42 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
WINTER EVENINGS AT HOME.-(NO. 4) 
) I 
L 
Thomas. —Now, father, if you will lay 
down your book a minute, I want to bother 
you again. 
Father. —Well, what is in the wind now ? 
T. —I cannot account for, or conceive 
any good cause, for the extraordinary 
changes of temperature which often take 
place in very short spaces of time; for in¬ 
stance, frequently in. the month of January, 
the thermometer will stand 30 or more de¬ 
grees beloiv freezing, and within a day or 
two, it will be so warm that the bees fly 
freely, and the snow all melts and the frost 
is out of the ground. 
F. —Probably it may be the effect of 
electrical influences in some cases. 
T. —Don’t put me off with your electri¬ 
cal influences; I can’t comprehend it, nor 
do I believe you do; I want something more 
tangible. The position of the sun and 
earth remain the same; there is no change 
in the composition of the atmosphere that 
can be discovered; and, what is more im- 
comprehensible still, those warm spells will 
take place and continue, with the wind at 
all points. 
F. —I admit that it is difficult to account 
for these discrepancies in winter, which do 
not happen in summer—and the only other 
answer I can give you, is, that all storms 
and currents of air move in great circles, 
not corresponding with the degrees of lon¬ 
gitude or latitude, and that the west or 
north wind that brings warm weather, had 
its origin in the tropics or warm southern 
regions. 
T. —Well, if that is the best explanation 
you can give, I must put up with it; but it 
is not very clear to my mind, as some of 
those January thaw s continue for a fortnight, 
with but little or no wind, and freezing at 
night and thawing in day time. 
F. —Well, now, my boy, let me trot you 
out a while; you have been catechising me 
pretty close; it is my turn now. Tell me 
what your ideas are on the cause of the 
change of the seasons from summer to 
winter. 
T .—Well, father, I suppose the position 
of the earth has something to do with it. 
F. —Yes, but the sun is a great many 
millions of miles nearer the earth in winter 
than in summer. 
T— The books say that it is in conse¬ 
quence of the elevation of the southern pole 
of the earth—the rays of heat strike the 
earth slanting at a small angle. 
F. —Well, how does that state of things 
effect it ? 
T .—I confess I am unable to explain, 
why being so much nearer, the sun does 
not make up the loss of heat at the position 
of the earth. 
F. —You err in supposing the sun to be 
a hot body. It is supposed to be simply 
the source of light, which is a substance in- j 
dependent of heat, and only its cause, by 
the friction produced in passing through the 
lower and heavy portions of the atmosphere, 
and the refraction from dense bodies. Some 
maintain that heating, or calorific rays ac¬ 
company the rays of light, and that the air 
is not heated by them at all, and only dense 
bodies that absorb and retain the heat. 
T .—From what facts do you draw the 
concl usion that the sun is not a body of fire ? 
F. —Because fire cannot be caused, or 
maintained, except by the combustion and 
consumption of matter—a position that 
would be untenable with such an immense 
mass as the sun to provide for, and from the 
fact that the nearer we approach the sun, 
by the highest mountains—by balloons or 
in the earths orbit—the colder it is found 
to be, and by the fact that solar light is en¬ 
tirely a different material from the light of 
combustion, or chemical light. It can be 
concentrated by the burning lens, and pos¬ 
sesses various chemical and electrical effect^ 
and properties, that the light from artificial 
or fire light does not 
T .— What case can you cite me to, that 
light effects any changes in bodies ? 
F. —All vegetable substances that grow 
in the dark are devoid of color. Writing 
made with the nitrate of silver, or lunar 
caustic, is forever invisible until exposed to 
the rays of the sun, when it becomes indel¬ 
ibly black. The Daguerreotype process de¬ 
pends upon this principle entirely. 
T.— What kind of a body, or material, is 
the sun supposed to be composed of? 
F. —It is a solid body, having a rotation 
on its axis in about twenty-five and a half 
days, with a highly luminous atmosphere, 
IMPROVEMENT IN HANGING GATES. 
