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VOLUME IV. ’ NO. 41. I 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. — SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1853. 
MOOSE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER : 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary ami Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOSE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OF ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to he 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 Sub¬ 
jects connected with the business of those whose interests 
it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter — 
interspersed with many appropriate and handsome engrav¬ 
ings— than any other paper published in this Country. 
For Terms, &c., sec last page. 
Progress and Improvement. 
FATTENING HOGS. 
It is pretty generally conceded that iho 
cheapest way to make pork is to keep a 
breed of swine that, coming in April, shall 
bo fat and weigh 250 to 300 lbs. by the first 
of Novombor. We have no doubt but this 
is tho caso,—that pork can bo made, all 
tilings considered, much cheaper in this way 
than in any other. Yet we have a liking 
for a “ twenty score” hog. Hams from such 
a pig are deservedly osteomod by all epi¬ 
cures, and will over command, if well cured 
and dried, high prices. 
Somo will say that you can make spring 
hogs woigh 400 lbs. by tho fall. This in rare 
instances has been dono, but we know of no 
breed which, under ordinary treatment, will 
average any such weight. If heavy hogs 
are desired they must be farrowed in the fall 
and killed when 12 to 15 months old. 
In this, as in most other casos, an exclu¬ 
sive adherence to ono systom, to tho entire 
abandonment of tho other, is unwise. On 
an average sized farm, wo would always 
have ono littor of pigs in tho fall, and ono, 
or two if you like, in tho spring. If you 
have more fall shoats than you can winter 
well on offal, soil a few to your noighbors 
when six weeks or two months old for $1,50 
or $2. Tho rest will run in tho barn yard, 
oat up what would otherwise bo wasted, and 
bo fino follows in spring, ready to graze as 
soon as clover is ready for them. Clover, 
sour milk, whey, wash of tho kitchen, &c., 
will keep them in good growing condition 
during tho summer, — green corn, small 
potatoes, wind-fall apples, nubbins, and 
buggy peas will finish the work,—and in 
this way pork will bo produced without tho 
consumption of any of tho high priced 
cereal grains which require that their effect 
on tho animal shall bo greatly beneficial to 
componsato for their exhausting effect on 
tho soil producing them. On tho othor 
hand, as we said beforo, an hundred woight 
of pork can, probably, be made from spring 
pigs cheaper and at loss expense to tho 
farmer than from any other. To do it, 
however, moro forcing food is required.— 
You must not keep too many. The shoats 
must bo kept fat all the time or they will 
not mature early enough. 
Nothing will pay botter^on a wheat farm, 
taking manure into consideration, than to 
grow peas for feoding green to pigs during 
summer and early fall. They do well on 
them, and wkat they do not eat thoy will 
trample into tho richest kind of manuro.— 
To fat hogs on good corn worth 70 conts 
per bushel will not pay, unless an unusually 
high prico is obtained for tho pork. The 
price of cattle food, and tho prico of meat 
produced by its consumption, would, under, 
normal conditions, always indicate the true 
relation which they bear to each other.— 
But this normal condition does notoxist; 
thousands of bushels of corn are annually 
produced, in tho fertile vallies of the West, 
that are not worth 25 cents por bushol.— 
This corn can be used for pork making and 
the pork bo shipped to our markot at little 
cost, thus disturbing tho natural equilibrium 
and rendering it necessary that wo should 
sell our corn rather than convert it into 
pork or beef. 
Wo must not attempt competition with 
our Western brethren in raising corn for 
pork making, but rather aim at raising thoso 
crops which from their bulk and weight are 
not subject to such competition. But to do 
this we must have manure, and to mako this 
i wo must make pork or beef or mutton.— 
Ah ! thore’s tho rub. To grow two tons of 
timothy hay por acre, or 40 bushels of 
wheat, wo must sooner or later return to 
the soil. Without at present entering into 
tho reasons for our boliof, wo think that fat¬ 
tening hogs by growing peas to feed to them 
green and early in the fall, beforo they ait) 
much injured by tho bug, will be found ono 
of tho most economical moans of enriching 
a farm. 
SOILING ANIMALS- 
Tiie term soiling, seems to be a misnomer; 
it means, as now used, tho feeding of cattle 
in tho stable with fresh grass cut daily for 
their use. It would seem from tho deriva¬ 
tion of tho term, that turning out tho ani¬ 
mals to crop their food from tho soil, would 
be a moro congenial term,—hut it has been 
othorwiso appropriated, has become techni¬ 
cal, and so it must be used. 
