RURAL LIFE 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FA1ULY NEWSPAPER, 
is greeted about crops that “ don’t pay,” and it is 
a waste of words to argue that such a soil cannot 
be made to produce a paying crop without draining, 
if one of the penny-wise men be the opponent in 
discussion. A man possessed of such a soil must 
be tardy in all his operations, preparing the ground, 
planting the seed, etc., and when these labors are 
finished, the crop is at the mercy of the weather, 
drownings and burnings alternate, and the finale is 
marked by depletion of energy, kindly feelings 
and purse. 
Mistaken economy is nowhere more observable 
than in the purchases often made by this class of 
individuals. “What’s the price?” is the only 
question in the least related to acquisition or trans¬ 
fer. Utility and convenience have nothing to do 
with their bargain-making — valuable or valueless 
it matters not if it be only obtained with the min¬ 
imum expenditure of dollars and cents. Next 
summer’s corn-field labors may be prolonged, and 
hired help be needed for doubled work days, be¬ 
cause of defective tools with which to “ hoe out 
the rows;” there may be a cessation of hostilities 
in the midst of haying or harvesting because of 
some “old iron” that cost only its one-fourth of a 
cent per pound, (very dear at the price, however,) 
but these are for the future , and if any of our 
penny-wise men are ever known to exhibit the 
slightest knowledge of Holy Writ they would 
probably quote for our especial benefit, “ take no 
heed of the morrow.” 
There are those whose beau ideal of a farmer 
could be better tested by a dynamometer than any 
other instrument we wot of. Their battle-cry is, 
“ muscle! muscle!" We must, however, do them 
the justice to say that they practice what they 
preach — from morn till night they toil and tug in 
the harness they, themselves, have put on. The 
implements they use are scanty in numbers, or im¬ 
perfect in material and manufacture,— heirlooms, 
in all probability,— but were not the;r. ancestors 
^ V A ' •* 4 
good 'farmers, and what knew they of these new¬ 
fangled farming notions? Talk to such of labor- 
saving machinery, of change of seeds, rotation 
of crops, &c.; but one labor remains and you have 
reached the height of absurdity—advocate book- 
knowledge in farming. 
But why shall we specify further ? Not a depart¬ 
ment of the farm but can feel the blighting influ¬ 
ence of the penny-wise — the soil and its peculiar 
products, stock, out-liouses, and last, though not 
by dny means least, the farmer’s own home and 
family. What shall be said of one who, for the 
sake of putting a few paltry shillings in his purse, 
would deprive his household of that wealth which it 
is not in the power of man to take from them — 
would add to the burden of cares sustained by the 
mother of his children, or destroy the budding 
hopes of those who look up to him as father ?— 
And yet this class is not to be figured up by tens 
or even hundreds—would we could say their num¬ 
bers were more like “ angel visits!” When such 
individuals have put on the “ old man” is it strange 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
Thk Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed 
in Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor de¬ 
votes his personal attention to the supervision of its various 
departments, and earnestly labors to render the Rural an 
eminently Reliable Guide on all the important Practical, 
Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected with the 
business of those whose interests it zealously advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Edu¬ 
cational, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with 
appropriate and beautiful Engravings, than any other jour¬ 
nal,—rendering it the most complete Agricultural, Lit- 
krary and Family Journal in America. 
All communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
PENNY-WISE. - POUND-FOOLISH. 
The machine above represented is of recent 
introduction, having been patented on the loth of 
August, 1858, but has already received much favor 
and commendation. Though we have not yet seen 
it in operation, we are of opinion — from the man¬ 
ner of its construction, and the testimony of prac¬ 
tical und-reliable men — that it will prove of great 
value toHhte agriculhfflS public. iJu noticing y the 
editor of the New England Farmer says:—MWe 
have several times seen this machine in operation, 
and believe it to be the best Fanning and Separat¬ 
ing Mill ever invented.” As it promises a cheap 
and easy manner of thoroughly cleaning grain for 
seeding, it is worthy the special attention and 
examination of farmers throughout the country. 
