VOLUME VI, NO. 47.J 
Show's flimt! |ttfa-§0rkr. 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY, ft FAMILY JOURNAL. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE 
ROCHESTER, N. Y,-SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 24, 1855. 
{WHOLE NO. 307. 
ASSOO'AT* EDITORS : 
J. H. BEX BY, T. 0. PETERS, EDWAKD WEBSTER. 
Spools! Contributors : 
T S. WaraiOKa, H. C. Whits, E. T. Broozs, L. WwasGtELL, 
Ladies’ Port-Polio by Axis. 
Tub Itcsi.i New-Yorkbs la designed to be nE'.tjuo and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a ReHablo Guide on the important Practical 
Satrjecta connected with the businsss of those whose 
Interests It advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, 
Horticultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News 
Matter, interspersed with many appropriate and beautiful 
Eagravlngs, than any other paper published in this 
Country,—rendering it a complete AoKicnimuL, Lra- 
raht and Fahtly Nkwspapkb. 
Foe Tkss, and other particulars, see News page. 
-toiler, 
^HOG-REsSS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
PALL PLOWING, 
The advantages of Fall Plowing may be 
enumerated as follows : 
1. In autumn, the team having become 
inured to work through the summer, is more 
vigo rous and better prepared for labor than 
in the spring, and other farm work is less 
pressing in its demands upon the time and 
attention than in that bustling period. Let 
all the plowing be dene which is possible in 
the fall, and still the spring work would give 
abundant employment to the farmer and his 
teams, in drawing manure, cross-plowing, 
cultivating, harrowing, &c. 
2 In the fall, low, moist lands are general¬ 
ly in better condition for plowing than in 
spring time. We say generally, for this sea¬ 
son low, moist lands are decidedly moist, at 
present. Still, we cannot hope for any better 
state very early next year, and if plowed as 
they should be, wet lands will suffer very lit¬ 
tle from water through the winter. 
3. Stiff, heavy soils, plowed in autumn, 
undergo, by the action of water and frost, a 
more thorough disintegration—clays are pul¬ 
verized and crumbled, and heavy loams and 
hard-pan lands are acted upon in a like man¬ 
ner and with like benefit. 
4. Heavy, coarse swards, full of rank weeds 
and grasses, can be better subdued by plow¬ 
ing in the fall—their roots are more apt to 
die efut, and far less liable to sprout again 
than when plowed in the spring. The turf 
is better prepared, by its more advanced state 
of decay, for the use of the crops which may 
be sown or planted upon it. 
5. Fall ploying disturbs the “ winter ar¬ 
rangements” of numerous worms and insects, 
and must destroy a large number of these 
pests, and also their eggs and larvar This is 
a minor advantage, but one worthy of consid¬ 
eration, especially on lands infested with the 
wire-worm. 
The principal objections to fall plowing are 
these : 
1. The loss of that fresh, friable condition 
readily permeable to air and moisture, and the 
consolidation of the soil by long exposure to 
changing and stormy weather. This, on soils 
of a light character, is a very serious objec¬ 
tion to plowing in autumn. 
2. The loss of vegetable matter and the 
gases of the same while in a state of decay, 
is another disadvantage. The latter is but a 
small loss, if the work is done late in thefall, 
but often, on hill sides, a large part of the 
soluble and floating organic matter is washed 
away by the heavy rains of winter and early 
spring time. The soil is also consolidated by 
the same influences. Heavy swards thus sit¬ 
uated would sustain less injury than light 
swards or stubble lands. 
The advantages and disadvadtages of this 
practice may be appropriately followed by 
bri f directions for performing the work. 
1. Do it in the best manner. 
2. Throw up low lands in narrow beds and 
cut cross furrows and drains sufficient to carry 
off at once all surface water. This will ob¬ 
viate one great objection to fall plowing. 
3. Plow deep and narrow furrows—such 
will best secure the action of the ameliorating 
influences of frost upon the soil. A rough 
broken surface is better than a smooth one for 
this purpose. 
DROUTH AND FLOODING. 
Two farmers lived adjoining upon the same 
town read ; the soil of their farms was iden¬ 
tical, and consisted of a tenacious clayey sub¬ 
soil with a loamy surface, which originally 
contained a good deal of vegetable mould, and 
at the time the land was cleared it was suffi¬ 
ciently porous and rich to produce good crops. 
