pints of oats per day, with all the clover hay he 
would eat, up to the time of the Fair. He served 
100 ewes last fall. The above statements are 
derived from the Messrs, Rat, and they add that 
his fleece was not damp, as some suppose, before 
shearing, as he wore an oil-cloth blanket when 
exposed to the rain, 
“Enquirer” of Williamsburgh, wishes to 
know if this was clean wool ? Of course not. 
No Merino ram ever sheared, produced such a 
fleece of clean, or even approximately clean, 
wool. No Merino ram ever sheared, whose 
wool was not stuck together all over, or at least 
in numerous places, with clotted masses of 
waxy yolk, ever produced such a weight of 
fleece. The Messrs. Rat, we venture to say, 
will send “Enquirer” a good, solid specimen, 
if he will apply to them for it over his own 
signature. 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE, ITEMS, &c 
Washington Co. Sheep out West.— Sewell H. 
Hawes of Fon da Lac, Wis., bought a ewe lamb last 
September of Isaac V. Baker, Jr., Comstock’s Land¬ 
ing, N. Y., which was shorn at a shearing festival in 
Wisconsin. Its fleece weighed 12# lbs. Weight of 
carcass with fleece off 47# lbs. This is over 25 per 
cent. Has it been beaten? The lamb was bred by Mr. 
Baker from Infantado elock. 
Diseased Sheep.— C. L. Hay, Jr., Spring Mills, Al¬ 
legany Co., N. Y. If the ram described eats grass 
well, he may yet recover, if his constitution is not Irre¬ 
trievably sapped. We would not keep him on grain 
feed through the summer—but would gradually entire 
ly withdraw it from him. Put him in a clean field 
where there is shade and pure water, and where feed 
iB shortish, fresh and sweet—not rank or high. Keep 
him out of rain storms until his catarrhal affection en 
tircly disappears. Let his stable, when put up, be 
dean and airy. Boneset (or thorough wort) tea is re 
garded by many experienced shepherds as excellent 
for sheep lacking appetite and requiring tonics, and 
it may be a good change, if it is found necessary to 
continue to administer these. Boneset is tonic and 
diaphoretic. Administered in large doses it becomes 
aperient. As a tonic it is thought to be best adminis¬ 
tered in substance, or in a cold infusion—hut the com¬ 
mon form of “ tea " will doubtless answer every pur¬ 
pose. The sample of wool sent is excellent to have 
come from a diseased sheep. 
of separating the two kinds of 6eed. This is 
done after the thrashing, as it seems very diffi¬ 
cult at least before. The Arabs do this work 
not very effectively; but the Jews with great 
particularity. As I heard a missionary describe 
the plant and its growth with the wheat and the 
mode of separation, which he had often witness¬ 
ed, I could trace the long line of the same facts 
in the living of the same people, in the same 
country, tor thousands of years. 
Another species is found with this sparingly in 
onr country, as well as iu England and wide 
over the east; yet this noxious Lolium has ac¬ 
cumulated in such quantity, so far as I have 
learned, in Judea only. 
The Greek word in Matthew, translated fares, 
is zi.zdnvi, and is used in the account of agricul¬ 
tural matters in Greece. One old writer says: 
“Zizanion injures wheat; aud mixed in the 
bread, occasions dimness of sight to those who 
eat of it,” and “ might have added giddiness of 
the head also.” It is not strange that Virgil 
called the plant “Iufelix Lolium,” a plant to 
make wretched. The plant seems to be satisfac 
torily ascertained, and the knowledge is im 
portant, C. D 
shall eat or what we shall drink, unnecessary to 
any person who exercises properly in the open 
air? I pity nuy lady caterer for a household 
that has a lord who does not think pork or lard 
fit to be eaten, and ised moderately in cookiDg— 
and if every animal has his use and sphere, I do 
not think we can iiake a better use of a good, 
fat, civilized porMr than to eat him; and 
think any robust peison who exercises moderate¬ 
ly in the open air, heaps a clear conscience and 
is in love and clarity with his neighbors, is 
capable of enjoyint some of the good things 
that a kind Providence has provided so bounti¬ 
fully for us in thij Heaven-blessed country of 
ours, good porkoi) included. But it is a free 
country, aud if anf person prefers “snaix” to 
good porkers, I cin't help it, as “there is no 
accounting for tasta,”—but I would consider a 
cont roversy on thf diet question about as un¬ 
profitable as one oj the chess or moon question. 
