THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



181 



work has ample time to settle and become hard, 

 and will not generally rut up in the Fall ; and as 

 to steep hills, or moderate descents, long experience 

 will best dictate how to manage. It is to the inter- 

 est of every farmer to have a good road by his 

 house, and in order to have one, we must put hand 

 to the plow with right good will, and the thing is 

 done. E. J. WILCOX. 



AvkwrigM, ChatUauque Co., N'. Y. May, 1869. 



CULTXTRE OF INDIAN CORN. 



The grand points in the culture of corn, are good 

 ground, deeply and thoroughly plowed and well 

 prepared, seasonable and careful planting, early and 

 thorough cultivation and hoeing, and eradication 

 of weeds and grass until the crop is grown. 



I have succeeded, some four or five times, in 

 raising from eighty to one hundred and two bushels 

 of shelled corn per acre, by measure, in a region 

 where thirty bushels is probably a full average crop. 

 My course has been to break a sward, say about 

 seven or eight inches deep, or to highly manure 

 and thorougiily plow other land ; prepare well, and 

 plant in good season — that is, when I think the 

 weather is such as to produce quick germination. 

 As soon as the corn is sufficiently large to see the 

 rows, we commence with the cultivator and hand- 

 hoe, loosen the surface and clean the hills of weeds, 

 and carefully place a small quantity of loose mold 

 around the stalks; after which we endeavor to 

 keep the surface loose and clean during the season, 

 particularly keeping the hill clean, and occasionally 

 adding a little fresh loose mold. E. n. 



Berlin, Ohio, May, 1859. 



Answers to some of the Inquiries of J. S., in 

 THE April No. — Ewes should breed at two years 

 old. The ordinary breed of sheep will do very well 

 until six years old. A good buck will serve fifty 

 ewes. The best way to manage that business, is 

 not to let him run with the ewes, but keep him in 

 an adjoining field ; put a ridgling with the ewes, 

 by which you can know when they are in season ; 

 then turn them to the buck, one at a time. In this 

 way, he will serve one hundred ewes. The Dur^ 

 hams are not so tender, but any bueed of cattle 

 win degenerate if care is not taken in breeding; 

 but the Short-IIorns can be got as large at three 

 years old as the natives can at five. Then suppose 

 they do take a little more feed — there is a much 

 quicker return. Heifers should not breed until four 

 years old. It is an advantage, no doubt, to breed 

 from large cows, but I should not like the bulls to 

 be very small, as the progeny is apt to bear the 

 greatest resemblance to the male parent. A little 

 boiled flax seed given to a cow once a day for three 

 weeks before calving, prevents any difficulty in 

 cleaning. I have known cows to take the bull in 

 fifteen days after calving. Some go as many 

 months. They generally return in three weeks. 

 — J. N. Nassagawega, C. W. 



Train Horses to Walk. — The Michigan Farmer 

 well observes: "A plow-horse should above all 

 things be a good walker. The walking gait is not 

 cultivated enough in training horses. Only consider 

 what a team that could walk four miles an hour for 

 ten hours per day, could do towards hurrying for- 

 trard spring work." 



ON KEEPING HENS TO PRODUCE EGGS IN WmTER. 



Mr. "Wilson says that the person who expects 

 his hens to lay much in summer, after laying all 

 winter, will be disappointed. This is quite differ- 

 ent from my experience, as my fowls lay winter 

 and summer. When they shed their feathers, they 

 generally stop laying for two or three weeks ; but 

 the rest of the time they always lay, except when 

 sitting or trying to sit. For winter quarters, they 

 have a house, filled in next the outside with buck- 

 wheat straw, about a foot thick, all around and 

 above, and free access to the barn and stables. 

 They always have lime in some shape, where they 

 can get at it. But perhaps my better success is 

 owing in part to the breeds of fowls that I keep. 

 I have the White Dorkings, and a breed of large 

 Asiatic fowls called the Javas. They are of a 

 glossy, greenish black color, and are heavier than 

 any other fowls I have ever met with. They ta»:0 

 less feed than the common fowls to make a pound 

 of flesh, and lay eggs which will average about six 

 to the pound ; and I have succeeded in getting a 

 higher price for them than others obtained, on ac- 

 count of their being so much larger. Through the 

 sitting season, we always can sell all we can spare 

 at a higher price for sitting. m. e. tanner. 



Sugar Cane. — On the 6th of June last year, we 

 planted about three acres of Chinese Sugar Cane, 

 some two or three days after which a very heavy 

 rain fell, wliich washed out a great portion of the 

 seed, and so baked the ground that not more tliaa 

 one-tenth of it germinated. We, however, culti- 

 vated what stood, and manufactured it into svrup 

 in the fall, making about three hundred. gallons, (or 

 one hundred per acre,) which we retailed at six 

 shillings per gallon, having sold all but a lew gal- 

 lons, which we kept for our own use. 



We crushed the cane on one of Messrs. Hedges, 

 Free & Co.'s (of Cincinnati,) cast iron sugar mills, 

 — on which, besides crushing our own, we 

 crushed about six thousand gallons of juice for 

 our neighbors — sufficient to make about one thou- 

 sand gallons of syrup. We boiled in common cast 

 iron kettles, placed on a brick furnace in such a 

 manner that we could remove them at pleasure. 

 Sometimes we used hme to neutralize the acidity 

 of the juice, and sometimes we used notliing. We 

 always filtered or strained the juice, and thorough- 

 ly skimmed while boiling. — E. II., Holmes Co., 0. 



A Cheap Paint. — For Outside Work. — One 

 bushel of unslaked lime. Slake with cold water. 

 When slaked, add 20 pounds of Spanish whiting, 

 17 pounds of salt, 12 of sugar. Strain through a 

 wire sieve, and it is fit for use after reducing witli 

 cold water. It may be laid on with a Avhite-wash 

 brush. 



For Inside Walls. — One bushel unslaked lime, 3 

 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of salt, and jirepare as 

 above. 



To color these paints straw color, use yellow 

 ochre, instead of whiting ; lemon color, ochre and 

 chrome yellow; lead and slate, lampblack ; blue 

 indigo ; green, chrome green. 



Cistern Cement. — Two parts ashes, three of clin, 

 and one of sand, mixed "with linseed oil. 



