.'Sz'um,'. 
ROCHESTEE, N. Y.-THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1850 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
SHADE AS A MANUEE, 
Our heading, startling and paradoxical 
ds it may appear, is an appropriate one, 
and we adopt it, both to strike the reader’s 
eye, and to give an inkling of our subject. 
There is something^m names, and we al¬ 
ways seek to have an eye to “ the fitness of 
things,” in their bestowal. 
* A theory has been advanced by a cor¬ 
respondent of the “ Plow, Loom and Anvil” 
that “the excrement of animals is not 
manure,'^ and, that the “ aliment of plants 
is the residue of putrefaction.” But we 
will add the closing propositions in full.— 
They declare:— 
“That the value of manure materially 
depends upon the perfection of the putre- 
morning sunshine as though an emerald 
shower had fallen upon it, the hard and 
dusty path across the lawn, is as dry and 
dusty as at mid-day before. 
We hope that those interested—and all 
cultivators of the soil are, will gather.all 
facts which may throw light on this subject, 
for their own and the public benefit. 
^ The first day of March it was filled with 
eighty fowls of the common vaiiety, mostly 
pullets one year old, which I procured at an 
average expense of 18|' cents. They were 
regularly fed with corn and oats every 
morning, supplied with-water, gravel, lime 
and fresh meat, boiled tender and usually 
chopped fine. Let out to roam every 
• afternoon. 
An accurate account was kept of the ex¬ 
pense of building the poultry house, the 
cost of the fowls, the amount of grain con¬ 
sumed and the number of eggs obtained— 
which was as follows: 
Lumber and nails for building,..$10,90 
Labor of building days, at $1. 4,50 
Eighty fowls at 18| cents each,. 15,00 
Ten bushels corn at 50 cents,. 5,00 
Nine bushels oats at 3.3J cents,. 3,00 
Making the amount of expense,.$38,40 
In ninety days they furnished me 385 
dozen and ten eggs, which, at 10 cents per 
dozen, were worth $38,58—being a trifle 
more than the cost of building the house, 
the fowls and the grain consumed. 
From the above, and other Similar experi¬ 
ments which the subscriber lias instituted 
at different times, he is convinced, that fowls 
properly managed and cared for, will pay a 
profit in proportion to their cost, equal to, if 
not greater, than any other farm stock. 
E. M. Bradley. i 
ICE HOUSES 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 
Office in Burns’ Block, corner of Buffalo and State 
streets, (entrance on State,) Rochester. 
The New-Yorker contains more Agricultural, 
Horticultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Educational, 
Literary and News matter, than any other Agricul¬ 
tural or Family Journal published in the U. States. 
Those who wish a good paper, devoted to useful 
and instructive subjects, are invited to give this one 
a careful examination — and to bear in mind that 
the postage on a first class periodical is no more 
than on the smallest sheet, or most trashy reprint. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Will you do me 
the favor to inform me, through your paper, of 
the best plan for an Ice House for a family ? I 
am anxious to build one, and am at a loss to know 
whether to build on the top of the ground or be¬ 
neath the surface—whether of brick, w'ood or stone 
—and what is best to use as lining for the inside. 
I need but a small one, if ice can be kept in small 
quantities. I have no doubt but you will be able 
to advise me correctly as to the size and best mode 
of building. By answering you will much oblige. 
JTours truly, James E. Kelsey. 
Three Rivers, Mich., Nov,, 1850. 
We gave in No. 2, page 11, of the 
Rural New-Yorker, a drawing and de¬ 
scription of an ice house, and full directions 
for their construction both above and below 
ground, 
EAST BLOOMFIELD FARMERS’ CLUB. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT, 
Mr. Moore 
■Some two months since 
there was organized in this town a Farmers’ 
Club, for the purpose of mutual improve¬ 
ment in Rural Economy. Weekly meetings 
have been held, and subjects appertaining to 
agriculture have been discussed, with an 
intelligence and zeal that promise much for 
the usefulness and perpetuity of the Asso¬ 
ciation. Reports and Essays are presented 
by members of the Club, and form a highly 
interesting and important feature of the So¬ 
ciety. A Course of' Essays, upon the 
Application of Science to Agriculture, is 
being prepared by Dr. C. C. Murphy, and, 
judging from the two numbers which have 
been read, they will furnish a great amount 
of useful and interesting information. 
