MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL 
) 
' Southdown breeds; the former were partic- 
( ularly fine. 
In Dairy Hall there were but few speci- 
mens of cheese, some of which were very 
; fair. Of Butter a large quantity was ex¬ 
hibited, and some of superior quality. The 
grains, &c., were mostly loaded for removal, I 
1 consequently we are unable to note any 
: thing under this head. The quality of the 
vegetables on exhibition we never saw 
) surpassed. Two articles were exhibited in 
this Hall which attracted considerable at¬ 
tention. Beet root sugar from Paris, and 
four specimens of Australian wheat from 
) the World’s Fair. The sugar resembled 
in appearance and flavor our common 5 
( cent sugar. The wheat was remarkably 
■ fine, the berry being about double the size 
’ of any we ever saw. 
Floral Hall was much more tastefully 
, arranged than we had anticipated. In the 
I centre a beautiful temple, ornamented with 
flowers and evergreens, was erected by 
Messrs. Cockburn & Brown, nurserymen, 
of Montreal. Fruits and Flowers from vari- 
< ous parts of Canada, Oswego, and Roches- 
) ter were on exhibition. We understand 
< that C. J. Ryan & Co., of Rochester, re¬ 
ceived the first premium on fruit, the same 
; on the largest collection of Dahlias, and 
; the first also on Boquets. 
The exhibition of Domestic Manufac- 
/ tures, which took place in Floral Hall, was 
> creditable to the taste, ingenuity, and in¬ 
dustry of the Canadian ladies. 
I The exhibition of Agricultural Imple¬ 
ments was very good. We noticed on ex- 
< hibition a Thresher and Separator, Plows> 
< Harrows and Fanning Mills manufactured 
< on the Canadian side. J. Rapalje & Co., 
5 of Rochester, were very successful, obtain- 
ing in cash premiums the sum of 897.— 
< Among the implements entered by J. R. & 
\ Co., Wheeler & Co’s Combined Power, 
■ Thresher and Cleaner, Hussey’s Reaper, 
( and Segnor <fc Shipton’s Grain Drill took 
; the first premiums. Emery & Co., of Al- 
( bany, were not represented in the exhibi- 
( tion. McCormick’s Reaper was shown, in 
s motion, but did not obtain the preference 
; awarded it at the World’s Fair. 
The show in Manufacturer’s Hall was 
; comparatively meagre. Some very fair axes, 
; tinmans’ and carpenters’ tools were exhibi- 
I ted by H. H. Date, of Galt, C. W., which 
) would do credit to any edge tool manufac- 
> turer. Pritchard of Rochester, was on 
l hand with his Jenny Lind, and other trunks. 
$ He received a diploma for the best article 
> in that line, although not the highest pre- 
> rnium. A gentleman from Ogdensburgh 
) entered a very handsome pedlar’s wagon 
/ which was classed with the common lum- 
) ber wagons, and to the latter the highest 
) premiums were awarded, they being of 
j Canadian manufacture. Articles of Amer- 
) ican manufacture are not allowed to enter 
) into competition with those “ got up ” on 
the other side—an arrangement which in 
? our humble opinion will tend to decrease 
i the interest of the mechanics and artizans 
on the American shore in the Provincial 
Fairs. 
There was a goodly display of Stoves, 
Hollow yare, &c., <fec., manufactured at 
> Brockville and Toronto. 
I The address was delivered by the Pres¬ 
ident of the Society, Henry Ruttan, Esq., 
of Coburg, on Thursday, but we arrived 
too late to hear any of it It will doubt¬ 
less be published in the Canadian papers. 
Our townsman E. C. Williams was on 
hand as usual with his tents. F. Starr. 
. also of Rochester, exhibited his premium 
i piano. Rochester, and this section of New 
York, were well represented in other mat- 
ters. We noticed that seventy-five baskets 
) of our peaches, and a hundred barrels of 
) apples, were left at Kingston for the grati- 
s fication of Canadian palates. 
