406 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
will carry it to the outlet. For thorough 
draining, I have them from 2 to 3 rods apart, 
according to the nature of the subsoil. 
Frequently farmers say to me that they 
would u»e a good many tile, but they cannot 
hire the help to do it, or they are disappointed 
in help. Now nearly all the draining with tile 
should be done between fall and spring work. 
A man will open as much drain in the winter 
as he can in the month of June, if the ground 
is not frozen. Have the tile in the field ready, 
commence at the lower end, and open as much 
drain as can he finished that day, lay the tile 
in and cover by night, place a stone at the up¬ 
per end at night, and thus you can extend the 
work all winter when the ground is not fro- I 
aen, and many a laboring man find employ¬ 
ment that could not be hired in the summer. 
W«|t Bloomfield. N. Y., 1855. A. W. 
OUR FARMERS’ CLUB,—WINTERING COWS. 
We bad “a good time,” Tuesday evening, 
on the subject of “ Wintering Milch Cows,” 
but I see you have anticipated some points 
brought up, in an editorial on the subject, so, 
of this meeting, I need not give a very full 
report. By the way, I am cheered with the 
hope that other Clubs will be started, for I 
heard an influential farmer speaking of our 
Club and its reports “ as a benefit to the 
public,” and he remarked that “ such meet¬ 
ings through the winter season could not fail 
to be profitable to any farming community.” 
To commence, Mr. F., whose remarks are 
not theory merely, but founded on the results 
af actual experiment, said,—“ If I were to 
have cows wintered just to my liking, they 
should be fed on corn stalks, and if profit were 
consulted, these, by all means, should first be 
run through a stalk cutter. This, in my es¬ 
timation, is a saving of at least one-fourth 
their value.” 
‘My method of feeding,” he went on, i! is 
to give each animal a bushel basket full of 
chopped stalks ; they will not eat them clean, 
but to save all, I throw wbat they leave in 
the mangers to my colts, who soon dispose of 
them, and without a remainder. Those cows 
which are in milk, are fed a slop of buckwheat 
bran night and morning, those not yet come 
in are given two or three ears of corn at each 
feeding, until they begin to spring bag, when 
they are fed once a day, the same as the cows 
which are milked. In this way cows may be 
kept in a thriving condition, and I believe a 
greater yield of milk and butter can be ob¬ 
tained, than from any other mode of feeding.” 
“ In regard,” said Mr. L., “ to the value of 
different kinds of food for cow3,1 heard an 
old dairyman say that buckwheat was the 
best for producing milk of any grain. Corn 
and cob meal (or corn meal alone, of course,) 
fof.fp'na fl. fni* IaocvItIa, if 
fed before calving. Two quarts of oats per 
day is a better feed at this time. Corn and 
cob meal and oat meal, half and half, is good 
feed for milch cows, and wheat shorts, scalded 
and salted, will induce a large flow of milk.” 
Various remarks were made by Messrs. A., 
B., G., and others on the different roots as 
food for milch cows, and also conceding a high 
value to apples for that purpose, both already 
spoken of in the Rusal. “ Farmer Makedo ” 
happened in, and amused the Club with an 
account of his method of wintering cows, but 
you have been on his premises, and know 
something of the way matters have gone on 
there. I hardly know whether you will ad¬ 
mit “ Our Farmers’ Club,” into the new 
volume, but our next subject is “ Carrots,” 
and Gao. A. is going to read an essay on 
“ Training Steers,” a matter in which he has 
already had some experience. s. n. b. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
TASTE OF TURNIPS*IN MIIK, &c. 
Eds. Rural :— Perhaps few things of like 
slight importance, have produced more wide¬ 
spread annoyance than the taste of turnips in 
milk and butter, from cows fed with this root. 
There is a plain and easy remedy for this, 
which ought to be more widely known—one 
which I met some ten years ago, stating that 
“grain fed regularly to milch cows with turnips 
would prevent their milk from tasting of the 
turnips.” When I had occasion to try it, I 
gave each cow four quarts per day of wheat 
bran, wet in cold water, night and morning, 
in addition to the turnips fed them. Perhaps 
a less quantity of bran would answer as well, 
but it cost us only five cents per bushel, so I 
fed thus liberally. Not the slightest taste of 
turnips couid be perceived, and we sold the 
butter (carefully made, of course,) to steady 
customers in Nashville, for from ten to fifteen 
cents above the market price—pretty conclu¬ 
sive evidence as to its quality. And, further, 
one of the same cows had, some years before, 
been fed with turnips alone, and the milk and 
butter were strongly tainted with the taste of 
them, now they produced no such effect. I 
find on trial that any other grain will answer 
as well as wheat bran. 
