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just so thick to overwhelm the current of the rivers; and then we get a succession of rainy days, or a spell of wet weather, as the farmers are wont to call it, followed again by another spell of dry weather; and were it not that during those often long intervals of drought we were blessed with a copious supply of the dews of heaven, all our hopes would nearly be blasted. Notwithstanding this local contingency of the seasons, we have not only seed time and harvest, but generally bountiful crops. Could we have our rains equally divided at reasonably short intervals, this would be one of the most productive regions of the world. To guard against these irregularities of the weather, we find it beneficial to plough deep, and to sow as early as the season will admit. By early sowing, we think, the plants get a good start before June, and, covering the ground, keep it from the drying influences of the sun and lessen evaporation; and by deep ploughing and mellowing the ground, besides promoting vegetation, the ground easier imbibes the rains or dews, and is better enabled to free itself from what might be superabundant. This year we had a long wet May, and crops were mostly got in late. This was followed by dry weather till the end of June, and made us fear a repetition of last year's drought. Then commenced a succession of storms of rain, wind, and hail, in some parts, which lasted during the season, causing a great growth of straw, laying most crops flat down to the ground, so that nothing but the scythe could be used, and perplexing and protracting the haying and harvesting to an unusually late time, and at nearly double the usual amount of labor. We have, however, had a good yield of all crops grown here; but I do not think the grain has generally so well formed and filled as otherwise, owing probably to the heavy straw and the many rains, keeping the heads down.

Corn has come in unusually good and heavy.

Potatoes were never more luxuriant in growth of tops, and the greatest crop was expected, when the rot made its appearance, and I regret to say that about one-half of the crop, at least, was affected, and mostly lost.

A few patches of winter wheat were raised, and what little was grown proved good, the midge doing very little or no damage. Our farmers here think that the only remedy against the midge is to stop raising wheat, or, to use their own words, to starve the weevils out. I think, myself, that this is the only safe remedy, unless we could procure such spring or winter varieties as will, by early or late sowing, grow in a manner to be out of danger during the short period of existence of the destroyer. The fact is, that since we have left off raising the old-fashioned varieties, the midge has already greatly diminished, and is expected entirely to disappear. I hear of a farmer in St. Lawrence county who raised, this year, a great crop of winter wheat, said to be of the Soule variety, which was harvested and threshed in July, without any damage from the midge. I was shown some of the wheat-a beautiful, white, plump berry; and, if the story proves true, this would be the winter variety suited here; but as long as the Black Sea spring variety will not degenerate, escape the midge, and readily sell at 80 cents the bushel, there cannot be great inducement here to raising winter wheat for one dollar..

In a former communication I have given the average yield of the several crops raised here per acre, and as to the quantity of seed to be sown per acre, though there seems to be a difference of opinion among practical farmerssome using more, some less seed. I have always had reason to be satisfied with sowing the quantities of seed set down, per acre, for the several crops in that same communication, excepting, when seeding down in the spring, I prefer sowing half a bushel less per acre, to prevent the grass and clover from being smothered by a too great growth of straw.

Peas are cultivated here as an alternate crop, to loosen, improve, and mellow the soil, for which, by completely shading the ground, they are peculiarly adapted. I have no doubt that worn-out lands might be reclaimed by plough

ing a pea lay under; but unless clover is higher than $6 the bushel, it would be considerably more expensive; and upon the whole, where clover can be had, and will thrive, it is much preferable.

As fertilizers of meadows, drawing barn-yard manure in the fall on the highest knolls of the meadow, and then spreading it evenly, has been considerably practised within a few years, and I have myself derived great benefit from the practice. By this management those higher grounds run into a heavy sward, the wash, if any, settles, and enriches the lower parts of the meadow; and where the year previous but a scanty herbage grew, I generally cut, after thus manuring, a good, heavy swath, equal to any in the meadow; and if this process is coupled with the sowing of plaster, the spring following, the plaster will have a better effect in increasing the quantity of hay grown. Our meadows average from one to one and a half ton of hay per acre-sometimes two tons, on the best meadows. It costs us, per acre, from $2 to $3 to cut and secure the hay; and the common price of hay being $5 the ton, leaves the remainder as profit. The seeds used in laying down meadows are timothy and clover, and red-top on lowlands. Clover, however, seldom lasts over one winter, when it gradually runs out.

Dairy. In cheese-making I have no experience. The prevailing opinion is that cheese dairies give less work and are more profitable. Whether this is actually so, I am unable to say. The fact is, that most dairies here have gone from butter to cheese-making. On comparing notes, however, with the yearly returns of cheese dairies where an equal number of cows were kept, I have uniformly found that there was, all things considered, little or no difference with the same yearly returns of butter-making on my farm, and that the difference in the profits altogether depended on the prices butter and cheese commanded in market. Good dairy cows can be bought here at from $12 to $15 in the fall, or from $20 to $25 in the spring. Milking qualities do not belong to any particular breed, and may be found, in my humble opinion, in all crosses; and even our natives often make excellent dairy cows. Allowing the cows to yield from 150 to 175 pounds of butter, and from 350 to 400 pounds of cheese, during the season, and taking the highest yield to establish estimates upon, we will arrive at the following results:

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Deduct interest on $2,375, 12 months

$166 25

Deduct expenses of cutting hay, making butter, &c.

