VOLUME VI. NO. 39.1 
ROCHESTER, N. Y-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1855. 
{ WHOLE NO. 299. 
Slum’s fUral Scfa-gorlur. 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY, A FAMILY JOURNAL. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS I 
J II BIXBY, T. C. PETERS. EDWARD WEBSTER. 
Special ‘Contributors : 
T E Wk'morb, H. C. White, H. T. Brooks, L. WirrESRiit 
Ladies’ Port-Folio by Azina. 
Tub 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 Guide on tbe important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business 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 
Country,—rendering it a complete .Agricultural, Lms- 
E.ART and Fakily Newspaper. 
For Terms, and other particu!p.rs, see New3 page. 
Jlitral $foto-toko:. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
“THERE, I MISSED IT.” 
So Farmer A. remarked to its, recently, as we 
walked over his fine grain farm. “ I missed it 
in not keeping more stock this season. Have 
had plenty of pasture — might have bought a 
flock of sheep after shearing for less than half 
they eould he sold for now, and their keeping 
would not have been ten cents a head against 
the farm. See that meadow—it needs pastur¬ 
ing down with sheep ; I lost all the hay from 
it by the rains.” It did look too bad—the 
rotten hay * cocks anil winrows were pretty 
thick, hut they were fit only for manure. “I 
sold off part of my cows last spring— then, too, 
I missed it. But it is quite a chore to milk, 
and see to calves, and all that, so I let them 
go, but those we kept have brought in more 
cash than anything else on the farm. I must 
calculate better, hereafter.” 
Many a farmer ‘ ‘ misses it’ ’ in not keeping 
his farm stocked higher. Though it is poor 
policy to feed meadows or pastures close, late 
and early, it is poorer still to have so little 
stock that half the grass furnished is wasted. 
And if one gets too many cattle and sheep, 
there are better ways of disposing of the sur¬ 
plus than using it for crow-bait. There are 
few weeks of the fifty-two, when stock cannot 
be fairly sold, and few farms which will not 
hear more hoofs than now tramp them, if their 
owners will use proper “calculation.” It is 
not our purpose to go into the merits of stock- 
keeping in this connection ; we only desire to 
hint that others beside Farmer A. very decid¬ 
edly “miss it,” in the matter of wasted pas¬ 
turage. 
“ I missed it in not planting more corn this 
season,” said Farmer B. as we walked through 
his fine four-acre corn field. The remainder 
of this lot would have borne as good corn, with 
the manure which has lain in the barn-yard 
all summer, as that I now have ; I wish I had 
put on a little more force and planted the 
whole.” We thought so, too, for Farmer B.’s 
corn was a very fine crop, and his manure had 
lost largely in value by its summer exposure. 
He had now applied it to his summer fallow, 
which was in capital order for wheat,—hut if 
the midge serves him next season as it has 
this, he will again have occasion to say “A 
missed it." He will scarcely get his seed back, 
to say nothing of all the large expense of ma¬ 
nure, plowing and harvesting. 
Some farmers “miss it” in not planting 
more corn ; others in planting any at all. We 
looked over a farm, lately, where five or six 
acres of corn had been planted, the whole pro¬ 
duct of which will not equal half an acre in 
Farmer B.’s corn-field. The process, from be¬ 
ginning to end, had been a series of botch- 
work on the make-do principle. Poor ground, 
half plowed—poor seed, half planted—poorly 
cultivated, half hoed,—it looked as if waiting 
for the first frost to hide itself in the earth 
again. Had the labor and expense devoted to 
the whole been put upon one acre judiciously, 
a better return would have been realized than 
now seems possible in this example of no “ cal¬ 
culation. ’ ’ 
“ This wheat would have been much better, 
if I had plowed the land before sowing,” said 
a prairie farmer this present remaikahle 
Western harvest. “ I just split the coin hills, 
and harrowed in my seed, and it happened dry 
weather, so it is very th in and light. ’ ’ ‘ ‘What, ’ ’ 
said we, “your rich soil needs good cultivation 
does it?” “Yes,” he answered, “and tin rc 
is where we prairie farmers miss it ; we can 
generally get a fair crop without much labor, 
and so we often run over a good many acres to 
small profit.” Just the truth “ in brief,” we 
thought, of Western farming, on land ten 
years under cultivation. 