Many experiments have proved conclusive¬ 
ly to my mind, that the rule above quoted is 
an effectual preventive of the taste of turnips 
in milk or butter. In this part of the country 
they are raised very readily, and many re¬ 
main out, without any injury from frost, j 
through the winter. John 0. Holt. 
N*ar Shelbyville, Tenn., Nov., 1855. 
THE WHEAT MIDGE. 
Mr. Moore. —In the Rural of the 10th ©f 
November, Mr. Wheeler of Lyons, N. Y., 
makes some inquiries respecting the “ wheat 
midge.” He says, “ before the rains began: 
just previous to harvest, the weevil was found, 
as usual, snugly nested about the kernel, and 
to all appearance safe and well to do, but after 
the two weeks’ rain, he found, on examina¬ 
tion, that the ‘ critters’ had left. Now the 
question is, do they ‘ still live’—or have they 
perished ‘ by reason of a great flood ?’ ” He 
has examined the chaff while threshing many 
pieces of wheat this season, and found none. 
Last year, they were abundant among the 
straw and chaff. Mr. W. wishes now to 
know where the midge are, and what their 
condition is. 
With the assistance of Dr. Harris’ work on 
insects, I will attempt to enlighten Mr. W. in 
regard to “ where the midge (that took such 
unceremonious leave of his wheat)' are, and 
what their condition now is.” Dr. H. says, 
“ after a shower of rain they (the orange'col¬ 
ored midge) have been seen in such countless 
numbers on Ike beards of the wheat, as to 
give a yellow color to the whole field.” I 
have, more than once, seen the “ critters” 
driven from their homes by the chaffy scales 
around the kernels, being filled with water.— 
In case of long continued rains, but few, if 
any, would ever return to continue their dep¬ 
redations upon the embryo grains. The 
young and half-grown midges, probably per¬ 
ish. The mature ones burrow in the ground 
and remain there unchanged, in a torpid state, 
through the winter. He that notes the fall 
of a sparrow, has also made ample provision 
for the perpetuity of generation after genera¬ 
tion, of the smallest insects, and animalcule. 
I will make a few extracts from Dr. H’s 
book. He says, “towards the end of July 
and in the beginning of August, the full 
grown maggots leave off eating and become 
sluggish and torpid, preparatory to moulting 
their skins. The torpid state lasts only a few 
days, after which the insects casts off its skin ; 
after shedding its skin, the maggot recovers 
its activity, and writhes about as at first, but 
takes no food. Within two or three days 
after moulting, the maggots either drop of 
their own accord, or are shaken cut of the 
ear 3 by the wind, and fall to the ground.— 
They do not let themselves down by threads, 
for they are not able to spin. Nearly ail of 
them disappear before the middle of August, 
and they are very rarely found in the grain at 
the time of harvest. We have good reason 
for believing that the maggots burrow in the 
ground, and remain there unchanged, in a tor¬ 
pid state, through the winter. The last 
change seems to occur in June and July, 
when great numbers of the flies (the parent of 
the oraDge colored midge) have been seen, ap¬ 
parently coming from the ground, in fields 
where grain was raised the year before.” 
“ Some persons have advised the burning 
the stubble, and plowing up the ground soon 
after the grain is harvested, in order to kill 
the maggots; or to bury them so deeply that 
they could not make their escape after they 
were transformed to flies.” Such a process 
might probably greatly lessen their numbers. 
Bat in this section of the country our ground 
is almost invariably stocked with grass seeds 
at the time of sowing the wheat, for the pur¬ 
pose of being mows for hay. 
For a few years past, fall-sown wheat here, 
on light, worn land, when sown early, has ma¬ 
tured before the annual appearance of the fly, 
—the harvest of the midge,—or rather, the 
grain, was beyond the depredation of the 
midge. Spring sown wheat, if not put in till 
after the 20th of May, also escapes the midge, 
but is frequently liable to suffer by rust. 