Fig:. E. 
SAXON SHEEP- 
? 5er. 2. 
The above cuts represent an improve¬ 
ment in hanging gates, which strikes us as 
quite practical and valuable. If the gate 
works as well as a model which has been 
shown us, we think it will prove a decided 
acquisition, and particularly worthy the at¬ 
tention of those who abominate bars—and 
what farmer does not ? A friend who has 
two such gates on his premises, says they 
have proved, during the recent deep snow, 
the best thing in the gate line he ever saw. 
The N. Y. Farmer & Mechanic says:— 
“ This improvement in banging and opera¬ 
ting gates was secured by Letters Patent 
to Trios. Parkinson of Ontario Co., N. Y., 
Aug. 6 , 1850, and has already gone into 
use in the western and middle part of this 
State, being adapted for farm purposes.— 
They are so simple in their construction 
that any common farmer can make them 
with very little expense, as nothing but 
boards and nails are used—no mortices or 
tenons, nor iron in hanging; but simply 
turning edgewise through an open post up 
on a single wooden pin as represented in 
fig. 1 . 
“ Besides their cheapness, these gates 
possess many advantages. In their opera¬ 
tion they are exceedingly convenient, as a 
team can be driven close to them from 
either side, on any grade. They save 
much trouble in opening—are safer, being 
entirely out of the way of the team in pass- 
ing — can never be left ajar by careless 
shutting and swing open after leaving them, 
or be opened by the wind when thought 
securely fastened They are less liable to 
get out of repair, as the}’-, by their weight, 
either when open or closed, do not strain 
themselves, or drag over the posts. They 
are less liable to be obstructed by snow or 
frost than any gate in use.” 
Mr. Geo. A. Varney, of Honeoye Falls, 
N. Y., owns the right for Monroe county, 
and will dispose of rights for towns, farms, 
or single gates. Rights for other counties, 
towns, &c., can probably be purchased of 
the inventor, whose address is given above. 
which is the source of light and heat and 
life to our entire planetary system. It is so 
large that if 200 such planets as this globe 
pyfrnotcJ (Vrvm ifa vvrr* 
not be able to discover the loss. 
T— Well, father, I will sleep on this and 
see what I can make of it Good night. 
e 
RURAL ARCHITECrURE. 
THE OCTAGON STYLE OF BUILDING. 
Messrs. Editors:—As you devote a 
portion of your paper to Rural Architecture, 
I venture to send you a few thoughts on 
farm-houses, not merely for the sake of put¬ 
ting forth any opinions of my own, but to 
call the attention of others to the subject 
I think it receives too little notice among 
farmers, and that the plans now given by 
the agricultural journals, are not the best 
for their country readers to copy. The com¬ 
mon mode of building practiced among us 
is also objectionable, inasmuch as this also 
seems to favor the principle of long and 
narrow houses, with gables fronting the 
highway, and the rooms arranged with first 
a parlor, next dining and sitting rooms, 
and then a kitchen—each probably with 
the floors a step lower as they recede, which 
I think is a great mistake. How with the 
farmer, in most cases, the kitchen is the 
living room, especially in the winter; and it 
should not be in the rear of the house, for 
it makes it unpleasant, as well as seeming 
as if he had built a nice house for people to 
look at, with a small hut attached for him¬ 
self to live in. 
I know not what others may think about 
this matter, but I am of the opinion that it 
is better, as well as more convenient to build 
a large house (wood shed included,) under 
one roof, as it can be done at less cost. A 
large class consider the beauty of architec¬ 
ture to consist in sharp gables, and hence 
the adoption of the Gothic style, so popular 
just now. I prefer the Octagon style, for 
the reason that it encloses the most space 
with the least wall, and if it can be framed 
as easily as the right-angled, there is no 
cause why it may not be brought exten¬ 
sively into use. Were this and the gothic 
style combined, I think they would form 
the style, for country houses, and suburban 
dwellings. 
