TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
YOLLME YII. NO. 16.! 
MOOKE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEHKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITKRARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS i 
H. T. BROOKS, Prof. 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 Guido on the important Practical Subjects connected 
with the business of those whose interests it advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Mechan¬ 
ical, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with many appro¬ 
priate and beautiful Engravings, than any other paper published 
in this Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Lit¬ 
erary and Family Newspaper. 
*.* The postage on the Rural is but cents per quarter, to 
any part of the State (except Monroe County, where it goes free,) 
and cents to any other section of the United States—payable 
quarterly in advance at the office where received. 
15^" All communications, and business letters, should bo ad¬ 
dressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
fkral pin-forte/ 
ENEMIES OP THE CORN CROP. 
Unlike wheat and nearly every other cereal, 
the enemies of corn, work chiefly in the earlier 
stages of the growing crop. Spring frosts, the 
cut, and the wire worm, the crow, weeds, cold 
rains, Ac., tell upon the corn, if at all, early 
in the season. It is true that a cold, had sum¬ 
mer has its influence, and autumnal frosts now 
and then come untimely ; but in the warm, dry 
seasons of our climate, both of these dangers 
can be mostly guarded against or counteracted. 
There is more fear of drouth in mid-summer, 
than of too excessive moisture, and both these 
extremes are most effectually prevented by the 
same identical treatment, viz., drainage and 
deep thorough culture. The more porous and 
deep a soil is, the more water it is capable of 
bolding in suspension as a protection against 
long rainless seasons ; and when water is in 
excess, the surplus portion gradually filters 
through into the drains below, and passes 
harmlessly away. 
The wire-worm is a grievous annoyance in 
many localities, not unfrequently ruining the 
crop by destroying the seed before it has time 
to germinate. Many remedies have been pre¬ 
scribed for the evil, and have been practiced 
with varied success. A year or so ago, a farmer 
in the western part of this county, stated to us 
that the most effectual remedy he had found, 
was the use of hog manure ; assuring us that he 
had tried it repeatedly, and with invariable 
success. It might be applied, he said, broad 
cast and plowed under, or the corn might be 
manured in the bill. He preferred the former 
course, as more likely to secure future crops 
against the depredator. So confident was he of 
the efficacy of the remedy, that in addition to 
publishing his statements in the Rural, we 
made application to an agricultural friend, and 
requested him to test the matter. He had, he 
stated, a spot of an acre or so in extent, upon 
which the year before the wire-worm entirely 
destroyed the crop, besides committing great 
ravages in other portions of the field. Upon 
this he promised to try the experiment, and did 
so last season, with entire success, as he assures 
us. He spread hog manure, from his pen, over 
the “ infected district," and did not lose a hill 
of qorn from the ravages of the worm. He has 
great confidence in the remedy, and insists that 
it will prove entirely effectual. One thing is 
certain, and that is this, no harm can arise from 
the application. Unlike some remedies, which, 
if they do not cure, are sure to kill, and as a 
general thing take that horn of the dilema, this 
application of hog manure will be invaluable as 
a fertilizer, if it does nothing more ; and we 
hope others of our readers, whose fields are 
troubled with this pest, will test the matter by 
further experiments. One swallow does not 
make a summer, and one successful result will 
not establish a principle. If similar trials are 
had in different parts of the country, with 
corresponding success, we may then reasonably 
conclude that the remedy is certain ; if results 
vary, but all prove more or less successful, we 
may consider it efficacious under certain cir¬ 
cumstances, and must then endeavor to ascer¬ 
tain what those circumstances are. We will 
vouch for its value as a manure, at all events ; 
and warrant, either directly or indirectly, a 
full return for the cost and trouble expended. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, APRIL IB, 1856. 
{WHOLE NO, 328. 
OATS. 
Oats were first cultivated by the colonists of 
Massachusetts Bay in 1629, having early found 
their way to this country. In the number of 
acres sown, they rank next to corn and wheat; 
perhaps above the latter in this respect. For 
1850, the census exhibited a product of 140,584,- 
179 bushels, and for last year the estimated 
crop is 170 millions— 5 millions above wheat, 
and 154 millions above barley. With us this 
great product is mostly employed in feeding 
horses and other domestic animals, but in Great 
Britain it is largely used as an article of human 
subsistence. It is as highly nutritious, but has 
a larger proportion of husk than any other white 
grains, which better adapts it for feeding stock 
in a raw and unground state. 
As to soil, the oat cannot be called a very 
particular plant, for it flourishes well on light 
or heavy, sandy or mucky, if of medium quali¬ 
ty, and prepared and sown in proper season. 
