VOLUME I. i- 
EOCHESTER, N. Y.-THORSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1850 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 
Office in Bums’ Block, corner of Buffalo and State 
streets, (entrance on State,) Rochester. 
No matter how frequently the former may 
occur, the water neither becomes stagnant 
on the surface nor forms mortar below it— 
but follows the roots and sinks away, im¬ 
parting in its course all its valuable fertiliz¬ 
ing properties to the plant and the soil; the 
surplus flowing away through the drains, 
having been only a benefit instead of an in- 
juiy. 
Porous soils, we all know, are best pre¬ 
pared to resist drouth as well as moisture, 
and by under-draining, this retentive clay has 
become as porous as the most open gravel 
or sand, and is, in fact, better prepared than 
either for the exigencies of the season. The 
soil is deep and fertile, and the moisture 
from the air and from beneath, is attracted 
to it, imparting, it is thought, in its ascent a 
portion of the constituent salts of the subsoil 
below, in a soluble state, to the permanent 
increase of the fertility of tlie soil. The edi¬ 
tor of the American Agriculturist pictures 
most graphically the changes which follow 
where “ thorough drainage has been allow¬ 
ed to do its perfect work. The earth will 
be foimd to have become porous, loose, and 
friable. There is a telegraphic communi¬ 
cation established, not only between the sur¬ 
face and the remotest depths of the soil, but 
even between the air above and the air be¬ 
low it, which circulates through the drains. 
This is literally true, for the soil is now in 
condition to permit, and even invite and fa¬ 
vor those electrical operations and changes 
in the soil, which stimulate the plants and 
hasten and augment their development — 
Each of the under-drains are tunnels, thro’ 
which the air is constantly passing; and at 
no period of the year is the atmosphere so 
loaded with moisture, as during midsum¬ 
mer, when drouths most frequently prevail. 
It is thus capable of yielding the largest 
quantity to the soil, in its passage through 
it, a result which is found to follow, when¬ 
ever deep draining and subsoil plowing are 
practiced. When surrounding, undrained, 
shallow-plowed fields are parched with 
drouth, such adjoining ones as have been 
properly treated, are found almost saturated 
with a wholesome moisture; and the crops 
upon, them, under the double advantages 
of heat, and sufficient moisture, are stretch¬ 
ing away to the fullest perfection of their 
stature. The diflference in the average an¬ 
nual value of crops, raised on drained and 
undrained fields, is frequently five to one; 
and whenever their natural condition is such 
as imperatively to require drainage, it is 
seldom less than two to one.” 
No land is better suited to wheat than 
our clay soils, were it not for their retentive 
character, which causes their freezing-out in 
winter, and drying up in summer from the 
drouth, and the hard labor required in their 
proper preparation. The black-ash swamps, 
were they drained and subsoiled, would pro¬ 
duce the very heaviest growth of superior 
wheat, instead of wild grass and rushes as 
at present But the expense of thorough 
draining, is too great to allow its adoption 
in our country! It is not too great, if it can 
be proved to bring an immediate and heavy 
profit in the shape of extra product, repay- 
ing, as it has often done, the entire expense 
by the first year’s increase. It is not too 
great, if we can raise from one acre, well 
drained, what is yielded by two acres beside 
it undrained—for here, as the writer before 
quoted, pertinently observes, “ we have the 
same money received from the one acre as 
the two; and we have it, too, at a much less 
cost; for in the last, we have spent twice the 
labor in preparing, planting, cultivating, and 
harvesting and often more—twice the seed, 
twice the manure, twice the fencing, and 
twice the taxes. All these expenses may, 
and frequently do, on unprepared land, much 
exceed the value of the crop, wliile such as 
has been thoroughly drained, seldom fails 
to yield the most satisfactory returns. Thus 
one man may be annually growing poorer 
by his work, while another, more intelligent, 
considerate, and enterprising, may be grow¬ 
ing rich.” 
These considerations all come under the 
head of “ farming for profit,” and we hope 
will obtain due consideration from all who 
make that their object Let them read Mr. 
