VOL IX. NO. 26.1 ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1858. {WHOLE NO. Ul. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
JLN ORIGINAL WKKKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper# 
CONDUCTED BY D. D- T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS o? ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
Thb Rural Nsw-Tf Okkkr is designed to bo nnsurpassed In 
Value, Purity, tunefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful tn Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his personal atten¬ 
tion to the snpervisicn of its various departments, and earnestly labore 
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 
trjr All cotmnnnlcaUone, and business letters, should be addressed 
to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page 
THE SEASON AND CHOPS. 
From all parte of the country, and particularly 
the West, we hear of nothing but rain and floods. 
In many places where the weather has been such 
as to warrant the planting of corn, it ha3 rotted, 
hut in many others the season has not admit¬ 
ted of planting. Good seed corn, from the fact 
that the crop did not well mature last fall, as 
well as the unfavorable weather during the win 
ter for beeping corn in cribs, is more scarce than 
usual this spring. Then the necessity for twice 
planting, increases the scarcity. There is also a 
great demand at the West for the early varieties of 
reed corn. We received a telegraph from a friend 
at the West asking if good seed corn could be pro¬ 
cured here, and other? have received similar com¬ 
munications from that quarter. The season is now 
so far advanced that the Western farmers think the 
varieties commonly grown there would not have 
time to mature, and are anxious to procure some 
eastern variety that with a fair season, would be 
pretty sure to ripen. So great has been the de¬ 
mand, by telegraph and otherwise, upon the corn 
dealers of Chicago for early seed corn—a demand 
they could not supply—that we see by the Chicago 
papers the Board of Trade have taken the matter 
under consideration, and a proposition was enter¬ 
tained to send to this State for fifty thousand 
bushels of Flint corn. 
Here, we have not been able to make very exten¬ 
sive observations, on account of the long continued 
storm?, but we hear that much early planted corn 
is injured, and that in low places destroyed, while 
the weeds have taken advantage of two or three 
week’s rain to get an excellent start. One who 
had suffered some in this respect, remarked to us 
on one of the last of our rainy days, that it was 
useless to hope for corn thi3 year. There had not 
been such a season for twenty years. Perhaps it 
is well to forget the ills that are past, but it is not 
well to magnify those of the present The remark 
might have been made truly by some of our West¬ 
ern readers, bnt not by a resident of Western New 
York. By referring to our note-book of last year, 
we find recorded—June 13, “The raina have been 
frequent and copious, almost incessant for the past 
ten days, not only here but in a large portion of 
the country, doing we fear some damage to crops, 
especially on low grounds.” June 22, “The .un¬ 
usually wet weather continues—the rain falling in 
torrents to-day. More than double the quantity of 
rain has fallen the past three months than during 
the corresponding period of last year.” June 29, 
“ The cold, wet weather has dwarfed and rotted the 
Indian corn over a large extent of country, and 
much ground devoted to this crop has been planted 
a second time. The few days of fine weather we 
have had since the rain stopped has been exceed¬ 
ingly favorable to all not beyond help.” July 18, 
“ The cold, web backward spring has much injured 
the corn, and many pieces we see in our travels 
have been abandoned to the weeds.” It is now 
only the 16th of June, the rain has ceased and we 
have a fair prospect of fine growing weather.— 
Here, at least, theB, there is no cause for discour¬ 
agement The prospects are much fairer than they 
were at this time last year. Corn in most localities 
in this vicinity is considered safe, and in places 
where it ha3 been killed, there is yet time to plant, 
with a fair prospect of obtaining a crop. But 
even if this was not the fact, and one-third of the 
corn planted the present season should fail, the 
case is not hopeless, and, indeed not very discour¬ 
aging. Corn can be sown in drills, or broadcast 
for fodder, and will yield a rich return. The 
Swede Turnip may he sown any time before the 
last of June, and the White Turnip about the mid¬ 
dle of July, or even as late a3 the first of August 
If the season should prove wet and cold, and un¬ 
favorable for corn, it will be just the kind that the 
roots will delight iD, and you may expect an abun¬ 
dant crop. These roots will probably furnish as 
much food for cattle as though the com had yield¬ 
ed equal to your highest hopes. Indeed, you and 
your cattle too, may have cause to rejoice that you 
were thus compelled to grow a greater diversity of 
crops, and test for yourself the profits of root cul¬ 
ture. Then, as a last resort, buckw;heat is a crop by 
no means to be despised. Buckwheat flour cost the 
consumers here the past winter as much as the finest 
wheat flour. Our millers state that there was not 
enough grown last summer to supply the demand, 
and hence the high ptice. We are urged by onr 
love of syrup and pancakes to ask the farmers to 
give U3 a good supply at reasonable rates the 
coming winter. 
