VOLUME V. NO. 49. j 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1854 
WHOLE NO. 257. 
Rente's Sral gti#- 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED EY D. B. T. MOORE, 
WlTn AN ABLE CORPS OF ASSISTANTS AND CONTRIBUTORS. 
Tot Rural Nkw-Yorkf.r is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in p.ppearanee, 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 business of those whose in¬ 
terests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Litenuy 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. 
. TERMS, IN ADVANCE: 
Subscription—§ 2 a year— $1 for 6 months, in advance. 
For reduction to Agents, and those who form Clubs, see 
notice on last page. 
Adveuti sements, —If brief and appropriate, will be 
inserted at 15 cents aline, each insertion. Jjp'” No Patent 
Medicine, or deceptive adv'ts, published on any terms. 
t Mr. Mafes has succeeded so well in palm- 
) ing off on the public his Improved Superphos- 
> phate of Lime, seeds, plants, &c., by dint of 
> exaggerated statements, and the most unblush- 
) ing puffing in a paper ostensibly devoted to 
* the advancement of scientific agriculture, of 
) which he is editor, that other manure dealers 
\ are adopting the same improved method of 
driving a lucrative business. We judge so, at 
least, from the receipt of a peat pamphlet of 
some CO pages, entitled “Agriculture—its Es¬ 
sentials and Non-essentials; Including an Ex¬ 
amination of the properties of Guano aud other 
Manures — by II. N. Fryatt, of Bc-lleville, 
New Jersey;” and which, on examination, we 
find to be nothing more nor less than an elab¬ 
orate advertisement of Mexican Guano. We 
thought such a transparent deception could do 
i no harm, and concluded to take no more notice 
\ of it than we do of any other advertisement; 
1 for it is impossible to expose one-half the 
huinbng3 that are at present palmed off on the 
credulous portion of the agricultural public,— 
but being recently in New York, we under¬ 
stood that it was there extensively sold as a 
scientific treatise, aud that the dealers in Mex¬ 
ican Guano were secretly making great efforts 
to get it before the community under this 
aspect. We also find that a portion of the 
Agricultural Press give it favorable notice, 
and urge their readers to purchase and peruse 
this “excellent little treatise?” We charitably 
hope that those editors have not read the 
pamphlet, for we should be sorry to conclude 
that the conductors of influential Agricultural 
papers are so profoundly ignorant of the fun¬ 
damental principals of Scientific and Practical 
Agriculture as to commend, after perusal, so 
silly and rediculous a compilation of perverted 
facts and sophistical arguments. 
We do not deem it at all necessary to ex¬ 
pose the shallow errors on which the author of 
this “excellent little treatise” bases his con¬ 
clusion that the farmers of Great Britain and 
America, who have for years used both, are 
sadly mistaken in concluding that Peruvian 
or ammoniacal guano, obtained from Islands 
where it seldom or never rains, is less valuable 
than Mexican, African, Saldanha Bay, Pata¬ 
gonian, or other guanos from which the ammo¬ 
nia and other soluble matters have been 
washed out by heavy rains. As well might he 
attempt to show that farm yard manure, ex¬ 
posed to the rain and eaves drippings of the 
barns, is better than that carefully preserved iu 
a manure cellar. Are the editors who com¬ 
mend this pamphlet, willing to endorse its fun¬ 
damental principle, that all fertilizing elements 
should be presented to plants in an insoluble 
condition? We will not insult our readers by 
offering proofs that plants can take up then- 
food only in solution. Surely, too, these ed¬ 
itors are not, at the present day, willing to en¬ 
dorse the assertion that ammonia is injurious 
rather than beneficial. If they are, we beg 
leave to commend to their attention the follow¬ 
ing facts, taken from the results of the Itoth- 
amsted experiments on wheat, as published in 
the Journal of the Royal Agricultural So¬ 
ciety of England. 
In 1844, the unmanured plot gave 16 bush¬ 
els of wheat per acre. The mean of nine plots, 
dressed with artificial mineral manures, (includ¬ 
ing superphosphate of lime, phosphate of mag¬ 
nesia, phosphate of potass, silicate of potass,) 
was 163 bushels. The mean of three plots 
dressed with artificial mineral manure, and 65 
lbs. each of sulphate of ammonia, was 21 bush¬ 
els per acre. 
In 1845, the unmanured plot gave 23 bush¬ 
els per acre; a plot dressed with 252 lbs. of 
carbonate of ammonia (dissolved) at three 
times during the spring, gave 27 bushels; a 
plot top-dressed at four times with ICS lbs. 
each of sulphate and muriate of ammonia gave 
32 bushels,—while another top-dressed at once 
with 168 ibs. each of sulphate and muriate of 
ammonia gave 33£ bushels per acre. 
