jj 
rt 
RE 
issypRE 
agriculture 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1864 
fWHOLE NO. 757 
MOOEE'S EUEAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
CHARLES D. BKAGBOX 
much as peddlers and puffers are now telling of, f_ 
and premium cows actually do what we read ishing 
of. It may not, as a general thing, “pay to 
raise a calf,’' yet if a man has a very superior 
cow, he has no moral right to count the cost or 
trouble, but he should cross her with the best 
he can obtain, and save her heifer calves, as a 
faithful steward put in charge of a treasure to 
preserve and transmit, “ Like produces like," 
is a motto in breeding; and yet many of the very 
best cows fall into hands so utterly demoralized 
that their progeny are 
’> I former's domaiu despite his vigilance. Aston- 
J as it may seem to those who know it in 
the east, it has been introduced in the west by 
irresponsible speculators, as a fruit-bearing 
shrub, valuable for cooking and wine-making 
purposes! And it has actually been sold there 
as something very desirable! Some writers 
have had the impudence to commend it in the 
agricultural papers! 
regularly sheared —but are clipped over a Httle 
every month or two, as one has his hair cut — 
so as always to be kept at exactly at the best 
show point! 
_ “Stubble shearing ’’ was an invention of those 
flr>t-rate geniuses, the A ennont sheep peddlers. 
Its primary object was to give the best appear¬ 
ance to the feece, instead of the form, though 
the latter consideration is now, also, to some 
extent, attended to by the real artists of the 
trade! If 3 person, desirous of purchasing a 
stranger Merino ram or ewe, finds its fleece, on 
the first of September, a third or a half longer 
than his own sheeps’ fleece: 
1, Aiiftoclntc Editor. 
USBANDF 5 Y 
HENRY S. KANDAZili. LL. D„ 
Editor Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS s 
P. BARRY, C. DEWEY, LL. D., 
H. T. BROOKS, L. B. LANGWORTHY 
About Manuring Western Lands. 
John VP. Hammond, of Henry Co., Iowa, 
writes us:—“A great many farmers in the West 
never haul any manure out on their farms, but 
let it go to waste in their stock and barn yards, 
year alter year. ‘Our land is rich enough,’ 
they say, and ask what is the use of manuring. 
And yet .any man can see that our lands in the 
West are getting less and less productive every 
year. The present geueration may not suffer 
from such mismanagement; but our children 
must suffer unless such operations are stopped; 
and it may be that you could do some good bv 
having some able arguments written and pub¬ 
lished in the Rural Showing the evil of such 
waste.'’ 
Perhaps arguments might do good; but the 
best argument we know of is demonstration. 
.And iu such cases as our correspondent has 
given, one thorough, practical demonstrative 
man in a neighborhood, will furnish better ar¬ 
guments by his practice than any agricultual 
newspaper. Establish the fact by demonstra¬ 
tion that it will pay to return to the soil what 
you take from it. and the work is done. Ameri¬ 
can farmers are not slow to follow in the path 
of such as make monry by their husbandries. 
Preach by practice, ff-nd John Hammond! 
deaconed” the fourth 
day, or they are crossed with what is utterly 
worthless, and so their calves are not fit to be 
raised. The cow and the bull should both be of 
a good milking family, and have every other 
possible perfection. 
It is still worse with horses. The fleetest, the 
strongest, and the handsomest, are put to other 
service than breeding. Every filly of unusual 
promise is at once secured by some fancy horse¬ 
man, and away she goes to grace the carriage of 
some graceless fashionable, or finds a place in a 
team where she makes herself so useful that she 
can’t be spared to raise a colt. 
The other day an intelligent and wealthy 
farmer invited me to his stables to see a mag¬ 
nificent farm team, six years old, well matched, 
large, powerful, and faultless la their propor- 
tious. “ You Intend these for breeding,’’ said I. 
