RURAL LIFE 
handful, with the butts even, and binding a 
leaf around, so as to hold them together. These 
“hands” are then packed away in a stack, with 
the butts and the points of the leaves overlapping 
each other, and in this way the leaves will be kept 
soft and pliable, and the butts be more thoroughly 
cured. Tobacco should not be handled when it is 
dry and harsh, and all handling is better done on 
a damp day. 
The last and most important operation \s sweat¬ 
ing. This operation is thus performed: Boxes 
are made about two feet four inches by three feet 
six inches. Into these boxes the “hands” of 
tobacco are placed, lengthwise of the box, the 
butts at the end. In this way the box is filled. A 
heavy “ follower” of two-inch plank just made to 
fit the inside of the box is then pressed upon it 
with a lever or screw. The top or “follower” i B 
then removed, and more tobacco put in and pressed, 
and so on until the case is full of pressed tobacco, 
and these cases will generally contain from three 
to four hundred pounds. After the box is full the 
“follower” is removed, and the cover nailed on, 
and the cases packed away in a dry, close building, 
where they must remain during the next summer, 
until fall, when the tobacco is fit for market.— 
When packed for sweating, the tobacco should be 
soft and pliable without being wet or sticky. Any 
that appears too damp may be packed at the top 
or sides of the box, or dried. 
look at, not dry enough for a good table potato, | 
and grew vigorously until frost. Indeed, no one 
has been able to tell bow long it would grow, if 
it could be accommodated with a season suited 
to its wants. On account of these bad trails 
it was discarded by the producer, but having 
fallen into the hands of potato growers in this 
section, after a few years it made its appear¬ 
ance in our markets in abundance, and enjoyed a 
very brief popularity. One season, and only one, 
it was eagerly sought by buyers for shipment to 
New York. When in that city, in the spring of 
1857, we found some dealers with this sort, which 
they were selling under its true name, while 
others were selling the original Mercer as the 
White Mercer, to distinguish them from the Pur¬ 
ple or Blue Mercer. In the market reports now, 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS ORIGINAL WKEKLT 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
Tub 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 
his personal 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. 
VW All communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed ta D. D. T. MOORE. Rochester. N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
A. HOLDERNESS COW. 
upon their feed, and they fatten almost as rapidly | field, of seven cows, consisting of three celebrated 
as the best of the high-bred Short-horns. 
In his “ Treatise upon Cattle ,’ 
a full description of the essential points 
Corn Stoolu Jaclu. 
I wisn to inquire through the Rural if any one of 
your readers has ever used a Corn Stook Jack, such as 
is imperfectly described in the Country Gentleman? 
If they have, will they be good enough to forward a 
plain description of it for the Rural ? It is described 
as a stake set in the ground, with holes bored through 
it for diagonal arms, against which the corn is leaned. 
How is the stake got out of the, ground when the stook 
is bound snugly around it?— Inquirer. 
Perhaps some of our readers can give the 
description desired, but we think there is no better 
corn horse than the one we figured and described 
two years since. It has been used by hundreds, 
and is declared by many to save one-third the 
time annually employed in cutting up and stook- 
ing corn. In its construction is used a pole of 
about 12 feet in length, being 4 inches in diameter 
at the large end, in which is placed two legs, wide 
enough apart at the bottom to he admitted be¬ 
tween the rows of corn, and in length according 
to the height of the corn, say three or four feet, 
while the other end rests on the ground. About 
three feet hack of the legs is a 1 inch hole, 
through which is placed a rod four or five feet 
long, that is easily admitted and removed, and is 
horizontal when the horse is standing, as shown 
in the engraving: 
Youatt furnishes < 
in a cow 
that is good for the pail as long as wanted, and 
then may be quickly and cheaply brought into 
marketable condition, and we are not aware of any 
matter that will “pay better ” for publishing, or 
more fully reward the American breeder for study, 
lienee we give it, as fallows :—“She .should have 
a long and rather small head; a large-headed, cow 
will seldom fatten or yield much milk. The eye 
should be bright, yet peculiarly placid and quiet 
in expression; the chops thin, and the horns 
small. The neck should not be so thin as common 
opinion has given to the milch cow. It may be 
thin towards the head; but it must soon begin to 
thicken, and especially when it approaches the 
shoulder. The dewlap should be small; the breast, 
if not so wide as in some that have an unusual 
disposition to fatten, yet very far from being nar¬ 
row, and it should project before the legs; the 
chine, to a certain degree fleshy, and even inclining 
to fullness; the girth behind the shoulder should 
be deeper than it is usually found in the Short¬ 
horn ; the ribs should spread out wide, so as to 
give as round a form as possible to the carcass, 
and each should project further than the preceding 
one to the very loins, giving —if after all the milch 
cow must be a little wider below than above,— 
as much breadth as can possibly be afforded to the 
more valuable parts. She should be well formed 
across the hips and on the rump, and with greater 
length there than the milker generally possesses, 
or if a little too short, not heavy. If she stands a 
little long on the legs, it must not be too long. 
