TERMS, ] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
loose materials, and then spread out fur and wide bj 
moving ice whoso deep-growing is visible from the 
Atlantic to the base of the Rocky Mountains. 
Soils of this diluvial origin would be still more 
alike in their composition and general productive¬ 
ness, had not more recent alluvial action greatly 
modified their character. Rain and snow water fall¬ 
ing on the ground, and running down to the sea, or 
great lakes, carries fine particles of clay and mould 
much further than small pebbles and Band. Practi¬ 
cally it sifts and segregates the debris of rocks, 
giving to some soils an excess of cloy and to others 
an exeess of sflnd, pebbles and smooth stones. 
The absence of Northern frosts, ice and drift 
changes the origin and renewal of the soils in the 
sunny South very materially. Disintegration is less 
rapid, and diluvial forces are less marked and bene¬ 
ficial. Solar influences, however, are more efficient, 
and compensate partly, if not wholly, for the weak¬ 
ness of Southern frost and ice. Rut no intensity of 
sunshine nor of solar heat, will act like a glacier or 
iceberg to move the debris of horublend, mica, fel¬ 
spar, or rotten limestone, to places where it may be 
most needed to form a wide body of good land. 
Hence, the resources of Southern old fields are 
overrated by nearly all writers who take a narrow 
and superficial view of the subjeet. D. Lee. 
Knoxville Co., Tcnn. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors 
G. F. WILCOX and A. A. HOPKINS, Associate Editors, 
Hon. HE.VRY S. RANDALL, LL. I)., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
Dp.. DANIEL LEE, Southern Corresponding Editor. 
HIRAM HUMPHREY and REUBEN' D. JONES, 
assistant and Commercial Editors. 
Terms in Advance — Three Dollars a Year:— Five 
copies for $14; SciYCn, and one free to Clab Agent, for $19; 
Ten, and one free, for $25 — only $2.50 per copy. As we pre¬ 
pay American postage, $2.7018 the lowest Clab rate to Canada 
and $3.50 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 mat be mailed at ms bisk. 
ZW All Business Letters, Contributions, &c., should be 
addressed to Rochester until otherwise announced. 
AGRICULTURAL 
HINTS FOR THE MONTH, 
Farm work has been delayed by bad weather, and 
in many localities by want of help, so that the far¬ 
mer’s affairs are rot as sung in general, as is desir¬ 
able on the approach of winter. Of course, the 
farmer’s efforts towards securing his autumn har¬ 
vest will be continued with vigor until the end is 
attained. But it is a wrong system that compels 
the very closing labors of the year to be those of 
the harvest. We have constantly aimed to incul¬ 
cate the idea that the work of the last autumn 
month should be general improvement of the farm, 
and the forwarding of that of the succeeding year. 
Our climate fail3 the farmer in the spring, but it 
favors him gloriously in the harvest season. He 
can remedy this defect by good calculation. Look 
at the sung farmer of your neighborhood; he de¬ 
voted November to plowing, draining, repairing, 
taking proper care of his stock; and the storms 
never made, him a bit fretful, and the coming of 
winter that sheeted his pastures with snow and 
arrested the flow of the rill, found him with sheds 
and stables, todder, and fuel ready to guard and 
comfort all that was trusted to his care. The pro¬ 
gressive farmer will not let the lesson go nuheeded. 
Stock .—All classes of stock should he kept thriv¬ 
ing. Often as much flesh is lost in November and 
December as can be gained thereafter, with liberal 
feed, in four months, 
MARL. 
This is another resource for farmers to draw up¬ 
on in fertilizing their land. Marl is found quite 
extensively distributed over this country. It is a 
natural mixture of chalk, shells, or carbonate of 
lime in some form, with the different soils, clay, 
sand. ttec. The farmer has used it as a fertilizer 
from very ancient times. The Romans used it, as 
ulso the aucient Britons. 
That fascinating old Roman writer, Columella, 
says .marl is the best stimulant for the vineyard, 
and produces most excellent grapes, but that dung 
will spoil the taste of the wine. This i6 no doubt 
true with rauk, unfermented stable manure. 
Mari has generally proved an excellent applica¬ 
tion to wheat and other grain crops. So important 
has marl been to F.nglish agriculture that a statute 
regulated the manner and place for opening and 
working the marl pits. There are several varieties, 
such as clay marl, sand marl, shell marl, and green 
sand marl. It has been customary to apply the 
clay marl to sandy marl, and the sand marl to clay 
land. The shell land is usually the richest in lime, 
and this of a more progressed character and more 
valuable Ilian the lime from decomposed rock. 