Again, we say, there is no cause for discourage¬ 
ment, nor complaints, in New York at least, and 
we may rest sure in the promise of Him who four 
thousand years ago said—“While the earth remain- 
eth, seed time and harvest shall not fail.” 
Since writing the above, Prof. Dewey has fur¬ 
nished ns the following facte in regard to the 
weather the first half of June:—The mean heat of 
this first half is 63.7 deg., a little exceeding the 
mean for 21 years, and three degrees above the 
average of this half last year, so that the tempera¬ 
ture has not been so very deplorable after all. This 
will be a sad report to many, who have resolved 
that this weather has been of a very odious charac¬ 
ter, and they so enjoy this thought that the truth 
will be quite intolerable. 
The highest temperature was 86 deg. on three 
days—the 4th, 7tb, and 10th—while last year the 
highest was only 76 deg. on several days in this 
half of June: the lowest this June is 62 deg., and 
last June, 45 degrees. 
Of rain 3.4 inches have fallen, while the same 
time last year gavo us only 2.4 inches, and the 
average of all June for 17 years, is about 3.3 inches. 
The great fact in the last few weeks for which 
the weather is held responsible, is the great fall of 
water, beginning far west of the Mississippi, and 
advancing eastwards till Ohio and otner States 
have been flooded, and our State as far east as the 
Allegany range of mountains, has been drenched. 
The last fortnight has abounded in great rains and 
heavy storms, and some of these have lately reach¬ 
ed the city of New York and watered the eastern 
counties. 
The first three and last two days of the half 
month, were clear, fine, warm and splendid, and the 
other ten more or less rain, though some parte of 
them have been fair and line. 
These facts will show that the season has not 
been so bad, as many have supposed. While we 
truly sympathize with our friends at the West, who 
have suffered sorely, we have no sympathy for 
those who habitually look on the daik side, and 
complain of the weather on every convenient occa¬ 
sion, just for the love of the thing. The storms, 
we learn from all quarters, are over, the “rainy 
season” has passed, fine growing weather, no 
doubt, will follow, and all must make the best of 
the time that is left. 
PEOGEESS OF ENGLISH ACSICULTUEE. 
Farms and Farming. —To give some idea of the 
modern system of English farming, we give a brief 
description of three farms in three different dis 
tricts of England—the first, a light land, self- 
drained; the second, clay, sand and good pasture: 
the third, a stiff clay—and all of these cultivated 
by tenants who have not expended money for 
glory, hut have invested capital to earn a profit. 
Mr. John Hudson began farming half a century 7 
ago. In 1822 be entered upon his now celebrated 
farm of “Castle Acre”—a self-drained land and 
fair specimen of the Norfolk light soil. At that 
period rape-cake was the only portable manure— 
costing £13 per tun—and did not produce any visi¬ 
ble effect upon the crops for a month. His live 
stock consisted of 200 sheep and 40 of the old Nor 
folk breed of cattle. He adopted what was then 
the new four course system—250 acres of pasture, 
300 wheat, 300 barley—in dear years, 600 wheat j 
300 roots, and 300 seeds, the rest being gardens 
and coverts. On these 1,200 acres he at present 
maintains 10 dairy cows, 36 cart horses, a flock of 
400 breeding ewes, and fattens and sells 250 Short¬ 
horns, Herefords, Devons, or Scots, and 3,COO Down 
Sheep. The crop of Swedes average from 25 to 30 
tuns, the mangold-wurtzel from 30 to 35 tuns per 
acre. His wheat had, in 1855, averaged, for the 
previous five years, 48 bushels per acre; barley 56 
bushels. Of the seeds, clover is mowed for hay, 
trefoil and white clover fed down by sheep, and 
there are no bare fallows. Oil-cake, meal, and beans 
are purchased to the amount of £2,000 annually, 
and fed out to the cattle in sheds and to the sheep 
in the field. The greater part of thi.s oil-cake is 
changed to manure; hut the direct expenditure for 
artificial fertilizers—guano, nitrate of soda, and 
superphosphate of lime—amounts to £1,000 yearly 
Seven or eight wagon-loads of farm-yard manure 
per acre are plowed in on land intended for roots 
besides 30*. worth of superphosphate drilled in 
with the turnip seed; while wheat has a top dress¬ 
ing of 1 ewi of guano, £ cwt. of nitrate of soda 
and 2 cwt of salt, mixed with earth and ashes. 
