58 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
REMARKABLE YIELD. 
the specific purpose of sustaining my ewes 
in the winter, with feed suited to their cir¬ 
cumstances and necessities. One acre of 
barley on good soil, well tilled, produced 30 
bushels. (I have had it largely exceed this 
amount) This, at 60 cents per bushel, 
(and I have often obtained 75,) produced 
$18. This sum purchased 300 bushels of 
shorts at 6i cents per bushel, weighing 15 
to 16 lbs. per bushel. From the first of 
December to the last of April is 150 days, 
and at two bushels per day just consumed 
the 300 bushels. Of course, one acre of 
barley furnished an ample supply of grain 
for 30 ewes for five months; and three acres 
would suffice for 100 ewes. As to the 
amount of labor, any fanner knows what it 
is. Barley requires a wheat soil—not low 
wetland. Plowed late in the fall, and sow¬ 
ed in the spring soon as sufficiently dry to 
drag well, and the labor is done; and has 
interfered with no other work. 1 he straw, 
is the most valuable straw produced. It is 
sweet and nutritious, and cattle eat it al¬ 
most as greedily as they do hay. 
Should a small number of ewes, as is 
sometimes the case, happen to yean in the 
winter, and give little or no milk through 
want of green food, the evil can be reme¬ 
died entirely, by converting one mess of the 
shorts daily, into a warm mash. This will 
cost but little labor, when the farmer has a 
cauldron kettle set for farm use. r I he mash 
should be just so thin as to pour easily, and 
constitute a drink. Being as warm as it is 
safe for them to drink, all the evils of filling 
them with cold water will be remedied. II 
the troughs are filled with the mash while 
the sheep are shut up, and all are let out to 
them at once, no one can overreach and de¬ 
fraud his neighbor. It will astonish one to 
see with what eagerness they will consume it 
I have made these suggestions, in answer 
to the inquiry, “What is the best feed for 
breeding ewes, in reference to producing 
milk;” not in the least degree intending to 
disparage the root culture. b. d. 
QUERIES BRIEFLY ANSWERED. 
MkiuiJO Shfep. —Will some one of your corres¬ 
pondents please give us, through the columns of 
the Rural, information regarding tho different kinds 
of Merino Sheep? By givingjn minute description 
of the distinct breeds—in regard to quality and val¬ 
ue of wool—weight of fleece, shape and s*zo of car¬ 
cass,—also the constitution of tho sheep, and the 
expense of Keeping, you will oblige several of your 
patrons, and a Lk Rot Farmer. 
Jfan. 28, 1851. 
The above inquiries involve the experi¬ 
ence and knowledge which a life time de¬ 
voted to a particular branch of business, 
would hardly be sufficient to acquire. Mo- 
rell’8 “Shepherd,” a book that should be 
in the hands of every wool grower, will 
greatly assist our correspondent. The 
Wool Grower, a monthly paper published 
by T. C. Peters at Buffalo, is well worthy 
of his patronage. 
Our millers and other buyers give one and the 
game price for all kinds of winter wheat, and one 
of our largest millers said to mo, he did not care for 
tho quality hut wanted weight. Wo have many 
different varieties; and often some is grown or oth¬ 
erwise damaged, but it sells for the same price as 
the best. Could you give more full quotations; 
and tho usages in prominent markets? What is it 
customary to dock on wheat for being of light 
weight? Kalamazoo. 
If your millers and wheat buyers “do 
not care for the quality and only for the 
weight,” we can only say that they are very 
peculiar in their notions when compared 
with those of this region. Grown and shrunk 
wheat not only are affected in price, but 
thick skinned and dark skinned will not sell 
with the thin, light skinned varieties. From 
5 to 50 per cent is deducted for grown or 
badly shrunk wheat in this market. 
Mr. Editor:—W ill you inform me through the 
columns of the Rural which is the best churn now 
in use for twenty cows,—tho price and where it can 
be obtained ? (a) 
Which is the best kind of early garden poas for 
marketing green? (b) 
What is the best course to take with nn unpro¬ 
ductive orchard whose soil is rich and deep ? (c) 
How can I best destroy ant’s nests ? ( d) 
Cazenovia, N. Y., 1851. John White. 
(o) The best churn as we are advised is 
the revolving paddle Thermometric churn. 
There are doubts expressed as to the pro¬ 
ductiveness of the cream churned iu the 
rapidly operating “Atmospheric” articles, 
lately introduced. The larger size of the 
Thermometer churn, costing $6 or $8, would 
meet the wants of our correspondent’s dairy. 
