THE GENESEE FARMER. 



'inds, is just round the corner, and the grist-mill 

 . :it the foot of the hill. Tliere is a hungry market 

 . itliin an hour's ride of the door, for everything 



•it can be raised on the soil. 



Many of these lands can be bought for twenty 

 :>nars an acre, with all the buildings upon them, 

 ..• from five to ten dollars an acre without the 

 liiildings. All that is needed to bring them up 

 1,0 a high state of productiveness, and to make 

 lem pay the interest on two hundred dollars per 

 .•!-e, is skill and capital. To make money by farm- 



Li'. pure and simple, we believe there is no better 



id than these cheap farming lands in our own 



<ire. If a man wants to speculate or to get rich 

 \ rlie gradual rise of lands, let kim go "West. But 



lie wants to gain a competence, and a comforta- 



: • home, and to educate his children for usefulness 



1 happiness, let him develope the resources of 



•se neglected, half-tilled farms. 



Animal Food and Bread. — A paper was re- 

 viitly read before the London Chemical Society by 

 i>r. Gilbert, on the composition of the animal 

 'ortiou of human food, and on its relations to 

 ■ read. The general conclusions were, that only a 

 .i);dl proportion of the increase of a fattening 

 ;;iimal was composed of nitrogenous matter ; that 

 Mill five to ten per cent, only of the nitrogenous 

 arter of the food was stored up in the body of 

 e .-mimal ; but that the amount of fat stored up 

 .■:is frequently greater than the amount supplied 

 : the food, despite the loss incurred in the main- 

 nance of the respiratory functions. Hence, the 



■ nparative value of fattening foods was propor- 

 u;al rather to the amounts of respiratory than of 

 -limed fiesh-forming constituents. It was calcu- 

 !cJ that in those portions of the carcasses of oxen 

 rially consumed as human food, the atnount of 

 V tat was from two to three times as great as the 

 Miint of dry nitrogenous nuitter; and in the 

 ir'u portions of the carcasses of sheep and pigs, 



■ > e than four times as great. By substituting 

 • I lie above proportions of fat, their respiratory 



I r.vjilents in starch, so as to allow of a compari- 



■ •I hytween meat and bread, the ratios become six 



■ i.-cveu to one, and eleven to one respectively. 

 .;:« various determinations made by a number 



■x|)erimeiiters, it appeared that in wheat bread 



!iitio of starchy to nitrogenous matter was six 



-even to one ; so that in bread the [iroportion 



niiiial flesli-forming coxistitnents to respiratory 



. -tituents was greater thaij tlie eaten portions of 



11 and pigs, and quite equal to that of the eaten 



■'. I ions of oxeu — a conclusion altogether opposed 



I'.i prevalent notions on the subject. 



OUT OF THE GSANAEY-LOLLARS IN POCKET. 



>^. Gen. Fakmer : — D. N. D., in the October 



.1 >er of tlie Farmer, inquires, "What is the best 



' id of keeping rats out of the corn-crib or 



■■■iry." Now the "root of all evil" in this case 



'ly lies in the manner of building. It is a mat- 



•"■ some difficulty to build a corn-crib or granary 



iht that it will effectually resist the persever- 



- of these destructive little animals. I will give 



• correspondent and readers a plan which, if 



I wed, may be the means of saving a great quan- 



of grain which would otherwise be destroyed. 



Frame the building in the ordinary way, and the 

 difterence in construction must be in the fn'iiula- 

 tion. Instead of tlie common stone foundation, 

 select good sticks of oak timber, from 14 to 16 

 inches in diameter, and about G feet in length. 

 These should be sunk firmly in the ground about 8 

 feet deep, leaving the to])9 to project out of the 

 ground about 2|- feet. The top of these jjillars 

 above ground should be hewn and planed very 

 smooth into the shape of a frustrum of a cone, the 

 upper diameter of which may be 6 or 7 inches. 

 Place caps two feet square upon the pillars, and 

 rest the sills upon them. The points of support in 

 any building should not be wider apart than 8 feet. 

 Quite clear of every obstacle the granary must be 

 kept, and no communication with the ground 

 allowed to remain, other than tiie posts which sup- 

 port it, or the rats will climb up ; but since they 

 can not walk like a fly on the ceiling, if the plan I 

 have given is adopted, my word f ir it, your corres- 

 pondent will have no rats in his corn-crib. — Ueney 

 B., Ohio. ^ 



DICKENS ON DONKEYS. 



I have known a donkey — by sight ; we were not 

 on speaking terms — who lived over on the Surrey 

 side of London bridge, among the fastnesses of Ja- 

 cob's Island and Dockhead. It was the habit of 

 that animal, when his services were not in imme- 

 diate requisition, to go out alone, idling. I have 

 met him a mile from his place of residence, loiter- 

 ing about the streets; and the expression of his 

 countenance at this time was most degraded. He 

 was attached to the establishment of an elderly 

 lady who sold periwinkles, and he used to stand 

 on Saturday nights with a cartful of delicacies out- 

 side a gin-shop, pricking up his ears when a cus- 

 tomer came to the cart, and too evidently deriving 

 satisfaction from the knowledge that they got bad 

 measure. His mistress was sometimes overtaken 

 by inebriety. The last time I ever saw him (about 

 live years ago), he was in circumstances of difl[icul- 

 ty, caused by this failing. Having been left alone 

 with the cart of periwinkles, and forgotten, he 

 went otf idling. He prowled about his usual low 

 haunts for some time, gratifying his depraved taste, 

 until, not taking the cart into his calculations, he 

 endeavored to turn up a narrow alley, and Ijecame 

 greatly involved. He was taken into custody by 

 the police, and the Green Yard of the districit be- 

 ing near at hand, was backed into that place of 

 durance. At this crisis I encountered him; the 

 stubborn sense he evinced of being — not to com- 

 promise the expression — a blackguard, I never saw 

 exceeded in a human subject. A flaring candle in 

 paper shade, stuck in among his periwinkles, showed 

 liim, with his ragged harness broken, and his cart 

 extensively shattered, twitching his mouth, and 

 shaking his hanging head, a picture of disgrace 

 and obstinacy. I have seen boys taken to the sta- 

 tion-house, who were as like him as his own bro- 

 ther. — All the Year Round. 



Bee Stealing. — The Sacramento (California) 

 Apiarian Society, offers a reward of $50 for satis- 

 factory evidence of any one who is in the way of 

 setting up decoy hives for catching other people's 

 bees. 



