i) 
■MkMriytfiiMMWttMM 
mmmmmm 
WHOLE NO. 97. 
ROCHESTER,N. Y.—THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1851. 
VOLUME II. NO. 45. 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
LEE AMS AND SPECULATION 
COEN CULTURE. 
A WEEKLY HOME NEWSPAPER, 
Designed for both Country and Town Residents 
Modern deluge — Great convulsion anticipated — 
Natural causes operating in the old world — The 
same causes operating over the globe—Falling wa¬ 
ter constant—The great catastrophe that is to hap¬ 
pen to the City of Kochestei — A second Noahic 
deluge. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
• ASSISTED BY 
J. H. BIXBY, L. WETHERELL, and II. C. WHITE 
Contributors and Correspondents: 
L. B. Eanoworthy, 
William Garbutt, 
S. P. Chapman, 
David Ely, 
Myron Adams, 
II. P. Norton, 
T. C. Peters, 
F. W. Lay, 
T.^4. Wetmore, 
R. B. Warren, 
Archibai.d Stone, 
Chester Dewey, ll. d., 
M. M. Rodgers, m. d. 
J. Clement, 
D. TV. Ballou, Jr., 
R. G. Pardee, 
I. Hildreth, 
Jas. II. Watts, 
W. H. Bristol, 
Wm. T. Kennedy, 
S. Luther, 
L. D. Whiting. 
And numerous others—practical, scientific, and literary 
writers—whose names are necessarily omitted. 
TnE 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. 
O^For Terms, &c.. see last page. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
DAISY INTEREST OF NEW YORK. - NO. 8. 
BUTTER MAKING, CONTINUED. 
In the large dairies devoted to butter, it 
is tlie usual practice to churn the milk, as 
a sure means of affording not only more 
butter, but that of a better quality. To 
churn milk successfully it should stand one 
day, at least, and the butter will separate 
more readily if it is allowed to become 
somewhat sour. The same is also true of 
cream, though in all cases the cream be¬ 
comes slightly sour during the agitation be¬ 
fore the butter begins to form. In Holland 
a practice prevails of not allowing the 
cream to rise at all,'the milk being stirred 
to prevent its rising until it is thick, when 
it is churned and is said to produce “ rich/ 
sound and well flavored butter.” 
The butter in highest repute, in our me- 
tropoltian market,is that known as “Orange 
County.” This is so called, not so much 
from having been made in Orange county, 
as from a method of manufacture peculiar 
to the river counties in the vicinity of the 
city. The milk is Churned very generally, 
not more to ensure a good quantity of but¬ 
ter, than to supply the New York market 
with the buttermilk. Working, salting and 
packing the butter, have an unmistakeable 
influence upon its quality as well as upon 
the length of time it may be kept sweet 
and good. 
Butter worked without washing has a 
better flavor, it is thought, and when en¬ 
tirely free from milk, will remain good 
longer. Many very excellent dairymen are 
unalterably opposed to putting the butter 
in water at all, and as for as we know, they 
have good success in producing a first qual¬ 
ity article. When water is used it will be 
found beneficial to have it salted, and not 
have the butter remain in it any great 
length of time. The necessity of extract¬ 
ing all the buttermilk and water from but¬ 
ter, cannot be too strongly impressed upon 
the attention of all dairymen and butter 
makers, as more butter is rendered unfit for 
use from inattention to this point, than from 
all other causes combined. The hand la¬ 
dle is unquestionably the best machine with 
which butter can be worked—and care 
should be taken that the texture is not de¬ 
stroyed by too much handling and pressing, 
as it is liable to be where machines are used. 
It may have been expected that we 
should indicate the most approved churn in 
use, but we have no faith in the thousand 
and one new fangled patent churns so loud¬ 
ly and eloquently puffed into notice by in¬ 
terested dealers. The time occupied in 
churning is of much consequence, and tho’ 
churns have been introduced which are ad¬ 
vertised to make excellent butter in from 3 to 
10 minutes, it is nevertheless the well es¬ 
tablished opinion of the most successful but¬ 
ter makers, that as the time is shortened 
the butter grows poor in quality, and we 
think the opinion quite correct. The vio¬ 
lent agitation separates the butter quickly, 
it is true, but the globules cannot be thor¬ 
oughly separated from the cheesey matter 
that covers them in the milk, which ren¬ 
ders the butter soft and pale, and prevents 
its keeping well. 
