RURAL LIF£ 
; agb1Culj32Rl® 
humor, cause late meals, cross looks, and a deal of 
mischief. A cord of the poorest wood you can get, 
nicely split up and stacked under cover for six 
months, will burn well—almost as good as the best. 
The horses, of course, like their owner, have been 
recruiting all the winter, getting ready for a hard 
summer’s .work. This is not the time to stint 
them. They will well repay for all the extra care 
they get in the winter. A little exercise and good 
feed will enable them to go through their season’s 
work in good heart. 
We believe in good living for all cattle, but cows 
about this time should receive particular attention. 
If you want fat and thrifty calves, take care of the 
cows. If the time is near at hand when any cow 
in the herd is about to “ come in,” separate her 
from the rest, and give her good quarters — free 
from confinement of the neck or head. Where 
cows are stabled accidents are frequent, and even 
when at liberty watchfulness should be exercised 
on the part of the farmer. The only use in keeping 
cows is for their yield of milk and butter, and they 
will be remunerating just in proportion as they are 
well provided with the right kind of food. The 
grist must be put into the hopper, or the mill works 
in vain. Good feed is required by the cow in 
abundance, or she cannot manufacture good milk 
in large quantities. 
These hints we might extend, but we have given 
enough to excite attention to the necessity of mak¬ 
ing due preparation for the coming working season, 
which is all the prompting our intelligent readers 
will need. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
Tiie 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¬ 
erary and Family Newspaper in America. 
t^“All communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
The most recent, and, at the same time, the best a somewhat square form, but not low, heavy, nor 
description of the Ayrshires we have seen, is that loose, nor fleshy. The color of the udder is by 
given in the North British Agriculturist, from some also deemed of great importance. It should 
which we condense the following :—“ The head of be rather white than brown, except the color of the 
both male and female should be small, rather long, skin be wholly brown or black. The milk veins 
and tapering towards the muzzle, which should be should be large and prominent. The teats should 
darker than the color of the skin. The eye large, be placed wide apart, rather small, and pointing 
lively, but not too prominent. In both bull and j outwards. Next in importance to the form of the 
cow the jaw-bone should be strong, and open oe- j udder, is the touch. The skin should be Uiin,liav- 
liind to admit of the throat being fully developed ; l n g the soft feel of a fine kid glove. The hair 
where it passes from the head into the neck. The j should be soft, and somewhat woolly. The color 
horns should be small, clean, crooked, and placed j should be distinct; dark red, or approaching to 
at considerable distance from one another at the ! black, are both fashionable. The colors, if two, 
setting on. The ears rather large, 
and orange tipped in the inside. 
The neck long, slender, tapering ^ ^ 
• : : . 
be developed outwards to the : • "j 
: , i t of the shoulders, and should 
neck, should be light. The hind _ 1~~~~ -'—"" 
quarters large, and somewhat - 
HINTS FOR FEBRUARY. 
The weather of the present winter, thus far, has 
been quite remarkable. Although we refer to no 
“weather notes” for proof of the fact, we think we 
risk nothing in stating, that for the twenty years 
past we have not exd;rienced P ’vinic’ - v. as 
many mild and sunny days. So remarkably warm 
has it been, as a general thing, that three or four 
degrees of frost for a day or so, would set every one 
complaining at the severity of the cold. To-day, 
(February 2d,) everybody, and ourselves among 
the rest, seems to think it remarkably cold, and 
we were very much surprised to find that the ther¬ 
mometer showed only 4 degrees of frost. The only 
really severe days of the present winter were Janu¬ 
ary 9th and 10th. On the afternoon of the 11th the 
mercury went down to about 10 degrees below zero, 
and this degree of cold, very much to the surprise 
and regret of our fruit growers, destroyed the blos¬ 
som buds, and blasted the hopes of many growers of 
the peach in Western New York. The ground hAs 
been bare of snow nearly the whole winter, and the 
almost incessant freezing and thawing will no 
doubt prove injurious to winter wheat and other 
fall-sown crops. Some of the strawberry beds, we 
observe, have suffered from this cause. 
