40 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



VcL. 3 



ROCHESTER, MARCH, 1842. 



To Correspondeuts awd Readers. 

 We cannot soy with one nion on receiving his friends 

 that we have too much company for our chairs, bin 

 we sincerely regret that wc have not chairs enough 

 for our company. — Our limits and ibo late hour at 

 which several communications were received compel 

 us to postpone them until our next. 



J. E. T'e most welcome essay is in type. 

 C N. B's valuable article on Winter Butler is in 

 type. 



J. Ws excellent letter on the cultivation of Ilemp 

 will be in our next. 



A " Subscriber's candid remarks on Improved 

 Stock and the sound views of a " Friend of Improve- 

 ment" are both received with respect. 



Inquiries as to Gypsum, W. S. T. on Maple 

 Sugar, a second letter from our fiiend Gnrbutt, our 

 Iciend M's communication on choked cattle and Ruta 

 Baga, valuable articles on Farm and Cottage Build- 

 ings, on Ploughing, on Protective Duties and Ex- 

 periments in Forming, with various others, are 

 of necessity laid by. But our friends may under 

 these circumstances safely anticipate a choice sheet 

 for April. Having said so much fnr ourselves in this 

 number, we shall in our next yield the floor to our 

 betters. In the menn time we beg our friends not 

 to think we overlook or forget them. Let them 

 turi in their grist ; and so long as they give us 

 cle8n grain, without any chess, or cockle or smut, 

 as they have done, we'll do our best to turn out as 

 good flour as any mill with the Rochester brand. 



Broom Corn and Madder are waiting a place in our 

 next. 



Mr. Weddle's sale ought to command attention. 

 There are some animals nf extraordinary excellence. 



Charms of Editorial Life."Agricultnral lii> 

 quiries. 



January 92, 1842. 

 Mr. Colman— 



Sir — Having been somewhat acquainted with your 

 views upon agriculture while you was in Massachu- 

 setts, and learning that you now stand at the helm of 

 the Genesee Farmer, 1 think to extend my acquaint 

 ance with you, by perusing your monthly periodical. 



I have a lew questions to lay before you, hoping 

 for some valuable information. 



My farm consists of about fifteen acres of a yellow 

 loam mi.xed with wind. I have occupied it one season 

 only, and find that rye, corn and potatoes, may be 

 raised to good advantage ; also carrots and sugar beets. 

 But I am destitute of an orchard. My neighbors, 

 who are in the same condition, tell me I must submit 

 to it, which I am very unwilling to do. I therefore 

 hope to learn from your paper your opinion, whether 

 fruit trees will be likely to grow and flourish on my 

 land — the best time for transplanting them — the man- 

 ner in which it should be done, &c. — the treatment 

 they should receive after, and the kind of manure 

 most adapted to their growth. 



I wish to know the best manner of curing hams, 

 and of preserving beef from fall to spring, and for 

 summer use. 



Permit me to extend my inquiries a little farther. 

 Be good enough to inform me of the best kinds of 



swine, and manner of rearing pigs, and the treatment 

 of sows suckling them. Also, how I can best keep 

 bees through the winter and manage them in summer 

 to gel the best profit from them. 



Yours respectfully. .^■^— 



Remarks. — Now here is a pretty kettle of fish to 

 fry, from Connecticut river. AVhat shall we do ? 

 The editor of the New E ; gland Farmer recently very 

 politely remarked, that the late Agricultural Commis- 

 sioner of Massachusetts 'could put more questions in a 

 given time than any other man of his acquaintance.' 

 But the late Agricultural Commiesioner now acknowl- 

 edges himself fairly beaten. Why could not our cor- 

 respondent have put to us at once all the questions in 

 the Westminster Assembly's Larger Catechism? — 

 Why could he not have asked us a few more quosUons 

 in natural history ; as for example, why Niagara Falls 

 do not stop running? How Connecticut river ever 

 squeezed through Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom ? 

 How the trees ever got upon the top of Sugar Loaf? 

 Why black-wooled sheep eat less than whit£? 

 Whether fleas can be best caught in a common steel 

 trap, or as the boys catch pigeons, by putting a little 

 salt on their tails ? and sj on to the end of the chap- 

 ter ? 



We should like to be near at hand when our friend 

 desires a visit from his family physician ; and should 

 not be much surprised if some such application as this 

 takes place. Doctor ! when you are passing my 

 house _7«s( call in in a fiiendbj way, and see my wife, 

 she has had now for some time a bad cough and pain 

 in her side ; and I want, at the same time, you should 

 look at Nancy's finger, she has got, I believe, a felon 

 upon it ; and do aek for John and tell us how we shall 

 remedy his club feet ; and I hear. Doctor, that you 

 can cure squint eyes, and I wish you would see what 

 can be done for Tom, who seems always to be trying 

 for his life to see whether his nose is on or off; and 

 by the wny. Doctor, if you have any genuine matter, 1 

 should be glad to have all the children vaccinated at 

 the same time ; and while you are there, Doctor, I 

 wish you to took at my old horse, who seems to have 

 a film over one of his eyes, and I wish to know how to 

 get it off; and at the same time, I wish you to exam- 

 ine the milk of our heifer and let me know if yon 

 think there is any danger of our getting the milk 

 sickness which I have read about in Indiana ; and 

 one other thing, Doctor, 1 came near forgetting, about 

 which I very much want your tidvice, tbat is wheth- 

 er our baby's porridge should be heated in a tin dip- 

 per or on iron skillet- 

 All this, too, the man expects to get out of the Doc- 

 tor without any fee, because he only asked the Doctor 

 to call as a friend sometime when he should happen to 

 be passing by the houee. 



