MOORE’S ETJEAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN original weekly 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
CHARLES I>. UKASIHIN, Aj.»oclntc Editor. 
HENRY 8. RANDALL, LL. D.. 
Editor Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
SPECIAL COVTRIBLTOR 81 
V. BARRY', 
H. T. BROOKS, 
C. DEWEY, LL. D., 
L. B. LANGWORTHY. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsur¬ 
passed in Value, Purity, and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Its Condnctor 
devotes his personal attention to the supervision of its 
various departments, and earnestly labors to render 
the Rural an eminently Reliable Guide on all the 
important Practical, Scientific and oilier Subjects Inti¬ 
mately counectcd with the business of those whose 
Interests It zealously advocates. As a Kami t. r Jocknal 
It is eminently Instructive and Entertaining—being so 
conducted that It can be safely takeu to the Homes of 
people or Intelligence, taste and discrimination. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, 
Educational, Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
with appropriate Engravings, Llian any other journal,— 
rendering it the most complete AGHtCOttDKAL Lite¬ 
rary and Family Newspaper in America. 
The Lowest Subscittion Price of the Rural is 
Two Dollars a Year. For particulars see last page. 
JlfjmttltmL 
CURRENT TOPICS DISCUSSED. 
The Fall Plowing. 
The plows are in motion in sward land and 
stubble. The soil is dry. There is a good hard 
track for the team. And this hardness and dry¬ 
ness prevents the depth of tillage which ought 
to evtain oil Reids preparing for the autumn 
seeding of wheat. We do not see the plows in 
beam deep. Indeed, a* a rule it Is not the best 
policy. But we do not see the subsoil following 
the surface plow. This is what ought to be 
seen in every field that is being plowed for fall 
wheat and rye. 
For some reason these subsoil plows are not 
used. Why? Is it the scarcity of labor that 
prevents ? Or is it established that it does not 
pay ? Have any of our readers data which go 
to establish this fact? If so, it is new to us. 
We have seen the matter repeatedly tested, and 
we know ii will petty, on most soils, to incur this 
extra expense—especially on heavy soils where 
there is no system of underdrainage. 
Where arc your best crops, gentleman, this 
season ? On your stillest and shallow est plowed 
land ? What crops have withstood the effects 
of the drouth best :—those where the plow ran 
lightest? We should like to know if there is 
such tin instance know n in the entire Rural 
parish. 
What is going to be done? How are we to 
obviate the disastrous effects of drouth? How 
much has this drouth cost you?—that is, what 
would the difference between your crop the 
present season and that of a favorable season 
amount to? Would not the difference go far 
toward paying the expense of properly draining, 
plowing and fitting the land? And the time 
long since passed when any argument was need¬ 
ed to establish the fact that draining, deep 
plowing, and other thorough culture w ore insu¬ 
rance against the vicissitudes of seasons—against 
damage to crops resulting from too much or too 
little water. 
— Then wo urge—modestly, as an Editor 
should—that the teams iu the plow -field be just 
doubled iu number, or that the acres plowed he 
diminished one-half, and the depth of soil stir¬ 
red bo doubled or tripled — quadrupled if pos¬ 
sible. So shall the good old harvests of the early 
time come again. So shall the long dry weather 
he regarded a blessing to tbo crop, developing in 
its greatest perfection the seed and the vegeta¬ 
ble, the fiber and the plant. So -hall the plant 
receive all the advantage which GOD designed 
it should derive from His sunlight acting upon 
the elements of productiveness contained in the 
soil. And insects shall be powerless to affect 
its vigorous growth; uo diseased condition of 
tt»e plant shall invite their ravages nor con¬ 
tribute to their propagation. Stir a less area 
and stir deeper tide fall, gentlemen! It will pay. 
t A Weed Law. 
A correspondent commends an article 
s w hich appeared in the Rural sometime since 
s with reference to the Canada Thistle, and says: 
—“ Only by legal enactment, compelling the 
owners of land to destroy weeds, can the coun¬ 
try lie protected from them. The tidy farmer, 
who labors hard to keep his farm clean, ought 
to be permitted to prosecute his neighbor whose 
thistle seed floats over the line, for trespass." 
Well, we think so too. Riding through the 
country the other day, wo came upon a farm 
whose owner was evidently proud of it, and 
who found it profitable to keep weeds out of it. 