Dklafield’s essay on Thorough Draining, 
mentioned in our first paragraph, and con¬ 
sider whether they cannot make a profita¬ 
ble outly of even the large capital required 
—on a small scale if necessary at first—if 
they are thereby to gain the means for still 
farther improvements. n. 
of his neighbors more effectually by demon¬ 
stration, he commenced eradicating it from 
his soil and at the same time to keep it out 
by sowing only hand-picked seed. He 
found his chess diminish year by year until 
his wheat refused entirely to turn to chess, 
which stubbornness it still maintains. But 
another, who thinks himself equally as faith¬ 
ful, comes to a different result, and conse¬ 
quently a different conclusion. 
Now there must be error somewhere— 
in the observations, in the mode of conduct¬ 
ing the experiments, or in something else that 
leads to error in the conclusions of one side 
or the other, or possibly to some extent on 
both sides. 
If indeed it be an exception to the gen¬ 
eral law that wheat will produce chess, that 
exception like all other exceptions will be a 
law unto itself. To find the causes—the 
law that governs the exception is certainly 
worthy of careful, extensive and patient in¬ 
vestigation. To discover the causes would 
at once bring to light the remedy, which 
certainly would be of inestimable value to 
the agriculturist. And if indeed it be a 
fallacy, it would equally be a blessing to 
successfully explode that fallacy. 
A friend who has his doubts, suggests 
that if the change of wheat to chess be in¬ 
deed a fact, he can account for it on no 
other ground than that the wheat embryo 
becomes impregnated with the chess prin¬ 
ciple while in the blossom, and, that in cir¬ 
cumstances favorable to the development of 
chess, the fruit produces chess, and vice 
versa. But this seems at variance with the 
general law, though the writer remembers, 
when a lad, of pulling up a clump of chess 
on mucky new land, at the base of which 
and apparently from whence the stalks 
sprang, was a full sized wheat skin, preserv¬ 
ing the full appearance of the berry though 
its substance was all gone. 
The subject can be demonstrated and 
one side or other proved true by indisputa¬ 
ble experiments. If wheat has produced 
chess once, it will do it again, and experi¬ 
ments can substantiate it; if it has not, then 
all the art in the world cannot make a wheat 
kernel grow to chess. 
These experiments should be conducted 
with great care, by real seekers after knowl¬ 
edge—persons who are acquainted, to some 
extent, at least, with the laws governing 
vegetable physiology. They should be con¬ 
ducted too in different soils and in vai-ious 
localities, and carried on for years—until 
the matter is settled beyond all cavil. Ex¬ 
posure, winter-killing, impregnation or cross¬ 
ing and every thing that can affect the plants 
as they grow in our widely extended wheat 
districts, should be embraced in the range 
of experiments. When such a course shall 
be pursued, we may look to see the chess 
controversy fully and emphatically settled 
—and hardly until then. t. e. w. 
INTERESTING LETTER FROM VIRGINIA '! 
Friend Moore : — In answer to “ Onta- i 
rio’s” query respecting Religion and Edu- , 
cation, I can say that churches abound in I 
reasonable distances almost every where. — 11 
The prevaihng denominations are Episco- )| 
pali ms, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Metho- ) j 
dists, with a few Friends scattered here and } 
there. The people generally are exceed- ; 
ingly kind and hospitable, and every where / 
will welcome industrious and moral strang- ) 
ers, as new neighbors, most heartily. lam > 
■often told that a notion prevails at the North / 
that hard working men would not be re- } 
spected here, but nothing can be farther c 
from the truth. There is no part of our ? 
whole country, where they arc more respect- \ 
ed, or more desired and needed than here. \ 
In places remote from towns the popula- ' 
tion is too sparse to have public shools. In ( 
the towns and more thickly settled neigh- ^ 
borhoods, we have excellent schools. The 
State has a considerable and increasing ;; 
school fund, and the law provides for free j 
public schools, whenever a majority of the ■ 
inhabitants of any county desire it. I great- ■ 
ly desire that Northern farmers should se¬ 
lect locations, where their friends would 
settle with and around them; they might 
I then have their own schools, churches, <fec. S 
— and there are many places where this i 
can be done most advantageously. I know ^ 
of sections where ten to fifty families might ^ 
settle, either on contiguous farms or very - 
near together, and thus secure to themselves 
all the advantages so desirable to “Ontario.” - 
It seems to me, that with so many facili- ^ 
ties as this country possesses, of obtaining i 
at the smallest cost, all the comforts, as well 
as all the luxuries of life, those in search of \ 
new homes, if they knew' it thoroughly, 
would give it the preference over the new 
country in the ffir west, where they must 
encounter so many privations. In most in- ) 
stances, about one-half of the surface of the 
lands offered for sale, is cleared and ready \ 
for the plow ; the remainder in timber of ) 
yellow heart pine, (not pitch pine,) which is 
one of the most valuable for all building ( 
purposes — many of the trees are from two ^ 
to four feet over, and from fifty to seventy- \ 
five feet to the first limbs — white oak of < 
excellent quality, black oak, hickory, black \ 
walnut, maple, beech, tulip, poplar, sassa- I 
fras, dog wood, (fee., <fec. In the swamps ( 
the sweet and black gums attain great size, < 
and in some places the cypress abounds.— . 
