{WHOLE NO, 262. 
(CJgVVV+i' h> (-VV.VV^VV-V (V)V'V'vV VVV *IVV ♦ 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY, & FAMILY JOURNAL. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. 7. MOORE. 
ASSOCIATE KDITORS : 
J. H. BIXBY, T. C. PETERS, EDWARD WEBSTER. 
Special Contributors : 
T. E. Wstmore, H. C. White, H. T. Brooks, L. Wkihkrell. 
Ladies’ Port-Folio by Axin'. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guido on the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose 
interests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, 
Horticultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and Nows 
Matter, interspersod with many appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other paper published in this 
Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary 
and Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
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IN WINTER PREPARE FOR SUMMER. 
The wise adage, “ In time of Peace prepare 
for War,” is applicable to individuals and 
communities as well as governments and na¬ 
tions, and to no class does it apply with great¬ 
er significance than Agriculturists. And as 
Winter is, comparatively, a time of peace and 
rest with the farmer, it is the appropriate sea¬ 
son for him to prepare for the active opera¬ 
tions—the practical warfare—of the Summer. 
We need not, therefore, make any apology for 
offering, under the above heading, a few sea¬ 
sonable reminders. 
Our object is not to specify exactly what 
farmers should do—for each has various plans 
and operations in view, or that demand thought 
and attention, and his action in the premises 
must be governed, more or less, by personal 
means and circumstances—but to enjoin upon 
all the importance of timely preparation for 
whatever is proposed to be accomplished.— 
What we desire is to induce our readers in the 
New England and Middle States, to “ calcu¬ 
late” and “ figure,” and those in the West and 
South to “ reckon,” and see how much of a 
“ right smart chance” they have of succeeding 
in their respective operations. Whether grain 
growing,— dairying and grazing, — breeding 
and feeding,—wool, corn or pork making,—or 
the production of fruits and vegetables, be the 
leading object, it is indispensable to signal 
success that proper arrangements should be 
matured ere the arrival of the season for active 
operations. On account of the difference of 
location, number of acres occupied, capital 
employed, &c., no one rule will answer for all 
who have a like object in view; hence the 
plans of each must be made with particular 
reference to his own individual means and sit¬ 
uation. If land is to be cleared,—improved 
live stock, seed, or fruit trees to be obtained,— 
or other progressive steps taken, now is the 
time for estimating the expense, or ascertaining 
where and of whom the requisite laborers, 
animals, or articles can be procured to the 
best advantage. Time, money and trouble 
will be saved, if those who contemplate mak¬ 
ing improvements the ensuing spring give early 
thought and attention to the most important 
items. For instance, those who purpose erect¬ 
ing new buildings and fences, or adding to 
present ones, should make their figures and 
contracts, and procure the necessary materials, 
in season; such as require tile for draining, 
fertilizers for enriching their land, or material 
for other farm improvements, will also find the 
winter the most convenient and profitable 
period to make the necessary investments and 
arrangements. 
In addition to the practical items already 
alluded to, and others which will naturally sug¬ 
gest themselves to the reader, there are various 
matters of importance to the present and future 
interest and well-being of the farmer and his 
family, which should now occupy a portion of 
his time, talents, means and attention. Among 
these the Religious, Educational, Benevolent 
and Progressive institutions and enterprises in 
his locality are prominent—for upon them 
depend, in a great degree, the intellectual and 
moral improvement of his own family, and the 
welfare of community. In promoting the ad¬ 
vancement of these interests, the Advice, Influ¬ 
ence, Purse and Presence of the Farmer are 
all-important, and should never lie withheld by 
any sincere friend of Moral, Mental and Physi¬ 
cal Improvement. 
NEGLECTED MANURES. 
Ix a new country, where the virgin soil is 
able to yield for a series of years ample crops 
out of its accumulated fertility, the idea of 
husbanding manures and refuse matter of the 
farm, is rarely thought of. The accumulations 
of the barn-yard, &c., are considered a nuisance 
and drawback, rather than as a means of in¬ 
creased productiveness. But this state of 
things cannot long continue. Nature will 
refuse to give at last, no matter how generous 
I she may be, unless something is received in 
return. People at length discover this, how¬ 
ever reluctantly they are to recognize the fact, 
and begin with re-paying grudgingly to the 
soil, a tithe of what they have taken away.— 
At first they will condescend to give only the 
coarser and cruder materials, such as the 
refuse straw, and the remainder of the barn¬ 
yard accumulations after the best and most 
available portions have been dissipated or 
washed away by the action of the sun and rain. 
