rfeJilf 
restitution made. Having visited the plantation > 
under notice to study the details of its economy 
and management, I am happy to say that its pro¬ 
ductiveness has been augmented by uniting sound 
husbandry to the liberal purchase of commercial 
fertilizers. It -will extend this letter too much tc> 
give the process of raising corn, peas and oats to 
feed and fatten hogs and catt le in the Held, to enrich 
the land in connection with cotton raising. The 
cost per acre of an "lS-acre lot 55 years in cotton 7 "’ 
is thus stated by Mr. Dickson : 
260 pounds soluble hones. f8 7D 
106 pounds No, 1 Pernvian guano. 6 75 
100 pounds plaster. 1 25 
Mixing and putting on .. 25 
TIorsc S days .. 2 00 
Hand a days. 1 00 
Hoe hand 2 days,.. l 00 
Dropping seed. 20 
Picking. 10 80 
Whole cost.$32 00 
The yield was 1,000 pounds of lint per acre, which 
at 25 cents a pound, (the present price,) is $250. 
Deduct $32 for cost, and the clear profit is $218 per 
acre. Mr. Dickson says that the Beed will sell for 
as much as the lint, being an improved variety, 
which he will not sell, as he needs it for his own 
planting. But to raise superior seed, whether cot¬ 
ton or wheat, is a legitimate business, therefore, 1 
add $250 per acre to the $218 for lint, as a part of the 
last year’s profit on this to him small “ 18-aere lot.” 
As other reliable planters report profits on the use 
of stable and other manures that range from 500 
down to 100 per cent., I will in one or more addi¬ 
tional letters aim to point out the true meaning of 
their instructive facts. D. Lbe. 
Knox Co., Tenn. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AMD FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
SAVING LAND. 
The first observation on surveying stock farms is 
the fact that, generally, three acres are devoted to 
pasture for one to meadow. The question then 
arises, does it require so much less food to support 
an animal in winter than summer ? On the con¬ 
trary, it requires about one-eighth more food to 
keep the animal in cold than warm weather, yet 
the farmer manages to winter his animals on one- 
third of the land he takes to summer them. The 
reason of this great waste has been shown in our 
former articles. 
Although forty rods of ground may be so fertile 
as to furnish green food to a cow for a season, yet 
we estimate, generally, one-half acre in good con¬ 
dition as the amount necessary to summer a cow, 
and that one acre in good meadow will winter her. 
But on moat farms, four, live and six acres are used 
to keep a cow through the year, and thus it appears 
that where the land is all in tillable condition, from 
two to three animals may be kept on the same land, 
where one is by pasturing. And as we have seen 
that the extra labor of soiling is more than paid for, 
1st, by the extra milk; 2d, by saving the manure, 
and 3d, by saving in fences; therefore this extra 
stock kept by soiling must be all profit. It is not 
extravagant, to say that a fifty acre farm under the 
soiling system will carry as large a stock as one 
hundred and twenty-five acres under the pasturing 
system. 
soiling CROrs. 
Whatever crops are used for soiling, they should 
be grown as near the feeding stable as may be, to 
save cartage to the animals. The crops used should 
be such as yield a succession of rich, succulent food. 
Winter rye, ou land suitable to it, furnishes the 
earliest green food ; may be cut several times, and, 
according to Liebig, wiil mature a crop the follow¬ 
ing season. But of the grasses, clover will afford 
the earliest cutting; and may be cut from two to 
three times in a season, We have usually been able 
to cut clover on the 20th of May. Oats and millet 
make good soiliug crops. But Indian corn, after 
the grasses, will be found the most reliable for 
quality and quantity. Sorghum or Chinese sugar 
cane, on light, warm laud, makes most valuable 
green food. There is no danger of iujuring breed¬ 
ing animals from its use, as It should be fed before 
its juices take on a distinct saccharine character—be¬ 
fore beading. We have generally used clover till 
timothy is in condition — then timothy till early 
sown corn or oats, after which corn and clover and 
oats till cold weather. It would be well to have 
one-fourth acre Tor each cow in elover, one-fourth 
acre in corn, and one-eighth in oats, to make sure 
of enough. Feed the oats before the corn, and if 
not all used, corn makes excellent winter fodder. 
METHOD OF FEEDING. 
Cattle. —Ditl'erent methods may be used in summer 
feeding. Some would use the yard or shed, or small 
enclosed field. But the stable is preferable for 
cows. Let them be fed in the same position winter 
and summer. Once or twice a day give them the yard 
for air and exercise. They should be fed with perfect 
regularity, say at six and ten a. m., and at two and 
six p. m., giving air and exercise Detween ten aud 
two. A lane leading to the wood lot will afford 
them more exercise than the yard, and being always 
fed in stable they will return at the appointed time. 