Farmer C. remarked the other day, “ twen¬ 
ty-five dollars expended in draining last fall 
would have been one hundred dollars in my 
pocket this season. There, I missed it, sadly.” 
The present wet season has given occasion to 
thousands to see the need of better drainage. 
If the lesson is heeded it will he of great value 
to American Agriculture. Let the season be 
what it will, the presence of stagnant water on or 
in the soil is an evil to be deplored, and no means 
of removing it should be neglected. But this 
subject has been freely discussed inour^pages; 
and if the practice of our farmers was half up 
to their convictions of the utility of draining, 
we should see a marked improvement in every 
direction—still we would leave no proper oc¬ 
casion unimproved to show farmers where 
the y “ miss it’ ’ in not going in earnest into this 
needed work. 
We might extend this article farther, for 
there are many things in which our farming 
friends “miss it,” one way or another. We 
do not know as they fail in their calculation s 
or make wrong moves in business, more than 
other people,—on the whole, we incline to the 
opinion that their average success is greater than 
that of any other employment. But they are, 
we fear, too slow to learn from failures—too 
. negligent to look for the real reason of a poor 
crop or bad speculation—too easily satisfied to 
plod on in the same unbroken routine, with¬ 
out asking as earnestly as they should, how 
they may better their processes and move¬ 
ments so as to produce improved results.— 
Every “miss” ought to stimulate to seeking 
the better way—the way that “hits”—from 
which we may wrest some benefit—may learn 
some unnoticed law of nature, or fix some es¬ 
sential axiom in Agriculture still deeper in our 
remembrance. If the losses of the world in a 
single year, from the neglect of well-known 
rules and precautions could be summed up, 
they would show a frightful aggregate against 
the heedlesenes3 of human kind. 
BUCKWHEAT-ITS HISTORY AKD USES. 
The buckwheat crop of the United States, 
compared with most of the other grains, is of 
very insignificant account ; and yet, its culti¬ 
vation furnishes net only a very palatable, 
hut also a very healthful article of diet. The 
great objection to its use lies chiefly in the 
too frequent unskillfulness manifested in its 
preparation for food. Properly cocked, it af¬ 
fords the best material for pancakes in the 
whole range of cereals ; while, on the other 
hand, improperly prepared, it lies when eaten 
almost as heavy in the stomach, and is about 
as easily digested, as so much lead. 
There have been great differences of opinion 
as to the nutritive qualities of buckwheat; it 
being supposed by many of little account on 
the score of economy, and that an individual 
using it as an article of diet, would require as 
large an amount of other food, as if the buck¬ 
wheat cakes had not been placed upon the 
table. No doubt any person with a good ap¬ 
petite will eat more heartily at a table spread 
with palatable food, than at one of the oppo¬ 
site character, and on that account may make 
away with an extra plate of buckwheat cakes; 
but the aualysis of the grain is conclusive evi¬ 
dence that this grain is highly nutritious.— 
Wheat, which is universally recognized as the 
most valuable grain raised, and th3 best 
adapted, all things considered, as an article 
of diet, contains, say twelve per cent, of glu¬ 
ten, sixty-eight per cent, of starch, and five 
per cent, each of sugar and gum in every hun¬ 
dred ; while, at the same time, buckwheat 
contains over ten per cent, of gluten, fifty-two 
per cent, of starch, and eight per cent, of gum 
and sugar. This analysis shows buckwheat 
to compare quite favorably with wheat ; and 
of course with corn, barley, or oats, the re¬ 
sults will he still more favorable. In the 
above analysis of the grain of buckwheat, 
about twenty-seven per cent, of the residuum 
must he allowed for husk, while in wheat not 
over one-thiul cf that amount is produced ; 
and hence, in the comparison cf flour for the 
two grains, instead of the grains themselves, 
that of the former w ill stand in a still more 
favorable light. 
Buckwheat w as brought into Europe from 
SHORT-HORN COW “BLOOM.” 