120 00

286 25

Profit

336 25

The dairy being a cheese dairy, deducting $1 per cow for skim milk, the result will be in favor of butter if cheese sells at $6 per hundred, and in favor of cheese if it sells at $7 per hundred in market.

My cows are regularly milked twice a day, at equal intervals, evening and morning. The dairy room is a cellar, 28 by 38 feet, stone walls two feet thick

and seven feet high, with windows and doors to ventilate at all times when the temperature of the air outside will allow. The cellar is kept at the temperature of 60°, as near as possible, being guided by a thermometer in and outside the cellar. The cellar is kept clean and dry, (the drier the better,) and should remain free from anything that may communicate an offensive flavor to the milk or cream. The milk is strained in tin pans, filled to about eight quarts to a pan; these pans are set in movable racks, or frames, on two slats, each frame having seven tiers of these slats on each side of the frame, each holding ten pans, and each tier about five inches, or the height of a pan, apart. Thus each frame or rack holds 140 pans. On each side of these frames, from 12 to 14 feet long, and level with the first tier of slats, there is attached a projection a little over two feet from the floor, wide enough for two slats, and answering as a table to set the pans on when the milk is to be strained or skimmed. Here the milk remains from 30 to 36 hours, when it is skimmed, and shortly afterwards churned. The churning is performed by dog-power, which being more uniform than when done by hand, the butter comes harder and of finer grain. The churn used is a crank-churn. As soon as the butter has come, it is taken out of the churn, washed clean with cold, hard, well water, till the water leaves the butter as clear as when pumped from the well. It is then salted with a little over half an ounce of salt to a pound of butter, and the salt used is common New York salt, dried, made fine, and sifted. We never have suffered any inconvenience or damage from the use of it as above prepared. The butter, after being thus salted, is carried to the cellar, where it stands about 12 hours, or sufficient time for the salt to dissolve, when it is worked over, the clear brine extracted, and packed down as firmly as possible, by kneading with the hand, to make it one compact mass. (The tubs used are made of the heart of the wood, generally sound white ash.) These tubs hold. 100 pounds of butter, and weigh from 11 to 14 pounds the tub. Previous to receiving the butter they are soaked a few days with a strong brine, made of salt and saltpetre. When the tubs are filled, the butter is covered with a wet cloth, and this cloth is covered with a layer of about an inch of salt, made moist, or paste-like, with water. The tub is then covered, and remains till the butter is taken to market, when the salt is taken from the cloth and the covers strapped. The price of butter ranges from 14 to 15 cents the pound; that of cheese from $5 to $6 per hundred.

In rearing neat cattle very little can be made, except, perhaps, turning off and converting into beef such loose fodder and hay as cannot very well be sold off from the farm, and giving the benefit of the manure. Manure being money on the farm, if no great profit is derived from raising neat stock, it can occasion no great loss. If well kept during our long winters, neat cattle will consume at least three tons of hay per head till they are three years old; and this, besides loose fodder, which, to say nothing of summer keeping, and putting hay at $5 per ton, and selling three-year-old cattle at $15 a head, is no moneymaking affair.

The growing of wool is not thought very profitable by our farmers. To illustrate this, they say 100 sheep will require 15 tons of hay, which, at $5 per ton, makes $75, for winter keeping; to this add $5 for washing and shearing 100 sheep, which is low; add, also, the summer keeping, which cannot be less than $1 25 a week, for six months, $30, making a total of $110. Add interest on cost of sheep, and you find the sum of $117. Now, then, most flocks will not average over three pounds of wool, or 300 pounds for 100 sheep, which, at 25 cents per pound, would give $75; to this add increase on flock of 100, say one-half, or 50, at $1, and the result being $125, the profit, if I am right, appears very small, indeed. Taking another view of the case, the result will be as follows:

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One ton of hay is supposed to make about 14 pounds of wool; and if this be true, allowing the remainder of the yearly wool to be grown in summer, the bare wool-growing, at 25 cents the pound, would be, were it not for the increase of the flock, a rather unprofitable business.

Although the foregoing chapter on neat stock and sheep may not appear flattering as to profits, well regulated farms should not be confined to one single branch of farming, unless peculiarly doomed to it by nature; and where a mixed husbandry is practicable, there being no farming without manure, and no manure without stock, the farmer will find room, food, and profit for everything on the farm, and the whole will ultimately concur to balance, by large profits of one kind, the apparent small returns of another kind of husbandry. About potatoes, I dare not say one word. The raising of this delicious and healthy edible has become so precarious by the mysterious disease that hangs over the crop, that the yield and cost of production per acre are uncertain, and the wisest know least what mode of cultivation is now best adapted to insure success and preservation from the rot.

son.

