116 



TEE GEITESEE FARilER. 



NOTES ON THE FEBRUAEY AND MARCH NUMBERS 

 OF THE GENESEE FARMER, 



BoNfis AS A Ffetilizer is the leading article in the 

 Februaty number, and it contains about all that need 

 be said in preparing them for use. It is but a few 

 years since the attention of our farmers was called 

 to the value and importance of ground, or other- 

 wise prepared, bones as a fertilizer. In many 

 districts of the long grazed and cultivated portions 

 of New England, there is evidently a great defi- 

 ciency of the phosphates in the soil. The truth of 

 this is well illustrated in the eagerness with which 

 cows and young cattle, in these older sections of 

 the country, seek out and chew old bones for the 

 half-hour together. They Ofe afflicted with what 

 is termed the "bone disease," arising from a 

 deficiency of the phosphates in the hay and grass 

 upon which they subsist. Such diseased cattle 

 find a remedy in eating bones. Instinct directs 

 them to this, the same as it does with their tongues 

 to lick an old pork or fish barrel for its salt, when 

 they have long been deprived of it. In some places, 

 ground bones or fine bone dust is regularly fed to 

 them with their salt, twice a week. It will be well 

 for farmers, both in the older and in the newer 

 sections of our country, to save all the bones within 

 their reach, and in' some form or other apply them 

 to their land. They will all be wanted in the soil 

 sooner or later. "Gather up the fragments, that 

 nothing be lost," is an injunction not yet outlawed. 



Laege Yield fob Two Acres. — Eighty bushels 

 of corn per acre the first year, and four hundred 

 bushels of potatoes per acre the second year, and 

 seventy-two bushels of barley per acre the third 

 year, are certainly very fair crops. But Major 

 Dickinson's system of irrigation explains all mys- 

 tery, if there is any, about these large crops. He 

 has been doing for his irrigated meadows, what 

 nature has been doing for thousands of years for 

 the annually overflowed soil of Egypt, and for over 

 a hundred years on the two or three times annually- 

 clipped grass meadows bordering on the Deerfield 

 river in Massachusetts, and the sixty years corn- 

 cropped bottom lands of the Scioto in Ohio. The 

 time will come when thousands of other farmers in 

 every State will follow the Major's system of irri- 

 gation. His precepts and example in this matter 

 will not be lost. 



Wheat from the South. — There has been much 

 discussion in agricultural papers, within the last 

 twelve months, upon the "seed wheat question." 

 Some varieties of wheat ripen (when sown side by 

 side) from ten to twenty days earlier than others. 

 The early maturing of a variety is the result of an 

 inherent quality in that variety, and it will exhibit 

 that quality wherever grown. North or South. The 

 Early May and the Early Japan are illustrations 

 of this. 



Wagon Tires. — We don't use wagons very much 

 for farm purposes "down in this region." Ox-carts 

 are preferred. Formerly, 2^ or 3-inch tire, with 

 deep felloes, were mostly used. But these narroAv 

 wheels have gone out of fashion, and the tire is four 

 or five inches wide. With such wheels, there is 

 little or no "cutting in." "The broad tire rolls 

 over the green sward, scarcely leaving a trace of 

 its onward progress." The wheels are about 5 feet 

 across, felloes 2\ inches thick, with the inner 



corners handsomely bevelled off, and generally well 

 painted. With fair usage, and housed when not in 

 use, these wlieels will last a lifetime. 



Woodland (by A. B. C.) — The early settlers of 

 this country had two enemies to contend with, viz: 

 the Indians and the forests. To exterminate these 

 was doing, as they supposed, the country much 

 service. The Indians have been gone from the old 

 States a great while, and, for many years previous 

 to the introduction of railroads, the indiscriminate 

 waste of our wood and timber had been stayed.. 

 But the introduction of railroads has afforded a 

 market and conveyance of wood, timber and lum- 

 ber to the manufacturing places, and to the seaboard 

 without a single thouglit for the future. This 

 "devil take the hindmost" policy is all wrong, and 

 our successors will find it so. 



Amusements for Farmers and their Families. 

 Mr. Pierce's views upon this question are "first 

 rate." Hope he has been blessed with a dozen or 

 more children, and that he practices toward them 

 as he preaches. Whether tlie home of the farmer 

 is pleasant and attractive to liis children, or other- 

 wise, depends very much upon the parents. No 

 children ever loved home any the better for being 

 eternally scolded at. Scolding, like smoking and 

 chewing tobacco, is all a matter of habit. I knew 

 of an old lady in an adjoining town, who was so 

 much in the habit of scolding that she could not 

 read a chapter in the Bible, without scolding it 

 out. 



The March number of th« Genesee Farmer^ with 

 its "Some Hints on Spring Work" for a leader, ia 

 so near perfection, that I have no wish either ta 

 add to or subtract from it. It is timely, concise,, 

 and to the point. 



Olub-foot in Turnips, Cabbages, etc., played 

 the very deuce with my Swedes last season. I can 

 raise sound ones only on newly inverted sod lands. 

 I shall not sow any on old ground again. 



Breeding and Rearing Farm Stock, by Mr. 

 Talcott, is a good, common-sense article, that 

 commends itself to the especial consideration of 

 that class of farmers who bej^rudge their stock a 

 nubbin of corn or a quart of oats, because these 

 can be sold at the store or tavern. The turning 

 of skeleton cattle out to pasture in the spring is 

 neither humane nor profitable. 



Best Food for Laying Fowls. — If any one Can 

 tell what is the best food for laying fowl.s, I think 

 Mr. Bement is the man. Some persons with a 

 dozen hens scarcely obtain an egg from them from : 

 November till April; others, j>erhaps next door 

 neighbors, will have a good supply for use and for 

 sale during all the winter months. Is the differ- 

 ence in the breed, or feed? It would be well for 

 some people to inquire into tliis matter; it might 

 "from many a blunder free them." 



Maxims from the journal of a Canadian farmer, 

 are just as applicable to us on this side of the 

 "line," as they are to Her Majesty's subjects on ^ 

 the other side. The writer or compiler of these 

 maxims is a kind of a Dr. Franklin sort of a 

 man, and it is a great pity we have not more of 

 them. 



The Potato Convention is pretty well got up ; 

 greatly delighting the "little folks," as well as 

 lighting up a smile on the face of the older ones. 



Warner, K E., March, 1860. LEVI BARTLETT. 