On the whole, the show was highly 
> creditable to the Farmers of Canada— 
) many of whom are spreading the leaven of 
J 1 progress and improvement to good advan- 
) tage, by both precept and example, in their 
) various localities. The exhibition was much 
) larger than at any previous Fair, and the 
> number of people in attendance far great- 
| er. Few dignitaries were present, but the 
) producers of the Province needed not the 
tongues nor eyes of officials to flatter or 
gaze upon the results of their skill and in¬ 
dustry. 
The next Provincial Fair is, we under¬ 
stand, to be held at Toronto. k. 
WASHINGTON CO. CATTLE SHOW AND FAIR, 
Eds. Rural: —A brief notice of our Fair 
may not come amiss, that you may see what 
we are doing in this county—but you and 
your readers must remember thatour “ Cat¬ 
tle Show” is a pocket concern, compared 
with the monster exhibition held on the 
same days in Rochester. 
Our Fair was held in a six acre lot near 
this village. In the centre of the field was 
erected the Society’s tent, some 80 by 36 
feet in dimensions; occupied by the busi¬ 
ness office, and a portion of the exhibition. 
The whole circumference of the ground was 
thickly studded with posts for tying cattle, 
&c., and inside this circle were the pens for 
calves, swine and sheep. The pens and 
posts were all occupied. Durhams, Devons, 
Herefords, and Natives were there, and 
sheep and swine were well represented.— 
In another field, west, and lying lower, the 
horse-ring was located. A better place I 
never saw, for the Fair Ground itself sloped 
that way, so that the assembled thousands 
could view with ease and safety the evolu¬ 
tions of the horses. A very large number 
were shown,—all the favorite breeds of this 
section having their representatives. 
The tent was most tastefully decorated 
with evergreens and flowers. The tables, 
the walls, the posts, and every available spot 
were covered with the products of the loom, 
needle, dairy, poultry-yard, forge, pen and 
pencil. A strange, incongruous collection 
you will think, and so thought I. By the 
side of a huge cheese (ten to the ton,) was 
suspended a prize of the American Art- 
Union. 
Another object of attraction remains to 
be noticed. It was a car thirty feet in 
length, and ten in breadth, decorated with 
evergreen trees from eight to fifteen feet in 
height, and carrying a platform ten feet 
square covered with the smaller farming- 
tools, &c. In the rear of the platform are 
the larger implements, and in its centre, a 
tree fifteen feet high covered with the va¬ 
rious fruits and grains produced in Wash- 
ington county. Surmounting the whole, 
floated a large banner embellished with the 
farmers’ coat of arms and other appropri¬ 
ate devices, and inscribed, “ The Farmers 
of Hartford.” Some dozen of their num¬ 
ber, and a martial band were on the car, 
and the whole, drawn by twenty-five yoke 
of oxen, came on the ground the first day, 
and I leave it to you to judge of the effect 
produced by its appearance on the gather¬ 
ed multitude. 
As a whole, the exhibition will tell well on 
the Agricultural interests of our County. It 
was a true Farmer’s Jubilee, and will be a 
noticable epoch in the march of Improve¬ 
ment. H. H. Ingalsbe. 
South Hartford, N. Y., Sept. 22, 1851. 
ONEIDA COUNTY CATTLE SHOW AND FAIR. 
The exhibition of this society for the present 
year was held at Utica during the last week. The 
Cattle show on Wednesday, and the entire exhibi¬ 
tion except cattle, on Tuesday, Wednesday and 
Thursday. The extent and population, as well as 
the great agricultural and manufacturing interests 
of the county, justify the expectation of a corres¬ 
ponding effort to sustain an agricultural society, an 
expectation which has for ten years past beon fully 
roalized in the annual exhibitions. 
The practice of enclosing the grounds and charg¬ 
ing an admittance fee, was first adopted last year, 
and gave such universal satisfaction as to be a per¬ 
manent feature in the plans of the society. The 
exhibition of Cattle and Horses this year, was fine 
notwithstanding the extreme and almost insuffera¬ 
ble heat,—that of sheep tolerable—and the show 
of Manufactures, Mechanical, Household, and fan¬ 
cy articles, and fruits, was highly satisfactory. The 
Plowing Match owing to the hot weather was not 
as well attended as usual, and only ten competi¬ 
tors for the premiums. The work was, however, 
generally well, and in some instance, very skillful¬ 
ly performed. 
