MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
WINTER EVENINGS AT HOME. - (NO. 3.) 
Thomas .—Now father, there are two or 
three other things relating to the air, that I 
wish to inquire about. 
Father. —You must not assume that I 
know every thing, or that I can satisfac¬ 
torily explain all the secret and occult prin¬ 
ciples of nature. All effects are governed 
by certain and unchangeable laws, which 
are difficult for our limited capacities to 
discover. 
T. —No, I do not expect that you can; 
but still you have lived long enough, to 
have some opinions on the subject. 
F. —That is true, but they may be crude 
and unpkilosophical for all that. 
T. —What is the cause of the winds; from 
whence do they come and whither bound ? 
Often from a perfect calm, without any ap¬ 
parent change of temperature or disturbance 
of the elements, great winds arise from any 
quarter, without any rule or settled cause, 
that I can discover. 
F. — That is one of the most abstruse sub¬ 
jects in the whole arcana of nature’s phe¬ 
nomena. “The wind bloweth where it 
listeth,” is a saying almost precluding in¬ 
quiry; but the cause of winds and currents 
of air, are supposed to be the result of sud¬ 
den rarefactions or condensations of the air 
in certain regions; in one case the air by 
expansion rises, and the surrounding and 
heavier masses rush in to supply and re¬ 
store the equilibrium of density, and in the 
other, to fill the vacuum created by con¬ 
traction. It is analogous in both cases to 
lifting a quantity of water from a vessel, the 
contiguous masses rush in to supply its , 
place. Air is as much a fluid substance as 
water, only more rare. 
T.— Yes, but did any one ever see that 
point to which the air was rushing from all 
quarters, to fill up this vacuum, or space ? 
F. —There can be no doubt of it. The 
result would be the ordinary whirlwinds, 
and if in one quarter the air was more 
dense and heavier than another, it would 
possess more power and drive the others— 
creating those great storms, and whirling- 
motions known as tornadoes. 
T. —I can conceive this to be the action 
in some cases, but is there a whirlwind as 
a starting point for every wind that arises? 
I have never witnessed one of any account. 
F.— No, I do not consider there is a 
necessity for such an action in all cases.— 
The equalizing currents may have forces so 
well balanced, that they neutralize each 
other, and a calm would be the consequence; 
or the preponderance so gentle as to create 
a current of no great or appreciable velocity. 
T. —Well, all this is not very satisfactory 
to my mind. I have never been in one of 
those points where the wind came from all 
directions. 
F. —You may have been, without notic¬ 
ing it; but this peculiar action is much more 
common in the warm climates than in ours. 
T.—l should like to have you explain 
why, if the medium surrounding this rare¬ 
fied space, or vacuum, in running merely by 
its own weight to supply the void, does not 
proceed steadily and uniformly like water, 
and not travel in gusts, and sudden extra¬ 
ordinary forces. 
A 7 —That is a subject that has often per¬ 
plexed me, and I can only account for it by 
supposing, that it is the rebounding of an 
elastic fluid like the air, (in which it differs 
, from water,) from the uneven surfaces of 
! the land, and the obstructions of hills and 
! forests, causing the inflection of the current?. 
; T. —Yes, but sometimes they are steady 
| and continuous, without gusts or whirls, or 
> lulls. 
\ F. —Well, it is the best explanation I can 
5 give. In corroboration of this view of the 
| causes of the fluctuations of the wind on 
) land, the steadiness of the gales on the ocean 
may be cited. 
! ■' T. — What causes those sudden rarefac¬ 
tions and displacements of air, that you 
suppose to be the cause of wind ? 
IP.—Heat and cold may both be the 
agents. Heat by causing it to rise into the 
higher regions; cold by condensing and 
i contracting large spaces into smaller com¬ 
pass. The absorption of moisture in the air, 
causing an enlargement of bulk, or its sud¬ 
den condensation in rain, would all destroy 
the equilibrium. I also suppose that the 
electrical state of the air exercises an ira- 
£ portant control over all its states and actions. 
i T. —Well, father, you have got into the 
electricities again, which I know nothing 
about—and, excuse me, I don’t believe ycu 
do. So, with your leave, I will read the 
Rural awhile. ♦ 
LETTER FROM SOMERSET COUNTY, PA. 