A series of experiments have demon¬ 
strated that cream should not exceed in 
temperature 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, 
when churning commences, which will be 
increased by agitation until it attains the 
point at which the globules adhere to each 
other. When milk is churned it should be 
at least ten degrees warmer at commence¬ 
ment. To enable dairymen to control the 
temperature of the cream or milk while 
churning, the Thermometer churn is un¬ 
doubtedly best adapted, though by the use 
x>f a thermometer, and ice, any churn will 
answer the same end. It is now generally 
conceded that an hour is not too short a 
time in which to perform the operation of 
churning under favorable circumstances, to 
make hard, good colored butter, and ensure 
the separation of all the butter from the 
cream. 
There has been a decided tendency shown 
to salt butter too much, hoping by the use 
of salt, to preserve butter from which, for 
want of skill, or more probably want of at¬ 
tention, the milk and water had not been 
removed. If butter is thoroughly freed 
from all impurities it requires but little salt 
for preservation, not more than is necessary 
to render it palatable. We shall speak of 
salt, and the kinds used and of packing and 
preserving butter in another number. f 
FARM ACCOUNTS AND STATISTICS. 
All generals are made up of particulars, 
and upon the soundness and truth of the 
latter depend the value of the former.— 
This applies particularly to statistics, and 
especially agricultural statistics. They are 
too often made up from guess work—from 
hap-hazard estimates, which mislead all 
who rely upon them for any practical infor¬ 
mation. 
But what we would refer to, at present, 
is a proposal to our readers to keep an ac¬ 
count of their crops—of their cost—and of 
the amount realized, so that they may act 
understandingly. Few formers know how 
much a crop of wheat or corn has cost 
them, or how much they pay for the ani¬ 
mals they rear for use and sale. How, 
then, can they tell which is most profita¬ 
ble ? Flow do they know but they are los¬ 
ing money by that to which they give 
greatest care and attention, and making 
good profit upon what they consider of 
very little consequence? A correct ac¬ 
count of capital, expenses and receipts, with 
each branch of form products, will settle 
this question. 
’ Let those who have not done so, take an 
inventory of lands, stock, implements, &c., 
and commence the next season’s oper¬ 
ations with a determination to know 
what they are about. Let there be no 
more guess-work, and there will be fewer 
failures and losses. What would be thought 
of the merchant who pursued the same 
system, or no system, practiced by too 
many formers. He would be looked upon 
with wonder and distrust, as a man of whose 
fate there could be no question. Adopt 
then some system of accounts—and make 
yourself sure about the profit and loss of 
your labor—and of the best mode of ex¬ 
pending it 
In the 35th No. of the Rural, is an ar¬ 
ticle on this subject, in which the writer 
says,—“Experiments in applying special 
manures to corn during its present stage of 
growth, would be of much value to settle 
the question whether anything can be done 
to cause all the ears which begin to form 
upon the stalk—often four or five in num¬ 
ber—to fill with grain.” On this inquiry 
I wish to make a few remarks. 
1 st. It appears to be a law in the vege¬ 
table kingdom, “that.every thing shall 
shoot upward.” This seems essential to 
perfection. Hence, we always find the 
most thrifty and perfect growth on the up¬ 
permost branches. The currant, and a few 
other shrubs, appear to be the only except¬ 
ions, and these are such only because it is 
their nature or habit to send up new shoots 
from the root. 
2d. It appears also to be a law of nature, 
to perfect and mature the higher develop¬ 
ments first, except where they are succes¬ 
sive, as in the case of vines. Hence we al¬ 
ways find the greatest perfection in the fruit 
of the upper part of the tree. So also the 
tallest heads of wheat, rye, oats, &c., are 
both largest, soonest developed, and soonest 
matured. So with corn, when two or more 
ears grow on the same stalk. The upper 
one of two, or the two upper ones of three, 
will generally be the best, and almost uni¬ 
formly ripen first. This is owing not merely 
to earlier, but to its development. 
