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VOLUME II. NO. 19. I 
ROCIIESTEK, N. Y.-THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1851 
•i WHOLE NO. 71 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO 
Agriculture, Horticulture, Mechanic Arts and Sci¬ 
ence, Education, Rural and Domestic Economy, 
General Intelligence, the Markots, &c., &c. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTED BY 
J. II. BIXRY, L. WETHERELIj, and II. C. WHITE. 
serve them, except to keep them dry and 
avoid bruising them: they are nearly al¬ 
ways sold at retail by weight. 
BUTTER AND CHEESE. 
In relation to the Dairy, I doubt whether 
much can be learned in France, which will 
tend to advance the art in the United States, 
although my observation, as yet, has not 
been sufficiently extensive to enable me to 
speak with much confidence. In practice 
at least, (whatever they may be in theory,) 
the I rench do not succeed well according 
to the “gout” (taste,) of a Yankee; their 
butter being almost universally poor, and 
most of the cheese absolutely unfit to eat; 
proper neatness is not observed in its man¬ 
ufacture, and it has a strong, disagreeable 
taste, and unwholesome qualities produced 
by putrefactive fermentation. No new work 
on this branch of agriculture is to be found 
in Paris, so that I am unable to give a de¬ 
tailed account of it at present. Butter here, 
is entirely destitute of salt in the winter and 
nearly so in summer. After being churned 
it is pressed by machines for that purpose, 
until the butter-milk and air are entirely 
expelled; after this is done it does not ferment 
and become rancid like butter which con¬ 
tains buttermilk and other foreign sub¬ 
stances, but keeps like any other oil for a 
long time perfectly fresh. On some ac¬ 
counts, this mode has its advantages, par¬ 
ticularly in summer,—but the butter is less 
pleasant, having an oily taste, and it is al¬ 
ways necessary to salt at table before it is 
palatable. 
Butter is not brought to market in small 
rolls, but in hemispherical or conical masses 
weighing; from 20 to 100 nounds: it is sol- 
moist, always mouldy, and of an exceed¬ 
ingly nauseating taste and odor. This is 
the “ ammoniacal cheeseaft r it is made, 
it is put into a room warmed to 00° or 70° 
F., and allowed ti remain until putrefaction 
is considerably advanced, by which ammo¬ 
nia is el olved, giving origin to the offensive 
odor. During this fermentation, part of 
the sugar of milk in the cheese is changed 
to lactic acid, thus wasting an important 
part of the nutritive qualities: this cheese, 
like all putrified animal matter is unwhole¬ 
some, and unGt for food. This is true as a 
principle in physiology, and is proven by 
the fact that strangers unaccustomed to 
the use of it are often partially poisoned by 
it, and suffer from fevers and disease of ?)ie 
digestive organs; and there is no doubt that 
fevers, cholera and other diseases are often 
produced among the French themselves, 
by the use of this putrid and filthy article 
of diet. 
Large quantities of cheese are made from 
buttermilk and sour milk, and sold in the 
milk shops. This is more tolerable than 
other kinds, but is always sour and poor. 
Milk sells for four to five cents per quart 
in Paris. It is always largely adulterated 
with water. The cream sold is about the 
strength of good milk. Much of the milk 
s boiled before being sold—and when sold 
to be eaten, in the milk shops, is always 
sweetened with sugar by the vender, in or¬ 
der to compensate for the addition of water. 
Asses milk. is sold in considerable quanti¬ 
ties,—being considered better than cows 
milk for sick and convalescent persons, and 
young children. Droves of five to fifteen 
asses may be seen daily driven through the 
streets of Paris, and stopping at dwellings 
and hospitals to be milked for this purpose: 
each animal gives from half a pint to one 
quart at a milking and they are usually 
milked once a day. 
SULPHATE OF IRON. 
This salt has been used here by way of 
experiment lately, on 
CROWS AND SCARE-CROWS. 
There is no sound reason why the crow 
should be so greatly persecuted by us un- 
fealhered bipeds. The farmer, consulting 
his interest, should be the last one to wage 
war upon birds that render him so much 
service. It is true they are a “ colored. ” 
race, that now and then appropriate a few 
hills of corn. From this innocent thievery 
we have permitted a prejudice to spring up 
against the bird, w 
deeds in the ball 
Not a hill of the corn was disturbed, al¬ 
though it was a season when the crows 
were ravenous for want of a proper supply 
of their natural food. I was told by one 
who had practiced it for a number of years, 
that it would drive them from a field after 
they had began to pull the corn, for, said 
he, “ the creature abhors the smell of gun¬ 
powder.” T. E. W'. 
