af®J 
■ 
./ ;;: 3>f s §V'‘fe r ^| 
•:■•:' IVy •■'• . , u, •»-#M 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
According to an experiment made by Frof. 
Dewey, of tire Rochester University, on the fall 
of snow on Christmas, it took nine cubical 
inches to make one inch of water. We thus 
have eight inches of air enclosed in the expand¬ 
ed cells of an inch of water in tire frozen state, 
affording one of the most admirable non-con¬ 
ducting substances known, for the protection of 
the earth’s surface. Nine inches ol down would 
have been scarcely more effective. We would 
therefore impress upon our leaders these facts, 
and recommend to them as one of the best bar¬ 
riers against frost a good bank of lightly fallen 
snow. Cellars, stables, out-buildings of all 
kinds, earth-buried vegetables, and all other 
places where it is desirable to exclude a chil¬ 
ling atmosphere, are wonderfully protected by 
a thorough banking up with snow. 
AX ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AM) FAMILY JOURNAL 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AH ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
H. T. BROOKS, Prof. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
H. C. WHITE, T. E. WET.MORE. 
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,— 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
Our fourth and last proposition—“ that the 
value of manure depends largely upon the state 
in which it is applied to the soil,” has already 
received some consideration. One conclusion 
arrived at may be re-stated thus . Barn-yard 
manures possess their greatest fertilizing value in 
a green or unfermented state. In particular cases, 
it may depend upon the soil, and the crop which 
is to be grown, whether it is most profitable to 
apply fresh or fermented manure ; but this does 
not change the truth of the principle laid down 
above. Why this is true, is evid nt from the 
statements already adduced in regard to loss by 
the evaporation of volatile elements from fer¬ 
menting or putrefying manure. The reasoning 
of Stockhaudt is so much to the point, and so 
important to a just understanding of the sub¬ 
ject, that we again present a condensed state¬ 
ment from his work. 
Practical agriculturists, by repeated trials 
and comparative experiments, carried on upon a 
large scale, have very decisively shown, that 
the farmer, by plowing in his manure in a 
fresh, unfermented, strawy state, just as under or¬ 
dinary circumstances it leaves the stable, turns 
it to better account than by leaving it to rot 
upon the dung-heap, without further attentio n. 
And, what practical experience establishes, will 
always accord with sound theory, and does 
here. Science explains the more profitable em¬ 
ployment of long manure, as follows : 
When fresh manure is introduced below the 
earth, its putrefaction and decay take place un¬ 
der a protecting cover, which, like all porous 
THE SHELTERING SNOW. 
AIR. COLLINS’ DEVON BULL “BALTIMORE. 
Above we present a portrait of Mr. Collixs’ 
Devon Bull, “ Baltimore,” which took the first 
prize of the New York State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, in 1847. His pedigree is a follows : 
Baltimore, calved 1842, bred by H. N. Wash- 
box, of Morris, Otsego Co., N. Y., the property 
of J. W. Collins, of Sodus, Wayne Co., N. Y. 
Sire, Eclipse, (191)—imported by Mr. Patter- 
sox from the herd of Mr. Bloomfield, of War- 
ham, Norfolk, England—gr. sire Willingham. 
Dam, Rose, of Baltimore, bred by Mr. Patterson 
from Ancbises (140.) See “ Davy’s Herd Book.” 
it requires time to putrefy^td decay, and that 
its operation, therefore, doc.-i not commence until 
these processes of decomposition are in full ca¬ 
reer ; while rotten manure has already a part of 
its constituents in that condition which is need¬ 
ed for the nourishment of plants. Long or 
fresh manure is better suited on this account to 
plants of lengthened vegetation, than to those 
which require only a few months for their de¬ 
velopment, and is often of as great benefit the 
second year, as the first, and its effects continue 
even still longer in many instances. 
If, then, we would secure the greatest effect 
upon the productive power of the soil, we should 
apply our barn-yard manures in as fresh a state 
as possible, and immediately bury them with 
the plow. In this way, we retain all the gases 
evolved by decomposition, and their greatest 
mechanical and chemical action is carried on 
where it is of use, and with but very little of 
wastage or loss. 
It is well to understand these principles, 
though it is practically impossible to carry 
them*into full effect. We do not keep stock 
enough on our farms, nor can we plow at the 
season in which they are usually yarded or 
stabled, neither do all crops succeed after the 
application of long manure, but the facts here 
brought out show the importance of keeping 
Agriculturists to the subject, and many experi¬ 
ments have been made throwing light upon the 
matter. “ It was ascertained,” said Col. John¬ 
son, at the meeting above referred to, “ by accu¬ 
rate trial, that one cow -would produce as much 
as three others in the same dairy—though until 
the experiment was carefully made, the dairy¬ 
man was not aware of any difference in his herd, 
except the different quantities of milk given.— 
And this was no test, for the best butter cows 
usually were not the largest milkers.” This led 
dairymen to test their cows, and the result has 
been a very marked improvement in ihe value 
of those- kept for dairy purposes. 