There are often found extensive beds of this shell 
marl in the vicinity of our large lakes. It is com¬ 
posed of fragments of broken shells of ancient ani¬ 
mals, mixed with sand or day. A very rich speci¬ 
men of this kind was sent to us from White Lake, 
in Muskegan Co., Mich. 
HOW TO TEST MARL. 
It is very easy to prove whether a soil contains 
much lime, or whether it is strong enough to be 
called marl. If strong vinegar or dilute muriatic 
acid be poured upon it, it eflorvesces more or less 
strongly, according to the amount of lime it con¬ 
tains. But the green sand marl of New Jersey 
contains very little lime, but abounds in potash 
aud oxide of iron, with some magnesia, and will 
not effervesce much with acids. The lime marl 
conUtius from ten to sixty per cent, of carbonate of 
lime. The green sand contains ten to twelve per 
cent, of potash, with twenty per cent, of oxide of 
iron aud fifty per cent, of silica, which no doubt 
furnishes silicate of potash, a direct food to our 
crops. But the principal effect of the marl is to 
act upon the vegetable matter in the soil. The 
potash of the green sand, no doubt, forms salts of 
potash, which become assimilable to plants. 
As with caustic lltne, marl has a much better 
effect wheu applied to land charged with vegetable 
matter than to poor soils. It produces a lasting 
effect, being very apparent for eight or ten years. 
From fifty to two hundred bushels are applied to 
the acre, on the surface aud cultivated iu. The 
green sand marl has transformed Monmouth Co., 
New Jersey, from a nearly barren territory to one 
of the most fruitful regions in the State. Its pot¬ 
ash has a most remarkable efl'ect upon the growth of 
potatoes. And this might have been anticipated, 
as the ash of the potato contains about fifty per 
cent, of potash. The calcareous marls are very ex¬ 
tensively distributed; but in this country, where 
the soil is comparatively new, they are not yet fully 
appreciated, and remain au almost inexhaustible 
storehouse for the future generation of farmers to 
draw upon. 
GYPSUM OR PLASTER. 
The use of sulphate of lime has been so general 
that farmers are familiar with its application. 
When pure its composition is: 
Sulphuric acid... 43. 
Liine. 33. 
Water.. 34. 
OtjR illustration figures a group of Grav Dorking 
fowls, imported last spring by D. W. Hbr-sttve of 
Philadelphia. They were noticed anil figured in the 
Practical Farmer for August, The main points de¬ 
noting pure breed in the male bird are large, though 
not coarse head; broad, fine wattles neatly rounded 
on the lower side; long, stout neck profusely 
hackled with long feathers; broad, fall breast; 
large, massive body; broad back with wiugs largely body large, almost forming a square when viewed 
developed; straight, stout legs, free from feathers; from the aide; back broad aud long; wings not so 
tail large, well expanded aud earned upright ; toes large in comparison with the body as in many other 
long, well spread out, und five iu number. They breeds; thighs well developed, legs short; feet five- 
may be either single or rose wombed. toed, with the extra toe well developed and sepa- 
In the hen the wattles Should be fine, rounded rated from the others. The Dorkings are a popular 
place of the large trees. Iu this way a lot may he 
cut oyer once in twenty or thirty years to advantage. 
It might he advisable to plant black walnut, chest¬ 
nut, locust, <tec., where the existing timber is not so 
valuable, and with some care the next crop would 
be worth more. 
Timber .—Every farmer should preserve a stock of 
useful kinds, store it where it will season and keep 
dry. That should he part of the stock of the work¬ 
shop. 
Account*, — Balance your accounts this month, 
settle your bills, take an inventory of stock, and 
see to a dollar how profitable your year’s work has 
beeo. Scan your system of farming to introduce 
improvements, and estimate how much you can 
afford for improvements, uud determine what ones 
to make. 
Farmers' Clubs and Papers .—Every school district 
should support a Farmers’ Club. We are frequently 
asked to give suitable rules aud regulations for 
them. We don’t believe in constitutions and by¬ 
laws for Farmers' Clubs. They trammel and serve 
no good purpose. Go straight at your work. You 
want a Chairman to talk at, and restrict members to 
teu minutes’ speech, a Secretary to take notes to be 
recorded for reference, and plenty of earnest members. 
At each meeting appoint a committee of three to 
choose subjects for discussion at the next. If you 
incur expenses meet them by voluntary subscrip¬ 
tion. Begin, go ahead, work earnestly, and all 
knowledge will come quick and easy. It seems 
almost superfluous to urge the true farmer to sup¬ 
port that class of journals which so zealously advo¬ 
cate his interests, us does the agricultural press. 