There are few farms where, with good cul- < 
tivation, fifteen to thirty bushels of com per ^ 
acre, and ten to fifteen of wheat, could not ( 
be made in their present condition ; and I \ 
have often been surprised to see how small \ 
a dressing of any manure, but especially ^ 
marl, lime or guano, has increased the crops. < 
I am confident if “ Ontario” will make us a 
visit, and see the improvement upon some 
of the oldest and most abused lands in the 
State, he will be convinced that it is easier s 
and cheaper, to renovate these “ worn out I 
lands” than to clear up and prepare for cul- \ 
ture, any new lands in the west or else¬ 
where. ) 
Of “evil weeds” and “destructive in- ^ 
sects” we are not e.xempt, but I believe we ? 
are quite as free as any other portion of the ? 
United States. We have no Canada thistle, ( 
and I know of no weed which cannot be 
destroyed by tolerable management. From \ 
all the information I can obtain, I believe ^ 
the grain and grass crops are as certain, or ( 
as little liable to fiiUure here as in any other ( 
portion of our countiy. Our short and mild ( 
winters are most favorable to raising stock ( 
of cattle and sheep, and for dairy operations. < 
Immigrants are rapidly coming into the ( 
northern and vrestern counties of this State, ) 
while here a beginnmg only is made. I am | 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
(Late Publisher and Associate Editor Gen, Farmer .) 
L. B. LANGWORTHY, Associate Editor. 
Corresponding Editors: 
ELON COMSTOCK and T. C. PETERS. 
Educational Department by L. WETHERELL 
lUr’ For Terms, &c., see last page. ^ 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT, 
IINDERrDRAINING CLAY SOILS. 
In a late number of the Rural will be 
found practical directions as to the different 
modes of draining and their comparative 
cost and value, from the Transactions of 
the N. Y. State Agricultural Society for 
1848, which state also some of the many 
advantages resulting from carrying out a 
system of Thorough Draining, such as is prac¬ 
ticed in English and Flemish husbandry, 
and which has been introduced with admi¬ 
rable success in some parts of our own coun¬ 
try, We now propose to particularize some 
of the profits which will follow the under¬ 
draining of the clay soils, which form in some 
sections, a large part of the land under cul¬ 
tivation. 
These soils, in most instances, from a su¬ 
perabundance of water—having no outlet, 
save that of evaporation—are not fit for the 
plow until too late in the spring for sowing 
or planting, and when finally broken hp, it 
is only in lumps and clods of such a size as 
totally to preclude the idea of immediate 
cultivation. After months of exposure to 
the air, and repeated rollings an5 harrow- 
ings, they become partially pulverized, so 
that they may be sown, but only the action 
of the frosts of an entire winter can wholly 
bring the seed and soil into that contact re¬ 
quired for perfect germination. The rains 
of summer and autumn are but partially 
absorbed, and, cold and stagnant, prove most 
injurious to the crop; instead of refreshing 
and fertilizing, they bring barrenness—and 
all for want of the proper and profitable 
drainage. In land so prepared every rain 
that falls—its excess of moisture, at least— 
percolates rapidly and freely through the 
soil to the under-drains, imparting to the 
whole the warmth of the surface, the solu¬ 
ble manures abounding in rain water; and, 
living, active, not dead and stagnant, is fol¬ 
lowed by the the air, which also imparts its 
burden of vegetable food for the growth of 
the crop. Instead of disagreeable, labori¬ 
ous and unpaid work as before, the invest¬ 
ment of labor and capital proves a pleasant 
and profitable one, and soils which seemed 
only fit for the manufacture of brick become 
as mellow and fertile as need be. 
