TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 



•PROGltKSS ANX> DI PEOATIMENT.- 



[SINGLE NO. 



YOL X. NO. 40., 



ROCHESTER, N.Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1859. 



iAVnOLE NO. 508. 



MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 



RURAL, IITERARY AND FAMILY t.WSPAPER- 



With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 



.■I, ■niin, in I ,,'i ■ • , .ii... ■ '.■ i, :i. .(■ li '■>■ '1 ■■•■ i' u ttic 



I. unbrace* utnro .U-rl. .il'.iir.il, il'Mii ullnriJ, Sdintiflc. 

 r.|iri>|iriittf iin.1 IjcuKLful br-rii ]nc-, tliim ans fllitr jt-nr 



OUB GRASS LANDS, 



thai tbe grass crop of the country is a 

 failure, comparatively speaking, calls upon the 

 thinking agriculturist for a solution of tbe causes 

 which have led to so deplorable an issue, aDd, if 

 tbe fault may in any degree be justly attributed to 

 the growers, to point out such defects and their 

 remedy. The responses to inquiries, made pre- 

 vious to tbe time of mowing, as to the prospects 

 of the hay crop, were, almost invariably, "Old 

 meadows will not pay for cutting— new will furnish 

 a medium yield." That atmospherical influences 

 seriously affected the growth aDd development of 

 tbe grasses during tbe past season there can 

 doubt— but why this difference between meadows 

 laid down to the crop years ago and those 

 recently seeded. A lack of vitality is plainly 

 perceptible— i3 this tbe result of age, or tbe inevi- 

 table consequence of the violation of natural law 

 by the possessors of the soil. 



Gross forms the staple crop of the country— 

 neither cotton nor wheat can successfully claim 

 supremacy in competition with it. While first in 

 position and pecuniary worth, it demands less 

 care than any other, and, we very much fear, 

 obtains only a tithe of what it actually needs. 

 Year after year the land is denuded of its vernal 

 drapery with scarcely an atom of return in the 

 form or an equivalent. Tuu after tun of bay is 

 taken from the soil, and if any fertilizing material 

 is furnished it, it too often comes in paltry pinches. 

 Wo have frequently heard individuals, after sub- 

 mitting to the manipulations of some dexterous 

 tonaorial professor, remark that "the shave just 

 received was fully a week under the skin," and 

 the mowing performed upon seven-eighths of the 

 land in gross, partakes altogether too much of this 

 characteristic. Nor does the evil stop hero.-— 

 Thanks to some gcuiul shower, and the tenacity 

 with which the grass clings to life, new spears 

 sho.it up, when the cattle are " turned iD," and the 

 "full feed" is secured, too frequently at the ex- 

 pense of future crops. This has been the usual 

 course, and there is less room to hope for the 

 entire abandonment of so exhausting a process 

 l le present Ml than for manyyears past. A scar- 

 !!!;!„'" I'"" '!!"" "PP" 18 with aQ urgency that is 



are, and all those who 

 1 speedily acknowledge 



have glanced t 

 rop is ou 



fodder in mcudi 

 ■tjft tnunftdUtt 



its potency. 



Tbe remedy for the evils 

 thus briefly is very apparent. AsThU 

 mainstay its needs should i 

 recognition, and instead of anDUttlly depl ^ g ™ 

 soil, the great object should be to keep „n the 

 average of fertility. Nor can we begin to award 

 '-nir hmds what is justly due them too early. With 

 a large number the spring time of the year may he 

 considered a more "convenient" and appropriate 

 season— but we think that a top-dressirw of pias- 

 ter, ashes, bone-dust — anything that can be rcadilv 

 appropriated to the wants of the plant, would 

 prove a profitable investment, if applied just now. 

 The virions styles of management adopted by 

 ""'""' w ' 11 '-t' efforts are crowned with success ore 

 always worthy of careful examination, and to the 

 thoughtful investigator yield a rich reward 



""« present the modes of operation 

 u* individuals in keeping up the 



results thereof. 



In the Transactions of the N. Y. State Ag. Soci- 

 ety for 1850. Mr. Walrath, to whom was awarded 

 a farm premium, states that he uses a compo- 

 sition of six- bushels uf Dime ashes, one bunbel of 

 plaster, one of slaked lime, one-fourth bushel salt, 

 a small quantity of sulphur, pounded bones, Ac, 

 as a top-dressing tor general purposes. Tbe cost 

 is about twenty cents per bushel, and is used at 

 tbe rate of two or three bushels to the acre on 

 grain and meadows. Upon one field, about an 

 acre in extent, under cultivation for ten years, 

 this combination was used without other manure, 

 and the result was a constantly increasing nrodiiel 

 The best crop was wheat— yield, thirty b 



the : 



