TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
YOUUME VII. NO. 19.1 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1858. 
[ SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
{WHOLE NO. 331. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WKRKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOSE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OF ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
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 Guide 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 3}£ cents per quarter, to 
any part of the State (except Monroe County, where it goes free,) 
and 6)4 cents to any other section of the United States—payable 
quarterly in advance at the office where received. 
O.'F* All communications, and business letters, should be ad¬ 
dressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
toal leiij'Kflrfor. 
RECLAIMIN’G WASTE LANDS. 
Other things being equal, the natural fertile 
land of a State or Territory will be taken up 
and cultivated first. Whole townships will re¬ 
main comparative wildernesses in the midst of 
thriving communities, because they have brand¬ 
ed upon them the curse of real or imaginary 
sterility; while others, which might be made 
productive by the removal of some natural de¬ 
fect, are equally avoided. Men, where they are j 
free, choose those spots which yield most near¬ 
ly spontaneous returns ; virgin soils that re¬ 
quire little care in the preparation are wonder¬ 
fully attractive. “ Tickle the earth with a hoe 
and she will laugh with a harvest” is the ap¬ 
proved philosophy. 
It is tme, the rocks and mountains of New I 
England were forced into production, and sus- ; 
tained a vigorous population long anterior to the j 
opening of the wide-spread prairies of the j 
West, or even the luxuriant intervales and rich 
valleys of Western New York ; but necessity, 
not choice, drove the Puritans upon the shores 
of Massachusetts Bay, and their immediate de¬ 
scendants naturally first located themselves in 
the adjacent States. Had the fortunes of those 
hardy men been originally cast in the richer 
domains of the younger States, the greater por¬ 
tion of New England would have been to-day 
an unbroken wilderness. As it is, the popula- > 
tion of the rural districts in New England is I 
with difficulty maintained against the drain 
kept up by the demands of cities at home and I 
tempting localities abroad. The best farming 
regions of those States most densely populated 
possess large tracts of uncultivated waste. Not 
that they are incapable of cultivation or would 
not be prolific if once reclaimed, but simply 
because the labor and capital required to sub¬ 
due them can be more profitably employed in i 
other localities. While broad prairies lie open : 
to the sun, abounding in all the rank luxuriance ! 
of untamed but easily subdued nature, and in- j 
viting sturdy manhood to enter upon and pos¬ 
sess them, we need not expect to see fens drain¬ 
ed, rivers leveed, shallow and low marshes 
pumped dry, sink pits filled up, and other sim- I 
ilar expenses incurred, even though the re- j 
claimed lands will make productive farms. It 
is only when the new and fertile lands are all 
taken up, and the population from the borders 
begins to react and crowd back upon the inte¬ 
rior, that society sets about relieving itself of 
the pressure by calling into requisition hitherto j 
neglected areas. Ilarlaam lake, in Holland, has j 
from such a cause been exhausted of its water 
by artificial means at a vast expense, and its 
bosom converted into fruitful fields ; but liar- j 
laam lake, if situated in the densest populated : 
State of the Union, would be Harlaam lake still, | 
There is in Central New York, in one body, j 
many thousand acres of the richest lands par- i 
tially under water, to be relieved of which re- ' 
quires simply the cutting away, for a few feet | 
in dejith, a reef of rocks across the bed of a 
river; and yet, without State aid, this im- : 
provement would probably not be made within j 
the lives of the present generation, while, even 
with it, the work drags on hindered and em¬ 
barrassed by insufficient appropriations. We 
allude to the Montezuma Marshes, on the out¬ 
let of Cayuga and Seneca lakes. This, and the \ 
Tonawanda swamp, embrace large tracts, which, 
at some future day, will be reckoned among the 
the most valuable and productive lands of the 
State ; but a denser population and less room 
for expansion must arise before all these waste, 
unsightly and unhealthy localities shall be 
made to bud and blossom. 
The same state of things existed in England 
heretofore ; wild heaths and impassable swamps 
remained uncultivated, years after the naturally 
productive lands were occupied and tilled. On 
the eastern coast fen lands, twenty-five miles 
in length by ten miles wide, have been re¬ 
claimed at a cost that would startle the Ameri¬ 
can reader. Barren moors have been enclosed 
and artificially enriched until they are barren 
no longer. During the first ten years of the 
present century, over one and a half million of 
acres of waste lands were enclosed and culti¬ 
vated ; from 1810 to 1820 nearly as much more, 
and during the next twenty years an addition¬ 
al half million were added ; thus, in a period 
of forty years, increasing the available soil of 
the kingdom over three and a half million 
acres, all of which were made valuable only by 
the most persevering efforts and the expendi¬ 
ture of a vast amount of capital. 
