AGRICULTURE 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-EOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1863 
ear, that it has become a family institution with 
us. In fact, my wife and daughters think they 
could hardly keep house successfully without it. 
Of course you wont toll any one. But this is a 
digression. Now for the u Murpheys.” Eleven 
years in Western New York and seven in Michi¬ 
gan, I have followed this method, and with com¬ 
plete success. If any one knows of a better 
method, please inform through the Rural. To 
make the test reliable, I have invariably planted 
from three to live varieties yearly—as Early 
York, Neshannc, White Mexican, Yellow Pink¬ 
eye, White Pinkeye, with some other varieties in 
succeeding years—as Kidney, Merino, Flesh Col¬ 
ored and Orange. These varieties I raised in 
New York. In Michigan I have grown for early 
use the Noshanoc. Shaw and Early June; for 
later or winter use, Western Red, Long White 
Pinkeye, Jenny Lind, California Blue, Buckeye, 
and Yellow Pinkeye. 
My plan is to plant and dig early. I select 
every fall, at the time of digging, large, sound 
and perfect tubers. I plant one tuber in a hill, 
four feet apart each way. Elevated, sandy, or 
gravelly soil is best. Sandy loam will do, if 
subsoil is not too tenacious. In the latter ease it 
should be Bubsoiled, and planted on surface by 
aid of corn-marker, instead of in a furrow; so 
that in case of heavy rains the tubers may not 
rest in the water. High manuring is injurious to 
the quality of the potato. Unless soil is strong 
enough for a fair crop of wheat, I give a light 
dressing of long manure, plow deep and bury 
the manure as perfectly us possible, 
FELONS ON SHEEP. 
“ What ails that sheep —she is lame?” I asked 
of Mr. Barnes, on whom I called. “ That lame¬ 
ness is caused by a felon in the foot— as true a 
felon as ever afflicted a man's finger. It is as 
painful to the sheep, judging by the animal’s 
actions, as is the same sore to the man." The 
animal' was caught; probing it, a good deal of 
matter exuded. When it can be got at the 
shepherd cuts it out; and drops blue vitriol into 
it. Thus it is killed. But it is called a bad prac¬ 
tice to put vitriol on it and about the hoof. Its 
locality is usually in the joint connecting the 
pasterns and the bone of the foot It is caused 
by allowing the hoof too grow to long, wrenching 
tho foot, or injuring it in some way. Some have 
called it a “stone-bruise,” but shepherds aver 
flint it is distinct from and unlike a “stone- 
bruise” in all respects. The foot sometimes 
becomes diseased in damp weather. There may 
be a dozen causes; and yet it would bo as difll- 
cult to determine what the specific cause is, as it is 
in the case of the same disease on a man’s finger. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Ay ORIGINAL WKKKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
the microscope, an appearance will be presented 
like Fig. 4. 
It will now be seen that we have a series of 
Via, 4. (apparently) solid, cylindrical, 
many-jointed fibers—the joints 
I it is by no means easy to satisfy 
pleton & Co., of New York,) is therefore given 
for the benefit of those seeking information con¬ 
cerning Flax and Hemp fibers, to the production 
and manufacture of which such great attention 
is being given: 
“Of all the forms of cells, the wood and bass- 
cells are must important in the domestic economy 
of mankind. The * bass-cells ‘ are the longest of 
all; their walls are generally very thick, and 
mostly much bent, but rarely marked with 
pores or spiral lihers; only in the silk plant 
(Asolepias Syriaca ,) the Oleander, and allied 
plants, is a spiral striation of the walls observed. 
The materials used for ropes, cordage, linen, 
certain Indian muslins, mummy cloth, and mats, 
consist of the woody fiber of plants, from which 
the more delicate tissues have been removed by 
long-continued maceration in water. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Assistants and Contributors. 
C. D. BRAQDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
Tbk Rural Nkw-Ygrkxr is designed to be unsurpassed 
in Value, Purity »nd Variety of Contents, and aniiiUe and 
beautiful in Appearance, its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
sonal attention to the supervision of its various depart¬ 
ments, aod earnestly labors to render the Rural an 
eminently Reliable Guide on all the important Practical, 
Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected with 
the business of those whose interests it zealously advo¬ 
cates. As a Family Journal it Is eminently Instructive 
and Entertaining — boing so conducted that It can be safely 
taken to the Homes of people of intelligence, taste and 
discrimination It emhrac.es more Agricultural, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Educational, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with appropriate Engravings, than any other 
jonraal,—rendering it the most complete Agricultural, 
Litkrsry and Family Newspaper in America. 