What then would be the effect of special 
manures on corn? Theory would say, “it 
would be to promote a greater develop¬ 
ment in the upper ears,” till they become 
perfect, and then to act upon the lower ones. 
This, 1 believe, would be true, if there were 
no modifying, or counteracting circum¬ 
stances, of which, however, I do not think 
of any, except excessive drought or moisture. 
From a few observations that I have oc¬ 
casionally made, I am inclined to the opin¬ 
ion, that a greater number of ears could be 
made to grow on one stalk by giving it 
more room than is generally allotted to it 
in the ordinary way of planting corn. The 
roots of a corn plant will often extend four 
or five feet, perhaps more. The average 
distance at which corn-hills are now gene¬ 
rally planted, does not perhaps excei d three 
or three and a half feet. Hence, the roots 
from the plants in one hill often run into 
and even beyond the hills around it. In 
this way, one plant necessarily robs another. 
Besides, when several stalks are allowed to 
grow in one hill, and the hills are near each 
other, the tendency of the whole is upward, 
like the trees in a forest. Hence the de¬ 
velopment is upward, and this together 
with the influence of the shadow of the 
plants upon each other, interferes with the 
full development of the lower ears. Hence 
where a single plant occupies the space of 
a whole hill, it will generally be found to 
contain a greater number of ears, though 
several of them may be small, and found on 
what are called the “suckers.” In such 
cases I have sometimes seen eight or nine 
ears from one seed, many of them small of 
course. Now suppose a whole field to be 
planted in this way, we might ordinarily ex¬ 
pect a similar result; though the yield per 
acre might be less than is obtained in the 
ordinary way of planting. A sm^ll exper¬ 
iment made in my garden, the past sum¬ 
mer, by planting several hills of corn at a 
considerable distance from each other, with 
but one, two and three, stalks in a hill, con¬ 
firms this supposition. 
From these remarks, perhaps already too 
much extended, a practical question arises, 
viz.:—“Would it be advisable to remove 
the suckers?” I have no experience on 
the subject, but my theory would be this: 
That the quantity of corn would neither 
be increased nor diminished; but that the 
effect of it would be, to produce an enlarge¬ 
ment in the size of the ears on the main 
stalk, or an increase in the number, by en¬ 
couraging the development of the lower 
ones. That the experiment may be a fair 
one, the suckers should be removed when 
small, that they may not draw upon the 
nourishment of the main stalk. It is my 
intention (D. Y.) to try the experiment an¬ 
other year. Will not others do the same, 
and give us the result ? h. 
Down East, Oct., 1851. 
IS THE SUNBEAM TRIUNE? 
That all is science which emanates from 
scientific men I have my doubts; and tho’ 
I would not wish to be sceptical, yet I 
sometimes find myself compelled to ask 
“ how can these things be.” In No. 4 of 
Professor Johnston’s Lectures before the 
State Agricultural Society, a year ago, we 
are told that there is not only in the sun¬ 
beam a ray of light and hetfi, but also a 
chemical ray, w’hich varies in different sea¬ 
sons of the year and in different latitudes. 
This, to my mind, is for from being clear. 
Whether light and heat are undulatory or 
material, I care not, so long as they radiate 
from the sun in all seasons and places alike. 
But the variation of the chemical ray to ac¬ 
commodate the germinating shoot, the grow¬ 
ing plant, the ripening seed, or the length 
of the season, looks strange to me. 
That heat and light are both chemical 
agents all will agree, and to iqe it seems as 
though the better way to dispose of this 
matter is, to give to the combined action of 
light and heat, the credit that is here given 
to the chemical ray. Fruit we know has 
its own time for ripening, and cannot be 
brought much forward of its proper season. 
The seeds of all perrennial plants, shrubs or 
trees, require considerable time to prepare 
for a growth before they can be made to 
germinate, while the seed of most annual 
plants will grow as soon as put into the 
ground, and the top onion and garlic will 
germinate and grow while yet attached to 
the parent stock. Fire weeds and tobacco 
require the stimulus of fire, and locust seed 
requires hot water before the chemical ray 
can induce germination. 
