THE GENESEE FARMER. 



365 



the air, through their leaves, while the other, having 

 small and few leaves, depend chiefly upon the soil for 

 tiieir nourishment ; and as cuhniferous plants are 

 chiefly cultivated for their seed, and are not cut until 

 fully ripe, they are decidedly of an exhausting nature 

 — but if cut green for fodder, they do not weaken 

 the vigor of the soil more than many leguminous 

 plants. Bearing this distinctive principle in mind, it 

 follows, as a necessary deduction, that leguminous 

 }:dants weaken the land, more or less, according as 

 they ripen their seeds or not. Peas and beans being 

 grown for seed, are more severe than other legumi- 

 nous crops cut green. But whether they ripen the 

 Beed or not, they are all, in one respect, highly con- 

 ducive to the friability and mellowness of the soil ; 

 by the shading which their foliage affords, the dew, 

 or the raiu which falls in summer, is greatly prevented 

 from evaporating ; much of the moisture sinks into 

 the soil, which becomes mellow and unctions in con- 

 sequence. But moisture falling on a culmiferous 

 O'op rests but for a moment on the surface, and is 

 then evaporated by the influence of the sun, leaving 

 the ground not only dry but hard. And further, 

 some of the leguminous tribe, by pushing their roots 

 widely and deeply iu the ground, loosen it more than 

 others, and are, of course, in this respect, more bene- 

 ficial than others, though, in respect of abstracting 

 aliment, they may be more injurious. Red clover by 

 its tap-root divides the earth more than any mere 

 fibrous-rooted plant; and when it does not mature its 

 seed, is on clay soil the very best aperient, as it tends 

 to remove cohesiveness without exhausting. In a 

 word, leguminous plants, if not allowed to ripen, de- 

 prive the soil in a very trifling degree of nourishment, 

 while they invariably loosen it, and prepare it best 

 for those culmiferous plants, which are perhaps more 

 profitable, to succeed in their proper turn, and which 

 tend to bind up the land again, and thus preserve the 

 happy medium of fertility. 



ITALIAN RYE GRASS, 



This grass, recently introduced into the United 

 States, is either a native of Italy or Germany, and is 

 probably perennial. It diS'ers from the common 

 kinds of rye grass iu many botanical particulars, 

 which it is needless to enumerate, and which arc ouly 

 intelligible to the scientific eye ; but to the ordinary 

 observer it differs very perceptibly in presenting a 

 darker green color, and in having much more abund- 

 ant and broader foliage. It very commonly attains 

 the height of four feet, and sometimes more, and is 

 not inclined to spread on the ground. If sown in 

 September, it may be cut iu the following May; and 

 if sown early iu March, it will yield a heavy crop in 

 July. Whether given as green food or converted 

 into hay, it is eaten with avidity by cattle, which have 

 in various instances manifested their preference of it 

 to the common sorts, which is accounted for by its 

 superior succulence and softness. It brairds much 

 quicker than any of the other species of rye grass 

 known to us, arrives sooner at maturity, and is in 

 every respect superior to all of them. As it over- 

 powers clover if sown with it, it is useless to sow 

 them at the same time; and the only chance of their 

 doijjg well together would be on poor soil, where the 



vacancies between the tufts of rye grass might be 

 filled with clover, to be available in the second or 

 third mowings. It is sown in the usual way after a 

 harrowing, and covered with a bush harrow and a 

 roller; and the quantity of seed for clean ground is 

 about twenty-one pounds per acre. Among its other 

 good qualities, it is found to withstand the influence 

 of frost better than any other varieties of grass. In 

 a word, it is a decided acquisition to our agriculture. 



PRESERVATION OF WHEAT IN TEN- 

 NESSEE. 



The following communication by a correspondent 

 of the Plough, the Loom and the Anvil, respecting 

 wheat threshing, will be found of interest to those 

 whose barns are infested with the grain weevil: 



" I am aware that very many of my farming friends 

 in Tennessee are the readers of your valuable publi- 

 cation, and are heavy wheat-growers ; and now that 

 recent railroad conveyance, with the foreign demand, 

 has permanently settled upon this valuable grain a 

 fair price here, it is not at all unlikely that much more 

 attention will be paid to the growing of wheat in fu- 

 ture. A few otherwise systematic and economical 

 farmers in Tennessee raise a pretty fair crop of wheat, 

 and have no barns to house it in. This is a very 

 great desideratum to a wheat-grower ; and the want 

 of good barns, with some other proximate causes of 

 mismanagement, sometimes results in material damage 

 to the wheat of these farmers before it reaches the 

 miller's hopper. Therefore, through you, to my farm- 

 ing friends in Tennessee, let me, without ostentation, 

 give my experience in harvesting and saving a wheat 

 crop, referring at the same time to my acquamtances 

 for the character of my wheat crops. 



" Whenever the straw of the wheat becomes of a 

 golden yellow for about two inches below the ear or 

 head, disregarding any other feature in the straw or 

 grain, I cut it down, bind it right up after the scythe 

 in small binds, shock likewise in small shocks. I let 

 it stand thus in the field till it cures and dries per- 

 fectly, so that the grain would gi'iud, and no longer. 

 I haul to the barn, thresh out when convenient, un- 

 less I notice a sign of weevil breeding in the wheat, 

 when I thresh at once ; and having a large bin for 

 the purpose in the barn, I crib it up in the chaff till 

 it is needed. In this way I have saved and do save 

 one thousand bushels of wheat clear from mold, heat 

 or must. The bran is always thin and touuh, the 

 flour white and sweet, preserving its native fermenting 

 qualities to the satisfaction of the most fastiduous 

 epicure in any clime." 



Potatoes in Ireland. — The Belfast Mercury 

 says that the magnitude of the crop for 1854 is cer- 

 tainly very much beyond that ever known in that 

 country. Taking a low average, we should say that 

 the gross value of Ireland's potato lands this season 

 cannot be under £15,000,000. Ireland contahis now 

 more than six millions and a half of inhabitants, and 

 the potato crop for the present year is estimated to 

 be worth seventy millions of dollars, or rather more 

 than ten dollars for each man, woman and child in 

 the whole island. 