Although the American iarmer cannot be ex¬ 
pected to enter upon such extensive and costly 
enterprises at the present time, yet nearly eve¬ 
ry one can find upon his own premises spots 
which at present are eye sores to men of refine¬ 
ment and taste; swamp holes and marshes; 
barren knolls or rocky fields ; a sour, cold, wet 
swale; a wandering brook that cuts the meadow 
into innumerable capes, and wastes a large 
amount of area in useless sinuosities of chaunel. 
“ That man is a public benefactor who makes 
two spires of grass grow where but one grew 
before,” has passed into a proverb, and lie who 
makes one spire grow where none grew before, 
is equally entitled to our gratitude. The direct 
returns from a given area of reclaimed land 
may or may not for years repay the outlay; but 
indirectly, at least, it is a profitable investment, 
inasmuch as it renders the farm more attractive 
and ready of sale. A running sore upon an an¬ 
imal may not render him less efficient, but who 
would purchase him so readily or pay so much 
as for a sound one ? 
We knew a farmer in New Hampshire to 
blast out granite boulders from a field adjoining 
his house, until he surrounded the lot with a 
wall five feet thick. It probably cost him, 
taking his own labor into account, one hundred 
dollars an acre to clear that field, but he made 
it a beautiful sloping lawn, which will be an 
attractive feature in the landscape through all 
coming time. 
POTATOES. 
Potatoes were carried from Virginia in 1586, 
and first cultivated in Ireland upon the estate 
of Sir Walter Raleigh. At first, and for a 
long time, it is said the tubers were treated as 
fruit, being eaten with sugar or baked in pies 
with wine and spices. They came very slowly, 
and through much opposition, into popular use, 
but have now won their way to a prominent 
place—in fact the most prominent—among the 
roots cultivated for human subsistence. The 
potato well deserves the estimation which it 
has now attained, and its growth and use might 
be profitably extended in most sections of the 
country. The injury to which it has been sub¬ 
ject from the rot, has had a tendency to limit 
and, perhaps, decrease its production, and still 
has some effect in that direction. AYe hope, how¬ 
ever, that the evil has “ done its worst” upon 
our favorite esculent, and that no extensive loss 
may be experienced in future. 
The soil best suited to the production of sound, 
good flavored potatoes, is a light loam of a rather 
moist character, either new land or good green¬ 
sward. Such situations are almost uniform in 
the character of the product. But good potatoes 
are often giown on other soils. We have seen 
fair crops on mucky land, and also on sandy, 
but heavy, tenacious clays generally yield small 
crops and inferior tubers. Well drained clays, 
especially when an old and rich sward has re¬ 
cently been plowed in, succeed very well if the 
season be favorable. 
For potatoes, the •preparation should be such 
as to give a deep and mellow soil. One mode¬ 
rately rich is thought better than one which 
has received a recent heavy dressing of green 
manure, though there is too little need of giving 
any caution in this respect. We have seen 
large and excellent crops on clover leys covered 
with barn-yard manure, and then neatly turned 
under, and the ground thoroughly harrowed be¬ 
fore marking out for planting. An old sward, 
never plowed before, of a loamy character, turn¬ 
ed under in the fall is a favorite situation for 
this crop with many farmers. A clayey soil 
dressed with muck compost, and well mixed 
with the same by autumn as well as early 
spring plowing, has been known to succeed 
well. This course of treatment for such land, 
might frequently be employed, at but small ex¬ 
pense compared with the increase in the pro¬ 
duct and profit. 
To continue the subject of preparation as 
regards manures, we may add that hog-dung is 
considered one of the best, where unfermented 
is employed, and that most favorable results 
have followed the application of guano. Differ¬ 
ent fertilizers have been tried, each plot being 
dressed at the same expense, and the returns 
from that manured with guano, have, in almost 
every instance far exceeded any other. Three or 
four hundred pounds per acre, spread broadcast, 
and thoroughly incorporated with the soil, is 
probably tlie best rate and method of application. 
If applied in the bill it must be covered with 
three or four inches of soil before the seed is 
planted, as anything like contact destroys the 
vitality of the potato. 
The time of planting should he early in the 
season—or if this be impracticable, somewhere 
near the middle of June. If planted late in 
May, the period of the setting of the tubers often 
arrives at the time of the summer drouth, and 
the pioduct is materially lessened from that 
cause. Late planting generiYV succeeds with 
good culture and a favorable’ season, but early 
planting is more certain in result. The process 
of planting is often imperfectly performed — 
proper care not being taken in giving regularity 
to the rows, (an important item as regards after¬ 
culture, and depth, and mellowness to the cov¬ 
ering of soil.) Potatoes are sometimes plowed 
in, and if the ground is in fine tilth, the process 
is an easy one, and often quite as successful as 
covering with the hoe. In this method drill 
instead of hill planting is employed. 
