134 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
APRIL U 
opening, six or eight inches square, in front, near 
one end of the cylinder to feed in at, and another 
for the escape in the rear near the end of the 
cylinder opposite to that at which the feeding is 
done. This compels the chaff to pass several 
times round the cylinder before it escapes. In 
winnowing, moderate wind and strong shaking is 
desirable, hence a portion of the air should be shut 
out of the wind-mill by closing the side doors. 
Much of the chaff will still have seed in it, and 
to prevent this from blowing away, the apron or 
cheat-board should be raised above a level with 
the upper sieve. The clean seed will be found in 
the cheat-box. That caught by the cheat-board or 
apron should be returned to the thresher until all 
has been threshed three or four times. The clover 
huller may be more expeditious, but this method 
will be more economical for those who have not 
sufficiently entered upon the business to justify an 
outlay for implements intended expressly for this 
purpose. 
The expenses and profits of my twenty-acre field 
are as follows: 
Dr. 
To X of the cost of setting in grass, ..$12 00 
To cost of plastering,. 10 00 
To mowing first crop for hay, . 13 00 
To making and stacking hay,. 15 00 
To cradling off clover seed,.-. 10 00 
To turning, drawing in, &c.,_. 8 00 
To threshing off with flail,... 0 00 
To threshing and cleaning,. 15 00 
To 6 per cent, interest on land at $20 per acre,. 24 00 
FARMS AND FARMING IN VIRGINIA. 
Total, 
..$115 00 
Ck. 
By 3 stacks hay, worth. .$ 40 00 
By 27 bushels seed at $9 per bu.,. 243 00 
By chaff and straw,. 7 00 
Net profits, ....$175 00 
This and other seed crops did not lessen the sta¬ 
ple crops of the farm. I have been growing clover 
seed for fourteen years, and do not think it an ex¬ 
hausting crop. Three bushels per acre is sometimes 
made, but I consider one about an average. 
Edgehill, Mont. Co., Va., 1858. CnniAS Shelburne. 
FOOD.-VARIETIES AND PROPERTIES. 
“The milk of an animal is intended to form the 
sole food of its young for a period.” “ Nature has 
taught us the type of our food, (viz.) milk.” It 
contains all the essentials of four groups of sub¬ 
stances on which nutrition, in its widest sense, de¬ 
pends. The elements of milk contain the curd 
which is to form muscles, the butter which is to 
supply the fat, the phosphates which are to build 
up the bones, and the sugar which is to feed the 
respiration. There is nothing wanting in milki— 
In all vegetable and animal,food there are substance, 
representing those contained in milk. Food, there¬ 
fore, is nutritious just in proportion as it contains 
the elements, properly mixed, which go to sustain 
the body and supply its waste. 
The great and fundamental doctrine, from whence 
all our reasoning on this subject of animal nutri¬ 
tion, is the identity, or almost identity of the prin¬ 
ciples of vegetable and animal bodies. The con¬ 
clusion founded upon this identity, is, that with 
slight modifications, the vegetable principles are 
assimilated by the animal frame; the albuminous 
being converted into flesh and muscles, the oily 
ingredients into fat, and the mineral salts into bone 
and other solid parts. Hence all food for man, as 
well as animals, should be selected with strict re¬ 
gard to the nutritive qualities contained in milk .— 
And it should admonish the farmer who grows 
stock, to learn and have an eye to the chemical 
constituents contained in all his food for his stock, 
that he may derive the greatest benefits. Much 
depends on the preparation, as well as the quality 
and quantity made use of. Sour feed fattens some 
animals more rapidly than sweets, green herbage 
of all kinds, collected and allowed to grow sour in 
water, will fatten pigs that would not thrive on it 
before, because lactic acid, the acid of milk is form¬ 
ed, which favors the growth of the pig. Brewers’ 
grains when sour, will fatten cows and other ani¬ 
mals more rapidly than when sweet. 
The health of our domestic animals can only be 
sustained by mixing food. Vegetable matters eaten 
by a full-grown animal to keep it in condition must 
contain, 1st, Starch, to re-place the carbon respired. 
