MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
At this season of the year, when new stoves are 
erected, new grates set, furnaces overhauled and 
numerous alterations and renewals of warming 
apparatus are thought of by housekeepers, precau¬ 
tions should be taken to guard, by every attainable 
means, against involuntary incendiarism. Flues 
should be carefully examined, stoves should be 
surrounded by safeguards, gas-jets should be placed 
beyond the chance of accidentally kindling the 
tenement, and matches, those very dangerous little 
conveniences, should be jealously secured in me- 
talic receptacles. Not a match should be permit¬ 
ted to lie upon tho mantelpiece or table or candle¬ 
stick, for thence it might hud its way to the floor, 
and being trodden upon be fired, and, communica¬ 
ting the flame to a lady's or a chitd’s dress, cause 
the death Of the individual. Such a case recently 
occurred in Paris, where alady died from the effects 
of burns thus received. Or mice may pilfer the 
matches, and carry them to their snug nests of 
paper, shavings and cotton rags, so performing the 
office of incendiaries. Jn fine, the housekeeper 
should exercise the most thorough vigilance in 
reference to the prevention of fires, which almost 
always result from the slightest and most readily 
preventable accidents. Of carelessuess iu respect 
to ashes, enough has been written, oue would sup¬ 
pose, but we still see, all over town, ashes from 
wood fires thrown into boxes and barrels and ex¬ 
posed to the influence of the winds, which may fan 
the smouldering embers into flame at almost any 
moment.—iV. V Post. 
LIST OF PATENTS 
Issued from- the United States Patent Office for the week 
endim' December 9, 1856. 
IMPROVEMENT. 
To keep pace with the improvement in its ap¬ 
pearance, we have made arrangements to enrich 
and improve the contents of the leading depart¬ 
ments of the Rural. Next to Agriculture, special 
attention will be given to Horticultural matters, 
and we aro confident, of being able to rentier this 
department more interesting and valuable than 
ever before. We shall endeavor to keep our read¬ 
ers advised of all improvements in culture and 
management—noting all matters of special interest 
to Fruit Growers, Florists and Gardeners. Indeed, 
our intention is to give, in two or three columns 
weekly, the gist of seasonable discussion and in¬ 
telligence, and thus keep pace with the Horticul¬ 
tural progress of the age. Our present number 
may not exhibit this, but we have secured such 
assistance for the future, that progress and im¬ 
provement will be manifested iu this department. 
Meantime, wo cordially invite tho co-operation of 
both professional and amateur cultivators who are 
disposed to augment its interest and value by 
contributing the results of their experience and 
observation for publication. 
David Baldwin, Godwinville, N. J., machine for feeding 
paper to printing presses. 
Henry M. Bonney, New Bedford, Mass., improvement in 
sail hanks. 
Timothy Brown, Georgetown, N. Y., alloy composition. 
Alfred is. Beebe, Fail River, improvement, in valve gear 
lor steam engines. 
Robert J. Brown, Perry, Pa., improved yielding joint for 
portable fences. 
Win. a. Blake, Boston, improvement in floats for steam 
boilers. 
Martin Duel:, J as. H. Buck, and F. A. Cushman, Lebanon, 
X. II., improved machine for pressing hollow brick or 
building blocks. 
James W. Campbell, Brooklyn, improvement in ellipto- 
graphs. 
Job Cornell, Brooklyn, and Barnett McDougall, New 
York, gas burner. 
IVra. B, Coats, Philadelphia, improvement in machines 
for cutting the stalks of standing corn. 
firastna W. Ellsworth, East Windsor Hill, Conn., im¬ 
proved arrangement of valves, &c., in siphon rams. 
Kite Joseph Hainnnt, of the Kingdom of Belgium, pro¬ 
cess of mashing grain. 
Horace L. Hcrvey, Quincy, HI., improvement in pocket 
lamps. 
Tbos. Hogp> 'Wayneshurg, Pa., portable prairie fence for 
stock pen, 
F. A. Hoyt, Boston, improvement in water gauges for 
steam boilers. 
M. G. Hubbard, Penn Yan, improvement in teeth for 
reaping machines. 
Win. Mussehl, New York, improvement in potato dig¬ 
gers. 
Hudson Osgood, Watervdle, Me., improved planing ma¬ 
chine. 
Silas S. Putnam, Boston, improvement in machines for 
forging iron. 
WINTER GRAFTING. 
