EDITOR'S TABLE. 



289 



JSifolr'^ I^bie. 



OiTRsrLves. — The publisher of the Farmer is very 

 grateful to his friends for the very flattering reception he 

 has received. Modesty only prevents him from publishing 

 extracts from some of the flattering letters now before him. 

 Old subscribers are returning to their " first love," and 

 from present appearances, we shall not much longer be 

 able to furnish our old friends with the complete volume 

 for this year, as we are fast using up the sets. We shall 

 not endeavor to speak our gratitude, but show it by good 

 works— by makingthe Genesee Farmer more worthy the 

 support and confidence of the intelligent farmers of this 

 goodly land — and their wives, and sons, and daughters. 



To ALL WHO BUY Fruit Trees. — Fop several years 

 the publisher of the Gen3See Farmer has been in the 

 habit of attending to the wants of his friends in all parts of 

 the country. He has supplied orders for Seeds, Implements. 

 Books, Fruit Trees. &c., without charging one cent for 

 time and labor employed in this work. The business has. 

 however, some much increased on his hands, that he has of 

 late spent days together in searching for and shipping 

 articles desired by distant correspondents, and in some 

 cases an increase in the price, or something of that kind, 

 has compelled him to put his hand in his own pocket to 

 make up the deficiency. These outJays, though too small 

 in themselves to make any account of, have in the aggre- 

 gate been large. He has now, however, made such ar- 

 rangements as will enable him to serve his friends just as 

 well, and better, and make a profit for his trouble. 'AH 

 the readers of the Genesee Farmer, therefore, who are 

 about to plant Trees or Shrubs, and intend to get their 

 stock from this neighborhood, can send their orders to the 

 publisher of the Genesee Farmer, who will see that tliey 

 are filled properly and correctly, and with the very best 

 trees the market affords. So send on your orders, and we 

 will see that you are fairly dealt with. 



Notes of Travel. — During the past month we have 

 made several excursions into the country. "We visited 

 Orleans, Niagara, and Livingston counties. We found 

 hay injured much, and of the wheat, as far as we could 

 ascertain after a most diligent investigation, about seven- 

 teen per cent, was grown. Immense quantities of corn on 

 low ground, we found entirely destroyed. A farmer in 

 Niagara county estimated that 1.000 acres in that county 

 planted to corn was utterly worthless. Corn on high or 

 well drained ground looked well. < 



Gov. Hunt is forming a delightful home near Lockport. 

 His grounds, carriage house, grape house, and all things 

 that make a complete country home, are in good taste, and 

 in a few years this will be one of the finest places in the 

 State. 



W. P. Townsenb, Esq., has a fine Nursery adjoining 

 the grounds of Gov. Hunt. He is a great lover of pears, 

 and a very successful cultivator. His trees, however, have 

 suffered much from blight this season. 



We should give further notes of our observations in this 

 direction, but being accompanied on our excursion by the 

 Editor of the Country GtrJttUman, we prefer taking a notice 

 of the trip from that Journal : 



About two years since we had the pleasure of spending a 

 day with Ex-Governor Hunt, on his delightfully located 

 farm, near Lockport. Mr. H. was then commencing, with 

 the assistance of Mr. Jas. Vick, of the Genesee Farmer, 

 a number of Improvements in the grounds around his resi- 

 dence. Last week we paid Mr. Hunt another visit, and 

 was agreeably surprised at the change that had taken 

 place. The house is situated about five hundred feet from 

 the road, on the summit of a gentle slope. The lower 

 portion of the farm has been thoroughly underdrained, and 

 what was once an eye-sore is now covered with beautiful 

 green-s\vard, dotted over with young but thrifty trees. A 

 hue gravelled carriage road winds through these up the 

 slope to the house and farm buildings, and the newly form- 

 ed but well kept lawn, studded over with fiower knots and 

 choice ornamental trees and shrubs, contrasts pleasantly 

 with an adjoining orchard of dwarf pear and other trees 

 loaded with beautiful and delicious fruit. Wire fences 

 with iron supporters, have taken the place of the lime- 

 honored but not very ])ictutesque Virginia rails. This is a 

 great improvement. The wire fences do not intercept the 

 view, and the whole farm will in a few years have the ap- 

 pearance of a beautiful English park, worthy the residence 

 of one whom his political opponents could designate by no 

 worse name than that of '■ The Country Gentleman." An 

 osage orange hedge, planted in the spring of 154. looks 

 exceedingly thrifty and handsome. It stood the last severe 

 winter uninjured. In one hundred rods only sixty plants 

 have died. Mr. Brancboft, of Medina, furnishes the 

 plants, sets them and fills up vacancies should any of the 

 plants die, for fifty cents per rod. 



Adjoining the farm ot Gov. Hunt, Dr. Townsend & 

 Son have a fine farm and nursery of upwards of 2U0 acres. 

 They have the finest collection uf dwarf pear trees that we 

 have seen for some time; the pear blight, however, is 

 making sad havoc on some of the varieties, especially the 

 Glont Murceau. A row of trees of this variety growing 

 by the side of a row of Louise bonne of Jersey was nearly 

 all destroyed, while the latter was not injured. Here, as 

 elsewhere, the Bartlett is apt to break off, at this season 

 of the year, at the union of the pear with the quince stock. 

 We counted no less than six fine trees, loaded with fruit, 

 blown over in a few rods. There is little advantage in 

 dwarfing the Bartlett. as it will come into bearing quite 

 early enough without. Dr. Townseni> has had it bear in 

 three years from the bud on the pear stock. 



The corn crop in this county has been seriously injured 

 by the cold rains. Dr. T. says " there are thousands of 

 acres that have never had a plow or cultivator in the fields 

 since they were planted." We saw many such fields not 

 only in this county, but everywhere we liave been. The 

 weeds are in many places quite as high as the corn. Surely 

 two sucli years as 1854 and 5, will teach farmers the value 

 of underdraining. Last year the corn on properly drained 

 and cultiNated land was but slightly injured by drouth, 

 while that on land needing underdraining was not half a 

 crop; this year the corn on drained land is rioting in al- 

 most tropical luxuriance, while that on wet uudrained soil 

 is a failure ; and what is true of corn is also true of other 

 farm produce. It is impossible to estimate the immense 

 loss tlie country has sustained the last two years, from the 

 neglect of underdraining. Instead of urging farmers to 

 " sow one acre more," we would advise them tounderdrain 

 one field more, as the best means of raising cheap food for 

 the million. 



Agricultural Orators. — At the New Hampshire 

 State Fair, Prof, C. B. Hai>i>uck. of Hanover; at New 

 York, Gov. AVright, of Indiana ; at New Jersey, Prof. 

 J. A. Porter, of New Haven ; at Pennsylvania. Hon. F. 

 Watts; at Illinois, Hon. D. J. Bakei: ; at Maine. Prof. 

 J. A. Nash, of Amherst. 



This is quite an improvement on some previous years. 

 All who speak on this subject should be competent to teach. 