In 1846, the unmanured plot gave 18 bushels; 
a plot dressed with 224 lbs. sulphate of ammo¬ 
nia 27£ bushels per acre. 
In 1847, the unmanured plot gave 17 bush¬ 
els; a plot dressed with 150 lbs. each of sul¬ 
phate and muriate of ammonia, 26J bushels 
per acre. 
In 1849, the umr.anured plot gave 19J bush¬ 
els; a plot dressed with 200 lbs. each sulphate 
and muriate of ammonia 32 £ bushels per acre. 
In 1850, the unmanured plot gave 15$ bush¬ 
els; a plot dressed with 200 ibs. sulphate aud 
muriate of ammonia, 27 bushels. 
We might easily bring forward a vast array 
of similar results, but we think the above is 
1 sufficient to convince any candid mind that at 
least ammonia is not injurious when properly 
applied. 
“Spent bone-black,” the pamphlet says is 
“ useless;’’ and Mexican guano is of great value, 
because it contains a large quantity of phos¬ 
phate of lime. Some three years ago Messrs. 
Ellwanger & Barry, of this city, received 
from New York several barrels of “Spent 
bone-black,” for which they paid a mere nomi- 
; nal price;—we believe the cost of the barrels 
and cartage,— at which price a considerable 
quantity could be obtained, farmers who had 
been in the habit of carting it away as ma¬ 
nure having found little or no benefit from 
it. We obtained from Messrs. E. & B. a 
sample of this bone-black for analysis, and it 
was found to contain 75 per cent of phos¬ 
phate of lime. Now, according to the adver¬ 
tisement, the Mexican guano contains, at most, 
only 60 per cent, of phosphate of lime; why, 
then, is “Spent bone-black” “useless,” aud 
Mexican guano the cheapest of all artificial 
manures? The phosphate of lime in Spent 
bone-black is not more soluble than in Mexican 
guano; and according to the pamphlet it is 
insolubility, rather than solubility, that is de¬ 
sirable in artificial manures. 
EXTRACTS FROM TillER'S WRITINGS. 
In reading any standard author it has al¬ 
ways been our practice—and it is one we would 
commend to all our young readers—of writing 
out, in a book kept for the purpose, any nota¬ 
ble facts or opinions met with. The labor of 
writing not only serves to impress them upon 
the mind, but they soon become usefuHis ref¬ 
erence. The following passages, extracted ac¬ 
cording to this practice, from “ The Principles 
of Agriculture by Albert D. Thaer ” will not, 
we hope, prove unacceptable to our readers: 
The Science of Agriculture rests on Experi¬ 
ence, and nothing else should be required or ex¬ 
pected from it but that, which appertains to a 
practical science. 
Whoever has accomplished one experiment, 
whatever may be the peculiarity of the circum¬ 
stances under which it was made, and has given 
a faithful account of it, has well contributed to 
the advancement of science, and consequently 
to useful practice, and has entitled himself to 
the gratitude of his contemporaries and ef pos¬ 
terity. It would surpass the power of any sin¬ 
gle individual to accomplish any considerable 
number of these experiments, and it could uot 
pect be expected, from him. It is the duty of the 
Government to place some well educated men in 
a position to employ their time and talents in 
investigating the secrets of nature for the ad¬ 
vancement of agriculture and the general good. 
Science would have made much greater pro¬ 
gress if the false shame with whioh they conceal 
every unsuccessful experiment, and the exag¬ 
gerated manner in which they often relate all 
those in which they have succeeded, had not, re¬ 
tarded its progress. 
An experiment is a question addressed to na¬ 
ture. When such a question is properly put 
nature will necessarily reply either yes or no. 
Agriculture ought to borrow from every sci¬ 
ence the principles which she employs as the 
foundation of her own : and although the sci¬ 
ences do not form an indispensable part of the 
farmer’s education, he ought, nevertheless, to 
have a general knowledge of them. 
A 3 it is impossible that an occupation like 
that of agriculture can be exempt from casual¬ 
ties and accidents, a certain tranquility of mind 
must be united with the necessary activity in 
order to secure a happy life. Whether this be 
attained by the consolations of philosophy or 
religion, the agriculturist must learn to support 
misfortune with resignation ; he must forget all 
the evils which it was impossible for him to 
foresee, all those hopes which have ended in 
disappointment, so soon as he has, by the adop¬ 
tion of prudent regulations, diminished as much 
as possible, their annoying consequences. 
Rural life, despite the pleasures which at tend 
it, and with all its occupations, has so many 
hours of idleness, that it scarcely satisfies an ac¬ 
tive mind, that possesses no other object of em¬ 
ployment, In choosing an accessory study, the 
accomplished agriculturist will uot find any one 
more consonant to his feelings than Natural 
History. He, better than any other person, can 
abandon himself to the consciousness of living 
in the bosom of Nature, and investigating her 
sublime laws ; and so far from interrupting his 
usual occupations by this pursuit, he will almost 
always be able, pleasingly and usefully to unite 
them. 
