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THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 



farmer's holidays; thejr come at a season irhon the 

 more severe and harder labors of the farm have been 

 brought to a close — when the golden harvest has been 

 gathered in, and it is fitting that the hard-working far- 

 mer, with his family, should indulge in that relaxation 

 from toil, and in the pleasurable and instructive exer- 

 cises which our fairs afford. But let us repeat it again 

 — make your attendance at the coming exhibitions of 

 our ngricultural societies, not only a recreation, but a 

 means of improvement in the various branches of Rurol 

 and Domestic Husbnndry. No better opportunity can 

 possibly be had, if rightly improved and made use of. 

 Do not therefore, go with only a thought of passing 

 away the time, or of spending it in an indifi'orent mon- 

 ner; but go to think and study— to talk with your 

 brother farmers, and to examine the stock, implements, 

 and produce brought to the exhibition by them. Then 

 will it be a useful attendance, and you will return home 

 with a fuller determination to work, and to accomplish 

 something greater than you have yet done, in this your 

 most Qoble occupation. 



Seeding Cornfields to Grass. 



A correspondent of the Rural New- Yorker, gives his 

 "experience in seeding one season," to the following 

 purpose : — He planted eight acres of corn on land ma- 

 nured the fall previous, thirty loads to the acre — hills 

 four feet apart, culture, level- hood the last time the 

 second week in July, and sowed on a peck to the acre of 

 gross seed, husked early on the hill, and then turned the 

 cows in. The green feed and stalks lo^^ted until No- 

 vember, greatly increasing the quantity of milk and the 

 flush of the cows. Tbo next spring he cut the standing 

 etolks close to the ground, in one day, with a corn cut- 

 ter. This piece yielded the largest crops, and continued 

 to produce well the longest of any he ever seeded, out 

 of over a hundred acres stocked down with oats and 

 wheat in the spring. The locality should have been 

 given, as well as the number of cows kept upon the field. 

 The facts stated confirm what we have repeatedly 

 urged — that "land in good heart" was much the most 

 profitable for seeding to grass- -and that it is folly to ex- 

 pect good meadows from fields " run" with grain as 

 long R8 they will bear it before needing. 



Plowing in Green Crops. 



J. h. B., who wishes information on this subject, is 

 informed that the practice of plowing in green crops 

 does not rest on theory merely. It has been adopted 

 by many practical farmers to great benefit, as a part of 

 an enriching course of rotation ; and where a supply of 

 stable manure could not be obtained, or where the dis- 

 tance to draw it, or steep hills, rendered its conveyance 

 too expensive, green crops have proved a most economi- 

 cal auxiliary. We would not however, recommend it 

 alone, but in connection with the application of more or 

 less stable manure, with a proper quantity of lime, plas- 

 ter, ashes, &o. The objection that it is not in accord- 

 ance with the "intention of nature," who furnishes 

 vegetables as the food of animals, and the excretions or 

 remains of animals as ogain the foodof plants, we think 

 hardly tenable as an exclusive rule ; for some of the 

 finest natural soils are those on which a large quantity 

 of vegetable growth has decayed and furnished enrich- 

 ing materials. We can improve this natural process, 

 by first selecting such vegetables as are best for this 

 purpose, and then promoting their rapid decay by mix- 

 ing with moist earth, adding animal manure to improve 

 the whole. 



More about the "Wheel on the Plow. 



MB88RS EniTOns— Noticing B.'s article on page 349, 

 vol. 13, Co Qknt., induces me to oommunieate my 

 ideas with regard to the utility of the wheel. I claim 

 the wheel to be a decided advantage, and bad B. asked 

 me the use of the wheel, I should havo given my rea- 

 sons for its use as follows ; To keep tbo plow in the 

 ground, as well as out. By giving a moderate pres- 

 sure on the wheel, your plow is not so liable to raise 

 when the team, in going over a knoll, draw upon the 

 end of the beam ; to lessen the draught, in conse- 

 quence of turning a furrow of uniform depth and 

 width; to make easier work for the plowman, because 

 it keeps the plow in place, and makes it do better 

 work, especially with a raw hand to hold the plow. 

 Set him to plowing green sward with the wheel on, 



and without; then examine the work, and if that does 

 not convince you of the Ufe of the wheel, your plow 

 nnd wheel muvt be different from mine. I have had 

 considerable experience in plowing — with and without 

 the wheel— and I can do better work with the wheel 

 on ihe plow, ** beaides doing it very much eatiier." 