It l 



I then 





timothy, and 

 the Report, (1855,) it produced two crops of hBy ; 

 the first of two tuns, the second of one. The 

 average of yield of Mr. W.'s mowing lauds is 

 about two and one-balf tuns per acre, 



ft. J. Swak, of Rose Hill, Seneca Co., to whom 

 was awarded the first premium or the Society in 

 1SS7, annually mows about six<y-flve acres of 

 grass, and makes an average of two and one-half 

 tuns of hay per acre. Sows twelve pouuds of 

 clover seed upon each acre of wheat, in latter 

 March or early April, six quarts of timothy heing 



Uses plaster as a top-dressing for grass lands- 

 sown broad cast with a machine— advantages of so 

 doing are uniformly great and decided, for if any 

 part of the field is neglected, the error is manifest 

 la the eye by the iofei ion'ty of the neglected spot. 



GRASSHOPPERS. -A SEW BEAUTY IN PIGS! 



Hit 



the 



farm slock (see the N. Y. SHlnm*,) have scarcely 

 noticed Grasehoppen at all. Why is this? They 

 make up in numbers what they lack in she, and in 

 (KMffwwawhattheywantlod^nt^. My neighbor, 

 who thinks his black cow is worth more than any 

 "Duchess" of tbe royal hoc. would see at once 

 that, being " natives," tbey could not expect to be 

 noticed except incidentally or accidentally— but I 

 am bound to count them in. A thousand times 

 more numerous than all our horses, cattle, sheep, 

 pigs and poultry put togetLer, and somctirmn cost- 

 ing more to keep them/ They have been slighted, 

 decidedly. Who is acquainted with them? Will 

 some natnraliBt please Heal them tcUntiftcultyf— 

 Meantime, I propose to treat them practically. 



First, then, they eat up a tun of grass to the 

 acre; they stripped the beans in my corn as bare 

 as bean poles; they have appropriated a wide 

 border in the oat field j they have taken the foliage 

 from young fruit trees; in short, they have stuck 

 their noses into about everything. Perhaps they 

 are accusing me for what / have taken ; but then I 

 planted the beans and hoed them. I'll back out of 

 that argument, for I recollect that those who do 

 the most work have tbe least rights here Waving 

 all ethical and legal questions 

 fodder, bow shall I gel them? 



Fowls, whose acknowledged duty is to 1 

 batch, and be killed, have been put after th 

 morial, and it has been obser 



e got my 



by dig 







Wh 



we have got from tbe grasshoppers, except through 

 biddy* agency, is mere nothing. While we de- 

 vise other ways of making them available, we may 

 make improvements on this. They do not in the 

 main (it may be through defects of early educa- 

 tion,) deem il a duty to come into the hen-yard or 





. be t 



; shoi 



range of 



travel t Walk through the meadows and pasUii 

 distant from tbe buildings at the height of the 

 grasshopper season, and a cloud of these winged 

 depredators is before you continually— a hundred 

 greedy hens, each with a dependent family, would 



ripline 



apt to complain o 



nainlyte their eyes; tlisciplit 





1 for 





animals should be trained to go where, and do 

 what, we bid them. Fowls should be sent to 

 pasture and brought back like our cows ; then the 

 grasshoppers in our back fields will be gathered 

 in. Pigs, too, may help us in turning grasshoppers 



friends in Allegany county, that she is fattening 

 seventeen hogs on grasshoppers, and they are 

 doing well. The hogs were shut up, as I was in- 



rme ,— how she got the grasshoppers to them, 

 the world at large ought to know 1 



Going very ear ly into the fietdBi T wft5 not more 



grasshoppers, 

 d, and eating 



tiffened with the i 

 anifest relish, "j 



pig*," I exclaimed— " What admirable s.'iiiBcity in 

 choosing tbe right, time for your business, an 

 how expert in finding tbe object of your search, 

 I fi.'lt 10 forgive their forwardness in opening the 

 gale and going into our garden to appropriate the 

 food which was intended for other members of the 

 family. From this let it be inferred that out 



season to those fields where grasshoppers 

 thickest. 



Must (his "Nineteenth Century" stop here 

 beyond what pigs and poultry can do, can nothing 

 be done ? " The spirit of tbe age " breaks oi 

 spots, viz :— in Wyoming county, where tho gi 

 hoppers are caught in large sheets of cotton cloth 

 or other nets, are immersed in hot water and then, 

 being dead, are dried and kept for future use. 

 What returns on the outlay I have not heard. In- 

 deed the market value of grasshoppers remains 

 to be established. The Ha-ald has a daily ngnny 

 or exultation over the falling or tbe rising fortu 

 of spelter or spermaceti, but it is nowtore ia 

 grasshopper market. 



