Volume ii. no. 44. \- 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1851. 
WHOLE NO. 96. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
A WEEKLY HOME NEWSPAPER, 
Designed for both Country and Town esidents. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTED BY 
J. H. BIXBY, L. WETHERF.LL, and H. C. WHITE. 
Contributors and Correspondents: 
L. B. Lanoworthy, 
William Garbctt, 
S. T. Chapman, 
David Ely, 
Myron Adams, 
II. P. Norton, 
T. C. Peters, 
F. W. Lay, 
T. E. Wetmore, 
R. B. Warren, 
Archibald Stonr, 
Chester Dewf.y, ll. d., 
M. jM. Rodoers m. d. 
.1. Clement, 
D. W. Ballou, Jr., 
R. G. Pardee, 
I. Hildreth. 
Jas. H. Watts, 
W. It. Bristol, 
Wm. T. Kennedy, 
S. Luther, 
L. D. Whit i no. 
And numerous others-—practical, scientific, and literary 
writers—whose names are necessarily omitted. * 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value. Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guide on the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose inter¬ 
ests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter 
—interspersed with many appropriate and handsome en¬ 
gravings—than any other paper published in this Country. 
5^”F°r Terms, &c.. sec last page. 
i°S£OJ»IS.E.‘4S IMPKOVEMENT. 
LETTERS 0 N 
EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE, ETC. 
BY M. M. RODGERS, M. D. 
BELGIUM. 
Crops.— Wheat is largely cultivated, and 
is well adapted to the soil and climate; the 
yield is usually large and the grain of ex¬ 
cellent quality. Rye, oats, barley and all 
kinds of garden vegetables which are grown 
in the United States, are also produced in 
great perfection; several plants are pro¬ 
duced in Belgium which are grown very 
little if at all in this country. 
Two varieties of the poppy are cultivated, 
for the opium and oil which they contain: 
the oil is used by artists for mixing colors, 
and also to burn for light; the stalks are 
used for fuel. The poppy requires a rich 
mellow soil, and warm or mild weather: it 
is sown broadcast or in drills; hoeing, weed¬ 
ing and gathering, are done by hand. The 
cake left after the expression of the oil from 
the seeds, contains albumen, and a small 
quantity of starch and oil, which render it 
a very nutritious article for fattening ani¬ 
mals ; it is used principally for feeding swine- 
Colza, a plant of the cabbage family, is 
cultivated extensively for the oil produced 
in the seed: it is used also while green, as 
forage for sheep and cattle. 
Flax is one of the most important crops 
of Belgium, and is said to be superior in 
this country to any in Europe. It grows 
well in a great variety of soils, but best, in 
a rich sandy loam. The object of this crop 
is, as in all countries, the seed for oil, and 
the cortical fibre for linen and other manu¬ 
factures. Two varieties are raised. They 
often receive a top dressing of guano, peat, 
ashes, marl, or liquid manure. From one 
hundred to one hundred and seventy-live 
pounds of seed, are sown to an acre. The 
finest flax is that which grows thick on the 
field, and is gathered before ripening: it is 
rotted in various ways: sometimes laid on 
dry ground, and sometimes in stagnant or 
running water. In Ireland the fibre is 
sometimes separated from the stalk by 
steaming instead of rotting; in this way the 
process is completed in about three days. 
This method is thought by most manufac¬ 
turers to be inferior to the others. The 
writer heard it stated at a scientific meeting 
in London, by one of the largest flax growers 
and linen manufacturers in Ireland, that 
the old method of rotting flax on the ground 
in the open air, was far preferable to all 
others. 
Hemp, woad, hops and two varieties of 
tobacco, are also important crops and con¬ 
siderably cultivated. 
Implements pertaining to agricultural 
operations, are far inferior to those of our 
own country, both in workmanship and 
adaptation to their uses. Some »of the 
plows are extremely rude, heavy and poorly 
adapted to their use; the barbarous old “Bel¬ 
gian Traineau” is still in existence in some 
places. Wagons, carts, harrows, harnesses* 
and in short all other things of this kind, 
are inferior to our own, and, even those of 
England. In the “Museum of Arts” in 
Brussels, may be seen a vast number and 
variety of all kinds of implements, among 
which is an improved specimen of Ameri¬ 
can plows. The spade, of all other instru¬ 
ments, seems to be the great lever of til¬ 
lage, and may be justly called the Belgian 
plow; and it. serves to demonstrate, con¬ 
trary to what is believed by our own agri¬ 
culturists, who know and appreciate the 
advantage, and even luxury of good imple¬ 
ments, that agriculture can become great, 
successful and profitable under the use of 
inferior ones. It is a question, not yet set¬ 
tled, whether “spade husbandry” could 
not, especially in the vicinity of large towns, 
be successfully brought into practice in the 
United States. 