PORTRAIT OP A PURE SAXON RAH. 
SAXON SHEEP. 
[From Morrell’s American Shephard.] 
Thk following history of the introduction ^ 
of the Merinos into Saxony was written by 
the late Mr. Henry D Grove, of IIoosic,N. i 
Y., whose decease will long be lamented by 1 
those who knew his many private virtues, 
and by American agriculturists, who will not 1 
cease to pay the homage of gratitude to his * 
memory, for the enthusiastic enterprize and ^ 
zeal he continued to manifest to his latest mo- - 
ments to improve the fleece of his adopted • 
country. Mr. Grove says: 1 
“In the year 1764, the Elector of Saxony 
obtained, by special negotiation through his * 
ambassador, a grant from the King of Spain, 1 
for the purchase of one hundred ewes and 
one hundred rams, and a few surplus ones j 1 
to keep that number good in case any should ' 
die during the passage. Accordingly one j 
hundred and nineteen ewes and one hun¬ 
dred and ten rams were selected, principally ; 
from the Escurial flocks, then the king’s J 
private property, under the care and man¬ 
agement of the monks belonging to the 
I monastery of that name, and which were 
considered the finest sheep ot the kingdom. 
They were shipped at Cadiz, in the month 
of May, 1765, accompanied by two Span¬ 
iards to take care of them. Five rams and 
three ewes died on the passage; the re¬ 
mainder arrived safely at the Elector’s pri¬ 
vate domain at Stolpen. The Spanish shep¬ 
herds remained with, and took care of the 
flock till the middle of the following year, 
when they took their departure for Spain. 
During the time, however, they remained 
in Saxony, they instructed Saxon shepherds 
in the care and management of sheep. 
“In order the better to make this valua¬ 
ble acquisition benefit the country as much 
as possible, the Elector appointed a com¬ 
mission, to superintend and direct the gener¬ 
al concerns of the sheep establishment, whose 
particular duty it was made, to spread all 
the information they could obtain on the 
care and management of sheep beiore the. 
public, and who were especially instructed 
to dispose of the young rams at low prices, 
in order to induce the sheep-owners to im¬ 
prove their flocks. The tenants of the gov ¬ 
ernment domains were particularly favored, 
by giving them the preference in the purchase 
(which is kept up till this day,) while every 
possible care was taken to induce farmcis 
generally to improve their breed of sheep 
throughout the Electorate. It was further j 
required of the said commission to make a 
detailed report to the government, annually, 
on the condition of the sheep establishment, 
and at the same time to submit a list of the 
persons who had received sheep from the 
national flock. 
“During the first years these valuable 
animals found many opponents, and the im¬ 
provement of the Spanish crop was very 
slow, mainly on accountofthe common pred- 
judice of the farmers, which was heightened 
. when the scab broke out among them, but 
afterwards they became convinced of their 
value, and the improvement was more rapid. 
But as most of the flocks in Spain are more 
or less affected by the scab, those transported 
, to Saxony had to undergo the same ordeal. 
This, of course, heightened the prejudice 
of many against them, who pronounced 
them as entirely unfit for the country, their 
; meat not eatable, or at best, of a miserable 
t description; a notion, however, which soon 
t exploded. The scab, however caused great 
ravages among them before they were en¬ 
tirely cured of this disease. 
“ When the commissioners had exercised 
L their functions ten years ,*.he <»'l for young- 
rams was so great,—and in order the more 
■ rapidly to improve the bread of the country 
> — that they resolved to petition the govern- 
[ ment to make another importation of ewes 
- and rams from Spain, for which purpose 
the Elector obtained another grant from 
! the King of Spain for three hundred rams 
r and ewes. At the end of the year 1777, a 
i gentleman by the name of v r aigt, manager 
. of Count Eiorsidel’s farms, who was con¬ 
sidered one of the best judges of sheep at 
j that day in Saxony, was provided with the 
f necessary credentials and sent on that mis- 
i sion. But, for some cause unknown, he 
3 selected only one hundred and ten two 
years old rams and ewes, and returned home 
with them. These were, however, of a very 
superior quality, selected from the best flocks 
of Leon, Escurial, Caragnon, Negretti, Mon- 
tarco, and Sorian, and exceeded greatly in 
beauty of form and quality of wool, the first 
importation. The cost of them was about 
forty rix dollars per head. 
