TWO DO LEARS A YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS 
AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
vol. vm. NO. U 
ROCHESTER, N. Y„- 
SATURDAY, JANUARY %, ill58. 
{WHOLE NO. Wl. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A.V 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 in 
Value, Purity. Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes bis 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 zealously 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: 
Prof. C. DEWEY, Lt. M. F. MAURY, 
T C. PETERS, II. T. BROOKS, 
T. S ARTHUR Mrs. M. J. HOLMES, 
Miss E. C. HUNTINGTON, Miss C. A HOWARD. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
VOLUME IX - INTRODUCTORY. 
The Rural New-Yorker enters upon its Ninth 
Year and Volume under most favorable auspices, 
and with the assurance of achieving far greater 
circulation and usefulness than either of its prede¬ 
cessors. In presenting the initial number, we ex¬ 
tend a cordial greeting to the numerous long-tried 
friends who have so promptly renewed their fellow¬ 
ship with the Rural, and a right hearty welcome 
to the thousands who now, for the first time, invite 
its weekly visits to their firesides. To the former— 
those who have known and read the Rural for 
years— we have only to say that what this journal 
has been in the Past, it will be in all essential fea¬ 
tures, in the Future, with such improvements as 
we trust will make it still more acceptable and val¬ 
uable to themselves and their families. Knowing 
the earnestness and constancy of our labors hereto¬ 
fore— that we have ever striven to imbue the con¬ 
tents of the Rural with the true spirit of “Pro¬ 
gress and Improvement,” Physical, Mental and 
Moral — we are confident they require no special 
assurances in regard to its future management. 
Neither do we consider it necessary to make any 
extravagant promises to the thousands whom we 
now have the pleasure of addressing for the first 
time as genuine RuRAL-ists — those who have 
recently become Subscribers. Suffice it that our 
honest endeavor will he to return far more than 
“value received” for their investment— to furnish 
from week to week, such a journal as shall prove 
eminently Instructive, Entertaining and Valuable— 
such an one as will enhance the interests and pro¬ 
mote the welfare of Individuals, Families and Com¬ 
munity, without proving detrimental to the Taste, 
Mind or Morals of the most correct and fastidious. 
As we have said on a similar occasion, our object 
from the commencement of the Rural New- 
Yorker has not been to furnish either an Agricultu¬ 
ral, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary 
or News journal,—but rather to combine all these, and 
thus present a paper unequaled in Value, Variety 
and Usefulness of Contents. Our earnest desire 
has ever been to make it an honest, independent, 
reliable and eminently useful Rural, Literary 
and Family Newspaper —correct in its teachings 
on Practical Subjects, instructive and entertaining 
to members of the Family Circle, of high moral 
tone, and entirely free from deception and quackery 
even in its advertising department. 
— With this brief salutation we enter upon the 
arduous and responsible labors and duties of the 
New Year and Volume, determined to discharge 
them with fidelity to our readers and the public. 
THE FINANCIAL PRESSURE: 
WHAT WILL BE ITS EFFECT ON AGRICULTURE? 
BY LIEUT. M. F. MAURY. 
Things apparently the most remote, are often¬ 
times found to he most intimately and closely con¬ 
nected. Thus in the physical world we not ’.infre¬ 
quently find the Botanist and the Geologist, the 
Astronomer and the Geographer, the Chemist and 
the Meteorologist all marching along in the same 
walk, and shaking hands together over facts and 
phenomena that are common to all. And so, too, 
in the social world, the success of one individual 
pursuit, the prosperity of one branch of business, 
touches more or less closely many interests. What 
though the farmer and the stock-jobber have appa¬ 
rently nothing to do with each other, yet we see 
after certain hounds are passed that relations do ex¬ 
ist which being touched involve the welfare of both. 
What though the farmer has had nothing to do 
in bringing about these “tight times;” still, being 
here, he has to deal with them, and will have much 
to do in helping to drive them away. The times 
grow “tight”—spindles are stopped, looms are 
hushed, and the fires in many a forge and ftiruace 
are quenched, but the farmer and all his force works 
on. In this aspect there is a great difference be¬ 
tween Agriculture and all other industrial pursuits. 
