£TURE 
a&RlCULTWr-H 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1862. 
expect some uniformity, some regularity in vegeta¬ 
ble products. From a large germ we would look for 
a large plant; from a smaller germ a smaller plant, 
and so on in steady gradation. But, instead, we 
see the most surprising irregularity. There is no 
calculating, from the size of a particular kind of 
seed, the dimensions of the plant it will produce. 
Again, some seeds are quite a3 curious and as pretty 
to look at as the plant, and (lower that grow from 
them. The verbena looks as if cut off evenly and 
by exact measure from a round, straight, slender 
stick. The tine metallic-looking portulacca and the 
smooth, black, polished cockscomb and amaranth 
(tri-color), the sober stocks, the wedge-like asters, 
the stout, substantial balsams, the delicate, shining 
CUntOiiia , the plump, gracefully-turned Viola odor- 
ala, the diminutive poppy, and scores of others, all 
small, yet each as distinct from the rest as maize 
from wheat, well repay careful attention. The 
mignonette, plain and unpretending, would interest 
us even if we did not know that it is the germ of 
one of the sweetest flowers that grow. 
You could sow ashes with almost as much hope 
of seeing oaks, elms and hickories spring from them, 
as you commit some varieties of seeds to the ground 
in expectation of their sending up stem, leaf and 
g them, you are not aur- 
importance to every cultivator of the soil — one 
upon which depends mainly success or failure. 
Millions of dollars are expended every year by the 
farmers of this country for guano and other artifi¬ 
cial manures, while a far greater amount of home¬ 
made manure is wasted by mismanagement, and 
many valuable sources of fertilizers lie unimproved. 
We do not object to the purchase of manures, 
believing that money expended in this direction is 
often well invested, yet it the eutire supply were 
stopped, and American agriculturists were com¬ 
pelled to depend upon their own resources for a 
time, we think the country on the whole would be 
far better oil - , for it is often much easier to spend our 
money than to exercise economy, and necessity is 
the mother of invention, as well as of a great many 
other good things, lie who makes an energetic and 
determined effort for the improvement, of his soil, 
will be surprised to learn how thoroughly and how 
cheaply it. can be done, and will wonder why he 
slept so long, and so much to the injury of bis own 
best interests. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE LEA Til* G AMERICAN WKKKI.Y 
RUSAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors, 
CHAS. D. BRAG DON, Western Cor6esponding Editor, 
TnE Rural New-Yorker h designed to be Unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
gonal 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 nf those whose 
interests it zealously advocates. As a Family Journal it i, 
eminently Instructive and Kntertaininp —heinir so conducted 
that it can be safely taken to the Hearts and Homes-of people 
of intelligence, taste and discrimination. It embraces more 
Agricultural. Horticultural. Scientific, Educational, Literary 
and News Hatter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other journal.—rendering it the most 
complete Agricultural, Literacy and Family Newspaper 
in America. _ 
Ijjr- For Terras and other particulars, see last page. 
As the season has nearly arrived when haying 
and harvesting machinery will he in demand, we 
take pleasure in presenting the above engraving of 
a superior Horse Rake, designed for raking hay and 
gleaning grain fields. Though of comparatively 
recent introduction, (being patented in ls38.) 
Whitcomb's Rake and Gleaner has been quite 
extensively used in some of the best grass and 
grain-growing sections of thi3 and other States, and 
received the highest commendation of practical 
farmers. Some of tho best farmers in Central New 
York say it is the ne plus ultra of hotse rakes, 
performing all that is claimed. To show what the 
manufacturers claim for this invention, we quote the 
substance of their descriptive circular, as follows: 
As a gleaner after the cradle in the wheat field, 
it will pay its cost in a single day’s use, and has 
often done it. By means of several holes in the 
arms, the Rake-IIoad may be elevated a little, so the 
teeth will pass lightly over or just above the surface 
of the ground. For hay-raking, having been thor¬ 
oughly tested in every variety of field and in all 
kinds of grass, it is offered with entire confidence. 
