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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WKKKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
season," and our present purpose is to jog the 
memory of readers upon a few matters, sonic of 
which can he better, others just as well, performed 
at the present time as to be put oil until necessity 
clamors for their accomplishment. 
The wood-house ought to he well stored before 
out-door active operations commence. We give 
this place prominence, because we believe hOme 
needs should first receive attention. When peace 
forsakes a man's castle, and confusion reigns In its 
stead, we cannot expect that the labors incident 
to the day will move oil' amid calm and pleasant¬ 
ness, If the hoys must be called from the field to 
prepare material for cooking all through the 
snnnner months, it cannot bo a matter of surprise 
if tasks turn out incomplete, if the good wife's 
temper ho aroused, and the “lord of the manor” 
he subjected to occasional lectures, a In Mrs. 
C-irru.K. The man who leaves the women-folks 
to forage for themselves deserves nothing better, 
and when "blown up,” it should be on the high- 
pressure principle. 
Special care given to the making and saving of 
manure now, will yield a large per centagc for 
the time and labor bestowed. Keep the compost 
heaps at work digesting and assimilating the food 
for your coming crops. Very many farmers have 
made it, a practice to cart out their manure to the 
fields before the frost is out of the ground. It is 
contended by those who have experimented, that 
the loss of its fertilizing properties is impercepti¬ 
ble, and there is this additional advantage,— the 
labor of drawing will not prove such a tax upon 
both teams and men now, as if if were accom¬ 
plished amid the hurry and bustle of spring work. 
From the imiiiiiii'K we have received relative to 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
Tnr. Rural Nrw-Yorkkk is tie si (fuel to he unKurpasKed 
in Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Itn Conductor devotes 
his personal attention to the supervision of its various de¬ 
partments, and earnestly labors to render the It fit AI. an 
eminently Reliable Guide on all the important Practical, 
Scientific nod other Subjects intimately connected with the 
busine'S of tliosn whoso Interests It zealously advocates. 
Ah a Family Jocu.val it Is eminently Instructive and 
Enterhdiuuy —beulR so conducted that it cjin be safely 
taken to the Hearts and Homes of people of intelligence, 
taate uud discrimination. It embraces morn Agricultural, 
Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary anil Nows 
Matter, inleispersed with appropriate and beautiful Kn- 
trraritWN than any other journal, rendering it the most 
complete AflKiCt'LTitHAL, Literary asd Family Nkwm- 
papkr in America. 
FOR Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
small oblong-oval eggs, of a white color. This 
proves, also, that not a single egg is deposited as 
there stated. The cups or cells tire wonderful, 
being perfectly honey tight, by the simple fitting 
of the leaves and close adjustment, without any 
cement to Bind them that 1 could detect. 
November 3d, I opened another cell. In this I 
found a single larva, plump and lively, like figure 
2, (somewhat magnified.) Fig. 3 is the pupa 
subsequently examined. The remaining cell was 
undisturbed until the following 20th day of May, 
1857, when my attention was called to the box 
containing the cell, by hearing a boring noise, 
as the perfect bco was engaged in eating out her 
passage through her prison. Fig. -I is the natural 
size of the bee at rest. Fig. it, a front view of 
the lead and unlciiniu; 0, the lore logs, with their 
fringes of long, yellow hairs; 7, n spurred hind 
leg; H, the nerves of the wings; !>, the structure 
of the mouth; 10, the jaws; 11, a part of leaf, 
with a piece cut out for a cell. 
Ry observations like the foregoing, we arrive 
at a knowledge of the various stages of insect 
development; and if all who have an Opportunity 
to do so, would give their attention to the sub¬ 
ject, we would soon have a full history, not only 
of the structure and color of insects, bill also of 
their habits, time of development, Ac, 
For a highly interesting account of another 
Species of tills genus, I would refer the reader to 
the Sixth London Edition of an introduction to 
Entomology, by Messrs. Kilim' <V. SrKNUij, (Lea & 
Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1846,) page 285, where 
an account is given of the Megachile papaveris, 
which decorates its cells with the petals of the 
wild poppy, delighting In the brilliant scarlet 
color, instead of the more sober green, as de¬ 
scribed by Reaumur. J. Stauffer. 