Levi Bartlett. 
Warner, N. II., Dec. 1000855. 
TRANSACTIONS OF N. Y. AG. SOCIETY, 1851. 
The volume of Transactions for 1854 has at 
length been published. The Legislature ought 
to provide some means whereby the printers- 
could be made a little more punctual. Surely 
Mr. Van Benthuysen is paid enough, and 
makes enough out of the job to afford to get it 
out at an early day, not later than the 1st of 
April at the outside. We hope the Legisla¬ 
ture will have the nerve to withhold any ap 
propriation the coming year, if the Transac¬ 
tions are not printed, and ready for delivery, 
by the 1st of May. I will guarantee that so 
fat a job will not be permitted to go into 
other hands for the want of punctuality. 
But to the volume and its contents. I am 
at a los3 what should have induced the Secre¬ 
tary to allow such a miserable compilation to 
go out from his hands. The Essay of Mr. 
Watson proves very conclusively that a good 
tree may bring forth very indifferent fruit, to 
say the least. His Survey of Essex County 
was well, but this essay of his could have been 
matched with a pair of scissors and almost 
any current volume of the various agricultu¬ 
ral journals now published in this State, or 
for that matter in the Union. Of the 951 pa¬ 
ges of the book, that takes up 130, and I do 
not believe there is a single fact established, a 
single new truth brought out in any or all of 
the one hundred tod thirty pages. It was 
bad enough to give him the hundred dollars 
as a premium, without entailing upon the 
State the expense of publishing. The work 
is well enough in its way, and as a compila¬ 
tion, but it has no business in the Transac¬ 
tions of the Society. It is not what we want. 
The Transactions already contain quite milk 
enough. We want stronger meat. 
The Essay of Master W. P. Prentice, of 
Albany, is creditable to the young gentleman, 
but considering that it contains no new facts, 
it was rather dear at twenty-five dollars.— 
There is more real value in the extract from 
Mr. Dobit’s Prize Essay on Fattening Cattle, 
in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, 
occupying but six pages, than in the whole 
146 of Master Prentice and Mr. Watson 
put together. There is considerable more 
chaff that ought to have been removed out, 
unless, (which is by no means a supposable 
case,) the desire was to give the printer a fat 
job and make a big book. 
But there is altogether more than a usual 
proportion of good bright wheat to this “ two 
bushels of chaff.” The Report of Dr. Fitcii 
on the “ Noxious, Beneficial and other Insects 
of the State,” is of itself enough to outweigh 
all the defects, if they were twice as ponderous. 
It makes the volume of unusual interest and 
value, and will give it a National reputation. 
And in the same category is the Essay of 
Mr. Geddes on “Rain, Evaporation and Fil¬ 
tration.” Both are invaluable, and cannot be 
too widely circulated nor too much read. * 
Although the volume is not what it ought 
to have been in the contents or their arrange¬ 
ment, and what a little more care and atten¬ 
tion would have made it, yet it is vastly ahead 
of what is published by the United States as 
an Agricultural Report, and is equal to any 
of its predecessors. John Smith. 
MY CARROT CROP. 
As others are relating their experience in 
farming, permit me to say one word relative 
to the raising of carrots—one of the cheapest 
crops that can be raised for feeding purposes. 
On the 14th of May I plowed about 70 square 
rods of ground from 12 to 20 inches deep, the 
most of it a clay soil. Never having been 
plowed so deep before, it came up in large 
chunks, which I broke up by passing a light 
roller over it, and on the 15th harrowed it 
thoroughly, and sowed the carrot seed about 
one inch deep with a drill of our own getting 
up. The drills were about 18 inches apart. 
In six days they were up. 
WLftn the wet w Anther came on, the first 
day of June, from that time till tho very last 
of the month, most of the ground was under 
water, say one-third of the time; but on the 
29 and 30th (concluding it must not be put 
off any longer) we weeded them out the first 
time. The ground was so soft, that we took 
off our boots, rolled our pants knee high, and 
walked into them, going down at every step 
as deep as it was plowed, and of necessity 
many of the plants perished—the ground being 
very weedy. As soon after as the ground 
would bear us up, I W8nt through them again, 
killing the weeds that had again taken root. 
