'""VU' 
- -- 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
YOL IX. NO. U 
u PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1858, 
I WHOLE NO. 120. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed n 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his personal atten¬ 
tion to the supervision of its various departments, and earnestly labors 
to render the Rural an eminently Reliable Guide on the important 
Practical, Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected with the 
business of those whose interests it jealously advocates. It embraces 
more Agricultural. Horticultural, Scientific, Educational. Literary and 
News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful Engravings, 
than any other journal,—rendering it the most complete Agricultu¬ 
ral Literary and Family Journal in America. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS i 
Pro?. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, 
T. & ARTHUR, 
Miss E. C. HUNTINGTON, 
Lt. M. F. MAURY, 
H. T. BROOKS, 
Mrs. M. J. HOLMES, 
Miss C. A. HOWARD. 
JENNY MARSH PARKER. 
AH communications, and business letters, should be addressed 
to D, D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
wJB 
THE SOIL. 
CLASSIFICATION OK SOILS. 
In our last article under this title we urged the 
importance of understanding the nature of the 
soils we cultivate, and endeavored to give some 
general idea of their character and formation. We 
now purpose to continue the subject and to treat 
particularly of the Classification of Roils. It is 
somewhat difficult to arrange the various soils into 
a few classes, from the fact that while they range 
from the stiffest clay to sand, and the difference 
from these extremes is great, it is made by such 
short steps, that no distinct line of demarcation is 
to be found. And yet the arrangement of soils in¬ 
to classes is necessary, as without it a great deal 
that is written on agricultural subjects would be al¬ 
most useless, for it has been well said, “ the terms 
used to "describe the circumstances of soil, Ac., un¬ 
der which any agricultural experience arose must 
be understood, or the record of that experience is 
utterly useless, whether for guidance or warning.” 
Scores of experiments reported in the Agricultural 
Journals that should have conveyed valuable in¬ 
formation, have not only been useless, but have 
sadly misled the readers, from want of knowledge 
of the character of the soil on which they were 
tried. A practice that would be proper on a heavy 
clay soil, we need not tell our readers would be 
often ruinous on a sandy loam. 
Soils are classified according to the preponder¬ 
ance of one of their principal constituents. For 
instance, soils are generally composed of a mixture 
of sand and gravel, clay, lime, and vegetable and 
animal remains, (humus). Most soils contain all 
of these, but in different proportions, and a 
natural division is therefore founded on the pre¬ 
ponderance of these four constituents. A soil is 
called Sandy when it contains a large portion of 
sand, eighty per cent; Clayey when containing 
more than fifty per cent of clay; Calcareous, when 
having more than twenty per cent of lime; Veget¬ 
able tnoulds when containing more than six per 
cent of organic matter; Loam, in which there is 
supposed to be a very desirable combination of 
sand, clay and vegetable mould. These are the prin¬ 
cipal divisions, but there are other minor ones in 
common use among agriculturists and agricultural 
writers. A loamy soil is called clay loam, when clay 
predominates, though not sufficiently so to consti¬ 
tute it a clay soil, sandy loam, when sand predomi¬ 
nates, gravelly loam, when small stones are pretty 
freely mixed with the soil. The Vegetable mould is 
called Peaty, when it is composed principally of 
mould from decayed marsh plants, in low wet 
places. A soil is called marly when it contains 
lime, say more than five per cent., but not enough 
to class it with calcareous soils, and clay, but not 
sufficient to call it a clay soil; it is about such a 
soil as would be made by a mixture of the calcare- 
bus and clay soils, in equal portions. 
SANDY SOILS. 
I hese are of a loose, friable character, are easily 
worked, and for that reason are cultivated with less 
expense than more stubborn soils. Some sandy 
soils are almost hopelessly barren, being nearly 
destitute of vegetable matter, and when to this is 
added another difficulty in the shape of a loose 
gravelly subsoil, they are very difficult to improve- 
as the valuable parts of all manure applied are wash¬ 
ed away with every heavy shower. Such soils are 
very appropriately called hungry, from their ten¬ 
dency to eat up manures without any correspond¬ 
ing benefit to the land. There are a better class of 
sandy soils, containing lime, vegetable matter, Ac., . 
which are more fertile. 
