pT UR E 
7\GRICULTU,,e 
TEEMS, $3.00 PER YEAR.] 
' PROGRESS .ANTE IM PRO VEMENT.” 
fSrN'G-ILE XO. TEN CENTS. 
VOL. XVI. NO. 2.! 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1865. 
MOORE’S EURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AX ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
SURAL, LITERARY AND FAJTILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
CHAS. D. HRAODON, Assotiate Editor. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Editor of tho Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
SPECIAL 
P. BARRY, 
H. T. BROOKS, 
T. C. PETERS, 
CONTRIBUTORS; 
C. DEWEY, LL. D., 
L. B. LANGWOTHY, 
EDWARD WEBSTER. 
The Rural New-Yorker Is designed to he 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 its 
various departments, and earnestly labors to render the 
Rural an eminently Reliable Guide on all the important 
Practical, Scientific nnd other Subjects Intimately 
connected with the business of those whose interests it 
zealously advocates. As a Fajiii.t Journal It Is emi¬ 
nently Instructive and Entertaining—being so conducted 
that it caa be safely taken to the Homes of people of 
intelligence, taste and discrimination, it embraces more 
Horticultural, Scientific, Educational. Literary and News 
Matter,interspersed with appropriate Engravings, than 
any other journal— rendering it far the most complete 
Agricultural, Literary a.vd Family Newspaper in 
America. 
IS?” For Terms aud other particular?, see last page. 
LEARNING FARMING. 
We receive frequent inquiries from young men 
about farm schools where they can learn the 
practice of funning. We do not know of any 
such. And we are often asked what we would ad¬ 
vise a young man to do who is anxious to become 
an intelligent and thorough agriculturist—what 
course we would advise him to pursue iu order 
to become one—we answer that we have hope 
that the National Endowment of Agricultural 
Schools will result in furnishing such young men 
witli the opportunity of getting a theoretical ed¬ 
ucation—a knowledge of science, natural laws, as 
related to the different, husbandries, just as the 
young law student gets a knowledge of Lhe theory 
and science of law and its practice, by attend¬ 
ing a law school. When we got schools where 
the pupil shall be able to adapt his studies 
to his specific aim in life, a great step in advance 
oi the present faculties for obtaining an agricultu¬ 
ral education will have been reached. Then what 
would wo do i —just what the shoemaker, or tan¬ 
ner, or blacksmith docs in order to get a knowl- 
edgeof his profession. We would go to the best 
practical man in any specific branch of agricul¬ 
ture we wished to pursue, and perfect our edu¬ 
cation in his service. If we proposed to engage 
in dairying, the best dairyman w e could induce to 
receive us should instruct us, we compensating 
him with our labor, and, if necessary, with an ad¬ 
ditional tuition. If we proposed to enter upon 
sheep husBUndry, it would be both capital and 
time well invested if we could induce one of 
the best fioek-masters iu the conutry to instruct 
us iu the practical management and breeding of 
sheep. It is the only way wo know of iu which 
practical knowledge can be obtained. To be sure, 
the more we complete our kuowledgeof natural 
’•aws, affecting and governing any branch of hus¬ 
bandry, the more intelligently will we be able to 
practice the same, provided we don’t let theory 
govern our practice too closely. Practical knowl¬ 
edge should alwuys be allowed to correct tt^o- 
reticai; the latter should boused to render the 
former progressive, if possible. Fuels, once es¬ 
tablished, are incontrovertible—stubborn. Theo¬ 
ry cauuot resist them. Facts, it should always 
be remembered, are the bases of science ; theory 
has nothing to do with science; and yet these 
terms are often confused and made identical iu 
use. 1 lie farmer who is governed iu his practice 
by the most extended experience, and observa¬ 
tion of the relation of facts to each other, is the 
most scientific farmer— no matter whether he 
ever read & scientific book or not. Thebreeder of 
sheep or cattle who Is governed iu his breeding 
by laws which Lis experience has wrought out 
G>r him, is a scientific breeder—uo matter wheth- 
cr hi » practice conflicts with the dicta of tlieorct- 
ual writers or uot. fio that it is a t»urd to sup¬ 
pose, us many do, that u man must be learned in 
the books iu order to be scientific. And yet 
•ouch practical knowledge is to be obtained from 
books — the recorded results of practice Ttm 
farmer should “prove all things aud hold fast to 
that wliich is good.” 
