aTURE 
MSS! 
Tor i culture 
FOR TIIE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1862, 
A correspondent stated his experience a few 
weeks since, which was somewhat unfavorable ; 
but as the experiment can cost but little, either in 
labor or means, we are anxious for a more general 
trial of this root the present season. Our experi¬ 
ence the past four years has been such as to cause 
us to believe this root may lie grown by stock-feed¬ 
ers, and, in fact, by all farmers, with profit. 
For an answer to an inquiry as to the comparative 
value of the mangel wurzel, Swedish turnip, and 
Sugar beet, and the success in growing the former, 
we prefer to await a response from some of our 
Dinners who have had more experience. Among 
English stock-raisers, they seem to share about 
equal commendation. As a spring food for cattle 
and sheep, the mangel wurzel is considered espe¬ 
cially useful, as it remains juicy and palatable long 
after the Swedish turnip has become spoiled by age. 
A comparative analysis of the wurzel. carrot, and 
turnip, shows the former to possess more flesb-f'orm- 
ing constituents than either of the other sorts. In 
the carrot and wurzel we find the same amount of 
water, while the turnip exceeds both iu this compo¬ 
nent. When first taken from the earth, the mangel 
contains an acrid matter, the tendency of which is 
to scour animals, particularly if fed in largo quan¬ 
tities; but by being stored a few months, the pectic 
acid diminishes, while the proportion of sugar in¬ 
creases considerably. 
The mangel likes a deep, rich soil. A strong 
loam will be fouud most congenial to its full devel¬ 
opment, but a strong clay, if kept well worked, will 
give a large crop. This root is a great feeder, and 
it is useless to attempt to grow it without a good 
rich soil and plenty of manure. 
Plant in drills wide enough apart to admit of the 
cultivator, and eight, or ten inches apart in the 
drills. To make sure work, some plant four iuches 
apart/in the rows, and then thin out. The seed 
should always be soaked for about two days in soft 
water, as it requires a good deal of moisture to pro¬ 
duce germination. It is from want of attention to 
this point many root-growers have failed. To plant 
dry beet seed in a dry soil, is pretty sure to he labor 
lost. Wo never plant a beet seed without a soaking 
of at least twenty-four hours, and meet with uniform 
success. Beets, like other root crops, require a 
good deal of work with the hoe; and this should he 
performed early and thoroughly. There is no 
chance for delay here, without loss of both labor 
and crop. At the time of weeding, any vacancies 
may be filled by transplanting. This should be 
douo carefully, so as not to injure the tap-root. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
tuk lkadiwo amkuioan weekly 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: — I have noticed 
several inquiries in your journal relative to sheep 
raising: also, asking which pays best, shpep or 
cattle. I have been dealing in both for the last 
twenty years, and my experience qualifies me to 
say that sheep pay better than cattle, and will, with 
a less amount of capital, bring a greater income. I 
have not raised cattle, but have bought and pas¬ 
tured a hundred almost every year for the past ten 
or fifteen, until the last three or four I have, at the 
same time, been raising a flock of sheep, trying to 
bring them to the highest standard both of weight 
and profit. These circumstances enable me, I think, 
to give advice to any that, may desire it. 
I hare always cherished the idea that a large flock 
of fine sheep could be bred so that they would shear 
four pounds washed wool. I have now passed what 
L once considered the maximum weight of a tine 
fleece, and have about nine hundred sheep that will 
average four pounds and three-quarters, and hope 
in two more shearings to bring it as high as five 
pounds if not more. In this large flock of sheep I 
have not one poor animal, and none but will pro¬ 
duce a good article both in crimp and quality. 
Some persons have thought that I possessed a 
secret by which 1 keep so many and lose so few 
during the winter, (my loss never being more than 
one out of a hundred, sometimes not that,) but the 
only secret is punctuality in feeding, and giving just 
enough of the right kind of food. To sheep over 
one year old 1 feed shock com, well scattered on tho 
field, so they will not trample and soil it. The 
sheep should be kept away while scattering, so that 
all may have an equal chance. Commence with a 
very little before the pasturage i9 done, increasing 
as the winter sets in, until yon have reached a lull 
feed of about one and a 1 all bushels per hundred 
head once a day, and no other grain, varying to suit 
Circumstances in general. To sheep unused to eat 
corn iu this way, the ears should be mashed for 
them once or twice. As the weather grows warmer 
and pasture increases, decrease the feed until the 
pasture is sufficient to keep them, then turn into the 
field where you Intend them to remain, and in no 
case change them so long as they do well. Always 
keep salt lying by them. 
