MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 
Office in Bums’ Block, corner of Buffalo and State 
streets, (entrance on State,) Rochester. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
(Late Publisher and Associaie Editor Gen. Farmer.) 
L. B.‘LANGWORTliy, Associate Editor. 
Corresponding Editors: 
ELON COMSTOCK, (former Ed. Central N. Y. 
Farmer,) of Oneida County. 
T. C. PETERS, (Editor of the Wool Grower,) 
of Genesee County. 
Educational Department by L. WETHERELL. 
Q;? For Terms, &c., see last page. ^Ol 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
Niles, Mich., June 13, 1850. 
Mb. Moore: —We write from the banks 
of the SL Joseph’s River, or as the people 
here say, the St. Jo.—leaving off the last 
syllable, for shortness, as one man remark¬ 
ed to us to-day. The river is now very low, 
several feet below high water mark, and 
much below its usual depth. The conse¬ 
quence is that, although at times navigable 
for steamers of the smallest .size some 75 
miles above here, there is now no naviga¬ 
tion at all. This however, is of far less con¬ 
sequence now than formerly, when there was 
no outlet for the produce of this region ex¬ 
cept by the river and teams to the Lake.— 
Now the Railroad passing directly through 
the place supersedes almost entirely the un¬ 
certain river navigation, taking the wheat 
and flour generally, directly to Detroit, but 
this year some of it in the other direction to 
supply tho south-western demand. The 
warehouses on the river are consequently 
closed and dead property, all the produce 
gomg through the Railroad warehouse. 
In our last letter, if we recollect aright, 
we indulged in some speculations in regard 
to the wheat crop of Michigan, which has 
been the subject of great anxiety and the 
theme of conversation everywhere since we 
entered the State, two weeks ago. We 
thought then, and believe we so said, (but 
as we have no copy of that letter we may 
be wrong,) that notwithstanding the predic¬ 
tions and lamentations to the contrary, there 
would be more wheat grown in Michigan 
this year than ever before—basing that 
opinion on the greater breadth sown, the 
good condition in which it came through 
tlie winter, and the reviving influence of the 
late rains. We were only mistaken in one 
thing, and in that in regard to the western 
part of the State. The rains which were, 
if not copious and liberal, at least refresh¬ 
ing and beneficial in the eastern counties, 
did not reach the western, where to this 
day there has hardly been rain enough to 
lay the dust handsomely in many, many 
weeks. The wheat looks thick and fine but 
much shorter and less promise of straw than 
usual. The grass can hardly recover from 
pinch which it has sustained, and must 
be light at best 
This portion of Michigan is said to be a 
fine farming section, and judging from our 
limited opportunity for observation we 
should be likely to concur in the opinion.— 
The lands along the Railroad from Kalama¬ 
zoo to Niles are not all very inviting, 
there being much low, marsh land, which] 
althougth reclaimable, is not desirable for 
farming purposes. The openings are con¬ 
siderably timbered, and where they have 
been enclosed, the young oaks are spring¬ 
ing up very thickly. A crop of timber can 
almost any where be soon raised by protect¬ 
ing the ground from which the timber has 
been removed, from cattle and fire, the two 
great enemies to timber in this State. 
The com crop which here, but more es¬ 
pecially further south, is a staple crop, and 
much cultivated, is quite backward, but 
nevertheless seems to promise very welL— 
It generally stands well, which farmers al¬ 
ways consider the great point gained, at this 
season of the year, but is yet small. Some 
fields have been already worked with the 
plow and cultivator, but more still remains 
untouched. The weeding has been begun 
but in a few instances. Indeed we suppose 
much of the corn, not only here, but all over 
the west, has very little of hand labor be¬ 
stowed upon it. The easy texture of the soil 
and its freedom from stones admits of great 
economy in its cultivation, else corn could 
hardly be sold at prices current in the west 
Michigan is, like most western States, 
quite dull this season, and were it not for 
the wool trade, there would be very little 
to give to the villages the appearance of 
business and activity. This is perhaps ne¬ 
cessarily the case to some extent at this sea¬ 
son in every year, but peculiarly so now 
when, after a failure of the wheat crop for 
one or two seasofts, there is nothing to sell, 
and of course no ability on the part of far¬ 
mers to purchase goods from the merchant. 
