ifra GRicuLTU ftr 
{WHOLE NO. 604 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1861 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AX ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL. LITERARY AN9 FAMILY JOURNAL. 
The TIi-hai. New-Yorker did good service in I 
calling attention to this subject in former numbers: 
but as these "unclean spirits” in agriculture "go | 
not out "at our simple bidding, let us continue to j 
exorcise them by every process at our command. 
“A virgin soil”—ah! there is more in that than 
our careless utterance imports— a soil fresh from the 
hands of our Maker, not yet delivered up to brambles j 
and -worthless weeds, ready to quicken into life and j 
growth the cereals that, support, mankind ; which 
needs unremitting attention, rather than continuous ! 
labor or expensive outlay, to save it from desecration, j 
— a virgin soil! not too highly prized. 
Arithmetic would falter under the load if it should | 
attempt to carry to a sum total the ruinous cost of 
growing pestiferous weeds. The exhaustion of the 
soil is one item; the tenacious occupancy of much 
of our best land by these pests of agriculture, to the ] 
partial or entire exclusion of useful plants, is auother 
item; the frightfully increasing labor of even their I 
partial suppression is still another item) while their 
triumphant march to new conquest and more ex- , 
tended domains make us tremble for the future. 
The modest little "privateer" which, bound up in 
a bundle of wheat is quite out of sight, gives life and 
being to a thousand like itself. Daisy and dock, J 
mustard and pigeon weed, Canada thistle and rag¬ 
weed, come in so quietly, and carry themselves so 
meekly, for a year or two, that we scarce believe they I 
will ever amount to any thing, when, all of a sudden, 
they spring up like armed legions, to bid us defiance. I 
What might have been exterminated iti live or fifteen 
minutes, root and branch, wait till next year, would I 
consume months, and tho year after bid defiance to 
the labor of a life. “ Avoid tho first appearance of 
ev|l, n Is the weightiest of all moral maxims, and, 
applied to these material lute rests, the only safe rule, i 
We have, iu this neighborhood, along our water¬ 
courses and low lands, a weed whose flower resem¬ 
bles mustard, which a few years ago was confined to 
one farm where it found accidental lodgment. There 
it was, with its modest yellow blossom, its two or 
three, its dozen or twenty roots, that could have been 
bushed up for ever in ten minutes by a conple of 
boys; now it has gone down every stream, and up 
every rivulet for ten miles around, crowding out 
better herbage, and bidding defiance to all op¬ 
position. 
In conversing the other day with Dr. Cox, Chan¬ 
cellor of Ingham University, 1 said to him, “Agricul¬ 
ture requires a service of you, and the ladies you are 
educating; it wants you to acquaint the people with 
that branch of botany which relates to pestiferous 
weeds.” 
There are many “noxious weeds,” well known to 
be noxious in sections where they prevail, which 
the people at large are unacquainted with, and which 
they do not get acquainted with till they are too 
many to he pulled. The tare, or pigeon weed, so 
injurious to wheat, had scattered millions of seeds on 
farms in this vicinity before we found out it was a 
“bad weed.” 
The other day I was riding with Mr. Cameron, who 
has been round some, and he pointed out a plant 
which was taking it very cooly by the road side—rag 
weed, T think—which, scarcely known here, is quite 
too well known in Ohio, Let somebody publish a 
“ pestiferous botany,” which shall begin with tobacco 
and follow up with the other nuisances in the order 
of their rascality. 
The whole Continent, aud such portions of Europe 
as we traftic with, should he examined in reference 
to plants injurious to agriculture. Such plants 
should be scientifically and popularly described, and 
the students of all our schools should know them by 
sight. Our botanical scholars are generally young 
ladies, — I don't pretend to know what they study 
botany fur. I see them rambling round in the woods 
and through the grass with their thin shoes and 
muslin dresses on, pretty well drabbled, with hands 
full of what we used to call posies—now smelling 
them, and now peering into them very inquisitively, 
and calling them the hardest names in the decalogue 
— I mean the Greek language, or something else. 