Political parties, religious denominations and com¬ 
mercial interests have and maintain well their special 
organs. So should and so does the farmer. And if 
our earnest efforts to render the Rural New- 
Yorker a pleasing and profitable weekly visitor to 
your tamily circle have been acceptable, let us not 
sever the relation, but mutually strive to extend it 
to your friends and neighbors. If the Rural has 
pleased you in the past, its nearly doubled size, 
its various new departments in addition to the 
old, its multiplied contributors on literary and 
practical topics, its superior paper, printing and 
illustrations, cannot fail to delight you in the future. 
ten dollars each,—lorty-fivc dollars. Have left 
forty bushels of clean peas, for which I could take 
two dollars per bushel. The account foots up thus: 
Sold green ... .. $18 00 
Fed to two hogs. 50 00 
Fed to five pigs. 28 00 
Forty bushels on hand .. 80 00 
mg some manure, and again kept the horse and cul¬ 
tivator agoing pretty well, aud this fall the ground 
is as free from the grass as any can be; no quack 
only what is in the fence corners. 
The same farmer has another field of like size ad¬ 
joining this one, which he treated in the same way, 
and with the same result, viz., kUliugof the so much 
dreaded quack grass. And all he did to effect this 
was to keep the horse and cultivator agoing until 
the grass was killed. Now this is actual results and 
not theory; therefore the conclusion is that good, 
thorough and continued tillage of ,oi.l will snrely 
destroy any kind of vegetation, wild or otherwise, no 
matter how tenacious of life it may be, and only 
such will grow as is permitted by the tiller ol' the 
soil, aud if he permits weeds, thistles, and grass to 
glow, then he must expect to reap the same and 
vice versa. The soil of the fields iu question was a 
gravelly loam. Quilldriver. 
East, Rush, N. Y., 1868. 
Deduct nine bushels seed... 18 00 
$153 00 
But the real profit of a crop of peas is only seen 
in the summing up of several particulars. They 
can be grown on soil too poor or too foul for a 
good return in corn. Any fall or early spring 
plowed land can be used. They need no careful 
hand planting, ashing or plastering, hunting grubs 
and wire worms, cultivating or hoeing, and are 
quickly harvested by a steel tooth or other horse 
rake, any time within a month after they are ripe. 
They leave the ground in the very best condition 
for wheat or rye. The straw, although not avail¬ 
able for fodder, I believe to be worth enough more 
lor manure to compensate for the fodder. The 
grain seems to be worth double that of com for 
feeding, making pork very solid and sweet, and, 
mixed with other grain uml ground, makes the best 
feed lor horses that I ever used. For milch cows 
or sheep I have no experience. 
By soaking the peas twenty-four hours, hogs eat 
them very greedily, and seem to use up the whole 
strength of the grain. In lact. with July, August, 
September and October to feed in, at leisure and 
without waste, instead of October, November and 
December, with loss from cold weather and crowd¬ 
ing or over feeding, there is a gain that can he 
appreciated by those only who have tried it. By 
substituting peas for corn, not only will the manure 
of the barnyard be improved in quality, but it will 
be saved for wheat, and some can be had for orchard, 
aud fruit, and vegetable garden, or a root crop. 
Oaks Corners, N. Y. H. H, Doolittle. 
No fatting animal should 
stand still, and no store stock fall away; all should 
be made comfortable by shelter, and racks provided 
in the yards to save fodder. Horses need grooming 
and exercise to avert Ui effects of the change to idle¬ 
ness and the stall from hard labor and the pasture. 
A light feed of grain for sheep and cattle, beginning 
early in the season, is cheaper than neglect in this 
particular and stuffing them later, to stretch their 
hides aud cover the angles of the frames. Plenty 
of water should be provided, and it should be con¬ 
venient ot access as possible. A dry, warm yard 
is always better than range in a muddy field or bare 
pasture; in the latter stock glean nothing of value 
to eat, and grow restless and lose flesh by roaming. 
Aim to let stock have plenty to eat and a good 
chance to sleep and rest. Let them enjoy the sun¬ 
shine, but ward off the piercing wind. 
Manure .—Tnis is a very important topic for the 
farmer’s consideration in winter time. Many do 
not think so in the prairie States. The time was 
when the Mohawk Valley farmers piled their ma¬ 
nure so the spring floods would sweep it out of the 
way. Perhaps they had heard how Hercules 
cleaned out the Augean, stables. But the time 
came when the rich flats of the Mohawk needed 
manure. If muck, or forest leaves, and mold are at 
hand, it is well to put a layer of either in the yards 
and then cover with straw. The yards in which 
swine are kept ought, likewise, to be supplied with 
straw, muck, or leaves. The poultry should roost 
where their droppings can be saved. Plaster sprin¬ 
kled freely once or twice a week over the manure 
saves some of its constituents, and renders the 
entire mass more valuable. Many farmers could 
feed and fat stock with profit if no gain were made 
hut the manure; bnt with present prospects small 
farmers might find it otherwise profitable to put 
flocks of sheep, twenty-five and fifty in number, 
into good condition for the butcher next March. 