Probably fifteen of twenty thousand persons 
were present during the exhibition, and the receipts, 
of the Treasurer reach, we undersrand, nearly two 
thousand dollars. The address was delivered by 
Hon. John A. Dix, and is spoken of as an able, 
chaste, nnd beautiful production. The successful 
iesult of this year’s exhibition, and prosperous con¬ 
dition of the Society, lead to renewed encourage¬ 
ment, and increased efforts to accomplish still 
greater things hereafter. c. 
Rome, Sept. 16, 1851. 
Ohio &kd Michigan Fairs.— We learn from 
gentlemen who were present at the Ohio and 
Michigan State shows, held during the past week, 
that both exhibitions were fine—arrangements 
good—and largely attended. The Ohio grounds, 
and arrangements generally, are spoken of in th e 
highest terms. We shall probably receive reports 
of the exhibitions, from correspondents who wit¬ 
nessed and took notes at each, in time for our 
next. An account of the Ohio Show was promis¬ 
ed us in time for this number, but has not come to 
hand. 
THE WORLD’S FAIR OF THE NEW WORLD. 
In our Pictorial Number we remarked 
that the State Fair was, in some respects, 
equal to the London Exhibition, and might 
properly be termed the World’s Fair of 
the New World. The opinions since ex¬ 
pressed by others—and among them gen¬ 
tlemen who were prominent actors at the 
World’s Fair—fully confirm our assertion. 
The following extracts from a letter by 
Horace Greeley, of the N. Y. Tribune, 
written on the principal day of our Fair, 
embrace a part of the testimony that might 
be adduced in support of our position. We 
refer the reader, particularly, to the remarks 
on Agricultural Implements—portions of 
which we put in italics—as that is the de¬ 
partment in which we more especially 
claimed superiority. Whatever may be 
said of his politics or isms, Mr. Greeley is 
one of the great men of America—a man 
who has achieved by his own exertions a 
proud position, and whose influence can 
scarcely be estimated. He attended the 
London Exhibition — was chairman of an 
important Jury—and no doubt had as good 
an opportunity to examine and form con¬ 
clusions in regard to the show as any other 
American. His letters from abroad prove 
that he is free from the narrow prejudices 
of many who visit the Old World —and 
hence his opinions are more reliable. But 
to the extracts, which embrace other impor¬ 
tant thoughts and items, in addition to those 
on Implements. The reference to the prom¬ 
inent stock breeders among the Patriarchs, 
is a new and happy illustration—while the 
remarks on Flax-Cotton machinery will be 
interesting to many of our readers: 
“The Fair has scarcely been visible to¬ 
day, because of the superabundance of the 
people. Every hall, tent, booth and rough 
board edifice within the inclosure have been 
crowded by a moving, pressing, sweating 
mass, since 10 o’clock. The open grounds 
were in good part black with moving thou¬ 
sands, and not one-fourth of those who 
would gladly have witnessed the operations 
of the various Grain-Threshers, Stalk-Cut¬ 
ters, Horse-Power Wood-Cutters, &c., have 
been able to do so. I am right glad that 
I came eaHy and devoted Tuesday and 
yesterday in good part to seeing while see¬ 
ing was practicable. 
—The Fair is immense in the number of 
Animals exhibited—I think beyond all 
American precedent. That there is a great 
amount of excellence displayed is the gen¬ 
eral verdict. I think there must be more 
than one thousand head of Cattle, besides 
Horses; and the keen competition between 
the advocates of the Durham and Devon 
breeds respectively has brought together 
their best specimens, as also of the various 
approved crosses of these with the Native 
and with each other. There are some fine 
Ayrshires also exhibited. The show of 
Sheep is extensive and very good, in both 
the fine and coarse-wooled varie.ies, though 
a competent farmer friend, who attended 
the Vermont State Fair at Middlebury last 
week, thinks that it was superior to ours 
both in Sheep and Horses. If it be true, 
as he was assured, that ten first-class Saxo¬ 
ny ewes were actually sold there for 8300 
cash each, to be taken to Ohio, it must be 
owned that the Vermont sheep-breeders 
have either remarkably fine animals or an 
extraordinary talent for selling them. 
