26 



THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



shielded by hoods supported on brackets. The dotted 



line on the plan represents the division between the 



main body of the .house and the one-story addition. 



Cost. — This range of building could be built for 



about $1500. G. E. HARNEY. 



I/yrm, Mass. 



^ I ^ 



ON THE IMPOKTAUCE TO FAKMEKS OF A GOOD 

 EDUCATION. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — I consider the great 

 want of farmers at the present time to be a good 

 education. The importance of this will hardly be 

 questioned. Very few farmers have enjoyed the 

 advantages necessary to qualify themselves thor- 

 oughly for their occupation. A few years ago, 

 the public opinion on tliis matter was quite dift'er- 

 ent from what it is now. Still, there are some 

 who need a little waking up on tlie subject. There 

 was a time when it was thought that a farmer 

 needed only a pair of hands and strength to use 

 them — the head being of little consequence. "While 

 the boy wlio was intended for a mechanic, a mer- 

 chant or a lawyer, was sent to school, and allowed 

 every opportunity for improvement ; the one de- 

 signed for a farmer was kept at home at some kind 

 of drudgery. He needed only to know how to 

 work. Thiit was to be the business of his life, and 

 what need was there for him to learn grammar, or 

 algebra, or geometry, or philosophy ? In this way 

 his self-respect and respect for his occupation were 

 destroyed. He was never encouraged to think. It 

 was enough for him to know tliat his father did so 

 a,nd so, and he was to do likewise and ask no ques- 

 tions. Is it any wonder that he should make a dull 

 man and a " bunglmg farmer ?" 



Now what I want to say to the farmers of this 

 country is this : Whatever else you fail to do, don't 

 fail to give your boys a good education, and espe- 

 cially those that are to become farmers. Take 

 some good agricultural paper, and give your boys 

 time to read it, as well as some time for amuse- 

 ment, remembering that "all work and no play 

 make Jack a dull boy." Let them know that a 

 true farmer is as much of a gentleman as the law- 

 yer or the doctor, and sometimes more so, althougli 

 his clothes may not be so fine, nor his hands so 

 soft. Do not suppose that because your son is to 

 be a farmer, he does not need a knowledge of all 

 that is taught in our common schools and acade- 

 mies. If he does not need to use them in his busi- 

 ness, the study of them will improve his mind, and 

 not only teach him to thmk, but to think meth- 

 odically and correctly; and what is of quite as much 

 importance, he will not feel that he is inferior to 

 his neighbor whose occupation- is ditfereut from his 

 own. It would be far better if the choice were to 

 be made between a good education and a good 

 farm, to choose the former. Now almost any 

 farmer can give his sons each a good education, 

 while few can give the farms. Let them have the 

 education at any rate, and the farm, if you can, 

 besides. t, t 



To RAISE Cream.— Have ready two pans in boil- 

 ing water, and on the^'milk's coming to the dairy, 

 take the hot pans out of the water, put the milk 

 into one of them, and cover with the other. This 

 will occasion great augmentation in the thickness 

 and quality of the cream. 



SETTING FENCE POSTS. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — In the January num- 

 ber of the Farmer for 1859, E. Morton, of Berrien 

 Co., Ohio, inquires whether fence posts will last 

 longer by being set in the ground top end down. 

 As no one has deigned to answer him, unless an 

 article published, I think, in the March number 

 was intended as an answer. I will give him my 

 experience. 



The author of the article in the March numbei 

 scouts the idea of using wood posts at any rate, 

 and advises the use of burnt clay posts. Now 

 this may be an improved sort of post, but there 

 are several farmers, if not more, in our extended 

 country, who are not so situated that they can pro- 

 cure such posts, and must of necessity use wood. 



But to my experience. About thirty years ago, 

 I, to test the thing, split two bar posts, side by side, 

 out of a chestnut log. They were eight feet long, 

 eight inches wide, and three thick. One I set butt 

 down, the other top down. At the end of ten 

 years, the one set in butt down was rotted off, 

 and I re-set it in the same hole. At the end of 

 six years, it was rotted off again, and I put in a 

 new one. The other lasted four years longer, 

 when it got split in two. and I took it out and it 

 was about two-thirds rotted olf. Sixteen years 

 ago, I set six pairs of bar posts, all split out of the 

 butt cut of the same white oak log. One pair I set 

 butts down, another pair, one butt down, the other 

 top down ; the others top down. Four years ago, 

 those set butt down were all rotted oft", and liad 

 to be replaced by new ones. This summer I had 

 occasion to re-set those that were set top down. 

 I found them all sound enough to re-set. My ex- 

 periments have convinced me that the best way is 

 to set them tops down, wm. howe. 



North Almond, N. T, 



A Fast People. — At a late agricultural show in 

 England, an American exhibited a fast-trotting 

 American horse, which cantered and trotted remark- 

 ably well, but which was a bad walker. A person 

 looking on, after having admired the trotting and 

 cantering, asked, "HoW about the walking?" — 

 "Walking?" said Jonathan, "well, really I don't 

 know about that; we are not so sloio in the States 

 as to notice that." — American Agriculturist. 



This is all very well and very witty ; but it is a 

 great mistake for farmers to pay so little attention 

 to good walking horses. A good walker is worth 

 more, for general farm purposes, than a good trotter. 

 We were once with an English gentleman, an excel- 

 lent judge, who was looking at a horse that was 

 offered him for sale ; and the man who showed the 

 horse kept whipping him and jerking at the halter 

 to make him prance and look lively. "Let him 

 walk, man, let him walk," cried our friend, "I 

 want a horse that can walk." 



To divest milk and butter of the taste of 

 turnips.— Put into each pail of milk, when fresh 

 drawn from the cows, one pint of boiling water. 

 The heat of the water dispels the odor of the tur- 

 nip, which becomes volatile as the temperature of 

 the milk is increased. 



