t&J 
TWO DOJLT^AJRS A YEAR.) 
“PROGRESS AND IMPJM > 'V PI 1YE ID 1ST T. ” 
[ SINGLE NO. IGYE OKNT8.Q 
VOL. XIV. NO. 8.1 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-F0R THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1863. 
1 WHOLE NO. 684. 
MOOEE’S RUEAL EEW-YOEKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Assistants and Contributors. 
C. I>. BBAfiDDS, Western Corresponding Editor. 
Tire Ugral New-Yorkkh is designed to bo unsurpnased 
in Value, Purity and Variety of Content*, and uDittos and 
beautiful in Appaarance. Its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
sonal attention to th« (rapr.rrision of its various depart¬ 
ments, ami earnestly labors to render the RURAL an 
eminently Reliable (!iiidc on all the important Practical, 
Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected ffttH 
the business of those whoso interests it zealously advo¬ 
cates. Asa Family JoniNAL it is eminently instructive 
ond Kntfl'taiiitn?— beins so conducted that it can be safely 
taken to the Homes of people of intelligence, taste and 
discrimination. 11 embraces more Agricultural, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Educational, Litemrr and New.- Muller, 
interspersed with appropriate Engravings, than any other 
journal,--rendering it the most complete Agricultural, 
I.itkraky and Faiiily Newspaper in America. 
137“ For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
FARMER GARRULOUS TALKS. 
Don’t tell rae u It ’ll do,” John. I don’t like 
to hear such talk. It is not what a farmer should 
use. He should not bo content with a thing 
that’ll do. He should bo sure to have it in the 
shape that will do best —that’s the idea! 1 don’t 
like.a half-finished job at all. And I detest 
crooked things that should he straight, and rough 
things that should he smooth, and open jointed 
tilings that should be close. Now you’ve spent 
time enough on that horse-rake tooth trying to 
“rough-hew” it and tit, it to that hole in the head, 
to have paid fur a whole set of turned teeth. And 
we’ve got as good timber np over head In the 
shed there, as ever teeth were made of. Don’t 
tell “it’ll do,” I toll you. 1 would not lot such a 
joints, 1 tell you. You can’tsell me a tool “that’ll 
do!'' It must be well made. It must bo put to¬ 
gether as if it was intended to stay together. 
And. I don’t want any slouch work done on iny 
premises. What’s more, l won’t have it! Do 
you suppose I would have such head-lands about 
a field of mine, as I saw about neighbor Hit¬ 
ler's to-day? No sir. If my hoy Dick were to 
leave such a muss in a plowed field of mine l 
would disown him. Remember, if you want to 
plow close to the fence at the ends of your fur¬ 
rows, leave a good land to turn on, and then, 
where the balance of the field is finished, back 
furrow at, rigid, angles to the rest of the plowing. 
Then clean out the dead furrows at (he point 
when they intersect the last furrow —which 
should be trenched, if necessary, and if the land 
inclines any, you have a system of surface drain¬ 
age. But do have the furrows straight. 
YVell, well ! I’ve talked out into the field 
haven’t 1? But finish is us much needed in the 
work of the field as in the shop. Somebody has 
said that there is no greater sign of the imper¬ 
fection of general taste than eoutoutment with 
forms and things, which, professing completion, 
are not. exact, nor complete. And be said what 
is true. 1 set a man down as having no eyes, 
or uneducated eyes at least, if he tolerates loose 
joints or crooked furrows on hia farm. 
But, John, don’t you see how the water has 
settled iu the center of that yard. It is a little 
too highly colored to be allowed to evaporate. 
You take the wheel barrow and throw in two or 
three loads of muck there. 
WESTERN EDITORIAL NOTES. 
8UGAB. BEET CULTURE. 
