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yol xix. no. ih.\ 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1808. 
!WHOLE NO. 981 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT,” 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. ©. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors. 
G. F. WILCOX AND A. A. HOPKINS, Associate Editors. 
Hoy. HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D.. 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
Dr. DANIEL LEE, Southern Corresponding Editor. 
HIRAM HUMPHREY AND REUBEN D. JONEtf, 
Assistant and Commercial Editors. 
Special Contributors. 
P. BARRY, V. R. ELLIOTT, E. W. STEWART, 
H. T. BROOKS, JOHN E. SWEET, JAMES VICK, 
MRS. MARY J. HOLMES, MRS. L. E. LYMAN. 
Terms in Advance— Ttik£k Dollars a Year: Five 
copies for $li; Seven, and one tree to Club Agent, for gift; 
Ton, and one free, for $23 — only $2.50 per copy. As we pre¬ 
pay American postage £2.10 is the lowest club rate to Canada 
and $3.00 to Europe. 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 bts risk. 
All Business Letters, Contributions, &c., should be 
addressed to Rochester until otherwise announced. 
HINTS FOR THE MONTH. 
November closes the farmers’ harvest for the 
year. Were it possible all farm crops should have 
been secured last month so that the present one 
could be devoted to forwarding next spring’s work 
and to repairs and improvements on the farm. The 
work of November should be mostly of that kind 
which will advance that of the following spring. 
Perhaps the most critical period of the year with 
American farmers is the spring. That seasou is 
stormy and disagreeable over a large area of our 
country, and it Is dllticnlt for the farmer to get his 
seed sown early and in good conditioned soil. And 
the welfare of the crops depends a great deal on 
this. The best guarantee of a bountiful harvest of 
spring grain Is to have the seed sown early and in 
well prepared soil. Tim farmer may do very much in 
November towards accomplishing this. He can 
plow and subsoil and make ditohes so that the seed 
bed will dry quick after the frost leaves the ground, 
and be ready to sow as soon as dry. 
But Unfathered Fall Crops must first be secured. 
Labor, which crowds into and overflows our vil¬ 
lages and cities, is scarce and high on the farm, and 
the work often lags iu spite of the farmer's best 
efforts. In potato growing districts many tubers 
are yet undug. These demand the first attention. 
They are not safe for a day nndng after the first of 
this month north of 42°. Varieties wiiieh grow com¬ 
pact in the hill and near the surface, as Prince 
Alberts, Mercers, ike., should be dug first, as they 
will not stand unscathed a freeze that would not. 
harm the deeper growing Peachblow. Potato grow¬ 
ers arc yet anxiously looking for the machine which 
will harvest this important crop, as the reaper bar. 
vests grain. Corn may be housed when it is very 
dry, auil the husking done after winter sets in. The 
fallen stalks should be righted or husked to save 
the fodder from injury by a ct. Unless very dry it 
is better to stack corn Stalks than to house them. 
The butts are diilletflt to dry enough to safely house 
them, but if stored in small stacks so that the tops 
of the bundles may al! be placed towards the center 
there is little danger from moisture. The day is not 
far distant when the mode of harvesting corn will 
be ebanged. The crop will be bound iu bundles 
convenient to handle, drawn to the barn or stuck, 
and husked by horse or steam power iu as many 
daysas it now takes weeks. Moots should be.gathered 
and stored. Parsuips will winter best in the ground, 
but enough for the table during the winter should 
be dug and buried in sued in the cellar. 
Stock .—No kind should be allowed to. grow poor 
at this season. Cows should be stabled and fed to 
keep up a plenlilul and rich flow of milk. Corn 
fodder, roots and meal are good for this purpose. 
Fatting 6tock should be pushed, especially hogs; 
they may be made to gain very rapidly this mouth 
and afford a profit which could not be made in cold 
winter weather. 
Buildings .—Many little repairs can be neglected 
no longer; there are a few boards to nail on, a little 
shingling to be done, eave troughs put up, stable 
floors renovated, windows and doors repaired. The 
genuine farmer can see more to do than he has force 
to perform, it is a good time for puinting, as the 
air is generally free from dnst, there are no flies to 
speck the work, and the weather will prevent it 
drying so rapidly as to crack. 
Hoads .—Farm roads should be put in good repair, 
and the ditches and sluiceways of the public high¬ 
ways attended to. Roads that drift badly in winter 
may often be greatly helped iu this respect by lay¬ 
ing down the fences. This is less labor for the dis¬ 
trict than to shovel out the roads w r hen piled full of 
snow. 
Manure .—We should prefer carting manure on to 
planting ground and spreading it, if it is not liable 
to be swept away by floods, to letting it remain in 
' the yard all winter. Muck, leaves and sod may be 
* gathered and stored to increase the bulk of manure. 