A good feeder will give no more each time than the 
animal eatB up clean and with a relish. Too much 
at a time tends to clog the animal and impair - easy 
digestion. The first cuttings of clover, green suc¬ 
culent, should be mixed with one-quarter to one- 
third its quantity of straw or hay. To do this well, 
both elover and hay or straw should be cut short. 
This cut hay or Btraw will absorb much of the 
moisture and prevent bloating; but when more ma¬ 
ture, the elover may be fed alone. The food should 
be slightly salted several times a week; or the ani¬ 
mals should have free access to salt. To milch 
cows the green food should be fed fresh, and not 
suffered to be much wilted, 
Sheep may be soiled as easily as cattle and 
horses. They should be kept in small flocks of 
fffty to a hundred, the number to be determined by 
practical experiment. They may be confined in 
fields enclosed with a hurdle fence. In a field ten 
rods square, containing one hundred square rods, 
place one hundred sheep, or one sheep to a rod of 
ground. Around this field, against the fence, place 
racks to feed them in. The sheep should be kept 
in a field only so long as the ground is fresh and 
healthful to them. This will require experiments 
to determine. But from facts within our knowl¬ 
edge, we think they should be changed to fresh 
ground every week. It wiil be necessary to have 
extra hurdle fence, and by setting a fence around 
three sides of a field, aud against one side of the 
field in which the sheep are, they may be let through 
into the new field. The sheep having occupied this 
field for one week, it will be found quite well ma¬ 
nured, and to keep this manure from wasting by 
exhaling into the atmosphere, one bushel of plaster 
should be sown at once over this field on removal 
of the sheep. The first ground cut for soiling 
should he used to hurdle sheep upon, and it will be 
found an effectual as well as cheap way of manuring. 
Soiling sheep will have many advantages over pas¬ 
turing. It will give the feeder on opportunity of 
separating his various grades, and bestowing hiB ex¬ 
tra feed upon those he desires for market. He can 
perfectly command the condition of his Bheep. It 
will prevent that close feeding of pastures so de¬ 
structive to production. Three sheep may be kept 
by soiling where one can by pasturing. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors 
Terms, in Advance — Tbrek Dollars a Ykab:— Five 
copies for *U; Seven, and one free to Club Agent, for *19; 
Ten, and one free, for *25 —only *2.50 per copy. As we pre¬ 
pay American postage, *2.70 la the lowest Club rate to Canada 
and *3.50 to Europe. The beet way to remit Is by Draft or 
Post-Office Money Order,—and all Drafts and Orders made 
payable to the Publisher mat be matlkd at his bisk. 
W All Business Letters, Contributions, Ac., should be 
addressed to Rochester until otherwise announced. 
It is not every farmer who can breed a famous 
herd of cattle—one that will furnish animals sought 
far and wide and commanding fancy prices, but there 
is no farmer, we venture to assert, who has neither 
means nor capability to greatly and profitably im¬ 
prove his stock of cattle, be it large or small, if 
he begins tbe work with determination and fore¬ 
thought, and follows it with patience and steadfast¬ 
ness. And there is, perhaps, no branch of farming 
that would pay better than such improvement, con¬ 
sidering the outlay. How much, for instance, might 
the average quality of our beef be advanced, in a few 
years, and the coat of its production lessened, if the 
farmers who raise it would universally breed their 
stock, to the best of their knowledge and opportu¬ 
nities, with the view of improving their qualities 
for making meat. The gain would soon aggregate 
a large amount. 
So, too, with the milk'mg qualities, though we 
think more care is taken in general, to breed good 
milkers than cattle having the best fattening quali¬ 
ties. Still, there is a very general failure in this 
respect. How many readers of this, for example, 
have owned, at some time in their farming experi¬ 
ence, a strain of milking stock that possessed supe¬ 
rior qualities—a cow, herself aud female, descendants 
noted invariably for richness and quantity of milk— 
and yet by carelessness or non - appreciation have 
lost tbe good blood and got inferior in its stead? 
With some care and judgment and a little extra ex¬ 
pense, a valuable herd might have been created, 
eatiDg no more food but returning much greater 
profits, and intrinsically worth much more than the 
one now kept. We know many farmers are careless 
in this respect because they shift often from one 
class of stock to another; now it is cattle, by-and- 
by it will be sheep or hogs, but it should be re¬ 
membered that the best brings the largest price 
when 60 ld, and the good breeder is repaid for his 
outlay eyen if the Btock is brought under the 
hammer. 
