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tiS&TJCULT! 
CULTURE 
ESTABLISHED IN 1850 
WHAT MAKES FARMING SUCCESSFUL 1 
NUMBER TWO, 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN OBIGIXAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Assistants and Contributors, 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL, D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry, 
HON. T. C. PETERS, 
late Pres’t N. T, State Ag. Soo'y. Southern Cor. Editor, 
Tub lira a l Nbw-Yoekrk Is designed to be unsur¬ 
passed In Value, l’urlty, and Variety oi Contents. Its 
Conductor earnestly labors to render the Bubal a Reli¬ 
able Guido on all the Important Practical, Scientific and 
other Subjects conucctod with the business of those 
■whose Interests It zealously advocates. As a Family 
Journal It Is eminently Instructive and Entertaining — 
being so conducted that It can be solely taken to the 
Homes ol people ol Intelligence, taste and discrimination. 
It embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, 
Educational, Literary and Hews Matter, Interspersed 
with spproprlato engravings, than any other Journal,— 
rendering It by far tbo moat complete Aobicultbbal, 
Literary and Family Nkwspapbb In America. 
I3T Fob Teems and other particulars see last page, 
this operation will not exceed that required for 
the burying process, while providing the mate¬ 
rial for a good fence, which the other mode of 
clearing the ground does not. 
LIQUID MANURE FOR GRASS LANDS, 
SWINE.-SUFFOLK AND ESSEX, 
The Suffolks, when pure, are noted for as 
many excellent points as any other breed of 
hogs; and we think that the Suffolk blood bus 
done as much, if not more, to improve the com¬ 
mon swine of this country as any other strain 
whatsoever. The following general description, 
by an English writer, of the points of a good 
hog, are especially applicable to a good Suffolk. 
These points are,—“ Sufficient depth of carcass 
the existence itself. Better, It would seem, that 
it should be developed Imperfectly than not at 
all,—the lower attributes are then sacrificed in 
part to the higher principle of life. 
All this ordor and harmony are fit subjects for 
the study of the husbandman, and they teach 
him most practical lessons; for In the midst of 
all these wonderful and varied phenomena he Is 
to live, and move, and perform his work. And 
his first thoughts should be how properly to 
place all the means and resources which he may 
have, subservient to a general plan of opera¬ 
tions. A well digested, and as near as may be, 
perfect plan, may be difficult to fix upon, but 
once determined, minor considerations should 
not change it. 
The man who carries out ideas of this kind Is 
not likely to bo caught by plausible humbugs, 
and he will consider well before he engages In 
business or speculations which, however sound 
and promising they may appear, would cause 
him to give up his most comprehensive plans in 
order to attend to developing the “new thing.” 
Under this head are special crops, out of the 
line of ordinary farming, which require, perhaps, 
all the manure of fhe farm on a few acres, and 
the growing and manipulation of which Is prop¬ 
erly a business by itself. Various kinds of gar¬ 
den vegetables, for instance, are often very 
profitable when raised for market; but the pro¬ 
prietor of a large and comparatively unimproved 
tract, or the person who has alieady entered 
upon a system of mixed husbandry, could not in 
addition take up such branches with profit to 
himself. In taking hold of and combining pro¬ 
jects and pursuits of various kinds, great judg¬ 
ment should bo exercised, and it is herein 
principally that meu so greatly differ. The 
man of bat one idea is tolerably sure to succeed, 
if he is gifted with that obstinacy and persist¬ 
ency of purpose which such people usually are. 
But the man of many ideas may be more suc¬ 
cessful even, and enjoy more of the world as he 
passes through it, If Lis object In view is more 
comprehensive, and his devotion to it equally 
earnest and persevering. 
“ Drive thy business or. it will drive thee,” 
was spoken by “Poor Richard” many years ago; 
St is true now as it was then, —volumes might 
be written to illustrate it; it is the very essence 
of all thrift; it may almost be said to include 
all other business rules and maxims. Better, 
much better, is a small business moving along 
in the right way, never entangled, —never un¬ 
certain in its general results, and always well in 
hand and active, — than a large and complicated 
one which might be successful “ only it iBn’t.” 
