150 



T H E N E W GENESEE F A R M ER, 



Vol.1. 



J IT Ihc Mtic (Jcniice Fnrmer. 



Ou Raisiug and Cltauiug tlovcr Seed—Clo- 

 ver Machiucs. 



Messrs. Epitors- In your last pnper you acknow- 

 ledged the receipt of my communication on the sub- 

 ject of thrashing and denning clover seed; and you 

 also required more minute details on the subject. — I 

 willingly give you my experience and observation. — 

 I will treat tht subject eystemntically, and lake each 

 query proposed by you in order. 



Ist. .Is lo tlf. Wind of Svii. — As far as I have been 

 able to judge, a sanihj, or loamy, or in fact, any light 

 soil is best adapted. It seldom docs well on t^ay soils. 



2d. As lo tlie time anil frc'/iicncy of Sowing. — We 

 generally sow in the first opening of spring, while the 

 ground is moist and open; in order lo give the seed a 

 chance to penetrate tt little into the ground. There 

 are ninny farmers who sow as early as the beginning 

 of March; and some sow when there is a little snow- 

 on the ground, to enable them (they say) to sow more 

 accurately. Clover intended for seed, ought never 

 to lay more than two years, because, after this, much 

 of it will run out, and make room for various kinds of 

 grass and noxous weeds, 



3d. As lo the lime of Cutting. — On this point I en- 

 tirely coincide with your valuable correspondent, jMi-. 

 Harmon, that the seed should be perfectly ripe. 1st. 

 because it will yield more seed per acre when sold by 

 weight; and 2d. because it will thrash at least one 

 third easier. 



4th. Is the frsl or second crop best ? — E.xperience 

 teaches us that the second crop will yield gencrelly 

 about one third more: the reason we suppose to be, 

 that the first crop, ripening in the heat of summer, 

 ripens too speedily, and consequently the seed is very 

 much shrunk, and of course a very bad sample. 



5tb. Amonnt of seed olliiined from an acre. — We 

 generally expect, on suitable soil, from two to four 

 bushels; but this depends much on the season; a wet 

 season being by far the most productive. We seldom 

 cut more than a bushel per aere on stilTclay soils. 



Glh. Whether the thnishing cannot be done hij a 

 thrashing machine instead of a jfail ? I have seen 

 this tried several times, let. with a spiked machine. 

 We found that it took as long to separate the heads 

 from the straw — the latter being mottly broken up — 

 as it did to thrash it with a flail; and also, that after do- 

 in" the best we could with it, there remained nearly dou- 

 ble the bulk of chafl', and broken straw mixed, to be 

 thrashed with the clover machine, allowing for the ser- 

 vices of the machine two extra men and four horses. 

 It was next tried with what we call a beater machine. 

 We found this the best in one point; the straw was 

 somewhat broken up ; but, as an offset against 

 this, wc found it impossible to make it thrash clean. — 

 Wo therefore concluded that the flail was by far the 

 best. 



7ih. What is the cost of a clorcr machine icilh and 

 vsithont the horse power ? — To ibis I must observe that 

 1 have seen the kind mentioned by your fiiend Har- 

 mon, and those made by Mr. Burrall «f Geneva; but 

 I consider the kind briefly mentioned by me in your 

 last pnper, not only the most convenient for a station- 

 ary machine, but likewise the cheapest: a friend of 

 mine having mnde eeverni of them(vvithout h< r.epow- 

 er) for $'10, materials inclusive. 



8lh. Can tiie clover machine be easihj adapted to 

 the different horse powers nscd in thrashing icheut; 

 and what amount of power it rcqnircd .■* — This query 

 may be speedily answered by the fact that I never 

 knew a farmer who had a 6e|ierate horse power for his 

 clover machine. The generality of clover machines 

 can be worked with three horses, but four arc best. 



Tliere is another point which you forgot, and 1 had 

 jearly forjjotten to mention. It is the quantity of 



seed necessary to sow an acre. We usually sow a 

 bushel on six acres, but some farmers consider a bush- 

 el to ten acres to be suflicient. 



Remarhs. — The plan usually pursued in this coun- 

 ty for raising clover is this: We seed our wheat at 

 the time above mentioned. After harvest we are care- 

 ful that nothing feeds on this clover for the remainder 

 of the season, for it injures the young clover very 

 much. The next season we cut a crop of hay, say 

 about the middle of July; then sow on about two bush- 

 els of plaster, and let it grow for seed. We repeat 

 this the second season, and the ensuing spring we 

 plough up for fallow. Yours, &c., 



W. .\. H. 



Yates CO., Sept. 1S40. 



Fw t/ie yctc Gei'.c£te Fanner. 

 Iiifiltratioii of Slaiiures. 



The last Cultivator offers some proofs of the infil- 

 tration of manure. The i'act I will not deny, I only 

 wish to explain the forced or accidental manner in 

 which it is done. 



I have long been of opinion that most of thegasscsof 

 manure escaped upwards through the conii)onent par- 

 ticles of the soil, and that thii was the reason why 

 ashes or lime by their affinity for those gasses prevent- 

 ed their escape, when both manure and ashes on its 

 base, was applied to a sandy soil. 



Dr. Jackson says that " the water in barn yards is 

 never pure," this is no proof of the infiltration of ma- 

 nure when it has o chance to escope t'> the atmosphere. 

 As pure water as I ever drank was surfoundcd by 

 fields and gardens highly monured by vegetable mat- 

 ter and munhaden fish. Had these substances been 

 present in such masses as encumber the barn yard, 

 an unnatural infiltration might have been produced to 

 the injury of the spring. — Xature is very consistent in 

 her laws — it is always her dccign to form new coinbi- 

 nations out of decayed matter, but if a man frustrate 

 her intentions by piling up vegetoble substances to suf- 

 fer a useless decay ond consequent infiltration, is it 

 her fault i. 