. Winter Grain.—Ha c that the surface water furrows 
i are open aud sufficient. Water is the great enemy 
d of winter wheat. Spots where the wheat is most 
TEE NEW BUILDING OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
The building of the Department of Agriculture is now occupied by the Commissioner and his clerical force, although not yet completed. As far as it 
is completed and used, it is elegantly finished and furnished. It is located on what has been known is the Government Farm, ol about 35 acres ot ground. 
It looks right up 13th street. Its foundation is of brown stone, its walls are of brick, it is covered with the French roof, aud it will cost, perhaps, $150,000. 
liable to be killed by freezing and thawing may be 
greatly protected by mulching lightly with coarse, 
convince him that cut and steamed food is not the 
best. Mr. Caywood observed that his father kept 
strawy manure. Knolls exposed to the sweep of fifty or sixty cows, and he always thought the pas- 
winds should be tints treated. 
Pick Slone from next year’s meadows. 
Build an lee House.— Every farmer needs one as a 
conservatory for meats, vegetables, &c., in hot 
weather. The Rural has illustrated several plans 
this fall. 
- - * » >■ •»- 
FREAKS OF CATTLE - FEEDING. 
It is an old adage that “a change of pasture 
makes fat calves,” and it is presumable that it is 
equally true of stock of a more advanced age. 
Those who have paid attention to the movements 
of cattle, when turned Into a new pasture, will have 
observed them to take a few nips, with great greed¬ 
iness, from the first grass they came to. Anon they 
are off to another place to repeat the operation, and 
so on till the whole iuclosurc has been prospected, 
bringing them back to the point of begiuuing. 
This movement is natural, we suppose, and com- 
mou alike to quadruped and biped, as both have 
a propensity to rove from a really good thing 
in search of something better. This change may 
serve to sharpen the appetite and assist digestion, 
but the real nutriment derived from it is probably 
very little increased. 
Frequently cattle will desert the richer grasses 
for the sour ones in low grounds, if an avenue is 
opened to them, or they can stealthily break 
through the barrier interposed between the good 
and poor feeding grounds. They will, on such oc¬ 
casions, devour with avidity the coarsest specimens 
of foul meadow, which they would pass by with in¬ 
difference iu their regular feeding fields. But ns 
soon as the novelty passes away, and they are uot 
ejected as thieves, they will return to their old 
ground aud to the richer and more nutritious herb¬ 
age abandoned in such haste for a new, but greatly 
inferior article. It is hard to account for many of 
the freaks of farm stock, with respect to their food, 
but, as a general thing, we believe it pays well to 
gratify this love of change whenever circumstances 
will permit it to be done. Giving them their head, 
in exploring new feeding grounds adjacent to their 
regular inclosure, satisfies their curiosity and in¬ 
duces that state of quietness which is essential to 
their proper development and productiveness. 
--».«♦«.».- 
WHY CUT FEED IS BEST. 
►Some discussion was had recently at the Ameri¬ 
can Institute Farmers’ Club ou the value of cut 
feed. J. W. Calbury, Springfield, Vt., wrote that 
he had fed his horses, kept for general work, on cut 
hay for ten years. The hay was sprinkled with 
meal, and he believes bay thus cut and fed will go 
twice as far as if fed whole, aud that the team will 
do full as much work. Bright oat straw may be 
substituted by adding more meal. N. C. Meeker 
observed that nothing can be gained by cutting 
what was not good feed before that operation. 
Some seem to think that by cutting wheat straw 
aud the butts of corn stalks, and adding meal to in¬ 
duce animals to cat the mixture, they gain, but the 
idea is a delneiou, for something cannot come out 
of nothing. Dr. Trimble said it was absurd to 
think one can save feed by putting it iu another 
shape without adding more nutriment. If a horse 
needs twenty pounds of nourishment in uncut hay 
he could not see how ten pounds of cut hay would 
answer. Mr. Quinn remarked that the Superin¬ 
tendent of a horse railroad had told him they were 
obliged to give their horses cut hay three times a 
day to enable them to perform the required work 
and keep iu good order. Mr. Stone said all the 
scientific men and doctors in creation could not 
turcs best when the animals could till themselves in 
the shortest, time. Whenever digestion can be 
helped a great point i: ^ lined. 
What is the truth in tlii question which causes 
the doctors to disagree so widely? Simply this: 
Cutting fodder does not add more nutriment to it, 
but changes its mechanical condition, and enables 
thence concludes that the heat of the animal stom¬ 
ach is not sufficient to break down and dissolve the 
structure, of the dry, hard, woody liber, so as to 
liberate its nutritious matter. And theu follows 
the next and last step, — cooking fodder, to render 
it aB near as possible like the natural food of ani¬ 
mals— grass. 
