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TvCBICUt TUHOp 
i WHOLE NO. 547. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-F0R THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JULY 7, I860 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS ORIGINAL WKKKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
cient and economical than charcoal. Of itself, 
also, it carries to the heap, and afterward to the 
soil, physical and chemical properties which are 
favorable to vegetation. 
2. As an auxiliary to concentrated or highly 
azottzed manures, charcoal is a substance much 
esteemed. For the purpose merely of giving 
bulk, these manures frequently require to be 
mixed with another substance. By this step an 
even distribution, either bv drill or hand, is facil¬ 
itated, and danger to the seed, from contact with 
the manure, is avoided. Charcoal is eminently 
capable of insuring these advantages, and, at the 
same time, It Is materially useful when applied in 
conjunction with potent and active manures, in 
absorbing the ammonia that may happen to be 
liberated more freely than can bo appropriated by 
the plant in Its early Htagea. Mixed with guano, 
an inodorous compound is formed; and number¬ 
less experiments with this and other nzotized 
manures, in conjunction with carbonaceous sub¬ 
stances, are recorded In the agricultural publica¬ 
tions of the last few years. 
3. Ab an absorbent for liquid fertilizers, and a 
drying mixture for damp manures, many of the 
forms in which charcoal exists are especially 
adapted, its absorbent powers make it, even in 
its most impure form, a capital vehicle for con¬ 
veying liquid manures to the soil. 
4. For the purpose of extracting from dilute 
liquid manure the most useful of its fertilizing 
contents, charcoal is preferable to any other sub¬ 
stance. 
6 . The efliciency of charcoal as a disenfectant 
has never been disputed by chemists; its prepa- 
tion at a price within the reach of agriculture, and 
in the abundance requisite for sanitary purposes, 
has been an object much desiderated. 
C. As a fertilizing application by Hit If, charcoal 
can never be injudiciously used, if the supply of 
the article is abundant. The qualities that make 
it valuable to manure, render it equally so to soil 
in cultivation, as a storehouse of the food of vege¬ 
tation; while its physical properties may be made 
useful when it can be applied in sufficient quanti¬ 
ties. For garden purposes, its special and pecu¬ 
liar effects upon the health of diseased, and the 
vigor and beauty of all flowers and plants, make 
it an acquisition much appreciated. 
Johnston gives an experiment with various 
manures on ruta bagaa, as follows: 
Tuns cwt. qrs. 
Wood charcoal_50 bus. yielded 15 2 3V acre. 
Fre‘h animal charcoal_10 cwt. “ 21 2 3 “ 
Exhausted animal charcoal 10 cwt. “ 19 17 1 “ 
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AGRICULTURAL, LlTKKARY AND FAMILY NKWHrArBK in 
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For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
r •’ ' A**-l '' '•* 
y WVA.VVy.WaV.. 
CHARCOAL AS MANURE. 
An inquiry from a correspondent seeking 
information of the value of charcoal for manure ( 
reminds us of some almost forgotten notes on this 
subject, which we designed, ere this, to present to 
our readers. Next to guano, there is no substance 
used as manure, so useful in the hands of the gar¬ 
dener, as a little powdered charcoal, — and we 
know not why it may not be just as useful for the 
farmer. The mechanical effect of lino charcoal 
on a stiff soil is very beneficial. Ho &mall a quan¬ 
tity of no other material that we are acquainted 
with will so effectually benefit a stiff', impervious 
soil. Not only does charcoal lighten a heavy 
clay, but it absorbs beat and makes a cold, heavy 
soil, both warm and friable. It also lias a good 
effect upon injurious insects, either destroying 
them or driving them away. A very good test of 
its effects in this way may bo made in the garden 
with the radish. Prepare a bed in a cold, heavy 
soil, early in the spring, and on one-half sow rad¬ 
ishes, and they will be small, stunted, and eaten 
by the worms. On the other half give a good 
dressing of charcoal, which work in well, then 
sow the seed and scatter more charcoal on the 
surface, and the radishes will grow fast, and be 
tender and sound. Charcoal has a wonderful 
effect in reviving plants that are drooping either 
from weakness or disease. This effect we have 
often Been, where guano and all other exciting 
and concentrated manures failed. Of the cause 
of this, there may be some difference of opinion; 
but in regard to the fact there can be no doubt. 