It would be none ihe less profitable if grain were 
purchased. 
The Workshop. —Have you one and well stocked 
with needful tools V A great many pleasant and 
Perhaps uo other branch of agricultural science 
is so deeply interesting to the student, or so in¬ 
structive to the practical farmer, as that of geology. 
It carries us at once hack to the origin and natural 
development of all soils, whether poor, rich or of a 
medium quality; whether very sandy, or slightly so, 
pure pipe clay, or clay with a large admixture of 
silieious sand, calcareous sand, or lime in some 
other form; whether iron abounds, or exists spar¬ 
ingly; whether the parent rocks were primary , 
transition , .secondary, tertiary, or still more recent; 
whether they contained few or many fossils to yield 
fertilizing substances like eoprolites, or fossil dung, 
fossil bones, and other remains of animals, or of 
plants that lived and died before man was ereated. 
Geology is the foundation stone of till sound agri¬ 
cultural knowledge; it is the Creator’s engraving on 
adamant of the doings of Force, whether emanating 
from solar light and heat, or frost, acting on the sur¬ 
face of our planet; or of chemical affinities withiu 
its bosom, from which volcanoes and earthquakes 
are evolved; or giving birth to the infinitely diver¬ 
sified growth of plants and animals iu obedience to 
the Divine Will. Its revelations ore so plainly writ¬ 
ten that all may read them, and understand much 
of their meaning. Writers on tillage and husbandry 
who have neglected the study of geology are apt to 
believe that all soils abound in the elements of 
crops, either in a latent or active state; that if prop¬ 
erly managed, they will yield u ten thousand har¬ 
vests” from their own natural resources. 
So far is this inference from being true, that the 
Cotton States have millions of acres that never con¬ 
tained plant food enough at one time, in an available 
condition, to form one good crop of corn, cotton or 
wheat. These naturally barren soils lie south of the 
drift formation of the Northern States. One sees 
nothing of the water-worn pebbles ol' granite and 
other rocks, nor of the eluvs, peculiar to these 
Northern glacier developments. At the icy North, 
the foundation rocks are generally well covered with 
the commingled debris of many, and widely differ¬ 
ent strata; us from Lake Ontario south, to the coal 
bearing rocks of Pennsylvania. The Medina sand¬ 
stone, ground down to fine silieious matter, tempers 
the comminuted limestone shale, slate and other 
clay-yielding strata south of it; so that all soil6 in 
Western New r York possess a very considerable de¬ 
gree of fruitfulness. The mineral constituents of 
grain and grass from all the parent rocks, were 
largely eliminated, and east into a common mass of 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker;—N ot long since you 
printed au article on killiug quack grass, in which 
the writer rather doubted whether it could be done. 
I say it can, and that, too, by the way of tilling the 
soil, aud to prove the same, I will give my observa¬ 
tions as taken from a neighboring farm, which con¬ 
sists of some forty acres. It had some quack grass 
on it twelve or thirteen years ago, and the grass has 
been increasing ever since until iwo years ago, when 
it had about covered the entire farm so that the 
crops were considerably injured -.hereby. The own¬ 
er of it two years ago last spring, planted a field of 
four acres of corn, which looked all summer as if it 
was growing in good meadow, and when the corn 
was taken off in the tall the ground was completely 
covered by a thick mat of pure quack grass. This 
owner sold the farm to the present one the next 
spring, or one year last spring, who plowed up the 
aforementioned field and planted potatoes on it. In 
about a week the field began to look green with 
grass, but the owner hitched up his horse and 
started the cultivator. He cultivated the field over 
some three times before the potatoes were up, and 
kept the cultivator and shovel-plow agoing until 
they were large enough to hill up, when he gave Ihe 
potatoes a good hoeing, after which nothing was 
done to them until digging. At that time there was 
not much of the quack grass to be seen. He got as 
good a yield of potatoes as any of his neighbors. 
Last spring he planted the same field to corn, apply- 
PEAS INSTEAD OF COEN 
But the gypsum sold to farmers usually contains a 
small portion ol' silica and carbonate of lime. Wo 
have no account in the ancient writers of the use 
of gypsum in agriculture. In fact it was nqt dis¬ 
tinguished from carbonate of lioie until the era of 
chemistry. The first who tried it with success was 
Meyer, a German clergyman of the eighteenth 
century. It was called plaster of Paris, because 
found abundantly near that city. Its mode of ac¬ 
tion has been explained iu a great variety of ways, 
