MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
Rappahanaock and Potomac — for while 
the lands on the James are qiiite as good 
naturally, and the prices even lower, we 
have here the advantage of daily steam 
boats between Richmond and Petersburg, 
and Norfolk and Baltimore. 
I will not weary your readers now, but 
will if permitted the privilege, in future 
communications, enter more minutely into 
the subject, and answer many of the nu¬ 
merous questions, as to products, markets, 
(fee., (fee., which have been asked me by 
correspondents from your State, and others. 
I have been much interested in your 
weekly meteorological reports, and will from 
time to time, report from here. 
The average of the thermometer for February 
was, at sunrise, 36°— the average maximum was 
53°— mean for the month, 44J°. 
In March, mean at sunrise, 39j°— do. max. 
554 °— mean for the month, 47J°. 
In April, mean at sunrise, 45|°—do. max., 
61i°—mean for the month, 53i°. 
In May, mean at sunrise, 54°— do. max., 71°-^ 
mean for the month, 63°. 
The spring has been unusually cold and 
backward. Farmers complain much of the 
condition of the tobacco and corn—but the 
wheat generally promises an abundant crop, 
and on the lighter lands begins to ripen.— 
In ordinary seasons our farmers would now 
be in their harvests. 
Very respectfully, 
Samuel S. Griscom. 
Petersburg, Va., 6 mo., 9th, 1850. 
CAUSES OF COLD SOILS. 
From a valuable article on “Draining” 
in the January number of the London 
Quarter It/ Review, (which often contains 
matter of much interest to the agricultu¬ 
rist,) we condense the following extract on 
the causes of cold soils:— 
“ The main cause of the coldness of re¬ 
tentive soils is the removal of water of 
drainage by evaporation.” 
“ The evaporation of water produces cold; 
it cools wine; in hot climates it produces 
ice. These facts are known to every one. 
To determine the actual degree of cold pro¬ 
duced by the evaporation of 1 ft), of water 
from the soil is a complicated, and not very 
certain operation; but scientific reasons are 
given for an approximation to this result— 
that the evaporation of 1 ft), of water low- 
ei-s the temperature of 100 ft»s. of soil 10 ° . 
That is to say, that if to 100 lbs. of soil 
holding all the water it can by attraction, 
but containing no water of drainage, is add¬ 
ed 1 ft), of water which it has no means of 
discharging except by evaporation, it will, 
by the time it has so discharged it, be 10 ° 
colder than it would have been if it had the 
power of discharging this 1 ib. by filtration; 
or more practically, that if rain enters into 
a retentive soil, which is saturated with wa¬ 
ter of attraction, in the proportion of 1 lb. 
to 100 lbs., and is discharged'by evapora¬ 
tion, it lowers the temperature of that soil 
10°. If the soil has the means of dis¬ 
charging that 1 lb. of water by filtration, no 
eflfect is produced beyond what is due to 
the relative temperature of the rain and of 
the soil. * * * * Retentive soils can 
never be so warm as porous, for the simple 
reason that gravels can hold by attraction 
much less water than clay. At the time 
when each is saturated by water of attrac¬ 
tion, evaporation will begin to act upon the 
water in each, and will act most strongly in 
the vegetative period of the year. The 
cold produced will be in proportion to the 
quantities of water evaporated respectively, 
and will of course be greatest in a retentive 
UNFEEMENTED BREAD. 
