MOOKE’S RUEAl KEW-YORKEE: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
ROOT CROPS. 
When cellar room is not sufficient and 
convenient, beets, carrots and bagas may be 
buried in the field. They should in all ca¬ 
ses be put in long, narrow trenches a foot 
deep, and covered only about half as thick 
wit^ earth as potatoes require, and should 
have inserted in the top, every six feet, a 
twist of straw as a ventilator or they will 
either grow or rot. If plenty of straw is 
used and but little earth, they are readily 
got at during any warm spell in winter. 
Bagas require less covering than any of 
the above, except the white turnip, which 
will keep nice thickly covered with the green 
tops, without any earth. 
The white turnip is almost useless for the 
table after January, as it grows porous and 
pithy, and persons who are fond of that 
vegetable at dinner should substitute the 
baga or some of the yellow flat varieties.— 
They are a fine succulent food for young 
cattle during winter, and for sheep, except 
for ewes about lambing time. Store hogs 
may be kept on bagas, and milch cows thrive 
on carrots—as will horses nearly equal to a 
feed of oats. 
PUMPKINS AND PUMPKIN PIES. 
Ed. Rural New-Yorker :—Inasmuch 
as Thanksgiving is so nearly approaching, I 
fancy you will permit me to give your read¬ 
ers a chapter on pumpkins and pumpkin 
pies. When I inform you that I am a na¬ 
tive of old Connecticut, you will readily al- 
allow me to claim, by birth-right, some 
taste in the matter, and it will be a reason 
why I am apparently so willing to eat the 
best I can get. 
On the opening of spring I determined 
within myself during the season to ascer¬ 
tain by experiment which kinds of pump¬ 
kins were the best for pies. Accordingly, 
by the aid of the mail and kind friends from 
Now England to Michigan, I soon gathered 
a few of a goodly number of kinds, which 
matured in due season, and during the past 
two months have been under repeated tri¬ 
als in my own and other families. 
We soon passed judgment- on the field 
pumpkins and the mammoth pumpkins from 
the Fairs; but as we narrowed down the 
number which, on trial and comparison, 
proved vastly superior, we found our diffi¬ 
culties increase, until now, I am unable to 
give an opinion as to which one of the three 
best kinds will prove the best. Another 
season, if they all perfectly mature, will 
probably enable us to determine the ques¬ 
tion. That either of the three are vastly 
superior to our common pumpkin no person 
who proves them will doubt. I will describe 
them. 
First—the “Cape Cod Sugar Pumpkin,” 
is a rather small and long pumpkin, of a 
dark green color when ripe ; the meat is 
very thick, tender and sweet. The second 
is the “Guinea Pumpkin”—the favorite 
pumpkin for pies among many of the con¬ 
noisseurs of New England, one of whom 
kindly sent, as per request, 14 seeds in a 
letter. The vine is a luxuriant grower and 
prolific; the pumpkin rather small and 
round, of a bright orange when fully ripe, 
exceedingly fine grained and tender, and 
many prefer the flavor to either of the 
others. Thd^ird is the “ Cheese Pump¬ 
kin,” a mottled flat pumpkin of veiy ten¬ 
der flesh and rich flavor. Some think it 
partakes rather too much of the flavor of 
the winter squashes, but it is certainly very 
fine. 
Had they all matured equally well this 
season, we could probably have passed 
judgment on them, and selected the best 
We are exceedingly pleased with a new 
squash I introduced here last spring, from 
a few seeds presented to me by Mr. Tiior- 
BURN of New York, called the “Polk 
Squash.” It is a small, dark green squash, 
say one foot long by 4 inches in diameter, 
but the flesh is very thick, dry, of fine fla¬ 
vor, and keeps well. 
It is well worthy of a little attention to 
obtain and cultivate the best varieties of our 
wholesome vegetables, and a few careful 
experiments in any neighborhood will serve 
to introduce the approved kinds into notice. 
Falmyra, N. Y., Nov., 1850. u. g. p. 
Remark.— The writer of the above is 
entitled to the thanks of all readers interest¬ 
ed—and they are neither “ few nor far be¬ 
tween,” for who among them hath so poor 
a palate as not to relish an A, 1 pumpkin 
pie?—in return for his experiments, and for 
giving the result -of the same. 
THE HEN FEVER. 
