One proposition is to encourage swallows and mar¬ 
tins, by placing boxes in the trees for nests and 
shelter, but Dr. Trimble thinks they would be even 
a disadvantage; for they are notorious tly-catchers, 
and would destroy the ichneumon enemy of the 
measure-worm, which is now doing much towards 
its extirpation, as on examining thirty pupae of this 
worm in one-half he found the larvtc of the parasite. 
A farmer writes us on this subject, that though he 
has suffered somewhat from crows and blackbirds, 
and perhaps more than the majority of farmers, from 
the peculiar location of his land, yet in one year he 
has received more injury from the wheat midge and 
from the cut-worm, than from all the birds together 
in twenty years. 
it furnishes abundance of honey, while our bees are 
not able to obtain a particle from our common red 
clovers. Linnaeus considered this clover to be a 
hybrid between the red and white, and hence the 
name hybrid,wm, It is sometimes called Swedish 
clover, and is much cultivated in Alsike, and all 
the south of Sweden. It was introduced into Eng¬ 
land about twenty-live years ago, and since that 
time has gradually increased in favor, and is now 
much grown both in England and Scotland. It is 
there the custom to drill iu eight or ten pounds per 
acre on barley or wheat In April, setting the drill 
very shallow. After harvest the sheep are turned 
upon it. It will yield on good land two tuns per 
acre. The Cyclopedia of Agriculture, says it is 
strongly recommended for cold, moist, stiff soils. 
It resembles the common red clover in duration, 
stature, and mode of growth, and the Dutch clover 
in most other respects. The stems are hollow, not 
creeping, but disposed to spread, unless sown close, 
when they will attain a height of two or even three 
feet The whole plant is smooth, the stipules broad 
and pointed, the leaflets obovate. The flowers, in 
loose globular heads or umbels, and turned down¬ 
wards as they fade, ate like those of the Dutch 
clover, but rather larger, of a rich rose color mixed 
with white. The pods have usually two seeds only. 
It has been erroneously said to last fifteen or twenty 
years, but that is only from the facility with which 
it sheds its seed, and arises self-sown when grown 
in a genial soil. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
THE LEADING AMERICAN WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
Thu Rcral New-Yorker is 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 ofihose whose 
interests it zealously ad vocal es. As a Family Journal it is 
eminently Instructive aud Entertaining—being 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 Matter, Interspersed with appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering it the most 
complete Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper 
in America. 
Spelt —Cfliarnctcr ami Value. 
Eos. Rural New-Yorker:— I would like to bo informed 
through your puper what spelt is — whether it is winter grain 
or spring grain, and whether it is a good crop to raise, and 
profitable?—W. A. lb, Corfu , Gm. Co., N. V. 
Spelt is a kind of wheat. There are two varie¬ 
ties, called the Larger and Lesser Spelt. They are 
little cultivated, except in the warmer districts of 
South-Eastern Europe and the African and Asiatic 
shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Larger is the 
best variety, and the product of the Lesser is so 
small that it is only cultivated on very poor soils, 
where it will thrive better than any other wheat, 
especially in the warmer climates of Central and 
Southern Europe. We do not know of its culture 
in this country, but it would probably be found well 
adapted to the poor soils of some of our Southern 
States. 
>Ma 
ance of higher feeding or warmer shelter than any 
humane man ought to provide for his animals, he 
keeps the flock in open yards with shedding 
attached, and states, I doubt not with the most 
entire truth, that South-Downs will keep in better 
order and even grow fat upon no greater allowance 
of food than would be required to maintain an 
equal number of ordinary • natives.’ Believing 
that this improvement in mutton sheep is a matter 
to which far more general attention must be given 
in coming years, and that the South-Down supplies 
the best means of reaching that end, it is his design 
and desire to limit his sales ro far as possible to 
males, or to let their services by the season, where 
this is preferred to a purchase — -Young Prize,’ as 
one instance among others, having been let for the 
season of 1861 for $80 to Mr. John Worth of 
Chester county. Pa., a well-known and careful 
breeder—since it is in this way that the flock can 
be made to produce the most general and lasting 
efTect. Believing that, starling where British 
breeders at present stand, and where Mr. Webb 
is leaving otT, he can fully ‘hold his own’ as 
regards the points of excellence peculiar to the 
South-Downs, his importations include represent¬ 
atives of different families, so that, there need he 
no in-and-in breeding of near relatives, and he is 
watching with great care the results of combina¬ 
tions between the individuals of the flock, and the 
qualities developed by his young stock as they 
advance. Or the merits of ‘No. 89’ and ‘Reserve,’ 
or of the other imported animals, I need not speak, 
but it would be wrong to pass by those bred upon 
the jiluce without a single remark as to the evidence 
they afford of the success of Mr. Taylor's efforts. 
