MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
protected from the weather. The chim¬ 
neys all being in the centre, no heat would 
be lost in the winter, while the lower story 
would be very cool in summer, and the 
bed-rooms above would be airy even in 
midsummer. 
It will be easy to make this long veranda 
expensive, if the farmer allows the carpen¬ 
ter to seduce him into “ nice work ” for his 
posts, and hand-rail—while if he keeps the 
whole as severe and simple as possible, 
trusting to the vines for decoration, he will 
be able to obtain it for a reasonable sum. 
As the weather-boarding of this farm 
house is but little exposed, instead of paint¬ 
ing it, the farmer may produce a pleasing 
effect by itaining the natural grain, so as 
to give the wood the color of old oak.— 
This will have a warm, rich, and excellent 
effect, will preserve the wood well, and 
may all be done without the assistance of 
the painters. 
Estimate. —A practical builder in Roch¬ 
ester has estimated the cost of erecting 
this farm-house there at $1,200. The es¬ 
timate here, for building it in a plain sub¬ 
stantial manner is $1,440. This supposes 
all the work to be done by the builder 
without any assistance-from the farmer; 
but supposing the latter to be able, as most 
farmers are to furnish all the stone for 
foundation walls, and a part of the timber 
for the building, the cost may be reduced 
to from $1,000 to $1,200. 
DIVISION OF THE STATE AG’L SOCIETY- 
Mr. Moore:— There is a very strong 
feeling among the thinking friends of the 
N. Y. State Agricultural Society, that it is 
getting too large and unwieldy a concern, 
to be managed to the benefit or satisfaction 
of community. The complaints are many 
and loud, that either go to show this fact, 
or that there is some incompetency, or some 
inattention somewhere; and there is a 
growing disposition to say it ought to be 
divided —that the State is populous and 
large enough to warrant this course, and 
that the Eastern Fair should be held be¬ 
fore the Western, to accommodate their 
fruit season. 
It is urged by some, with whom I coin¬ 
cide, that they should both be under the 
control of the State Society, as now consti¬ 
tuted,—while others are in favor of a dis¬ 
tinct and independent organization. 
There are various reasons that seem to 
indicate the necessity of such a course.— 
The getting up the necessary accommoda¬ 
tions and fixtures for so immense a gath¬ 
ering, involves an expense, (near ten thou¬ 
sand dollars,) that no location will be will¬ 
ing to incur, nor individuals consent to 
undertake. It involves an amount of per¬ 
sonal exertion of those generally who have 
no pecuniary interest, that few persons who 
have never undertaken the task have any 
idea of. 
If it goes on increasing in popularity and 
attendance, at the ratio it has advanced for 
the last ten years, there are not more than 
three properly located places in the State 
that can accommodate the visitors, with 
their utmost repletion—and no sett or setts 
of Committees can ever, in the short period 
allowed, do one moiety of justice to the ex¬ 
hibitors, or to themselves. 
Of the late Fair, held in your city, the 
complaints are double what they ever were 
before; and it is asserted that, other than 
the animals, one half of the articles on the 
ground were not even looked at, much less 
reported upon,—and in fact it was impossi¬ 
ble, as the crowd was so great for two days, 
even in a space of thirty entire acres, that 
neither spectators nor committees could 
see any thing, not even themselves. 
One thing is quite certain,—that the Fair 
must be held open for one entire week, re¬ 
ceiving the articles on Monday, and closing 
on Saturday, or that it must hold over for 
two weeks,—or be divided. 
Great dissatisfaction was expressed by 
the visitors on Thursday, the great day for 
shilling admissions, because they could not 
examine, or even see the show, on account 
of the crowd. It was indeed uncomfort¬ 
able to the last degree—and the discom¬ 
fort and trouble I for one experienced, in 
getting my family together, overbalanced 
the satisfaction of attending the greatest ex¬ 
hibition ever held in this State, or the Union. 
I understand a movement is now making 
to call a convention on this subjeot, and I 
hope it may eventuate in sending a Com¬ 
mittee to Albany, at*the winter meeting of 
the Society, to discuss it in all its bearings. 
Orleana, Nov., 1831. AGRICOLA. 
Remark*.— The discu**ion of thia aubject, will 
be continued in our next, by the publication of a 
KUggeative article written tome week* ago. We 
hope the above will elicit the view* of other#.— Ed, 
THE SEASON OF 1851 IN WESTERN 
NEW YORK. 