In regard to the character, amount, and prep¬ 
aration of the seed, much diversity of opinion 
prevails. Some advocate the use of only the 
larger potatoes, others think the small ones 
just as good if not better,—some plant whole 
tubers, others cut them into several pieces. We 
will not here go into a statement of the reasons 
adduced for the different methods of procedure, 
but rather seek to show the conclusion at which 
we have arrived from their careful study.— 
There seems to be no essential difference in the 
character of the germs developed in ripe and 
large, or small and unripe tubers, each have 
been found to produce large crops when planted 
in favorable soils. As to whole or cut seed, we 
incline to cut, because we can thus regulate the 
number of plants to a hill, by giving each piece 
so many eyes, and planting a limited number 
to each hill. The idea of planting large pota¬ 
toes whole in order to give the young shoots a 
good supply of food at first seems poor econo¬ 
my. Manure can be supplied in a cheaper 
form. The amount of seed is very generally too 
large, inducing the formation of a larger num¬ 
ber of sets than there are room or nutriment for 
in the hill; and this we believe to be the great 
cause of the large proportion of small tubers.— 
Two to four plants to a hill, three eet apart 
each way, will produce larger and better pota¬ 
toes than a greater number in equal space, or 
such at least is the result of many experiments 
made to test the question. 
The cultivation of potatoes shouh I be prompt and 
thorough. As soon as they appear above ground 
set the cultivator to work, and follow with the hoe, 
keeping the soil clean and mellow during the 
first weeks of their growth. The earth should 
not be stirred after the tubers begin to form, as 
it induces the starting of new roots, and thus 
impairs the value of those already set. Make 
the hills rather flat, that the rain may better 
penetrate them ; for though this plant will not 
flourish m a very wet soil, it likes frequent 
showers. We would not neglect to give the 
tops a dressing of plaster, when about six inches 
high. 
Potatoes should be harvested soon after their 
growth ceases, either from their becoming ripe, 
or the leaves being killed by early frost. Ex¬ 
posure to the sun when dug, for auy long time, 
is injurious, and they will keep better in a dark 
cellar than a light one. Burying in pits is a 
good way of keeping through the winter, but 
care here as well as in the cellar, must be taken 
BALTIMORE MORGAN. 
The above figure is, we are assured, in gene¬ 
ral a correct representation of the stallion 
“ Baltimore Morgan,” owned by Messrs. T. II. 
Austin and G. A. Place, of New Haven, Oswego 
Co., N. Y. He is described as “a beautiful 
maliogany bay, 15*^ hands high, and weighs 
.about 1,100 pounds. He was bred by Nahum 
KxiGnTs, of Baltimore, Yt.,—sired by Old Green 
Mountain Morgan, (owned by Silas Hale, of 
to protect them from the low temperature some¬ 
times experienced, and which, the past winter, 
has destroyed thousands of bushels. . 
the question o. he best variefu is one not 
capable of satisfy/ ,y solution; for iAu.se most 
admired in one section are often thought of little 
value in another; and the favorites are con¬ 
stantly changing—seeming to deteriorate after 
planting for several years in any one locality. 
AYe have had our choice sorts—others have had 
theirs, and there are doubtless several good 
kinds known to every one who has occasion to 
plant. 
IS GYPSUM A MANURE ? 
The decision of a question often depends up¬ 
on the construction of its language, or upon the 
meaning attached to the words. Many a dis¬ 
pute is continued simply because the disputants 
differ in the import of the terms. The above 
question has been answered in two ways al¬ 
ready, for the reason just given. 
There is no doubt that gypsum is a manure 
in the common meaning of the word, that is, 
“ any matter which fertilizes land,” or by which 
land is made “ fruitful or productive.” Amocg 
manures are placed marl, salts, ashes, the con¬ 
tents of barn-yards, and to these may be added, 
with full propriety, “gypsum,” or plaster of 
Paris, phosphate of lime, or bone-earth, Ac. 
But often by manure is meant only those 
vegetable matters which, by decomposition, 
yield carbonic acid, ammonia, and water, whose 
elements are the nutriment of plants, in a great 
degree—to which may be added those composts 
in which vegetable matter forms an important 
ingredient. This meaning is not found in 
Webster’s Dictionary. Hence, it is, perhaps, 
that the term fertilizer has come into such com¬ 
mon use. 