(b) The best kinds of early peas for mar¬ 
ket are the Early Washington, and Early 
Charlton, and some others of late introduc¬ 
tion at our seed stores. 
(c) We are at a loss to determine the 
cause of the unproductiveness of an orchard 
“ where the soil is rich and deep,” unless 
there is a wet subsoil or the varieties bad, 
especially if it is well and openly trimmed, 
and not set too thickly together. 
(d) We know of no method of destroying 
ant’s nests, except hot water, fire, or break¬ 
ing up and scattering during freezing 
weather. 
ON DRAINING WET LAND.-(No. 1.) 
Friend Moore: —As the main object of 
your Rural New-Yorker, is to enlighten 
and instruct the farmer in his noble calling, 
I have thought if you could enter into the 
subject of under-draining in a manner to 
enlist your readers who hare had experi¬ 
ence, in reclaiming wet lands, so as to pro¬ 
duce good crops of grain of all kinds, to 
communicate the result of their labors, you 
would be sending w r eekly to a large pro¬ 
portion of your readers, information much 
needed at the present time. 
The subject of under-draining is begin¬ 
ning to attract quite an interest in the minds 
of the farmers in many places. And but 
a few have bad sufficient experience to ap¬ 
ply their means in a manner to give the 
best return for a long term of years.— 
Therefore it is important that those who 
have been pioneers in the work should give 
the results of their, labors in a manner to 
instruct others in the good begun improve¬ 
ment Farmers in Western New York, in 
most cases, are wealthy, having a yearly 
surplus over their expenses which they are 
anxious to invest in stocks that pay the best 
dividends, or in buying more land. Some 
are content with seven per cent interest— 
But, farmer, there is a place on your own 
farm, where that surplus would pay thrice 
seven per cent interest, if it was applied, in 
extra crops. Do you enquire where? In 
under-draining that portion of your fields 
where the surface water nearly destroys 
your grain crops. 
Do you still have misgivings as to so 
favorable a result? Then I will state a 
case and we will investigate it for more light 
on the subject Take for instance, that field 
you have in wheat, or the one you design 
for corn, oats, or barley. There is a swale 
across the field—the surface water of the 
field above, and that from higher portions of 
the same, runs off in this swale in very wet 
weather. Such swales are from one to five 
or more rods in width—say in this case it 
will average three, and is fifty-four rods in 
length, making about one acre of land. 
You never get on that swale more than 
about half a crop of spring grain. And if 
May and June are wet, it fails to yield that. 
But how has been your wheat crop? Al¬ 
most an entire failure. The surface water 
and the winter destroys it. 
Now the dryer portion of the field yields 
about twenty bushels of wheat to the acre, 
or its value in other grain. Give the swale 
credit half the amount—making a differ¬ 
ence of about ten dollars per acre. It will 
take fifty-four rods of drain in that swale at 
a cost of fifty-six cents per rod, making an 
outlay of thirty dollars and twenty-four 
cents, though some build drains for two 
shillings per rod. But I am calculating to 
have the work done in tho best manner- 
As soon as the drain is completed, the swale 
is in good working condition. In the spring, 
it is fit for the plow before the rest of the 
field, and always the easiest to subdue— 
and will produce one third more per acre 
than the rest of the field, having had the 
wash from the uplands. You have never 
been able to tax it heavy with grain crops, 
and therefore the soil is rich in all the ele¬ 
ments to form grain crops. 
Now, friend farmer, I have made an ad¬ 
vance on the outlay of over thirty-three per 
cent interest But reduce it to my first 
statement, twenty-one, and leave the rest to 
pay for securing and marketing the crop — 
and I think my first statement a safe one in 
reclaiming such wet lands. 
— Will those farmers who have reclaim¬ 
ed wet lands give the conculusions they 
have arrived at on the subject and let the 
readers of fhe Rural New-Yorker know 
how near they come to sustaining the posi¬ 
tion I have taken? Alvin Wilcox. 
West Bloomiield, Ontario Co., N. Y., Feb. 1851. 
Tiie Dahlia was discovered in Mexico by 
Humboldt, in 1798, and sent by him to the 
Botanic Garden at Madrid, where it receiv¬ 
ed its name, in honor of the Swedish natural¬ 
ist, DahL 
ANOTHER WORD ON SMALL FARMS. 
There seems to be a notion prevalent 
that no one can make a respectable outset 
in the business of farming, without being the 
possessor of an extensive farm. The erro¬ 
neous idea has been imbibed and carried 
out by many young men to their serious and 
lasting injury. Numerous acres do not ne¬ 
cessarily make a man either a rich or a re¬ 
spectable farmer in any sense, but rather the 
reverse when he has not the requisite means 
to carry out a liberal system of cultivation. 
