VOLUME V.i NO. 31.} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.- SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1854. 
{WHOLE NO. 239. 
Htfli art’s $#Hl Utto-gartu: 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTED BY 
JOSEPH HARRIS, in the Practical Departments: 
EDWARD WEBSTER, in the Literary and News Dep’ts. 
Corresponding Editors: 
J. H. Bixby,— H. C. White,— T. E. Wetmoee. 
The Rural New-Yorkhr 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 the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the busiucss 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., she last park. 
Progress and Improvement. 
CULTIVATION OF WHEAT.—NO. III. 
"We consider Western New York one of the 
best wheat growing regions in the world; yet 
how frequently do we see crops that will not 
yield more than from 12 to 15 bushels per acre. 
Indeed we question if the wheat crop of this 
highly favored district will average 15 bushels 
per acre. Mr. Lawks, in his wheat experiments, 
has obtained on the acre continuously unma- 
nui’ed for ten years, and annually sown to 
wheat, a crop averaging over 15 bushels per 
acre. This yield he considers the normal pro¬ 
duce of the soil; or, in other words, the quan¬ 
tity of wheat it will annually produce by good 
tillage alone is about 15 bushels per acre. He 
finds, moreover, that to increase this yield to 
30 bushels, all that is necessary is simply to add 
about 80 lbs. of ammonia per acre in some 
form readily available to the plant. We be¬ 
lieve there are few farms in Western New York 
which, if properly underdrained and tilled, 
would not, for many years, annually produce 
15 bushels of wheat per acre; and we have no 
doubt if it was supplied with about 80 lbs. of 
ammonia per acre it would, for some time at 
least, produce 30 bushels per acre. 
The quantity of nitrogen (ammonia or nitric 
acid) which annually falls on an acre, has been 
variously estimated. If we recollect right, Lie¬ 
big estimates it at more than 100 lbs.; and, 
more recently Boussincault and Way found 
less than 50 lbs. If we take the lesser quanti¬ 
ty, and consider with Mr. Lawes, that wheat 
requires for its production five times as much 
nitrogen as it contains, the rain supplies suffi¬ 
cient ammonia annually for from 8 to 10 bushels 
per acre. Now, when we summer fallow a clay 
soil, a portion of the inert nitrogen of the soil 
will be rendered available, and the rain which 
falls during the year it is fallowed will supply it 
with sufficient ammonia say for 8 bushels per 
acre, and which, on an underdrained, well 
tilled clay soil, we have no doubt is nearly all 
retained for the next year’s crop. If, therefore, 
the normal produce of such a soil is 15 bushels 
per acre, by the aid of summer fallow it should 
be 23 bushels, plus an extra bushel for each 
five pounds of nitrogen rendered available from 
the inert matter of the soil, by tillage. 
The same end is attained by growing clover. 
Wheat, as we have frequently said, destroys 
ammonia, but clover, peas, &c., do not If 
therefore, on? a soil which, by under-draining 
and proper tillage, derives annually, from de¬ 
composition and rain, sufficient ammonia for fif¬ 
teen bushels of wheat per acre, clover be sown, 
and one year’s growth plowed under, the next 
wheat crop should be 30 bushels per acre.— 
Growing clover and plowing it under as ma¬ 
nure, is very much akin in its results to summer- 
fallowing. There is this important difference, 
however: sandy soils, or soils which do not 
contain the double silicates before alluded to, 
do not contain, to any great extent, the ammo¬ 
nia of rain water, and, therefore, summer-fallow¬ 
ing will benefit them but little; while clover 
will absorb the ammonia of rain as it falls, and 
organize it, and when this clover is plowed un¬ 
der or consumed by animals, and the manure 
returned to the soil, the ammonia thus saved 
from evaporation will be assimilated by the 
growing wheat. On clay soils, so far as in¬ 
crease of ammonia is concerned, the benefit of 
growing clover and plowing it under is com¬ 
paratively small, but on sandy soils it is very 
great. Many farmers think clover plowed un¬ 
der on clay soils has a beneficial mechanical ef¬ 
fect, and doubtless this is the case; but how 
far it is equal to summer-fallowing is an open 
question. We are, however, inclined to think 
that, in this country, where soil is so readily 
pulverized, plowing under a good crop of clo¬ 
ver when in bloom, even on the stillest clay, 
and frequently cultivating it before seed time, 
is, at least, equal to ordinary summer-fallowing; 
and there are those who, claiming to have tried 
both ways, think it is far superior. 
