Rsto-Ti 
MLAGRlCULTURr 
MOORE’S EIJKAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
ask for any severer punishment than to be ban¬ 
ished to a region that could not grow grass well! 
It is scarcely possible to devise a system of hus¬ 
bandry that will keep up the fertility of the soil 
if grass Ib omitted. I shall now speak of grass 
in the common acceptation of that term. You 
cannot grow cattle on a large scale profitably in 
this country without grass for pastures and for 
feeding, and probably not In any other. 
Cattle reared on the “soiling” system could 
not compete with cattle pastured upon cheap 
lands, for the labor in attending to them would 
cost too much. The Belgian proverb tells the real 
truth. No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; 
no manure, no crops. I care not how fertile or 
apparently enduring are the plains of the West, 
or the savannas of the South, if they cannot 
famish permanent pastures and grow grass 
profitably, sooner or later they are doomed to 
sterility. Yon have all hoard ot the worn out 
lands of New Jersey and the SouthI need not 
tell you that the attempt was made to farm 
those lands without grass, and I need not tell 
you that by the use Of clover and the grosses 
they are now reviving those very lands. Grain 
crops are generally sent off and consumed 
abroad, and they take the best of the soli with 
them, while waat Is fed to cattle leaves its fra¬ 
grance behind. 
WHERE THE on ASSES FLOURISH. 
Grass will grow where the temperature of the 
soil and the air is above the freezing point. The 
most rapid growth occurs when the atmosphere 
loo««1u. Him wmI 
•It ite moUt, and the temperature from fifty-five 
to sixty degrees. These conditions occur with 
us oftenest In April, May and June. It is well 
known, however, that the quality is inferior 
when the growth is most rapid. Grass will not 
grow well when the temperature la above sixty- 
degrees, unless there is a great deal of moisture. 
In general greater heat is fatal to 
continuous cropping w<ald destroy their seeds. 
Of course cattle, duric ; the long dry season, 
must depend upon a p: jvions growth reserved 
for them. This may aiswer the demands of a 
sparse population, but t constitutes a grazing 
region ot moderate voile. We should not for¬ 
get that a very largo se tlon of our interior is of 
no account whatever in* grazing purposes, it 
being essentially sterilf. 
BEST GRASS AXIJ HA1KV REGIONS. 
These considerations!point unmistakably to 
yonr own section, as belonging to the favored 
grass region of America, and especially the great 
dairy region of America A good dariy region 
must have an abundant supply of pure soft 
water, must have a cod or temperate climate, 
and must be able to Aipply an abundance of 
fresh feed, sweet and mtritious. A warm cli¬ 
mate, a dry sandy soil and lone- e,, n t in nrttia 
unencouraged genius it is seldom heard from. 
Clover is appreciated, and as a fertilizer to be 
plowed under it is above all price — not very 
desirable for pasture, when cut early and saved 
well it makes the lambs rejoice and thrive 
exceedingly. 
Blue-grass for fast horses, is worthy of the 
attention of fast men. I refer to our blue-grass, 
not the Kentucky blue-grass ; it is exceedingly 
hardy, and so nutritious that a small bulk wDl 
suffice; it is therefore suited to road horses, 
liable to hard driving. Orchard grass is worthy 
of trial; It starts quick after being cut or crop¬ 
ped, does well in the shade, aud cut early makes 
good hay. Without mentioning other varieties 
let me urge you to acquaint yourselves with 
them by observation, experiment and reading. 
“Flint on the Grasses,” is a work yon will 
do well to consult. 
GOOD CULT CUE AND MANURE FOR GRASS. 
I have intimated that the grasses are patient 
under abuse, and get a great deal of it! It is a 
shame ft should be so. Nothing will better re¬ 
ward good culture. Grass will do something 
where other crops will do nothing, but manure 
and good cultivation meet with as favorable 
returns when bestowed upon grass as upon other 
crops. Few crops will bear as high manuring 
as grass—you can scarcely get your land too 
rich. It demands a great deal of moisture, and 
therefore the laud should be deeply plowed and 
thoroughly pulverized before the grass-seed is 
sown, for this treatment insures a moist and 
doaiw'-ts, -- ar ,ii ^ of hay 
tobsn from land, takes with it soma 150 »a.'of 
mineral matter that must be put back again, or 
the productive capacity of the land is lessened. 
This mineral matter is best supplied by the ap¬ 
plication of plaster, lime, ashes aud bone-dust, 
which should be regularly aud systematically 
supplied. Barn-yard manure Is also of the 
utmost importance to the grass crop, while 
muck, loam or any good soil applied evenly as a 
top-dressing, and a thorough dragging when the 
turf is compact, is abundantly rewarded by the 
increased yield. 