J am constrained to say something more on 
this subject. There is a great aversion manifest 
among Eastern sugar refiners to the introduction 
Of Sugar Beet Culture, for the. purposes of manu¬ 
facture, iu the West And said Eastern interests 
are employing all sorts of agencies to bring about 
a distrust of its profit, and of the convertibility of 
piece of work go out of doors - not from the ^ 
tinker end totoh shop of old Farmer Armlou. ! into «*«« a BUtotllute for afor- 
Did I tell you that thi» (bo), and tbm tool,. »W> P*«l<K**>r*>■«* Ike peopled tins country 
* . r.onii.n- 111 I ft 17 TiY* ffll'tv Tfll 10710 fiF flmllifCl in 
picked up at odd times and with odd pennies is 
my school-room? It is. I’ve educated my Dick 
here. He is exact; he learned to be so here. It 
is as good as mathematics to teach exactness. 
Let a boy have the tools; give him a mortise to 
beat out to the murk. See that ho don’t lot the 
chisel disturb the marks made by the “scratch.” 
Some buys will fail several times— Dick did; but 
he learned at last. Then give him a square and 
scratch, and a piece of timber, and let him fit a 
tenon to the mortise he has made. Point out to 
him what you mean by a well-jointed tenon. 
Then let him spoil a few sticks of timber. It 
pays. It is a lesson that, it will do him good all 
his life to learn. It will teach him. better than 
any thing else, wliat a good joint is; and he will 
always appreciate good work and honor a good 
workman. And it will learn him how to detect 
botches aud how to escape them. 
I remember, when I was a boy, how a lesson 
was taught rne, which impressed me, and which 
I shall always remember. A playmate had pur¬ 
chased a new knife. T admired it, and deter¬ 
mined to have one like it. lie paid a certain 
price. I purchased one exactly like it (1 thought) 
for a much less sum. I so boasted to my play¬ 
mate, when I met him. He wanted to see it; 1 
drew it from my deep, strong pocket He quick¬ 
ly glanced at it, and as quickly said, “Pooh! 
You don’t call llmtsueb a knife as mine ? Where 
are your eyes ? It is not finished ! Wouldn’t 
give you mine for two like it” 
“Not finished!”—! exclaimed indignantly— 
“What is the reason ?’’ 
“See here,” said he, “look at those joints! 
There is a crack between the horn of the handle, 
and the steel head, large enough to hold a small 
knife. Look at these corners—rough as if they 
had been cut with a handsaw or cold chisel. 
Now look at mine ! There Is workmanship for 
you ! You don’t see any open joints nor rough 
edges, nor anything unfinished about it It was 
not thrown together like yours— it was gifted to¬ 
gether. Each part was made for the other. Any 
dolt can see the difference 1” 
And so he could, after it had been shown him. 
That was a lesson, J OUN, I shall never forget My 
knife depreciated in value fast that day. Its 
joints gaped at me with a huge and increasing 
grin. And the angles grew sharper and sharper 
until I couldn’t endure it longer. I traded that 
sign product, for which the people of this country 
are paying thirty or forty millions of dollars in 
gold the present'year. If this distrust can be 
awakened iu the minds of Western fanners, it 
will be a great thing (for Eastern sugar refiners) 
accomplished. And 1 am sorry to sec that cer¬ 
tain Influential agricultural journals are lending 
themselves (whether consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously I have no means of determining,) to 
bring about this result. 
One of said journals in a recent article, uses 
tbo following language: 
“There are some writers in this country extremely fond 
of gooting the manufacture of beet, sugar in France in 
such a wuy as really to ralsreproeeilt entirely thy actual 
tioners assort that the evil is caused by the ruin¬ 
ous competition created by the owners of foreign 
sugar, and by the privileges they enjoy, to which 
the Emperor alone can apply a remedy, # * * 
and conclude by staling that the privilege enjoyed 
by the owners of foreign sugar is Injurious, not 
only to the producers of beet root sugar, but to 
French agriculturists and ship owners.” 
What are the causes which have rendered the 
beet root sugar unprofitable? Is it. legitimate 
competition, or is it a factitious condition of the 
market created by causes which are not appa¬ 
rent now? The above quotations are equivalent 
to less Ilian $4.50 por cwl. of sugar. These 
figures are supposed to cover the cost of produc¬ 
tion and manufacture and of freight to France. 
