TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
YOUUME YII. NO. 32. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
H. T. BROOKS, Prof. C. DF.WEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LAN GW ORTIIY, 
H. C. WHITE. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purifv and 
Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor to make it 
a Reliablo Guide on the important Practical Subjects connected 
with the business ot those whose interests it advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Mechan¬ 
ical, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with many appro¬ 
priate and boautiful Engravings, than any other paper published 
in this Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Lit¬ 
erary and Family Newspaper. 
Cy All communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last pago. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,-SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1858. 
[ SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
i WHOLE NO. 3 44 . 
SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 
August, hot and sultry is here and its arrival 
will give to farmers a slight respite from their 
toils. The heavy operations of haying and 
harvesting are over, and new fields are opened 
for skill and forethought. Many things can be 
done in the spare moments that may now be 
obtained, and we purpose to make a few sug¬ 
gestions for Rural readers to act upon. 
Many varieties of turnips may yet be sown, 
such as the white flat Dutch, white Norfolk or 
Aberdeen, and good crops expected. Those 
agriculturists who have an eye to the well-be¬ 
ing of their stock and have not as yet a crop of 
roots to give variety and relish in the dry times 
coming, will please attend to it immediately, 
and we warrant that the improved appearance 
and* keep of animals together with the con¬ 
sciousness of having done a good deed, will 
well repay the trouble. Those who have look¬ 
ed to this matter should go over their fields 
and thin out where the plants come up too 
thickly—about the width of the hoe between 
each is the proper distance. 
From the middle of the present month until 
the latter part of September, those who possess 
a flock of sheep will doubtless watch the fly 
and prepare the animals to repel its attack. A 
small trough with tar in it to smear their nos¬ 
trils has often been tried, and is generally suc¬ 
cessful. Sprinkle some salt upon it and the 
sheep will make the application themselves.— 
Another very violent form of disease is apt to 
be prevalent at the period of short pastures. 
While endeavoring to prevent “grub” in the 
head, let them have all needful “grub” for the 
stomach, that the demands of nature may be 
fully met. 
Thistles and other noxious weeds should be 
cut down. Never allow any of these pests to 
mature and scatter their germs over the land. 
Cutting about an inch above the ground and 
permitting the dews and moisture to fill its 
hollow stalk, is said to be certain destruction to 
the thistle. Weeds are a sure crop—drouth nor 
an excess of moisture does not seem to lessen 
their energies—no soil so poor or so fertile that 
they will not only grow, but flourish upon, no 
farmer so slovenly or so careful but they will 
take up their abode with, and that without 
ceremony—they are intruders and should be 
treated as such. One day’s labor now, may 
save one month’s toil next year and any amount 
of vexation. 
The present is an excellent time for “ pros¬ 
pecting”—not seeking mines of gold, but their 
equivalent— something to enrich the soil, and as a 
consequence render the linings of your pockets 
attractive to those who think the possession of 
the needful, a requirement not to he slighted. 
Look up your buried treasures. Swamp muck, 
marl, or peat, contain elements essential to veg¬ 
etation and the dryness of the present time will 
make the work of moving these vegetable de¬ 
posits comparatively easy. 
If you desire to lay down land to grass there 
is no better time than the present. Plow the 
land deep, turn it well, and roll it with a 
heavy roller; spread fine, well-rotted manure, 
evenly and freely, and harrow thoroughly. II 
the work is properly done a good crop will be 
sure to repay your efforts. The smaller the 
seed the finer should bo the manure—see that 
it be well decomposed aud incorporated in the 
soil. Where this course is followed out with 
care and the labor skillfully performed winter- 
killed grass fields aee rare. 
Many varieties of seeds have now ripened 
and others will continue to come in. It is an 
imperative duty to make selection of the most 
fully developed specimens for future use. No 
farmer will for a moment harbor the idea of 
raising a puny, sickly animal, and why should 
he miss the opportunity of providing himself 
with the best seed of his own growth. To be 
compelled to rely upon wbat he may have on 
hand, be the quality what it may, or look 
abroad for a supply at the period of seeding, 
subjecting himself to expense and risk is not, 
to say the least, a profitable course of procedure. 
THE PARADISE OF THE FARMER. 