-My lambs 1 feed either shelled corn or oats, 
together with hay, feeding twice a day—the grain 
first, then putting them in a small pen with the hay, 
keeping t hem half the day, then turning out. After 
feeding at night, pen again as usual. In this way 
they will eat all their hay. Always have salt in 
the pen with the hay, so they can get it whenever 
they desire. Hay that is fed to sheep should be of 
the best quality, and just, enough given to eat—none 
to waste. The corn also should be good. May we 
consider the best lambing season. I have no sheds, 
because 1 think sheep will be healthier without, and 
do, most positively, condemn close ones. 
Auy one having sheep, ami who will take care of 
them, will get rich, us will his farm, also. No slock 
pays as well. My sheep bring me three dollars per 
head, clear of expense. A new beginner in the 
business should buy cheap-priced sheep, paying 
from one dollar and a half to three dollars, getting 
the best he can for the money, and just, as many as 
he can care lor properly—no more. The best grade 
is half-blooded Merinos. These will pay him about 
twenty per cent. Then select good bucks, never 
selling the best, but always the worst. Never buy 
of a peddler; for they will cheat you, no difference 
what provisions are made. The common error of 
wool-growers is that of making their flocks too 
coarse. My sheep are the old-fashioned, black-top 
Merinos of the Wells and DrCKI.NSON order, as 
near as I am able to judge. 
I am willing to answer any inquiries relative to 
sheep raising and sheep, made either through the 
columns of the Rural or through the mail to any 
one who will write me at Hebron, Ohio. Also 
invite as many as see fit to visit me, and see my 
flock, which I think cannot be beaten in Ohio, i 
inclose some samples of wool to you, Mr. Editor, 
which, to every good judge of wool, will, I think, 
speak for themselves. They are the average grade 
of my whole flock, and a little more than the aver¬ 
age weight of my two hundred and forty ewes. 
The ewes from which the samples are taken shear 
six pounds, the average weight being five pounds: 
the one on the right being from a ewe shearing 
eight pounds more than once. The samples are 
entirely natural, the sheep never having been 
blanketed, blacked, housed, or oiled. These tricks 
are sometimes practiced by peddlers to improve the 
looks of their sheep, and no one can make a proper 
estimate of the improvement in appearance, if they 
knew that they had been thus used, and this is why 
I say don't buy of them. Y'ou may think you are 
getting a "Black Top,” but you find the first rain 
they are iu that you got a blacked top. You thought 
you had one that was hard to beat in regard to 
crimp; now you find the wool straight as hair. 
Hebron, Ohio, 1862. .Iacuii Stoolhre. 
Remarks. —The samples of wool accompanying 
the above sensible article, are of superior quality, 
and furnish evidence that our correspondent has 
good sheep and knows how to care for them. The 
suggestions and advice concerning feeding and gen¬ 
eral management, and the best grade of sheep for 
wool growing, will be concurred in by many readers. 
We shall be glad to hear from Mr. S. again.— Eds. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAS. D. BRAQ-DON. Western Corresponding Editor. 
Thk Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance Its Conductor devotes bis per¬ 
sona) 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 and other 
Subjects intimately connected with the business of those whOBe 
interests it realously advocates As a Family Journal it is 
eminently Instructive and Entertaining —being so conducted 
that it can he safely taken to the Hearts and Flomes of people of 
Intelligence, taste ami discrimination. It embraces more Agri¬ 
cultural, Horticultural, Scientific. Educational, Literary and 
News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other journal, —rendering it the most 
complete Agricultural, Litkrary akd Family Newspaper 
in America. 
The above engraving is intended to represent, an 
improvement in subsoil plows, or in the mode of 
subsoiling, invented by Mr. Wit. U. H. Burnham, 
of Homer, Cortland county, N. Y. The improve¬ 
ment is a simple contrivance and can be easily 
attached ro any plow, and removed at pleasure; as 
shown above it is fastened to the Straight-Draft 
Plow. It consists of a triangular plate of steel, the 
largest point being In front, fastened t.o an adjusting 
bar by which the depth can be easily regulated. 
The Attachment is securely fastened to the plow by 
two iron rods near its base, and also connected at 
the top of the adjusting bar. The subsoiler (being 
the triangular plate) runs nearly level, the point 
inclining downward, and is so arranged that its 
inclination can he readily changed, at the option of 
the operator, according to soil and circumstances. 
It can be guaged so as to subsoil to any desired depth, 
its adjustability being from one to twelve inches be¬ 
low the bottom of the plow to which it is attached— 
i very convenient, and advantageous arrangement. 
This improvement is the invention of a practical 
farmer, by whom it has been nsed over two years. 