Under this heading. Brother Allen talks 
like a book in the Nov. number of the Ag¬ 
riculturist. Such open and honest condem¬ 
nation of humbug is creditable and to the 
point—particularly where, in cases like this, 
a different course might subserve the inter¬ 
est of the writer. We adopt the article en¬ 
tire, as follows: 
It is surprising to witness the working of 
this fashionable we had nearly written fool¬ 
ish fever. The yellow fever and cholera 
may be more fatal; the “ grippe,” or broken- 
bone fever, harder to bear, but the “hen 
fever ” is making the most fools, and engulf¬ 
ing the most money, particularly in New 
England; and we judge from numerous let¬ 
ters lately received from our friends at the 
south, that they are getting a touch of it 
even there. Our orders for Shanghaes, 
Chittagongs, Cochin-Chinas, Plymouth 
Rocks, and half a dozen other puffed-up, 
worthless breeds of fowls, whose strong 
points of recommendation consist solely of 
long legs and necks, big heads, bodies mea- 
gerly covered with coarse flesh, and as des¬ 
titute of beauty as the specimen denoted 
by the cut below, are numerous, but these 
will all remain unanswered; for we have no 
idea of being mixed up with the miserable 
humbug in the hen tracje,. which is kept 
alive by a class of papers which might be 
better employed. The public look to the 
agricultural press for truth, instead of de¬ 
ception and twaddle. 
\ » 
4iA' 
•'irMfc;:- 
Ardea Minor. 
Breeders who live upon the gullibility of 
the public keep this fever alive, by means 
of publications, in such papers as will lend 
themselves to the henhms^s, arid by poul¬ 
try books, got up on purpose to assist them 
to sell their great, overgrown, long-legged, 
crane-necked, big-headed abortions, not one 
of which is worth half so much to the farmer, 
as the old stock of Javas, Malays, or their 
crosses, the Bucks-county and Jersey Blues, 
which can be bought at ^ moderate price. 
We understand, that from 820 to 8100 a 
pair is the asking price of these “ great 
poultry breeders,” who know no more of 
the true merits of a fowl, than they do about 
the hen roost of the emperor of China, or 
the duck pond of the Great Mogul. 
We are sorry to see respectable agricul¬ 
tural papers, like some we might name in 
Boston, engaged in such small business as 
puffing these miserable bipeds, (feathered or 
featherless,) into notice. We can assure 
them that their columns could be much 
better occupied than in such humbugging 
and fold foolery. They may be-praise or 
be-foul such as they please; but after all 
is said and done, the best and most profit¬ 
able for the farmer to keep, is the Dorking, 
or a good common kind, of medium size, 
like the old fashioned speckled Dominique, 
the latter of which can be bought for 50 
cents to 8l per pair. Such fowls can pick 
up their own living in the farm-yard ;,they 
want neither cosseting nor stuffing, they can 
take care of themselves. 
PREPARING POULTRY FOR MARKET. 
A PERSON who has for years been engag¬ 
ed in furnishing the various kinds of poul¬ 
try to the market dealers of our principal 
cities, says:— 
“ If you want to prepare your poultry in 
the nicest manner for the market, so that it 
shall invariably secure the best price, ob¬ 
serve the following rules, viz: — 
First .—Fat them well and allow them 
to remain in the pens 24 hours previous to 
being killed. Then when you kill them, 
instead of chopping their heads off, run a 
small penknife into the jugular vein by the 
side of the neck, just under the jowls.— 
Then hold them while bleeding, and pick 
them immediately; picking off the wing 
feathers as well as the others, while warm. 
Then let the head remain on; let the crop 
alone, but cut a small hole just large enough 
to permit the removal of the intestines. Do 
not remove the gizzard from its place, but 
if the fowl be very fat, you make a larger 
hole, turn the leaves out, and fasten them 
with a small skewer. When prepared in 
this way, your poultry will be much nicer, 
and entitled to better price than when 
butchered in the ordinary way.” 
WHEAT VARIETIES. 
We cannot but think there is some mis¬ 
take in the following estimate. Forty grains 
to the head of our wheat is more than a 
fair average. ' That a head of wheat should 
have 110 grains — that is, nearly twenty 
setts on each side—is spreading on the 
marvellous rather thick. It is like Paddy’s 
description of his country, that, “ the days 
were longer, brighter, and, by the powers* 
there was more of them!” If each head 
contains 110 kernels, one bushel sowing 
would produce 110 bushels—and a bushel 
and a half, 165 bushels. There is some 
fallacy about the statements, and so it will 
result: 
From the National Intelligencer. 
We mentioned some weeks ago that 
Lieut W. D. Porter, then just from the 
Mediterranean, had placed in our hands for 
distribution a small quantity of several 
kinds of Italian wheat Being lately on a 
visit to some friends in Maryland, he, aided 
by several experienced wheat-growers of 
the neighborhood, instituted a comparison 
between the yield and weight of the Italian 
wheat and the native grain of this region 
of country, and he has furnished us Avith 
the annexed statement of the result: 
WHEATS COMPARED. 