Knowledge is (lower. If wo had $10,000 which 
we proposed to invest in stock for a farm, inteud- 
ing to manage it ourself, we should much rather 
spend half the sum in obtaining a thorough 
knowledge of the best modes of managing the 
stock we proposed to buy, than run the risk of 
losing the whole of it, and of a humiliating fail¬ 
ure in its management, by investing in some¬ 
thing we knew nothing about. There are, doubt¬ 
less, many men among our readers who will in¬ 
dorse the correctness of this position because of 
their own experience in the purchase and man¬ 
agement of blood cattle, years ago; and doubt¬ 
less many others will learn what we mean before 
they shall have realized all they expect from 
the costly sheep they have purchased during the 
past year. The man who has a practical knowl¬ 
edge of his business will succeed better with 
half the capital than the man who has no know! 
edge, or only a theoretical one, of the work up 
on which he is entering. 
CANARY SEED. 
“ Is Canary Seed grown in this country ? ” 
asks a correspondent. We answer that we saw 
several acres of it growing two years since; and 
we happen to know an Illinois fanner who grew 
fifteen acres of it the past year — with what 
result as to profit, we are not informed. But we 
are confident he would not have giveu that num¬ 
ber of acres to this crop bad not his previous 
experience with it warranted it. Most of that 
now used in this country is’imported, and for it. 
the consumer pays a high price. 
We give herewith an engraving of a head of 
this grass, and the straw. The field in which we 
saw it was prairie, had been fall plowed and the 
seed sown broad-cast in the spring. The pro¬ 
prietor anticipated it would be a profitable crop. 
Wo do not give the name of the party growing 
it, because he will, in his own good time, give the 
Public the benefit of his experience with it. We 
hope to be able to give our readers this experi¬ 
ence before the spriug seed-time. 
and are forced almost perpendicularly into the earth, 
to whatever depth they are set. for, from one to eight 
inches. If the motion of the team is rapid, the act on 
of the teeth upon the earth, as they come around the 
hind roller, by a short, sharp leverage, is to throw it 
up in a spray, like the hay behind a tedding machine. 
In a small way, the action of he dir*, is pretty well 
represented by an active dog. digging in loose earth, 
aud tin-owing it up behind him. Of course, no other 
known process of working the soil, could possibly put 
it in better order for any crop, particularly one grown 
from fine seeds.'’ 
From this report we glean that the members 
of the committee were quite satisfied with the 
work performed by this implement. On soils 
that are not stony and stumpy it will be found 
profitable to use it in the work of comminution. 
It will not turn sod; but if the sod has been 
turned deeply, it will prepare the surface for a 
seed-bed better than any other farm implement. 
We are glad to record the good words of the 
committee concerning this implement. But the 
proprietors should not depend upon the opinions 
of committees. The implement should be man¬ 
ufactured and put in the hands of farmers to op¬ 
erate with—in the hands of intelligent figure¬ 
formers, who are interested in the success of 
such implements. Let such men test them and 
report upou the results of t'ueir work during a 
season. The testimony of such men as Geddes 
of this State, Greer of Ohio, Slxivant of Illi¬ 
nois, will pay a year's waiting. Farmers, the 
mass of them, have wisely adopted the rule of 
not purchasing new thin.-^ mill they see them 
at work, or have an oppo tunity to test them. 
We hope this digger will be put to work. There 
is need of such implements in pur soil culture, 
and wc shall rejoice in the'' - success. 
- + 
THE BEST SOIL FOR CLOVER. 
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 this Department, and all inquiries 
relating to sheep, should be addressed to him as above. 
CLEANSING FLEECES OF SHEEP AT FAIRS. 
EVAN’S ROTARY DIGGER OR CULTIVATOR. 