Charcoal is an impure form of carbon—but 
being one of the most indestructible substances 
known—remaining in the soil for a very great 
time without apparent change—its eU'ect, as a 
manure, is not iu furnishing carbon to the plants. 
In addition to its mechanical effect, its power of 
absorbing heat and its antiseptic qualities, it, 
iB remarkably absorptive—for freshly burned 
“charcoal will condense as much as ninety times 
its bulk of ammonical gm*, and thirty-five times 
its volume of carbonic acid. As these two gases 
form the principal organic food of plants, it is 
obvious that charcoal must have a powerful 
action upon their growth.” Lieihu says, “not 
only does it surpass ail other substances in the 
power which it possesses of condensing ammonia 
within its pores, but being at the same time the 
most unchangeable substance known, it must 
constitute, therefore, not only one of the most 
powerful applications known, but really the most 
durable one in existence.” 
Morton, after recommending charcoal as a 
most valuable manure, notices several purposes to 
which it is peculiarly adapted, and for which it 
maybe used with the greatest advantage: 
1. As a coveriug for manure and compost heaps, 
no other substance is more suitable. Its capacity 
for absorbing ammonia and carbonic acid gas, 
renders it the efficient means of preserving much 
°f the effluvium which is usually permitted to 
escape into the air, during the fomentation of 
manure. Much has been spoken and written on 
the necessity of due care on this branch of farm 
economy, and many suggestions have been offered 
on the best methods of remedying the evil. To 
prevent, in a great measure, this loss of fertilizing 
power in manure, no agent is more certainly efii- 
Graoe is a superior animal,—an excellent representative of one of the best herds of Short-horns in Western New York. Her Pedigree, as given in the 
American Herd-Book, is as follows:—“Red, bred by the late N. J. Bkcar, Smithtown, the property of II. & M. C. Mohdoff, Altabrook Farm, near Rochester, 
N. Y., calved Nov. 24, 1854, got by Marquis of Carrabas, 3122, (11780,)—out of Garland 2d, by Pestilozzi (10003,)—Garland, by Hector (4000,)—Moss Rose, 
by Emperor (1974,)—Rose Bud, by Margrave (2243,)—by Leopold (3109,)—by Hector (2103,)—by Traveller ((555,)—by Surly (2715,)—by Colonel (152).” 
be found to back up the popular fallacy that our 
farms arc improving in fertility, with a constant 
drain upon them, which never flows back.— 
Doubtless you can get any number of men, 
“ scientific" and "practical,” to aver that from a 
given quantity something can be taken and the 
whole will remain. 
J. W. says:—“I know of farms in this vicinity 
that have been devoted for the last fifteen or 
twenty years to raising grain and beef, and in¬ 
creased in their products every year, and to all 
appearances have improved in every respect.” 
Plenty of men are ready to aver that this or 
that piece of land has produced corn, or wheat, 
or oats, or grass, for fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, 
or fifty years, and “is just as good as ever,” tho’ 
it is notorious that tho land has got only an oc¬ 
casional dressing of barn yard manure, and often 
no manure at all. A bolder, balder, or butler false¬ 
hood was never conceived, A man has no mural 
and he ought to have no legal right to hold to 
such a heresy. It is a conspiracy against, posteri¬ 
ty,— it is treason against the commonwealth. 
Suppose your crops arc better than they used to 
be, can’t you account for that in some sensible 
way without pretending that a part is equal to 
the whole; for a pall baa certainly left a cording 
to our supposition. 