I never object to language above my compreben- 
| sion,—it proves somebody knows more than I do,— 
I but I don’t want onr dear young Indies to die of 
consumption for the sake of moonshine and raigni- 
I onette,— I don't want them to waste their fraerance 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
The Rural New-Yokkrh is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value. Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
sonal attention to the supervision of its various departments, 
and earnestly labors to render the Rcf.al au eminently 
Reliabte Guide on all the important Practical, Scientific and 
other .Subjects intimately connected with the business of those 
whose Interest- it zealously advocates. As a Family Journal 
it is eminently Instructive and Entertaining- being so con¬ 
ducted that it can be safety taken to tho Hearts and Homes of 
people of intelligence, taste aud discrimination. It embraces 
more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, 
Literary and Mews Matter, interspersed with appropriate and 
beautiful Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering 
it the most complete Agricultural, Literary and Family 
Newspaper in America. 
WIRUIO/rCHAL 
IIA.ri3AKR’S HORSE-POWER, THRESHER .A. NT I) C I-. KIjAIV KI£ 
The proprietors also claim that, the Cleaner, though 
ft lute invention, has been thoroughly tested and is 
meeting with unparalleled favor—and they believe 
no machine of the class has ever been offered to the 
public that is so generally admitted »o be just what 
a Two-Horse Thresher and Gleaner should he. This 
is their opinion—to which they add that it is capable 
of doing a largo amount of business, without waste, 
Stud in the best manner, “cleaning as well as a good 
fanning mill;” that it is very convenient, being 
easily changed from right to left hand, and lighter 
than many others of less capacity—points that they 
aver are not possessed by any other machine. For 
further particulars, see out- advertising department. 
Orn engraving represents the Chain Horse-Power, 
Thresher and Cleaner manufactured by Messrs. II. & 
M. II.\mum, of Coblesklll, N. A*. This power was 
awarded tho first premium at the New York State 
Fair at Elmira, last October, several celebrated ma¬ 
chines competing for the post of honor. The iuamt 
faoturers claim that this machine produces more 
power, with Jess elevation, and is operated with 
greater ease to the team, than any other “going 
only about one and-a-half miles per hour when doing 
at least a fair business, say 400 to .MX) bushels of oats 
per day, or half that atiautity of wheat or rye.” 
Among the advantages claimed, are — “That the 
friction rollers, or little wb".is , -y are usually 
called, are larger, (being (> inches in diameter,) re¬ 
quiring less elevation;—That it has a reel in tho 
lower end of the bridge, which does away with the 
crooked track around the end, and serves to carry 
the rods uud wheels from tho upper to the lower 
track, giving the wheels time to stop rolling motion 
before striking said track, thereby allowing them to 
reverse and pass along smoothly, without loss of 
power and obviating the pounding noise to which 
others are subject;—'That these, with other mechani¬ 
cal advantages, cause this power to run much stiller 
than any •>***o»— indeed renderimr its operation 
nearly free from noise, except that caused by the 
step of the horses on the plank.” 
INQUIRIES AND NOTES 
plowed before. There were plenty of worms but 
scarce a weed. This year i put it to beans; and it 
scarce requires hoeing at alt; but very likely T shall 
let a few go to seed to keep ns busy enough hereafter, 
In spite of the evident fact that it is a hundred 
tiraeB cheaper to keep weeds out than to get them out. 
I now think after harvest I will pull everyone up, but 
in view of the depravity of the human heart, there is 
eminent doubt in the case. 
Oh, ye inhabitants of new countries! how cheaply 
you raise corn on your "virgin soil.” Agriculture is 
almost a lumry, so prolific is the land iu good herb¬ 
age, and so free from bad. Beware! beware! hero 
and there is dock, daisy, tory-weeds, pig-weeds, or 
pusley, and if you leave one yon are sure of a 
thousand. This is a question of bread for the "un- 
horn million,” and rises almost or quite to the 
dignity of a moral and religious subject. I invoke 
the pulpit. I suggest the following notice for Sun 
day:—" The sewing society will meet on Wednesday 
afternoon, at sister J. Smith’s, and Canada thistles 
must be cut or they will go to seed within a week.” 
without any paper, and a good deal more than he 
Could harvest and sell. 
