' AGRICULTURE 
ESTABLISHED IN 1850. 
ens reared. From January 1st, I 860 to January 
1 st, 1866, sold 502 dozen and consumed at least 
30 dozen, wtiich, at the average price received, 
amounted to one hundred and fifty-three dollars 
and sixty-four cents. Reared sixty chickens 
worth twenty-two dollars and fifty cents. 
The fowls were kept in three different places, 
although allowed to mix together at times. 
Their food was chiefly corn in the ear, kept 
before them all the time, and the fifty fowls con¬ 
sumed of it two bushels of ears per week on an 
average throughout the year. Mr. I no alls is of 
the opinion that the manure, of the fowls, if 
carefully Baved and properly applied, will make 
an increase of yield in a com crop to an extent 
sufficient to furnish food for the poultry. Il e 
pulverizes it line, mixes with ashes and plaster, 
and applies a handful of the compost to each hill 
before the corn appears above the surfuce. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
XX ORIGINAL WEEKLT 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able .\Mbla11lo snd Contributor*. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL, D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry, 
»y Fob Terms and other particulars Bee last page. 
VARIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED 
How to Prepare Onion Seed for Sowing. 
Mu. H. Benjamin of Ontario Co., N. Y., 
gives us his method of preparing onion seed for 
planting, by which he says it cornea up 80 quick 
that one can see the rows of young onions six 
days after sowing. He writes as follows: 
“ About the first of April I put my seed into 
blood warm water, set it where it will not freeze, 
and let it remain from twelve to fifteen days. I 
am careful to hava the water always cover all the 
seed. In two or three days one can tell if the 
seed be good by the (strong onion smell it will 
emit in case it is all right. I drain the water off 
from the seed, and stir amongst It some plaster, 
keeping it, however, a little moist, and warm. 
At the end of three days the seed will have 
thrown out sprouts half an inch long. I then 
plant It, covering about Lalf an inch deep with 
earth, and in six days one can see the rows. 
i prepare my ground by fall plowing, and 
Bpreading on It at that season a good coat of ma¬ 
nure to lie on the surface until spring. Hen 
manure la the best, next hog mannre, and If you 
have no other, well rotted barnyard manure will 
answer. When ready to sow the seed, I drag the 
ground thoroughly, and (hen rake it off smooth 
with the hand rake. I make drills fourteen 
inches apart, and plant In hills six inches apart, 
putting from five to eight seeds In a hill. Next 
I sow ashes broadcast until the ground looks 
light colored, imd then roll it down hard. In 
after cultivation I never dig up the ground, but 
shave oil' the weeds with a sharp hoe, and keep 
the crop clean." 
Balky Horses. 
“I never failed” said an experienced horse¬ 
man to us, “ in making a balky horse draw.” 
“ Well, how do you manage? ” 
“ I powul them, or whip, as the ease may be.” 
“ But wo have known balky horses that 
would’nt draw, if they were pounded or whipped 
till the life was out of them.” 
“ You did not pound or whip in the right way. 
As people generally whip a balky horse, the 
punishment Is worse than useless. When I have 
to deal with a notoriously hard case, in the first 
place I try to keep good natured. I have patience, 
too, and take time for my lesson. I select some 
place where the punishment is not likely to 
injure the horse, and commence whipping, or 
pounding, him with a smooth club, on that 
place. I don’t strike a blow anywhere else, and 
I don’t strike very hard blows cither. By-aiul- 
by he gets sore under it, and he winces some; I 
keep pounding; then be grows nervous, and 
fidgets about; still I keep pounding, TbiB is 
a new mode to the horse and he don’t know 
what to make of it; the pain grows intolerable 
and he Btarts nervously forward, and then falls 
back. I pound away patiently, and presently he 
starts forward with a will, and has no more in¬ 
clination to stop. It he balks again at a future 
time, I need only give him a short lesson and he 
draws. I never am troubled much afterward, but 
it the horse passes to auother owner, who does 
not know the secret, he commonly gets as balky 
as ever." 
mau ’ .,<1 ( 
Last week we gave an excellent portrait of a 
Jersey bull, with Illustrations of die Points of 
Excellence for judging males of that breed, as 
adopted and contiuued for many years by the 
Royal Agricultural Society of the Island of Jer¬ 
sey. We now give a portrait of a Jersey cow, 
showing the “points” adopted by the ubove 
named Society for guiding judges in determining 
the merits of Jersey cows and heifers. With 
few exceptions, tho same points arc good in 
judging any cow or heifer. 
SCALE OP POINTS FOR COWS AND HEIFERS. 
Article. Points. 
1. Pedigree on male side. 1 
2. Pedigree on female side,. 1 
3. Head smalljllne and tapering,. 1 
4. Cheek small,,.,,,. 1 
5. Throat clean,..."' 1 
6. Muzzle fine and encircled with a light color, 1 
Of the rump, long and well filled up. 1 
26. Hind leg- short and straight (below the 
hocks) and bones rather flue,. I 
27. Hind legs Bquarely placed, and not too close 
together when viewed from behind,. 1 
28. Hind legs nor, to cross in walking. I 
21). Hoofs small,. 1 
30. Udder fall In l'wrm, 1. <?., well In line with tho 
belly, . 1 
81. Udder well npbehind,. ..!. !! l 
32. Teats large and squarely placed, being w ide 
apart.. 