Ilow many are there who are over-worked. In 
the machinery of their plans the balance of power 
has been turned against them, and endless cares 
and perplexities and labor of body and mind arc 
continually the result. The peculiar nervous 
andover-worked appearance of Americans is pro¬ 
verbial. This is not properly to bo ascribed to 
our climate, nor is it u characteristic of our 
people as a separate race; it is the result of that 
phase or epoch in the developcment of civiliza¬ 
tion in which wo now iind ourselves. The 
promptings of ambition and the eager reach 
farmers can afford to «Sve t heir grass lands a 
thorough dressing of Fie solid contents of the 
barn-yard. Any farmed can satisfy himself of the 
comparative benefit of solid and liquid manure 
by observing his meadows in the spring that 
have been pastured in the preceding autumn. 
Spots on which the liquid manure has been de¬ 
posited send up a much ranker and darker 
growth of grass than those that have received the 
Bolid excrements. 
If the farmer had a liquid manure distributor 
he could enrich his meadows rapidly and cheaply. 
Then he should construct his stables so as to 
save it, and when these improvements were 
made he would probably conclude to tie the 
cows in the stables at night, and provide some 
extra food for them, which would increase the 
dairy products. 
It is asserted by some that solid manure is 
more lasting in its beneficial action, but wo 
doubt if the increase of products in the aggre¬ 
gate is as large as that resulting from the appli¬ 
cation of the same quantity In a liquid form. 
The late autumn is probably the best season to 
apply this top-dressing to meadows, and we ad¬ 
vise farmers who have poor spots in such fields 
to try the experiment of an application of 
liquid manure. Just before the ground freezes 
solid will answer in point of time. Keep an ac¬ 
count of the cost of labor and value of materials 
used and next year report to the Rural whether 
it was a profitable operation. 
EXTRACTS FROM READING, 
WINTERING FARM HORSES, 
Underdraining and Pulverizing the Soil. 
Too much caouot be said in favor of pulver¬ 
izing the soil; even thorough draining Itself 
will not supersede the necessity of performing 
this operation. Almost the whole superiority 
of garden over field produce is referable to the 
greater perfection to which this pulverizing of 
the soil can be carried. Soil examined mechan¬ 
ically, is found to consist of particleB of all sizes 
and shapes, from stones and pebbles dowu to 
the finest powder, and, on account of their ex¬ 
treme irregularity of shape, they cannot lie so 
close to one another as to prevent there being 
passages between them, owing to which soil in 
the mags is always more or less porous. There 
are two distinct classes of pores; first, the largo 
ones which exist between the particles of soil, 
and second, the very minute ones, which occur 
In the particles themselves. 
Lest any one should suppose that the contents 
of these interstitial canals must be so minute 
that their whole amount can be of but little con¬ 
sequence, I may here notice the fact that In 
moderately well pulverized soil, they amount 
to no less than one-fourth of the whole bulk of 
the soil itself; for example, 100 cubic inches of 
moist soil (that is of soil in which the pores of 
the particles are filled with water while the 
canals between the particles are filled with air,) 
contain 25 cubic inches Of air. According to 
thi3 calculation, in a field pulverized to a depth 
of eight, inches, every imperial acre will return 
beneath its surface 12,545,280 cubic inches of air. 
And, to take one more element into the calcula¬ 
tion, supposing the soil wore not properly 
drained, the sufficient pulverizing of an addi¬ 
tional inch in depth would Increase the escape 
of water from the surface by upwards of one 
hundred gallons per acre each day.— Dr, Madden. 
Some farmers treat their horses in winter 
much as they do their fattening cattle and sheep; 
they give them abundant food, and but little 
exercise, keep them in a warm and dimly lighted 
stable, and if they do but grow fat, with their 
cattle and sheep, they deem it convincing proof 
that the proper course has been pursued. Now 
horses in good working condition, at least, 
Bhould always be seen on the premises of a good 
farmer, but his gratitude towards these faithful 
servants should not Induce him, at auy time of 
the year, to slall feed them. The butcher wants 
thick meat and plenty of tallow in the cattle and 
sheep, but the plowman looks for strong muscle, 
spirit and endurance In his team. The food and 
care of the different animals should he consis¬ 
tent with the ultimate purpose they are to serve. 
Fat horses that have been wintered mostly in 
the stable, without much exercise, are not lit 
for hard service at the opening of the working 
season in the spring, and a prolific source of 
disease is the hard work they are frequently com¬ 
pelled to do when they are not in proper con¬ 
dition. 