Never lose auy opportunity to irrigate your 
grass lands — as soon let yonr potatoes and 
pumpkins go down stream, as yonr surface- 
water and the brooks that you might detain 
and distribute over your meadows and pastures. 
In this way you can double and treble your 
grass products at a small expense, and thus get 
lands that cannot be 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
HENRY 8. RANDALL, LL, D. t 
Editor of tho Deportment of Sheep Husbandry. 
To Correspondents.— Mr. Randall’s address is 
Cortland Village, Cortland Co., N. Y. All communi¬ 
cations intended for this Department, and all inquiries 
relating to sheep, should be addressed to him as above. 
P. BARRY, c. DBWBY, LL, D., 
H. T. BnOOKS, L. B. LANG WORTHY, 
T. C. FBTR118, EDWARD WEBSTER. 
Trk Rural Nxw-Yobkks 1h designed to be unsur¬ 
passed lh Value. Purity, and Variety of Contents, and 
unlquo and beautiful In Appearance. Its Conductor 
devotes nia personal attention to the supervision of Its 
various departments, and earnestly labors to render tho 
Rural an eminently Reliable Guido on all tlio Important 
Practical, Sclentiflc and oUier Subjects Intimately con¬ 
nected with the business of thoso whose Interests It 
zealously advocates. As a Family Journal It la emi¬ 
nently Instructive and Entertaining—bulnz so conducted 
that It can be safely taken to the Ilomcgot people or 
lntelUftence. taste and discrimination. It embraces more 
Horticultural,Scientific,'Educational, Literary and News 
Matter, Interspersed with appropriate RnjcTavlngs, than 
any other Journal,-rendering It for the most complete 
Agricultural, Utbbaky and Family Nxwscapeb 
I n America. 
unsuited to the making of butter, and befog 
peculiarly adapted to grain, will, to a large ex¬ 
tent, be devoted to its; production. Much the 
larger portions of our State have all the requi¬ 
sites of a good dairy section —the soil is suf¬ 
ficiently tenacious and retentive, and though of 
moderate fertility, is supplied with essential 
elements, and may be f*r the most part readily 
drained. That essential requisite, moisture, is 
well furnished by heavy dews and frequent 
rains. Currents of wind ”og> the neighborhood 
ui uui c\|untvi) turnon Jfl&t >*uu %/j jatuumam 
fftOgCd) CUinC to >voat.fr©igUt»::d 
with equatorial vapors and supply this region 
with seasonable showers. Proximity to the 
lakes gives some additional moisture to our at¬ 
mosphere, and by increasing the dews renders 
essential aid when other resources fail. 
OF MANY VARIETIES, FEW ARE CULTIVATED. 
It is not a little remarkable that so few grasses 
are cultivated by American farmers when the 
varieties are so numerous. Flint in his excel¬ 
lent work on the grasses enumerates about two 
hundred and twenty-five varieties of the true 
grasses. And yet who ever heard of any body 
in these parts sowiDg more thau three or four 
sorts. Timothy, clover, and perhaps red-top, 
are about all that arc honored iu that way. June 
grass aud white clover are very common, hut 
they como by chance. Net one half the farmers 
know any other kind by sight. It would be 
strange if all these other two hundred and odd 
9orts thut I have alluded to were made in vain • 
indeed wo know they w.re not. Each one of 
them doubtless has some quality fitting it for 
some specific place or purpose. We have the 
water-spear grass and the floating-meadow 
grass, and the fowl-meadow grass for marshes; 
wo have tho Juue grass, and wire grass, and 
orchard grass for dry hard land; tho buffalo 
ttu For Terms and other particulars, Bee last pane. 
MR. BURGESS' “LITTLE QUEEN 
Loan J. Bcrgess, North Hoosick, New York, 
writes to us: — “Little Queen,” now four years 
old, was bred by J. T. AY. Rich, Richville, Vt,, 
and sold by them to J. L. Buttolph, of whom I 
purchased her. She was got by Mr. Hammond’s 
l” sweeps takes,” out or i i pure men ore, and is 
consequently half Infantado and half Improved 
Paular, Her four fleeces have weighed, un¬ 
washed, 53 pounds; she has dropped four lambs 
and raised three of them—bringing this year 
twins by Percy & Burgess’ “Gold Mine.” 
She received the first premium at the N. Y. 
State Fair in 1S04, and was dam of the ram 
lamb which received the first premium at the 
State Fair, and which I sold on the ground 
for $S00. 
