TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
YOU. IX. NO. 47A 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 
(CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,—SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE GENTS. 
{WHOLE NO. T63. 
WITH AH ABLE COB.P3 OF ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
Tub Rural New-Yorker in designed to bo unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful 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 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, 
thaa any other journal,—rendering it the most complete Agricultu- I 
RAi>, Literary and Family Journal in America. 
WINTER CARE OF STOCK. 
First among the peculiar labors of the present 
time is the preparation and completion of such 
quarters for the farm stock as shall insure protec¬ 
tion from wintry blasts—such as shall guarantee 
both the comfort and health of the animals placed 
therein. If these are not secured, hay-mows reach¬ 
ing to ridge-poles, and granaries filled to repletion, 
are of little worth in keeping up a good condition 
of physical development. In furnishing these there 
are a few objects which should be sought by every 
man who desires the well-being of *he animals j 
under his care, viz:—warmth, dryness, ventiiati 
light, cleanliness. 
" A pound of boards is equal to a pound of 
beef” once wrote a contributor to the columns of 
the Rural, and we never observe a horse or cow 
drawn np upon the lee-side of a fence for shelter, 
but we thinkjhe ownor.bna an excellent opportu¬ 
nity to satisfy himself of the truth of the proposi¬ 
tion. The natural heat must be kept np, and where 
an animal is thns exposed, stern demands are made 
upon the oily secretions for the caloric necessary, 
and soon the plumpness and richness which sum¬ 
mer gave are carried away upon the wings of the 
wind. In the case of milch cows warmth is pre¬ 
eminently needful t,o keep np a perfect condition 
of the lacteal organs. Flint, in his Mich Coirs 
mxd Dairy Farming, rcmBrks:— 1 » The less cows are 
exposed to the cold of winter the better. They 
eat less, thrive better, and give more milk when 
honaed all the time than when exposed to the cold. 
Cairo mentions a case where a herd of cows, 
which had been nsnally supplied from troughs and 
pipes in tbs stalls, were, on account of an obstruc¬ 
tion in the pipes, obliged to be turned ont twice a 
day to be watered in the yard. The quantity of 
milk instmtly decreased, and in three days the fall¬ 
ing off became very considerable. After the pipes 
were mended, and the cows again watered as be¬ 
fore, in their stalls, the flow of milk returned.” 
In the selection of a site for building stable: 
barns, or sheds, “ any place" is net good enough.— 
Upon this point we speak with feeling, for a major¬ 
ity seem to think that when a spot is chosen on 
which the home of the family may stand, all kin¬ 
dred labors are concluded,—that the barn and 
home of the domestic animals may be stuck down 
here, there, or anywhere. This is an error — one 
which will prove fatal to the comfort and health of 
the stock. A damp stable is always an unhealthy 
one. Drains are seldom thought of in connection 
with the building of a stable, and yet they are abso- - 
lately necessary to its being clean and sweet.— ( 
Part of the liquid excretions are soaked np by the ] 
litter, part sinks into the floor, and the remainder, ] 
which is the most deleterious, evaporates and min- i 
gles with the air. Animals confined in such places < 
always have more than their share of debility and \ 
disease. ( 
We have stated that warmth was essential to the < 
health of cattle, bat this mast not be the stifling < 
heat which illy-ventilated buildings is certain to f 
generate. This defect in construction is the parent 1 
of myriad forms of disease—forms the most diffi- i 
cult to combat, and most to be dreaded in their i 
ultimate results—and the homes, both of man and f 
the brute creation, throughout our entire country, 1 
are equally vicious to physical well-being and de¬ 
velopment. Consumption, which, while clothing \ 
the cheek of beauty with the warm tints of the t 
rose and lighting the eye with fire belonging not i 
to earth, strikes with deadly force at vitality, is I 
the child of an impure atmosphere, and its kin- ( 
dred destroyer, pleura-pneumonia, which marks <3 
its ravages by the extinction of entire herds, is n 
born of the same prolific mother. h 
“ Let there be light,” was the Almighty fiat, and ^ 
when we see a farmer confining the brute creation 
in a “ black hole,” a certain other passage of Holy o 
Writ is instinctively called to mind — they “love il 
darkness rather than light because their deeds are g 
evil.” If a man has a dark stable he may rest as- e 
Bared that it does not possess one single favorable I 
feature — such a place is illy-ventilated, damp, a 
cold and unclean. g 
Cleanliness onght to be a marked feature of the 
stable, and where the requisites already enumerated 
are to be found, this can be easily obtained. 
