306 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



FALL PLOWING. 



Editoes Genesee Farmer:— In the northern sec- 

 tions of our country, in consequence of the short 

 apring time, for preparing the land for our grain 

 crops, corn, potatoes, &c., it is a matter of much 

 consequence tliat everytliing sliould be done in the 

 fell that can serve to lessen spring work, such as 

 plowing green-sward, corn, and other stubble- 

 grounds, intended to be sown with grain and grass 

 seeds the succeeding spring. These matters are all 

 ably treated upon in your quotation from the Neic 

 England Farnur^ written by Mr. F. IIolbrook 

 some yeai's since. lie says: "From the last of Oc- 

 tober to the middle or later of November is a good 

 time for plowing land, preparatory to sowing or 

 planting iu the following spring." Upon some 

 accounts this late plowing may possess some advan- 

 tages over that of August or September plowing; 

 the weather is cooler, and usually the farmer is less 

 hurried with other labors of the farm. But it is 

 the opinion of some of our best farmers, that invert- 

 ed sod-land, turned over early in September, will 

 produce better crops of corn, oats, &c., than the 

 same land would if plowed late as the middle of 

 November. Direct experiments have proven the 

 correctness of the opinion in favor of early plow- 

 ing. The reasons for this seem quite obvious. 

 The vegetable matters of the green-sward, turned 

 over in the warmer weather of August and Sep- 

 tember, will soon after begin to heat and decom- 

 pose; gases of various kinds will be evolved anil 

 absorbed by the soil, if of a loamy or dayey nature, 

 and they will mostly be retained for the use of the 

 succeeding spring crops. Portions of the potash, 

 lime, and other mineral ingredients of the soil will 

 be liberated by the action of the carbonic acid, 

 ammonia, &c., formed during the decomposition of 

 the vegetable matters plowed in; but no such fer- 

 mentation will be likely to occur in the soil of the 

 November plowed land, and the rains and snows 

 of winter will so compress the inverted soil that 

 the decomposition of buried vegetable matters will 

 be much less perfect the following season. Your 

 remarks, that "the great error in fall plowing is in 

 not plowing early enough," in my view, is to the 

 point, and correct. Heat, air, and moisture, are all 

 requisite for the decomposition of vegetable and 

 animal matters. The early plowed lands have all 

 these requisites, while the late plowed are mostly 

 deprived of these necessary conditions. 



However, all farmers can not do as they would 

 like in these matters. Some most necessarily delay 

 plowing till late; others may have doubts in refer- 

 ence to the correctness of our views. To such, we 

 would simply suggest an experiment in early and 

 late plowing of a field of green-sward. Farmers 

 diifer widely in their views in regard to plowing, 

 beside those of early and late plowing, viz: as to 

 the proper depth to wliich the plow should be 

 ganged, as also in the width of the furrow-slice, 

 and whether it should be completely inverted or 

 left at an angle of 45" — that is, lap-furrowed. All 

 these matters, in a measure, depend upon certain 

 contingencies, and admit of considerable variation; 

 therefore, farmers should experiment^ and investi- 

 gate for themselves, and not trust too mach upon 

 what this or that man may say or write. 



Some of the farmers, whose farms border the 

 Merrimack river, in this State, I think, practice a 



very judicious course of cultivating their alluvial 

 and other deep loamy soils. I do not see how they 

 can well improve upon their system of culture. 

 The system pursued by the farmers referred to, is, 

 with a strong team, to plow their sod-land in the 

 fall, (some of them early in September,) to the 

 depth of ten or twelve inches, some making use 

 of the double or Michigan plow ; for reasons, others 

 prefer the common plow. The land remams as left 

 by the plow till spring; then a wide harrow is run 

 over the field, after which the manure is carted on, 

 spread and plowed in to the depth of four or fivei 

 inches, and again harrowed. This preparation 

 makes the after culture, &c., very easy ; the resuH 

 is, a crop of sound corn, ranging for sixty to eighty 

 busliels per acre. 



The plowing of corn and grain stubble in autumn, 

 for a succeeding crop of oats or other grain thd 

 following spring, has been recently practiced here 

 to some extent. It saves time in the hurry of 

 spring work, as the ground is readily prepared by 

 the cultivator and harrow for the reception of the 

 seed. The crops are thought to be equally good, 

 if not better, than if the ground had been spring- 

 plowed, and generally the seed can be sown earlier. 

 For oats and barley, early sowing generally proves 

 the most profitable. lkvi bartlett. 



Warner, iV. IT., September 14<A, 1S59. 



FEEDING BEES. 



Those who keep an apiary should be particular 

 in examining their hives sometime in the month 

 of October, to ascertain if there is a suflicient stock 

 of honey to carry the bees through till the May 

 following. No hive of bees can be successfully 

 wintered over on less than from 15 to 20 lbs. of 

 honey ; and strong, large families, will require more. 

 The bee-keeper should be able from experience, to 

 know, on examination, whether his hives contain a 

 sufliciency of honey or not. Hives that have been 

 occupied several years, contain a large amount of 

 old comb and bee-bread, and will weigh as heavy, 

 without honey, as those that have been used one 

 season will with honey in them; therefore, in such 

 cases, an allowance must be made for this extra 

 weight. Where a deficiency is found to exist in 

 the stock of honey, it becomes necessary to supply 

 it by artificial feeding; which is usually done dur- 

 ing the latter part of autumn, or the beginning of 

 winter. Sometimes, however, it is found necessary 

 to carry on the feeding process through the entire 

 winter. This feeding of bees is generally looker' 

 upon as one of the greatest difficulties attendinj} 

 their management, and rather than put themselvei 

 to so much trouble, many apiarians suflTer theii 

 bees to perish, although the cost of such feedinf* 

 does not amount to one-tenth of the value of thti 

 bees. It is seldom that more than one or two fain 

 ilies out of ten or twelve in an apiar}- require feed' 

 ing; but still, it may happen that the entire apiarji 

 need it. For this purpose, small feeding-troughi 

 of tin may be placed at the rear of the hives oppo' 

 site to the ordinary entrance, the side of the trough 

 resting against the hive; the trough to be abput 

 the length of the hive, four to six inches wide, and 

 two in depth, or of just such a size as will bo suffi- 

 cient to contain a day's supply of food for tlie 

 hive; the trough to be nearly tilled with eyrop, 



