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ROCHESTER, N. Y,—FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1859. 
1 WHOLE NO. 488 
HOOKE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
this view is correct, and we believe the experience 
of most practical men will corroborate its truth, 
then there need be no question as to what grain 
crops are best to sow clover upon. 
to be the true Early June. The sound, white 
potato, poor and watery, commonly known and sold 
as the Early June , is, wo have no doubt, the Eng¬ 
lish White. Then we have here several sorts sold 
as the Early Manly, and we find it difficult to trace 
out their origin, or give them correct names, or 
even to judge of all their qualities. All of these 
early sorts we now have planted side by side, and 
we think we are in a fair way to obtain some light. 
Chauncet E. Goodrich, of Utica, wbo has given 
more attention to/potato culture than any man in 
the State, or perhaps in the country, and to whom 
we are indebted for a variety of seedlings for trial, 
gives the following directions: 
“Soil .—This should be but moderately rich, at 
least in an unsteady climate like ours. A sandy 
soil heats and cools too readily. A stiff clay soil is 
too close. A loam soil is best. A new soil with 
much woody matter in it is good. For this reason, 
stiff greensward and well-drained swamps, furnish 
good soil for potatoes. 
Exposition .—High bills, and even mountains arc 
favorable places for the cultivation of potatoes.— 
Level ground, or slopes to the west or north are 
more favorable than s'opes to the east or south. 
On the cast slope they heat too rapidly after a cold 
night, while on a south slope they heat too much 
at noon. We err in planting potatoes in the same 
soil and posiiion with corn, melons, &c., unless 
constrained by the want of one that is cooler. In 
the Southern States they have learned to put the 
potato in their coolest soils. But potatoes need a 
well-drained soil as much as corn. 
Culture.—Do V?'( cut your seed small, nor plant 
very small seed. The reason is plain. Such seed’ 
gives a feeble plant, which grows too slowly for the 
first few weeks, and so does not bear the succeed¬ 
ing hot weather, nor tuber as early as it ought, 
especially if it be a late sort. It is true that where 
your variety of potatoes ripens quite early, the cut- 
tingof seed very small will give a much larger crop 
for its weight than in the use of larger seed, but it 
is not, in the end, ns well for the health of the crop. 
Plow and plant deep, except you are obliged to 
use a heavy or wet soil. Thus the roots are cooler 
in hot. weather, and chill less in sudden changes. 
They also stand drouth bettet*. Cultive at level. A 
high bill beats and cools worse than a level one. 
Plant wide, usually as wide as 3 by 3, and often 
more. Thus every bill has its share of light and 
air. The rule should be to have your ground just 
covered when the vines get their full growth.— 
Plant early. Then the vines make a slower and 
more hardy growth, having less spongy and more 
woody matter in them. They will thus stand bad 
weather better than when rapidly grown. Use 
early sorts. Then the tubers get ripe before the dark, 
damp and cool weather, which is always felt in the 
parallel of Boston and Chicago, and often early in 
September. The weather that produces early chills 
and disease, has almost always come in the first 
half of July. Potatoes of tolerable constitution 
which have been cultivated as above directed, usu-. 
ally escape in this chill. Very early sorts should 
not be sought for the main crop. It is sufficient 
that the sorts for winter use should mature with 
the season. If, however, you wish to cultivate for 
early mat ket or fall feeding, you may force your 
potatoes in a rich soil, and reap a heavy crop, but 
do not use such for seed. Indeed, potatoes with a 
vigorous constitution may be cultivated without 
immediate harm, iu a rich soil, but the tendency 
will always be to weaken their constitution. In a 
good soil—one adapted to the growth of all ordinary 
vegetables, your seed potatoes never need changing, 
especially if they be sorts ripening in good season. 
If your soil be deficient it may be well to change 
seed with those who have a better soil.” 
Tlxe 33est Crop to “ Seed Down ” •\vitli. 
In an article on Oats, their Value, Culture, dtc., 
we incidentally remarked that the Oat crop was 
one of the best with which to seed down to clover. 