Any sandy soil that will grow clover can be easily 
and cheaply improved. Clay, ashes, marl, anything 
that will render it more retentive, is of course val¬ 
uable, hut for improving a sandy soil we would rely 
principally upon repeated manurings with the 
clover crop. Plaster and clover are the great im¬ 
provers of light soils. The books all tell us that 
crops in dry land suffer from drouth. It is well 
known that water passes rapidly through sand. A 
sandy soil will hold only about half as much water 
as a clay soil. If one hundred pounds of clay loam 
be dried thoroughly, and water is poured upon it, 
it will absorb from fifty to sixty pounds according 
to the proportion of clay, before it begins to drop. 
One hundred pounds of sandy soil, dried in the 
same manner, will only absorb from twenty-five to 
thirty pounds. This shows very plainly that during 
rains much more water is held by a clay than a 
sandy soil, subject to the demands of growing 
crops. From this fact it is very natural to argue 
that in a dry time vegetation would suffer most in 
sandy ground. It is this power of holding water 
that makes clay colder than sandy soils, as a greater 
quantity of heat is expended in changing the wa¬ 
ter into vapor. 
Soils absorb moisture from the atmosphere, and 
it has been found by experiment that a heavy soil 
absorbs much more than a light one, other things 
being equal. The moisture in the atmosphere is 
condensed by any cold substance, as a pitcher con¬ 
taining cold water, or by the surface of the ground 
or growing plants, in the form of dew. The cold, 
clay soil, will therefore condense much more than 
a warm sandy soil. This would also seem to imply 
that heavy soils are the most favorable in a drouth. 
And yet, facts do not appear to justify such conclu¬ 
sions. We have closely watched the effects of ex¬ 
cessive drouth and its opposite on different soils, 
the past four seasons. The summer of 1854 and 
! 5G were extremely dry, so that crops suffered in 
itiosi. localities. I lie summers of 1865 ami ’57 werC 
very wet Nowhere did we see such fine crops, 
especially of corn and potatoes, during these dry 
seasons as on the light lands, and so little apparent 
injury from drouth. Heavy soils we found, in 
many cases, in 185G, to be dry as powder ten or 
twelve inches below the surface, while on the 
sandy soil the ground would be quite moist three 
or four inches down. On heavy soils the injury 
from drouth was far more serious. In the wet sea¬ 
son, although the crops on the sandy land did not 
suffer, perhaps, as much as on those that were 
heavier, yet the injury was very apparent. The 
farmers on the light lands in this section say, give 
us good, hot, dry summers. 
Now, let us look at the philosophy of this a little. 
Heavy soils have great power of absorbing and re¬ 
taining water, yet they are adhesive and impene¬ 
trable, and a great portion of the water falling 
upon them runs off the surface, by surface drains 
into creeks and rivers, while in the sandy soil it 
passes rapidly through to the subsoil, where it is 
held, if the under soil is at all retentive in its na¬ 
ture. A heavy soil, under ordinary culture, is 
never finely pulverized, a sufficient depth, so that 
in a dry time it is almost impossible for the moist¬ 
ure to be drawn from below by capillary attraction, 
while in the light lands every thing is favorable to 
the process. The light soil is also more open to 
the effects of the atmosphere which can permeate 
through it, leaving a portion of its moisture, as it 
would of course do, in coming in contact with the 
colder earth. Although more dew is condensed 
on the surface of clay soils, we think the effect is 
not as beneficial as the less quantity on the lighter, 
as from its imperviousness the moisture may re¬ 
main on the surface to be dissipated by the first 
rays of the morning sun_In our next, we will 
notice other varieties of soil. 
UNPRODUCTIVE vs. WELL-TILLED FAEMS. 
