836 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 



Keeping Fakm Accounts. — A correspondent of 

 the Farmer and Gardener^ a new and valuable ag- 

 ricultural journal recently started at riiiladelpliia, 

 thinks tliat if every fanner kept a systematic ac- 

 count of everything seen and done on the farm, the 

 agricultural papers would become two-fold more 

 valuable than they now are, as the notes of such 

 observations as might be made could be more I'ead- 

 ily relied upon and communicated, than if made 

 from memory ; and farmers who now never think 

 of writing for the papers, would take a pleasure in 

 80 doing. 



Coal Ashes. — The editor of the Boston Commer- 

 cial Bulletin gives the results of several experi- 

 ments he made with coal ashes. Applied to an old 

 sward, it gave two fine crops of grass where 

 aotbing but white-weed, &c., grew before. Applied 

 to potatoes, it produced a large crop, of fine quality, 

 and perfectly free from disease. Applied to sweet 

 aorn, and many other vegetables in the garden, it 

 gave them a fine growth and clear green color. 



Hqw to destroy the "VVheat-Midge. — In the 

 AmeTvsan Farmer is a long and interesting article, 

 written by a Canadian wheat grower, which main- 

 tains, as tlie result of careful experiments, that the 

 larva of the wheat-midge may be readily and efi'ect- 

 ually destroyed by sowing quicklime on the stub- 

 bles immediately ^fter harvest. 



Composting Swawp Muck. — F. Hoi.beook, in 

 the New England Farmer, recommends mixing 

 Bwamp muck with barn-yard manure, in order to 

 absorb and retain the volatile portions of the latter. 

 He says it is important that muck should be dug 

 from the swamp and piled for a few months, or 

 even a year or two, before using it as .compost. 



Tall Timothy. — The Shasta (Cal.) Herald gives 

 an account of some timothy, grown in that neigh- 

 borhood, the spears of which measured eight feet 

 in length, and quite large enough to form woiiving- 

 iticks for San Francisco snobs. 



Wheat in California. — A California corres- 

 jpond^t of the Weitern Farmers' Magazine, a new 

 }paper recently started at Chicago, 111., says that 

 :dli)ng the valleys and river bottoms there they only 

 ■gixfi one plowing for two or three crops. Tlie first 

 or&5> generally yields 50 to 60 bushels per acre. 

 Tlie .second, known as tlie volunteer crop, is also 

 large, and of better quality, and less liable to smut. 

 The wheat that took the first premium at the State 

 Fair in 1854, yielded, per acre, 82^ bushels of 60 

 Ibe. to the bushel ' 



Applying Manuke to Grass Lands. — A corres- 

 pondent ot the New England Farmer says he has 

 learned, by experience, that the best time to apply 

 manure as a top-dressing is late in autumn or win- 

 ter — so late that the manure, after being spread 

 upon the surface, will remain in a congealed stats 

 till it is drenched away by the thaws and rains. 

 Snow covering the manure will prevent its fertil- 

 izing qualities from being evaporated, and when the 

 snow melts they will be carried down into the soil. 



Broom Corn in Illinois. — An Illinois paper tellf 

 of a field of broom corn, near Rockford, containin; 

 nearly 800 acres. The corn was planted by ma 

 chinery, in rows two feet nine inches apart. Th 

 crop has been sold for $85 per ton, and will yiek 

 $20,000. 



Chinese Sheep. — The New York Obserger, in ar. 

 account of a visit to the farm of R. L. Pell, Esq., 

 says these sheep are a curiosity, and the only one* 

 of the kind in this country. They are prolific be- 

 yond all other kinds — often producing three, four, 

 or five lambs at a time, and breeding twice a year. 

 The mutton is said to be of a very high character, 

 and wholly devoid of that offensive flavor peculiar 

 to mutton at times. 



Fowl Breeding. — The Rural Register says there 

 is just as much necessity for breeding good laying 

 fowls from good layers, as there is of selecting milk 

 cows from the progeny of good milkers; and that 

 no sort of grain, if at all damaged, is fit for feedinj; 

 to poultry. Better give it to the hogs. 



Seeding Timothy. — Mr. W. D. Kelly, in th« 

 Prairie Farmer, gives his mode of seeding thi* 

 grass, which is to sow on clean, well-prepared land, 

 about the first of September; and if any part fails, 

 he sows again in March ; giving the seed a light 

 harrowing, or brushing in. No other crop i» 

 allowed to occupy the ground. 



Horn Shavings as Manure. — Horn is exceed- 

 ingly rich in nitrogen — equal in this respect to th« 

 best Peruvian guano. It is, therefore, a most val- 

 uable fertilizer. Some years ago, Mr. Humphrey, 

 of Albany, N. Y., planted three acres of corn on 

 the poor sandy soil near that city. As an experi- 

 ment, he dropped in each hill on two acres, a 

 small quantity of horn shavings. The other acr« 

 received nothing. This produced only 15 bushels, 

 wliile the former produced CO bushels of shelled 

 corn per acre. 



If milk you'd have both clean and sweet, 

 Kneh night before you rest your feel, 

 Muke for your cows a Btraw-bed neat. 



—Dolly Edmttjnm. 