It has been incontestibly shown, that by 
tho proper cultivation of tho root crops, as 
much nutriment for animal subsistence can 
bo obtained from ono acre, as from tho aver¬ 
age product from fifteen acres of grass; and 
it would seom from tho practice of soiling, 
now in extensive use in Europo and moro 
or less practiced in this country, that ro- 
| suits and profits still more extraordinary 
are produced by this process. Bye grass 
is mostly preferred in tho old country, which 
does not seem to succeed well in our cli¬ 
mate of hot suns and arid atmosphere ; but 
it is held that our clovers, which rocover 
quick after clipping and from their long tap 
roots withstand tho drouth, with a sprink¬ 
ling of timothy, or somo other nutricious 
grass, produces a better article for that pur¬ 
pose than any of tho English grasses. In¬ 
dian corn, sown broad-cast on a clean lay, 
or in narrow drills, has been used with groat 
success. 
Some of tho reports of tho results in soil¬ 
ing would not claim credibility in this coun¬ 
try, did we not tako into consideration tho 
process followed of dressing with liquid ma- , 
nuro; as it is self-evident that without some 
thorough and powerful feeding of the soil 
it would soon lose its capability of produc- , 
ing and become barren. 
Animals turned into fresh pastures, de¬ 
stroy by bruising with tho tread of their i 
feet, as much as thoy eat. Tender herbage, 
and particularly clover, soon ferments and < 
decomposes after being bruised, and is dis¬ 
tasteful to the palates of cattle, which is ono ! 
of tho losses saved by soiling over promis¬ 
cuous pasturage. < 
Thoro appears to he no objection on tho 1 
score of tho health of animals, when kept ' 
in stalls for years, cows give moro milk and * 
of a richer consistency. It obviates fencing < 
and saves a much groator quantity of ma- I 
nuro and of a hotter quality, as it can be 1 
kept under covor, or in largo piles. Soil- 1 
ing animals requires more labor, but not of s 
a costly kind, as boys and old persons can i 
perform all tho dutios required. I 
In very stony or hilly land, this process 1 
would not bo applicable ; but on good grav- ' 
oily or loamy soils, in good heart for pro- i 
ducing, it was the opinion and experience 1 
of tho Hon. Josiah Quincy, of Mass., that 1 
ono square rod of land was sufficient for a < 
cow a day, which would be considered a ' 
very small pasture field for her to clip. i 
Mr. Kennedy, of Ayrshire, Scotland, 1 
kopt last yoar 220 oxen, 460 sheep, 20 hor- £ 
ses, and 150 storo pigs, on 90 acros of rye ( 
grass. Tho year before, ho fed on the samo E 
food, sheep at tho rato of 56 head per acre 1 
for four months. Thoy had a daily quanti¬ 
ty of steamed food, what or how much is i 
not stated ; but they fattoned rapidly, and f 
ho estimates, after a long experience, that £ 
by this process, at least four times as many i 
animals can be sustained, and in bettor or- v 
der, on tho samo land, as in tho usual man- c 
nor of field pasturing. r 
-( WHOLE NO. 187. 
present. 
BENEFITS OF DRAINING. 