The construction, capacity and operation of the 
machine, are thus described by the inventor or 
owner of the right—whether in too strong language 
those having personal knowledge of it can deciide: 
“This machine not only cleans rapidly every 
kind of grain, grass and garden seeds, beans, peas, 
coffee, rice, Ac., from chaff, dust and dirt, but it 
separates from them all foul seeds, and also assorts 
each pure article into several distinct grades or sizes, 
for extra or Graham flour, for seed, Ac. Wheat is 
cleaned from oats, cockle, chess, kale and all impu¬ 
rities ; so also all cereal products. Indian, broom 
and sugar corn, clover, timothy, red-top, millet, 
hemp, flax, canary and garden seed, are cleaned, 
separated and assorted, so that uo picking over cait 
imppove them. The machine possesses many novej 
and superior features, separates everything accord- 
ing to size,'weight and shape. It has two shoes, 
which act or play independently of each other; the 
lower one runs the whole length of the machine and 
over the draws, and its motion is perfectly hori¬ 
zontal. The screens used in this machine are a new 
invention, differing from, and in all respects supe¬ 
rior to, anything heretofore in use—being perfectly 
smooth, of immovable mesh, firm, elastic or springy, 
and of great durability. The machine is smaller 
than ordinary winnowing mills, runs much easier— 
is very simple and durable, not liable to get out of 
order, and may be retained in any place on the 
floor by the weight of the operator. Its cost is 
about the same as good Fan Mills.” 
back about a foot from the front, so that the feed 
will slide forward within their reach. The open¬ 
ings come within six inches of the manger bottom, 
and extend up nearly three feet, and are about 
twenty inches wide at the top. 
Nothing in the fodder line, that I ever put before 
a calf, seems to “ take” better than good, early cut 
and well, but not over cured clover hay. They 
will do well on it without anything else, but they 
will do better with an occasional feeding of roots, 
cut fine, and well salted, “just for a changethey 
return to hay with a renewed appetite, and evince 
by their playfulness that they “ feel first-rate,” and 
by their looks that they are thriving and growing. 
I like to have my calves and other stock, with 
coats as sleek and shining in winter as in summer, 
and with comfortable shelter and care, it is not 
difficult to secure it. 
Calves, to thrive, must have water at least twice 
a day, and if they can have it close at hand and at 
will, all the better. The best we can do is to give 
them water morning and night, letting them take 
a little excursion of about six or eight rods, to get 
it. It seems “ tough” to them, no doubt, to leave 
their warm stables on a blustering day, for a drink 
of cold water; but the weather is no worse to them 
than to their owner who goes with them. I should 
like to have a big cistern to catch the water from 
the barn roof, a good pump in it, and there my 
stock should have water before them in the yard, 
three or four times a day, at the least. 
Calves may be stabled, and fed, and watered, 
and yet suffer from want of cleanliness. We clean 
our stables out every day and give new litter, and 
the amount of good manure furnished will be quite 
an item to our next year’s crop. But our story is 
getting tedious—we will only say to the farming 
reader, “give your calves a chance, don’t wait for 
them to take it, you will find it to pay in more 
ways than you now think of.” Farmer B. 
P. S. My mangers won’t hold corn stalks—the 
calves every time they went through the cow yard, 
seemed to think them very nice, so I gave them 
some to-day; and, like any old cow, they pulled 
them out one by one, and dropped them under 
foot—eating but a small portion. Just as I expect¬ 
ed. I, too, think out-doors, on clean frozen 
ground, the only fit place to feed corn fodder.—B. 
ABOUT CIDER-MAKING. 
Eds. Rural It would gratify me much if some 
of your readers would give a good and easy 
method of rectifying cider and keeping it sweet 
through the summer months. There is a person 
in my neighborhood who uses some process to his 
own profit, but he keeps it a profound seci’et. I 
have tried the popular nostrums of mustard seed 
and raw beef without any benefit. It is said that 
a gallon of alcoholic spirits will stop fermentation; 
but it is objectionable, rendering it too stimulating 
for a common beverage, and to many on temper¬ 
ance principles. 
I would like to inquire what is the meaning of 
the process, in your number of the 11th ult.,— 
clipped from a Springfield paper, and given under 
the authority of a learned professor—which pro¬ 
poses to add a certain quantity of “ sulphate* of 
lime, known, as an article of manufacture, as anti¬ 
chloride of lime." Now, Sirs, sulphate of lime is 
common plaster, or gypsum, and as to “ anti-chlo¬ 
ride of lime,” there is uo such chemical combina¬ 
tion—no such article known in chemistry—and I 
am at an utter loss to know what is meant by this 
discrepancy of terms. Neither can I understand 
the rationale of the prescription, or how it can 
have any effect, as the chemical affinities of lime 
and sulphuric acid are so strong that no other acid 
can decompose them—nothing short of a red heat 
will effect it, and not entirely then. The addition 
of pure quick lime would be more in unison with 
chemical laws, as it would be acted upon by the 
carbonic acid produced in fermentation, and form 
a neutral and insoluble compound of carbonate of 
lime, and be precipitated to the bottom. Ashes, 
ley, saleratus, or any other alkaline substance 
would have much the same effect. But, would the 
residue be cider, or a vitiated apple juice ? 