My brother Nairn J. Burgess, Jr., and 
myself, as you will remember, bought Messrs. 
J. T. tfe V. Rich’s ewe lambs last fall, and 
added them to our fiocks. 
THE GRASSES: 
AN ADDRESS AT THE CHAUTAUQUA CO. PAIR 
BY MAJ. HUGH T. BROOKS, 
Tub really good thfogs of this world aro 
neither dear-bought nor far-fetched. Our first 
and most imperative want is a little fresh air, 
which all can have, if nobody shuts it off. The 
blessed sunlight comes without our asking, and 
the only beverage that was never known to harm 
drops from the heavens above and sprlugs from 
the earth below. Of all the products of this 
fair eartli, what are worth the most cost the 
least. The precious food that gives health and 
strength, is more easily obtained than tho luxu¬ 
ries that euervute and destroy. Our vices cost 
more than our virtues. 
It is my purpose to speak to you to-day of 
that product of your soil which gives the largest 
rcturnBfor the smallest outlay; which ministers 
freely to your necessities, but receives little of 
your care; conforms to the greatest variety of 
circumstances, submits to the hardest condi¬ 
tions, and fills tho largest measure of your 
wants. My subject la Grass. 
now tui: grasses ark described. 
The true or natural grosses aro described by 
botanists as plants with long, simple, narrow 
leaves, in two alternate rows, each leaf having 
many fine veins or lines running parallel with 
a central prominent vein or mid-rib, and a long 
sheath divided to the base, which seems to 
clasp tho stem, or through which the stem 
passes; tho stem, with very few exceptions, be¬ 
ing hollow and closed at tho nodes or joints, 
’ibis you will see describes Indian corn, wheat, 
rye, oats, barley, millet, all of which belong to 
the grass family, designated by botanists as tho 
order (irumineio, aud subdivided into tribes, sub- 
tribes, generu, species aud varieties. 
The artificial grasses are such as aro cultivated 
aud used like grasses, but do not belong to that 
family, among which are clover, lucerne, and 
sainfoin; these belong to tho pulse family, are 
grass. It 
belongs emphatically to tho temperate climates; 
extreme heat, or extreme cold, being alike fatal. 
The extreme cold In tho northern parts of New 
England, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, 
is destructive of grass, unless protected by snow, 
while further north tho best grasses have a very 
precarlou9 existenco. A largo share of tho 
American Union south of Pennsylvania and 
west of Ohio is unfavorable to grass, either from 
too great heat, or too little moisture, or be¬ 
cause tho soil is not sufficiently tenacious and 
retentive. 
GRASSES OF T1IE SOUTH AND WEST. 
Grasses suited to tho southern and western 
portions of our country are growing there, but 
they do not make a uuiform 
LEGISLATION AFFECTING WOOL GROWERS 
[The subjoined communication is from an 
eminent citizen of New York. We shall prob¬ 
ably take occasion to comment on some of its 
positions hereafter.—E d.] 
H. S. Randall — Sir: The conclusions of a 
correspondent of the Tribune, in the article 
re-published in the Rural New Y 
the means of fertilizing 
flowed. 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS. 
Be sure and put your meadows in a good con¬ 
dition for the mower; rid your pastures of logs 
and brush; plow thoroughly and re-seed where 
the grass is run out; plaster, surface-manure, 
and drag steep hill sides; plant belts of timber 
to protect exposed positions; sow your timothy 
seed and red-top iu August and September; 
never feed your meadows in winter or spring, 
and never feed any grass lands very close. 
Select varieties suited to sunshine and shade, to 
wet laud and dry, to sand, muck, or clay, as oc¬ 
casion may require, adapting your varieties also 
to the kiud of stock you keep, never forgetting 
that the most important branch of farming 
should uo longer receive the least part of our 
attention. 
of inferior value 
turf, beautiful and desirable like our own culti¬ 
vated grasses ; it is at least doubtful whether a 
permanent grass covering of the soil can be ob¬ 
tained in Qioso regions. Their grasses approxi¬ 
mate more the character of grains, and depend 
largely upon their seeds for tucir nutritive value. 
Indeed our best grains originated, to a large ex¬ 
tent, in arid eastern climates, not unlike the 
south-western portions of our own country. 
