in the spring, to he gathered and placed under coyer 
for summer use. We tried this mode of furnishing 
fuel dnring several winters, and found it a great 
saving of time and also of muscular effort. 01 
course it is not adapted to all circumstances, but, 
where practicable, will be found to work well and 
pay better. 
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. HENRY S. RANDALL. LL. D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
Db. DANIEL LEE, Southern Corresponding Editor. 
HIRAM BUMPHREY and REUBEN D. JONES, 
Assistant and Commercial Editors. 
This Club had a pleasant time the other day on 
the presentation of a splendid gavel to its worthy 
President, and in recounting its virtues, past and 
present. On looking into each other’s faces, and 
recalling past trials and successes, they were com¬ 
pelled to mutual admiration. Exactly what the 
state of American agriculture would have beeD, had 
not some benevolent spirit pnt it into the hearts of 
its early members to found this club, they did not 
seek to penetrate, but it was evident they regarded 
it as a picture too gloomy to contemplate. The 
farmers of the whole country looked up to it as the 
fountain head of agricultural wisdom and experi¬ 
ence. It had a small beginning and struggled on 
Terms In Advance — Tbkbe Dollars a Year:— Five 
copies for ill; Seven, and one free to Club Agent, for iiO; 
Ten, and one free, for $35 — only $2.50 per copy. Ab we pre* 
pay American postage. $2.70 is the lowest Club rate to Canada 
and $3.50 to Europe. The best way to remit, is by Dralt or 
Post-Offlcc Money Order —and all Drafts and Orders made 
payable to the Publisher may be mailed at his bisk. 
Jj?- All Business Letters, Contributions, Ac., should be 
addressed to Rochester until otherwise announced. 
YOU. XIX. 
50.1 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1868. 
1WH0LE NO. 988. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y„ AND NEW YORK CITY. 
a IdS B uffa lo St., So cheater. 
OFF ICto, j 41 Park Sow, New York. 
TCDMG j $3.00 PES YEAS. 
TtHMo, j Single Copy, Six Cents. 
___ ___ . . .. n T 11 VI n YTT«mi m 9 9 
/I aak y nr\ rl yt -nrKon +T*i Ct cnritP loQTTOC 
THE UPPER MISSOURI. 
GROOVE FARMEBS. 
There are fast and slow men in all trades and pro¬ 
fessions, and among farmers the classes are quite 
distinct. Among them may be found many whose 
constant cry is “progress,” which, with them, sim¬ 
ply means change. If such men hear of a very fine 
operation in cranberry raising, in they go for crau- 
berry swamps, and ridicule or pity all who are 
not as exciled as themselves, denominating them 
“groove farmers.” or perhaps “ old fogieB.” If all 
change were progress, and every novelty an improve¬ 
ment, these boisterous fellows would have some 
claim to consideration and respectful deference. It 
is owing to the mistaken notion that change is 
necessarily progress that so many rush iuto new 
fields of production, never pausing to consider 
whether prudence doeB not counsel a longer con¬ 
tinuance in the groove which has been found pleasant 
in itself aud remunerative in its results. 
The “groove” farmers must be content to rest 
under a free application of sarcasm from the “pro¬ 
gressionists ; ” but, even these, when the excitement 
subsides, as it is almost certain to do when carried 
to a high pitch, will be thankful that some drag or 
check was interposed to regulate an onward velocity 
likely to ultimate in a disastrous amash-up. Pro¬ 
gress is a good watchword, as well in farming as in 
morals and religion, hut it is not always safe to 
assume that, by jumping from an old track to a new 
one, we are certain to make it. Because one farmer 
made a good thing by going largely into raising a 
particular product, it is not true progress for the 
mass of farmers to leave the groove, in which they 
have glided smoothly, for a road that by over-travel 
is likely to end in mire. 
There is ample opportunity for improvement, 
without making rash changes in products and 
modes of cultivation, and that farmer is likely in 
the end to have made the most real progress who 
so far adheres to a groove as to produce a good vari¬ 
ety of commodities suited to the varied wants of 
those who are engaged in other callings. 
If a new implement is presented, superior to the 
old, true progress would say take it, but do not cast 
the old away till the superiority of its competitor 
is fully tested. The same caution should be exer¬ 
cised in reference to stock and farm products, and 
when it is, the farmer may rest assured that though 
working in what is called a groove, he is making the 
only safe progress of which his calling is susceptible. 
PROVIDING FUEL. 
