VOLUME II. NO. 33. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1851. 
WHOLE NO. 8-5. 
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 Markets, &c., &c. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTED BY 
J. H. RfXBY, I,. WETHERELL, and H. C. WHITE, 
fjjr For Terms, &c.. see last page. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
THE STATE FAIR. 
The readers of the Rural have already 
been apprised that the' N. Y. State Agri¬ 
cultural Society will hold their annual Cat¬ 
tle Show and Fair in the city of Rochester, 
the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th of Septem¬ 
ber next. But little more than a month 
now remains for preliminaries, and we may 
be pardoned for calling the attention of all 
classes to the importance of an early and 
efficient preparation for this annual “ Farm¬ 
ers’ Jubilee.” 
The local committee having charge of 
the grounds and fixtures are actively push¬ 
ing forward the preparations, and in due 
season the whole will probably be comple¬ 
ted in a manner of which the citizens of 
Rochester may justly be proud. The dif¬ 
ferent lines of public conveyance will, with 
accustomed liberality, transport passengers 
at half price; and all articles for exhibition 
free, —and we confidently expect one of 
the largest Fairs ever held by the Society. 
We earnestly extend an invitation to all 
who can, not only to come, but to contribute 
something which may add to the interest 
and usefulness of the exhibition. No one 
should think his stock, farm products, or 
any article of manufacture, unworthy a 
place in the collection. If the article be 
not superior to all others, a comparison may 
unfold the cause of inferiority and lead to 
improvement. Under the impression that 
it will not be necessary to swell the list with 
common or perhaps trivial articles, many 
branches of really productive industry are 
often unrepresented. 
Many persons are deterred from exhibit¬ 
ing because they have heard, or labor un¬ 
der the impression, that only favored ones 
receive premiums. The State Society, as 
far as we can judge, have no favorites, 
and if awards have been made at any pre¬ 
vious Fair, that were unjust to the article 
or to the exhibitor, the reason could be 
more readily found in the fallibility of hu¬ 
man judgment, than in any favoritism, 
practiced by the Society or its umpires. A 
wrong basis of action may sometimes be 
established by judges, and the award be 
made to skill in finishing and adorning an 
article, rather than to the real merit of the 
goods themselves, or their adaptation to the 
purpose for which they were intended— 
though as a general rule, undoubtedly the 
useful shotild, and does, have precedence 
over the ornamental. A truly meritorious 
article may fail of receiving a just award 
from want of skill in the exhibitor in bring¬ 
ing it to the notice of the proper commit¬ 
tee. Not one of these causes of failure 
should be attributed to the Society, or its 
officers, who we have had occasion to know 
are usually courteous and just to members 
and exhibitors. 
The dairy interest is becoming one of 
the most important in the State, and we 
hope to see an unusually large show of its 
products. Here may Chautauque, Erie, 
Allegany and Wyoming, meet and compare 
notes and dairies with Herkimer, Oneida, 
Madison, Jefferson, Lewis and Washington. 
So also may Orange, Westchester, Rock¬ 
land, and other river counties place their 
butter side by side with that from North¬ 
ern, Western and Southern New York.— 
Such competition and comparison cannot 
fail of being useful, and we hope our friends 
in those counties will not allow this occa¬ 
sion to pass with as meagre a show as in 
former years. Ohio will no doubt be pre¬ 
pared to enter the list with credit to herself. 
At the Canadian Fair in September last 
we saw the finest samples of wheat ever 
grown upon this continent. Can not the 
farmers of Western New York favor us 
with a show of their best varieties, if it 
shall be only for comparison and exchange. 
All goods for exhibition should be forward¬ 
ed early, and have their place upon the 
grounds at the opening of the exhibition, 
that they may be the better seen, and re¬ 
ceive more attention from the judges. 
