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ROCHESTER, K Y—THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1851 
-! WHOLE NO. 53 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO 
Agriculture, Horticulture, Mechanic Arts anc 
ence, Education, Rural and Domestic Economy, 
General Intelligence, the Markets, &t., &r 
THEY. INTEREST OF NEW YORK. 
WORDS TO READERS L0F5ITHE RURAL 
FARMER ’ S ACCOUNTS. 
that the school house is in good order, and 
every thing about the school as it should be 
—he will have time for reading and reflec¬ 
tion, and for doing good when his business 
will prosper. Kind reader, let System be 
the order with you for 1851. With it, you 
can do almost everything. Without it, you 
will sometimes find that you have done 
worse than nothing. g. w. m. 
EAST BLOOMFIELD FARMERS' CLUB 
Mr. Moore :—The accompanying report 
on Subsoil Plowing was read before our 
Farmers’ Club, and a copy requested for 
publication. I have at length found time to 
re-write it, and if you think advisable, you 
may insert it in the Rural JSTew-Yorksf. 
Truly yours, Harlow Munson. 
East Bloomfield, N. Y., Dec. 23, 1*?50. « 
REPORT ON SUBSOIL PLOWING. 
To the Farmers Club:— 
The undersigned would report, that in 
August, 1S49, he purchased a Subsoil 
Plow, (probably the first introduced and 
put in operation in town,) and used it as 
part of the preparation for a crop of winter 
wheat, on a field of sixteen acres, from 
which a crop of spring wheat had just been 
taken. The soil a gravelly loan—subsoil 
similar, with more clay. 
The surface soil was turned over to the 
depth of eight inches with a common plow; 
the subsoil plow, drawn by two yoke of ox¬ 
en, followed in the same furrow, breaking 
up and mellowing the subsoil eight inches, 
without bringing it up or mixing with the 
surface soil. 
The considerations urged in favor of deep 
and subsoil plowing by our agricultural 
writers and practical men—the appearance 
of the land while undergoing the operation, 
especially the loose and mellow soil at the 
bottom of the furrow—the remarks of 
practical farmers.who visited the field-di,- 
ring the process—induced the writer 
pect a decided and marked improvement’ 
in the next crop, as well as those that should 
succeed. 
On a part of the field, a strip a few rods 
wide, the subsoil plow was not used, but in 
other respects similarly treated. During 
the growth of the crop no difference could 
be perceived between the part subsoiled and 
that which was not. A few days previous 
to harvesting, the writer and an observing 
friend of his, visited the field and made a 
close examination of the different parts — 
Their conclusions were, that the heads of 
the wheat on the land subsoiled were a lit¬ 
tle longer and better filled than on the oart 
not plowed; but as the difference was not 
determined by weighing, the experiment 
cannot be considered as complete or decisive. 
With this number of the Nmv-Yorker, 
a New Year makes its advent, and the pres¬ 
ent is, therefore, a proper time to give our 
thoughts to the past, and to form plans for 
the future. In few things, perhajs, are 
many farmers more remiss than in system. 
They sow, cultivate and reap; they buy and 
sell; they make promises and bargains— 
yet many of them do it without any mem¬ 
orandum of their transactions. A Mer¬ 
chant keeps his journal, his ledger, and his 
cash book. He puts down, if he is a good 
business man, all agreements of moment, 
and looks them over often to refresh his 
memory, and, to guide him in subsequent 
affairs. So does the Mechanic and Profes¬ 
sional man. And so the farmer should do. 
Every farmer ought to keep a debtor 
and credit account. He should once a 
year see how he stands with the world. — 
He should make a minute of what he has, 
putting his lands, stock, <kc., at prices they 
would readily bring—and placing on the 
other side every debt he owes. Then he 
can tell by a glance at the footing,—if be 
does this from year to year,—whether he is 
going ahead, and how much, or whether he 
is only holding his own. We might also 
add that he would know even if he were 
falling behind, what his losses were. But 
we do not consider that necessary, because 
no one who is a man of System and Order 
will fall behind. 
Three or four sheets of paper folded and 
stitched together, will make a book large 
enough for memorandums. The cost of it 
therefore is nothing. In it he can put 
down the day he plants his corn, sows his 
wheat, plows particular fields, cuts his 
grain, Ac., sells pork or products, with the 
prices he gets for them. In it he can place 
the name of his hired man, the amount per 
month he is to pay for his labor, the day 
he began work, and all similar details, as 
proper and necessary for the farmer as for 
any man, in any other business. In such a 
book he can enter that he subscribed on a 
certain day for the Rural New-Yorker, or 
some other well conducted periodical devo¬ 
ted to his calling. That he paid for his pa¬ 
per to a particular date. That he made a 
contract for land or building, for the deliv¬ 
ery of grain, or for some transaction that 
he should not leave to memory, but should ; 
put in black and white so that he may 
not forget the details; or which, should he 
be called away, will enable bis heirs to set¬ 
tle his estate satisfactorily. 
If such a 
CONDUCTED EY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTED BY 
J. H. BIXBY, L. VVETHERELL, and H. C. WHITS. 
Dr. M. M. RODGERS, Foreign Correspondent. 
CUSTOM, HABIT, AND STRAW CUTTERS. 
Wiiat “robustuous, perriwigged-pated” 
clowns Habit and Custom makes of us all! 