July 22d and 23d I went over them again, and 
by this time I began to think it doubtful 
whether I should get enough to pay me for 
my trouble, for the ground, now, when draw¬ 
ing the hoe over it, aouiaded like brick, it was 
baked so hard. 
Nov. 7th we finished digging them, and 
contrary to all nay expectations, I had the 
round sum of 360 bushels from that 70 rods 
of ground. This, I suppose, is no heavy yield 
for those acquainted with the crop, yet under 
the discouraging circumstances above named 
it is a good crop. Now as to the eost-, I will 
state : 
Dr.—Te M lb. feed.$ 50 
“ % day’s plowing. 1 09 
“ day’s dragging and planting. 1 00 
“ 14 days’ weeding beys and men. 8 00 
“ 9 days’pulling, “ “ .. 5 00 
“ interest on value ofland. 1 50 
Total.$17 00 
Or .— By 360 bu. carrots (at my estimate, 20 cts).$72 00 
Balance in favor of crop...$56 00 
Perhaps I may have estimated them at, too 
high a figure, as there is no market price here 
regulating the article. I considered them 
worth a3 much as potatoes for feeding purpo¬ 
ses, and as that is our market price for that 
article, I set it down the same in this. Others 
may figure it to suit themselves. 
Lawrenceville. N. Y. C. E. Bristol. 
To keep Sweet Potatoes. —Have your 
barrel or box ready ; then take dry sand and 
put in first a layer of sand and then a layer 
of potatoes, then another of sand, and so on 
until a 11 are in. Cover them over with sand 
to keep out the air, then put on the cover and 
set them in a dry room where fire is kept 
through the day, so as to warm the sand. To 
keep them from freezing at night, throw old 
quilts over them.—A. R. B., Morris, N. Y. 
Manure, says an experienced farmer, is 
donWcd in value by beiDg drawn out and 
piled in the fall, eight or ten loads in a pile, 
like a hay cock, and covered over with plas¬ 
ter and ashes. 
%rialtal Pisallanj, 
Ths Ybar-Book ok Agriculture ; or, the Annual of Agri¬ 
cultural Progress and Discovery, for 1855-6. Exhib¬ 
iting the most Important Discoveries and Improve¬ 
ments in Agricultural Mechanics, Agricultural Chem¬ 
istry, Agricultural and Horticultural Bot iny, Agricul¬ 
tural and Economic Geology, Agricultural Zoology, 
Meteorology, &c. Together with Statistics of Ameri¬ 
can Growth and Production—a list of Recent Agricul¬ 
tural Publications—Classified Tables of Agricultural 
Patents for 1S54-5—a Catalogue of Fruits adapted to 
the different sections of the U. S. } &c. With a Com¬ 
prehensive Review, by tho Editor, of the Progress of 
American and Foreign Agriculture for 1855. Hlustra- 
ted with numerous Engravings. By David A. Wells, 
A. M., etc., etc. Philadelphia : Childs & Peterson.— • 
1865. 
Such is the comprehensive title of an inter¬ 
esting and handsome work of some 400 large 
octavo pages — one which promises, if con¬ 
tinued, to prove of considerable value as an 
Annual of Agricultural Progress, posting up 
the general reader on the subjects indicated, 
and furnishing, in a comparatively limited 
compass, a large fund of useful information. 
The initial volume is generally well filled, 
profusely illustrated, and neatly executed. 
Still it does not come altogether up to our 
ideas of what such a work should be, or what 
the future volumes will doubtless be made by 
the accomplished editor. It will be observed 
by reference to notice elsewhere, that we 
include this beautiful volume among the 
works offered as specific premiums to friends 
obtaining subscribers for the Bural New- 
Y’orkbr. 
The One Potato Crop. —Many of our 
readers doubtless remember the offer of Mr. 
