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VOLUME III. NO. 45. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y .-THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1852. 
WHOLE NO. 149. 
MOORE’S RURAL SEW-YORIvER: 
A WEBKX.Y HOME NEWSPAPER, 
Designed for both Country and Town Residents. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
J. H. BIXBY, L. WETHERELL, AND H. C. WHITE, 
With a numerous corps of able Contributors and 
Correspondents. 
. The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to malce it a Reliable Guide on the important Practical Sub¬ 
jects connected with the business of those whose interests 
it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter — 
interspersed with many appropriate and handsome engrav¬ 
ings— than any other paper published in this Country. 
\TW° For Terms, &e., see last page, ] 
PK.««K5JSS AN® IMPROVEMENT. 
FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
Winter with its long evenings is now here, 
and we again recur to the subject of Far¬ 
mers’ Clubs, because it is a fitting time, and 
thatwe believo tlioy may be made of great val¬ 
ue to the agricultural community. Another 
season with its varied experiences on the 
farm and in the garden has passed away, 
the results of the labor of another year are 
now before tho cultivators of the soil, and 
many a fact, rich and practical, has been 
learned during that period. Almost every 
one, however, has turned over a different leaf 
of the great book of Nature, reading a special 
lesson of her operations, and from tho com¬ 
parison of theso experiences much valuable 
knowledge may be added to tho general as 
well as individual stock of information.— 
This is the great object of tho associations, 
the formation of which, by the farmers of 
every agricultural neighborhood in our coun¬ 
try, we have from time to time advocated. 
Tho present is a season of comparative 
leisure with tho farmer, and a fitting one 
for the organization of these primary agri¬ 
cultural societies. Let tho inhabitants of 
two or more school districts interested in 
tho cultivation of the soil, meet on some 
designated evening, appoint a few officers 
and agroo on a few simplo rules for tho 
transaction of business and government of 
their proceedings, choosing also a subject 
which shall bo discussed at their next meet- 
ing, or upon which some member may be 
requested to prepare an essay. No difficul¬ 
ty will be found in tho selection of interest¬ 
ing themes therefor, in tho cultivation of 
different crops, tho management of domes¬ 
tic animals, &c., &c., for there are a thou¬ 
sand things which come daily before the 
farmer in which ho is interested both men¬ 
tally and pecuniarily, and which may be 
made profitable subjects of discussion. Here 
will be brought into use tho experience of 
the past, and each ono may impart to the 
public stock whatever ho has learned, not 
generally known, or which may tend to con¬ 
firm tho conclusions which seem best sup¬ 
ported or otherwise. 
One great object of these Clubs is the cul¬ 
tivation of the social faculties by tho union 
of thoso of like interests for their mutual 
advantage and improvement. There is no 
class or profession which makes less use of 
this principle of association than the farmer, 
and none to which it can be of so much 
practical benefit. Tho knowledge of the 
best methods of cultivation, and all agricul- 
ral information is derived mainly from ex¬ 
perience, and now facts are constantly com¬ 
ing beforo tho eyes of overy intelligent and 
observing farmer. Theso facts arc of just 
as great value to his neighbor as himself, and 
the neighbor on tho other hand, may have 
learned something of equal interest. The 
interchange of the results of observation 
and experiment is what gives agricultural 
papers their valuo, and thoso societies, 
though in a narrower range, all tend to tho 
same end. The results of the experience 
of the individual farmers of a neighborhood 
may be mado general property to the advan¬ 
tage of tho wholo, as tho experience of the 
best farmers of the country is made the 
general property of its readers, and a fur¬ 
therance to the public interest, by publica¬ 
tion in an agricultural journal. So also are 
farmers socially united, as they find mutu¬ 
al profit from such interchange of informa¬ 
tion and courtesy. 
It will be found profitablo to select and 
announco beforehand the subject or subjects 
of discussion. Thon each member may 
prepare himself to givo a brief statement 
of his knowledge of tho matter, though 
the remarks of different persons may call 
out facts not particularly thought of pre¬ 
viously, but nono tho less valuable on that 
account. It will bo likely also to incite to 
the trial of new experiments on doubtful 
quostions, and moro careful observation in 
future of the varied operations of natural 
phenomena. There will always be found 
somo well qualified to write essays on sub¬ 
jects of interest, presenting in a condensed 
form tho results of experience and scientific 
roseach thereupon. The meetings may Bo 
varied and enlivened by lectures from com¬ 
petent persons, and experience will show 
how tho Farmers’ Club may bo made at 
once interesting and useful, and a means of 
improvement to tho minds and farms of 
every neighborhood in which thoy are put 
in operation. Such, indeed, has already 
been their effect in every instance of then- 
formation. 
