VOLUME V. NO. 4 I 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. — SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1854 
{WHOLE NO. 212 
FALL FLOWING VS. WIRE-WORM. 
phosphate should give an increase of over half 
a ton of hay. We have a great desire to 
know how to enrich our meadows in the cheap¬ 
est way, but such experiments as Mr. Clift’s, 
however frequently and carefully they may be 
made, can never instruct us. 
We have seen meadows in Cheshire, En¬ 
gland, where 100 bushels of bones were ap¬ 
plied per acre, much benefited for five years 
after the application; but how far this was 
owing to the phosphate of lime, or to the ni¬ 
trogen of the bones, we cannot tell. The fact 
that superphosphate of lime is not attended 
with great and immediate benefit when applied 
to these meadows, would lead us to suppose 
that the nitrogen of the bones, of which they 
contain ten times as much as barn-yard ma¬ 
nure, was the most valuable. We have had 
considerable experience in the use of all the 
various artificial fertilizers, and believe that 
next to well decomposed barn-yard dung, good 
Peruvian guano will be found the cheapest and 
best manure for enriching our permanent mead¬ 
ows or grazing lands. When hay is worth $20 
per ton, we have no doubt that an application of 
200 tbs of Peruvian guano per acre would be very 
profitable, and even at $15 per ton, we think 
it would pay, though the profit would not be 
large. Any of our readers who have used 
guano or superphosphate of lime on grass lands, 
would do us and the public a favor by giving 
us the results. We have not now space to 
notice the various means of improving meadows 
by irrigation, dragging, &c., Arc., but should be 
glad of the experience of our correspondents. 
MANUFACTURE OF GUANO FROM FISH, 
SHOULD CATTLE EE FED THREE TIMES A DAY. 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
A8SISTED IIY 
JOSEPH HARRIS, in the Practical Departments: 
EDWARD WEBSTER, in the Literary and News Dep’ts. 
Corresponding Editors: 
J. II. Bixby, — II. C. White,— T. E. Wet more. 
Eds. Rural :—In a late Rural,, is an article 
from the Country Gentleman, in reference to 
fall and winter plowing. As a result of plow¬ 
ing a piece of sod for corn in December, the 
writer says:—“ Although the worms were nu¬ 
merous in the soil, thousands were seen perish¬ 
ed in the cold. Their winter retreat was broken 
up, and I lost but few hills of corn by them.” 
I have elsewhere seen accounts of similar al¬ 
leged results of fall plowing ; indeed, it is the 
prevailing notion that such plowing is destruc¬ 
tive to the wire-worm, but is it so? I have 
had a good deal of experience with this little 
pest, to the decided disadvantage of my pocket, 
and it does not accord with that of the writer 
quoted. I once turned a few acres of sod late 
in the fall, which had been thirty years in pas¬ 
ture and meadow, and never plowed, and which 
contained more wire-worms than I hope ever 
to see in a field of equal size. The work was 
finished late in November, one bitter cold day, 
when the ground was rapidly freezing, and the 
worms which were brought to the surface by 
the plow, stiffened in a moment, apparently 
dead. I verily thought a good work was be¬ 
ing done, until a day or two after, in crossing 
the field, I was induced to pick up a few from 
the frozen surface, to see whether they were 
really dead, or only “ playing possum.” The 
result was, that ten minutes in a warm room, 
restored them to life and activity. After the 
first thaw, I again took a look at the furrows, 
but no worms were to be found. Deep in the 
ground they had all secured themselves safely 
against the next storm, as they will invariably 
do in a few moments when the mercury is above 
32°. There were enough of them the follow¬ 
ing season to have destroyed not a “ few hills” 
only, but every hill, had the field been planted; 
and not till it had been twice in buckwheat, 
would it have been safe to venture in with a 
hoe. 
'Whether buckwheat will kill them or not, 
I can not say: Certain it is, that the worm will 
not destroy a crop of it. Continuous plowing 
year after year, will eradicate them. The 
third crop will not generally be injured much. 
Bare fallow, from early spring to the time of 
seeding in the fall, tho’ injurious to the soil 
perhaps, will do something. A part of my last 
year’s fallow was broken up just as the frost 
was out, and soon made dead; the balance, late 
in the season, and poorly done. On the last 
plowing, the wheat is injured vastly more than 
on the first. The worm is certainly migratory, 
as, where ditches are cut through turf and left 
to be filled some time during the summer, and 
between them fallowed, the strip adjoining the 
ditch, afterwards plowed, will be much more 
infested by them. Indeed, I have had the 
wheat on such narrow strip entirely destroyed, 
while that adjoining was only partially injured. 
Wa. B. Pratt. 
Prattsburgh, N. Y., Jan. 13, 1854. 