2d, Fatly matter, to form that substance. 3d, Glu¬ 
ten, to supply the waste of muscle. 4th, Phosphates, 
to supply the daily waste. 5th, Salt, Sulphates and I 
Chlorides, to re-place the daily excretions. In lier- 
biverous animals it is the starch, gum, and sugar 
of the food which supply the carbon for respira¬ 
tion. When the food does not contain a sufficient 
quantity of these compounds, the oil first, and then 
the gluten are decomposed, and made to yield 
their carbon to the lungs. Man, the dog and pig 
eat indifferently, both animal and vegetable food; 
the carbon in these cases may be derived partly 
from the fat and partly from the starch and sugar 
which they eat, according as they are chiefly sup¬ 
ported by one or the other kind of food. 
The flesh of wild animals is devoid of fat; while 
that of stall-fed animals is covered, with that sub¬ 
stance. A pig when fed on highly nitrogenized 
food becomes full of flesh; when fed on potatoes, 
containing starch, it acquires little flesh, but a 
thick layer of fat. The milk of a cow when stall- 
fed is very rich in butter, but in pasture is found 
to contain more caseine and less butter and sugar 
of milk. The bones, muscles and blood contain 
phosphates of lime, magnesia, and common salt— 
These all exist ready formed in the vegetable food, 
associated with gluten and albumen, and the plant 
extracts them from the soil. Therefore it will be 
seen that the elements of which the bodies of ani¬ 
mals are formed, exist in the food, put together in 
the state in which they are wanted to form the 
solids and fluids of the animal body. The plant 
therefore affords the raw material, and the animal 
puts them into proper shape, and conveys them to 
the parts to be built up. When a cow, sheep, or ox 
is turned into a meadow, they eat from sun to sun 
almost without interruption, and their systems 
possess the power of converting, into organized 
tissues, all the food they devour beyond the quan¬ 
tity required for merely supplying the waste of 
their bodies. All the excess of blood produced is 
converted into cellular and muscular tissues, and 
the animal becomes fleshy and plump. 
Camden, N. Y., 1858. Gho. Trowbridge. 
Messrs. Eds.: —Having been a constant reader 
of the Rural nearly all the time since its first 
issue, and never having written anything for pub¬ 
lication in its pages, I concluded to trouble you 
with a little talk about matters and things in this 
far-off region,—so signally different, in many re¬ 
spects, from Western New York,—as I have been 
asked by quite a number of friends and acquain¬ 
tances so to do and let them know my opinion in 
regard to the climate, soil and productions of this 
section. 
In the first place, so far as improvements are 
concerned, we are about fifty years behind the 
Northern and Western States. As regards the soil 
and products, we have great space for improve¬ 
ment The whole country has been nearly ruined 
by bad management, farming having been per¬ 
formed by “ tenants at will,” that is, permitting any 
man who would build a house to take as much land 
as he could find unoccupied at a small rent per 
annum. Here he would live until he chose to de 
part, which was when the place would not produce 
anything, not even grass or weeds—leaving the 
land to burn with its bare surface under a hot sun. 
By this means there is much of the land that will 
hardly produce anything without manure of some 
kind, and yet a little barn-yard manure will do great 
good and seems to be very lasting in effect The cli¬ 
mate is very agreeable. The past winter was a very 
unusual one here as elsewhere. We had no severe 
cold weather at any time until the last week in Feb¬ 
ruary, and then not too cold for out door work.— 
The ground has not been frozen more than one 
inch since the latter part of November, and then it 
was frozen about three inches. We have had but 
little snow here at anytime since I have been here, 
three years last December, and it is said to be so 
commonly. 
Our spring sowing is nearly done, and most of 
the grain is coming up finely. Peach trees and 
some others in full bloom, apricots out of blow.— 
We think we have the best market in the Union if 
not in the world. There is nothing raised but can 
be sold for a good price, and taking into account the 
cost of land, which ranges from about $10 to $25 
per acre,— (some improved farms have been sold 
from $80 to $100 the acre,)—it appears to me that 
men of small means and good pluck might do well 
here. If any persons should come to this vicinity 
I would esteem it a pleasure to accompany them 
in search of a home, and would give such informa¬ 
tion as might be in my power. A. Eaton. 
Fairfax Co., Va., April 8,1858. 