It prefers, however, a rich mucky loam, and on 
such has been known to produce over 125 bush¬ 
els per acre. Oats are very generally sown on 
poor soils—such as would give but a small pro¬ 
duct of wheat or corn—and even then produce 
fair crops, but no grain gives a better return for 
manure and good culture. “Oats,” says' Wat¬ 
son’s Practiced Husbandry, “ are rank, hardy and 
vigorous feeders, and seldom suffer from too 
high fertility of soil. They sometimes lodge 
from this cause, but seldom run to a supera¬ 
bundance of straw.” We believe, however, that 
if the oats are not pretty well advanced before 
they fall or lodge, the filling out of the heads is 
generally more or less defective. 
Thorough and careful preparation of the soil 
is not lost upon the oat crop. If plowed in the 
fall, land can be fitted in better season for the 
seed, and early sowing ; this, though not abso¬ 
lutely necessary, is an essential requisite to a 
large yield. Oats, like barley, should get a 
good start before dry and hot weather comes 
on. “They succeed admirably,” says Watson, 
“ after corn or other hoed crops, following in the 
second year a heavy application of green ma¬ 
nure. Oats bear much better than any of the 
small grains, to be sowed with barn-yard ma¬ 
nures.” In looking over accounts of “ Premium 
Oat Crops,” we find that most of them were 
either grown after corn which had been heavily 
manured, or that composted manure was applied 
directly. No instances are given of sowing upon 
green-sward, though several writers commend 
the course. There seems to be a general preju¬ 
dice among farmers against it, and we think it 
has sufficient foundation in facts observed. 
As to time of sowing, the earlier oats can he 
sown the better, though in favorable seasons 
good crops are often produced from seed sown 
late in May. If the summer should be dry, 
late-sown oats are generally short in the straw 
and light in the head, while early-sown pro¬ 
duce heavy and abundant crops. 
In regard to the amount of seed necessary, 
some differences of opinion prevail. English 
farmers sow from four to six bushels per acre, 
and state as a reason for so doing that, though 
oats will tiller, the side shoots are not of much 
value, and it is best, therefore, to sow seed 
enough to give the requisite number of stems. 
From three to four and five bushels are sown in 
this country, though some farmers say that two 
and a half are amply sufficient. We think, on 
a rich soil, sown early, three bushels would be 
enough, but if sown late four might be advisable. 
The poorer the soil the less seed it needs, down 
to the point of furnishing plants to cover the 
surface, which two bushels per acre will supply. 
— Ou this point some agricultural writers, 
observing the fact that four or five bushels per 
acre were often sowu where remarkable crops 
have been produced, have argued that such 
crops were due in great measure to the large 
amount of seed ; but an examination of the 
preparation of the soil and culture given them, 
leaves this doubtful to our minds. These large 
crops were either on the very richest soils, or 
were heavily manured, while nearly as large 
crops have been produced from two and three 
bushels on less fertile soils, and without manure. 
We hope farmers who can throw light on this 
question, and also as to its demands upon the 
soil, will communicate the facts for publication. 
There are many varieties of oats, and a good 
deal has been said, pro and con, on this subject. 
We will not here attempt to discuss it. We 
know that the common white oats haveprodued 
very profitable crops, and that the improved va¬ 
rieties have sometimes failed to do so. 
The average yield per acre is below what it 
ought to be. In this State, some years since, a 
report was compiled from reliable statistics, 
showing the average product to be 26 bushels 
per acre. In the counties of Seneca and Kings, 
the average exceeded 35; in Monroe and On¬ 
tario, 32; in Cayuga, Dutchess and Livingston, 
30 ; in Orleans and Niagara, 29 ; and Wayne, 
Yates- and Chautauque 27. With the recent 
improvements in Agriculture, we think the av¬ 
erage is now from 35 to 40 bushels per acre. 
Oats should be harvested before they are dead 
ripe, or much loss will be suffered from their 
shelling. The straw will be more valuable, 
also, but much care should be taken to cure 
thoroughly before storing in the mow, or stack¬ 
ing. Oat straw is next to that of barley in 
value for feeding animals, and the oat crop, 
properly managed, is one of the most profitable 
raised by the farmer. Its adaptation to all 
kinds of soil and seasons, its value for feeding 
horses, sheep and other stock, render it worthy 
of better attention than it often receives. 
HAY MEAL. 