Tho idea of it was first suggested to Mr. Burnham 
on reading an article in the Rural which alluded 
to the necessity of some cheap and simple mode ot 
subsoiling. It worked so well, and his experience 
with it proved so satisfactory, that the inventor was 
finally induced to secure a patent for the improve¬ 
ment, and now offers it to the agricultural public 
upon its merits. We saw the Attachment in opera¬ 
tion a few days ago, and were surprised at its 
simplicity and capacity. Attached to a common 
plow, it subsoiled to the depth of 61 inches below 
the furrow it followed — making the whole depth of 
plowing and subsoiling from twelve to thirteen 
inches, in a heavy clay loam. The team used was 
only ono span of horses, and the subsoiler did not 
apparently add over 25 per cent, to the draft of the 
plow as ordinarily used. Three horses would 
probably be sufficient for deep subsoiliog. Some 
experienced gentlemen who witnessed its operation 
on the same day. expressed the opinion that the 
Attachment pulverized the soil ns well as ordinary 
subsoil plows. 
— We see no good reason why this improvement 
should not meet with favor among farmers, and we 
believe it will on examination and trial, it is 
simple, cheap, of comparatively light draft, and can 
be used in connection with any common plow. In 
the belief that it will prove a long-sought desider¬ 
atum. we commend it to the attention, at least, of all 
our readers interested in the important matter of 
subsoiling. See advertisement in this paper. 
CT" For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
NOTES AND INQUIRIES, 
Value of Carrots for Food. 
Eds. Rural Nkw-Yorkwr: —What is your opinion in 
regard to the value of White carrots, compared with the 
Orange carrot or with turnips? They will gtvw on poor soil, 
grow well where the Orange would not live, as 1 know by 
experience Do they pnewws the peculiar properties found in 
the Orange, which nudee that, variety so valuable for horses? 
I had rated the Orange carrot and Ruta R.-iga turnip as about 
equal. The White carrot and the White Purple Top the 
same. Ami right? An opinion from BOme one of greater 
experience than mine would be valued.—W. B. C., iVeio Brunt- 
wick, N. i71, 1862. 
Experience has proved, the White carrot is not 
quite as valuable lor feeding as the Orange, being 
less nutritious; but. either will be found more so 
than the same weight of the best turnips. As the 
White grows larger, and produces a greater weight 
to the acre, with the same culture, than any other 
carrot, it, is a very useful variety for the stock 
farmer, and particularly valuable because, as sug¬ 
gested by our correspondent, it succeeds on a poor, 
light soil. Still, it should not be neglected, as it 
well repays for good cultivation and manure. A 
larmer friend in this vicinity has grown, lor several 
years, the Early French Very Short-horn carrot, 
for feeding. This requires but little thinning out, 
and in the fell may be pulled up by the hundlul. 
Set in rows just wide enough to admit the use of 
the hoe. a great quantity may be produced to the 
acre; and they grow well on any fair soil, mature 
early, and are valuable for the table or for feeding. 
This variety is at least worthy of a trial, and for the 
kitchen it has not an equal. 
Every year root-culture is extending, and this, we 
have no doubt, will continue to be the ease lor 
many years to come. A correspondent writes:— 
“ With good corn fodder and plenty of carrots, I 
can keep over cows in a very satisfactory manner; 
and, with such food, find no difficulty in making 
good butter in the winter. Of this fact I had a 
pretty fair trial the past winter. In the early part 
we fed corn fodder and carrots, with cabbage leaves 
occasionally, and made fine yellow butter of a good 
rich flavor; but near the end ot the winter, when 
the carrots were gone, and we had to resort to hay 
and mill feed, with a little grain, the butter was a 
very different article, being deficient in color and 
flavor.” if onr correspondent had grown a lot of 
parsnips, to take the place of the carrots when they 
were gone, he would have kept up the quality of 
fee butter until spring, and perhaps improved it a 
little. 
Carrots may be sown as late as the first week in 
June; and this is often the best time. If a little 
showery, we should prefer it to any other, as by 
feat time many ol the weed seeds have grown, and 
may be destroyed before sowing the carrots. 