What is wealth, independence in this 
life ? Is it not an exemption from the cares 
and perplexities, the slavery, which many 
bring upon themselves by their ill-judged 
schemes for the attainment of that same 
independence? All are rich who adapt 
their ends to the means of which they are 
possessors. Certainly is this true of the 
people in a country like ours, where almost 
every desirable luxury may be obtained 
from a few well cultivated acres. 
He, therefore, who to gratify a false and 
pernicious desire to be esteemed rich, or, 
with the hope of really becoming so, plunges 
into debt far beyond his means, may, in so 
far as his claim to wisdom avails, be rank, 
ed with the gambler who stakes his all on 
the chance of a single card. For it would 
seem that nothing short of a gambling 
spirit could induce a man with means barely 
sufficient to pay for 20 or 25 acres, to pur¬ 
chase a farm of one or two hundred—in nine 
cases out of ten, ensuring to himself poverty, 
and sterility to the soil he essays to culti¬ 
vate. “ I tell you what it is Squire”—says 
that quaint, yet excellent writer, Samuel 
Slick, —“the banc of our country is too 
much land; they run over more ground 
than they can cultivate—and crop the land 
year after year without manure, till it is no 
wonder that it’s run out It is astonishing 
to see folks go on after this fashion, and it 
won’t be long before they’ll rue it them¬ 
selves. The truth is, they don’t know what’s 
best for ’em, or instead of runnin’ over twice 
as much land as they can farm well, and 
payin’ mor’n they get from it, in interest 
and taxes, they’d till only a few acres and 
take to manurin’ and improvin’ it Some 
on ’em are b«ginin’ to open their eyes, I do 
believe, and I guess a considerable many on 
’em will by tho next generation. But it’s 
no use try in’ to persuade the old ones— 
they’re too set in their way.” 
Although things have changed somewhat 
since our friend Samuel wrote, still his 
main proposition remains true; the rage for 
broad fields without a corresponding capital, 
continues to retard the work of improvement; 
cramping the energies of thousands who, 
with half their present territory, would go 
on prosperously and be ornaments to their 
profession. How sad a sight it is, and yet 
how common, to see a young man, in def- 
ference to the popular notion, that acres 
constitute respectability in his profession, 
deliberately make of himself and his family 
slaves for life, when, by pursuing a different 
course, he might live independently, and at 
the same time be gradually increasing his 
business iu a safe and pleasant way. 
Young man, have you thought what a 
grim old tyrant debt is—with what an iron 
grasp he will “ press your nose to the grind¬ 
stone,” when he gets you fairly in his 
clutches ? Beware, then, how you become 
entangled in his toils—for he is merciless, 
even as ho is strong. When misfortune 
comes upon you—when sickness has laid 
you on a bed of languishing— he wavers 
not, but with relentless cruelty, holds his 
victim with the same vice-like grasp. A 
mortgaged farm—have you thought of that 
—of its unrighteous usury and taxes—how 
it lives vampire-like, and battens on the 
riches of your soil and your own best life¬ 
blood—how, year after year you must toil 
on under its withering curse, at last to see 
the fruit of your labor pass from your own 
to other hands, perhaps less toil-hardened, 
less worthy than your own to receive it ?— 
Ah! my aspiring young friend, there are 
pictures in the annals of mortgages fore¬ 
closed, which, if drawn to the life, would 
curb your impatient desire to become speedi¬ 
ly rich, and infuse in its stead a milder, 
quieter, and wiser spirit, which should teach 
you a more rational view of the economy 
and purpose of life;—teach you that there 
is indeed a more excellent way. 
S. Luther. 
Claymount Farm, January, 1851. 
Good advice, for those need it. More 
on same subject, hereafter.— Ed. 
SHRINKAGE OF CORN. 
Knowing that a great difference of opin¬ 
ion exists among farmers, as to the loss of 
corn by shrinking or drying, from the time 
it is cribbed in the fall, till spring—say the 
latter part of March, I determined to satis¬ 
fy myself on this point—at least so far as 
a single experiment could determine. 