It did not usually suffer severely from the ef¬ 
fects either of too much wet or drouth. The 
land had a Eatural drainage to wards the south, 
but the descent was very gradual, and the 
surplusage of rain that fell needed at least 
clear, open ditches in order to pass off freely 
into a natural run that crossed the lower end 
of both farms. 
At at early day, this run furnished water 
the year round ; but as the land in the vicin¬ 
ity of its sources was cleared of its forest, a 
gradual change took place in the volume of 
running water. In later years, during the 
melting of the snows in spring, the stream 
was full to its banks,—and on certain occa¬ 
sions during other portions of the year, as 
when a rain of several days’ continuance oc¬ 
curred, a turbid and swollen torrent rolled 
down its channel until its muddy waters dis¬ 
embogued into a river not far distant. But 
ere many days elapsed the channel was left 
dry and dusty, and water for the stock had 
much of the time to be drawn from wells. 
In the early stages of cultivation, as we 
said above, the soil was sufficiently dry and 
porous to raise good crops, and being natural¬ 
ly fertile, very little attention was paid by 
either farmer to the necessity of replenishing 
the gradually diminishing elements of fertil¬ 
ity. The price of grain and hay, as well as 
of domestic animals, was at too low a figure 
in those days for farmers to lay out any great 
amount of labor in this direction. Hundreds 
of loads of manure were sold from the stage 
and livery stables in the village two miles 
distant, for twelve and a half cents a load, 
and in many instances where that could not 
be obtained, the fertilizing material was given 
away?—still, as many farmers contended it 
would not pay to carry the manure from their 
own yards three-fourths of a mile into the 
field, of course they could not haul it two 
miles. 
But a gradual deterioration took place in 
the soil of those two farms. It was scarcely 
perceptible at first, but became gradually 
more and more apparent, until the fact was 
indisputable. The ground seemed to settle 
down into a more clammy, tenacious sub¬ 
stance ; it became heavier and wetter during 
seasons of rain, baked upon the surface much 
worse under the influence of succeeding dry 
weather, and, after a long number of rainless 
days, the growing crops suffered excessively 
from drouth. There were of course causes 
for these phenomena, and one of the farmers 
who was an energetic and intelligent man, 
set himself to work, both by observation and 
inquiry, to ascertain these causes. Books on 
agriculture and agricultural newspapers were 
not at that time as plentiful as at present, 
and the laws of vegetable growth and pro¬ 
duction were not so well understood. He no¬ 
ticed at one time, while digging holes for a 
fence, that the excavated earth together with 
the post would only fill the hole from which 
the former alone was taken, and hence con¬ 
cluded rightly that stirring the soil tended to 
a certain extent to reduce its bulk. This 
theory extended to his fields would explain, 
at least in part, why the soil became more 
compact and tenacious after being cultivated. 
Another, and very just conclusion, he also 
arrived at was this, that as the crops were 
constantly deriving food from the soil, and as 
that food consisted principally .of the decayed 
organic matter which bad been accumulating 
for centuries previously, it must, from the 
very nature of things, be ultimately exhaust¬ 
ed, unless a corresponding amount was added 
to the soil. This result would be in two re¬ 
spects disastrous to the crops—first, by a sys¬ 
tem of starvation, and secondly, as the hu¬ 
mus was the chief ingredient in his fields 
which rendered the soil loose and friable, its 
abstraction would leave the land correspond¬ 
ingly heavy and tenacious. These two points 
established, the simplest remedies suggested 
were to plow open ditches to carry off the 
surface water, and to bestow every possible 
amount of cash and labor that the low price 
of produce would admit in manuring his fields. 
