L . M . w . ■... —. _ 
TE r at u 
II.„, 
iiiM 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
YOL. IX. NO. 13.i 
PROQRESS AND IMPROVEMEN'J’.’ 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1858. 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
{WHOLE NO. T29. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
JLY ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family XewHpnper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABUS CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
Thb Rural Nkw-Yorker is designed to be nntmrpassed n 
Yalne, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautifui 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 it** list tie Guide on the important 
Practical, Scientific and other Subjects Intimately connected with the 
business of those whoso interests it sealously advocHtos. 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! 
PROY. a DEWEY, I.T. M. F. MAURY, 
T. a PETERS, H. T. BROOKS, 
T. & ARTHUR, Mrs. M. J. HOLMES, 
Kiss K. & HUNTINGTON, Miss C. A. HOWARD. 
JENNY MARSH PARKER 
NOTES FOR THE SEASON. 
Tns season of labor is at hand. The robin has 
just made its appearance, and we are looking 
anxiously for the first blue-bird, llefore the work 
of cultivation commences in earnest, much needs 
to be done to get things in order. The fence posts 
have become thrown up with the frost, and want 
straightening, or the fence will soon present a very 
unsightly appearance. The gate posts must be 
attended to, or the gates will not shut well, and 
cause you much annoyance in making them secure, 
and, after all, the cattle will take advantage of your 
neglect, and get into quarters more suited to their 
fancy than those you have provided for them. The 
old bars that caused you so much trouble last sum¬ 
mer, and which yon resolved a hundred times 
should be substituted by a good gate, must be re¬ 
moved at once, or they will annoy you for another 
season. Many rails have been blown from the 
fences, and, unless they are replaced, these low 
places will furnish excellent amusement for cattle 
in jumping, almost equal to a gymnasium, and the 
younger members of the herd will be fit to graduate 
after one term, with the highest honors. After 
this, no ordinary fence will detain them. Some of 
the corners need blocks or stones under, and stakes 
over them. 
Clean up the door-yards, and rake into a pile the 
saw-dust, chips, See., that have accumulated during 
the winter. If you had some corner in a shed 
where yon could place it under cover, and get the 
women to throw all the waste water from the house 
upon it, by the fall it will make a manure pile as 
rich as guano, without any outlay, except of a little 
good sense. If the pile is not large enough to 
absorb all the waste from the house, add a load 
of peaty-muck, or any old turf. In this way a 
nuisance is turned into money; for nothing looks 
more slovenly than an untidy door-yard. 
By all means fence off a spot for a vegetable 
garden, and for the smaller fruits, such as radishes, 
peas, beans, currants, strawberries, and so on._ 
There is no reason why the farmer should not live 
like a prince. He works hard in the most useful 
of all vocations, and is entitled to as many of the 
luxuries of life as anybody, and can Lave them 
with a little care. On this point, however, our 
friends must read the Horticultural Department, 
where they will obtain all needed information. 
All tools should be examined, and necessary re¬ 
pairs and purchases made. It is a bad habit to 
wait until an article is wanted for use before buy¬ 
ing it It sometimes causes more waste of hours 
than the article is worth, besides a troublesome 
trip to the city or village. 
Before this time, like a good general, you should 
have marked out your line of operations for the 
season. The powder should be on hand and dry. 
Have yon secured all your seeds, and got the very 
best kinds, and the best of the kind within your 
reach? Spring wheat, oats, rye, barley, peas, car¬ 
rots,—all should be in readiness. And the corn, 
are you quite sure your seed corn is good, as there 
is much about the country that will not germinate, 
and many, if they are not careful, will have to plant 
twice, and, perhaps, fail at last Good seed corn is 
scarce this season, so look out in time. Perhaps 
you have determined to try some root crop this 
summer, or the sugar cane; jf so, have the seed on 
hand, or in the hurry of spring work it will be 
neglected. 
Keep cattle out of the meadows until the grass 
has got a good start, and the soil is well settled.— 
Much damage is done by allowing cattle in the 
meadows too early, and by all means keep them out 
of the orchard. A top dressing of ashes will do 
the meadows a deal of good, and if you have an 
old one that has yielded so poorly that you hardly 
know what to do with it, just give it atop dressing 
of well rotted manure, and pass over it with the 
drag. Then, if you can afford the time, make a 
brush drag, and pass it over once or twice/ After 
you cut the grass, tell us how much you got to the 
acre, and whether it paid for the extra labor and 
manure. 