“With this acquisition, the commissioners 
then planted the Merino Tree on the fruitful 
soil of Lohmen and Rennersdorf, from 
whence, in conjunction with Stolpen, many 
pure blood flocks derive their origin. And 
I owe it to truth to rmark, that I have ex¬ 
amined private flocks equal, if not superior, 
to the national fjjocks. 
“It would lead me too far here, to detail 
the introduction ot the Spanish and Saxo¬ 
ny Merino into other parts of Germany, 
Prussia, Austria, <fcc. Suffice it to say, that 
j many districts rival Saxony ; Prussia, espe¬ 
cially, fosters her flocks, not only by premiums 
bestowed through her agricultural societies, 
but by that enlightened protection to do¬ 
mestic industry, which so truly character¬ 
izes that government.” 
The invaluable properties of pure Saxon 
wool, and the demand consequent for its 
manufacture into fabrics, the fineness of 
which the wo'rld has never before produced, 
is the cause of the high value of the Saxon 
sheep, and their spread over so large a por¬ 
tion of Europe, and remote parts of the 
world. No other breeds are so highly 
prized on the Continent, and none which 
command such enormous prices. Mr. 
Grove has stated, that while grade Saxons 
sell for three to fifteen dollars per head, in¬ 
dividual rams of uncontaminated blood often 
bring from one hundred to two hundred 
and fifty rix dollars; a flock was purchased, 
destined for Russia, a few years since, for 
which the average price paid exceeded five 
hundred dollars; and Mr. Spooner states 
that, latterly, rams have been sold at the 
almost incredible prices of one hundred to 
to near three hundred guineas per head.— 
The cause of these extravagant prices has 
been stated; and so long as there exist 
grades in society, and the highest of these 
’ covet a wardrobe of the finest texture, the 
breed will continue to be appreciated, and 
. seduously cultivated. 
( Concluded in our next.) 
The Potato Rot.— A writer in an agri¬ 
cultural paper before us, has discovered a 
certain remedy for the rot,—which is sim¬ 
ply to plant early—not to manure the crop 
at all—no plowing or cultivating afterward, 
but leave everything to Providence. He 
says the crop will not yield so abundantly, 
of course, nor will the potato be so large, 
but they will be sound. The writer thinks 
this plan is likely to be pursued, rol or no rot. 
He is right. Some farmers, we regret to 
say, pursue it with all their crops—scatter 
them over the ground, without manure and 
without care, trouble or concern—and leave 
all to Providence!— Germantown Tele¬ 
graph. 
Excellent Cold Stew. —Take a nice 
fresh, white cabbage, wash and drain it, and 
cut off the stalk. Shave down the head 
evenly and nicely into very small shreds, 
with a cabbage cutter or a sharp knife. Put 
it into a deep dish, and prepare, for it the 
following dressing. Take a gill or a half 
tumbler of the best vinegar, and mix with 
it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, di¬ 
vided into four bits, and rolled in flour; a 
small salt-spoon of salt, and the same quai* 
tity of cayenne. Stir all this well together, 
and boil it in a small saucepan. Have 
ready the yolks of three eggs well beaten. 
As soon as the mixture has come to a hard 
boil, take it off the fire, and stir in the beaten 
eggs. Then pour it boiling hot over the 
shred cabbage* and mix it well all through 
with a spoon. Set it to cool on icc or snow, 
or in the open air. It must be quite cold 
before it goes to the table. 
Tools. —Every farmer should, as far as 
possible, be the manufacturer and repairer 
of all the implements which are required in 
the management of his soils. Dull weather, 
and the leisure of our long rigid winters, 
afford ample opportunity for the exercise of 
mechanical skill in this necessary depart¬ 
ment of productive industry.— Germantown 
Telegraph. 