It is only in the older and thickly settled 
countries, where the dense population presses 
very closely upon the means of subsistence, that 
manures are economised and used to stimulate 
the soil into the most productive activity. 
Of these stimulants, night soil may be reckoned 
as one of the most valuable. Boussingacdlt 
says,—“ In countries where agriculture has 
made real progress, this article is highly prized ; 
and no pains are spared to obtain so powerful 
a manure. In Flanders, feculent matters form 
the staple of an active traffic, and in the neigh¬ 
borhood of large towns they form an invalua¬ 
ble material for the amelioration of the soil. 
The Chinese collect human excrements with 
the greatest solicitude. Old men, women and 
children, are engaged in mixing them with 
water, which is applied in the neighborhood of 
the plants in cultivation.” This instance of 
Chinese sagacity is cited, not as an example for 
imitation in this country, but as an illustration 
of the means by which that densely populated 
Empire is made competent to the sustenance of 
millions of people. 
What we would press upon the special at¬ 
tention of the American farmer, is the great 
advantage it would be to his growing crops as 
well as to the permanent value of his land, if 
more pains were taken to save and apply ma¬ 
nures. Let the waste water of the kitchen and 
washroom find its way to the compost heap.— 
Let the pit of deposit for night soil be so ar¬ 
ranged that its contents can be removed from 
time to time, and made to swell the amount of 
fertilizing materials. This can be managed so 
as to be effected without any offensive results. 
An abundance of leached ashes, dry marsh 
muck, and other matter easily reached by the 
farmer, thrown into the vault at frequent inter¬ 
vals, will render its removal as convenient as 
that of any -other manure heap. Dry straw 
and the rejected portions of corn fodder, if left 
to themselves, are of comparatively little value; 
but mixed with the more aqueous products of 
the house and barn, they absorb a large per 
centage of invaluable nutriment and become 
the vehicle for transmitting it to growing 
plants. 
There are, also, in almost every neighbor¬ 
hood manufactories and workshops, where re¬ 
fuse materials are thrown away and wasted, 
that would be of the greatest advantage to the 
farm, and the proprietor would be thankful to 
any enterprising farmer in the neighborhood 
who would take them off his hands. There 
are tanneries where horn piths, hoofs, and 
leather scrapings accumulate until they become 
a stench in the nostrils of men; butcher shops 
where bone3 and hair and blood mingle with 
the mire ; woollen factories where every morn¬ 
ing the skimmings of the cleansing kettles, an 
inch thick, are thrown into the stream. These 
skimmings are a thick, soapy substance, com¬ 
posed of the animal fat from the wool united 
with the alkaline properties of urine used in 
cleansing the staple, and any chemist, as well 
as common sense, would tell us these substances 
are invaluable as a manure. In addition to 
this, there are tons of greasy waste, the clean¬ 
ings of the cards, the picker and the fulling- 
mills, annually thrown away, which might be 
saved. The farm-yard and house are not the 
most improvident wasters of materials for en¬ 
riching the farmers’ fields. The cities and the 
manufacturing villages are the huge conduits 
through which the fatness of the land is hur¬ 
ried away, and if Nature did not have a kindly 
care for her own protection, concentrated hu¬ 
manity would speedily convert her fair face into 
a desert waste. Think of the millions of- loads 
of refuse matter, either roiled by a system of 
sewerage into the docks, and thus swept out to 
sea, or elso carted off to fill up the grades of 
suburban streets! All these things of right 
belong to the soil in return for what it gives ; 
but, like any other lenient creditor, she is 
cheated out of her dues, until she either fails 
entirely, or at least gives unmistakable symp¬ 
toms of decay. 
All these faults cannot bo remedied in a day, 
but a change for the better might be effected 
at once, and it is for the farmer to begin. His 
advantage is direct and immediate—that of the 
manufacturer and tradesman incidental and 
remote. We venture to say that the poorest 
farm within the bounds of the free States, 
might, by a judicious husbanding and appli¬ 
cation of manures, be made in ten years equal 
in fertility to the best now within a day’s 
journey of its location. 
--*■- 
SMALL FARMS FOR MECHANICS, Ac. 