The following scale shows the number of 
grains which is required to make an equal¬ 
ity of the different qualities of wheat: 
Italian Macaroni, 100 grs. 135 grs. best 
American. 
Italian Prolific, 100 grs. equal 152 grs. 
best American. 
Italian White, 100 grs. equal 150 grs. 
best American. 
The best American Avheat averages 40 
grs. to the head. 
The Italian Prolific averages 110 grs. to 
the head. • 
Difference—76 grs. 
Weight of a bushel of American wheat, 
measured, 60 lbs. 
AYeight of Italian Prolific, 68 lbs. 
Difference—8 lbs. 
AYeightof 20 bushels of American wheat, 
1,200 lbs. 
AA^eight of 20 bushels of Italian Prolific 
wheat, 1,360 lbs. 
Difference in 20 bushels, 160 lbs. 
The difference per head is 70 grs., which 
makes each stock of Prolific wheat very 
nearly three times as productive as the best 
American. Supposing that the same num¬ 
ber of stalks of Prolific was grown per acre 
as American wheat, it would bring sixty 
measured bushels of grain to thp apm; al¬ 
lowing 68 lbs to each measured bushel, Avo’d 
make this dift’erence: i 
Prolific,. 4,080 
American,. 1,200 
Pounds difference,. 2,880 | 
One hundred acres sown to wheat would 
produce by this calculation,— . 
Prolific,. 6,800 bushels. 
American,. 2,000 “ 
Difference,. 4,800 “ 
In connection with the above, we beg to 
repeat in answer to numerous recent appli¬ 
cations from a distance, that the samples of 
Avheat and other foreign grains deposited 
with us by Lieut. Porter, were immediately 
distributed in small quantities to prior ap¬ 
plicants. We have the pleasure, however, 
to inform those gentlemen Avhom we cannot 
ourselves supply, that Lieut. Porter placed 
in the hands of tlie several Senators of the 
Avheat growing States, supplies for distribu¬ 
tion at home. He also deposited a supply 
with the Secretary of the Navy for the 
same purpose, who will doubtless have plea¬ 
sure in furnishing applicants with supplies. 
We can add, also, that small supplies of 
of the, “ Coade Wheat ” may be obtained on 
application to the Commissioner of Patents. 
To Cure a Foundered Horse. —The 
following remedy for founder has been fur¬ 
nished us by Mr. S. L. Marshall, of She¬ 
boygan Falls, Wis., who recommends it as 
unfailing. Take a gill of black mustard 
seed, ground, and add to half a pint of vin¬ 
egar (or whiskey in absence of vinegar) and 
give to the horse. Then put him in action 
for an hour or two, or until he sweats thor¬ 
oughly. This remedy should be used with¬ 
in 48 hours from the time the horse is 
founiiered. 
Potatoes. —Notwithstanding the great 
destruction of potatoes by the rot in most 
parts of the country, the market here is 
pretty well supplied, though at rather high 
prices. Potatoes are brought into the mar¬ 
ket from the provinces east, from the region 
around Lake Champlain, from Noav Jersey, 
and various other sections, Avhere the rot 
was not vei 7 severe. Apples, turnips, beets, 
carrots, and squashes are generally plenty, 
and are very good substitutes for the pota¬ 
to. Sweet potatoes are plenty in our 
market, and some persons prefer them to 
the common potato.— N. E. [Boston) Far¬ 
mer, Nov. 9. 
Dress — external gentility, frequently 
used to disguise internal vulgarity. 
THE FAVORITE POISON OF AMERICA. 
Under the above title Mr. Downing gives 
us one of his piquantly written leaders, in 
the last number of the Horticulturist. We 
make a ffiw extracts—Avhich at this season 
of the year are especially important: 
“ The national poison is nothing less than 
than the vitiated air of dose stoves and the 
unventilated apartments that accompany 
them. * * * * 
However healthy a person may bo, he 
can neither look healthy, nor remain in 
sound health long, if he is in the habit of 
breathing impure air. As sound health de¬ 
pends upon pure blood, and there can be no 
pure blood in one’s veins if it is not repuri¬ 
fied continually by the action of fresh air 
upon it, through the agency of the lungs 
(the Avhole purpose of breathing being to 
purify and vitalize the blood,) it follows, 
that if a nation of people will, from choice, 
live in badly ventilated rooms, full of impure 
air, they must become pale and salloAv in 
in complexions. It may not largely affeet 
the health of the men, Avho are more or less 
called into the open air by their avocations, 
but the health of women, [ergo the consti¬ 
tutions of children,) and all those who are 
confined to rooms or offices heated in this 
Avay, must gradually give Avay under the 
influence of the poison. Hence the delica¬ 
cy of thousands and ten thousands of the 
sex in America^' 
‘And hoAv can you satisfy me,’ asks 
some blind loA’^er of stoves, ‘ that the air of 
a room heated by a close stove is delete¬ 
rious?’ Very easily indeed, if you Avill lis¬ 
ten to a fcAv Avords of reason. 