But I do not take so deep an interest in 
Animals as in Implements, because the 
field of greatest progress in Agriculture is 
decidedly that of invention and machinery. 
After all the noise made about this large 
Durham, that marvelously tine-wooled Sax¬ 
on, <fcc., &c„ I should not be greatly sur¬ 
prised by a demonstration that Abraham, 
Lot and other ancient herdsmen had about 
as fine a stock as any modern breeder who 
is enabled to sell three-year-olds at hun¬ 
dreds of dollars per head. But just con¬ 
front any old-time patriarch with such 
Mowing Machines, Reapers, Threshers, &c., 
as are exhibited on this Fair-ground, and 
he would knock under at once. Nothing 
comparable to these in efficiency were ever 
seen before this Nineteenth Century; noth¬ 
ing equal in all respects to what is here ex¬ 
hibited, can be seen out of the United States 
to-day. Great Britain alone can approach 
it, and she can do no more than that. Her 
machines are too heavy, too expensive, too 
complicated. Small farmers cannot afford 
to buy them and common laborers cannot 
work them. Here all is different. We 
have Horse-Rakes for 810 which do their 
work perfectly, while their British rivals 
cost |50, are of far heavier draught, and 
perform no better. An extensive farmer 
observed yesterday, that he could not have 
cut his hay (100 acres) this year without 
the help of a new Mower, (Howard’s,* I 
think) which required a man, a boy and span 
of horses to work it, and did the work of 
ten men. This is but one among such new¬ 
ly perfected aids to rapid and cheap farm- 
*Ketcham’8 Patent, manufactured by Howard &, 
Co., of Buffalo.— Eds. R. N. Y. 
ing. There is a Corn-planter here which 
drops and covers thoroughly one row as 
fast as a horse can walk, requiring only a 
man to guide the horse; but there is no 
reason why it should not be so improved 
as to plant two rows as easily and rapidly 
as it now does one. Of Grain-Sowers there 
are half a dozen on the ground—any one 
of them a great improvement on hand-sow¬ 
ing, in regard both to excellence and expe¬ 
dition. And I was pleased to find here a 
cheap Steam Engine on wheels, (four-horse, 
costing 8325, all appliances included,) from 
the manufactory of Hoard & Bradford, 
Watertown, Jefferson Co. 
****** 
—I have been much interested to-day in 
the working of a Flax-Breaker—(by Clem¬ 
mons, of Springfield, Mass., I believe.) It 
receives the dry straw (whether rotted or 
unrotted is immaterial) on a table, whence 
it is carried under the breaking machinery 
and delivered, thoroughly broken and al¬ 
most entirely free from every thing but the 
fibre, on a similar table or platform at the 
other side, the woody matter being thrown 
out in very fine shives at one end. This is 
a new machine of one-horse power, and may 
possibly require modifications to insure the 
highest efficiency of which it is capable; 
but I see no reason to doubt that a two- 
horse machine attended by two men may 
break and tolerably dress a ton of straw 
per day. The fibre comes out straight and 
unbroken, and I could not see how two per 
cent, of it need be wasted. The machine 
may cost $ 200 . I hope to see one ere long 
that will take off the seed at the same op¬ 
eration with the breaking, delivering the 
cleaned seed at one end and the shives at 
the other. 