I have squeezed a large grasshopper in my 

 fingers (a rough and summary analysis,) to judge 

 of his substance and consistency, and I have 

 guessed be was about equal, in nutritive value, to 

 a kernel of corn— hut I did not calculate how many 



produced more value in grasshoppers than any- 

 thing else. I rcccollet to have heard that a calcu- 

 lating Yankee (men are sometimes too sharp,) 

 conceived the idea of driving the devastating 

 hordes of grasshoppers out of his own lots into 

 thoseof his neighbors, lie got rid of his grass- 

 hoppers, but was sued iu the courts of law and 

 paid heavy damages and coats! Perhaps we 

 migbtprofit by his experience in driving— always 



Take a lot of noisy, hair-brained, rollicking 



fellows, .-/■■■ ■<,'■■. ;'/.'.' ,'-.■ .■'■,'■ r I..;,:!::.:-/ ,:' t pn! one 



at each end of a long rope, and supply the company 

 with bushes, tin-pans and long poles, and my word 

 for it, the grasshoppers will retreat b<J\<r< than.' 

 (not because these fellows have any real courage, 

 but tbe grasshoppers would be deceived by their 

 violent pretences.i and so suffer themselves to be 

 driven into some tight place where they might be 

 mode availoble as herein before set forth. If 

 Napoleon, and the Empress with her hoops, would 

 go out and catch afew, it might be made a,/atMon- 

 able pastime, and so we could get something oul 

 of the unproductive classes. By another year let 

 us he prepared for decisive action. — n. t. n. 



HOUSE BUILDING -NO, VI, 



iveys the idea s 



bouse 



chimneys. There 



.plat 



s where the outlay of 

 a little money will make as great a difference in 

 the thing itself, or in the general appearance of the 

 building, as on the chimney top, yet there is no 

 other one thing about country bouses that receives 

 so little attention. Perhaps this article may in- 

 duce those farmers who read it, and are now 

 engaged in building what they desire to be good 

 houses, to allow the mason an extra half day or 

 day to finish off the chimneys in a more tasty 

 sty le, if possible, than the smoke spouts protruding 

 fromnine-tenthsofthefa 



Fig. I.— Cm 

 Fig. I illustrates four different patterns, and 

 the variety would be endless, were tbe masons 

 only determined and their employers willing that 

 every new top should be from a new model. Tbe 

 principles to be observed are simple. The size 

 and proportion depends upon the number and 

 situation of the flues. The main characteristics of 

 the building should be embodied in the chimney 

 top, and there should be a base and cornice to the 

 one us well as to tbe other. To plaster the inside 

 adds one halt to the durability. When a building 

 is in tbe Italian style, and the roof a square or 

 hip roof, it seems almost impossible to moke 

 them look well without some kind of finish at the 

 top. A simple way is to Oat off the top, and make 

 a deck about one-third the size of the building, 

 and surround it with a halluatrade, as at Fig. II. 

 Another way is to put up an observatory, and 

 when the building is of considerable mognitude, 



and the view is increased by the extra elevation, 

 it is, perhaps, as good a way as any, if you art 

 not so unfortunate a- to make it uppeur (like many 

 we have seen,) as if it had been tUd up out of the 

 building. This may be avoided by using heavy 

 brackets at (he coruers, extending down 

 roof, as shown at B, Fig. II. 



Undoubtedly a great majority of those wl 

 building houses have become convinced by what 

 they have read within tho last few years, that 

 provide a dwelling with thorough vcntilatii 

 arrongtmtnCi, is in every stmt of the word worth 

 while, yet it is quite doubtful whether more 

 one in every ten will expend the first farthing 

 toward insuring a good supply of that cheapest of 

 all things, pure air. At C and D, Fig- II, I ha' 

 shown two different forms of Ventilating Caps— 

 the latter would also make a suitable bell ti 

 for a farm house. I fear it is too generally 

 posed that to erect such a cap is all that is n< 

 sary to secure a proper ventilation, but such is 

 the case. It depends entirely upon the holes and 

 flues, about which I will give my theory hereafter. 



Poitcn, Sketches. 

 Fig. Ill are shown some specimens of veran- 

 ,nd porch work, which will be found much 

 cheaper, quite as useful, and nearly as pretty, if 

 grand, as a great portico with large colomus, 

 ent, and a half-moon window blind in the 

 gable, painted gTeen. 



A is a new Htyle of verandah, the posts and 



frieze being simply plank, with the edges cut into 



the proper form, and the corners champered. At 



post with braces added.— 



Such work is easily got up-^-it harmonizes well 



,tb natural embellesbments, such as vines and 



ses, about which horticulturists uud landscape 



rdeoers talk so much, and is much more durable 



an skeleton work of inch boards. At C is shown 



elevation of B porch, designed to have a seat ou 



ch side, lattice work above, and temporary 



shutters and door for winter. The posts need not 



D is a plan for projecting gable, supported 

 by brackets, suitable for outside doors or French 

 and at E another, still cheaper, yet 



Jiug. 