** No, I can’t spare them for that; I work them 
on my farm.” I rebuked him with emphasis, 
reminding him that if they were put to breed¬ 
ing during his life-time their descendants might 
be remembered by scores and even hundreds, 
as good or better than they, and so the world be 
greatly indebted to him for a superior class of 
horses—whereas, he proposed to annihilate some 
of the best blood of the country, and lie ought 
to be prevented from doing it by « civil process ’’ 
or ‘-military necessity ” if milder appliances did 
not succeed. Whoever has a faultless mare and 
don’t put her to breeding, is short-sighted and 
perverse. He ought to suffer some temporary 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. — Mr. RANDALL’S aiMress Is 
Cortland Village, Cortland Co.. N. Y. AU communica¬ 
tions intended for this Department, and all inquiries 
relating to sheep, should be addressed t > him as shore. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be 
unsur¬ 
passed In Value, Purity, and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor 
devotes his personal attention to the supervision of Us 
various departments, and earnestly labors to render 
the Rural an eminently Reliable Guido on all the 
?, or than the usual 
1 length, has he not a right to infer that he has 
j found a prize in that particular? Well, if he 
| does, he is a greenhorn! Suppose he can fur¬ 
ther learn satisfactorily that the stranger wag 
not sheared earlier, or much earlier, than his 
own sheep —does that increase his chances of 
buying an extraordinarily long-wooled animal? 
Not a bit of it! It only shows that when the 
sheep he is baying was shorn, the wool was left 
three-eighths or half an inch long over its entire 
body, instead of being clipped off with the usual 
closeness. This is, Yermont-:ce, “stubble shear¬ 
ing." The wool is left still longeron the fore¬ 
top. legs and belly—if inclined to be deficient 
in those parts. The latest touch we have 
heard of is the creation of artificial ■■ wrinkles.” 
It is said that the loose skin on the elbow, the 
short wrinkle immediately back of it, and those 
short, curling wrinkles on and around the tail 
which constitute “the rosette*’— aU now 
••fashionable” points among fanciers —can be 
got up very respectably with the shears; and 
that where the external crust on the wool is 
dense and compact, few persons would detect 
the deception without feeling through or under 
the wool. 
The Committee do not allude to another fraud¬ 
ulent practice of exhibitors —viz., that of color- 
■ing Alerino sheep. Fashion demands a very 
dark external color, doubtless because it in¬ 
dicates a good deal of yolk in the wool—and 
yolk makes weight. The breeders of high- 
priced Merinos usually house their sheep°at 
night, and from rain storms in summer, to pre¬ 
serve aU the yolk in the wool. The sheep- 
jockeys obtain the same result, so far as exter¬ 
nal color is concerned, by putting on a prepara¬ 
tion of oil and burnt umber with a very little 
lamp-black—generaUv soon after shearing. If 
this is skillfully applied, it is difficult for any 
but a very experienced eye to distinguish it 
from a natural coat of dark yolk. Many^persons 
who think they can do so, utterly fail when put 
to the test- Summer-housed sheep are often 
blacked, in addition, because they lack the dark- 
colored yolk; and the jockeys, when it is prac¬ 
ticable, prefer summer-housing in addition to 
REGULATIONS OF N, Y. STATE AG. SOCIETY 
IN REGARD TO PREMIUMS ON SHEEP. 
The New York State Agricultural Society 
appointed a Committee on “ Regulations as to 
Shearing Sheep,” consisting or Hon. A. B. 
Conger, J, McGraw, .Jr., and Daniel B. 
Haight, which reported as follows; 
sheep Shearing for Exhibition. —The Special 
Committee appointed to examine into the practice* of 
sheep exhibitor*, who resort to the especial cancrtraiue 
of giving their sheep a model form which the carcasses 
do not posse**, in tin* practice of what is o rein ml. y 
termed ■■ stnbh'c she>*inc,” report that it is we! L under¬ 
stood that, tor the purpose of carrying out this sretem, 
animals designed for exhibition areshorn in mid-winter, 
not closely nor evenly, hr.t *<* as to hide th«r nq;ni\=l 
defects nr •o jive nndne prominence to certain par..* of 
the carcass That Utev are then blanket'd, so as to pre¬ 
vent tlieir taking cold, ar.d afterwards, and for some 
little time before exhibition or talc. they >rr a rain 
trimmed, the wool being left, as in ease of'mnsr of the 
animals exhibited at the Fair, in some places riei.** as 
long as in others. 