Already we hear of working men being thrown 
out of employment by the thousand. They come 
from all the industrial pursuits of the country, save 
only that of agriculture. Printers and tailors, 
operatives, merchants and sailors, have been de¬ 
prived of their wonted vocations, and ships, shops, 
and mines, in numbers are lying idle. The men 
whose daily labors have thus ceased are counted 
with their wifes and children by tens of thousands 
in New York city alone. The “tight times” have 
stopped all this work, but who ever heard of “ tight 
times” stopping a plow or causing a field to lie idle? 
In the hunger mobs of New York might be.fonnd 
representatives from every industrial pursuit, save 
only that of agriculture. Are we to infer from 
this that the agriculturist alone' is unaffected by 
the pressure? By no means. He feels it—and he 
has to work the country out of its straits, and it is 
well, therefore, that in the industrial economy 
neither his fields nor his hands arc required to he 
idle because money is scarce and “ times are hard.” 
The discovery of gold in California and Australia 
had an important effect upon agriculture, which it 
is well to notice. This discovery stimulated the 
human energies in a high degree—it gave incen¬ 
tives to ingenuity, and served wonderfully to pro¬ 
mote inventions, especially such as save labor; for 
in this progressive age the old notion that time is 
money became a “ fixed fact” 
The inventions and improvements that within the 
last ten years have been made among agricultural 
implements, the modes of tillage, &c., exceed those 
of any ten years, I might say of any generation, 
since Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden. 
To such an extent has the farmer been availing 
himself of this labor-saving machinery, that the 
Rural Population in many parts of the country has 
fallen far short of its natural ratio f increase—and 
still there has been no lack or falling off, but an in¬ 
crease of agricultural productions. The increase 
of population went to the towns, or to works of 
internal improvement, or to manufacturing, or to 
some other of those great industrial pursuits which 
are now suffering a paralysis. Still all of these in¬ 
creasing multitudes, wherever employed, have to 
be fed, and the labor of doing this devolves upon 
the agriculturist With fewer hands he raised 
larger crops. Thus while the producers were near¬ 
ly at a “ stand-still ” with regard to numbers, the 
consumers were largely on the increase. Labor- 
saving machinery and other improvements enabled 
the farmer to supply this increased demand upon 
his husbandry—an enhancement of prices followed 
as a matter of course under such circumstances, 
and the Value of breadstuffs ruled high—and the 
husbandman at last felt that his labor was well re¬ 
quited with highly remunerative prices. 
But notwithstanding pressures and panics, people 
must eat, and though there be just as many mouths 
to be filled in “ hard times ” as in “ flush ” it is by 
no means the same to the farmer. These laboring 
hands that have been thrown out of employment, 
will, when the Winter is over, seek occupa¬ 
tion in the cultivation of the soil; thus they will 
change their relations to the farmer: from con¬ 
sumers they will become producers, and the sur¬ 
plus produce of their labors will he offered also 
in th« same markets where the farmers are wont to 
sell. Thus they will become competitors instead 
of customers, and the prospects are that the prices 
of farm produce will rule low next year and the 
next, or even longer, unless the times should be so 
changed as to raise in the other industrial pursuits 
a demand by the spring for all the labor that was 
thrown out of employment in the fall. Then the 
produce of the soil will recover the highly remu¬ 
nerative prices from which it has fallen. 
But if this unemployed labor be not recalled to 
the shop, the ship or the mine—if it turn to the 
fields, it will seek employment in the Free States. 
Very little of it will go to the Slave States. More¬ 
over it is already domiciliated in the Free States— 
that circumstance of itself will tend to keep it 
there. Moreover the industrial pursuits of the 
Slave States have not been interrupted or suspended 
by the pressure, and there is no call for this ejected 
labor that way. Cotton, therefore, may he de¬ 
pressed for a while only, but of all the great staples 
of the country it will be the first to rally, and south¬ 
ern planters the first to recover. Those products, 
such as provisions and breadstuffs, which are com¬ 
mon to both Free and Slave States, will be slow in 
regaining the prices from which they have fallen; 
but naval stores, hemp and tobacco will not be much 
behind cotton in their time for a change of the tide. 