Briggs, of West Macedon, N. Y., published 
in this paper of the 19th of May last, for the 
purpose of testing the productiveness of the 
different varieties of the Potato, and ascer¬ 
taining the best inodes of culture. The prop¬ 
osition was made so late in the season that 
but comparatively few persons were able to 
enter the lists, yet there was a respectable 
number of competitors, some of whom have 
furnished very interesting reports of their ex¬ 
periments. But as the number of these re¬ 
ports is comparatively small, it has been sug¬ 
gested that, instead of giving them in a 
pamphlet, as first proposed, it would be quite 
as satisfactory to competitors and more bene¬ 
ficial to the public, to give the substance of 
tjiem in the Rural New-Yorker. This we 
have concluded to do, and shall therefore give 
imthe early numbers of our next volume, the 
most important facts elicited. It may be 
proper to add here that Mr. Briggs’ product 
was 121 y 2 lbs. Those who exceeded this pro¬ 
duct (and several did so,) will receive the 
Rural for 1856 at Mr. B.’s expense. 
Sfrouted Wheat for Seed. — Some 
months since we published a statement au¬ 
thorized by Wm. Garbutt, Esq., of Wheat- 
land, N. Y.,—one of the best and most care¬ 
ful and experienced grain farmers in the 
Union,—to the effect that sprouted wheat 
would answer for seed, and might be depend¬ 
ed upon for that purpose. The Indiana 
Farmer and some other papers, discredited the 
statement, but as not one of our thousands of 
grain growing readers (many of whom acted 
upon Mr. G.’s suggestion,) ever mentioned a 
failure, we had no occasion to allude to the 
ject, and believed time and experiment would 
prove the correctness of Mr. Garbutt, and 
the error ef our contemporaries. And such, 
we think, has been the result. Among other 
testimony, we notice an article by J. W. 
Cummins, of Petersburg, Va., in the Phila¬ 
delphia Post. Mr. C. noticed the statement 
of Mr. Garbutt, and gave the matter a fair 
trial, first, planting some sprouted grains— 
“those which he thought most unlikely to 
germinate” — and all grew well. He then 
used for seed all the sprouted wheat he had, 
sowing it side by side with plump grain 
The result is that both appear equally well 
which 6hows that all the grains grew. Ob¬ 
serving the contradiction of the Indiana 
Farmer, Mr. C. gave the result of his experi¬ 
ment, fully sustaining the assertion of Mr. 
Garbutt in the Rural New-Yorker. 
Brine a Poison.— The brine in which pork 
or other meats have been salted or pickled, has 
been found to be poisonous to horses and 
swine, by M. Reynal, of the Veterinary 
School at Alfort, France. It “ acts as a lccal 
irritant, exciting a violent intestinal conges¬ 
tion and inflammation; it likewise increases 
the secretions of the skin and kidneys, besides 
having a direct effect upon the nervous sys¬ 
tem.” The Boston Cultivator adds that it has 
known of several instances of swine being 
killed by eating the scum taken from brine 
which had been boiled. The brine in which 
pork has been pickled can be used a secand 
time after boiling and skimming; old beef 
brine is not worth the trouble, containing very 
little salt and much animal matter. 
Potatoes, which were not cultivated in 
Switzerland till the last century, have become 
of great importance; the annual growth is 19 
millions of bushels, worth 34c. per bushel, and 
they are of excellent quality. 
Gas Live,— is it of any benefit as a fertil¬ 
izer?— R., Geneva. 
Plowing by Steam. —The first successful 
trial of the steam plow in this country was 
made at the late Maryland State Ag’l Fair, 
when Obkd Hussey, the veteran inventor of 
Reapers, &c., entered with a steam engine at¬ 
tached to four large green-sward plows, and 
throwing up furrows each about 14 inches 
deep. A Baltimore paper says :—“ The work 
was well done, and it was the opinion ©f ma¬ 
ny farmers present, that it was admirably 
adapted to the breaking up of prairie land. 
’The machine is too heavy for the land in this 
section of the country, but the principle is a 
good one and will lead to improvements which 
will make the stearn plow the means for till¬ 
ing the soil with profit to the farmer.” A 
correspondent of the Portland Advertiser says 
“ one farmer declared that forty horses could 
not have drawn the four plows so deep, 
through such a soil, at such a rate ; another, 
that it would have required four yokes of ox¬ 
en to draw one plow; but the committee 
called the draught equal to that of sixteen 
horses. The machine steamed out to the 
show ground, a distance of 2% miles over a 
road somewhat rough and hilly.” 
To Head Self-Sucking Cows.—In answer 
to the inquiry on this subject in last week’s 
Rural, Mr. O. F. Burns, of Parma, N. Y., 
gives us a remedy which has proved effectual. 