After the invitation to our friends abroad 
it may not be unprofitable to remind the far¬ 
mers of Monroe county, and our readers 
generally in Western New York, that they 
will be expected to fully sustain their high 
reputation at this Fair. The richest pro¬ 
ducts of your fields, the choicest selections 
from your fruits and flowers, the best of 
your flocks and herds, will be necessary to 
compare with those from other parts of the 
State. Nor should the ladies be wanting 
in attention to the interests of this annual 
jubilee. Let their contributions embrace 
articles of use and luxury of domestic 
manufacture, specimens of skill in ail the 
home art and accomplishments of farmer’s 
wives and daughters,—as well as a full dis¬ 
play of the handiwork of the wives and 
daughters of our goodly city, and the sur¬ 
rounding villages. The mechanics of Roch¬ 
ester, have heretofore, at home and distant 
exhibitions, won for themselves a good name, 
and now that the opportunity is again at 
their door, they should n6t allow any less 
favored locality to successfully compete for 
pre-eminence in any branch of manufac¬ 
ture known among them. Let the deter¬ 
mination be formed and executed, that 
Western New York will rank first in the 
coming exhibition, and Rochester rank high¬ 
est among; them all. + 
UPON WHAT DOES MAN SUBSIST I 
IN FOUR NUMBERS — NO. I. 
Man knows himself to be a corporeal be¬ 
ing, possessing appetites and desires that 
cannot be appeased without tangible food, 
which is the product of a tangible earth, 
where he, for a time, at least, must abide, 
—however numerous and spacious the air- 
castles which his fancy may construct and 
furnish, —and not only abide, but must sub¬ 
sist on something more tangible than the 
air which inflates his lungs. If it be true, 
as the preacher saith, that man does not 
live or subsist upon bread alone, it is also 
as true, that he cannot subsist without 
bread; neither can bread be had without 
toil and care—“ for in the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto 
the ground.” So if you ask the student 
why he toils over the midnight lamp—the 
merchant why he^sends his ships laden with 
merchandise to every port on the globe— 
the farmer why he labors and sweats under 
an almost tropical sun, hardly giving rest to 
his weary limbs, or sleep to his eyes—and, 
so of all the vocations of man, — you 
will hear the answer, man cannot live and be 
fed and clothed without labor, toil, and care. 
Because of the necessity of man to feed 
upon what is tangible—multitudes have 
breathed out their inner-most desire in the 
language of Agur, —“Feed me with food 
convenient for me—lest I be poor and steal, 
and take the name of God in vain.” Would 
Agur or those who appropriate to them¬ 
selves his words, ever have sent up this 
petition to the Dispenser of every good en¬ 
joyed upon earth, had man been so consti¬ 
tuted as to subsist upon respirable air as 
nutrition ? Does not the thief put in his 
plea for mercy upon the ground that he 
stole to appease the famishing gnawings of 
starvation ? And does not the court some¬ 
times exercise mercy toward the offender 
for this reason ? 
However transcendental the speculations 
of the-most subjective of the metaphysical 
theorists, they must all subsist upon some¬ 
thing more tangible than that which they 
serve up for their hungry disciples. 
The answers to the question, “Upon 
what does Man Subsist,” will be as various 
as the different conditions in which he is 
found. The man who inhabits the plains 
of Buenas Ayres, consuming daily 10 or 12 
pounds of wild bull meat—in whose vocab¬ 
ulary the word bread is not known—sub¬ 
sists very unlike the Irishman, feeding upon 
his potatoes and oatmeal—the Chinese eat¬ 
ing fattened rats—the Greenlander feeding 
upon whale oil—the slave upon the plan¬ 
tations sucking the sweets of the sugar cane, 
and feasting upon his banana—the African 
depending mainly upon sweet dates for his 
sustenance—the Siamese greedily partaking 
of rice—and so through all the other vari¬ 
ous modes of subsistence until the cannibal 
be reached—the very outcast of Paganism. 
And so it is, in the language of another, 
“wheresoever over the whole inhabited earth 
we approach and demand hospitality, a dif¬ 
ferent kind of food is set before us—“ daily 
bread” offered in another form. But we 
may ask, is man then really so versatile a 
being that he can build the visible house 
of his spirit, in the same way, out of the 
most varied materials ? Or do all those so 
varied kinds of nourishment contain one, or 
a few similar matters* which peculiarly serve 
for the food of mankind ? The latter is 
actually the fact.” 