The outer 
■ membrane of the tube is struc¬ 
tureless, although, occasion¬ 
ally, delicate transverse mark¬ 
ings may be Been. These 
Fibers of Flax, tubes are of great length, and 
usually pointed at both ends; they are also 
remarkable for their toughness. Collon is not 
woody fiber, but simply the hair of the plant 
producing it.” 
DRAINING-No. V, 
ty~For Terms and other particulars, see last page, 
We have seen hundreds of drains wrought in 
the manner we have described, and laid with 
pipes, and in no instance where the land con¬ 
tained wuter-of-drainage have they failed to run 
freely. We never heard any one say they did 
not. Even Mr. Bullock Webster says they 
run at first, and by ho saying delivers himself in¬ 
to the hands of his opponents. This ought to 
satisfy every one who is not of his own knowl¬ 
edge aware of an instance to the contrary:— 
“ Quod semper, tpml ubU/ue, quod inter omnes ” 
is. if we remember right, a sufficient ground of 
faith. But OO argument, the water must get into 
the drain, and must get into the pipes. This is a 
matter on which we have seen even sensible men 
so muddle-headed that, we fear we must be ele¬ 
mentary. We will assume tho drain to be four 
feet deep, and the water-table to be at one loot 
below the surface of (he earth. Fvery particle 
of water which lies at three feet below the water- 
table has on it tho pressure of a column of water 
three feet high; this pressure will drive the par¬ 
ticle in any direction in which it linds no resist¬ 
ance, with a rapidity varying inversely to the 
friction of the medium through which the column 
acts. The bottom of our drain will offer no re¬ 
sistance, and Into it particles of water will be 
pushed, in conformity with the rule which we 
have stated; rapidly, if the medium opposes little 
friction; slowly, if it opposes much. The water 
so pushed in runs off by the drain, the column of 
pressure being diminished in proportion to the 
water which runs off. Into the spot which offers 
no resistance, be it large or be it small, the water 
above that level must be pushed till the column 
is so reduced that its weight will not overcome 
friction 
SHEEP AND LAMB3 EATING WOOL. 
I see there are Inquiries for a remedy for this 
practice. I have talked with shepherds about 
it and will give wbat 1 have gleaned from them. 
When lambs eat wool, it is regarded as evidence 
that their stomachs are deranged. In such cases 
one shepherd told me he gave the lamb a dose of 
oil and spirits of turpentine— three teaspoontula 
of lard oil and one teaspoonful of spirits of tur¬ 
pentine mixed. This dose cleanses and regulates 
the stomach, and it is rarely the case that the 
lamb touches wool afterwards. If a sheep eats 
wool it may bo fed a piece of fat salt pork, which 
will in most cases stop the practice. 
CANADA THISTLES. 
Forty acres of them in the midst of one of the 
finest farming regions in the West! And I hear 
men deliberately speculating upon what they 
will have to do when they get so numerous that 
grain cannot be grown. “It is going to stop 
grain growing If they are allowed to spread.” 
But they ought not to be allowed to spread. As 
above intimated, forty acres of Canada thistles 
were pointed out to me. An Englishman brought 
barley seed with him from Canada and with it 
thistle seed; and thus they were planted. I hear 
of plenty of patches. Farmers have no faith in 
Dr. Warder’s exterminator, published in the 
Rural sometime last winter. They have seen 
them forcing through three or four feet of straw. 
The theory is correct enough, but straw will not 
prevent their development So farmers assert 
But the plow must do it Well, gentlemen, any 
way, so that your own and succeeding genera¬ 
tions may not suffer by your indifference to this 
great pest 
HOW TO MANURE CORN. 
I see this subject is being agitated by some of 
your correspondents. Jt is the practice among 
some Western farmers to draw their manure on 
the corn field after hoeing, when the corn is “ laid 
by.” The wagon is loaded, and the team is 
driven astride a row. The manure is spread 
from the wagon between the rows and about the 
hills. If it has been properly cultivated there 
are no weeds. This mulch keeps them down 
thereafter, keeps the ground light and moist 
about the corn roots, and is equivalent to con¬ 
tinued culture with the cultivator, exclusive of 
the food it affords the roots. The foliage shades 
the manure and the supposed loss by evaporation 
is inconsiderable. This mode of applying ma¬ 
nure to the land is only second in good results to 
the practice of applying it to the surface of grass 
lands in the fall, if, indeed, it is second. It may 
be necessary to muzzle the team — if the corn 
is so high that the check is not a sufficient 
protection. 