This whole question with all its ramifications is 
an interesting one to the farmer. To understand it 
we must consult the past as well as seek to pry into 
the future. We must pass in review not only what 
is going on about us in our own County, State and 
Nation, but we must take a glance also at affairs in 
foreign countries with which we have to do. I 
have sought at the best sources for information 
upon this subject, and among the letters which I 
have received, there is one which is so correct 
in its statistics and so instructive with the views it 
present®, that I am tempted to draw from it largely. 
It was written by a merchant whose opinions I of¬ 
ten consult—for I set great store by them. It is 
his opinion that the times will continue to mend in 
this country, and that they would mend much 
more rapidly if the banks of New York would bnt 
resume specie payment. They are abundantly able 
to do this to-morrow if they would—and they 
might have done it weeks ago. Every weekly 
statement of their condition for a month or more 
has shown them to be more and more to blame for 
the needless delay. [This article was written a few 
days before the N. Y. Banks resumed.—E d.] 
A year ago these banks were earning interest 
upon nearly 100 per cent, more securities than 
the amount of their capital; bnt now they are earn¬ 
ing dividends upon an amount hardly 50 per cent 
beyond it Nobody questioned their solvency a 
year ago, when their specie was hut half what it is 
now, and when the proportion thereof to their spe¬ 
cie liabilities, was much less than half the present 
proportion. Instant resumption of specie payment 
is thus demanded, alike by their duty to their stock¬ 
holders and a due regard for the welfare of the 
City and State, and of the whole Union. From the 
moment that they resumed,confidence would rapidly 
return, commerce would revive, new transactions 
would be entered into, old engagements would be 
more rapidly discharged, and last, but not least, 
thousands upon thousands of those now threatened 
or visited with starvation wonld find ample em¬ 
ployment without resorting to farm labor in the 
spring as many of them undoubtedly will if their 
former employers are kept down by the pressure. 
There would he little cause for complaint 
against your Banks, if there were any reason for 
supposing that it is inter,Jed to take advantage of 
this large accumulation of specie, to introduce any 
permanent safeguard against a recurrence of these 
suspensions of specie payment in New York and 
throughout the Union, which are the source of 
such frightful calamity and distress. New York is 
the centre of credit for the whole country, and if 
her Banks were but compelled by her laws each to 
hold in specie not less than one-third its specie lia¬ 
bilities it would matter little what legislation other 
States should adopt for their banks. If the heart is 
sound yon may he sure the circulation will be so too. 
The proportion of $1 in specie to $3 of liability 
was adopted in Louisiana in 1842, prior to the re¬ 
sumption of specie payments at New Orleans on 
1st January, 1843. It is still the law there, except 
in regard to the Free Banks, which came into ex¬ 
istence a few years ago. The circulation of these 
Free Banks is secured by State stocks: and altho’ 
these are required to be redeemed in specie at the 
counter, it is only for their deposits that these 
Banks are compelled to hold the proportion of $1 
to $3 in specie. This innovation was pernicious; 
and the best proof of this and of the excellence of 
the Law of 1842, is that after the recent suspension 
in New York, three out of the four chartered 
Banks at New Orleans, bnt only two out of their 
five Free Banks withstood the run, and that in the 
subsequent resumption of the four banks which 
then suspended, the one chartered hank resumed 
some weeks earlier than the three suspended Free 
Banks. But even these three last resumed a fort¬ 
night ago, whilst tha New York Banks still re¬ 
main suspended! 
