THE GENESEE FARMER. 



275 



the great advantage of experiments in steeps, for the 

 purpose of acceleratincr the growth of plants in their 

 early stage, and a publication of the same in your 

 columns ; for facts are the basis of all correct agri- 

 cultural practice. Yours, Ccltor. 



IRRIGATIOX. 



Mr. Editor : — The present season of drouth is a 

 connncing illustration of the n(?cessity of pro\nding. 

 wherever ^practicable, some means for the irrigation 

 of cultivated crops and vegetables. The wilted leaves 

 of our garden vegetables, and their entire cessation 

 from growth for the past few weeks, tell more forcibly 

 than words can do of the importance of the presence 

 of water in the elaboration of the juices of plants, 

 and its aid in the supply of food to the thirsty root- 

 lets. The thanks of all cultivators of the soil vnW 

 be eminently due him who shall devise a systematic 

 and efficient means of enabling us to avert the effects 

 of the protracted drouths from which we suffer every 

 season, and which every year seems to be of longer 

 duration ; and we have every reason to expect that 

 as long as the felling of our forests shall continue, 

 and the earth be shorn of these great condensers of 

 atmospheric moisture, these periods of drouth will 

 continue to increase in duration and extent. Such 

 has been the case in countries which have been de- 

 nuded of their forests, and such is the experience of 

 observers here. 



It follows, then, that we must direct our minds to 

 the best means of averting the same. In hilly coun- 

 tries, that are supplied \^"ith springs and runninir 

 brooks, the water-ram will eventually be found to be 

 of great service ; for by its aid, with but a few 

 feet fall, we can elevate a perpetual stream to a height 

 many times the fall of the driving stream. But in 

 Western New York, and on the prairie lauds, water- 

 rams will not answer, for the simple reason that 

 most of our streams become dry during the summer 

 months precisely at the time when most they are 

 needed. We must then resort to animal, wind, or 

 steam power, to raise the water of irrigation from 

 beneath the surface to a height sufficient to flow over 

 our fields. In most sections of our country animal 

 power is too expensive, and the same objection aj> 

 plies to steam power. Then there remains the wind 

 — the unseen power, every where present, and for 

 which no expense is incurred except to provide the 

 means of use. 



We see it stated in the Springfield (Mass.) Re- 

 publican, that an ingenious mechanic of EUiuglon. 

 Conn., has invented and put in successful operation a 

 self-adjusting wind-mill, which furls its own sails at 

 the proper time, stops when the wind is too high, and 

 starts upon its steady round again when it returns to 

 its appropriate degree of force. It has been in ope- 

 ration six months, without requiring a hand to regu- 

 late the sails — has run fifteen days and nights con- 

 secutively without stopping — has drawn ^^a•er from 

 a well twenty-eight feet deep and one hnnditd feet 

 distant, and forced it into a reservoir in the upper 

 part of a barn in sufficient quantities for fai'm and 

 garden irrigation — and cost but 850. 



If the inventive genius of our mechanics has pro- 

 duced a machine answering to the above notice, then j 



the great difficulties in the way of irrigation have 

 been mostly removed ; and whoever will first apply 

 the same in practice will reap a generous reward. 

 Yours, CcLTOR. 



CROPS IX SEXECA COUNTY. N. Y. 



Mr. Editor : — The crops in Seneca are very un- 

 equal. The well-tilled, manured, and drained fields 

 have given crood crops of every thing but timothy 

 1 ay. while all slack farming is pinched by drouth. 

 I Potatoes are backward. Le.=^s wheat wa-; injured by 

 I the insect than by the snowless winter. More com 

 i is now growing here th:ui ever before ; the early 

 I planted never looked better. More flax than usual 

 i will be grown this year, as the threshed stalk is con- 

 tracted for at $6 the ton — seed at S1.50 a bushel 

 Tery respectfully, S. W. 



Waterloo, Seneca Co., X. Y. 



THIN SEEDING. 



1 WISH to a.-k '• J. B.," who has written such an 

 excellent account of my friend Mr. Meoiu's farming, 

 but who disapproves of what he calls Mr. Mechi's 

 too thin seeding, whether he himself has ever fairly 

 tried half a bushel of se?d wheat or of seed barley 

 against twice as much, three times as much, cr four 

 or five or six times as much. If he has not, I should 

 also wish to ask him what he would think of one 

 peck of wheat or even of half a peck, or of one or 

 two pecks of barley only. Of course, if "J. B." 

 condemns Mr. Mechi's four or five pecks of seed 

 wheat, he would more than coadenm my two peeks 

 or one peck, and especially my half peck, and my 

 two peclis of barley ; and yet I produced on the 

 same field, on an average of four years in succession, 

 8^ C|rs. of wheat, and my quantity of seed never ex- 

 ceeded two pecks, but I varied it from half a peck to 

 two pecks; and what will, I have no doubt, astonish 

 " J. B.," and perhaps nine-tenths of farmers besides, 

 still more, my crops from the half peck and the one 

 peck of seed wheat per acre were better than those 

 from the two pecks. Let it always be undei"stood, 

 also, that I always sold my wheat at the very highest 

 market price. And as for my barley, the lowest crop 

 I ever had was 4^ qrs. per acre, and the highest 8 

 qrs, within one bushel ; and these crops I sold every 

 year, except one. for seed : and that one, which waa 

 "last year, the barley grew in the same field which had 

 been wheat four successive times before ; I sold it at 

 a dechning market, at 44s. a quarter. Nay, I go still 

 further; 1 am now cutting a crop of clover in the 

 same field, which for weight and quality I will baci 

 against any crop in England, however it may have 

 been produced ; and I intend to mow it again, and 

 then I will drill the field with wheat, with the drill I 

 used and invented myself, and which deposits just as 

 many seeds as I wish and no more ; and the highest 

 quantity of seed I will drill shall be two pecks, and 

 the lowest quantity half a peck; and I will even now 

 back the produce next year against any one bushel, 

 two bushel, or three bushel seeder in the kingdom. 

 Why, then, should I use more seed ? Will any gen- 

 tleman point out to me why I should throw into my 



