u 



THE NEW GExNESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 3. i 



(iiieries to a Teriiaed Eilitor. 



We had supposed oiireelves fairly out of the woods, 

 when wc replied to our Connecticut River fiicnd's 

 queriea, varied and variegated as tliey were ; but aloe! 

 how vain is all human confidence I We have heard 

 of a man being in a peek of troubles, which has been 

 ordinarily coneidere. I as the f.r/;Tme of human afflic- 

 tion ; but who ever heard of a bushel coming at once 

 Wc are reminded rather too seriously of the poor 

 Frenchman who fell overboard, before he had quite 

 learnt the force of the English auxiliary verbs; "1 

 will be drowned, said the poor dog, and nobody shall 

 help me." Now look at the list honestly made up I 



1. How shall we prevent gooseberries from moul- 

 ding ? Move the bushes once in three years, and 

 grow them on a single stock. 



2. Will my soil do for hemp, or shall I raise broom 

 corn, and how ehnll I raise hemp, and how eholl I 

 raise broom corn ? From a noble fellow who never 

 chooses to dine at a public house at another man's 

 expense. Answer next month. 



3. How will you kill Canada thistles ? Two years 

 carel'ul planting and hoeing, and persuading your 

 neighbors to dons they would be done by. 



4. Can yon sell my Berkshire pigd ? Not without 

 a description. What are their developements 1 



5. Do let H3 \nnw how you cure the measles in 

 swine? Brimstone and charcoal frequently, before 

 and after they get the disease, 



G. Give us a little on Horliculture. What is the 

 best time and mode of transplanting fruit trees? — 

 What are the best kinds ol fruit trees ) of apples ; of 

 pears ; and what are the best modern treaties on Hor- 

 ticulture, and where can they be found ? Call at M. 

 B. Bateham's store, Rochester. See advertisement. 



T. What is the beet plan of a Ho'.-iir Farnac; ;• 

 what machine will give the most heat with the least 

 wood ; what would it cost at Chicago or St Louis 1 

 The tight-air slove or Arnott's patent. Can't an- 

 swer the last query any more than the question de- 

 bited before the London Club — How far it was from 

 the 1st of August to the foot of Westminster Bridge ? 



8. " On a fnrm of 250 acres, M'hat is the most prof- 

 itable husbandry ? How must 1 commence ? How 

 many sheep and swine, &c., must I buy, and what 

 are the best kinds ? How many cows and what 

 breeda ? How many teams, and whether oxen or 

 horses, must I keep ? How many hands must I em- 

 ploy to do the labor, as I do not expect to work my- 

 self? IIoiv many acres of wheat must 1 sow annu- 

 ally ? and what quantities and kinds of spring grain ? 

 and what varieties of grass for hay and pasture, and 

 what number of acres of each will be necessary for 

 the stock recommended ? and lastly, what amount cf 

 profit may I reasonably expect annually, if I superin- 

 tend it faithfully and judiciously 1" Here's a smash- 

 er for you I "Yours moat truly," with a witness ; 

 why did'nt he say your.? till death us do part." 

 This is nndonbtedly a twin brother of our Connecti 

 cut River friend. 



9. Will hemlock bushes given to sheep, cause 

 the ewes to drop their lambs ? Don't know. Where 

 can subsoil ploughs be had and what is their price ? 

 At Worcester and Boston ; price reasonable. Once 

 more, could not one of your mechanical friends con- 

 trive a small wind-mill ? 



In respect to the last matter, we have no question 

 of the talent of the Yankees, as we saw lately 

 a picture of a renovating mill for grinding over 

 old people, operating in the most interesting manner, 

 an ohl decrepit woman just dropping into the hopper, 

 all gone but her feet and her blue woollen stockings 

 lately footed, and coming out at the bottom a charm. 

 jng lass of bloomiug seventeen. 



10. Another friend, who signs himself Plato, the 

 • .«ee .^. G. Farmer, vol I. p H3,anJ vol 



. p. 141. 



old original no doubt, just coming round ao be predict- 

 ed, wishing to know whether he shnl! fence his wood 

 lot or let it remain in common, or keep the cattle out, 

 oil expensts consideied. Perhaps they would die if 

 ihey gbt in, as Judge Paine said to the farmer fencing 

 in Kittery common. Whether he can mnke trees 

 grow in his door-yard where the soil has been strip- 

 ped off; whether he had better plant horse chesnut, 

 mountain'ash, spruce, fir and pine ; but then he has 

 his doubts ; and then he wishes we should solve all 

 iheec doubts through the Farmer, or by a priiale let- 

 \er. Only twenty private letters a week for a regu- 

 lar manual exercise I 



All these men, like good honest fellows, paid their 

 postage, which is not a little remurkabl*, considering 

 the state of the currency. 



11. Then comes an inquiry why butter will not 

 come? Wc shall answer this in another place. 



13. Next a sober inquiry oboiit a diseas'^, a species 

 of murrain among the cattle in Rhode lisland, which 

 wo wish much that we could answer, but our experi- 

 ence is small and all our books and records are 300 

 miiesofl". We advise application to the best physi- 

 cians in the neighborhood. We have ho opinion of 

 Cattle Quack Doctors, though they abound. 



13. Have the leaves in hard-wood land been used ns 

 manure in your vicinity, and if so, with what success? 

 Will say some other time. 