Troy, Mich., June,1805. Wa. Cone. 
invat #mrit tto gwis. 
THE PORK QUESTION. 
Seneca Castle Sheep Shearing.— The flrst annual 
Sheep Shearing Festival of the Seneca Castle (Onta¬ 
rio Co., N, Y.) Sheep Breeders' and Wool Growers 
Associat ion .took place June 3d, at the house of L. A 
J. Page whose barns presented admirable accom 
modations foi the purpose. The day was tine, lady 
spectators were present, and all went “merry as a 
marriage bell.” The shearing done by Joel Page, S. 
P. Ottlev. Byron Whiting, Edward Esty, Austin 
Tuacher and V. Lee Runyan attracted particular 
notice. The ram tegs “Gen. Washington’• and 
“ Horatio,” owned respectively by S. P. Ottley, and 
by V. L. & S. C. Runyan, and the Messrs. Paoes’ ram 
“ Eolla*’ were much admired. “ Horatio” was got by 
Rapalee & Boahdman 1 s ram bought of H. Lane, Vt. 
“Roll*' was got by Sweepstakes. The following 
table gives the statistics of the shearing: 
\ 
Names. 
L. A. & J. Page, 
VL&SC Runyan, 
U (l It 
S. P. Ottley,...... 
Age. 
Sex. y. m. 
ewe,* 3 
“ f 3 
** * a 
“ t 13 
J 13 
} S 
7 5 
t 
t 3 
§ 2 
14 
t 3 
Age of Wt. of Wt, of 
fleece, carcass fleece, 
y. m. d lbs, lbs. oz. 
7b 8 
67 7 16 
61 9 2# 
42# 10 10 
44 # 11 11 
77 7 15 
66 9 3 
64# ft 14 
70 9 
43 6 3# 
60 8 J 
11 15 
11 15 
11 15 
13 
13 
11 15 
14 
11 15 
11 
T & W Crittenden, 
G. Freshnor,. “ 
W. D. Atchley,... “ 
J. Childs. 
S. P. Ottley,. 
J. Childs,— 
W. A. Reed,. 
C, Ottley,.. 
C. P. Whitney,.. “ 
V L & 8 C Runyan. “ 
J. C. Reed,. “ 
T & W Crittendon, “ 
G. Freshnor,. “ 
L A. & J. Page,.. “ 
t 5 
11 15 
82 
8 
8 
t 4 
11 20 
86 
8 
14# 
§ 2 
11 20 
69# 
10 
4 
I 2 
11 20 
66# 
30 
2# 
•t 2 
13 
68 
11 
11 
t 1 
1 
52 
8 
11# 
$ 1 
1 
63 
6 
4# 
t 
13 
13 
56# 
e 
1 
4 
13 
13 
65 
10 
9 
t 
13 
1-3 
74 
12 
2 
t 2 
11 15 115# 
13 
15 
t 2 
11 15 103 
14 
0 
+ 1 11 
11 
98 
14 
18# 
t 5 
11 13 100 
15 
4# 
t 2 
1 
104# 
17 
4 
t 2 
1 
102 
17 
8 
t 3 
11 11 104 
18 
t 5 
11 14 106# 
20 
* Had lamb and was washed, t Washed, 
washed. § Had lamb and was unwashed. 
: Un- 
Communications, (Etc. 
THE TARES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 
There has been no little difficulty in ascer¬ 
taining the plants whose names have come 
down to us iu other languages. Indeed, the 
same plaut is called by one name in one place 
and by a different name in another, even in our 
language. And where the supposed names are 
in different languages, the writers may not have 
known the plant named or have mistaken it for 
another. The English have long called a species 
of wild bean under their name tare , If uot two 
or more species of vetch, found also in our coun¬ 
try as well as in Europe. But any species of 
bean is so unlike to wheat that the} - cannot be 
confounded, while our Saviour represents corn 
(wheat) and tares so alike that they cannot be 
distinguished till their fruit is put forth. Then, 
their flowers and fruit present an immense dif¬ 
ference. This is now palpable. 
With the wheat (corn) of Palestine grows an¬ 
other plant, called darnel by the English, which 
is the true tare of the Bible, aud described by 
botanists under the name of Lolium, Its seed 
is noxious or poisonous; aud it is said to be the 
only grass, among the three or four thousand 
species of this most important, tribe, which has 
a noxiouB property. Vet, this grows now, as it 
did anciently, in Judea, with the wheat, and can¬ 
not be separated till after the wheat is thrashed. 
