bowels and lungs. Filthiness is productive of 
disease, and if we want our stock to be in good 
health and heart, it is incumbent that every¬ 
thing about them should wear an air of neat¬ 
ness. Clean stables, food, litter and harness are 
necessities, and must be had. All this care will, 
however, be useless if the stable is improperly 
constructed—one of those, foul places which is 
a curse to everything consigned to the keeping 
of its walls. The evils of an impure atmos¬ 
phere soon exhibit themselves. Stables that 
are close and filthy aflect the eyes, throat and 
lungs, producing blindness, coughs, inflamma¬ 
tion and influenza. It is the farmer who at¬ 
tends faithfully to the minutim of his affairs that 
deserves and will attain success. 
The ox, so long the faithful servant, does the 
food given him bear just comparison to the value 
of labor conferred ? It is important that he 
should be well cared for, as, in addition to 
strength, his growth renders him of more worth, 
and this increase is, in great measure, the result 
of kindness and attention on the part of the 
owner. “ The ox knoweth his master’s crib”— 
many of them have reason to know it with sor¬ 
row ; how is it with yours ? Will his appear¬ 
ance and the amount of labor he is capable of 
performing prove to the casual observer that he 
was catered for as his daily necessities demand¬ 
ed ? Animals have at least one feature of hu¬ 
manity —a stomach—and man, knowing his own 
wants, should recognise theirs. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
METEOROLOGY-THE WINTER OF ’56. 
did not properly secure their potato pits and 
immense quantities were frozen. 
It is impossible to account for the singular 
anomalies of our seasons, they seem to follow 
no law that we have any conception of and ap¬ 
pear to be governed by causes wholly adven¬ 
titious. 
We wish to note for future reference, some of 
the peculiar traits of the winter of 1855-6, it 
having been one of the most severely cold, 
snowy and blustering, that ubiquitous myth 
the “Oldest inhabitant’ is able to specify. 
Whether our climate is changing, as some 
aver, we will not undertake to examine, but 
one thing is quite evident, that the weather 
is entirely capricious and uncertain and all the 
signs, indications and prognostics that have 
been household words for ages, are of no avail 
—mere “ tales told by an idiot, full of sound 
and fury, signifying nothing,” and upon which 
no reliance can be placed. 
Until some great natural law—some element¬ 
ary principle can be discovered, that governs 
atmospheric phenomena—its snows, rains and 
drouth, winds, clouds, heat and cold it is idle 
to speculate before hand, or even to attempt to 
elucidate the singular changes of the weather. 
The sun occupies the same position it ever 
did—gives the same amount of light and when 
unobscured, the same quantity of heat by the 
burning glass. The earth is in the same place 
in its orbit it has ever been and makes its di-, 
urnal revolution in the same time—meridian, 
sun-rise and setting, correspond with clock time 
and with all the periods set down by figures.—' 
The atmosphere has undergone no radical 
change, as chemical tests and our own respira¬ 
tion prove—a very small per cent, variation of 
either the components of the air would be fatal 
to health and life. The atmosphere is of the 
same height and weight as evrL- the mercurial 
column of the barometer sliovfi no variation.— 
There is no change in the elements that is sup¬ 
posed to control the weather palpable to our 
senses, or investigations ; every thing remains 
in statu quo. Then how shall we account for the 
remarkable changes and peculiarities of this 
season. 
Through quite a wide space east and west 
the thermometer has indicated excessive cold, 
varying in different localities, of nearly the 
same latitude, from 10 to 30 below zero, though 
east of the Green Mountains the cold was^of 
as severe as usual. Franconia, in N. H., the 
culminating point of frigidity in the United 
States this year has nothing to boast of, but in 
the Prairie region of Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio 
and Michigan, Jack Frost has sent his chilling 
blast with no sparing hand. The Mississippi 
has been crossable on the ice for two-thirds its 
length. The rivers of Texas have beenTrozen 
over, and in Florida and that quarter the orange, 
lemon and other fine fruit are destroyed ; even 
the Island of Cuba, the region of perpetual sum¬ 
mer, has felt the icy fingers of the Frost King. 