THE MODEL FARM 
Eds. Rural: —“Line upon line and precept upon 
precept,” is a maxim as good as it is old; but the 
experience of a long life has taught me, that there 
is no teacher so powerful as example. It will effect 
in a brief moment, what the precepts of centuries 
could not accomplish. That which enters at one 
ear may go out at the other, but that which speaks 
to the eye makes a deeper impression. Taking 
this view of the subject, I hope you will not think 
me ungrateful for the “lines” and “precepts” 
which have been so useful to many of us in our 
agricultural pursuits, if I venture to suggest that 
an example, now and then, would be of great bene¬ 
fit to us all, and would do a great deal towards 
overcoming the prejudices of many who pass by 
the most valuable suggestions with a sneer at book- 
farmers and their theories. If, for instance, you 
could point them to a farm where these theories 
are practically carried out, where grassy meadows, 
waving wheat fields, and overflowing barns give 
evidence of the highest cultivation—where neat 
and convenient farm-buildings, and well fed cattle, 
of the best breeds only, delight the eye—where 
fences and gates are always in order—where 
orchards and gardens are the admiration of every 
beholder—where the latest improvements in the 
way of tools, sheds and buildings are adopted— 
where there is a place for everything, and every- 
think in its place, and where the owner lives, as 
every farmer should, “ like a prince if, I repeat, 
you could point to such a farm, the doubts and 
sneers of the sceptical would vanish like the dew 
before the sun, and every one would be impelled to 
go and do likewise. 
After a long and anxious search, I flatter myself 
that I have found the very spot where all these 
wonders are accomplished, and it is for the purpose 
of making the discovery known to the readers of 
the Rural, that I have ventured to take up the pen 
and solicit their attention. As the infirmities of 
age have prevented my visiting this model farm, 
except through the columns of your valuable paper, 
I am not able to give any definite information as 
to its geographical position, but that is a point 
which can be easily ascertained, for the happy man 
who calls this Paradise his own, is none other than 
H. T. B., who also rejoices in the title of “Special 
Contributor” to the Rural New-Yorker. 
Livingston Co., N. Y., 1858. Jonathan. 
STABLING CATTLE.-PRESERVING BUTTER. 
Messrs. Eds:— I have just been reading an article 
in the Rural on racks and mangers, Ac. I for one 
am ready to conclude that no farmer should have 
more stock than he can keep well and provide 
stabling for. My method (after some experience, 
for my business has always been farming, and my 
age is over 56 years,) is to stable all of the cattle, 
fastening with stanchions. Any child can easily 
fasten the cattle or let them out of the stable. We 
have 42 head fastened in this way, and the calves 
are put in a stable loose (with stanchions) so they 
can put their heads in and eat and waste no fodder. 
II. T. B. thought we should save all the feed we 
can. I endorse the sentiment in full, and have fed 
no fodder out of doors this winter, except to sheep. 
My cows, 27 in number, look well and feel well. I 
believe my stock would have required one-third 
more fodder if they had been fed out all winter.— 
Feediag cattle out doors is too bad in severe cold 
weather, but worse a great deal when wet. 
J. II. B., of Royalton, may be correct in building 
sheds for stock, bnt I think it better to build 
stables. I know it is a little more work to take 
care of the cattle, but they are so much more com¬ 
fortable. 
I want to say a few words on preserving butter, 
and for the benefit of those who make it In the 
first place, have nice, new, and clean packages, 
with round hoops (use no flat hooped packages) 
that will weigh 18 to 20 pounds. Soak well with 
good brine, then pack the butter solid, keeping the 
air excluded until full, then put a nice, white cloth 
on the butter, rub a little fine salt, say 4 ounces, on 
the top of the cloth, and head up immediately. If 
the butter is right it will remain so, and you will 
easily get the highest price for it I may trouble 
you by-and-by, with an article on cheese-making. 
Cadiz, Catt. Co., N. Y., 1858. James Seaward. 
We are willing, ready—aye, anxious to “ be trou- 
bled?' with the article on Cheese-Making promised 
by Mr. S., and we express the hope that all Rural 
readers who possess information on agricultural 
matters, will place us under frequent obligations 
for such little “troubles” as take the shape of 
communications.— Eds. 
SUBSTITUTES FOR HAY. 
CULTIVATION OF CARROTS. 
One of the greatest obstacles to the successful 
cultivation of carrots, is the tardy germination of 
seed. It frequently happens that before the carrot 
seed germinates and the plant appears, weeds have 
come up and made such rapid growth that the car¬ 
rots can only be weeded with great difficulty and 
expense. When such is the case the cheapest and 
best way is to spade up or plow, as the case requires 
and sow again. To obviate this difficulty and in¬ 
sure the germination of the carrot seed, before the 
weeds, we have adopted the following mode of pre¬ 
paring the seed with success. 