A worn out and unproductive farm, like a bloated 
drunkard, is an unpleasant spectacle to look upon ; but a 
well-tilled homestead, like a robust, healthy, temperate 
man, standing in his meridian strength, is one of the 
most agreeable objects that can meet the eye._ News 
Letter. 
Some one has said that he who wrote three lines 
conveying a great truth, has lived to some purpose. 
If this be true, and who will doubt it, the author of 
our text cannot say that life to him was vain. It 
is a fact, though some do not seem to appreciate it, 
"‘that a worn out and unproductive farm is an un¬ 
pleasant spectacle.” The passer-by sees nothing 
but want and misery exhibited in its every feature 
— poor animals, poor crops, poor fences, and, the 
result of all, poor pockets. The owner and super- 
* utendent of such a possession is, according to Eng¬ 
land’s greatest poet, poor indeed. His “purse is 
trash,” and it would be utterly impossible to “filch 
a good name” out of an army of such skinners, not 
tillers of the soil. 
The principle of “everything for itself” seems to 
the presiding genius of all farms that are worn out 
and unproductive, — in other words, if labor is at 
all bestowed, tha prese7it fills the eye of the farmer. 
Everything that can be got out of the soil now, is 
the motto, and each year exhibits a loss in the con¬ 
stituents of the soil, and consequent diminished pro¬ 
duce. To present a larger balance of the year’s 
operations, the entire crops are sold, cattle drove 
to the market, the manure, or materials to make it, 
disposed of—all is carried away, and a few dollars 
and cents stand representatives of vigor, health, 
more still, the very life of the land. Is it any won¬ 
der that “ a worn-out, unproductive farm is an un¬ 
pleasant spectacle?” 
In addition to the injury one of this class of 
farms works to its possessor, it is a damage to the 
entire township in which it is located. Let the 
next farm belong to a man known and proved to be 
a thorough progressionist—one who delights in 
having all things ship-shape—one who, if he courts 
anything, most desires the proud title of “thebest 
farmer in that section”—and does not the slovenly 
habits of his neighbor work to his pecuniary and 
moral detriment A pebble cast into the lake, it is 
said creates an influence felt upon the farthest 
shore, and the acts of the careless and negligent, 
though the agency that gave them birth may seem 
weak and worthless, still have their effect and work 
out their mission. Poor, insignificant, helpless as 
any man may be, he still exerts an influence —good 
or evil will result from the mere fact of his having 
been, if from nothing else. Who will estimate the 
evil arising from the thistle crop that ripened upon 
such a man’s farm last season, and on the wings of 
the wind bore back-aclies and heart-aches through 
the whole country? And then, the list of graces, 
fruits of a pure spirit, instead of flourishing in such 
a vicinity, are apt to be smothered in the weeds of 
passion, or choked by unkindly feelings. It was 
not of such a calling that Cowper sang: 
“ Friendly to the best pursuits of man, 
Friendly to thought, to virtue and to peace, 
Domestic life, in rural pleasure passed.” 
The children of the shiftless farmer are general¬ 
ly those who loudcxfc-.^w nlain about the dullness 
and dreariness oi aToumry life, and who sigh for 
a city home with its artificialities. Nor is such an 
affection for the far-off and the untried unreasona¬ 
ble. What is there in such a spot worthy of love? 
—what that stirs the deep fount of feeling at leav¬ 
ing the parental roof ?—what that in after years 
will cause memory to revert with pleasure to the 
scenes of childhood? To the youth especially 
should the farm be rendered pleasing. If it be the 
field of their toil, it also should be the scene of 
their joys. What is a balance in bank, money in 
band, or great pecuniary reward, when compared 
with the centering of the affections of the children 
around the “old homestead?” Nothing, infinitely 
nothing. Most farmers desire to have their sons 
and daughters grow up with a love for rural life, 
and to prevent even a desire for other pursuits and 
other scenes from being harbored by the young, 
will depict the crime and vice of the city, its snares 
and pitfalls; but the very measure, and the only 
one, that will win them to calm delights is totally 
overlooked. The whole secret is combined in the 
three words— make home happy. 