On the 23d of November last, the day on 
which we finished the husking, I measured 
two bushels of ears in a standard bushel as 
accurately as I could. I then weighed each 
bushel, found the weights 43-J- lbs. respect¬ 
ively. The number of ears, 58 in one, and 
50 in the other. I had one parcel shelled 
and got 33-^ lbs. by weight, and half a peck 
by measure, and 10 lbs. of cobs. The corn 
was spread in a dry, airy place, where it 
remained till a few days since when it had 
lost just half a peck or fifteen per cent by 
measure, and a fraction over 3 lbs. or ten 
per cent, in weight 
This shows a difference of ten per cent, 
between the loss by weight How is this 
difference to be accounted for ? It was ow¬ 
ing to the minute division of the water in 
the corn, that while we find a loss in weight 
that should occupy a space less than three 
pints, there is an actual loss of eight pints 
in bulk. The cobs of this parcel were ac¬ 
cidentally destroyed; so that I was prevent¬ 
ed from ascertaining the loss of cob. 
The other bushel of ears was kept in a 
dry, airy place, and shelled a few days ago, 
and gave just a half a bushel of corn weigh¬ 
ing 30£ lbs. 
These are the facts, as gathered from my 
small experiment The corn was a variety 
of the white, between the Gourd seed and 
Flint—a mixed variety having from ten to 
twenty-six rows. The corn was in good 
condition for housing at the time we finish¬ 
ed husking. — Albany Cultivator. 
PROFITABLE COWS. 
Mr. H. D. Rood, of East Sheffield, in 
this county, sends us the amount of Butter 
and cheese he has made the past season 
from twelve cows—throe of them three 
year old heifers. 
4,957 pounds of Cheese, which was sold for 7-J cts. 
per lb.$371 77 
1,379^ lbs. of Butter, 18c. 248 31 
The whey Mr. R. values at $3,50 per cow, 42 00 
The calves, and milk and cream used 
in a family of six persons,. 18 00 
Making a total of....$680 08 
This divided among tho twelve cows 
give for each. $56 67 
Several things worthy of note are con¬ 
nected with this statement. 
In the first place, the cows themselves. 
We have no knowledge as to the size, breed, 
or any of that thing, but one fact stands 
out in bold relief—they were good cows .— 
In some conversation with Mr. Rood two 
year since, ho spoke in the highest terms of 
Guenon’s criterion for determining a good 
cow — the escutcheon marks ; that the 
knowledge he had obtained from Guenon’s 
book, was worth hundreds of times the 
cost of it Wo should like to know wheth¬ 
er this lot of cows was selected on this 
principle. 
Again. There is some thing besides cows 
here. We have not the pleasure of know¬ 
ing Mrs. Rood, or whether there is such a 
lady, but some body has taken very good 
care of the milk after the cows had done 
their part or the cheese would not have 
brought cents, and the butter 18 cents 
per lb. 
We add three questions for the boys and 
girls in our farmer’s families to cypher out 
this winter. 
1st. How much more would twelve such 
cows cost than twelve poor ones ? 
2d. How much more would it cost a year 
to keep them? 
3d. How much more would it cost to 
make the butter and cheese so as to bring 
7£ and 18 cents per lb., than to make it so 
the buyer would get shaved if lie paid 5 
for the cheese and 12£ for tho butter ?— 
Pittsfield (Mass.) Cult. <& Gazette. 
A NEWLY DISCOVERED MANURE. 
The St. Vincent Royal Indies Gazette 
mentions that a gentleman of that island 
has sent to England a quantity of ponzzo- 
lona, to have it tested as cement, and was 
agreeably surprised, to learn that the chem¬ 
ist who tested it had declared it to be the 
best manure that had yet ever been discov¬ 
ered, and that it was far preferable to Guano. 
The gentleman in question was complimen¬ 
ted on having a mine of wealth superior to 
gold. When it is considered (says the 
Gazette) that the island abounds in this 
valuable substance—the best cement, and, 
as it now appears, the best manure known, 
we cannot refrain from offering our public 
congratulations on the recent discovery, 
which .must ere long bring great wealth 
into the islands, by supplying them with an 
article which must be much needed by the 
sugar growers. Pozzolona from St. Vincent 
could of course be supplied here much 
cheaper than guano, and might in conse¬ 
quence of its cheapness be extensively used. 
Often breaking up a surface keeps a soil 
in health—for when it lies iu a hard-bound 
state enriching showers run off, and the sa¬ 
lubrious air cannot enter. 