It is necessary for the cattle breeder who sets out 
to systematically improve his herd to understand 
the fundamental rules governing selection, and 
these are well stated in the Hon. L. F. Allen’ 8 
recent work on American cattle, from which we 
quote: —“First. Sound health and freedom from 
constitutional, hereditary, chronic or local disease, 
blemish or infirmity of any kind. And such sound 
health and freedom from any land of Jiml disease, 
should appertain to every young animal which is to 
be retained for breeding purposes thereafter. 2d. 
As much perfection of form as may be possible to 
obtain in the breed, bearing in mind the chief uses 
for which the animals are intended. 3d. That they 
possess the strong and marked characteristics of 
their breed, in the various points belonging to it. 
4th. That if of a distinct breed, the blood be thor¬ 
oughly pure, and that purity he substantially well 
authenticated pedigrees, through as many genera¬ 
tions back as can be ascertained. 5th- Hood tem¬ 
per, and a kindly, docile disposition in the animals 
£0 selected or reared for breeding or other purposes. 
“To carry out these rules, an enumeration of certain 
points which ail cattle, of any breed should possess, 
is necessary. Among them are, 1st. A tine head, 
small and lean. 2d. A broad, full and deep chest, 
giving room for well-developed and vigorous lungs 
to play. 3d. Good length, breadth and roundness 
of body, roomy and full from shoulder to hip, 
with low flanks, thus giving room for abundant ac¬ 
tion of the viscera, or bowels, and expansion for the 
foetus, if in a female. 4th. Straight back, broad hips 
and good length of loin, 5th. Fineness of bone, 
smoothness In the carcass generally. 
“All these are indispensable, whether in an animal 
held for propagating its kind, for flesh solely, an ox 
for labor, or a cow for milk. The intermediate parts, 
or points of the animals, may be filled out to promote 
the objects desired for the particular uses to which 
the creature is to he applied; but all of which we 
have enumerated, are indispensable in making up a 
good animal.” 
It is not always safe and best to accept the general 
appearance of an animal as a procf that it is a good 
stock getter, although in the majority of instances 
this is probably true; but a better proof and one 
that should always be shown before very high claims 
are set up for it, are the good points of its offspring. 
It not unfrequently happens that an animal of infe¬ 
rior appearance is produced from the best and oldest 
blood, and such will belie their looks, getting much 
finer stock tha Animals of better points but inferior 
blood. 
The growing of hay for market is one of the 
most profitable branches of farm industry where the 
locality is favorable to producing and marketing the 
crop. It is, moreover, an agreeable crop, iu regard 
to work, and subject to little labor and c-ost as 
compared w ith most others, The greatest difficulty 
which the grower of hay encounters 56 its bulki 
ness, which makes the cost of marketing large, and 
even impracticable, when any considerable distance 
is to be traversed. It can only be shipped by rail or 
water in a compressed state,' hence there have been 
many presses contrived for putting hay into con¬ 
venient bulk. We herewith illustrate one which 
we find described iu a foreign (German) journal, and 
which is said to have been proved superior to sev¬ 
eral others at a comparative trial of their merits. 
Its dimensions are, length eight feet, breadth four, 
and height eight and a half. Weight about twelve 
hundred pounds. The average weight of the bales 
is one hundred and fifty pounds each. The plan is 
simply that of bringing down a beam or follower by 
means of wheels, chains and pulleys, geared and ar¬ 
ranged to acquire great power. The shaft of the 
lower cog-wheel extends under the bottom of the 
press to the other side, and there works a similar 
chain aud pulley attached to the other end of the fol¬ 
lower, or beam, to those shown on the side exposed 
to view. When the pressing is completed, the panels 
in the front and rear of the press are unbolted and 
removed, the bands around the bale fastened, and it 
is then shoved out. To facilitate this the opening 
is a trifle larger on one side than on the other. 
Of all the nuisances attached to a neighborhood, 
there is no one more annoyiog thau that of a bor 
rower. I happen to live where 1 have two or more 
of the agreeables; and this morning, wanting my 
hedge shears to prune a little piece of hedge, 
on looking for them where they ought to have 
been, they were not there. On asking my good, 
wife if she knew aught of the missing property, 
“ Why yes, Mr. C. came the other day when you 
were gone, and I could not refuse him, although I 
told him you did not like to lend, because everyday 
almost you wanted them to use, but he said be 
guessed he’d take them, and when he got through 
with them perhaps he’d bring them back.” 