The elasticity of glass exceeds that of almost 
all other bodies. If two glass balls aro made to 
strike each other at a given fovee, the recoil, by 
virtue of their elasticity, will be nearly equal to 
their original impetus. Connected with its brittle¬ 
ness are some very singular facts. Take a hollow 
sphere, with a hole, and stop the hole with the 
finger, so as to prevent the external and internal 
air from communicating, and the sphere will fly to 
pieces by the mere heat of the hand Vessels 
made of glass that have been suddenly cooled, 
possess the enrious property of being able to resist 
hard blows given to them from without, but will 
be instantly shivered by a small particle of flint 
dropped into their cavities. This property seems 
to depend upon the comparative thickness of the 
| bottom; the thicker the bottom is the more cer¬ 
tainty of breakage by the experiment. Some of 
these vessels, it is stated, have resisted the stroke 
of a mallet given with sufficient force to drive a 
nail into wood; and heavy bodies, such as musket 
balls, pieces of iron, bits of wood, jasper, stone, 
Are,, have been cast into them from a height of two 
or three feet without any effect, yet a fragment of 
flint not larger than a pea, dropped from three 
inches height, has made them fly. 
with flax or waxed doth or paper. They are then 
set in boxes tilled with sand and kept in a mode¬ 
rate temperature till spring, when they are set out 
where they are intended to stand. 
There is some discussion going on in the Horti¬ 
cultural papers as to the disadvantages of Root 
Grafting—averring that they do not heal well— 
create had, knotty excrescences at the healing 
point, which intercept the sap to tho detriment of 
the growth of the tree and its fruit bearing—hut 
we must say that in the hundreds of trees we have 
sot out and brought to maturity, and in all the 
orchards we have inspected, we have never ob¬ 
served or suspected such an effect. 
We once bought a tree of the Green Gage plum 
which was root grafted, and when taken up found 
the earth had been deeply drawn up about the body 
and a set of roots were thrown out above the cica¬ 
trice of the graft. The original root was then cut 
off, and the sprouts that came up around it were of 
tlic same kind as the tree. All root grafted trees 
may be operated upon in the same manner. This 
process makes an original tree and might be profit¬ 
ably used in new and distant countries, where it is 
difficult to procure quantities—as the sprouts of 
the pear, apple and plum, might be multiplied to 
any extent. 
There is no more abstruse principle in vegetable 
physiology than the result produced by grafting ; 
in the fact that the root that receives the peculiar 
pabulum, or food of the plant, has no control, nor 
does it exercise the remotest agency in determin¬ 
ing the taste, color, species or size of the fruit,— 
Tbo sweetest and most delicate and melting poar, 
or apple, are just as line and perfect on the acrid 
quince, or crab apple, ns on its native stock. 
The elimination of the sap in passing through 
the leaf, exposed to light and the atmospheric 
gases, absorbing the peculiar properties that give 
it character, modified, perhaps, by electricity, is 
probably the source of all the varieties of flavor 
and color, for we can hardly conceive or admit 
that the inert, porous, woody fibre of the root could 
exercise any function at all unless it had the chem¬ 
ical affinities, or ability to select some peculiar 
matters from the earth, to create the endless varie¬ 
ties observed among the various fruits;. 
The nicest eye, assisted by the most powerful 
glasses, caunot detect in the leaves, which seem to 
exert such a powerful agency, the most trifling 
difference iu their form or constitution. Wonder¬ 
ful are the works of Nature. 
THE LAWTON BLACKBERRY 
this luscious fruit is as agreeable a corrective as 
can be found in a day’s drive among the doctors. 
There are but few varieties yet in cultivation, or 
worthy of it, but the attention of gardeners and 
cultivators once turned in the right direction, we, 
the fruit-eating public, have much to hope tor from 
this particular species of the smaller fruits. The 
principal supply, as yet, is from the common black¬ 
berry of the fields, although one variety, the New 
Rochelle, or Lnwtcrn , has been in cultivation some 
fifteen years or more. The Boston High Bush, 
another excellent variety, now furnishes a very 
limited supply in the city markets. Experiment 
has convinced me that the common high bush can¬ 
not be improved by cultivating the roots, but 
horticultural progress may be made by sowing the 
seed, and watching for the fruit. 
The New Rochelle is a showy, large fruit, and 
under proper cultivation yields a very liberal 
Wheu the roots are well fed 
COUNTRY COOKING, 
Mr. Moore:—A general reader of the public 
journals occasionally meets with an article, even 
under the editorial head, of which it is very diffi¬ 
cult to judge what were the motives of the writers 
in publishing it, unless it was to exhibit their 
superior wisdom, by portraying in vivid colors 
what they think are blunders in others. 
