TWO DOLLARS A YEAIt.J 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS, 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,—SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1857 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WKRKI.V 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL’ 
strueted in such manner as will warrant the fullest 
saving and preservation of all animal excrements, 
both solid and liquid. Stockiiarut estimates that, 
of the manure of neat cattle, litty-three per cent, is 
solid and forty-seven per cent, liquid, Upon this 
basis, the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Agriculture calculates that in his State alone, there 
is a yearly waste of this material, equal, iu cash 
value, to seven hundred and forty-eigb. thousand 
two hundred and thirty dollars, and the loss in the 
solid portion added thereto, would make a total of 
one million twenty-nine thousand four hundred and 
eighty dollars— and he adds, all of this might be 
saved. The urine of a cow for one year, it is com¬ 
puted, will furnish 072 pounds of solid extract, and 
this extract will contain as much nitrogen as 560 
pounds of the best guano, and so large a quantity 
of potash, that, by combustion, at the commercial 
value of the latter article, it i3 worth from $20 to 
$25. But this is only one of the means which 
might be made tributary to the fertility of the 
soil. The forest leaves, innumerable muck beds, 
wash of the streets, hog pen, sheep fold, poultry 
house, the farmer’s vault, ash bin, sink-drainings, 
waste of manufactories, sawmills, &c., Ac., all are 
waiting but the farmer's calling to yield their 
treasures. 
We maybe met by the assertion that it is profita¬ 
ble to use guano or any of the manures brought 
from abroad, which, iorthe sake of argument, we 
will admit, but if it pays to bring these fertilizing 
properties thousands of miles, it must be a profitable 
business to protect the same ingredients when made at 
home. The importation of these fertilizers may 
augur well for the enterprise of our farmers, but 
we would give more for the influence of one, who, 
purchasing noue, made every exertion to increase 
the size and value of the manure heap on his own 
land, than for him, who, expending thousands an¬ 
nually for guano, phospliatic or animal manure, at 
the same tune, suffered the production «f like ma¬ 
terials on his farm to be wasted. The true princi 
pie is to make a right application of the means 
within our use before we go abroad for help— to 
put our own shoulders to the wheel before we pite¬ 
ously implore Jupiter or any one else to assistus 
out of the difficulties into which we have, not un¬ 
wittingly, plnngcd. In speaking of the value of 
manures, i’rof. Nash uses the following language; 
—"I will not siy that manure is the farmer’s gold, 
but it is that which firings him gold. About in pro- 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOEE, 
WITH AN ABLE COBPB OF ASSISTANT EDITORS, 
SPECIAL CONTHUtUTOHHi 
Prop. C. DEWEY. T. C PETERS. 
I/r. M. F. MAURY. H. T. BROOKS 
Dr ASA FITCH. EDW. WEBSTER. 
T. S ARTHUR Mrs. 11. J. HOLMES. 
LYMAN B. LANGWORTItY. 
Tim Ru if AG Nkw-Yokkkk is dHsigwd to he imsnrpftsecit In 
Value, Purity. UsufulnesA turd Variety of Contents, nnd unique 
Mid buMitirul in appcArnnee. 11* Conductor devotes hie personal 
attention to tlto tmpervijsion of its various departments, and 
earnestly labors to render tbe Ruii.u, an eminently Reliable 
Guilin on the important Practical, Seientllli' ami other Rnhjoel* 
Intimately connected with the business of those whose interests 
it realonsly advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary amt .News Matter, 
interspersed with appropriate and beautiful Knirrnvinfcs than 
any other journal,—rendering It the most complete AURICDGTU- 
kau Litsiiakv Ai«t> Famjgt Nbwshapei* in America. 
cr All corummdcMtinns, and business letter*, should bo 
addressed to 1>. I), T MOORE, Rochester, N Y. 
For Terms, and other particnlars, see last page. 
[Tine quantity of guano imported into the United States 
may beset down at about 200,000 tons annually: this, at 
$05 a tun, (which is about the price demanded,) will take 
out of our country $11,000,000 for imported manures, more 
than equal to half the average amount of all the grain tve 
export.— Exchange.'} 
SUCH statements as the above, naturally lead the 
thinking mind to the query—Whither arc wc tend¬ 
ing ? The fact is a startling one. Eleven million 
dollars eTjiended /or one variety of imported manure 
in a single season, —and, it must he remembered, 
the use thereof is almost ■wholly confined to the 
Atlantic States. The flgures speak well for the 
liberality of American farmers, but each one is a 
volume of invective against their waste. When we 
consider the comparatively small area of soil to 
which the bulk of this importation is applied, and 
that, at no very distant period, the country now 
using this enriching material was as fertile us any 
under the sun, and, furthermore, that the same pro¬ 
cesses which gave to sterility the “Garden of our 
Country," are still in vogue throughout the length 
and breadth of the land, the matter assumes an im¬ 
portance which places almost, every other question 
connected with the farming interest iu a secondary 
position. 