And now, a word for ourselves. To give 
the experience of practical farmers in the 
various operations of agriculturo to our 
readers and the world, is one great object 
of the Rural New Yorker. We wish to 
make it still more useful in this respect.— 
So we hope that in every society of tho kind, 
somo one will bo found who will report for 
our pages tho most valuable information 
which may be gathered by its members, 
which will thus bo given to a still wider cir¬ 
cle, and bo sent on its mission of usefulness 
throughout tho country and world. 
FLAN FOE, A CARRIAGE HOUSE, &c. 
Messrs. Editors :—As I have not observ¬ 
ed an answer to an inquiry mado through 
tho Rural somo time since, for a plan of a 
carriage house, horse barn, &c., I have con¬ 
cluded to send this one, which you may pub¬ 
lish if you think worthy. I give tho ground 
plan only. 
GROUND plan. 
The frame is 30 by 44 feet, with 14 feet 
posts. C, carriage room, 18 by 30 feet; E, 
room for farming utensils, also containing 
six stalls for horses, if tho building is to 
be placed on descending ground, a manure 
collar should bo made under tho stable, in 
which case that portion of the floor should 
be raised about ono foot above tho remain¬ 
der of the room, that the manure may be 
easily precipitated into tho collar between 
tho Hours. This cellar would not only be 
moro convenient but more economical, as 
the whole strength of the manure could be 
preserved. Tho oat bin and work bench, 
which the inquirer mentioned, may be plac¬ 
ed in this room, also a rack may be made 
against the wall for rakes, hoes, harness. &c. 
I), double doors ; d, single doors ; w, win¬ 
dows, which should bo put in so as to slide 
or open; S, stairs by which to ascend to tin 
loft, which is a commodious hay room with 
trap doors over the mangers, through which 
to put the hay. D. ii. m. 
Verdant Glen, Oaj uya Co., N. Y. 
Ax exchange says, when farm stock k 
kept in well littered stalls, and every othei 
judicious means taken to manufacture ma¬ 
nure, ono head will produce sufficient t< 
keep an aero of ground in the highest state 
ot fertility. We know this from experience. 
SOWING GRASS SEED. 
In answer to the inquiry of a correspond¬ 
ent who desires to know, “ what is the best 
time to sow grass seed on land occupied by 
winter wheat,” tho Editor of tho Gospel 
Banner,(Me.,) replied, “in the spring, on the 
last snow,”—adding, that “if sown with the 
wheat in autumn, it will choke and injure 
the grain the next summer.” 
It may be. and unquestionably is true that 
grass seed sown in tho fall will somewhat 
crowd tho wheat, but our experience has 
been that it is safest and best to sow with 
tho wheat, giving each an equal chance, 
where tho object is to seed the land to grass. 
What is lost in the wheat crop is fully made 
up in grass, particularly in rich feed for tho 
cows after harvest. Where thero is a strong 
tendency to winter kill we have thought it 
served as an additional protection to tho 
wheat, and ensured a better crop. 
We should certainly differ with tho Edi¬ 
tor of the Banner about sowing seed upon 
tho snow, much preferring to have it fall on 
the ground. Snow in the course of events 
must melt off, and tho water, from the 
ground being previously surcharged with 
that clement, will run off in the ditchosand 
low places, carrying away much of the seed, 
as may readily bo seen by examining the 
deposit whero tho water runs into pools or 
into grass plats. Wo have known farmers 
to loose their seed nearly, when the field 
was on a side hill, and suffer more pecuni¬ 
arily than to have a portion of tho wheat 
choked by fall seeding. 
Farmers in New York have a hotter prac¬ 
tice of spring seeding, which may probably 
answer well for the meridian of Maine. — 
All plowed land is more or less affected by 
the action of frost, throwing it ifp in the 
form of a honey comb, long after the last 
snow of spring lias faded and gone. At 
this time we should sow grass seed, if sown 
in tho spring at all, sowing if possible while 
the ground was frozen, and as late in tho 
season as tho action of frost would render 
the land moro than usually porous. The 
seed drops into the holes, and is well cover¬ 
ed whon tho ground thaws and settles, with¬ 
out danger of being carried away by melt¬ 
ing snow or rain. 
We should also recommend going over 
•ho field with a heavy roller as soon as the 
ground was dry enough to bear the tread of 
the team. This will reset many roots of 
wheat thrown partly out by freezing and 
fully cover and help retain the seed, be¬ 
sides leaving the field smooth enough for 
.neadow, pressing the stones, except such as 
should be removed, below the surface of the 
ground, and out of the way of the scythe. 
