dormant unless it can cetne near the surface. His 
farm was mostly in grass, and he applied manure 
in^ September and October, on the surface. Its 
' — -lie growing grass can be seen for half a 
If manure is applied in the SDring it is 
up by the growing grass, clogs the machine, 
“ benefit is not gained until the foliow- 
A good way of manurmgis to put sheep 
grass in the fall, and allow them to eat 
- —-j. Had one meadow, giving fine 
since the crea- 
satisfied with a small crop—broke it up, manured, 
and made it produce abundantly. 
L. F. Allen said grazing land in Kentucky that 
was never plowed, was worth from $100 to $170 per 
acre, and would keep a bullock to the acre. The 
cattle was fed upon it, and that was all the manure 
the land got. From these lands came the fine 
Kentucky cattle to the New York market. Some 
time since Mr. A. spent a day at Mr. Patterson’s 
farm in Maryland. When he came in possession 
of it, it was poor, worn out land, not worth $5 an 
acre. Mr. P. bought lime-stone land, made lime, 
and scattered it over his poor soil, until it looked 
as though it had been visited by a snow storm. 
No manure was applied but lime and plaster, and 
now this land produced 2^ tons of hay to the acre. 
about. Fermentation was the process of decompo¬ 
sition; it was another word for dissipation. Unless 
something is done to arrest it, it would destroy the 
manure. On the best mode of applying, there 
was but one rule. The manure was for the benefit 
of the roots, and should be placed where it can 
be within their reach. Mr. C. said his object in 
rising was not to talk himself, but to introduce a 
farmer from Massachusetts, the Hon. Josiah 
Quincy, Jr., who had had great success in soiling, 
and could impart valuable information on that 
subject. 
Mr. Quincy said he would make but a simple 
statement of his practice. Owned a farm that 
twenty years ago produced only twenty tuns of 
hay; now it gave him every year three hundred. 
This improvement was effected by the introduc¬ 
tion of the English system of soiling. The saving 
of fencing by this system would be immense. On 
iJS' OrjQINAX WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed 
In Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes 
bis pergonal attention to the supervision of its various de¬ 
partments, 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, 
Educational, 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. 
5^ All communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
salt — put on a weight and pour on the brine im¬ 
mediately, and before the juice of the ham has 
escaped. It will require from four to six weeks 
for the salt to strike through, according to the size 
of the hams. It will be necessary perhaps to add 
a little salt on top of the hams; 
they are very large, they absorb e 
salt as to leave the brine so weak it 
effect on th< 
mile, 
lifted 
and its full benefit 
ing year, 
on the £ 
down to the roots, 
crops, that had never been plowed 
tion, and of course it had received no other than 
surface manuring. 
Mr. Lyons, of Lewis county, had cultivated what 
was called a hungry or leacby soil. Plowed 
manure in just as it came from the barn, and deep. 
That which did not decompose the first year was 
not lost, it was available after the next plowing. 
He did not believe in the leaching of manures.’ 
Manure water poured on a barrel of sand would 
leach through pure water. He did not, either 
believe in late fall pasturing, as recommended by 
Mr. Allen. 
Mr. Winegar, in reply to the remarks of Mr. 
Peters, that nature had placed manure on the 
surface, said that nature did no plowing. The 
greatest difficulty with him was to get the manure 
under. Had no fears of getting it too deep. 
A. Goldsmith, of Orange county, said inorganic 
manures may be spread on the surface without 
loss, in fact they would be likely to gain ammonia 
; sometimes, if 
so much of the 
--1 may sour. It 
ould be well to take them up after they have 
been in a week or two, and examine them, and if 
necessary add a little more salt. Great care 
should be taken not to salt too much, as by doing 
so you lose the flavor of the ham, and but just 
enough should be used to keep them. As the ham 
absorbs the salt from the brine it should be fed by 
adding a little salt on the top and the hams should 
be well struck through. When the hams are large 
I take out the fiat bone and cut off the round socket 
bone with a chisel, leaving always the large bone. 
With care I never have failed to keep hams sweet. 
IIoiv to Make a Smoke-House.— Having given 
you my method for Curing and Keeping Hams, let 
me add my plan for a Smoke-House. No farmer 
should be without a good smoke-house, and such 
a one as will be fire-proof and tolerably secure 
from thieves. Fifty hams can be smoked at one 
time in a smoke-house 7 by 8 feet square. Mine is 
6 by 7, and is large enough-for most farmers. I 
first dug all the ground out below where the frost 
would reach, and filled it up to the surface with 
small stones. On this I laid my brick floor, in lime 
mortar. The walls are brick, eight inches thick 
and seven feet high, with a door on one side two 
feet wide. The door should be made of wood and 
lmed with sheet iron. For the top I put on joico 
2 by 4, set up edgewise and 8% inches from cen¬ 
ter to center, covered with brick, and put on a 
heavy coat of mortar. I built a small chimney on 
the top in the center, arching it over and covering 
it with a shingle roof in the usual way. An arch 
should be built on the outside, with a small iron 
door to shut it up, similar to a stove door, with a 
For Terms and other particulars, 
Lollins, of Lewis county, had a piece of 
land which had been in grass over fifty years. J/i 
r.rn^nrW' thrr.o i vui iu me acre. Of 
course it was never manured, except on the surface. 
The effect of surface manuring on this grass could 
be seen for five years. 
Mr. Marks, of Oonondaga, was first taught that 
manure should be plowed in, but often saw no 
good effects from the manure he used. Now he 
composted in the yard, and drew to the fields in 
September or October, and applied on the surface. 
Some years ago he had resolved never to plow 
under manure again, butlast spring deviated from 
this purpose, and well plowed under twenty cords 
per acre, and planted corn; the crop is not much 
better than where no manure was used. He would 
never bury manure again, as he invariably got the 
best results from surface manuring. 