It is operated with ease by a lad twelve or fourteen 
years of age — is remarkably simple in its construc¬ 
tion, and will easily rake 20 acres per day. It can 
be worked with small expense, as a boy or infirm 
man, comfortably seated with feet upon the treadles, 
can easily operate it. It makes amusement of bay- 
raking, as boys delight to use it, and work it more 
readily thau a man. The Rake-IIead is attached in 
MMGmTBBAI 
flower. After axarnmin 
prised, in reading the description of their habits ot 
germinating, flowering, etc., to find that they some¬ 
times lie dormant, in the ground a long time: you 
are quite sure it will be a very long time. Others 
look so full of life—so overflowing with vitality— 
that you confidently expect to see them up an hour 
after sowing. We are all familiar with the agreeable 
and decided flavors of various seeds useful in do¬ 
mestic economy, -itch as dill, fennel, unise. caraway, 
itc.. and the peculiar odor of others, like the sum¬ 
mer savory. The difference in taste and smell of 
Corn, wheat and other groins is quite apparent also; 
and perhaps, if the organs of taste and smell were 
as nice and discriminating as the sight, we could 
detect as many differences of flavor and odor in 
seeds as we see variations of form and shades of 
color. The roughness or smoothness of surface is 
also a distinguishing feature in the appearance oi 
seeds, and it is curious and interesting to observe 
how many different styles of finish they have. 
Indeed, we deprive ourselves of much pleasant 
entertainment and instruction if we neglect to find 
gratification in these germs of vegetable life till 
they have expanded into leaf, and bloom, and fruit 
—if, in sowing our seeds, we fail to see how much 
beauty we are committing to the earth. a. 
South Livonia, N. Y„ 1862. 
Horse Rakes, with metallic spring teeth, without 
wheels, have been long in use, and have answered a 
useful purpose; but to use them is hard work, and 
they plow into light, porous ground, as the weight 
rests upon the teeth, and collect dirt, dust and 
stones: but the Whitcomb Rake passes lightly over 
and places the hay in winrows, wUhrmlcomj/nsdng, 
like the Revolver, in good condition for curing and 
pitching; it works equally well in rough, uneven, 
as on smooth ground. It is also very serviceable in 
raking grain into gavels for binding where the grain 
is cradled good, as one mau will rake fast enough 
for five or six to bind. The Rake-Head is design¬ 
edly placed near the axle, otherwise it would not 
rake clean on rough ground. The Rake is the 
result of study and repeated experiments, and its 
success is not problematical, as it is rapidly super¬ 
seding all other kinds where it is introduced. Sev¬ 
eral thousands of them are being manufactured the 
present season.’ 7 
— The above described Rake is manufactured by 
Messrs. M. B. Sciienck *fc Brother, of Oswego 
Falls. N. Y., to whose advertisement we refer farm¬ 
ers and dealers for price and other particulars. 
the various grains and grasses—yon cannot have 
failed to observe the distinguishing characteristics 
of each variety, though you may never have exam¬ 
ined them particularly nor reflected on their points 
of difference. Most of these kinds of seeds are so 
distinct that they are quickly learned and easily 
remembered: indeed, the daily use of several of 
them in their season as articles of food, familiarizes 
their names to the memory beyond the possibility 
of forgetting them. Not to “know beans,'' ex¬ 
presses, in vulgar phrase, the state of unmitigated 
ignorance: though why that particular description 
of’ pulse is chosen as the last test, of intelligence, 
rather thun peas or other edible seed of the 
leguminous family, or why it is accounted more 
stupid not to recognize those naturally pod-inclosed 
nourishers of existence than the more commonly- 
eateD, universal ly-ftivorito esculent, the potato, is 
difficult to understand. 
But corn, beans, peas and potatoes are not more 
easily distinguished by the sight than are the ma¬ 
jority of other garden seeds that produce plants or 
fruits for food. There is no mistaking the delicate, 
silvery lettuce, so prettily ribbed, or fluted, or 
veined; nor the coarse, rough, ragged beet; nor the 
round, smooth, purplish turnip; nor the black onion: 
nor the brown, somewhat irregular cabbage; nor 
the thin, flat, hairy tomato; nor the long, round, 
stout, almost needle-shaped salsify; nor the two 
varieties of spinach—one somewhat resembling a 
wedge in form, the other more flat and thin like the 
tomato; nor the thick, coarse, rough-painted, blunt 
seed of the watermelon; nor the smooth, well¬ 
shaped, delicate-colored cucumber. By planting or 
sowing a few times, in many cases a single time, a 
person of ordinary attention gets the appearance of 
each particular variety of grass, grain or vegetable 
seeds so fixed in his mind that thereafter he easily 
distinguishes it, at sight, from every other kind. 
No need of labels for carrot seed, or beet, seed, or 
squash seed, except to save the trouble of opening 
many packages in search of a single kind, or to 
enable an unaccustomed person to find any desired 
variety, of which you perhaps cannot give a 
sufficiently exact description to enable him to rec¬ 
ognize it. 