He states that after trying various pokes, and 
other methods, he finally hit upon a plan 
which headed the cow from sucking. This 
was simply a light pine board, from 4 to 6 
inches wide and 12 to 14 inches long, so 
notched as to fit into the nostrils of the cow— 
as represented in above diagram. Mr. B. 
avers this to be a sure preventive from suck¬ 
ing. The cow can feed while wearing the 
“jewel,” except from a pail—and hence when 
slops are fed they shonld be given in a trough. 
Some Carrots.— We are informed by S. 
Eaton, of Lysander, N. Y., that he raised in 
his garden this season fifty bushels of carrots 
from six rods of ground. Soil gravelly loam, 
had no extra culture. Some of them weighed 
8 x / 2 lbs. each, and were 6 inches in diameter,— 
and a large share were 4 inches in diameter, 
and from 1 to 2 feet in length. They wero 
the long orange variety. 
Thick and Thin Seeding. —We have had 
considerable experience for the past seven 
years in sowing wheat with a drill, having 
sown about a thousand acres for our neigh¬ 
bors and ourselves. Sofiie years since we came 
to the conclusion, that two bushels of large 
grain, Mediterranean Wheat, was about the 
proper quantity for an acre of strong, loamy 
or clay land when sown in good season, or 
rather late, but if sown quite late, let the 
quantity be increased one or two pecks — if 
sown very early, let the quantity be dimin¬ 
ished in the same proportion. On high, warm, 
sandy land, a peck, and in some cases two 
pecks les3 per acre than on clays or stiffloams, 
will be sufficient. The smaller grained varie¬ 
ties of wheat, will, of coarse, have to be sown 
in less quantity than the Mediterranean. Our 
reasons for seeding more thickly are, that 
more young plants will perish in the winter 
and spring—and the more thickly it stands 
the more early it will ripen.— N. J. Farmer. 
Water in Barn-yards. —Such is the sol¬ 
vent power of water, that if admitted in 
large quantities into barn-yards it will dis¬ 
solve into the earth, or into streams and 
ponds, a large share of fertilizing salts of ma¬ 
nure. The manure of stalls should if possible 
be housed. It shonld bs kept moist with the 
urine of animals, and sufficient litter shonld 
be used to absorb the whole of this, unless it 
be preserved in a tank to be used as liquid 
manure, the policy of which is perhaps doubt¬ 
ful in this country, where labor is high, 
though it may be well iu Europe, where labor 
is plenty. The true proceeding for barn¬ 
yard manure is to keep it as far as possible 
moist, but not to suffer it to be drenched. If 
dry and hot, it give3 its nutritious gases to the 
wiads ; if drenched, it loses its most fertiliz¬ 
ing salts; when neither scorched nor drench¬ 
ed, it is decomposed more gradually, and it re¬ 
tains in itself a larger portion of its enrich¬ 
ing properties.— The Farmer, Amherst, Mass. 
- ^ ♦ — ■ ■. 
A Stock Item. —The proportion of cattle 
to inhabitants in Switzerland, is 1 to 3 ; of 
sheep, 1 to 5; of goats 1 to 7 ; of hogs 1 to 
8; of horses 1 to 21. In Austria, the pro¬ 
portion of cattle to inhabitants is 3 to 10 ; of 
sheep 1 to 2 ; of horses 1 to 17. In Prussia 
the proportion of cattle is 1 to 4 ; of sheep 15 
to 14 ; of hogs 1 to 7 ; of horses 1 to 9. In 
Lombardy, of cattle 1 to 5; of sheep 1 to 10.— 
N. Y. Eve. Post. 
Poultry. —It is unprofitable to winter old 
hens ; if such were not marketed in August 
or September, when they wore worth double 
what they are now, fat them as rapidly as 
possible, and put them in the pot. Wh8n the 
ground is covered with snow, see that your 
fowls are provided with plenty of gravel, 
lime, pounded bones, or oyster shells, and oc¬ 
casionally with scraps of fresh meat. 
Arkansas Exporting Wheat.— The Mem¬ 
phis (Tenn.) Bulletin notices the receipt in 
that city of 1,000 sacks of wheat from Ar¬ 
kansas, one of the first shipments ever made 
from that State. 