This plan of investing State Banks with the attri¬ 
butes of specie is very objectionable, for it is incor¬ 
rect in principle, and it is no check whatever upon 
over expansion of Banks in a large City, the great 
mass of whose liabilities is usually in the form of 
deposits, whilst the banks in the midst of a rural 
population usually owe far more in the form of cir¬ 
culation. The pretext is that the note-holder ought 
to be paid first; but whether this be correct in prin¬ 
ciple or not, it is sufficient if we secure both notes 
and deposits, without (.istinction, to the degree of 
one-third specie; and then there would never be 
any serious danger of oss upon either. This Lou¬ 
isiana law, is on the while, preferable to Sir Robert 
Peel’s Bills of 1844, which take no cognizance of 
of deposits, and merriy provide security for the 
notes of the Bank of England, and allot a fixed sum 
for the issues of every other Bank in the United 
Kingdom. At any rat 5 the Louisiana principle can 
readily he introduced in any part of this country: 
whereas the introduetbn of Peel’s principle could 
only be brought about by the General Government. 
Mr. Benton has wri ten an interesting letter on 
these subjects, addressed to the editors of the 
“National Intelligencer,” in which he makes a 
mistake. Whilst advo ating a stamp duty on Bank 
Notes, he says that in Great Britain these stamped 
notes are never re-issiwl. Now the fact is just the 
reverse in regard to all the notes that are stamped. 
The Bank of England r otes are not re-issued: when 
you present them for specie at the issuing depart¬ 
ment, (where alone th< f are redeemed in coin,) the 
signature is torn off before your face. But the Notes 
of the Bank of England rave always been wn-stamped, 
and exempt from stamp duty. 
[Concluded next week.] 
& |i®j Iwk . -i&M. 
A MODEL FARM HOUSE. 
We have selected the above design from Villages 
and Cottages, by Calvert Vaux, because it has 
several features that please us. The exterior is 
simple in its design, and yet somewhat picturesque. 
It does not abound with corners or gables. It 
seems to be a good, honest house, making no at¬ 
tempt to conceal the fact that it is a plain, rectan¬ 
gular building. Then it is so arranged as to give 
the greatest amount of room for the cost, by the 
adoption of the basement and attic. We are not 
much in favor of basements for country houses, 
where land is cheap, but we cannot deny the fact 
that this the cheapest way to get the needed room. 
We have not for a long time given a plan of a 
house witlria basement, and as there are some po¬ 
sitions, particularly on side hills, where basements 
are desirable, many of our readers, we have no 
doubt, will be glad to see a good basement plan.— 
This house, too, is intended either for wood, stone, 
or brick, hut we like the material proposed by the 
architect, which is rough blue or brown stone, in 
small pieces about the size of a man’s two hands; 
well fitted together and grouted with mortar as the 
work proceeds, leaving a tolerably regular surface 
on the front, all the angles of the building and the 
dressings of doors and windows, being of fair red 
brick judiciously disposed. The mortar used in the 
walls should have about one-eighth cement mixed 
with the lime, to give a brown tinge throughout, 
both to the stone and brick work. Where stone is 
abundant this must make a very cheap as well as a 
substantial and beautiful building. The use of 
small stone with the brown mortar in this way pos¬ 
sesses several advantages. When large stone is 
used, the brick work looks mean and unsubstantial 
in comparison, but not so when the stones are 
small and the work rough. When the corners and 
openings are trimmed with dressed stone the ex' 
pense is great, and there is nothing to relieve the 
dull monotony of color; and when white mortar is 
used the joints are too prominent. 
The outside wood-work of such a house should 
be finished of a rich brown color, either by oiling, 
or painting, and with running roses, hone) suckles 
and creepers covering the walls, the effect would 
he most agreeable. Such a house situated upon a 
nicely kept lawn, surrounded with nicely kept trees 
and shrubs, wonld leave but little to be desired of 
the architect or builder making a pleasant and 
tasteful home. 
C l N I S C ROOM 
PARLOUR ^ll 
r s 
PRINCIPAL FLOOR. 
In describing the interior arrangements, we copy 
the details from the work of the architect. The 
plan of principal floor shows an entrance-porch 
and small hall, in which are hat and cloak closets. 