The seed resembles in form the wheat, but is 
readily distinguished, though nearly as large as 
wheat. It is not degenerate wheat, bnt a distinct 
plant. When it is used in bread, it “stuns peo¬ 
ple and makes them giddy.” Another says it 
“produces sottishness.” Hence, the botanists 
have named it Lolium tcmidcntum, the sottish, 
poisontrus Lolium. Its efforts show the necessity 
Dear Rural:— At the time when farmers 
seem to be troubled with a monomania (if such) 
which I should call “wool on the brain,” 
have thought perhaps it might be desirable for 
a change of topics from the everlasting sheep 
to the pig; not that class of heathenish pig: 
that will eat snakes and grow fat on them, nor 
the class we used to have in Michigan in an 
early day—such as the owners used to tie knots 
in their tails to keep them from getting through 
the fence—but of that class of civilized pigs 
that would prefer good corn to snakes for food 
aud when made into pork are eminently “fit to 
eat.” A. W. W., in his communication in the 
Rural of May 37th, I think makes one unlucky 
statement when he says, “Our fathers, grand 
fathers and great-grand-fathere ate pork, and we 
do the sameand then goes on to argue that 
pork is unhealthy—and that “ the physical de 
terioration of the race may be fearfully hastened 
by the use ol pork as a culinary article.” It 
seems to me that the above upsets his whole 
theory, because it is a fact, which no man can 
successfully dispute, that our progenitors, as a 
class, were altogether ahead of us in strength 
and physical development, and as a class lived 
much more exclusively on pork than we do 
now, eating less fruit, consuming less sugar, 
etc., and a good deal less change in their culinary 
department, with a more regular pork diet 
Now, among the old class of men there was 
hardly any provisional department whose lack 
was considered more disgraceful than the falling 
of the indispensable pork barrel, and I once 
beard a story that was told something like this : 
A clergyman in the good old State of Connecti¬ 
cut was awakened in the night by a noise in the 
cellar. He went down smd found one of Ifisf 
parishioners in there, and taking him to task 
for being there at that time of night, told him 
frankly that he would expose him. Parishioner 
says:—“You dare not; for if you do, I will 
expose yon.” “Expose me,” says the priest, 
for what?” .“For uot having any pork in 
your barrel.” Parishioner could not find any 
pork there to steal! 
Over thirty years ago we were clearing up this 
heavily timbered country; ague was somewhat 
prevalent, aud it was a very common saying that 
people would not have the ague until they got 
out of pork. One of my near neighbors had it, 
aud being just able to crawl to a log-bonse 
raising, near by, a friend told him he guessed he 
had got out of pork, and when he got home he 
would send a boy down with a piece. He an¬ 
swered very quickly, “You need not do that, 
for we are not out; my wife lias kept a piece of 
about ten pounds to extract the grease spots out 
of the floor.” I think that was about the kind 
that your correspondent would naturally get if 
fatted on “snaix.” They had the same kind of 
porkers in Western New York when I was a 
boy. A poor man that worked out by the day, 
and frequently took the indispensable pork lor 
his jiay, was helping his neighbor butcher. He 
told the farmer that he guessed he should not 
have to buy any more pork this year, for he had 
salted nine, and they had filled the barrel almost 
up to the bung hole! Those must have been 
“snaik”-fatted hogs. Now I don’t believe a 
decent, civilized pig ever cats “snaix”—fori 
have known hogs to die here by being bitten by 
rattlesnakes, (massasaugers,) and if a hog had 
eaten one of these snakes be would have died, 
sure. Now our survcyiug parties, who camp 
out all summer In our uortheru woods, and live 
mostly on pork, (the grease turned into the 
flour,) bcun soup, made with pork, as the only 
meat, and real short biscuit for bread, will uni¬ 
versally come out of t he woods in the fall in the 
most robust health. Such living in the open 
air, and pork diet, will cure the most obstinate 
case of dyspepsia in u month. 