I have just seven-eighths of an aero of 
land where I reside. Upon it there is a 
small but comfortable dwelling house, wood 
house, carriage house, smoke house and 
barn: a wood yard, barn yard and a lane 5 
rods long from thence to the road; also a 
front yard, 4 by C rods. By this time per¬ 
haps, the reader is about ready to say, well 
this about occupies your seven-eights of an 
acre. But I also have a garden upon this 
same seven-eighths of an acre, from which 
I raised the summer past, all the onions, 
squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, 
sweet potatoes, sweet corn, asparagus, pie¬ 
plants, beets, muskmelons, beans, peas, and 
cabbages, that were wanted for my family 
use, (a family of six persons besides work¬ 
men,) during the time of using garden 
sauce. And after the maturity of the crop, 
gathered for fall and winter use ^ bushel of 
onions, 7 bushels of potatoes, 3 bushels of 
sweet potatoes, ^ bushel sweet corn, and 50 
fine cabbage heads. 
I have also, a small nursery upon this 
seven-eighths of an acre, consisting of over 
2,000 trees mostly of fine size for trans¬ 
planting, apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry, 
quince and grape trees. During the time 
of fruiting we had raspbeiries, gooseberries 
and currants, almost without measure — 
bushels of each. Cherries, peaches, plums, 
pears, grapes and apples have been used 
free as water, how many I cannot tell. I have 
sold from the same seven-eighths of an acre, 
trees to the amount of $74 08. Fruit for 
cash: cherries, $6 35; peaches, $3 94; 
pears, $5 50; plums, $7 50; quinces, $2, 
and grapes $5 75. Making in tho aggre¬ 
gate, $115 12. I have put 30 bushels of 
fine winter apples in my cellar; and to fin¬ 
ish on the list have cut from 400 to 500 
lbs. of good hay. 
This is a correct statement of seven- 
eighths of an acre of land in Richfield, 
Summit county, Ohio.—J. W. Weed, in the 
Akron Beacon. 
RAISING DUCKS. 
The duck, though a very valuable fowl, 
and usually commanding a high price in 
our market, has one great objection, which 
is that they are unmerciful gormandizers, 
and are difficult to raise. The eggs are 
usually incubated by hens. In situations 
remote from water they rarely do well; 
their propensities being aquatic, and stand¬ 
ing water essential to their health. Where 
there are ponds or streams the duck is 
probably as profitable as any fowl; they are 
very prolific, and their eggs are preferred by 
many to those of hens. 
Meat is essential to the duck in dry situ¬ 
ations. Where they have free access to 
ponds, they feed on various reptiles, und 
several species of the aquatic grass which 
they find boneath the surface, and which is 
a very excellent substitute for animal food. 
When insects are abundant, such as grass¬ 
hoppers, and the like, they require no sup¬ 
ply of meat, as they obtain a sufficiency of 
animal food themselves; but when this is 
not the case, they must be furnished liber¬ 
ally, or they will speedily die. Potatoes 
boiled, mashed, and mixed with meal, make 
an excellent article of feed for the duck.— 
They become robust when fed on it, and 
when they are in preparation for market 
it is perhaps the best food that can be giv¬ 
en them, except meat. Young ducks re¬ 
quire great attention. Their voracious hab¬ 
its often induce them to eat to repletion, 
and many die while quite young, from no 
other cause than pure stuffing. — Ger. Tel. 
CALIFORNIA HENS. 
The Rev. Walter Colton, the late Alcade 
of Monterey, finding it difficult to procure 
eggs when required, either for love or 
money, took the hen fever in the natural 
way; and that our friends may know what 
kind of birds they have in California, and 
their habits, we give Mr. Colton’s own de¬ 
scription of them: 
“I purchased six hens of an Indian wo¬ 
man for six dollars, and, a rooster for fifty 
cents. On asking the woman why 6he 
charged only half price for the rooster, she 
replied that the fellow laid no eggs, and as 
for his crowing, that did nobody any good. 
Sounder reasons than this could not be 
furnished in a much higher place than a 
hen-coop. The habits of these hens are a 
little singular. They are perfectly tame, 
and are as much at home in tho kitchen as 
the cook. They never trouble themselves 
much about a nest, but deposit their eggs 
where they find it most convenient; one 
takes a tea tray, another tho ironing table, 
a third the oven, and there is one that always 
gets into the cradle. She is not at all dis¬ 
turbed by the tossing of the little fellow on 
whose premises she is intruding. Neither 
she nor any of her feathered sisters cackle 
when they leave their nest. They don’t 
seem to think that any thing worth making 
an ado about has come to pass. The rooster, ! 
it is true, picks up a little, and perhaps, feels 
a feather taller. But this the vanity of his 
sex. There are a great many who crow 
over what others have done.” 
Rice contains the least fatty matter of 
any of tho cereals, but the greatest propor¬ 
tion of starch, averaging about 82 per cent 