Mr. Sylvester, of Lyons, always plowed under 
manure. Was so particular to have it covered, 
that if he drew tnanure to his fields in the winter, 
he covered the piles with swamp muck. Obtained 
a field that was so poor it did not produce six 
bushels of corn to the acre the year before-ma¬ 
nured it heavy with stable manure, plowed it 
under deep, and the first year got eighty bushels 
shelled corn to the acre. The soil is a clay loam, 
north of the village of Lyons. 
Mr. Geddes, of Onondaga, said such experiments 
as that stated by Mr. Sylvester were apt to lead to 
error. It was complicated. Mr. S. had plowed 
deep, broken up the subsoil, which perhaps had 1 
not been done before, and this, in addition to the 
manure, gave a good crop. He was indebted to i 
Mr. Marks, of his county, who taught him by ex¬ 
ample to put manure on the surface, but John ‘ 
Johnston was the first man who had the boldness 
to recommend such a course in print. The object t 
to be sought in manuring is to make the grass i 
grow; this fills the earth with roots, which rot and i 
greatly enrich the soil. Mr. G-. found manure to I 
NEW YORK STATE FAIR. 
Such manure, within five or eight miles of Boston, 
wa3 worth from $5 to $8 per cord. From these 
figures, he had come to the conclusion that the 
manure of a cow was as valuable as her milk; 
but, for fear he was over-estimating its value, he 
submitted the question to Mr. Dana, who had 
given perhaps more time and study to this subject 
than any other man, and Mr. D. pronounced his 
estimate correct. On this authority, therefore, 
he would state that the manure of a cow was as 
valuable as her milk. The farmers of this country 
have not yet learned how much can be done on a 
little land. The laws of France divide the farms 
among the children, and it is estimated that there 
are in that country 250,000 farms less than five 
acres each. The farmers of this country should 
divide their farms with their sons, instead of 
sending them West, and grow a large amount of 
produce on a small breadth of land, and great 
good would result to both old and youno-. 
uuiuers in auenaance at tne state Fair to improve 
every moment; and notwithstanding all were 
weary with the labors of the day, the evening 
discussions were well attended. The large and 
beautiful Lecture Room of the State Agricultural 
Society, was literally crowded until nearly ten 
o’clock each evening. We did not reach Albany 
in time for the discussion of Tuesday, but took 
full notes of what was said on Wednesday and 
Thursday evenings. We have only room for our 
report of the meeting held on Wednesday eve- 
ning, and in the next number will give that for 
Thursday, and perhaps a few suggestions as to 
the best way to render Agricultural Discussions 
interesting and profitable. 
At the suggestion of Hon. T. C. Peters, of 
Darien, Col. Zadock Pratt was called to the 
ABOUT WATER PIPE. 
FiDS. IvURAL rvEw-YoRKEit:—In your i 3 Slie of 
July 17th, 1858, 1 saw a communication from H. 
J. F., of Palmyra, N. Y., describing a water pipe 
he had made, said pipe being constructed of ce¬ 
ment and drain tile, which I concluded was the 
pipe. I had over sixty rods of wooden pipe—laid 
down in the summer of 1854,—which failed the 
past summer, and being, part of the way, from 
three to six feet deep in a coarse gravel, and also 
very difficult to find the leak, I concluded to put 
down a cement pipe that would not rot in five 
years. I used two inch drain tile; the mortar was 
composed of one bushel of lime to three of dean 
sand. I took two boards, about three feet long 
and four inches wide, nailed a piece across one 
end, leaving the sides four inches apart. Por the 
other end I took a piece of stake iron, bent it to a 
half circle, and screwed it fast on the outside, near 
the end, making it of the same width, or a trifle 
wider. I then put my box in the ditch, plastered 
the bottom about a half inch deep with mortar, 
laid my tile as near the centre as possible, filled in 
CURING, SMOKING AND KEEPING HAMS. 
A MOST VALUABLE AND SEASONABLE ARTICLE. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Having seen in 
your paper of Oct. 1st, an article by C. I. S., Mill 
Creek, Erie Co., Pa., requesting some one to send 
a recipe to keep hams and shoulders after they are 
smoked, permit me to give you my experience for 
the benefit of C. I. S., and your readers in general. 
Formerly I tried keeping hams and shoulders in 
salt, arid also in grain, but they would dissolve the 
salt or mould in the grain. I then tried keeping 
them in pounded charcoal with no better effect. I 
next tried dry ashes, but unless the hams were 
very dry when put up they would taste of the 
ashes. I then tried sewing them up in coarse 
cloth and white washing them several times over 
upon knolls where the snow was 
id called the attention of Mr. Peters 
! expressed fears that it would not 
, but his fears were groundless. In 
inquiry, whether drilling had not 
uiuver came up. tie wished them to give a little 
attention to this subject, as his experience was 
that plaster required the leaf to operate upon. 
Mr. Chestbr, of Ulster, had found manure ap¬ 
plied in all ways beneficial—the question, and a 
very important one, which was the best way to 
a pply it. Mr. C. generally plowed six or seven 
inches deep, and then harrowed. Farm, a sandy 
loam; brought manure from the city. Always 
used composted manure; had tried coarse manure 
and found it far less profitable than that which 
was composted. A little compost in the hill would 
produce better results than a large dressing plowed 
oi dragged in. Last year plowed in manure, and 
did not receive five per cent, of the benefit he 
would, had it been used in the hill. Never let land 
iie in grass for a series of years—could not be 
opny which might accoui 
riences of the speakers. 
England that nitrogeno^ 
for grasses, and phosphi 
ous plants. Fermenting 
