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1gRICUlTUR> 
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PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
MOOEE’S BUBAL NEW YOEKEE, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
(PUBLISHER ANT) PROPRIETOR,) 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors. 
Terms, In Advance — Three dollars a Year:— Five 
copies for #11; Seven, and one free to Clnb Agent, for *19; 
Tun, and one free, for *'.’5 —only *2.50 per copy. As we pre¬ 
pay American postage, *3.70 Is the lowest Clnb rate to Canada 
and *3NO to Kurope. The best way to remit Is by Draft or 
Post-Office Money Order,—and all Drafts and Orders made 
payable to the Publisher may be mailed at ms bisk. 
have got them as fine milkers as there is of any 
breed, and their slaughtering qualities can’t be beat, 
and they will live on a shorter herbage than almost 
any other.” 
Mr. Goodman would not concede the correctness 
of the assumption that there was any portion of 
New England in which Short-Floras or any other 
variety of cattle may not be raised to advantage. 
A trial amoDgthe hills of Berkshire has led to an 
Increased demand for this and other improved 
breeds of cattle in that section, rough and moun¬ 
tainous as it is. lie was in favor of these cattle 
and of the cultivation of root crops as a portion of 
their supply of food. The practice of lettiug grass 
stand in the meadows till dead ripe was reprobated 
sen it in the minds of others. Timber land, adapted 
alike to grass, wheat and corn, that will cost about 
two dollars an acre, where the timber will pay for 
cleaning and seeding, would satisfy mo very well, if 
a young man. Lumber goes down stream from here 
to the Ohio river, and the prairies of Southern Illi¬ 
nois, very cheaply. 1 have refused t,o allow mop to 
cut railway tics at a price that will pay more than 
the cost of the land. A young man should never 
be afraid of timber; for so many children are born 
barefoot that the demand for tan bark alone to make 
leather to shoe them will keep up the price of good 
oak forests. [ have sold timber standing at S4G per 
DISCUSSIONS AT THE NEW ENGLAND 
FAIR. 
Among the more interesting features of the recent 
N. E.' Fair were the evening stock discussions, 
which were participated iu by some of the most ex¬ 
perienced stock growers of the country. The dis¬ 
cussion was opened by CoL Needham, who made 
the point that the old style of farming—making the 
farm a kind of country store—will not pay now, 
especially in the New England States. Native 
stock will not pay—lands too expensive to permit 
it—this is settled; hence the question arises, which 
of the improved breeds should be used for farm 
purposes. He intimated that Short-1 toms were not 
profitably bred in Vermont, but implied that Dev- 
ous, Ayreshires, Dutch and Jerseys might be. It 
may take time to decide which of these varieties is 
the best, being each so good, but there was no 
doubt of their marked superiority over the native 
breeds. 
Dr. Loking said no man can tell which breed of 
cattle is the best without taking into the account 
the climate, soil and vegetation at the place where 
the stock is to be reared. In his county, where 
feed was short, it was useless to attempt to breed 
Short-Horns. In the Connecticut Hirer Valley the 
case was different, as it was also in the Valley of the 
Kenuebeck. In such districts the Shorfc-horaswere 
profitable stock, as they were iu most, if not all, of 
the Central and Western States. It is the character 
of the locality which must decide what breed of 
cattle to raise. The original Short-Horns were -not. 
ICE HOUSE with presbrvatort. 
up the air space, through holes into the chamber 
above the ice and out at the roof. The rafters are 
double-boarded and saw-dust packed between them, 
and one inch air space left between them and the 
roof; this secures brisk circulation of air. If the 
ice house is to be connected with the dwelling, the 
presetvatory may be entered from the cellar by 
breaking a doorway through the wall; if apart from 
the house, unless a side hill be available, some steps 
downward will be necessary. The ice house should 
be wholly above ground, but the preservatory part¬ 
ly or entirely under.” 
CONCRETE WALL FOR ICE HOUSE. 
Our Special Correspondent “E. W. S.,” 
sends us 
„, and as a 
sequel to his previously published articles on con¬ 
crete walls: 
w - E - G * of Spring Hill, Mmry Co., Tenn., says : 
“ I am a young farmer in years and experience,—am 
trying to improve my place and finish my buildings. 
I want to build an ice house and preservatory and 
smoke honse. I notice the articles of E. W. S. on 
“Concrete Wall” in the Rural, and would like, 
very much, if he would give me some more specific 
instructions how to construct these buildings of 
concrete.” 
