32 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan. 
The Crops—Practical Farming 
Near Geneva, 9th December, 1853. 
Mr. Tucker —After a long silence, I write you 
about crops, &c. Our wheat crop in Seneca and the 
adjoining counties, was not so much hurt by the wheat 
midge as in 1852; still there was a serious loss by that 
insect, more especially on all wet or damp soils, where 
the wheat is alwaj^s later than on thoroughly dry soils. 
The Mediterranean wheat suffered least. In some 
fields, and even some whole crops of white wheat, were 
not worth the threshing; but though wheat was in gen¬ 
eral not so much damaged with midge as the previous 
year, it was not because there was any decrease of the 
insect, but because the wheat was from eight to ten 
days earlier than the previous year. This was owing 
to the weather after the wheat came in ear, as mine 
only came into ear about two days earlier than the 
previous year; yet I commenced cutting ten daj's ear¬ 
lier. My own crop was pretty fair. From 45 acres of 
land, minus a fraction, I had eighteen hundred and 
thirty dollars’ worth of wheat, provided I had sold the 
whole, but I sowed 100 bushels and kept for home con¬ 
sumption 103 bushels, and sold the remainder. So, 
upon the whole, I had a paying crop; and I had con¬ 
clusive evidence that, had it not been that my land 
was drained, I would have had no better crop than 
many others. I had a few spots of damp land in one 
field, that I thought would not pay to drain. When 
we came to harvest it, we found the midge had taken it 
all, while the drained land was good. In another field 
there was a ridge of some seven or eight acres, that, 
although a little wet, I expected would bring a fair 
crop, but at least one-half of that was destroyed by 
midge. I have drained this eight acres this fall. 
Our corn crops were much better than was expected 
at one time. The drouth was very severe for some 
time; still, take the crop as a whole, it is not a bad 
one. Oats and barley were also fair crops wherever 
the land was in good condition. 
The hay crop throughout western New-York, is said 
to be a very short one, and the high price proves it; 
but mine, and some others in this neighborhood who 
treat their mowing grounds as they ought to, had an 
abundant crop. Mine was as good as it could be and 
be profitable. When it gets laid too early the hay is 
not of good quality. I never pasture my mowing land 
close in the fall, nor let anything on it in winter or 
spring, and keep it rich by barn-yard manure, and I 
never fail of a good crop. The grass covers the ground 
thoroughly before hot and dry weather sets in, and 
then drouth don’t hurt it. 
I have now 52 cattle and 260 sheep treading straw 
into manure, and eating hay and meal, and I shall by 
and by send you eastern men some first-rate beef and 
mutton, and have a large quantity of manure to raise 
more iarge crops; but any part of my land is as rich 
as is profitable for wheat. No other than Soule’s 
wheat would stand up now; but for grass and Indian 
corn, I am yet to learn the extent I might go in ma¬ 
nuring before it would have too much. This is the 
second time I have got my land almost too rich for 
wheat; but I can soon reduce- it by cropping more. 
This year I have sown 13 acres with wheat after the 
oat crop was taken off, which is the second time I have 
ever done so; but I know the wheat would be almost 
certain to lodge, if fallowed. 
Our potatoes have almost all rotted. 
Wheat looks very fine this fall, what is on the 
ground ; but very little is sown in this and neighbor¬ 
ing counties. I have fifty acres, but hear of very few 
> that have sown half that amount. 
If some of your subscribers in Maryland or Virginia, 
or even the extreme south of Pennsylvania, would fur¬ 
nish me with some good white seed-wheat, say 100 
bushels, I believe by getting it from an early climate, 
I might escape the midge altogether. I would prefer 
Soule’s wheat. I hope, if I live till next July, that 
some of your numerous subscribers in that part of the 
country will write me on the subject. 
I have put in all of 2,500 rods of under drains since 
last March, and many of my neighbors are also drain¬ 
ing. I will never have many more drains to make, 
for want of undraincd land. I remain, dear sir, yours 
truly, John Johnston. 
Leveling Winter Roads. 
Mr. Editor In the Eeport of the Commissioner 
of Patents for 1851, I find a description of a machine 
for leveling roads after snow storms and drifting winds 
in winter, which strikes me as eminently feasible, and 
which I am satisfied, in many parts of the country, 
would be found of great utility. I enclose you the ma¬ 
terial portion of the statement, in the hope that if the 
remainder of the winter should happen to prove severe, 
a trial of its merits may be made in districts liable to 
be blocked up with snow. The communication in the 
report from which I copy, is from the pen of Mr. John 
Thomas, of South Barre, Vermont. He says : 
In 1846 I invented and put in operation an imple¬ 
ment consisting of three rollers, or drums, for the pur¬ 
pose of rolling land in summer and roads in winter.+ 
I have used it for four years past, and it has exceeded 
my most sanguine expectations in regard to its utility. 
One span ot horses (weighing twelve hundred each) will 
roll from 20 to 25 acres per day. In winter, when the 
snow is one foot deep, four such horses will roll a road 
three miles per hour, leaving the track 12 feet wide, 
the snow being hard and smooth, and but three inches 
deep On Monday, the 23d December, 1850, the snow 
fell in the vicinity where I live two feet deep, drifting 
on the road to the school-house one foot, making it 
three feet deep. On Tuesday we drew the roller over 
it twice, with three yoke of oxen and one horse, the 
weather being cold. On Wednesday I trotted my horse 
(weighing fourteen hundred) over this road, at the rate 
eight miles per hour, drawing a sleigh and six persons, 
averaging in weight 120 pounds each, passing sleighs 
| The general nature of the implement, the details of which 
do not clearly appear from Mr. Thomson’s drawing and de¬ 
scription, is as follows: Two of the Ihree rollers are placed 
in a line, on the same axle, four feet apart. The third one is 
placed some distance behind, and rolls over the space left be¬ 
tween the two front ones. The front rollers are four feet 
long, each, and the rear one five feet. They are all four feet 
in diameter, and are made in the form of drums; the heads 
of two inch, and the staves of one and a half inch plank. The 
maciune is loaded as occasion requires. 
