y'V^IV^A»*WyH<»L/V , A<'WWy'W^CUM»fy^«IVPwyiyy*>^i»y’UH,>yH*'Wy , n*Wy^yy'*^UPO < Lf*yyH(n^Wy , wy»WfyP«fymn«MWymnwyyiyyM«Mt/yn«Mi»yyM.Ok»yM,n^^ 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
which we have earnestly and almost uninter¬ 
ruptedly labored for the . past six years, and not 
without reward. During that period the paper 
has constantly progressed, until we believe it is 
clearly entitled to the rank of first in the 
several important essentials above enumerated, 
— while it has attained a circulation at least 
ten thousand greater than that of any other 
Agricultural or similar ournal in the World. 
In entering upon a New Year and Volume,, 
we will only remark, in conclusion, that neither 
effort or expense will be spared in making the 
Rural New-Yorker worthy the reputation it 
has attained, and the unexampled measure of 
confidence and support it is receiving from all 
sections of the Country—East and West, North 
and South. 
trade is with British ports, shows a large de¬ 
mand for the continent. In addition to wheat 
and flour, upwards of 100,000 bushels of rye were 
shipped to German ports during the same time. 
The admitted deficiency in England and 
France is now upwards of fifty millions of bush¬ 
els. This would be a serious amount in any year, 
but when it is known that there is still to be ad¬ 
ded to that a further prospective demand for 
Germany, we can readily see why it is that 
great uneasiness, and serious financial embar¬ 
rassment, exist abroad. We have shown that 
the deficiency cannot be met in our country, 
from our surplus wheat crop; though there may 
be something done with our surplus Indian corn. 
Late arrivals show that the much dreaded po¬ 
tato rot has begun to manifest itself. We quote 
some reports as samples of those beginning to 
be heard all over the kingdom : “ A more than 
ordinary supply was brought to market last 
week, in consequence, obviously, of the wide¬ 
spread alarm of disease having manifested itself 
in the pits.” Again: “ A correspondent writes 
this week that complaints are general in his dis¬ 
trict of the potato disease making rapid progress 
in the pits.” From another : “ The potatoes in 
this district are becoming extensively affected 
with disease.” These reports come up to the 
26th of November. 
The following extract from the London Mark 
Lane Express of Nov. 26, will give some idea of 
the feeling which pervades the best informed 
circles of the kingdom. 
“ The price of wheat has recently received a 
check in the markets generally, but this is more 
in appearance than reality, tlio, damp atmos¬ 
phere having deteriorated the samples of new to 
the extent of about 2s. per qr. Fine old sam¬ 
ples of foreign wheat, of good quality have re¬ 
ceded but little in value, though sales have been 
sIoav. Floating cargoes, indeed, have become 
scarce, and dearer, and the ports of Spain are 
now being drained for the Levant instead of 
sending their cargoes to England. Beyond all 
this, a renewed Russian prohibition to the ex¬ 
port of grain across the Avhole European frontier 
with the exception of Avheat from Poland, places 
us still farther from a solution of the difficulty 
of providing plenty of the necessities of the land ; 
unless America can meet our claims in common 
with nearly all Europe. The probability that 
much Russian corn came last season via Sweden, 
which Avill never be sent this, is a matter for 
grave consideration; and it may be that the 
freedom of commerce so advantageous to this 
country, and so good as a rule in ordinary times, 
may find the necessity of an exception here, 
and Britain eventually be forced to follow the 
example of other countries, viz : stop the export 
of corn, and even give a bounty to its import.” 
From all the facts which an extensive corres¬ 
pondence and a careful examination of reports 
• from all parts of Europe give us, we come to the 
following conclusions : 
1st. That there will be less breadstuff at the 
beginning of the year 1856 in Europe than at 
any time before for the last 30 years. 
2d. That the deficiency at the A 7 ery lowest es¬ 
timate will reach at least sixty millions of bush¬ 
els of Avheat. 
3d. That the main dependence of the several 
countries interested is upon this country. 
4th. Such deficiency cannot be met except by 
using a large quantity of Indian corn, and that 
in no event can any considerable amount of 
wheat or flour be obtained unless at prices large¬ 
ly in advance of any yet paid. 
5th. That the financial difficulties will be so 
aggravated that it will be next to impossible to 
prevent the suspension of specie payment by the 
banks of England and France, unless the war is 
brought to a speedy close. And 
6th. Higher prices will be realized for flour, 
wheat and corn before next harvest, than have 
yet been paid. 