Those who live on farms embracing a good 6ec. 
tion of timbered land, and use wood instead of coal 
for fuel, shwuld improve the season of frost and 
snow for filling their wood-sheds with fuel for a 
year’s use. No portion of a farmer’s buildings pnys 
better or is more convenient than one for storing 
wood, lt'need not be built specially for the pur¬ 
pose, but with a little extra expense can be made 
capable of storing many things which are too often 
left in the field or elsewhere, and, when wanted, 
difficult to find. One end of the structure should 
be appropriated to wood, where it can be piled up 
in the winter and ready for use as the season ad¬ 
vances. It is a good plan to commence filling early 
in the winter, letting green wood occupy the place 
of the dry,'adding daily or weekly of green, as the 
dry is used up. When the wood lot is not too re¬ 
mote from the dwelling, it will be found a cheap, 
easy and expeditions way to chop down the trees, 
clear them of limbs and draw or snake them bodily 
alongside of the wood-house, and there chop and 
split them lor use. When the ground is frozen aud 
well oiled with snow, a yoke of oxen—two are bet¬ 
ter where the distance is considerable, will draw a 
tree making a cord of wood, more or less, with the 
greatest ease, especially after a path for the log or 
tree has been once broken and rendered solid by a 
night’s frost. It is economies], when nothing else 
is pressing to be done, to draw three or four trees 
to the wood-h.on8e, leaving them somewhat apart 
from each other, turn out the team If the work is 
to be done by the team3ter, and then chop, split 
and pile away in the shed what is on hand. This 
gives room for another installment, and so on till 
the wood-house is sufficiently stocked for the year. 
In thisjwav the wood is handled but once, and the 
for many years with only a haudful of persevering 
members, who, by a sort of intellectual breeding in- 
and-in, had destroyed the stamina of its original 
stock of ideas. But Solon Robinson, who proba¬ 
bly believed in crossing the breeds of animals, con¬ 
ceived the plan of crossing the ideas of this club of 
city gardeners with the more hardy stock of outside 
barbarians, and to this end invited, throtigh the 
columns of the Tribune, an interchange of opinions 
by way of letters which should be read in the einb. 
This, it was agreed, had infused new life and opened 
up to the club ft new and enlarged career of useful, 
ness. It had gone on increasing and spreading from 
this new infusing of common sense, till now its 
weekly reports were read by 2,000,000 of people, and 
this accomplishment is only the beginning of what 
it shall be. The future beholds it as the central 
sun of the agricultural system of the Western Con¬ 
tinent, and, perhaps, of the world;—but awaking 
from this pleasant revery, the dub turned to the 
discussion of the eurculio and apple tree borer! So 
great is the versatility of the human intellect. 
We have for many years read the discussions of 
this club and received many useful suggestions. It 
is the pioneer club, aud has incited to the formation 
of many others. Its eulogy of Alderman Ely, its 
President, was richly deserved, A more judicious 
chairman never presided over sudi a body. There 
have been many times when he appeared to be not 
only the presiding officer, hut to poseess the largest 
share of its common-sense. His opinions have 
seldom been at fault when compared with the most 
progressive ideas of modern agriculture; while ever 
and anon, many of its members have retrograded 
back to its most primitive era, doubting, disputing, 
ignoring all progress, making up in dogmatic asser¬ 
tions what they lacked in knowledge. Honorable 
mention was made of Prof. Mapes, as one of the 
early and steady supporters of the club. We heart¬ 
ily agree with all that was said in his praise. He 
was its master spirit and controlling genius while 
he lived. If any one doubts this, let him read its 
discussions before and since his death and compare 
them. While he mingled in its counsels, the club 
advocated the most advanced method of feeding 
animals, as well as progressive ideas in all branches 
of agriculture. It was orthodox to cut hay and 
coarse fodder to assist the animal in its mastication, 
and beyond this, it was a great saving and improve¬ 
ment to cook and soften the fiber to render it more 
nearly like green grass. All this had been estab¬ 
lished by the experiments of Prof. Mares and scores 
of other intelligent farmers. But lately a learned 
doctor of the club has discovered that “there is 
neither economy, humanity or morality iu cooking 
food for animals designed, in the constitution of 
things, for chewing the cud.” And of the cow he 
says:—“Grass, fresh or dried, is her natural pabu¬ 
lum.” What evidence that a cow in a state of 
nature (or wild) ever fed upon dry grass! This 
must have been when cows were highly civilized 
and had the wise forecast to lay up their food for 
future use! The wild cattle in our day have no 
such remarkable reasoning powers, and only know 
enough when the grass becomes tough in the North 
to migrate to the South where they find green food. 
It is precisely because dry hay is not the natural 
food of cattle, that we would cook and soften it iu 
imitation of nature. And then many members of 
this illuminated club have swung back still further 
into the past and ask, with a juvenile thirst for 
knowledge, “Who knows that cutting hay or coarse 
fodder is an economy and will pay V” We expect 
they will next ask, “Who knows that blood and 
breed has anything to do with the quality of ani¬ 
mals?" Who knows that a warm stable is more 
economical to winter cattle in than the pure atmos¬ 
phere around a straw stack?” In fact, no one can 
prognosticate what curious problem this club will 
not start. 
But as they ask for information we will gratify 
them by stating that we have fed ten head of cattle 
of about the same weight, five of them upon twenty- 
five pounds of long hay each per day, and five upon 
twenty pounds of cut hay per day, and we found at 
the end of one month that those fed upon cut hay 
had gained upon the others. On reversing this ex¬ 
periment and changing the animals fed upon cut 
and uncut hay, we found again, at the end of two 
months, that those fed upon cut hay had still gained 
upon those on uncut hay. Here was a saving of at 
least twenty per cent, in cutting, and we have found 
cutting aud cooking combined a saving of one-third, 
or sixteen pounds of cut and cooked equal to twen- 
NATIVE PLOWING IN ABYSSINIA. 