In the Autumn of ISOS we saw this implement 
at work in a field near this city, and thou gave 
iu these columns, the impressions it made upon 
us by its operation at that time. Our attention 
has been called to a report of a committee, cofl- 
sisting of John G. Bergen, Wsi. S. Carpenter, 
ami Solon Robinson, appointed by the Ameri¬ 
can Institute Farmer’s Club to witness its work 
in the field. It was tested on a stitl' hard loam, 
very compact, and required a team of four horses 
to work it to its full capacity,—eight inches 
deep, and thirty inches wide. Ou this hard 
grouud it was found necessary for the driver to 
ride or carry weight to keep the teeth iu the soil 
and steady. The weight of the machine and dri¬ 
ver is estimated at eight or ten hundred pounds, 
by the committee. The committee thus de¬ 
scribes it : — 
"The machine is made with steel teeth aboutan inch 
wide, like those of an ordinary spading fork, which 
are set, two by two, on a flexible chain band, working 
over rollers ; and a machine may be made with two or 
more of these chains; two cutting twenty indies wide 
and three thirty Inches, and so on. The one that we 
saw at work had three chains aud six rows of teeth, 
ami these, with lhe rollers, levers, etc., for regulating 
the work, are mounted upou a pair of wheels about 
two teet high, and the whole, with a seat for the driver, 
occupies just about as much room, and is of about the 
game weight as a Buckeye mowing machine, minus- 
the cutter-bar. 
In moving from place to place, the teeth are lifted 
from the grouud, and the whole weight then rests up¬ 
on the wheels. When let down to (till work, the 
wheels are lifted, and the whole weight of the machine 
aud driver, say eight or teu hundred pounds, rests up- 
trn the ground; and the rollers are so arranged tint 
the teeth strike as they revolve, upou the points, aud 
A correspondent asks what is the best soil 
for clover. It is our opinion, that a well drained, 
stitl', clayey loam is the best adapted to growing 
it in the greatest perfection. But we have seen 
it grow well on almost all varieties of soil — 
thriving on the sandiest sand, and luxuriant by 
the water-side iu almost pure humus. We speak 
of the red^elover — TnjUuun pratense. But it 
will not thrive on wet soils. We have seen it, 
on the prairies extending from the dry upland, 
and occupying the slough bottoms through 
which the mole ditcher had passed. So that it 
is uot to be excluded from my soil. It thrusts 
its roots deep wherever it can get afoot-udUl 
until it meets water. Other things being equal, 
a soil containing an abundance of lime yields 
the largest and best clover product.- And ihero 
is no crop that we know of which repays the use 
^ P'Sutn and bone dust, as .* topr-dressing, more 
surely. Except we were cultivating it for its 
seed mainly, we should never sow- it unuiixed 
with other grasses for a forage crop. And 
whether sown alone or mixed, it should be sown 
thickly— more so than is common by a large 
proportion of farmers — say from ten to sixteen 
pounds per acre alone, and from sLx to ten or 
twelve pounds w-ith other grasses. 
PRACTICAL HINTS BY CORRESPONDENTS. 
H arts oti Coirs Teats—T. B., Wooster, O., puts 
a tablespoonful of alum iu a half pint of soil 
water and, after milking, wets the teats thor¬ 
oughly in the solution. The warts will come off 
and remain off 
To Pretent Morses' Tit: BaUitig.— Mason W. 
Hall, of Greece, N. Y., writesSoft soap 
put into the sole of a horses’ foot will prevent 
them from dogging or balling up with snow. 
The feet should be well cleansed before applying 
the soup.” 
♦ r 
Ointment for Horses eyes. —Wm. Hendrick 
makes tin ointment of tansy and fresh butter, or 
lard, with which he annoints the sore eyes of 
horses and they neither exhibit fear uor pain on 
its application. And he says it has been applied 
to the sore eyes of humans with good results. 
Pnparimj Dry Stalks for houiruj, —“A Young 
Farmer” says he has prepared stalks so dry that 
cattle would not eat them well, by spreadiug 
them and pouring boiling water over them, and 
letting them lay awhile. When so prepared 
cows eat them cleaner, and give more milk than 
when fed dry. 