We saw neither bushes, brambles nor thistles 
along the fences or the road-sides, nor in the 
fields. But on his neighbor’s side of a stone¬ 
wall, the line-fence, were thistles white with 
feathery seed which every breeze floated over 
on the tidy farmer’s premises. Ought there not 
to be a law which would indict such a man as the 
keeper of a nuisance?—a pest? We think so. 
The noxious weeds of this country are multi¬ 
plying about as fast us the noxious insects. And 
they propagate unchecked by too large a major¬ 
ity of farmers. The Flemish farmer is said to 
inspect his clover fields in the spring for the 
clover parasite — Orobanche major — which 
spreads and destroys the crop: and if found, the 
greatest care is taken to root up and destroy this 
parasitical enemy of his forage. If half the 
pains were taken to defoliate the more obtrusive 
of American weed-pests, much would be added 
to the farmer’s revenue. Shall we have a 
law in this State compelling the destruction— 
at least the timely defoliation—of the Canada 
thistle, and k'ambucus canadensis ? What do 
farmers think about it? 
Why is Cheese so High? 
This is a question which puzzles some sim¬ 
ple folk, and some who are not so simple. A 
correspondent asks the question, and wonders 
who is going to eat cheese and pay retail prices 
for it. when buyers pay producers from *20 to 20 
cents per pound for it to ship to New York. 
The answer is that the cheese is not consumed 
in this Country. Near 200,000 boxes have re¬ 
cently been shipped to England. Those who 
have debts to pay in England buy it and pay 
those large prices for it and ship it to make for¬ 
eign exchange, instead of buying exchange 
here. Thus they save. And at the present 
rates of gold and cheese here, the latter really 
costs them only six to eight cents per pound. 
It is not because there is any legitimate demand 
for cheese for home consumption that renders it 
so high—it is simply to liquidate balances stand¬ 
ing against us as a people, because of our import¬ 
ations of fashiouable finery and gew-gaws, as 
well as necessities. Of course few of those who 
consume cheese at home can afford to pay the 
prices the exporters find it profitable to pay. 
And so long as it is found profitable to import 
goods ami pay present rates of exchange, so long 
will importers pay high prices for exportable 
products. 
HUSBANDING MANURES. 
D. D. T. Moore, Esty— Dear Sir: I send you proof 
of the summary of the discussion at our last State Win¬ 
ter Meeting, for insertion in your valuable journal at 
yotir discretion. 
Respectfully yours, A. B. Conger. 
I. Where suffhient has been reserved for 
arable lands, barnyard manure may be spread 
upon pastures and meadows under the following 
restrictions: 
a. If spread early in the Spring ou pastures, 
and designed for immediate use, it should not be 
of the droppings of that species of animals in¬ 
tended to be placed ill the pastures. 
b. It soould never be spread upon meadows iu 
the Spring, as the coarser parts will be caught 
by the hay-rake, and mixed with the hay, im¬ 
parting to it a musty smell, if not tainting it with 
fungus. 
■,lt may be evenly spread on meadows at any 
time sifter harvest, and lightly harrowed or 
bushed, especially if the after-math is heavy, >o 
that the grass may not be smothered. 
d. The weather should indicate the absence of 
high winds, the approach of moderate rains, or 
the presence of copious dews, so that the am- 
moniacal portion of the manure may not be lost. 
c. On rapidly sloping lands a heavy top dress¬ 
ing should be applied near the summit, unless 
furrows such as arc necessary in irrigation are 
made, so as to prevent the manure being washed 
with heavy rains to the bottom. 
/. Iu Winter no manure should be spread on 
either pastures or meadows when hard frozen, 
even when most of the atmospheric conditions 
above alluded to are present, unless the surface 
i3 or soon will be covered with snow, and then 
only on ground either level or gently rolling, so 
that in case of a thaw the melting snows may 
not render the distribution of the manure com¬ 
paratively useless. 
II. Under a system of rotation of crops, as 
supposed in the question, the husbanding of 
manures is indispensable to thrift in fanning, 
and is to be regulated according to the supply of 
litter and the method of feeding adopted. 
