AQ 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



trenches one-third full of green manure in the 

 winter, from the stable, coal ashes, &c. The result 

 was, that after the tecoud year's trenching and 

 manuring, there was no more compact drab clay 

 to be found within twenty inches of the surface : 

 all had changed to a friable, chocolate colored 

 loam ; and what is better, instead of a continual 

 need of top-dressing every year, it will bring as 

 good crops of corn, beets, etc., year after year, 

 ■without manure, as that part of the gai'deu that is 

 heavily surface-manured every year. 



In the hot, dry summer of 1854, when every 

 farmers corndeaves rolled and almost burned up, 

 and the crop Avas short from drouth, I had a larger 

 growth of sweet cocn and Lima beans than ever 

 before. True, the corn-leaves rolled a little in tlie 

 daytime, but they again expanded at dewy eve, 

 and received the full benefit of the heavy nightly 

 dews, whicli was denied to the unexpanded, sun- 

 burned leaf. This success was alone due to fre- 

 quent hoeings, and the influence of long green 

 manure trenched in deeply the fall and winter be- 

 fore. It is true that top-dressing is nature's lavish 

 plan of manuring, and it may be often profitably 

 followed ; but if we only reflect how many of the 

 cereals and leguminosa) have been improved by 

 man's culture, may we not also presume to improve 

 on nature's economy in manuring, as well as in 

 culture? — the more especially as such action is 

 expressly in accordance with the divine decree that 

 man shall live by the sweat of his fjxce. 



The Genesee Farmer and its Second Pkexh- 

 XJMS. — At Fredonia, that primitive gas-lit village 

 of rich, grazing Chautauque, the agent of the Farmer 

 takes $20, the highest premium for the largest 

 number of April subscribers; J. D. Palmer, of 

 Thurlow, Canada "West, takes $19 for the next 

 largest number. It may be a poser to a part of 

 the editorial fraternity, how Joseph Harris is en- 

 abled to give so good a monthly of practical and 

 original matter, unscissored, for the trifling sum of 

 37i cents per annum, and pay such cash premiums 

 to his local agents. But the fact is that these pre- 

 miums stimulate the agents to labor witli and stir 

 up the obtuse mind of the rural community, to 

 battle with their prejudices, and to conciliate tlieir 

 egotism, so far as to induce a single 37+ cent in- 

 vestment in book farming ; and when once in for 

 h, the paper soon becomes a household necessity,. 

 never thereafter to be dispensed with. Mr. Harris 

 has the advantage of being to the manor born, and 

 ■what is better, he is so much in love with his pro- 

 fession as a scientific and practical farmer, that the 

 soil, and its capabilities of production under proper 

 manuring and culture, is his constant study — 

 making no other use of his early scientific training 

 at Lawks' experimental farm at Ilothamsted, Eng- 

 land, tlun to adapt his experience there to the soil 

 and climate of our country. His very instructive 

 experiments on the culture of our king of cereals, 

 Indian corn, have been detailed in the Farmer and 

 in the Transactions of the A^. Y. State Agricultu- 

 ral Society. For his outlay and pains-taking he 

 ■was rewarded by the State premium of |i75, about 

 one-third the amount it cost. What a pity that a 

 portion of the tliousands uselessly squandered by 

 the patent office could not be applied to Buch prac- 

 tical purposes. 



UTateHoo, Jfay 11, 1S5S. 



TIMOTHY GRASS, AND THE BEST TIME FOR CI 

 TING IT. 



Tins grass, {Phleum j^ratense,) so universa 

 known and highly valued by American agriculti 

 ists, was originally introduced into the country 

 Timothy Hanson, of Maryland, from whom it ( 

 rives its name. It is known as catstail in Ei 

 land, and herdsgrass in the New England Stat 

 It is also a favorite grass in Sweden, wliere it is < 

 tensively cultivated. It is a perennial, bulbo 

 rooted plant ; the leaves are broader than those 

 most other grasses, and rough, with long sheat 

 In the early stages of its growth, it re,-embles 

 diminutive plant of Indian corn ; stalk long a 

 j' inted, surmounted when mature by a long, ha 

 spikelet containing the seed. • 



The first year after sowing the seed, the yon 

 plants consist of single bulbs, scattered over 1 

 surface of the ground at considerable iutervi 

 and rarely blossoming. In the spring of the s 

 ond year the plant throws out a number of n 

 bulbs, in a similar manner to the potato onion, 

 shown in our illustration. These blossom a 



ROOTS OP TIMOTHT. 



A, original ieedling bulb, now dead. B, B, &c., balbs »pr 

 from A, and forming a stoul of plants ronnd it. 



produce seed, but very unequally. Each succe 

 ing plant throws out others again the follow 

 si)ring, till after three or four years we find t 

 tlie original single bulb is surrounded by a In 

 circular stool of plants, several inches in dianie 

 We counted seventy-sis bulbs in one stool, i 

 posed to be three years from the seed. The jjI; 

 at this age are in their prime, and produce 

 heaviest crops of hay. Two years after the \i 

 has thrown out the new bullis and given the' 

 fair start, it shrinks up and dies, the bulb still 

 nuiiiiing in the stool, but becoming hard and ho 

 If', during the early stages of its growth in 

 spring, while the new bulbs are forming, the [ 

 is cut, or eaten close by animals, the bulb ei 

 lies, or carries on a struggling existence thn 

 the f-unnner; the young bulbs are not proper! 

 veloped, and the vital powers of the whole 

 of ))lants becomes so exhausted that the 

 weather of autumn .or the liosta of ■wLuter 

 kill tliem. 



