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VOLUME VI. SO. HI 
ROCHESTER, S, Y.-SATUBDAY. JUNE 16, 1855, 
WHOLE NO, 284. 
HWru |lural 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LIT ERARY, & FAMILY .JOURNAL. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOEE. 
•ASSOCUTB EDITORS ! 
,T. U. B5XBY, T. C. PETERS, EDWARD WEBSTER. 
Special Contributors : 
T. K. WstxoR*, H. C. Wiutr, H. T. Brooks. L. WsrreKRW.. 
Ladies’ Port-Folio by Ajqlb. 
Tub Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conduetors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guido on tlie important Practical 
Subjects connected with the businoss of those whose 
interests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, 
Horticultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News 
Matter, interspersed with many appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other paper published in this 
Oountry .—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Ijtkrar? 
and fa wilt Newspaper. 
Fob Terms, and other particulars, see News page. 
e e.». i | ii>y<s<s "."-.i- w • #■>*". 
Ikral,, Seto-fclier. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
HAY AND HAY-MAKING. 
A seasonable subject, truly, but one upon 
which we can hope to say little that will be 
new to all our readers. But thero are some 
things which need to be repeated, as the season 
for attention to the subject returns, so we re¬ 
call some facts and suggestions on Ilay and 
Hay-makiDg. In what stage of its growth 
grass should be cut, and how it should be cured, 
are questions of considerable importance—but 
questions which are not yet aulhoritively de¬ 
cided. We will state some facts relative to 
both subjects — drawn from chemistry and 
practical analogy—but bearing more particu¬ 
larly in favor of early cutting and shade cur¬ 
ing, which are thought by many of our most 
intelligent farmers, to secure the greatest nu¬ 
tritive value of the hay. 
Chemistry shows us that all plants contain 
the largest amount of matter soluble in water 
at the period of flowering, and that the sugar 
and gluten of the gra«s, aud a few other solu¬ 
ble ingredients, constitute its chief value as 
food for animals. These rapidly diminish as 
the seed forms, changing into insoluble woody 
fibre, and the hay, which should, as far as may 
be, resemble grass in its most perfect state, is 
worth much less if not made until after that 
period. There are but few exceptions to this 
rule, among these are the Kentucky blue 
grass, the June grass and some others, which 
furnish but a light amount of stem and are 
most valuable for their leaves. They continue 
growing through the summer, and hence may 
stand far past the flowering age beneficially. 
Those who advise cutting hay when the 
seed is fully formed, bring forward as an ar¬ 
gument In favor of the practice, the fact that 
hay made from ripe grass' yields the greatest 
amount of extract when boiled, and must 
therefore contain most nutriment, but it is now 
shown that the boiling very imperfectly imi¬ 
tates the process of digestion, and both analy¬ 
sis, and experiment with the living animal, 
confirm the fact that the best hay is that made 
from grass cut and properly cured when near¬ 
est the period of blossoming. 
The process of curing which shall most per¬ 
fectly retain the nutritive properties present 
in the plant, is the best process. In drying 
herbs for medicinal aud culinary uses the ex¬ 
perience of many centuries teaches, that dry¬ 
ing in the shade is the only way to secure, to 
its fullest extent, the desired object. In mak¬ 
ing hay this cannot be entirely accomplished, 
but . the plan which follows it most closely, 
that of curing in the swath and cock, is a 
good aud safe one—advantageous also, as re¬ 
quiring less exposure to injury from rain than 
any other. 
Clover hay and coarse herd’s grass especial¬ 
ly, need to be cured in this way, as when dry, 
many leaves and blossoms drop off and are 
lost by the handling necessary to gather and 
secure them. When mowed, let the grass get 
fairly wilted and the external moisture dried 
off while in the swath, with perhaps, a single 
thorough shaking up and spreading, and then 
be put into cocks, and it may be secured with 
very little loss. The partial fermentation or 
" sweating ” which it undergoes causes but 
slight change in its constituent parts—save 
that it separates the water therefrom,—and, 
after standing thus twenty-four hours ; it needs 
but little after-tending to prepare it for the 
mow or stacks, and has far less of that harsh 
or strawy tendency which it would possess if 
cured in a different manner. Care should be 
exercised in curing in this way, not to put up 
the hay before it is fully wilted, and that the 
cocks be small and well constructed, so that 
the “ sweating ” process may not “be carried to 
excess, and induce so great a fermentation as 
to decompose the sugar of the hay—changing 
it to alcohol aud carbonic acid. 