The thighs somewhat thin, with a slight tendency 
to crookedness in the hock, or being'sickle-ham¬ 
med behind: the tail thick at the upper part, but 
tapering below; and she should have a mellow 
hide, and little coarse hair. Common opinion has 
given to her large milk-veins; and although the 
milk-vein has nothing to do with the udder, but 
conveys the blood from the fore part of the chest 
and sides to the inguinal vein, yet a large milk- 
vein certainly indicates a strongly developed vas¬ 
cular system—one favorable to secretion generally, 
Feeding Bees. • 
I wish to inquire thrqugh your valuable paper the 
best method of feeding anil preserving a feeble swarm 
of bees through the winter.—A Subscriber, Saybrook, 
Ash. Co., Ohio, ISO?. | 
The better way is to f Tite two feebie swarms, 
for it is difficult to winter very weak colonies, 
even when sufficient food is supplied. They con¬ 
sume proportionally much more food than strong 
swarms, and then often perish before spring, from 
their inability to maintain sufficient heat, on 
account of the smallness of their numbers. Feed¬ 
ing is somewhat difficult in the common hive. 
Langstroth says “impoverished stocks, if in com¬ 
mon hives, may be fed by inverting the hives and 
pouring a teacupful of honey among the combs 
in which the bees are clustered. This does no 
harm, and they will lick each other clean, with as 
much satisfaction as a little child sucks its fingers 
while feasting upon sugar candy.” The operation 
may he repeated at intervals, as fast as the bees 
store it away. With hives that have surplus 
honey boxes, feeding is easy, as a feeder can be 
made in the form of one of these boxes, and put 
in its place. On one side of it an apartment 
should be divided off for holding the honey. 
Short, clean straw may be placed upon the honey, 
upon which the bees can stand, and will sink 
as the honey is consumed. Some apiarians re¬ 
commend sugar candy (rock candy) for feeding 
bees, which they will readily consume if placed 
within their reach. Sirup made from sugar is 
also good, so is West India honey, to which a 
HOW TO GET THROUGH THE WINTER. 
I have observed when people wished to he par¬ 
ticularly impressive they commenced, “There is 
li tide in the affarrsi of men.” T beg leave very 
respectfully to suggest this same idea as a tit intro¬ 
duction to a diatribe on fodder. 
“ Fodder is scarce in Western New Y T ork,” is an 
axiom which nobody, since the 4th of June last, 
has any particular doubts about;—in ordinary 
discourse it is assumed (not as a “glittering gen¬ 
erality” but) as a pregnant self-evident truth. 
That it is all for the best, men of my theology 
would feel bound to assume, so far as it originated 
in causes above human control;—uninterrupted 
plenty and prosperity beget indolence and waste. 
Heaven could not hold blessings enough to satisfy 
a people exempt from all reverses. 
If “ the calamity,” so called, above referred to, 
the “ White ” and the “ Blue.” I would like a descrip¬ 
tion of the White Mercer; ala© of the White Me- 
shanock, (and a correct mode of spelling it;) also a de¬ 
scription of the Blue Meshanock, and also of the Mexi¬ 
can, and you will greatly oblige an old patron and 
earnest seeker after truth. - K, County Line P. 0., 
Niag. Co., N, Y., 1S59, 
We never feel more embarrassed than when 
called upon to describe and name varieties of 
potatoes. There is scarcely one but has half a 
dozen different names, and the same name is 
applied to different sorts in different localities. 
Every one, almost, seems to think he is authorized 
to give a new name to a potato already cultivated 
and named, or to give the name of an old soft to 
a new one. This makes great Confusion. The 
Mercer, or Nishenock, or Meshanock, if we under¬ 
stand its history, was grown from seed nearly 
fifty years ago, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, 
on Big Nishenock Creek, by John Gilkey, who 
called it the Nishenock Itoyal Potato. From this 
place it was carried to the neighborhood ot Phila¬ 
delphia, where it was grown extensively, and 
called the Mercer, because originating in Mercer 
county. From Philadelphia they were sent over 
the country under this name; while those sent 
out from Mercer county, where they originated, 
continued to be called Nishenocks, for a while, 1 
but became corrupted into Neshanocks and Me- 
shanocks, while some persons started them with 
new names, as Chenango, Boone Potato, &c. 
Seedlings have been raised from the old Mercer, 
like the parent in most respects, but darker, and 
these have been called Blue Mercers, 1 urple Mer¬ 
cers, &c., and the true Mercers have been called 
v«ir cnrm> narticularlv by buyers, the White 
dung heap the following morning. Then and 
there I entered my emphatic protest! The next 
day another friend applied for “ three loads of 
buckwheat straw for bedding.” I scowled at him 
worse than common, and demanded if he did not 
know that buckwheat straw was good to eat. He 
apologized as any scamp ought to, and promised 
to go to the woods some dry day and rake up 
leaves and deposit them in the barn or under a 
shed, and use them for his winter bedding. 
