua- 

 ble and crops most remunerative, pavs well, as it o-jves 

 body and strength to the arated ground "^ 



The difference between tilled and untilled gi-ound is 

 not sufBciently studied. Men plow, harrow, roll and 

 hoe the earth's surface, without asking themselves whv 

 they do so. A physical change in the soil is souo-ht 

 and accomplished ; but what constitutes the perfec- 

 tion of that desirable change ? Who has mastered 

 the deep philosophy of tillage, whether shallow or 

 otherwise? Of all the books and journals that have 

 treated on this subject, it is difficult to find one the 



. writer of which appears to comprehend the condensing 

 power of a first rate soil after it has been wisely tiUed 

 A heap of finely pulverized charcoal has been known 

 so to condense atmospheric air within its pores as to 

 be set on fire by the evolution of latent heat in the 

 before rarefied air, rendered sensible and active by 

 mechanical compression within the innumerable pores 

 of the coal. The extreme porosity which distin- 

 guishes the best loams, perfectly comminuted by the 

 implements of tiUage, compels the oxygen, carbonic 

 acid and nitrogen of the atmosphere, to fecundate the 

 earth m a remarkable degree. But if the plow, cul- 

 tivator, harrow, hoe and roller do their work badly in 

 the spring, either from carelessness or wetness of soil 

 the latent resources of nature are not reached by the 

 farmer's crops for that year. He will lose full twenty- 

 five per cent, of his labor, and of the fan- return for 

 the use of his land. 



One can improve a soil which is defective from an 

 excess of open gravel, or porous sand, much easier 

 by the addition of clay, than he can remove the com- 

 pactness and imperviousness of hard clay by the ap- 

 plication of sand. To get air into clay land, and 

 make it break up kindly when plowed, there is nothin<^ 

 better, if so good, as undev-draining. Wherever 

 water passes through the surface and subsoil into a 

 Howmg outlet, atmospheric air follows it, and areates 

 the earth. This important fact is too httle considered 

 by farmers; hence the eye of science sees a great deal 

 ot laiid plowed in the spring before it is fit to plow. 

 Earth saturated with unmoving water excludes air 

 about as effectively as would a solid cannon ball made 

 01 iron or lead. 



From these hints on drainage, tillage and areation 

 we pass to the consideration of manure— the food of 

 plants. Many feed their horses, cattle, sheep and 

 hogs in a wasteful, slovenly manner; but the loss from 

 this carelessness is small in comparison with that at- 

 tending the wasteful application of manure. A promi- 

 meut defect arises from the assumption that one knows 

 the relative value of fresh and rotten manure and 

 also the real virtue of different fertilizers, no m'atter 

 whether formed exclusively of wheat, rye, oat or 

 buckwheat straw, of corn stalks, leaves and husk.s, 

 timothy or clover hay, pea vines, grain or roots. We 

 hope not to give ofieuce when it is intimated that the 

 exact nutritive properties of the various kinds of ali- 

 ment consumed by agi-icultural plants have not been 

 investigated as they ought to be. We have often 



