THE GENESEE FARMEK. 



208 



took their places. About 80 heavy Leicester ewes 

 »rere kept as breeding stock for early lambs, and 

 these also were put into t^ e clover. Enough sheep 

 were kept on the clover to keep it from running to 

 blo69om. By October, all the fattening sheep bad 

 passed into the butcher'6 hands, the breeding ewes 

 were turned into other portions of the farm, and 

 the clover was now turned under with the plow, 

 ready for next year's summer fallowing. 



The third year, the land was thoroughly fallowed, 

 receiving three plowings besides the one of the fall 

 before, and by seeding time was in as fine tilth as 

 a garden. Under this system, the crops of wheat 

 obtained were magnificent, the yield that year 

 (1861) averaging 45 bushels per acre. 



The tillage was not deep, the plow not penetrat- 

 ing below six inches; but the droppings of the 

 Bheep, the turning under of the clover in the fall, 

 thus preventing the ammonia derived from them 

 from being washed away during winter, combined 

 with a thorough summer fallow to kill all weeds, 

 rendered the soil particularly clean and adapted for 

 wheat. The profits derived from the fattening of 

 the sheep more than paid the two years rent of the 

 land while in clover and fallow, thus leaving the 

 wheat crop to bear only its own expenses of culti- 

 vation, &c. 



But the farmer's wife was one of those hard- 

 working, money -getting beings too often met witli 

 ftmong the old settlers. She ruled the family, 

 and made the boys work hard. She kept the girls 

 at the dairy and spinning wheel, and scouted the 

 idea of sending them to school as a useless waste 

 of time. 



Last year we saw the place again, but a change 

 had come over the scene. The farmer had now 

 grown old, and for some years past had relin- 

 quished all the land, but a few acres round the old 

 homestead, to his youngest son and some of his 

 sons-in-law. They, thinking the system pursued 

 by their father too troublesome, and wanting in 

 that education that would have elevated their 

 ideas, had sold off or swapped a!l the fine stock the 

 old man had been at so much pains to raise, and 

 had let the farm in small portions on shares, and 

 year after year it had been cropped and re-cropped 

 with grain, till it was fast becoming as poor as the 

 surrounding farms. The old man took us round 

 to see the wreck of what he once took a pride in 

 as the finest farm in the country, the expensive 

 threshing macliine, grain drills, and other imple- 

 ments, now gone to decay and ly'ng here and there 

 under the fences ; the iiorses he once prided him- 

 Belf on, now in their old days turned loose to 



wander about the roads for a living, while the sta- 

 bles were filled with strange horses, the yards 

 with strange cattle, while stranger men had erected 

 their shanties here and there about the farm. 



HEASUKING HAT. 



There appears to be great diversity of opinion in 

 regard to the best method of ascertaining the weight 

 of hay by admeasurement. One writer in this 

 State says : " Multiply the length, breadth, and 

 height of the hay into each other, and if it is some- 

 what settled, ten solid yards (270 cubic feet) will 

 weigh a ton. Clover will take from eleven to 

 twelve yards to a ton." Another says : " For tim- 

 othy and blue grass, it will require seventeen cubic 

 yards (459 cubic feet) to make a ton. Clover hay 

 will require 512 cubic feet, or eight feet square." 

 Another, from Maine, says: " 600 cubic feet have 

 been sold here for a ton ; but in very large, deep 

 bays, where the pressure is immense, 500 cubic feet 

 would make a ton. Clover would be lighter." - 

 One from Vermont says : " From 360 to 500 cubic 

 feet make a ton, according to how much the hay is 

 settled." In a work published some years ago, the 

 author gives 268 cubic feet as a ton. Low, a 

 Scotch author, says : " Hay in a field-rick weighs 

 somewhat better than 112 lbs. per cubic yard; 

 when it has been sometime stacked, it weighs from 

 140 to 180 lbs. per cubic yard; and whea old, 200 

 lbs. per cubic yard ; or from 270 to 482 cubic feet 

 will make a ton." The Kexc Jersey Farmer states 

 that from 700 to 800 cubic feet are required to 

 make a ton of 2,000 lbs. ! 



The rule we have used, where hay is tolerably 

 compact in the stack or mow, is to allow 15 cubic 

 yards, or 405 cubic feet, for a ton (2,000 lbs.) of 

 clover hay, and 14 cubic yards for timothy. 



We should be glad if our correspondents who 

 have tested this matter by actual measurement and 

 weight, would give us the results. 



Cultivation of Madder for Pasturage. — It 

 has been found, in Algeria, that a plantation of 

 madder may be used as pasturage for cattle for sev- 

 eral years, without depreciating the value of the 

 roots. In March, 1851, a farmer sowed a quantity 

 of madder in a field well prepared, of a strong ar- 

 gillaceous soil. It was left without care. After 

 the first year, cattle were allowed to run on it for 

 the next succeeding three years, finding abundant 

 pasturage during a season of great Jieat. At the 

 end of this time the roots were pulled up, anu 

 proved to be of excellent quality for dyeing pur- 

 poses — even rivalling the best of French raadd«r. 