Do everything carefully this season, so that you 
can report, if necessary, to yonr county or town 
Society, or to the Rural the amount of seed sow n, 
the manner and cost of cultivation, and the pro¬ 
duct Every one should endeavor to add a little to 
the stock of general knowledge. 
EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 
Pulping TuRNirs, Ac.—The best English farmers 
and stock-feeders, are recommending the pulping 
of roots before feeding. The pulping is grinding 
coarsely, so as to leave the roots in a pulpy state. 
Jn this condition it is mixed with meal, shorts, Sea., 
and is found to be much more valuable for feeding. 
Advantage is said to be derived simply from the 
evaporation of the moisture which takes place 
rapidly when in this condition. 
Selecting Farm Seeds.—T he editor of the Ag¬ 
ricultural Gazette pays gardeners a very fine com¬ 
pliment for the care they exercise in selecting the 
very best varieties of Feed, separating the good from 
the bad, and propagating any chance plant that ex¬ 
hibits peculiar and valuable characteristics. It is 
in this way that our delicious varieties of garden 
peas, and, in fact, all our best garden vegetables 
were raised. In contrast with this he exhibits the 
carelessness of farmers in the purchase and grow th 
of seeds, as well as the short-comings of profes¬ 
sional growers of farm Reeds. “ If we examine a 
patch of cabbages in a garden, we mostly find them 
so that we have no difficulty in recognizing the 
variety in every single instance; but if, on the 
other hand, we see a field of farm cabbages, we may 
not unfrequently trace the initiatives of all varie¬ 
ties, from the hard, flat-topped Drumhead to the 
loosely grown non-hearting green. How is this 
difference accounted for? Simply because the 
gardener understands more of the simple laws af¬ 
fecting the production of seed, and recognizes the 
immense importance of purity of sort, whilst the 
farmer scarcely notices these facts; or if from the 
striking contrast of his crop with that of his neigh¬ 
bor, it cannot escape attention, lie then simply puts 
it down to the difference in the land, and is so far 
content But though it must be confessed that 
this does exert considerable influence, yet it by no 
means can be charged with all the results laid to it: 
The evils attendant upon a mixture of sorts may 
be glanced at under the following heads:—1. Irreg¬ 
ularity in crop as to amount and quality. 2. Irreg¬ 
ularity in ripening. 3. Irregularity from the an¬ 
tagonism of mixed races. 
1. It is well known that the variety good in one 
position may furnish but poor results in another, a 
circumstance not always dependent upon great, but 
often upon very slight differences, and whilst some 
varieties may improve, others nearly allied may de¬ 
generate in particular cases. We may offer as ex¬ 
amples different sorts of vetches or turnips; having 
sown patches side by side of varieties of both, under 
like circumstances of soil, cultivation, and time of 
sowing, we have been astonished at the differences 
in the result, amounting in many cases to double 
in beds side by side. 
2. No less is it true that irregularity may in like 
manner result in the ripening as in the quantity of 
a crop. How often do we see irregularities in the 
growth of our roots, some being full grown whilst 
others are still in youthful vigor, wanting double 
the time for perfecting themselves, whilst others 
again are old and weakened, and have attained their 
maximum of growth at a minimum of size. 
3. The effects of antagonism where mixed strains 
are grown, is another subject we do not recollect to 
have seen dwelt upon. If, however, we observe 
what takes place in nature, we see a new variety of 
a weed on a farm will grow faster than the old, 
which is soon almost exterminated by the interlo¬ 
per. With ourselves it Is said, “two of a trade can 
never agree;” with all animals the “ weaker goes to 
the wall;” nor is it less so with plants; the strong 
in constitution robs the weaker—the slow growing 
is smothered by those of a faster growth, so that 
the weakest frequently occupy ground to little ad¬ 
vantage, and thus, besides damaging the sample, 
they may be looked upon as interlopers, and if not 
weeds, yet closely resembling them in their results. 
