VOLUME 1. 
EOCHESTER, N. Y.,-THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1850. 
NUMBER 39. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 
OflSce in Bums’ Blocls, corner of Bnflhlo and State 
stToete, (entrance on State,) Rochester. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
(Lait Publisher and Associate Editor Gen. Fai'mer.) 
L, B. L.ANGWORTHY, As.sociate Editor. 
Corresponding Editors: 
ELON COxMSTOCK .\kd H. C. WHITE. 
Educational Dcpnrtniont by L. WETHEREI.L. 
Cf’ For Terms, &c., see last page. .O 
PROGRESS AIVD IMPROVEMEKT, 
AGRICULTURAL PREMIUMS. 
In the “ Rural” of last week, I stated as 
a matter of regret, the remissness of our 
agricultural friends, in bringing forward 
tlieir fine slock and products at the annual 
Fairs. That little or nothing was exhibited 
except in reference to the premiums, and 
even for this object, the present itions were 
comparatively small. A reason for this, sat¬ 
isfactory to my own mind, I could not then, 
and cannot now, assign. That benefits would 
result to the agricultural community, from 
an extensive exhibition and comparison of 
their valuable stock and products, seemed 
to me obvious. It would enlarge our ac¬ 
quaintance with the fine stock of the county, 
—its character, progress, and improvements. 
Would instruct us where the best stock was 
to be obtained; and excite and stimulate, to 
a laudable and profitable ambition to excel. 
It seemed to me, that farmers generally, 
must appreciate these suggestions; and of 
course, that alienation from some cause or 
other, not want of interest, must interpose 
to prevent general and extensive exhibitions. 
It may not be so; but the possibility that 
this is the fiict, induces me to make a sug¬ 
gestion on the subject of awards. 
Now I protest against being considered, 
as impugning the honorable feelings and 
motives of any who act as judges, however 
lightly 1 may esteem their decisions or judg¬ 
ments. It is no desirable thing, to be called 
upon to p.iss judgement upon animals, where 
there is scarcely a discernable difference,-^ 
and where the minutest discrimination, and 
the most careful, and nicest balancing of 
opinions and estimates, in regard to qualities 
and properties of oxc^'llence is needed, in 
order to attain a correct uccision. The case 
may occur, where even a single feature, in 
and of itself of very little consequence, may 
have to decide the preference in the mind 
of the judge. Now in all such cases, to be 
satisfactory to the public, the reasons for the 
decision should accompany the declaration 
of the award. 
Premiums are offered, for “ the best hor¬ 
ses, neat cattle, sheep and swine.” Now 
this word “ best,” is a great word. In this 
conne.xion, it has taken a wide latitude. It 
has been made to allow, a large margin.— 
Still, to be correct and just in its estimate 
and use, is presumed to be, the design and 
desire of the judge. In its application to 
liorses, 1 consider it of more difficult ap¬ 
prehension, than to any other stock. There 
enter into the character and composition of 
the liorse, so many items of value and ex¬ 
cellence, that to decide correctly and justly, 
as to the “ best,” is certainly of difficult at¬ 
tainment. 
In regard to horned cattle, a correct de¬ 
cision is less difficult. Their characteristics 
of excellence are less numerous, and more 
obvious to the eye. But even here, there 
is great reason to distrust the judgement— 
Can the owner of a particular breed, confide 
in the impartiality of a judge, who has re¬ 
vealed the strength of his prejudices, in the 
declaration, “ that he would^iiot tolerate one 
of that breed on his farm.” Yet such has 
been the fact And this feeling, whether 
expressed or not, would disqualify a man to 
act ns a juror. There are now no less than 
five breeds of imported cattle, each of which 
has its friends and admirers. And a pre¬ 
mium is offered for the “ best ” of any of 
these breeds. Now, when a premium is 
thus offered, the judges have no business 
to decide which is the best breed—hut 
which is the best animal of those submit¬ 
ted to their inspection and decision. And 
“ best” embraces the circumstance of age, 
size, form, proportions, productiveness, beau¬ 
ty of color, and any other item yielding gain, 
and contributing to intrinsic value, irrespec¬ 
tive of “ breed.” And what cannot be as¬ 
certained by the eye, must be received up¬ 
on credible testimony. And in all such 
cases, where to the eye of the common ob¬ 
server there seems no difference, the reasons 
of the preference should accompany and 
explain the decision. 