AX ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
H. T. BROOKS, Prop. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
H. C. WHITE, T. E. WETMORE. 
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, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with many appropriate and beautiful Engrav¬ 
ings, than any other paper published in this Country, 1 — 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper, 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
EUROPEAN GRAIN MARKETS, 
There is probably at this time, considering its 
importance, less known about the actual condi¬ 
tion of the European grain market, than any 
other of the important markets of the world.— 
The commercial press is lamentably ignorant, 
not only of the foreign but of our home markets. 
Some papers have put the product of this coun¬ 
try in wheat for 1855 as high as one hundred 
and eighty millions of bushels, and others have 
claimed that our surplus would feed all Europe 
under any contingency. The true situation of 
the wheat crop in our own country has been 
pretty satisfactorily demonstrated in a previous 
number, we now proceed to examine the condi¬ 
tion of the foreign crop for the year 1855. 
In no year for the last quarter of a century 
has there been as little wheat unthreshed or in 
store on the continent of Europe as there Avill be 
at the commencement of the year 1856. For 
the last ten years there lias been a series of cir¬ 
cumstances which have tended to exhaust old 
stocks and diminish neAV. Perhaps with the 
exception of the almost total failure of the Eng¬ 
lish and French harvests two years ago, no one 
has been of sufficient magnitude to bear heavily 
upon the general result. But a combination has 
been the means of a disastrous consequence.— 
The extra demand of 1853 exhausted the stocks 
in nearly all the continental wheat-groAving re¬ 
gions. Upon that exhaustion came the great 
Avar, whereby the granary of Europe, the North¬ 
ern and Southern provinces of Russia was shut 
up, and England and France Avhich have both 
become bread-importing countries even in the 
best of years, were restricted to Germany and 
the North for their supplies.' The failure of our 
crop of 1854 still further aggravated the difficul¬ 
ty, though its severity was in some degree mit¬ 
igated by the superior crop of England in that 
year. If, however, there had been an average 
harvest during the past year throughout Europe, 
the destruction caused by the Avar would have 
been made good by the small surplus Avhich 
might haArn been obtained in this country under 
the stimulus of high prices. 
But the fact has now become established be¬ 
yond all dispute, that in all the principal grain - 
groAving countries of Europe, the crop has 
not come up to an average in a single one, 
and in many it is more than half below.— 
The insufficiency of the harvest in the .Rus¬ 
sian Empire is admitted by the Journal de 
St. Petersburgh, and is now fully established by 
the fact that the Russian Government has been 
for some time past steadily importing grain from 
Prussia, and Prussia is a large buyer in the 
English ports—so that England is indirectly 
furnishing bread wanted by herself to her great 
enemy, Russia. In the great provinces of 
Cronstadt, Liefland and Finland, the harvest 
will not suffice for the wants of the population. 
With the exception of Denmark and Spain, the 
export of Avheat is prohibited by every continen¬ 
tal government, and it is even hoav hinted by a 
leading journal, that it may become necessary 
to forbid the export of breadstuffs from England, 
and moreover offer a premium for their increas¬ 
ed importation. It is a significant fact and one 
which speaks loudly upon the subject, that the 
export of breadstuffs from Great Britain is twice 
as large as last year, and the current is constant¬ 
ly increasing—and that, with all that drain, the 
exports from this country to the continent are 
nearly as large as to England. Thus in one 
week in October, or from the 17th to the 29th, 
the exports from New York were : 
Flour. Wheat. 
To Great Britain.45,645 bbls. 244,601 bush. 
European ports not British 49,926 “ 166,490 “ ' 
And in a fortnight ending the 9th of December : 
Flour. Wheat. 
To Great Britain.33,631 bbls. 368,568 bush. 
Other European ports.27,191 “ 163,834 “ 
Which, considering that the great bulk of our 
in fragrant festoons. Ere long, grape-vines will 
display their purple clusters Avhere now the 
bean-poles stand. The maize-path, at present 
somewhat too near, will be replaced by grass 
and floAvers ; and then, perhaps, some who once 
scorned the homely dwelling, will stop to gaze, 
and long to enter. 
The accompanying design and description is 
from “Village and Farm Cottages,” a new work 
by Messrs. Cleveland & Backus Brothers, ar¬ 
chitects, of New York, just issued from the press 
of D. Appleton & Co. It shows hoAV a simple 
design may be rendered tasteful and convenient 
at a small expense. 