Storing Corn Stalks. — " A Young Farmer,'’ 
Milburu, N. Y\, writer us that he stores his 
stalks in the barn by setting thorn up buts down, 
straight and solid, until the bottom of the bay 
or scaffold is covered, then sets another tier on 
top, aud so on. Says damp stalks so stored will 
dry in the mow. 
Ocr highly respected friend William Cham¬ 
berlain of Red Hook, N. Y., writes to us :—“I 
have sometimes thought that the State Society 
should appoint a man to cleanse the wool of all 
sheep entered for premiums and report to the 
Society its cleansed weight and value — and that 
no sheep should be allowed to compete for a 
premium unless the owners will submit to such 
a test. What do you think of it?” Mr. 
Chamberlain’s letter was not intended for 
publication, bat he will excuse us if we take the 
above extract as a text fair some remarks on an 
interesting and much mooted topic among 
sheep breeders. 
If wool buyers offered prices for wool with a 
conscientious reference to the facts which a test 
like the above would disclose — in other words, 
in reference to its actual value when cleansed] 
then the mode suggested by Mr. Chamberlain 
would undoubtedly be the ffest one for ascer¬ 
taining the most profitable fleece, for the wool 
grower as well as the -nanufaeturer. But do 
wool buyers keep in viev. or hardly attempt to 
keep in view such a standtrel of value ? Do not 
the most poorly washed wools of every neigh¬ 
borhood sell for nearly as nUcb—often for quite 
as much — as the best washed ones, of the same 
quality ? 
How is this singular resui, brought about? 
We account for it as follows —If the fair and 
experienced buyer passes by the dirtier lots, 
they are “gobbled up ” by sonc eagerer or less 
practiced purchaser, incapable of judging, or 
anxious to pocket his commssion. But in 
truth, the best buyers, with then eyes open, fail 
to make any adequate discrimination in prices. 
There is not enough clean wooi to keep the 
manufactories running. The dirtymust be also 
purchased. Those who furnish tie latter ask 
the full market price, and knowing hey will get 
it tYom somebody, resolutely holt 0 n. The 
market price then is really adjusted with refer¬ 
ence to the fact that it must be pail, with but 
trifling variations, for a whole class of wools 
three-quarters or more of which is imperfectly 
washed. It represents the aivratK maket value 
of the clean and dirty wools put together, and 
thus the interests of the producer ot tic former 
are sacrificed for the benefit of the producer of 
the latter. And their statement also applies to 
grade as well as eonditioi-. Our growers >f really 
fine wool have always been mercilessly cit short 
in prices for the benefit of the growers of nedium 
wool. But this point is not involved in the 
present discussion. 
There is still another place where th< wool 
buyer dutifully obeys tbe injunction to “ lore his 
enemies. He insists ou a uniform rffe of 
shrinkage (one-third) on all unwashed ^ools. 
Yet a large yolky fleeced ram, carefully hAised 
from summer and whiter storms, will yieb 
unwasht d fleece weighing two pounds more turn 
be would if allowed to run out as sheep gc*er- 
ally do; and the same differences iu cireumsan- 
ces wonld make a difference of a pound in an 
unwashed fleece. The one-third rule then ipe- 
ralcs as a bounty on the preservation of yok in 
ih<* woql. And it operates cxe.oedinglv conven¬ 
ient for those who, for other objects, house treir 
sheep in summer to preserve their yolk. It 
enables them to kill three birds with one store. 
They get the fashionable rotor; they get beq 
jUtx-cs; and they get pay for the extra ydk 
which contributes so essentially to those object 
We do not, of course, intend to be understoo4 
i WHOLE NO. 782. 
which he seeks to purchase ? Whoever heard of 
good wheat or butter being forced down in 
price to enable the buyer to pay more in proper 
tion for inferior articles? Aud especially who¬ 
ever heard of other commodities besides wool 
being subjected to an uniform rate of shrinkage 
for impurities, whether the actual impurities 
present comprise five or twenty-five oer cent, of 
the nominal weight or bulk!—provided the 
seller cannot pretend that he has “washed,” or 
performed some other special process on them ! 
Whenever common sense and fair play are 
allowed to triumph over tradition and precedent, 
wool will be bought as other commodities are. 