Lancaster, Pa., .January, 1800. 
UP TO THE TIMES, 
A mono the many cant phrases indulged in by 
the progressives of this go-ahead age, none so 
fully develop to the mental eye the entirety of nr 
individual — his heighth and depth, length and 
breadth—as the expression "he is, or is not up to 
the times ? 1 Jiy it we can tell precisely how much 
surface he covers,—what his influence upon the 
society in which he moves,—whether he is one of 
a class that would be sought out and enlisted in 
the furtherance of projects requiring skill, sagac¬ 
ity, forethought and untiring energy, or a com¬ 
ponent part of that body, respectable only in 
numbers, that lazily shuffle their way through the 
world. 
In acquiring a knowledge of the abilities and 
peculiarities of any person, we need not, of neces¬ 
sity, catechise his neighbors in reference to his 
position upon any or nil of the topics occupying 
the public mind. “Showmo the man's business, 
for a brief moment, and i will showyou the man,” 
wrote an eminent political economist. “ Muck of 
the character of every innn may lie read in bis 
bouse,” remarked the lamented DownimJ. If 
those propositions contain the element of voiaclty, 
— and who will dispute their triteness,—does not 
the calling of the farmer continually proclaim just 
where in: may be found7 Enterprise and dili¬ 
gence will relate their own history—Is not negli¬ 
gence aud slothfulness trumpet-tongued? 
“I went by the flejd of the slothful, and by the vine¬ 
yard of the mail void of understanding; and, to, it was 
grown all over with thorns, and nettles had covered the 
face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken 
down. 
“Then I saw aud considered it well: 1 looked upon it 
and recoivcdInstruction. 
“ Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, u little folding of 
the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come a« oue 
that travoleth; and thy want as an armed man." 
Tt would seem that laggards were to be found 
in the days of Solomon, and his portrait of one is 
draw'll with all the truthfulness of the master- 
hand. Cause and effect arc brought so vividly 
before the imagination that the dullest may read¬ 
ily comprehend. The Bame governing principles 
are to be recognized at the present day, and the 
same line of action will inevitably produce like 
results. An agricultural contemporary has been 
indulging in a little word-painting recently,— has 
put upon paper the imago of a man evidently 
behind the times, and then quaintly asks his 
readers, “ Is this anybody’s picture?” We do not 
propound any queries, but are confident some Of 
those who glance at the article mentioned will 
recognize an old friend. 
The impress of the age is observable in the 
profession of the A griculturist. When our fathers 
followed the ‘plow, February aud early March 
furnished a season of leisure. “The chores 
being done up about house and barn” in the old 
“pod-auger days” they read polities before the 
largo open fire-place, or saved the nation in 
village groceries and post-offices, patiently wait¬ 
ing the south winds which should woo them to 
active employment in the fields. Now, we talk of 
“taking time by the forelock,” and the shortness 
of spring, together with the hurrying manner iu 
which work pours in when Sol begins to shed his 
genial rays, prove this maxim to be one of great 
value to the farmer. If we would be “ up with 
the times,” we cannot “leave things for their 
AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT. 
WONDERS OF THE BEE. 
Ens. Rural New-Youkku : — On accouut of 
some etlorts, recently, to obtain subscribers to 
the Rural, I have been led to reflect upon the 
necessity for agricultural improvement, and the 
class of persons through which it must be princi¬ 
pally wrought. 
Although agricultural, and other reading, must 
be continually increasing among the rural popu¬ 
lation, thorn is yet a want of taste for general, and 
a pretended ubhorenee for agricultural, reading, 
that i-. surprising. Some seem to regard agricul¬ 
tural papers with suspicion, as though an attempt 
was being made to thrust upon them propositions, 
and reforms, which they must adopt without being 
allowed to exercise their own thoughts and judg¬ 
ment. Instead of regarding them as a medium 
through which the various persons engaged iu 
Agriculture, Horticulture, Ac., may speak, for 
each other’s hearing and benefit, they look upon 
them as containing rules and instructions which 
must be followed wholesale, if they have reason 
to expect any bone fit. 