It is Avell established that a healthy man 
must have about a pint of air at a breath; 
that he breathes above a thousand limes in 
an hour; and that, as a matter beyond dis¬ 
pute, he requires ahonififty-seven hogsheads 
of air in tAventy-four hours. 
Besides this, it is equally well settled, 
that as common air consists of a mixture of 
two gases, one healthy (oxygen,) and the 
other unhealth)^ (nitrogen,) the air Ave have 
once breathed, having, by passing through 
the lungs, been deprived of most of the 
healthful gas, is little less than unmi>.ed poi¬ 
son (nitrogen.) 
Now, a room, Avarmed by an open fire¬ 
place or grate, is necessarily more or less 
ventilated, by the very procesof combustion 
going on; because as a good deal of the air 
of the room goes up the chimney, besides 
the smoke and vapor of the fire, a corres¬ 
ponding amount of fresh air comes in at 
the Avindows and door crevices to supply 
its place. The room, in other Avords, is tol¬ 
erably Avell supplied with fresh air for 
breathing. 
But let us take the case of a room heated 
by a close stove. The chimney is stopped 
up, to begin with. The room is shut up.—■ 
The windows are made pretty tight to keep 
out the cold; and as there is very little air 
carried out of the room by the stove-pipe, 
(the stove is perhaps on the air tight prin¬ 
ciple—that is, it requires the minimum 
amount of air,) there is little fresh air com¬ 
ing in through the crevices to supply any 
vacuum. Suppose the room holds 300 hogs¬ 
heads of air. If a single person requires 57 
hogsheads of fresh air per day, it Avould 
last four persons but about twenty-four 
hours, and the stove Avould require half as 
much more. But as a man renders noxious 
as much again air as he expires from his 
lungs, it actually happens that in four or 
five hours all the air in this room has been 
either breathed over, or is so mixed with the 
impure air Avhich has been over, that it is 
all thoroughly poisoned, and unfit for health- 
fid respiration. A person with his senses 
unblunted, has only to go into an ordinary 
unventilated room, heated by a stove, to 
perceive at once, by the effect on the lungs, 
how dead, stifled, and destitute of all elas¬ 
ticity the air is. 
And this is the air which four-fifths of 
our countrymen and countrywomen breathe 
in their homes,—not from necessity but 
from choice! 
This is the air Avhich those who travel by 
hundreds of thousands in our railroad cars, 
closed up in winter, and heated with close 
stoves, breathe for hours—or often entire 
days. 
This is the air Avhich fills the cabins of 
closely packed steamboats, always heated 
by large stoves, and only half ventilated; 
the air breathed by countless numbers— 
both waking or sleeping. 
This is the air—no, this is even salubri¬ 
ous compared with the air—that is breath¬ 
ed by hundreds and thousands in almost all 
our croAvded lecture-rooms, concert-rooms, 
public halls, and private assemblies, all over 
the country. They are nearly all heated 
by stoves or furnaces, with very imperfect 
ventilation, or no ventilation at all. 
Is it too much to call it the national poi¬ 
son, this continual atmosphere of close 
stoves, which, Avhether travelling or at home, 
we Americans are content to breathe, as if 
it were the air of Paradise ? * 
*We liave said that the present generation of 
stove-reared farmer’s daugliters are pale and deli¬ 
cate in appearance. We may add, tliat the most 
healthy and blooming looking American women are 
those of certain families where exercise, and fresh 
air, and ventilation, are matters of conscience and 
duty here as "in Europe. 
What is to be done ? ‘Americans will 
have stoves.’ They suit the country, es¬ 
pecially the new country; they are cheap, 
labor-saving, clean. If the more enlight¬ 
ened and better informed throw them aside, 
the great bulk of the people will not— 
Stoves are, we are told, in short, essentially 
democratic and national. 