Why undrained clay soils are cold and 
coarse, instead of mellow and warm, admits 
of ready and reasonable explanation. The 
water which they contain, as we said before, 
has no outlet save that of evaporation. — 
Evaporation produces cold—it can be car¬ 
ried on so rapidly as to produce ice in a 
warm room—and, as the quantity of water 
evaporated, so is the coldness of the soil._ 
The same amount of water disposed of by 
filtration produces no change in the temper¬ 
ature, save to bring the subsoil to that of 
the surface, which is usually an increase in¬ 
stead of a decrease. 
Soils thus warmed, mellowed, and aired, 
by thorough draining, are ready for plowing 
and sowing in the spring as early as the 
climate will admit All the benefit of per¬ 
colation, ventilation, and the chemical chang¬ 
es resultant, are enjoyed, and the plant com¬ 
mences and continues its growth without 
interruption, either from rain or drouth.— 
TRANSMUTATION OF PLANTS. 
Do not readers of the Rural, imagine 
the writer of this has a desire to fan the 
embers of the chess discussion. His object 
in penning what follow.s, is not to set afloat 
any speculative theory, or to add, pro or 
con, to the discussion, but rather to induce 
a sucoessful search after the truth. To this 
end, therefore, he would offer an observa¬ 
tion or two. 
That there are those who firmly believe 
that certain plants will transmutate—that 
the seeds of one kind, under certain circum¬ 
stances, will produce the fruit of another— 
cannot be doubted. And, that there are 
those who deny in toto this doctrine, is also 
an equal fact. Both parties have their 
plausible reasons, yea, /'acts they will tell 
you, to support their views. Now one or 
the other must be wrong, for it is evident 
that both cannot be right 
Its advocates will point you to chess- 
abounding wheat fields, and tell you how 
much more the plant predominates in cold 
and wet seasons—arguing therefrom, that 
the “ winter killed” wheat has “ turned to 
chess;” and to further support their argu¬ 
ments, will tell you of fields where perfect¬ 
ly clean seed was sown, yet in the harvest, 
chess was found—of cases where mown and 
cattle-cropped wheat has yielded nothing 
but chess, and in fact of cases where it has 
been said that wheat and chess were found 
on the same head. These, with other facts 
and arguments, siJem to be conclusive for 
the affirmative side. 
On the other hand the opponents will fall 
back on the Bible declaration, that every 
herb and tree and plant is to produce seed 
after its own kind, and will tell you that the 
chess and wheat are plants of different ge¬ 
nera, and that it is a universal law of nature 
that plants of different genera will not cross, 
much less produce each other—that where 
species of the same genera do cross, they 
only produce varieties, such as we find in 
the corn, potato, apple, <fec. They will also tell 
you that many seeds, among which is the 
chess, possess a wonderful vital principle, 
remaining; in favorable circumstances, for 
years and years, without vegetating or los¬ 
ing any of their vegetative power—that the 
plant itself is a much hardier one than the 
wheat, delighting in cold, moist soils where 
wheat is sure to die—that the seeds may 
be dispei-sed in a thousand ways and lay 
dormant in the soil till the proper time shall 
come todevelope them, and that seed-wheat 
apparently clean Avill show many kennels of 
the chess upon a close examination, so that 
there are numberless ways by which the 
cheat may find its way into the field and 
falsify any general experiments. 
One farmer in my knowledge, who cul¬ 
tivates but a few acres, and who always 
makes it a point of doing a thing thorough¬ 
ly, remarks that many years ago he was a 
staunch believer in the doctrine of transmu¬ 
tation. He reasoned, he said, from appear¬ 
ances. But to convince himself and some 
Hard Coal Ashes. —Though Prof. Nor¬ 
ton thinks these may prove of value, as an 
application to the soil, a writer in the Jfass. 
Ploughman cautions farmers against their 
use for or with manure,—because of the 
oxide of iron, of which they are largely com¬ 
posed, which is very injurious to trees, and 
that their alkaline properties are so trifling 
as to be unworthy of preservation. Exper¬ 
iment will decide between them, and it is a 
question of some importance in the neigh¬ 
borhood of cities, while so many bushels 
are thrown away, if they turn out to be of 
any considerable value. c. 
Broom Corn — Inquiry .— Can you, or 
any of your readers, give the time of hai- 
vesting broom corn ? — Also, the manage¬ 
ment after cutting ? C. Britt. 
Penyville, Mad. Co., N. Y. 