How we button up and hug to our bosoms, 
old habits, old uses, and inconsistencies;—- 
how we trot along the crooked and cornered 
cow-patbs that we are accustomed to, in 
defiance of a shorter cut, andHetter road.— 
With our corn in one end of the bag. and a 
stone in the other to balance it, we jog 
along the highway of existence to the mill 
of eternity, as complacently as though there 
was no other and better way. Our fathers 
did so, and we don’t believe in book learn¬ 
ing, nor in fact in much of any other. 
In many of the avocations of life we 
march along in the horse-path of the great 
threshing-machine of existence, tied to the 
levers of habit and custom, and never step 
out of the beaten track to get a better foot¬ 
hold, or a longer leverage. “ We iNe, and 
live, and then we die and die, and thereby 
hangs a tale.” 
Now, says the reader, we should like to 
learn what all this tirade is directed at — 
Well, we will tell you of what we were 
thinking, when we began this artiele. 
In a very great proportion of the barns 
in the country, stand one or more of the 
thousand-and-two inventions for cutting 
straw, every one of which is better than 
none — one half of which are never used, and 
every body—(every body is a very import¬ 
ant chap, and his word mhy be implicitly 
taken,)—every body says they are a good 
thing—an important, economical invention, 
but they don’t use them,—and there they 
stand with their bowie knives drawn in 
utter defiance of work or movement. 
Habit, inexorable habit, makes cowards 
and dodgers of us all; we can’t break thro’ 
the ways we have been used to, notwith¬ 
standing economy kicks our shins, and waste¬ 
fulness picks our pockets. Our whole lives 
are a bundle of habits. 
The advantages of cutting food for ani¬ 
mals are manifold and palpable. A much 
lower grade and quality of food is cheerfully 
and freely eaten, and such as would be en¬ 
tirely rejected in the natural state, with a 
little salt or meal, when cut, is all consumed. 
Animals that are old and masticate badly, 
are importantly assisted on the process of 
deglutition and digestion, particularly old 
horses, who do not ruminate their food. By 
this process every tiling is saved—for it is a 
well known fact, that a great portion of 
even the best quality of hay, is wasted in 
feeding it whole. 
Corn stalks cut and fed in tubs or boxes, 
are much closer eaten, and the refuse is in 
a proper state to plow under as manure,— 
the porous pith having absorbed the liquid 
and important part, retains it beyond the 
ability of leaching rains to carry off. 
If all the hay, straw and stalks were cut 
there would be no long, impracticable loads 
of manure, that it is impossible to hide with 
the plow. Every thing cries aloud, for the 
general use of the Straw Cutter, and yet how 
few who possess the ability, follow it up as 
a “ fixed fact,” in their farming economy.— | 
Old habits won’t let us,—they are inexora¬ 
ble. o. P. Q. 
PROGRESS AND I^PROVEZOENT. 
cheap memorandum boo^ as 
we speak of shall be deemed too small, and 
be likely to get lost, then we can say that 
at any of our book stores very convenient 
diaries can be obtained for fifty cents, 
which have an almanac in them, and a 
small blank with the date of every day in 
the year, on which minutes can be made. 
We beg every Farmer who may read 
this brief article, and has neglected to have 
system in his business in this particular, to 
commence with the year 1851, and keep a 
record of his transactions. If he will do 
so, he will find it to aid him in other re¬ 
spects, for when order prevails in one de¬ 
partment,—it essentially tends to promote it 
in another. And when it shall be intro¬ 
duced into all, plowing will be deep, ma¬ 
nure will be made, land will be kept rich, 
fences high and good, excellent fruit will be 
cultivated, superior stock raised, and all 
the departments of agriculture thrive in his 
hands, for he will be a man of system. 
And, so well will order work with and 
for him, that be will have time to look to 
the affairs of his neighborhood—to see that 
his district school has a competent teacher 
the JNovember number ot the “ VYor-iing ) 
Farmer,” in which the experience of prac- ) 
tical men is given, the reading of which ,s ) 
recommended to those who wish to give ) 
this subject more examination. } 
Thinking that it might not be convenient \ 
for all the members of our “ Club” to avail ( 
themselves of the opportunity who would 
be disposed to learn more of this subject, a ; 
few of the prominent considerations mil < 
now be presented. 
“Mr. Dickson said that the effect of sub- ^ 
soil plowing is in process of time to deepen. \ 
the surface soil; it breaks up and loosens < 
the subsoil, mixing it partially with the soil, ( 
greatly increasing the efficacy of the drain- ; 
age, and by the admission of atmospheric j 
influences to a much greater depth than < 
formerly, renders what was previously a ) 
barren subsoil, and an obstruction to any 
Western New-York can produce and sustain 
a Family Paper worthy of as extensive and 
) general patronage as any in the Union — 
those of New York, Philadelphia and Bos- 
} * on not excepted. Aided by experienced 
) associates, and a large corps of able Con¬ 
tributors and Correspondents—and possess¬ 
ing moreover the means and disposition for 
| liberal expenditure—the conductor hopes to 
| solve this problem in a manner satisfactory 
) to every reader of the Rural New-Yorker. 
This brief exposition submitted, we enter 
; with alacrity upon the labors of the New 
> Year and Volume. 
Farmers often tell large stories when 
they gain nothing by it. In this they differ 
much from traders, lawyers, and divines. 