A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer 
thinks that sheep and cattle should not be fed 
three times a-day. He says a cow when turn¬ 
ed into good grass, will eat with avidity for an 
hour or two, and then seek repose, when, after 
an hour or so, the ruminating process is com¬ 
menced, and continued for three or four hours 
more. The food is in this way thoroughly mas¬ 
ticated and mixed with saliva before it enters 
the second stomach to be acted on by the gas¬ 
tric juice and digested. The digestive process 
will occupy four or five hours. We have, 
therefore, “allowing two and a half hours for 
eating, one hour rest, four hours for rumination 
and four or five for digestion, eleven or twelve 
hours between the times when an animal would 
naturally need feeding.” He thinks from this 
that “ feeding animals three times a day is not 
only unnecessary, but positively injurious.” If 
the animal is fed at 6 A. M., and again at noon, 
the ruminating process is not completed, and 
if fed at 5 P. M., it will not give the animal 
sufficient time to masticate the food, even by 
keeping its grinders in constant motion, so that 
at the best there must be forced on the diges¬ 
tive organs a portion of the food improperly 
masticated, causing an extra amount of labor for 
these organs, and at the risk of engendering 
disease. 
His practice has conformed to this theory, 
and he thinks his stock at least as good as his 
neighbors’, who feed three times a day. He 
asks those who think differently, to give a rea¬ 
son for their belief, and also to try a lot fed 
twice a day, against a lot fed three times. 
We have always considered it advisable to 
feed animals three times a day, and have ob¬ 
served animals so fed, on an occasion when the 
noon’s feed has been omitted, manifest all the 
symptoms of real hunger, eating substances 
which, under ordinary circumstances, they 
would not touch. But perhaps we are wrong, 
at all events let us have the experiment. 
A patent has been taken out in Great Brit¬ 
ain for the manufacture of guano from fish.— 
The fish either fresh or dried is treated with a 
small quantity of sulphuric acid, by which it is 
reduced to a pulpy state. In this state it is 
dried either by direct application of heat or 
by mixing with it some absorbent substance. 
Analysis shows this (it is said) to be equal to 
the best Peruvian guano. It is stated that the 
supply of fish, especially of unsaleable fish, is 
prodigious; and that if $10 per ton were offer¬ 
ed for them, the fishermen would bring in enor¬ 
mous quantities. At present one-half to two- 
thirds of the fish is thrown overboard. Sprats 
are frequently sold along the coast at less than 
$5 per ton, and waste fish at from $4 to $7. 
We very much doubt the feasibility of con¬ 
verting fish into a cheap, dry, portable manure, 
that shall successfully compete with guano.— 
But of one thing there can be no doubt: that 
the farmers on the Atlantic slope, where guano 
is principally used in this country, would act 
wisely by encouraging fishermen to save ali 
the unsaleable fish a id bring the n to sho e, 
where they would form a most valuable ma¬ 
nure. Instead of treating them with sulphur¬ 
ic acid, they might be incorporated with soil or 
even plowed under or applied in the hill to 
corn, in their green state, as is already done to 
some extent. If it will pay to convert them 
into an artificial guano, it will certainly pay to 
use them in their natural state; for the process 
of manufacture adds nothing to their manu- 
rial value. 
It is a question with us whether a small 
quantity of sulphuric acid will thus dissolve 
fish. It will arrest decomposition, of course, 
but that it will dissolve them v‘ least, new 
to us. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurp;issed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guide on the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose in¬ 
terests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with many appropriate and handsome engrav¬ 
ings, than any other paper published in this Country,— 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, &c., see last page. 
Progress and Improvement. 
IMPROVEMENT OF PERMANENT MEADOWS, 
The high price of hay invites our attention 
to the oft asked question, how can our perma¬ 
nent meadows be improved? The most com¬ 
mon fault of our permanent grass lands is, 
they arc too ivet. Most farmers appear to 
think that gra&s land cannot have too much 
water; and which, in reality, is partially true, 
they cannot well have too much, provided the 
soil is well underdrained. ’The idea of under- 
draining meadows will be new to many readers, 
but we are convinced, in fact we know from 
observation, that underdraining pays quite as 
well oil meadow land as on any other. There 
are thousands of acres >f permanent mercdo-Y, 
that would yield double the amount of hay, 
from simply underdraining them; while the 
quality of the hay would be improved to a still 
greater degree. The next means of improving 
them, is by manuring. The best maimer of 
doing this is a disputed point. We have seen 
meadows very much benefited by an applica¬ 
tion of ordinary stiff soil, composted with lime, 
but still more, when composted with horse 
mauure and allowed to ferment till all trace of 
the manure was lost before application. Good 
barn-yard manure, thoroughly decomposed by 
slow fermentation, and applied late in the fall, 
and spread over the meadow, is, iu our opinion, 
the best and cheapest means of increasing the 
grass crop. 