In the Bemi-Weekly Tribune of Nov. 28, 1856, 
under the head of “ The Art of Living,” there is a 
a most splendid categorical insult on the whole of 
the country community. They are filthy; “they 
do not wash themselves; they are not clean.” “The 
Is this true ? I would advise those 
Duration of Railroad Iron. —The London 
Minuig Journal says that the complaints respecting 
the inferior quality of recently manufactured rails, 
naturally attributable to the attempts made by 
companies to reduce the price, have attracted at¬ 
tention both in England and the United States, and 
have led to some practicable and scientific inqui¬ 
ries. Ou the first introduction of railroads it was 
confidently asserted that the rails would last for 
indefinite periods; but experience soon demon¬ 
strated that railway bars were subject to lamina¬ 
tion and disintegration from the repeated roiling 
of heavy loads. Their duration, in some instances, 
has not exceeded two or three years; and on some 
of the earliest constructed lines in England the 
rails have been changed twice, or even three times 
since their opening. Where the conditions are 
favorable and the bars themselves perfectly sound, 
it is believed that the traffic which rails of ordina¬ 
ry quality are capable of bearing will not fall short 
of the large figure of twenty millions of tons. 
greasy mob. 
clean city gentlemen,whennecessitycompelsthem 
to come into the country, to keep on their rubber 
overcoats, lest they get soiled by coming in con¬ 
tact with the greasy mob; and it would also be very 
prudent for them to take along a good supply of 
asafetida to prevent the contaminating influence of 
the diseases, “moral and physical, such filth be gets.” 
“The cooking there is generally as repugnant to 
taste as it is to health. As a general rule in the 
country, there is nothing fit to eat.” I hope that 
the city Gents who visit us in future will fill their 
haversacks well, so that they may not tarnish for 
want of food, or take some dire pestilence, by 
being compelled to eat such unhealthy cookery. 
Yes, sir, the country maids and matrons are all 
such silly imbeciles that they cannot learn the art 
of cooking. (Will the Tribune publish, a book on 
cookery?) Although many of them have practised 
it for forty years, it is to be feared that there is not 
one of them that knows how to make mush, nor a 
Johnny-cake, nor even to roast potatoes; and it 
will be providential if our ignorance and dirt does 
not breed a pestilence that will sweep us from the 
face of the earth. 
But, pir, T will venture to say that there is not a 
housekeeper in the country that ever had her fam¬ 
ily sit down to such a meal as the Tribune describes 
them all to he—no, not even on washing days, 
when it is not expected that there is much, time for 
cooiiiug. That ridiculous caricature is ungenerous 
and unjust, for the reverse is the truth. In the 
country there is too much aping of the extrava¬ 
gance and folly of tho city aristocracy, and the 
women pay too much attention to the daily routine 
of cooking. It is a great waste of time, a sacrifice 
of property, and too often injurious to health.— 
They vie with each other in contriving to pamper 
the appetite of the epicurean. Were we in the 
country now to live on the plain and substantial 
food that people did here forty years ago. there 
would not be so many troubled with the dyspepsia, 
nor would we need so many Water-Cures. 
December, 1S56. W. Garbett. 
successional crop, 
and the vines are allowed space to “spread them- ( 
selveB,” the cultivator will he gratified, and a 
moderate pnrse filled in a season, I will not say 
that “every man who has a garden,” should culti¬ 
vate the New Rochelle, but certainly every one who 
has a field within reach of a city market, will find 
himself well paid by growing the fruit. The great 
drawback is the thorn, which almost defies near 
approach to the vines, and is a great impediment 
ia the cultivation of this variety. This leads me to 
mention a kind almost new to the public, which 
was found in my neighborhood, and whieh has 
been grown several years, mainly with a view to 
increase the plants. The variety is known at home 
by the name of Newman’s Thornless Blackberry, and 
is as free from thorns as the common blackberry, 
which it resembles iu size and shape of stem, being 
perfectly round and smooth. The stem of the 
blackberry, however, is red and green. Both vine 
and berry c*f this variety have their peculiar ad¬ 
vantage over the New Rochelle —the vine is culti¬ 
vated and handled “without gloves,” and the 
berry does not become brown after picking. 
Tho “thornless” vines require staking, similar 
to the Antwerp raspberry, to sustain the fruit, and 
the picking extends from four to six weeks, accord¬ 
ing to the season. I visited Mr. Newman's planta¬ 
tion last August, and was highly gratified with the 
appearance of this fruit Each cane, with its side 
branches, formed a circle of about two feet, to the 
height of live or six, literally covered with the 
berries in all stages of growth. The canes shoot 
up straight and tall, although the berries possess 
all the sweetness and flavor of the running black¬ 
berry of the fields. Mr. N. informed me that he 
found two canes of thi3 variety nine years ago, and 
he has been industriously increasing them since 
that time. It is certainly a long step in advance 
of tho other kinds of blackberries, and will become 
a favorite as soou as the fruit is known. 