Take the quantity of properly cleaned carrot 
seed you intend to sow; add to it about ten times 
its bulk of sand; moisten it with pretty warm wa¬ 
ter, not scalding hot; place the mass in a box in 
some warm place; mix it twice a day for two or 
three days to keep it evenly moistened, during 
which time it will generally be ready to sow, which 
is always to be done before the seed sprouts; be¬ 
fore sowing add double the quantity of sand. 
The ground should be fresh spaded or plowed, 
'and before it has time to dry proceed to make the 
drills one inch deep—the seed should be sown as 
fast as the drills are made—the sower followed by 
one to cover the seed half an inch deep. The drills 
will then be visible and may be followed with safety 
with a hoe, should necessity require it, (which is 
rarely the case) before the carrots are up. The 
quantity of sand added to the seed enables the 
operator to sow it more evenly, thinly, and with 
much greater facility. Advantage should be taken 
when practicable, of an approaching rain or im¬ 
mediately following one. Carrots ought to be 
weeded out when small, and the weeds should not 
be allowed to obtain the mastery. After being 
once cleaned by hand but little more is necessary 
than to pass through with a hoe. We consider a 
bushel of carrots worth as much for feeding as a 
bushel of oats. n. 
Port Huron, Mich., 1858. 
INQUIRIES AND ANSWERS. 
We are all aware of the many plants that have 
been presented to the farmer, within the last few 
years, to take the place of hay as a winter fodder 
—the latest of which is the “ Hungarian Grass,” or 
Millet. My own limited experience is, that there 
is nothing for this purpose that will equal—both 
as regards the amount per acre and also in quality 
—corn fodder and roots; both of which can be 
relied upon in most localities as substitutes for hay, 
and which will yield, under ordinary circumstances, 
very much more good, succulent food than can be 
had from grass lands. For example, 2 acres of 
grass will give, on a fair average, 4 tuns of hay, 
which will keep a cow through the foddering sea¬ 
son. Two acres devoted to corn fodder and roots 
will give at least 12 to 16 tuns of roots from one 
acre and from 5 to 7 tuns of good dry fodder from 
the other—say 20 tuns from the two—which will 
keep, instead of one cow through the winter, not 
less than 4 and probably 5. Now, if this is so, if 
these figures are correct, (and who will undertake 
to gain-say it,) will it not be seen at once that there is 
no proportion in the valuation of the amount from 
the two acres devoted to grass and the two to the 
roots and fodder? 
If any of the Rural readers are inclined to call 
this mere theory, “ all in your eye,” Ac., allow me 
just to state that the writer has for several winters 
past kept three cows on the produce of an acre in 
the above, and knows whereof he affirms in this 
thing. w- J- p - 
Salisbury, Conn., 1858. 
BLACK SPANISH FOWLS. 
Chinese Sugar Cane Seed. —(I. D. T., North- 
ville, Mich.)—The best seed for producing sugar 
is undecided. The time of planting and soil— 
gust as you would treat corn if you wanted a good 
crop. _ 
Caked Bag.—I have a cow that lost one-fourth of 
her bag by its being caked at the time of calving, 
is there a cure—if so, what is it ? An answer 
through the Rural will oblige —C., Rushford, N. Y. 
Take 4 Bj. of epsom salts; 4 barbara powder; 4 
diapenta—mix in a quart of beer and give as a 
dose. Give three doses, every other day, if neces¬ 
sary. Another mode is to rub the bag, two or three 
times a day with raw linseed oiL 
Roofing Cement.— A. A. Babcock, of Albion, 
Michigan, says he is the unfortunate owner of a 
house with “a patent flat roof—a complete fail¬ 
ure,” and wishes to know if there is any cement 
known to our readers that will make it shed water. 
The Best Churn.—I wish to get a new churn. 
Can any of the numerous readers of the Rural in¬ 
form me which is the best now in use?—A unt 
Abby, Racine, Wts., April, 1858. 
Remarks. — Among the variety of churns we 
could not decide this question. We know of seve¬ 
ral very good ones. The Committees of our Agri¬ 
cultural Shows have had this question on hand for 
many years, and for the present we will leave it 
with them and the ladies. 