Clover may bo sown with profit in the 
spring, upon tho frozen ground, but we have 
no experience in fall sowing it. Perhaps 
some of tho readers of the Rural cau irive I 
• ^ i 
as practical hints upon that point. t , 
WIRE FENCES.-AN EXPERIMENT. 
Messrs. Editors: —My farm being nearly j 
destitute of fencing materials, I have re- : 
contly tried wire for replacing worn-out : 
fences. While fixing on my plan, I read j 
tho articles which have appeared on the 
subject in the back volumes of tho Rural, ; 
and examined other books and papers.— 
Judge Osborne, of Albany, who has built 
several miles of this fence, also favored me 
with his advice, and I finally settled on a 
plan presented by Mr. Norcross. an inge¬ 
nious mechanic of Cicero, from whom I ob¬ 
tained much information on the subject. I 
lave erected eighty rods of wire fence the 
past soason, as follows : 
I sot my posts four rods apart, about as 
permanent as I would for a common board 
fence, and between the posts drivo down 
two small cedar stakes—this leaves a space 
letween tho stakes of twenty-two feet_ 
then in the middle of each space. I put 
•vhat I call an evener, that is a strip of board 
ibout an inch thick, three inches wide and 
ive feet long; tho edgo of the board sawed 
nto with a little saw made for the purpose, 
o as to let the wire in about ono inch, 
.vlioro it connects with a hole a little larger 
than tho wiro and about an inch above tho 
cut of tho saw. I fasten tho upper and 
lower end of the evener to its place with a 
small annealed wire. The first post must 
be large and set very permanent and well 
braced, and on this post place wheels turned 
out of almost any kind of wood, ono and a 
half inches thick, and in diameter sufficient¬ 
ly largo to spread the wire to such width as 
may bo deemed proper. This must depend 
in somo measure whether you reside in a 
respectable, law-abiding town, where they 
keep their cattle, hogs, &c., confined to their 
own premises, as they should, or whether 
you resklo in a lawless town or neighbor¬ 
hood, whero tho let them run at largo, as 
they should not. I commence by fastening 
the wire as high on tho first post as I wish 
to make tho fence, then take tho wire care- 
iully off the roll, and go about twenty-five 
rods to a kind of frame made of two posts, 
with wheels on, put the wire round the top 
wheel, and go back and forth till tho fence 
is as many wires high as may bo desirable. 
When I commenco stringing the wire, I 
put in my staples as I pass along; this 
keeps the wire up and makes it stretch more 
evenly. Thus you have twenty-five rods 
strung, but it should not be stretched tight 
until you put up as much more, and then 
when stretched it will pull both ways alike. 
In this manner you may go a thousand 
miles without a permanent post or frame, 
except at the beginning and end of the 
fence, 
I uso staples mado of wiro, No. 12, which 
may be drove into cedar posts or stakes 
without boring, by flattening the ends a 
little with a hammer—any man can make 
ten or twelve hundred staples in a day.— 
My fence is six strands high, but it should 
be seven for an outside or road fenco, and 
five for an inside fence. I commence string¬ 
ing my wire at the top, go down to within 
twelve or fifteon inches of the ground, and 
to fill up tho space below, I plow two or 
three furrows on each side—if sod, pitch it 
under the fence with a barley fork—follow 
with a shovel and throw up tho loose dift, 
bringing it up to a ridge under the wire ; this 
makes a kind of ditch on each side, and 
prevents sheep, hogs, &c., from going under, 
and also gives notice to horses and cattle 
that there is something in the way of then- 
progress ; besides it makes it quite difficult 
for them to get over. 
I used charcoal wire No. 8; of this it 
takes five bundles for forty rods, six strands 
high, (a bundle weighs 63 lbs.) My wire 
cost six cents a pound, but I cannot say 
that it is any better than the common wire 
which costs from 4J to 5 cents. My fence 
cost about 54 cents a rod. A good, substan¬ 
tial wire fence, seven wires high, may bo 
built in most localities for 60 cents a rod, 
and I think it will last three times as long 
as a rail fence. I painted my fence with 
red lead and oil. I took a piece of soft 
sponge dipped in the paint, and went along 
at the rate of eighty rods a day; it took five 
lbs. of red lead and two quarts of oil. Mr. 
Norcross has a plan for fastening the ends 
of wire together; he turns them up a quar¬ 
ter of an inch—puts them in a mould made 
for tho purpose, and runs in melted zinc, 
which makes it stronger than any other 
part of tho wire. Mr. N. has an application 
betoro tho Patent Office now pending, to 
securo a right for this and other parts of 
his plan. 