W^e answer, let us ventilate our rooms, 
and learn to liv'e more in the open air. If 
our countrymen will take poison in, with 
every breath which they inhale in their 
houses and and all their public gatherings, 
let them dilute it largely, and they may es¬ 
cape from a part, at least, of the evils of 
taking it in such strong doses. * * 
Pale countrymen and countrywomen, 
rouse yourselves! Consider that God has 
given us an atmosphere of pure, salubrious, 
health-giving air, 45 miles high, and— ven¬ 
tilate your houses.” 
A GOOD IDEA, 
Dr Blake, in his “ Farmer’s Every Day 
Book,” after recommending eA'ery farmer to 
take a Aveekly secular, an agricultural, and 
a religious paper as Avell as to buy good 
books occasionally, adds the folloAving:— 
“ An objection is at once made that the 
expense cannot be endured; and possibly 
that there is no leisure for all this reading. 
As for the latter, a plump contradiction is 
interposed. There is time for it, and much 
besides. The pecuniary means are easily 
provided. Let every farmer appropriate 
the produce of half an acre—if he has a 
large farm, an acre, for literary purposes— 
for the education and mental improA'’ement 
of his fiimily. Let it be Avell tilled, Avell 
manured, and planted Avith potatoes, corn, 
cabbage, Avheat, oats, or Avhatever Avill give 
the best crop. Let it be understood, that 
the profits are not to be touched for any¬ 
thing else, and you may depend upon it, 
there Avill be no neglect in its supervision. 
No more will a Aveed be found upon it than 
upon a MacAdam turnpike. The Avomen of 
the family Avill Avatch its growth; the boys 
Avill keep their hoes bright as swords and 
bayonets, in destroying Avhatever should be 
removed. The profits on this half aero Avill 
certainly be 8l5. Here, then, in a district 
of six families, aaIU be 890 to be expended 
in mental culture; 85 to each family in pay¬ 
ing for the periodicals above named, and 810 
to each for the purchase of interesting and 
useful books! Let the three hundred ag¬ 
ricultural families of a toAvn containing, it 
may be, from three to four thousand inhab¬ 
itants—a fair equation—do this, and in ten 
years, when the children are grown to adult 
stature, what a change Avill their society ex¬ 
hibit! Think of it, reader! Make a be¬ 
ginning ! The example, under proper in¬ 
ducements, Avill spread like wildfire.” 
THE ARCTIC FLORA. 
The Tribune has some interesting letters 
from E. K. Kane of the American Arctic 
Expedition, who ipeaks as follows of the 
Flora of lat. 76. North: 
Now out of the ground —the space upon 
which I stood in the little meadow of the 
cove—can you realize it ?—in beds border¬ 
ed and lined with thick moss and horny 
lichens, an Arctic Flora raised itself full of 
modest variety and beauty. 
Under the stimulus of the short but ar¬ 
dent Summer here, A^egetation quickens to 
an extent beyond conception. Man himself 
is conscious of effort, and strong effort, too, ’ 
Avhen he constrains himself to recurring al¬ 
ternations of repose, under the nervous 
stimulus of constant light. But the Arctic 
Plant has no will to set against the nearly 
unceasing operations pf the chemical pro¬ 
cesses which constitute vitality; 'the absorp¬ 
tion of carbonic acid (always in excessan 
those high latitudes) goes on steadily; the 
solar ray calls continually for its oxygen, and 
the poor plant sleeps little. 
Yet I Avas surprised at their extreme lux¬ 
uriance and variety. I had looked for some 
marks of vegetation, even in this high lati¬ 
tude; but here were gentians, rannacule, 
and anemones of extreme beauty, mingled 
with coarse grasses and close matted crawl¬ 
ing willows. Wait till you see my collec¬ 
tions from this locality, s 
Arsenic Cure for Distemper in Cat¬ 
tle. —The dose for cattle laboring under 
distemper is—Avhite arsenic, three grains; 
brown sugar, one ounce. Repeat the dose 
every third hour till four doses are taken, 
and keep the animal fasting for 36 hours. 
As a preventive, bleed the cattle, in a full 
stream from a large orifice, till symptoms of 
Aveakness are manifest, and administer six 
grains of arsenic Avith two ounces of brown 
sugar twice, Avith six hours interval.— Eng- 
lisJi Farmers' Gazette. 
Hoav to keep Worms out of Dried 
Fruit. —Have a pot full of scalding water 
on the fire, then put the fruit into sacks of 
suitable sizes, and dip them in the boiling 
Avater, which will kill the worm or what 
causes it. After dipping, spread the fruit 
out to dry—the scalding does not do the 
fruit any injury. Whatever it is that causes 
i the Avorm is deposited on the fruit during 
1 the process of drying. 
