TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
VOL. IX. NO. 28.} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,-SATUROAY, JULY 10, 1858, 
jWHOLE NO. W. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his personal atten¬ 
tion to tho 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, interspeised with appropriate and beautiful Engravings, 
than any other journal,— rendering it the most complete Agricultu¬ 
ral, Literary axd Family Journal in America. 
P i/'AIl communications, and business letters, should be addressed 
to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page 
r 2 
CD 
v h i 
•ip 
ABSORBENT POWER OF SOILS. 
Eds. Rural: — I have often heard the idea advanced by 
my brother farmers, and especially among those who are 
looking out farms to purchase, that sandy soils will leach, 
er that the substance of manures will sink in such soils 
so far down as not to be gartered by the roots of whatever 
may he planted upon it. Now, I entertain a different 
opinion from this, (although I am almost alone here,) and 
argue that the substance of manures will not sink, even 
in the most open and loose of soils. 1 would like to hear 
from the Rural on the subject, or from some of its corres¬ 
pondents, as I am a young farmer with but little experi¬ 
ence.— A. B. Ball, Akron, Fulton Co., Ind., 1858. 
Eds. Rural: —It is with diffidence, in consequence of 
my inability to write, that I appear in public, but as you 
have agreed to put in order and shape, I shall attempt to 
ask some questions for the purpose of seekiDg informa¬ 
tion. I wish to ask whether or not a loose, porous soil, in 
a raiDy season, will leach manure, in othev words, whether 
the properties of manure will run down into the earth 
and be lost. If not, I think it ought to be known to the 
public, for I know of people that are so prejudiced in fa¬ 
vor of the idea, that they will leave their manure in their 
barn-yards until they have to move tbeir barns. I must 
say that I cannot blame them much, if it be true. I am 
aware that it always has been and is now the popular 
opinion that it will leach, but I must say, for myself, that 
I am, and have been for thirty years, opposed to it. I 
once took the liberty to inquire through the Michigan 
Farmer, and the answer was in the affirmative, still I am 
not satisfied, as I believe that the negative has proof suf¬ 
ficient to the contrary. I wish that it might be fairly dis¬ 
cussed by you or some of your numerous correspondents. 
For myself, I believe that every property that supports 
vegetation is coming up instead of going down. — Levi 
Treadwell, Hudson, Mich., 1858. 
Our correspondents have ventured upon a “vex¬ 
ed question.” According to our belief there is 
one certain sandy soil that will leach —the properties 
of manure, such as are soluble, or may be reduced 
to minute particles, will run down into the earth 
and be lost This variety is composed almost en¬ 
tirely of silicious sand, (partaking of the nature 
and qualities of flint,) and gravel, with bat little 
alumina and calcareous (limy,) matter. Such soils 
are almost absolutely barren, and, in general, are 
termed hungry soils, from their tendency to absorb 
manures without any corresponding benefit to the 
land. Where sandy soils contain a fair proportion 
of alumina and lime, they are more compact and 
always fertile. The action of heavy rains where 
manure is spread upon lands of this latter descrip¬ 
tion, would, we think, be more properly designated 
by the word filtration — the mechanical separa¬ 
tion of a liquid from the undissolved particles 
floating in it Dr. Sprengel made an analysis of 
six different varieties of sandy soils, the conditions 
of which were as follows: 
No. l No il No. m. No. iv. No. v. No. tl 
Sil'ca and quartz-sand . 9(5.000 92."14 90.221 98.8 96.7 947 
Alumina. .500 2 652 2106 .6 .4 1 6 
Oxides of Iron. 2000 3192 3 951 .3 A 2.0 
Oxides of manganese., trace .480 960 
v ' .213 A39 
.700 .730 
.125 .066 
.026 .010 
.078 .367 
trace trace 
do .010 
.490 1.0(0 .. 2.2 .5 
100.000 160.000 100 000 99.9 100.0 100.0 
The nature, condition, and production of the six 
different fields upon which these analyses were 
made, is thus described:—No. 1, Barren sandy soiL 
No. 2, Sandy soil, producing very bad red clover. 