Tiie winter, though an open one, was not 
hard upon the wheat crop. The disposi¬ 
tion of the wheat plant was, to produce a 
redundancy of straw, and the yield did not 
generally meet the expectations of the 
growers. The harvest time was favorable, 
and the grain timely and safely secured. 
May was cold and wet, and corn and po¬ 
tato planting late on heavy soils; the ma¬ 
jority was not in the ground before the 
first of June—and altogether cannot be con¬ 
sidered a very favorable corn year, though 
tolerably well ripened before frost. There 
were a good many late sets that made soft 
corn, or undersized ears. 
The potato was peculiarly affected this 
year, from any one since the prevalence of 
the rot. The vines died more generally 
and earlier than heretofore; and yet the 
crop was sounder and less affected than 
for several years, though the yield was 
short and generally small sized. Another 
anomaly was observed this year, that the 
latest planted, and the latest varieties were 
the least affected—and although not thor¬ 
oughly ripened, they as yet appear free 
from disease. 
A new variety called the White Mercer, 
originated by Mr. H. N. JjAngwortiiy, of 
Irondequoit, adjoining this city [noticed by 
Mr. L. in another column,] are obtaining 
great notoriety and credit. They are large 
and fine shaped, the flesh not quite as white 
as its progenitor the Mereer —good flavored, 
and as yet almost entirely free from rot; 
indeed so good is their reputation, that the 
inventor has barreled his entire crop, (300 
barrels) for seed. 
The hay crop is not an average yield, 
particularly on old meadows, but a better 
return than last year. 
All the diseases and insects that prey on 
vegetable life, and afflict the husbandman, 
horticulturist, and florist, have been flush 
and abundant. 
Fruit is measurably short of a general 
crop, and from the prevalence of the black 
fungus, apples were spotted and mis-shapen 
and of inferior quality. Yet a very large 
amount has b'een shipped to the eastern 
markets—the county of Monroe furnish¬ 
ing but a little short of 200,000 barrels. 
There is a considerable breadth of wheat 
sown this fall, but it does not look as well 
as usual, and all sown on old grass grounds, 
or in fact all that on fields which have lain 
in grass more than three years, especially 
heavy soils, is very much affected by the 
wire worm —indeed some fields are nearly 
ruined. 
The wire worm is very fast increasing, 
and its depredations are beyond the reach 
of prevention. It is not well settled what 
its periods of transformation are, but it is 
quite clear that it exists in the larvae state 
more than one year. It possesses all the 
hardihood and tenacity of life that the hot 
worm does, and it seems to luxuriate in 
turpentine, lye, brine, and we will not aver 
but in aquafortis. 
In some lands where it prevails, the cul¬ 
tivators say that they are sure to lose the 
first crop, if the land lays in grass over 
three years without plowing. It attacks 
every cultivated crop but Buck wheat, the 
one they would be welcome to, if all were 
of our opinion. 
TREES AS POSTS FOR WIRE FENCES. 
Messrs. Ed'itors: —Would it not be a 
good idea to plant trees in the corners of 
fences, to serve as posts for a wire fence 
when sufficiently grown? I think they 
might be used for that purpose, answering 
at the same time for shade and ornament. 
There are many places now where a trial 
might be made. The staples for keeping 
the wires in their places, would need to be 
made differently from those used for posts. 
They should be formed with a hook on one 
end and a screw on the other, that they 
may be screwed into a gimlet hole bored 
in the tree, and the wires hooked on, to be 
unfastened and the staples drawn out as 
the tree increases in size. But there may 
be objections to my plan which 1 have not 
thought of, and perhaps some better quali¬ 
fied will give their views on the subject. 
Wm. Laverick, Jr. 
Hulborton, Orleans Co., N. Y, 
THE WHITE MERCER POTATO. 
Editors Rural: —Through the agency 
of your advertising columns, I am receiv¬ 
ing. numerous orders for, and communica¬ 
tions on the subject of my Seedling White 
Mercer Potato. If you will give this arti¬ 
cle a place in the Rural, you will relieve 
me from much letter-writing, and make 
public the information desired by many 
persons, of the history of this seedling and 
the mode of cultivation I have pursued 
additional to that contained in the adver¬ 
tisement referred to. 