III. On farms whose principal staple is grain, 
the amount of straw is not onfrequently in ex¬ 
cess of the feeding material reserved, and in 
such case it is necessary to spread it profusely 
over the barnyard, that it may be trodden down 
by cattle and *heep and mixed with their drop¬ 
pings. Iu such cases it i9 sufficient that the 
barnyard should be dished or provided with one 
or more tanks for the holding of the drainage of 
the mass; that fermentation should be allowed 
to proceed until the straw is disintegrated suffi¬ 
ciently either to turn the mass into heaps, (into 
which the liquid contents of the tanks are to be 
conveyed by pump and trough,) or drawn out 
into the fields for Spring and Fall crops—of 
which method as generally in all departments of 
the farm service, the labor that can be applied 
is the discriminating test. 
IV. Where from the scarcity of straw upon a 
farm, its high price in neighboring markets, or 
its being an element of food prepared for stock, 
it is necessary to economize its use, the system 
of box or stall feeding is to be resorted to, and 
the husbanding of manures is determined as the 
feeding is either of animals to be fattened or 
reared. 
V. In the former case, neat cattle may be 
placed in boxes not less than S by 10 feet, the 
bottoms slightly dished with a view to drainage 
or being filled with muck or other absorbents, 
and the animals wintered with slight additions 
of cut straw as litter, so as to prevent the loss of 
hair and other cutaneous affections, (which pro¬ 
ceed from the heating of straw if too liberally 
supplied.) and the whole mass of droppirgs, &e., 
left until removed to the fields. 
VI. In the latter case, that of the rearing of 
young animals, a like method may be pursued, 
but if their value will admit of a greater regard 
being paid to cleanliness, Ac., the box should 
have a slatted floor of oak or other durable 
strips li inch thick, 3 inches wide and half inch 
apart over a paved, clayed or cemented floor, in¬ 
clined so as to carry the drainage of the box into 
gutters leading to a tank, and the manure re¬ 
moved as often at least as once in six weeks, 
placed under cover of a roof either permanent, 
or of boards battened, turning on pins and 
moved by a long lever as in sheds for drying of 
brick, the liquid manure (if not used separately) 
being pumped from the tank nud conveyed by 
troughs over the mass so as to prevent fire- 
fauging. If used separately the sheds are to be 
opened to occasional rains for the same purpose. 
VII. The manure from animals stabled in the 
ordinary way is to be treated as last above de¬ 
scribed. and it is desirable that the manure shed 
should be constructed with access to it from a 
level below that on which the manure is de¬ 
posited, so that iu Winter tbo manure may be 
carted out upon lands plowed iu tho Fall, the 
fresh masses placed on top, preserving those 
underlying from being thoroughly frozen. 
VIII. When sheep are alone raised, they 
should be kept under sheds with small yards 
connected therewith, and their droppings may 
bo treated either as iu the case of fattening or 
growing animals, at the discretion of the owner. 
IX. Where uo portion of Ute manure is de¬ 
signed for top dressing of pastures, that of 
horses and neat cattle may be always advantage¬ 
ously placed under the same cover, their different 
capacities for developing heat, operating favora¬ 
bly against over heating. 
X. As the value of straw us an article of food 
if cut up. mixed with feed, thoroughly wetted 
and allowed to stand in mass for a few hours so 
as to develop heat, or if steamed, is at its lowest 
price w'orth at least twice as much for food as 
for tho manure resulting from its use as litter, 
where beds of muck or peat exist on a farm 
those should be ditched and afterwards paved, 
so that by the use of these materials when 
dried, the straw may be largely used as an article 
of food, a greater number of animals kept on 
the farm, and greater masses of manure made, 
and with a material more valuable than straw 
as an absorbent and fertilizer, and for the pres¬ 
ervation of the droppings of cattle at a more 
uniform rate of temperature. 
Sheep husbandry: 
EDITED BY HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D. 
To Correspondents. — Mr. Randall'S address IS 
Cortland Village, Cortland Co., N. Y. All communica¬ 
tions Intended for Oils Department, and all Inquiries 
relating to sheep, should be addressed to him as above. 
THE NEW YORK STATE FAIR OF 1864. 