So also in regard to sheep. There are 
different breeds of fine wool sheep. We 
have at the present time, Saxons, and Span¬ 
ish and French Merinos, all excellent of 
their kinds, and pure as imported; and each 
has its admirers and advocates. Now a 
premium is offered for “ the best fine wool 
buck;” and “ for the best fine wool ewes.” 
Under this offer, it is not the province of 
the judges to decide which is the best breed 
—the Saxon or the Merino—the Faular or 
the Escuriel; but which is the best animal 
of tho‘'C submitted to the ordeal—the best, 
as a “fine wool” animal. And wlit-rc a 
premium is offered for the best animal pro¬ 
ducing fine wool, in distinction from middling 
or coarse wool, a mind free from bias to¬ 
wards any particular breed, and taking a 
fair common sense view of the subject, can 
very correctly decide what is intended by 
“ the best” 
Now under the offer for “ the best fine 
wool buck,” suppose the premium to be 
awarded to the large, homely, “ Paular Me¬ 
rino,” yielding “nine pounds of wool”— 
with his huge dewlap and its folds, so de¬ 
testable to the shearer, and coarse hairs 
around the neck and hind quarters—against 
forty large Saxons, with their fine forms, 
smooth necks, thick soft line fleeces, and 
not a hair visible from horn to hoof. Their 
fleeces, through decidedly finest, reach only 
to six or seven pounds, while the “Paular” 
reaches to nine pounds; and of coume they 
fail of the prize. Now I utter the words of 
truth and soberness when I say, one hun¬ 
dred dollars would not induce me, as a 
grower of fine wool, to admit such an ani¬ 
mal to one hundred super Saxon ewes, pro¬ 
vided I am required to keep the increase as j 
a part of my stock. If the award is, be¬ 
cause he is a Merino and not a Saxon; it is 
travelling out of the record. If because 
his size, or his fleece, is largest, it is not 
within the offer. If because his fleece is 
the finest, it is not correct, for such is not 
the fact. Now, however lightly I might es¬ 
teem the decision, and however much it 
might derogate from my estimate of the 
judge, I still need not necessarily attribute 
to him a wrong motive, but an error as to 
the grounds upon which the decision should 
be based. 
Although decisions similar in character 
to the above, may justly alienate and pre¬ 
vent patrons of the Society from oftering 
for premiums, they should still not prevent 
them from uniting heart and Inind, in pro¬ 
moting annually large, genera], and splen¬ 
did exhibitions. The welfare of the country 
rests upon the progress and improvement of 
the agricultural interest. And nothing can 
so promote this interest as the ambition to 
excel, excited by the exhibitions of well 
conducted agricultural associations, 
A Farmer, 
The sleeping fox catches no poulhy. 
PASTURES AND MEADOWS OF THE 
ANCIENT ROMANS. 
The July number of the Tjondon Quar- 
terly Review contains an interesting account 
of “ Ancient Agricultural Literature,” 
which presents many curious details of the 
farming practices of the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans. Wc have condensed for the readers 
of the Rural a few paragraphs on grazing, 
etc. 
As to pasturing, the details are few, but 
it is a pursuit much commended by the wri¬ 
ters, on the characteristic ground that it 
calls for little outlay. Columella reports 
Cato to have answered the inquiry—How 
a man could get rich (quickest by farming ? 
‘By being a good grazier.’ How next?— 
‘ By being a middling grazier.’ “ I regret,” 
says Columella, “ that to the inquiry re¬ 
peated a third time so wise a man should 
have replied, ‘ By being a bad graziei-,’ 
though as to bis second ansiyer there can 
be no doubt that middling grazing is more 
profitable than the best management in any 
other lino of agriculture.” Pliny discredits 
the last response, and says Cato’s purpose 
was to inculcate that we should depend on 
those returns which were got at the least 
expense. 
Meadows are included in the same com¬ 
mendation. They were called by the an¬ 
cients “ joraia quasi parata ” as being al¬ 
ways ready to produce without culture.— 
If you have water, says Cato, make water 
meadows rather than anything. If you 
have no water make dry meadows. Mi 
mite directions are given for irrigation.— 
Too much water is said to be as objection¬ 
able as too little. “ No doubt,” says Colu¬ 
mella, “ the natural grass which a rich up 
land produces will make finer hay than any 
you got by watering; but from their land, 
whether it is stiff' or light, watering is the 
only way in which you can get a crop.” — 
Pliny particularly recommends to turn over 
your meadows any water which runs from 
a highway. 
