VOLUME V. NO. 41 .! 
ROCHESTER N. Y.-SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14 , 1854 
crop was due to the presence of 
SOILING vs. PASTURINi 
ammonia as 
to that of carbonic acid. Mr. W. says: “I 
have long since noticed that a drained carbon¬ 
aceous soil, rich in humus, always contained 
enough of ammonia and inorganic matter for 
the production of large Indian corn.” The 
carbonaceous matter in the soil was of course 
originally formed from vegetables, and it is now 
generally admitted that all plants, even the 
Cryptogaviia, contain both inorganic matter 
and nitrogen, and hence it is 
G CATTLE. 
The Scottish Journal of Agriculture con¬ 
tains an experiment on the comparative ad¬ 
vantages of soiling and pasturing cattle, which 
conclusively proves, what every one would 
expect, that an acre of clover mowed and fed 
to cattle in the yard, will afford more food, or 
at all events, will make more meat than an 
acre pastured. 
On the 10th of July, eight 2 year old steers* 
crosses between the Aberdeen and Short-horn 
breeds, were divided into two lots, as near alike 
as possible. 1 he first lot of four were pastured 
out-of-doors in a field of first years grass, con¬ 
sisting of rye grass ( Lolium perenne, we sup¬ 
pose) and clover, but principally of red clover. 
Of this the four cattle eat, from the 10th of 
July to the I2th of October, 3 acres 2 roods 
and 5 rods. 
The other lot of four were tied up in stalls, 
and received daily as much of the same de¬ 
scription of green cut rye grass and clover as 
they could eat During the same period (from 
at Hamilton last year, was on exhibition, and 
‘ * s unquestionably a very superior sheep. He 
is owned by John Spencer, Whitby. Mr. 
Baker, of Simcoe, exhibited a very fine ewe, 
imported from Earl Ducies’ flock. 
There were a few pens of fine wooled sheep, 
but none worthy of mention. 
In Durham cattle the show was, we think, 
neither so large nor so good as that of last 
year. A large, white, four year old bull, be¬ 
longing to John Jarvis, Trafalgar, weighing 
2200 lbs., attracted considerable attention.— 
Mrs. Welfori)/ of Woodstock, also showed a 
very superior bull. “Victor,” a two year old, 
exhibited by Adam Ferguson, of Flamboro, 
pleased us much. J. P. Wheeler, Scarboro, 
exhibited a very fine yearling bull. A. C. 
Hamilton, St. Catharines, James Williams. 
Dereham, Edward Jonf.3, Stamford, Joseph 
Lampman, Niagar 
a quarto weekly 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
A8SISTKT) BY 
JOSEPH HARRIS, in the Practical Departments: 
EDWARD WEBSTER, in the Literary ami News Dep’ts. 
Corresponding Editors: 
J. H. Bixby, — H. C. White,— T. E. Wetmore. 
Tim Rural Nkw-Yorkxk is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed iu 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,— 
not strictly cor- 
| rect to call soils formed Pom them “ carbona- 
i ccous, and especially should we be on our 
guard against concluding that because these 
erroneously called carbonaceous soils produce 
good crops, carbonaceous matter in a soil is 
particularly beneficial. 
V\ e have little doubt but that the vegeta¬ 
ble matter in the “drained swamp” contained 
a considerable quantity of all the inorganic 
or ash constituents of Indian corn, wheat and 
other cultivated plants, and in addition to the 
carbon, hydrogen, &c., as muck nitrogen as is 
generally found in ordinary, well preserved 
barn-yard manure. In plowing under a crop 
■a, and many others, exhibit¬ 
ed some superior Durham cattle. 
I he show ol Devons, though good, was as 
a whole somewhat inferior in number and qual¬ 
ity to the Durhams. D. W. Freeman, Wind¬ 
ham, Robert Ferrie, Doon, W. H. Locke, 
Y armouth, T. Thompson, Adelaide, and some 
others, exhibited superior animals in this class. 
Herefords, in spite of our friend Sotham’s 
able advocacy, are evidently no favorites with 
the Canadians. There was but one on exhi¬ 
bition—a fine bull, owned by the “County of 
Oxford Agricultural Society.” 
Geo. Miller, of Markham, and Geo. Rod¬ 
dick, of Cobourg, exhibited some verv good 
Galloway cattle, which attracted much atten¬ 
tion. 
The Ayreshires were well represented.— 
Richard Ihompson, of London, showed a very 
Progress and Improvement, 
CARBONACEOUS MATTER IN THE SOIL, 
An article from our friend Samuel Wil¬ 
liams, of Waterloo, published in the. Rural 
of September 30th, during our absence at the 
London and Detroit fairs, was intended to call 
out our views * on the value of carbonaceous 
matter in the soil. Mr. W, says: “I believe 
that Messrs. Lawes and Gilberts theory goes 
rather to degrade the importance of carbona¬ 
ceous matter iu the soil as a necessary meaus 
of supplying carbonic acid to the roots of 
plants.” We do not know that these gentle¬ 
men h\,ve propounded any theory on the sub¬ 
ject, and will therefore give our own views, 
based principally on their experiments. 
All animals or vegetables in decaying or 
burning give off carbonic acid and ammonia, 
which, if not retained by surrounding matter, 
fly off into the atmosphere, and every shower 
brings these gasses back again to the earth. 