Every rural district has its advantages and 
disadvantages. We do not mean by this that 
an equilibrium exists between tbe two, and 
that any one locality is just as desirable for a 
place of settlement as another. One man may 
toil upon a very poor piece of ground, and at 
the same time be as remote from market as an¬ 
other whose acres yield abundant crops with 
comparatively little labor. But yet, there can¬ 
not be found, under tbe most favorable combi¬ 
nation of circumstances, a farming district 
which has not some drawbacks, nor one which, 
with all its objectionable features, has not some¬ 
thing in its favor. 
One locality may have an excellent market 
for everything that can be raised, while at the 
same time the soil is so poor, and the crops so 
light, the expense of manuring properly and 
I the cost of labor so heavy, that, at the end of 
the year, the nett profits are no more than those 
of his brother farmer less favorably located. 
We see this illustrated in some of the poor 
lands in the vicinity of New York and Boston. 
No better market can be found in the United 
States for every kind of provision, than in the 
latter city. Garden vegetables and fruits, 
poultry and dairy products, grains and grasses, 
butcher animals and horses, all command the 
highest figure in cash, and at all seasons of the 
year ; and yet, the sands of Cape Cod lay open 
to the common, and the inhabitants seek a liv¬ 
ing by chasing whales amid the icebergs of the 
Polar seas, or catching fish on the banks of New 
Foundland. Lands, covered with a stunted 
growth of trees and bushes, or denuded even of 
these by the demands of the city, exist abund¬ 
antly in Connecticut and on Long Island, with¬ 
in three hours’ ride of New York, too poor to 
cultivate and too profitless to pay for bringing 
into fertility. 
In other places the soil may be rich, but 
stony and hard to till; horse rakes and mow¬ 
ing machines are out of the question, and man¬ 
ual labor must be called into requisition. The 
primal curse, “in the sweat of thy brow shalt 
thou eat bread,” is here exemplified, by the 
hardy and toiling husbandman. A good mar¬ 
ket is afforded however, for all their surplus 
products, and the farmers thrive upon their la¬ 
bors. The hills of New Hampshire and Ver¬ 
mont are illustrations in point. 
Western New York is the exponent of an 
excellent farming region, rich of soil, easy of 
culture, and favorably located to market; but 
under all these advantages, it is far from a para¬ 
dise in the ordinary acceptation of the term. 
The farmer here lias many enemies to contend 
against; his position is no sinecure, and while 
he is sure to increase his inheritance by an ac¬ 
tive and intelligent management of his acres, 
he is just as sure to lose all by supineness and 
neglect. The earth and the air are full of coun¬ 
teracting, as well as favorable influences, and 
it requires all his skill and vigilance to pro¬ 
mote the one and to neutralize the other. Nox¬ 
ious weeds are to be eradicated, grubs and worms 
exterminated or guarded against, multitudes 
of winged insects ride upon the breeze, or gath¬ 
er in swarms upon the crops, stinging the fruits, 
eating out the life of plants, and blighting the 
green grain. This may look like a gloomy 
pictuie, and an untrue one, in view of the great 
amount of surplus products of the finest quality 
sent annually to market from this locality; but 
we appeal to the farmer if it is uot true, and if 
his tears aie not exercised, and his energies 
taxed, from the moment his seed is in the 
ground to that when the ripened fruits are ma¬ 
tured and housed ? If it be not true, the farm¬ 
ers as a class are the most despondent and un¬ 
grateful of men ; for, during the progress of the 
season, we receive accounts of the disastrous 
effects of drouth, flooding, insects and blight. 
CANTON OR CHINA. 
A GriiOUP op PREMIUM FOWLS. 
COCHIN CHINA. 
The Western States have, like all other pla¬ 
ces, their advantages and disadvantages. The 
virgin soil of some, prolific in everything val¬ 
uable as food for man, has not yet become in¬ 
fested with the enemies, both animal and vege¬ 
table, which long cultivation has developed in 
the older States; but yet, the cost of transpor¬ 
tation to a distant market, renders the labors of 
the farmer scarcely Remunerative. Men can 
live, and have abundance of home comforts, but 
they are obliged to forego the luxuries and 
many of those other comforts which commerce 
and an intercliange of products can alone sup¬ 
ply. Some of the North-western States have 
a prolific soil, but a long and frigid winter, 
rivaling in rigor that of New England; sick¬ 
ness visits some regions otherwise favorably 
located, and so on to the end of the chapter. 
