1851__THE CULTIVATOR. 43 
does not work well when the grain is wet, hut no 
farmer ought to cut his grain in that state. When 
grain is all laid one way, the machine will cut it 
beautifully by the team working in a direction oppo¬ 
site to that the grain lies; but if it is twisted in 
different directions, the machine will not work. 
Hussey’s reaper costs $100 at Auburn. J. J ohn- 
Ston. Near Geneva, Nov , 25, 1850. 
Notes of a Tour in Central New-York. 
Analytical Laboratory, Yale College, ) 
New-Haven , Conn., Dec. 5, 1850. ) 
Messrs. Editors —The last days of 1850 have 
come, and find me still lingering in Wayne county; 
a district which constantly suggests fresh topics of 
a most interesting character. I hope however, to 
tear myself away before we have advanced far into 
1851. At the conclusion of my last letter, I had 
just returned from an excursion with Mr. Pardee, 
as far as the shores of Lake Ontario. A day or two 
afterward, I drove, with Mr. Hyde of Palmyra, a 
few miles south into Ontario county. One of the 
most interesting farms that we visited, was that of 
Mr. Rush. He owns a large number of acres, and 
keeps a numerous stock, feeding out all of his corn, 
barley, oats, &c. on the premises, and only selling 
©flf the wheat. In this way he makes much manure, 
and keeps the land in fair condition. 
The wheat crop of the present year had been so 
good in all this region, that very many of the farm¬ 
ers were carrying their corn off the land preparatory 
to sowing wheat. Mr. Rush, at the time of my 
visit, was clearing a corn-field by placing the stacks 
together in rows, and had commenced harrowing in 
the wheat without any plowing. This was cer¬ 
tainly a labor-saving method, but I doubt if it will 
afford very heavy wheat as a return. By way of 
illustrating the short-sighted rapacity of some farm¬ 
ers in this section, I mention a case of which I was 
told by Mr. Rush. He named a person who had 
shortly before cut a heavy second crop of clover 
from one of his fields, and had immediately gone on 
to plow it for wheat. It is fair to say that even 
on this rich land, such farming is considered rather 
exhausting . I saw in this neighborhood, an instance 
of the evil which results from making drains of large 
loose stone, imperfectly covered on the top, as such 
must always inevitably be. A man was at work 
upon a drain of this description, into which the 
water had broken from above, washing in so much 
earth that it had completely choked, and required 
taking up for nearly its whole length. If this drain 
had been covered with small stones above the large 
ones, such a catastrophe could scarcely by any pos¬ 
sibility have occurred. 
From Mr. Rush’s we drove through the town of 
Farmington to Macedon, where we passed a few 
moments with the well known horticulturist and 
his fine fruit. The nursery of Mr. Smith w r as in 
this neighborhood, but our limited time forbade the 
call we had contemplated. 
Mr. Hyde very modestly waived my visit to his 
own farm in favor of some others; but from what I 
saw and heard, he also must be included among the 
improving farmers of this section. I noticed as we 
passed along the road, a superb field of corn belong¬ 
ing to him, and quite a number of acres just brought 
in from swamp and wood. 
The fair at Palmyra, was excellent in many re¬ 
spects, and the show of stock acknowledged by all to 
be very good. I saw some fine Devons, and some 
showy horses. Sampson, a Clydesdale stallion, I 
should judge, attracted much attention. After the 
list of orchards and nurseries that I have mentioned, 
it may easily be conceived that the show of fruit 
was uncommonly good. 
From Palmyra, I went via Canandaigua, Geneva 
and Seneca Lake, to Ovid, where the fair of the 
Seneca county Society, was held this year. This 
fair was more numerously attended than any of those 
at which I was present. I arrived too late for the 
show of stock. The horses were said to have been 
good, but the cattle few in number, and rather in¬ 
ferior in quality. The exhibition of fruit did not 
appear so well as some that I had previously seen, 
perhaps because there was no place properly arranged 
for its reception and protection. On reaching Ovid, 
I found Mr. Delafield, the President of the Society, 
at his post, as a matter of course, and exerting every 
energy to keep up the interest of the occasion. The 
name of John Delafield, will hereafter be as¬ 
sociated wfith all the best interests, and all the pro¬ 
gressive agricultural movements of Seneca county. 
If we could have but one man of such enterprise, 
perseverance, and sagacity, in each county of our 
Union, the revolution that our country would wit¬ 
ness within the next few years would be quite sur¬ 
prising; the cause of improvement could not then 
languish as it too often has alone. 
I saw the plowing at Ovid, and thought it 
generally very good; the Michigan subsoil plow w*as 
at work, for the purpose of showing its operation. 
This seems to me a truly valuable implement; the 
turf and grass are turned by it very completely, and 
the surface is Ifet in a mould like that of a garden; 
at the same time it possesses the great additional ad¬ 
vantage of plowing deeply. In a stony subsoil, or 
one that w r as very much compacted and indurated, 
this plow probably w^ould not work so W'ell as in 
the mellow soils where I saw it tried. A real sub¬ 
soil plow of the old construction, would be the only 
thing for the more obdurate soils. 
I may notice here as an instance of the interest 
which is felt by the people of this county, in any 
thing relating to improvement in agriculture, that on 
author, Mr. J. J. Thomas, walking through parts 
of his extensive nurseries, and looking at some of 
repairing to the court-house before the hour appoint¬ 
ed for the address, I found the room already densely 