The snow in Western New York commenced 
falling on Christmas eve—about four inches— 
cold, and good sleighing till the 13th of January, 
when about 12 inches was added with a heavy 
and long continued blow, which filled the roads 
far and near, rendering traveling almost imposs¬ 
ible on the highway or by railroad and from 
that time for near 60 days without a thaw, a 
constant succession of snow varying from an 
inch or two to as many feet in different places. 
The entire fall of snow about Rochester, will 
not vaty much from 30 inches, while in the 
Oswego region it was seven feet in the wo ds. 
Such was the continuous cold, that the snow 
never packed and the wind drove it into moun¬ 
tainous heaps all over the country—stopping 
the trains and involving the companies in an 
enormous expense for opening the roads. 
Storms of rain and snow, are much more local 
than is generally suspected. Often 20 miles 
from the fairest weather a severe storm may 
prevail; which accounts for the great variation 
in the depths of snow, or rain in different lo¬ 
calities. The thermometer has exhibited an 
equally erratic course. The coldest days about 
this city were the 7lh and 8tli of January, when 
the mercury was down to 6 and 10 below zero, 
which was the lowest marked any day during 
the winter, while in various places in nearly the 
same latitude and several degrees south, the cold 
has been repeatedly from 20 to 30, killing all 
the tender fruits and even the trees. 
In this region the Peach bud was not injured, 
except on young and late growing trees, on 
which a portion were killed. The fine fruits in 
this quarter have suffered more, from the cold 
weather and winds during the last week in 
May, than during the winter. Every usual sign 
of the weather-wise indicated a mild winter 
and so confident were some persons, that they 
STOCK BREEDING—“ LIKE PRODUCES LIKE. 
SPECIAL CONTKIJtUTOKS I 
H. T. BROOKS, Prop. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
H. C. WHITE, T. E. WETMORE. 
We attended the Annual Fair of the Wool 
Growers’ Association at Penn Yan, May 28th. 
The show of sheep was much larger than we 
expected to see, and there were more valua¬ 
ble animals than we have ever seen at any State 
or County Fair. There were no Saxons, only 
one Silesian, and but a few of the French among 
the fine wooled sheep. There were some very 
choice specimens of the long wooled and South- 
Downs, showing that increased attention is be¬ 
ing paid to the mutton sheep. Among the lead¬ 
ing fine wool breeders who had sheep on 
exhibition, we noticed Messrs. Haswell, Taft, 
Burritt, Powell, Headley, Cutting, Stickney, 
Burt, Walker, Rich, Wooster, Baker, Champlin, 
Shephard, Wheeler, Raymond, Howland, Faker 
and Raplee. Among the coarse wooled breed¬ 
ers, we noticed Messrs. Wansay, Bradley, How¬ 
land, Haines, Lapham, Miller from C. W., Pratt, 
Turnbull and Peck. The coarse wooled were 
uncommonly fine and high bred sheep. Some 
were entered as middle wooled which it would 
•have been difficult to distinguish from pure 
Leicesters or Bakewells. 
The Merinos were particularly fine. The 
improvement, however, has been in the form, 
especially in those bred by the gentlemen from 
Vermont. It would seem hardly possible to im¬ 
prove the forms of ewes we saw in the pens of 
either Cutting, Stickney or Burt—though we 
think Baker and Haswell, of this State, were not 
behind them in the same particular. 
The opinion of the judges will be found in 
another place, but as we do not agree with the 
awards in several cases, we shall not express 
our preferences. It is as yet, we believe, an 
open question among fine wool growers, wheth¬ 
er or-not it is profitable to grow very oily wool. 
Wb apprehend that as long as that class of 
sheep sell the best, a dark-coated one will be 
preferred to a light one, and in that respect we 
have something to gain from Vermont. But we 
also think that fine wool will always be in 
fashion, and will bring more money than coarse, 
and be more in demand. Such a thing, there¬ 
fore, may happen, that in breeding for too much 
oil we may get gum and hair too freely mixed 
with the wool. It does not always follow that 
the most oily wool shows darkest on the sur¬ 
face. This was shown on the ground, for the 
sheep having the most oil (and the fleece was 
very oily indeed) belonging to Mr. Healy, we 
believe, was not so dark-coated as very many of 
the Vermont sheep in the other pens. 
We were glad to see that the rage for large, 
overgrown sheep in the fine-wooled kinds had 
given place to a much more rational notion to 
breed a medium size, and a perfect form. 