The work of the present month is more of the head 
than the hands. All plans for the coming summer 
should be perfected, and all seeds purchased. Now 
you have time to think over carefully what you 
will want, and make the necessary selections with 
proper care. If you delay this until spring, you 
will buy in a hurry, and, perhaps, something that 
you would notliadyou more leisure, some things will 
be forgotten, and much time wasted. If you have 
kept, as every farmer should, a memorandum book 
of wants, intentions, &c., it will prove a great help 
in making out a list of the articles you will need 
before work commences in the spring. Above all 
things be particular and purchase only the very 
choicest seeds, for “what a man soweth that shall 
he also reap.” Aim to get a little better seed every 
year, if possible. 
Those who persist in growing winter wheat, not¬ 
withstanding late discouragements, and wish to 
seed with clover, should sow next month, after a 
slight fall of snow, before the spring frosts are past. 
Clover, now, however, is usually sown with some 
spring crop, as oats or barley. 
The wheat fields will, no doubt, suffer quite suffi- 
FODDER, HOW TO SAVE IT, PRICE, &c. 
a,possibility and a freh*:ney. Though essentially 
orthodox concerning t Ajavily and such like, I was 
not prepared to beluxJB.N.A men would sacrifice 
their own interests ii.jFJnimtciug stf great a wrong, 
but they do. 
I sent word to a man whose cattle were in such 
straits, that “ I would tell him of an investment 
that would pay five hundredper cent /”—that is al¬ 
most up to the demands of an Iowa money shaver, 
or the expectations of a California emigrant. “ Pro¬ 
cure some slabs, boards, or rails, and rest one end 
on the ground and the other on poles supported by 
crotches six feet high. Inclose a yard big enough 
for your cattle with this kind of shed, if you 
shouldn’t conclude to make a better one, and the 
five hundred per cent, is yours.” There is material 
for sheds everywhere—evergreen boughs, straw, 
refuse hay, &c., can be used to tighten up with 
when rails or poles are employed. 
The poorest fodder should be fed in the coldest 
weather, but if it is quite poor, give a full supper 
of something better. It is poor economy to let an 
animal get low in flesh—a state of hunger is a 
state of unrest and is productive of needless waste, 
besides a weak animal must have the best of fodder, 
it would die on what would keep a thrifty one in 
fair condition. 
I believe it would pay, with suitable con¬ 
veniences, to warm the water which stock drink in 
■ate, they should have a plen- 
and the nearer “ milk-warm ” 
I discovered that those who wanted to buy had an 
overwhelming sense of its abundance and pros¬ 
pective cheapness! while those who had it to spare 
were troubled at their neighbors’ dreary prospects 
—they were afraid it would be very high before 
spring. Seven dollars a tun is the prevailing price 
of hay. At Oramel, and other villages, it was 
worth eight dollars, while at Olean it is current 
at ten and eleven. Those conversant with the 
market observed the price go up as the mercury 
went down, on the long-to-be-remembercd cold 
a half of foddering time is long enough to make 
up the average of cold, which, indeed, the law in 
the case gives us reason to expect will be made up. 
I found more persons buyiug fodder than I expect- 
the ground. You see I belong to the—which is it, 
“bears or bulls?”—at any rate I have a tun of hay 
to sell and would like to write up the price of fod¬ 
der if I can—a superfluous spasm of conscience 
has let that out, and it may stand. 
I’ll tell you, Mr. Moore, how the scoundrels who 
want to get my hay cheap could still succeed—of 
course, I expect you to withold the secret from my 
customers, after the fashion of the politicians who 
get up an eastern and a western edition of their 
speeches. Just for novelty, I thought I would 
“ divide the Union” the other way. 
Here’s the recipe for cheapening fodder. Cover 
the cracks of the stables and sheds with strips of 
boards,ventilating, of course, at the proper time and 
in a proper way. Set up slabs, plank, boards, or rails 
in front of open sheds to keep out the wind when 
it gets round on the wrong side—leaving one or 
more places for the cattle to go in and out at— 
tighten up with straw, &c. This last arrangement 
[ gives turbulent animals a better cliauce to hook 
where they are loose, aud makes it proper, as in¬ 
deed it generally is, to confine such ones. 