Some of our readers will ask whether such 
a course of tillage will not speedily exhaust 
the soil of the inorganic elements of plants. If 
the wheat, and straw, and corn, and hay, and 
potatoes, Ac., are all sold off a farm, it must 
soon be greatly impoverished of mineral mat¬ 
ter; but if nothing but wheat is sold, and the 
straw, stalks, hay, Arc., are converted into ma¬ 
nure and returned to the soil, we have no 
doubt that there will be found sufficient miner¬ 
al matter in the soil for many years to come; 
in fact, we believe there will be an actual in¬ 
crease of available inorganic food of plants 
from the disintegration of soil induced by con¬ 
stant tillage and the nascent carbonic acid 
given off from the decomposition of the clover 
plowed under. Whether it would not be more 
profitable to convert the clover into hay and 
consume it on the farm by sheep and other 
Stock, is a question wlu-oYi involved so many 
considerations, and depends so much on the 
price of wheat, wool, Ac., that no general an¬ 
swer can be given. We should be glad, how¬ 
ever, if our correspondents would give their 
views, and on this point. 
NOTES OF A TRIP THROUGH LEWIS CO. 
From Rome to Sacketts Harbor, a distance 
of about 70 miles, there is a plank road, laid 
with four-inch hemlock plank. The grading 
and laying cost 93 cents per rod, or $287 per 
mile. The whole cost of the road was about 
$1500 per mile. For the first five or six miles 
after leaving Home, the land is under excellent 
cultivation. Finer crops of wheat, corn, oats, 
and grass, are seldom seen. The next twelve 
or fifteen miles the land is either naturally very 
poor, or has been worn out by a miserable 
system of farming. It has seldom been our 
lot to ride through a harder looking country. 
There are a great many taverns, few good 
farm houses, and no churches. As you ap¬ 
proach Constableville the country gradually 
improves. The cows show some little care in 
selection and breeding. There are some good 
open ditches running through the low land, and 
in one or two instances stone drains are being 
laid; board and stone fences are occasionally 
seen—a large, substantial barn and neat farm 
house, like an oasis in the desert, here and 
there delight the eye, while the cupola of a 
distant church, as it glistens in the setting sun, 
tells us we are approaching a better country. 
Constableville is a flourishing village, situat¬ 
ed in a rich valley, occupied with a highly in¬ 
telligent and wealthy class of farmers. We 
visited the farm of John Constable, Esq. It 
contains upward of 400 acres, most of which is 
used for dairy purposes. Around the house is 
a beautiful lawn, of some 70 acres, studded with 
fine trees, reminding one of the parks of “ mere 
rie Old England.” There is about a mile of 
white and buck-thorn hedge, which not only- 
makes an admirable fence, but adds greatly to 
the beauty of the landscape. Mr. Constable 
informed us that he had used a number of 
plants for hedging, and found that the buck¬ 
thorn was much the best. The Osage Orange, 
he says, does not stand their severe winters.— 
This farm had been in the hands of tenants 
and was considerably run down when Mr. C. 
devoted his attention to it, some five years ago. 
It is now one of the neatest and best farms in 
Lewis county. Mr. C. mentioned a striking 
advantage of underdraining. He had a mead¬ 
ow which annually produced about half a ton 
of very indiffereut hay. Two years ago he cut 
some drains through it, three feet deep, and 
laid them with stone. This year the meadow 
produced two and a half tons of excellent hay 
per acre. 