The present pressure upon the working 
classes may not bo without future good, if I 
properly improved. The rule i3 now almost 
universal in this country, that ten hours shall 
be considered as a day’s labor in all mechanical 
employments—hence a good many hours, at 
certain seasons of the year, are at the disposal 
of the mechanic or laborer, that with proper 
foresight and judgment might be turned to 
profitable account. It might be used to make 
a home more pleasant, and to add to a scanty 
income. But above all it might be so used as 
to avert much of the misery which is suffered 
when the cry of “ hard times ” comes on. The 
Pittsburgh Saturday Visitor, in commenting 
upon this in a recent number, justly remarks:— 
“No young man of frugal habits in this coun¬ 
try, but in a few years could save money 
enough to purchase a small lot of land, upon 
which—be he mechanic, book-keeper or what 
not—he might employ many a leisure hour, 
and have this land aud its never-failing pro¬ 
ducts, as a sort of safety fund to fall back upon 
in time of need. Above all, it would be for 
him a home, a place which the better affections 
of the heart could cluster around, a place whose 
blessed influence would be felt in all the rela- 
| tions of life. There is not one mechanic or 
workman in fifty, of the thousands now out of 
employ, who has not squandered enough during 
these years of plenty, to pay for a lot of land, 
upon which a few days’ work in its season 
would have returned him a handsome supply 
of the necessaries of life. And this too upon 
the supposition that the major part of his time 
be spent upon whatever handicraft he may be 
master of. But he need not leave his ground 
with so little care as is implied iu the fact that 
his employment, whatever handicraft he may 
be, takes most of his time. There are plenty 
of young men who should be striving to accu¬ 
mulate their fiist money to be expended in like 
manner as he has done, for the purchase of a 
home, and who would gladly bestow their labor 
for a portion of the wages which the mechan¬ 
ic’s superior craft wins for him.” 
To enable such men to see what may be 
done with a little land, we propose to give a 
few instances from the best cultivators iu Eu¬ 
rope. In an account of Flemish Husbandry 
we find a statement of the method pursued in 
cultivating small farms, and the writer speaks 
of one near Alost, of five acres,—being the 
smallest that would support a family without 
other work. There was a small orchard of 
about a quarter of an acre in which there were 
some thriving apple and plum trees, and the 
only cow the man had was led by the wife to 
graze there for a short time each day, appa¬ 
rently more for exercise than for the food she 
could pick up. The grass seemed to have been 
cut for her iu another part. The man regret. 
PORTRAIT OF A KERRY COW. 
The Kerry breed of cattle has already been I 
noticed in the Rural— having received some 
attention during the year past, on account of 
their recommendation “ for poor and rough 
soils,” in a classification of the Breeds of Cat¬ 
tle, by Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator. 
We have not heard of their introduction into 
this country; indeed, we are so favored ag to 
nav e few such soils as those for wdiich they are 
especially calculated. Haxton. iu his work on 
milch cows says :—“ The Kerry cow is a valu¬ 
able animal to the hill farmer of Ireland ; for 
she is hardy, easily kept, and gives a large 
quantity of milk, of a rich quality, w r hen com¬ 
pared with the food consumed. These proper¬ 
ties, which are characteristic of the Kerry cow. 
even under -rcry inaunpioioUs circumstances, c.t c 
greatly enhanced when she is removed to a richer 
pasture aud bettor cl imate. Under these circum¬ 
stances she will compete, in profit to the dairy¬ 
man, with other and larger breeds, and when out 
of milk, she is easily fattened.” He then gives 
an account of the produce of a dairy of these 
cows, of from 25 to 75 head, for seven years, 
from a statement of Mr. Grant, of Ardfert 
Abbey, which shows a yield of from 412 to 542 
gallons of milk to each cow, per year. Hax¬ 
ton remarks: 
“ The average quantity annually, per cowl 
during the whole seven years, is 488 gallons, 
which, although small for large cows on fine 
land, is yet large for small Kerry cows, fed on 
land of so poor a quality as to be quite unfit 
for sustaining the larger breeds of dairy cows. 
Again, the milk of the small Kerry cow is 
extremely rich in butter—every two gallons of 
milk yielding one pound of butter—but to do 
this the cows must be kept in good condition 
aud milked but twice a day.” So^e Kerry 
farmers make 280 lbs. of butter per annum, 
which show her a valuable anxnal to the small 
farmer when well attended to. The average 
for seven years in a large dairy, as shown above, 
would be 2-44 lbs. 