Several times we have called the attention of our 
readers, and particularly those whose interest it is 
to furnish a large amount of food for stock, to a root 
which we think invaluable for this purpose, and par¬ 
ticularly adapted to our climate. While many suc¬ 
ceed with the turnip—and all may succeed in favor¬ 
able seasons, aud with proper culture—yet it must be 
admitted that our climate is far less favorable to its 
growth and maturity, tbau the humid climate of Eng¬ 
land. in the Kohi-Rabi we have a root that seems 
suited to our needs. It will endure the hottest, dry est 
weather, and is said never fails of producing a large 
crop. it. fe perfectly hardy, and no ordinary frost 
injures it in the least, so that there need be no Inirry 
about storing. Then it bears transplanting well, 
and this is the best mode of growing, so that there 
need be no failure on account of bad seed, no bare 
■Tots lo disfigure the field or lessen the crop. Un- 
*ke the turnip, it gives no unpleasant taste to milk 
or butfer, arul is relished hy all kinds of stock. The 
seed may be sown in the ground where it is to ma¬ 
nic, like the turnip, or in beds like cabbage, to be 
transplanted. Seed should be sown in May. In 
1 ansplanting, they should be set about sixteen 
iuches apart. Select a dull day for this work. 
SOIL ANALYSIS vs. EXPERIENCE. 
“The knowledge gathered from experience is 
able in niuety-uine cases out, of a hundred to give 
a more truthful verdict, in regard to the capacity of 
a soil, than any amount of analysis can do; and 1 
would give more for the opinion of an old intelli¬ 
gent farmer than for that of the most skillful chem¬ 
ist, in most questions connected with farming.”— 
Professor Johnson. 
“ We believed that the water was the carrier of 
the most remote elements of the soil to the immedi¬ 
ate presence of the plant; but all this has been a 
great mistake, k * * * We have- 
inferred from the effect of water and carbonic acid 
on rocks, a similarity of action on soils; but this 
conclusion is false. * * * * The 
soil does not give up to the water one particle of 
the food of plants which it contains.”— Liebig. 
Two points surrendered, and the surrender con¬ 
firmed in the most positive language; but he rallies 
again in a lew lines, and insists on what he has 
just admitted to be false. “We know of no other 
way in which the earthy phosphates are dispersed 
through the soil than by means of carbonic acid 
water." Again he says: “/fit is true that one of 
the chief effects of humus, or the decaying remains 
ol plants in soils or in manure, consists in its form¬ 
ing a source of carbonic acid, with which the air 
and water in the ground are enriched: if it is also 
true that carbonic acid water renders the earthy 
phosphates soluble, and thus contributes to their 
distribution through the soil ; then there can be no 
doubt that the salts of’ ammonia, which possess the 
same soluble property, can in this respect replace 
the organic matters, and exert an equally favorable 
influence on the growth ol‘ plants.” 
The mystic shadow of that fatal little word, if, 
covers up one of the best established principles in 
the whole code of the laws of vegetable physiology. 
Drainage, practiced upon the best system of econom¬ 
ical principles, and established by fact and argu¬ 
ments irrcfragiblo, flatly Contradicts the two points 
surrend“red by Lieuiq, and establishes beyond a 
preadventure the fact that the introduction of light 
and heat into the soil is tho great philosophical 
principle upon which all those chemical agents are 
put iu motion that govern composition and decom¬ 
position, and transfer crude mineral and vegetable 
substances into organized food for plants, and air, 
earth aud water into food for man and beast. 
Water, lurking about in the soil, instead of dis¬ 
solving crude minerals, and transforming them into 
organized food for plants, and transferring them 
from one portion of the soil to another, possesses a 
negative power over those substances, producing a 
dormant state of solubility, actually destructive of 
vegetable life, until brought in contact with the car¬ 
bonic acid of the atmosphere. Aside from all meta¬ 
physical hypothesis, thfe is practically done by a 
judicious pulverization of the soil, and thorough 
drainage. In (he vegetable kingdom, as in all other 
parts of the universe, there are two prevailing ele¬ 
ments, positive and negative. Water is one of the 
most powerful of the latter class; when free from the 
control of light and heat, the very soul of vegetable 
life. V egetable carbon, the greatest of all fertilizers, 
to be found in great quantities in the forests and low 
lands, always a prisoner to this negative power to a 
great degree, only requires to be transferred to our 
exhausted fields—to the action ol light and heat—to 
restore them to their native fertility. There are 
thousands of apparently exhausted soils iu our 
midst, whose subsoils contain all the mineral sub¬ 
stances necessaiy to redeem the upper soil, when¬ 
ever brought, to the action of the carbonic acid of 
the atmosphere. No better principle for producing 
this result has been established than the practice of 
sowing and plowing in clover, buckwheat, oats, Ac. 
The crop may be turned under twice each season; 
the time , and what point of matur'dt, to do this work, 
are questions which may require the careful obser¬ 
vation of every cultivator of the soil. Clover is 
excellent for this purpose, as its long tap roots run 
deep into the subsoil, with a draft from nature’s 
own hand demanding a dividend from her mineral 
deposits below. These facts are only to lie known 
by continued experiments. Thus we would unite 
science with labor, and establish agricultural econ¬ 
omy upon a basis that shall defy contradiction. 