Wages absorb from £2,600 to £3,000 annually.— 
No weeds are grown. The turnips are taken up in 
November, and a troop of beys and girls traverse 
the ground, forking out and burning every particle 
of twitch and thistle. Whenever occasion requires 
during the growth of the root crop, they go over 
it, and immediately after harvest, the stubble is 
again gone over and the slightest vestige of a weed 
exterminated. The expenses of cleaning are kept 
down to 1a. per acre. Mr. Thomas Gisbonf, the 
celebrated agricultural essayist, doubted this return 
of expense, but a thorough examination led him 
to the conclusion that, by stopping the evil at the 
source, and never allowing the enemy to get ahead, 
land may he kept wholly weeded more cheaply 
than half weeded. The farmer who saw a thief 
daily stealing from his dung-heap would soon call 
in the aid of a policeman. The weeds are an army 
of scattered thieves, and, if the pilferings of each 
are small in amount, the aggregate is immense.— 
The wise and thrifty farmer, therefore, keeps his 
constabulary to take up the offender, and consign 
him as quickly as possible to death. He who al¬ 
lows himself to be daily robbed of his crop, and 
the community to the same extent of food, and all 
the while looks helplessly on, is not only a bad 
farmer, hut in effect, though not in desigD, a bad 
citizen. 
Mr. J. Thomas, of Lidlington Park, is oursecond 
example. He farms about 800 acres of a mixed 
character, consisting in part of clay, which has 
been rendered profitable by deep drainage, and in 
part of what te locally termed sand, which has 
been changed from rabbit-warrens to grain fields 
by the Norfolk system. At Lidlington, where there 
is a strong clay to deal with, and more good grass 
land than exists at “ C »st!e Acre,” it is not neces¬ 
sary to purchase so much food to keep live stock 
for manure. There aro about 150 cattle and 1,000 
sheep sold fat The caUle, consisting of two-year- 
olds, are purchased at iaLd L spring Rnd summer, 
and run on inferior pastures until winter, then ta¬ 
ken into the yards and fed with hay, Swedes, man¬ 
golds, ground cake, linseed or barley meal, and 
allowed an unlimited supply of clean water. In 
spring they are put on the best grass, and sent to 
market as soon as they become ripe, having left 
behind them a store of manure which is the capi¬ 
tal from which everything else must spring. A 
choice breeding flock of South-Down sheeji, num¬ 
bering about 400, are also kept By these sheep 
the light land is consolidated and enriched. Store 
sheep are allowed to gnaw the turnips on the ground 
for a part of the year—if they are young and to be 
fatted for market, the turnips are drawn, topped, 
tailed, and sliced with a machine. Thus, feeding 
by day, and penned successively over every part of 
the field at night, they fertilize and compress, as 
effectually as aDy roller, the light-blowing sand, and 
prepare soil which would scarcely feed a family of j 
rabbits for luxuriant grain crops. 
The fields upon this farm are divided by single 
rows of black thorn, into lots of forty or fifty acres. 
Under the old mode 200 acres were poor pasture— 
now, under the rotation system, the strong clay 
feeds four times as much Btock as before, and 
bears wheat at least twice in six years. About 
twenty men and thirty boys, under an aged and 
experienced chief, are constantly employed. No 
land is lost here by unnecessary fences—no food is 
wasted on ill-bred stock—no fertility is consumed 
by weeds—no time or labor is thrown away. One 
crop prepares the way for another, and the plow 
follows quick upon the footsteps of the reaper.— 
The sheep stock is kept up to perfection by judi¬ 
cious care. At the Christmas Market for 1856, 
Down shearlings, twenty months old, 25 in number, 
were sold by auction at Hitchin, at an average of 
£4 8s. each, being double the usual weight The 
large produce in grain or meat is the converse ot 
the peasant proprietor whose main object is to feed 
his family, and avoid every possible payment in 
cash. As for laying out a sixpence on manure, or 
cattle food for making manure, no such notion ever 
crosses the mind of the Belgian peasant proprietor, 
or French metayer, and the diminution in the 
means of subsistence is almost past calculation.— 
He who puts most into the land, and gets most out 
of it, is the true farmer. The bad cultivator gives 
little, and receives accordingly. 
The Weald of Sussex farm is the third example, 
and this f arm exhibits what can be done to improve 
the most intractable class of retentive soils. The 
usual course of cropping was—1, fallow; 2, wheat; 
3, oats; 4, seeds. The seed crops were fed until 
the beginning of June with all the stock of the 
farm, and then broken up for a hare fallow. The 
crops were about 20 bushels of wheat once in four 
years, about forty-eight bushels of oats the year 
following, and hay and seeds in the third year. The 
stock consisted of about 25 cows, and 10 young 
cattle, which were sold half fat. Sheep there were 
none, for it was believed impossible to keep them. 