No. 3, Growing luxuriant crops of pulse. No. 4, 
Very barren drift sand. No. 5, Barren sand. No. 
6, Fertile sandy loam, producing luxuriant crops 
of lucerne, sainfoin, lupins, poppies, &c. 
In a chapter on the “ Distinguishing Character 
of Soils and Subsoils,” by Johnston, the author 
says:—“ On the surface, plants grow and die.— 
Through the first few inches their roots penetrate, 
—in the same the dead plants are buried. This 
portion, therefore, by degrees, assumes a brown 
color, more or less dark, according to the quantity 
of vegetable matter which has been permitted to 
accumulate in it Into the subsoil, however, the 
roots rarely penetrate, and the dead plants are still 
more rarely buried at so great a depth. Still this 
Lime....001 
, Magnesia. trace 
Potash. do 
Soda. do 
Phosphoric acid. do 
Sulphuric acid. do 
Chlorine. 
Organic matter (humus) 1.499 
.1 trace 1.0 
.1 .1 trace 
trace) 
da ( 
. do. 
da 
.1 
2.2 
.1 
) 
trace 
inferior layer is not wholly destitute of vegetable 
or organic matter. However comparatively infe¬ 
rior it may be, still water makes its way through it, 
more or less, and carries down soluble organic sub¬ 
stances, which are continually in the act of being 
produced during the decay of the vegetable matter 
lying above. Thus, though not sensibly discolored 
by an admixture of decayed roots and stems, the 
subsoil contains an appreciable quantity of organic 
matter which may he distinctly estimated. Again, 
the continual descent of the rains upon the surface 
soil washes down carbonates of lime, iron, and 
magnesia, as well as other soluble earthy substances 
—it even, by degrees, carries down the fine clay 
also, so as to gradually establish a more or less man¬ 
ifest difference between the upper or lower layers, 
in reference even to the earthy ingredients they 
respectively contain. But, except in the case of 
very porous rocks or accumulations of earthy mat¬ 
ter, these surface waters rarely descend to any great 
depth, and hence, after sinking through a variable 
thickness of subsoil, we come in general to earthy 
layers, in which little vegetable matter can be de¬ 
tected, and to which the lime, iron, and magnesia 
of the superficial covering has never been able to 
descend.” 
Among a series of experiments instituted by 
Prof. Way and H. S. Thompson, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the power of soil to retaiD, unimpaired 
in value, manures applied in winter, and also its 
power to hold in suspension the fixed ammonia in 
barn-yard tanks and manure heaps we learn that Mr. 
Thompson filtered through sandy loam, six inches 
in depth, ten grains of sulphate of ammonia and 
ten grains of sesqui-carbonate of ammonia, both 
dissolved in distilled water,—the one representing 
the ammoniacal matter of the tank fixed by gypsum 
or sulphuric acid, and the other the free ammonia- 
cal solutions of the decomposed vegetable matter 
of the barn-yard—and he found that after passing 
through this thin stratum of soil, only 2.4 grains of 
the sulphate of ammonia resulted in the one case, 
and only 1,3 grains in the other. When an eight 
inch stratum of the soil was used, the whole of the 
ammonia was retained. 
Prof. Way subjected stinking tank water to fil¬ 
tration through twenty-four inches of a light loam, 
and the moisture at the foot of the tube was per¬ 
fectly free from smell, and a mixture of this soil 
and white sand allowed the percolation of water 
through it quite clear and free from ammonia.— 
With the drainage of a London sewer, Prof. W. 
found that the ammonia is separated from the rest 
of the organic matter to the last fraction; the 
phosphoric acid is separated from its base, and so 
is part of the sulphuric acid and all the potash; so 
that in fact the soil had selected and retained those 
very principles of the sewer water which science 
has decided to be the most valuable for the purpo¬ 
ses of manure. 
