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THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 



A Iictter from Illinois. 



Messrs. EdiroRS : — The following is an extrnct of 

 n letter written by a gentleman of considerable travel 

 and acquaintance through the great west, and eo far as 

 refers to your portion of country we are prepared to at- 

 test to the coi-rectness of his remarks, and you may 

 confer a (avor on such as may wish to migrate to the 

 west by giving this a place in yonr paper. 

 Yours, &c., 



FREDERIC BRACKETT. 



BrncIicU's Slills, llimuis. 



" In all my acquaintance through the far famed 

 west, I have not found a section of country that in 

 every respect so well unites all the great requisites of 

 the farmer as that portion embracing the south part of 

 Effingham and the north part of Ciny counties, on the 

 west side of the Little Wabash river, in the State of 

 Illinois. There the prairies are small, averaging only 

 from one to three miles wide ; high, dry, and ex- 

 tremely fertile; and the rivulets or small creeks which 

 divide these small prairies ere bordered with as good 

 timber as I ever saw in the United States. They also 

 afford great quantities of valuable rock both of the 

 limestone and freestone, and inexhaustable vrater. 



This is the only prairie country in which I have 

 ever seen all these great advantages in such abkind- 

 ance. Spring water is common both in the pra.riss 

 and timber land, and excellent well water is obtained 

 by digging from lifteen to thirty feet, any where in 

 the country. 



The first year, the prairies here are somewhat harder 

 to plough than old blue grass pastures ; they are then 

 planted in corn, and without any further cultivntion 

 they yield from fifteen to forty bushels per acre. The 

 next year and onward they are extremely light and 

 productive in all kinds of grain and vegetables suitable 

 to the climate, thus is seen at once the great advan- 

 tages thntresult to persons who locate in the west ; — 

 no clearing of farms, only fence and plough ; and the 

 country being entirely free from stagnant water 1 

 have no doubt of its general health. It is worthy of 

 remark that all this part of the country is entirely free 

 from that distressing disease called the milk sickness. 



Notwithstanding an almost unparalled drouth from 

 the middle of iVIay uiuil the first of September, corn in 

 this vicinity will yield at least fifty bushels per acre 

 this season. I earnestly recommend this portion o'' 

 country to yourseif and friends, but what you do you 

 had batter do soon, as the land will dovibtless be pur- 

 chased rapidly. 



Sirange as it may appear there is yet more than 

 nineteen twentieths of this beautiful and fertile coun- 

 try remaining to be purchased of the Government at 

 §1,25 per acre. It has been overlooked by travellers 

 tinlil lately, for want of roads passing through it, — but 

 it is now settling rapidly. Yours tiuly, 



A. B." 



Sketches of Travel. 



In a recent jaunt as far east as Madison and Che- 

 nango connties, that which struck our attention inost, 

 was the great number of rural visitors on the road, 

 jinirneying, almost without exception, in expensive 

 steel springed carriages and buggies, with elegant 

 aidel amps, the horsss caparisonej with brass mounted 

 or plated barneys, the dress and baggage of the tra 

 vellers in keeping with the equipage. 



Twenty years ago when we passed through this 

 country our springed carriage was looked on as a 

 straggling cxolir., to be wondered at rather than ad- 

 mired, much less to be desired. Os teams were then 

 more common than horse teams, I doubt whether 

 there was a farmer then within ten miles square, who 

 c-">ulJ boast of a spring carriage or a plated harness. 

 T'.vo farmers would then once a year fit out a team 



for Salt Point to buy salt, by furnishing each, a hoise, 

 with a certain quantum of rope and leather called a 

 tackling. 



If I was asked what has produced this great change 

 in the social condition nf our Rural population, I 

 should say, it was varied and increased production. 

 The birth or introduction and increase of the mechanic 

 arts in the country has n"t been a whit behind the 

 progress of agricultural industry ; it may be said that 

 from the nature ol their mutuol wants, they have 

 incidentally stimulated each other. Thus has Ham- 

 ilton grown up with its endowed seraenaries and 

 schools — and log citv has been converted from a little 

 city of logs as its significant early name implies, into 

 one of elegant mansions, Grecion cottages, extensive 

 factories, an! workshops. 



There is not so general an appearance of rural thrift 

 in the counties of Madison and Chenango, os in our 

 own Seneca, but with their cold rough hills, and wet 

 hollows they have better pasturage, more butter and 

 cheese, more cattle, and the sweetest water in the 

 world, we felt that such water in Seneca county could 

 not fail to establish a perfect temperance reform. 



The hop yards of Madison have of late almost en- 

 tirely disappeared ; over production reduced the price 

 so low that the culture is generally abandoned ; the 

 consequence is that this year the price is unusually 

 high. It is said that one man will dear $4,000 on 

 ten acres of hops tills season. He applies to his hop 

 grounds all the manure of a large distillery, by the aid 

 of which he is alone enabled to realize such large pro- 

 fits. Hops require a cool moist cliinatc, but dry and 

 very rich land. S. W. 



Waterloo, Sept. 18, 1811. 



Indian Corn, the King of Edibles. 



A Farmer from Oneida county, now on a visit here, 

 says that our farmers strangely overlook the advant- 

 age ofour warm dry climate for Indian corn — hesays 

 that they seldom fail to get 60 bushels to the acre 

 there on an old sward, if they only have sun and dry 

 weather enoujih to ripen it ; he has seen 60 bushels 

 raised to the acre this season, without the aid of ma- 

 nure, but it was well tended with hoe and cultivator, 

 two imjilemcnts '' but little used" he thinks in cur 

 corn fields. Even in the south part of Oneida county 

 a great grass region, corn stalks in the bundle are 

 worth ordinarily $8 per acre. 