Having now got everything in readiness about 
the home of the stock, the work of keeping com¬ 
mences, and all will find that judicious rules for 
guidance in the operations connected therewith, 
when properly demonstrated, have as salutary and 
profitable an influence here as in any other depart¬ 
ment of farm economy. Prominent among these 
is regularity in feeding. Stated hours at which sup¬ 
plies of provender are to be furnished, should be 
carefally adhered to, and no deviation ought to be 
allowed. The authority quoted in a preceding 
paragraph, remarks upon this point:—“The healthy 
animal stomach is a very nice chronometer, and it 
is of the utmost importance to observe regular 
hours in feeding. * * * * This is 
a point in which very many farmers are at fault- 
feeding whenever it happers to be convenient 
The cattle are thus kept in a restless condition, 
constantly expecting food when the keeper eni . 
the barn, while, if regular hours are strictly , 1- 
hered to, they know exactly when they are to be 
fed, and they rest quietly till the time arrive ,.- 
Go into a well regulated establishment an ho a, 
before the time of feeding, and scarcely an animal 
will rise to its feet; while, if it happens to he she 
hour of feeding, the whole herd will be likely to 
rise and seize their food with an avidity and ri lish 
n to be mistaken.” Quiet on the part of the mi-! 
mal is the feature of the foregoing extract; should 
ona visit an “ establishment” of opposite chan u>r 
that depicted, 
and uneasiness W. 
he distinguishing characteristics, 
fere we to form a judgment of- the cleanliness 
■ ■ filthiness of cattle by the appearance of the 
generality of stables—especially thoso devoted to 
-meow —we should be strongly impressed with 
ddea that, they (tbs cattle) are naturally dirty, 
we tlniR be libelling tho animah, when the ag¬ 
gregation of fonl stuff is owing to the slovenliness 
of the man in charge. A clean stable should not 
be snch a rare thing—it ought to be tho rnle, not 
"ic exception. The cnrry-comb and the wiBp 
have a very urgent “call” in tbe cattle stalls. A 
clean, Roft, smooth skin is promotive of good feel¬ 
ings, and (after the manner of men) good feelings 
are grand aids to digestion. Each branch of labor 
is dependent upon tho other —if your stable be 
-arm and dry, well-ventilated and light; if yon 
f< - I liberally and regularly, and, after all, permit 
accumulation of foul matters to poison the air, 
our labors will end in “vexation of spirit.” 
A WORD ABOUT HUMBUGS. 
nations. First, the “ Genesee ci; .■'Ttry,” then Ohio, 
Michigan, California, Oregon, and Kansas; each has 
bad its time of excitement, and few have escaped a 
touch of the "fever," in one>i*M(;n or another. We 
grasp at new fruits, and grains, and vegetables, and 
test them with zeal and energy. This trait has done 
much to place ns in th8 first rank of Pomology. 
No nation can equal us in fine apples and pears, 
and some other fruits. Of course many new 
things prove unworthy of culture, and this gives 
an opportunity for a portion of onr people to cry 
“ humbug;" but suppose we try a dozen new things 
in half as many years, and only one proves 
valuab’e, who will say that we have not been well 
repaid? Should the Chinese Sugar Cano furnish 
cheap syrup, to say nothings of sugar, to the 
farmers of the Middle and Western States, it will 
repay us fonr-fold for every dollar expended in the 
silk worm excitement, and should time prove the 
Hungarian Grass as valuable as many of onr 
friends suppose it to be for jhe Western Prairies, 
will repay a thousand dollars for every one ex¬ 
uded in the culture of “ Rohau Potatoes,” or 
Ihinese Tree Corn,” or any other new thing tl- 
s flourished for a day and failed. 
While we would urge onr readers to “try all 
things, and hold fast that which is good,” to gain 
knowledge from scntual experiment rather than 
from the any so of any one, there can bo no ob- 
Jootlon to the exerciso of reason as to the proba¬ 
bilities of success. Because a system of ngricnl- 
tnre or a .plant succeeds and proves valuable in 
other countries it does not follow that it would 
answer here, although there may bo no objection 
10 far as climate is concerned. An attempt is 
making to naturalize Hte tea plant. No evil that 
wo know of can result from tho trial, hut we 
hardly think we could afford to pnt up tbe leaves 
of the currant bush In thenar nor in which the 
Chinese put up tea, and make It profitable. So, 
wo have little hopes of this plant, or of anything 
that requires so largo an amount of labor. Some 
of tho English farmers will show from figures that, 
tho land instead of plowing is the most 
profitable system of culture. Here the best farm 
crop we could grow would scarcely pay for the 
labor. Onr people are not under the necessity of 
working for nothing, and we hopo never will be. 