In the lower parts of our seaport towns, well water 

 is often impregnated with sea water. This is doubt- 

 less owing to the pressure of the spring tides, which 

 occur every full of the moon. The nitre of cellars, 

 and other pent up animal matter, is also artificially for- 

 ced to intiltrate, because an escape to the atmosphere 

 is denied to them. Hence the impurity of well water 

 in populous cities 



Commissioner Colman of Massachusettss, says, 

 " there is salts of lime enough in the waters of the 

 Boston wells to make ten statues of Lot's wife, as well 

 OS other impurities not lo be named." 



If the presence of lime in Boston water is ony 

 proof of the infiltration of manures, we might as well 

 say that the organic remains found in limettone, the 

 little antedeluvian Crustacea themselves, had infil- 

 trated. 



As I have said before, it is always the design of na- 

 ture that nothing should be lost, and that her domain 

 should be perpetually enlarged. In tropical climates 

 wheie heat and moisture ore not impeded in their ac- 

 tion by a long season of frost, the excess of decompo- 

 sed vegetable matter instead of sinking below atmos- 

 pheric influence is continually forming new combina- 

 tions on a most gigantic scale. Bonpland tells us that 

 near Cuniana there is a species of Cactus thirty or 

 forty feet high (trentc au quarranle pied de hauteur.) 

 This seems almost incredible when we reflect that our 

 own Cacius opunlia is rarely found more thnn two 

 feethigh. Ilumbolt snys that in the woods of Guia- 

 na the whole earth is not only overloaded with plants, 

 but also the trunks of trees are covered every where 

 with the o;c/i«/ca: and the plants of the genua Piper 



and Pothos, and that the Lianas creep from tree top 

 to tree top, at a height exceeding a hundred feet, for. 

 ming a most agreeable shade from the vertical .-iun. 



SEXEC-V. 



Proofs of Infiltration. 



The question of infiltration, or the tendency of ani- 

 mal and vegetable matters to descend in soils, is o 

 matter of considerable importance, as un it is grenily 

 depending the decision of the proper position of ma- 

 nure in the soil. Some maintaining that manures 

 never sink below where the ground is moved, advo- 

 cate the plocing of manures deep in the soil; others 

 believing that the most valuable ports, the soluble 

 salts, in such coses speeddy pass beyond the reach of 

 the plants, prefer a slight covering, that allows the 

 manure to remain as neer the surface as possible. On 

 this subject Dr. Jackson makes the following re- 

 marks: — 



The irflltration of manures is doubted by some, but 

 the condition of our wells prove it. The water in a 

 barn yord is never pure. As much as a tea-spoonful 

 of vegetnble matter to a gallon is often obtained from 

 waters that are considered pure. This may be seen 

 bv any one who will evaporate the Boston water to 

 dryness. In the purest water obtained Irom lakes. It 

 grains of vegetable matter to the gallon may be ob- 

 tained. In the water of Boston 38 grains are found 

 to the gallon. Soils brought from 15U feel depth in 

 this neighborhood, are found charged with vegetable 

 matter." 



The Massachusetts Commissioner, Mr. Colman, 

 says: — 



"There ore salts of lime enough in the waters of 

 Boston wells dronk every year, lo make ten sloiues as 

 large as Lot's wife, ond os to other ingredients or im- 

 purities, which, according to Dr. Jackson's account, 

 exist in it, they are not to be named." 



Such facts prove incontcstibly. thot manures do in- 

 filtrate, or descend, and the naturol in/eience, there- 

 fore, would be, that to produce the best and greatest 

 efl'eet, they should be buried near the surface. — Ali. 

 Cultixator. 



Clover Seed-Its Culttire-Machines for Clean- 

 ing. 



Messrs. Editors — The common clover — Trifoli- 

 um prahnse — called little or medium sort, is the 

 kind in general use and for sole in this county. It is 

 generally mowed for bay about the middle of June, 

 the seed is obtained from the second growth, wh ch is 

 cut as soon as the seed is ripe, say from the 10th to 

 the last of September. It is then drawn to the barn 

 and thrashed with a flafl or horses, until the heads are 

 separated from the hay; the hoy is then nearly all ra- 

 ked off, if bright, it is stacked for fodder, but if damp 

 and mouldy, it is consigned to the born yard for ma- 

 nure. The heads, still encumbered with more orleee 

 hoy, ore then ready for the clover machine — most far- 

 mers in this vicinity bring their throshed clover lo the 

 stationary clover mill in this village, where it is cleon- 

 ed lor every tenth buehel. The clover machine here 

 cost $100; it is attached to a plaster mill and is car- 

 ried by water power; the cylinder is o feet long and 3 

 feet in diameter, and makes 3:!0 revolutions in a min- 

 ute; it has cleaned, ready for the fonning mill, five 

 bushels in an hour. 



Portable machines with IG lo 20 inch cylinders may 

 be purehosed of E. Hurlhurt in this village, at from 

 .fGO to $80 each. These small cylinders make more 

 revolutions; but any kind of horse power may be at- 

 tached to them. — Several kinds of horse-power may 

 bo had here, from the improved horizontal to the in- 

 clined plain ond endless chain. Cost, $00, to .-{ilSO. 



A clover machine of the largest size is supposed to 

 lequire about one half the power that is required lo 

 thrash wheat — the small cylinders require about the 

 same power, the revolutions being increased. 



The yield of clover seed is very unequal, depending 

 very much on the weather and the season; five bush- 

 els to the acre has been gathered, but three bushels is 

 nearer the overage. We know one farmer in the town 