Now this is not one half. We do not complain of 

 it. We like it. It shows the wokefulncES of the 

 public mind, which is what we want in order to make 

 progress ; for what can we do with men who are 

 asleep? Inquiry, inquiry is what we want. It can- 

 not be too active ; too direct ; too persevering and 

 pertinacious in regard to all matters of science and 

 practice. From inquiry will grow up, of necessity, 

 observation. Put inqiriry a?id observation together, 

 and then comes truth, that most precious of oil gems ; 

 ihatonly safe guide in life; that first of all elements 

 in the power of doing good ; that first of all move- 

 ments in the highway tohoppincss. 



Now there is not not a question proposed to us as 

 above, that is not worth asking, and there is not one 

 we will not endeavor to answer, or get some other 

 person to answer. Let our friends give us answers 

 a-^ may suit their convenience, and let there be as 

 many more inquiries sent in os you pleose to put. 

 But then, gentle friends, hove mercy ujjon us. Do 

 not, if you find us stopping for breath, thump us Upcn 

 the back too hard ; we shall cometo presc ntlv, and 

 if nothing else will do we'll ask some friend to put 

 US in the Magnetic sleep, and wo shall then answer at 

 once. 



The above queries, we infer, all come from the 

 "Lords of the Creation." We hove many more 

 from the other and better side of the house ; but they, 

 weeny it in n whisper, are sfrirtly confidaitial^ To 

 the fair friend, who asked something about persona! 

 appearance the oilier day, wo only say, " Handsome 

 is as handsome does.'' 



Other Queries. 



Adolescens asks some questions, which as well we 

 can, we shall answer. We wish he had been more 

 definite. Does he inquire to what particular science 

 he shall turn his attention and bowsholl he master it; 

 or does he desire that we should prescribe a general 

 course of reading ? In either case, however, we do 

 not know how we could do better than to direct him 

 to the " School Library," published by Marsh, Capon 

 & Lyon, Boston, which embraces both particular and 

 general subjects, and is prepared with great ability by 

 some of the ablest writers in the country. The vol- 

 emea are sold separately at all the principal bookstores 

 in the country ; and no better service could be ren- 

 dered to a community of young prople than to form a 

 'reading club for the puichnse of all of them. Besides 



hese, Harpers' Library abounds with useful works, 

 atD very low price, though they have conducted with 

 60 much irrochery in regard to some works, take for j 

 example the Life of Joy, tbot th6ir bonks on contro- 

 verted subjects are to be received with caution. In] 

 other respects, they furnish an immense amount o{ , 

 reading on vfiriouasuhjects, at a very hnv rate. 



Female Correspondence. 



Wo publish here a charming letter from Zelia, a 

 kind lady, who rea'porrds to the invitation in our last. 

 We assent to every thing she says, and wish we could 

 say it half as W'ell. If she would only have subscrib- ■ 

 d herself Rota, or Lilia, or Japonica, or Daphne 

 odorala, how much more appropriate I But we wel- I 

 come her to Our columns under any name she may 

 choose, thinking he must be o lucky fellow who can 

 alter her name at his pleasure. She will find a kin- 

 dred spirit in W. B. in this poper. What cfTecl her j 

 letter will have upon this poor fellow when he comea'j 

 to read it, we cannot saj*. He is quite plaintive she V 

 will perceive, the natural efieci of his condition. We 

 cannot q-iite agree with him that woman is never so 

 lovely ns when "administering to the drooping wants 

 of the lily, or watching the expanding beauties of the 

 rose." Though fairest among all (lowers, yet wb 

 think them much more lovely when ' tying the old 

 man's slipper ;' or watching the expansion of far 

 fairer flowers than those, which bloom only to perish 

 on earth. But we are growing too sentimental. It 

 won't do, Zelia I we must leave that to you. We, 

 had once some fire, but it is only Ushes now. 



Mr\ CoI.MAN — 



In the last number of your paper you say that you _ 

 will be glad to hear from your female friends, on the 

 subjects of gardening, floriculture, and other domes- 

 tic matters. I am exceedingly glad ita: you have so 

 promptly suggested il J. matter, and 1 Ope it will not 

 be in vain. I hope that your generous and praise- 

 worthy efforts to render your columns instructive and 

 interesting to your female readers, will be by them 

 fully opprecJated, and thit they, on their part, will not 

 withhold that co-operation, A'hich their duly as well 

 as their interest shoiiU prompt them to bestow. The 

 object of such journals as yours, being to promote im- 

 provement in domestic as well as rural afiuirs, cannot 

 be fully ottoined without female a'd — aid of those 

 whose chief duties consist in domestic management. 



Your extensive and intimate knowledge ol the con- 

 dition of our rural population, renders it unnecessary 

 to tell you of the fauliiness of female education in the 

 country. You are aware that those of us, who havo 

 been well instructed at home, in household affairs, 

 have not received a liberal, or seldom, an ordinary 

 school education ; and on the contrary, when much 

 care has been taken to give us ajiolitc education, that 

 the home branches have been neglected, forgotten, 

 and eventually despised ; this remark, you know, sir, 

 will admit of general application, though there are, 

 of couise, numerous except ons. 



Home and school insiruciions are by no means 

 properly blended, and until they are, we need not ex- 

 pect to find a great number of temale essayists on ru- 

 ral or domestic economy. The increased attention, 

 however, which is now given to the improve- 

 ment of agricultural science, ond particularly the 

 laudoble effort which is in progress to owoken a tpirit 

 of home industry — multiply its sources — and afford it 

 suitable encouragement, will tend in a great degree to 

 remivethis evil, as well as many others, ihot have 

 crept into our domestic habits during a peiiod of su- 

 perficial wealth, and deceitful, and intoxicating pros- 

 perity. 



When I took up my pen, I meant to confine my- 

 self to afew remarks on ornamental gardening and 

 floriculture by females, the preceding remarks will, 

 iherelore, have to go for a preface. 



^'o, 