“ It is needless to say for whom the design 
represented ab.OA T e was intended, as the whole 
family is in sight. The owner, whom you see 
so busy with hammer and nail, is one of that 
independent sort who like to do things in their 
own Avay. On the edge of the village he bought 
a piece of ground, but partly cleared, and which 
nobody else had thought of. Here, amid the 
spared trees, he put his house. He Avanted but 
three rooms. A verandah, where he could sit 
in the shade and enjoy the fresh air, he was e- 
solved to have. To carry out his own views of 
convenience and comfort, he disregarded the 
advice of neighbors, who insisted that it would 
be quite as cheap, and much better, to build his 
house ‘regular and square.’ He did nothing 
for mere fancy. The eaves are unornamented, 
the front door plain, the window-caps are strips 
of plank sustained by three-cornered blocks. 
An evident purpose pervades eA 7 ery part of the 
plan. At first it looked so plain compared with 
neighboring houses, Avhich were tricked out in 
gingerbread finery, that people laughed, and 
called it barn-like. Not so now. Prairie roses 
planted and trained by the owner’s own hand, 
already supply the want of pilaster and cornice. 
Honeysuckles Avill soon climb the slender col¬ 
umns of the verandah, and hang between them 
In presenting the initial number of the 
Seventh Volume of the Rural Neav-Yorker, 
a few prefatory remarks are submitted in order 
to arrange preliminaries with friends, and 
define our position for the information of the 
thousands of comparative strangers Avho are 
enlisting among its supporters. What we have 
to offer, however, must be written in such 
haste, — amid busy preparations for the neAV 
year and volume, and Avithal so briefly, — that 
we fear the customary introduction Avould, in 
this instance, be more honored in the breach 
than observance. Yet Ave will endeavor,— 
notAvithstanding almost constant interruptions, 
abundant noise and confusion, and a lack of 
both time and space,—-to at least allude to 
matters appropriate, if not peculiarly pertinent, 
to the subject and occasion. 
The Rural enters upon its Seventh Year 
under the most favorable auspices — combining 
brighter prospects, and more and better elements 
of unexampled progress and usefulness, than at 
any other period since its establishment. To 
its former and continued ardent friends and 
substantial supporters, we can only express 
the firm determination Avith which we are 
imbued — that its future shall be worthy of 
its past history, and that the National standing 
and reputation already acquired Avill be more 
than maintained. In all prominent and essen¬ 
tial features and characteristics, the paper will 
continue substantially the same as heretofore,— 
with the addition of such improvements, in 
both matter and manner, as greater experience 
and increased facilities shall enable us to 
introduce. The Conducting Editor will con¬ 
tinue to deA r ote his chief attention to the 
making up of each number, and carefully and 
conscientiously endeavor to so fill each and 
every column and page as to furnish a journal 
unequalled in all essential particulars and 
combined departments. In accomplishing this 
object, we shall, as already announced, be aided 
by Eight Assistants and Special Contributors — 
comprising the best talent and attainments, 
and the most Avide and varied experience,— 
while, owing to the extensive appreciation of 
the Rural throughout the land, the means and 
facilities for improving its appearance are not 
desideratums. 
For the information of the thousands of readers 
whom Ave now have the pleasure of greeting for 
the first time, we may [appropriately repeat 
what was published in a late number, as fol¬ 
lows : —“ Our object from the commencement 
of the Rural Neav-Yorker has not been to 
furnish either an Agricultural, Horticultural, 
Mechanical, Scientific, Educational, Literary, or 
News journal — but rather to combine all these 
subjects, and thus present a paper unequalled in 
Value, Variety and Usefulness of Contents. It 
was commenced, and has been thus far con¬ 
tinued, with a firm determination that it should, 
extraordinaries excepted, achieve a position and 
success which woidd clearly entitle it to rank as 
the First of its Class in Merit, Usefulness 
and Popularity 7 . Our earnest desire has ever 
been to make it an honest, independent, reliable 
and eminently useful Rural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper — correct in its teachings 
on Practical Subjects, instructive and entertain¬ 
ing to members of the Family Circle, of high 
moral tone, and entirely free from deception and 
quackery even in its advertising department.” 
Such has been the object, end and aim for 
IQ'iitL 
GROUND PLAN. 
