110 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



this fodder. Cows yield more butter from the tare 

 than from any other provender; and pigs vora- 

 ciously consume and prosper on it without farina- 

 ceous food." We can endorse this opinion from 

 our own experience. 



Mr. Lawes' experiments on vetches, extending 

 over many years, prove that, like peas and beans 

 and clover, vetches are an enriching rather than an 



impoverishing crop. 



^»>.^ 



HARROWING POTATOES. 



If potatoes are harrowed just before the shoots 

 ai'e coming through the ground, the after labor of 

 hoeing is greatly reduced. The harrowing also 

 Dreaks the crust of the soil, and the shoot can pen- 

 etrate through the ground more readily. It has 

 also another advantage: it removes a portion of 

 the soil from above the plant, and thus the plant 

 receives, during the first stages of its growth, when 

 the soil is cold, the more direct influence of the sun. 

 We present an engraving of a harrow used in Eng- 

 land for this purpose. It is made in two parts, 

 each being convex, and about two feet wide, con- 

 nected by a bar across them, which admits of their 



POTATO HABKOW. 



separation to a greater or smaller distance, so as to 

 fit the width of drill ; and it is drawn by one horse, 

 which walks between the drills on which it operates. 



WAsnixo IToRSEs'' Legs. — Sir Geoege Seephens 

 says: "Whenever it is necessary to wash horses' 

 legs, do it in the morning. To deluge the legs with 

 ■water the moment the horse enters the yard, heated 

 Tdth exercise, is, to my mind, as unnatural and 

 absurd as to jump into a shower-bath after playing 

 for an hour at cricket. My plan is a rubbing down 

 with straw and dry brush, and the next morning 

 wash as clean as soap and water can make them. 

 Pick and wash the soles as soon as the horse 

 eomes in," 



UNEIPE CORN FOR SEED. 



In the April number of the Genesee Farmer for 

 last year, we alluded to the fact that the eyes from 

 the extremity of the potato start earlier, and are 

 said to produce earlier crops, than those from the 

 root end. At all events, potato-growers for mar- 

 ket, in some parts of England, have for many years 

 adopted a practice based on this 

 idea. They cut the potato into 

 sets as shown in the annexed en- 

 graving. The sets nearest the 

 extremity of the potato («) pro- 

 duce the earliest crop, and a-re 

 planted by themselves, in warm 

 places, for this purpose. The sets 

 at the root end {d) are planted for 

 a late crop, and those in the middle of the potato 

 (5, c,) are planted for an intermediate crop. The 

 root end ia usually thrown aside for the pigs. 



We rather hesitatingly gave the following expla- 

 nation of the fact at the time : 



" It has been supposed that the reason why the 

 eyes from the point of the potato are more easily 

 excited into growth, is owing to their being more 

 perfectly matured; but this is im- 

 possible, as they are the youngest 

 eyes. It seems to us more likely 

 that the cause lies in the fact that 

 the extremity of the potato is not so 

 ripe as the root end — that, in other 

 words, they are not so perfectly 

 organized^ and are consequently less 

 able to resist the decomposing influ- 

 ences of light, air, and moisture. 

 'That whidi thou sowest is nofc 

 quickened unless it die.' The or- 

 ganized matter of a plant must be 

 decomposed (or die) before it can 

 reproduce itself. The youngest eyes, 

 being less perfectly organized, would 

 decay soonest and grow earlier and 

 with greater vigor." 



We recur again to the subject in 

 order to adduce a very important fact (if it be a 

 fact) confirming this view. In the Transactions of 

 the La Moille Farmers' Club, published in the 

 Prairie Farmer, President McKet said "that corn 

 gathered before fully ripened, and hung up to dry 

 in the house, germinated sooner, and was more 

 forward through the season, than if left to ripen in 

 the field." 



Wheel vs. Swing Plows. — A Scottish corFes- 

 pondent of the London Agricultural Gazette con- 

 cludes, from a number of trials with the dynamom- 

 eter on plows with and without wheels, that the 

 wheel plows are of one-third lighter draught thxm 

 the swing plovot. 