I made my fence partly as an experiment, 
with a view of preventing snow drifts in tho 
road, which fills up every winter so as to 
prevent passing with teams. That my fence 
is anything like perfect, I do not pretend, 
but I think it far the best plan that has 
coino to my knowledge, and with my pres¬ 
ent views I shall adopt wiro fenco as the 
best and cheapest I can build. 
A. Eastwood. 
Cicero, Onondaga Co., Nov., 1852. 
Jefferson says, cultivators of the earth 
are the most valuable citizens. Thoy are 
tho most independent, tho most virtuous, 
and they are tied to their country and wed- 
dod to its liberty and interest, by tho most 
lasting bonds. 
CANADA WEST: 
Its Scenery — Climate — Soil — Productions. 
Mr. Editor : — I have just returned from 
a ramblo on the mountain, which lies south 
west of Hamilton city, and overlooks Bur¬ 
lington Bay and a wide stretch of country 
in almost all directions. Repairing to the 
Mountain View House, I inquired at the bar 
for the landlord, and was told by a red, tho’ 
not oxactly “rosy” cheeked miss, who stood 
within the inclosure, that she would act in 
that capacity, and desired to know what I 
would have. Telling her I wished to visit 
the observatory at the top of the house, and 
asking the price of such a privilege, she re¬ 
plied that thero were no charges if I drank 
at tho bar. I was, at first, tempted to ask 
for a glass of water, but thinking such a 
joke would ho too dry for her appreciation, I 
handed her a piece of silver sufficient to 
pass a trio through tho bar preliminaries, 
and hoping to obtain its worth in the juice 
of an autumnal landscape, I took the key 
and climbed like tho unmentionable and as¬ 
piring animal which Burns addressed on the 
misses’ bonnet. 
— Well, really, the finest view in Canada 
West, of which I have any knowledge, is 
within fifteen minutes’ walk from the cen¬ 
tre of tho city of Hamilton. There i 3 a 
gradual riso, as you approach tho suburbs, 
and when a little more than half a mile 
from King street, you commence climbing a 
declivitous ridge of the mountain, which is 
done by stairs on the most direct street, or by 
a semi-circular sweep of one less direct.— 
When fairly up, table lands stretch in rich¬ 
ness and beauty, to the south and west;— 
Hamilton, with its 14,112 inhabitants, spreads 
with geometrical nicety, at your feet; Dun- 
das, five miles to the north-west, is dimly seen 
through the smoke of her furnaces and 
other machine shops; Burlington Bay sleeps 
in loveliness, a heavy gun shot off at the 
north, walled in partly by the Heights of tho 
same name; Wellington Square, eight miles 
distant, at tho north-east, peers modestly 
out from the lako shore; Oakville lies elev¬ 
en miles beyond; Toronto, in a clear day, 
is faintly descried, forty-five miles off, and 
the beautiful Ontario, with its white sails and 
furrowing steamers, draws tho eye eastward, 
and usually courts the longest, most admi¬ 
ring gaze. 
To-day, and, indeed, through all this 
month, the most attractive object here, is 
the forest which crowns the mountain 
heights. Nowhere, probably in the tem¬ 
perate climate of North America, is a wood¬ 
land prospect in Autumn more gorgoous 
than in Canada; and nature in these parts 
never wore a richer dress than she has on 
to-day. The frost has thoroughly finished 
its matchless coloring process; tho leaves, 
still clinging to their natal location, seem 
literally myriad-hued, and nothing of which 
I can conceive, surpasses the splendor of 
the scene. The prevailing tinge is light red, 
which impresses the retina as the eye sweeps 
over the landscape, and tho wholo sylvan 
district seems to have been sprinkled from 
the wine-press of heaven. Such was tho 
appearance of things as I stood an hour 
since on tho Mountain View House, and saw 
the sun bury himself in the western forest; 
and tho scene will be ono of the last of the 
kind to fade from memory. 
Having hinted at the scenery of Canada 
West, I will proceed to speak, in fow 
words, of the climate, soil, and productions 
of this part of the Province. Thero is no 
doubt but tho climate has been slandored. 
In childhood 1 was led to regard Canada as 
an “ awful cold place ; ” nor woro my views 
of the country completely corrected until I 
visited it, and in fact, repeated my visits.— 
Portions of Canada—the extreme northern 
parts — are no doubt very cold, but the 
greater part of tho western division, is not 
only comfortable, but absolutely delightful. 
The country lying along the northern shore 
of lako Ontario, and all the vast district 
hedged in by lakes Erie, Ontario and Hu¬ 
ron, (called by some writers tho Western 
Peninsula of Canada) is as mild, I should 
think, as Northern New York or Northern 