“The poor we have always with ns,” but the fewer 
the number the better for all. In conclnsion we 
say, let all labor to develop new truths—to add a 
little to the Btock of general knowledge, nnawed 
by ignorance or ridicule. 
ant may be used to good advantage for all kinds 
of stock. Repeated experiments have shown them, 
if fed judiciously, to increase the product of the 
cow as mnch as their value in meal would do, 
being better liked by the animal 
The subject of wintering cows will, no doubt, 
receive attention at your hands, we will not enlarge 
upon it. We will venture the remark, however, 
that good corn fodder is as good food for cows, a 
part of the time, as can be given in winter. We 
never expect or try to make much butter after our 
stalks are all gone—and give them ont twice a 
day in cold dry weather, as long as they last.— b. 
mm ft 
MmM / Vi 
If wl Mm 
; ■ \ 
\ - \ J ■/ > 
WIND-MILLS FOR FARM PURPOSES. 
Tee word "humbug," although, perhaps, very ex¬ 
pressive, has a harsh, unpleasant sound, in fact is, 
as ’V bbstek says, “ a low word," and one, therefore, 
thai we seldom use. Yet it is often met with in 
: cbe Agricultural Journals, and seme writers, in¬ 
deed seem to think their articles lack a proper 
finish unless they can in some way drag in this in¬ 
elegant word. In this way it is applied to scores 
of objects without right or reason, and within a 
few days we have noticed Morns Malticanlis, 
Chinese Sugar Cane, Rnta Bagas, Underdraining, 
and a score of other things, good and bad, desig¬ 
nated as humbugs, many of them, no doubt, as un¬ 
deserving the epithet as the persons who applied 
them. Humbug is an imposition under fair pre¬ 
tenses; To Humbug, to deceive for the purpose of 
ridicule. This being the meaning of the term, 
what propriety is there in calling the Sugar Cane 
a humbug, no matter whether it succeeds or fails. 
It was introduced for trial, and until this trial was 
made no one was wise enough to say whether it 
would [succeed or not. The sanguine may have 
entertained too high hopes of the result, and the 
unbelieving may have condemned it without evi¬ 
dence, but neither of these facts will justify any 
one in applying to it this opprobiocs epithet. No 
one was imposed upon for the purpose of gain by 
any parties that we know of; no one was deceived 
for the purpose of making them subjects of 
ridicule. The wisest could only guess at the result 
until the trial was made, and either success or 
failure would add to onr stock of knowledge, per¬ 
haps enough to pay the cost 
The Rata Baga and other tamips have been 
worth millions to England, have, in fact, revolu¬ 
tionized the whole system of English farming, and 
in connection with deep tillage and underdraining 
have made the English farmers independent of 
Corn Laws and Sliding Scales. If, then, they have 
done so much for England, which no intelligent 
man will doubt, they are entitled to a careful trial 
here, and no one should be deterred from testing 
these things for himself by the cry of “ humbug." 
It is the nature of onr people to become excited 
over things new and promising, no matter whether 
it is the Morns Malticanlis or the Atlantic Tele¬ 
graph, and though some evil may result from this 
excitability, there is some counterbalancing good. 
It has secured the rapid settlement of Territory 
after Territory and the formation of State after 
State in a manner unprecedented in the history of 
COWS AEOUT THESE DAYS. 
Butter, at this season (1st November,) usual - 
bears a better price than during the summer, ai 
should do so, not only because it costs more to 
make it, but because it can be made of better 
quality. Hence it is for the interest of the farmer, 
that cows, “ about these days,” should receive 
every needed attention—as mnch so as at any 
other season of the year. 
Among the first attentions required on the 
commencement of cold weather, are shelter from 
severe storms, and a partial supply of fodder. We 
should not leave milch cows to depend entirely 
upon grass—it has lost something both of relish 
and nutrition, from repeated freezings—and can¬ 
not afford that quantity or quality of milk it 
formerly supplied. As long as it remains green, 
however, it will bs preferred to entire dry food, 
and the lack may be supplied by a foddering of 
good hay each morning, before turning to pasture. 