\ our Committee consider this a gross deception 
upon (udges who examine only hy their eves."nrd, 
also, utn-n farmers, who are not cognizant of these 
practices, who become purchasers and undertake the 
business of breeding: and. also, a great source of in¬ 
justice to such as xMVt tbi-ir sheep after the ordinary 
*v- tern f.r -tn-Ariog. as late us the lies: or June, cm an 
average, and closely and evenly shorn at that. 
For the purpose of correcting these evils, voar com¬ 
mittee n.xotnnu’ndt hat a copy of this report, or so mneti 
thereof a* the Executive Committee may approve.' he 
placed in the hands of the different committees ir th - 
class of sheep, and that they be requested rodj?.-rm 
nate in tlieir a wards between those animAs Gere ut'-er 
the fair and ordinary tnetnods and those who have un¬ 
dergone any or ail the methods of s' jhle -hearing, a* 
above alluded to—giving to no nni uni a rize for its 
outward appearance which the fc 1 r ireass. not 
even fattened, will not justify. 
VonrOpmmttt.calsoreeonimend, a* at t for the future 
action of the Stole!y, and as a fair notice to future ex 
htbltors, that a", sheep no! fairly and evenly shorn, and 
after the tilth of April, he rejected and declared ineom 
potent 1.0 . > brought under the Insoi-ctinn of the ind-es 
Si vinilt uv.nl 
IMPROVEMENT OF FARM STOCK. 
Substitute for Lead Pipe. 
J. A. R., of Skaueatelas, X. Y., writes: 
“ The price of lead pipe being so high as almost 
to preclude its use,-1 wish to inquire through 
the Rural if there is not some other material 
that wiH answer as well or even better for con¬ 
ducting water for house and baru use? Aside 
from its expensivenes*. lead, as is well knowu, 
is very injurious in its effect ou the water, 
making it almost unfit for domestic use when 
conducted for a long distance. 
“I wish to insert a hydraulic ram at a spring 
for the purpose of forcing water some GOO feet 
to the house aud bant, and also raising it about 
2o feet. Will water Hrae cement bear the pres¬ 
sure and answer the purpose? I have seen 
glazed tile used for conducting water. "Will that 
bear the pressure by cementing the joints? and 
must it he laid in water lime cement ? Is there 
any other material available for the purpose? ” 
I. S. Hobbik ,t Co., of this city, manufacture 
a wood pipe which is so prepared as to be ren¬ 
dered durable. The city of Elmira is supplied 
with water through this kind of pipe which has 
been laid down three years. We think .small 
wood pipe would suit you. There is less objec¬ 
tion to lead where there is a stream passing 
through it constantly, as would be the case with 
you. Yet its cost is an item, aud wood is the 
best substitute we know of. 
breeder; of course then she may take up some 
other calling, but let her be tested, aud in all 
cases let us beware of crossing animals that are 
essentially dissimilar. 
The progeny of powerful mares is often next 
to worthless by breeding them to some light- 
limbed roadster—you get neither a team horse 
nor a carriage horse. Above idl things, we 
want, in the horse line, some eleven and twelve 
hundred horses, with good style and action, do¬ 
cile and hardy, and having got such a model, 
never let anything but that precise type 1* 
crossed with tiu-m ,— breeding bays with bays, 
and blacks with blacks till wo secure as much 
uniformity as there is in Devon cattle or South 
Down sheep. And now let every man look 
about him and see if ho has not the means of 
turkey, 
all for mankind at large,—there’s the dif¬ 
ference; and yet multitudes don't seem to see it. 
They go on breeding as though the only object 
was to get something with head and heels, no 
matter what. 
The facilities for improvement are unbounded. 
The services of male animals can always be 
obtained from families of marked excellence at 
reasonable prices. 
By cheating, and grooming, and puffing, some 
particular animals command fabulous prices, 
but the same blood, and the same merit, may 
always be got low enough if breeders will only 
look for it. Every cross you make brings you 
about half way from where you are, to the top of 
th heap —always provided that you cross dis- 
J erectly with the best, AV ho then will be content 
to stay at the bottom ? 