Says, Schiller, the poet:— 
“ Four elements 
In one firm band, 
Give form to life, 
Build sea and land.” 
These four elements are carbon, hydro¬ 
gen, oxygen and nitrogen, combined, form 
the substance of which plants are mostly 
composed. Carbon is the only solid—the 
other three being gases. Our atmosphere, 
according to Poggendorf’s estimate, con¬ 
tains about 1,954,578 cubic geographical 
miles of oxygen, while the respiration of 
man and animals, together with the various 
processes of combustion, consume annually 
about 2-^- cubic miles; consequently 250 
cubic miles in a 100 years—nearly a ten- 
thousandth part of the whole. The amount 
of carbonic acid in the air in proportion to 
oxygen, is as 1 to 155. This is predicated 
on the supposition that man in respiration 
expires a cubic inch of carbonic acid, for 
every cubic inch of oxygen inspired. The 
same change is carried on by combustion. 
This does not account for the proportion of 
carbonic ac : d found in the air. Oxygen 
combines readily with carbon and hydrogen. 
Nitrogen has but slight affinity for other 
substances. 
These four elements form numerous com¬ 
pounds. Only two of these classes are of 
deep importance to the organic world.— 
One of them, says Sciileiden, comprehends 
the substances made of all four elements. 
This includes albumen, fibrine, caseine, and 
gelatine. All animal bodies are formed of 
these substances—and when decomposition 
takes place they are diffused through the 
air. The second class includes all substan¬ 
ces devoid of nitrogen, as gum, sugar, 
starch—spirit, wine, beer, and the various 
kinds of fat. w. 
FARMING IN NEW-ENGLAND, AS IT WAS 
AND AS IT IS. 
Twenty-five and thirty years ago farm¬ 
ing in New-England was thought to be a 
lucrative, and even a money-making busi¬ 
ness; but times and places have changed. 
The Western country has now become our 
next door neighbor, as it were; and while 
real estate “ in the country” in the New- 
Enland States has decreased in value, lands 
in the West have increased in the same 
proportion. There are those here in New- 
England who still contend that farming 
might be made as profitable now as it was 
years ago, did farmers cultivate their land 
as they used to do—but this is a mistake. 
Experience proves it so. I was conversing 
with a neighbor a few days since, on farm¬ 
ing in New-England, —and he stated that 
he knew farmers here in Smithfield, who, 
thirty years ago, sold forty, fifty, or one 
hundred bushels of corn from their farms, 
who were now obliged to buy the same 
amount to feed the stock on their farms. 
The question may be asked, what has 
brought about this change? I will en¬ 
deavor to explain according to my idea of 
the matter. The soil in the New-England 
States has greatly degenerated. The land, 
by long culture has become such that it is 
not natural to the growth of plants, — and, 
even with a plentiful supply of manure, the 
soil will not produce now, what it would 
many years ago, without manure. Hence, 
the fact is obvious that the quality of the 
soil has degenerated, consequently a greater 
amount of manure is required to bring the 
land into a productive state. Every cord 
of manure made by the farmer costs him 
from two to three dollars; and then taking 
into consideration the number of cords re¬ 
quired to manure an acre of land as it should 
be—and adding the expense of plowing, 
planting, hoeing, &c., &c., the net profit to 
the grower is but trifling. 
The chance for the farmer here, with a 
small capital is anything but encouraging. 
But few, even with good crops, can make 
any more than a living. Notwithstanding 
this, scarcely one out of fifty is willing to 
leave his New-England home to seek his 
fortune in the western country. Those who 
are obliged to hire farms here, have to pay 
rent sufficient to purchase a whole farm in 
the west. There are farmers living in this 
town who have hired farms for years, and 
raised barely enough to keep along and pay 
their rent. If such had turned their faces 
westward ten or fifteen years ago, they 
might now have been worth a good 
property. Thus it is with many people; 
rather than undergo privations and some 
inconvenience for a few years, they will 
continue to dig and delve among the rocks 
and worn-out lands of New-England, until 
hard labor and old age have so impaired 
their health and constitution, that they have 
unfitted themselves for emigration to new 
countries, even were they disposed. 