The amount given should be only what they will 
readily consume, and the quality of the better 
class, as poorer fodder will be eaten to mnch 
greater advantage in cold weather. 
The condition of the pasture-grounds should be 
taken into consideration, of course—late fall feed¬ 
ing may injure them by treading while soft, or by 
gnawing the grass too closely, far more than it will 
benefit our animals. Most pastures, however, will 
bear fall-feeding, much better than early spring 
grazing, in fact the latter is a permanent injury to 
nearly, if not quite, all grass lands. 
Another needed attention is in the matter of 
supplying some green food to cows in the yard, 
that the change may not be too sudden from graz¬ 
ing to fodder. Such a change must require also a 
change in the habits and system of the animal, or 
subject the same to derangement and disease. It 
is conceded of high importance to change gradu¬ 
ally from dry to green food, in the spring, and for 
this purpose every farmer should grow roots for 
occasional spring feeding. The tops of turnips 
and beets will help answer the early winter demand 
for green food, especially if pumpkins or apples 
are also supplied. 
We have used pumpkins freely in December, and 
January sometimes, with decided benefit to our 
cows and profit to ourselves. In the milder weather 
of these months something of the kind is needed, 
or the animals will fall away in flesh, and produce 
bat little profit in the dairy. Apples are equally 
valuable as food for milch cows, and when abund- 
ittempts to utilize the wind, as a motive 
/er for machinery, have, in this country, usually 
" ulted in disappointment and loss. This has 
: i’efly arisen from the inconstant, unreliable na- 
of the motor. There is no insuperable 
tacle to its employment for many purposes on 
farm, for which power is only wanted occa- 
lally. In such cases, it is the cheapest power 
c i can obtain. 
he first question to be considered by a person 
posing to erect a wind-mill is—Have I a suit- 
} position? It is very important that nothing 
uld break the foree of the wind. The height 
he mill must be such that no obstruction shall 
elevated above it more than two (2) degrees, 
ordinary farm purposes a wheel ten feet in 
neter will be found sufficient, giving, in a 
ng wind, power enough for cutting feed, shell¬ 
s’ corn, or to drive a cross-cut saw, bnt not a 
circular efficiently. 
Since the rim of a wheel moves much faster 
than the parts near the centre, the sails must be 
set at an angle of G0° at the hub, and 80° at the 
rim. The most suitable material for the sails is 
sheet iron, riveted to a skeleton; wood will answer 
for a time, but soon warps ont of shape, and a 
slight deviation from the proper form will ma¬ 
terially lessen the power. 
In order to keep the wheel face to the wind, we 
need two circular plates—the lower fixed to the 
frame-work, the upper, which carries the wheel, 
freely rotating on conical rollers fixed with their 
bearing surface a little above, and parallel to the 
plane of the lower plate. The upper plate projects 
and is connected by bolts to the rim below, so aB 
to prevent the plates being separated. This rim, 
if geared internally and worked by a pinion and 
connecting shaft, affords a means for regulating 
the motion, and enables us to dispense with the 
vane usually employed to keep the wheel before 
the wind. The motion is communicated to an up¬ 
right shaft by bevel gearing. The anchor is a 
Bliding-bar, worked by a lever passing between the 
sails. 
Further explanations of the mode of constrac- 
I lion are unnecessary, since no one bnt a competent 
! mechanic ought to undertake to build one. In 
building wind-mills, or indeed anything, the best 
materials, put together in the best manner will be 
found cheapest in the end. Great accuracy must 
be observed throughout, for on this depends the 
success or failure of the attempt. Everything 
must he made very strong, and at the same time 
light as possible. Inertia, whether of rest or 
motion, is a great disadvantage in the employment 
of so inconstant a power as the wind. 
The cost of such a wind-mill as described would 
be from forty to fifty dollars—considerably less 
than a horse-power to do the same work. If some 
enterprising machinist would build them for sale, 
he could afford them for less than the above esti¬ 
mate and realize a reasonable profit. 
A wind-mill is not to be recommended as a 
churn power, for it would not work more than 
half the time during the summer months, and the 
“women folks” are entitled to steady, reliable help 
in this arduous part of their labors. A railroad 
power, worked by a dog, or in large dairies a steer, 
is the best substitute for water for churning. For 
pumping water, a wind-mill of from four to six 
feet diameter, according to the height and quan¬ 
tity of water desired to be raised, will work well 
For this purpose all the gearing may be dis¬ 
pensed with and a crank substituted. There being 
no person in attendance, a vane is, in this case, in¬ 
dispensable. An anchor of different form will also 
be found convenient. Fasten a rod, whose longth 
is the radius of the wheel, to the revolving disc 
immediately beneath the axle, by a pivot, permit¬ 
ting it to revolve part way around with the wheel. 