We look to the result of experiments, 
which have been, and are being, instituted 
by close observing and intelligent farmers, 
as the best means of obtaining reliable and 
most valuable information. And associa¬ 
tions of this nature, appear to the writer to 
be one of the most efficient .ans for calling 
out this important material. 
Agreeable to a resolution passed before 
our Club at their last meeting, I submit the 
following Reports, read before the Club, for 
insertion in your highly valuable paper. 
With respect, yours, <fec. 
Elisha M. Bradley, 
Sec'y E. liloomfield Eurmers’ Club. 
E. B., Ont. Co., N. Y., Nov. 28, 1850. 
The relative weight of Corn and Cob of different 
varieties of Indian Corn, as ascertained by an 
Experiment instituted on the 21st day of Octo¬ 
ber, 1850. The varieties of Corn examined 
were the Dutton, yellow eight rowed, (com¬ 
monly called Vermont,) and the white variety 
known as the red-blaze :— 
Samples of these varieties, husked the 
first week in October, and thoroughly dried, 
were carefully weighed, then shelled, and 
the weight of Corn and Cob from each 
variety was as follows: 
75 lbs. of ears of Dutton gave of cobs 20 lbs. 9 ozs. 
of corn 54 lbs. 7 oz. 
75 lbs. of ears of Vermont corn gave of cobs 15 lbs. 
12 oz., of corn 59 lbs. 4 oz. 
75 lbs. of ears of White corn gave of cobs 15 lbs. 
11 oz., of corn 59 lbs. 5 oz. 
Each 75 lbs. of corn was carefully meas¬ 
ured before being shelled. The Dutton 
corn gave two bushels and four quarts of 
ears—the Vermont gave two bushels of ears 
—and the White two bushels and two quarts. 
From the above examination we learn, 
that equal weights of ears of Vermont and 
White corn yield about 8^ per cent more 
corn than the Dutton: also that the Vermont 
variety yields much the most corn from a 
given bulk of ears;—facts well Avorthbeing 
known by all who sell or buy corn in the ear 
E. M. Bradley. 
East Bloomfield, Oct. 22, 1850. 
To the Standing Committee of the East Bloom¬ 
field Farmers’ Club, the undersigned would re¬ 
spectfully submit the following statement of an 
exneriment made by him in the spring of the 
current year, iwith a coop of eighty Fowls; 
which experiment successfully competed at the 
late Fair and Cattle.Show of the Ontario Co. ! 
Agricultural Society:— 
During the month of Februaiy, 1850, 1 ^ 
built a poultry house, which was 31 feet 
long by 13 feet wide—attached to a shed 
upon one side, and a horse barn at one end. ■ 
The roof was made of boards and battened ^ 
—had two windows for the admission of 1 
light—was furnished with the necessary ^ 
feeding hoppers, watering trough, boxes for i 
laying, roosts, &c. 
I NOTES FOR THE MONTH- 
( Ho, Ho, Ho!—Hark to the scream of the 
^ whistle of the November train, with its live 
^ lumber of human beings—their destinies 
^ and joys, their hopes'and fears. How the 
( iron Bucephalus snorts and puffs and throws 
( off clouds of sweat and smoke, as he comes 
( to the station house where that old, hurley 
) covey, December, with his frozen locks and 
( ruby nose takes the levers for a trip to the 
\ winter solstice. The bell clanga^-all aboard, 
j and no waiting in Time’s extra Express train; 
■ —“cycle in epicycle, orb in orb,” it re- 
^ volves, till it arrives at the goal where it 
^ started, on the first day of the last half of 
^ the 19th Century. 
November took, by a mistake, a southern 
^ track, and gave his customers more fine sky 
i and sunshine than they bargained for in 
) starting—but December will redeem the 
} pledge, for he has his snow plow and storm 
> coat in service, and if his cargo don’t get a 
i taste of the qualities of old Boreas, there is 
) no faith to be put in signs. 