Another day I wanted my little plow to plow out 
a few rods of currants, but looking in the shed for it, 
I found no plow. “Oh,” says my man, “Captain 
-’s man came here yesterday while you were 
gone, and although 1 told him you gave me orders 
not to lend, he said he was told to get it any how, 
for they wanted it to use.” And so they go. These 
are only recent little items of almost every-day an¬ 
noyances of the kiud, which I have been trying to 
check a lODg time, and I am happy to say I have 
accomplished much; for where I have one nuisance 
now 1 formerly had half a dozen. One of my neigh¬ 
bors actually worked a small farm of twenty acreu 
several years without ever owning a plow. I could 
write a long homily on this item of neighborhood 
borrowing nuisances, but my object is to check the 
practice, and if this hint don't answer then I must 
continue to endure, for kicking at, or reading a long 
homily to, that kind of cattle will do no good. 
Ai»dl 
SOILING FOR S&CTH. 
The difficulty of producing permanent grasses at 
the South for pastures renders the soiling system of 
the highest importance to this region. Here the 
red clover may be raised in abundance for cutting, 
and although requiring to be often renewed, yet 
this can easily be done, and a large stock supported 
upon those old plantations, thus furnishing manure 
for their renovation. By this system, butter and 
cheese may be produced, of fair quality, at home by 
the Southern farmer, and thus introduce another 
element of his independence. Winter rye would 
here be found an important crop for soiling. But, 
as at the North, great reliance must be placed upon 
coni sown in drills. This would furnish, with 
straw, a large element of winter food. They might 
also raise their own mules, and thereby cut off' an¬ 
other drain of their substance. This soiling system, 
generally introduced at the South, would render 
her independent of the North and West for all her 
animal productions. 
HOW SHALL SOILING PE INTRODUCED? 
First, soiling is only adapted to tillable land. 
Land not tillable must be used for pasturing. And 
where the land Is all tillable, we do not advise a 
change, at once, wholly from pasturing to soiling; 
because some preparation is necessary. The pas¬ 
tures must gradually be got Into meadows —the 
soiling crops prepared near the barn, &c. But 
every farmer may begin soiling at once. He may 
keep a few more animals, aud raise sowed corn or 
other crops to produce the extra food. He will at 
once discover the economy of this way of feeding. 
In from two to four years he may change entirely 
from pasturing to soiling. And when once thor¬ 
oughly adopted, be will never go hack to the old 
wasteful system again. Let the small farmers in¬ 
troduce this system of soiliug, instead of coveting 
more land. In many portions of Germany and 
France farmers with ten acres keep from eight to 
ten cows. This may as easily be done in this coun¬ 
try, where the soil is nearly in a virgin state. The 
farmer with twenty-five acres may compete in pro¬ 
duction with the pasturing farmer of sixty acres. 
The small farmer will find in soiliug the road to in¬ 
dependence and plenty.— b. w. s. 
servation would long since have answered this ques- I 
tlon in tlie most satisfactory uiatiuer, if soils were 
not infinitely diversified in their physical, geograph¬ 
ical and climatological qualities and conditions. 
While this extreme diversity renders it at present 
apparently impossible to reduce Agriculture to an 
exact science, it may, nevertheless, be made to ap¬ 
proximate the certainty of astronomical science by 
carefully observing facts and giving them their true 
meaning. 
Snch has been the demand for cotton, (an article 
so easily spun and wove by machinery,) and such 
the industry and enterprise employed in its produc¬ 
tion that more impoverished laud has resulted from 
the cultivation of this staple than from any other. 
Seeing their naturally tbiu, sandy, piney woods 
plantations wearing out rapidly, thoughtful cotton 
growers have developed facts in the last twenty 
years which throw valuable light on the great ques¬ 
tion of making full restitutiwn to arated fields for 
crops raised and sent to cities or abroad for con¬ 
sumption, at the least expense to the producer. 