A NEW mode of making bread is coming 
into use in our cities; and we can promise 
in advance that all eaters of bakers’ bread 
may prepare to hold a jubilee; for if it is 
not better than that article, it cannot be < 
worse. The inventor or promoter of the ! 
process is Henry L. B. Lewis, M. D. His J 
recipe is appended. He brings as vouchers < 
for the excellence and healthfulness of this ( 
mode of bread making, the nanies of Prof. J 
Lawrence Reid, Jas. R Chilton, B. Silliman, < 
Jr., and Prof. A. H. Stevens. ( 
The bread thus made is said to be better < 
adapted to weak stomachs than that usually [ 
made.— Prairie Farmer. ( 
Recipe for making Loaf Bread, either < 
white or brown. —Take of flour, bolted or \ 
unbolted, six lbs. (six qts.;) Bicarbonate of ^ 
Soda, in powder, eight drachms; Muriatic ^ 
Acid, ten fluid drachms; cold water, from ) 
two to two and one-fourth quarts. ) 
Recipe for making Buckwheat and all s 
other kinds of Griddle Cakes. —Take of < 
buckwheat flour or wheat flour, one and a \ 
half lbs; Bicarbonate of Soda, four drachms; S 
Muriatic Acid, five fluid drachms; cold wa- ( 
ter, about forty fluid ounces, or one quart \ 
and half pint. I 
These chemicals when united, form our ) 
table salt, and cost, by the 100 lbs., less than \ 
one cent for each baking of six lbs. of flour. ( 
The bread is composed of only flour, salt ) 
and water, and is a certain cure and preven- s 
tive of dyspepsia. . ) 
Rules for making Unfermented Bread. ; 
—See that your oven is hot before mixing I 
the dough. Weigh out the flour; mix < 
the soda with it by shaking it through a ( 
small fine seive; the soda and flour are now ) 
ready to receive the water and acid, which \ 
must also be mixed bg themselves; measure ( 
out the cold water, then the acid, unite the / 
tAvo, and pour this mixture upon the flour ) 
and soda; mix the dough speedily with your \ 
hands; it must not be kneaded, but soon < 
placed in pans smeared with lard; smooth ') 
the dough with your hand dippeci in cold ) 
water, and then put it immediately into the ( 
oven. ^ 
By this process, a barrel of flour (196 ^ 
lbs.) will make 294 lbs. of bread; by the ^ 
common fermented process, it will make on- ( 
ly 252 lbs.: gain, by this method, 42 lbs. < 
f As harvest time is rapidly approaching 
it behooves grain growers to be on the alert, 
and make due preparations to secure their 
crops in season. Those who have many 
acres of grain to cut will of course save mo¬ 
ney, as well as time, by using labor-saving 
machinery; and it is often good economy 
for several neighboring* farmers, each of com¬ 
paratively limited means, to combine in the 
purchase and use of a machine to facilitate 
the most laborious and important operation 
of the year—harvesting. At a season when 
time is so precious, and labor at a premium, 
the aid furnished by inventive genius should 
be brought into requisition. 
Among the various harvesting machines 
before the public, we consider Hussey’s 
Reaper one of the best It has been in use 
for several years, and is highly recommend¬ 
ed by those whose experience has enabled 
them to judge of its value. This and Mc¬ 
Cormick’s “ Virginia Reaper" are both 
used in this section, and in most instances 
within our knowledge, have given entire 
satisfaction. There are three sizes of Hus¬ 
sey’s machine, which cut swaths from 5 
to 6 feet wide. Price $115 to $120. For 
sale in this city by Rapaue <fe Briggs, to 
whose advertisement the reader is referred 
for further particulars. 
HOEING AND HILLING CORN. 
DESTROYING CANADA THISTLES. 
Ed. Rural New-Yorker:— Your paper 
being devoted in part to the experimental of 
farming, I propose to give you a scrap of ex¬ 
perience in subduing the Canada thistle, 
which if you think Avill pay, publish—if not, 
burn this and oblige the writer. 
In the year 1847, we mowed about an 
acre of Canada thistles in the month of 
June; the day I do not recollect, only that 
“ there was no moon.” The thistles were 
very thrifty, beginning to blossom—seed not 
sufficiently matured to grow. We cut rath¬ 
er higher stubble than is common in mow¬ 
ing grass, probably from 3 to 5 inches. The 
next year the thistles almost entirely disap¬ 
peared, the third year the ground was en¬ 
tirely freed from them, and they have not, 
appeared since. 
