ROCHESTER, N. Y-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIQINAL WEKKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
CHARLES R. BRAfiOON, Awoolute Editor. 
promote the growth of plants. AH are familiar 
with the value of swamp muck, leaf mold, rot¬ 
ten wood, &c., Ac. They are all good absorb¬ 
ents, and with the addition of a small quantity 
of gypsum, are scarcely less effective than wood 
chareoaL Gypsum has been recommended as a 
deodorizer. But while it is useful for the pur¬ 
pose of converting ammonia into a sulphate, and 
the carbonic acid into a carbonate, it is not 
efficient, alone, as a disinfectant. But mixed, as 
before said, with some kind of carbon, it is val¬ 
uable for the purposes named, 
A barrel of some one or two of the substances 
named above, should stand in everv privy, and 
a smaU quantity of the same should be thrown 
into the vault daily. This is necessary as a dis¬ 
infectant, and is essential in order to promote or 
secure the health of the family and neighbor¬ 
hood. And by this process the oontenta of the 
vanlr. are rendered perfectly portable, and may 
be added to Ihe compost heap at any time, or 
applied to the land, as may be desired. Of 
course, care must be taken in the application of 
this manure that too much of it be not applied 
3t the same time in the same spot. There is a 
possibility of applying “too much of a good 
which is the object of culture — weeds being 
difficult to find. 
We might, if it were necessary, give the dif¬ 
ferent modes adopted in England! Europe, and 
in this country for converting this substance 
into poudrette on an extended scale. But it 
would not be profitable to occupy space. It 
has been our object to refer only to those modes 
which may be practiced by almost any farmer 
or gardener —such as relate primarily to the 
disinfecting the vaults and ridding the atmos¬ 
phere of noxious gases. 
henry s. randall. ll. d. 
Editor Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
To CORRRSPOndknts.— Mr. Randall’S address IS 
Cortland Village, Cortland Co., N. Y. Ail conjmanlca- 
Uens intended for this Department, and »U inquiries 
relating to sheep, should he addressed to him a3 above. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS I 
C. DEWEY, LL. D., 
BROOKS, L. B. LANG WORTHY. 
HOW ARE THE SHEEP TO BE WINTERED? 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsur¬ 
passed in Value, Purity, and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful Jr Appearance. Its Conductor 
devotes tils 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, Selentine and other Subjects inti¬ 
mately connected with the business of those whose 
interests It zealously advocates. As a Family Journal 
I t Is eminently Instructive and Entertaining—being so 
conducted that It can be safely taken to the Homes of 
people o I Intelligence, taste xml discrimination. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Helentlflc. 
Educational, Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
with appropriate Engravings, than any other journal,— 
rendering it the most complete Agricultural JLjtr- 
RABY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER In America. 
CURRENT TOPICS DISCUSSED. 
When to Cut Tobacco. 
11. P. Thomas:— You should cut your 
tobacco a3 soon as it ia mature. Run no risks 
of a frost. Frost destroys it, — renders it 
worthless. And a grower in this latitude says 
| it should not be allowed to become too ripe, be- 
| cause a thick, hard leaf is the mult. A Cuban 
grower says it should never be cot before com¬ 
ing to maturity, which is known by the leaves 
becoming mottled, coarse, and of a thick tex¬ 
ture, and gummy to the touch, at which time 
the end of the leaf by being doubled will break 
off short. But the Cuban does not run risks ol 
frosts by allowing his crop to stand. We copy 
the following mode of harvesting from Cor¬ 
nell's work on Tobacco Culture: 
Cut the plant with a hatchet, between the 
lower leaves and the ground; in order to do so, 
take hold of the stalk of the plant by the left 
hand, and press i: over, so as to come at the 
work handily. After it is cut, lay it down on 
the left hand side gently, so a9 not to break the 
leaves from the stalk, with the butt of the stalk 
toward you, for convenience in handling. Cut 
the tobacco either in the morning, or late in the 
afternoon; that cut in the morning, should lay 
on the ground long enough to wilt the leaves, so 
to their own neighborhoods — and having added 
to these a little floating “hearsay,” they assume 
to speak for a whole State, or, at least, for a 
large portion of it. Tbese correspondents, too, 
in a great many ira'ance^, betong fci the classes 
of habitual croa* ers or h ibitually over-sanguine 
men. And it is not to be disguised that here, 
as in stock jobbing, there are “ buds” and 
bear s’’ — that is to say, persons who system- 
aticaUy proclaim scarcity or abundance, ery up 
or cry down prices, in order to benefit their own 
pockets. 