The weather has a great influence on the 
real value of the hay crop, but that is a mat¬ 
ter beyond our control. If one has hay down 
and the weather proves changeable, with fre¬ 
quent showers, the less the hoy is stirred the 
better, for it will retain its value while lying 
wet in the swath, much longer than if disturb¬ 
ed with repeated dryings and wettings.— 
Nothing so injures hay as washing by rains, 
aud this, if many times repeated, will totally 
destroy its value. 
We might add further practical directions 
in regard to haying, but our present article is 
about as long a3 those interested will care to 
read, at this season. Beside, haying will not 
commence under a fortnight! 
FEE SIMPLE TENURE. 
There is no single thing in the economy of 
governments which attaches the people more 
firmly to their country than permitting them 
to hold in their own right an absolute allodial 
title to ihe soil. If a man possesses but a 
half acre, and earns his bread by laboring at 
a trade, he feels btnnelf doubly a freeman if 
he can plant his foot on that half acre and 
call it his own. No Lord Paramount can 
hold over his head a writ of ejectment unless 
he does thus and so, and as long as he keeps 
free from debt no power can take his posses¬ 
sions from him, except it be needed for the 
good of the State. Even then it must be 
done by due form of law, and ample remuner¬ 
ation made. 
A lease of nine hundred and ninety-niue 
years, at one cent a year, does not equally in¬ 
spire the possessor with that feeling of inde¬ 
pendence produced by a free title. Although 
in fact it ought, perhaps, to make no great 
difference, yet every one who has seen its op¬ 
eration knows it does. Reason teaches us 
that the name and identity of any man’s de¬ 
scendants, in that length of time, will either 
be entirely blotted out, or so blended and 
mingled with the race as to be untraceable ; 
and that the landlord, who claims the rever¬ 
sion, with all his family, will undoubtedly 
have passed away ; yet in theory, at least, the 
tenant stands in a position of inferiority, and 
feels a lack of some unattainable thing to 
make him an independent man. The shadow 
of a title to hi3 possessions behind his own, 
stalks abroad like a ghost, and “ will not down 
at his bidding.” If he must provide for the 
larder of a lord paramount two capons a 
year, or must deliver at his granary one bush¬ 
el of wheat, or must have his grinding done at 
j his mill on pain of a forfeiture of his title, it 
* degrades the tenant just so much in his own 
, eyas, and takes away from him a feeling of 
self-respect. He might cheerfully and wil¬ 
lingly donate that amount, and he might, from 
choice or convenience, always carry his grist 
to that mill ; but the idea of compulsion, 
where the action aught to be voluntary, is 
what renders it offensive. 
Nothing touching the title to real estate 
can have so depressing an influence upon any 
section of the country, as to have the fee vest¬ 
ed in large landed proprietors, and the land 
rented to transient teuants. They have no inte¬ 
rest in the soil except for a term of years, and 
are not disposed to make improvements that 
shall result ultimately to the good of the land¬ 
lord instead of their own. Let au observing 
traveler pass through some of the richest and 
most valuable farming regions of 'Western 
New York, and he will notice in a moment 
the transition from the lands of farmers who 
hold from fifty to two hundred acres of laud 
in their own right, those owned by some 
of our large lauded proprietors, aud cultiva¬ 
ted by teuants. In the former case he finds | 
neat and commodious houses and outbuild- i 
ings, fine orchards and gardens, and all the j 
comforts and elegances of a permanent rural j 
home ; in the latter, a naked house and barns ! 
surrounded by large and lonesome fields, which 
indicate unmistakably the transient interest 
of the occupant. Here this year and gone 
the next, limited at the longest to a term of 
years, his object is to make the most of his 
time without reference to his successor. Feel¬ 
ing that all his improvements run with the 
land like the covenants of a deed, aud eDrich 
his landlord instead of himself, who can blame 
the tenant for withholding his hand from those 
labors that cannot directly benefit him or his 
children ? 
The wise foresight of some of our large 
lauded proprietors holds their tenants to cer¬ 
tain conditions of cultivation, in order to 
prevent an impoverishment of the soil; but 
none of them do or can make their leased es¬ 
tates assume the attractive features of a free¬ 
hold farm. Few men of spirit and independ¬ 
ence will long reside upon and cultivate a leas¬ 
ed estate. They will leave even the rich val¬ 
ley of the Genesee and settle in the Western 
wilderness on farms which they can call their 
own. It is fortunate for the country that it 
is so. This sturdy spirit of independence is 
the safety of the Republic, and will prevent 
the mass of men, as the country grows older, 
from degenerating into dependants and serfs. 