The show was well conducted, and the man¬ 
agers are entitled to great credit for the whole 
proceedings, for they have made it in general 
and in detail a model show. The shearing we 
could not stay to see, which was a source of 
much regret. 
The election of officers took place in the even¬ 
ing, and the old ones were generally retained 
in their places. We think the mode of electing 
by nomination rather than ballot a defect, as it 
will often place it in the power of some med¬ 
dling, officious member to force upon the Asso¬ 
ciation an obnoxious officer, or compel the 
members to vote against a man when they 
would rather avoid it to save his feelings if pos¬ 
sible. 
So much for a brief sketch of the sheep part 
of the Annual Show. But there is another in¬ 
cident connected with this meeting—the discus¬ 
sion had relative to the tariff on foreign wool— 
which we purpose to notice hereafter.—p. 
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 3L£ cents per quarter, to 
any part of the State (except Monroe County, where it goes free,) 
and 6% cents to any other section of the United States—payable 
quarterly in advance at the offico where received. 
I'p” AH communications, and business letters, shonld be ad¬ 
dressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
prominent lciea oi tne present age is, progress 
and improvement, and there is no position 
and no employment that offers so wide a range 
for progress, as the position and employment of 
the cultivator of the soil. It has been ascer¬ 
tained to the satisfaction of scientific breeders, 
by careful and discriminating observation, that 
the influence of the male is more particularly 
visible in the progeny, in regard to form, size 
and external appearance ; and that of the fe¬ 
male in regard to structure or character, em¬ 
bracing temper, spirit and constitutional endur¬ 
ance. Toimpress upon the farmer, therefore, the 
necessity of reflection, design, skill and judg¬ 
ment in the process of stock breeding, is the 
object of the present remarks. 
The great secret of success in this enterprise 
we think may be embraced and explained in a 
single sentence. In view of the suggestions 
above, the farmer should have a definite, a spe¬ 
cific object before him, in blending his dam with 
a sire. He should know precisely what he 
wishes to obtain, and then in the exercise of a 
sound judgment should so select parties to be 
blended, as to secure a reasonable expectation 
of the desired result in pursuance of the princi¬ 
ple quoted above. 
On the subject of stock breeding, and we use 
this phrase in its broadest sense, embracing 
horses, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry, it is of par¬ 
amount importance that the sire should be in all 
respects, as nearly perfect as possible. Espe¬ 
cially should he excel in those particulars in 
which the dam is considered deficient. Perfec¬ 
tion in the sire will counteract and redeem 
many deficiencies in the dam. If the cow of 
the farmer is perfect in form, size, color and dis¬ 
position, but deficient in milking properties, 
either as to quantity or richness, a bull must be 
found, the direct descendant of stock distin¬ 
guished for quantity and quality of milk, and 
be perfect also in the characteristics just named. 
The same general directions are also applica¬ 
ble to the brood mare. And it must not be for¬ 
gotten in addition to size, form and proportions, 
that temper, disposition, courage and bravery, 
items of prime importance in the character and 
value of the horse, are traceable in a great de¬ 
gree, direct to parentage. So far as progress is 
concerned, it is useless to breed from mares de¬ 
ficient in form, spirit and movement, and com¬ 
mon, cheap horses, whose chief recommenda¬ 
tion is, that they are large, look bright, sleeji 
and fat, being well-fed and well-groomed. The 
country is full of large, dull, spiritless horses, 
whose feet in traveling, dangle as if the pastern 
joint was a pivot or swivel from which the foot 
depended. The Morgan roadster raises the foot 
from the ground, and casts it forward as if mark¬ 
ing an air line, as true and exact as if moved by 
machinery. How we repeat, that mares defi- 
As the present season is one of extreme ac¬ 
tivity upon the farm, and there is so much 
labor to be performed and a set period in which 
it must be done, time and means should be econ¬ 
omized and so systematized that everything 
shall move off in a manner satisfactory to all 
interested. The care of laboring animals should 
now become a matter of vital importance. The 
horse and the ox will repay the little attentions 
bestowed upon them. What though you are 
worn out with hard work, have not they with¬ 
stood the “ heat and burden of the day,” and 
do they not realize and enjoy the comforts of 
life as well as you ? —do they not need them 
too ? Too many farmers think when the 
harness is thrown off, or the yoke removed, 
that the animal economy is required, by a 
law of Nature, to forage and care for itself 
— and that the only assistance demanded is 
the “ nooning sheaf of oats,” but here not only 
an error is fallen into, but a wrong committed. 