In my opinion, we know very little of the per¬ 
fection of cider by the ordinary process of its 
manufacture. The usual course is to gather all the 
fallen rotten and wormy apples —those the hogs 
have rejected—let them lie, fermenting, in heaps, 
till all other work is done, when they are ground, 
and pressed through straw of very doubtful clean¬ 
liness—in fact, the whole process is as far from 
i that Christian virtue as light from darkness. It is 
strange — should you query concerning the sons 
and daughters who “ long ago ” made what little 
sunshine was noticeable around the old home¬ 
stead,— to learn they “began to put on airs; got 
a notion they were too good to make farmers of,” 
and have long since lost their identity and genuine 
whole-souled country simplicity amid the crowded 
avenues and artificial wants of the city? The 
remedy for all these evils is apparent, and, while 
we leave t his portion of our subject for the thinkers 
to digest or extend as they may see fit, we can but 
hope that our chosen calling — that of tilling the 
soil — may never be left in the hands of the penny¬ 
wise to receive its meed of merit or labor. 
Want of space compels the putting over of the 
second branch of our subject for future reference. 
WINTERING CALVES. 
While attending to our five calves oue day, a 
visitor asked, “ Why do you take so much trouble 
about calves,—many people let them take their 
chance with the other stock through the winter ?” 
A very poor chance, I thought that would be, for 
farmers who treat calves so, wouldn’t take much 
care for the comfort of any tenant of their barn¬ 
yard. Calves which “ take their chance,” are of 
the same breed with those which furnish crows 
with bait, and tanners with kip-skins in spring 
time. If they live, it takes all summer for them to 
get ready to grow again—if tough enough, they 
will stand another winter, and fill the ranks of the 
raw-boned cows and lank, unruly steers, which are 
the pests of our highways, and disgr ace our stock 
husbandry. 
There is “a more excellent way”—one more 
satisfactory to the “ merciful man’s” feelings, as 
well as profitable to the pocket. Perhaps I do not 
practice it in all respects — yet my way may be 
worth the telling of. 
This winter I have got my calves in the barn, 
and the stable arranged to suit me. They have 
plenty of room—14 feet square—and a good man¬ 
ger to eat from—one which holds all I put in for 
them until they “ cat it out,” or Charley, ormyself 
remove it. The front has V shaped openings for 
them to put their heads through, of a size appro¬ 
priate for calves. The bottom of the manger is 
about six inches above the floor, a board slants 
WHAT HAS BECOME OF IT? 
In the Rural of December 4th we stated, upon 
the authority of a telegraphic dispatch, “ that the 
Commissioner of Patents purposed inviting sixty 
or seventy eminent agriculturists from different 
States to meet at Washington in Convention early 
in January, to discuss agricultural topics, and com¬ 
pare statistics. Each one will receive five cents a 
mile mileage, and twenty-five dollars expenses.”— 
This was sufficiently explicit — no risk would be 
incurred by the “ eminent agriculturists,”— thqy 
were to be carried to the “city of magnificent dis¬ 
tances, fed and lodged, and sent home again at 
the expense of the “dear people.” Here was a 
golden opportunity for the self-dubbed “profes¬ 
sors” “scientific agriculturists,” “ terra-cultur- 
ists, et id omne genus, that was not to bo despised 
— a chance to “ fare sumptuously every day,” and 
at the same time, each could blow his measure up¬ 
on the trump of Fame. The eventful period arrived 
Monday, 3d inst., if we mistake not, and we have 
anxiously watched and waited for the lightning’s 
intimation that the “ wisdom of the country” had 
assembled. Anxiously watched and waited, while, 
TWO DOLLARS A. YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS AJSPD IMPROVEMENT.” 
[SINGLE KTO. FOUR CENTS. 
YOL. X. NO. 3.i 
1 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1859. 
(WHOLE NO. 471. 