this season 546 bushels of clean dry wheat, 
machine measure, which, from my knowl¬ 
edge of tho capacity of the bins in which it 
Eds Rural :_In none of the original ar- ed §° ot the ca P a <% of the bins in which it ^ uu not trough the marked 
tides from practical men upon the various 18 St0red ’ wiU a g° od deal moro than hold £ fh IT ! f ‘ inS ° Ct 
branches of Agriculture which enrich your ° ut This 18 an avera § e of over 40 bushoIs * ‘ a k ' nd of ™ uItin S> or 
paper, am I so much interested as in those t0 the acre ’ thou S h a P ortion of tho I of win no 1 °*“ * !^elopment 
upon the subject of draining. This is per- waS ^ in J ur f d the wiro worm > whil ° I ^ /PPf' 
novertheless produced a little wild grass, ot drain - wovdd have made the stagnant 
which year after year used to bo raked out P ocd P roduc *'i ye > and given him dry, straight 
on to the dry ground, at the expense of wet * oirovv [ s - ^ must bo, Mr. Editor, that more 
feet to tho workmen, where it coul be got attention he given to this subject, and 
hold of, to tako to the barn for cattle to ^ machinery is to be perfected so that tho 
snuff at and tread under foot the following d ‘^&' n g can ho dono by horse power and 
winter. Into this piece of twenty acres I tho expense thereby be reduced, an obsta- 
nnt, in about 390 rods of ditch tnc.nrlv half cl °’ and a senoas 0110 with some, will be re- 
attention will be given to this subject, and svva ™ s 0VGV a Iar ge ext ent of country, is 
if machinery is to be perfected so that tho "° rt . ^ L o study and observation ot overy 
digging can bo done by horse power and ° n ° intoiestod 111 vegetable culture, 
tho expenso thereby be reduced, an obsta- * s asser ted, and there is no doubt of 
cle, and a serious ono with some, will be re- * no * ac *'’ In one °t *^0 northern coun- 
moved. Wm. B. Pratt. ties this State, the grasshoppers were so 
Pittsburgh, n. y., Sept., 1853. numerous that they impeded the railroad 
Remarks. —The subject of underdraimng is one trains, and absolutely stopped the wholo 
put in about 300 rods of ditch (nearly half C1 °’ anU a Senoas 0110 mtb some ’ wdl be re " .. 7 ’ ' f 0t tne norttlern conn- 
of the piece was dry and no drains were Wm. B. Pratt. ties of this State the grasshoppers were so 
needed.) only from 2 feet to 2 foot 4 inches ’?“*"**’" ’ numerous that they .mpeded the railroad 
doop.il, tho bottom of which a small sluice- RuMAnKs—The subject or imdordraining isonc trains, and absolutely stopped tho wholo 
, . . ,, destined to occupy the attention of Agriculturists *°rce and impetus of tho engine and cars bv 
way was made by moans of small cobble- , ., 6 , 
, , . J , ., , the next twenty years, more than any other so smearing the surfaces with their crushed 
stono laid in rows on each side, and covered mnnccturl ar p raf r;n..r.„ w , . Z a a a. . 
’ „ ejected with the ait of tillage. Ye have bodies, as to destroy the traction between 
with suitable sized flat stone, with small abundance of theoretical evidence of the value of tho driving wheels and rails They traveled 
stono above up to within perhaps 15 inches underdrawing. Ithasbeen most successfully car- toward the lake shore and on reaching tho 
of the surface. A coat of straw was after- ried into practical operation in Great Britain, and , , , . . & ° 
, , , , • . . , „ . . water were pushed on by such immenso and 
wards spread evenly upon the top of the countless hordes, that they drowned and 
Stone and tho earth plowed in. This was P 10 ^ l,ctlv eness. Our soil, climate and circum- . • „ .. 
dono in tho foro part of tho soason, and af- st “ ces - hmre,er ’ “» vcr - v from those of ’ wtnrows for miles, and becamo 
terwards, all but four acres fitted and sowed «"**** Isles, and to mate the benefits and h “* ™ ,er 
. i , rirt la,, o ,, . economy of underdraimng demonstrative to Ainer- ine y uesirojea all regetation within their 
o w eat. io resu t tho following soason ican f armers> it i s necessary to have experiments reach > and a garment could not bo left, but 
was,, that wlulo tho general crop in this inacIo iu this country . Happily we need wait no wsCS destroyed in a very fow minutes.— 
section was considerably below the usual longer. The profit of underdraining has been Scythe snaths, rake and fork handles were 
mark, mine yielded an average ot about 35 clearly shown in this State, by Mr. Johnson. Mr. eaton so as to very materially injure them 
bushels. It would have done much hotter, Swan, and other gentlemen in Seneca county, by In short their depredations in somo loculi’ 
but tho work was not thoroughly performed, the Hon. T. G. Yeomans, of Walworth. Wayne t i es were equal to the accounts wo have of 
Tho drains wore not deep enough, and County, and by many other excellent farmers.— t h 0 fl y ; no . locust of E^ypt 
many of them were not skillfully placed. The above article of our esteemed correspondent, In ono " of our own Eastern counties somo 
Whero ground is wot from springs and over- aftords striking and satisfactory evidence on this th j d • .... . 
if „ • point. Uudeidraining will pay. Drains mav be 8 ‘ g°j dnnn^ an afflictive season 
, . • , o—jr .. - .a— uos were equal to tne accounts wo have ot 
Tho drains wore not deep enough, and County, and by many other excellent farmers.— t h 0 fl y j n , r ffleust of E«-vpt 
many of them were not skillfully placed. The above article of our esteemed correspondent, In ono " of our own COuntieg 
Whero ground is wot from springs and over- aftords striking and satisfactory evidence on this th - . d j . 