When I see a farmer pedling a load of pumpkins 

 through our village, boasting of their superior size and 

 quality, verily thinks I to myself, that man boasts of 

 his own shame — the pumpkin growing fanners may 

 have pumpkins, but they will have no corn this year. 

 The kindly influence of a warm sun, while it has 

 done wonders for the thrifty industrious farmer's corn, 

 has proved too strong a stimulous for the late planted, 

 half manured, and worse tended corn, of the mere 

 pumpkin grower. 



Perhaps there never was a season when corn repaid 

 the labor and attention bcstowtd upon it better than 

 this year ; on the other hand never did the neglected 

 field yield less. I have seen some fields where the 

 weeds far outweighed the stalks, and others of like 

 soil, where tiie stalks were worth more per acre, than 

 he grass from our best mcidows. 



Although grass and potatoes, in consequence ofour 

 long drought are not half a crop, I have no doubt but 

 that if our Indian corn had been eorly planted on rich 

 land and the earth kept loose by the hoe and cultiva- 

 tor, the crop this season would have been far above 

 the average. 



I have observed that the stalks this year, after the 

 corn is ripe are full of saccharine matter, both horses 

 and cows devour even the l.utts with avidity. 



Either from bad fanning or some other cause, it 

 would seem that western New- York is fast losins its 



quondam choracter as a wheat growing region 

 if I mistake not, its reputation as an Indian i 

 growing country has always been too low, me 

 f;om the fact that its culture has been neglected 

 the more profitable production of wheat. But i 

 when we have no more of nature's own virgin sol 

 insure large crops of wheat at little expense, \vc t: 

 that more attention will be paid to that much abu 

 prince of edibles for both man and beast, Indian cc 

 Waterloo, Sept. 18, \Sil. S. W 





lit« 



Wheat Culture. 



Messrs. Editors — It appears to mc tli.lt tlic culture 

 wheat has not received thut attention from argricultii 

 writers whicli its importance demands I thinlt it would 

 of great benefit to your renders if our wheal growers wo 

 more generally give us the results of their experience,: 

 their mode of practice in tfiis branch of funning. Tlicre 

 pears to he much diversity of opinion on most points ci 

 nected with this suliject ; and for one I should like to kn. 

 tile opinions and practice of the moat successful wh( 

 growers in this country, particularly with reference to 1 

 manner of prep.aring the land, the time of sowing, quantl 

 of seed, and mode of preparation, if any. 



As far as my own experience goes, I think I have obtai 

 ed the best crops by fallowing the land, with three tin 

 ploughing! thrown irtto ridgesof seven or eight paces wid 

 sown from the eiglith to the si.\teenth of September ; fi 

 five and a half pecks of seed to the acre ; prepared by soa! 

 ing in lime water from twelve to sixteen liours before 

 ins ■, the seed harrowed in. I have some seasons sown n 

 wheat about the first of September, and when that h 

 the case I have almost invariably ButfereJ more or less fro 

 the ravages of tile fly. I think early sowing renders whe 

 more exposed to this evil. Such is my practice, and if at 

 of the correspondents of the Farmer can suggest improve 

 menla on it, I shall be happy to learn and ailopt them. 



" Old Genesee,' August 1841. M. N. 



Remarks. — We thank i\I. N., for calling the attention ■ 

 our readers to this subje.'t, and we unite with hira in the ri 

 qucstthat others will favor us with a description of the 

 pr.'icticc in wheat cultivation. We hope however the 

 will be more particular than our friend M. N., and not foi 

 get to mention the kind of soil, depth of ploughing, kind o 

 wlieat. and the quantity of produce i and not omit to 

 their names — Kds. 



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The following suggestion we believe to be of grea 

 importance. The advantage ofa wheel over swinj 

 ploughs, was fully demonstrated by the accurate an 

 repeated experiments of Prof. Puscy in Scotland 

 Ploughs of nearly the same actual weight were louiu 

 to difl^er in the strength of the d-aught, required ti 

 move them on the surface of the ground, as fovr It 

 one, when without, in one case, and with a wheel, ii 

 the other. This great diflerence must be obvious 

 when it is considered, that the chief weight of thi 

 plough is brought by the drought upon the wheel 

 which otherwise has to drag heavily along the ground 

 The friction occasioned by this dragging, it is plain, 

 must be greatly increased, when fifty or a hundrcc 

 weight of earth is constantly pressing upon the mould- 

 board. As very few of our ploughs in this region are 

 furnished with wheels, we beg leave to call the attcn. 

 tion of famers to this subject. „ 



For the JVeio Genesee Farmer. 

 Wheel Plouglis. 



Messrs. Editors : — It is rather late in the season 

 to talk about breaking-up ploughs. But 1 consider it 

 of much importance, and hope it may diaw out some- 

 thing from our brother farmers, that will not be for- 

 gotten before another spring. 



We all know that the breaking of the " fallow 

 ground" is the hardest job that we have in preparing 

 the ground for the seed. It is important then that wo 

 manage this business to the best advantage. We have 

 incur country a great variety of " patent ploughs," 

 some of which we think good ones, andnll undoubtedly 

 real improvements upon the old fashioned ploughs. Of 

 the merits of any particular pattern I thill not speak. 

 I will only siy to my brother farm rs, get the best 



