VOLUME V. NO. 42.} 
1 WHOLE NO. 250 
results to common practice. It is known that 
water will hold a large quantity of ammonia, 
and we believe the loss of “this spirit like 
essence of the farm, ever struggling to be free” 
from fermenting common barn-yard drainings, 
is vastly less than the above figures would in¬ 
dicate. V et it is sufficiently great to warrant 
the use of any cheap method of fixing it, such 
as the one we have suggested. 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper 
CONDUCTED 2Y D. D. T. LIOOEE, 
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. Wetmore. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to he unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
aud 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. 
i ’ dT ' For Terms, &c., see last page, 
FINE AND COARSE-WO0LED SHEEP, 
It is wiih sorrow we learn, what, however, 
we had anticipated, that thousands of sheep in 
every part of the country are being sold at 
about a dollar a head, and slaughtered for tal¬ 
low. The low price of wool, the extreme 
drouth of the past summer, and the high price 
of hay and grain of all kinds, are the principal 
causes of this result. But farmers, as well as 
other men, are short-sighted mortals. They do 
not think. Wool-growing at 30 to 35 cents 
per lb., is not as profitable as wheat-growing 
at $1,50 to $2,00 per bushel. This is sufficient 
to induce multitudes to abandon the former 
and rush into the latter. Forgetting the past 
and unmindful of the future, the wool-grower 
sacrifices his sheep by thousands, because, for¬ 
sooth, they have not this year been quite so 
profitable as some other branches of farming. 
But what would you do? Will wool be any 
higher next year than it is now? And will it 
I pay to keep onr sheep, when hay, stalks, and . 
all kinds of fodder and grain are so scarce and 
high? We do not know that wool will be anv 
higher next year. Wool, like everything else ; 
in an intelligent community, will sooner or 
later find its level. If fine wool cannot be 
raised for less than 50 cents per lb., the supply 
will fall oil till that price is obtained. We 
desire simply to guard wool-growers from be¬ 
ing too precipitate. If fine wool-growing this 
year has not been so profitable as usual, don’t 
sell your sheep at ruinously low prices, and 
thus make the matter worse. There may be a 
difficulty in wintering as many sheep as usual, 
but economise the fodder as much as possible 
—cut up all your corn-stalks, straw, &c., and 
use a little grain or oilcake—give the sheep 
dry, warm and comfortable quarters, sell 
Progress and Improvement. 
MANAGEMENT OF BARN-YARD MANURE, 
GEOTIP OP POLAND FOWLS, 
Above we present an engraving of a fine 
pair of Poland or Top-knot fowls, one of the 
best varieties for the abundant production of 
eggs, and at the same time of fair size and 
good quality for the table. A friend who has 
tried all kinds of poultry, tells us that the Po¬ 
lands are very good layers, and but little in¬ 
clined to set, sometimes not one in ten showing 
any disposition that way. They cease laying 
occasionally — recruit for a few days — are 
cheerful and sprightly—and then commence 
laying again. With a warm basement room 
for winter, admitting daily the cheering rays 
of the sun, they would lay every month in the 
year. Our picture shows them as a very hand¬ 
some variety of fowls. 
CARBONACEOUS MATTER IN THE SOIL, 
Glowing accounts have been published of 
this new plant, and considerable inquiry elici¬ 
ted for further information. For a Southern 
latitude, it may be all that is claimed for it.— 
But hereabouts, those who undertake its culti¬ 
vation, we opine will be much disappointed. 
The writer received samples of this pea 
from three or four different sources the past 
winter, a portion of which he planted out the 
6lli of May, alongside the Japan Pea and a 
Stock Pea from Mississippi, on soil but mod¬ 
erately rich. The plants came up well and 
made a tolerably fair growth, but not equal to 
either of the other kinds. Not a vestige of a 
flower had made its appearance on the 21st of 
Sept, when we had a frost that killed the plants, 
while the Stock Pea had ripened a few pods, 
and the Japan had so far matured a portion of 
its fruit as to leave no doubt of its vegetative 
power. In fact the Japan was but little af¬ 
fected by the frost which completely killed the 
foliage of the Oregon Pea. Like the Japan 
the stalks and branches of the Oregon are half 
woody, but not of so vigorous a growth.— 
Neither were at all, apparently, affected by the 
drouth, but presented a green and thrifty hab¬ 
it. The plants of both varieties have more the 
look of giant bush beans than of peas—the 
Japan having much the largest leaves, which 
with the stems, pods, &c., are hirsute. It may 
be the Oregon is an excellent renovator of the 
soil, but where one jvill have to depend on 
seed from a distance, it seems our northern 
farmers can find other plants more reliable I 
terter tested, and far cheaper. t. e. w. 