But the time will come—and that time is 
not far distant, when those who intend to 
engage in agricultural pursuits, will think 
it to their advantage to take up their abode 
where less labor is required to support a 
family. The day is fast approaching when 
young men will begin to look upon farming 
as the occupation of the day. Those who 
are now hiving themselves up in counting- 
houses and stores, will, when they see the 
ruined state of their constitutions, look back 
with regret at their choice in their first set 
out in life. They will long for the time when 
they were strong in both body and mind. 
It is an acknowledged fact that there is 
no business or pursuit so healthy, or none 
that brings such a degree of contentment 
to the mind, as cultivating the soil. It 
seems to be natural to the body and mind 
of man. But for some cause or other, farm¬ 
ing has been looked upon by young men 
as rather low and degrading—from the fact, 
perhaps, that he who tills the soil wears a 
brown hand and a sun-burnt visage, and 
dresses too plain and homespun. Many, 
however, are beginning to see the folly of 
such ideas, and look upon the tiller of the 
soil in a different light. May the time come 
when a brown hand and sun-burnt face will 
be no disgrace to any community—when 
farming and the farmer will receive that at¬ 
tention they so justly deserve. 
Smithfield, R. I., August, 1851. A. TODD. 
ON DRAINING.-NO 8. 
If Overseers of Highways would adopt 
the plan of draining such portions of the 
public roads under their care, as are liable 
to become bad in wet weather, a few years 
application of the tax to that object would 
complete a great and much needed im¬ 
provement. Instead of ditches on each 
side of the beaten track, let there be good 
under-drains, and the surface of the road 
from fence to fence may be kept nearly 
level. In places where the water would 
be likely to follow the road-way in heavy 
rains, let surface furrows be made to con¬ 
duct it away. Let this be tried by over¬ 
seers generally, in some favorable parts of 
their districts, and I think it will commend 
itself to public adoption, and, in a few years 
there would be less call for plank roads, to 
keep the farmers handing out their small 
change in going to market their produce. 
All are sensible of the almost impassible 
state of many of our highways when the 
frost first comes out in the spring—but 
were there under-drains, the surface water 
would soon settle away, and clayey and 
mucky roads would become dry almost as 
soon as sandy ones. By the way, a plank 
scraper, with a bar of iron on the edge, 
should be possessed by every road district, 
aud used whenever wet weather renders 
it necessary. 
There might also be an improvement 
and saving in the construction of cellar 
drains. They are generally built of wood 
or stone, and if rats get into the cellar they 
are almost certain to fill such drains with 
dirt from the holes which they dig back of 
the walls. Good selected two-inch pipe, or 
three-inch tile, and flats can be procured 
at from two to three shillings per rod, 
will make a drain which rats cannot injure, 
if a good strainer is placed on each end of 
the passage. 
I would recommend the use of water- 
lime cement to make the joints tight in cel¬ 
lar drains—taking five parts of coarse sand 
to one of lime—mixing in a stiff mortar.— 
Cellars that are wet can be made dry, if the 
drain can enter 12 or 15 inches below the 
bottom, by laying the pipe a foot from the 
wall around the inside of the cellar for the 
water to settle into from the banks. 
Alvin Wilcox. 
West Bloornfield, N. Y., Aug. 1. 
Cradling. — A Heavy Day's Work .— 
A writer in the Livingston Republican re¬ 
cently stated that a Mr. Bliss of Geneseo 
cradled seven acres of wheat in one day. 
This was considered a very creditable and 
industrious performance—but another cor¬ 
respondent, writing from Leicester, eclipses 
it in this wise:—“Mr. Clark, of this town, 
a few days since, cradled seven, and three- 
quarters acres, commencing at half past 6 
A. M., and finishing a little before 6 P. M. 
The wheat was heavy and lodged some¬ 
what—the time occupied being ten and a 
half hours, deducting meals. This beats 
Mr. B’s figures some” 