A description is given in the same work, of 
“a pure and well-shaped Kerry cow. Her 
girth behind shoulder is 5 ft. 10 in., and her 
Lcigbt, from ground to top of shoulder, is 3 ft. 
in. The length of the body is 4 ft. 6 in.; of 
the neck, 22 in. Her color is “ black with the 
exception of the udder, which is white; and the 
texture is soft and wooly; skin, supple, and 
soft to the touch. The general aspect of the 
cow is pleasing ; her nose, from the eye down¬ 
ward is long, (12 in.) and the muzzle fine; 
neck long and small; carcass round and lengthy; 
legs short; udder set well up between the 
thighs, well forward also ; teats wide, set with 
a forward inclination.” This cow gives 680 
gals, of milk per year, and when fat, will 
weigh 448 lbs. the four quarters, in the sham¬ 
bles, and thus retain her value to the end. 
ted that he had not the means to purchase 
another cow, as he could maintain two very 
well. Half of the land was in wheat, the 
other half in clover, flax and potatoes. The 
clover did not recur soonc-r than in six years; 
the flax and potatoes in nine. As soon as the 
wheat was cut, he began to hack the stubble 
about four inches deep with a heavy hoe, and 
as fast as he got a piece done it was sown with 
turnips, after having some of the contents of 
the urine tank over it; for small as the farm 
was it had its reservoir for this precious manure. 
Thus a considerable portion of the wheat 
stubble was soon covered with young turnips, 
of a quick-growing sort, which, if sown in the 
beginning or middle of August, were lit to be 
pulled in November and December, and stored 
in the cellar for winter use. The whole ground 
was dug over in the course of the year, and as 
much as possible trenched—the soil being a 
stiff loam of a good depth, which was much 
improved by trenching and stirriug. The milk 
and potatoes fed the family, with the addition 
of a little salt pork—for a pig was fed on the 
refuse of the food given to the cow, with a very 
little grain, but, of course, was not very fat. 
Most of the wheat, and all of the flax, was sold, 
and more than paid the rent, which was about 
$100—tax free. His family consisted of his 
wife and three children. 
Now this man on his five acres, away from 
any city or large town, so that he could only 
live upon such products of the land as the 
larger farmers raised, was independent of hard 
times. Two acres near a city could be made 
to produce more profit than five or ten at a 
distance. What man upon almost any salary 
or daily compensation, could not buy his two, 
or one, or one-half acres out of his year’s 
salary, without the least inconvenience. Once 
the owner of the land he need not be long 
without improving it. He would soon have 
a home, and then when there came a season of 
dullness, and he could only get small wages, he 
would still be independent. But many a man 
who only wants his house aud little garden, 
could if he would, make a very considerable 
addition to his income by cultivating the ground 
properly. Until it has been tried, few will 
believe how much food can be grown on a 
piece of ground only thirty feet square. 
Buy the land, one year; fence it, and plant 
trees another, and in a little time there will be 
the foundation of a permanent, happy home. 
If you can save $100 in the year, go out of 
the city to the point that it will purchase an 
acre of land or more, as may seem most con¬ 
venient. Long before you are an old man, if 
young now, it will have doubled many times in 
value, beside 'paying meantime. 
CORN AND COB MEAL. 
Much is said about the virtues of cob meal, 
and from some articles which we meet in the 
papers, one might infer that about all the value 
of corn was in the cob. There are about seven 
pounds of cobs to a bushel of corn. At the 
very best it cannot be worth more than so 
many pounds of straw. But to make it at all 
available it must be ground, and the grinding 
costs extra. This is not all. Corn meal, if 
not cooked should be ground very fine for all 
kinds of stock; especially our Northern yellow 
varieties. If the cob be ground with it no 
miller will take pains to grind it fine, for the 
toll does not pay. For the purpose, then, cf 
raising some seven pounds of straw the feeder 
of cob meal pays a pretty large sum in the loss, 
by extra toll and coarse grinding. Will some 
person who believes in cob meal just make a 
careful experiment on the subject ? 
Poland Oats.— M. Kingsley, of Kalama¬ 
zoo. Mich., says he raised seventy bushels (J 
Poland oats the past season (besides tailipgs) 
from half a bushel sown! This is a large 
l yield, and very difficult to equal. 
VOLUME VIJ NO. 2.} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y,-SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1855. 