The charge that the Americau palate was won¬ 
derfully pleased with anything bearing a foreign 
impress—that the people were aping traus-atlantic 
customs and manners,, and that we would pay a 
higher price for articles from abroad no better in 
themselves than home productions—but giving the 
premium to the European stamp — has been often 
bro t to our doors, and to a greater or less degree, 
wehavebeen compelled to plead guilty. This, how¬ 
ever, has been the phase of city life, but agricul¬ 
turists are fast becoming parties to the folly. We 
use the term folly, for the law of necessity need not 
have the remotest connection with such transac¬ 
tions. If tlie farmers, by this expenditure, are 
pouring a stream of fertility through t he land, they 
are also, by refusing to care for the sources of the 
rautiy rivulets on their own possessions, every year 
permit.iug river* of the venters of life to be lost,— 
Not one funner in ten collects the manure that he 
might, un i not one in tally gives to this product 
the euro and attention he should. Agriculturists 
toil with all the energy possessed by them — woik 
is made the equivalent of a profitable crop, and the 
only means by which such labor can be made 
to pay—saving everything that will enrich and in¬ 
vigorate the soil—ts overlooked, almost altogether. 
Franklin left a record of a life - long experience 
—"a penny saved is as good as u penny earned"— 
we must husband instead of beiug lavish, must ac¬ 
cumulate rather than expend, or American farm¬ 
ers will never obtain a competence, aud the final 
issue will terminate in bankruptcy. 
If an improper and wasteful system of agricul¬ 
ture imposes an annual tax of eleven million dol¬ 
lars for the supply of food to impoverished laud iu 
tuily a portion of the Union, to what immensity 
will this sum grow when the entire country needs 
supplies commensurate with its extent of surface? 
Where farming is conducted as it ought to he, the 
products of the soil may he made to exhibit an 
annual increase, aud that, too. without going 
abroad to seek for the pabulum on which vegeta¬ 
tion is to grow and flourish. But how is this to bet 
accomplished? 
First —Every individual in commencing a fann¬ 
ing life should kuow that good culture benefits 
land, and that its opposite has precisely the con 
trury effect,—uud not only should he be aware of 
this tael, but his example aud influence should be 
promotive of the right end. 
Second—A careful husbanding aud generous 
application of the manures made upon his own 
farm, must be the rule. The barn should be cou- 
One of the most feasible improvements we have 
examined in a long time, is tlie model of an Im¬ 
proved Portable Field Fence, invented and lecent- 
ly patented by Mr. W*i. B. Burnett, of Lyons, 
Wayne Co., N. Y. It strikes us as being a long- 
sought desideratum in the fence line—combining 
sueh important items as cheapness, convenience 
und durability. Mr. B. avers that the discussions 
oti Fences and Fencing, id the last Volume of the 
Rural, set him to thinking and contriving, and 
dually resulted iu the production of this improve¬ 
ment. The accompanying illustration, together 
with the following description by the patentee, 
will give the reader a clear idea of the invention: 
“I construct a series of trays, (A,) composed of 
four or more rails, (B.) with two or more uprights, 
(C,) so put together that they will be compact and 
flat upon each other for tbe purpose of hauling or 
storing away for preservation when not in nse.— 
The rails, (B,) are all of uniform length, and arrang¬ 
ed so as to project alternately at either end of the 
tray—that is to say, the first and third projecting 
about four or six inches more or less at one end 
and the second and fourth projecting the same 
distance at the other end, so that when set up in 
the manner of a worm fence i the ends of each tray 
coming in contact,'the short ends of the rails of 
one tray will abut diagonally against the long ends 
of the raiisof the other, and thus support each other 
in a vertical position. They are then secured to¬ 
gether endwise by a clamp, (D.) which Catches the 
end uprights of the two trays across the inner side 
of the angle, formed by them, and between the two 
middle rails. In setting up this fence two trays 
are set together, forming an acute angle so that 
the hooked ends of the clamp will pass around 
the uprights, when the trays are to be straightened 
out until the clamps bind them firmly together, 
forming an obtuse angle which may be more or 
less to give a greater or less degree of strength, 
as required, and which may be regulated by the 
length of the clamp used, or the distance the up¬ 
rights are placed from the endB of the rails. The 
short end of the rails may also be leveled off so 
as to cause them to fit solid against tbe long ends 
of the rails of the next tray at the angle at which 
it is desired to arrange the worm. When a num¬ 
ber of these trays are thus put together in a zig¬ 
zag line they form a very strong fence, binding 
each other from end to end, and may be set upon 
the natural surface ground without the necessity 
of any poet-holes, cross-sills or braces from the 
the ground, and may be set up and taken down 
with great ease aud rapidity.” 
value as a constituent of manure, and is found on¬ 
ly in scanty quantify iu the soil although every¬ 
where present l lauts can bear little seed without, 
their due supply, and the gain in quantity and 
weight of grain after manuring with bone-dust, 
must be principally attributed to this ingredient 
of bones. Iu its free state, phosphoric acid is sol¬ 
uble in water, but when brought into contact with 
lime combines with it, forming phosphate of lime. 