Mr. Moore: —Enclosed you will receive 
four dollars, for two copies of the Rural. J u 
* * * * This county is made up of a ^ 
German population, the older of whom are ^ 
content to plod on in the way their fathers a] 
trod, and look upon book-farming, as they e: 
term it, as a mere trap, got up for specula- h 
tion and of which they warn their children r ‘ 
to beware. Many of our farmers take no ^ 
paper at all, and the younger and more v 
intelligent, if they subscribe for any, it will tl 
be some paper printed in the cities,—offered " 
at a very low price, and filled with trash, || 
too dear if had for nothing. ^ 
I have frequently given your paper to n 
persons, in order to examine for themselves, 
and when returned would inquire, “ How e 
are you pleased with it?” They would = 
answer, “ I believe it to be a very good pa- d 
per—but the improvements it recommends q 
in our present system of farming, would cost t, 
us too much time and money—and are only s 
intended for those, owning large farms, and ^ 
who merely superintend without perform- s 
ing much of the labor.” Does it not seem g 
strange that men who can see for them- i 
selves, and judge rigbtly in many other ‘ 
respects, will so blindly adhere to the sys- 
tem pursued a century since?—when they s 
have the example of other States, furnish- , 
ing the evidences of prosperity and happiness t 
attained only by the dissemination of knowl- 1 
edge, through periodicals and papers, of * 
which, in my opinion, the Rural stands j 
first—No. 1. i 
Within the past year however, I can i 
perceive a change in the system pursued in 
this county, and in a great measure owing 
to the example set them by farmers of your . 
district. The staple product of this county ; 
is butter — generally known as “Glade 
Butter.” This article, from some cause 
unknown, has been gradually deteriorating 
in quality and consequently selling at lower 
prices, until from being No. 1, in market, it 
is far surpassed by your Goshen, and not 
superior to Western. Determined if possi¬ 
ble to ascertain the cause, two of our most 
intelligent farmers were constituted a com- 
mittee and furnished with funds to make a 
trip to your State, in order to make them¬ 
selves acquainted with the process by which 
the Goshen butter is made, and to report 
their proceedings, at a meeting which was 
held during the month of May. 
The committee faithfully discharged tlieiir 
duties, traveling through the interior of your 
State, were in your city of Rochester, and 
through the kindness of your citizens' were 
able to acquaint themselves with the whole 
process. Upon their return home, they 
■ made a report at length, which was pub¬ 
lished and proved highly satisfactory. 
The Gentlemen composing the commit- 
. tee, and one or two others, notwithstanding 
i the season was somewhat advanced, com- 
■ menced the manufacture under the Goshen 
) system, as it is termed—brought milk pans 
’ from the town of Goshen—discarded their 
earthen vessels—churned milk and cream 
together—and the result has been, that, 
3 whilst those who pursued the old plan, 
• found great difficulty in selling this fall, at 
^ 12 cents per pound the others sold readily 
l at 18 cents. 
3 This has caused the drones who are op- 
- posed to innovation, to wake up—and the 
“ Goshen system” will be universally adopt¬ 
ed in two years. The committee are loud 
^ in praise of the intelligence, hospitality and 
q kindness of your farmers; but unfortunately 
s, forgot to state that to the circulation of such 
it papers as the Rural, those very qualities 
e they so highly praise is owing. 
COVER YOUR BARN-YARDS. 
The question has been raised how far a < 
judicious man would haul, if it were given j 
to him, barn-yard manure, accumulated un- < 
der the usual circumstances. What are < 
they ? Made only from the offal of corn < 
and wheat and other grain in open yards, J 
exposed to be drenched and to have the J 
life washed out of it not only with every j 
rain, but with the water falling from the un- < 
spouted roofs of the barn and stables. 
The too common error of farmers is to ! 
value manure by the bulk rather than by 
the quality. One might as wcdl value a 
woman or a man in the same way. No, it’s 
the spirit, the essence, that gives value to 
the one and the other. For solne things, 
frequent washing is to be commended, but 
not for manure. Says an English writer: 
“ Who, with an eye in his head, and gift¬ 
ed with a particle of the reasoning faculties 
generally vouchsafed by a kind Providence, 
can help lamenting the wasteful misman¬ 
agement of manure on most farms, and more 
particularly on those of farmers who all 
their lives have been brought up to no thing 
else but agricultural Employment, and who 
follow undeviatingly the practice of their 
fathers? What was more common than to 
see what ought to be manure exposed on 
an eminence to the alternate heats of sum¬ 
mer, the blustering winds, the drenching rain 
and snow of winter—its essence wasting its 
fragrance in a puddling horse-pond, or 
working its devious course to a running 
stream? Does this not require reform?— 
And what reform more appropriate than by 
the erection of a roof to protect the manure 
from the vicissitudes of the weather—sink- 
• ing tanks to receive the liquid from the 
stables, cow-houses, and piggeries, and at 
least weekly pumping it on the mass which 
readily absorbs it—causing no undue fer¬ 
mentation, and helping to consolidate the 
whole as it daily accumulates by the contin¬ 
ual addition of strata, thus converted into 
fertilizing substances? Such is the com¬ 
mon practice at Gilgarran, not long since 
noticed as the most sterile spot in the county, 
but now producing crops equal to any in it. 