33. MilR-veins very prominent,..".!!!!!!!!'. 1 
34. Growth,... , X 
35. General appearance,. 
36. CundUioii,.1 
Perfection,.,. 8 (i 
Three points shall be deducted from the number 
required for perfection on heifers, as their udder and 
milk-veins cannot bo fully developed. A heifer will 
therefore be considered perfect at thirty-three points. 
No prize shall be awarded to cows, or heifers, hav¬ 
ing less than 21 ) points. 
Hops — Culture, Insects, Etc. 
At a Hop Growers’ Club in Maine it was 
recommended by experienced men to plant 
hops In row-s seven feet apart each way, throe 
bushels of roots per acre, preparing the ground 
the same as for a com crop. There should 
be one male vine to a hundred hill s as the weight 
is Increased by the fertility of the seeds. They 
should be planted early, and care taken to set 
them so the shoots will have the right direction. 
On rich intervales the poles may be eighteen feet 
long, bnt on upland fourteen is plenty. Some 
growers thought the best success was had with 
the patent method of trellising, stakes eight feet 
high and twine running from one to another 
both ways. The first year corn or potatoes may 
be planted, afterwards the best cultivation should 
be given, and no other crops growm in the yard. 
Ashes and plaster were considered beneficial. 
The hop louse is the greatest enemy to contend 
with. This insect has injured them for two 
years post; in England it is likewise a great 
pest The largest and best crop in the town 
was grown in a location on which the smoke of 
a steam mill settled down. It was supposed to 
have 6 ome effect in keeping off the louse. Per¬ 
haps plenty of smoke made in the yards at 
certain seasons would be beneficial in keeping 
off this destructive insect. 
About Osage Orange Seed and Plants. 
S. W. A. of Cortland, Ill., furnishes the fol¬ 
lowing information respecting the treatment of 
Osage Orange Seed and Plants, with the view 
of making hedges: 
- “ Your correspondent makes inquiries about 
Osage Orange Seed. A pound of good seed, 
managed In the best manner, will produce 5,000 
plantB, but three thousand is as many as It is 
usual to get. Seed received in the fall or winter 
may be soaked in warm water several days, put 
into a bag and laid where it will freeze but not 
dry, on the ground on the north side of a build¬ 
ing, covered with a board or some straw, or 
slightly buried in the earth. Dry seed in the 
spring must be scalded and soaked thoroughly 
before planting. Plant In seed bed in rows 15 
inches apart on rich land, and about as thick aa 
beets or other vegetables are grown. In the fall 
cover with straw, and let them remain till spring, 
when transplant into the hedge, 1,000 plants at 
six inches, (which I think is the proper dis¬ 
tance,) will plant 30 rods, at 8 Inches 40 rods. 
Set in a single row which Is just as good aa a 
double roto and much easier cultivated. Once 
well started after transplanting you may be sure 
of a hedge, either with or without cultivation, 
in from 3 to 7 years, according to the care they 
receive. 
roots, and almost entirely destroyed them. 
“My plan when I came to Minnesota was to 
raise peppermint and sheep extensively. The 
peppermint business I waa obliged to discon¬ 
tinue, though very reluctantly, and tho conse¬ 
quence is I have become more deeply engaged 
in sheep. Minnesota, although not adapted to 
peppermint, cannot be excelled as a wool grow¬ 
ing State, as statistics will soon show. Cheap 
land, cheap hay and grain in a healthy climate, 
can grow wool cheap." 
times, in rural districts, a largo proportion of 
which arc supposed by those who have investi¬ 
gated the matter to be caused by decaying vege¬ 
tables in cellars. 
and breaking off the highest branches. A high 
shrub would be in danger of damage from the 
heavy' storms of wind which are quite common 
among the hills, and besides the leaves would 
not bo us valuable ns the leaves of a small shrub. 
The. tea-seeds should be planted in the tenth 
Chinese month (corresponding to our Novem¬ 
ber,) and the plants are then ready for trans¬ 
planting by the following autumn. They are 
transplanted from three to five together, in rows 
from three to five feet apart each way r , in much 
the same manner as Indian com is planted in 
America. I 11 about four years the plants are 
large enough to spare some of their leaves with¬ 
out serious detriment. The plantations are not 
manured but are kept free from weeds. The 
plant blossoms appear about tho tenth month, 
producing a white flower, in appearance and 
size much like the flower of the orange. The 
seeds form iu a pod, each pod containing three 
tea-seeds about as large as a small bean. A 
thrifty clump will annually furnish from three 
to fi ve ounces of leaves, and a smart picker can 
gather in a day eight or ten pounds of green 
leaves. A pound of green leaves makes ouly 
about three ounces of tea. Large numbers of 
young men, women and children 
NOTES AND EXTRACTS FROM READING, 
The Use of Sorghum iu China. 