In this combination it is the chief element of 
bones, is found in the solid excrement of horses, 
cows and sheep, aud the same may be discovered 
in the seeds of plants. Magnesia always occurs in 
plants in association with lime, and bears the same 
relation to this acid; aud both, when thus com¬ 
bined, bear the familiar name of " phosphoric acid 
earths.” They are insoluble until acted upon by 
other substances, a rapid decomposition may he 
brought on by strong acids—sulphuric or muriatic, 
for instance—while one more gradual takes place 
in the presence of decaying manor'. Phosphate 
of lime has been found t.i call forth an exceeding¬ 
ly vigorous growth in the roots of plants, lienee it 
is valuable for root crops, but it produces its lull 
efleet only when used in connection with other rich 
manures. 
5. Lime and Magnesia are both absolutely indis¬ 
pensable to the growth of plants, but they are al¬ 
most universally distributed over the earth, and 
accessible to the farmer wherever it supplies lime¬ 
stone, chalk, marl or gypsum, and in these forms 
are generally applied to the soil. The numerous 
and diversified benefits which they impart—partly 
as direct means of nourishment, partly as agents 
which improve or loosen the ground, or oa the 
other hand, ns substances which neutralize acids 
and hasten decay—would require a separate article 
to enumerate, and has already received some atten¬ 
tion iu our columns. 
6. Silica is found in all plants, and in many in 
very considerable quantity. Hence we infer tliai 
it is an essential constituent of plants, and one 
which must lie supplied; but as it forms the prin¬ 
cipal mass of our solid earth, and is present in 
every soil and iu all spring and river water, the 
farmer’s care need only be directed to rendeiingit 
soluble by deep plowing, good manuring, and the 
application of lime; which furnish ammonia, pot¬ 
ash, lime, etc.—all solvents of silica. A large 
quantity is supplied by the action of the atmos¬ 
phere, frost, water, &c„ upon the soil, and it is 
largely present in most animal manures. 
Other constituents of manure, oxide of iron, sul¬ 
phuric and muriatic acids, are also generally diffused 
through Nature. To conclude, the chief attention 
of the farmer must be turned to the supply of 
nitrogen. Next to this, phosphoric acid aud the 
alkalies claim the greatest consideration. Stock- 
hardt expresses their comparative money value 
as follows:—nitrogen, 15; in the form of ammonia, 
16; phosphoric acid and the alkalies, each. 2; veg¬ 
etable humus .03 
stuffed and strained and turned to bone to beat 
that! I will agree to reproduce the original re¬ 
nowned “ thistle diggers' 1 of our new settlements 
in twenty years, from Prince Albert’s best Suffolk 
stock if any body will make it an object to do so. 
I repeat it, breeding for profit and breeding for 
size are two distinct things. 
Gentlemen this is the thing you should do— 
yon should weigh your food and weigh your ani¬ 
mals, and when you have found one that gives more 
pounds of savory, solid meat and fat on the same 
food than your neighbors, send it to all the papers, 
and be sure and let ns know where that kind of 
hog is to be found. 
I once had a pig of the 11 dumpy'' sort, a Berk¬ 
shire cross, that would keep fat. When the hog3 
were called to the trough she was too fat to get 
there, and seldom or never got anything during 
the six months before she was killed except grass, 
which she generally eat in a sitting postuie. I 
have not ’• one more of the saute sort left.” She 
did not incline to breed. I am sure I never saw 
the animal that would produce more pork from the 
same feed; I do not recollect as to Us quality, but 
l expect she was a kind of “ Ultraist,” starting 
with a good idea and carrying it to “extremes.” 
The precise form and figure and characteristics 
that are consonant with vigor of constitution and 
a perfect organization throughout, demands close 
study and observation. While 1 admit that it may 
not be of the extremely dumpy sort, 1 as strenu¬ 
ously claim that it is not the weightiest One on 
record. It is due to Mr. Tai.ooTT’s hog to admit 
that it must have been a very good one—be gives 
its live weight. 610 tbs.,—dressed 625,—loose fat 30 
lbs.,—pluck, including tongue 20 tbs., entrails 15 
tbs., (not fed the day he was slaughtered,)—blood 
and hair 20 lbs. But if we go on breeding for size 
we may not after awhile get as good ones. 