We are led to speak of this subject by the in¬ 
quiries uf “ B. S, B.” iu the Rural Farmers’ Club 
of Oct. 17, concerning the best arrangements for 
stoue to the surface of the ground, when a flat 
stone, sixteen inches wide and three feet long, 
should be bedded In martar for the bottom of the 
ash-pit, but if a stoue is not at hand use brick. 
Build up the sides of the ash-pit eight inches, then 
place a one-half by one and one-half inch bar of 
iron across at each end to lay the grate bars on, 
which arc better to be three feet long. When the 
sides are raised to the top of the grate, set off three 
inches on each side, making the tiro bed twenty- 
two inches wide. Carry up these side walls till 
they reach the sides of the boiler, which should 
pitch slightly to the front; then make a flue two 
and one-half inches by seven On each side of the 
boiler, from the back end to within tWb inches of 
the front end, and theu return flues above these to 
the rear end, where they enter the chimney, which 
should be about sixteen feet, high. 
It will be seen by this that the fire covers about 
thirty-two inches of the bottom surface of the 
boiler, and the flues most of the sides and top, and 
that the lire traversing so long a circuit through 
the flues before it reaches the chimney, a spark 
could uot live to reach the open air, aud thus ren¬ 
dering It safe to set the boiler near the barn or in 
the barn, provided you guard against tire at the 
mouth of the arch. The floor of your boiler room 
should be earth, stone or brick. The Bteam pipe 
should bo one Inch diameter, reaching from the top 
of the boiler over the side and down to the bottom 
of the arch, where it enters the steam hox on the 
side near the bottom, and is conducted to the cen¬ 
ter, where the steam is discharged in the middle of 
the food to be cooked. If necessary to place the 
steam box some distance from the boiler, the steam 
may be conducted in an Iron pipe inclosed in wood, 
underground, to the steam box, say fifty to eighty 
feet; but this involves a loss of steam, and should 
be avoided unless the convenience will more than 
► compensate for the loss. 
, This boiler and front can be made at any boiler 
s shop for twelve cents per pound, aud will weigh 
• about 550 pounds. The grate and steam pipe will 
. cost about $18, and the setting of the holler about 
$25, making about $110 as the cost of this steamer 
ready for work. The boiler should be titled only 
. half full ol water. 
stock to consume it in less time and thus have cooking fodder for forty head of cattle. Aud as 
more for rest and digestion. This is a valuable there aro no doubt hundreds of others who are in- 
consideration for hard worked horses, hut not as 
great an one for animals that chew their cud. 
Again, cut hay or straw slightly moistened and 
sprinkled with ground grain is much move palata¬ 
ble, and stock prefer it to unmixed aud whole food, 
and maintain more vigorous appetites than if con¬ 
fined to the unprepared food. A baked potato, 
with salt, pepper and butter, is a dish that a huugry 
king wouldn’t turn from; but a beggar would de¬ 
spise the meal if obliged to devour the potato first, 
then the salt, and the pepper and butter. It’s the 
faculty of mixing food right that tickles the palate. 
Every observing farmer who has tried the experi¬ 
ment knows that his stock prefer cut feed and 
ground grain mixed and woisteued to the same ar- 
tbere aro no doubt hundreds of others who are in¬ 
quiring on this subject, wc will try to hit them all 
at once. As to the second-hand steam engine, this 
is a most uncertain article for ft farmer to buy, as 
he is generally unacquainted with its mechanism 
and cannot determine its condition. Then if he 
does not want to use the engine as a power, it is 
much more expensive as a mere steamer to cook 
food than many other arrangements. Where much 
work is to be done and a large stock kept, a six 
horse engine, to do the threshing and grinding of 
grain, cutting and steaming the fodder, and sawing 
the wood, will no doubt pay ; but for a small stock 
and small work it will be a doubtful investment. 
For forty head of cattle perhaps the most eco¬ 
nomical and efficient apparatus for steaming is a 
tides led whole. Though there is no more nutri- hollow wrought iron cylinder, one-eighth inch 
ment in food thus prepared, yet the animal system 
gets more out of it, and less is passed off iu the ex¬ 
crements. The question of economy in the matter 
must be decided by the value of labor as compared packing; also a stop cock to draw hot water when 
with the value of food in each locality where stock wanted, a short pipe on top with stop cock through 
Is fed. _ which to fill it. This, set in a brick arch, will 
make a complete and efficieut steamer for even 
CUTTING AND COOKING FOOD. sixty head of cuttle, and ft boiler six feet long for 
one hundred head. There should be a three-sbe- 
It is a hopeful sign of the times that farmers are tcenth inch wrought iron front to receive the front 
beginning earnestly to inquire the most economical end of this boiler, extending from the bottom of 
method of feeding their animals. The old way of the ash-pit to the top of the boiler, iu which are 
steam box. 