A season of plenty is needed to correct this 
discouraging state of things, and the last 
spring gave high promise of a result alike 
beneficial to the a^icultural and commer¬ 
cial interests. 
The villages on the line of the Michigan 
Central Railroad have sprung up rapidly, 
but to our eye but few of them now aftbrd 
very strong evidences of present prosperity, 
or prospect of future advancement The 
largest of these places, Ann Arbor, Jackson, 
Marsha^b Kalamaroo and Niles, are some¬ 
what eqVial, although Ann Arbor exceeds 
in population, and is moreover increasing in 
buildings and improving in appearance fas¬ 
ter than most of the others. The Michigan 
University, located there, lias doubtless con¬ 
tributed much to the advancement of the 
place, and must continue its beneficial influ¬ 
ences in future. Next to Ann Arbor, Kal¬ 
amazoo shows most improvements in build¬ 
ing up and improving the place. Its citi¬ 
zens, or some of them, deserve everlasting 
credit for their rare good sense in preserv¬ 
ing from destruction the original trees, so 
that the place, although but twenty years 
old, has all the appearances of a pleasant 
New England village. 
There are also many other quite flourish¬ 
ing villages on the line of Railroad, at which 
we did not stop. Among these are Dear- 
bomville, Ypsilanti, Dexter, Albion, Battle 
Creek, and many others whose names have 
this moment escaped us. In and near 
many of these villages are Flouring M ills, 
sometimes on an extensive scale, for grind¬ 
ing .up the staple product of Michigan.— 
Many of these mills are propelled by steam 
power, but more, probably, bjnwater—being 
located on the Huron, Kalamazoo and St 
Joseph rivers and their tributaries. 
Michigan has had its reverses, consequent 
upon the wild speculative times in .which its 
settlements were made, and its villages built 
up; but it is recovering from the early and 
severe blow thus inflicted, and is destined 
to be a rich, productive, and influential 
State. Its excellent and feasible soil, its 
vast mineral wealth, its great facilities for 
commerce and intercourse with the Avorld, 
and above all, its enterprising population, 
all point to such a destiny. May it be 
speedily realized. Yours, c. 
CiURCOAL FOR Flowers. —It is an as¬ 
certained fact, that powdered charcoal, pla¬ 
ced around rose bushes, and other flowers, 
has the eftect of adding greatly to the rich¬ 
ness of the flower. We find in a late num¬ 
ber of the New-England Farmer, very 
strong evidence of the truth of this state¬ 
ment Ladies, and other lovers of flowers, 
will please act accordingly 
VOLUME I. i- 
EOCHESTER, N. V.-THURSDAY, JUNE 27 , 1 « 50 . 
NUMBER 26 . 
CHURNING POWER. 
Tins is constructed on the endless chain 
principle, with India rubber bands, instead 
of links, and is said to work admirably— 
some fifty having already been sold and 
tested this season. The manufacturers 
state that it is easily operated by a dog, 
sheep or goat, and can be applied to any 
size or kind of churn. Attached to a Ther- 
HAY MAKING.-SWEATING, &c. 
There is said to be philosophy in suck¬ 
ing eggs, and so there is in making hay— 
in the period of ripeness—protection against 
dews and rains—manner of curing —and in 
housing and stacking. Medicinal plants, 
contain the greatest quantity, and in the 
greatest perfection, all of their peculiar 
qualities at the period qf full blossom, and 
this we are disposed to believe the best pe¬ 
riod for cutting ■ grass for hay; for the mo- 
moment the blossom falls the pi unt cease.s 
to enlarge, and very soon passes into the 
“ sear and yellowleaf ”—the saccharine and 
mucilaginous portions decompose and evap¬ 
orate, and soon become the mere woody 
fibre, like the straw of the cereal grains. 