Every intelligent fanner will V j tied in the 
choice of land rather by the quality of the 
soil than by the extent of the property; for 
the want of fertility can seldom be compen¬ 
sated by an increased number of acres.— 
There are farms which are absolutely worth 
nothing, and which, when everything is ta¬ 
ken into account never repay the expense of 
cultivation ; and, consequently for the growth 
of corn, a thousand acres of such land are not 
worth so much as a single acre of good land. 
Dung, which is evacuated by cattle on perma¬ 
nent pasture land, is lost for all agricultural pur¬ 
poses ; but those farmers who use their fields 
alternately as pasture and arable land, derive 
some portion of benefit from it Even then, 
however, it is not nearly so profitable as when 
mixed with the straw or litter in the stable or 
farm-yard, and properly collected. A great 
part of that evacuated in the fields is evapora¬ 
ted by the action of the sun and wind, or falls 
in the dust and is destroyed by inseots : but the 
luxuriant tufts of grass which spring up where- 
ever it falls, and the increased fertility of those 
parts of enclosed pastures on which the cattle 
lie down, or where they are milked, tends very 
satisfactorily to prove that it is not so complete¬ 
ly wasted as some persons would have us to be¬ 
lieve. 
A milch oow ought to be allowed 18 lbs. of 
straw and hay, for food, per day, during the 190 
days of winter, and 2 Ibs. of litter—3,800 lbs. 
per year ; and, likewise, 4 rnetzen of vegetables 
or roots per day, or 50 bushels per year. Du¬ 
ring Die 175 days of summer, a pasturage of 3 
acres of clover aud grass, and 2 lbs. of litter 
every night, or 350 lb.?, per year. 
When no description of. hay can be obtained 
for feeding the cows, it is usual to give them ail 
kinds of refuse, independently of the husk of 
corn and the residue of the grain; and when 
they are near calving, a mash, composed of meal, 
bruised corn, oil-cakes, or other matters of a sim¬ 
ilar nature, are provided, to keep up their 
strength a little. 
Among the ordinary corn-straw, that of wheat 
is undoubtedly best adapted for fodder ; next in 
value is the straw of oats and barley, which is 
also, generally speaking, more abundant in 
leaves ; the least nourishing of all is that of full 
grown rye. 
Feed Liberally. —It is generally acknowl¬ 
edged that cattle of any kind, when well fed 
and looked after, repay much more fully the 
judicious outlay incurred for their maintenance, 
than ill-kept animals repay the niggardly ex¬ 
penditure incurred iu keeping them alive.— 
Profit is derived only from the excess above 
that which is absolutely ueccssary; the quan¬ 
tity of nourishment which just keeps an animal 
alive, is to a certain extent lost. This we say 
is generally acknowledged, but we are sorry 
to say, not so generally practiced upon. 
[ffrfor: 
Progress and Improvement, 
MORE ARTIFICIAL MANURE MMBUGS. 
-... 
■ ■■ 
HALXOCK’S IMPROVED COMIINEB CROSS-CUT AND CIRCULAR SAW-MILL 
Tub machine represented in the above en-! 
graving is a happy combination of two already 
in use, and presents several advantages readily 
apparent- It can be moved from place to 
place without much trouble, aud can thus be 
taken into the woods or elsewhere, and used for 
sawing stove and railroad wood, stave timber) 
&c., &c., working up the whole tree, with con¬ 
siderable saving in the matter of chips and 
splitting. It can be run with horse, steam, or 
water power, and will cut from twenty-five to 1 
forty cords per day. One or two horses furnish 
sufficient power to carry either saw singly 
with the requisite force and velocity. The 
machine is manufactured by E. D. Hallock, 
at whose Agricultural Warehouse, (No. 24 
Exchange St., Rochester,) it may be obtained. 
Price of the combined machine $75. The 
machine with only one cross-cut saw can be 
sold for $35; with two, (cutting two blocks of 
stove wood at once,) $50. Cap auger attach¬ 
ment, extra. 
COES OR NO COBS, TEAT IS THE fyUESTM. 
That corn cobs contain a considerable 
amount of nutritive matter cannot bo doubt¬ 
ed. According to Dr. Salisbury, 1,000 
of ears of corn contain about 200 lbs. of cobs, 
and these 200 fbs. of cobs contain of woody 
fibre 1274 Ibs.; of matter separated from the 
woody fibre by a weak solution of potash, 
45$ lbs.; of sugar and extract, 13| tbs.; of 
protein compounds, 9J lbs.; of gum, resin, &c., 
4 lbs. The sugar and extracts and protein 
compounds are the principal substances of 
value. Animals would probably be able to 
digest and assimilate the greater portion of 
the fibre soluble in potash water. The larg8 
amount of insoluble woody fibre is doubtless 
of no nutritive value. On the whole, we 
should judge on theoretical grounds that corn 
cobs are capable of affording to the animal 
about as much nutritive mallei’ as the same 
amount of good wheat straw. 