The owners of Claussen’s American Pat¬ 
ent for Flax-Cotton are represented here 
by Mr. Roberts, one of them, who has a 
large, but not large enough, case of speci¬ 
mens of rough Flax, half-dressed and 
dressed ditto, Flax-Cotton, colored ditto, 
Yarns, Flax-Cotton fabrics, ditto mixed 
with Cotton, ditto with Wool, &c. It was 
barely possible to get near these specimens 
to-day. I saw an inveterate skeptic con¬ 
verted to the faith by simply looking at 
them and watching the operation of Clem- 
mon’s Breaker. Of course, until further 
experience shall be had, any man may still 
doubt that Flax-Cotton can be afforded 
cheap enough to supercede or rival the 
tropical Cotton; but I hold that no one 
who has eyes and will open them can doubt 
that Flax-Cotton may be dyed, spun and 
woven as easily and perfectly as any Cotton 
that ever grew. The comparative utility 
of the recent Flax-Cotton and Linen dis¬ 
coveries is a question into which I do not 
need nor care to enter. There is ample 
room for both, and I believe they will both 
be widely and signally successful. Neither 
has any thing to fear but much to hope 
from the fullest triumph of the other. I 
hope to hear soon that the manufacture of 
each has been undertaken in this country 
on a scale and under auspices morally cer¬ 
tain to ensure their complete success. 
—But enough for to-night. Rochester 
overflows with visitors, to all of whom she 
is exercising a generous hospitality. A 
grand banquet in honor of the Fair is giv¬ 
en by citizens this evening. Thus far, I 
have heard of no accident or other draw¬ 
back on the enjoyment of this grand festi¬ 
val. H. G.” 
SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Reverdy Johnson, says the Ameri¬ 
can Farmer, purchased in 1848, a small 
farm near Baltimore, in the last stage of 
impoverishment Such was its reduced 
condition that the last crop of corn was not 
more than one peck to the acre. He states 
that all the vegetable matter growing on 
the two hundred acres of cleared land, in¬ 
cluding briars, sassafras and other bushes, 
if carefully collected, would have been in¬ 
sufficient for the manufacture of one four- 
horse wagon load of manure. He applied 
to Dr. David Stewart, of Baltimore, an able 
chemist, who rode out to the farm and pro¬ 
cured specimens of the soil, which he care¬ 
fully analyzed. He found that it contained 
an abundance of lime, potash, magnesia, 
iron and organic matter, duly mixed with 
alumnia and sand. One element only of a 
fertile soil was wanting, phosphoric acid; — 
and of this, there was no trace. 
He recommended an application to the 
soil of the bi-phosphate of lime, a prepara¬ 
tion of bones, as the best mode for supply¬ 
ing the deficient element. The remedy was 
given at an expense of ten dollars per acre. 
It was the one thing needful. Health was 
restored to the exhausted patient, and the 
grateful soil yielded last year twenty-nine 
bushels of wheat per acre to the proprietor. 
Nothing else was applied; indeed, nothing 
else was wanting. Here was a beautiful 
triumph of science. There is no doubt 
about the facts; the experiment came un¬ 
der the observation and attracted the atten¬ 
tion of hundreds. It was detailed to the 
writer by Mr. Johnson himself, and various 
others worthy of perfect reliance. 
It will not do to hoe a great field for a 
little crop, or to mow twenty acres for five 
loads of hay. Better farm twenty acres 
well than forty acres by halves. 
WOOL GROWING IN OHIO. 
Being myself a practical “ wool grower,” 
my experience may be of some value to 
others who have not been in the business 
as long as I have. I find that success in 
raising sheep and wool, depends much upon 
a “ thorough cultivation of the soil.” It is 
generally admitted that if sheep are kept in 
'good condition” — that is, rugged and 
strong—they are but little liable to disease, 
except contagious diseases. One thing I 
have observed with wool growers who have 
made it their principal business to grow 
wool, that they mostly succeed well for a 
few years; their sheep have been healthy 
and in good condition; but after that their 
sheep have declined, their fleeces become 
light, and many of them become weak, 
sickly, and die. Then the conclusion of 
their owner is, that it is necessary that they 
should be changed to other localities, and 
when done, a parcel more of them die; but, 
if they are taken to a more favorable local¬ 
ity, the balance again become sheep in good 
condition as before, and sometimes better. 