All the family accommodation provided on this 
floor is a parlor communicating with a dining¬ 
room, and both opening on to a wide verandah.— 
The parlor has a large bay projection, with 
seat round it, and the dining room is fitted up with 
a hook-case, a side-board recess, and connects with 
a roomy pantry, in which is a lift, L, a sink, S, a 
china-closet a row of shelves, and a hanging table- 
The dining-room also communicates with a garden 
entrance-lobby, fitted up with a wash-stand and 
connecting with a water closet. The staircase-hall 
is shut off from the main hall, and the basement 
staircase, opening on to the pantry, is partitioned 
off from the principal staircase; thus all necessary 
privacy is insured. 
The basement plan explains itself, cellarage be¬ 
ing obtained by excavating under the veranda. 
The chamber plan supplies a family bedroom, with 
dressing-room, largo 
J p i: a V L ^"'5^ closets, and hath - room 
I attached; it also con- 
JL ‘ El nects with a small bed- 
r^W»SHROOMlK,C«.f> room that haa an en . 
t KTRtl! ['c"|tAu-Tirf > Tj\ kj trance from the hall. A 
water-dosetis provided 
close to the bath-room; 
and one other guest’s bedroom, and a linen-room 
under the roof of pantry building completes the 
accommodation on this floor. In the attic are two 
good bedrooms, a store-closet, and a large garret 
Another bedroom might he finished off, if preferred. 
The wooden outside porch is proposed to he fin¬ 
ished with an open timber roof, the rafters being 
planed smooth and chamfered on the edge, and the 
boarding being matched and beaded. Provision 
is also made here for fitting sashes in the panels, 
and for hanging an outer door when required.— 
Such a porch should be paved in preference to 
being boarded, and as permanent seats are planned 
on each side, and the projection from the house is 
ten feet, an arrangement of this sort will be found 
by the inmates a very tolerable substitute for a 
veranda when the sun is shining on the opposite 
side of the house. 
The large bay projection in the parlor is proposed 
to be constructed of the same materials as the walls 
of the house, with three sash-windows fitted into it. 
The ceiling is intended to be of the same height as 
the room, and to have a balcony over it accessible 
from the chamber above. By finishing the bay pro¬ 
jection without an interior arch, the apartment will 
be much increased in apparent dimensions, as the 
eye is naturally apt to judge of the size of a room 
by the boundary lines of the cornice. There are 
several methods of treating such an arrangement 
of a bay projection in a satisfactory manner inter¬ 
nally. 
The other living-room, which should he library 
and dining-room in one, might appropriately be 
finished with Georgia pine, unpainted, and a mould¬ 
ed skirting, or wainscoting, about two feet three 
inches high round the sides, would connect the 
various openings together in an agreeable and not 
very expensive manner. 
Such a house as this could be fairly built for 
S3,000, with a simple internal finish. So says the 
architect, and we have learned that Mr. Vaux is 
very careful in his estimates, and unless changes 
are made while his buildings are being erected, they 
seldom exceed the estimated cost 
WASTE IN FEEDING STOCK. 
Dr. Wayi.and has written a work upon the 
‘ Limitations of Human Responsibility,” in which 
he assures us northerners that the southern negroes 
don’t belong to us to look after so much as some 
of ns had supposed. However that may be, there 
is no such limit to “ human responsibility” as that 
any man may he improvident and wasteful, even in 
his own mutters, and yet be guiltless. There is 
scarcely any department of business in which there 
is more waste than in feeding stock. The loss oc¬ 
curs in the manner of feeding, the time of feeding, 
and the amount fed. 
The manner of feeding is oftentimes bad in the' 
extreme. Some flocks and herds are always fed on 
the ground. Wet or dry, hot or cold, down goes 
the fodder into the mud or snow or dung as oppor¬ 
tunity oilers. Such a case don’t require argument 
or elucidation, but maybe submitted for judgment 
and consideration. The West is guilty enough 
under this “Count,” but is not alone in its guilt. 
More common still is the practice of having 
racks and mangers that do their work imperfectly. 
They make a show of holding fodder, hut don’t 