We do not know whether scientific or prac¬ 
tical men first suggested the use of com cobs 
as food. We suspect, however, as in most 
other cases, practice took the initiative, and 
science afterwards shouted “ all right, go-a¬ 
head.” Be this as it may, cobs at the present 
day are quite, extensively used as food, the 
method of preparing them being simply to 
grind corn and cob together in the ear. This 
saves the labor and expense of shelling the 
corn, and avoids all waste. Some of the best 
farmers of our acquaintance—men who fatten 
from fifty to one hundred beeves every year— 
are iu the habit of feeding out all their com 
in this way, feeling quite satisfied that this is 
much more economical than using clear corn 
meal. On the other hand, there are as equal¬ 
ly good and experienced farmers who think 
the nourishment in the cobs is not worth the 
money it costs to grind them. 
Let us make an estimate. In this city the 
charge for grinding a bushel of corn ears is 
four cents; for a bushel of shelled corn five 
cents. Two bushels cf ears, weighing say 80 
Ibs., are equal to a bushel of shelled corn, 
weighing 60 Ibs., and 20 lbs. cf cobs. Say, 
too, that it costs one cent to shell a bushel of 
corn. We pay, therefore, for shelling and 
grinding 60 lbs. of com, six cents, and for 
grinding 60 lbs. of corn and 20 lbs. of cobs, 
eight cents; or, in other words, we pay two 
cents for grinding 20 lbs. of cobs. We get a 
ton of ground corn cobs, therefore, for two 
dollars. Some will object to cur estimate of 
one cent a bushel for shelling. Leaving the 
cost of shelling altogether out of the question 
we still get a ton of ground cobs for three 
dollars. This year, with hay, straw and all 
cattle foods exceedingly scarce and high, it 
will certainly, we think, be more profitable to 
grind corn iu the ear than to shell it before 
grinding. We should be glad of the expe¬ 
rience of our correspondents on this subject. 
TEE SUCCESS OF TEE FARMER. 
The success of the farmer is in proportion 
to the amount of knowledge he brings to bear 
upon his profession, and not on the strong 
hands or captal employed, nor any other ex¬ 
terior advantage. lake most other under¬ 
takings, it depends on the mind of the man.— 
The hands are the instruments by which the 
plow is guided, or a scythe or fork is wielded, 
and strong ones are necessary for the work; 
but they are only the instruments of the con¬ 
trolling intellect which plans, devises, arranges 
and controls the whole. Dolts do nol make 
the best farmers, but the men who think are 
they who will succeed here just as they will 
anywhere else. 
If this be true we can see at a glance where 
improvement in agriculture is to commence.— 
The farmer is required to be a thinking man, 
and he is the best farmer who brings the best 
trained intellect to the work-—the soundest 
logic, the best judgment and the purest heart 
It is true that men acquire considerable skill 
in most pursuits by mere repetition of their 
processes; by habit a farmer may go through 
the yearly routine of sowing a crop, reaping 
and harvesting the same, just as his father had 
done, without ever thinking of the reasons 
which should decide his course. A certain 
degree of success will often attend such farm- 
iug, but let anything new occur to break in 
upon the habit or routine of things, and our 
imitator is at his wits’ end at the first corner. 
Mere instinct never invented anything new, 
but it may repeat old processes skillfully. 
The farmer is styled the “ Lord of the Soil,” 
and certainly the appellation pertains to him, 
if he has the ability to appreciate the high 
station. This ability is the result of know¬ 
ledge, This knowledge, too, enables him to 
unite science and art, which is necessary to 
constitute a good farmer. This union must be 
derived from book learning, which by too 
many has been considered wholly superfluous 
aud its teachings distateful. What other art 
or science is supposed to be attainable in any 
considerable degree without reading or study? 
Why should the farmer alone rely on intuition 
—-on instinct for his improvement, and be di¬ 
rected in his employment by habit? Why 
should he consider himself nothing more than 
the head loci of his implements and but the 
mainspring of their movements, while the me¬ 
chanic and the artisan, by their science, seem 
to infuse intellect into them. 
If knowledge be necessary in any occupa¬ 
tion, it is pre-eminently so in that of the far¬ 
mer. The mechanic has no call to investigate 
the elements which are the basis of the mate¬ 
rial of his handicraft. His stock is before 
him, and his tool, guided by the unerring hand 
and practiced eye of professional skill, gives 
form and finish to his work. Not so with the 
business of the farmer; he may as readily learu 