Now, are not all these crusades on “ what we 
shall eat,” nearly ull moonshine? It is but a 
few years since Graham started the theory that 
a person must not eat pork or grease,—but 
poor, weak souls could put out of eight a pint 
of cream at a time, and a neighbor of miue of 
that belief took tea with us once and ate nine 
good-sized biscuits at one meal! 1 suppose the 
temptation was too strong and he forgot him 
self. It would take at least three ordinary 
Grahamltes to make one shadow. About forty 
years ago there was printed in Boston a paper 
catted “ The Journal of Health,” and it said that 
water should not. he drank until it had stood in 
the sun one hour. From such drink us that ] 
“ Good Lord deliver us.” 
in conclusion, has not the idea that pork is 
unhealthy and not tit to eat, unclean, aud the 
like, originated iu the brain of 6ome dyspeptic, 
and are not all rules laid down as to what wo 
Substitute for Milk in Rearing Calves. 
The Irish Farners' Gazette gives the follow¬ 
ing:—The best substitute for milk for such a 
purpose is a compound of 3 quarts of linseed 
meal, and 4 quarts of bean meal, mixed with 30 
quarts of boilinj water, and left to digest for 24 
hours, w hen it it poured int o a boiler on the tire 
having 31 quart of boiling w - ater. Let it boil 
for half an liotr, keeping it constantly stirred 
with a perforate paddle to prevent. Iu mps and to 
produce perfeej incorporation. It is then put 
to cool for Rse^and given blood worm. When 
first used it mut he given mixed with the milk 
in small quanti y, and Increased gradually; de¬ 
creasing the mil: iu the same proportion till they 
get the above u aqilage only. Indian meal feeds 
calves admirab f, used in the same way; and 
from some expfiments we have made, we think 
that a mixture >f linseed meal, and bean meal, 
in the same pr portions, with a quantity of In¬ 
dian meal equa to both—that is, 3 quarts linseed, 
4 quarts bean, ®d 7 quarts Indian—equal to any¬ 
thing we havelried. 
The Corn Gri 3. 
The corn e jp has several formidable enemies 
to contend w h, and among them is what is 
commonly cal :d the grub, which frequently 
damages the irop seriously. One of the beet 
and most judi ious remedies, perhaps the very 
best ever sugs isted, is the application of salt as 
soon as the pi nt makes its appearance above 
ground. Take :>ne quart common salt, and three 
parts plaster o gypsum, and apply about a full 
table-spoonful iround each hill, and it will be 
found to be < sure protection. The mixture 
should not co lo in contract with the sprouts, 
as it may destry them. This method has been 
tried over ant over again by some of the best 
farmers ol‘ Peou^f^Sa, Delaware and Jersey, 
plied, has never failed to 
tVe hope oi%r farmers, 
the depredations of the 
y this mixture, leaving 
corn without the salt 
and when prop- 
be jjiericc| ly i^ic, 
who have reason'to 
grub this season, will 
few alternate rows 
and communicate to is the result. We 
aw r are some writers say salt has no effect upon 
vermin, hut we speak iiRkis matter on the best 
authority.— Ex. 
arc 
Thinning Corn in the pills. 
Thinning should alviys be done as soon as 
practicable after the cort has come tip. This is 
usually done at the first loeing, but. should be 
delayed till danger from le grub, or cut-worm, 
is over. Uuless caretul ^borers are employed, 
many hills will be neglected. Superfluous stalks 
may be removed at any louvenient time, even 
in lowery weather, when tie soli is to be worked 
with cultivators or hoes The best manner of 
doing this is to cut them off close to the ground, 
with a sharp knife, and drip them near the stand¬ 
ing corn. The stalks shoild be removed from 
the middle of the hill, that the remaining plants 
may6taud as far from each other as possible; 
the farther they 6tand apart the larger the cars 
will grow. When the stalks are pulled up, they 
will often loosen and bleak the roots of those that 
are left, but if cut off us directed, the roots die. 
If care be uot exercise! in dropping only a pro¬ 
per number of kernels in a hill, much labor 
will be required to thin out a large field. Still 
it is better to do ao than to allow five or six 
stalks to grow where there should be only three, 
or at most four. Then will be more aud better 
grain on four stalks than on a larger number.— 
American Agriculturist. 
Swine and Cattle Raising. 
A correspondent of McHenry county, Indi¬ 
ana, writes the Detroit Free Press about the 
comparative profit of hog and cattle raising. 
'The constant sale oil’ tie farm of animals which 
were grown upon it Is one ot the most surely 
and thoroughly exhausting practices, for farmers 
thus remove Just thorn elemeuts of fertility 
most, readily exhausted and most expensive to 
replace. 