“When I first commenced roofing my 
barn-yards, I had to contend with the jeers 
' of my neighbors, and the deep-rooted pre¬ 
judices of my own people, who foretold an 
t absolute failure and wasteful expenditure, 
t But what say they now? That the ma¬ 
nure when cut into has the appearance and 
t consistency of the blackest peat moss, and 
that the improvement in it the very first 
year paid for all the expense: and so has it 
1 been as respects my stackyard, which has 
- for several years been permanently roofed, 
i Great was the discouragement offered to 
j. me, while this operation was in progress; 
but how stands the case now ? It is visited 
S from far and near by our most distinguished 
agriculturists, and their praise of it and my 
ir middens is unqualified.” 
A plank road is now constructing from 
Cumberland to West Newton 75 miles— 
running through this place. For this we 
are also indebted to the enterprise of your 
citizens, as it was found necessary to send a 
committee to your State to examine your 
roads. 
But I must close. I am aware that I 
should have done so long since—and I hope 
you will excuse its great length, and attri¬ 
bute it more to a desire to advance your 
paper, than to inflict upon you the task of 
reading an article, without any other merit 
than its inordinate length. 
Yours, truly, r. l. s. 
Somerset, Pa., January, 1651. 
Pine trees will grow on land that will 
hardly bear anything else, and we have no 
timber in this country more valuable than 
the pine. 
ERRORS IN COMPOSTING MANURE. 
The farmer’s manure heap is usually the 
receptacle for every- substance that has 
served its original purpose; but it is a mis¬ 
taken idea that everything thrown in there 
will serve a useful purpose. Wc may, how¬ 
ever, just say here, that this error has con¬ 
siderably influenced farm practice. Belief 
in the alchymy, rather than the chemistry 
of the farm-yard, has led some persons to 
cart soil into the manure yard, and to carry 
it back again with the dung to the very 
field from which it was taken; adding ma¬ 
terially to the bulk and expense of the ma¬ 
nuring. They presumed that they added 
to its value, but the effect of the earth upon 
the farm-yard manure would be merely to 
retard decomposition, and thus might be a 
loss or a gain, according to the circumstances 
of the soil and the crop. 
Animal substances, offal, and fish of every 
description are also very unprofitably ap¬ 
plied to farm-yard manure. The natural 
tendency of animal substances to enter into 
putrefactive fermentation is well known to 
be greater than that of vegetable substances. 
By placing them in the manure heap, we, 
in a farther degree, facilitate the quality in 
which they naturally excel, and the ten¬ 
dency of which is to rob them of their most 
valuable element, nitrogen. Judicious prac¬ 
tice should avoid this error, by adopting, if 
possible, a system having an opposite effect. 
Lime is one of the substances which it « 
also an error to use with composts in which 
we have farm-yard manure. It is equally 
an error to mix lime with any compound 
rich with ammonia. The tendency of lime, 
in all composts, is to promote decomposition 
and to waste nitrogen, which escapes, by 
union with hydrogen, under the form of am¬ 
monia, which is the very treasure of the 
dung heap, and of most other manuring 
substances.— Norton's Agriculture. 
Deep Plowing.— A Bryant, Esq., of 
Buffalo, remarked to us, that the ground on 
which his nursery now stands, was so worn 
and exhausted when he bought it, that 
it was deemed absolutely worthless for 
I agricultural purposes, and his first crop o 
oats scarcely grew six inches high. But he 
put in his plow to its utmost depth, and fol¬ 
lowed it with another plow in the same 
furrow, and then he had crops as stout as 
they could well grow out of the ground. 
Michigan Farmer. 