But the ease and certainty with which we distin¬ 
guish the different kinds of garden and field seeds, 
often give place to doubt, perplexity and confusion 
when wo undertake to determine the names of 
flower seeds with no other aid than their appearance 
affords. The seeds are perfectly familiar to tho 
sight, and the names are in our memories: but each 
particular kind of seed, and its appropriate name, 
are not so closely associated in the mind and so set 
apart from other objects and names that the sight of 
one unerringly suggests tho other. Whether the 
utility of the former class of seeds, and their conse¬ 
quent greater importance, draws our attention more 
strongly to their characteristics, or whether we yield 
to a semi-notion that flower seeds are, for the most 
part, pretty much alike, and so shut our eyes to 
their differences, certainly the majority of us are 
far less able to name, at sight, the different varieties 
of the latter class than those of the former. But 
the greater similarity of flower than of field and 
garden seeds to each other, exists only in our fancy. 
They are, in fact, quite as distinct, and, with equal 
attention and effort, quite as quickly learned and 
as easily remembered. Nature is not more likely 
to repeat herself in seeds thau in any other of her 
productions; but the careless, inattentive eye slurs 
the dissimilarities of the nicer sorts, and indo- 
cultivated. It may be an empty boast for a farmer 
to say thar. he owns and cultivates two or three or 
five hundred acres of land, for at the end of a 
season the profits may be very small. The mer¬ 
chant likes to make a large profit upon a small 
investment, and he who is the most successful in 
this direction is considered the most skillful. But 
the. farmer takes a different view of things, and 
boasts not of his large profits, but his great invest¬ 
ments, though sometimes accompanied with very 
meager gains. This is a good deal like measuring 
the crops by the amount of seed sown. 
The soil is truly the farmer’s capital, but its value 
must be judged by its capacity and not by its extent. 
An acre that will produce twenty-five bushels of 
wheat is worth as much as two that will yield only 
fifteen each, because more labor is required in the 
culture of two than one; and the same rule holds 
good with any other crop. This fact is not always 
remembered in the purchase and sale of land. The 
farms in a certain section are considered worth fifty 
or a hundred dollars an acre, though perhaps some 
are worth double that of others for all practical 
purposes. A reduction of ten or fifteen dollars an 
acre will induce the purchaser to purchase poor 
land, though perhaps this is not one-halt of the real 
difference. ' This fact is better understood after a 
few years’ experience in enriching a farm naturally 
poor, or one impoverished by injudicious manage¬ 
ment. 
To improve a poor farm or keep up an increase in 
the fertility ol one already in fair condition, and at 
the least expense, requires a good deal of thought 
and good management. Plenty of good stable 
BRIEF AGRICULTURAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
a half to three bushels of seed per acre. As the t has proved that the peach is a comparatively safe 
land became more fertile the cTovorgrew more luxu- crop; the trees will last for 50 years. There are old 
riant, but less seed from the second crop. From a orchards here of from 10 to 40 acres each, of seed- 
line growth on ten acres last year a small quantity ling trees. Many fortunes have been made by 
of seed was realized, and a lino growth of the present | making the peach crop into brandy; but since the 
season promises a like result. 1 am inclined to J Illinois Central Railroad has been built, about lb,000 
think early mowing the first crop has much to do I acres of peach ireeshavc been planted, all budded 
with the seed crop— not all. Will the clover seed fruit of the popular market varieties. Garden veg- 
growers give their opinions in the Rural? —I. I.. etables grow finely here. Some men grow five acres 
Stamford, C, IF., 1862. of tomatoes for the early Northern markets. IV e 
have thousands of bushels of blackberries, fully 
A Goon Ftt.ter Cistern. Very tew men are t ,q Ua ]; n g the Lawton. A woman will pick 10 quarts 
aware ol the inexhaustible supply ol water that ^ ej . Market price five cents per quart. In 
could be saved from their buildings, aud with very | September last we were in Carboudale. six thou- 
littlo expense; for it pays to put eaves-trnuglis upon j bushels of dried were then marketed, all dried 
any building: and a cistern can tie built and fur- hy women un( i children. Of course prosperity 
nislied with a pump, as cheap as a common well can | a | T ,. lK ( s such industry. Union county raised over 
be furnished with pump alone. Then it can be utiO.OOO bushels of peaches.— Egypt, South Pass , 
located where it will bo most convenient for use, jyw'on Cc>., IU. 