The large landed proprietors among us are 
honorable men, but they are not the class most 
valuable as citizens of a republic; and how¬ 
ever much we may sympathize with an indi¬ 
vidual misfortune that scatters such an estate 
to the four winds, we can alv ays rejoice in the 
dispensation that diffuses tb # it's through a 
hundred hands. When a tenant becomes a 
proprietor, a marked improvement commences 
from that hour, and an independent takes the 
place of a dependent mam One of the great¬ 
est drawbacks to some of our new States is 
the large amount of lands entered by specu¬ 
lators, to the exclusion of bona fide settlers 
and farmers. The land becomes locked up 
from improvement, and wide ranges of uncul¬ 
tivated waste occupy what should be, and 
otherwise would have been, fruitful fields.— 
The policy of our government ought to dis¬ 
courage these transactions, and the new States 
are many of them applying the remedy by a 
system of discriminating taxation, making 
non residents bleed very freely for public im¬ 
provements, &c. 
These evils, under our system of govern¬ 
ment, will remedy themselves in time, for a 
large estate cannot remain many generations 
in one family. Ill fortunes of the holder, a 
division among children, and not unfrequently 
the folly of spendthrift heirs, are sure to dis¬ 
perse it ere loDg, and then a hundred well-to- 
do farmers come in and possess in their own 
right what was before a bloated, overgrown, 
and anti-republican proprietorship. The feel¬ 
ings and sentiments of the people, which are 
the basis of our legislation, are against the 
old ideas of landlord and tenant, and tend 
powerfully to vesting the actual title in the 
possessor. Even those old feudal estates, 
which became vested rights before the revolu¬ 
tion, aud consequently are exceptions to the 
rules of law touching real property under the 
Constitution, are yielding to an outside pres¬ 
sure that cannot well be resisted. Terms of 
commutation are offered by the landlord and 
acceptal by the tenants, and a sum in gross is 
paid down for a quit claim to all future pay¬ 
ment and service. 
In the matter of the l’atroon estate, which 
has caused so much trouble iu the counties of 
Albany and Rensselaer, terms of settlement 
are offered to the tenants, many of whom have 
and others will accept of them. These terms 
are to give a release, on the payment of a cer¬ 
tain sum by the tenant, thus vesting the title 
iu him in fee simple. Dartmouth College, and 
some other institutions of learning whose en¬ 
dowments to a large extent consist of lands 
leased to teuants for a term of nine hundred 
and ninety-nine years, at a specific annual 
rent, give a release on the payment of a sum, 
which, at legal interest, brings in the stated 
rent; and many a sturdy New Hampshire 
farmer, as he pays in the commutation aud 
THE WIEI) TURKEY 
Above we present an engraving showing 
the male and female Wild Turkey, an Amer¬ 
ican bird, and the parents of the domestic 
Turkey so well known and so generally es¬ 
teemed. This fowl belongs to the genus gal¬ 
ling, and to the order malleagris gallopavo, 
and is found only in this country. Its origi¬ 
nal range extended from the north-western 
part of the United States to the Isthmus of 
Panama, hut it is now found only in the j 
wilder portions of the Western States. Its I 
receives the release on his hilly and rocky 
acres, feels and says. “ Thank Goo ! I am now 
owner of the farm.” 
What we mean to be understood as incul¬ 
cating by the above is this—that every farmer 
ought to have the title of h is land vested in 
himself. If he is unable to own two hundred 
acres, then let him be contented with half, or 
a quarter that amount; and if he is unable 
to purchase a farm w r orth one hundred and 
twenty-five dollars an acre, let him buy one 
equal to his means, if it be government land 
at the government price of one hundred and 
twenty-jive cents. He had far better buy the 
land, and if he cannot pay for it entire, then 
mortgage it on ample time for a balance, the 
interest of which will be equal to the rent, 
than to have it on a lease running even to the 
end of time. In the former case all the im¬ 
provements he makes upon the premises he 
feels to be his own without reversion ; he has 
the advantage absolutely of all the natural 
rise in the value of the property, and when he 
clears off the encumbrance, which he general¬ 
ly docs as early as possible, then all future 
payment is extinguished. We go against 
overgrown landed estates. They are anti- 
republican, and adverse to the best interests 
of the country. The proprietors individually 
may be very amiable gentlemen, but they are 
not the class of men we like t-o see increasing 
in our midst. They are too much like huge 
and voracious fish, which do not suffer a pros¬ 
perous small fry to swim in the same sea. 