Verily, soil analysis has proved a humbug. 
East Jaffrey, N. It., 1862. L. L. Pierce. 
Potato Planting, 
Eds. Rural Nkw-Yorkek: —As this is the time for potato 
planting, can you give any information that will aid us in 
securing a good crop of salable varieties?—S, 
It is now so late that planting should be attended 
to at once. As a general rule we prefer early plant¬ 
ing, but sometime* the seasons are such that those 
late planted do tho best. Always select a dry, well- 
drained soil, if you would avoid the rot. It is better 
to be light and sandy than too heavy; but a loam is 
best. Jl should not be too rich, and never manured 
with fresh stable manure. A clover sod is excellent ; 
but if the soil is not sufficiently rich, a little well 
rotted compost in the hill will be found of great 
advantage. Don’t be too sparing of the seed. We 
would not cut seed small, nor plant small potatoes. 
Nothing less than medium size should be used for 
seed. This may be done for once or twice, particu¬ 
larly in a strong soil; but the result, after a few 
years, will be great degeneracy in size—a large 
quantity of unsalable potatoes. If the ground is 
well drained, plant rather deep and till but little. 
The crop usually suffers from drouth, and this is 
increased by billing. The old Mercer is preferred 
for the New York market, and brings the highest 
price; but it is a poor cropper, and subject to the 
rot. The Peach Blow is prized the next; but all 
smooth white potatoes are purchased for shipment 
east What the formers in this section need is a 
potato with a small top that will produce well, ripen 
early, and that will meet the notions ol eastern pur¬ 
chasers. 
RURAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker:— Thinking that some 
of the things which I have seen and heard in my 
rambles might interest at least a portion of your 
readers, 1 have decided to send you u few linos. 
I left Rochester on the 11.40 A. M. train of Satur¬ 
day, tho 25th of April, and arrived at Buffalo 2.30 
P. M. Took the 4 P. M. train on the L. S. R. R. for 
Angola, where I spent the Sabbath with some old 
friends. Farmers had done but very little at spring 
work hereabouts. Some plowing had been com¬ 
pleted. blit the ground was loo wet and the air too 
cold to make it practicable to put in much seed. This 
seemed like quite a contrast to Lancaster county, 
Pa., where the farmers had nearly completed sow¬ 
ing oats when I loft there three weeks before. In 
my opinion, at least two weeks of growing season 
could be gained on two-tbirds of the land in the 
town of Evans, Erie county, hy proper under¬ 
drainage. Many of the farmers are beginning to 
see this and are acting accordingly. In the eastern 
portion of the town the subsoil iu most places is a 
stiff clay, and it has been said that on some farms it 
comes up as high as the second rail of the fence. 
(Remember, I only state this as hearsay.) Though 
snob land is worth but little when the sun is 
required to do the duty of underdraine,^vhen the 
proper means are nsed it can be brought to a high 
state of cultivation. 
There has been a farmers’ club in the town for 
the past three years, and meetings have been bold 
almost weekly in the winter, and less often iu the 
summer. In the winter the meetings are held in 
the evening at private houses, and the ladies usually 
take a prominent part in the proceedings. No 
scribe is appointed, and consequently uo official 
record is kept of the proceedings. The head of the 
family where the meeting is held is chairman, and, 
assisted by one or more persons, appointed for the 
purpose, is required to furnish an intellectual report, 
Couch Grass. 
Eds. IU’kai. New-Yorker: —How can I destroy Couch 
grass, which is extending very rapidly over my farm, especially 
in one portion, rather low? A lew years ago I think there 
was scarcely a root on my place, but now in some places it is 
almost impossible to get a crop. It there any way of destroy¬ 
ing it at once?— M. T., Orleans Co., jV. K, 1862. 
There can be no question but this grass is becom¬ 
ing exceedingly troublesome, and an easy way to 
destroy it has not been discovered, that we are 
aware of. It is very tenacious of life, and we have 
taken up plants that have been buried for a couple 
of weeks where even the leaves did not appear dig* 
eolured. But, the great difficulty is with the roots 
or under-ground stems. They increase rapidly, 
spread over a large surface, and the first iatimatiun 
we have of their existence is the appearance of the 
young shoots, making their way above the surface. 
A small particle of root left in the ground soon 
forms a new plant, and if neglected, a thousand. 
The only way we have ever succeeded in keeping it 
down is to remove the roots from the soil with a 
fork. This is effectual if faithfully performed. If 
any one knows of a better method we should be 
happy to learn it. As this grass flourishes best in a 
damp soil, draining is of advantage. 