These western grasses answer the demand of a 
sparse population, for when not fed or removed 
they remain in a dried stato suitable for feeding 
through the warm weather and until the rainy 
season cornea on again. Fremont, speaking of 
these regions, says “ their grazing capabilities 
are great, and Iu the indigenous grasses an ele¬ 
ment of individual wealth may be found. Iu 
fact tho valuable grasses begin within one hun¬ 
dred and fifty miles of the Missouri frontier, aud 
extend to tho Pacific ocean. East of the Rocky 
Mountains, it is the short curly grass, ou which 
the buffalo delights to feed (whence its name of 
bnfiato grass,) aud which is still good when dry 
West of the mountains it 
orksr of 
July 23d, that the price of wool ought to be S0f( 
cents per pound, I fear will not soon he verified. 
It is true that the tariff which went into effect 
on the 1 st of July, 1804, referred to by the writer 
of that article, wks more favorable to the farmer 
thin the act of 2d of March, 1S61, yet the dis¬ 
crimination against the American wool grower 
and iu favor of the American manufacturer is 
cruel and oppressive to the farmer, as all former 
tariff laws, with the exception of the act of 1846, 
have been. 
I have been unable to find any report of the 
Treasury Department upon the subject of the 
Commerce and Navigation of the United States 
for the years 1864 aud 1865. I have, however, 
been furnished with the following statement 
from the New York Custom House: 
Iwjxwts of Hoof into the Port of New York from the 
first of June, 1863, to tho twentieth. <j f August , 1865. 
Quantity. Valne. 
_ .. „ . _ Pounds. Dollars. 
\ ear ending 30th June, ’ 6 - 1 ,.... 58,674,774 0 908 737 
.65, ... 87,995.368 4.20A2HS 
1st July to *20Hi August, ’65,. 1,577,91) l 220,677 
Total, . 87,478,134 14,387,712 
If to this we add one-third for importations at 
other ports, it will make the whole amount of 
wool imported within the two years, one month 
and twenty days, tl6,687,5t2 pounds, of the 
value of $19,116,949. Doubtless the greater 
Gulden Rules for Poultry Keepers.— 
Saunders’ Domestic Poultry gives these rules:— 
Never over feed. Never allow any food to lie 
about. Never feed from trough, pan, basin, or 
any vessel. Feed oulv when the birds will run 
afier the feed, and not at all if they seem careless 
about it. Give adult fowls their liberty at day¬ 
break. Never purchase eggs for hatching pur¬ 
poses until a heu is ready to set. For seven or 
eight days before hatching, sprinkle the eggs 
with cold water while the hen is off This will 
prevent the frequent complaint that the chicken 
was dead In the shell. 
and apparently dead, 
is a larger growth, iu clusters, and hence called 
bunch grass. Tills has a second or full growth. 
Plains aud mountains both exhibit them ami I 
have seen good pasturage at an elevation of ton 
thousand feet, in this spontaneous product the 
trading or traveling caravans can find subsist¬ 
ence for their animals; and iu military opera¬ 
tions any number of cavalry may be moved, and 
any number of ea(tie. may lm driven, and thus 
men and horses supported on long expeditions, 
and oven In winter iu the sheltered situations.” 
Mr. Fremont’s account of wluit he saw was 
doubtless correct, but when lie expresses a fa¬ 
vorable opinion of tho “grazing capabilities” 
ot those regions 1 am Inclined to accept liis esti¬ 
mate with some allowance. It is very evident 
thut grasses whose value depends mainly ou 
their seals are unsuited to systematic gruz.ing, for 
significance; you will therefore without a sigh 
give up “ Timothy ” for “ Phlentn jirateuse!'’ It 
is of tho utmost importance to our agriculture 
I that the qualities and habits of our vegetable 
’[ Productions, from the majestic sycamore, to tho 
| Uuy weed at tho road-side, should be thor- 
S oughly understood. We have a good deal more 
to do In this world with quack-grass if ml Canada 
thistles, than with orion and tho other stars. 
j A GOOD GRASS REGION, . 
i. 1 congratulate the farmers of Chautauqua 
I Co., and 1 congratulate tho farmers of our State, 
'.i “pou belonging to a good grass country. If I 
y “i'tmld commit boiuc great crime 1 would not 
Early Milking. — Cows siionld be milked 
early in tho morning so that they can teed on 
the dewey gruss. Two hours of such feed is 
worth as much as that of tho rest ot the day 
towards giving a good (low of milk. 8o wake 
up, boys, at father’s rap on the partition wall, 
and hie to tho yard w ith pail in hand, and have 
the cows in the pasture before anybody’s else. 
Be sure aud milk clean. A boy who will always 
milk clean will have a good recommendation 
of being faithful wherever he goes, and such a 
recommendation always goes a great way among 
business men. Thus sa tn lh- Maine Farmer. 
f r oil 
m | p Jj 
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