It is probable that all the orgunic elements of 
plauts ate absorbed as carbonic acid and am¬ 
monia, ami it becomes, therefore, a highly iu- 
tercsting question as to how far the atmos¬ 
phere or rain can supply these gasses to the 
plant. On this question Mr. Lawes’ investi¬ 
gations throw much light He fiuds, from a 
systematic series of experiments on wheat 
grown on the same soil each year for eleven 
years, that the atmosphere, rain and soil com¬ 
bined did not supply ammonia, on an average, 
for more than seventeen bushels of wheat per 
acre, but that the rain and atmosphere, and the 
same soil, supplied sufficient carbonic acid for 
at least forly # bushels per acre. Hence an ad¬ 
ditional quantity of ammonia gave greatly in¬ 
creased crops of wheat, while carbonaceous 
manures gave no increase whatever. For tur¬ 
nips, on the other hand, it was found, from an 
equally extensive uud prolonged seiies of ex¬ 
periments, that the atmosphere, rain, and the 
same soil did not supply sufficient carbonic 
acid for a large crop, and hence an application 
of carbonaceous manures was attended with 
an increased produce. It would appear, there¬ 
fore, that the value of “ carbonaceous matter . 
THE PROVINCIAL FAIR OF UPPER CANADA, 
The great Provincial Fair of Canada West 
was held at London, September 26 to 30, and 
was everything that the most sanguine antici¬ 
pated—the weather delightfully fine, the ar¬ 
rangements for the exhibition excellent, and 
the attendance unusually large. The show of 
horses, implements, fruits, grain and vegetables, 
though not quite equal to that at Hamilton 
last year, was on the whole well calculated to 
sustain the high position the Society has al¬ 
ways occupied. 
In “ mutton sheep” the Canadians are sur¬ 
passed only by Great Britain, and the exhi¬ 
bition clearly showed that it is their determi¬ 
nation not to be far behind the Mother Coun¬ 
try. There were many sheep in the various 
classes which we believe would have carried 
off prizes at any of the exhibitions in Great 
Britain. The show of Leicesters exceeded in 
number and quality anything we have before 
seen. We were particularly pleased with those 
of William Miller, of Pickering. He is an 
extensive importer and most’successful breeder, 
and exhibited 41 Leicester sheep which, taken 
as a whole, we have never seen surpassed at 
any of the Fairs of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England. He also exhibited four 
recently imported Cotswolds. The fact that 
HINTS ON FATTENING SWINE 
That pork has an important place among 
the products of the country, is shown by our 
statistics of domestic commerce, and also by 
the late census, which gave thirty millions as 
the aggregate of individual porkers in the 
about teu millions above 
United States 
sheep and twelve millions ahead of cattle. It 
is an important item of domestic consumption, 
salt pork being, in the country especially, the 
stand-by when other meats fail, and highly 
prized where long-keeping and strength-sus¬ 
taining food is desired. Aud its value as sus¬ 
tenance for the laboring man will not be 
doubted by the experienced, whatever vegeta¬ 
rians and other squeamish people may say on 
the subject 
For fattening swine upon the farm, it is im¬ 
portant to commence early, for the reason that 
articles of food can be made use of which 
would otherwise be wasted, and that mild 
weather is much more favorable to taking on 
flesh, than cold. 
At this season, most farmers have quantities 
of autumn 
tiiree to hve leet deep, resting on clay,” we 
should expect, even in the driest summer 
would be able to supply sufficient water for a 
“ perfect crop of Indian corn.” Certainly if it 
could not, the small amount formed from free 
hydrogen would not help it much. Our Gen¬ 
esee wheat contains about fifteen per cent, of 
water; and a soil may appear very drv to the 
apples, summer squashes, early po¬ 
tatoes, <fce., which would perish or deteriorate 
sadly by keeping, but are now of considerable 
value—well worth saving, at least—as food for 
swine. Boiled or steamed, and mixed with 
meal, they are well relished, uud for a com¬ 
mencement in fattening, answer us well as can 
be desired. Where apples and potatoes are 
both used, when boiled in a large kettle, it is a 
good plan to put iu the apples first—three or 
four bushels of these to one of potatoes, and 
then cover with the latter—well washed, of 
course. 'Then fill with water, and when snffi. 
Canada, and the fact that they are so speaks 
volumes in their favor. Cowan & Shaw, of 
Waterloo, exhibited some recently imported 
Leicesters, which, though only a fortnight off 
the water, looked exceedingly well. C. A. 
Jordison, of Fort Hope, also exhibited some 
receutly imported Leicester rams. James 
Dixon, of Clarke, and Geo. Miller, of Mark¬ 
ham, also showed very superior sheep iu this 
class. Capt. Wm. Shore, of St. Thomas, ex¬ 
hibited 22 good sheep. J. P. Gage, of Wel¬ 
lington Square, showed a very fine two year 
old ram, weighing 300 lbs. W. L. Ewing, 
Brantford, exhibited 16 head, the lambs beiug- 
very tine. James Dixon, Cobourg, showed j 
some very large rams; one yearling especially j 
was of great size aud beauty. Francis John¬ 
ston, of York, a colored man, also exhibited 
some very superior sheep. There were many 
other exhibitors in this class worthy of partic¬ 
ular notice, but our space forbids. 
In South Downs the show was hardly equal 
per cent, of water, while sand only imbibed 25 
per cent. While, therefore, there may be no 
chemical necessity for a large supply of carbon 
in the soil, it would appear highly probable 
that in seasons ot drouth its presence may be 
highly useful in keeping the soil moist and 
supplying the plants with moisture. Its me¬ 
chanical effect, too, on stiff clays may be very 
beneficial, as is frequently the case in turning 
under a crop of clover or plowing in a quanti¬ 
ty ol straw. The nascent carbonic acid 
evolved during the decomposition of carbon¬ 
aceous matter, too, may greatly facilitate the 
disintegration of the mineral matter of the 
soil, aud thus, on some farms, prove valuable 