The instructions given in the Rural cannot be 
much more specific in reference to the manner of 
building the concrete wall, but we may make some 
suggestions as to the 6tyle and situation of an ice 
house and preservatory. This question of preserv¬ 
ing Ice for summer use is too little understood and 
appreciated by farmers. Not one in a hundred pos- 
[ Besses this important element of health, comfort and 
profit. With a well constructed ice house a farmer 
may keep his meat, fish and poultry killed in hot 
weather, fresh till consumed. His butter may be 
kept solid in dog days, and his health made better 
during the haying and harvesting season with this 
cool invigorating drink. We have found it during 
the warmest and hardest working season, truly an 
element of health and comfort for all in our em¬ 
ploy. During the very heated term just past, our 
men have been able to go through the severest labor 
without suffering, while some of our acquaintances 
have been left almost without help from the inabil¬ 
ity of men to stand the heat. Iced water braces the 
stomach and gives tone and vigor to the whole sys¬ 
tem. A little satisfies thirst, and there is no neces¬ 
sity for overloading the stomach with water. Besides 
water cannot be carried to a distant field from a cold 
well without becoming warm. Every farmer should 
supply himself with this necessary building. If in¬ 
tended simply for an ice house, it may be built very 
cheaply. 
SIZE AND MODE OF BUILDING. 
It is now considered as well to build an ice house 
above ground. A double wall with an air space is 
Our illustration represents Chamberlain’s Pat¬ 
ent Vibrating Screw Stump Mach.no. The parts are 
so few, and the construction so simple,—which 
should be the case with ail powerful machinery— 
thatminute description is unnecessary. Atcam will 
exert tremenduous lifting power with this machine; 
the adjustable lever and vibrating movement of the 
screw compensate for inequalities of surface, and 
swaying of the 6tump. It is easily moved by means 
of wheels at the bottom of the standards. See ad¬ 
vertisement in this paper. 
ltic colun3E3 took the cattle as they found them, 
There were thirty other breeders at the time. They 
were the Yankees of England; and they found a 
good breed of cattle, and they took a heifer and 
fattened her, and sent her through the island and 
showed her, and thus brought the Short-Horn into 
notice. Now, the Short-Horns are a race, not a 
breed. The Anglo-Saxons are a race, and the Mexi¬ 
cans are a breed. The race of Short - Horns and 
Devons have been undoubtedly improved, but they 
were a race to begin with. I think the Doctor can¬ 
not go hack far enough In the history of cuttle to 
reach the time when thc-Devon did not exist. Keep 
the races pure, and don’t mix them. Cultivate 
I OK IAI>nOKA.NTfl AND NEW BEGINNERS. 
In l.SJb, when the Erie Canal was first open for 
transportation with facilities for business, between 
tide-water and Lake Erie, many a New-Yorker emi¬ 
grated West, and placed himself too far from mar¬ 
ket, when he might have bought land for farming 
purposes very cheap, within a few miles of the City 
Hall of New York. The wonderful growth of this 
emporium of trade and commerce, would now make 
a farm, well selected forty-two years ago near the 
city, worth a fortune. 
From that time to the present, farmers and others 
have been repeating the error of running away from 
the best markets to purchase cheaper land. In 
place of buying grass land at ten cents an acre on 
mountains twenty miles from Knoxville, I am now 
NOTES from; THE FARM, 
CHEAP ICE HOUSE. 
“ Perceiving the ‘Rural’ waked up to ice-house 
questions, we would challenge a better house for 
preserving ice than the following, which, with us, 
now holds lee three years old:— Our honse is 
above ground — double-boarded on the sides, with 
only a board roof. The icc is packed in pieces 
two feet square, leaving about six inches space 
between the lee and siding. We then cover sides 
and top of the ice with saw dust. If anything can 
beat this for keeping ice, let us know, and very 
large doubts remove. No need of making the top 
air-tight; ours is open to the atmosphere. ” 
A more costly, perfect and eonvenient plan of ice 
house with preservatory, iB furnished us by our ar¬ 
tist, Geo. Frauenbergbr. He says“ The novel 
feature of this plan is the placing of the preserva- 
by on that dusty afternoon just before the severe 
drouth came to an end. A few days later, after the 
rains, and I passed that way again. A greenish hue 
had crept over the field, and the blades of quack 
grass Lad sprung up thick as sown wheat. But for 
that pest the owner might have put the drill at 
work sowing, for the 6oil was sufficiently worked 
and in good condition, but now the forty acres 
must first be gang-plowed. 
“A troublesome tenant is that quack,” I remark¬ 
ed to the owner who had recently bought the farm. 
“ Why don’t you tarn him out ?” 
“ A the next time 1 fallow this field ” he re¬ 
plied. 
“ Aha ! but it’s a big job. Forty acres of thick 
set quack will make a tough fight, and some farm¬ 
ers say it can’t be killed any way.” 
1 know it can,” he replied. “1 know a man 
who i ented a farm, and one of the terms of the lease 
bound him to exterminate the quack grass in a field 
of several acres-all thick set. He plowed it very 
early and very well; then with a strong toothed 
horse lake he gathered all the roots within six 
inches of the surface, dried and burned them. lie 
cultivated so often that not a green blade aoDeaiwi 
CONCRETE WALL ICE HOUSE. 
found to be a better preserver of Ice than the earth. 
It should be sunk in the earth only so far as to pro¬ 
tect the wall from frost. An ice house eight feet 