/ 
So far as my experience goes, in the 
raising of this or any other potato, I am 
convinced that a less quantity of seed 
should be used than is generally planted. 
The old practice is to put two or three large 
pieces in each hill, and if short of large 
potatoes, four or five small ones. This way 
will do if small potatoes are wanted, but if 
good saleable ones are desired, an opposite 
mode should be adopted. Few who have 
dug potatoes, but have had their attention di¬ 
rected to particular hills yielding larger and 
better potatoes than others with the same 
cultivation-, but all may not have noticed 
the plain reason for their superiority, — 
they were hills with but three or four stems 
growing from them. For this reason 
among others, it has been my practice for 
many years to plant one piece, in hills 
three feet apart, and not be afraid of small 
potatoes when I had not plenty of large 
ones. One small potato is equal to one- 
third or oDe-half of a large one. 
In relation to the preparation of the soil 
and culture of the White Mercer, I would 
remark that the ground should be thor¬ 
oughly worked — plowed as deep as the 
soil will admit, and in the fall, if possible, 
when sward ground is-to be planted. The 
soil best adapted to the White Mercer is 
that of a dry, loamy or sandy character.— 
If not rich enough, it should be made-so 
by plowing under a coating of barn yard 
manure in the fall, and dressing with leach¬ 
ed ashes at the rate of 150 bushels per 
acre. Spring plowing answers very well if 
the manure is well mixed with the earth, 
when the land is so poor as to need it.— 
The White Mercer will produce quite a 
good crop on poor land. 
In the culture after planting, it has been 
my practice to go through the rows with 
the cultivator ,as soon as the plants are 
large enough to be traced with safety— 
then give them a thorough weeding with 
the hoe, taking care to dig up the earth 
close around the plants, making a small 
conical mound about them, thereby smoth¬ 
ering the after growth of weeds. The 
process of hilling is best done with a double 
mould-board plow—once in each row thro’ 
both ways, finishing the work if they are 
not more than three feet apart. This 
should be peformed before they have at¬ 
tained so large a growth as to fall down or 
bend over. Much room might be filled 
with details but the experience of every 
cultivator will suffice. Orders will not be 
filled for more than one or two barrels, as 
it is desirable to introduce them as widely 
as possible. H. N. Langworthy. 
Irondequoit, N. Y-> Nov. 25,1851. 
HOW TO SAVE POULTRY MANURE. 
Having learned the value of poultry 
manure, we suppose now, our readers would 
like to know what is the best method to 
save it. 
First, build you a poultry-house, if it be 
no more than a rough scaffolding of poles 
or slabs, laid upon crotches, forming a double 
pitch roof, with end boards in winter, to 
keep out the wind and driving storms.— 
Under this place parallel roosts; the manure 
during the night, then, will all drop down 
in a narrow row beneath. Here place light 
loam about a foot deep, rather wider and 
longer than the roosts, and give it a sprink¬ 
ling of plaster of Paris an inch thick.— 
When this is covered an inch deep with 
manure, give it a layer of loam four inches 
deep, and another sprinkling of an inch of 
plaster, and so continue. In the spring, 
mix ail well together, keep it free from the 
rain, and use it at the rate of one pint to a 
hill of corn, or in a corresponding quantity 
for cucumbeis, squashes, pumpkins, melons 
peas, onions, strawberries, or any other fruit, 
vegetable, or grain, requiring rich warm 
manures, and our word for it, you will have 
a large crop of a superior quality. Thus 
you will become one out of the many who 
is desirous to benefit himself, and assist 
in saving more than a million of dollars 
annually to the country.—Am. Ag. 
An old Scottish proverb says “ Muck is Mace is the second coat of the kernel 
the mother of the meal-ohest.” of the nutmeg. 
AN AG’L SOCIETY IN ST- LAWRENCE- 
We are gratified to learn, as we do by 
the Republican, that our friends in St. 
Lawrence county have awakened to the 
importance of this subject, and are about 
to organize an Agricultural Society. A 
spirited meeting has been held at Canton, 
in accordance with a call “ made by a res¬ 
olution of the board of Supervisors,” at 
which a committee of two in each town 
was appointed, whose business it will be to 
call town meetings and secure a full rep¬ 
resentation from the different towns at a 
future meeting, to perfect the county or¬ 
ganization. 