From Constableville through Turin, House- 
ville, Martinsburgh, Lowville, &c., is a rich 
agricultural district, devoted almost exclusively 
to dairying. For the past three years they 
have suffered much from drought. The pas¬ 
tures are completely burnt up, and few of the 
dairies we visited were making two pounds of 
cheese per day from each cow. The hay crop 
is exceedingly light. We question if it would 
average half a ton per acre. We were pleased 
to see Ketchum’s Mowing Machines so exten¬ 
sively used, and quietly cutting their ten acres 
a day, cleaner and better than is generally done 
with the scythe. From the scarcity of hay, it 
is supposed that cattle will be ruinously 
cheap here this fall. This spring, hay sold for 
$12 per ton on the farm, or, as one gentleman 
said, “ you could get as much as you had cheek 
en<?!igh to ask for it.” Very few sheep are 
kept. The reason assigned is that the winters 
are too long and severe, and cows are more 
profitable. We cannot but think that a few 
sheep, at least, might be kept with considera¬ 
ble profit. The pastures abound with white 
daisies, and all seem anxious to know how to get 
rid of them. We recommended them to try 
pasturing with sheep. Few hogs are kept. * At 
this we were very much surprised. Whey, 
though not in itself very fattening, is one of the 
best auxiliary foods we know of. Instead of 
keeping up in the pen a few hogs solely on 
whey, as is here the case, would it not be more 
profitable to keep a greater num V'l AW-mg 
Uaem to run in clover, Ac., tnmog the whey 
simply as a drink ? Some farmers tlqnk it 
pays better to give the whey, while sweet, to 
the cows than to the hogs. 
Barley appears to do better in this “ Black 
River country ” than in the “ Genesee country.” 
This year, though so dry, the barley crop is 
very good. As we were passing the farm of 
Mr. J oiin Strong, of Turin, we observed a re¬ 
markably heavy crop of barley, and on inquiry 
found that it had been dressed with about 100 
lbs. of guano per acre. Mr. Strong also 
showed us some corn which he had top-dressed 
with guano, and which was much taller and 
heavier than where it was not used. 
Corn, where the land was plowed deep and 
“ the cultivator has been kept going,” looks well, 
and will be more than an average crop. Much 
corn not so treated, is suffering greatly from 
drought. "Winter wheat is not grown. Spring 
wheat looks exceedingly well. Tie Black Sea 
is the favorite variety. Oats aid peas are 
sown together to a considerable extent. They 
are usually thrashed and ground together as 
food for horses, Ac. Oats, peat, barley and 
vetches are frequently sown together in Eng¬ 
land, and yield immense crops. They are not 
thrashed, but are fed in the striw to horses. 
When cut up, the horses do bet:er on them 
than on the best of hay. 
KEEPING SWEET POTATOES. 
One great drawback against tb cultivation 
of the sweet potato here at the Yorth, is the 
difficulty and trouble of keeping them sound 
and good. Mr. George D. Noiris, of New 
Market, in the northern part if Alabama, 
writing to the Farmer's Companion, expresses 
the opiuion that sweet potatoes may be kept 
as well, or better, here than at ;he South.— 
Mr. Norris has cultivated then quite exten¬ 
sively for a number of years, and so successful 
is he in preserving them, that he las not usual¬ 
ly over a peck of rotteu ones in 4)0 bushels. 
His method is to make a siigle shed of 
boards, by placing crotches in the ground, 
leaving the sides open for the fro circulation 
of air. The shed should front tie south, and 
stand six feet high—declining to the north to 
within three feet of the ground. A shed 
twelve feet wide is sufficient, aid may be as 
long as desired. It should be jlaced on an 
elevated piece of ground, trenebd all arouud 
so as to be effectually drained. He recom¬ 
mends, as soon as the leaves are killed by the 
frost, to dig —carefully handle and pour in 
piles—here at the North—say o\ ten to twen¬ 
ty bushels; cover them innnediaely and thick¬ 
ly with good wheat straw, for light injures the 
roots as much as cold, and place over that a 
covering of earth, say a foot in thickness.— 
The shed and everything should be in readi¬ 
ness before the digging is commenced. When 
wanting the potatoes for use in the winter, 
select some warm, open day, and remove care¬ 
fully one of the heaps to the cellar. Some 
keep them entirely in cellars, but frequently a 
loss ie sustained from their rotting. 