To attain this end the farmer must be progressive, 
and under the influence of the spirit thus awakened 
will spring up dwellings, convenient and beautiful, 
adorned with the myriad decorations which Nature 
almost places within our hands—trees, shrubs and 
flowers. And when the tenement has become a 
home, abroad, across the fields and along the fences, 
and among the barns and out-houses, will be visi¬ 
ble signs of improvement—the “worn-out and un¬ 
productive farm,” with its “ unpleasant” sights, will 
be metamorphosed into the “well tilled homestead,” 
not only “an agreeable object to the eye,” but a 
stirring, truthful lesson to be known and read of 
all men. 
THE POTATO: 
NATURAL HISTORY AND CULTIVATION. 
T H E AQUARIUM. 
The botanical name of the potato is Solanum 
tuberosum. This term is said to have been first 
given by Gerard, an old English Botanist, who, in 
his Herbal, published in 1597, has given a plate of 
the plant, and named it “Solaitum tuberosum — the 
Virginia potato.” 
In the natural system of Botany, it is placed in 
the 46th order, among the solanacea or Nightshades. 
Of these Doctor Lindlky says :—“They are all 
more or less poisonous; even those which are food, 
like the potato, have their share of deleterious 
matter, but not in the parts which are eaten. The 
leaves and stems of the potato have sometimes 
proved fatal to sheep. 
The geographical distribution of the potato may 
be confined to the gigantic mountain-ranges of 
Peru and Chili, but the industry and enterprise of 
man have spread it over the face of the earth.— 
Humboldt, the Prussian philosopher, says :—“ The 
cultivation of the potato has become common in 
New Zealand and Japan, in the Island of Java, in 
the Boutan and in Bengal. Its cultivation extends 
from the extremity of Africa to Labrador, Iceland 
and Lapland. It is a very interesting spectacle, to 
see a plant descended from the mountains under 
the Lquator, advance toward the Pole, and resist 
better than the cereal gramina, all the colds of the 
North.” Potatoes are natives of Peru and Chili — 
In the last volume of the Rural (Oct. 24th) we 
gave some remarks on Aquariums, iu answer to a 
correspondei-it, and recommended such plants as 
would be useful for this purpose. Since that 
time we have examined the beautiful Aquariums in 
the American Museum, New York, and have also 
been furnished with an account of that at the Smith¬ 
sonian Institute, Washington. In the Museum the 
Aquariums arc large glass tanks, some of them 
filled with fresh water, in which are grown the 
plants, such as abound in our ponds, and such fish 
as v e find in our fresh waters. Others are filled 
with salt water, and in these sport fishes from the 
briny deep, apparently as much at ease as if in 
their ocean home. The Washington Union thus 
speaks of the Aquarium at the Smithsonian Insti¬ 
tute—“The Aquarium is simply a glass tank, erect¬ 
ed on a table, and filled with sea water, in which 
flourish marine plants and animals without any aid, 
or even changing the water. The bottom of the 
Smithsonian Aquarium is an imitation of the bot¬ 
tom of the sea, composed of silver sand, coarse 
sand and pebbles. In the centre is a mass of 
rock, giving shelter and a hiding-place to such 
animals as like concealment, while jotted about are 
growing specimens of fuci and algie. In this mini¬ 
ature ocean cave are about three hundred speci¬ 
mens of animal vitality, belonging to some thirty- 
eight species of fishes, molluscie, crustaca; and 
they are still found in these countries in their 
natural state, with leaves much smaller than those 
of the cultivated plant, white blossoms, and small, 
ill-flavored tubers. 
Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes into 
Ireland in 1584. He had planted a colony in 
Virginia, by patent from Queen Elizabeth, and 
some of his followers found the potato used as an 
edible root among the natives of that country. Sir 
Walter planted a few tubers in his garden at 
Youghal, in the County of Cork, and from these 
sprung all the potatoes of Europe. In Ireland the 
cultivation oi the potato was for a long time con¬ 
fined to gardens, but its valuable properties becom¬ 
ing known, it soon spread over the Island, and was 
exported to foreign countries. 