H. G. Foot#, E. Miner, and W. II. Or- 
vis were appointed a county corresponding 
committee, to call a meeting in January 
next; also to prepare a constitution and plan 
of organization to be submitted at that 
time. We noticed in the published pro¬ 
ceedings the names of some of the most 
enterprising farmers and business men of 
this fine agricultural county, and see in the 
movement an earnest of improvement in 
this most important branch of industrial 
pursuit. Few counties in the State can 
boast of better natural advantages, or of 
those which can be with cultivation more 
readily made available. With “ progress 
and improvement ” for their motto, we are 
sure our friends in Northern New York 
cannot fail of success. Jefferson has one 
of the most successful and useful societies 
in the State, and presents a noble example 
to her sister county of St. Lawrence. + 
SCALDING HOGS. 
I saw an article some time since, in the 
Agriculturist, on scalding hogs, and I 
thought I would send you a description of 
my mode of proceeding in such work. . 
1 have a scalder, or large wooden tub, 
with a boiler in it, by which we heat the 
water by building a fire within the boiler, 
which saves the trouble of bailing off’ the 
water water after the tub is filled, and a 
much more convenient way it is. 
I will give you a description of it as well 
as I can. It is five feet three inches long, 
two feet wide at the top, and twenty inches 
to the boiler from the top of the tub, the 
boiler being a long cylinder of copper or 
sheet iron eleven inches in diameter, reach¬ 
ing from the outside of one end of the tub 
to nearly the inside of the other end, where 
it has a shoulder; and the rest is the size 
of a common stove pipe, reaching through 
the end of the tub, to put a pipe on for the 
draft and smoke to pass through. The 
larger end should be even with the outside 
of the tub, and have a door, with a fine 
hole in it, attached to the tub. Some are 
made wider at the top than at the bottom. 
Mine is so, being only sixteen inches at the 
bottom, and sixteen inches to the bilge, be¬ 
ing the same width at the top of the tub. 
It should have a rack, or something like a 
ladder, over the boiler to keep the hog 
from laying upon it, and should have a 
wooden roller put inside the tub, at the end 
where the boiler door is level with the top 
of the tub, to assist in getting out the hog, 
and have another ladder with rollers, to 
pull the hogs on, with a couple ol Looks on 
one end to hold it to the tub. 
The wood used for fuel need not be more 
than two feet long. It can be heated in 
an hour or two, if the pipe draws well. A 
tub of this size will scald a hog that will 
weigh 700 pounds. It should have a lid 
to it, to make the water heat quick. Mine 
is made of cedar plank two inches thick, 
with two planks on each side, and three 
iron hoops, one on each end, to go all the 
way round the tub, and one in the middle 
to lap over the top of each plank.— Peter 
E. Harvey, Columbus, JV. J. • 
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
The following table of the number of 
pounds of various articles to a bushel, may 
be of interest to our readers: 
Of wheat, sixty pounds. 
Of shelled corn, fifty-six pounds. 
Of corn on the cob, seventy-five pounds. 
Of rye, fifty-six pounds. 
Of oats, thirty-two pounds. 
Of barley, forty-eight pounds. 
Of middlings, forty-five pounds. 
Of bran, twelve pounds. 
Of shorts, eighteen pounds. 
Of clover seed, sixty pounds. 
Of timothy seed, forty-five pounds. 
Of flax seed, fifty-six pounds. 
Of hemp seed, forty-ft/ur pounds. 
Of blue grass seed, fiurteen pounds. 
Of castor beans, fort/-six pounds. 
Of dried peaches, tlirty-three pounds. 
Of dried apples, twjnty-five pounds. 
Of onions, fifty-sev^n pounds. 
Of salt, fifty pournfe. 
Of mineral coal, seventy pounds. 
A Report on Rads in Kentucky reads 
thus:—“ No gravel or macadamised road is 
fit for use until if is cemented firmly by 
continued travel.” 
HEAVES IN HORSES. 
It has often Deen remarked to us that 
the disease in horses called the “ heaves” 
is more prevalent now than it was former¬ 
ly. We cannot say whether it is a fact 
that there are more horses troubled with 
this disorder than there used to be, or 
whether, as there are more horses now in 
existence, there are consequently more seen 
troubled in this way, while the comparative 
number of diseased ones may be the same. 