Reposing no particular share of confidence 
in the “influenf ^^ r niii etdu, 
that 1 suppose the philosophy of the case 
consists in the fact that, at this season of the 
year the stalk is hollow, and the cure was 
doubtless rendered more effectual as the 
mowing was followed by a heavy shower of 
rain, filling the stubble Avith water. The 
ground has lain to grass since. It is tho’t 
on ploAving the ground the thistles will again 
appear. The greatest anxiety we have, 
howej?^r, is, that other farmers in our vicin¬ 
ity may adopt some plan for destroying this 
ers declare that they find no difficulty, but 
that eA-^ery year affofds them generous crops 
in spite of rust and bad seasons. These 
maintain that all the real difficulty lies in 
bad culture. Whether this is so or not, it 
is certain that a good part of it does; else 
why should one or two men succeed, Avhile 
a dozen about them circumstanced in no 
wise differently, all fail. Circumstances 
seem of late to combine in forcing upon us 
the truth, that if we are to sustain ourselves 
by agriculture, we must make use of skill 
in it—we must put our wits to work, as well 
as our hands. 
The details to which this idea might be 
applied, are many, and the number of them 
will increase with the application of it.— 
There is opened up before the farmer a long 
line of progress. He is not the one, among 
all men, to be' content under the notion that 
there is no improvement for him. There is 
a wider scope for the application of mind 
to his pursuit than to almost any other. He 
is not the maai to sit still and neglect to 
airQ il himself of it.— F'ratrie Farmer. 
W E Avish to impress upon corn growers 
the utter fallacy, in hoeing out corn, of 
causing great mounds about every hill.— 
It is utterly unphilosopical and incorrect, 
and there can be no other excuse than sheer 
laziness, for covering up the weeds, at each 
hoeing, rather than weeding them out. The 
use of the plow among corn has a tenden¬ 
cy to create hills — a process that should 
never be permitted, as it cuts off and expo¬ 
ses the leading roots to drouth, and to the 
inability to abstract its nutriment from the 
earth. The cultivator is the only true im¬ 
plement for this process, as it thoroughly 
destroys the weeds — stirs and pulverizes 
the earth—^prepares a fine soil for dressing, 
and does not create the necessity of making 
ant hills at every hill in the field. 
Much of our summer rains are sudden 
falling showers, and these conical hills as 
completely throw the water from the roots, 
as if an umbrella was throm over them. — 
A large flat or concave hill retains and ab¬ 
sorbs all the rain that falls, and directs it to 
the quarter where it is needed. 
Some persons think the plants want sup¬ 
porting; they must be as green as soft corn 
to think so. The corn plant possesses the 
ability to put out root braces to. support it¬ 
self, except in extraordinary storms, when 
a fcAv hoe fulls of fine earth would prove a 
very frail auxiliary for that purpose. 
CORN BREAD, 
THE HORSE. 
I WILL state a few things that I have 
learned, and ,they may be of benefit to your 
readers. A horse that is driven on hard 
roads is liable to ^'et stiff in the joints. In 
1833 I had an animal which after driving 3 
or 4 days, got quite lame. An old Balti¬ 
more teamster told me to wash the mare’s 
legs in a tolerably salt brine, which was 
done, accordingly, three times a day for the 
balance of the journey. The stiffness dis¬ 
appeared in a few days, and I drove the 
mare 1,400 miles afterwards, and there was 
no more trouble on that account. What 
pleased me most Avas, the mare had a very 
poor foot to hold a shoe, when I started.— 
It was very brittle and hard. It would 
break out when a nail Avas put in. But it 
grew together at every shoeing. A black¬ 
smith in New-England remarked to me 
that her foot had a singular appearance; 
where he pared it was soft and tough. I 
account for it in this Avay: salt Avill attract 
moisture from the atmosphere, Avhich keeps 
the foot moist all the time; and salt has 
nearly the same effect that grease has on a 
foot or a piece of timber. The drippings 
from salt on a floor, if continued long can¬ 
not be got off; the wood becomes moist and 
tough, and so Avith a horse’s foot. After 
washing the legs, turn up the horse’s foot, 
clean the bottom, pour the hollow full of 
brine and hold for a few minutes to soak 
the bottom. The practice of rasping the 
foot all over to toughen it, is abominaWe. — 
Farmer and Gardener. 
easily for the source of our heavy cart 
breeds. Extensive importations Avere also, 
from time to time, received from Flanders; 
indeed, during the last century, it was cus¬ 
tomary for our Avealthier gentry to travel to 
the metropolis behind six Flanders mares. 