Milton, Ulster Co., N. Y. A. A. Bknskl. 
Tempering Steel. —In a recent discussion on 
the manufacture of steel, inquiries were made as to 
what steel was best for different kinds of manufac¬ 
tures—to which the following answers have been 
obtained:—Cast steel, if it can be applied; double 
sheer for hatchets, or any kind of edge tool that 
cannot be well made of cast steel — the temper to 
he as follows:—For boring cylinders, turning rolls, 
or any large east iron, let it be as hard as water 
can make it; minding not to heat it more than a 
cherry red. Tools for taming wrought iron, pale 
straw color, 430 degrees Fah.; small tools for ditto; 
shade of darker yellow, 450 degrees; tools for 
wood, a shade darker, 470; tools for screw taps, Ac., 
j still darker straw color, 490; for hatchets, chipping 
chisels, brown yellow, 500; for small runners, Ac., 
yellow, slightly tinged with purple, 520 ; for shears, 
light purple, 530; for swords, springs, &c„ dark 
purple, 550; for fine saws, daggers, Ac., dark blue. 
570; for hand and pit saws, Ac., palo blue, 590—all 
The London Journal gives an account of some 
interesting experiments designed to test the newly j 
discovered powers of converting iron into steel by 
a current of electricity passed through the iron 
when placed in a furnace and embedded in char¬ 
coal. The furnace used, on the occasion re¬ 
ferred to, was fitted with two distinctly separate 
and independent compartments or boxes. One was 
filled with the common Swedish or bar iron, and 
the other with scrap and bar iron indiscriminately 
mixed in about equal proportions—the former was 
intended to be not so highly carbonized as the 
latter. The battery was placed, and generally so 
arranged that the electric current should pass 
either through both, or through only one of these 
compartments respectively, as required. Afterthe 
furnace had been brought to the proper tempera¬ 
ture, which occupied the nsual time, the battery 
was set iu action; the electric current was passed 
through both boxes simultaneously for 24 hours, 
when a trial bar was drawn from the box which 
contained the bar iron required in only the lesser 
degree to be carbonized. From the various tests 
to which this bar was subjected, it was found to be 
sufficiently carbonized, or converted into steel, 
although it was deemed expedient that the action 
of the current of electricity should he continued 
another six hours, for soaking, making the entire 
period of thirty hours continuously. The current 
was applied to the remaining box or compartment 
alone for 72 hours iu addition, at the expiration of 
which time the action of the battery was suspend¬ 
ed, and the furnace was allowed gradually to cool. 
Highly carbonized steel was found to have resulted, 
which was thus produced through continuous elec¬ 
trical agency. The quantity of iron which for the 
longest period had been subjected to the electric 
current was found in the highest degree to possess 
the respective qualities of hardness and carboniza¬ 
tion. These experiments may he regarded as of 
special importance. 
THE SMALL FRUITS, 
Under this head we propose to give a series of 
short practical articles on the Small Fruits. Re¬ 
quiring but little ground, and thriving with only 
ordinary care, they are peculiarly adapted to small 
lots, and should receive the especial attention of 
those who reside, in villages and tho suburbs of 
cities, and who cultivate fruit more for pleasure 
than profit. We need not tell these that there is 
enjoyment in planting, in pruning, in cultivating— 
in watching the buds and the blossoms, and the full 
ripened fruit. We know of no fruits that so soon 
or so well repay the cultivator for the labor be¬ 
stowed as the Strawberry, Raspberry, Currant, 
and the other small fruits. 
The farmer, of course, grows fruit a9 he does 
wheat and corn, for profit; and the small fruits 
should not he neglected by those who are within 
reach of market. Those, however, who cannot 
make these fruits a profitable market orop, can 
furnish their tables with the most delicious luxu¬ 
ries that earth yields, with a very small amount of 
care and labor. 
(due of the best and the most recently introduced 
of the small fruits is the Lawton, or Neva Rochelle 
Blackberry, an engraving of which wo give our 
readers. This we know to he good. A correspon¬ 
dent, whose communication we subjoin, calls atten¬ 
tion of the leaders of the Rural to a new variety, 
called Newman’s Thornless Blackberry. If he has 
not very much over-estimated its merits, it is cer¬ 
tainly a very desirable acquisition to our list of 
small fruits. 