Among the South-Down flocks in this country, 
that of Mr. J. C. Taylor, of Holmdel, N. J., is 
prominent, and we take pleasure in portraying 
another of his bucks of the Wkrr stock, and in 
referring to bis Show and Sale—to take place Sep¬ 
tember 3d, as advertised in this paper. As afore¬ 
time stated in the Rural, Mr. Taylor has devoted 
some twelve years to the establishment of his flock, 
and paid extraordinary prices for stock animals, 
thereby securiug some of the best bucks in Mr. 
Webb's celebrated flock. We have never seen 
Mr. Taylor’s flock, but have good authority for 
commending it to the public. One of the editors 
of the Country Gentleman visited Mr. T. in Feb¬ 
ruary last, and published an interesting account 
of his (lock and management, from which we make 
Hie following extract: 
“Mr. Taylors South-Down flock now includes 
about, 76 breeding ewes, of which say 25 are im¬ 
ported; 16 ewe Iambs, aud 17 ram. lambs. He has 
also six stock rams: four imported—‘No. 89,' which 
was purchased for Mr. T., as our readers remember, 
at Jonas Webb's great sale in 1861, for about, 
$1,300; ‘Reserve,’ purchased from Mr. Webb in 
1860, and two yearling rams, purchased at tlie-same 
time as ‘No. 89.’ The other two rams are called 
‘ Young Prize * and • Vigor,’ and are sons of the ram 
imported by Mr. T. in 1858, and called ‘World’s 
Prize,’ from his having won the prize at the great 
international exhibition at Paris. ‘ World’s Prize,’ 
it may be added, was sold (or $1,000 in 1859, to go 
to California; that year was a remarkably success¬ 
ful one for Mr. T., and among other shipments then 
made to the Pacific coast, he mentioned one lot 
of 14 head, for which $1,400 was paid him. 
“From the liberal outlay made by Mr. T., during 
the past seven or eight years, and especially in the 
determination shown by him for three years past, to 
secure the best he could obtain in England, at. what¬ 
ever cost, I expected much, aud yet was scarcely 
prepared to find so many evidences of a straight¬ 
forward, practical common sense manifested in his 
views and transactions, rather than of any wild 
enthusiasm on the one hand, or of mere ‘Yankee 
’cuteness’ on the other. Believing that he can 
breed more healthy and hardy lambs by an avoid- 
Harvest is a season of toil and of pleasure. 
It calls for the most incessant and fatiguing exer¬ 
tions of the year; and yet the labor is pleasant, for 
the farmer works with willing hands, and rejoices 
at. receiving the bountiful reward for past?labors— 
at. another fulfillment of the glorious promise that 
seed-time and harvest shall not fail. He that sows 
in hope may well reap in joy. We are losing very 
much that may be considered the poetry of rural 
life, and particularly of the harvest-field, for the 
scythe and the sicklo are giving place to the mow¬ 
ing machine and the reaper, and the rustic gleaners 
and the beautiful hay-makers are seen no more, 
except in pictures of the olden time. Still there is 
beauty left, and more ol leisure for its enjoyment, 
and a higher appreciation of the beautiful and the 
true. Who would return to the old-fashioned sickle, 
or eveu the cradle, or desire that wives and daugh¬ 
ters should spend the long harvest days in raking 
clover aud timothy for the sake of poetical associa¬ 
tions. Modern improvements add to our time, 
wealth, and pleasures; yet, iu looking at the good 
of the past, wo are apt to lorget present blessings. 
In this timo of trial, when many hundreds of 
thousands are taken from the peaceful pursuits of 
agriculture to engage in deadly strife, it is a great 
satisfaction to know that Providence is smiling 
upon the husbandman, and that the coming harvest 
will be a bountiful one in all the. Northern Slates. 
This is a blessing for which we can not be too 
thankful, as a different result would, in the present 
crisis, have produced financial embarrassment, and 
perhaps great Buttering. 
The crop of Hay in this section is light; many old 
meadows are scarcely worth cutting, while we no¬ 
tice those newly sown are in most cases giving a 
fair yield, often quite large. 
Outs we are somewhat surprised to find good so 
generally. They are thick on the ground, the straw 
short, and heading finely, 
Birds nml Insects. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker:— The people and our wise 
legislators are doing much to preserve the birds from destruc¬ 
tion, and to encourage their inerease. This is done so that 
they may destroy the insects that trouble us, that those who 
have an ear for music may enjoy their songs, and those who 
have no car for sweet sounds may have an opportunity for the 
improvement of their defective organs. This is well enough, 
if it pays; but the birds seem to have a strange preference for 
ripe fruits and grain over nauseous insects, aud while I 
approve of their good tasle, I don’t know why the farmer 
should be compelled to keep swarms of birds on the products 
of his toil. Do you think they earn their living?—that is the 
question I would like to have discussed. — Farmer, Greece. N. 