Agriculture in China. —A Commissioner of 
the London Times is writing letters on Chinese Ag¬ 
riculture, and from one of these we make the fol¬ 
lowing interesting extracts.-—“After investigation 
I am convinced that England has nothing to learn 
from China in the art of agriculture. It i3 true the 
Chinese have no summer-fallows; but then they 
have no stiff clays. They have no couch grass, no 
thistles contending for the full possession of the 
land, as we see >u Wales; no uninvited poppies, no 
straggling stalky crops, the poverty-stricken cov¬ 
ering of an exhausted soil. At rare intervals we 
see a large, rich coxcomb flaunting himself among 
the cotton; but, generally speaking, there is not a 
leaf above the ground which does not appertain to 
the crop to which the field is appropriated. Rice 
and cotton are the staples of the district of which 
I am now speaking. These crops often extend in 
unbroken breadth over tracts of thousands of acres. 
The peas, and wheat, and indigo, and turnips, and 
bringalls lie in patches round the villages. The 
ground is not only clean, but the soil is so exqui¬ 
sitely pulverized that after a week’s rain I have 
sometimes looked about in vain for a clod to throw 
into a pond to startle the water-fowl.” 
We may be accustomed to mark the course of 
Agriculture in our own land, yet we can show 
nothing that can compare with the cultivation of 
this great plain of China. The art is exercised 
under different conditions. The Chinese cultivator 
is not asked for milk, or butter, or cheese, or mut¬ 
ton, or beef. The Chinaman does not object to a 
little buffalo or gqat’a milk with his rice, and if 
some curious accident should have brought buffalo 
flesh into his basin he will eat it. But he rarely or 
never buys it In His recent voyage of discovery 
up the “Great Junk,” or “ Great Western River,” 
Commander Elliott and Captain Edgell saw droves 
of buffaloes upon the uplands to the north of Can¬ 
ton, and we know that milk and mutton are com¬ 
mon food in Tartary; but I am speaking of those 
parts of China where agriculture is supposed to 
reach perfection, not of the mountain pastures.— 
Pork, poultry, and vegetables, and the creatures 
that, swim or crawl about his rivers and canals, are 
the Chinaman’s natural dainties. Stall feeding, 
therefore, would not pay even so moderately (tak¬ 
ing sale of stock only into consideration) as itdoes 
with us, and grass is only seen growing rank on 
graves. One or two bu jdoes ♦<> turn the irrigat¬ 
ing wheel and plow Liu • iddy fields, two or three 
goats, a breeding sow, a quantity of those ugly, 
long-legged fowls so ignorantly called Cochin- 
Chinas in England, and a flock of ducks and geese; 
such is the live stock of a Chinese farm which 
maintains a hundred laborers. 
Stable-yard manure, therefore, is scant Nor is it 
much coveted. Human ordure is, in a Chinaman’s 
opinion, the only fertilizer. This is collected with 
the most oppressive care. In the cities and in the 
neighborhood of cities enormous dark open earth¬ 
enware pans offend the senses at every turn. The 
privilege of collection is sold for a large price, and 
the Cantonese have a proverb that a fortune every 
day passes in that form out of their gates. In the 
suburbs every cottage has its open earthenware 
cesspool. In the country every house has its pub¬ 
lic latrine, ostentatiously placed with its open door¬ 
less entrance to the public path. The numbers and 
suffocating effluvia of these opposition manure- 
traps are to Englishman a never-ceasing horror.— 
They constitute his first and his last impression of 
the country. 
These details of the “ sordida rura ” are not pleas¬ 
ant to write; but if the object be to depict or to 
comprehend China, they must be written and read. 
This manure is sprinkled over the plant. It is too 
precious to be worked into the ground. The straw 
and the burnt haulm of the cotton plant are returned 
to the soil—that is all. The Chinese transplant 
every root of rice by hand, just as we should trans¬ 
plant young trees, and each has its little blessing of 
liquid manure as it is sown. This homoeopathic 
system would not do, I apprehend, with our hun¬ 
gry lands. 
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 
Following the carpus, or knee, (at which point 
terminated our remarks on the anatomical struc¬ 
ture of Domestic Animals, in the Rural of last 
week,) we come to the metacarpus — the shank, or 
cannon-bone, as it is frequently called. In the 
horse this bone reaches from the knee to the fet¬ 
lock, is cylindrical in shape, and of great strength. 