The Rev. W. Clift, of Stonington, Ct., has 
recently made experiments on a five year old 
meadow, in which 80 lbs. superphosphate of 
lime gave an increase of 1,040 lbs. of hay per 
acre; while 20 one-horse loads of unfermented 
manure, applied in March, gave an increase of 
9G0 lbs; certainly more than we should have ex¬ 
pected from such an application, and yet, it 
was attended with a loss of $7,20 per acre, 
while with the superphosphate there was a gain 
of $5,20. Eight bushels of hen manure, mix¬ 
ed with eight barrels of plaster, and applied in 
April, during rain, gave an increase of 1,520 
lbs. of hay per acre, and a gain of $3,GO.— 
80 lbs. of guano, mixed with 12 bushels of 
charcoal cinders, gave an increase of 80 lbs., 
and a loss of $1,G0; while 100 lbs. of guano, 
mixed with charcoal as the other, gave an in¬ 
crease of 800 lbs. per acre, and a gain of $1,- 
50. From these experiments it is concluded, 
that the “ superphosphate is among the cheap¬ 
est, and best of manures.” We have seen half 
a ton of superphosphate sown on five acres of 
old meadow, produce not the least benefit; 
while half a ton of good Peruvian guano, sown 
on five adjoining acres, was very beneficial, 
greatly increasing both the quantity and qual¬ 
ity of the herbage. 
Mr. Clift’s experiments are open to the 
same objection as those of Mr. Eastman on 
Indian corn. They were on too small a plot 
of land. The estimates of the acreage yield 
of hay, were made from two square rods, 
weighed iu the green state, and the amount of 
hay which they would yield, calculated from 
that yielded by one parcel. Under such a sys¬ 
tem of experiments, we are not surprised that 
on one plot 80 lbs. of guano should give an 
increase of 80 lbs. of hay, and 100 lbs. an in¬ 
crease of 800 lbs.; or, that 80 lbs. of super¬ 
CIIURNING IN WINTER, 
Where is the farmer’s wife that has not 
beon troubled more or less with churning iu 
winter? We recollect having to help churn 
for two days, and, after all, we had to throw 
the milk away, for the butter would not come. 
Cows fed on straw cannot be expected to have 
much butter in their milk; the poor things 
need the whole of it to burn in their lungs to 
supply animalheat. We opine that this is one 
of tho reasons why butter will not come. 
It is well known that butter is held in emul¬ 
sion, in the form of oily globules, encased in a 
film of caseine, (curd,) and that agitation bursts 
these films, when the oil or butter being speci¬ 
fically lighter than the milk, rises to the sur¬ 
face and concretes. This effect is always ac¬ 
companied by the formation of lactic acid 
from the sugar of milk. But below a tem¬ 
perature of 50 ° this formation of lactic acid 
does not take place, and consequently the but¬ 
ter will not come. 
To make butter come, then, we would ad¬ 
vise better feed for ike cows. In addition to 
the straw or hay, give some shorts, a few man- 
gel-wurtzel or beets, and, what is best of all, a 
little oil-cake. Then your milk will contain 
butter, and to get it out will not be difficult— 
Place the milk where it will not freeze, and 
the cream in a temperature of about 60 °, and 
keep it till it gets sour, which will uot be long, 
if the temperature is uniform. Avoid heating 
it in the day and freezing it at night; such a 
course will turn the cream bitter instead of 
sour. In churning, the temperature should be 
(in winter) as high as GO ° when the cream is 
placed in the churn, and about 70 ° when the 
butter comes. A good “ thermometer churn” 
is of great advantage in winter as well as sum¬ 
mer, not because it has a thermometer, but be¬ 
cause of the admirable means it affords of pla¬ 
cing warm water outside the churn. We are 
surprised that they are not more generally 
used. 
A WORD FOR THE POOR ANIMALS, 
The practice of feeding and leaving stock in 
the open fields, without shelter, or any protec¬ 
tion from the winds and storms of winter, to 
say the least, is a cruel one. Those who have 
noticed them iu such exposed situations, shiver¬ 
ing and giving every indication of suffering, 
need no argument to convince them of the 
truth of this assertion. If, however, any are 
disposed to question it, let them take a turn 
out, some wintry day, (if they are so fortunate 
as not to find the evidence at home) to the 
fields of some less fortunate neighbor, who 
continues this practice, where they may see the 
truth fully demonstrated. If more evidence is 
desired, please number the animals, and note 
their condition. And again, by the middle of 
April, do the same tiling, and let the difference 
in condition and number testify. Though pro¬ 
vided with sufficient food, stock cannot thrive 
under such treatment. And that animals 
should become poor, or even diseased and die, 
is not surprising. It is true, strong animals 
may endure it, but what becomes of the young 
and the weak ? It is needless to say, that a 
good animal cannot be reared under such a 
practice. 