The writer gives an account of a farmer in liis 
vicinity, who had continually raised hogs, and 
thus describes the condition of bi8 farms; 
Upon three farms he owns, there is but ouo 
gate aud uot a single pair of bars. His land is 
so exhausted that it will not bring half a crop 
ot corn. Year alter year the same fields have 
been worn, and they now look white and barren; 
yet he is said to make money. His neighbor, the 
cattle breeder, can at any time get double the 
price for his land, simply because lie has not 
‘ hogged ” his farm. 1b not the conclusion just 
that hog raising, although it may bring present 
alu, will result iu permanent injury, and that 
the Western farmer through sheer exhaustion 
of his lands will be compelled to resort to cattle 
aud sheep raising in Imitation of his Eastern 
neighbors, to recuperate the exhausted energies 
of his naturally fertile soil ? 
The difference i □ this respect between hogs and 
cattle he thus describes: 
The hog consumes next to none of the rough 
feed of the farm ; be must have the grain, the corn 
in the ear: he eats neither the stalk of the coni, 
the straw of the wheat, nor hay, but he must 
have the best of everything. 
The Sugar Beet. 
A correspondent of the Germantown Tele¬ 
graph communicates to that paper experiments 
made with a view of testing the relat ive value of 
carrots aud 6ngar beets for feeding milch cows. 
The beets were fed, from the 1st of November 
to the 10th of January, at the rate of one-half 
bushel per day mixed with half peck of meal, hay 
and corn fodder being supplied as much as the 
cow would eat The average weekly yield of 
butter from this feed was 7J^ pounds. On sub¬ 
stituting carrots for the beets, the other feed 
being the same, an average weekly yield of less 
than five pounds of butter was obtained. Cut 
hay and meal were then tried, aud the average 
was over six pounds per week. The writer states 
that from various trials, the same difference has 
been perceptible from feeding beets, and hence, 
as theycan be raised much cheaper than carrots, 
they deserve more attention than is usually paid 
to them. More care is required in their cultiva¬ 
tion at first, but after they get fairly started 
they are as easily raised as a crop of corn. A 
fair yield is put at live hundred bushels per acre, 
and the writer says that siDgle beds have been 
grown by bim weighing seventeen pounds each. 
Selecting Cows. 
First, I get a broadside view of the animal, 
at a distance of about two rods, as I have noticed 
for years that there was a great similarity in the 
general proportions of all flrst class milkers; 
being very small in girth just back of their 
forward legs as compared with the girth just 
forward of their hips. I have, never known a 
first, rate milker, of any breed, uot thus propor¬ 
tioned ; so that if this form is wanting in an 
animal I have recommended to me, I do not care 
to look at her more, unless I want a breeder for 
some other purpose than the dairy. For breed¬ 
ing mten I should want a cow of reverse propor¬ 
tions, i. e., larger girth forward. 
I next feel the size of the “milk veins,” and 
trace them to their entrance into the cheat, 
which, in superior cows, are large, admitting the 
ball of the largest finger; if divided, or sub¬ 
divided, as is sometimes the ease, I judge of the 
size of each orifice, as I care less for the size of the 
vein itself, than the orifice. Next, I examine by 
sight and touch, the udder or bag, which must 
be capacious, in order to hold much milk, with 
teats wide apart aud free from large seed warts 
or sores of any kind; I then inquire how long 
she goes dry before calving, as I don’t want a 
family cow to give milk loss than 46 weeks out 
of every 53; also as to the quality of the milk; 
and to close, I milk her with my own hands. 
—A Vermonter. 
Barley and Rye for Horses. 
Mr first experience, says a correspondent of 
the County Gentleman, in feeding barley to 
horses, was in California, where there was no 
other grain raised for feed at the time I was 
there. All our horses were fed on it for two 
years without any change, and never got tired 
of it, always thriving and looking remarkably 
flue for the amount of labor they performed. 
This induced me to raise it to feed after my 
return from that country, and I have learned to 
esteem it higher than any other grain (wheu 
ground) for horses. It is too hard to teed in the 
grain. It is less liable to founder than corn, 
wheat, or rye, yet contains but very little less 
nutriment than either of those grains. 
I have raised a great many colts, aud have 
made breeding trotting horses a study, and in 
all my experience I have found nothing equal to 
barley meal to make a mare give milk. I have 
found it no disadvantage to a mare’s getting 
with foal, and not any while she was so. Oats 
are a better feed for colts from weaning time 
until they go to work. 