We have never been fully satisfied in re 
gard to the real cause of this disease, or the 
real seat of it. Every one, however, can 
soon distinguish the symptoms. It consists 
in a difficulty of breathing,—the flanks or 
respiratory muscles seem to do the whole 
work, and that, too, very laboriously. The 
air is drawn in to the lungs when the mus¬ 
cles at the flanks begin to draw in as if 
pushing out the breath, and after pressing 
in with a good deal of action, they drop 
suddenly as if a catch or spring had let go 
of them, and they fell by their own weight. 
There is also a dry, hacking cough atten¬ 
ding the disease, and on driving the horse 
quick, the cough is often excited, and this 
laborious breathing is brought on very se¬ 
verely. This would seem to fix the seat of 
the disease in the lungs. We have notic¬ 
ed, however, that heavey horses, as they 
are called, are generally enormous eaters, 
and if suffered to eat as much as they de¬ 
sire, will fill their stomachs to a most un¬ 
comfortable extent, and when thus distend¬ 
ed, are much worse troubled than when 
sparingly fed. 
Many causes have been alleged as pro¬ 
ducing this prevalence—such as feeding 
more freely on clover hay than formerly— 
dusty hay, caused by the smother of the 
modern horse-power threshing-machine in 
barns where hay is kept, &c. &c. It would 
seem, from the fact of an increased or mor¬ 
bid appetite in the horse, that the stomach 
has also taken on diseased action. 
Various remedies have been proposed, 
and some of them relieve or palliate the 
disease for a time. We believe that care 
and attention in feeding is of great conse¬ 
quence. Don’t let him fill his stomach too 
lull with dry food. Let his food be moist, 
and of a nature that contains much nourish¬ 
ment in small bulk. You do not find 
heavey horses troubled much with this 
complaint while they are at grass. Then 
let their food approximate as near to tho 
condit on of grass as you can. Cut the hay 
—wet it, and sprinkle on meal. — Me. Far. 
CALIFORNIA COWS AND POTATOES. 
One of the best of the letter-writers 
from California, is Winchester, the corres¬ 
pondent of the N. Y. Tribune. From his 
last we gather a couple of interesting items 
for our farmers: 
“A few days ago I sat down to dine with 
ten others, mostly adults. A large dish 
of potatoes graced the table, cut in pieces 
before boiling. Our landlady informed us 
that there were two potatoes in the dish, 
and no more. But there was enough and 
to spare. On another dish was one-third 
of a beet. Onions often exceed a pound in 
weight. A cabbage at the door of a re¬ 
staurant near me weighs 28 dounds.— 
These vegetables are not the result of forced 
culture. The soil, in many localities, can’t 
help producing them. Very little attention 
is paid to tillage, and no manure is employ¬ 
ed. I am informed that some of the gar¬ 
deners in this vicinity are applying manure, 
but I have not seen a load of that com¬ 
modity in California. 
Butter is retailed at 50 to 75 cents. A 
very small quantity is yet produced in the 
country. Those who raise cows can better 
sell the milk at fifty cents a quart, if they 
live near a market. The native cows are 
poor milkers. They are large, masculine- 
looking animals, and being generally al¬ 
lowed to retain their calves for six months 
or longer, they do not willingly submit to 
the regulations of the dairy. It requires 
two or three men to milk a California cow. 
They set to work on horseback, and first 
lasso her and tumble her to the ground.— 
They tie her head to a post, and then bind 
her feet together tightly in pairs. One of 
the men does the milking, while another 
holds the bucket, the terrified animal en¬ 
during the process with the same docility 
as a cross baby exhibits while its dirty face 
is scrubbed. One or two quarts of milk 
are the result of the operation.” 
An Antidote for Poison. —Mr. Potter, 
a gentleman living in Morgan street, in this 
city, a few days since, swallowed a large 
quantity of corrosive sublimate, through 
mistake, supposing it to be wine. Fortu¬ 
nately for the sufferer, a bottle of sweet oil 
stood on the same shelf before him from 
which he had taken the poison, and heseized 
and drained it of its contents. The effect 
was instantaneous. The action of the mer¬ 
cury wa8 arrested, and Mr. P. has now 
nearly recovered.— H. Y. Times. 
Implements.— Place all your wagons, 
carts, plows, harrows and all other imple¬ 
ments under cover. If any of them need 
repairing it may bo done during the bois¬ 
terous days of winter. Tools thus cared for 
will last twice as long as those exposed to 
the elements, or used when naeding repairs. 