(W in plate of skeletons.) In the ox and sheep it 
strongly resembles that of the horse down to the 
fetlock, where we find it slightly cloven, in order 
to join with the doable set of bones below. In the 
horse we find two small metacarpal, or splint bones, 
while in the ox and sheep there is but one — very 
diminutive and of little use. The fetlock of the 
horse is formed by the shank above, the pastern un¬ 
derneath, and the two sesamoid bones in the rear— 
the latter fastened by long ligaments, denominated 
suspensory. (P in reference as before.) In the ox 
and sheep the sesamoid bones are doubled— being 
four in number — and we have also a double ar¬ 
rangement of the other bones to be found below 
the fetlock. 
At the base of the forward limbs, we find the small 
pastern, os coronas, and the coffin-bone, os pedis, to¬ 
gether with the navicular bone; but as these are 
intimately connected with the foot, and we desire 
to speak at length concerning the formation of this 
portion of the animal economy, and also of the 
diseases affecting it, we merely place them in posi¬ 
tion, and thus leave them for future comment 
We have thus dissected the fore-limbs, and now 
turn to the hind extremities. The connection of 
the body with the forward extremities, it will be 
remembered, was solely by the aid of muscular sub 
stance—being suspended between the shoulders — 
but in the binder parts this duty is performed by 
the aid of bone. In passing from the loins, the 
spine is received by two strong haunch bones, to 
which it is fastened by powerful ligaments. In the 
young animal these bones are three in number, but 
soon become consolidated into one, called the 
pelvis, or basin,—R in plate of skeleton, and more 
definitely figured below. 
b 
THE I’ELVIS. 
A, the cavity of the pelvis, through which the foetus 
must pass, b. The sacrum, or continuation of the spino 
forming the roof of the pelvis, c, c, The hips, d, d, The 
projection of the buttocks, e, The os pubis. 
The basin is formed by the inner edge of the bone, 
and is nearly circular — tlie outer edge is very 
irregular, spreading sideways and backwards, thus 
giving surface for the attachment of the powerful 
mnsclea that support the haunch. The position of 
this basin is between what is termed horizontal and 
vertical—running downwards and posteriorly—and 
serves to protect the generative organs, the blad¬ 
der and rectum.- In the female animal, this portion 
of the body needs the closest scrutiny of the breeder 
— the young pass through it in the act of parturi¬ 
tion, and it should be of size in proportion to the 
animal and free from any deformity. Looking at 
the pelvis externally, the circle, observable when 
viewing it from below, is broken into irregular 
projections — two of these reach upwards on each 
side of the spine—two extend backwards below the 
tail, called the haunch bones—two project laterally 
and form the hips. Tn the skeleton these latter 
seem almost deformed, but in the animal, if well- 
built and well-fed, they are so clothed with llesh 
and fat as to give a full, round and complete ap¬ 
pearance. 
. jp>v ^ In the annexed illustration is j 
Kill' \/-^ exhibited the Stifie Joint, with 
f ^ the patella (knee-pan) removed 
f so as to show the front part of 
t\ the joint behind it «,Thelow- 
U er part of the femur, or tliigh- 
H bone, showing at b, the concav- 
ity in which the patella works, 
jjpLe, The tibia, or leg-bone, d, 
Pjl The fibula, e, e, The semi-lunar 
'J cartilages, so interposed be- 
j tween the bones as to add con- 
y siderably to the elasticity of the 
joint f f The crucial liga- 
The femur (thigh - bone) ex¬ 
tends forward—S in skeleton— 
stifle joint. and is larger, proportionately, 
in the ox and sheep than in the horse. The base of 
this bone, together with the tibia below it, forms 
the stifle joint, having two cartilaginous bodies 
within it — see engraving — and is protected by 
the knee-pan, which latter acts as a pulley, receiv¬ 
ing the very powerful muscles above, and being 
fastened below, by strong ligaments to the tibia. 
The tibia (leg-bone) runs back from the stifle—is 
shorter relatively in the ox than in the horse, and 
corresponds to the radius of the fore-legs. See U 
in skeletons. Behind the tibia is a small bone, the 
fibula —V, reference as before—which forms the 
upper part of the hock joint. This joint is formed 
of six bones arranged in rows so as to form three 
articulations. Motion is confined to two of these 
— the astralagus, or knuckle, and the tibia—the 
others serve to diminish concussion, except the 
os calcis which, placed at the back, acts as a lever 
and receivestlie muscles which straighten the hock. 