Lime was the only manure purchased, and hay the 
only winter feed. The present owner began by 
reducing the hundred inclosures to twenty, and 
borrowed money enough to drain the whole of his 
clays—the stiffest imaginable—three feet six inches 
deep. This preliminary process enabled him to 
grow roots and keep a large stock of Down sheep 
on his clovers and seeds, with plenty of cake, run¬ 
ning them upon the land almost all the year round. 
To assist in disintegrating the drained clay, he 
adopted a system of box-feeding, manufacturing a 
large quantity of long straw manure, which, when 
plowed in, exercised a mechanical as well as fer¬ 
tilizing effect. 
At the present time, with the assistance of the 
grass land, from ICO to 120 head of the best class 
of cattle are fattened—20 Alderney cows eat up 
what the fat cattle leave on the pastures and sup¬ 
ply first-class butter for Brighton—a market,j'hich 
requires the best description of farm produce. Of 
fat Down sheep and lambs about 800 are fattened, 
and 89 pigs are sold off cheaply in the shape of 
what is called “ dairy-pork,” and this completes 
the annual animal results of this farm. 
Of 450 acres devoted to arable cultivation, wheat 
is grown every alternate year, at the rate of from 
40 to 48 bushels per acre. The sheep and lambs 
get fat on clover and other seeds assisted by cake, 
prepare the soil for the alternate grain crops, and 
have doubled the original produce. The roots fat¬ 
ten the cattle, and while they are growing ripe for 
the butcher they manufacture the long straw ma¬ 
nure which enriches the tenacious soil, and, by its 
fermentation, assists to break it up. By these and 
such like methods—all novelties in Sussex—the 
produce of the farm has trebled in ten years, and 
the condition of the soil incalculably improved; 
and all would have been vain, and much of it im¬ 
possible, without the adoption of deep, thorough, 
grid iron drainage. This has done the Weald of 
Sussex clay, what sheep-feeding and drill husband 
ry did for the warrens of Norfolk, the sands of Bed¬ 
ford, and the Downs of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. 
BUILDING CISTEENS. 
Eds. Rural.— It is a heart felt wish of mino 1 hat 
every family among your readers might have abun¬ 
dance of pure rain-water. Hundreds of them are 
without it most of the time, though the roof of their 
domicil would afford a constant supply if they 
would only catch the drippings now wasted. Any 
man who can dig a smooth hole and daub it with 
mud, can make a cistern. And any man who can 
pay for extra wear and tear of tubs, pails and bar¬ 
rels without half the quantum of hoops, and with 
warped staves, (made by the good wife’s efforts to 
catch a little rain-water,) can procure all the need¬ 
ful materials. All you want to make a cistern 
which will hold, say fifty barrels, is two barrels of 
good hydraulic lime, one large, or two small loads 
of coarse sand, a few bits of joists, and an armful 
of refuse boards. You can pick up the boards on 
the premises; you can haul the sand on some idle 
day; the two barrels of lime will, therefore, bo the 
money outlay. I will tell you how to make a good 
cistern, one that will last and need no repairs. 
Let your wife select the place. Convenience will 
guide her selection. In the centre of the spot 
chosen, drive a pin as large as your little finger, 
clear off the grass and dig off the surface to a level, 
(don’t fill up) three feet round the pin on all sides 
Around the pin as a centre, describe a circle of five 
feet diameter. Throw out the earth within, a foot 
deep nearly, (not quite) to the circle; then trace the 
circle to the depth of the spade, slanting it inward a 
little. From the bottom of this slant, dig out the 
whole interior perpendicularly, four feet Describe 
a line, b b, around the inside of the cavity, about 8 
inches below the surface, and at this line begin to 
dig under, shaping your cistern as in figure No. 1. 
Dig under, or back, l.j feet in descending the first 2.) 
feet below the horizontal line last drawn. Now 
carry the sides perpendicularly to the bottom, or 9 
feet below the surface at a a. Make the interior 
surface as smooth and regular as possible. 