Domestic Animals.— With the exception 
of the horse, Belgium can boast of no su¬ 
perior domestic animals: in this, as well as 
all continental countries, less attention has 
been paid to breeding and perfecting live 
stock, than in England. It cannot be in¬ 
ferred however, that stock is not raised with 
better profit to the farmer, than where so 
much is expended in breeding and fatten¬ 
ing large and costly animals: very few of 
the premium animals in England, ever re¬ 
alize to their owners a moiety of their orig¬ 
inal cost. In this respect, Belgium, Holland 
and Germany, pursue the best policy if pe¬ 
cuniary interest is regarded. 
The cart or draught horse, in Belgium, 
is second to none in the world, in his perfect 
adaptation in all respects to his business; 
although a little inferior in size to the Eng¬ 
lish draught horse. The former is usually 
of a chestnut gray or roan color, with heavy 
body and neck, large mane and tail, and 
thick stout legs. They are slow in gait, but 
capable of drawing enormous loads: they 
are of gentle disposition, easily kept and 
very hardy ; and are valued from one hun¬ 
dred and fifty to six hundred dollars £ach. 
Many other varieties of horses, as well as 
mules and donkeys are used: comparative¬ 
ly few fine carriage horses are to be found. 
At Antwerp, on a market day, I had an 
opportunity to see some of the best cattle 
in the country: the greater part of them 
were white, or black and white, of smallish 
size: the cows are small and inferior in ap 
pearance, but said to be fair milkers: many 
exceptions exist to this observation. Some 
fine oxen may be seen; many of the Ilere- 
fords, and some cows of the Short-horned 
Durham breed: several varieties of mon¬ 
grels without distinctive breed, are also 
common. This country is celebrated for its 
butter and cheese. The cows are nearly 
always stalled in winter, and led upon sliced 
turnip*, carrots, ruta bagas, meal, and hay 
or foin: when they run in the fields they 
are blanketed during the cold weather. 
The sheep are generally of large size and 
produce coarse wool, and less pains are taken 
in breeding than in France. The principal 
breeds are Saxony and Merino. The hogs 
are nearly all decidedly inferior in size and 
other characteristics; this is true through¬ 
out France, Belgium, Prussia aud Holland, 
as the traveler may easily perceive by the 
flesh of the animal, which he is often un¬ 
reasonably expected to eat; a task which 
would be little more difficult if it were so 
much gutta percha. If the herd of swine 
of the Scriptures, which were possessed of 
the devil, and “ran down into the sea and 
were chokecf,” were such animals as these, 
the owners might consider that Satan had 
for once done them an act of charity. 
CAUSE OF THE POTATO EOT. 
Eds. Rural :—I am not a farmer since 
I cultivate less than an acre of land, and yet 
I take quite an interest in the science of 
agriculture. So much am I interested in 
it that I read every week the greater part 
of the contents of two papers, devoted chief¬ 
ly to its elucidation — the Rural, and the 
New England Farmer, published at Boston, 
both of which, you wiil allow me to say, 
I consider able and valuable papers. 
I have been specially interested of late in 
the communications that have appeared in 
the Farmer on the subject of the Potato 
disease. I have not seen it distinctly sta¬ 
ted, but I infer from the tenor of these com¬ 
munications, that a reward has been offer¬ 
ed to any one who will asceitain and ex¬ 
plain the cause of this disease. It would 
seem, however, that the proposition is con¬ 
fined to residents within the state cf Mass. 
But though thus excluded from the hope 
of a reward, even if I should be successful 
in developing the cause uf this devastating- 
malady, I have reflected much upon it, 
experimented some and carefully compared 
the results of the investigations of others, 
so far as they have come to my knowledge. 
I have thus come to conclusions upon 
which I have based a theory that I will 
now present for the consideration of your¬ 
self and your readers. 
My theory is simply this : —The potato 
rot is a vegetable disease corresponding 
very nearly to the cholera as a disease 
among the human species. Not only is its 
nature similar but its cause is also similar. 