§ The 'Tarsus, or hock joint of the 
right leg showing a, The lower 
part of the tibia, b, The metatar¬ 
sus, or large metatarsal bone, c, 
The external small metatarsal bone. 
d, The internal small metatasal 
bone, e, The astralagus, or knuckle 
bone, forming, with the tibia above, 
the principal articulation of the 
^liock. ffi The small bones of the 
uhock closely bound together by 
ligaments, but admitting little if 
any extent of motion. 
^ V) ‘ fif e The hock joint of the domestic 
IlF “ M animal acts in the same relation as 
hock joint, does the ankle joint of the human 
subject—in man, however, it rests upon the ground, 
in the animal considerably above it. The point of ! 
I W' M 
the hock, os calcis, is longer in the horse than in 
the ox or sheep, and this elongation contributes to 
bis greater speed. Below the hock the bones are 
the same in both extremities, except that in the 
hind-leg they are more slender and rather longer. 
Tn our next article, we will, as before mentioned, 
treat of the formation of the foot, thus completing 
the series upon the osseous structure of our Do¬ 
mestic Animals. 
THE DITCHER’S LEVEL. 
As the season for resuming operations upon the 
farm is near at hand, and as we have had many let¬ 
ters requesting “all the information on the subject 
of Draining that we can give in our columns, with¬ 
out destroying the variety,” we present the follow¬ 
ing illustrations of a very valuable and simple 
instrument for leveling. We are indebted to Robert 
E. McMath, of Chili, N. Y., for the designs from 
which our engravings are made. Mr. McMath 
furnishes the following description: 
“ The accompanying engravings show the instru¬ 
ment in two forms — that in the shape of the letter 
A, is used to secure uniformity of grade—the other 
form is of more general utility and will, if carefully 
made and ingeniously used, make a very good sub¬ 
stitute for the spirit level. 
The legs of the A level, if joined at aright angle, 
and measuring 7 feet 1 inch on the inner edge, will 
cover the space of 10 feet The plummet is sus¬ 
pended from the vertex. The distances on the 
crossbar, corresponding to differences of level, are 
easily determined by trial, and marked on the bar. 
The only difficulty in making the other form, is 
the adjustment of the sights. The means of doing 
this are furnished by screws driven from the under 
side of the bar, which fasten the sights in any de¬ 
sired position. The method of adjustment is the 
same as given in the books on engineering. The 
whole can be made and operated by any boy who 
has owned a jack knife.” 
SCIENTIFIC TERMS-THEIR NECESSITY. 
In the last Rural I began the consideration of 
this subject, and illustrated by the term Carbon. I 
trust such an account was given, that even the un¬ 
scientific will know what is meant by Carbon. The 
knowledge is much to he desired, also, of numerous 
other words. Let us look at some of them. 
Wood is composed of Carbon, Oxygen, and 
Hydrogen, it was then said. I could then explain 
only Carbon; the other two equally need explana¬ 
tion, as they are scientific language. 
Oxygen is that part of the atmosphere, or of the 
body of the air that surrounds the earth, which 
supports life by respiration. Hence, a French 
chemist called oxygen, vital air. It is the breath of 
life. True, the atmosphere is made up of several 
things besides oxygen, as nitrogen, carbonic acid 
gas, vapor of water, and ammonia; but we need 
now only consider that part of it called oxygen.— 
This is an air, or aeriform body, often culled a gas, 
or one of the gases. It is that air, by which many 
substances are burned, as wood, tallow, oil, iron, 
zinc, Sec,, by which it unites with bodies and forms 
peculiar compound substances. Because it forms 
some substances into acids, it was called oxygen, or 
acidilier, or that produces an add. When sulphur 
is burned by oxygen, there is produced oil of vitriol, 
or sulphuric acid. When iron is burned by oxy¬ 
gen, an oxyd, or rust of iron, is produced. Oxygen 
is exceedingly abundant, though not pure, and is 
compounded with other substances in all animal 
matter, all vegetable matter, all earthy matter, as 
earths, rocks, stones, soils, in water and the atmos¬ 
phere. Hence, it is nearly one-half of all the mat¬ 
ter on or near the surface of the earth. 
