THE GENESEE FARMER. 



235 



picturesque village of Geneva and the quiet waters 

 of Lake Seneca, with its sloping banks on the op- 

 posite side, studded with peaceful ftirra houses and 

 smiling fields of grain, white for the harvest. It is 

 one of Nature's loveliest spots. Af< you approach 

 the house along the quiet road, the fine trees, the 

 artificial fish-ponds with weeping willows in the 

 centre, the closely mown lawn, and well cultivated 

 .grounds and garden, all indicate the abode of wealth 

 and taste. 



Like Mr. Wmanx, 5^^r. Sheldon is much in favor 

 of top-dressing his grass lands. One field of timo- 

 thy, 80 acres, was top-dressed with from ten to fif- 

 teen loads per acre of rather strawy manure, the 

 early part of March. The manure has all disap- 

 peared in the dense sward, and the crop of timothy 

 is very fine. 



Mr. S. mentioned an interesting fact in regard 

 to the value of salt, in seeding down to grass. He 

 sows from one to two bushels of salt per acre, on 

 the land at the time of seeding in the "Spring, and 

 the effect is quite marked. He sows ten quarts of 

 timothy and three quarts of clover seed per acre. 

 In a field of 30 acres, seeded down in the Spring, 

 about the 10th of May, 1859, 15 acres received a 

 bushel and a half of salt per acre, sown broad cast, at 

 the time of seeding, and on this portion of the 

 field the seeds took well, and the crop this year, is 

 much larger on the salted, than on the unsalted 

 portion. 



Here is a 12 acre field of very heavy oats. They 

 are the English potato oat, seed imported last Spring 

 from England, weighed 48 lbs. per bushel, sown 

 at the rate of 3^ bushels per acre, which is heavy 

 seeding for this country, but rather light for Eng- 

 land, where four to five bushels per acre is not un- 

 common. It is the finest field of oats we have seen 

 tKls season. 



Here the men are thinning and hoeing eleven 

 acres of winte French Sugar Beets, which Mr. S. 

 prefers to mangels, as more profitable and nutri- 

 tious, though not yielding, perhaps, so large a crop. 

 They are planted on the English system : ridges 

 are made, two feet apart, manure then put in, the 

 ridges afterwards split with the plow and the 

 Doanure covered, then rolled and the seed planted 

 from 12 to 15 inches apart. 



Here is eight acres of Canadian Blue stem wheat, 

 the seed obtained from Mr. Haerison, of St. Law- 

 ■" irence County. It stands up straight and stiff, 

 straw nearly six feet high, heads large, and well 

 filled. It is nearly ripe and the midge has not in- 

 jured it. In the same field the Mediterranian 

 wheat is down " as flat as a pancake." 



WINTER BASLEY. 



The cultivation of winter barley is much on the 

 increase in this section. It differs in no respect, 

 botanicaUy, from the spring variety. It is spring 

 barley that has been 

 sown in more soutlieru 

 latitudes, in the fall, till 

 it has become capable 

 of standing the winter. 



We annex a cut of an 

 ear of winter barley, 

 grown by Jas. 0. Shel- 

 don, of Geneva, N. Y. 

 the seed of which was 

 obtained fvoin Southern 

 Ohio. It was harTest 

 on the 25 th of June. It 

 was sown on the 25th 

 of September ; 2^ bush- 

 els per acre. 



Our severe winters here 

 do not injure winter 

 barley when it is sown 

 on drv u[)lands. Like 

 winter wheat, it does 

 not succeed on low, 

 moist land. It should be 

 sown as early as winter 

 wheat — some farmers 

 think a few days earlier, 

 though many do not 

 soyv till after they have 

 got in their wheat. It 

 requires the same cul- 

 ture as winter wheat. 

 "When sown on good 

 soil, properly prepared, 

 the yield is large. The 

 sample is better, under 

 such circumstances, than 

 spring barley and weighs 

 more to the bushel and 

 commands, consequent- 

 ly, a higher price. 



A correspondent in 

 Kentucky recommends 

 sowing winter barley 

 after oats, rather than 

 after winter wheat, for 

 the reason that the land, 

 having been plowed in 

 the spring, can be got 

 into better condition than that which has not been 

 plowed for twelve months. Another advantage i?, 

 that when the barley i ; put in about the first of 



WINTER BARLEY. 