The very extensive rains of August, by giving 
an abundant supply of fall feed, will prevent 
that fodder-famine which a few weeks since we 
seemed on the verge of — when farmers, in 
many instances, were beginning to feed out 
their short hay crop in summer! But there 
can be no possible doubt, in our judgment, that 
the usual fodder crops (hay, oats, corn, corn¬ 
stalks and straw,) wiH be at least one quarter 
lees than usual throughout large regions. In 
some limited ones, it wiH be found a third to a 
half less than usual, and as in such regions the 
requisite fodder can not be procured except at 
very high prices, what is to be done ? How are 
the sheep to be wintered? Or shaU they be 
sacrificed by selling them at very low prices? 
Farmers are studying these questions intently, 
aid devising expedients to avoid the latter al¬ 
ternative. For example, Henry a Wheeler, 
Columbus, St. Clair county, Michigan, writes 
us:—" I have 70 sheep with about half enough 
hay to winter them and no chance to buy hay. 
I propose to take the sheep into the woods, 
build two good shelters, divide the flock so that 
the strongest ones will be by themselves, and 
winter them on browse and grain — only feed¬ 
ing hay in stormy weather. The timber is 
mostly basswood, red elm, and maple. Can I 
thus winter them safely? What amount of 
WASTED WEALTH. 
Night-Soil. 
We resume this subject, commenced on page 
298, current volume of Rural. We spoke 
there of the loss and waste of the inorganic 
portions of the food consumed by the human 
body, and of the immense quantity of this 
material exported from this country in the 
shape of grain, which is never returned to our 
soil; and of the obvious necessity of husbanding 
such of those elements of fertility as remain with 
ns, and using them. 
the most value to the farmer and gardener 
to its nitrogen, which is about 21 per cent. It 
ia said it can be made at cents per pound. It 
was estimated that the urine wasted at one Of 
the poudrette works near Paris would annually 
produce four millions of pounds of sulphate of 
ammonia. The nitrogen in this amount is 
equal to fifty-two millions of pounds of pou¬ 
drette. It was determined that the relative 
money value of poudrette and sulphate of am¬ 
monia was as one to thirteen. 
For a time after the discovery of the value of 
liquid manure thus lost, it was saved and pre¬ 
pared for use, separately from the fences. But it 
was found to be desirable to save all the liquids 
in combination with the solid matters, and with¬ 
out a separate process of manufacture. It was 
finally discovered that all that was necessary in 
order to deodorize the Parisian vaults, and ren¬ 
der their contents portable and valuable as a 
manure, saving the liquid as well as the solid 
matters for use in the gardens and vineyards, 
was to introduce charred bones, (pulverized,) 
charred peat, carbonized earth or molds, wood 
charcoal, Ac., Ac., into the vaults. Peat, turf, 
swamp or pond mud or muck, containing an 
abundance of humus, were found most valuable. 
With these charred substances were mixed 
chips, shavings, sawdust, tanbark, Ac., thus 
increasing the absorbing power of the compost. 
This charred material—charred so as to fall to 
powder—was thrown into the vaults daily in suffi¬ 
cient quantity to completely deodorize the con¬ 
tents of the vaults and render the same portable. 
Or, when the vaults did not receive these ab¬ 
sorbents daily, they were periodically cleaned 
and their contents removed to the manufactories 
during the night and there mixed with an equal 
bulk of charred matter in a pit. It is so mixed 
until it becomes a dry powder, and may be carried 
about in a snuff box with less offense to the 
olfactories than the volatile powder usually car¬ 
ried there. Indeed, it is asserted that w hen thus 
The part of human focal of 
““ c imvbii liuuo vv me iarmer anu gardener, is 
wasted by the waste of this manure, because it 
is the part taken from the soil and is not easily 
replaced. 
There are many analyses of night-soil and 
poudrette, which have, been made by different 
chemists. These, of course, differ, for the value 
of the manure must depend upon the character 
of the food consumed, and upon the manner of 
its-preparation. The difference In the value of 
this food is marked by the different habits 
of the people in the way or diet. It is asserted 
that this is so well understood in Central 
Europe, where there is a mixed population of 
Protostunts and Roman Catholics, that farm- 
era pay a larger price for the contents of the 
vaults belonging to Protestant families. This 
difference Is, of course, caused by the difference 
in the amount of animal food consumed. So in 
Persia, the night-soil of the Russian families 
is preferred to that of the Mahometans. Ber¬ 
zelius found 1,000 parts of thu excrements of 
a healthy man to consist of 
Albumen.L".* . parts. 
bile. . % „ 
Saline matter. V2 
Mucilage, fit, aud other animal matter 107 “ 
Undecompoaed. rood _ .' ■;# „ 
1.UC0 
These 1,000 parts, when freed from water, 
left 132 parts of ash, composed as follows: 
Oarbonato of soda .. .. 3 Dart? 