Besides, it is not profitable. Some estimate 
the quantity of food required when thus ex¬ 
posed, at double what is required when properly 
sheltered. I am not prepared to say, that this 
is too high an estimate. But, suppose comfort¬ 
able shelter saves one quarter of the feed, 
which would otherwise be consumed. Farmers 
who keep but a moderate stock would, from 
this saving, soon be able to build all the stables 
and sheds required. They could then greatly 
increase the stock on their farms, without an 
increase of expense for feed. And besides the 
profit from increased and improved stock, there 
is a gain in the greater value of the manure, 
when sheltered from the rains. Farmers all, 
provide good shelter for your stock ; instead of 
mud or snow, give your animals a clean bed of 
straw. It is more humane, and moreprojitable. 
Keep all the stock you can provide feed for, 
and thus furnish manure for your exhausted 
lands. y. z. 
Peoria, N. Y., 1854. 
A STRANGE PHENOMENON, 
Mr. Moore :—Last spring, I had a small 
bed of about 45 feet square, unoccupied in my 
garden, which the old man, who worked the 
garden, planted in corn, in checks at about 3 
feet, which gave about 18 rows each way 
The corn planted was a small white flint, the 
seed of which I brought from Northern New 
York, in 1843, but which had much enlarged 
by 10 years’ cultivation in our Southern climate. 
The corn came up and grew well, the ground 
being rich and well broken. On the 4th day of 
July, the corn then being about three and a half 
feet high, and just beginning to tassel, I dis¬ 
covered that three rows of the corn assumed 
the appearance of having been scalded, and in 
a few days dried up and died. The balance 
grew finely and yielded a very abundant crop. 
I carefully examined it, but could find no cause 
for its decline. The roots had not been injured 
by worms, nor had there been anything put on 
the corn. There was not another hill in the 
square similarly affected. I had a field of com 
on two sides of the garden, and immediately 
adjoining this square, iu which was no similar 
blight. 
I called the attention of many to it, but 
found none who had ever seen anything like it. 
Can you or any one else account for it ? 
The day before I discovered it, and for 
several successive preceding days, we had very 
severe thunderstorms, with much lightning and 
hard thunder, but witl* little or no rain. Could 
it have been the effect of electricity ? 
Eli Phlegar. 
Christiansburg, Va., January 14th, 1854. 
PLENTY OF WATER, 
That there is plenty of water for all the pur¬ 
poses for which it is needed upon a farm, is 
evident when we consider the amount falling 
from the clouds in the course of a year. A 
writer in the Albany Cultivator , goes into a 
calculation showing that on every surface of 
ten feet square, seventy-two barrels of water 
fall annually. The roof of a thirty by forty 
feet barn, yields in the same time, eight hun¬ 
dred and sixty-four barrels,—more than tiro 
barrels a day, for every day in the year.— 
From three to five times this extent of roof is 
found on every farm, and with eave-troughs, 
conductors and cisterns to secure the supply, 
no one need lack for plenty of water at all times 
throughout the year. 
With cistern-room for one-sixth of the 
amount, a great want would be satisfied—that 
of water during the Autumn drought, when 
streams and wells are low. How much more 
convenient, too, a supply of pure rain-water, 
always available, than this depending on wells, 
or distant ponds,—or chance showers, which 
seldom come iu a very dry time. Let us have 
cisterns—good cisterns—and then make free 
use of water, never fearing that the clouds will 
tail us, or that rain and snow will cease to 
bless and gladden the earth.— b. 
J. M. Congdon, Chelsea, Mich., has three last 
spriug chickens, that are without feathers but 
well covered with a stiff down, which at a little 
distance has the appearance of coarse hair.— 
The wings and tails have quills, which appear 
as if they had been stripped of the feather.— 
They are healthy fowls and part of a brood of 
pure Shanghais. 
The value of bones in almost any form, as a 
manure for field or garden, should induce far¬ 
mers to save them for this purpose. In the 
winter, especially, large quantities might be 
gathered, to be broken in spring and mixed 
with compost, or applied directly to the soil. 
For Pear trees—for grass lands, for most kinds 
of garden vegetables—nothing better can be 
found. Then save the old bones, and though 
you fail in making “ improved superphosphate” 
you will not fail in benefiting your land and 
increasing its productiveness by the applica¬ 
tion. 
In the Journal of the N. Y. State Ag. So¬ 
ciety, it is stated that Joseph McGraw, Jr., 
Tompkins Co., has a Short-horu cow which 
yielded 60| qts. of milk and 2.} lbs. of butter 
per day for 30 days in succession. 
The Maine Farmer speaks of three premium 
corn crops in Maine, of 102 i, 96 and 78 bush¬ 
els per acre. Pretty good, that, for a way 
down east below sunrise. 