In these days of wonderful discoveries, when 
the arcana of nature are freely explored—when 
butter is produced from Irish bogs and sugar 
from linen rags—the perfect imitation of the 
most fragrant odors of the garden from putrid 
cheese and the dung of swine—you need not 
start, reader, at the idea of turning hay into meal. 
If you will examine the chemical analysis of 
hay, AvLlcL wc -trill t haj. ^4 1 * 1 -ads with 
at present, you will find that it contains a great 
many of the elements of grain and an unsus¬ 
pected amount of nutritive matter. We only 
prepare it as food for the herbivorous creation, 
although one of the omnivorous, with a very 
little animal matter, would subsist well upon it. 
It is a well-known fact that the straw of all the 
cereal grains, by the operation of the paper mill 
machinery, is made impalpably fine and pulpy, 
and hay, wliicfi performs such important func¬ 
tions for the subsistence of more than one-half 
of all animal life, is used for that purpose most 
injudiciously and at great loss, and with very 
little attention to its economic value. 
Hay cut in the common cutting-box and 
wetted, with the addition of the meal of one- 
half the grain usually fed to horses, increases 
the value nearly one-half, and if the hay was 
made into meal, it would greatly increase its 
nutritive value — especially for animals, that 
from age cannot masticate properly,— causing 
every particle to be used in a fitting state for 
digestion, and none rejected, pulled out of the 
rack and trodden under foot. 
It would require very simple machinery to 
perform the operation. A cutting-box operated 
by horse or other power, should cut it fine, an 
eight to one-fourth inch, and drop it into the 
hopper of the grinding apparatus, which might 
be the small, rapidly revolving mill stones now 
coming into use, or cast iron cones like the 
bark or coffee-mill. When desirable, a small 
quantity of corn, barley or oats might be fed 
into the grinding apparatus. The want ofproper 
mastication and the division of the particles of 
food, is one of the greatest errors in human and 
animal economy ; causing indigestion, dyspep¬ 
sia and half the ills that life is heir to in the 
human family, and serious loss at any rate, in 
the animal class. Every kernel that reaches 
the stomach whole except in the case of birds, 
passes the digestive and assimilating viscera of 
the system unchanged. The feeding of un¬ 
ground and even uncooked grain to hogs and 
all the ruminating animals, is a most palpable 
libel on economy and good husbandry. 
All kinds of animal food are so plenty and so 
easily produced in this country, that very little 
attention is paid to the economy of the process 
of feeding, in England, where they are obliged 
to make everything tell, they grind the food and 
often bake it into loaves for team horses, and 
there is no good reason why we who are repu¬ 
ted so eager after the “ almighty dollar” and 
success in life, should not practice the most rigid 
and straight-laced economy,— especially when 
it is not pinching, or injuring man or beast, but 
adding greatly to their comfort and good living. 
Feeding animals with pitch-forks, and that, 
too in mud-puddles and hog-holes, is a habit hard 
to resist by those who have been brought up to 
that course, and the feeding in tubs or boxes, 
with cut and ground feed, may have to wait the 
pinching iron of that hard-faced old customer, 
Necessity, but the day is coming when these 
things will not be specidative dr earnings. 
It! : - I :.- ■ f 
MESSRS. HAINES’ “LORD VANE TEMPEST II. 
Above we present the portrait of a fine Short- 1 
horn bull, the property of B. A C. S. Haines, of 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. His pedigree is as 
follows: 
Red and whit p ' > «Ived Juno UL. 1853 : bred 
by J. C. Jackson ; sire, imported Lord Vane 
Tempest (10469); dam. Nymph 2d, by 3d Duke 
Comratniitalioits. 
'FALL SEEDING. 
In coming down on the cars to-day, Mr. Mil¬ 
ler of Bennington, who is a regular subscriber 
of the Rural, wished us to give its readers the 
benefit of some of his experience in seeding 
upland. “ Eor,” said he, “ I get a great deal of 
very valuable information out of it every week, 
and feel that I ought to contribute some in 
return." 
We like to have those who take the Wool 
Grower or the Rural, pick us out and get ac¬ 
quainted, for we are sure to meet good-looking 
and sensible people whose acquaintance gives 
us pleasure. But we wish to give notice that it 
is not always we shall be known by our “ new 
hat.” To-day, however, we had mounted a 
“ bran new” one, and we think it possible that 
fact attracted Mr. M. to us. Be that as it may, 
we give his experience. 
He sows his grass seed in the fall, with his 
wheat; first harrows his wheat oveV ; then sows 
his seed, and cross harrows. He thinks it im¬ 
portant that the seed should be harrowed in, as 
when not so done it has not taken so well. He 
finds no increase from this practice in the yield 
of bis wheat, and where the wheat hills out or is 
destroyed by the worms, he gets a good crop of 
hay the same season. A thorough trial of some 
years fully satisfies him that there is no danger 
of a failure when the land is so seeded.—r. 
