24 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 31 



ROCHESTER, FEBRUARY, 1842 



Monroe Agricultural Society, \otice. 



The annual meeting of this Society will be held at 

 the Arcade House, Rochester, on Saturday the 19ih 

 day of Feb. inst., at 1 o'clock; for the election of of- 

 ficers and the transaction of other important business — 

 a general attendance is desired. 



H, W. WARD, Sec. 



We invite the particular attention of the Farmers to 

 the above notice. Matters of interest are likely to be 

 presented to the meeting and we hope every member 

 will be in his place. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



We respectfully solicit the continued aid of those 

 persona, who have heretofore enriched the columns of 

 the Naw Genasee Farmer with their communica- 

 tions. We solicit at the same time the correspondence 

 of all dieposod to aid us, to whom our paper is sent. 

 To those who thus favor us and desire it we shall be 

 happy to send the paper free of charge. We should 

 be glad to receive communications and propositions 

 from persons willing to become regular correspondents 

 for the New Genesee Farmer upon pecuniary com- 

 pensation, engaging npon our part if the communica- 

 tions are what we want, we will pay for them as 

 liberally as the circumstances of our paper admit. We 

 have no pretensions to making our paper the best ag- 

 ricultural paper in the country ; but we promise to 

 make it as good as our ability and means will enable 

 us to do. We shall not be sorry if others beat us. 

 The competition will do good. Let us have a fair 

 field. The success of a paper or a man is not to be 

 considered in comparison with the advancement of 

 the great cause of an Improved Husbandry. If we 

 ore distanced at the first heat, w'c will try again 

 We will not be quarrelsome if we come out head and 

 head. If the steed fails because the jockey does not 

 know how to ride or to manage his horse, we think so 

 far as we know the lad, he will at once dismount ; but 

 if not let him be thrown The judges we have no 

 doubt w.iU see fair play. 



To the LADIES, or as good John Q. Adams would 

 say, to the women, which, we like much better; Why 

 should not you help us ? In the present number we 

 have a letter from a female correspondent. We shall 

 ■welcome as many as may be sent us, unless they 

 should happen to contain a gentle offer of a nameless 

 kind, which, whether willing or unwilling, we shall 

 be compelled to decline for the simple reason that we 

 are provided for. Our co-laborer however, of whom 

 we have not a print at hand or we should be tempted to 

 give it in these days of ornamental typography, is still 

 in an unfortunate baccalaureate condition, .and all 

 Euch letters, we shall hand over to him ; with what 

 succMi we cannot predict. 



AVe should be glad to hear from our female friends 

 on thesubjects of gardening, floriculture, silk-raising 

 bee management, poultry management, house-keep- 

 ing, house-hold raanufactures, the management of 

 children or the management of husbands, and any 

 thing which comes within their beneficent province 

 of mending the manners, or mending the hearts, or 

 mending the morals. They are the salt of the social 

 body, without which it would soon dissolve in cor- 

 jt^Jtion, 



Explanation. — The editor hopes it cannot be neces- 

 sary to say that the .Tanuary number was made up with- 

 out his agency or knowledge, or he could not have ad- 

 mitted on the lai5t page some kind notices of himself, 

 which lus friend Batcham, with the best intentions in- 

 serted. 



but they are equally liable to waste the bay from rack* 

 Another objection we have to it is, that if the eheey 

 feed on bath sides of it, as we sitppose is intcndfij 

 their heads are brought too near together ; and thonoJi 

 in general peaceably inclined, we cannot entirely da 

 pend either upon their nstural teanperamcnt or tbeii 

 good principles, to feed quietly when placed 

 close contact. We do not think, in the nest pleea 

 that the rack proposed is made with so little expeni 

 and trouble as our friend suggests. We do not mean 

 however, to object to his plan without ofiering to th 

 judgment of the farmers, what we deem abetter one 

 It may not be however ; but we have tried vsrioa 

 kinds of hay-savers and mangers, and for sheep wi 

 prefer this to any other. We give it with th« plati 

 and description from our Fourth Report on the Agri 

 culture of Massachusetts. It will be seen that bj 

 placing two pieces of board like an inverted trough, 

 or like the saddle boards on the roof of a house, 

 lengthwise of the manger, the bottom of the mangel 

 is divided into two troughs ; and passing along as \v« 

 have often done in feeding sheep, with a measure oli 

 corn or a basket of cut vegetables, lengthwise of th 

 manger and turning them up on this ridge they are di. 

 vided nearly equally on each side. The trough _. 

 equally favorable to feeding hay ; and is easily swepti 

 out and kept clean ; and if not mode too long and 

 heavy, is without difficulty removed from one part ol 

 the yard to the other and placed under cover as may 

 be required. The only objection we have heard made 

 to it is, that the wool is liable to be rubbed off of the 

 neck or throat of the sheep. We have not e.xperi- 

 enced this difficulty, and whore sheep are in health, 

 their wool is not easily started. 