Prof. Mapes, in opposition to the theory that a 
system of under-drains would he conduits for car¬ 
rying off the soluble fertility applied to the soil, 
says:—“It is impossible for manures in a fluid form 
to filter downward through any fertile soil. Even 
the brown liquor of the barn-yard will have all its 
available constituents abstracted by the soil, before 
it descends into the earth thirty-four inches. If 
this were not true, our wells would long since have 
become useless, the earth’s surface would have be¬ 
come barren, and the raw materials of which plants 
are made, which come from the earth’s surface and 
surrounding atmosphere, would have passed to¬ 
wards the earth’s center; hut the carbon and 
alumina of the soil, each of which has the power 
of absorbing and retaining the necessary food of 
plants, are agents for carrying into effect the laws 
of nature for the protection of vegetable growth.” 
The closing remark of Mr. Treadwell, —“ that 
every property that supports vegetation is coming 
up instead of going down" —brings the idea of 
of capillary attraction to our notice, and, as we 
have quoted Johnston to the effect that in certain 
soils, rains carry soluble manures to a slight depth, 
we take the same author to show how they again 
reach the surface. He says:—“ When warm weather 
comes and the surface soil dries rapidly, then by 
capillary action the water rises from beneath, 
bringing with it the soluble substances that exist 
in the subsoil through which it ascends. Sue 
cessive portions of this water evaporate from the 
surface, leaving their saline matter behind them.— 
And a3 this ascent and evaporation go on as long 
as the dry weather continues, the saline matter ac 
cumulates about the roots of the plants so as to put 
within their reach an ample supply of every solu¬ 
ble substance which is not really defective in the 
soil. I believe that in sandy soils, and generally in 
all light soils, of which the particles are very fine, 
this capillary action is of great importance, and is 
intimately connected with their power of produ¬ 
cing remunerating crops. They absorb the falling 
rains with great rapidity, and these carry down the 
soluble matters as they descend—so that when the 
soil becomes soaked, and the water begins to flow 
over its surface, the saline matter being already 
buried deep, is in little danger of being washed 
away. On the return of dry weather, the water re¬ 
ascends from beneath and again diffuses the soluble 
ingredients through the upper soil.” 
We have thus endeavored to reply to the queries 
of our correspondents, and they, with others inter¬ 
ested, from the testimony produced, can form an 
opinion as to the probability of manure being 
washed into the soil to such depth as to be placed 
beyond the reach of vegetable growth, and all its 
fertilizing properties totally lost. It would afferd us 
much gratification to publish the views of Rural 
readers upon this topic, and to them we submit 
the question for discussion. 
THE PROGRESS OF ENGLISH AGRIGULTURE. 
We close our series upon this subject with the 
following remarks from the London Quarterly 
Review, concerning Drainage, the causes which led 
to its adoption, and the advance which has been 
taken. 
The venders of artificial manures discovered that 
their fertilizing stimulants were robbed of half their 
value on wet land, and also on that poorly culti¬ 
vated. This class soon became eager advocates of 
thorough drainage and thorough preparation of 
soil, an end only to be derived by the use of the 
best class of plows, harrows, horse-hoes and clod- 
crushers. Their customers would have been cus¬ 
tomers no longer unless they could be convinced 
that the fault was in themselves and not in the ma¬ 
terials employed. A man grudged growing weeds 
with the fertility for which he had paid in hard 
cash, nor could a manure that cost £10 or £12 per 
tun be refused the economy of a machine to dis¬ 
tribute it carefully; and thus drill husbandry, 
which is identified with clean husbandry, spread, 
led by pipe drains, from Norfolk, Suffolk and 
Bedfordshire, into every county in England, and 
with it brought all the machines and implements 
required for clean, rapid, concentrated cultivation. 