Fn 1850 the census gave the number of Milch 
Cows nearly 60,000- less than in 1845, but the 
average product of cheese to each cow bad in¬ 
creased 50 lbs., and that of butter 12 lbs. This 
ought to be still higher, and we hope the returns 
of the present census will bring up the amount 
somewhere near the true average — 200 lbs. of 
butter and 400 lbs. ol clieese per cow. Everv 
farmer should test the milk of his cows, both for 
cheese and butter, and keep only such animals 
as are well adapted to his purpose. In the in¬ 
creased attention given to the raising of stock, 
both for beef and dairy purposes we see sign •; 
of this becoming one of the greatest interests of 
the State. 
j ing, or learning, or a farm or a factory. But 
! tllis is 011 ly saying, that for food and drink, and 
house and factory, you must have the appropri¬ 
ate articles, and not something of an entirely 
different nature and character. You can not 
use your farm or store for food. But one re¬ 
plies, you can obtain by means of your farm, or 
store, or profession, food, clothing, <fcc. True, 
but with gold you can procure in much less 
time, the required food or clothing, or any ne¬ 
cessary, and also the farm, factory, profession, 
Ac., by which the necessaries are yielded. If 
a farm, or factory, or profession, or art, or sci¬ 
ence, has value in itself, much more has gold, 
which puts any or all of them in your posses¬ 
sion. 
The properties of gold, and of silver also, 
which fit them for money, are a rich gift of Prov¬ 
idence. They were evidently formed for this 
high advantage to man. For the purposes of 
any considerable trade or commerce, gold and 
I he value of gold was an ciently greater than 
at present. The improvements in mining and 
in working the ores, have produced a greater 
supply of gold especially, and its relative value 
has been nearly the same for a considerable pe¬ 
riod. Unless there should be a greater influx 
of _gold in proportion to the cost of it, its rela¬ 
tive value will not greatly change. For, the 
cost of its production, that is, the cost of the la¬ 
bor in obtaining it, must regulate its value.— 
The power of labor in enhancing the value of 
an article has often been illustrated by the case 
of iron in its different forms produced by labor: 
thus, five dollars worth of iron wrought into 
horse-shoes, is valued at ten dollars; but the 
same worth of iron wrought into steel and then 
into needles, is worth $355, or into blades of 
pen-knives, $3,185, or into shirt buttons, $29,- 
489, or into hair-springs of watches, is worth 
$250,000: 
True, circumstances may for a time cause an 
article to bear a market price higher than the 
actual cost. I hus, the demand for wheat in Eu¬ 
rope causes it to bear a price in our market far 
above its cost, and which its great abundance 
here would at once reduce were it not for the 
foreign demand. Let the circumstances change, 
and the result is obvious. And certain it is, 
that it wheat should not be worth its cost of pro¬ 
duction, it will not be^rown. But though it is 
the “ staff of life,” and enhanced its price be¬ 
yond all necessity, the value of gold and silver 
stand forth pre-eminent in the fact, that the 
very “ staff of life ” itself, comes to us at its 
bidding. 
THE VALUE OE GOLD : 
HOW DETERMINED — ERRONEOUS AND ABSURD 
VIEWS CORRECTED—NUMBER TWO. 
BY PROF. C. DEWEY, 
DAIRY STATISTICS OF NEW YORK. 
The real value of gold is ascertained by ask¬ 
ing the question, “what will it buy?” What 
will not gold buy ? Everything which can 
have a price ; everything that can be bought or 
sold. For, it is the representative of commodi¬ 
ties, the standard of their value. This I have 
already illustrated beyond any doubt. 
But it has been said, “ gold, in itself, is near¬ 
ly valueless.” What is meant by “gold in it¬ 
self ?” Is it gold without its properties and adap- 
tatious? This would not be “gold in itself,” 
for those properties belong to it, and are insep¬ 
arable from it, and without which it would not 
be “ gold in itself,” but “ out of itself,” an incon¬ 
ceivable nonentity. 
Does “ gold in itself ” mean gold without any 
connection with other things, or relation to 
them ? Then, truly, it would be “ valueless.” 
But, so would any thing and every thing. Your 
farm, your factory, your store, your profession, 
your wisdom or education, your very body and 
your soul, without any connection with things 
or any relation to them, would be “valueless,” 
worth just as much as gold in the same aspects, 
just nothing. Then, neither gold nor any other 
object could be applied to any use. 
The meaning of “ gold in itself,” must be 
that it can not be substituted for other things, or 
made to take the place of them ; that is, that 
gold can not be used as food, or drink, or lodg- 
N. Y. State Ag. Society, is a report of a discus¬ 
sion on “ The Dairy Interest of the State,” held 
at one of the Legislative Ag’l Meetings at the 
Capital last winter. We gather from it the fol¬ 
lowing interesting statistics: 
In 1845, according to the State Census, there 
were about 1,000,000 of cows employed in the 
Dairy — and it was estimated that one-third 
were devoted to the product of cheese ; giving 
37,000,000 or about 110 lbs. o each cow. Two- 
thirds were employed in the butter dairies, pro¬ 
ducing 80,000,000 lbs., or abo t 116 lbs. to each 
cow. This shows but a mea^i e product and the 
returns are probably incorrect, for it is well 
known that hundreds of pounds of butter and 
cheese are made of which no account is kept, 
and which could only be Missed at when re¬ 
quired by the census-taker. In Herkimer, one 
of the greatest cheese counties ot the State, (and 
where probably a nearly accurate account is 
kept,) the average of cheese per cow was 226 
lbs., in the town of Fairfield,in that county, 350 
given an average 
lbs. per cow, and one dairy had 
for three years of 680 lbs, 
But incomplete returns were not the only 
reason of the small average of butter and cheese 
shown. Many of the cows were inferior animals. 
These statistics called the ttention of practical 