Hay-savers or mangers for feeding neat cattle in 

 the yards, should be mere bo.xes, too high for them 

 to think ot stepping into them, and about five feet 

 square. Four or more cattle can stand and feed at 

 such a bo.ic without being able to quarrel by reaching 

 each other fiom the opposite side, as they are likely to 

 do, where the manger at which they are feeding ig. 



far the Ifem Geneeee Farmer. 

 Feeding Trough and Rack for Sheep. 



Mr. Bateham — I have seen several differently con- 

 structed Sheep Racks recommended in the agricultu- 

 ral papers, and have tried several. I have found some 

 objection to all that I have seen. In this vicinity, 

 where we do not feed exclusively on hay, but make 

 use of straw, chaff,roots and bran, it isimportant that 

 we have racks and troughs in which we can feed the 

 different kinds of food in the same trough and rack. 

 I used for several years the common board troughs for 

 feeding choff, roots, and bran, but they were not suited 

 to straw or hay. Last winter I attempted to improve 

 on my board trough by attaching a rack to it ; and so 

 combined I find it the most convenient that I have 

 seen. It is cheap and light, so that it is easily re- 

 moved ; and if they are kept under cover in the sea- 

 son when they are not in use, they will last many 

 years. 



Description of the Rack Trough. — Toke pieces of 

 timber three inchss square and twenty-two inches | ""' ""'' '^^P' clean ; and if not made too Ion 

 long, and halve them together crosswise, so that the 

 upper ends will be twenty two inches apart. Moke 

 three pair of them for one trough, one for each end 

 and one for the middle. Put into them two boards 12 

 feet long, 1^ inch thick ; one 12 and the other 13 in- 

 ches wide ; put in the widest first and secure them 

 fast to the timbers with nails and a board at each end, 

 and you have the trough. Then bore holes one and 

 one finirlh inch in diameter, eight inches apart, and 

 one inch from the outer edge of the board for the 

 rack ; make the sticks for the rack three feet long. 

 I have used cedar for the rack sticks ; they are suffi- 

 ciently strong and are easily made. Split them one 

 and a half inch square, take off the corners, insert 

 one end in the holes and on the upper end put a board 

 three inches wide with holes corresponding with the 

 bottom, and you have a rack and trough complete. 

 Persons feeding sheep, will find such a rack trough 

 well worth theii notice, if they feed hay and grain 

 only. 



The readers of the Farmer have reason to congrat- 

 ulate themselves on the arrangements that you have 

 made in the editorial department. Mr. Colman is 

 favorably known as an agricultural writer, and his 

 locating himself in the Genesee Valley will open to 

 him a new field for his usefulness. While in the ag- 

 ricultural survey of Massachusetts he must have laid 

 in a valnable stock of information, from which he 

 may frequently draw, to the interest of the readers of 

 the Farmer, and through its columns they can inter- 

 change opinions with him. And it is to be expected 

 that he will frequently test the hospitalities of the 

 farmers of the Genesee Valley, and that he may 

 frequently call on the Wheatland farmers, where he 

 will receive a hearty welcome. 



R. HARMON, Jr. 

 Wheatland, Pec , 1341 . 



Remarks cm the above. — We feel obliged by the 

 communication of our respected correspondent, and 

 hope often to hear from him. We think his sheep 

 rack, on some accounts, well contrived ; but not the 

 beet mode. We object to all racks in feeding sheep 

 or horses. The hay which is put into them protrudes 

 itself between the stakes and is liable to be drawn out 

 and trodden under feet. The position in which it 

 obliges a horse to put his head, is an unnatural one, 

 and must be a painful one, unless, like the skinned 

 eels, they have ceased to feel it by getting used to it. 



MA!5r.ER FOB Sheep. — -\mong the various racks and 

 mangers which I have seen f -r feeding sheep, there is 

 a simple form which seems preferable to any other: 

 it is as cheaply constructed as any other, and it pre- 

 vents all waste. In the common form of racks, where 

 they are inclined outward (rom the bottom upwards, 

 nearly as much hay is drawn out and trodden under 

 foot as is consumed by the sheep. 



The manger which is preferable to anj' other is of 

 such length as to be easily moved by two persons, and 

 is made with four or more upright posts, and with two 

 boards or elate extending the whole distance round its 

 sides and ends. The bottom board on the side may 

 be ten or twelve inches in width ; and above that, 

 leaving a space of about a foot or fourteen inches, 

 there may be another board of about 8i.t or eight 

 inches in width. The w^idlh of the manger or box 

 should be about two feet. It should hove a tight bot- 

 tom, with two pieces of board rising to a point in the 

 centre, say about four or six inches, so as to form a 

 trough on each side, into which when grain or cut 

 vegetables are put, they may be easily reached by the 

 sheep on the side on which they fall. The top may 

 be lelt open, or a board may be so placed lengthwise in 

 the centre of it as to prevent the sheep from jumping 



into the manger. I give a rough sketch of an end 

 This objection does not apply eo strongly to sheep ; i view of it, though the form is very common. 