Now there is a large class of just such men as this 
one in the West. They believe in grain; they do 
nothing hut plant or sow and harvest. There is no 
effort to adapt their products to the wants of tho 
market. And they are bigoted in the “enlarged 
sense” of the term; their prosperity is inversely 
proportionate to their bigotry. 
AU this Is preliminary to the record of the testi¬ 
mony Isaac Funk gave mo on this subject of man¬ 
uring prairie lands, l was led to suppose that with 
the immense area of land under his control, and 
from the character of his husbandry, little value 
wonld be placed upon manure. I beg Isaac Funk's 
pardon for the libelous thought! I was greatly 
astonished to hear him assert that "manuring pays 
oh all lands and for all crops — especially on grass 
lands," lie emphasized those words as 1 have. He 
assertedr "My pastures of blue grass, on which cattle 
have herded a dozen years, are better to-duy than they 
were before a bullock had stepped on them; and 
when I tell you that it will pay any man who handles 
as much stock as I do, to yard his cattle every night, 
save, take care of, and compost the manure dropped 
in the yards, and apply it to the grass lands, you may 
be sure that I mean what I say— I know it will pay.” 
He would apply the manure late in the fall, but 
before the heavy rains. This mode of applying 
manure to land intended for corn, is, as a rule, far 
better than hauling it in the spring, in the mud, 
cutting up farm roads, or worse, meadows, and plow¬ 
ing it under six or eight inches deep. Even if it is 
coarse manure, the mulch in the fall will render the 
land as light and porous as will the stratum of straw 
six inches beneath tho surface. There are doubtless 
some soils iu the West where it will be profitable to 
apply the manure direct to the ground the season it. 
is intended to grow small grain on it; but ns a rule 
it is better to apply the fall previous, because the 
ground is in better condition to receive it, and there 
is more time at the command of the farmer. It 
should be remembered that a mulch on stiff clay soils, 
liable to bake and crack, is as effective in preventing 
baking, as if the same coarse litter were turned 
uuder the sod. 
and the same pasture, divided, each part, resting and 
being fed alternately, would render it unnecessary. 
Isaac Fukk testifies in this mutter, lie has a ten 
thousand acre range for his herds. He says cattle do 
not do as well on such range as they would do in 
smaller fields, with frequent regular change from one 
to another. He intends so to subdivide his pasture, 
and asserts that then the same amount of land will 
keep more cattle, and they will be easier controlled 
and cared for. 
BEST SIZE FOR PLOWED FIELDS. 
Mr. Fi nk's plow-fields range in size from twenty 
to six hundred and forty acres. He has but few 
fields smaller than forty acres which he says are both 
small and large enough. But we did not understand 
that Mr. F. would inclose each forty acre plow field 
with a fence. On some accounts it might be an 
advantage; hut it should he done with a hedge if 
done at all. Headlands — grass headlands — about 
each forty acres are very convenient, and in many 
instances, especially on a very large grain farm with 
a timber protection, are all the subdivision necessary. 
It is true a hedge about each forty acres would be 
beautiful, and a great protection — would modify the 
climate greatly. But the care of them would be 
costly, and the planting of groves or groups of trees 
would effect a better modification of the climate, 
give greater variety aud beauty to the landscape, and 
economise the amount of headland necessary. As 
a rule, grass headlands, on our prairies, are very 
Convenient about each twenty acre field. They 
should he seeded with taiue grasses, and the grass 
cut as regularly as a lawn is cut. It will pay to do it, 
iu more than one way. 
WESTERN EDITORIAL NOTES 
MANURING GRASS LANDS. 
It is not an uncommon thing, here on the prairies, 
to hear men aver that the laud is rich enough without 
manure. There are very many men who assert that 
the addition of manure to the fertile soils of the 
West is a disadvantage — it diminishes the crop 
instead of increasing it; it causes too great a growth 
of straw and it falls down. In many ctnes it is 
doubtless impolitic to apply manure strongly to the 
soil immediately preceding the cropping it with 
small grain. It is better to apply it to the hgid while 
in grass, or before cropping it with corn pr other 
coarse, gross feeding crop. 