I observed that my friend Benj. Franklin (not 
the old philosopher but the new, of Allen, Allegany 
Co.,) kept up the good old fashion of putting knobs 
on the hornsof his cattle, and I wish here to certify 
to my high appreciation of the plan—perhaps my 
friend Capt. Doty’s moolies are an improvement. 
Mr. Franklin bakes a potato and sticks on the 
horn for a short time, then takes it off and screws 
on the knob with pinchers, and it stays. This is a 
part of my recipe; for the more comfortable and 
quality of her milk. The quantity yielded by the 
Ayrshire cow is, considering her size, very great. 
Five gallons daily, for two or three months after 
calving, may be considered as not more than an 
average quantity. Three gallons daily will be 
given for the next three months, and one gallon 
and a half for the succeeding four months. This 
would amount to more than 850 gallons; but al¬ 
lowing for some unproductive cows, 600 gallons per 
year may be the average quantity annually from 
each cow.” The writer just quoted, esti- 
mates the quality of the milk, for butter or 
jpBS cheese-making, much lower than any other 
authors, calculating one and one-half pounds 
of butter to three and one-half gallons of 
milk — an average of 257 pounds to each 
cow, per annum—and to twenty-eight gal¬ 
lons of milk, with the cream, a yield of 24 
pounds of cheese, or 514 pounds yearly.—• 
The figures here given are certainly extra¬ 
ordinary, when we remember that, accord- 
ing to the statistical report of 1845, the ave- 
rage yield of butter in our own State was 
IggHpl 7 less 80 pounds, and of cheese, 40 pounds, to 
~ each cow. In the sketch (?f the dairy farm 
of Hon. Zadoc Pratt, as given in last vol¬ 
ume of the N. Y. State Ag. Society’s Transactions, 
(1857,) the average yield of milk per cow, from 1st 
April to 1st of December, was *,'6 81-100 gallons, 
and of butter 130 pounds. “ These cows,” says the 
put in order. Half an hour’s labor now may pre¬ 
vent the loss of a day just at the busiest time, and 
a great deal of vexation and ill-humor. 
The fences, too, arc always in order, at a leisure 
time, because they are almost always out of order. 
The rails are a good deal like shirt-buttons, con¬ 
stantly getting off, and causing trouble. Some 
extra rails, if not on hand, should be cut, and 
hauled home the first snow. And if you have a 
good chance, do substitute a gate for a set of bars. 
The fire-wood, we suppose, is all procured, cut 
up, and nicely stacked up in the wood-shed, so 
that the women will have it convenient, and you 
will not be compelled to leave work in the spring, 
and hurry oft' and get up a load of wet stuff that 
will not burn, but will put the whole house out of 
IMPROVED BREEDS OF CATTLE.—AYRSHIRES. 
The issue of the Rural for Jan. 15th, gave a 
representative animal of the Alderney breed of cat¬ 
tle, and we now purpose presenting our readers 
with specimens, which, according to the best 
authorities, are connected with them by blood. It 
is agreed that the modern Ayrshires are the pro¬ 
duction of a union of the Holstein, or Teeswater 
Short-horns, and the Alderney’s, with the ancient 
stock of the county of Ayr, Scotland. Owing to 
this combination, they rank among what is known 
to stock growers as a “ made-up-breed.” Their 
introduction is of comparatively recent date, as 
Aiton, who wrote in 1815, remarks “ that one cen¬ 
tury ago there was no such breed in Scotland.” 
AYRSHIRE COW, “ AYR. 
The form of the milk vessel is of paramount im¬ 
portance. It can scarcely be too capacious. It 
should be placed well forward on the belly, and ap¬ 
pear behind the line of the thighs. It should have 
TWO DOLLARS A. YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS AJSTID INIX'KOVUUVTENVT.” 
[Sijntg-ee into, eotjr cents. 
VOL. X. NO. 7.} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,—FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1859. 
j WHOLE NO. 475. 