Attempts to drain have been made from the 
earliest times. Specimens may be seen of very 
clever workmanship more than a hundred years 
old: but the when it should be done, and the why, 
and the how, had never been reduced to rule.— 
Lord Bacon who had a large collection of works 
upon agriculture, had them one day piled up in 
the court-yard and set on fire—for, said he, “In all 
these books I find no principles; they cud, there¬ 
fore, be of no use to any man.” This was just the 
deficiency with respect to drainage, and it could 
not therefore progress until Josiab Pahkes, in 
1843, expounded the “principles,” and in 1845 
made suggestions which led to the manufacture of 
the steel tools which were necessary for forming 
the deep cuttings, and the cheap pipes which were 
essential to carrying off the water from them when 
formed. Up to 1843 little was done beyond tap¬ 
ing springs, or endeavoring to convey away the 
rain which fell on the surface by drains so shallow 
that the plow frequently spoiled them, it being the 
popular belief that moisture would not penetrate 
through retentive clay beyond twenty or thirty 
inches. In 1833, when Mr. Parkes was engaged in 
draining a peat-bog near Bolton, in Lancashire, for 
Mr. Heathcote, he had an opportunity of seeing 
the great effect produced by deep cuttings, and he 
was led to ponder on the advantage that would be 
derived from relieving the soil of a certain num¬ 
ber of inches of the water, which is stagnant dur¬ 
ing a rainy season, and remains until removed by 
evaporation in a dry season. By experiments con¬ 
tinued for several years, he found that a deep drain 
began to run after wet weather, not from the water 
above, but from the water rising from the subter¬ 
ranean accumulations below, and that, by drawing 
away the stagnant moisture from the three or four 
feet of earth next the surface, it was rendered more 
friable, easier to work, more penetrable by the raiD, 
which then carried down air and manure, and 
much warmer and more suitable for the nourish¬ 
ment of the crops. He came to the conclusion 
that the shallow draining, advocated by Smith, of 
Deanston, was a vital error, and that four feet, 
which left a sufficient layer of dry, warm surface 
earth, after allowing for the rise of the moisture 
by capillary attraction above the water-level of the 
drain, should be the minimum depth. 
The first field drained on the fonr-feet plan 
was on a farm near Bolton, belonging to a cele¬ 
brated Lancashire bone-setter. This was a small 
beginning of the subterranean net-work of pipes of 
which has more than doubled the value of our 
retentive soils. In 1843 Mr. Parkes gave his evi¬ 
dence before the Agricultural Committee of the 
House of Lords, and was strongly supported by the 
Earl of Lonsdale, whose experience as a commis¬ 
sioner of highway trusts, had proved to him the 
advantage of the system. But nothing could be 
done without tools and pipes. A Birmingham 
manufacturer, on Mr. Parkes’ suggestion, produced 
in 1844 the set of drain cutting implements which 
have by degrees been brought to perfection. A 
cheap conduit was still a difficulty. Stones choke 
up in many soils, and where they had to he broken 
and carted to the ground often made the cost 
enormous. In 1843, at the Derby show of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, John Reade, a gar- 
GROUP OF SHEEP.—MIDDLE-WOOLED BREEDS. 
a Welsh Mountain Sheep, b South-Down, c Dorsetshire, d Black-faced Cheviot, e Norfolk. / Ryland. 
From an English work, entitled Knight’s Picto¬ 
rial Half-1 fours, we copy the above spirited eng av- 
ing of the Middle-Wooled Sheep of Great Britain. 
These sheep include the South-Down, Dorset 
Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Cheviot breeds, together 
with several others, all which were formerly short- 
wooled. The length of staple generally averages 
about three and one half or four inches. They are 
thus described: 
The South-Down sheep is the model of what a 
hill sheep ought to be, and the flesh in fineness 
of grain and flavor is peculiarly excellent The 
wool is of a very useful quality, but is both larger 
in fibre and less numerously serrated than the 
short Saxony, and does not, therefore, possess such 
a felting power; hence, it is rarely used in the 
manufacture of fine broadcloths. Still from its 
fineness and felting powers compared with the 
wool of many other middle-wooled breeds, it is 
highly esteemed — and for flannel and worsted 
goods in general is extensively employed. In 
Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire, the South- 
Downs have either superceded or been blended 
with the old short-wooled sheep. 