Sulphateof soda, with a little sulphate of 
potash and phosphate of soda.. 8 <• 
■ aosphate of lime and magnesia, and a 
trace of gypsum. .mo « 
Silica. ik u 
more valuable. _ When it is necessary to clean a 
vault, the contents of which have not been ren¬ 
dered portable as before described, it may be 
deodorized quickly and cheaply by dissolving a 
few pounds of copperas in a pail of water — 
say a half pound of copperas to a gallon of 
water—and throwing it into the vault while 
the contents ure being removed. As before 
said, the copperas water, of course, adds to the 
value of the night-soil as a manure, inasmuch as 
it seizes and retains the ammonia and sulphur- 
retted compounds which would otherwise es¬ 
cape. Sulphate of zinc, sulphuric add and 
chloride of zinc have been recommended as dis¬ 
infectants— sulphate of zinc and sea salt mixed, 
forming chloride of zinc and sulphate of soda, is 
used lu the vaults of Baris as a disinfectant. 
!?ome years ago, Chas. T. Jackson, M. D., 
of Boston, wrote: — “I have found, bv experi¬ 
ment, that muriatic acid is the best deodorizer 
of vaults; for it acts both as a liquid and by its 
add vapor. It is best applied with a copper 
watering pot, and may then be sprinkled over 
all the fecal matters, and upon the side walls of 
the vault, so as to take up all the ammoniacal 
that the plant can be handled without breaking; 
after it is so wilted, it can be gathered. Tbat 
cut in the latter part of the afternoon, may He 
on the ground over night, and be gathered the 
next forenoon. The object in cutting in the 
morning and evening, is that the tohacco may 
be got into the tobacco house before noon, and 
this is only necessary when the sun is out, and 
score/u‘n <7 hot. Should the day be very warm 
with a hot sun, the tobacco that is cut shoold 
be gathered up and housed, in the earlv part of 
the day, as the effect of a hot sun on the plant 
is equally injurious as frost; it will hurt the leaf 
and destroy it. In cool weather, this precaution 
is, of course, unnecessary. When there is a 
heavy dew on the plants, if left to dry off par¬ 
tially before cutting, they will wilt sooner, and 
will not require turning over, which is some¬ 
times necessary. If by accident, there should 
be danger ol getting the tobacco burnt by the 
sun, in the absence of the cart for removing it, it 
can be piled up in heaps, till the means of re¬ 
moving is at hand. A wagon without side or 
end boards, is preferred for carting from the 
field to the tobacco house; place the plants on 
the wagon with the butts aU on one side, and 
as straight as convenient, in order that they I 
may be Liken off without tearing the leaves; 
which is a matter to be looked alter, during the 
whole process of raising and curing tobacco. 
Cutting the After-Math. 
lauctXG with a gentleman the other day, he 
said if these showers continued to fall and the 
w eather continued warm, his second crop of 
hay would be very heavy. “ But,” said he, 
■' would you cut it? Do you think it any dam¬ 
age to meadows to cut the after-math?” It may 
be a damage to the roots of grasses to cut the 
after-math close late in the season. Ou some 
soils probably it would be, unless the seasou was 
fivorable for the third starting of the grass. 
But this would uot prevent us cutting the after- 
math, it til cured —and that is the most impor¬ 
tant as well as most difficult condition at this 
season of the year—it is the most nutritious hay 
that is gathered during the season. And, at 
present prices, U there is help at hand, and the 
crop will warrant going over the ground, it 
should be saved. If the soil and locality Is such 
as to warrant the fear of disaster to the roots 
from exposure, a top-dressing of straw or coarre 
manure will be an ample equivalent to the 
plants and a profitable exchange for the hay you 
get. Remember, the value of this kind of hay 
depends upon the condition in which it is put 
in the mow. It should be well cured; unless it 
is, it is more apt to become musty than the 
earlier crop. I 
Thus it it will be seen that the solid, or dried 
ances contain valuable fertilizers, without placing 
:my value upon or saying aught of the nitrogen¬ 
ous and ammonlcal matters in the form of urea. 
1 here are very false and prudish notions con¬ 
cerning the effect of this manure upon the char¬ 
acter or the plant which it feeds. We have 
ollen heard it asserted that Its offensiv e charac¬ 
ter affects, unfavorably, the product of the soil 
to which it is applied, whether it be flower or 
fruit. It does affect such product, but only to 
increase the richness, delicacy of color, aud fra- 
granee of the flower, and the beauty, aroma and 
‘tavor Of tho frnit. The offensive character of 
\ ui gUtrsoil in its unprepared state is its best 
recommendation as a manure. It should be tho 
’ liort to retain and use these offensive qualities, 
for they arc the most valuable, 
l l here is another quality of this manure which 
' tight to commend it to producers—especially 
^ t0 t ^ ose w ^o Uve ucar cities and whose profits 
} d °l ,end hir Sely «P<>n the ewliuess aud quick sue- 