A correspondent calls our attention to this state¬ 
ment, thinking it may mislead, as many farmers 
find oats bad to seed down with, far inferior to 
wheat in this respect. The remark was made with 
the fact in our mind that wheat culture is about 
abandoned for the present in Western New \ r ork, 
and if farmers sow clover on grain it must be on 
some other crop than wheat. But, some persons 
write as though they supposed there was something 
in some grains antagonistic to clover, if not actu¬ 
ally poisonous. Our view ofthe matter is this. For 
the good of the clover it would be better to sow it 
thick and alone in the spring. Wo have sown 
clover and grass for lawns and parks, early in 
the spring, and by the first of July had the sur¬ 
face entirely covered — a beautiful green carpet.— 
The thicker the grain grows on the ground, tho 
more it abounds in leaves to increase the shade, 
and the longer it remains the more injurious to the 
clover. Of course the lighter the grain stands on 
the ground, the less dense the shade, and the 
sooner it is removed the better for the clover. If 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
BRIEF FARM HINTS. 
Tn* Rural New-Yorker Is deslened to be unsurpassed 
Id Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and 
unique am) beautiful In Appearance. Its Conductor de- 
Totes tits 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 eealously advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural. Horticultural. Scientific, Edu¬ 
cational. Literary and New* Matter, interspersed with 
appropriate and beautiful Enuravimrs. than any other jour¬ 
nal.—rendering it the most complete agricultural. Lit¬ 
er art and Kamil y Newspaper in America. 
All communications, and business letters, should bi 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
“ Bickford & Hoffman’s Premium Iron-Cylin¬ 
der Grain Brill ” is probably the most popular 
machine of its class in this country, as it certainly 
is among the best, and by many pronounced the 
best. The proprietors have been engaged in the 
manufacture of Grain Drills for the past ten years, 
have made many improvements, and claim that the 
machine now ottered to the public is the most per¬ 
fect one in America. And we confess that their 
claim is well sustained by the testimony of numer¬ 
ous farmers and planters who have used the drill, 
and the fact that it has never failed of receiving the 
first premium at any of ihe many State, County 
and Town Fairs where it has been exhibited during 
the past four years. 
The accompanying cuts, together with the follow¬ 
ing description by the manufacturers^ will convey 
of the relief which anyone must appreciate who 
has sown guano by hand. It is acknowledged by 
all close observers, that one-half the quantity of 
guano usually sown broadcast., will suffice when 
sown with drdls, and in the furrow with the grain. 
“The principle and arrangement of this attach¬ 
ment is the result of much careful research, and 
j numerous and costly experiments by us. The 
gr eat affinity of guano for moisture, and its sticky 
nature when moist, renders it extremely difficult 
to be sown by a machine, and, in fact, all the ma- 
I chines heretofore introduced have failed to dis¬ 
tribute guano, except when in a perfectly dry 
state. As shown in the cut, this distributor is 
simply a verticle shaft, with arms sweeping across 
the bottom of the hopper, their action is such as 
SPRING NOTES. 
Our Spring Noles are not such as greet the ear 
and chr.ur the heart these beautiful spring niorn- 
ings,—:notes of melody, songs of joy and praise from 
feathered choristers,—-but plain, practical, homely 
notes, far less beautiful hut fully as profitable, per¬ 
haps, to tiie farmer. 
Com ^Planting. 
Coax is very liable to rot in the ground if 
planted too earlv ; or if it does not rot it comes up 
yellow and sickly, becomes stunted, and makes but 
weather. As a general 
;5S 
little growth until warm 
we have no doubt corn planted from the twen¬ 
tieth of May to the first of June will ripen as early as 
though planted before that time, while the chances 
of success are much greater. No crop is more 
benefited by a little attention at the early stages 
of its growth than corn. A little manure in the 
hill just before the first hoeing, will show itself aG 
through the season, and tell a profitable tale at 
harvest time. For this purpose we take especial 
care of our hen manure, and it is almost equal to 
guano. The Crows and Wire-worms destroy a 
good deal of newly planted corn, and, in addition to 
these, our friends at the West have the uniformity 
of their planting very much destroyed by gophers. 