Now it is a settled principle in philoso¬ 
phy “ that there cannot be an effect without 
a cause.” Then let us look for the cause 
of the decline of sheep under the circum¬ 
stances mentioned. When a man turns his 
attention to keeping sheep, from other 
branches of agriculture, he is very apt to go 
all to that branch. Of consequence, he 
plows but little, finding, as his stock of sheep 
increases, that he needs more of his land in 
grass, until his fields are nearly all con¬ 
verted into sheep pastures, and in that con¬ 
dition they remain for years. The natural 
consequence of this is, that the good and 
wholesome grasses, such as timothy and red 
clover, die out, and their place is supplied 
with those kinds that are not so wholesome, 
such as “ June grass,” “ blue grass,” (fee.;— 
and, in addition to this, the sheep often run 
over it and leave their dung upon it to 
moulder upon the top of the soil, through 
and among which the grass grows luxuri¬ 
antly, undisturbed by the sheep, if they pan 
sustain life without it by feeding upon those 
places upon which their dung has not been 
so plentifully strewn, until they almost, and 
sometimes quite, gnaw the grass out bv the 
root; when, in other places in the same 
field the grass is growing luxuriantly, and 
the owner, seeing it, thinks his sheep are in 
good pasture, until hunger forces them to 
eat from the luxuriant grass, which sickens 
them, gives them the scours and other dis¬ 
eases, and many of them die—some by lin¬ 
gering a week after they are \mable to 
stand—so at length, he comes to the con¬ 
clusion that it is best to change his sheep, 
for they have been upon one farm long 
enough or too long; which is sorrowfully 
the case, unless they had better fare. 
Now the remedy is here: do not over¬ 
stock, but keep a due proportion of all kinds 
of farm stock. To 200 sheep keep ten cows, 
six or eight head of horses, and fifteen or 
twenty hogs. For to support such a pro¬ 
portion of farm stock as this, it will be need¬ 
ful to plow about one-half of the farm every 
year, and changing with a proper rotation 
of crops; timothy and clover will be newly 
set in each field once every four years, 
which will keep the pastures healthy for 
sheep; and as many of the older ones sold 
as lambs raised each year, with a prudent 
cross from bucks of other families of sheep, 
will keep a change as regular and certain 
as the turning of a wheel, and my word for 
it, the sheep will need no other change, if 
they have a good shepherd, and but little 
medicine. Not that I wish to be under¬ 
stood that sheep so kept are not liable to 
sickness or death; but that they are not as 
likely to get into a declining, unhealthy con¬ 
dition, as when kept upon pastures that have 
long had sheep upon them without being 
plowed. 
I keep upon my farm, which is composed 
of about one hundred acres of tillable land 
and twenty acres of low, wet, or swampy 
land, that affords considerable pasture, about 
twenty head of cattle, and eight or ten head 
of horses, fifteen or twenty hogs, and two 
hundred and fifty sheep, on an average, the 
year round. I winter the cattle mostly 
upon straw, so that there is not seen a huge 
pile of it lying in some one of the fields to 
sour and taint the air around with an un¬ 
healthy savor; but it is all converted into 
manure and put upon the soil in the spring 
to support the ensuing crops. Cattle, all 
sheltered. 
I winter my sheep by selecting from the 
flock the small lambs, the old ewes that ap¬ 
pear a little on the decline, and the choice 
bucks, and give them a little wheat bran, 
mixed with threshed oats or corn meal, and 
sometimes a litttle oil-cake. The balance 
of the flock, as well as those selected, I feed 
with corn fodder, when there is snow upon 
the ground, so that they will eat it; but 
when the ground is bare and the weather 
moderate, they will do without any coarse 
food, if the grass in the fields is not too 
closely eat off. I have never sheltered my 
sheep, only in cases of winter lambs, except 
a few I now have, to keep them safe from 
dogs.— Joseph Mosher, in Wool Grower. 
One unruly animal will learn all others \ 
in company bad tricks, and the Bible says, } 
“ One sinner destroys much good.” 