The best form of a wooden steam box is a round 
tub made of staves and .hooped with strong band 
iron. The bottom and top of this tub should be 
made of two inch and the staves of one and one- 
half inch plank. For a stock of forty head of cat¬ 
tle, it should be seven feet across the bottom and 
six feet eight inches across the top, and three and 
one-half feet deep. This will hold one hundred 
bushels. To make it the nearest steam tight, have 
the head put in the same as the bottom, then saw 
out a hole three feet square, put a frame around 
this, rabbeted for a cover, bolt it to the head; have 
a hook six inches from each corner, through which 
to run a bar over the cover to keep it down tight. 
Under the edge of the cover may be put a strip of 
rubber or listing cloth to make a tight joint. 
For feeding a large stock, or where it is steamed 
two or three days ahead, Mr. Wa. Birnie of Mass, 
built the steam box of brick, eight feet square and 
eight feet high, from basement stable floor to the 
thick, thirty inches in diameter and four feet long, built the steam box of brick, eight feet square aud 
with one-fourth inch heads, having a hand hole in eight feet high, from basement stable floor to the 
front to clean it out, with iron stopper and rubber floor above, from which he filled it. He had a trap 
turning cattle to hay and straw stacks in the fall, 
hoping they will come out all right in the spring, 
hung the doors for fuel and ash-pit. The ash-pit 
should be eight inches deep, sixteen inches wide 
has to a great extent given place to the warm stable mid three feet long. The door for fuel should be 
and cleanly cave of the farmer, with the host re¬ 
sults. But when even this is done the thought¬ 
ful farmer finds much of his hay wasted, his com 
stalks left fitter eating the leaves and tops; and 
thus he advances another step and finds it neces¬ 
sary to cut his stalks, hay and straw into small 
pieces, so as to assist Ids animals in masticating 
and digesting their dry food, lie finds it cheaper 
to do this by machinery than by the teeth of his 
animals. But when all this is accomplished, he 
liuds still a considerable fraction of the fodder 
passes the animals without being digested, and 
fourteen by sixteen inches. This front will bo three 
feet wide, and made up as follows:—one inch below 
the ash-pit, two iuehes for cud of grate, sixteen 
inches from grate to bottom Of boiler, thirty Inches 
to top of boiler and one inch above, making fifty- 
eight inches as length of front. 
HOW TO SET THE BOILER. 
The manner of setting this boiler is important. 
Let the earth be excavated five feet wide by seven 
feet long, three feet deep or below frost, where it 
is to stand. Fill this hole with cobble or rough 
THE 
FOGY FARMER AND 
STOCK. — No. 
4^3mn&sr -iwk- 
THE OLD FOGY FARMER'S “FAITHFUL SERVANT.” 
dour outside near the bottom, from which to draw 
out. the feed after steaming. This would answer 
very well to steam without any pressure. We trust 
this description of apparatus is so minute that no 
one will fail to comprehend it. 
UOW TO PREPARE FOOD FOR STEAMING. 
The cut hay, straw or corn fodder must be well 
moistened before steaming. It cannot be steamed 
dry. Three gallons of water should be sprinkled 
upon live bushels of cut feed. If meal, bivui or 
roots are Ceil, let them be mixed in before steaming. 
It will steam better for treading well into the box. 
For a small stock the portable steam caldrons may 
be used with profit, but for large slocks they work 
too slow. Those who wish to go more fully into 
this subject are referred to a series of articles pub¬ 
lished in the Rural last December, and to an essay 
of the writer in the Report of the Dept, of Agri¬ 
culture for 1865. This is a question of the highest 
importance to all stoek feeders. The economy ol 
cooking the food of our animals is >o great that the 
| whole apparatus will be paid for iu three months 
by the saving in food.— e. w. s. 
--• - 
LUMBER BUSINESS IN EAST TENNESSEE 
Those familiar with the pineries on the head 
waters of the Susquehanna and Alleghany rivers, 
know that good sawing timber is getting scarce in 
all that region. Such is not the fact to anything 
like the same degree on the mum rous affluents of 
the Tennessee River, above Chattanooga; so that 
Southern Illinois, and all the valley of the Missis¬ 
sippi below, can probably obtain lumber cheaper 
from the mountains of Tennessee, Southwestern 
Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, 
than from any other part of the United States. To 
secure a debt, the writer has become interested In 
the lumber business, and believes, from a good deal 
of observation, that timber laud may be bought on 
the Little Tennessee River, some thirty or forty 
miles above its mouth, to as good advantage as in 
any other part of the State. Tire River last named 
rises in North Carolina, aud west of the L trie 
River and the French Broad, both of which dr in 
finely timbered couiitry. The Iliwassee rises n 
Georgia, the Holston and Clinch iu Virginia, ai d all 
me spurs of tue All egh units above Mj-eJe Shoals 