When 1 said in a former communication that 
“every pound of meat, and every bushel of grain 
that was carried to the seaboard, carried away 
what tiie soil could not continue to spare without 
ultimate sterility,” I Baid what 1 might reason¬ 
ably have expected would have remained tmeon- 
tradicted. This grain, and this meat, was not 
made out of nothing. What it took from the soil 
was precisely the elements required for the pro¬ 
duction of grain and meat. Does “fifteen” or 
fifty years of certain or uncertain experience prove 
either that those elements are inexhaustible, or 
that they never can become less ? Wherever, 
without high manuiing, the crops increase, or re¬ 
main as good as at first, it can be traced to im¬ 
proved tillage, or rather to improved methods of 
extracting the fertility from the soil. It is making 
the cider run a bigger stream, by giving the screw 
of the press another turn. 
Ditching lias made the elements more available 
deep plowing lias brought unimpoveiished soil in 
reach of the plant; the roller and thorough work¬ 
ing have exposed the inside of the lumps and 
made the soil available to the tender germ; early 
sowing and planting and other improved pro¬ 
cesses have, I cheerfully admit, favored growth 
and maturity, and in some cases (though not often) 
made the crops equal or better than when the 
land was new,— but where any thing has been taken 
off, that has not been put back, something is gone l 
mixed with them, and this we consider the great 
objection to its culture, as it sometimes remains 
in the ground two or three years. This may he 
partially prevented by fall plowing, after the crop 
is taken oil) but some will still come up next 
spring. For these reasons we would not adviso 
the sowing of our best grain land, especially since 
wheat has again become a possibility. We feel, 
indeed, a good deal like a substantial farmer of 
our acquaintance, who counts iris acres by the 
hundred, who was lamenting last year that he 
could not have any land to sparo for a buckwheat 
patch, and thought ho must hire an acre or two of 
one of tho neighbors for that purpose! He evi¬ 
dently had land enough for any quantity of buck- 
wheat, but did not want to use it for that. We 
must, however, be permitted to rejoice that every¬ 
body is not so careful of their laud us he is, or us 
we should he! Beside there are, on almost every 
farm, low, wet places, or patches of ground too 
poor to raise anything else, which will do very 
well for buckwheat. And, friends of farm Im¬ 
provements as we are, we must still hope that the 
day is far distant when our land shall be so 
thoroughly improved that farmers can not afford 
a patch to raise buckwheat pancakes. [We take 
that back—for we have just remembered, that 
they can sow good land, and raise all the more!] 
Tho first week in July is the proper time to 
so#, buckwheat. June sowing would be best if 
we could be certain not to have hot, dry weather, 
just as it was “filling;” and late sowing is objec¬ 
tionable because of early frosts. Last year, how¬ 
ever, if we remember rightly, tbo fore part of 
July wits very dry—so that little buckwheat came 
up till about the seventeenth or eighteenth, and 
even tlion would have done very well if frosts had 
held off'as late as usual in the fall; therefore, with 
a good season, the middle of July might not be 
too late to sow. 
Our improved modes of tillage are too often 
tbo “drinks” that make men lift moro without 
being stronger. “Good farming,” falsely so call¬ 
ed, sometimes produces good crops without add¬ 
ing anything to the intrinsic fertility of the soil, 
particularly to its mineral elements. 1 wont talk, 
as before, of “bushels and pounds.” 1 repeat, 
with renewed emphasis, every kernel op grain 
AND KVBRY OUNCE OP MEAT TAKEN FROM TIIE 
FARM REMOVES WHAT THE SOIL CANNOT CONTINUE 
TO SPARK WITHOUT ULTIMATE UAKKKNNKSM. 1 am 
in earnest, because, while men deceive themselves 
in this matter, they wrong postciity. Whenever 
a competent Grand Jury is vouchsafed to man¬ 
kind, ninety-nine out of every hundred of our 
farmers will be indicted for robbing their grand¬ 
children. What I hold is this:—We must not only 
use more lime, piaster, charcoal, ashes, &e., but 
the night soil and the sewerage of our cities, 
villages and “four corners,” must be made to 
flow back again upon the cultivated earth. 