Horses have been comparatively idle during 
the winter and spring, and as a consequence 
the skin is tender, renderingit liable to become 
scalded and then galled as the weather gets 
warm and the animal sweats freely. “An ounce 
of prevention,” here as elsewhere, “is worth a 
pound of cure,” and a little care on the part of 
those using this noble animal is a demand that 
should be promptly met. We give the expe¬ 
rience of one whose authority on this subject is 
invaluable. He says :—“ A cooling application 
that will toughen the skin before use, and pre¬ 
vent inflammatory action when used, is what is 
needed for the work horse. From long expe- 
lience, I have found these results to follow the 
use of spirits saturated with alum. I keep a 
bottle of alum and whiskey in the stable, and 
bathe the part pressed by the hames, or breast 
collar, and also the back, for several days before 
the horsdh commence their spring work, and 
also along through the season occasionally, 
when there is special danger of scalding the 
breast. I have thus passed entire seasons, em¬ 
ploying constantly not less than five horse teams 
in farming uses, and have not lost the service of 
a horse a single day, for years together, on ac¬ 
count of sore back or breast. This remedy will 
enable a sore to heal, although the animal con¬ 
tinues in constant use. 
The remedy I have seen most frequently and 
highly recommended is the application of white 
lead, in some form or other, to the injured part. 
I have at an early period tried this remedy— 
have used it when I knew nothing better—but 
dislike it much. It answers the purpose, I 
acknowledge,—makes a hard, tough scab or in¬ 
crustation on the sore, likely to terminate in a 
white spot, if the hair ever grows. But I con¬ 
sider this tanning the skin into leather, while 
on the horse’s carcass, to be a tough business, to 
say the least.” 
Cleanliness is indispensable to the comfort of 
working animals. The practice of taking them 
from labor and placing them in stalls without 
“ rubbing down” or removing the dust and dirt 
is to be deprecated. There is no doubt but the 
process of cleaning is of great benefit to the 
horse. Friction promotes the secretions of the 
skin, and if this be diseased or unhealthy, 
it will produce a derangement of the stomach, 
SAW-DUST AS A MANURE, 
Among the various substances which might 
be made of benefit to tho, farmer,but which arc 
usually rejected, is saw-dust. Its operation, 
when used alone or dry, is too slow, fermenta¬ 
tion and decomposition too tardy, and though 
many think its application would be attended 
with gratifying results, they cannot wait even for 
certainties. The burying of vegetable matter in 
the soil, in the form of living or dead plants, is 
an important ameliorating operation of nature, 
and is always going on wherever vegetation is 
progressing. This process is one which is ever 
laboring for the benefit of the agriculturist, and 
where nature is dispossessed of the means of 
making the addition herself, it behooves those 
interested to lend the required aid. 
Boussingault, and other writers upon Agri¬ 
cultural Chemistry, contend that the relative 
efficacy of all manures depends upon the pro¬ 
portion of nitrogen they severally contain.— 
Taking farm-yard manure—the mixed drop¬ 
pings and litter of cattle—as a standard, they 
class the composition of saw-Bust in this com¬ 
parison as follows : 
Fir saw-dust, 1,700 to 2,500 lbs. equals 1,000 lbs. 
Oak « “ 750 lbs. “ ' “ “ 
Although the value of manure, and its great 
enriching quality lies in nitrogen, or the power 
Blue Grass and Woodland Pastures.—Cas¬ 
sius M. Clay gives some valuable directions in 
the Ohio Farmer, respecting blue grass pastures. 
He says the older the sward is the better. He 
has a pasture which has not been broken for 
more than sixty years, and it is the best on the 
farm. As to woodland pastures, he says they 
will keep young stock growing, or old stock 
“on foot,” but will not fatten them. “Just as 
far as there is shade, the grass is deficient in 
nutritious qualities—that grass which is most 
exposed to the sun being best.” 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT” 
[ SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
Y0LUMEVII. NO, 7A.\ 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, JUNE U, 1858. 
{WHOLE NO, 336. 
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