In the mean time, we are not altogether clear 
that it is the duty of the wool grower to intro¬ 
duce tests specially intended for the benefit of 
the buyer, which he himself ignores when he 
finds it profitable to do so. In plain English, 
the. wool grower must be expected to market his 
wools in that condition which he finds most 
profitable. If the manufacturer wants cleaner 
wools, let him make it equally profitable to fur¬ 
nish them, and they will be promptly forth¬ 
coming. 
There are some grounds on which the cleans¬ 
ing test would furnish useful information to the 
wool grower—but-we have not space to advert 
to them here. We should not object to see it 
voluntarily resorted to by exhibitors of sheep at 
our Fairs—nor possibly to see premiums raid in 
certain voluntary classes with partial reference 
to the. results of cleansing. (It would obviously 
in no case do to make it a sole test, irrespective 
ot the form, size and constitution of the animal.) 
But as things now’ stand, we are not in favor of 
making such a test obligatory on all ex'iibitors. 
There would be several special objections to that 
course of a different character from the preced¬ 
ing. which we may advert to hereafter. 
Such a test is not really necessary to settle any 
important and doubtful question. Of course no 
human eye can, by simple inspection, determine 
the precise amount of yolk in a fleece; but an expe¬ 
rienced eye can determine this with approximate 
accuracy; and with still greater certainty can it 
discern the relative amount found in different 
fleeces. If this were not so, what guide would 
buyers have in establishing the “average” 
prices we have adverted to. or in determining 
the value of great lots in second holders or im¬ 
porters’ hands ? Nearly the whole wool of the 
United States, however many hands it may pass 
through, reaches the manufacturer before it has 
been subjected to any criterion of value but the 
eyes and Angers of the buyer. And the manu¬ 
facturer employs no other criterion when he 
buys for himself. This implies his admission 
that no other is necessary. 
We have no idea that the cleansing test would 
produce any change in the course of breeding 
Merinos among those who have been most suc¬ 
cessful in that art Fortunately for all parties, 
the greatest amount of yolk in a rteeee is uot 
compatible with the greatest amount of wool — 
and taking wool and yolk together, that fleece 
weighs most which exhibits the greatest amount 
of wool instead of the greatest amount of yolk. 
It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose that the 
heaviest fleeced flocks exhibit ftie volkiest wool— 
or that under ordinary management they exhibit 
any improper excess of yolk. Cleansing tests 
would only establish more firmly the supremacy 
| of those Merino floc ks of our country which now 
give the heaviest fleeces. 
SUMMER SHELTER FOR SHEEP. 
While moving a building about the first of 
November, through a field which contained a 
flock of sheep, the rain compelled the workmen 
to retreat. The sheep immediately took peace- 
fable possession of the building and occupied it 
through the stormy night that succeeded. See¬ 
ing how comfortable tiny looked the next morn¬ 
ing and how evidently benefited they had been 
, by the passing shelter, I at once exclaimed 
in the preceding remarks, that the buyer actual’^ " Why not give every flock—every animal—a 
purposes or wishes to make discriminations un- comfortable house, summer and winter? ” Whv 
producers who bring their not erect a heap, substantud shed in every field 
favorable to those 
woo! into market in the best condition. That 
would be to suppose him insane. But it is the 
practical effect of his action, aud he is, there-j 
fore, accountable for it. 
It is idle to say that lhe course of the buyer 
in the particulars complained of is unavoidable. 
On the contrary, there is not a shadow of neces¬ 
sity or good reason for its continuance. What 
prevents the wool buyer from going iuto the 
nurket, and, like the wheat or butter buyer, 
offering prices in all cases proportioned to the 
actual quality aud condition of each separate lot 
ohr flocks and herds are expected to occupy? 
It would cost something, but the plain, substan¬ 
tia! things ot this world occasion but a small 
part of our expenditures. Men who would 
put I hundred dollars into extra putty and var- 
n -li and trimming for a carriage, a hundred and 
filly dollars into a watch, and a thousand dollars 
)n carvings and gildings aud questionable flour- 
thes for a house, will, I suppose, shiver over the 
qvpense of a few feet of stone wall, and three or 
ftur pine, hemlock, ash, or beech loss sawed 
into boards. 