I forget whether it was my excellent friend 
“P.,” or some one else, who seemed to forget that 
cattle (at least some cattle) have teeth, for he 
recommended that all fodder should be cut before 
it was fed. Nature’s own provisions deserve con¬ 
siderable respect. I think health and economy 
admit of feeding both hay and straw just as they 
grew ; the process of chewing excites the glands, 
and is every way normal and healthy. I propose 
to feed hay and straw in capacious box mangers, 
kept clear of refuse material, and the fodder so 
low down that the animal can’t root it out. 
Whatever is not eaten, if not musty or worthless, 
may be cut fine, wet, and sprinkled with meal, so 
that every particle of hay and straw shall be con¬ 
sumed—not one pound for bedding, not one ounce 
for waste! I do not undervalue bedding; every 
in the centre of the number 
The horse is placed 
of rows desired to be cut, the corn is placed in 
the four corners around the rod, the shock is then 
tied, the horizontal rod removed, and the horse 
drawn ahead. The rod is then replaced, when it is 
ready for forming another shock. 
CATTLE-CHARACTERISTIC OF BREEDS. 
Preparing Tobacco for IVIarluet. 
I wish to inquire the manner of curing and pre¬ 
paring tobacco for market. If some one of the readers 
of the Rural will give me the above information, I 
shall be much obliged. — Wh, 0. S., Sheridan, N. Y. 
Ox this subject perhaps some of our Southern 
readers, or those of experience in the north, where 
tobacco is extensively grown, will give better 
directions than we are able to do. Having, how¬ 
ever, investigated the subject somewhat, and ob¬ 
served the practice of the largest growers here, we 
give the result of our observations. Curing tobacco 
requires great care. As soon as gathered it must 
be hung on poles in a tobacco house or shed, the 
butts being fastened to the poles and the points 
hanging downwards. The plants are fastened to 
the poles with twine, about six inches apart, and 
the poles about one foot apart. It will be neces¬ 
sary to have a circulation of air through the build¬ 
ing, but when the wind is high, unless the building 
is closed, the leaves will be injured. As soon as 
sufficiently cured, it must be taken down and the 
leaves stripped from the stalks. It will generally 
be is this state about the first of December. If, 
on a dry day, the leaf stalk will break from near 
the butt, it is sufficiently cured to take down and 
strip. The tobacco grower, while stripping, as¬ 
sorts into different grades, the largest, soundest 
and best colored leaves being put in the first class, 
and the narrow, torn and light colored leaves 
make the second class. Some growers make three 
now give the form and features of one of that 
class known as the Holderness—which, according 
to Youatt, almost exclusively occupy the London 
dairies. The old Yorkshire cow was a great favor¬ 
ite in the London market, as regards milking 
qualities,—but when she began to fall off at the 
pail, she was sold as quickly as possible. It 
required a long period to get much flesh upon her, 
and when the expense of getting her in condition 
was calculated, it was always found cheaper to 
dispose of her for what she would bring, and 
the price seldom exceeded twenty-five dollars. 
Although yielding more milk, for the food con¬ 
sumed, than any other breed, the deficiency in the 
fattening properties was a serious drawback upon 
their value, and the more intelligent of the breeders 
set about seeking out a remedy. Cautiously 
find.” coarse grass and flags of our marshes, and the 
speaking of the rakings of our yards, should amply supply this 
are large, fine- great necessity. 
’atten; their beef Whoever does not provide a warm place for his 
ength and speed stock this winter, is incorrigibly perverse. No 
> well posited for “tide in his affairs” can lead him “to fortune,” 
y variegated in or to any good thing. Whoever does not provide 
l, red and white, good feeding places, or through inattention is 
-kand in one, wasteful of fodder, hardens his heart under the 
•ct, great milking, most signal reproofs and warnings, and will not 
giving from 24 to profit either by prosperity or adversity — both 
I useful in their way. 
our corn 
Short-horn bull whose progeny were generally 
milkers, and crossing some of the Yorkshires with 
much of 
him—they produced a breed possessing 
the grazing properties of the sire, and retaining, is fine; they have both size, s 
almost undiminished, the excellencies of the dam for labor, and their shoulders s 
for the pail. The two qualities of fattening and the draught. Being beautifi 
milking were united perfectly; not at the same color, marbled, spotted, speckl 
time, but succeeding each other at the periods they make excellent ‘park S’ 
when it suits the convenience of the dairyman, perhaps the most important res 
I Now a days, instead of being anxious to sell out they stand unrivaled; the cows 
the very instant the lacteal flow diminishes, the 36 quarts of rich milk per day. 
| dairyman, as soon as they become dry, puts them | In a trial upon the farm of t! 
Our fall frosts have done damage to 