THE PROPERTY OF COL. LEWIS G. MORRIS, Mt. FORDHAM, N. Y. 
‘Bloom” was winner of the 1st Prize in her Class at the Annual Show of New York State Agricultural Society, in October, 1854. 
She is four years old, and was sired by Sir Leonard (1CS27,) dam (Elvira) by Eolus (3733,) &c. 
h e North of Asia, and was first cultivated in 
England about the year 1600. and is princi¬ 
pally used in that country at the present time 
as food for pigs and poultry. It is raised to a 
limited extent in most of our Northern States, 
but chiefly in New York and Pennsylvania; 
the latter State producing in 1850, according 
to the U. S. Census Report, 2,193,692 bushels; 
and the former 3,183,955 bushels — the two 
together furnishing five-eights of the whole 
amount raised in the country. When it is 
considered that in the same year there were 
provided about 600,000,000 bushels of corn, 
and other grains in proportion, the nine mil¬ 
lions of buckwheat dwindles into comparative 
insignificance. 
There are many good reasons for paying 
more attention to the raising of this grain, 
among which may be enumerated the follow¬ 
ing :—It will thrive on poor land, where other 
crops will fail ; it is easily cultivated, can he 
sown after all other crops (except turnips) are 
in the ground, and before haying time comes 
on. June and July are the best months for 
seeding. The grain finds a quick sale at re¬ 
munerating prices, and brought readily in 
this market last season one dollar per bushel 
Portions of the grain come successively into 
blossom, and if the earlier should be blighted, 
the succeeding flowers will still frequently 
produce a good crop ; the straw is nutritious 
as an article of fodder, and when properly 
cured, sheep will eat it almost as readily as 
they will hay ; the grain makes excellent feed 
for poultry, and other domestic animals are 
also very fond of it. It is stated that horses 
will fatten on it very rapidly when at rest, 
but that working or driving very soon reduces 
their flesh; and it is, therefore, not recom¬ 
mended as food for them. Buckwheat blos¬ 
soms contain much saccharine matter, and 
bees extract large quantities of honey from it. 
The honey, however, is much inferior, both 
in taste and color, to that obtained from other 
sources. It is of a dark, smoky appearance, 
and possesses a strong and rather unpleasant 
flavor. 
The green crop h as been much used in some 
localities for plowing under as a manure, and 
possesses the advantage of producing a crop 
on land where clover would fail; and also of 
being sown and plowed under the same sea¬ 
son. But, aside from these considerations, it 
is not equal to some of the grasses for this pur¬ 
pose. The principal value of buckwheat is 
for pancakes', of which great use is made 
throughout the Eastern and Middle States. 
It is usually packed in small cotton bags, con¬ 
taining from five to twenty-five pounds cf 
Hour each; and in this shape finds its way 
during the season of winter into most families 
of the above-named States. The manner of 
preparing it for food comes more properly un- ' 
der the head of “ Domestic Economy ;” but it ■ 
will not he out of place here to say, that, with : 
very little pains, any housewife can make I 
light, palatable, and nutritions cakes. Iu ! 
the form of batter it is easily made light by - 
i 
the same appliances which render wheaten 
flour fit for baking. 
I he price of buckwheat flour last year, boie 
the usual ratio to the price of wheat, and the 
flour sold in our market at times as high as 
five cents per pound. At such a figure, with 
the usual appliances of butter and syrup, of 
course pancakes cculd only be indulged in by 
the mass of men as an occasional luxury ; but 
from present appearances the harvest will be 
more plentiful, and the price within reach of 
all who subscribe to the doctrine that warm 
buckwheat cakes and maple molasses are 
grateful to the palate, good for the stomach, 
and worthy to be reckoned among the best 
dishes of a luxurious table. 
The former practice of threshing buckwheat 
in the open field and upon the bare ground, 
and then scraping up with it a quantity of 
free soil, is mostly .abandoned at the present 
time. Such a practice is unworthy of a good 
farmer, and ought to render his grain unsala¬ 
ble. We have very vivid recollections of a 
fine field of the grain threshed in this way in 
our youthful days, and of the gritty flour 
produced therefrom. Secured in such a way, 
it will do for poultry, because grit and gravel- 
stones are a necessary constituent of their 1 
food ; hut the functions of mastication in 
the human species, are performed in another 
manner, aLd without any necessity cf the 
above concomitants. 