Dorsetshire possesses its own breed, encroached 
upon, however, by the South-Downs. The males 
have large spirally-twisted horns, and the females 
have also horns, but much smaller than those be¬ 
longing to the males. Neither the wool nor flesh 
equals that of the South-Down breed. The old 
Norfolk breed of the middle-wooled sheep is very 
valuable, but it is rapidly giving way to the South- 
Down. The rams are distinguished by long spiral 
horns, those of the ewes and wethers being small¬ 
er; the flesh is remarkably fine, and the wool deli¬ 
cate and felts welL The figure of these sheep is 
| all and slender; the legs are long, and the face 
and limbs black or mottled. The general aspect is 
wild and animated. The breed thrives on the 
coarsest pasturage. The wool is not used in fine 
broadcloths, hut is used in such as are of inferior 
quality, and in woolen stuffs generally. 
In Suffolk, the South-Down breed prevails. The 
black-faced and horned sheep of Westmoreland, 
Cumberland, and various parts of Scotland, as 
Lanarkshire, belong to the middle-wooled section. 
With respect to their wool, these sheep do not rank 
high; it exceeds in length that of the middle- 
wooled breeds generally, but is harsh and coarse; 
to compensate for this, these sheep are very hardy, 
j have an admirable contour, and the flesh in fine- 
j ness of grain and delicacy of flavor equals either 
the South-Downs or the Welsh mutton. 
The Chevoit breed is very distinct from the com¬ 
mon mountain or black-faced race, with which it 
is on all sides immediately surrounded, these two 
races dividing the north between them. The 
Chevoit breed is hornless, and the general contour 
is excellent, — the shoulders are full, the body 
round and long, and the limbs small-boned. To* 
mutton is in great esteem; and the wethers 'aver¬ 
age sixteen, eighteen or even twenty pounds 'weight 
per quarter. The wool is good, though ii)ieiior to 
tftit of the South-Downs. 
— In our next number we shall commence the 
publication of a series of articles qq «Sheep — 
Characteristics of Breeds, Ac.,” pr spared with care 
by one of the most experienced _ an( j best informed 
writers in the Union, and - ^hich must prove of 
considerable value and in^^t t0 a n interested 
in the subject. 
dener, a self-taught mechanic, well known as the 
inventor of the stomach-pump, exhibited cylindri¬ 
cal clay-pipes, with which he had been in the habit 
of draining the hot-beds of his master. His mode 
of constructing them was to wrap a lump of clay 
round a mandril, and rub it smooth with a piece of 
flannel. Mr. Parkes showed one of these pipes to 
Earl Spencer, saying, “My Lord, with this pipe I 
will drain all England.” The Council, on his Lord¬ 
ship's motioD, gave John Reade a silver medal for 
his idea, and in the year following offered a pre¬ 
mium for a tile-making machine. A great deal of 
money was wasted in attempts, and many patents 
were taken out for the purpose with indifi'erer t 
success; hut in 1845, at Shrewsbury, Tuoy^g 
Scragg received a p T j Ze f or a machine which tri¬ 
umphed over the d’ .fiiculties, and pipes can now he 
made quite as fas’ u aa hilns can take them. 
The work fro 7 ^ that hour went rapidly forward. 
In 1846 Sir R- Peel, whose management of 
his own pro’^ er ty had made him thoroughly alive 
to the nat’ onal importance of the subject, passed 
the act h T y» which four millions sterling were appro¬ 
priated toward assisting land-owners with leave to 
repa 7 ^, the advance by instalments extending over 
twr mty-two years. Nearly the whole of the first 
1 jan was absorbed by canny Scotch proprietors 
, before Englishmen had made up their minds to 
take advantage of it. But the four millions of 
government money was small in comparison with 