I send you a drawing of a building, very 
imperfect to be sure—[Too much so for 
use.— Eds.] | think I have combined both 
these styles, or at least a considerable part 
of each. It is a 20 feet octagon with four 
ui u a.uienta! gobies, placed at right angles; 
and the intermediate spa^o nueu Vj 
nearly flat roof running up to a point be¬ 
tween each, with balustrades. Its height 
is 12 feet from t,he bottom of the sill to the 
top of the plate, or a little over ten feet from 
floor to ceiling. 
The rooms are in size and arrangement 
as follows:—The parlor is 14 by 20 feet, 
and occupies the front—connecting with the 
dining room by folding doors. On each 
side of the parlor is a triangular piazza, un¬ 
der which there are doors opening into 
all the front rooms. The sitting or living 
room is on the left hand, and has a pantry- 
and bed room back—connecting also with 
the diniug room by folding doors. The 
right hand side Can be divided into two or 
three bed-rooms as thought best The 
wood-room is in the rear, having a large 
fire-place in it,-—and calculated for a wash 
and cook room in summer, and used for 
keeping wood in winter. 
The dining room is in the centre, and is 
20 by 20 feet, in the octagon form—the 
comers being used for stairways, and pass¬ 
ages from room to room. It is lighted by 
a dome in the centre, and has above a gal¬ 
lery around it with ornamental railing, ma¬ 
king it a splendid, airy, well ventilated room 
—just the thing the farmer wants in warm 
weather. For giving parties, &c., it cannot 
well be beaten, as the three rooms can be 
all thrown together, making ample space, 
and easily changed as desired. Under the 
four gables, can be fitted up four large bed¬ 
rooms, and the other spaces can be used as 
store-rooms, access to them being had from 
the gallery. The cellar should be under 
the whole house, containing a milk-room, a 
cistern, and an ice-house; also with suitable 
apartments for potatoes, apples and other 
vegetables. 
I send you this, hoping you will present 
specimens of the Octagon and other styles 
of architecture, and discuss their various 
merits in the Rural. Yours, &c., 
Lyons, 10th mo., 1850.- Improvement. 
In the affairs of life, activity is to be pre¬ 
ferred to dignity, and practical energy and 
despatch to premeditated composure and 
reserve. 
(Continued from page 34, in our last number.] 
The means adopted to improve the wool 
of the Saxon breed so much beyond the 
Merinos of Spain consisted for the most part 
originally, in the system of breeding in-and- 
in, and a great degree of care in manage¬ 
ment, which is briefly but imperfectly de¬ 
tailed by several writers, as follows:—the 
first remarks are by Mr. Grove : 
“The Germans keep their sheep under 
comfortable shelter during the winter. By 
this means they do not require, in the first 
] place, so much provender; secondly, the tip 
ends of the wool do not get weather-beaten 
which is an injury; thirdly, a great quantity 
of manure is saved. They hurdle their 
sheep during summer for the purpose of 
manuring the land,»which makes it more 
productive. They raise large quantities of 
roots, such as ruta baga, potatoes, mangel 
wurtzel, carrots, round turnips, &c., to feed 
out during winter. Combined with, straw' 
it is considered an economical mode of win¬ 
tering sheep. They enrich their land, 
moreover, by this course of management, 
which enables them to keep still more sheep 
and cattle and raise more grain. Many far¬ 
mers in that country keep their sheep from 
nine to ten months of the ye?.r in the yard; 
some only part of their flock and others 
their whole flock. For this purpose they 
sow red and white clover, lucerne, and es- 
parrette, which is mow'ed and fed to them 
in racks, three times a day, and in wet 
weather a foddering of straw. It follows, 
as a matter of course that the stable and 
yards are well littered with straw every day. 
It is considered that an acre, thus managed, 
will maintain double the number of sheep 
or cattle that it would to turn them out to 
pick for themselves. By this course of 
management they are enabled to keep 
large numbers of sheep, without infringing 
much on their grain growing, and enabled 
to come in competition with the wool grow¬ 
ers of other countries. As there are no 
fences in that country, the sheep are attend¬ 
ed by dogs. One shepherd with his dog, 
will manage from five hundred to eight 
hundred in the summer, all in one flock.” 