flowing, it requites moro study fed expert- »•***>? W- ^ be 1“’”“ 
once to judiciously place tho drains than Tf? *“* f. pra f' ve, r c,,t ' be laid too , S “ "T. a ‘“? b r h,s , mon 
.... , , .. , . nacuy ana expensively cut: tney mav be laid too .- —~ uv 1115 men 
once to judiciously place tho drains than , ,, , . J f ~ anf i k nv! , v..; f h rnn „,; J , 
, T shallow and in the wrong spot; yet we have no ana D °y s ) w,tn ropes, tlrovo the grasshop- 
would bo at first supposed. Let any man f ear but after a little experience, combined with P ers ^om his fields into his neighbors 
undertake to make a wot farm dry, and if theoretical knowledge, underdraining will be car- premises to the great injury of the latter.— 
it bo at all tho character ot mine, beforo he ried to great perfection in this country, and that A suit was commenced for damages which 
gets through ho will look back and see it will be found the most profitable investment a was fiercely contested, and after'a number 
dollars wasted and lost because of a lack of farmer can make. As in the case of Mr. Pratt, of years, and passing t’hrouo-h all the courts 
skill in the outsot in this single matter of we believe the produce on three-fourths of our finally prevailed and resulted in the entire 
placing drains. farms may be doubled for some years by judicious ruin 0 f the wrong doer. He sot rid of his 
My second trial, made last season, was underdrairan g- grasshoppers, but lost his farm, 
more thorough and more successful. Tho ^ P RATT he kind enough to give us the 
tiold chosen conttuned m acres. The -1th of his drains, the cos. of cuui.T, then,, of J “ “Lr. fl Th “ h 0 “ nM T 
ground was all hard, much of it was ordi- ‘be stone, and of lilUngap? Do you like P 1 »P"“i 1 ‘ has been calculated, 
Tvvrv wot lnnrl • rmo nfin unric i av to cl]t the dralDS U P tla e natural slope or fall of thafc man possessed tho same muscular 
^ c 1 8 0I1 ^ 1 the land, or across it ? As you have cot many power in proportion to his weight and bulk 
was a ways unpeasant o go aetoss bo- stones on the farm, would not drain tiles be more he could jump over half a mile at one lean 
causee the amount ot water; another 30 economical? We shall be glad to hear, also, from -which might be a desirable acquistion 
rods m length and five or six rods wido, was others who have experimented in draining. occassionally, in heading unruly cattle. 
This insect belongs to the order Orthop- 
tera sanatoria, and is of the species of lo- 
While land is as cheap, and individual impassable for a team and portions wore ABOUT GRASSHOPPERS, 
farms as large as they now are, this, pro- nover trodden by hoof; two flag swamps of . 
cess will not probably oxtonsivoly prevail; considerable sizo sent up thoir rank growth 'h' 11 ' 8 ‘ nRecd Lclongs to the order Orthop- 
but about thoso days that emigration is ex- of green each year, whilo springs in great fc " l sa ^ ato> i <l > and the species ot lo- 
hausted. (and that is a remote contingency,) numbers made out from the ground in tho cus ^ s that proi es so destructive in Asia,— 
and when public improvements gets the upper part of the field, and in tho wot sea- and not tbe ,:v ' a, ^ a i or seventeen year locust, 
rot on tho weevil, (not so remoto a contin- son overflowed the land below : altogether, as ^ ,l0 ' vn ' n this country. Naturalists say 
gency,) and consumers turn producers, this it had a hard look for winter wheat. Into . tbu4 tdK “ de P 0S it their eggs in vast numbers 
courso may bo as common as turning caftlo this field I put 398 rods of ditch 2J feet ' n a h°i« i n tho ground, which they form by 
into the highway, or bush pastures are at deep and upwards, and covered all but a contrivance they are endowod with, like 
present. . about 30 rods. From this field I harvested i° ur ‘hladed nippers, which remain till spring 
. 1 • - . ^ > 1 . , . IvIlAn Ko tnL /M, i. .-1 • _ !• , 1 
when they hatch out and immediately com¬ 
mence depredations on vegetation. 
Thoy do not pass through tho marked 
won tvitui X tGuuiiGiiLUU. lannujE, jl iuunu _ , . . * one law that i . , , . 