The price is remarkably low. And it is, if 
legitimate, the result of a competition of slave 
with free labor, probably. The manufacture of 
beet sugar is in nowise protected iu France. 
Foreign sugars are admitted to the market, aud 
competition with it, upon the payment of pre- 
cisel}' the same duty that the beet sugar monu 
factum pays to the Government upon every loo 
pounds of sugar he produces—to wit, about $2.80 
per cwt. 
A recent French writer asserts that “The last 
ten years have shown that there is a vitality 
about the manufacture of beet root sugar on the 
Continent, which was far from being imagined 
twenty or thirty years ago.” 
“Considering that in France it so quickly 
recovered from the blow dealt it in 1843 by an 
impost, placing it gradually On a level with the 
sugar of the French Colonies, and Unit the terror 
thus experienced by the French manufacturer, 
which made him, in many instances, abandon 
his establishments, was now felt by the rival Col¬ 
onists; that iu Germany, where the tax of 1842 
first arrested the homo manufacture, it imme¬ 
diately resumed the ascending movement, so 
that the production of 124,000 centners in 1843, 
had risen to 000,000 in 1840; or quintupled iu the 
short space of six years.” 
There are certain facts and figures relating to 
the history of this product and its manufacture in 
France, that more directly indicate the profits flow- 
in g from it to the French producer than Paris letters 
in London papers. It, is a matter of record that 
in both France aud Germany the increase of the 
production and the manufacture of the sugar 
beet, has been both rapid and certain. In Franco 
it is nearly twenty times us great as thirty 
years ago. 
If il were so unprofitable, why this growth? 
Early in its history, it bud the protection of the 
Government. 1 niter, and during the period of its 
greatest extension, manufacturers have been com¬ 
pelled to compete with foreign production, puy- 
Ing the same duty to the Government. And yet 
it is the testimony of men who have been there 
fm 
MI i 
fOv 
mm 
.♦mu f' ’’ 
mm 
- 
S K it 
Ac - "J t> • - - ' ;•'••• v. ;M 
X ; • -cm 
. ! - . 4 . 
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- 
- • ' ' - - ' . ' I 
■ills 
ROOTS - nAIHT OF GROW’t’H. 
facts of the caau. We pointed out in an article last >ear, for the purpose of examining the processes and 
that the manufacture was there only conducted on a scale 
of great magnitude, and by the employment of very large 
capital, instead of being, as it has been repeatedly stated 
here, a sort of d"iocstie product which anybody could car¬ 
ry on at a profit, Jas our Western farmers arc now do 
ingwitli the Sorghum. And, from recent advices, it seems 
that even immense capital is often of little protection to 
the manufacturers.” 
Inasmuch as I have written as much as any 
on« on this subject, I should he obliged to the 
writer of the above extract if ho will point out a 
statement in auy article I have written, which 
“ misrepresents entirely the actual facts in the 
case.” I will cheerfully correct auy error in 
statement or inference, as soon as it is estab¬ 
lished to he an error, 
Again, 1 would bo greatly obliged to the. said 
writer if ho will specify where it “has been 
repeatedly stated here,” to be “a sort of domestic 
product which anybody could carry on at a 
profit, just as our Western farmers are now doing 
with the Sorghum.” I have failed to see any 
such statements. 
profits of tins production, that it is one of the 
greatest sources of wealth to the country. 
The Shuar Beet in the West..— What has 
this product in Franc© to do witli its culture in 
this country? Simply this:- That there is no 
country in which it has succeeded, where it has 
encountered and overcome greater obstacles than 
iu France. Hence Us history there may be 
safely quoted us a measure of the success which 
may follow its culture here under far more 
favorable circumstances. 
In France the cultivator pays for the rent of 
the land, including plowing, $44 per acre. The 
culture, Including Reed, planting, weeding and 
pulling is $12.60 per acre. It is all clone by 
hand, the seed being sown broadcast, aud the 
weeds pulled from among the plants. The aver¬ 
age product per acre is 10 to 20 tuns of roots. 