1% 1S62. 
Tue above inquiry is pertinent. Birds are 
becoming very numerous and tame. A lew years 
since it was occasionally only that we saw a Balti¬ 
more Oriole; now they build their nests in all our 
tall trees, while the robins flock around us in the 
garden, like chickens, and are so sociable that they 
will pick cherries from the same tree, and from the 
same limb, and seem to begrudge us a taste, while 
the yellow bird robs ns of a good many of our choice 
seed that we would like to save. The presence of 
these leathered songsters is very pleasant; it gives 
life and beauty to the lawn and garden; and though 
most of our birds are not choice singers, their notes 
are sweet, their actions graceful, affording ft never- 
failing source ol pleasure. In the pleasure garden, 
then, the birds pay. without taking into account any 
good they do in the destruction of the injurious 
insects. But, the question asked by “Farmer” is, 
do the birds pay the one who grows crops for profit— 
who depeudsupOn Ihe products ol the soil for the sup¬ 
port of himself and family? rieasure will not pay 
store bills, and the sweet notes of the birds are not 
the kind taken by the collector of taxes, It is said 
by some farmers, and men, too, of large experience, 
that our robins and other birds, though they will eat 
the earth-worm and other inoffensive insects, will 
not destroy caterpillars, the currant-worm, and 
other insects that are injurious, and that the war 
liiey make upon the strawberries, and cherries, and 
grain, is fur more serious than that upon insects. 
We have thought there is scarcely an insect but 
furnishes food for some of our birds. Last season 
we noticed a pair of small brown birds at work ver y 
industriously among the currant-worms, eating them 
and carrying them off, doubtless to their nest, in 
large numbers. This was the only bird we have 
seen eating these worms. We believe, after pretty 
full investigation, by dissection, and examination of 
the contents of the stomach, it has been shown that 
even the robin lives maiuly on insects, though in 
the summer months it makes a dessert of fruit. 
Prof. Jexks, of Middleboro, Mass., had robins 
killed at day-break, noon, and sunset, in villages 
and in the country, and repeated examinations 
showed that “insects injurious to vegetation eonsti- 
WESTERN editorial notes 
THE NOUN. WEED. 
Rural reader, allow me to call your attention to 
this interesting word. It. has sundry significalions, 
aud each is related to the other. 
1 Tlii.s word is “ a general name for any plant that is use¬ 
less or troublesome. The word, therefore, hns no definite 
application to any plant or species of plants; but whatever 
plants grow among corn, grass, or in hedges, and which are 
either of no use to man or injurious to crops, ore denom¬ 
inated weeds.” 
Perhaps you thought you knew what, the word 
meant before —and perhaps you did —probably 
so; but it will do no harm to review the suhject, 
especially since it is timely to do so. Thus far, 
Webster. And the word is a noun — the name of 
a thing; and, according to the definition, a very 
noxious thing, if left to “grow among corn, grass, 
or in the hedges.” It evidently ought not to be 
allowed to grow. As soon as a plant is found to be 
a weed, growing with other crops, it should be 
attacked. There is no season of the year when it 
can be better or more successfully and satisfactorily 
done than the present month. 
But this noun has a still broader signification. It 
is applied to some plants that are uot popularly 
regarded as weeds. It is safe to say that every 
plant that grows where it is not wa,vied, is a weed , 
in its relation to the crop upon which it is trespass¬ 
ing. If rye is stretching its tall stem above the 
winter wheat, it is a weed, and should be gathered 
and burned now. The value of the wheat crop is 
injured by it. Oats in the spring wheat are pestif¬ 
erous weeds, and it will pay the farmer well to see 
It is the general opinion 
that the crop will he large, and we are certainly 
inclined to agree with this opinion, from our own 
observation. 
Corn is backward, uneven, and much in need of 
good “corn weather.” The nights are yet. too cold 
for very rapid advancement, but a few days of warm 
weather at this stage, will make a great improvement. 
Immense quantities of Beans have been planted. 
Almost every farmer has an acre or two, while we 
hear of some who are growing twenty and even 
thirty acres. They are looking well, but with this 
crop everything depends upon careful harvesting. 
Potatoes are looking well, but this is usually the 
case at this season of the year, and we have no sure¬ 
ty of a crop. 
Barley we understand is acknowledged to be fair, 
and Peas, of which there were a good many sown, 
are looking tolerably well, though in most cases 
dwarfed somewhat by the dry weather. 