Mr. Carr, an English gentleman farmer, 
but now a resident of Germany, states the 
following in the Journal of the Royal Ag¬ 
ricultural Society of England. 
“ These sheep (Saxons) cannot thrive in 
a damp climate, and it is quite necessaiy 
that they should have a wide range of dry 
and hilly pasture, of short and not over nu¬ 
tritious herbage. If allowed to feed on 
swampy or marshy ground, even once or 
twice in autumn, they are sure to die of 
liver complaint (rot) in the following spring. 
I They are always housed at night, even in 
summer, except in the finest weather, when 
I tl*c r -«.% x-c- C-o fv^Uoil in flip, distant 
fallows, but never taken to pasture till the 
dew is off the grass. In the winter they 
are kept within doors altogether, and are 
fed with a small quantity of sound hay, and 
every variety of straw, and which is varied 
at each feed. Abundance of good water to 
drink, and rock salt in their cribs, are indis- 
pensables.” 
Baron Geisler has been many years one 
of the. most successful breeders of Saxon 
Merinos, and for a long time (on the author¬ 
ity of Dr. Bright) “ he has exercised un¬ 
wearied assiduity by crossing and recrossing, 
so that by keeping the most accurate regis¬ 
ter of the pedigree of each sheep, he has 
"been enabled to proceed with a mathemat¬ 
ical precision in the regular and progressive 
improvement of the whole stock. Out of 
seventeen thousand sheep, comprising his 
flock, there is not one whose whole family 
he cannot trace by reference to his books; 
and he regulates his yearly sales by these 
registers. He considers the purity of blood 
the first requisite towards perfection of the 
fleece.” Dr. Bright makes a few remarks 
on management. 
“For fourteen days before the coupling- 
season the rams should be daily fed with 
oats, and this food should be continued not 
only during that particular period, but for 
fourteen days after; and one ram will thus 
be in a condition to serve sixty ewes, if oth¬ 
er proper attention has been paid to him 
previously. 
v During the lambing period a shepherd 
should be constantly day and night in the 
cote, in order that he may place the lamb, 
as soon as it is cleaned, together with its 
mother, in a separate pen, which has been 
before prepared. The ewes which have 
lambed should, during a week, be driven 
neither to water nor to pasture; but low 
troughs of w'ater for this purpose are to be 
introduced into each partition, in order that 
they may easily and at all times quench 
their thirst. 
It is also very useful to put a small quan¬ 
tity of barley meal into the -water, for by 
this means the quantity of ewes milk is much 
increased. When the lambs are so strong 
that they can eat, they are to be separated 
by degrees from their mothers, and fed with 
the best and finest oats, being suffered at 
first to go to them only three times a day, 
early in the morning, at mid-day, and in the 
evening, and so to continue till they can 
travel to pasture, and satisfy themselves.” 
Although rigid attention is bestowed on 
these sheep during winter, yet they are not 
quite the hot-house objects which, from the 
remarks of Mr. Carr, the reader would in¬ 
fer. On the authority of Mr. Youatt, al¬ 
though the sheep in Saxony and Silesia 
are housed at the beginning of winter, yet 
they are turned out and compelled to seek, 
perhaps under snow, a portion of their food, 
whenever the weather will permit; and the 
season must be unusually inclement in 
which they are not driven into the yards at 
least two or three hours in the middle of 
the day. The doors and windows are also 
frequently opened, that th« sheep houses 
may be sufficiently ventilated. This is done 
as far north as Sweden. 
Very great care is taken by the Saxon 
flock-master in the selection of lambs which 
are destined to be saved in order to keep 
up the flock: 
“When the lambs are weaned, each in 
his turn is placed upon a table, that his 
wool and form may be minutely observed. 