Add to the above cost, the expense for manures, 
and it will be seen that the cost of production is 
enormous compared with the cost of the same 
product on our cheap lauds, with our improved 
And now with reference to the last sentence of implements, and OUV fertile soils. The quality 
the foregoing extract To prove this assertion, a 
Paris letter in a London paper is quoted. Here 
is the extract from said letter: 
“The beet root sugar manufacturers of Lille 
have presented a petition to the Emperor, pray¬ 
ing him to direct his benevolent attention to 
the perils which threaten their industry. They 
state that within the last year the price of beet 
root sugar has fallen so low as to leave scarcely 
any profit to the producer. As long as they saw 
their profits merely diminishing, ILey bore up in 
hopes of better limes. But now that beet root 
sugar is quoted at 53f. per 100 kilogrammes iu 
knife off the first opportunity. I got a pair of the entrepot, being less than first cost, they feel 
skates for it, after the season was over. | themselves bound to inquire into the cause of this 
Since that time I have looked Bharp after open I calamity and to find a remedy for it The peti- 
of the product here, as produced the past sea¬ 
son, proves that our soils are rich iu all the ele¬ 
ments that are necessary to render this product 
profitable for manufacture. Samples grown here, 
not only contaiu as large a per cent, of cuue 
sugar as the product of France and Germany, 
but it is found to be as free from saline matter. 
Thus is one great bugaboo, urged by the anti¬ 
beet men, disposed of. We can grow more tuns 
per acre with leas labor, and containing as great 
a per cent of Bugar, free from neutralizing sub¬ 
stances, aa can bo grown in any country in the 
world. • 
No one pretends, however, that this product 
cun be manufactured into sugar without the aid 
of science, skill and capital. But capital is wait- 
As a general rule, persons who claim, and re¬ 
ally posses®, considerable agricultural knowledge, 
and an average amount of good sense, know lint, 
little of the character or requirements of the roots 
of our most commonly cultivated treed and plants. 
Evidences of this fact are abundant iu the season 
of culture. Every one may find examples on the 
farm of his nearest neighbor, and even nearer 
home* The orchardist, instead of placing the 
manure which he designs for the food ot' bis trees 
over a largo space around the tree, and especial¬ 
ly near the extremities of the roots where are 
thousands of hungry mouths ready to appropri¬ 
ate every particle that is suitable for Iho forma¬ 
tion'of wood, leaves, or fruit, generally makes a 
little pile around the trunk, where it may remain 
and the tree starve, unices the friendly rains 
wash a portion within reach of the feeding roots. 
The gardener, too, instead of pulverizing his soil 
well, to a good depth, is very careful to rake the 
surfuco smooth so that it will appear well to the 
eye, although below all may be hard clods, entire¬ 
ly unsuited to the growth of the tender roots of 
the plants ho designs to cultivate. 
This is one, and perhaps the main reason why 
so many tail with root crops, and to help such, 
and tor the information of all, we select the ac¬ 
companying engraving, illustrating the habits of 
the roots of a few plants, the clover, wheat, beet, 
carrot and turnip, fiom Country Life, by Morris 
Gorki.and. We also give a few hints on the cul¬ 
ture of root crops from the same source. It is 
recommended to sow radishes with all roots, as 
they make a rapid growth, and mark the rows so 
that the farmer can commence the destruction of 
weeds before his crop is sufficiently advanced to 
afford him a guide: 
“Iu cultivating the root crop, the radishes will 
mark the rows and guide the boy who leads the 
horse. As soon as the cultivator or horse-hoe 
has opened the rows, the men Should follow with 
hoes and thin the roots to the proper distance:— 
8 inches for carrots; 9 for parsnips; 10 to 12 for 
ing only for the product. Experienced men 
with capital, have been paying attention to this 
subject They arc satisfied that it will prove a 
profitable investment of capital, if the raw ma¬ 
terial is supplied at rates which will pay the 
producer. 