The N. Y. State Fair of 1864 will be held at 
Rochester, September 20,21,22 and 23. Every¬ 
thing will be arranged on the most liberal and > 
perfect scale for the convenience of exhibitors 
and the public. It was feared that the pressure 
of war would seriously interfere with the suc¬ 
cess of the State Agricultural Society and its 
annual exhibitions. It has not done so thus 
far. The American character is elastic, hopeful, 
and filled with irrepressible energy. The Ameri¬ 
can mind is thoroughly pervaded with the logic 
of ntility. If our brothers and sons are in the 
army—if labor is scarce and high—and expenses 
are large—if the clouds of public debt darken 
around ns—if taxes must roll up higher and 
higher—and finally if drouth comes to threaten 
os with its calamities—have we not, as farmers, 
the more need to husband and improve ail our 
agricultural resources to the uttermost? And 
where can the farmer have the opportunity of 
examining with his own eyes and forming his 
own opinions on such a comprehensive list of 
alleged improvements in domestic animals, in 
implements and labor-saving machinery, in ag¬ 
ricultural processes and results—where, wc say, 
can he do this so cheaply, so thoroughly and 
so expeditiously, as at the State Fair, where the 
best specimens of them are brought together for 
comparieon or are practically tested side by side ? 
We boldly answer, nowhere. And not only 
does every discerning man bring away new in¬ 
formation worth far more to him than the cost 
of his journey, but he also brings away a feeling 
of genuine satisfaction — derived from having 
met and communed with friends, with intelli¬ 
gent strangers, and with worthy co-workers in 
his own an«i other industrial occupations. This 
honest gratification—this pleasant change from 
the steady routine of home—this rubbing up of 
the feeling of class brotherhood and human 
brotherhood—this play-spell of the mind and 
the heart—are more valuable than mere mouey. 
The State Agricultural Society has become as 
much a State institution as the Legislature, the 
Judiciary, or our School System. Broadly and 
deeply as the river now flows on, we knew it in 
the fountain. Many a time have we gone one 
hundred and fifty miles to Albany to attend the 
meetings of the old Society, established in 1832. 
It has been our felicity to perform the journey 
several times, in those ante-railroad days, in a 
•* mud-wagon,” in a January thaw—once being 
kept within that interesting vehicle for nearly 
the full .JoNAH-an period of “ three days and 
three nights.” Our zeal probably outran our dis¬ 
cretion iu the premises; but we were younger 
then! At the “Annual Meeting ” we usually met 
Judge Bukl, L. F. Allen, Francis Botch, 
Judge Van Bergen, Henry D. Grove, 
C. N. Bi mknt, L. O. Ball, Thomas Dunn, 
J. MoD. M’ Intyre, and perhaps half a dozen 
other stand-bys whose names do not now occur 
to us—mixed up with a dozen or two members 
of the Legislature who were spirited enough to 
look in and take part in the proceedings. Tho 
Society was without funds, without numbers, 
but not without vitality. It sent forth papers 
which attracted public notice. But its great 
mission was to prepare the way for the present 
Organization. 
The Constitution of the Society was revised in 
1841. and the Legislature that year appropriated 
$8,000 per annum for the “promotion of Agri¬ 
culture and Household Manufactures in the 
Suite." Of this sum $7,300 was distributed 
among County Societies, and $700 paid to the 
State Society. The Constitution provided that 
the latter should hold “ an annual cattle show 
and fair.” At a meeting of the Executive Com¬ 
mittee in April, 1841, Henry S. Randall* 
then Corresponding Secretary of the Society, 
moved that the Annual Fair be held “ in the 
village of Syracuse on the 29th and 30th days of 
September next” Great were the fears of the 
officers that the first fair might prove a failure 
— that there would not ?>e a proper exhibition 
of articles, and especially a proper attendance of 
people. The idea of fencing in the show' grounds 
and demanding an admission fee, was no more 
thought of than fencing round the moon! The 
Corresponding Secretary alone, tf we remember 
aright, wrote upwards of one thousand letters 
to distinguished farmers and other gentlemen all 
over the State, begging them to attend and to 
get their neighbors to attend. 
Well, the day came—and the Society and pub¬ 
lic found themselves very much in the situation 
of Yankee Doodle, who 
“ Said he couldn't see the town 
There was so man y houses! ” 
The “village” of Syracuse (now* a well grown 
city) and its outskirts were one vast sea of men, 
women and children — principally the former. 