PATENT WIRE FENCE. 
In DeKalb county, riding in company with 
Mr. S. M. Farii, we passed a good deal of wire 
fence, made in a way novel to me. Posts were 
set in the ground twenty feet apart, and this 
space divided by two swinging posts, planted on 
top of the ground. These swinging posts were 
intended to support the wire. The fact is, the 
wire supported the posts. I exclaimed, at the 
folly of such an arrangement, when I was 
gravely told that it was a patent fence /—that far¬ 
mers had actually paid $lo or $20 for farm rights! 
And the patent consisted solely of the two swing¬ 
ing posts! I had thought the recommendation of 
one swinging post bad enough, and farmers 
unwise who made a fence in that manuer: but 
behold! the farmers of DeKalb pay a patent fee 
for the privilege of doubling the dose of tolly. 
It the reader would learn how to build a better 
wire fence he may do so on pages 36G and 374, 
last volume of the Rural. I did not see one of 
these fences, with swing nosts. that did not need 
I generally 
plant from the 28th of April to the 10th of May. 
Immediately on their appearance I give them a 
good dressing of plaster, about a tablespoonful to 
a hill; cultivate two or three, times to keep the 
ground well stirred and free from weeds, and 
just before they begin to set put in u light plow 
and hill up moderately. Am careful not to let 
the dirt fall against the stalks, but form a dishing 
hill. This I do, and kind Mother Nature per¬ 
forms the balance of Ike labor, by her sublime, 
energetic and chemical combinations from earth 
and atmosphere, until digging time, which should 
be from the first to the middle of September, be¬ 
fore the approach of the equinoctial rains. At 
this time they are much more easily dug, and the 
land in good condition for wheat. They should 
then be put into bins or boxes in a cool cellar, 
or vaults out of doors. They must he kept cool 
and free from surface water, and not more lhan 
75 or 100 bushels put together. Protect from 
frost in winter, and you may have during the 
entile year as delicious potatoes as ever graced 
the table of a Prince. 
Potatoes should not be raised over two years 
on the same piece of land. Seed should be 
obtained biennially from some other section. 
The constitution of the potato plant has become 
somewhat deteriorated during the process of its 
partially forced production; and hence its re¬ 
sistive power to antagonistic agencies is consid¬ 
erably lessened. Our richest, choicest, tenderest 
potatoes, are most susceptible to decay, because 
of those very characteristics. Warmth and moist¬ 
ure are mighty agencies in the production of 
decomposition, when the vital forces are insuffi¬ 
cient to hold them at bay. Water has a greater 
attraction for electricity than any other substance 
in Nature. Now, when the earth is saturated 
with water after the equinoctial rains , the elec¬ 
tricity of the atmosphere or much of it. is retained 
iu the water, and if there are a few warm days, 
immediately after these rains, you may calculate 
with much certainty upon the potato rot—espe¬ 
cially if the soil is low, mucky, or abounding in 
clays. 1 hope farmers will make careful trial of 
this plan and report results. If the potato crop 
can thus be saved it will add millions of dollars to 
the wealth of our country annually, and in the 
time of our great national trial is a subject of no 
small consideration, beside the comfort and 
pleasure it brings to tho firesides of the masses 
through the length and breadth of the land. 
Dantkl Higby, M. D. 
Plainfield, Liv. Co., Mich., 1863. 
P. S.—Place a sound potato in a dish of water, 
and run a current of electricity through it, and it 
| will soon show signs of decay analagous to the 
potato rot d. h. 
ROBINSON'S FARM GATE, 
Linum usUatissimuni, or Flax plant. 
Flax (or lint) is thus produced from tho bark 
of Linum usUatissimvm (Fig. 1,) hemp, from 
Fig. 2. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorkeic:— Herewith I send 
you a plan of farm gate, which I think better 
than any 1 Lave seen noticed in your paper, and 
as this is the time farmers are making gates, &c., 
it may be of some service. 