Those of gray color were preferred, and 
hence the origin of the proverb, “ The gray 
mare is the better horse.” 
The Barb and Arabian are separate varie¬ 
ties of the same original breed, modified by 
different climate, food, and treatment. The 
Barb is the origin of the English thorough¬ 
bred hoi-se; for Ave find that when the Duke 
of NeAvcastle Avrote, they were considered 
superior, in point of speed, to any other 
horses in England, the Arabian at that pe¬ 
riod not having been introduced. Good as 
the Barbs might have been it is unquestion¬ 
ably the fact, that the breed in England 
was vastly improved by the introduction of 
the Darley Arabian, towards the close of 
the seventeenth century. This horse, the 
sire of the celebrated Childers, and the 
great great grandfather of the still more 
celebrated Eclipse, was also the sire of the 
most celebrated horses of his time, and 
may be considered as one of the principal 
foundation stones of our noble breed of 
race-horses, Avhich may thus be considered to 
inherit the peculiar excellence of the Barb, 
the Arabian, and the Turk, still farther im¬ 
proved and enlarged by English feeding and 
careful selection. 
In tracing the histor}’- of English 
race-horses, we m;iy at once go back to 
Eclipse, in reference to whose pedigree Ave 
find that he was the fourth in descent from 
tlie Darley Arabian, and the sixth from tlie 
Leeds Arabian, the seA^enth in descent from 
the Barb mare, the third from the Godol- 
phin Arabian (supposed to be a Barb,) the 
fifth from Hutton’s gray Barb, and the sixth 
from the Sister Turk, in four several and 
different lines; also, the seventli from D’- 
Arcey’s White Turk, in no less than seA’en 
lines. Thus, it appears, that the Barb, the 
Turk, and the Arabian, all contributed to 
the production of tliis peerless animal alike, 
extraordinary both for speed and endurance. 
—English paper. 
portumty to test the excellence ol her corn 
bread; and Ave feel assured that all of our 
readers Avho will try the recipe Avill agree 
with us in pronouncing it first rate. 
Penitentiary Corn Bread. —Two or more 
of our correspondents who have tasted (on¬ 
ly a little of course,) the corn bread fur¬ 
nished to the prisoners in the Ohio Peniten¬ 
tiary, have requested us to procure and pub¬ 
lish a recipe for preparing it The follow¬ 
ing was kindly handed to us by Col. Dewey, 
the Warden, in the hand writing of the ba¬ 
ker for the establishment: 
Take six quarts of water, one teacup full 
of salt, one pint of lard or any other clean 
grease, one pint of yeast, the whole to be 
quite warm—then stir in meal enough to 
make a stiff batter, let it stand till it rises, 
then mix up and put in pans to bake. (The 
quantities can of course be reduced propor¬ 
tionately as desired.)— Ohio Cultivator. 
Hams in Summer.—To preserve Hams 
during the Summer, a writer in the Gene¬ 
see Farmer says:—“Make a number of 
common cotton bags, a little larger than 
your hams; after the hams are well smoked 
place them in the bags: then get the very 
best kind of SAveet, Avell made hay, cut it 
with a cutting-box or knife, and Avith your 
hands press it well around the hams in the 
bags; tie your bags with good strings, put 
on a card the year, to show their age, and 
hang them up in your garret or some dry 
place; and my word for it, if you let them 
hang for five years, they will be better for 
boiling than on the day you put them up. 