Rye Is a dangerous grain to feed alone; it is 
more liable to founder than other grain ; but to 
mix with shorts, or to grind with outs, and teed 
with cut hay or straw, It makes au excellent feed. 
Instead of its being a preventive to pregnancy 
in mares, it is an advantage. I own and keep for 
service one of the finest and most promising 
young trotting stallions in the State ; and if any 
one has a mare they wish to put at a certain 
time, I always recommend feeding the marc 
boiled rye, blood warm, to get her in season, and 
it never fails to do its work in from three to five 
days, and I never knew - a mare to refuse the 
horse after such treatment. Three quarts, three 
times a day, i6 good feeding. This discovery 
may be of great value to breeders, and save 
-an enormous eight of trouble. This is the first 
letter I ever wrote for publication, and have writ¬ 
ten it for the good of W. R. and the rest of my 
fellow horsemen. 
Lady Farming. 
Miss E. Wilt of Newville, writes to the N. 
Y. Tribune:—“ Twenty years ago I and a young¬ 
er sister inherited half of a small fertile farm 
containing 120 acres. Onr father was dead, aud 
our brothers gone to the West; hut, being un¬ 
willing to leave the home of our ancestors, I 
borrowed money at six per cent, from our kind 
neighbors, to buy and stock the liirin. The 
debt was all paid before the war, and some, 
money in a national bank. We hire a hand in 
summer by the month, and duy hands to assist 
in cutting and threshing the crop ; ran but one 
plow, and some years have 100 barrels of Hour. 
If any bereaved widow or daughter (as t.ho war 
will make many) will be encouraged by our suc¬ 
cess, I will be amply rewarded for my communl- 
catiou; but a lady that is afraid of a hoe or rake 
Is not fit for a female farmer—ehe must have 
courage and energy.” 
Rural Notts atffi (Queries. 
Our Next Half Volume.— The second half of the 
present (XVIth) volume of the Rural New-Yorker 
will commence July 8th. proximo. That, will be a 
favorable time for new subscribers to commence, as 
well as for those whose terms shall have expired to 
renew their subscription*. We shall endeavor to ren 
der the second half of the volume at least, equal in 
valueand interest to the first, and hope to make some 
improvements. And now that the war is over, and 
thousands of farmers and farmers' 1 sons arc returning 
to peaceful pursuits, wc naturally anticipate an aug¬ 
mented list of readers and subscribers. It ia but a 
few days since we had the pleasure; (in our off icial 
capacity) of welcoming home a Western New York 
Regiment, (the 8tb N. Y. Heavy Artillery,) mostly 
composed of ruralists, many of whom were subscri¬ 
bers to the Rural before the wa r.HA mi simil ar reg i- 
ments—composed mostly of farmers and farmers eons’ 
—are daily returning, all over the country, and will 
soon be at work on the farm—in field, garden, orchard, 
etc. Thousands of these will again want the agricul¬ 
tural papers, and we respectfully submit that the 
Rural New-Yorker— which has Inst money during 
the war, yet remained true to the Union cause, never 
flinching or dodging —is entitled to consideration. 
We ask no }xitronoge, as such, but only that support 
to which the Rural is entitled upon its merits and 
value alone. Having made some sacrifices duri ng the 
war, and suffered somewhat on account of what wealT- 
backcd and conservative people might calFour “ex¬ 
treme loyalty,” we are the more frank in presenting 
the claims of this journal upon the Union-loving’and 
sustaining people of the country. They know our 
coiusb from Ihe inception of the accursed rebellion, 
and whether Iho Rural is entitled to approval and 
support, and can decide and act nnderstandlngly 
-- i i t ——*— 
The Country, Crops, Season, Ac.—In all this 
region the country appears beautiful — the “face of 
Nature" looking most charming. Recent excursions 
into the edges of the country were delightful, and we 
are informed that distance from the city lends enchant¬ 
ment to the view not only, bnt gives assurance of 
bounteous crops at harvest time. The crops are gen¬ 
erally very (promising. Wheat is looking finely, and 
grass coming on apnee-both promising well. The 
corn Is starting Andy, and though the unfavorable 
weather of May prevented plowing and planting as 
early as many wished, the crop is pushing np and 
ahead extraordinarily. Most spring crops arc looking 
well. In many sections of this and other States the 
season is really earlier than usual, although the wet 
and unfavorable weather of May delayed form-work 
aud made the Spring seem late. The temperature was 
high, and vegetation made rapid strides, so that 
nothing was lost except time in preparing ground and 
planting crops. We anticipate a bountiful yield of the 
cereals, and also of grass, roots and fruit. 