At the lower end attach, by a binge joint, a heavy 
bar, which drops between the sails; to the bar 
attach a cord, carry it over the circular discs, and 
down by the crank rod. 
A diameter of six feet will give, in a working 
breeze, about the power of a maD, raising 100 
pounds one foot per second. In larger wheels the 
power increases as the square of the diameter, 
nearly. 
So far as known to the writer, the above 
described wind mill may be built without in¬ 
fringing on any patent. M . 
Chili, N. Y., 1858. 
HONEY-COMB-PRACTICAL FACTS. 
IIow strange that in this day and ago of the 
world, when reliable works on the bee and its man¬ 
agement can be obtained so cheaply, there should 
exist so many different opinions in regard to the 
materials used in the construction of honey-comb, 
whereas all, by a little study and reflection, would 
arrive at the same conclusion that experienced 
bee-keepers must eventually, and which would be 
of so much value to all interested in bee-culturc. 
In my travels the past summer, in conversing 
with many, and with those who have had the care 
and management of bees for upwards of twenty 
years, it was somewhat amusing to hear them state 
the different articles of which (they thought) it is 
made. I remember one aged gentlemen who had 
kept bees, more than forty years, and in his opin¬ 
ion, knew more about bee-keeping than a majority 
of those who had written works expressly for the 
promotion of bee-cultnre. In talking about tho 
usefulness of drones, or the male bees, he said that 
they were the most useful of any in the whole colony, 
for without them no comb would be constructed, 
and he knew they made the comb, for he had seen 
them in the middle of the day circumambulate in 
great numbers for tho purpose of collecting wax of 
which the comb is made. 
Others, perhaps, with still less c onfidenco, assert 
that it is made of the substance which they carry 
in little baskets on their posterior legs. To prove 
this absurdity let all, the next season, who have 
any anxiety or desire to inform themselves of facts, 
visit their bees and watch them closely in the sea¬ 
son of comb-building, and they will find that good 
healthy stocks with their hives full of comb, (and 
no more needed,) carry in more of this article 
which we bee-keepers call pollen, bee-bread, or the 
food of young bees, than new swarms just begin- 
ing to build comb. Why? Simply because the 
old stocks have, at this season of the year, an 
abundance of brood, and it must be fed or they 
perish; the new swarms have comb to build and 
therefore do not need mnch pollen until the eggs 
of the queen are hatched. 
Comb, then, must be made of something else.— 
\ es, it is. It is made of wax. From whence, it 
may be asked, do they get this wax? I might say 
with propriety they do not get or gather it at all. 
Wax is simply (and is verified by the best and 
most successful apiarians) the oil or fat of the bees. 
Bees remaining gorged witli honey for a time, this 
oil or fat proceeding from the honey comes ont in 
little white scales of wax, about the sixteenth of 
an inch in diameter, under or between the rings of 
the abdomen, under side, from whence it is taken 
by the working-bees, or imperfect females, and work¬ 
ed into comb, and not as the aged gentleman re¬ 
ferred to supposes, “by the drones or male bees.” 
Many, perhaps, would like to know how they can 
I lest this matter satisfactorily for themselves and 
not rely merely upon my say so. Having asked a 
proper question, I will proceed to state a way in 
which, if strictly followed, this fact can be ascer¬ 
tained. After a swarm has issued, hive them in the 
ordinary way and confine them—let them remain 
twenty-four hours—examine them, take the comb 
(if they have any) away; by this time they will 
have what pollen they carried within eaten np— 
confine again and this time feed them with lumey 
and give them plenty of water, (which is absolutely 
necessary in comb - building) remove the comb 
again, confine again and feed with honey, sugar, 
or any saccharine matter—water as before, until 
satisfied of the truth of the assertion that comb is 
made of honey. If not satisfied, confine them and 
feed with pollen and water, if you wish, or any kind 
of fruit, and give through the columns of the 
Rural the results of the experiments. 
Having shown how it may be ascertained that 
honey is the principal, if not the only ingredient 
used in manufacturing comb, the next fact to show 