This is to be found in both cases, in a pecu¬ 
liar state of the atmosphere and a corres¬ 
ponding state of the subject of disease.— 
The atmosphere contains a malaria which 
induces the disease, but this malaria is 
harmless to such, whether animal or vege¬ 
table as are in a perfectly healthy state. 
Whatever malaria the atmosphere might 
contain—however prevalent the cholera 
mio-ht be—the man who had been careful 
O 
previously to violate none of nature’s laws, 
would be in no danger of being attacked. 
But the more any one has indulged in 
gluttony, dissipation, or excess of any kind, 
the more exposed he would be, not only to 
the cholera, but to every other violent dis¬ 
ease. 
I think this philosophy will apply sub¬ 
stantially to vegetables, at least to the po¬ 
tato. The potato has become susceptible 
to disease — to the injurious influence of at¬ 
mospheric malaria by being too highly cul¬ 
tivated. It has been too much pampered — 
too highly fed,—in other words, it has been 
planted on too rich ground, and has been 
too highly manured. This is the sim¬ 
ple theory which I have adopted from the 
sources mentioned above. I shall not now 
attempt to establish it by fact or to propose 
the remedy. The former of these would 
require more time than I have to spare now, 
and the latter may need a little more re¬ 
flection than I have yet bestowed upon it. 
I throw it out now for others to think of.— 
If any one doubts its correctness let him re¬ 
fute it. If not, you may hear from me 
again. b. 
Wyoming, N. Y., Oct., 15, 1851. 
Remarks. —The theory of our corres¬ 
pondent is not new. Attentive readers of 
this journal from its commencement, will 
remember that we have taken a somewhat 
similar view—attributing the disease to at¬ 
mospheric causes, &c.— Eds. Rural. 
“CAUSE OF THE GEOWING SCAECITY OF j floor with one boot in its claw. ' The wife, { 
\ V A a SR, with her accustomed meekness, plated the ; 
Cader de Yaux, a French Agriculturist j ac ^ on i’ s na ^ aii d the boots in their prop- / j ■. 
of considerable celebrity, says: “The grow- er corner. Ah, thought I, you might have 
ng scarcity of water in France is occasion- save d those steps for your wile, and though (I 1 , 
ed by the destruction of the trees; and these but ^ ew ' n a day, ^ ie }’ amount to a good < j 
two circumstances, the loss of trees and the raan y a t the end of a year, 
consequent scarcity of water, have occa-j Flight passed away, morning came, and A 
sioned, in several places in France, great the wife arose. Was her fire built, and the 'a 
barrenness in soils formerly fertile.” This teakettle boiling? Ab, no; I saw her go to jj 
was written about the year 1810, and shows a w0 °d-pile and wilii an axe break up some jjj 
that the dootnne of the value and influence P’ ec, ’ s ^ oai 'd an d make her fire. But || ! 
of trees on the character and productiveness "'here was ner husband in this lime? I 
of a country, is no new fancy. peeped into his room and “Lethes” soft 
I have examined this subject, arid col- ved was spread over him, on a downy couch, j l 
lected_ information in relation to it, with Ah, thought I, your wife will not last always; j 
much interest. T have not a doubt, that R nd though younger in years, far more nu- j n 
much of the present barrenness and deso- merous are Hit; gray hairs on her brow, than jii 
lation of large portions of the Eastern Con- u P on her husbands. My host was a gener- < | 
tinent, have been produced by the destruc- ous hearted man, and would have scorned < j 
tion of the forests. Palestine, once a gar- ’-he idea ol being unkind to his wife—yet, i I j 
den in fertility, is no tv in a great measure he did not realize that kindness consisted in j j; 
“ a scene of desolation.” Such is the state- trifling attentions, as well as in weightier j < 
mentof a recent traveler. “ All that it has m atters. Butl bethink me, I saw a Rural i ' 
of cheerfulness is seen in the winter sea- in that cot, and pernaps my kind iriend may . ' 
son;” i. e., in the rainy season. Another recognize in me, his guest; still, I think he ' '■ 
remarks, “Wood is sold by weight, and is 110 ’ ; ’ ailC an y exceptions, as he is a.sen- , j' 
very scarce at that—very few enjoy the s ^h!e man, and will readily see that it was t 
luxury of a fire;” yet the evil might be P rom pted by an interest in his welfare, 
remedied “by planting trees.” And should any others find in this bit of ' | 
Large portions of Northern and North- a clothing store, a “ coat that fits,” I hope \ § 
eastern Africa, that are now desert, were they will not fear to wear it until they can : | 
once fertile and populous. This is known find or make a better. Richard. ) j 
by the vast amount of “ruins of cities and Butternut Manor, July, isoi. 
