TWO DOLLARS A YEAK.J 



VOL. IX. NO. 45.1 



"PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT." 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. -SATURDAY, NOVEMBER G, 1858. 



[SINGLE NO. FIVE OENTS. 



I WHOLE NO. m. 



MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 



Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 



CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOCE, 



tal fpW-f 03-fe. 



NOTES ON MANURES, &c. 



Tin: following brior notes are written In answer 

 to Inquiries received from correspondent?. This 

 will account for their miscellaneous and somewhat 

 disconnected character. We have selected inqui- 

 ries mainly on the subject of Manfresc. and in the 

 neKt number may give Bi'milar noteB in answer to in- 

 qotries on other subjects. If j n any cose the experl- 



3 differ 



-Sh.il!. 



ed In those or other 

 nnliyof rarmflrsno 



) facia publicity 



Ihrough the columns of tho r.i 

 Liquid Manure. 



It ii true, that the greater poi tionof onr liquid 



..I lliO 



SOI I! 



These two facta admitted, the necessity for a change 

 is at once apparent In Holland not only in the 

 liquid manure carefully preserved, but the solid 

 manure is mixed with water, and applied to the 

 land in a liquid form. Those who have experi- 

 mented with liquid manure in growing flue vege- 

 tables, Ac, know its value. It is a power in the 

 hands of the skillful gardener. We have planted 

 fruit treeB in full flower, and by the frequent and 

 persevering application of liquid manure to farnwh 

 the constant demand upon the trees, which the in 

 Jored roots could not supply unless it waj given in 

 this convenient form, have succeeded In perfect 

 inga Urge crop of fruit, (more than enough to 

 pay for the tree.) the flr^t year, nod without doing 

 it any injury. The President of the Fruit Growers' 

 Society of Webtorn New York, often tells his 

 friends that the lined, highest-colored and best 

 flavored Duchease de Augou'cmo pears ho ever saw 

 or luted was a few given him by us a few years 

 since. These were raised on trees the first year 

 planted, which it is not likely would have grown a 

 perfect fruit without ibe use of liquid manure.— 

 Then we have grown Celery and other vegetables 

 of a'most fabulous sine. In ibe sime manner. 

 Now, I 



lng strength 



plants, just at ibe tirao when the bu. km 

 of the crop seems to be hanging in the balance, 

 A hogsht'iid nity he rigged on u cart or wagon, (or 

 applying (he manure. For saving it, the floors of 

 the stalls may bo made to Incline to a drain or gut- 

 ter back of the animals, wiih rrblob a pipe must 

 be connected to convey tho liquid to a tank in the 

 cellar, or some out building lower than the stable 

 floor. Liquid manure Is very strong when collect- 

 ed In this way and will need to be dilated with 

 about four times its bulk with water. It should be 

 first tested by waterlog ft few plant*. 

 Manure Cellars, 



These are of advantage » the manure, bat we 

 have often though they were of no benefit tu the 

 Utaull living and breathing over them. They 





1 be i. 



Io 



r through which all 

 refuse swept 1b very 

 » stable. The liquid 



and the whole lose* but little of ii 

 The question is whether UlOM wh 

 a cellar cannot secure icirly the 

 composting wlih material! that will prevent thi 



viable parte. 



■Hipe ol 



Filers of Ammonia. 



We say nothing about the acids or salts ued 

 for this purpose, because they are not such as most 

 f'rmerswill be likely to use. The end desired they 

 l '*a accomplish better by the use of material al 

 wa J* on band and that costs little or nothing 

 Charcoal dast [, the very test thing for compoal- 



swsmpcuck. All refuse porous stuff, weeds, the 

 scraping of ro*dt, Ac, are valuable. Leaves make 



a good minore, und in answer to a particular li 

 quiry on this point we will i ay the autumn la the 

 best time for ga'heriog. 

 Manure Affected by the Feed. 