ON DRAINING-(NO. V) 
ithout weighing its good 
lance. And this prejudice 
has in some instances very unwisely run so 
high as to set a price on the crow’s head. 
That was an unwise movement of an 
honest farmer, who at a town election, 
strongly opposed an increase of the town 
fund for educational purposes, while, at the 
same time, with equal ardor, he urged his 
fellow citizens to lay a tax for the destruc¬ 
tion of crows. The first was unwise, be¬ 
cause, in a measure it curtailed the means 
of diffusing knowledge to the young and 
growing mind. The second was unwise in 
one sense, because it undermined the prin¬ 
ciple urged in behalf of the first—“Let 
every man educate his own children ” So 
let every man kill his own crows. But it 
was the more unwise, because such a meas¬ 
ure had for its object the decrease and ex¬ 
tinction of the crow, to the extent of which 
decrease, community—the agricultural es¬ 
pecially—would suffer a dead loss. 
The food of the crow consists almost 
wholly of worms, grubs, insects, Ac., and 
dead animal matter. Hence the reason of 
his non-appearance in a new country until 
the settlements have made considerable ad¬ 
vancement. By such times the cultivated 
fields begin in a measure to be infested 
with the larvae of various insects, all more 
or less injurious to the farmer’s crops of 
grain and grass. So should we welcome 
the coming of the crow with thankful 
hearts, rather than with guns primed and 
cocked, for so long as these insects shall 
grow and increase I heir larvae, so long will 
his services and those of his fellow 
In volume 1, page 241, of the Rural 
New-Yorker, there is a valuable article on 
draining, extracted from the Transactions 
of the N. Y. State Ag. Society for 1848, 
and written by John Delafield, Esq., of 
Seneca county. Mr. D. goes into an esti- 
timate of the expense of building drains 
with stone and tile, and makes a difference 
of 10 cents per rod in favor of tile, where 
the stone are in the field in which the drains 
are to be built. 
. There is so much valuable information on 
draining in the article alluded to, that the 
reader will be well paid for perusing it.— 
The tile machine that Mr. Delafield makes 
mention of in that article has been in opera- 
ation by B. F. Wiiartenby, of Waterloo; and 
I am informed, that in 1849, ^Ir. W. made 
180,000 tile,—in 1850, over 200,000—and 
notwithstanding the large amount manufac¬ 
tured, he is unable to meet the demand.— 
But as there is only a few tile machines yet 
in operation in Western New York, farmers 
must use such material as they have for 
building drains until tile machines become 
more numerous. 
Where stone are to be had, they answer 
a good purpose, if well laid. It is always 
best to build a regular water course, by 
laying a tier of stone in each side of the 
ditch; then place the larger stone over the 
drain and chink as close as possible with 
small stone. A little straw scattered over 
the stone to hold the loose dirt till it be¬ 
comes settled, or the sod inverted, filling 
the remainder of the ditch with earth, I 
consider better than filling the ditch nearly 
full of stone—for the first heavy storm, the 
water will break through the thin covering 
of earth, carrying the loose dirt with it, and 
in a short time the drain is filled up.— 
Another difficulty, where the stone come so 
near the soil, is that the field mice will 
work in the drain the whole length of it. 
For the the above reasons I consider it best 
to use no more stone in building 
PROGBESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
LETTERS ON 
EUROPEAN APICULTURE, ETC. 
crops of grain, pota¬ 
toes, beans, carrots, onions, cauliflower and 
asparagus. It is said to increase the crops 
on some soils, from one-fourth to one half 
over those which received none. It is also 
beneficial to fruit trees, and restores pale 
and yellow plants to their original green 
color. A weak solution is applied to the 
soil at different times during the early 
growth of the plants. The use of this salt 
as a fertilizer is not new, but its systematic 
use, with exact experiments, is new here.— 
There is no doubt of its being both a cheap 
and powerful fertilizer on many soils. 
CANADA THISTLES. 