„ f , . ° , r an accurate account of the cost ot the crop; ous ldW , that is not well understood, and it 
myself in possession of a homestead of noar , ., T , , , mav I>r> rl^nLinri 
tmo oaa e l* u u a k i if I wish I had, but if you please, suppose the ma y ae doubted whether they are an annual 
300 acros, 200 of which had boen cleared for- , . ’ r . nrodimtinn fmm ii... ^ ., 
. . whole cost was $30 per aero, the price of P roauct| on Horn the egg, oi whether they 
ty years, tho most of tt more or loss marred ' left ’ with » cloan do not obey somo period of tho larva, state 
by springs and swamps and streams beyond #f m ,. nd is prett y V* discovered. 
a needful supply and some por tons so wet frM from st J and wU| ^ doub| ^ J It does not follow that because immense 
as to preclude tho thought of plow,eg even ovcn in produoliv6neBS hereafter ._ numbers of iusccts infest and overrun the 
or a-piing crop. ver since ic origin.! What say you, Mr. Editor, is my system of c °nntry, or particular localities, that they 
forest was cleared aw r ay, the farm had been J J am in tn-flq)i,t _ . „ , J 
. . . p . , farming the right one ? are t0 £ reatl y increase, or be equally abun- 
mainlY usod tor grazing until the grass up- Hant ,, 
on the dry portions was pretty much run The P resent season 1 havo P ut in som e- thoreforo it wo l, , ’ / °. contrar y 5 
out bv the yellow daisy and the strawberry thin S over 300 rods in a field of 11 acres— thorcfor ® would be fair reasoning to con- 
out bj the jollo daisy and the strawberry ,, b jecture that the great abundance of the pa- 
vine, while the wet parts produced a quality . 1 y wbi, uui me wore .l ij r „ 
of grass upon which stock would not thrive 18 done thorou gbly. The growing wheat 10nt sh ould produce a large increase of 
ot glass upon wnicft stock would not tlirivo, . b & b progeny, which does not follow, and rarely 
and which only grow up each yoar to die , en tI1an Iast y° dr - io i s the * . 
/i, p, r effect such a change in a piece of land is tne 8amo locall ty visitod two successive 
town m the fall Such bo ng tho oondt- » P p » “““ J years, with destructive hordes of thoso i„- 
tton of nty land (for I am going to give you ■ P 1 ^ P«‘ sects . 0 „o year thoy are not plentiful 
my experience,) I found that farming in & enough for fishing bait, and tho next are a 
the usual way was not going to bo a pay- It is a matter of surprise that more atten- desolating pest 
ing business, and accordingly, for that and tion has not been given to this suhject-that It is n ^ t YCry comprehensible why they 
other reasons, concluded to reduce my im- *" ore 15 being given now. I have seen proyaiI in dry s ; asons> ag ]g ’J g * 
proved land to something over ono hundred farmers year after year reap from ten to r J l 
acres, reserving of necessity tho wottest be- * vvent y bushels per acre, when by judicious . > . , , 1S * e reason verj 
cause my buildings were on that side of tho drain ing, thoy might easily have gathered whirhU a - fl a un ant t 1IS 
street, and begin to farm on a different svs- twice as much. I have seen a farmer- ’ I“o^n and eastern 
tom. called a good farmer by his neighbors, with ^ ^ S ° ° V ° rrun Wlth tbis P ost - w ben 
My first attempt was with a piece of some mone y > at interest timo after timo wiggle to tho devcloDment^f 0 ^ - * 111 ^ aablvorab t e 
twenty acres, about half of which was rather and twist his team around a stagnant swamp ( .. . . , , < msec i o, w ose 
low, damp, meadow ground, in the centre of 111 bis wheat field, and as often sworn that do bt j w h e thor thn I ^l^p nay ba 
which was a swamp of a half acre or so, im- the high water would kill so much of tho Z f tb °. hablts ’ bls °‘T and 
passable for a toL generally, but which grain about, when a few dollars,-a few rod, 
nevertheless produced a little wild grass, ot drain ‘ w ® uld h avo made tho stagnant itiesofroproductionand^hoU 18 !^ 111111 ' 
which year after year used to be raked out P° o1 productive, and given him dry, straight erns ; ts simultaneous * ^ ^° V_ 
on to the drv ground, at the expense of wet forrows ‘ Jt raust bo » ^ E™tor ? that more Zll _ T™ a PP earaaCG 111 great 