The word manure is derived from two French 
words hand and to icork, and means hand-work, 
or “ to cultivate by manual labor.” This sense 
of the word is obsolete, and the verb “ to ma¬ 
nure” is “ to apply to laud any fertilizing mat¬ 
ter,” or “to fertilize.” Hence it is correct to 
manure land with gypsum, or to say gypsum is 
a manure. Boussingault says, in his Rural 
Economy, which is high authority in the agri¬ 
cultural world, “ In my view gypsum, marl and 
ashes are manures as much as horse-dung, blood, 
or urine.” But he, and other systematic wri¬ 
ters, distinguish manures into—1st, Organic, or 
those of organic substances, ;thd 2d, Mineral, as 
salt, plaster, phosphate of lime, Ac., often called 
stimulants. 
How does gypsum operate on plants ? Tho’ 
gypsum has long been known, and been used 
for a century as a manure, this question has not 
been fully answered. It is well known that 
gypsum is a sulphate of lime, in which the lime 
is 41.5 per cent, and the sulphuric acid is 58.5, 
but as used, 100 parts contain nearly 21 per 
cent, of water. It is dissolved only in small 
quantity by water, or it requires near 500 times 
its weight of water for solution. It is the com¬ 
mon substance that makes our water hard. 
South Royalton, Mass.,) and exhibited with him 
at the N. Y. State Fair, Utica, in 1852. His 
dam was a Morgan mare, owned by Mr. Knights. 
Baltimore Morgan is a capital specimen of tbe 
Morgan family, and possesses in a remarkable 
degree what Youatt lays down as tbe most im¬ 
portant requisite in a stallion, compactness —as 
much goodness and strength as possible, com¬ 
bined in a little space.” 
Now, Davy, in liis Agricultural Chemistry, 
maintains that the gypsum is taken up by the 
roots and carried into the plant, and becomes a 
part of the structure of the plant, a small but a 
necessary part of the nutriment of the vegeta¬ 
ble. Here it may perform the part of a stimu¬ 
lant to the plant. Found as it is in the ashes of 
many plants, it is probably necessary for the 
highest perfection of the plant, and thus ope¬ 
rate to promote the more powerful action of the 
vegetable upon the nutritious elements in the 
soil. 
Liebig maintains that gypsum condenses the 
ammonia of the atmosphere on the roots, and 
thus the gypsum is placed near and carried by' 
water to the roots of the plants, so that the am¬ 
monia is readily taken into the circulation.— 
The gypsum also, as he states, is decomposed 
by the ammonia, or carbonate of ammonia, in 
the atmosphere, and carbonate of lime (chalk) 
formed in the soil, and sulphate of ammonia 
retained in the earth, as it is not so volatile as 
even the carbonate. But, even when the sul¬ 
phate of ammonia is carried into the plant, how 
shall it be decomposed so as to give up the am¬ 
monia for the use of the vegetable ? If the 
answer is, by the potash in the plant—true, and 
admitted ; but then, how does gypsum occur in 
the ashes, for the sulphuric acid will be retain¬ 
ed by the potash ? The very fact of the exist¬ 
ence of gypsum or sulphate of lime in the 
ashes of plants, renders it manifest that the 
gypsum must be taken up by the roots and 
carried into the plant without any change in it, 
as one part of the food of plants. This is act¬ 
ually Davy’s solution. 
Let it be noticed, also, that this is the course 
with phosphate of lime, so essential in all 
all grasses eaten by auimals for food, and in the 
fruits which form the nutriment of man. The 
phosphate is taken up in solution and carried 
to form a part of the plant and seed. c. d. 
THE TARIFF.—NECESSITY OF ACTION. 
Every exertion will be made that can to get 
the duty from wool at this session of Congress. 
A bill has been introduced into the U. S. Sen¬ 
ate by Senator James, of Rhode Island, who is 
himself a manufacturer and represents the man¬ 
ufacturing interest. His bill proposes to place 
wool now paying an ad valorem duty of 30 per 
cent, in the list of free articles. The bill has 
been thrown out of the Senate, but will be 
brought up again in the House. The manufac¬ 
turers are in force as a lobby, and busy with ev¬ 
ery kiud of misrepresentation on the subject, 
as well as combining with other lobby schemes, 
as will appear from the following extract from 
an influential member of the House, who is 
right on the subject. Under date of March 24, 
he writes : 
“ Respecting the duty on wool, the outsiders 
here who represent the manufacturers, pretend 
that producers of wool in this country are moi - e 
interested in freeing foreign wool from duty 
than the manufacturers themselves, but I will 
........................ 
/'u'liMiiViiq.rwi.iM’w'i.M, (•>/’>, mcw’LM.ru'i,(’(CL'',/",Cl, n, 