Any man who raises an inferior animal, when 
»little cost and trouble would make it a superior 
animal, ought to be rode on a rail. I am not 
encouraging “Lynch Law,”— I pronounce that 
(ledsion as a Justice of (he I'eacc, It’s a matter 
Unit belongs to unborn generations, who are 
blessed by every improvement of the race of 
domestic animals, tutd cursed by every trans¬ 
mitted defect We are here to mend and not to 
mar. and the man who passes over to posterity 
constitutional defects that he might remedy, is 
1 bad patriot, a bad Christian, and a bad hus¬ 
bandman. 
T se no sire but of the first class. And mark 
" but 1 say —throughout all your flocks and herds 
put every really good female to breeding. 
The practice of letting the nicest heifers and 
ewes go to the butcher, aud the best mares to the 
j lllar bet, is a gross abuse of our privileges—an 
i outrageous perversion of Providential favors to 
T unworthy ends. 
| first class animals should be solemnly set 
J ^'lo for the increase of their species. That 
1 ■'jheir special mission on earth. Used in that 
S " : ‘- v |beir progeny may eventually supplant aU 
T m erior animals, a gradual improvement be 
J e voted, and a higher standard reached from 
$ .'our to year, throughout all ages. The time 
i llla - oven COme when sheen will shear ns 
raising a superior calf, colt, sheep, pig, 
or chicken, and if so go to work and raise it and 
keep raising that sort.—ir. x. b. 
lambs the same season. Every practical person 
knows that a dry ewe is rounder, heavier, and 
I far more beautiful in every way, and has more 
wool, than one which has recently suckled a 
| lamb. And there are two other items of in¬ 
formation which cughttogo to the viewing Com- 
i tnittee with the preceding—to wit., when the 
I ewe lambed, and when the lamb was weaned. 
Our State Fairs are held within two or four 
weeks of tlie usual time of weaning lambs, and 
the ewe in such cases has had no time to recover 
her condition. Merino ewes have repeatedly 
taken prizes at the Slate Fair which lambed 
between November and January, and whose 
lamb' were weaned oil on turnips and grain 
before their dams went out to grass in the 
spring,—so that the ewes were dry some jive 
months before exhibition. If well kept in 
winter, such ewes have nearly the advantages 
of dry ones. 
There are various other facts in relation to 
sheep which rnu>t be known to enable the most 
consummate judges to form au accurate opinion 
of their comparative merits. The State Society 
has wisely given the viewing Committees full 
power to require statements of all such ••fads 
as may enable them to determine which are the 
most valuable animals for the objects for which 
they are bred.” This is well expressed, and it 
covers the whole ground. And the regulation 
adds:—**The tntormation above required must 
CURRENT TOPICS DISCUSSED. 
To Prevent Scratches on Horses, 
Philander B. Roys, of Wayne Co., N. Y.. 
writes:—"I have owned horses for fifty-six 
years. The first six years I had much trouble 
with the scratches every winter. By the ad¬ 
vice of a friend who had traveled in Sweden, I 
filled up the space under my stable floor with 
earth, packed solid, laid my lloor on the earth as 
a plonk road is laid, even with the bottom of the 
sill of the stable, and for fifty years 1 have not 
lost the use of a horse one day by scratches, nor 
spent a dime to cure. I worked one span of 
horses twenty-two years at farming, lumbering, 
and road work, without losing ten days bv 
lllness of tiny kind. Foundered horses are much 
benefited by t he same usage in the winter. Cat¬ 
tle that are stabled are much more comfortable 
in winter.” 
should not be there. I consider elder (Sambu- 
ens canadensis) the worst of all—uo better than 
the C anada thistle. The roots spread so fast 
that after a few seasons it is almost impossible 
to plow among them. The birds are continually 
carrying the berries - when ripe to other 
fences, to cat them, and there drop the seeds, 
which spreads the evil to the neighboring farms. 
A little Care would completely prevent such a 
nuisance. If farmers would pull every elder 
plant when first seen, and mow the feme cor¬ 
ners about the first of August, every year 
thereby cutting every green plant and bush, 
they would afterwards find a crop of grass 
instead of weeds.” Our correspondent drops 
hints from his pen which we fear will scarcely 
reach the class which ought to be affected bv 
them. For we do not believe there is a Rural 
reader who permits his fences to become the 
harbor of fugitive brambles. This elder is an 
intolerable nuisance; and it is not confined in its 
evil influence to those who permit it to grow 011 
their premises. It creeps into the snug, neat 