As the principles of Agriculture are the same 
everywhere, reliable facts illustrative of these prin¬ 
ciples deserve consideration, no matter how differ¬ 
ent the climate or local condition of the soil brought 
under review. A planter who has made a fortune by 
raising cotton on a nuturally thin, sandy soil in 
the piney woods of Central Georgia, and greatly 
improved his plantation, writes as follows in the 
March No. of the Southern Cultivator: — “Twenty- 
two years ago (1846) I saw an advertisement in the 
American Farmer, Baltimore, Md., describing the 
fine effects of Peruvian guano. I ordered three 
sacks and tried it. 1 found it to pay well. I nsed it 
sparingly at first, being at that time the only one in 
Georgia who used it so far as 1 knew. I continued 
to increase the quantity annually till 180L That 
year I used of all kinds thirteen thousand dollars’ 
worth: last year, (1867,) I used twelve thousand 
dollars' worth. Being a pioneer I lost a great deal 
of money in making trials of other guanos.” * * 
“lam for an annual manure — a soluble manure — 
that will return the principal, or at least 75 per cent, 
of it, with 125 per cent, profit, or double the investr 
ment. I am in favor of an investment that never 
pleads for time or complains of usurious interest or 
calls for relief or repudiation, but will punctually 
square up accounts with 100 per cent, profit. Such 
an investment is soluble bones and Peruvian guano.” 
Thus writes Mr. David Dickson of Hancock Co., 
Ga., whose plain truthfulness and reliability are the 
same in the South as those of Mr. John Johnston 
in the North. When a reading planter buys a soluble 
manure that costs him about $115 a ton delivered by 
twelve thousand dollars’ worth a year, and doubles 
his money, with free negro labor in such bad cotton 
growing years as that of 1867, with an onerous cot¬ 
ton tax to cut down the profits, I hope no one will 
object to a pretty thorough analysis of this agricul¬ 
tural problem. 
In the first place attention is called to the facts 
that the use of very concentrated manures twenty- 
two years, and on some three thousand acres of im¬ 
proved land, (Mr. Dickson’s plantation has about 
9,000 acres,) would indicate very plainly whether the 
Somebody who has the good of working men 
warmly at heart, submits, in the N. Y- Times, a set 
of rules for their guidance. Thus:—“1. Feed the 
team in the morning before 5 o’clock, so that they 
will have ample time to eat before working. 2. Feed 
the milch cows before milking. 3. Wash every 
cow’s udder with clean water, and clean the stalls 
before milking. Wash hands with soap and clean 
water, cut finger nails short, and put on elean 
clothes before milking; and do not commence milk¬ 
ing another cow till yon have emptied the milk of 
the first cow. 4. Feed the sheep, the swine and 
fowls, and be ready for breakfast at 6 o'clock." 
It strikes ns that this Is rather crowding the 
mourners. Is the clean milkrag suit to be donned 
before or after washing the cows’ udders ? Who is 
to supply this clean milking rig and keep it in order 
for use V Are the finger nails to be cut every morn¬ 
ing, or only as often as they grow out ? If all this 
routine of labor canr.ot be performed by six o’clock 
in the morning, is the laborer’s breakfast forfeited 
in consequence of the deficiency? Would it be an 
unpardonable sin to milk two cows into one pail, 
provided it was ample to contain the supply fur¬ 
nished by both of them ? 
In a recent letter headed “Deep Flowing — Shal¬ 
low Thinking,” I remarked that “the feeding and 
clothing of the inhabitants of rnauy cities and villa¬ 
ges, without impoverishing the land cultivated for 
that purpose, is a very complex problem in the 
natural sciences.” The sciences referred to are 
those that show how agricultural plants grow; 
how much of their organized tissues is derived from 
the atmosphere and rain water, and how much from 
earthy elements which the cultivator must replace 
in the soil to prevent its deterioration, and ultimate 
refusal to yield remunerating crops. Practical Agri¬ 
culture demands a solution of the problem: What Is 
the minimum quantity of plant food, in the shape of 
manure, that, a farmer or cotton planter must give 
to an acre of tilled land from year to year, to keep it 
forever in a fruitful condition? Experience and ob- 
\hw farmers who are pretty regular in the use 
of the curry-comb in their horse stables, seem to 
forget that they have other stock to which like 
attention would be agreeable and remunerative. 
Working oxen and dairy cows are greatly improved 
in appearance, and, it is believed, in productive 
power also by being regularly cleaned and carded 
each day. If animals confined in stables and thus 
attended to bad the power of speech they would, as 
their actions indicate, return thanks to those who 
have afforded them the pleasure of a thorough 
grooming. They will thrive all the better for the 
operation, take a higher position in the market, be 
sides mak'mg munificent returns in the shape of 
extra labor, or in enhanced contributions to the 
stores of the cheese and butter rooms. 
jpnuQ j $3.00 PER YEAR. 
1 c.Kmo, single Copy, Six Cents. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y, AND NEW YORK CITY. 
r)criprc [82 Buffalo St., Rochester. 
Ur rll/c. 9 ,1 41 part Row, New York. 
— -- - - 
YOL XIX. NO. n.\ 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1868. 
— 
{WHOLE NO. 958.1 