There are other causes I think, for the 
chemical ray being more efficient in spring 
and in high latitudes. The freezing of the 
soil mellows it and makes the geine solu¬ 
ble. Ammonia has been accumulating 
from the atmosphere by means of rain and 
snow, and the freezing of timber prepares 
the nutritious matter which has been de¬ 
posited in the alburnum or sap-wood, for a 
new growth. On the other hand, green 
house plants that have been kept back by 
neglect, through summer, will be affected 
nearly as much in the fall by the chemical 
ray as are out door plants in spring, and if 
cared for through winter, they can be made 
to grow and bloom finely, but when spriug 
cc mes to chemical ray has no charms. 
That there is no chemical ray, I am not 
prepared to say, or if there were twenty 
different rays claimed for the sunbeam, 
yet I should not probably try to disprove 
iff that being as hard to accomplish as the 
first; yet I want, when new rays are added 
to the list, that they should shine on the 
just and the unjust alike, or the reason for 
such variation. And I hold that the un 
learned, like myself, have a right, when a 
new hypothesis is advanced, to ask for the 
backers, except it be a self-evident truth, 
which is my apology. A. Stone. 
Himnanville, N. V., 1851. 
Mr. Moore :—The danger, trouble, and 
disasters are increasing every year from 
excessive high water in all of our livers. 
Particularly on the Mississippi, and its trib¬ 
utaries, are floods so constantly increas¬ 
ing, that serious fears are indulged among 
the inhabitants of that region, that all the 
labor of art and man, will prove ineffectual 
to confine its waters within its banks—and 
that the time is not for distant, when im¬ 
mense districts wiil become uninhabitable, 
and turned into lakes and lagoons, forming 
new channels, and perhaps sweeping off or 
otherways ruining the whole delta of the 
Mississippi. 
Several of the long rivers of Germany 
having rapid sources, ai e not only increas¬ 
ing in freshets by an increased volume of 
water, but their bottoms are filling up and 
rising, by materials brought down by the 
floods; so much so, that for many leagues 
back from their entrance into the sea, they 
are entirely secured by artificial dykes and 
embankments, and in man/ places the bot¬ 
toms of the rivers are higher than the sur¬ 
rounding country. 
Al streams change their natures, as 
countries become inhabited and subdued to 
the use of man. They become higher in 
the rainy seasons, and lower during dry 
seasons, from the ditching and draining of 
wet lands, whereby the foiling waters im¬ 
mediately find their natural vent: and from 
the clearing of the forests, evaporation is 
rapid, instead of slowly percolating through 
the soil, and keeping the streams equal 
and steady. Cultivation, disturbing the or¬ 
iginal surface of the soil, causes an immerse 
deposit of detritus in the bottoms of the riv¬ 
ers, rendering the channels of less capacity 
to carry the increased quantity. 
A writer living on the Mississippi, thinks 
there is a radical change going on in the 
physical condition of the earth, and its con¬ 
comitants, the elements. There is but a 
given quantity of water contained within 
the boundaries of our atmosphere, and that 
amount cannot be increased or diminished 
the consecutive part of a grain. More wa¬ 
ter may fall in one year than in another, in 
a particular district—but on an average of 
a short series of years, it will be found to 
be equal, as it is constant as to quantity- 
over the whole globe. The effect is from 
other causes. 
The overflowing of the Nile, the Rhine, 
the Tiber, and in fact all the rivers of the 
old world, are historical facts. We are ex¬ 
periencing the same results at the north.— 
The Hudson, the Mohawk, the Genesee, 
the Canada creek, in fact all streams fur¬ 
nish proofs of the increased volume in high 
water, and the constantly decreasing amount 
during dry seasons. 
The day is not for off when the Genesee 
river, owing to this increase of flood and 
the obstructions which the State and city 
have perpetrated and permitted, will run 
through the first and second wards of the 
city of Rochester. The moment any tem¬ 
porary obstruction happens to the arches of 
the grei t canal aqueduct during a flood, 
the river will rise until it runs over its top 
like an ordinary mill dam, sending its wa¬ 
ter with a great current into the canal, 
which, breaking the embankments at the 
west side of the city, all that part lying be¬ 
tween the canal and the falls will be inun¬ 
dated. This is inevitable from the nature 
of things, and will be—mark that. 
Rochester, N. Y., 1851. H. Y. 