There was scarcely room to stand up! The ex¬ 
hibition of stock, all things considered, was good. 
Col. Sherwood and Mr. Prentice— the great 
cattle exhibitors of those days — were on in 
force. But the animals, etc., were so enveloped 
and hemmed in — literally packed in—among 
the dense concourse of people, that the viewing 
committees could scarcely find them, and when 
found it was next to impossible to get a sight of 
one at a yard’s distance. The mounted mar¬ 
shals forced their way through the mass and 
implored the by-standers to “ fall back and let 
the committees see the stock "’—but it was tike 
excavating quicksand. The “ouside pressure ” 
forced it iu twice as fast os the entreaties of tho 
officers cleared it out! What a crush of bon¬ 
nets—what a jamming of hats—what a tearing 
and soiling and occasional bedaubing of apparel— 
what a stepping on of toes — what a medley of 
joking and scolding, laughing and fretting (inter¬ 
spersed occasionally, we lament to say, with 
some till swearing!} And then what eating 
and sleeping accommodations were found in the 
swallowed-up town! We will, out of pure 
shame, draw a veil over these parts of the per¬ 
formance. 
This first exhibition, though rather affluent 
in “noise and confusion,’-’ demonstrated two 
things—that exhibitors and spectators would*, 
come to State Fairs. Indeed, as in the case of 
him in the German tale who invoked the water 
spirits, it W3S as necessary to understand the 
spell to lay as to raise them. This was happily, 
found in a high fence and au admission fee: 
Since that first attempt, the Annual Fair may 
on an occasion or two have been a comparative 
failure, owing to very impropitious weather: hut 
generally its success has been steady and on¬ 
ward. As a whole, it would be difficult to find 
iu the incumbents of any of the civ il offices of 
tho State, even the highest, a more able, solid, 
I dignified and upright body of men than the pre¬ 
siding officers of the State Agricultural Society. 
We have but to name them to prove our asser¬ 
tion: Rotch, Van Bergen, Note, Wadsworth, 
Beekman, Johnson, Sherwood, Vail, Allen, 
King, Prentice, Dclafield, Wager. Morris, Kelly, 
Cheever, Faxton, Upham, McKoun, Conger, 
Huntington, Geddes, Cornell and Sheldon. We 
have kuowu all of these men — most of them 
Intimately. How gladly would we pause, were 
this tho proper place and occasion, to pay our 
tribute of respect to the character of each. But 
the State Society ffwes it to itself to see that 
their memoirs are w ritten, and written by a far 
abler pen. And there are many other persons 
j to whose character and usefulness in other offices 
I of the Society we can, from our own personal 
I knowledge, testify. The names which first 
' occur to us are those of the Tuckers, Peters, 
Be went, Walsh, Grove, McIntyre, Gaylord, 
Langworthy, Kirby, Ellis, Comstock, Hill- 
j house, Demiistou, J. Johnson, Johnston, Morril, 
j Ball, Delevan, Harmon, Thompson, Viele, 
Fuller, Buruet, Butterfield, Blanchard, Enos, 
Moore, Watson, Thorne, Wendell, Marks, 
F. M. Rotch, Wainriglit, Pratt, Stevens, Gran¬ 
ger, lvirtiand, Fitch, McGraw, etc. We may 
forget, for the moment, many others equally 
useful and conspicuous. 
The Society is now in excellent hands. Presi¬ 
dent Sheldon is an able and vigorous officer- 
familiar with the duties of his position, and 
highly anxious to discharge them to the general 
acceptance. The veteran Corresponding Secre¬ 
tary, Col. Johnson, himself a host, remains at 
his post. The Recording Secretary is Erastcs 
Corning, Jr., and the Treasurer, Luther H- 
Tfcker — both of whom have filled the same 
offices to the approbation of the Society for sev¬ 
eral years. The Executive Committee are 
S, Campbell, Elon Comstock, T. C. Peters, 
TEIRIVIS, iglS.nO P’JT.rt YKAJR..] 
“PROGRESS zXdND IMPROVEMENT.” 
[SENTGELE 7STO. SIX CENTS. 
{WHOLE NO. 760. 
VOL. XV. NO. 31} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-F0R THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, AUG. 6, 1864. 