The Weather, Crofs, Ac., in Michigan.— 
Spring has fairly opened, and if we have no pull¬ 
backs it will be the best known for years. The 
ground has been bare since the 1st of March, and 
farmers have improved the time. Spring wheat is 
being very extensively sown, and some farmers 
have already sown their oats. Winter wheat looks 
well. I thought that the open winter would injure 
it, but it stood the test and came out “all right” 
The season has been very poor for sugaring, and 
only a small quantity has been made. The Chinese 
sugar cane appears to be coming in to take the 
place of maple trees. I think it will do well here, 
for we have good corn land, and that, I suppose, is 
what is needed.— Israel P. Bates, Arlington, Van 
Buren Co., Mich., April 5,1858. 
Reformation of the “ Ungrateful Hens.”—I 
wrote you some time since, stating that my “un¬ 
grateful hens” did not lay any eggs in return for 
the trouble I have taken with them. But now I 
will mention my last experiment, viz:—I put them 
in the stable where, after a few days, they 7 began to 
lay and have kept on laying ever since. About a 
week or ten days ago, I put them back in the yard 
and feed them now with corn and choice refuse 
from the house. Some of my best layers are over 
three years old, but of course mine are exceptions 
to the general rule.—R. C. R-, New York City, 1858. 
For the past year I have taken considerable pains 
in selecting the different kind of fowls for laying, 
and have come to the conclusion that, from all the 
sorts that I have tested, none have proved so profit¬ 
able as the Black Spanish. Last spring I com¬ 
menced feeding my flock in rather a costly manner, 
which was this: in the morning with corn, at noon, 
with boiled beef, and about four in the afternoon, a 
quantity of Indian meal mixed with the juice of 
the boiled beef. I occasionally mixed in some 
burnt bones, and always kept a plenty of pounded 
earthen for them while they were shut up. Such 
has been the manner of feeding them, and always 
regular. From these I have received quite a little 
profit after deducting the expense of keeping 
them. There were two hens of mine that layed 
such peculiar eggs that I could distinguish them 
from the others; and so I thought I would keep an 
account of them. One of them layed thirty eggs; 
laying two days and then skipping one, until she 
was exhausted. The other layed sixty-five. I 
should have mentioned, however, that the Black 
Spanish are not good sitters; therefore, a few hens 
of other breeds should be kept for the purpose of 
hatching the eggs and rearing the young. Such 
has been my experience the past year, but perhaps 
having been engaged in it so short a time I have 
not started aright; if some of the readers of the 
Rural would just throw 7 a little light upon the sub¬ 
ject it would be gratefully received by me. 
Wayne, Me., 1858. 
H. R. L. 
Guano. —Will you have the kindness to inform 
me if there is any of the Peruvian Guano for sale 
in your city? Having used it with success on the 
poor soils of Virginia, and as the soil on which I 
now wish to apply it is quite similar, I conclude 
the effect will be equally as good?—E. A. Bowen, 
Ridgeway, N. Y., 1858. 
Remarks. —So little guano is used here, that it is 
not kept by our dealers. You will have to obtain 
it in New Y'ork city. Our advertising columns will 
furnish you the names of the best dealers in im¬ 
plements, guano, Ac. 
Paring Spades. —Can you or any of the readers 
of your valuable paper, inform me of any person 
having Paring Spades to sell? I would wish to 
purchase a few, if they were of the right sort.— 
Some of your English subscribers would be able 
to give me the information as they are often used 
there, to pare old sod or pasture land. Those spades 
will answer well here, to peel off the skin of this 
territory.—D. J., New Ulm, Minnesota, 1858. 
Remarks.— Paring spades are not kept by our 
dealers. Gardeners sometimes use a spade some¬ 
what similar in construction, for procuring turf 
for lawns, margins of walks, Ac. There is no de¬ 
mand for the article. 
Seed Corn.— Last year I planted about 9 acres 
of an eight-rowed white corn, with more or less of 
a red blaze on the upper end of the ear. In the 
same field, and near the middle, I planted a paper 
of King Philip received from the Patent Office.— 
The white corn ripened some eight days earlier 
than the King Philip, was more productive, but in 
its growth of stalk much resembled that. The 
other part of the field was planted to an eight- 
rowed yellow corn, which did not get clear of the 
frost, but was much injured, though of what is 
termed a midling early variety. I much prefer the 
Red Blaze White to any kind I have yet cultivated, 
and shall plant some 25 acres with it this year.— 
The stalk is small, and makes excellent fodder, and 
in a bad season, like the last, it is sure to ripen. I 
much prefer sound corn to hog corn.—p. 