GYPSUM A MANURE. 
Eds. Rural :—In a late article on Gypsum, 
you say it “ is not, strictly speaking, a manure— 
will not answer instead of manure, Ac.” I 
think Ex-Senator Dickinson would take issue 
with you there, and as you do not seem to draw 
from his large experience for the readers of the 
Rural, allow me briefly to state something of: 
wliat is understood to be his experience and 
views. 
Having used Gypsum extensively a great 
many years ou much of his lands, sowing each 
year at the rate of about one bushel per acre, 
one way this year and crossways next, and 
watched its effects closely, be concludes it is a 
manure, and withal the cheapest within the reach 
of farmers who work rolling and elevated lands. 
Besides the increased amount of pasturage, or 
hay from meadow lands, that this has given him, 
after a term of years, he has found a coat of' turf 
beyond what woidd otherwise have formed, equal 
for the production of grain to fifty loads per acre 
of barn-yard manure. A field in pasture many 
years, upon which no plaster had been used, 
was found by actual trial to be less capable of 
turning off bountiful crops with this heavy 
manuring, than another one in all respects sim¬ 
ilar, only that it had been annually plastered 
of Cambridge (5941); g. d., Nymph, by Bertram 
2d (3144); g. g. d., Nanuctte, by Patriot (2412); 
g. g. g. d., Nonpareil, by young Denton (963) ; 
g. g. g. g. d., Arabella, by North Star (460); g. 
8- g. 8- 8- d.. Aurora,.by Comet (155) • g. g. g. 
g. g. g. d.,-, by Henry (301); g. g. g. g. g. 
g. g. d.,-, by Dandy (190.) 
and had made this rich surface deposit. The 
natural tendency of high land pasture or mead¬ 
ow ground is to furnish less and less feed— run 
out, as the common expression is,—but by the 
use of plaster regularly each year, this tenden¬ 
cy is counteracted—more and richer grass is 
grown, and at the same time the ground is per¬ 
manently enriched for crops. Its effect seems 
to be not alone to “ stimulate ” the growth of 
crops, but to draw from the atmosphere and 
condense and solidify in the soil the large 
amount before stated of the elements of pro¬ 
duction. While, as you say, strictly speaking, 
it may not be a manure—that is, has not within 
itself the elementary parts of a manure, at least 
in any such proportion as to warrant the influ¬ 
ence claimed for it, yet the remits to the soil 
are precisely the same, making to it a solid, 
permanent, visible addition. 
Now, if such are its effects, it can certainly 
be used instead of manures, and why not say is 
a manure. B . p. 
Plattsburgh, N. Y. 
HEAVY AND LIGHT SEEDING. 
Eds. Rural :—That there are extremes in 
everything we all know, and to find the “ gold¬ 
en mean” and follow it, is difficult iu more 
cases than in seeding. 
A correspondent in the Rural of March 15, 
gives an experiment in light seeding, and will 
you allow me to give one in heavy. Last year 
about the close of April, I sowed 12tJ acres to 
oats. Eight aerate bad been planted to corn the 
year previous, and oue-half of it manured with 
stable manure, which was plowed under in the 
fall. Of the remainder, 2 acres were after oats, 
and 2]/J clover sod, broken up just before sow¬ 
ing. The whole was plowed from nine to ten 
inches deep with a Michigan double plow, 
and in good though not extra order. 
The oats I sowed broadcast at the rate of 2^J 
• bushels per acre. We harvested 740 bushels 
by measure, and I doubt very much if a larger 
yield would have been the result had less seed 
been sown. The straw was large and the oats 
on the sward, which was the richest part of the 
land, lay flat on the ground. Eor the field, 
[ which is the poorest on the farm, 1 think the 
t crop an extra good one. Your correspondent 
L “ B.” from less than 2 bushels harvested about 
40 per acre—we, from 2)^, nearly 60. His ex- 
• periment does not prove the theory of thin 
seeding true ; nor does mine disprove it. There 
f are two sides to the question. 
I Last fall we were told by writers in the Ru- 
3 ral, and by farmers out of it, that wheat which 
r had sprouted would grow again. As I had 
, some which was much grown I put it in with a 
f drill at the rate of two bushels to the acre.— 
r About one-half of it grew, and it now stands 
- very thin, so that if I do not find it necessary 
1 to plow it up, I shall have an experiment, per 