The ordinary winter business of the farmer 
does not call for much exercise of his team, and 
if ho have several most of them may be entirely 
idle. In such cases it is an excellent plan to 
have a yard for their especial benefit, well litter¬ 
ed and safe, and let them have access to it Beveral 
hours each day. The horses should he unshod, 
and if any are vicious they may be turned loose 
at different hours from the others. The horses 
will show by their playful actions how much 
they enjoy this temporary relief from the stall. 
Another very important thing, often neglected 
by l’armc-rs, is the grooming of their teams. Iu 
the summer time the horse, by rolling in the 
pasture, to a certaiu extent cleans himself; be¬ 
sides the rains have some effect. But in the 
stable he relies on the care of his master, and 
the keen enjoyment the curry-comb and brush 
evidently give him, should be ample reward for 
the labor. A well lighted stable, thoroughly 
ventilated yet free from currents of air, should 
also he provided. 
In regard to the feed of horses most farmers, 
we think, will agree to the proposition that it is 
always good economy to grind or mash all kinds 
of grain before feeding. It is well established 
that cut straw, cornstalks or other coarse fodder 
fed with some grain is cheaper than to winter 
the horses wholly on hay. Without stopping to 
assign reasons we think they also come out in 
spring in better condition than when fed on hay 
alone. Good wheat or oat straw fed with bran 
strengthened with com meal has been found ex¬ 
cellent. When the weather is not too cold it is 
preferable to dampen the cut hay or straw and 
sprinkle the meal on it. 
The wintering of horses should begin with the 
first approach of cold autumn nights. No work 
horse should now be left In the pasture except 
in the day time. Exposure to a single autumu 
storm might cause damage enough to the farm¬ 
er’s teams to have paid for years of timely care. 
BURYING YS. BLASTING ROCKS, 
Taking a stroll, not long since, we observed 
a farmer engaged in digging a pit alongside of a 
considerable rock or boulder, for the purpose of 
burying it out of sight. The field contained 
quite a number of these rocks, which were to be 
disposed of in the same way. The question was 
asked whether the party had an abundance of 
fencing timber, and the reply was in the nega¬ 
tive. Still he was digging deep holes to hide 
below the surface the very material wanted for 
fencing the farm ! 
These rocks, besure, were too grosB and un¬ 
wieldy for a fence wall, but how easily they 
could, bo rendered manageable by the aid of a 
drill and a trilling expenditure for blasting pow¬ 
der. A center blast will throw one of these sur¬ 
face rooks Into fragments suited to the construc¬ 
tion of a common field wall, which, properly 
put up, will require little or no other repairs 
during an ordinary lifetime. Any man of ordi¬ 
nary judgment can drill cue of these rocks, and 
procure, from the Lake beach, line sand, which, 
properly dried and serceued, will supply all the 
packing necessary to a blast. Drill the rock 
well down towards the center: pour In a quan¬ 
tity of powder, filling the orifice about one- 
fourth full; insert a tube, in the shape of a rye, 
wheat or oat straw, titled with fine powder, and 
then fill the hole with dry, fine sand, and the 
charge is ready. Set a slow match, by way of 
train, and then seek a place of safety. The ex¬ 
plosion will present the rock in sections easily 
removed to a line of stone wall by means of an 
ordinary stone boat. The time consumed in 
Clover. 
Glover differs entirely from the cereal 
plants in thlB respect, that it sends its main 
roots perpendicularly downwards, when no ob¬ 
stacles stand in the way, to a depth which the 
fine fibrous roots of wheat and barley fall to 
reach; the principal roots of clover branch off 
Into creeping shoots, which again send forth 
fresh roots downwards. Thus clover, like the 
pea plant, derives its principal food from layers 
below the arable surface soil; and the difference 
between the two consists mainly in this— that 
the clover, from its larger and more extensive 
root-surface, can still find a sufficiency of food 
in fields where peas will no longer thrive; the 
natural consequence is, that the subsoil is left 
proportionably much poorer by clover than by 
the pea. Glover seed, on account of its small 
size, can furnish from its own mass, but few 
formative elements for the young plant, and re¬ 
quires a rich arable surface for its development; 
but the plant takes comparatively but little food 
from the surface soil. When the roots have 
pierced through this, the upper parts are soon 
covered with a corky coating, and only the fine 
root-fibers ramifying through the subsoil convey 
food to the plant.— JAcbly. 