Columella and Palladius give precise 
instructions for renewing hassocky and mos¬ 
sy meadows by the plow. You will get 
tine corn crops from them after their long- 
rest. They are to be plowed and well sum¬ 
mer-worked, and sown in autumn with tur¬ 
nips or beans, and the next year with corn. 
In the third year they are to be very care¬ 
fully worked till every weed and root is ex¬ 
tirpated, and then sown with vetches and 
hay-seeds,’(the hay-seeds, says Pliny, may 
be collected from the hay-lofts and man¬ 
gers,) and the vetches are not to be cut till 
they have shed a part of their seed. The 
laud must be worked quite fine and even 
with hoes and clod-crushers, fit for the 
scythe. The water is then to be laid on, 
but very gently, if the surface is loose, be¬ 
cause a force of water would wash the soil 
from the roots of the gniss, and spoil the 
turf. For the same reason, cattle may not 
come upon it. In the second year if the 
ground is dry enough, small catttle may be 
admitted after the hay is cut, and if it had 
become very firm the larger cattle in the 
I third. If you wish for a full ciop of hay 
you must clear your early and weak mead¬ 
ows of cattle in January. Land less sub¬ 
ject to burn may be pastured till February 
or March. Green manure mi.xed with hay¬ 
seeds should be applied in the former month 
to such parts as cannot be watered. It 
seems probable that Roman meadows were 
ill-drained; hence the evil of treading them 
with cattle. Pigs were also interdicted on 
account of their rooting propensities. 
The Romans frequently mowed their 
meadows twice, first in May, and secondly 
in August or September, and watered them 
between the mc-w’.ngs. They mixed the 
second crop with oak and elm leaves, and 
used it as fodder for sheep. That the crops 
were large appears probable from the pre¬ 
scribed day’s work in mowing—some 2^ 
tons to the acre, perhaps. All the writers 
prescribe that the grass should be cut be¬ 
fore the seed is ripe, and before the 
stalk has become dry. Pliny boasts of 
a discovery of whetstones which would 
.sharpen a scythe with water—oil stones 
having been used before, and every mow¬ 
er having a horn of that liniment tied 
to his leg. The Italians used short, the 
Gauls long scythes. Every maxim of hay¬ 
making now known is diligently set forth; 
precautions against rain, agaipst under 
sweating, and over heating, Pliny suppo¬ 
ses that when hay is got too green the sun 
.sets the ricks on fire. All this far from ex¬ 
hausts the subject, as treated upon in An¬ 
cient Agricultural Literature. b. 
CARE OF YOUNG STOCK. 
The first ivinter is the most trying time 
for young animals, and farmers should pay 
extra care to their health and comfort They 
ought to have the open air as much as pos¬ 
sible ; and it is well to let them have con¬ 
venient shelter during the storms, except in 
very stormy weather, when they ought to j 
be put into close warm stables. They ought 
not to be confined in yards with older cattle,! 
for fear of goring them, and they have not * 
such a good chance for their food. They 
should be fed regularly, and ha\e a chance 
to the water. 
In addition to hay, lambs and calves 
ought to be fed regularly with a small por¬ 
tion of roots, except in extremely cold 
weather. As for colts, they ought to be 
fed daily with ground feed, mixed with clo¬ 
ver heads or chaflj which I think is prefer¬ 
able to oats or any other whole feed. They 
ought never to stand on a board floor, as it 
causes ringbone. 
When I was a boy, I lived in Orange 
county, learning a trade; my employer used 
to keep four horses; two stalls in the barn, 
one with a plank floor and the other witli a 
ground floor. In the winter, when the hor¬ 
ses were not much used, those that stood 
on the plank floor were much stitter in their 
limbs or joints when they came out of the 
stable than those that stood on the ground 
floor. Since I have been a farmer, living 
on Long Island these last twenty years, I 
used the ground floor for horses and colts; 
and I like it better than the plank floor, ex¬ 
cept the saving of the manure and the urine 
which is wasted. I went to sea after I serv¬ 
ed out my apprenticeship in Orange county, 
as the second war with England had just 
broke out, and I had entered the service of 
the navy as a midshipman, which service I 
staid in for eighteen years; and after the 
war, I was on the South-Sea Station; and 
while on that station I had a great deal to do 
with horses, as there are a great many in 
South America, I saw a great many and 
rode a vast number. I found them very 
nimble of foot, their hoofs hard. I was in¬ 
formed by the owners that they stood on 
the ground floors, and that they liked it bet¬ 
ter than a hard one; and that.their horses’ 
food was barley and barley straw; for that 
was all they gave them. The horses were 
in good condition.— Agriculturist. 