Let them enter. They Avill find everything 
in order within. The interior of the house was 
planned to suit its mistress. Each room is en¬ 
tered directly from the entry, and this being 
the only connection betAveen them, no one can 
be used as a passage-way to others. The kitch¬ 
en, with all its sounds and odors, is effectually 
separated from the sitting-room. Each of these 
rooms is supplied with a pantry, and a back¬ 
door opens out from the latter. The inside 
walls are neatly papered. The doors and trim¬ 
mings are plain and substantial. 
Height of rooms eight feet six inches. Cost 
estimated at $650.” 
duct is sold ; let items of expenditure be clearly 
stated, in order to knoAV just Avhat it costs to 
carry on the farm, and let the value of all per¬ 
manent improvements be also stated, as these 
are really so much property acquired. Our 
word for it the labor expended will be pronoun¬ 
ced the most profitably employed of any equal 
amount during the year. 
Tavo or three small books will be all that are 
necessary. The day-book, journal and leger of 
the merchant, can all be sunk into one for the 
farmer, by giving each man with whom he has 
dealings tAVO pages for Dr. and Cr. opposite 
each other. Then a small cash-book and a 
book of record will complete the set. How few 
there are of even our most intelligent farmers, 
who enter into these details. The^age of an 
animal, the time of purchase of a ploAV, the price 
obtained for last year’s wheat; and in fact, ev¬ 
ery item of interest connected Avith the farm 
must be established by parol: and not unfre- 
quently the recollection of the farmer and his 
sons is taxed in vain to ascertain the facts con¬ 
nected with any interesting question which 
arises in after years. May we hope that these 
suggestions, and those heretofore put forth by 
us upon this subject, will be heeded by at least 
a portion of our readers. 
ABOUT OXEU. 
The Ox serves the farmer by his labor and 
profits him by his growth. The horse, as an 
idler, is useless to his owner, but the ox is in¬ 
creasing in value by the food and rest which 
prepares him for the stall. For Avork to which 
they are adapted, oxen are the most profitable 
team—for the road they are, like many horses, 
entirely too slow. In the years long gone we 
have ridden after them “to mill and to meet¬ 
ing,” but these rides are scarcely numbered 
among the pleasures of boyhood. We have fol¬ 
lowed them in the furrow, and over the farm on 
the cart and sled—for such services they are 
Avell adapted and should he more generally em¬ 
ployed. 
Oxen, from their docility, were probably the 
first of domestic animals Avhicli gave their 
strength to the service of man. Ancient writers 
speak of them, and Solomon among his pithy 
proverbs declared “ Where no oxen are, the crib 
is clean, but much increase is by the strength 
of the ox.” The Hebrew husbandman were no 
mere diggers. They went for the improvement 
of plows and carts, and the “ strength of the ox” 
to drawThem. Yet it appears that they scarcely 
appreciated the services of this faithful animal, 
or it scarce need haA'e been enacted, “ Thou 
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy 
corn.” But we will return to 1856. 
It is as true to-day as it Avas in the reign of 
the wise King, that “ much increase is by the 
ox.” Taken literally as a working aniihal, and 
also as the name of tbe genus included when 
we speak of cattle, there is no profitable agri¬ 
culture without them. Stock and grain grow¬ 
ing are inseparably connected, in most soils and 
FARM ACCOUNTS, 
The Stride of a Race Horse. —The celebra¬ 
ted animal painter, Herring, states that a race 
horse will clear from twenty to twenty-four 
feet at a bound, and from the impression left on 
the turf, he infers that a horse at full gallop 
places only one foot at a time upon the ground. 
This, he says, is more convincing to the ear than 
to the eye. In listening to a horse galloping 
on a hard road it Avill be found accurately ex¬ 
hibited by placing the little finger on a table or 
a pane of glass, apd causing the other three 
fingers to MIoav in rotation; by so doing, the 
precise sound of that of a horse galloping will be 
produced. Then follows the bound, and again 
the one, two, three, four, in regular succession. 
We are now just entering upon a new year. 
As it is a season of leisure to tbe farmer, he 
cannot better employ it than in taking an in¬ 
ventory of all the farm stock, implements, crops 
on hand and in the ground, and attach a fair 
cash value to each, with a brief note of the age 
of the animal or implement. Then, through the 
year, as new articles are bought or additions 
made to stock of the farm, let these be added to 
the schedule ; and when animals or crops are 
sold, or implements Avorn out, let a record of it 
be kept. Let an estimated money value of time^ 
labor, and seed used in raising each crop he 
noted, and the amount received when the pro- 