It Is not the kmd ol auima', bo much as the 

 bind of food it consumes that affects the value of 

 the manure. Not many years since, while attend^ 

 log the Annual Meeting of the N. Y. Slate Agri 

 cultural Sjclety nt Albany, a gentleman of intelli 

 gence inarmed M that he bad commenced keep- 

 ing and breeding Durham stock, on account of the 

 value of their manure over that produced by na 

 live stock. The difference in the manure, with th> 

 rame feed would hardly be perceptible. The ma 

 nure of fowls is of the highest valae, because thej 

 live on grain, insect*, Ac, all the richest kind of 

 food. 1 he manure of the horse is more val 

 than that of the cow, as usually kept, becaai 

 horse consumes more grain than the cow. Tli 

 uhasic ti condition o( the nian"'e affects the result 

 somewhat Cowdung.for instance docsnotcrum 

 bio down like li'>rse dun?, and therefore is note< 

 easily or evenly distributed over the land. To 

 quantity as well ai tho quality of food affects tb 



If 8 





aoflk'ient food lurely to sustain life, this fjod is 

 much more thoroughly used up in tha aniuul or- 

 ganism, aud i lie manure will be less In quantity 

 and poorer in quality than though enough was 

 given to produce flesh and Uu For this reason, as 

 well as others, the manure from fattening is richer 

 than th it from store animals. The age of the ani- 

 mal too, affects the quality or the manure. Food 

 given to young anlmala that are producing hones 

 and muscle ia more completely consumed thin 

 that given to those of mature age, and conse- 

 quently the manure is poorer. One thousand 

 pounds of the nrine of a calf kd on milk was found 

 to contain but one pound of solid matter, and only 

 n trace of ammonia; the same quantity of urine 

 of a full grown cow contained RO pounds, of solid 

 matter and eight pounds of nitrogen. This will 

 show plainly bow much tho condition ol tho ani- 



Soiling, Will it Pay 1 



This is a question which it is difficult to 

 answer, without a knowledge of the olrcumslances 

 in which the Inquirer is placed. Did we wish to 

 keep a large amount of stock on a small piece of 

 ground we should out their feed, by all means.— 

 The reason the system has not been generally 

 adopted la this country Is, that land has been 

 cheap, and labor scarce and dear, and it was 

 thought best to allow animals to cut their own 

 feed. This Idea was sometimes carried to extremes 

 la the West, as the hogs and cattle were turned 

 into corn fields to pick their own corn. This we 

 have never seen, bnt we have some farmers whose 

 usual mode of feeding the cattle la the fall was to 

 go to the field and cut a few arms full of corn and 

 throw them to the cattle. By such a course the 

 largest half was wasted, but labor was saved.— 

 Whether such a course was ever the right one we 

 very much question. It certainly ia not now, when 

 land and crops and animals are valuable. The 

 rule now is to make the most of everything, and 

 grinding and cooking, feed, and soiling are mat- 

 ters not only talked of but practiced to some ex- 

 tent by the most intelligent farmers. In Europe 

 Vetches and Red Clover are grown for soiling but 

 in this country nothing that we know of ia likely 

 to supercede corn. At the discussions at Syracuse 

 during tho State Fair T. C. Pbtbrb, stated that he 

 had grown Western corn for fodder and obtained 





. . ■ 



Thlswonldglvealargeamountof feed ... 

 Perhaps in no oilier way could as much be raised 

 on bu acre. A gentlc-mun inquired of tho dairy- 

 men present if they found it profitable to grow 

 corn in that way for foddering or for aoilisg milk 

 cows. To this there was a moat hearty and unani- 

 mous response la the aflimative. In fact no ques- 

 tion asked that evening received such a decided 

 aoawer. This shows the opinions of practical men 

 on the question. 



DOES UHDERDRAINING PAY! 



Mv answer Is, sometimes it docs— sometimes it 

 does nob 1 figure out my reasons thus:— Take an 

 average specimen of bard-pan land, or that which 

 Is cold and wet, with an average location, and 

 where average prices prevail; read an essay on 

 ditching, work yourself op to fever heat, summon 

 your casb, drive ditches through your whole farm 

 two rods apart, three feet deep— if more than two 

 rods apart, iw of your land won't be drained, 

 and probably not even at that distance— this will 

 gi»e ngkty rod* of ditch to the acre, which will 

 cost, generally, over fifty cent* to the run, whether 

 joo me tile or stone — dun't indulge in any un- 

 oojecturci aa to the possible failure of 



It will take a bold i 

 rangus, ten 



the "four corners," two mileB from the etore, 

 blacksmith °hop, saw mill, grist mill, shoe shop, 

 some ways to meeeting, and further to market,— it 

 will take a bold man up there, halt way from some- 

 where to nowhere, to ask seventy-five dollars per 

 acre for his drained hard-pan land, and it will take 

 a bolder man than Julius Cesak to buy it at that 

 figure. Farms of that quality, managed by com- 

 mon country hrains, haven't paid, as a matter of 

 history, four per cent, per annum on $75 per acre, 

 and there is little probability that they will for tho 

 next five years. 