Our great staple, Wheat, we have not seen look 
as well in ten years before; indeed, some fields we 
have scarcely ever seen equalled. All varieties are 
doing well, though the Mediterranean is growing in 
favor greatly. It is remarkable for its hardiness, 
and is improving in quality every year. The aphis 
is to lie found in some fields, but not in sufficient 
numbers to do mischief, and the midge is very 
scarce, only a few being found on the edges of the 
fields. Its work here seems accomplished. 
The field crops—such as corn, sorghum, potatoes, 
turnips, carrots, mangels, Ac. — must be kept clean, 
or their profit becomes a myth. The anuual and 
biennial plants that usually prevail on such fields, 
may be killed if cutoff below the point where the 
seed-leaf originates. 
The small grains need weeding. The dock, this¬ 
tle. daisy, cockle, couch grass, wild mustard, rag 
weed, Ac., which infest the fields, should be rooted 
out. The. chess should be pulled from the winter 
wheat; or, if it predominates, it should be plowed 
under deep , before the germ of the seed is matured 
enough to reproduce itself. 
The pastures should be cleaned of all noxious 
plants which scatter seed or increase from the root. 
In the West, I am sorry to say, many of the terrible 
pests which trouble Eastern farmers are getting an 
alarming foothold, because of the ignorance, indo¬ 
lence, or carelessness, of too many of our farmers. 
The Canada tlustle (Cirsium arrange J has iis feet 
firmly planted in a few localities, and the work of 
exterminatiou has hardly been broached. It spreads 
with great rapidity here, and the deep, porous na¬ 
ture of’ the prairie soils enables it to root far down. 
The surest process ot extermination is defoliation, 
and the work ,-hould commence at once and con¬ 
tinue during the present and succeeding mouth. It 
should not be permitted to remain long enough 
above ground to take breath. 
There are other thistles here, some of them en¬ 
trenching themselves strongly, and advancing their 
lines with great, rapidity. The common pasture 
thistle ( Cirsium, pumilum) is very common on the 
farms of a certain (and not very reputable) class of 
farmers. Cirsium altisshnum is also found here, and 
is altogether too common. There are Others, with 
less noxious habits. 
Then there is that inveterate “stick-tight,” wheth- 
descrlbe a condition of sorrow. Few who have 
passed by a deserted dwelling, no matter how fine 
its architecture aud how elaborate its ornature — 
few who have passed such a home after it has been 
neglected one season, or even a few months of a 
single season, but will appreciate the significance of 
this mournful application of the word. The land 
and the people both mourn, where weeds cumber 
the ground. The effect of their growth is always 
impoverishing to both the soil and the people who 
live upon its products. They destroy hopes, blight 
prospects of plenty and enjoyment, and levy a 
heavy burthen of labor upon the generation which 
undertakes their extermination. It is certainly 
proper to call all emblems of mourning, “weeds,” 
and to find, in the existence of a weed, cause for 
mourning. 
THE VERB, WEED. 
3. “To free from noxious plants; to take away ; to free 
from anything hurtful or oftensive ; to weed! ” 
Now we have reached the practical part of the 
subject—the active verb. I have anticipated it 
somewhat, and do not propose to use a mass of 
verbiage to prove that it is time to weed, or to define 
what to weed, or how to weed it. 
And yet, the subject is worthy serious attention. 
No argument is needed to show that it is lime to 
weed. Especially in the West, where rains have 
predominated, these hot July days bring forward 
the weeds with alarming rapidity. The gardens 
are rank with them; they are overshadowing all the 
virtuous plauts with ostentation, so characteristic 
of vice. 
What to weed, is by no means an idle question. 
The gardens must be kept clean; for the condition 
of the flower and kitchen garden is an index of the 
degree of inbred refinement and intelligence which 
presides over the establishment. 
NOTES AND INQUIRIES 
Alsike Clover. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker:—C an you tell me something: 
of the value and character of the Alsike clov er? Is it valua¬ 
ble for feeding purposes, and more so than our common red 
clover?—G razier. 
Alsike Clover ( Trifolium hybridum ) has not been 
grown to any extent in this country, and, we judge, 
has received a far more general trial in Canada. 
The Canadian Agriculturist says that alter a pretty 
thorough trial in the Province it is very highly 
approved. All bee-keepers are anxious that this 
clover should be generally grown, for like the white 
TWO DOLLARS 7A YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS ANTE) IAlIPROArENIjENTT.” 
[SUSTGrXjPG NTO. EOXLR CENTS. 
Y0L. xm. NO. 30.} 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1862. 
{WHOLE NO. 654. 
IRVING Chaut Co N Y 