I have kept them seven year.s, and have 
some noAv that are four years old. This 
method costs but little, as the bags Avill last 
for years. The only loss is the hay, and 
that the cattle Avill eat if given to them in 
AA'inter. No flies or bugs Avill trouble the 
hams if the hay is well pressed around them, 
the SAveating of the hams Avill be taken up 
by the hay, and the hay Avill impart a fine 
flavor to the hams.” 
WEIGHING GRAIN. 
I’armers should be more particular 
about weighing their grain when they sell. 
The scales of the buyers are not always 
true—the only reason, in my opinion, why 
grain does not hold out weight in many in¬ 
stances. If you see that the scales are bal¬ 
anced previous to weighing your grain, I 
think it Avould be to your advantage. 
Again. In selling corn why do you give 
the buyer four pounds more on a bushel 
than the statute allows him ? For instance, 
you allow the buyer sixty pounds for a 
bushel, when the law does not give him but 
fifty-six. In this case, when corn is worth 
fifty cents, you giA^e the buyer three and a 
third cents on a bushel, which would amount 
to quite an item on a hundred bushels— 
enough at any rate to pay for threshing and 
drawing away. 
Why this should be I do not pretend to 
know; but this much I do know, that if 
farmers are not more united in their atten¬ 
tion to these matters, they must continue to 
suffer the consequences, and no mistake.— 
So long as they allow buyers and specula¬ 
tors the advantage, so long will that advan¬ 
tage be taken. Not until farmers arouse to 
the dignity of their calling, will they be 
looked up to as a class engaged in an occu¬ 
pation which is the most certain source of 
strength, wealth and independence. 
THE BEST WAYS OF CULTIVATION. 
As the season opens, the thinking farmer 
will naturally ask, whether .it is practicable 
to effect any improvements over former 
years in farm practice. He has very likelyf 
dotted down some ideas from time to time, 
which he may purpose to carry into practice 
with the coming season,—errors Avhich it is 
advisable to shun, or improvements 'which 
it is important should be made. During 
the coming year, every farmer will do a 
great deal of plowing. Have all our read¬ 
ers nothing to learn in relation to this ?— 
Have all tried to their satisfaction Avhether 
shallow or deep ploAving is the best ? A 
fermer remarked, a few years ago, in our 
hearing, that he found no difficulty in get¬ 
ting 70 bushels of corn per acre, adjoining 
the fields of neighbors Avho only secured 40; 
and all by the mere difference in their modes 
of ploAving their grounds. He Avas satis¬ 
fied. with nothing less than eight inches 
depth, while they Avere content Avith three. 
A multitude of farmers are discouraged 
Avith the Avheat crop, and some have left for 
California, because of their bad luck. 0th- 
Savelling of the Throat in Hogs. —In 
order to contribute to the usefulness of your 
valuable periodical, and to inform the pub¬ 
lic of what I find to be an infallible cure 
for a certain disease Avith hogs, viz., the 
swelling of the throat, I herewith send you 
a receipt for the disease, with a desire that 
you publish the same in your Avork, if you 
deem it of any import, and the same meets 
your approbation. 
Take of molasses one half a pint, and a 
teaspoonful of hog’s lard; to this add of 
brimstone a piece an inch long. Melt it 
over the fire, and when it is cold, or in a 
liquid state, drench the hog with i^ and 
nine times out of ten it Avill be found to have 
the desired effect My hogs Avere effected 
Avith this disease during the past year, and 
I found the above to be cff'ective when all 
else failed.— Far. Reg. 
Be timely wise, rather than Avise in time, 
for after wisdom is ever accompanied Avith 
tormenting wishes. 
Dr. Franklin, in answer to one of the 
importunate letters of Thomas Paine asks, 
“ If men are so wicked with religion, Avhat 
would they be without it ?” 
Happiness or misfortune usually go to 
those who already have the most of the one 
or the other. 
Poverty Avants some, 
avarice all things. 
B| 
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