The finest are selected for breeding, and re¬ 
ceive a first mark. When they are one 
year old and prior to shearing them, another 
close examination of those previously mark¬ 
ed takes place; those iu which no defect 
can be found receive a second mark, and 
the rest are condemned. A few months 
afterwards a third and last scrutiny is made; 
the prime rams and ewes receive a third 
and final mark, but the slighest blemish is 
sufficient to cause the rejection of the ani¬ 
mal. Each breeder of note has a seal or 
mark secured to the neck of the sheep, 
to detach or forge which is considered a 
high crime, and punished severely.” 
( Concluded in our next.) 
HOW RUMINANTS CHEW THEIR CUD. 
When these animals (ruminants) feed, 
they swallow their aliments at first without 
having chewed them. These substances 
then enter into the paunch, and there accu¬ 
mulate ;]thence they pass into the 2nd stom¬ 
ach, (reticulum); but after having remained 
there for a certain time, they are carried 
back into the mouth to be chewed, and af¬ 
terwards swallowed again; and when they 
descend again into the stomach, they no 
more enter the paunch or reticulum, but go 
directly to the manyplies, (third stomach) 
from which they pass into the fourth stom¬ 
ach, or rennet-bag, where they are digested. 
At first, one is astonished to see food pass 
at one time into the paunch and reticulum, 
at another into the manyplies, (third stom¬ 
ach,) according as it had been swallowed 
for the first time, or after it has been regur- 
giated; and one is tempted to attribute this 
phenomenon to a sort of tact with which 
the openings of these different digestive 
pouches seem to be endowed. But there 
is nothing of the kind; this result being the 
necessary consequence of the anatomical 
arrangement of the parts. The (Esophagus 
terminates beluvr in a species of gutter, or 
longitudinal slit, which occupies the upper 
part of the reticulum (second stomach) and 
the paunch, and is continued to the many 
plies. Ordinarily, the edges of the slit of 
which we have just spoken lie close togeth¬ 
er, and then this gutter constitutes a perfect 
tube, which leads from the oesophagus into 
the manyplies, (third stomach;) but if the 
alimentary ball swallowed by the animal is 
solid, and somewhat large, it distends this 
tube, and separates the edges of the open¬ 
ing through which the oesophagus commu¬ 
nicates with the two first stomachs; the 
food falls into these pouches; but if the al¬ 
imentary ball be soft and pulpy, as is the 
case when mastication has been completed, 
the matter swallowed enters into this same 
tube without separating the edges of the 
slit, and reaches the third stomach. 
It is by this mechanism that unchewed 
food, which the animal swallows for the first 
time, stops in the paunch and reticulum; 
while, after it has been chewed a second 
time, and well mixed with saliva, it pene¬ 
trates directly into the manyplies. 
“ The mechanism by which aliment accu¬ 
mulated in the first stomach is carried back 
to the mouth, is also very simple. When 
regurgitation begins the reticulum contracts, 
and presses the alimentary mass against 
the slit-like Opening which terminates the 
oesophagus; then this opening enlarges so 
as to seize a pinch or portion of the alimen¬ 
tary mass, compresses it, and forms it into a 
small pellet, which engages in the oesopha¬ 
gus, the fibres of which contract successive¬ 
ly from below upwards, to push forward 
the new alimentary ball into the mouth.— 
Rushenberger’s Elements of Mammalogy. 
ANALYSIS OF MILE. 
Milk consists of three distinct substances, 
viz:—cream, curd, and whey, into which it 
separates spontaneously in a state of repose. 
Cream, according to Berzelius, has a specific 
gravity of 1,0244, and consists in one hun¬ 
dred parts, of butter 4.5, caseous matter 
3.5, and whey 92. On analysis, caseous 
matter yields, carbon 59.78, hydrogen 7.42, 
oxygen 11.40, nitrogen 21.38. When 
burnt, it affords an ash, amounting to 0.5 
of its original weight, the principal part of 
which is phosphate of lime. Milk, when 
deprived of cream, lias a specific gravity of 
1.03, and in one thousand parts, yields of 
water 928.75, caseous matter 28; sugar of 
milk 35; muriate and phosphate of potassa, 
1.95. There are also noticeable traces of 
other matter. — Olive Branch. 