I Now as we are all safely stowed away on 
> board of that great car, “ The Globe,” we 
> trust no one has left, or neglected any thing 
> on the November route, that we have just 
> passed over—and therefore can enjoy him- 
) self on his passage, and do up the chores of 
^ this month at his leisure. 
r It would be well to see that the fall plow- 
ing is finished, and, since the rains,-tha*t the 
; wheat fields are drained. Kill your hogs 
■ early or they will kill you, if, from the failure 
? of the potato crop, you are fattening entirely 
j on corn. Yard your cattle as soon as may 
^ be, and never let a hoof pass the precincts 
> of the yard till spring, if you consider 
manure worth saving. Litter your yards, 
; and particularly your sheds, well, if you 
! wish to convert the straw into manure, and 
S induce the animals to become the agents 
i 0 ^ this important work. 
See to the roofs and cellars and windows. 
A shingle or piece of board is worth more 
in a crack than in the stove. See that all 
buried vegetables have a final dressing of 
straw and a covering of earth—and that a 
But as the subject is a seasonable 
one, and we have many new subscribers 
since, we give an additional article for their 
benefit and that of our correspondent. 
Ice houses may be built above or below 
ground, according to the nature of the soil 
where constructed. If the situation is not 
of a dry, chalky, gravelly, or sandy kind, 
they should in all cases be above the sur¬ 
face, not shaded by trees, but exposed to 
the sun and air. We meet with a plan, 
which strikes us as a good one, in “ Cor¬ 
bett’s Cottage Economy,” which he states 
was practiced in Virginia, with success. 
It is cheap, and easy of construction, 
requiring only poles and straw, and consists 
of an inner shed surrounded by an outer 
one, and having sufficient vacant space be¬ 
tween the two to enable a person to walk 
around ; the walls and roofs of both the 
sheds are made of thatch, laid on about a 
foot thick; and the ice is deposited in the 
inner shed on a bed of straw. Its foun¬ 
dation should be above the .surface of^the 
earth, and composed of something which 
will admit of the drippings flowing oft' in¬ 
stantly. Its situation should be dry, as 
moisture has a tendency to dissolve the ice; 
and not shaded that the'siu-face evaporation 
may be ready and complete. 
Where the soil is suitable for underground 
construction, the following plan may be pur¬ 
sued,—the size, varying with the wants of 
the builder. W® if Byrne’s 
“Dictionary of Mechanics:” 
“ Dig a pit about twelve feet deep, and wide 
enough to permit the erection therein of a frame 
of rough wood posts. This frame is to be four¬ 
teen feet wide each way at the bottom, and sixteen 
feet each way at the top. The posts may be 
about, nine inches in diameter, placed near enough 
to each other for thin laths to be nailed upon them, 
and the inside be dressed to an acute angle, so that 
as little wood as’possible may touch the ice. On 
the inside let thin laths be nailed at about two feet 
apart. On the outside, at moderate distances, nail 
rough boards, and fill the place within with wheat 
or rye straw set on end. The inside of the roof to 
be made in the same way, and also the gables.— 
Straw is to be sewed on the inside, and heath or 
straw on the outside of the door. The outside of 
the roof is to be thickly thatched with straw or 
heath ; and heath, brushwood, or fir-tops, to be 
filled in between the outside boarding and the sur¬ 
rounding ground, and then neatly thatched or turf¬ 
ed over. The bottom of the house, for two feet 
deep, should be laid with large logs or stones, next 
witn heath, fir-tops, or brushwood, and then with 
straw. . The ice house, thus completed, will look 
like a square beehive inverted, and is then ready 
to receive the ice or snow. But, nnless the house 
be in a very shady place it may be necessary to 
extend the roof, where the door is placed, five or 
six feet, making a second gable and door, finished 
in the same way as the first, and fill up the interven¬ 
ing space, except a passage, with heath or straw.” 
in one or more of its mineral constituents, 
because all soils, alike, may be made ex¬ 
ceedingly fertile by shade alone.” 
We’-e '.ve assured of the accuracy of the 
above theory, especially of the statement of 
its closing paragraph, we should seek with 
the more earnestness to discover its why’s 
and wherefore’s. That land sometimes, 
when shaded, becomes fertile we cannot 
doubt or deny, but that shade in all instances 
has any thing important to do with it, re¬ 
mains to be shown. Various facts and 
theories may be adduced both for and 
against the asseveration. 