[Perhaps the above should have been added to 
an advertisement in this number; however, we 
reckon there is no humbug iu the article mention¬ 
ed, or its price, and as many of our readers would 
not readily understand the term “red blaze whiter” 
we give P.’s explanatory notice.—E d.] 
“ Level Sights.”—A late number of the Rural 
contained a description of two forms of levels — 
one to secure a uniformity of grade in ditches, the 
other of more general utility, to answer most pur¬ 
poses of a spirit level. The writer says “ the only 
difficulty in making the latter is the adjustment of 
the ‘sights,’ w T hich is the same as given in books 
on engineering.” Now, as a level is an instrument 
which farmers are often in need of, especially while 
draining, lands and as but few have in their posses¬ 
sion any books on engineering from which they 
can get the required information, for the construc¬ 
tion and adjustment of the “sights,” I am led to 
request Mr. McMath to publish in the Rural the 
mode of making, also the use of these “ sights.”— 
R. H., Munger, N. Y., 1858. 
The Prairie Farmer “Still Lives,” and appa¬ 
rently delights in excruciating martyrdom. Like 
a genuine salamander, it can’t live out of the fire! 
Two weeks ago we took occasion to “answer the 
fool according to his folly”— but, instead of appre¬ 
ciating our condescension toward his genius and 
style, he flares up agaiD, hurling the flaming fag¬ 
gots from his stake in all directions! Always great 
and inimitable, he excels former gigantic efforts 
in—evasion, rambling, and lack of sense, argument 
and gentlemanly courtesy. Surely, “love’s labor’s 
lost” on him — for it’s like unto “casting pearls 
before swine” to deal in sense or logic with such a 
vicegerent of Bombastes Furioso-ism. We have 
not the heart to reply seriously to his ebullition of 
ill-will, evasion and egotism. Nay, verily! His 
tirade of nearly a column and a half is so void of 
point, fact or argument that we could well afford 
to pass it by unnoticed; and yet we are disposed 
to advertise the P. F. a trifle more, free of charge, 
in return for its favobs, which are daily bringing us 
subscribers and encouraging letters from the North¬ 
west, —albeit one of the latest (from Lee Co., Ill.,) 
says, emphatically, “Let the dying P. F. alone!” 
Our contemporary devotes 23 lines to an eloquent 
exordium. Contents: “unmanly attack” — “char¬ 
acter of a gentleman” — “general abuse mixed 
with flash cant, boyish exclamations, and evasive 
quibbling.” His next paragraph, of over 40 lines, 
is like unto the first, only more so — the writer get¬ 
ting warm, and, like a cornered hedge hog, throw¬ 
ing his javelins at random; now talking of our 
“ want of obstinate stubbornness,” (thanks — wish 
we could reciprocate!) and anon about our article 
“requiring two weeks’ labor,” (tho’ it was written 
in less than that number of hours, but deferred a 
week;) and then, after segregating and murdering 
a few of our expressions, without copying a single 
sentence entire, winds up with a truth (not origi¬ 
nal but quoted from us,) that w 7 e of the Rural 
“ cherish no inimical feelings toward the Prairie 
Farmer, though not prepossessed in its favor.”— 
Paragraph third, of about equal length, absurdly 
talks of our conniving with speculators, (“ no other 
paper has the news! ”)—calls the language of the 
11 %. Farmer “ ruffian-like ” — mentions what it 
terms “ the ill-timed and ill-adviced sneers of Eme¬ 
ry's Journal — and climaxes by stating that its base 
attack upon the Rural (charging it with imitating 
the P. F.l) was “last fall,” instead of the middle of 
January, and that we had been “brooding over it 
nearly six months." Such logic, genius and cor¬ 
rectness, is unanswerable!—The peroration is also 
a forty-pounder, (or liner,) and, like a veritable 
Fourth of July Oration, is valorous, patriotic, and 
“jubilant ’’—the orator saying that, though wound¬ 
ed in an “ unsuccessful cause,” he wouldn’t ex¬ 
change wounds “for the jubilant exultation of a 
selfish coward, who, in the time of danger, stood 
afar off predicting disaster;” and closes with a 
beautiful allusion to two great reformatory “ insti¬ 
tutions”—the Rural of ’58, and the Revolution of 
’76—in this veritable wise: 
“It was the timorous and treacherous admissions and doleful 
prophecies of those who, at heart, were Tories, which gave courage 
and hope to the British and protracted the war of the Revolution ; 
aud it is the timorous and treacherous admissions aud doleful prophe¬ 
cies of Just such papers as MoorCs Rural New-Yorker, Which gives 
courage and hope to the Bwarm of panic-makers, who consider it as a 
‘good bargain’ to rob industry of its hard-earned fruits. We trust, 
and believe, that there will be a still closer resemblance between them, 
and that, in less than six months hence, they will both be regarded as 
<lying and foolish prophets,’ who ‘ imagined a vain thing."’ 
