THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



209 



NOTES FOE THE MONTH. -BY S. W. 



Cheap Freights feom Lake Michigan. — A let- 

 ter from Milwaukee says that the freight on flour 

 aud grain, from that port to New York, is now 

 lower than it was from the Seneca Lake to New 

 York ten years ago. The reduced tolls and en- 

 larged canal have only reduced freight here about 

 twenty-five per cent. ; while at the West the same 

 causes, with the present competition between the 

 large propellers and sail craft, and the late ruinous 

 competition of the Philadelphia and Baltimore 

 railroads for western through freight, have reduced 

 rates from Chicago and Milwaukee more than 50 

 per cent. This last competition is kept up only as 

 bankrupts before their explosion aiford to under- 

 sell regular dealers ; and the president of the New 

 York and Erie road now says that "no agreement 

 between the New York Central and the New York 

 and Erie roads would permit an increase of rates 

 while the contest is continued with the Pennsylva- 

 nia railroad, as this company competes with the 

 Northern road at Cleveland, and at every other 



I)oint west and northwest of Cleveland." How 

 ong this high-graded Pennsylvania mountain road 

 •an keep itself alive under competition with the 

 great lake craft, the now enlarged Erie canal with 

 its low tolls, aud the two New York railroads, 

 time must soon determine. The through railroad 

 competition will probably prevent freights from 

 Lake Michigan ever attaining former rates; but 

 they can not long remain thus low, under the 

 closest management, without bankrupting the 

 Pennsylvania road. 



June-planted Oobn. — If Indian corn and Sor- 

 ghum were not strong-rooted cereals, the plea for 

 late planting would be as reasonable as it is for the 

 CiicurhitacecB and other tender plants. But I 

 have always found that early-planted corn, even 

 if was two weeks coming up, or if it came up and 

 turned yellow, invariably takes the lead of later 

 planted corn, when hot weather sets in; and if 

 there is an early summer drouth, the young plants 

 sutfer, while the early ones luxuriate, as their roots 

 are larger and extend further. It is an old saying 

 that July and August make the corn crop. Very 

 true ; but May and June must make both root and 

 stalk, or the very common drouth of July and 

 August will prevent the cereal yield ; and the same 

 if there is too much cool, wet weather, in those 

 months. In the best seasons, corn grows slowly 

 after the nights have lengthened. Hence it is that 

 near the equator, where the nights are as long as 

 the days, Indian corn is a poor crop. The argu- 

 ment that May-planted corn rots in the ground, is 

 only urged by the farmer who is too lazy or too 

 poor to underdrain his field ; and as to corn being 

 cut off by late frosts, past recovery, I have never 

 yet witnessed it in this region. These present 

 mornings (5th and 6th of June) are the most frosty 

 we have had so late in many a year ; yet not a 

 corn or a potato plant has suffered, and I have 

 them from two to twelve inches high. Beans, if 

 uncovered, have been partially injured by it. 



Perpetuating Red Clover in Meadows. — It is 

 well known that June grass {Poa) will in time run 

 out both timothy and clover in meadows, as it 

 chokes out the incipient bulbs of the timothy plant, 

 and the clover being cut before it has seeded, can 



not be long-lived. To remedy this, I have, on a 

 small patch of grass, suffered the second crop of 

 clover to mature and scatter its seed, which ha* 

 the effect to renew the clover ; and when cut ia- 

 June, with June grass, it makes excellent cow hay.^ 

 To get a heavy crop, the patch is top-dressed or; 

 treated with liquid manure, and every dock is ex- 

 terminated. As timothy is much later than either 

 clover or June grass, it should never be grown with 

 thera. 



Cultivation of Turnips. — Your Canada "West 

 correspondent may well have a great yield of ruta 

 bagas on his gravelly sandy loam ; but to attempt 

 to grow them on the heavy soils of Western New 

 York, would be a bootless t^sk. Wurzel beets 

 succeed well invariably on a well-ameliorated heavy- 

 soil ; and every man who has a garden, and keeps 

 a cow, should grow thirty bushels as an econom- 

 ical change, which makes dry food not only better 

 relished but better digested by the bovine. Those 

 few farmers who grow beets to feed with hay and 

 corn fodder to their milch cows in winter and early 

 spring, bear a lively testimony in their favor ; but 

 our John Johnston, who makes a wholesale busi- 

 ness of stall-feeding, says it is too much trouble to 

 fit a heavy soil for beets, and then to grow, har- 

 vest, and feed them. He prefers corn and com 

 fodder, and to buy linseed meal to feed with his 

 Indian meal, hay, &c. 



Waterloo, N. K, Juns 6, 1859. • ; 



.■ I ^ •!{; liiuoi' 



HOKSE-SHOE vs. SOLE TILES FOE TJNDEEDBADrtira. 



Messrs. Editors : — Years ago, I laid in England 

 thirty miles of drains, at first with the comm»n 

 horse-shoe tiles, latterly with pipes. In the outset, 

 I cut the drains two feet deep ; then, upon better 

 knowledge, 3 feet, 3^ feet, and 4 feet deep, I was 

 so persuaded of the superiority of deep drains, 

 that I took up five miles of horse-shoe tile drains at 

 two feet and laid them deeper, but in the same 

 lines. Observe, these horse-shoe tiles were laid 

 the ends of two tiles upon small flat roofing tile or 

 slate, to prevent their sinking — in short, to answer 

 the intention of the flange afterwards adopted. 

 Without exception I found them more or less filled 

 with earth ! This was owing to the clay floor 

 (hard enough to appearance) becoming softened 

 by the running water. As a consequence, the tiles 

 were gradually settling in mud, and in a few years 

 longer would have been worthless as drains. I 

 need scarcely say that when I re-laid them I put 

 under them continuous soles or flats, and ever 

 afterwards used pipes. 



By the way, is Soraggs' still the best pipe 

 machine in England, and has it been imported, or 

 have we an American machine as economical ? I 

 am afraid we shall never drain extensively out 

 West with two-inch pipes at $12 per 1000. I hope- 

 to see them furnished, by-and-by, for half the 

 money. Take our States through, $25 an acre for 

 draining is too high, and we shall go on but slowly 

 till we buy our pipes at $5 or $6. I suppose the 

 best machinery and a larger accompanying demand 

 will before long give us pipes at a more reasonablfe 

 rate. I say more reaso?iahle, because two-inch 

 pipes are not worth in England much, if any, more 

 than $5, 



But to return. Is my experience at all confirmed 

 in American practice? In view of satisfaetioii 