Tde so-called Chinese Sugar-cane, or Sorg¬ 
hum, is grown very extensively in Northern 
China, and is known among foreigners as ft kind 
of millet — the Barbadoe* Millet. The Chinese 
name for it is JiauHcmg. It Is propagated like 
broom-corn, which it resembles in some respects, 
by its seeds, which grow on the top of its stalks. 
The Chinese do not. express the juice from its 
stalks for the purpose of manufacturing molasses 
or sugar, and they manifest surprise when in¬ 
formed that such a use iB made of it iu the United 
States. They make a coarse kind of bread from 
the flour of the seeds of the Rauliaug, eaten 
principally by the poorer classes. The best, kind 
of Chinese whisky, oftentimes called Chinese 
wine, is distilled from the seeds. The stalks 
are used for fuel, for lathing in the partitions of 
houses, for slight and temporary fences, &c. 
Numerous and immense fuel-yards, consisting 
entirely of the dried stalks of the Sorghum, are 
formed at Tientsin and many other cities in the 
North of China. During a few years past many 
inquiries have been made in regard to the manner 
in which the Chinese manufacture sugar and mo¬ 
lasses out of Sorghum, but such information is 
vainly sought of them, for they never manufac¬ 
ture such articles from its stalks. 
Removing Large Rocks. 
The best and cheapest method of removing 
out of the way rocks that are too heavy to be 
drawn with a team, is to bury them. We have, 
in the course of our farming, put several out of 
sight in this way, and we consider it a very sat¬ 
isfactory job. In doing this work, one should 
consider well two tilings. First, dig the hole 
large and dop enough to bury the stone at least 
twenty inches under the surface. Somebody 
may want to subsoil there sometime, and if it 
were left nearer the surfuce, the subsoil plow 
would be very likely to strike a rock. Second, 
if the rock be on the brow of a bill It should be 
buried much deeper, as the slow movement of 
the soil by the plow and the rain brings it grad¬ 
ually to the surface again. 
Make up your mind that you will no longer 
plow and harrow, mow and reap, around or over 
those great rocks. If they are in a pasture lot 
they do very well to salt the cattle on, provid¬ 
ing there are no Canada thistles; — we should 
give the latter the preference in suiting — but in 
cultivated fields the rocks are a nuisance which 
should and can be abated. 
are Industri¬ 
ously employed, during the tea seuson iu lifting 
and parting the leaves. Women and children 
earn from three to six cents per day, boarding 
themselves, and young men from five to eight 
cents with their board. 
These facts, and others which might be added, 
show that tea can never bo cultivated iu western 
countries to advantage. The high rate of Avages 
in tho United States, even if it Avould grow in 
the southern part of the country, would forbid 
the extensive and profitable cultivation of the 
tea shrub. The same amount of capital and 
labor employed in any of the common trades and 
occupations of that land, would be far more 
lucrative. Tea could not be afforded, if raised 
in America, at less than four or five times the 
cost per pound at Avhich it can be afforded 
obtained from China. — Doolittle'a Social Life of 
(be Chinese. 
Profitable Poultry. 
In a communication to the Rural, Mr. 
Truman Ingalls of Albany county, N. y. 
gives some of his experience in regard to the 
management and profits of poultry. After forty 
years experience in keeping fowls, during which 
time he has generally made yeariy a memoran¬ 
dum of their cost and returns, he concludes that 
the Letter they are kept the greater the profit, 
and that when eggs bring ten or twelve cents 
per dozen, he realizes one dollar per bushel for 
corn fed to the hens. The proceeds from fifty 
fowia of mixed breeds he tnves as follows — 
Peppermint and Wool Growing in Minnesota. 
Mr. P. G. Lamaraux Avrites us from 
Lansing, Monroe Co., Minn., that in 1860 he 
imported peppermint roots to that locality from 
Wayne Co., N. Y., sufficient to set an acre. 
Protected the roots with a good covering of 
straw, during the first winter, and Iu 1861 set 
four acres. This was covered in a similar man¬ 
ner, and in 1863 had forty acres, and broke land 
preparatory to planting one hundred more the 
next season. During the winter of 1862-3 the 
roots were protected In different ways, some by 
covering with straw, others by plowing under, 
but principally by cutting and covering with the 
plow. All the protection, however, was insuffi¬ 
cient, as during the very open Aviuter of that 
feeason the ground froze and dried below the 
The Tea Shrub, 
The tea shrub resembles, in some respects, 
the low species of whortleberry, being alloAvcd 
to grow usually only about a foot and a half 
high. Some compare the tea shrub to the cur¬ 
rant bush; but the currant grows too high, and 
too bushy to jn. tify the comparison, according 
to our observation. The tea shrub would grow 
Farmers’ Cellars, 
David Ltman of Milldlefield, Ct., says in 
the Albany Cultivator, that the ill-ventilated 
rooms and impure cellars of farmers are almost 
as unhealthy aa the filthy streets of New York. 
The public is not aware of the terrible fatality 
of typhoid fever, scarlatina and diphtheria, at 