The best security against these depredators that 
we know of, is to coat the seed before planting with 
tar, then roll in plaster and ashes. The tar should 
be mixed with hot water, so as to give the seed but 
a thin coating. Oue way we have seen practiced, 
is to put the corn into a tub of scalding water, let 
it remain for five minutes, then pour off most of 
the water, add the tar and stir until every kernel 
is coated. One excellent farmer we know of always 
adds a little sulphur, and claims great advantage 
from its use. Another remedy is of a benevolent 
nature, and yet like a good many benevolent acts, 
is founded on selfishness. This is to scatter corn 
on the surface of tho ground, and, of course, while 
enough to satisfy their wants can be gathered on 
the surface, the birds will not disturb that which is 
buried in the soil. But, whether such a course 
will not cause an extra number to congregate for 
the enjoyment of the feast, is a question we cannot 
answer, though we know this course is relied on by 
some of our friends to preserve their seed corn, 
after planting, and they claim that it is successful. 
Our idea of this remedy when first announced, was, 
that, the operator would be somewhat in the situa¬ 
tion of the man who undertook to catch squash 
bugs and kill them, be declared that killing them 
only made matters worse, for when one was killed 
a dozen came to the funeral. 
l > otato IMantins. 
, Early planting is necessary to success iu po¬ 
tato growing, as a general rule, though occasionally 
thin g, 
THE GRASS SEED ATTACHMENT. 
our drill for planting corn, and it is believed to be 
the only Grain Drill so constructed as to perform 
this work in a satisfactory manner. It may also 
be used as a broadcast machine, by simply remov¬ 
ing the drill tubes. We are manufacturing three 
different sizes of Drills, 7, 8 and 9 Tube; the Drill 
Tubes are placed in two rows, thereby facilitating 
their passage on stony or lumpy ground. The sin¬ 
gle row form, however, is preferred on all lands 
properly prepared. 
“ The Guano Attachment, with the late improv- 
ments, will sow, with the grain, from 50 to 300 
pounds of guano to the acre. The desired quan¬ 
tity may be regulated with accuracy, by a slide 
and notches. Where set at the first notch, it will 
distribute 50 pounds, and by moving the slide one 
notch, the quantity delivered will be 75 pounds 
per acre, aud so on, each notch increasing the 
quantity 25 pounds. Here, too, is a great saving 
of expense in the use of the Drill, to say nothing 
“ The Grass Seed Attachment can be used without 
the grain drill or the guano attachment, or with 
all these in connection, performing in one opera¬ 
tion the work of many men and teams, and other 
implements, viz.:—It sows your grain more per¬ 
fectly than can be done by hand; it distributes 
your guano and other fertilizers more perfectly 
and economically than can be done by hand; it 
also sows your grass and clover seed broadcast 
behind the drills, after the work of sowing and 
manuring is performed, more evenly than can be 
done by hand, and all with one man and team. It 
will distribute from two quarts to one-half bushel 
to the acre, iu the most perfect manner, can be 
quickly thrown iu and out of gear, or removed 
entirely from the drill when not required.” 
It may be proper to add that this Drill is man¬ 
ufactured only by the Patentees and Proprietors, 
Messrs. Bickford & Huffman, at Macedon, Wayne 
Co., N. Y., and Baltimore, Md. 
LEAF MOLD. 
or other eatables left in by-places, to be consumed 
by rats and mice. Make vigorous war upon these 
euemies of the human race, before they escape into 
the fields to recruit for next winter’s campaign. 
Put away in a dry, airy place, plenty of good, 
tough timber, suitable for hoe handles, rake teeth, 
whiffietrees, wedges, pins, plow handles, Ac., Ac. 
Cast up and see if you are getting behind with 
any item of business; and if so, prove yourse'f 
equal to the emergency — employ more help, or 
double your diligence, and fetch up somehow. Be 
sure if you can’t “afford” to do a thing at the 
right time, you can’t afford to do it at all. 
If any country reader of the Rural who owns a 
farm has never penetrated the banks of leaves that 
lie against old logs and in sheltered nooks and cor¬ 
ners in his woods, let me advise him to lose no time 
in doing so, and I assure him that a sight of what 
he will find buried ihere will more than compensate 
for the trouble. Brushing aside the dry, rustling 
leaves that cover the underlying mass, keeping it 
constantly moist, and thus assisting decomposi¬ 
tion, he comes, first, upon a closely-packed layer of 
dead foliage, always wet from the latest rains, and 
emitting that peculiarly clean and agreeable odor, 