Hogs and Beef Cattle in Ohio. —An 
abstract of the assessors for 1850, of the 
number of hogs and beef cattle assessed for 
taxation in thirty counties in this State, is 
published in the hist number of Smith’s 
Price Current, as supplied from the Audi¬ 
tor’s Office at Columbus. According to this 
statement, the whole number of hogs in the 
thirty counties is 706,892, whereas last year 
it wjis 801,282, and in the year before 767,- 
306. Of beef cattle, the entire number in 
tliese counties this year is 396,110. Last 
season it wsis 388,391, and the season be¬ 
fore 360,849.— Cincinnati Oaz. 
THE DAIRY INTEREST OF NEW YORK 
NUMBER 1. 
The “ Empire” has been long markM as 
a grain growing State. She has a world 
wide renown in her unsurpassable “ Gene¬ 
see Flour,” the product of her rich and 
highly cultivated fields. She has long fur¬ 
nished thousands of fine cattle, sheep and 
horses, not only for use at home, but a sur¬ 
plus for town markets. It is comparatively 
but a short time since any considerable at¬ 
tention has been given to Dairying. 
A large portion of the State has been 
decided to be well adapted, not only to 
grazing, but to dairy productions in all 
their variety. From the inquiries heard on 
every hand, there would seen to be no set¬ 
tled system upon which the dairy is to be 
conducted. 
We are familiar with the reputation of 
Orange County butter, and have read that 
certain persons in other sections of the 
State succeeded in making butter which 
could well vie with any “ Goshen” ever 
produced. More, many more of us are but 
too familiar with the poor butter with which 
the greater portion of our country is filled. 
While butter from a few select counties al¬ 
ways commands from 20 to 25 cents per 
pound, it is lamentable to know that more 
than half of the butter going to the New 
j York market falls short of netting one shil¬ 
ling. It is not reasonable to suppose that 
a few counties in the eastern and southern 
portions of the State are so much better 
adapted to butter making than the other 
counties, or other States, as to make so great 
a difference in their products. All butter 
from Orange is not of first class; so also 
much butter from other parts of the State 
is of fair quality. 
As it costs no more to produce good than 
bad or indifferent articles, cannot there bo 
sufficient knowledge collected and dissemi¬ 
nated to enable any of the good housewives 
having a few cow.s, to make butter that shall 
n ;ver sell for less than 20 cents? The best 
butter dairies of the State, churn the milk. 
Considerable inquiry Inis not elicited the in¬ 
formation, whether it is churned when new 
and sweet, or when soured. Theory upon 
these subjects is often valuable, but the 
plain matter of experiment and experience 
would be more satisfactory. The detail of 
daily practice of some of the dairies devo¬ 
ted exclusively to butter would be very use¬ 
ful, and it is to be hoped some one having 
the requisite knowledge will favor the public 
with the results of experience, ii. c. w. 
BREEDING ANIMALS, 
The principles of breeding animals have 
rather been illustrated than discovered by 
animal physiology—the very principles of 
that science having been taught before a 
single scientific axiom had been applied. 
The w’atching of physiological tendencies, 
and availing themselves of these judiciously 
in practice, wais long anterior to scientific 
research. Emulating the skill of the wily 
progenitor of the Jewish race, and intelli¬ 
gently perceiving what was required, a Gul¬ 
ley and a Bakewell attempted and attained 
the production of sheep, and of cattle “ring- 
streaked, spotted and speckled,” at pleasure. 
Seeing the necessity of economizing food, 
they set about producing these animals 
which came to maturity early, and so pro¬ 
duced vastly more food from the same, 
amount of vegetation. Knowing that fat 
was an element of favor in a northern clime, 
they endeavored to ob’ain animals with a 
tendency to secrete it in large quantities.—, 
In order to do this, they observed the qual¬ 
ities indicative of these propensities; and 
knowing that it is as true in physiology as 
in mathematics, that like produces like, they; 
selected and bred from these untiji they’ 
stamped their qualities permanently,and in-] 
variably and indelibly on the race. Withj 
these they managed to conabine sytMftotry 
• of form.—i^ar. Mag. 