If shade is a fertilizer it may be accounted 
for in part, by the fact that many of the 
gases and elements of the soil necessary to 
vegetable growth, are of a volatile nature, 
and liable to evaporation on exposure to light 
and air—that in Nature, a naked soil is one 
cursed with hopeless sterility, like those 
great sandy deserts which ever bask in the 
glare of a tropical sunshine. If shade is a 
fertilizer—that of a building or pile of 
boards, long covering the earth beneath 
them, for instance, (as queried by a corres¬ 
pondent in No. 48,) —then, its attraction for 
nitre may produce that result, as explained 
in answer to his query. The benefit derived 
from mxdching fruit trees, as it is called, is 
an argument in favor of this theory. In 
what way it acts, except to keep up a con¬ 
stant and genial moisture around the trunk 
and roots, otherwise too much expos(3d to 
thp air—we cannot declare. 
But if shade is a manure, how can the prac¬ 
tice of summer-fallowing—of frequent stir¬ 
ring and thorough exposure to atmospheric 
influences as a preparation for cropping, be 
the correct one ? And how, without stir¬ 
ring the earth and denuding it of vegetation 
can seed be planted, or why does over-stock¬ 
ing or crowding with plants, cause injury to 
their productiveness? They give a shade 
as dense as can be desired. 
We imagine that the truth may lie be¬ 
tween these extremes—that exposure to the 
air is beneficial as resulting in chemical 
changes necessary to the fertility and health 
of the plant;—and that shade has its uses 
in its tendency to promote proper moisture 
by attracting it from the air in the form of 
dew. We may observe, if we will, a most ' 
beautiful law of Nature, which adapts the 
supply to the demand, and suffers no waste 
to occur in its vast economy— which wisely 
orders that while the grass glitters in the 
FENCING AND FENCE TIMBER. 
So much has been written upon the sub¬ 
ject of fence, that it may be doubted wheth¬ 
er anything really useful can now be added. 
A multitude of plans have been furnished, 
for building wire fence, and hundreds of 
farmers have built an experimental line; 
but we have many misgivings that the best 
plan has not yet been brought into use, to 
any extent, and that this kind of fence may 
fall into disrepute, from not being properly 
constructed. 
We do not desire to write a chapter up¬ 
on wire fence, but to offer a few suggest¬ 
ions upon rail fence, and the best method 
of cutting and preparing timber for the 
same. To a great extent, timber for fence 
is cut during the winter months, being ta¬ 
ken in the main from low and swampy 
lands, which can then be entered upon the 
ice and frozen ground. 
Much of the timber used in Western 
and Central New York for this 
purpose 
is black ash. The usual method is to 
cut them when the poles are of suflicient 
size for rails without splitting, which is con¬ 
sidered a great waste of timber. Any 
person who has given attention to the pre¬ 
paration of fire-wood for use, need not now 
be informed that wood having the bark on, 
and left unsplit, will not season well, if it 
does at all. The natural tendency is to 
commence decay, and this generally con¬ 
tinues until the wood is unfit for use. These 
facts unquestionably hold good when applied 
to round poles for fencing purposes. It 
is our settled conviction that farmers have 
been committing, for years, a great waste of 
their fencing timber—a waste of which they 
will feel the effect more severely as timber 
is less easily obtained. 
How much effoct splitting and thorough¬ 
ly seasoning would have upon tamarack 
and other soft woods, in rendering them 
more valuable for fence, we have no means 
of speaking with certainty. It is to be 
hoped more attention will be given to this 
important department of rural economy.— 
A person who has to some extent investiga¬ 
ted this subject, expresses the opinion, that 
more capital is invested in farm fences in 
the United States, than in any other one 
branch of productive industry. This is an 
investment that pays small dividends, and 
anything that tends to lessen the burden 
upon farmers is of much utility, n. c. w. 
Ice houses are also built with the walls { 
filled with wet tan or saw-dust, which freezes \ 
and will remain so for a long time. Some ^ 
provision for ventilation is always necessary, ^ 
but it should occupy the extreme height of s 
the roof, and care should especially be taken s 
that there be no openings below to promote s 
the circulation of the air. If any drain- s 
pipe is necessary, it should be slightly bent s 
so as to retain enough water to prevent the ( 
entrance of the air. > 