Many persons say that Timothy should 
not be cut till the seeds are fully ripe—that 
it goes further—spends better. It maybe 
true, and the same may be said of bad 
bread or rancid butter, but it may be doubt¬ 
ed whether there is the same quantity of 
available nutriment contained in any plant 
—its foliage and stems, after perfecting the 
seed, as if cut at its greatest vigor. This 
doctrine will not apply, at any rate, to Clo¬ 
ver, and June grass, as both of these arti¬ 
cles are nearly worthless, if left to stand till 
the seeds are ripe. 
All the grasses, and clover most decided¬ 
ly, make a better quality of hay if cured 
by the sweating process, rather than by en¬ 
tire sun and air drying. In good hay weath¬ 
er, when the grass is not over stout, what 
is cut in the forenoon, by being spread out 
—and where it is light by simply turning 
it over with the rake—will do to put in the 
sweating cocks, of about 75 or 100 lbs. size 
the same day. 
Ralte into winrows with the horse-rake, 
or by hand, and make the cocks by flakes 
or fork fulls, and not by rolling, except in 
extreme cases of hurry to get it out of the 
way of showers or night exposure. If 
made up of small diameter, and as high as 
they will stand, they may be left for two, 
three and even five days, without injury.— 
On a tine sunny mornmg, as soon as the 
dew is oflf, open them freely to the sun, and 
by ten o’clock they are ready for loading. 
Hay cured in this way, is incomparably su¬ 
perior to the dried, sunburnt and discolor¬ 
ing process of sun and air drying. While 
one is the green Hyson the other is Bohea 
or Sottchong. 
A GOOD farmer is generally a true friend, 
an affectionate husband, an excellent parent, 
and an honest man; and it is an established 
axiom that a well tilled field, denotes not 
only care and industry, but the supervision 
of an enlightened mind. 
mometer Compressing Churn, it makes a 
very complete and perfect churning appa¬ 
ratus. The power can be instantly applied 
to any size of the ordinary dash chum. 
The price of this Power is 812 —the churn 
additional, according to kind and size.— 
Manufactured and sold, wholesale and re¬ 
tail, by Emery & Co., of the Albany Agri¬ 
cultural Warehouse. 
WHEAT, ITS PROSPECTS.-WEATHER, &c. 
The wheat plant looks healthy, and there 
is a prospect of a full medium crop. The 
heads are a fair length; and although we 
had the hardest and most unpropitious 
April that we have experienced for many 
years, the cold wet weather of May kept it 
back, and caused it to make offsets and 
thicken up, till it generally stands pretty 
fair on the ground. 
The experience of wheat growers is in 
favor of early sowing, as the crop not onlv 
' stands the winter better but comes forward 
earlier, and escapes the peculiar weather, or 
period of the year, which causes it to rxist. 
Whether rxist is spontaneous with the plant, 
or whether the sporioles, or seeds of mildew, 
which is a cryptogameous plant, are at that 
period in the ripe state and are dissemina¬ 
ted in the air, has never been conclusively 
settled. It not only attacks wheat, but the 
gooseberry, the grape, and the leaves of va¬ 
rious kinds of vegetation. The first indi¬ 
cation of its attack is often smelled before 
it is seen, as it gives out a very unpleasant 
odor of the fungus, or toad-stool tribe. 
The whole wheat crop in Western New 
York, from retardation of the unfavorable 
spring, is exposed to run into the rust pe¬ 
riod before ripening, and is precisely in the 
situation of late sown wheat in ordinary 
seasons, and may be extensively injured by 
that infliction. 
In this immediate region, the weather 
has been decidedly favorable during the 
whole of this month—inclining to dry, but 
not excessively so. The showers on the 
20th, though local, were well sprinkled 
about the country, generally equal to all 
immediate wants. 
Clover and grasses have generally taken 
remarkably well, and Indian corn is as pro¬ 
mising as for many years past. Grass on 
old meadows, is thin and light. 
Medicine for Horses. —As a general 
thing, an emetic, is good for a horse, that is 
good for the same complaint in the human 
system. Multiply an ordinary dose for a 
man by nine, for a common horse, or even 
by twelve for a very large horse. 