My experience in holding the plow, diflfers from B *8 

 somenhat In plowing without the wheel, I raise the 

 handles to make the plow enter the ground, and tower 

 tbem for the reverso. While ui^ing the wheel just re- 

 verse Ihe above. In plowing over knolls press the 

 handles gradually, to keep the plow down, and raise 

 them as it goes over, which makes a furrow of nearly 

 f uniform depth, ami prevents the plow running down 

 to the beam through every knoll, and nearly setting 

 your team. 



In respect to the kind of uheel used, my opinion is 

 that there is sumo kiudi> Ihat are worse than none, and 

 probably that is the kind B. experimented with. I 

 have seen but one kind that, in my opinion, will an- 

 swer the purpose, and that is a wheel a foot or more 

 in diameter, fastened to the landside of the beam, at 

 the end. This kind of wheel answers my purpose ad- 

 mirably. A small wheel of six or eight inches in 

 diameter, directly under the beam, is nothing but a 

 nuisance, w. h. b. Jamestonn, N. Y. 



Buggy Peas, Hessian Fly, &o. 



"Truth would you teach, or save a einklng land, 

 All fear, noiio aid you, and few understand." 



Mkssrs. Editors — In your date of June 2J, I 

 noticed an article by " L. B ," who thinks that I am 

 incorrect in my statements respecting the " Hessian 

 fly," " wheat midge," *'8mut insect," &o., and quotes 

 the late Dr. Harris as his " Mentor." Dr. Harris may 

 have been a very good entomologist; but he certainly 

 knew very little about the vitality of buggy peas, or 

 the bugs with which he was acquainted were much 

 bettor " taught by the prospeotiveoareof Providence," 

 than those I have seen in this country. For instead 

 of being "instinctively taught to spare the germs of 

 the peas," ours almost universally use up the entire 

 germ of the pea. I have several times, heretofore, 

 had Ihe vague and crude theories, hypotheses, and 

 s^upposilions o( those so called learned and "scientific" 

 doctors, professors, and other old as well na modern 

 writers, (who have generally copied from former 

 authors, who knew a« little about the suhjects upon 

 which they wrote us theuisetves), put, in opposiiiun lo 

 my facts. I slop not to refute their absurdities. It 

 is suflii;iently laborious, in the infirm state of my 

 health and old age, for me to state my own views, de- 

 rived from my knowledge of facts. But how a man 

 can be so milled, even by learned doctors or others, as 

 to believe that peas, without germs, will grow, I can- 

 not imagine ; and having oftentimes examined them, 

 [ know the fact that, at the least, nine- tenths ( I be- 

 lieve I might truly have said nineteen tjcentietks) of 

 the peas in this country which have bugs in them, have 

 the germs destroyed. 



It is much easier, in controverting an opponent, to 

 quote from Ihe so called ''scientific writers " (though 

 they are (tften times entirely incorrect,) and thus 

 throw doubt upon his statements, than it is to ascer- 

 tain the facts by long continued observation and re- 

 search, as I have done in regard to some of the most 

 troublesome insects which so frequently annoy us. 



I am curious lo learn how my friend L B knows 

 that the " midge does not live over through the win- 

 ter,** (as we backwoods farmers say.) I did not know 

 nor state that it did, but suppobed it might probably 

 be so, as I do know that the Hessian Jiy^ the mosquito, 

 and many, if not most of the other insects do so. I 

 have seen and been bitten by musquitos as early as 

 the 15ih of March, although no previous warm weather 

 in which they could possibly have hatched out, had 

 occurred since the preceding October. I correctly 

 stated the facta about the Heesian fly, which I had 

 previously hatched out, and knew; and would not 

 " give a fly " for the opinions of a dozen Dr. Harrises 

 or Dr. Fitches about it. If L. B. would, he may take 

 the trouble to do so. The iaseots are easily caught 

 and examined. 



If the "fly" Is occupied several weeks in laying its 

 eggs, it would seem to me to be very foolish in farmers 

 to delay sowing their winter wheat until the 15th to 

 the 25th of September, under the impression that it 

 would thereby escape the deposit of the insect. To 

 show that the fly uses but a short time in which to 

 make the deposit, I will state that I once sowed a 

 field with wheat on the 28Lh of August, and another, 

 on the opposite side of a farm lane, on the 1st of Sep- 

 tember. The first sown was so destroyed by the fly, 

 that I did not get five but^hels por acre. The later 

 sown (only four days later) yielded twenty or more to 

 the acre ; both were "suutmer fallowed," and treated 

 exactly alike. In that oase, it would seem that there 

 woB a very abrupt termination of the labors of the 

 fly, as none were to be found in the later sown field, 



excepting a few within a rod or two of the fence 

 nert the first sown field, and the few probably got in 

 it in the spring. 