It would cost at this rale, Five Hundred Millions 

 vf Dollars to drain one-half of the improved lands 

 in New York end Pennsylvania; the interest on 

 that aom would be thirty-five millions of dollars 

 annually. How ia this to be paid? By the in- 

 creased production of the land, if at al 1 . Rat if 

 you Bhoald raise additional products sufficient to 

 pay ibis interest, aad the expense of growing and 

 marketing the same, you would glut every market 

 in Christendom — then the products would bring 

 next to nothing, and so the dtbt couldn't be paid at 

 all! The simple fact is, a general system ol drain- 

 ing would produce universal bankruptcy. Agri- 

 cultural products don't bring enough in the bock 

 country to warrant the outlay, and fu 

 ally have the sense to see it To dra 

 proved lands in the Union, would co 

 the United States— including every 



I am not opposed to draining— I have repeatedly 

 spoken well of it, and I mean now to do what its 

 ultra advocates ha-c u-verdone, to roy knowledge-, 

 point out the circumstances under which drain icr 

 will pay, and the circumstances under which 

 will not. Let me premise that in settling any 

 country, the beet lands are taken first— those that 

 will yield the largest returns with the least labor- 

 advantages of location, however, sometimes cou 

 it-rbalau.ee advantages of soil. That mistakes ai 

 made ia selections, there can be no donbt; but 

 mankind have always sought anxiously for 

 best lands within their reach. With the inert 

 of population, agriculture must improve, or 

 large its area by the addition of inferior lands.— 

 Practically, it will be fonnd that some branches of 

 husbandry will bear transplanting to inferior soils 

 sooner than others, as, for instance, grazing. In 

 process of time, however, the increase of popula- 

 tion, Bnd the consequent demand for agricultural 

 products, will force a more extended cultivation 

 of inferior lands, and then it is that underdraining 

 will be profitably introduced. England and France, 

 and most of thsir continental neighbors, have 

 doubtless arrived at this stage. They not only sell 

 their produce bigb, bat they bay their labor ohtfjp. 

 The Improvements by which they augment thoir 

 crops are made with a comparatively small outlay, 

 while their increased productions sell for a high 

 price. It would be very lame logic to infer that 

 because it wonld pay to ditch a farm in ibe oanty 

 of Cork, it would pay to ditch one in Wisconsin, 

 where the yield would not bring half as much pei 

 acre, and the cost of ditching would be twice aa 

 great. I assume, what will hardly be denied, that 

 we have lands in the United States which will 

 bring good and remunerative crops without ditch- 

 lng — we have suoh lands in Western New York, 

 they abound In Ibe Western States. They are 

 the lands that discreet men select for settlement 



>, It I 



inferior lands ihat make up by their 

 proximity to good markets, what they lack in 

 uality of soil. The lands near New York and 

 Boston will be cultivated, though poor, and in re- 

 spect to the policy of draining them, tbey are in 

 Cork or Kerry, I assume: 



Anno Domini 185S, do to nn- 

 derdrain the lands contiguous to our large towns 

 and best markets. 



nd. It will do to underdrawn, anywhere on the 



heavy soils. The expense of drainage is a 

 small item compared with the continued expense 

 ir cultivation, and compared with the value 

 of iheir products under good management. 



t will do to drain some of our bat grain 

 ■rably veil located— troubled wilh excess 

 (as, for instance, Mr, Jo ax Johnston's 

 ■ Geneva.) Good, well managed grain 

 illy yield crops worth fifty, sixty, 

 and even eighty dollars the acre — they are entitled 



Pintrth It will do to run occasional drains, which, 

 by cutting off springs or surface water, dry muck 

 land at little expense. 



Fifth, It will do to use any time and means that 



Icon be spared, to drain a few scree, more or less p 

 near the barn where the manure ia to be applied to 

 the growth of corn, potatoes, Ac 

 Let it be remarked, however, that It will never do 

 to incur the expense of ddching unlets t/w subsequent 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE POTATO. 



I. (a, b, t.) 



0, Protocol- 



7. Aphldo, i 



8. Striped C 



tillage is to be good— as bsd tillage, even on drained 

 land, will not pay for the expenses incurred. 



There is one thing that the ultra advocates 

 ditching should bear in mind. We have a lar 

 portion of spouty, hard pan land, which, whi 

 thoroughly drained, at the expense of fifty dollars 



rate land, and will not bring the cost of drainage, 

 though exposed for sale in every market in Chris- 

 tendom I I am not willing that the owners should 

 be decoyed by the eloquence of our modern lec- 

 turers and essayists into the expense of draining 

 it. I have observed that whenever the editors of 

 the Tribune, Country Gentleman, Itt78AL, Boi 



o, make speeches 







.■ uid.;< 



upon ditching, and each time they run the tl, 

 further into the ground! While I admit that 

 lands will yield more and better grata after being 

 ditched, I hold that nt present it is not profitabli 

 drain our grass lands, as n general rule,— properly 

 docked and managed they will supply our neces- 

 sities and the necessities of the country without. 



Ia reference to "the Hiit'* It may te remarked, 

 that back from its large towns, there can be little 

 bind thut it will p iy to ditch— thcrt <> io much land 

 l ni.iv Judge, fn,m what I baveseen 

 and heard, ihat a man had better take up anew 

 and dry farm thun to undertake to drain a wet 

 one. lie can buy two dry ones fur what it will cost 

 xliott, the "progress 

 squire the culture of 



tounderdriiiu one 

 of population'' dot 

 inferior luude. 