which is not. always the case with a well. But 1 
was going to describe, tor the benefit ot whom it The Season, Crops, &g\, in Wisconsin— Spring 
might concern, a filter cistern, such as I have used seems tardy here, and reluctant in yielding up its 
with entire satisfaction for eight years. Through sway to the life-inspiring rule of Summer. Scarcely 
two seasons of severe drouth, when most ot the have we had two days which would make a linen 
wells about here failed of water, it gave us a good coat tolerable. But notwithstanding tho backward- 
supply of pure water. I partition off one-fourth or ness of the season, the farmers ot' this State tusk only 
one-third of any cistern with brick, and cement immunity from the pestiferous depredations ot their 
ovor He for cistern wall, leaving one’or two pass- insect enemies to assure a bountiful harvest. Crops, 
;e area 
Lime a Strong and Durable Fertilizer.— 
American farmers generally have had but little 
experience in the use of lime on their land, although 
some have used it very extensively and tested its 
qualities especially for renovating land that has 
been much worn, and now with one consent pro¬ 
nounce it to be the very thing wo need to bring our 
farms to a high state of fertility. 1 have taken some 
pains of late to get the experience of men who have 
used lime more or less, and all say that it pays well. 
Some tell of wonderful results from its use in 
renovating and bringing into bearing old orchards, 
preventing the destruction of corn by worm- and 
increasing very much its growth. On grain fields 
where lime was applied the product was nearly 
double: also potatoes, limed every other row, proved 
its value by the much larger yield of the limed rows. 
But 1 forbear giving the names of the gentlemen I 
have consulted, and all the details of their experi¬ 
ence. hoping that lor the benefit of the farming com¬ 
munity they and others who have used lime on 
their farms, will give us the results through the 
Rp HAL. which I hope every tanner does or will take. 
I hope they will inform us how to apply it; how 
much to the acre; slaked or uuslaked ; at what 
season of the year; whether It should be mixed with 
muck or any other substance; applied as a top 
dressing or plowed in. &c. We have in Litchfield 
three coal kilns, turning out an immense quantity 
of lime daily, which is sold at the kiln at ten cents 
per bushel. (SO pounds,) or delivered at an extra 
cost sufficient to defray expense of drawing—A 
Subscriber, Litchfield , N. D., 1862. 
though late, are looking well, and a very larg 
of spring grain has been sown: and folly an average 
crop of corn is planted, and enough of Sorghum to 
entitle it to consideration among our agricultural 
crops. Farmers generally have been nerved to ex¬ 
traordinary exertion in the prosecution ot their 
spring labors by the menacing prospect of burthen- 
some taxes, and the absence from their fields oi the 
thousands of patriotic laborers who have heeded the 
war clarion of their country, calling them to far 
Other fields than those of peaceful industry. 
The usual depredations have already been com¬ 
menced upon agricultural prospects, it not upon 
agricultural products. Already have appeared to 
the troubled race of croakers armies of creatures 
more be to feared and dreaded—ten-fold more—than 
all the marshaled hosts of the " sesech,"' and along 
whose imaginary track lie only desolation, larnine 
and utter ruin. Already the farmer has begun his 
annu.il gantlet between the curses that were in- 
| gtltuted lor his sake —with the additon of chinch 
bugs, and humbugs, too. I believe, to all that was 
included in the original judgment of thorus, thistles, 
Ac. It is indeed stated by the farmers over a large 
section of the .State where I have just traveled by 
land, that the Hessian fly has really appeared in 
great force. The chinch bug has appeared also in 
unusually good season; but in this I think he is 
Production of Clover Seed— In the Toronto 
Globe is an article on clover seed (Trifolium pra- 
tense.) from an agricultural journal. In one para¬ 
graph it says—“I believe when clover is pastured 
off in June instead of being mowed —which is the 
practice with many farmers —that the same ground 
will produce, and does produce, much more seed 
per acre, than when the first growth is mowed. I 
know this has been true in seasons past, on my own 
farm, and also on adjoining farms, so far as I have 
made observations on the subject. Allowing the 
first crop of cluver to stand only a few days too 
long, will make a vast difference in the amount of 
seed per acre of the second crop.” 
Query.—Is it the early mowing or the greater fer¬ 
tility of a heavy day soil, that is most favorable or 
untavorable for seed? A sandy soil is certainly 
most congenial, as the second crop has less luxu¬ 
riant foliage. For the first years of 17 here, clover 
produced seed spontaneously; even two and three 
year old pasture, allowed to seed, brought two and 
over 
lently refuses to see the marks of difference except 
among the larger, coarser, commoner kinds. 
The appearance of seeds, their endless diversities 
of shape, size and color, and their habits of germi¬ 
nation and growth, form a delicate and most 
interesting study. Many times, the disproportion 
between the size of a seed and the size of the plant 
it produces, is very striking. We would naturally 
IRVING Chaot Co ISf 1 