The above was obtained upon a late visit 
to Col. W. Hampton, of South Carolina, 
and a few men in tliis country are more 
competent to give prescriptions of the kind 
than that gentleman.' He has long been 
known as one of the best breeders of hor¬ 
ses in the United States, as well as one of 
the first rate cotton planters and stock 
breeders in the South.— Am. Ag. 
In dry weather attend to watering your 
vegetables and flowers. It should be done 
I just before sunset 
CHARLOCK, OR WILD MUSTARD 
As the proper time has arrived to eradi¬ 
cate this pernicious plant from our summer 
grain fields, I beg to say a word on the sub¬ 
ject I have been surprised in taking an 
occasional ride in this vicinity, to see the 
neglect of farmers in regard to this matter. 
Perhaps the plant has not prevailed to as 
great an extent here as in the eastern coun¬ 
ties, and farmers not being fully acquainted 
with it, do not, of course, justly appreciate 
its bad character. If I were compelled to 
choose between a farm overrun with Cana¬ 
da thistles, or with Charlock, I should not 
hesitate to take the former. Thistles I have 
vanquished entirely; but Charlock, when the 
ground is fully seeded, can hardly be ex¬ 
tirpated—perhaps never. 
At an early period, before 1 became at 
all acquainted with the plant, it had so fully 
seeded one of my most valuable fields, that 
I could advantageously cultivate no summer 
grains thereon—nothing but hoed crops.— 
The field was in a measure lost to me. The 
ground being rich, the stalk attained the 
size of ones thumb, and its limbs spread so, 
that literally the “ birds of the air could 
lodge in its branchesthus, not only im¬ 
poverishing the ground, but completely over¬ 
shadowing and stifling the spring-sown 
grains. The seed being very small, it is 
not readily detected in our seed barley, oats 
and spring wheat; and in this manner it is 
introduced into our lands. The only way to 
I eradicate it is, to go through the grain field 
! with a gaP;>' of hands, each taking a given 
width or space, so that no portion shall be 
overlooked, and pulling it up by the roots 
wherever found. As it is known by its yel¬ 
low blossom, none can escape the eye, if it 
is pulled at the right season, that is, wlien 
it is in bloom. Care should be taken, of 
course, to do the least possible damage by 
treading down the grain; and if careful, but 
little injury need be sustained in this partic¬ 
ular. It affects winter wheat but to a small 
extent. Still I consider it so great an evil, 
that my practice has uniformly been, to 
survey carefully my fields of winter wheat, 
and if a single plant was discovered, to pull 
it up. I have seen some fields of spring 
grains in this vicinity, so yellow with the 
blossoms through their whole extent, that it 
would be gain to the owner, to mow up the 
entire crop of oats, barley or spring wheat, 
which ever it might be, when the charlock 
is in bloom, rather than seed his farm, to 
the extent that would be unavoidable if the 
crop should attain maturity. 
The difficulty, if not impossibility of ex¬ 
tirpating it when the ground has been filled 
with the seed, may be inferred from the fol¬ 
lowing fact A friend, whose intelligence 
and respectability ensure the correctness of 
his statements, informs me, that an acquaint¬ 
ance, digging for some purpose on the 
“ Genesee flats,” placed in a box a portion 
of the earth taken five feet below the sur¬ 
face, in order to see what vegetation would 
spring up therefrom. And' a luxuriant 
growth of charlock was the result It was 
estimated, that the flats were raised one inch 
annually, by the alluvial deposit, from the 
overflowing of the "river. Of course it had 
required sixty years to raise this five feet 
and the seed of the plant must have been 
deposited there sixty years since, and still 
retained its vitality. With this fact in view, 
an intelligent and prudent farmer will be 
extremely cautious how he suffers the plants 
to get into his grounds, and will spare no 
pains to eradicate them wholly if possible, 
whenever the yellow blossom indicates their 
presence. e. d. 
Rochester, June 1850. 
Be sure to sow good seed, in due season, 
“for as ye sow, so also shall ye reap.” 