,,/,'y, i 



t in i 



POTATO INSECT- HENDERSON'S THEORY. 



Eds. r.i'uAL:— While I admire the zeal of Mr. 

 Uskpekson and would by ao means join ia with 

 the "wholesale denouncement" of which he com- 

 plains, I cannot avoid noticing hie communication 

 in the Roa*L of the 'Jib inst. He therein refers to 

 Mr. IUtbvok's letter, sent with my communica- 

 tion, and found In the Riual of August 21st, aa a 

 complete sn«wer" — because Mr. H. says that the 

 " Phytocorus Uneotaru, of Bay, approaches nearly 



the P. pratentit, a foreign species, which also 



s the V mark on the scutellom." 



This certainly has no bearing whatever on the 



estioa at issue. Mr. K distinctly dissents from 

 Mr. II. 's theory of their early propagation, because 



says "It Is Impossible that they should cohabit 



.eir feeding and form, excepting the 

 propagation only, snd to be otherwise 

 would be to make him flatly contradict 



himself. Mr. LIendeii 

 bearing him out ia his 



What induces me to receive 

 statement doubtfully la the fact 

 of Mr. Suel's paragraph 215, 

 very small insect which is cut 



Mr. BlNDEBBOH'a 



bat he quoteB part 

 rhere he sayB "a 

 itantly to ho seen 



upon tubers, Is a small j 

 Is figured by .Mr. Incall, who bIbo remarks, ob quo- 

 ted in the same paragraph— "that this little fellow 

 when viewed under the microscope traveling 

 among the dense growth of fungi, pat him In 

 mind of a great rhinoceros trotting about In a 



Mr. 



I lllld : 



days aft i 

 leas they should have, within 



through alltheirtransformationi 



mature or perfect 



i that he baa "arj 



with 



the egg, 

 iat time, passed 



Mr. Bekdersox 



d again seea the 



rcr the full growc 1 ' 



b cue between those parties. I do ray 



wingless female one — so late ia the 

 ,n ii Hot. Mlb. This is also contrary to Mr. 

 Urarf belief-as to the I'hytocoru, I neither aa- 



Mr. Rituvos also says of those insects In the 



"Now, this ia precisely the yonn;: 

 each as yon (Mr. Editor) said looked like an ani- 

 mated dew drop," and declares that he has watched 

 this Insect from the time it first mado Ita appear- 

 ance until it got ita wings! Fig. 1 is a copy from 

 i arut, which preys upon sphlds, and 

 Is therefore a friend to the horticulturist. Fig. 2, 

 ma of ^iiEr, which be fonnd abun- 

 dantly on the diseased potatoes, and ia the one fig- 

 ured by Mr. Incall. The je you observe, are eight 

 footed creatures and are classed among the 

 Arachnldana or spider family. Under the name of 

 SFites they are universally known, and whon soma 

 of our most essential articles of food, as choose 

 or flour, get old or musty, they soon swarm with 

 these minute microBcoplc animals ; and when once 

 established multiply beyond -.■.cn.-q.M'.'n. Th. y 

 jt only attack decaying matter bnt also living 



The immediate cause of the Itch, lu now ascer- 

 tained beyond a cavil to be tho presence of an In- 

 called the Aian-3 Scabit found, nut In the 

 vesicle, (as stated by Galf.) but at tho end of a 

 small rediah farrow, which begins with the vesicle 

 aad eads with white, corpuscle-like atarut. Fig, 1 

 shows the upper and lower side of tho Acaru* 

 ',». >/iarlona species of beetles and other In- 

 b and animals in the air and waterand on land 

 Infested by one or another species of this ex- 

 live group of parasitic creatures. 

 he red spider of our hot bouses, la the Acaru* 

 ttlarius. Under the name of Tula I Ixodes) they at- 

 tack dogs or persons, and are annoying to those col- 

 lecting blackberrlea in the wood*. Doctor Homx- 

 ztT of Mount Joy, brought me a species of wood 

 tick (Fig. 3.) taknn from the arm of a small girl, 

 half Imbedded In the flesh while sleeping under a 

 Bbade tree near a wood. These figures are all more 

 or lees enlarged. 



Certainly, Mr. Hs.vDaasOM does oot mean what 

 he says. That the acaru* gels wings and becomes 

 transformed into a Puytocoris. This leads me to 

 recefve his testimony with doubt as to the accura- 

 cy of his judgment, aod of coarse would not wil- 

 fully misrepresent him, and hope that ho will be 

 more definite if hla article has misled me. 



It may be well to remark that there are quite a 

 number of insects accused of Injurlog ihe potato 

 Tines. What Is commonly called the Potato/!'/. 