The eradication of Canada thistles or 
any other noxious weed, can be accomplish¬ 
ed by constant cutting or covering, so as 
not to allow them to shoot above the sur¬ 
face. In large patches this is best done by 
the fi equent use of the plow—going over 
the whole ground thoroughly whenever the 
leaves appear. In smaller patches, the hoe 
or trowel may be used. 
In some cases we have known patches of 
Canada thistles to be totally destroyed by 
one cutting, and in others half a dozen of 
them did not succeed ; and the want of 
farther perseverence was followed by an 
extended crop of the pest. Had the mat¬ 
ter been thoroughly attended to, much 
trouble and expense would have been saved. 
The application of salt, or the observance 
of the times of the moon are unnecessary, 
if this plan be followed. 
com¬ 
rades do vastly more to hold in check their 
myriad numbers than all the art and inge¬ 
nuity of man combined. It is therefore a 
short-sighted policy to seek the destruction 
of these agricultural “ helps.” 
The crow can be kept from depredating 
upon the corn field. But the army of tat- 
terdemalians, of uncouth figures of “ men 
of straw and buckram,” that so much dis- 
figure the fields in May and June, will not 
do it. IN or will the erection of mimic 
windmills and other clitter-clatter. Tarring 
the corn when planted, is said to be effect¬ 
ual. But this is troublesome at least— 
Passing cords of twine around through va¬ 
rious parts of the field, at an elevation that 
will admit of a horse passing under, will 
work a cure. This practice my father pur¬ 
sued for a number of years, and always 
with complete success. I have seen it 
ng, and continue to produce good crops for 
several years, after which they require to 
be leplanted. I he vines are kept pruned 
closely, all .shoots and suckers being cut 
away which are not necessary; they seldom 
exceed three or four feet in height; the 
pruning, stirring the soil, Ac., is continued 
through most of the season. Liquid ma¬ 
nures are much used on the vine: of the 
solid or dry manures, that from the horse 
barn, is considered preferable, on account 
of being of a warmer nature and ferment¬ 
ing more slowly than mj^t others. Grapes 
are gathered mostly in October, before frost; 
they are kept dry and bruised as little as 
possible until made into wine. 
The process of making wine is similar to 
that of making cider. The amount of 
grapes or wine produced from an acre of 
ground varies of course with the soil, sea¬ 
son, and care in cultivation. On anaverao - e 
an acre of vines is estimated to produce 
grapes sufficient to make from eight to 
twenty barrels of wine;—from seven to 
twelve bushels of grapes are required for a 
barrel of wine. Most of the grapes here 
are much finer than can be produced in 
New \ ork State, the climate being more 
natural to their growth and maturity. Sev¬ 
eral varieties keep^well through the winter; 
one variety of white grapes has been plen¬ 
ty in the Paris market up to the m ddle of 
March, 
drains 
than it requires to make a regular water 
course and close joints. 
But where the farm is destitute of stone 
for building drains, and tile are not to be 
had, drains can be built of wood, and will 
last long enough to several times pay the 
cost of building. Round poles, or split tim¬ 
ber, will answer for tlie side pieces, and 
slabs or plank are the best for covering; 
but where timber is scarce, a few round 
stone from four to six inches in diameter, 
placed sufficiently thick under the edges 
of the covering to keep it from settling, 
make a good drain. 
Even brush drains would be found profit¬ 
able. Dig the ditch three feet deep, cut 
the brush in suitable shape, commence at 
the upper end of the drain and lay the butt 
ends forward; fill the ditch one-third full 
when standing on the brush; use inverted 
sods or straw first in covering the brush.— 
Farmers would thus find the brush that is 
yearly accumulating from their forests and 
fruit orchards, turned to a more profitable 
account than throwing them into heaps, to 
be burned or lay in the way till decayed. 
But when tile machines that turn out a 
good article become sufficiently numerous 
to meet the demand, tile will be the prin¬ 
cipal article used in under draining. 
West Bloomfield, N. Y., 1851. Alyis Wilcox. 
Others, as the “ fromage de Holland,” are 
in balls of a globular form, wieghing five to 
ten pounds;—this is pressed very hard, and 
is the best of any found here. Some is in 
cylindrical cakes weighing from four ounces 
to two or three pounds. Most kinds, ex¬ 
cept the “ fromage de Holland,” are made 
without pressing,—they are very soft and 
We believe in small Farms and thorough 
cultivation. 
Wb believe that the soil loves to eat, as 
well as its owner, and ought tq be manured. 
No other means are used to 