Now we certainly mean nothing disrespectful to our 

 good friend, but if it was the feather that broke the 

 camel's back, what is to become of us when the whole 

 bed, tick and all, is thrown upon ours ? Perhaps we 

 (^bould save trouble in the case, were we to recommend 

 to our correspondent to apply where he will find all 

 the information he desires at his fingers' end. There 

 are only twenty quarto volumes of the N. E. For- 

 mer, let him read them ; there are only eight volumes 

 of the Albany Cultivator, let him read them ; there 

 are only four volumes of Hill's Family Visitor, he can 

 read them as well as not ; there is the old Genesee 

 Farmer and the New Genesee Farmer ; these, with- 

 out reading the advertisements and the price currents, 

 might stand him a little while; and then there is a 

 little (not exactly pocket) volume, colled Loudon's 

 Encyclopedia of Agriculture, which might occupy a 

 few leisure evenings and assist him essentially in the 

 management of his farm of fifteen acres. 



But to be sober. Our fr end we hope will pardon 

 us for amusing ourselves at liia expenscj We renlly 



hove no serious objection to his inquiries. We like 

 his curiosity. We will do every thing iu our pov.'er 

 to encourage and assist small as well as large farmers, 

 and if he will have patience with us, we promise that 

 every one of his questions shall hove due attention, 

 and so of as many more as he will put to us. 

 Withdrawal of Patronage. 

 We are honored with a letter of a different descrip- 

 tion, in which a respected friend complains that we 

 admit the communications of a valued correspondent, 

 S. W., whose ?iews do not agree with hie on the 

 subject of protecting duties, nor indeed with our own. 

 But he soys " he handed our January number to a 

 brother farmer hoping to induce him to become a sub. 

 scriber, but on returning it he objected on account of 

 S. W's. communication, saying 'that any paper ad- 

 vocating British intereots, he was not disposed to pat- 

 ronise.' Jly views are the same, and I shall cease to • 

 1 be a subscriber if such arliclcs are permitted to ap- 

 \pcar." 



Now we beg to say confidentially and respectfully 

 to our friend, that bis threat has not scared us out of s 

 night's sleep, and that whenever he thinks proper to 

 withdraw his patronage from our humble ptiblicalion, 

 we shall be most happy to return his fifty cents. Sell 

 our liberty of speech or discussion on any subject and 

 all subjects we shall not, nor abate it one hair's breadth; 

 If our friend wishes to know our creed on the subject 

 of protecting Home Industry, he will find it in this 

 very paper in the Reeoluliona of the Rochester meet- 

 ing of the 16ih tilt. These we think he will pro- 

 nounce ortbodo.-c.* But we are happy to hear iha 

 other side. Our great object is tmtfty and the only 

 certain road to truth is free inquiry and discussion. 

 We are willing, therefore, ourselves to hear and to let 

 our readers hear what may be said on both sides of tbil 

 great question. 



We do not consider it at all a party question, but s 

 great national question. We never will present it a» 

 a party question, or suffer, so for as depends on us, 

 party considerotions to be mingled with it It is a» 

 political question we admit; and a question whichi 

 concerns the farmers, the agricultiiral interest of thei 

 country certainly as much, perhaps more, than any 

 other class in our community ; and it is one of the 

 most important questions in which they can take an' 

 interest. 



Our paper Shall never be made sectarian or party in* 

 any sense, even on the vexed qne»tion whether whe«> 

 can be changed into chess or chess into wheat, but i 

 shall be open to the well expressed opinions of intel 

 ligent men, on ony subject concerning directly or in 

 directly the agricultural interest. The communica 

 lion signed S. W., in the January nimiher, was ad 

 mitted without our knowledge, and before we hai 

 reached Rochester. "Vet upon review, we canm 

 see why it should have been excluded. Since tho 

 time we have received a communication from S. W 

 on another subject, evidently written with the feeling 

 of a partizan,and reflecting upon one of the great pai 

 ties of the country, which we notified him could ni 

 be admitted. Our columns shall not be stained b 

 personalities or party reflections or discussions ; bu. 

 if we must lose our subscribers because we adra 

 opinions or discussions, which do not occord withjou 

 own, we will bid every one of the 2C,000 farewell b( 

 lore we will budse on inch. We hove no feors bi 

 that truth and patriotism will here triumph ; and w 

 ask our good friend to review his decision and com 

 out in his true character as the friend of universi 

 liberty ; and at once lend the aid of his good sense an 

 his souno judgment, matured by much experience, i 

 showing the formers who read the New Genese 

 Former, how deeply concerned ore the wool-growin 



*Tlitee Kcsolulions aie unnvoiilably ileferreii till our oe.i 