Gutta Peucu a in Shoe-M aking.— An improved 
application of soles to hoots and shoes is now ef¬ 
fected by means of pressure and gutta percha or 
other cement. The invention consists in uniting 
to the in-sole a gutta percha sole, or one of leather 
and some other material, by means of guttapercha 
or its equivalent, aud by the agency of pressing 
mechanism, heat being applied to the interior 
of the last by means of a chamber and pipes, the 
same not only enabling tbo gntta percha of the 
sole to he softened or rendered adhesive while it is 
being pressed upon the in-sole and upper sole, but 
smoothing and finishing it. 
Large Fear.— The Washington Union, of the 
5th ult., says, “Gov. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, sends 
us a pear which we can conscientiously say is 
without peer in tho Old or New World. It is ten 
inches in length by fifteen inches iu circumference, 
and must have weighed some four pounds when 
11 rst plucked from the tree. It was raised in the 
garden of Mr. Palmer, at Sau Francisco, California, 
and is certainly not among the least of the mar¬ 
vels of that marvelous region.” 
To Season Sausage Meat.— To 100 pounds of 
meat put 50 oz. of salt, 12 oz. of sage, 4 oz. of black 
pepper, i oz. of cayenne pepper. If you have not 
cayenne pepper pulverized at hand, steep a half- 
dozen pods in the water that you put into the meat 
to prepare for mixing and stuffing; the red pepper 
not only gives the meat a good flavor but prevents 
the rising on the stomach. In my family we have 
made our sausages according to the above recipe 
more than 30 years.— Reed Burritt, Burdett, N. 
¥., Dec. 25,1856. 
New Form of Bricks,—A form of bricks for 
drainage, sewerage, culverts and other purposes, 
has been invented, whieh, instead of showing a 
plain surface on each joint, presents a small gag¬ 
gle or toothing, upon each bed, which butts upon 
the actual ioiut, and thus by covering the joint 
itself,the interstice is met by a resisting force. In 
circular work, either for shafts or sewers, the joints 
are radiated upon the same principle. The idea 
seems to possess no inconsiderable utility, and a 
positive advantage over the ordinary form. 
PliviT Growers’ Meeting and Exhibition.— 
The Annual Meeting of the Fruit Growers’ Society 
of Western New York, will be held at the Court 
House, in Rochester, on Wednesday next, Jan. 7th. 
The proceedings will embrace the Annual Address, 
reports of Committees, discussions on matters of 
interest, besides an exhibition of Winter Fruits— 
the most noteworthy of all which will he duly 
chronicled in the Rural. 
To Clean Wall Paper. —Soiled wall papers 
may bo made to look as well almost as uew in most 
cases, by the following expedient:—Take about two 
quarts of wheat bran, tie it iu a bundle in coarse 
flannel, and rub it over the paper. It will cleanse 
the whole paper of all description of dirt and spot*, 
better than any other means that can be used. 
Some use bread, but dry bran is better. 
THE BLACKBERRY. — A NEW VARIETY, 
Considerable attention has been of late years 
attracted to this species of fruit. The cupidity of 
growers has been excited by the highly remunera¬ 
tive prices offered by fruit-dealers, these latter 
beiug operated upon by the demand. The Black¬ 
berry is growing in public favor, mainly ou account, 
1 believe, of its medicinal and beneficial effects 
upon the system. Maturing iu mid-summer, when 
the stomach and bowels are tho most liable to he 
deranged and relaxed, the Blackberry is the 
medicine provided by nature, and surely a dish of 
At the French Exposition there was exhibited a 
watch which created much interest and admira¬ 
tion. It tells the name and day of the month, the 
equation of time; is a repeater, striking the min¬ 
utes as well as the hour; is a thermometer of con¬ 
siderable accuracy, and winds itself up by the ac¬ 
tion of its own movement. The price of this most 
ingenious piece of workmanship is 30,000 francs. 
A “Fast” Vink.—T he Syracuse Journal says a 
citizen of that city "has in his garden a wild black 
raspberry vine, which has grown the past summer 
to the enormous length of 160 feet. Ninety-live 
feet of this growth can still be shown.” 
Pretty fair for the “Saline city," brother Chester. 
Suppose the viue was one of the trophies of the 
“American Ag. Exchange Association.” 
An English mechanician has invented a very 
ingenuously constructed nautical instrument for 
accurately determining both latitude and longitude, 
without the assistance of a chronometer and with¬ 
out lunar observations—an observation of the sun, 
only, being required. 
Election Cake. —Take five pounds of flour, two 
of sugar, three-quarters of a pound of butter, five 
eggs, five large spoonfuls of yeast, one pint of milk, 
oue pound of raisins, and spice as you please.— 
Mrs. S. S. Moore, Brighton, N. 1*. 