On the subject of hogs, I must say that we make excellent pork in JefferFarmers have not been slow in introducing the best breeds-such as the Berkshire, Essex half-black, the Woburn, and Suffolk, which are generally the varieties, and their crosses, found in the hog-yards. These varieties have fine flavored meat, are of a quiet disposition, fatten easy, some of the small-bone kind best for home consumption, and the larger or more raw-boned hogs more profitable for the barrel or market. The quantity of corn required to make 100 pounds of pork is a hard question, and one which I am now unable to answer. But I must amend what I stated in a former communication about the grinding of grain for food, as I am now convinced that there is a decided gain in the grinding of all grain, and then cooking it, for food, excepting peas, which may, perhaps, as well be cooked without grinding. We cannot make it profitable here to make pork for $5 a hundred, when corn and peas readily sell for 50 cents the bushel. Our pork, at that price, to remunerate, must depend on the dairy slops, and very little grain. I have carried to marke, this year, pigs of the Berkshire breed, with a mixture of Essex half-black, which, fattened as above, and at six months old, weighed from 270 to 289 pounds, and sold for $4 75 the 100 pounds.

We have in this county all the elements of a fertile soil-an inexhaustible compound of silicious, calcareous, and aluminous matter, together with the primeval humus. To make arable land, it should be the study of the husbandman to keep all these matters mixed up in due proportions. The first three substances of the compound alone would become barren without a fair admixture of the latter; and this the humus or manure wears easier and soo n

away by constant ploughing and cropping than the three former. It becomes the duty of good farming not only to keep the soil well stirred by deep and good ploughing, to retain and mingle a fair proportion of these three first, but to keep the soil also well and often supplied with a due and rich proportion of the latter. Science and experience teach us that this can only be done by a judicious rotation of crops and the bountiful application of manure, when the land is kept under the plough. Hence manure-making should be the first trade of the farmer; and notwithstanding great improvements have already been made in the making and preserving of the manure made on the farm, there is no interest of the farm that requires and deserves more the continued attention and all the skill and care of the farmer.

All the stock of the farm is mostly kept in stables, or in yards, under sheds. The dung made in the stables is thrown in heaps outside of the buildings, where often it remains to be leached by the drippings of the roofs, or otherwise washed, and loses a good share of its virtues. The manure made in the yards, whether on a slope or on a level, unless collected and drawn out early in the spring, or stacked in heaps in the yard until it can be drawn out, is also left more or less exposed to the same deteriorating and wasting influences of sun, wind, and rain. The yards, whether on slopes or levels, become very muddy, and are rendered at times almost impassable, by the constant tramping of heavy cattle in the spring and fall, though ever so deeply littered with straw, or other refuse matter-so much so that they are dreaded by man and beast, and are very uncomfortable until winter sets in and freezes them up. To obviate all these defects, I would propose to dig cellars four, five, or more feet deep, and seven, eight, or more feet wide, the whole length outside of the stables; to have the floors of the stables so constructed to convey all the stale into the cellars, which should be made tight on the inside by well-built walls laid in water-lime mortar, and covered by a roof, and fenced outside by posts and bars to keep cattle from falling into them. All the manure made in the stable, being thrown into these cellars, would thus be preserved and protected. Next, I would conduct, by good eave-troughs, the rain-water of all the roofs out of the yard. I would then slope my yard by the plough and scraper, if the shape of the ground required it, from the buildings towards cellar, to be dug the whole length of the yard on the opposite side of the buildings, making it of such width as would make it handy to remove the dung from it on either side. This cellar should be covered with a roof, to rest on stone pillars, or posts, about six or seven feet high above the ground, and be surrounded by a fence of bars and posts. The wash of the yard should be made to run into this cellar, or manure-house, and yard. Next, I would harden the bottom of my barn-yard by paving, flagging, or planking it; and the litter, when sufficiently worked into manure in the yard, could then easily be scraped, from time to time, to this manure shed, there to remain under cover until wanted. In this manner the manure would all be saved in its dry and liquid state; the yard would never be poached up, and become a hole of mud and mire, without bottom, unpleasant and injurious to man and beast; and the outlay would soon pay by the quantity and quality of the manure made; and it would certainly not cost half the labor to draw it out when wanted. I cannot well close this communication without saying a word of the establishment of at Albany, who, by their ingenious labor-saving implements, have well deserved of the farming community. I have had in use these three years a corn-planter, or seed-sower, of their make and invention. I have always regularly planted eight acres a day with it, the machine being drawn. by a horse. It is equally well adapted to sowing small seeds-as onions, carrots, beets, ruta-bagas; and I consider it a valuable implement on the farm. I have now in use their newly-improved railroad horse-power, and, with the thresher and separator, it is the most economical and profitable machine that

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