THE GEKESEE FARMEPw 



85 



of the crop. The labor has been bestowed — plow- 

 ing, planting, sowing, cultivating, and hai'vesting, — 

 and the reward has been a gigantic crop of weeds 

 in wet places, where the largest amount of grain 

 should have grown. Here there is a loss of labor, 

 seed, and crop, for the want of underdrains. Bet- 

 ter or more forcible arguments in favor of draining 

 could hardly be offered than the repetition of such 

 seasons as this has been, lie who can not read in 

 the condition of his soil in months past the necessi- 

 ty of carrying off surplus water, must be beyond 

 teaching by examples of dire necessity. 



As to manuring, land devoted to corn-growing 

 gets pretty thoroughly manured. The stalks are 

 seldom cut up; the corn is picked from the hill, 

 and the stalks are left to the herds of cattle to be 

 eaten and trampled into the earth. In this manner 

 the supply of vegetable mold is kept up, and rather 

 increases than diminishes, from year to year. But 

 wheat, comiug in for a liberal shai'e in the rotation 

 of crops, with us, removes all its product from the 

 soil, and thus tends to impoverish it. It pays to 

 manure for corn with common barn-yard manure; 

 but the growth of straw is ample in wheat, unaided 

 by any such stimulant. Having never seen any 

 report of a trial of lime, salt, or any of the inor- 

 ganic fertilizers, I am not prepared to speak in re- 

 gard to them. It is the common opinion here that 

 manure is not worth the saving, and straw is almost 

 universally burned. 



You are doubtless correct in the inference given 

 in your question, that it would pay better to culti- 

 vate less land, and do it in a more thorough, work- 

 manlike manner; at least, such is the opinion of 



Amboy, 111., <Pct, 1S5S. W. II. GAEDNEE. 



FENCE POSTS. 



Messrs. Editors : — In the January number of the 

 {^enesee Farmer., I see an inquiry, by E. Morton, 

 about fence posts, and without hesitation say that 

 neither top nor bottom of wooden posts should be 

 set in the ground. Nature never designed that 

 wood should be inserted in the earth. Earth should 

 come in contact with earthy material ; and then 

 there is very slow, if any, decay. I have thought 

 upon this subject, and have experimented, and from 

 the brick material I have cast and dried several 

 fence posts 6 ft. long and 5 by 5 and 2 by 5 in. 

 Owing to my not having the conveniences for burn- 

 ing, I have never burned any; but experienced 

 men say that there is not the least difficulty, if a 

 furuace is of sufficient height to have them stand 

 on end during the process of burning. If the tem- 

 perature is raised to the melting point of silex, the 

 aluminum of the clay will be fused, and the cai'bon 

 of the wood or coal will enter and form a substance 

 as hard as the hardest stone — impervious to water 

 and unaffected by time. Provision can be made, in 

 the process of manufacture, to pass bolts through, 

 the post, board, and cleet to be secured Avith nut 

 and screw. Good boards put on in this way I 

 think would last thirty to fifty years, and the posts 

 for ever. A person having a sterile clay upon his 

 farm, fit for no agricultural purpose, could make 

 them as cheap as good wooden posts could be 

 bought, or cheaper. If this is a new idea, I think 

 that sooner or later it will be valuable. 



Moscow, Uv. Co., K Y. WM. LYMAN, 



SHEEP HACK — RTJEAL ANNUAL FOR 1859. 



Messrs. Editors: — In looking over ihQ Rural 

 Annual for 1850, I notice an engraving and de- 

 scription of a sheep rack, very good, but I believe 

 that there is a better. The objection to this rack 

 is the v^Tint of shelter for the sheep. According to 

 the experience of numerous writers (given in the 

 various volumes of the Genesee Farmer) and of my- 

 self, it does not pay to feed sheep in any kind of 

 rack out of doors. Make the racks in any conve- 

 nient mode, so that the hay will not get under the 

 feet of the sheep ; but be sure to have the racks, 

 sheep and all, under good sheds ; and there will be 

 more wool and mutton, and less hay and grain 

 necessary to its production. 



The above is the only fault (if fault it may be 

 called) in the Anniml for 1859, saving and except- 

 ing the fault of being written on the plan of the 

 celebrated Sam Weller's valentine. I assure you 

 that I did " vish there vas more." As to the good 

 qualities of the Annual, I can only say that they 

 are "too numerous to mention;" and it it should 

 be read by every man, woman, and child, in the 

 State, it would only be doing the good which it 

 was intended to do. d. a, a. nichols. 



Improvement of Sheep. — Your correspondent 

 J. 0., on the 19th page of the January number of 

 your excellent paper, says : " As far as my experi- 

 ence goes, the most profitable sheep are of no breed. 

 Buy poor and inferior ewes," &c. ; and sets forth 

 the doctrine that in cross-bred sheep the first cross 

 is the best. Some years ago, I commenced the use 

 of Leicester bucks, obtained from the excellent 

 flock of J. Beoadt, with ray common ewes, with 

 the following results. As a rule, the best CAve 

 brought the best lamb ; and as I went on from year 

 to year, the lamb which had the most Leicester 

 blood was the best. Now I have them that will 

 compare favorably with many called thorough-bred. 

 According to my experience, if you wish a flock of 

 good mutton sheep, get the best common ewes, use 

 good Leicester bucks, avoid in-and-in breeding, pay 

 no attention to the old maxim that the first cross is 

 best, sheker and feed well, and proper time will 

 accomplish the object. — W. H. H. Ellswortu, 

 Woodville, Jeff. Co., K Y. 



.^•■# m 



Salt as a Manure for Wheat. — A correspond- 

 ent, referring to our account, in the last volume of 

 the Genesee Farmer., of the experiment of John 

 Johnston, where a barrel of salt per acre, applied 

 at the time of sowing, had a very beneficial effect 

 on wheat — causing it to mature so early that the 

 midge did it little injury — asks whether it would 

 be likely to do as much good when applied as a 

 top-dressing in the spring. We thinlc not. The 

 action of salt, probably, is as a solvent of fertilizing 

 matter in the soil ; so that it would be desirable to 

 mix it with the soil, and apply it as early as possi- 

 ble. On poor land, salt would not be likely to do 

 much good, sown either in the fall or in the spring, 

 "We hope our correspondent, however, will make 

 the experiment. 