DEEP PLOWING DROUTH. 
“ What has been the comparative effect of the 
drouth on deep and shallow plowed lands?” was 
one of the series of questions addressed last 
season, by the Secretary of the Mass. Board 
of Agriculture, to prominent farmers in every 
town in the State. The returns came back, 
as with one voice, in favor of deep plowing.— 
In his Report, Prof. Flint remarks, “ there is 
but little difference of opinion respecting the 
effects of drouth on deep and shallow plowed 
, lands,” and extracts are given from the re¬ 
plies, showing that the crops have suffered 
much less in one case than the other. We 
quote and condense below, some of the most 
striking of these statements. 
A farmers’ club of Middlesex Co., speaking 
of the drouth of last season, says, “ We are 
plowing deeper than heretofore. Mr. C. 
plows three or four inches deep. F. plows on 
precisely the same kind of land, a stone wall 
only separating ihe fie'ds, nine inches deep.— 
F.’s oats weighed thirty pounds per bushel, 
crosses, however, are widely disseminated, and 
are often resorted to, for giving new vigor to 
the race when deteriorated by domestication. 
The wild Turkey is uniformly black—not 
crow black, but a dark iron color, with small 
shining, bronze colored spots, especially on 
the wiDgs and tail. In this it is followed by 
most of the domesticated fowls, though some 
are white, spotted, or buff color. 
An article will be found on the next page 
on rearing Turkeys. 
while C.’s weighed but seventeen pounds; both 
manured alike. C.’s corn dried up, while F.’s 
was sreen and luxuriant.” A practical Wor- 
oe -1 t-i- Co. iarmer wrote, ” The drouth affected 
deep plowed lands very little; on those that 
have been faithfully subsoiled the corn leaves 
did not roll at all, while on those that were 
shallow plowed, the corn crop suffered much, 
and other crops were seriously affected.” This 
scarcely agrees with the idea, lately started 
by a Boston contemporary, that deep plow¬ 
ing will not answer for corn in Massachusetts. 
The greatest difference in the effects of 
drouth is seen in a shallow plowed soil, com¬ 
pared with a deep and finely pulverized one.— 
The observations, not only of the last year, 
bat of former years of excessive dryness, Lave 
shown this to be the case most conclusively. 
Reason teaches the same fact . The more open 
or porous any substance is the more readily it 
will absorb moisture. The Michigan sod and 
subsoil plow is spoken of very highly as an 
excellent implement for deepening and pulver¬ 
izing the soil—performing both at once. 
As to the depth to which it is necessary to 
go, a successful farmer remarks that the ef¬ 
fects of drouth on land plowed one foot deep 
are about the same as on those plowed eight 
inches deep, and that land plowed- five inches 
deep, is more affected than that plowed eight 
inches ; so that less than eight inches, is too 
shallow and more than that, of little use. The 
proper depth depends, we think, considerably 
upon the character of the subsoil and the con¬ 
dition of the land as to drainage. A subsoil 
; of a loamy or sandy character would admit of 
j the rising of moisture from below, while a 
hard-pan soil would need to be plowed to a 
greater depth, so as to prepare it for taking 
all possible aid from rain and dew, and the 
moisture usually present in the air. A well 
drained soil would possess the same general 
characteristics of one with a porous subsoil. 
If, as it is feared, dry summers are to occur 
frequently, if not annually, some means must 
be devised to prevent, as far as may be, their 
injurious effects. This means—a deep and 
thorough pulverization of the soil—should in 
no case be neglected. A mass of evidence of 
the most conclusive character has be collected 
in its favor. It is an established fact, with all 
observing farmers, and one which should in¬ 
fluence every one who has to do with the cul¬ 
tivation of the soil. 
Pastures ought not to be allowed to grow 
up to weeds ; thistles, mulleins, yellow dock, 
etc., occupy space which might just as well be 
filled with valuable herbage. Let them be 
! cut frequently, and they may be exterminated. 
I 