Of course It is useless to write and publish for 
those who want read; yet these are the persons, 
it is scarcely necessary to say, that are most in 
need of same stimulus to improvement. But read¬ 
ing, thinking farmers can communicate with each 
other; and if the benefit to be derived therefrom 
manifests itself by visible proof, it certainly must 
exert a salutary influence upou the non-muling 
and non-thinking portion; for even among these 
there are many who have a disposition to excel, 
in some things; ami if they can be incited to 
begin, the work of agricultural improvement will 
go on, and attain to excellence. 
I am compelled to think that the “ native talent” 
that exists in many farmers’ families, is too often 
enticed to other flelds of exercise that,—particu¬ 
larly to the mind of a youth, —appear more con¬ 
genial ami profitable. Independent-minded youths, 
that are disposed to answer their own questions, 
are not long in coming to the conclusion that 
ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 
Our columns have been so fully occupied the 
past few weeks with interesting and important 
matter which we could not well omit, that we have 
not found space for our usual abstract of the say¬ 
ings arid doings of English farmers. It is our in¬ 
tention to keep the readers of the Rural well 
informed in regard to the progress of English 
Agriculture; for while our systems of farming are 
necessarily somewhat dissimilar, yet they are be¬ 
coming every year more nearly allied. From the 
practice of the best English farmers wo can learn 
many useful lessons, while they are beginning to 
acknowledge that they may study our practice, and 
even adopt some of our plans, witli profit In 
proof of this, we need only refer to the follow¬ 
ing facts: 
ElleolH of Sicii iii-l'ii rntiii" on Labor. 
The use of steam for the heavier labor of tho 
farm, lias not had the effect, whichxvas prophesied, 
of reducing tho ham! labor and depressing tho 
laborer. Mr. Morton declares that, cm farms 
where steam is used, more hand labor is employ¬ 
ed than on farms where steam is not employed.— 
It also creates a demand for a more intelligent 
class of farm laborers, for which farmers find it (o 
their interest to pay higher wages. Notwith¬ 
standing the many horse and steam machine* em¬ 
ployed in agriculture, there has never been so great 
u demand for farm labor us during tho past sum 
mer. “Agriculture is in fact experiencing tho 
truth taught in the history of all other manufac¬ 
tures— that machinery Is in the long run the best 
friend of the laborer. We feed and use some 1,- 
500,000 horses, of which probably 800,000 are 
strictly for farm purposes. We are annually in- 
out spurs. Tho spur indicates the habit of those 
that construct their dwelling under ground, in 
meadows, pastures, or hedge-rows, generally em¬ 
ploying moss for this purpose. 
it is not my design to enter into a description 
of the economy of the various sub-families, but 
simply to glance ut a few interesting features 
connected with this subject. 
The ordinary observer of a hive of bees, can¬ 
not fail but lie interested in the construction and 
ingenuity displayed iu the groups of cells, with 
their intervening passages, liko streets,—a minia¬ 
ture city, enlivened by the “ hum ” of the busy 
artificers industriously engaged in providing 
building material, Ac., and erecting their thin, 
lucid walls, with the exactitude of the most 
accomplished geometrician, each in turn em¬ 
ployed witli tho greatest order and precision in 
the various structures erected for store-rooms or 
the several sized breeding cells. 
Profound philosophers have found much to 
excite their wonder and astonishment, in contem¬ 
plating tho Instinct with which the Creator has 
endowed these little creatures. Maralhi . took 
the trouble to measure tho angles of their cells 
with the greatest exactness, and found that the 
greater angles were in general 10!)" 28' ; the 
smaller ones 70" 32’. RkaimIck desired M. Konio, 
a skillful geometrician, to determine, by calcula¬ 
tion, what the angles of such un hexagonal cell 
should lie, so that the least possible material and 
space should bo required. Ignorant of Maraliu’b 
measurement, he Bet to work to solve this prob- 
TWO 
DOLLARS A. YELAJEt.] 
“ PIIOGBESS _A.ND IMPHOVEMKNT.” 
[SINCS-LIB NO. H’OXJIi CENTS. 
VOL. 
XI. NO. 7,| 
ROCHESTER, N. Y—FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1860. 
{WHOLE NO. 527. 