Messrs. Eds.—I am glad to learn in the 
; Rural of the 14th October, the probable me- 
I chanical and chemical value of carbonaceous 
| matter in the aerated soil, as proved by the 
; eleven years of experiments on the Rotham- 
I stead faim. These experiments, as I under- 
| stand them, show—1st. That the atmosphere 
j cannot supply ammonia sufficient for a maxi- 
i mum wheat crop, yet, if nitrogenous matter is 
! supplied to the soil to make up the deficiency, 
i the atmosphere will supply whatever the soil 
: may lack of carbonic acid fora maximum crop 
| of wheat. 2d. That in the same soil where 
there is carbonic acid enough to supply forty 
bushels of wheat to the acre, with the aid of 
that from the atmosphere, there is only nitro¬ 
gen enough in both soil and atmosphere to 
give seventeen bushels of wheat to the acre; 
hence the application of nitrogen to the soil is 
indispensable to a full wheat crop, when car¬ 
bon is not 3d. That turnips require less nitro¬ 
gen than wheat, but more carbouic acid than 
the atmosphere, rain, and dew can supply; 
hence a carbonaceous soil is as necessary to 
turnips as a nitrogenous one is to wheat 
Every New York farmer who has attempt¬ 
ed to grow wheat on newly cleared beech 
and maple land, will endorse the above experi¬ 
ments; because on new land the carbonaceous 
matter induces a large growth of straw at the 
expense of the cereal crop, while it is ou such 
mucky soils only that Euglish turnips can be 
thrown with success in Western New York.— 
Jut after the humus or carbon in the soil is 
educed by cropping, the cereal yield is great¬ 
er aud the straw less, provided always that the 
nitrogen and the calcareous principle in the 
soil is not also exhausted. What a pity that 
our cereal Ring, Indian Corn, was not also in¬ 
digenous at Rothamstead farm, so that the 
DURABLE FENCES, 
The Michigan Farmer 
for September has 
an article from Mr. A. B. Markham on “ Mor¬ 
tar Houses and Fences,” in which he describes 
some successful experiments in the use of 
gravel for erecting these structures. His fences 
have stood six years, without any crumbling, 
cracking or decay of any kind. To all appear¬ 
ance he says they are harder than ever. In 
building fence-wall he uses one third water- 
lime. He digs down about one foot, lays in 
large stones, banks up to the top of these foun¬ 
dation stones, and then begins his gravel wall 
on this foundation. He uses boxes to confine 
the mortar until it becomes stiff or hard, in the 
same way as when constructing house wall.— 
He makes the mortar quite thin, and then 
crowds in all the stones, large or small, which 
can be conveniently come at. 
To two bushels 
of stone lime, he puts about forty to fifty pails- 
ful of water, and one bushel of water-lime.— 
These he stirs and mixes well, and then adds 
forty-five to fifty bushels of gravel,—less when 
the gravel is fine, and more when it is coarse; 
as the finer the gravel, the more lime is neces¬ 
sary to make a good cement. Mr. M. has 
made fences in this way with lime alone, with¬ 
out the addition of water-lime, but finds that 
they do not stand well. 
The Potato Disease in Ireland.— We 
continue to receive the most conflicting ac¬ 
counts in regard to the extent of the potato 
disease in Ireland. Some of the Irish papers 
state it to be worse than in any year since 
1846, while others say the crop is scarcely in¬ 
jured at all. It is probable that the disease is 
much worse in some districts than others. 
Take a pleasant afternoon aud go and see 
how others are managing their farms. 
