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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH -BY S. W. 



The Soil and Climate of Minnesota. — The ed- 

 itor of the Lalce City Tribune^ a practical farmer 

 and a gifted western editor, says that corn in his 

 garden, planted on the 24th of May, and only one 

 foot high on the fourth of July, was seven feet high 

 on the 2-ith of July. When I first landed, in 1814, 

 at Duulap's, north of Sheldrake Point, Cayuga Lake, 

 N. Y., I was astounded at the growth of Indian 

 corn growing there. The soil was so well divided 

 by vegetable matter, that I could pull out the large 

 corn roots, a foot or more in length. I did not 

 again visit those fields until twenty years afterward. 

 Tlien the soil was so worn down by cereal crop- 

 ping, that it had changed from a corn to a wheat 

 soil ; and it was solely indebted for its present 

 vegetable matter to recent crops of clover plowed 

 into the calcareous loam. At that early day, such 

 beech, maple, and basswood land brought great 

 corn and great wheat straw ; but while the cereal 

 yield of corn was perfect, the wheat was shrunken. 

 I'hen the oak lands, common to both sides of the 

 lake, except this particular locality, brought the 

 finest of white, thin-skinned wheat, with the least 

 possible tillage. The oaks were girdled, the brush 

 burned, and the wheat harrowed in ; and kind na- 

 ture gave the increase, as God in love and mercy 

 ever favors the poor who help themselves. 



But methinks Minnesota is not altogether indebt- 

 ed, for her corn-oTovving success, to the vegetable 

 matter in her soil ; her climate must be much less 

 capricious than ours, as no twenty consecutive days 

 in July in this region ever gave six feet altitude to 

 Indian corn, no matter how well suited the soil 

 might be to the growth of the corn plant. I had 

 Bweet corn fit to boil on the 8th of August, planted 

 on the 4th of May. It grew more than four inches 

 some days; but then a few cool days, or a cold 

 northeast rain storm, would keep it a week in 

 abeyance'. Yet we had some hot, corn-growing 

 days in May, when corn grew fast in proportion to 

 its then slender roots; and at that time the region 

 about Lake City was chilled below corn-growing by 

 the ice in Lake Pei)in. I hope the editor of the 

 Tribune will consent to keep a diary of the weather 

 there, for the benefit of his outside readers, and 

 publish it, as he does much other valuable informa- 

 tion. 



Sii-iOATK OF LiMK. — The best farming and general 

 amendment of the soil, at the smallest outlay for 

 manures, is undoubtedly in Eastern Pennsylvania. 

 Red clover is there the principal meadow crop, and 

 lime and clover their principal manure, always in- 

 cluding that of the stalls. Many farmers there 

 have lime-kilns on their farms, and every farmer 

 vises lime without stint on his clover lays and fol- 

 lows, where organic matter is not exhausted. As 

 lime is not needed in any quantity as an ingredient 

 of the plant, it has been supposed that the office of 

 lime, thus liberally applied to the Soil, is to dissolve 

 the woody fibre, and other matters in the soil, into 

 available plant-food. lint the lite discoveries of 

 Prof. Wat, corroborated by still later experiments 

 of Eicnnons', give another and not less important 

 value to lime in the soil, to wit, that the silicate of 

 lime alone has the power of attracting ammonia 

 from the air. (Vide leader in the August Farmer.) 

 At the well-wooded North Manitou Island, last 

 summer, I was astonished, in common with every 



other farmer passenger, to see such millet, potatoes, 

 and corn, growing, almost without manure, in a 

 very loose, coarse, and nearly white sand. The 

 proprietor attributed the fertility of the soil solely 

 to the lime it contained. The beach was covered 

 with boulders and jtebbles of nearly white magne- 

 sian limestone, including those of quartz, feldspar, 

 &c., but no stratified limestone was in sitii. May 

 it not be inferred that the fertility of this soil uf 

 drifting sand and boulders is due to the presence of 

 the silicate of lime in the soil, and to the affinity of 

 lime-silicates for atmospheric ammonia? In no 

 other region that ever came under my notice did 

 such tall, large beeches and maples grow on a soil 

 so poor in the aluminous principle and vegetable 

 matter. The extreme transparency of Lake Michi- 

 gan in this region proclaims the aluminous poverty 

 of the soil. 



The BEST Food and Treatment for Hens. — A 

 late agricultural paper recommends azote as a very 

 necessary ingredient in the food of laying hens. 

 Azote is the French for nitrogen; and as a laying 

 ben is constantly contributing nitrogenous food for 

 man, in her eggs, it is indispensable that she should 

 be well fed with both vegetable and animal food. 

 Linseed meal, being the richest of all vegetable food 

 in azote or nitrogen, I have found to be a great 

 promoter of egg-laying. It should be mixed with 

 scalded meal or shorts, or with sour milk. In this 

 way it is a good substitute for animal food, or the 

 insectiv'ora that hens are deprived of wlien confined 

 to narrow quarters. I have found that there is no 

 food hens like so well as Indian corn, and it is also 

 the cheapest grain for their food. A pint of corn 

 will go as far in feeding hens, besides being better 

 relished, as four times its bulk in made dishes. 

 I have found, on trial, that a small yard is a worse 

 prison for hens than a larger stable with a base- 

 ment, where the floor is dry earth. The continued 

 moisture from rain in an open yard soon makes the 

 whole surface redolent of excrements, whereas a 

 barn floor may be sanded and kept sweet and dry. 

 With sand to roll in, hens may be confined under 

 cover the whole season. Half an hour before sun- 

 set they should be let out to range over tJie yard 

 and garden. They will then be too busy picking 

 gi'uss, gravel, &c., to scratch and do mischief, being 

 always in a hurry to return to roost before even 

 twilight begins. Hens thus kept will more than 

 twice i^ay for their keeping, if not too old to lay 

 well. Two or three days' imprisonment in a coop 

 will break up Black Spanish hens from sitting, and 

 they soon commence laying again, if well fed. It 

 is only profitable for a villager to raise a few early 

 chickens to renew his laying stock, as chickens are 

 great and increasing feeders, eating, when half 

 grown, twice as much as an old fat hen. Among 

 the grasshcrjjpers of the farm chickens are more 

 profitaldv grown. 



mUerlao, JT. J'., August 11, 1359. 



For Cakkb Bag or Garget. — Strong tincture 

 of iodine, half a drachm ; lard, one ounce. Mix 

 well. Rub the hardened or inflamed parts of the 

 udder well twice a day. If there is much heat and 

 redness, it is better to paint the part twice a day 

 with strong tincture of iodine (two scrujdes to an 

 ounce of alcohol), and bathe with whiskey two or 

 three times a day ; and when the heat is reduced, 

 nse the ointment. 