He not only carefully husbanded the manure 
of his own barns and stables, but he went two 
miles to the village and purchased a large 
quantity of stable manure and applied it to 
S. P. CHAPMAN’S SHORT-HORN COW “RUBY.” 
Red and white, bred by George Vail, Esq., | ley) imported from England by Abijah Ham- 1850, a period of 20 days, there was made 
0 ?' mT’’ t i e ,? r0pe r r , ty CHAP ~ | * 0ND ’ Thr °S 3 Neck ’ Westchester Co., N Y. from her milk 40 2-16 pounds of butter ; her 
max, Clockvil e Madison Co N. Y., calved : This cow was awarded the first prem um at feed was grass only. She gave, same season, 
1A4 , A 10/fK , , ' ' ’ i " -- - vu. mo« ab iceu was grass omy. one gave, same season, 
’ 18 w- ; n g0t T^ SJ mmetr Y, 166, the State Fair held at Albany in ciaes of in 80 days, 4,009* pounds of milk—feed same 
(meO), dam Willey HI) by Mars, g. d. ( Milch . o vs. From th- 10th to the 20th of as above. Some of her calves are also noted 
(Young YVilley) by York, gr. g. d. (Old Wil- June, and from the 10th to the 20th of Aug., milkers. 
his fields. He owned moreover several acres 
of muck swamp lands, and these also were 
laid under contribution. The result was a 
wonderful improvement in the crops the next 
season. The open ditches carried off the sur¬ 
face water so as to prevent his fields from 
flooding, and the manure thoroughly incorpo¬ 
rating with the soil, rendered it more porous, 
and prevented its baking so excessively under 
the influence of the summer sun. 
Besides furnishing food for the crop, the 
manure also enabled the soil to imbibe more 
of the water which fell upon the surface, and 
yet remain in a state proper for vegetable 
growth. This quality greatly enhanced its 
capacity to resist drouth, and enable the crops 
to come out of a trying season of dry weather 
in much better condition than they previous¬ 
ly had done. The air more easily penetrated 
to the depth of the furrows, and added an¬ 
other item of advantage derived from these 
two simple, but effective measures for the im¬ 
provement of his farm. 
The contrast exhibited between the crops of 
this farmer and those of his neighbor, who 
persisted in cultivating after the old method, 
was conclusive as to the benefits of the inno¬ 
vation. The experiments were good as far as 
they went, but a spirit of inquiry once awak¬ 
ened was not permitted to rest; new light 
broke ia upon him, and new processes and 
improvements of a more expensive and scien¬ 
tific character were from time to time brought 
about for the purpose of overcoming the 
greatest obstacles to his successful farming, 
viz., drouth on the one hand and flooding on 
the other; and these improvements will be 
made the subjects of a future paper. 
ABOUT MANURE SHEDS 
When we see a reasonable scheme in sue 
cessful operation, we feel more of its force—it 
stirs us more — than anything we may only 
hear of it. So thought a certain farmer—or at 
least so acted he—when he went to work the 
other day to build a manure shed. He had 
often heard it remarked that manure kept 
under shelter was worth double that left ex¬ 
posed in the yard — he had often noticed the 
difference in its smell, texture, and appear¬ 
ance on his own premises— but he had never 
tried the two, side by side, in a fair experi¬ 
ment, until the present year. Now he saw 
the difference in value, he believed what be 
had been told, and he went to work to build 
a manure shed, so as to reap more of the ben¬ 
efits now so evident. 
It is not to be supposed that the story of 
Ms experiments will convince all who read it; 
he had read just as good, long before he real¬ 
ly began to “ show his faith ” — in the only 
true way of showing it—“ by his work.” But 
it is “ good enough to tell” for all that, and 
we hope, will not be without its influence. 
He has two good-sized open sheds attached to 
his cam-yard, which h:s cows occupy for 
shelter at will in stormy weather. He keeps 
his oxen and horses in close stables, and 
these, as well as the sheds, are kept we l lit¬ 
tered through the winter The manure from 
the stables is thrown into the yard ; that 
made under the sheds remains there ; both 
have a suffnient mixture of straw to prevent 
too active fermentation. And both, were 
they in the same situation in regard to shel¬ 
ter, would be of equal value. 
Last spring, incited thereto by a remark in 
the Rural, he determined to test the differ¬ 
ence as closely as he could, without going 
into any minute figuring or preparations, for , 
that is too small business in bis eyes, for one 
with so much work to attend to. So, on his 
corn and barley ground, he took pains to 
draw the manure from the yard and from the 
sheds in equal quantities—though he said he 
did not think it was hardly fair, for in the 
yard manure he had to cart off a large quan¬ 
tity of water, making—if there were no other 
difference—a sheltered load worth one-third 
more than an unsheltered one. (This was 
the first ideathat really hit him on the subject. 