— Now, we will not bandy epithets with the P. 
F., but decidedly object to the postponement to 
“ six months hence.” The question was as to the 
price of breadstuff's this spring —not next fall—and 
we submit the original statements, pro and con, to 
the People for decision—and not only to those of 
the Northwest, (in which we have thousands of 
subscribers, whose best interests we have ever 
sought to subserve,) but of the whole country. 
Let the prices last fall and now be cited and com¬ 
pared, and (deducting waste, interest, Ac.,) what is 
the result? Was the Rural or P. F. right, and 
which ? Let the Chicago market prices answer.— 
Those who have read the Rural for the past eight 
years, know that it has in no instance played the 
fool, demagogue or traitor on this subject—that it 
has never been exceedingly timorous, treacherous 
or mistaken in its statements and predictions as to 
the prices of produce. We appeal to the record. 
The Rural was about the first, if not the first, paper 
in the Union to predict the great rise in the prices 
of breadstuff’s which ocourred in 1853-4. Before 
the rise, —when wheat was about $1 in this section, 
and many papers advised farmers to sell, — we 
predicted a material advance in prices, and gave 
our reasons therefor, expressing the opinion that 
“it would not only be entirely safe, but highly advanta¬ 
geous, for those who could to wait for an advance 
before contracting or marketing their wheat. ” We 
were right then, and largely benefited farmers (some 
of whom acknowledged that they had, by heeding 
our suggestions, realized hundreds of dollars,)— 
and we tcere right last fall as to the probable prices 
this spring, while the P. F. was wrong, notwith¬ 
standing its gibberish gammon about Tories and 
the Revolution. 
Lice on Calves.— As you give so many recipes 
in the Rural, I thought I would send you one that 
I have never seen in print. There are manyreme 
dies for vermin on calves, snch as tobacco, snuff 
old grease, and the like. They may like to chew 
as well as some others, or sneeze and have a little 
grease to make it go off easy. I have more con¬ 
fidence in a little sulpher occasionally in their 
mess. But the one I am going to give you is 
neither of these. A number of years ago I had a 
yearling that grew poor, and I could not help it 
Its breathing became so loud that it could be heard 
several rods. I thought it would die. One of my 
neighbors told me he had heard that sour butter¬ 
milk was good. I procured some, and washed it 
from head to foot, and in three days his breathing 
was very regular, and. he was as smart as need be. 
I had no more trouble with him.— Subscriber, 
Gilead, Mich., 1858. 
Origin of the Mercer Potato. —Jas. Waugh, 
of West Greenville, Mercer county, Pa., wants us to 
say that the potato known as the Mercer, or Nishe- 
nock, was first grown about forty-seven years ago, 
in that county, on Big Nishenock Creek, by John 
Gilkey, who called it the Nishenock royal potato, 
and that it got the name of Mercer from Mr. Bevan 
Pearson, who carried a few in his saddle-bags to 
Darby, below Philadelphia, from which point they 
have spread over the United States, under the 
name of Mercers, while from the original point 
they have spread under the other name, which has 
been corrupted into Neshanocks, Meshanocks, Che¬ 
nango, Bone’spotato and several other misnomers.— 
N. Y. Tribune. 
All the Seeds which we received from the 
Patent Office, and. individuals, for gratuitous dis¬ 
tribution, have already been disposed of, with 
several applicants unsupplied. Readers will please 
note, and withhold their requests and stamps 
accordingly. 
The Present String has thus far proved most 
favorable and promising for the cultivators of this 
region—the finest for ten years in Western N. York. 