What Manufacturers will do.— It is not 
proposed by those interested in the manufac¬ 
ture of this beet to wait until Western farmers 
shall be induced to experiment In its production, 
but capital is to be employed at once in pro¬ 
ducing a supply. The profit of Us culture is to 
be demonstrated. It is to be established as a 
staple market product, provided its future is all 
that the present stage ot the experiments promi¬ 
ses, There is an important advantage in this; 
for it is known that the quality of the product is 
greatly dependent upon the character of the 
culture Germans, having experience, are insti¬ 
tuting its eulture largely. Their operations will 
prove schools for the inexperienced grain farm¬ 
ers, who will be prompt to adopt any system of 
husbandry which pays better than their own. 
It is significant that the Gernums, especially 
express great faith iu the profit of this culture 
here. It is, perhaps, the* greatest sou rat of 
wealth to the producing classes of Germany, 
villa hagas; 12 to 14 for mangold wurzel. Leave 
wider gaps rather than smaller than these. 
The “singling” or thinning ulay lie clone rap¬ 
idly and surely by hoes, with a little practice; 
any man who can chop wood well, striking surely 
where he aims, can thin roots, lie must walk 
down the row sidewise, facing the row to be 
thinned. If his hoe is 4 inches wide, two blows 
will thin the plants to 8 inches, three blows to 
12 inches. The remaining plants will fall over 
when deprived of the accustomed support from 
their neighbors, but will soon revive if the hoe 
lias not touched them. Another man should fol¬ 
low the. HUlglcr, and cut away any weeds which 
remain, and draw with the hoe a very little earth 
about the plants that are to stand. By the next 
day all these wilt revive. 
The horse-hoc should go through the rows 
again as soon aa the weeds show, and if many 
weeds have started among the plants they must 
be hoed by hand; after which the roots will out¬ 
grow and smother all weeds, and cover the ground 
too closely to allow any new ones to start. 
If there is any market for the radishes, or if 
the stock will eat them, they maybe drawn after 
the horse-hoe has marked the rows, and before 
•Hie roots are singled. If there is a market near, 
radishes will generally pay more than the ex¬ 
pense of their seed, and the trouble of drawing, 
washing, and tying iu bundles. 
Carrots, parsnips and beets, may be sowed 
early in the month, rutu hagOB and mangold wur¬ 
zel from the 20th dime to the 20 th July. 
For mangold wurzel and ruta bagos, well- 
plowed, Inverted sod will answer very well, 
particularly if plowed with the Michigan plow. 
Parsnips and carrots thrive on a sod well turned 
with the Michigan plow, where the subsoil plow 
is also used. But for all these crops stubble land 
is best, as their route penotrato»vory deep, and 
unless the Sod is so placed to rot rapidly, they 
will not thrive, and a deep soil, as shown by the 
cut, is a sine qua non for successful root culture.” 
_ - 
notwithstanding the enormous rents paid for 
laud, the cost of manure, and tho Government 
duty of $3.00 per tun imposed upon the beet. 
Germany produces her owu sugar. Little, it 
any, foreign sugar goes into Germany. Consid¬ 
erable is exported; and men of large experience 
in its manufacture there assert most confidently 
that It will he more profitable here than there. 
The Beet as a For ace Ckoe. No farmer, 
however, who desires to experiment in the pro¬ 
duction of the sugar beet should be deterred 
from it. by the fact that there is no immediate 
market for it. For although tho facilities for 
manufacturing will probably keep pace with ite 
production, yet if they do not, no better forage 
crop can bo grown. If will be as eagerly sought 
for and relished by stock as the sweet, green 
Sorghum. 
CONTINtTE THE CULTURE OF BOIlOrllUTVI. 
The Sorghum interests will not he affected by 
' this production. The bect'will ho cultivated for 
ite sugar; tho Sorghum for Its sirup. Nothing 
but the maple produces a sirup equal to tho 
Sorghum. Nothing that can be grown in the 
higher latitudes will equal the sugar beet as a 
sugar-producing plant or vegetable. The Im- 
V. 
G Ciiaut Co IT y 