The paradise of the farmer exists nowhere ; 
the means of living comfortably, honorably, in¬ 
dependently, everywhere. The signification of 
the word Paradaisos, in the original Greek, is 
simply a garden or park, and Xenophon, in his 
narrative of the Persian expedition, and the 
remarkable retreat of the ten thousand under 
his command, speaks frequently of passing 
through a paradise. Our idea of the word, 
taken in the main from the Bible, is that of a 
spot of earth blessed with a salubrious air, a 
delightful climate, and yielding spontaneously 
every kind of fruit and vegetable desirable for 
man. Such a spot of earth does not exist under 
the whole heavens; and that which approaches 
nearest to it, is where man, its keeper, has be¬ 
stowed the greatest care. A pleasant home can 
be made anywhere, with sufficient pains, while 
neglect and improvidence will transform the 
best farming aud gardening district into weedy 
enclosures and unsightly fields. 
FENCES-AGAIN. 
A very good, lasting, and cheap fence can be 
made by taking almost any kind of timber Im¬ 
posts (though chestnut, oak, pine, white cedar, 
tamarack or butternut are the best) of large 
size, say from ten to fourteen inches; strip off 
the bark, aud make five or six mortices on each 
side, and insert good, straight, fiat rails of equal 
length, with the ends to fit the mortices. Dig 
one hole and set a post, and then the next; put 
in the rail, fill up, aud so on till the whole is 
finished. It makes a respectable-looking fence, 
costs but little, takes up no room, and is last¬ 
ing, even if the posts are not of the most dura¬ 
ble timber, simply from their great size. 
Another cheap fence that I was rather pleased 
with, and considerably used when rails are 
scarce and lumber high, is made with second 
growth poles, or split stakes, cut five and one- 
half feet long and driven one foot in the ground 
on a straight line, so close together that no ani¬ 
mal can get through—the tops sawed off on a 
line, and a board cap three or four inches wide 
nailed on, with one nail in each post, leaving it 
four and one-half feet high, which will turn 
any animal, and take less wind than if higher. 
One foot of the bottom of the stakes should 
be soaked in a solution of two pounds each of 
blue vitriol, copperas and alum, in a half barrel 
of water, and dried with points set upward—a 
process which, if properly performed after the 
wood is seasoned, will render any kind of po¬ 
rous wood as durable as cedar, and well worth 
the trouble and- cost. 
I observe one of your correspondents objects 
to battening board fence, on account of its hold¬ 
ing water and causing decay. I have since 
examined some miles of fence made with cedar 
posts and pine boards, which have stood from 
eighteen to over twenty years, and no such ap¬ 
pearance is visible ; in fact, at the joints there 
is always an opening to let off the water, if 
any, but the cap aud battening protects it; and 
I am still ot the opinion, that a fence without 
battening is not worth the rails to make it. 
CamraunuatiffES. 
POULTRY STATISTICS. 
Mr. Moore : —Allow me to ask the insertion 
in the Rural, of the following article on “Poul- 
tiy Statistics. It is from the pen of your 
friend C. N. Bement, Esq., and first appeared 
in the December number of the Wool Grower 
and Stock Register. I consider it one of the 
most valuable articles that has appeared on the 
pages of your journals,—calculated to induce a 
just estimate of the importance of the poultry 
interest—an interest of which no adequate idea 
has been entertained by the farming communi¬ 
ty. There is not a farmer in the land who 
could have imagined, without such an examina¬ 
tion of the subject, that “our poultry was worth 
more to the country than our wheat crop,— 
double that of our cotton crop,—and equal to 
our hay crop.” And this, too, before any addi¬ 
tion was made to the value of our native fowls, 
by the introduction of foreign breeds. By such 
introduction, I consider the size and product¬ 
iveness of our poultry stock to have been en¬ 
hanced full one-third, in all cases where the 
improved breeds have succeeded the native 
fowl. D . 
