.4 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



mention this fact to induce young men to attend to 

 the operations of nature." 



The following experiment shows the character- 

 istic energy and determination of the man : 



" I may also make a remark that may be service- 

 able to those who have found peaty earth mixed 

 with new made dung highly beneficial, laying the 

 same in layers 12 inches thick of peat earth, to 6 

 inches of dung, as new made; turning the heap 

 over a few weeks before applying the same to the 

 soil. I had seen this done in Ayrshire in 1805; I 

 began the same on my return home, and was soon 

 convinced of the benefit to be derived therefrom. 



" In a distant part of the same farm, I had a very 

 deep peat moss ; and during the winter, I mixed it 

 in the same way, with the new made d"ng; but on 

 turning it in the spring, I saw no signs of the dung; 

 the whole, as mixed, was applied to the turnip crop, 

 and it was a complete failure. The barley sown 

 after the turnips was not half the crop I had pre- 

 viously had on the same field, and the clover and 

 seeds that followed were the same. I then applied 

 15 chaldrons of lime per acre, and plowed it in for 

 an oat crop. The crop was a very great one, and 

 the field afterward continued very productive; but 

 not having then studied chemistry, I could not ac- 

 count for the deterioration, and then the after im- 

 provement; and this induced me to go to Edinburgh 

 to study chemistry, to account for the change. 



" The first trial l made of peat moss was free 

 from oxide of iron; the latter, that did the harm, 

 had a very large portic n of that salt; this destroyed 

 the dung and rendered it useless ; but the applica- 

 tion of a large dose of lime (15 chaldrons per acre) 

 removed the bad effects of the oxide of iron, and 

 converted it into beneficial manure. 



"This hint, costly to me in the first instance, 

 may, I hope, be of benefit to others; and as such I 

 have here detailed it fully." 



The farmer who was willing to leave his farm 

 for a time "to go to Edinburgh to study chemistry," 

 deserved to succeed. 



Of the management of his heavy, tenacious claj 

 farm, Mr. Bates says : 



"When I commenced farming here, in 1811, now 

 thirty-seven years ago, nearly the whole tillage part 

 of the estate was under the three course of cropping, 

 still so prevalent in this district, and so deteriorat- 

 ing, viz., that of Bare falloic^ Wheat, Oats. No 

 farm-manure laid upon any of the crops ; it was 

 all applied to the grass land. 



"T began by applying all the farm-manure made 

 ©n the premises to the tillage land, and as far as I 

 could for turnips; ahd where the land was too 

 strong, and difficult to procure turnips, I applied it 

 to beans drilled at 27 inches asunder in the rows, 

 as in turmps, and sowed grass seeds on the wheat 

 crop succeeding the turnips, to lie one or two years, 

 which refreshed the tillage. But this being a slow 

 process, I began and bought as much manure as the 

 farm made, and applied this to the bean crop, tak- 

 ing wheat after the beans ; and having made the 

 lai«l clean by a bare fallow before I began this plan, 

 it succeeded well for two rotations of beans and 

 wheat; and finding in a year when the land, from 

 the sudden dry season after a wet spring, could not 



l( 



I 



be well wrought for beans, they failed, and the 

 wheat also succeeding the beans, I clianged the sys- 

 tem, and after turnip fallow and wheat I then sowed: 

 red clover, on the wheat crop; and finding, con-; 

 trary to my experience in Northumberland, that 

 red clover on our Cleveland strong lauds would 

 stand two years, I adopted it; and fallowing after 

 the second year's clover, I found most excellent 

 crops of wheat, without any manure applied for 

 the wheat crop ; but after being so repeated, at the 

 interval of nine years, the first year's clover was 

 good, but the second year was very inferior ; I 

 therefore changed my system tq^that of a twelve 

 year's course, divided into two six years: — 1st, 

 fallow (turnips where they can be got) ; 2nd, wheat; 

 3rd, red clover ; 4th, fallow (as before) ; 5th, wheat; 

 6th, beans (and if to be bare fallow the following 

 year, I applied dung to the beans). Next six : 1st, 

 fallow (as before) ; 2ad, wheat (on which was sown 

 5 lbs. of cow-grass, 5 lbs. of white clover, 2 lbs. 

 of hop clover, and 2 lbs. of parsley with Italian 

 rye-grass, J bushel per acre); 3rd and 4th, sheep 

 pasture; 5th, oats; 6th, beans, being the twelve 

 year's course." 



Mr. Bates "mole-drained" 850 acres of his 1000 

 acre clay farm with great advantage, especially on 

 the grass land. 



So much for Mr. Bates as a breeder and a farmer. 

 As a neighbor, a friend, a christian gentleman, he 

 was universally esteemed and respected. Few 

 enjoyed a wider range of popularity. His liberal- 

 ity was unbounded. Such were his efforts to cir- 

 culate the sacred volume that he obtained thei 

 sobriquet of " Bible Bates." 



He was never married. Early in life, it is said, 

 he formed an attachment to a young lady, and waa 

 on the point of marriage ; but before the event hf* 

 introduced a near friend to his intended bride, whc 

 supplanted him in her affections, and ultimatelj 

 married her. This must have been a severe strok« 

 to so sensitive a mind, and was probably the cause 

 of a resolve which a man of so much firmness oi 

 purpose was certain to keep. 



Robust in body, active in mind, temperate in hia 

 habits, and living almost in the open air, he knew 

 little of disease, and seldom, if ever, consulted a 

 physician. "When his health began to fail, it wa* 

 .some time before he could be prevailed upon tc 

 consult a medical adviser, and when he did he re- 

 fused the greatest part of the medicine. Loving 

 his favorite cattle, he reclined in the cow-housea 

 near his companions, until compelled to enter his 

 room — to leave it only a few hours after for the 

 place appointed for all living. 



Five Thousand-fold Inokease. — A bunch of 

 rye from a single kernel, on the farm of Mr. J. H 

 Hidley, of Greenbush, N. Y., in 1842, produced 7f 

 stalks, averaging six feet in length, the produce oi 

 which -vfras estimated at 5,000 kernels. 