temples,” that have been discovered far in SCRAPS FROM OLD ALMANACS. jj; 
the interior of what is now called “The ^ - (j 
Great Desert.” The Roman wars with Friend Moore. —I have several old J 
Jugurtha, in the North, were successfully Almanacs, that were published in the early 
carried on beyond the present limits of pop- P art centuiy, in which I find some, j 4 
ulation. Other causes than the destruction ver - v cuiaous > as wed ll ” feome useful (if 
of timber, may have contributed to this re- true ) thin S s ’ 1 send - vou a fdW of , the lat ’ j f 
suit, and yet this cause has doubtless done ter> a ^ r ' d q ed ’ reta ining all the value of J 
A SCENE IN THE COUNTRY. 
its part, as the whole of that once populous t;1(J originals. 
but now nearly desolate region, ILs North Pear Trees. — A gentleman, speaking 
of 15 ° of N. Lat., the same with that of the of his pear trees, says, the limbs were con- 
Sandwich Islands, the Southern half of stantly killed by the blight until nearly all 
Mexico, Hindostan, Burmah, &c. were either dead, or in a state of decay ? 
It is to be regretted, that travelers do not except one standing near the house, in which 
give more particular information in regard he had hung old sickles, scythes, hoojjs, dec. 
to this subject, than they now do. If there This one was entirely free from blight. This 
is truth in it, it ought to be known. Our induced him to try others by hanging on 
country is yet comparatively new, and the the large limbs old horse shoes, nail-rods, 
danger, if there is any, might be avoided iron hoops, dc., so as not to have them in- 
by timely attention to the subject. ii. jure the tree. The effect was, that the 
Down East, oct., 1851. blight no more injured the trees, aud some 
A SCENE IN THE COUNTRY. that had been partially destroyed, revived, 
and bad been, for more than twenty years, 
A few days since I was stopping for a } n a flourishing condition. 
time in the village of F-. While there, " - 
I accepted an invitation from a friend, to Cure for the Salt Rheum, or Scurvy. 
make a visit at his house in the country. I —“ Take of the pokeweed, any time in 
arrived a little before noon; my host took summer, pound it, press out the juice; 
me to his garden, showed me his fruit trees, strain it into a pewter dish, set it in the sun 
&c. Just then we were called to dinner, till it becomes a salve—then put it into an 
Here I found a repast which showed the earthen mug, add to it fresh butter and 
careful hand of a frugal housewife, and she bees-wax sufficient to make an ointment of 
had done honor to her husband, as well as common consistency— simmer the whole 
herself, in the selection of her garden sauce, over a fi fe till thoroughly mixed. When 
and a nicely cooked pair of chickens. We cold, rub the part aflected twice a day till 
seated ourselves at the table, and my host a cure is effected. The patient will imme- 
looked around a moment and then said— diately experience 'its good effects, and the 
“I don’t know what to do with this.” I most obstinate cases will be cured in three 
cast a careless glance at the wife, but I saw or (our months.” Tested. The juice of the 
a crimson blush mantle her cheek, and she r !p e berries may be prepared in the same 
meekly replied—“ ’Tis a picked up dinner, way. _ 
my dear, but you may pass the chicken and Infallible remedy against Bed bugs. 
potatoes first it you please. —“ \y ra p an ounce of camphor in a linen 
Ah, thought I, could you not have done (flo^ an fl suspend it at the head of the bed, 
the honors of the table without causing that an( j as t] ie cam pb 0 r evaporates the bugs 
blush, which I doubt not was attended with w qj fl ecatn p. Certified to be an unfailing 
an unseen pang. The dinner passed, and reme fly.» 
I accepted an invDation to spend the night. There are several other things in the 
Ihe afternoon wore away and my host re- s fl a p e 0 f remedies, recipes, &c., which ap- 
turned from his labors in the field. I saw p ear s i ra p] e and reasonable. If you 
him take the jack from the nail and remove think these of any value, perhaps I may 
his boots; but did he hang it again in its sen fl a f ew others. h. 
place on the nail? No, he left it on the Down East, Oct., i 85 i. 