I have neither time, health, nor inclination to 

 rewrite what I havo published during the laut twenty- 

 five years, respecting my discovery of the cause of 

 smut in wheat. To go again over that ground would 

 be too great a labor; and I regret that I have no 

 fair copy, or I would fend one to my friend L. B. 

 If he wti^hes to havo a full history of the discovery, he 

 can do so by procuring copies of the "Daily Albany 

 Argub" of February, 1833, and of the "Genesee 

 Farmer" (monthly) of March, April, May, June, 

 July and September, 1850, which contain my own 

 communicHtions and those of others. My signature in 

 the Argus was H. ; in the Genesee Farmer it was 

 "J II H.'* 



Not having had a lens with which to examine the 

 smut bug, in my firet comniuniciitions, I described it 

 as being *' ash colored." It appears so to the naked 

 eye ; but with a good pocket lens it is seen to be 

 spotted with four large, and many small brownii^h 

 spots. The copy of my communications was sadly 

 misprinted in some instance; but my friend, L. B.'s 

 intelligence will enable him to correct the reading. 

 J. H. H. Seneca County, Juiie, 1859. 



Monthly Market Days vs. Fairs, 



It is supposed that fairs (as distinguished from mar 

 kets,) originated in the sordid disposition and cupidity 

 of the monks, who, away back in the " middle ages " 

 of English civilization, held out such exciting exhibi- 

 tions and boisterous revelry, as fairs were long distin- 

 guished (by a sort of "bad eminence,") for fostering 

 and extending, to draw together large numbers of 

 people, who paid a fixed toll to their monkish patrons 

 and abettors, for the favor or folly of wasting their 

 substance, often hardly earned, and indulging in mere 

 animal excitement, and the gratification of a prurient 

 curiosity. 



Modern fairs have frequently been distinguished by 

 their concomitant encouragement of folly and knavery- 

 if not more vicious and repulsive gambling and chi- 

 canery ; hence, in the new movement now apparently 

 inaugurating, and likely to extend, in favor of "peri- 

 odic markets," it will be well to keep in view the dis- 

 tinctive difference between "markets" and ^^Jaira,'* 

 that the oljeotions which have heretofore character- 

 ized the latter, may be obviated in securing the indu- 

 bitable advantages of fixed times and places for sell- 

 ing, or periodical " marketing." 



Fairs, as distinguihhed by their faults or objections, 

 occur too infrequently in some parts of England, not 

 oftoner than four times a year — in most districts per- 

 haps only twice ; with us only once a year, and not 

 then unless there is "much excitement" as the sine 

 qua non, without which they apparently cannot be 

 '* got up." The object of " markets " is to establish a 

 regular and methodical system of preparation and sale 

 of agricultural productions; but fairs are neither cer- 

 tain, regular, or orderly, but on the contrary are dis- 

 tinguibhed by extraordinary, spasmodic, and exhaus- 

 tive preliminaries, and no less precarious and fluctua- 

 ting results. Indeed, except as a mere stimulus of 

 eflorts to "display and astonish," it is very doubtful 

 whether in their aggregate results, fairs have been 

 productive of any extended and permanent good. 



It must be stated that meetings for the exhibition 

 and trial of agricultural implements and machinery, 

 are vol included in the scope of these remarks, which 

 are intended to apply more particularly to meetings to 

 promote the sale of stock, and general or miscellaneous 

 produce of the garden and the farm. 



Some twenty years or more ago, it was found in 

 England that quarterly Or semi-annual fairs were not 

 only too infrequent, but that rough weather, or the ne- 

 cessity of attending to the business of the farm, often 

 precluded attendance, and thus defeated the purpose 

 of the fair, which was principally that of selling slock 

 — the sale of produce being merely incidental. This 

 led lo the establi.^'hment of " monthly great markets " 

 throughout most of that country, and this increase of 

 periodic stock and market sales, proved to be a great 

 improvement, inasmuch as it gave an alternative op- 

 portunity and choice of time ; fairs having given no 

 choice as between selling this month or next, but if 

 from any accidental or unavoidable cause the fair could 

 not be attended, the vender or seller was left to the 

 incertitude of precarious private sale, or to " hunting 

 up" a buyer. But the regular "monthly market' 

 gave a choice of times and places. If A waa too busy, 

 or B was sick, or C's cattle were not quite ready this 

 month, they could be kept a month longer; or if it 

 was only needful to feed them a week or two instead 

 of a month, this could be done, and the animals sent 

 (sometimes a few miles further, in other instances not,) 

 to the great market of an adjoining county ; the 