,N. ' 



ETTBOPEAN AGBICTJLTTTBE. 



Plowing vs. Spading. — In his recent "Letters 

 1 Modern Agriculture," Boron Von Libbio thus 

 imarks upon the peculiarities of these two pro- 

 isaes of preparing the soil : 



The eomvum plow breaks and turns up t^'-il 

 ithout mixing it ; it only disph 

 itent, the spots on which pit 

 grown. Bui the f-paJ- bnak--, turns, and mixes u 

 thoroughly. 



the smallest portions of food cannot of them- 

 selves leave the spot m which they are held firmly 

 fixed by the soil, we can understand what immense 



! already 



mixture, This is the greatestof all the difficulties 

 which the agriculturist has to overcome. * 



If a field is to produce a crop, cot responding to 

 the full amount of food present in it, (he firat and 

 moBt important condition for its acconijili-hment 

 is, thot its physicnt state he such us to permit even 

 the finest rootlets to reach tbe spots where the 

 food is to be found. The extension of the roots in 

 every direction must not be obstructed by the co- 

 hesion of the soil. Plants with thin deliculc roots 

 cannot grow on a teuacious heavy soil, even 

 with abundance of mineral food. These facts ex- 

 very simple manner one of tho many 

 ' green manures on sueh soils, 

 understand the reasons of the 

 i many coses, by agriculturists, 

 ten, farm-yard manure. The 

 on of the ground is, in fact, re- 

 of plants and 

 their remains. A tenacious soil loses thereby its 

 cohesion ; it becomes brittle, and more readily 

 pulverized than by the most careful plowing; and 

 in a sandy soil a certain coherence is introduced 

 among its shifting particles. Each stem of the 

 green manure plants plowed in, opens up by its 

 decay a road by which the delicate rootlets of the 

 wheat plant ramify in all directions to seek their 

 food. With tho exception of their combustible 

 elements, the ground receives from the green ma- 

 plants nothing which it did not previously 



favorable effects 

 and enable us 





. the i 



i the soil of the u 





iuldl 



i the 



subjet 



One of the most noticeable features in these 

 annual cattle shows is the increasing juvenility of 

 the animals exhibited. Early maturity is rightly 

 considered among the most valuable qualities of 

 every food-producing beast. As increasing tho 

 total supply of provisions for the national com- 

 missariat, rapid growth and speedy fitness for tho 

 market are qualities which every breeder of stock 

 should cultivate in his oxen and sheep, as diligent- 

 ly as tbe market gardeners compete for precedence 

 ith their peas and strawberries. Space and 

 me, as philosophers tell us, arc often convertible 

 :rms. Tbe man who can ripen two crops or 

 fatten two animals iu the same period formerly 

 ■ed for one, has accomplished, practically, 

 me result, and earned the proverbial bless- 



blades of grass grow where only one grew before," 

 In this respect wonders have been already accom- 

 plished, and every year, if we may judge from tbe 

 prize specimens, the animals which supply our 

 tables with their />;'-.-.> ./ t ruiHancc are younger 

 and younger. What would tbe farmers of the 

 last century bave said if they were shown enor- 

 sirloins only twenty-two months old, or 

 expansive "saddles," whose defunct proprietors 

 uttered their first bleat last spring twelve months? 

 Still greater precocity is exhibited among the 

 highly edible, if not very poetical, tribe of p'gs. 



Birmingham, there were on view several 

 groups of "fast" young porkers, who have ac- 

 tually completed their education, aud fulfilled all 

 the duties for which they were called into exist- 

 witbin a period of eight or nine months. 

 Barely three-quarters of a year old, they bave 



pleted their 



te of bacon 



e dweller 



i bye 



The discovery that u 



ery third year, pn 

 the wheat- bee 



;adlh of cultivation. 

 Ilordercd rotation of crops 

 Y of leaving fields in fallow 

 cully added thirty per cent. 

 nds throughout the coun- 



try. The early maturity now a 





he modern improvements in agnc 

 e England a good third larger, bo 

 s food-producing capabilities. 



Vanksb of MiLKiHfj— From an article on the 



Dairy" in the Irish Farmer j Oasitte.,wc make 



le following extract:— The manner of milking 



icrts a more powerful and lasting influence on 



the productiveness of the cow than most farmers 



aware of. That a slow and careless milker 



i dries up the best of < 



ner and dairyman knows. The first requisit" 



good milker is, of course, the <■" 



Without this the milk is unendurable. The uddci 



should, therefore, bee 



ialiy and gently, but i 

 rapidity of the operatic 



