THE GENESEE FARMER. 



267 



la some districts, corn will be ready to cut up at 

 the roots by the last of this month ; and wherever 

 fodder is au object, the operation should be performed 

 before frost shall damage the green plants. After 

 the kernels are well glazed, the grain ripens without 

 much, if any, shrinkage, where corn is cut at the 

 ground and set up in small stacks to cure. These 

 ought not to stand too long single, and exposed to 

 the weather, for such exposure to the fall rains injures 

 the stalks, and sometimes the corn. Forage of all 

 kinds needs shelter ; and it is the part of wisdom to 

 have a plenty of barn and shed room on every farm. 

 Husk corn early, and put up the stalks and husks in 

 good stacks, where they cannot be housed. 



Long-continued dry weather has nearly destroyed 

 the potato crop in the vicinity of Rochester, which 

 is a pretty serious misfortune to both cultivators and 

 consumers. Such as have fair crops of this important 

 vegetable, will do well to take the best of care to 

 save them from rot, or injury of any kind. They 

 will doubtless sell high before the next harvest. 



Apples are not very plenty tliis year; and the crop 

 is likely to pay liberally for all the attention bestowed 

 in saving them in good condition. Every year's ex- 

 perience serves to satisfy farmers more and more of 

 the importance of fruit- culture. Skill and capital 

 are, however, quite as necessary in this branch of ru- 

 ral industry as in any other. Good fruit of all kinds 

 sells readily and at remunerating prices. Give your 

 fruit trees the benefit of some manure, and strengthen 

 the soil by a dressing of lime and ashes. Apjile or- 

 chards in particular are often cropped with grain or 

 hay to the injury of the land ; and as the annual 

 gi'owth of leaves and fruit rarely rots under the trees, 

 the soil needs considerable manure to maintain its 

 fertiUty. 



HOW TO CONVERT STRAW INTO 

 MANURE. 



Having spent some time in the country among 

 wheat-growers, and noticed numerous huge piles and 

 stacks of straw, our attention has been called to the 

 ways and means best adapted to transform this pro- 

 duct into manure. Its speedy decomposition is the 

 object to be attained, M-here one does not wish to feed 

 straw to his stock, nor use it for bedding. It is proper 

 to remark that by many good farmers it is often dis- 

 tributed over land about to be plowed, and raked into 

 the furrow and covered 's\ith earth as the plow ad- 

 vances. On clay land, this practice is judicious ; for 

 straw rotted in this M'ay renders a compact soil more 

 pervious to rain water and salutary atmospheric in- 

 fluences. On light loams, sandy and gravelly land, 

 straw covered with earth in the manner indicated is 

 of doubtful utility ; for being too open already, it 

 needs more compact fertilizers, and rolling, or treading 

 by sheep or young stock. 



To hasten the decomposition of straw, care must 

 be taken not to permit the water that falls on the 

 mass in rain or snow to run off. Dry straw decays 

 very slowly, as is seen in the durability of thatched 

 roofs on sheds, bams and houses. To rot soon, straw 

 must be kept moist ; and the breaking down of the 

 tissues and stems of this and other cereals, like large 

 corn-stalks, is promoted by adding either quick-lime, 



or that which has been recently slaked, to the mass. 

 Both Hme and ashes favor the solution of the hard, 

 glass-like flint so largely deposited in the culms of 

 cereal grasses, which gives them strength and duror 

 bility. AVater charged with carbonic has its solvent 

 power much increased — robbing silicic acid of its 

 bases to form carbonates. 



By tramping straw in a yard with stock, breaking 

 it up, and adding to it the liquid and solid droppings 

 of domestic animals, it rots sooner than when it lies 

 in a heap undisturbed. The dung of cattle, sheep 

 and swine yields both ammonia (a powerful alkali) 

 and free carbonic acid, which assist the rotting of 

 straw. Hence, where one raises a good deal of grain, 

 he should bed all his stock well during the winter. 

 A correspondent, writing from AVayne county, Ohio, 

 suggests that gypsum as well as lime is an important 

 ingredient in "the rotting of whole straw." Such is 

 not the fact. It improves the manure, but does not 

 aid in the decomposition of straw. 



SPRING AND RIVER WATER — IRRI- 

 GATION. 



Spring and river water hold in solution every thing 

 of a soluble nature contained in the ground from 

 which agricultural plants derive their sustenance; for 

 the water that flows from springs and in rivers has 

 washed over or passed through a good deal of earth. 

 If this abound in the elements of crops, water that 

 has washed it will contain them ; so that the careful 

 analysis of clear spring and river water gives us a 

 valuable insight into the natural resources of the 

 soil. A few analyses of natural waters, taken from 

 reliable works, will show how intimate is their relation 

 to agriculture as a scientific profession. 



A gallon of fresh spring water from Sycamore HiU, 

 near Cincinnati, or within the limits of the city, gave 

 Mr. Locke (a chemist of that city) the following re- 

 sults, on analysis: 



Chloride of sodium, 1425 grains. 



" calcium, 2.1153 "_ 



" magnesium, .7915 " 



Sulphate of lime, 10.5500 « 



" magnesia, 1.1968 " 



Silicic acid, 7208 " 



Carbonate of lime, 15.0067 " 



" magnesia, 4.5553 " 



Total of solid matter, 35.0788 " 



Carbonic acid g;is, _ 39.1978 cub. in. 



Of the 35 grains of solid matter dissolved in a 

 gallon of spring water, it will be seen that 15 are 

 carbonate of lime (common limestone), and 10.55 

 gypsum, or sulphate of lime. It is plain that rain 

 water in passing from the surface of the ground to 

 this spring had percolated through earth that abounds 

 in salts of lime. Suppose this spring water, after 

 flowing several hundred miles in a river toward the 

 ocean, should be pumped up to irrigate a field which 

 lacked lime. If not much more diluted than when it 

 left the fountain, a few thousand tons would impart 

 to the needy soil in great abundance, every ingredient 

 that the river and spring water held in solution. 

 Sulphate of magnesia (epsom salts) and common salt 

 (both valuable fertiUzers) would be amply difl'used 

 through the irrigated earth. Had several gallons 

 instead of one been evaporated, we doubt not salts 