Mr. Norris goes on to say:—“Our climate 
is very changeable, sometimes freezing the 
thermometer below zero, and again in two or 
three days, it will become so warm you cannot 
have a fire about the house. Last winter was 
remarkable with us for extreme cold. My po¬ 
tatoes did not have a covering of more than 
three or four inches of earth, yet when I open¬ 
ed my seed bank the first of March, they were 
perfectly sound, and had sprouts several inches 
long. 4 The principal difficulty in keeping 
them, seems to be a want of care in putting 
them up, as well as in digging,—for, as I said 
before, light injures them as much as cold.— 
Corn is produced above ground. You would 
not keep it buried in the earth, but expose it 
to air and light The opposite is the case 
with the potato. A sweet potato should be 
covered entirely in the ground, under an open 
shelter to keep off the rain. Leave no air 
holes, but cover entirely. I care not how cold 
the weather is, if you cover first with good 
sound straw—not hay—then with earth, and 
then let there be a free circulation of air. The 
potatoes, when placed in bulk, undergo a sweat¬ 
ing process. This moisture is retained when 
Hacked in hjua^oLs with sancl,- or in *. pit uak! 
so rots them. Now, iu my method, the moist¬ 
ure is all evaporated, and leaves the piles dry. 
On very cold days my heaps smoke like coal- 
kilns, and the heat keeps them of a proper 
temperature. Such is my theory, and by 
twenty years’ practice I have proved it correct. 
"We have eating potatoes yet (May 20) in 
abundance, perfectly sound, and sweet as 
honey.” 
The reason Mr. Norris recommends small 
heaps, is, that exposure to light and air while 
using them is liable to rot the whole heap, 
whereas, if the heap is small, it is used before 
they take injury. 
Regarding their cultivation: Mr. N. never 
manures his land, as he thinks the leaves sup¬ 
ply a sufficient quantity of the right kind. He 
has planted the same land for twenty years, 
and sees no change except for the better. He 
never fails of having large and fine potatoes. 
If he were to use manure, he would use leach¬ 
ed ashes and decayed wood, as animal manures 
will not answer. t. e. w. 
INDIAN tORN IN 1620. 
The Corn plant, (Zea Maize) was unknown 
until the discovery of America, and the Pilgrim 
Fathers found it extensively cultivated among 
the Indians; indeed, if it had not been, they 
would have suffered far more severely for food, 
than they were compelled to do. They soon 
learned its uses as well as the method of culti¬ 
vation from the Indians, and it is interesting to 
turn back two and a-quarter centuries to learn 
how the Indians or rather squaws, raised coru 
—now, as theu, the staple agricultural product 
of the couutry. AVe gather our information 
from Prof. Flint’s Report of the Mass. Board 
of Agriculture. 
Th a farming of the natives, as well as most 
of the hard work, fell to the lot of the women, 
assisted, sometimes, by old men and little boys. 
Their tools were very imperfect, as they consist¬ 
ed only of rude hoes, made by tying the shoul¬ 
der blade of a deer or bear, or a large clam¬ 
shell, to a pole or stick; and stone axes with 
which they girdled trees, or scraped the charred 
surface of the logs to hasten their burning.— 
The land, when selected, was cleared by keep¬ 
ing up a fire around the foot of each tree uutil 
it was burned so that it would die. When a 
tree fell, it was burned into lengths so that it 
could be rolled into heaps and burned into ash¬ 
es. Thus in the course of years a piece was 
wholly cleared of its timber. In some instan¬ 
ces the trees were girdled and left standing un¬ 
til dry, when they were burned down as above 
described. 