<Uur Special Contributors. 
SAVE YOUfi APPLES. 
These is in most sections a good supply of 
apples this year, hut, unfortunately, there is a 
great disposition to neglect or undervalue them —par¬ 
ticularly what passes under the head of 
‘ ‘ common fruit. ” Now this ‘ ‘common fruit’ ’ 
is often as nutritious and palatable as “ graft¬ 
ed.” Great quantities of summer and fall 
apples rot on the ground, and still greater- 
quantities either become frost-bitten or are 
trod under the feet of men and beasts in a v*.ry ! 
wasteful and unbecoming manner. This is 
not respectful to the Giver of every good gift. 
Apples, as a healthful and cheap food for 
man and for domestic animals, can scarcely 
be valued too highly. It has been said, and 
I think w ith good reason, that the free use of 
fruit would prevent or alleviate those bilious 
diseases that are the scourge of many sections 
of the country, and from which few people 
are wholly free. I would not undervalue 
pork and potatoes, but I do say (I hope the 
Western people, and Yankees too, will not 
stop the paper for publishing it,) there are other 
things Jit to eat! Cattle are tolerable judges 
of w hat tin y like. Just save some of this 
common fruit in an uncommonly good manner, 
ami when the grass is w hitened with frost, or 
the ground with snow, carry out a basket of 
apples and pour them down in a clean place 
in the midst of a herd of cattle, and if there 
is not such an “ active competition ” for them as 
to make the “ supply less than the demand ,” I 
will write no more on domestic economy. The 
sober truth is that some sort of succulent 
food is indispensable to the perfect health 
and well being of animals, and apples are so 
much cheaper than anything else that we 
undervalue them. 
Winter apples designed for late keeping 
should be carefully picked, headed up in tight, 
clean haireis, and put into a dry cellar or 
suitable building, which should be kept as 
cool as may be without freezing the fruit.— 
This should be done late in September or ear¬ 
ly in October, before very severe frosts. Ap¬ 
ples designed for feeding and general winter 
use should be assorted with reference to their 
keeping qualities, and should be used before 
there is a serious loss from decay. It may not 
always pay to pick small apples by hand, but 
if they are to he shaken off, it is desirable to 
shake a portion and pick them up, and then 
shake again, and thus avoid their falling up¬ 
on one another, as they will when they accu¬ 
mulate under the tree. It is often beneficial 
to sort over and remove such as are defective. 
I have kept apples in out buildings by cover¬ 
ing them with chaff or straw, and I am in- 
c fined to the belief that underground cellars 
are not most favorable for the preservation 
of iruit. Rooms with double walls might be 
substituted. 
If orchards are inclosed with a tight fence, 
hogs may he turned in early iu the season, 
and they will perform the double duty of 
harvesting the early apples and tilling the 
ground. I think I this year see the benefit of 
the thorough rooting which an orchard of 
mine got last year and the year be fore. 
In short, if you want healthful food for 
yourself, if you want your straw-fed cattle to 
thrive, your cows to give milk in the winter, 
! and your young stock to grow, save and feed 
your apples. H . t. b. 
Cflmnuuiualiffits. 
IHRESHKii - FLOOR CHIT - CHAT—So. II. 
There is hardly a finer place in the world 
for rural musing, than a threshing-floor in 
September. Whether you stand leaning on 
your flail, in the big airy doorway, peering out 
over the level fields, your forehead wet with 
gigantic assault of ten thousand wheat heads, 
and your heart yet making a little tumultuous 
ado,—or lie calmly down on heaped up spires 
of grain that have straggled from a score of 
loads,—in the profoundest quiet of contem¬ 
plation, you are happy, and most sincerely 
thank God, who permits you to live, and look, 
and think. What a luxury to think, wflien 
every- thing is so peaceful, and every sight and 
sound so pure and so subdued ! Lying down 
abaft the old red fanning mill, whose wheels 