Riding through the country the other day; I came 
up wiih a young man whose phiz told me he Udonged 
to a garrulous tribe. Accordingly I determined to 
set his tongue in motion—hinted that it was a 
“ great country ” — a beautiful country—crop^ splen¬ 
did— soil incomparably rich, Ac., &e. I had tickled 
the Sucker, and away went his tongue like a thirdly 
Press. 
“I reckon you’re from away down east-4from 
down among them rocks, and lulls, and stnmpt, and 
sich like, that we’ve hearn tell on but never seeH.” 
" Y r es, I was originally from the East.” 
11 1 thought so — don't talk like a ra’al live Sucker. 
My father was horn in York State, but I wasn’t. I've 
hearn tell how they farmed it down thar, but we 'Jon’t 
need no sich style of farming here on the pra-ra-ue." 
(By tho way, that iB a political way of pronouncing 
prairie. Our estimable Governor, Dick 'Yates, iped 
that pronunciation last fall on the stump; and efen 
New Hampshire Hale, and his contemporary ^it, 
Nvb, of New York, astonished us of the West (by 
using a third syllable in this very beautiful afad 
simple two-syllabled word, pronounced by Wehstsk, 
and by all educated Suckerdom, pra'-re.) " We doi't 
need to save and use manure; all we’ve got to do is 
to get in the seed the best way we can, and we bale 
more grain than we can take care on.” 
I asked him if he read any agricultural papers. 
He answered his father used to take a down east 
paper, but he did not want any such nonsense about 
him — could grow all the grain and hay he wanted 
GROUPS vs. BELTS OF TREES. 
While I am strongly committed to hedges and tim¬ 
ber belts for the prairies, 1 am getting “out of sorts” 
with this "timber belting” mania. The fuel is to 
define my position—1 believe each farm, and perhaps 
each forty acres, should be inclosed with a good 
Osage Orange hedge; but 1 would not have the subdi¬ 
visions made with hedge in all cases. I would use 
portable fence, when practicable, or wire fence to 
inclose the stork. There is no need that each field of 
grain he fenced from its nelglibor field. The head¬ 
lands before mentioned arc all that are necessarry for 
division, it is now the practice to plant belts of 
timber along the north, west, and sometimes tho 
south sides of the farm. Some such protection is 
necessary, strictly so, on the broad prairies, but it is 
a question, with rne at least, whether these belts are 
the best forms of protection; whether the planting of 
groups of evergreen and deciduous trees, of greater 
or less extent, would not effect the necessary modifi¬ 
cation of climate, insure the proper protection, and 
yet afford circulation, of air sufficient to prevent, late 
and early frosts. Too much " protection ” proves 
disastrous to fruit blossoms and tender, early vegeta¬ 
bles. It is believed that both for useful and orna¬ 
mental purposes the groves or groups are more 
desirable than the belts with regular angular outline. 
There can be no question whatever about the rdative 
effect of careful, tasteful grouping. The picture of a 
belted farm, compared with the grove dotted acres, 
quickly settles the question. Every farm should he 
a picture — is a picture — and should be the most 
beautiful that man and his means can make it. A 
man ha9 no right to expend money and labor on a 
farm with an exclusive eye to profit, and regardless 
CHANGING PASTURES. 
At this season of the year, this is a matter of some 
importance to most farmers. Comparatively few 
seem to know the economy of food aud correspond¬ 
ing increase of profit which results from a subdi¬ 
vision of pasture lauds, aud systematic change of 
stock (of all kinds) from one pasture to auother, 
periodically. The change is quite as essential to the 
health and prosperity of the animal, and quite as 
grateful too, as is a change of diet to man. We 
cloy if fed with one kind of food constantly, and 
soon loathe the dish on which it appears; so animals 
like a clean dish and fresh food — a dean, fresh, 
sweet pasture. This system of change is as impor¬ 
tant to the durability of the pasture as to prosperity 
of the stock. Yery many pastures arc too closely 
fed, and at a season when the plant is least able to 
recover from the shock given its vitality. It is well 
to feed pastures close; because It keeps down and 
destroys weeds, and makes the new growth of forage 
tender and sweet. But there is a limit to this dose 
feeding. It is not uncommon, a little later in the 
season, to see cattle fairly gnawing at the roots of 
the dry herbage in order to get a living. It is wrong, 
A'lii-ur 