He saw he could save the cost of a simple 
shed, just in the expense of cartage ) Both 
kinds were treated in the same manner,—the 
crops were sowed and cultivated the same; 
but he did not need to wait until harvest to 
decide that he would shelter his tnanure, hereafter. 
Where the sheltered manure was applied, 
the corn and barley came up first; and they 
kept ahead all the season. The cut-worm 
worked less in the corn, and the barley seem¬ 
ed to escape all injury from insects,—though 
that part to which the yard manure was ap¬ 
plied, suffered from the H-ssian Fly to a 
small extent. The difference in the two was 
very plainly marked, and at harvest it was 
estimated that the shed-manured land gave a 
crop one-third greatest. 
Now our friend has erected two manure 
sheds. One covers the dung heap from his 
horse stable, the other is intended to contain 
that from his cattle stalls, and the major part 
of the yard droppings, gathered from day to 
day. Some time, we doubt not, be will go 
into manure cellars, and stables for all his 
stock ; but this move is a creditable one, and 
in the right direction. He will also learn the 
benefit ox muck as a material for cheaply in¬ 
creasing his stock of manure, and then we 
shall see a shed for that, to be used as an ab¬ 
sorbent of the liquid—now, something stronger 
than rainwater, and worth saving and cartage. 
His sheds are simple and cheap affairs.— 
Crotch.id posts are set for the front, the back 
is the barn-yard fence — one shed is covered 
with boards—the other with poles and straw. 
We expect to hear more of their success or 
failure hereafter. That other improvements 
will follow, is very sure ; for a good example, 
especially if a man sets it himself, is certain 
to influence those who see it. 
©nr Sputa! Cmtlrikta. 
MILK, 113 PfiOPEKTIES AND USES. 
Common in every household from the earliest 
times, all are supposed to be well acquainted 
with milk. It holds an important position as 
human food, and as a necessary component of 
some of the greatest luxuries of the culinary art. 
We can hope to add nothing new on the prop¬ 
erties of milk, but rather aim to collect and 
concisely state what it has taken years of la¬ 
bor to ascertain, and many pages to chronicle, 
in the hope chat a better knowledge of a com¬ 
mon article— its chemical composition and 
the changes to be effected in the dairy bouse 
— may be of service to all who are connected 
with the dairy interest. 
Milk may be said to contain or combine in 
itself all the organic principles and mineral 
substances which enter into the constitution 
of organized beings. As the first food of the 
infant, it contains all that is needed to build 
up and strengthen the human body, and in 
the only form in which they could be made 
available. The milk of different animals dif¬ 
fer slightly in their chemical constituents and 
appearance, though presenting much similar¬ 
ity. It is usually heavier than water in the 
proportion of 103 to 100, notwithstanding from 
80 to 90 pounds, in every 100, of cows’ milk, 
is water. In co mm on with numerous vegeta¬ 
ble substances, milk contains, besides water, 
organic substances, such as sugar, oil or but¬ 
ter, also casein or cheesey matter, besidessome 
inorganic matter partly insoluble in pure wa¬ 
ter. 
These constituent elements of milk, as given 
by Prof. JoHxsrox in his valuable work on 
Agricultural Chemistry, are as follows : 
Cssoin, or cheese,.4 48 
Butter. 3.13 
Sugar of milk.. 
Inorganic matter. 60 
Water,.87.02 
100.00 
Boussixgault furnishes several, made at dif¬ 
ferent times, and places, not differing much 
from the above. According to M. Haidlex, it 
contains no salt formed by an organic acid, nc 
lactates, and the alkali is in combination with 
casein, in the solution of which it assists. 
Sugar of milk is obtained by evaporating 
whey to the consistency of syrup, which de¬ 
posits the sugar in the crystalline form as il 
cools. It is then in a crude state, hut may b( 
obtained pure by some of the usual methods 
of clarifying sugar, not necessary to be detail 
ed for our present purpose. This sugar is lesi 
sweet than cane sugar, not so easily dissolved 
by water, and gritty between the teeth. 
Milk sugar is readily dissolved by the caseii 
of milk, fermentation taking place during 01 
with the dissolution, throwing off carbonic 
acid as in the fermentation of other liquids 
producing alcohol. The product of tMs fer- 