Plastering .—Get 20 bushels of clean, coarse sand, 
(grains as large as wheat, mixed with finer.) from 
the bottom of the brook, or the beach. If clean 
sand cannot he obtained, wash it. Dirty sand will 
not make a water-proof wall. Mix half a bushel of 
lime with one bushel of sand, to about the stiffness 
of mortar for common plastering. If your lime is 
good, one part lime to three parts sand will make 
good mortar. Apply to the whole interior surface 
of the cistern, (except the bottom,) as thick a coat 
of mortar as will adhere. Ilun it up 3 inches above 
the points b b, Fig. 1, and make the angle at b 1, as 
full and sharp as may be. In 12 to 24 hours after¬ 
wards— as may suit your convenience — apply a 
second coat of mortar in the same way. It is now 
ready to receive the top. To put this on, you want 
a mold and a stage to support it Set four posts 
in the bottom of the cistern near the sides, at equal 
distances from each other; (their length will be 
given presently; rails, 3 by 3 joists, or anything of 
the kind.) Across each pair of posts, lay a piece of 
joist, (like the plates of a house frame,) as long as 
the cistern will admit—across these plates, lay 
three others, one in the centre, and one on each 
side. Cover these with a floor of any refuse hoards 
fitting the outer edge of the boards to the sides of 
the cistern at the point b b, and cutting each board, 
(except the outer one on each side,) in two, up the 
centre joist 
To get the length of the posts, take the depth of 
the cistern at the point b b, in the figure, from 
which deduct the thickness of the two layers of 
cross joists plus the thickness of the floor. Cnf(tho 
posts square at top and bottom. 
Fio. 1. a a, surface, b b, lower horizontal line. 
To make the posts firm, — having laid the first 
pair of cross joists in their place,—brace these out¬ 
ward against the sides of the cistern by introducing 
aspring between them; (a stick the thickness of 
your finger, a ceiling lath, a bit of clapboard will 
do.) If your floor does not fill the space po as to 
prevent lateral motion, crowd around it grass, rags, 
chips, anything to fasten it in its place. Tn all this 
wood work drive not a nail —there is no need of it,— 
it will cost trouble to draw it out. 
Now knock out the bottom of your empty lime 
barrel, and remove all the hoops except the chime 
hoop at one end, and one bilge hoop at the other. 
Set it on the middle of your floor—bilge hoop 
down—and throw round it a hank of dirt as high as 
the hilge-hoop—pack this dirt down closely, and 
drive down the hoop, lettiDg it fall upon the dirt. 
Throw in dirt and form the mold or core to receive 
the top of the cistern, as in Fig. 2. Pack the dirt 
Fio. 2, showing the top section of cistern, mold, and 
posts supporting it. 
a little, smooth the surface with a trowel, sift a little 
fine sand over it and smooth it again, taking care 
to have the outer edge of the mold nicely meet the 
side wall of the cistern at the angle b b, Fig. 1.— 
Upon this mold lay a coat of mortar an inch and 
three-quarters or two inches thick; and, around the 
barrel, make an elevated band of mortar of two ad¬ 
ditional inches thickness and four or five inches in 
width. This done, gently knock off the chime 
hoop, carefully draw out one stave from the barrel, 
and leave all to dry a week or ten days. Then 
remove the barrel, shovel out the mold, take out 
the floor and frame, and you have the top and sides 
of a good reservoir. 
Now apply to the whole interior (except the bot¬ 
tom) a third coat of mortar made as before, only of 
fine sand. Clean out and level the bottom and 
cover it with one coat of mortar — coarse sand 
here —1£ to 2 inches thick, (get out, if you can, 
without leaving a foot-print,) and your cistern is 
done. To keep the frost from injuring it, lay a 
brick wall round the moutb, two or three inches 
outside of the aperture, and ten or twelve inches 
high, and bank up with earth a foot deep. 
For inexperienced builders, a few additional sug¬ 
gestions may be useful. The quicker hydraulic 
mortar is applied after being mixed, the quicker it 
will set, or harden—hence, make a small quantity 
at once, and use it up. Hydraulic mortar if left at 
rest, will begin, to set in a few minutes, which 
utterly spoils it; therefore, stir whatjou have mix¬ 
ed often, till it is used After placing your barrel 
upon the floor, (in making the mold,) lay a long 
plank over the top of the cistern, to walk on. 
In making the bottom of cisterns, I have some¬ 
times done as follows:—Selected two thin, flat 
stones, as large as could be introduced into the 
mouth of the cistern, (or a few hard bricks,) spread 
a coat of mortar on the central part of the bottom 
of the cistern and laid the stones, (or bricks,) iu 
this; then, having plastered the bottom elsewhere, 
finished it on these stones or hi icks. A firm p’aco 
is thus had on which to set the ladder to get out, 
without leaving tracks, or making holes in the 
bottom. 
A nice cistern should have, besides the large 
aperture, or month, three others piercing the top, 
