304 



THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH-BY S. W. 



The SnoiiT Crops in Europe. — A short crop in 

 England tliirty years ago would have been imme- 

 diately confirmed by a great rise in tlie price of 

 grain tliere; as fjirmers would hold back their old 

 grain from the market. But at that time, the wliole 

 sur[)las breadstuffs of these United States could 

 hardly be relied on for three days' supply to Great 

 Britain. We had no grain from Illinois and the 

 great West then ; not a single barrel of flour from 

 the Western Lakes came east, except a little from 

 Ohio. But now, when a million and a half bushels 

 of gra'n from tlie great West is received weekly at 

 Buffalo, and as much more is going east by other 

 routes, the English farmers begin to find out that 

 ihey liave a foreign competitor in the market, who 

 will elfectually, with the addition of the Russian 

 grain, keep down famine prices. Hence, they con- 

 tinue to supply the market with what they have, 

 freely. 



]>ut the present rise in grain, both in England 

 and France, is sufficient to encourage a very large 

 and constant importation of grain, and very remu- 

 nerating prices will be realized by our farmers for 

 their present crop at least, and very probably for 

 the crop of the next season. Our lake shipping, 

 so long idle, or freighting at ruinous rates, are now 

 making up for lost time by a rise from three cents 

 to sixteen cents the bushel on the freight of grain 

 from Chicago and Milwaukee to Buffalo. Tlie canal 

 freights, heretofore very low, have also advanced 

 to renninerating rates; and our great shipping 

 trade has so much increased that whalemen, here- 

 tofore laid up by the competition of gas and coal 

 oil, now find employment in the carrying trade. 



Then, the business of the Western and through 

 Railroads, both in freight and passengers, has greatly 

 increased, and will be still increasing, to the relief 

 .of their long suffering bond and stockholders; 

 •while tlieir earnings, in common with those of all 

 •the other carriers, add greatly to the trade and 

 wealth of the country. But as there is surplus 

 .^rain enough in the United. States and Eastern 

 Russia to su]>ply all the European demand for 

 breadstuffs, it is to be hoped, for the benefit of all 

 concerned, that no sudden or very great rise will 

 take ])iace, to be followed by that ruinous reaction 

 ■that such speculation never fiiils to end in; but 

 ■that a heaJthy export demand, at generously remu- 

 nerating prices, may be kept up for years to come. 



Minnesota. — There can be no doubt but that the 

 State, of Minnesota is far the best farming region for 

 location, soil, and climate, in the same latitude east 

 of the Rot;ky Mountains, There is an absence ofj 

 late and early frosts, very common and destructive 

 much farther south. The steady summer climate 

 of that unirpie region hastens the growth of vege- 

 tation, so that both Indian corn and garden escu- 

 lents mattire and lipen much sooner there than 

 they do several degrees farther south. 



A friend in South Minnesota, formerly a Cayuga 

 ■Co. (N. Y.,) farmer, who may be relied on for the 

 whole truth, writes that the spring barley crop 

 there gives 40 to 60 bushels to the acre ; oats, much 

 more ; spring wheat, 20 to 35 bushels, and prime 

 in quality. Potatoes are not only better, but in 

 larger yield than they ever were in Cayuga. The 

 early ripening of Indian corn enables them to grow 



the Ohio dent variety. Still, he says, Minnesota is 

 not a corn region proper, as many stalks bear no 

 ears, and the grain does not fill out to the end of 

 the cob as well as it does in Western New York. 



In winter, the mercury fiills and remains for 

 weeks below zero ; but as the wind goes down witi) 

 the mercury, the cold is not severely felt, and the 

 people soon get used to it ; but the very liglit snows 

 of that region do not prevent the earth from freez- 

 ing three or four feet deep, which elfectually des- 

 troys young fruit trees, grape vines, etc. Of all 

 the apple and other trees, vines, etc., he took there, 

 nothing survived the first winter but currant bushes. 

 But as long as Minnesota can export potatoes at 

 the present great profits, she can afford to import 

 apples and other fruit. And from common report, 

 tliere is no doubt but that the climate of Minnesota 

 is a specific for fever and ague, and for many (.ther 

 diseases that "fiesh is heir to" in a more changea- 

 ble and capricious climate. 



Dairying. — While grain growing, without stock 

 feeding, never fails to impoverish the soil, the well 

 managed dairy farm is continually growing richer, 

 the interest being added to, not subtracted from, 

 the soil's wealth. Such is the enormous increase 

 of grain at this time from the great West, with the 

 prospect of still greater increase year after year, 

 that we may exj)ect to see low prices for bread- 

 stuffs whenever good crops in Europe reduce the 

 export demand from the United States. But the 

 products of the dairy, so far from being overdone, 

 the demand for them is constantly in advance of 

 the supply. It is true, that owing to unusual oc- 

 currences butter was cheap last year ; yet there 

 was not half cheese enough to supply the demand, 

 even at extra high prices. Now the price of but- 

 ter is advancing, at the close of one of the best 

 grass seasons we have had in many years ; and the 

 demand for cheese to export is so great, that even 

 the second-rate dairies have been bought up at tea 

 cents per lb., so that there is no stock in farmers' 

 hands to supply the increasing home consumption. 

 The shipping demand lor butter and cheese will in- 

 evitably go on increasing, while the home demand 

 is increasing in still greater ratio. Why, then, will 

 our New York f;irmers continue to impoverish their 

 farms by competing with the alluvial and yet un- 

 exhausted farms of the great West in growing 

 grain for the market, when by dairying and wool- 

 growing they could realize better and more certain 

 profits, while their farms would be growing richer 

 instead of poorer, in all the elements of plant food ? 



K the limestoine soils are not as profitable for 

 dairying as the soil of the high dairy region proper, 

 still, good butter and cheese can be made on them ; 

 they will produce as large crops of timothy and 

 clover hay, and to make up for deficient pasture 

 during the droughts of summer, corn may be prof- 

 itably sown for soiling to help through a drought, 

 after which fall pasture comes on apace. Where 

 spring or running water is deficient, artificial ponds 

 may be made and puddled so as to hold water the 

 year round. At any rate, if the farmer on the cal- 

 careous soils will continue to buy their own cheese 

 instead of making it, they will soon have to increase 

 their flocks and the number of their bovines, and 

 make more manure, if they hope to escape Hugh 

 T. Brooks' " prospective sterility." 



Wintering Cattle. — The following experiment 