Lent’s Barometer. — We are Indebted to Mr. 
Lkwi8 C. Tower, the manufacturer, of this city, for a 
Barometer of Lent's patent. Though we have had it 
hut. a few days, we arc much pleased with the instru¬ 
ment, and take pleasure in commending what appears 
to be a good barometer, of Rochester invention aud 
manufacture, to the public. We have n number of 
barometers In onr office, several of which have already 
been noticed in the Rural, but are Inclined to believe 
that Lent’s will prove, equal, at least, to any others of 
equal cost. See Mr. Tower’s advertisement in this 
pnpor. ^ . _ I 
A Woman's Work for Eight Months.— A corres¬ 
pondent from Walton, Del. Co., writes us as follows: 
Mrs. Sarau Gray of Walton, (aged 66 years,) from 
May to January, 1864, took card of three cows and did 
all the milking, made three firkins of butter, dried 
three quarts of strawberries, three quarts of black- 
raspbemee and one bushel of blackberries, spun thirty- 
four rnu of woolen yarn, fifty-two run of linen and 
tow, wove three hundred and thirty-five yard* of 
cloth, knit four pairs of socks aud three pairs of gloves, 
and did all the work for her family.” 
Unavoidable — Is the pressure of advertisements 
upon ns this week. We didn't like to give the entire 
eighth page, for instance, to a single announcement, 
bnt could not rcfhse, especially as “The Soldier’s 
Casket" is a recognized aud popular “institution.’ 
Though wc are chary iu soliciting advertising patron¬ 
age, the Rural’s large circulation, and consequent 
superiority ns an advertizing medium, often over¬ 
whelms ns with the l'avors of those who are shrewd 
ami wise enough to know where to use printer’s ink 
to the best advantage. 
TriE Seventeen-Year Locust. —This locust has 
been quite numerous, in this region, for some weeks 
past, Fears have been entertained that they would 
prove very destructive to crops, but we (lonot antici¬ 
pate any material damage. They make a great noise, 
but beyond that we do not think they will be found 
specially objectionable or injurious, though the result 
may prove otherwise. In some sections where they 
have recently prevailed in largo numbers it is said 
they are already disappearing, 
«»■ 
Inquiries Aiiout the Dairt Business.— Allow me 
to make tilts inquiry through your columns. What 
will be the expense of an outfit for a dairy establish 
meat for front three to five hundred cows, including 
buildings and apparatus? Will some one give the 
most convenient plan Tor buildings, and sav which is 
the best self-heating vot* or those healed by steam ? 
Also, which Is the best plan for organizing mock com¬ 
panies?—C. F. Sheldon, AG/wf, Ff. 
We shall be glad to hear from experienced dairymen 
in reply to the above queries. 
---- 
A Beautiful Engraving — Is that of the Child’s 
Prayer—“Now I lay mo down to Steep," Ac., — pubj 
fished by W. J. Holland of SpriDgflcld, Mass., and 
advertised tn this paper. It will awaken the best 
emotions in the heart of parent and child, and is wor¬ 
thy of a place in every house. Would that more 
finely executed engravings taught as good a lesson to 
both old and young 1 
-•»» 
Which is the Best Churn?— Is a queetion about, 
as difficult to answer as this—"Who struck Mr. Wil¬ 
liam Patterson ?" And yet the same query is fre¬ 
quently propounded. Who, that has not a patent 
churn to sell, can respond? A world of people in the 
dairy regions are anxious to know. 
■ ■ ■ " 
Right,—T he propietors of the stock yards and the 
stock dealers at Chicago have met and resolved to 
abandon business on Sunday, aud to prevent the ship¬ 
ping or live stock on that day. It is proposed and 
determined to attend to receiving and shipping stock 
on Sunday only when absolutely necessary. 
-«<+>• --- 
Wb dislike to recommend onr own wares, but can¬ 
not refrain from advising “A New Subscriber,’ who 
asks what is the meaning of Paular, Infantado, etc., 
to procure and read The Practical Shepherd. 