Gov. Wright, in his address before the New 
York State Agricultural Society at Elmira, re¬ 
marked that, “ In this country the hay crop 
alone, is greater in value, at this day, than the 
combined crop of cotton, rice and tobacco. The 
value of the hay crop, however, he explained is 
not equal to the value of the grass crop appro¬ 
priated to pasturage, even in the present unim¬ 
proved condition of the latter crop. But if we 
make the value only equal, then the total value 
of the annual grass crop—hay and pasturage— 
of the United States, may be estimated at $300,- 
000,000, or an amount equal to the aggregate 
value of all other agricultural products of our 
country, excepting wheat and corn.” Now, we 
cannot think that the Governor had partaken of 
a broiled chicken or a boiled egg for his breakfast, 
or he would not have left the poultry crop un¬ 
noticed. 
We now will endeavor to show that the 
“poultry crop” is of more importance than is 
generally supposed. In the absence of general 
statistics, we must take isolated ones, and from 
them draw general conclusions, if not perfectly 
accurate in this case, will be as likely to fall 
below the reality as to rise above it. It is be¬ 
lieved by this hypothetical process we shall be 
able to satisfy the reader that the culture of 
poultry is of much more importance than is 
generally imagined ; and that consequently it 
should become one of the first objects of atten¬ 
tion with every family in this country. 
Let it be supposed that there are in this 
j country three millions of families, that possess 
• all the conveniences for keeping poultry, more 
or less. This calculation cannot possibly be 
too high. The number is doubtless greater. 
Then let it be supposed, that to each of these 
families belong ten hens,—surely a moderate 
allowance,—but this will make thirty millions 
for the entire country, which, at thirty cents 
each, a low estimate, constitutes a permanent 
investment of nine millions of dollars. Four 
chickens to each old hen is probably raised for 
the table, which, at the same price, will give 
thirty-six millions of dollars; or forty millions 
of dollars for both. Again, if each of these 
stock hens lays only sixteen dozen of eggs in 
the year—less than one dozen in three weeks— 
there will be a product of eggs in the entire 
country of four hundred and eighty millions of 
dozens. These eggs are worth at least two dol¬ 
lars for each hen. But allowing one-half to go 
for their keeping, there will be left a nett profit 
from the eggs of thirty millions of dollars an¬ 
nually ; that is a nett profit of sixty millions of 
dollars annually from hens, for eggs and chick¬ 
ens raised. 
Now, let this result be placed with some of 
the leading staples of the country. The value 
of the flour of this country in 1847 has been set 
down at $140,000,000. If one-half of this is 
deducted for cost of production, and this is not 
enough, the value of the poultry is worth more 
to the country than our wheat crop,—double 
that of our cotton crop,—and is equal to our 
hay crop. Indeed, taking the statistics of our 
agricultural productions that year as a guide, 
there is but one of them that yielded, according 
to the most favorable calculation, so large a nett 
profit as the poultry. Or, if the poultry did 
not yield as much as supposed, it is because the 
poultry-yard is unduly neglected, and its pro¬ 
ducts are under estimated. 
However, it is not designed to treat the read¬ 
er solely with suppositions, or hypothetical cal¬ 
culations. We have a few solid facts for a base 
to our theory. The census cf 1840 fixed the 
value of the poultry of the country ; that is, as 
it is to be presumed, the stock or brood poultry, 
at between twelve and thirteen millions of dol¬ 
lars, a quarter higher than we have placed it. 
And this was more than a dozen years ago, and 
j before the excitement which raged so furiously. 
The whole amount of eggs yielded in a year we 
have supposed, (and it would probably now 
nearly double the amount,) to be 480,000,000 
dozens,—that is nineteen dozens for each indi¬ 
vidual in the country to be used in a year, or a 
fraction more than four eggs a week for each 
person, or in a family of six persons an average - 
allowance of two dozen a week. This is a 
moderate allowance ; for in France the annual 
consumption of eggs is 8,000,000,000, being 
about twenty dozen to each person; and in 
Paris alone, the annual consumption is 140,000,- 
000. We have no method of ascertaining the 
quantity of eggs used in New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia or the other large cities in this 
country ; but it is well understood that the in¬ 
habitants are fond of good fare, and will have it 
when the means are at command. In evidence 
! of it, the statistics show that in Boston the 
amount ol sales of poultry at the Quincy Mar¬ 
ket, for the year 1848, was six hundred and 
seventy-four thousand four hundred and twen¬ 
ty-three dollars ; the average sales of one dealer 
alone amounting to twelve hundred dollars per 
week for the whole year. The amount of sales 
for the whole city of Boston, for the same year. 