Description. —A, back post, rounded above 
ground to admit the hinge, II; B, bar at top, 3 by 
6 at large end, and tapering to 3 by 3; C, post; 
D, brace; E E E, boards; F, upright brace; G, 
upper hinge; II, lower binge; M, N, post; K, stick 
of timber below ground to prevent posts from 
sagging. Tho upper hinge, G, is simply a 
straight bar of iron, one inch round, setting 
firmly in the top of the post, and going two- 
thirds through the upper bar of the gate. This 
is the axis, while the lower hinge, H, is a piece 
of plank firmly fastened to the gate, and turn¬ 
ing on the post. The posts, M and N, and tho 
braces, D and F, are framed into tho upper bar, 
B, while the boards, EEB, are framed into the 
posts, M and N, and nailed to the braces. This 
gate was invented by Dr. Dan'l A. Robinson, 
of Union Springs, Cayuga Co., N. Y. Is not 
patented, recommends Itself by its strength and 
simplicity, and is not easily affected by the 
weather, as there is no joint exposed. n. 
Milo Center, N. Y., Kelj., 1863. 
Ah friction will be greatest at the inter¬ 
mediate point beweeu two parallel drains, the 
water will stand a little highest at that point, and 
will decline in a regular gradation to the level of 
the bottom of ouch drain. 
Take a familiar illustration —for, like Walter 
Blith, we are obliged to use repetitious, though 
we will not follow his example in saying why* 
In a soil which is saturated with water—(and by 
saturated we mean in addition to its water of at¬ 
traction it has its interstices between its particles 
filled with water of drainage)—sink a deep bole; 
no matter how narrow; it will stand full of water. 
Draw the water out rapidly—it will fill again 
from tho bottom. Into tho space where there is 
no resistance the water must come. This is a 
parallel case to this bottom of the drain from 
which tho water runs off—tho point of non-resis¬ 
tance remaing, and to it all tho water In tho soil 
must come up to the limit, which we have above 
assigned. Will the small pipes carry off tho wa¬ 
ter? Thin is a mere question of capacity, and 
can bo decided by accurate calculation; the cal¬ 
culation is given at length on pages 43 45 of Mr. 
Park km' Essays. Wo will only state the result. 
If an acre of land lie intersected with parallel 
drains twelve yards apart, and if on that acre 
should fall the very unusual quantity of one inch 
of rain In twelve hours, in order that cverywiiop 
of this rain may Ire discharged by the drufiis in 
forty-eight hours from the commencement of the 
raiu —(and in a less period that quantity neither 
will, nor is It desirable that it should, filter 
through an agricultural soil)—theinteval between 
two pipes will be Called upon to pass two-thirds 
of a tablespoonful of wafer per minute, and no 
more. Inch pipes, lying at a small inclination 
and running only half full, will discharge more 
than double this quantity of wafer in forty-eight 
honrs. The mains, or receiving drains, are of 
Experience has 
CantiabiB Saliva, or H«mp plant. 
CWnndns saliva (Fig. 2,) Zealand flax, from 
Phormium tenax (Fig. 3.) and baas (or bast) 
from the common Lime, or Linden tree. Fibers 
are also procured for manufacturing purposes 
from the Fine-apple plaid (Ananassa saliva ,) 
Fin, 8. from Yucca gloriosa, from 
n«iiinmim New wt Mads of woody 
Zealand flax. as contrasted with silk, is 
SOUND POTATOES, 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Who does not 
like good, sound, rich-flavored and well-cooked 
potatoes? Those who do not, -will not be likely 
to feel much interested in what 1 am about to 
say upon the growth and perfection of this excel¬ 
lent tuber. Much has been said heretofore upon 
the cause of potato rot, and much valuable 
knowledge has been elicited upon this subject. 
But I know of no one plan that has invariably 
resulted in the production of good, sound pota¬ 
toes during the prevalence of the potato disease, 
in (be same section of country, except the one 
which I have tested for the past eighteen years 
without a single failure. The disease in some 
parts of the West as well as in the older Eastern 
States, during the past year, has been quite de¬ 
structive, I offer my method to the numerous 
subscribers of your excellent paper, that they 
may test it for themselves. While speaking of 
the Rural, allow me to say for your own private 
WOODY FIBER.-FLAX AND HEMP, 
At a time when 60 much attention is being 
given to the cultivation of Flax and Hemp, and 
the manufacture of their fibers, anything con¬ 
nected with the subject will be read with inter¬ 
est The following description of Woody Fiber, 
from Dr. Goadby’s “Text-Book of Animal and 
Vegetable Physiology,” (published by D. Ap- 
the thumb-nail to separate it into its primitive course laid with larger pipes, 
elements, or ultimate fibers, and placed under 1 established this average, that a three inch pipe 