In 1650, a vessel freighted with potatoes sailed 
from Dublin for London, but was driven by stress 
of weather into Formsby, in Lancashire, where the 
cargo was discharged, and Lancashire was the 
first county of England in which potatoes were 
cultivated, and it is famous at the present day for 
its excellent crops of this valuable root. 
A physician named Charles DeL’Ecluse, in¬ 
troduced potatoes into Flanders and Belgium in 
1660; but their excellence as an article of food was 
not at first sufficiently appreciated, and they only 
reached the gardens of Bruges in 1704, at which 
time a landed propretor of the name of Vkrhulst 
distributed a large quantity of them gratis—this 
caused their rapid and extensive cultivation among 
the gardeners and farmers of Belgium. They were 
introduced into Scotland about 1720. The conti¬ 
nent of North America is said to have been 
originally supplied from Peru. Having seen that 
polypes. Some of these burrow in the sand, or 
modestly hide among the pebbles; others, like the 
hermit crabs, having taken possession of vacant 
suits of submarine armor, flourish about bellige¬ 
rently, ready for a fight. Some are perfectly trans¬ 
parent, like animated particles of jelly; others are 
enshrined in their shells. The curious “horse- 
fish” paddles about with his filmy dorsal fin; and a 
lethargic clam protrudes its siphons, enveloped in 
a shaggy fringe; a solitary flounder was evidently 
annoyed when rooted out, and immediately bur¬ 
rowed himself again in the sand; while two pug¬ 
nacious crabs fought gallantly over an amphitrite 
auricoma, which had been obligingly sacrificed that 
we might see its golden combs.” 
In England small tanks for aquariums are man¬ 
ufactured and kept for sale, and they are found in 
the parlors of most persons of taste. Quite a 
“fever” is getting up on this matter, which is 
spreading over Europe, and we see strong symp¬ 
toms of it in this country. In a few years we ex¬ 
pect to see these parlor aquariums as common as 
bird cages now are. Certainly much instruction 
and pleasure is to be derived from the opportunity 
they afford of studying the habits of curious plants 
and insects and fishes. Our engraving shows a 
section of a fresh water aquarium, containing Min¬ 
nows, the Perch, Tench, Roach, and Pike, or Pick¬ 
erel, as it is commonly called here. 
the potato had its origin among the volcanic val- 
lies and recesses of the Andes, we have traced the 
manner of its introduction as a cultivated plant, and 
we will now describe the most approved modes of 
cultivation. The largest and best crops of potatoes 
have always been raised from new land, that is land 
recently broken up out of grass, but the tillage 
should be deep, and the field should be plowed for a 
considerable time previous to planting, in order that 
the roots of the grasses may be perfectly decayed. 
Parallel drains, three feet deep, according to the 
Deanslore system, witli subsoil plowing across the 
drains, are of the greatest service in potato culture, 
as this species of crops delights in a dry, friable 
soil, and cannot thrive in land saturated with water; 
at the same time a certain degree of moisture is 
highly essential to their success. Land intended 
for potatoes should be deeply plowed in the fall; 
and if it lie in grass, the paring plow should be 
used, and the grass completely covered. In spring, 
the plow, drag and roller should be as early 
in the field as the weather will permit; the land 
should be well cleaned, and completely pulverized, 
before the sets are planted. 
Drills should be made three feet apart, and the 
sets should be planted one foot asunder in the 
drills—if whole tubers are planted, they should 
have a wider space, say 18 inches, between them. 
Drills are preferable to hills for several reasons: 
in drill culture the greatest part of the operations 
can be performed with the plow, which insures 
greater despatch in getting in and taking out the 
crop. The sets are placed at a uniform depth, and 
distance apart, and thus each plant enjoys an equal 
proportion of earth, sun and air, which is not the 