Whoever takes this “ belt ” mast fight fur it. —H. 
BUCKWHEAT. 
SOILING CATTLE. 
This has been called the lazy farmer's crop, 
perhaps from the story of the man who was 
intending all summer to break up a surnmer- 
fallow, to sow with wheat in the fall. Failing in 
this, by neglecting to plow and prepare the 
ground at tiie proper time, he concluded to wait 
till spring and plant with corn, but was again too 
late, and finally ended by hurriedly turning the 
ground over and scratching in a little buckwheat. 
Now, while buckwheat is particularly adapted to 
this class of slack farmers, there are also some ad¬ 
vantages connected with its culture which we 
may commend to some w#<> do not include them¬ 
selves in till* category. In a favorable season, 
with a decent preparation of the ground, from 
fifteen to thirty bushels per acre, (ami even more,) 
are often raised, at an expense of merely the prep¬ 
aration of the ground, and a trifle for seed. As it 
grows very branching, half a bushel, well covered, 
is enough to sow. Beside, it can lie sown on land 
where other crops have not grown well, or on a 
spare acre or two which even good farmers will, 
sometimes, leave without much of anything grow¬ 
ing on. In places in tiie cornfield where tiie black 
grub or wire-worm, or wet, has destroyed the 
corn, a Jittle buckwheat may often profitably be 
sown, to prevent Hie utter barrenness of (be year. 
We know there are some objections to buck¬ 
wheat as unfitting tiie land for subsequent crops. 
We have beard from good authority, that corn or 
barley will not do well after it; but we can not 
say from experience. Oats will grow after it, as 
we know, but they, or whatever else you raise, 
will be liable to have a good deal of buckwheat 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: — It appears that 
soiling cattle is going to be a matter of moro 
consideration at the present time, than it has 
been heretofore, and I wisli to make some remarks 
concerning the advantages and disadvantages 
connected therewith. 
Soiling cattle is not as easy a business as many 
may think, as tiie cattle are liable to many dis¬ 
eases, if badly managed. They must have exer¬ 
cise, unA this ought to be given, if you want them 
to pay well for yonr trouble. The disadvantages 
arc, as aforesaid, many diseases, if illy managed; 
Inferiority in milk, when feed is rank, and the 
trouble of cutting and feeding. 
Tho advantages are, no fencing, less weeds, 
(cattle will not eat weeds except near to starva¬ 
tion,) and the manure heap will increase rapidly. 
A farmer with twelve or fifteen head of cattle 
wrill make as much manure by soiling, as by pas¬ 
turing twenty-five to thirty. For fifty bead it 
will require a yard of about four acres, with a 
light fence around it, and the yard should be 
well drained. Jn the middle make a square hole, 
anil lead all the drains from under tiie stables 
into it. Over this imtBt be a roof, rather wider 
than the hole itself. 
For summer feeding build sheds on the south 
side, facing the north, to protect the animals from 
heat and rain, which is of great importance. 
Have a water-tight manger. Tie the cow 3 al¬ 
ways when feeding, but leave a good space be¬ 
tween them. On the front side iay rails across, 
and if you want them out, you may easily permit 
PROSPECTIVE STERILITY. 
I am not very particular — a moderate heresy, 
such as they would burn a fellow for a century 
ago, troubles me very little, but I am troubled when 
J. W., in the Rural of May otli, says:—“ I believe 
we can, by feeding the grain to the stock on the 
farm, increase its fertility continually and dispose 
of what beef we can spare from year to year.” J. 
W. means to aver that by feeding the grain, Ac., 
grown on a farm to stock of some kind, and re¬ 
turning their manure to the farm aforesaid, it 
“ will Increase in fertility continually.” 
Now let precedent run ever so furiously to the 
contrary, I nevertheless aver that when a man, or 
even a woman, takes up pen to write, there is no 
obligation to dispense with common sense. I 
wouldn’t be surprised if college professors could 