The finest ears of corn were collected for 
seed, and particular attention given to planting 
at the proper season. Holes were dug with 
the hoes mentioned above, about four feet 
apart, and those living near the sea-shore then 
put into each hole a horse-shoe crab or two, 
upon which they dropped four and sometimes 
six kernels of corn, and then covered it with 
the implement with which they had dug the 
hole. In the interior a few small fishes in each 
hill were used as a fertilizer. Beans were 
planted with the corn after it had come up, 
and grew up supported by it. Great attention 
wa3 paid by them to the culture and protection 
of their growing crops. Not a weed was to 
be seen in the fields, and the corn was carefully 
guarded against destruction by insects and 
birds. To prevent loss by the latter, a small 
watch-house was erected in the midst of a field 
of corn, in which one of the family, often the 
oldest child, slept, and early iu the morning 
rose to watch the blackbirds. It was their 
universal custom to hill the corn about two 
feet high, for its support, and spots may be 
seen at the present day, which were evidently 
cultivated by them. The colonists very gene¬ 
rally imitated this custom, and it has been con¬ 
tinued down to our own times. 
It would be interesting to know if the cus¬ 
tom of topping and suckering corn was not 
likewise derived from its. original cultivators 
They made no use of the stalks, and hence 
would not be likely to take the amount or 
quality of the fodder into consideration. It 
has been seen that they practiced manuring 
and clean culture, the great principles of grow¬ 
ing corn in the nineteenth, as weU «s the seven 
teenth century. —b. 
NOTES FROM MY CORRESPONDENCE—NO. III. 
SQUASHES AND BEANS. 
Dr. Thaddkus Wm. Harris, in acknowledg¬ 
ing the receipt of specimens of beetles injuri¬ 
ous to fruit trees, and also a sample of seeds of 
the Apple Squash, thus remarks upon the his¬ 
tory, Ac., of Squashes : 
“ Accident led me some four years ago to un¬ 
dertake the investigation of the history of 
squashes and pumpkins, which has led to quite 
intereating results. Most of the older and 
well known species and varieties were by mod¬ 
ern botanists supposed to have come original¬ 
ly from Asia, and particularly from India.— 
This I have proved to be an error; and have 
shown that these fruits were wholly unknown 
to the ancients, no mention being made of 
them in the Scriptures, nor by Greek and Lat¬ 
in authors; the writers of the middle ages, 
while they describe, or take note of, other cu- 
curbitaceous plants, entirely omit pumpkins 
and squashes; and these did not begin to be 
known and noticed in Europe till after the dis¬ 
covery of America. Early voyagers found 
them in the West Indies, in Peru, iu Florida, 
and even on the coast of New England, where 
they were cultivated by our Indians before any 
settlements were made here by the Europeans. 
The old botanists, who flourished during the 
first century after the discovery of the New 
World, or the West Indies, begin to describe 
them for the first time, and give to them spe¬ 
cific names indicating their Indian (that is, 
American, as we now term it) origin. Hence 
arose the mistake of modern botanists in re¬ 
ferring these plants to the East Indies and to 
Asig,. 
From a study of the history of the plants, I 
went next to a study of the species, with par- , 
ticular reference to their botanical charac^rsf 
and to this end have been cultivating atfd ex¬ 
amining, every year, all the kinds accessible to 
me. I tliiuk I have established the facts that 
all the fruits known by the names of pumpkins 
and squashes are of American origin; that 
there are three distinct groups-oi.them; the first 
including summer squashes thr.t have shells 
when ripe; the second the winter squashes and 
pumpkins with deep, five-furrowed fruit stems; 
the third the winter pumpkins and squashes ' 
with short cylindrical and longitudinally wrin- < 
kled (but not five-furrowed) fruit stems.— ( 
The last group was probably originally con- J 
fined to tropical aud subtropical parts of the < 
western side of this continent, from California ! 
to Chili. The most esteemed varieties now < 