Sometimes small size is a positive advantage; 
there arc families fhar. don’t want over 300 lbs. of 
pork, and have not food to make any more. They 
might take large breeds and kill them young, but 
who knows that green meat is as good as ripe— God 
knows more than man, (I don’t wish to be dog¬ 
matical—I state this as my opinion,) if He meant 
us to eat calves and pigs doubtless he would stay 
proceedings and keep them in ayouthful condition. 
Wanted six hundred of pork, a pair will make it— 
all things, with some crabbed exceptions l go in 
“pairs.” In our climate early maturity is quite 
desirable—the small breeds mature younger than 
the large. 
These remarks apply in substance to horses .— 
The small compact horse excels the large one in 
strength and vigor of constitution and is, in gene¬ 
ral, to be preferred. For a steady, continuous draft 
A correspondent of the Rcrai., who is evi¬ 
dently a friend of Swine, and consequently entitled 
to n>y “distinguished consideration,” has taken up 
a cudgel 1 don't object to the weapon in the ab¬ 
stract) iu defence of his favorite Sufoiks, but I am 
afraid be has hit the hog a glancing stroke when 
some body else ought to have the entire blow.— 
This being translated will read thus—Mr. Talcott, 
of Rome, (Wester u Hemisphere.) gives the live 
weight of a Sujfo/k , bred from Col. Sherwood’s 
stock at six hundred and ten pouuds—the hog was 
empty when he was weighed and an officer of the 
New York State Agricultural Society stood by and 
sawthethingdoue. That will stand law most proba¬ 
bly ; but t he questions I am going to raise are some¬ 
what ethical as well as avoirdupois. Was it right 
for friend Talcott to admit that a Suffolk ought 
to weigh 610 lbs.? Has a Suffolk any business to 
go in that notch? Are there not constitutional 
objections to so much expansion? Giving in to 
such an “area of freedom” will they not trespuss 
on the domain of other breeds? 
When the Bishop of Exeter accused I.ockb of 
“gross ignorance and perversion of the truth” that 
philosopher coolly replied, “1 suppose I am not to 
construe his lordships language into a compliment." 
This alt hundred and ten Suffolk is evidently intend¬ 
ed as a compliment to the breed. Mr. Talcott 
brings him forward to silence the “common com¬ 
plaint” about the "size” of Suffolk pigs. To all 
sueh “ complaints” Mr. Talcott should have re¬ 
plied " nonsense, sir, nonsense!” — varying the 
words a little to make them polite. 
Men, sane in other lespeets, often have a passion 
for big auimals which they seem unable to restrain 
or govern in any decent degree! Now it may be 
laid down as a general, perhaps I might say a uni¬ 
versal, rule, that medium or small sized animals 
aud breeds of animals arc more muscular, more 
hardy aud enduring, less liable to disease, are 
easier kept, will secrete more fat aud make more 
flesh with the same food than large ones. The 
strong point of the Suffolks is that they are small t 
and have the peculiar excellencies of small animals. 
I tear that our breeders, for the sake of obviating 
objections not well founded, will show too much 
deference to size, overlooking points of radical 
importance. 1 am greatly concerned lest some 
body will come forward with a six hundred and 
eleven Suffolk, and then that all SufTolkdom will be 
THU CONSTITUENTS OP MANUEB, 
The four great elements have been given their 
place among the constituents of manure; it re¬ 
mains to speak of other distinguishing character¬ 
istics, the alkalies, acids, silica, etc. 
3. Alkalies, including potash and soda, are the 
third constituent, giving power and value to ma¬ 
nure. Of these bodies, the salts of potash exert 
the most favorable and striking influence upon the 
growth of plants, especially in the formation of 
their strictly vegetable parts, or straw. In us al¬ 
kaline character it resembles ammonia, and also 
in its action, which is strongly forcing. Of the 
better knowu manures, the urinous secretions of 
our domestic animals abound particularly in pot¬ 
ash. inasmuch ss the alkalies contained in their 
food are eliminated by the kidneys iu their largest 
proportion. 
In general, manures do not contain large quan¬ 
tities of the salts of potash, nor are they largely 
required by the usual rontine of cropping. The 
soil and most rocks contain this alkali in an insol¬ 
uble state, which year by \ ear becomes soluble and 
is taken up by plants. The application of caustic 
lime to the soil causes an increased production of 
potash, for lime possesses the power of decompos¬ 
ing the rocks and earths which contain it, and it¬ 
self usually contains small quantities of this sub¬ 
stance. Some plants requite more potash than 
others, (for example, potatoes, tobacco, cabbage, 
turnips, etc.,) an I hence should ouly be grown in 
a Judicious rotation with other crops, unless spe¬ 
cial application is made. 
The salts of soda, among which are common 
salt, carbonate of soda, and Glauber salts, influence 
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