Perhaps there is no implement which so exactly 
marks the state of civilization, and the materia) 
power of a nation, as the plow The most barba¬ 
rous, nomadic peoples have no plow; the patient, 
toiling millions of the half-civilized oriental lands 
know it only in its rndest form, while the powerful 
and enlightened European race have made it nearly 
perfect. The best plows ol the present age are 
found in nations which possess the most knowledge, 
and have learned best how to apply it to advance 
their national power and material prosperity. Our 
illustration figures the use of one of the most an- 
ty-fonr pounds of uncut hay. This experiment, and 
others of the same character were so satisfactory 
that we have followed the curing and cooking sys¬ 
tem for the last twelve yeifb, and could not be 
induced to discontinue it by the infallible 
assumptions of this club, but we are greatly in 
favor of Farmers’ Clubs, and should be glad to see 
one or more established in every town, and surely 
would not undervalue the labors of this pioneer. 
It has certainly done much good by collecting and 
disseminating information broadcast over the coun¬ 
try : besides, some of its learned members have laid 
the farmers of the whole country under obligations 
by their patient investigations and experiments in 
the various branches of agriculture and horticul¬ 
ture. And now as this club has commenced a new 
era, and appears ambitions to do great deeds instead 
of using childish words, let us hope, with Mr. Ly¬ 
man, that it, “ with such facilities for spreading 
ideas, will be a metropolitan head-center lor what¬ 
ever is new, whatever is sound, whatever is helpful 
and of good report in the acieuce of tillage and in 
rural economy.” b. w. s. 
-< «'■♦ - 
A CRACK IN THE HOG TROUGH. 
The following from the Prairie Farmer is almost 
equal to Franklin’s story of the whistle: 
A few days ago a friend sent me word that, every 
day he gave twenty palls of buttermilk to a lot of 
“ shoats,” and they scarcely improved at all. Thinks 
I, this is a breed of hogs worth seeing—they must be 
of the sheet-iron kind. So 1 called on him, heard 
him repeat the mournful story, and then visited the 
sty, in order to get a better view of the miraculous 
swme. I went mto the pen, and, on close examina¬ 
tion, found a crack in the trough through which 
most of the contents ran away under the floor. 
Thinks I, here is the type ot the failures of our ag¬ 
ricultural brethren. 
When I sec*a farmer omitting all improvements 
because of a little cost, selling all his farm stock, to 
buy bank or railroad or mortgage stock, robbing 
his land, while, in reality, he is also robbing himself 
and his hehs, thinks I, my friend, you have a crack 
in your hog trough. 
When I see a fanner subscribing for half a dozen 
political and miscellaneous papers, and spending all 
his leisure time iu reading them, while he don’tread 
a single agricultural or horticultural journal, thinks 
I to mysell, poor man, you have got a large and wide 
crack in your hog trough. 
When 1 see a farmer attending all the political 
conventions, and coming down liberally with the 
“dust” on all caucus conventions, and knowing 
every man in town that votes his ticket, and yet, to 
save his neck, couldn’t tell who is President of his 
County Agricultural Society, or where the fair was 
held last year, I “unanimously” come to the con¬ 
clusion that the poor soul has got a crack inliishog 
trough. 
When I see a farmer buying guano, but wasting 
ashes and hen manure, trying all sorts of experi¬ 
ments except intelligent hard work and economy, 
getting the choicest of seeds regardless of cost, aud 
then planting them regardless of cultivation, grow¬ 
ing the variety of fruit called Sour Tart Seedling, 
and sweetening it with sugar, pound for pound, 
keeping the front fields rich while the back lots are 
growing up with thistles, briers and elders, contrib¬ 
uting to the Choctaw Indian fund and never give a 
cent to any agricultural societysueh aman, I will 
give a written guarantee, has got a crack in his hog 
trough, and in his head also. 
When I see a farmer allowing loose boards all over 
his yard, fences down, hinges off the gate, manure 
cient and rudest forms of the plow — the East 
Indian— which, strangely enough, from the very 
earliest ages to the present day, has been used by 
countless millions of people without the slightest 
improvement having been made on its primitive 
form. Two crooked sticks make the plow; one 
forms the handle, and the end, projecting through 
the other, is shod with iron to enter and tear up the 
earth. Truly, with such implements of agricul¬ 
ture the toilers must he many and patient, the cli¬ 
mate genial, the soil fertile, and the laboring classes 
ignorant and poor. 
in the barn-yard, I come to the conclusion that he 
has got a large crack in his hog trough, 
Wheo I see a farmer spending his time traveling 
in a carriage, when he has to sell all his cora to pay 
the hired help, and his hogs are so lean that they ' 
have to lean against the fence to squeal, I rather 
lean to the conclusion that Bomebody that stays at 
home will have a lien on the farm, and that some 
day the bottom will come entirely out of his hog 
trough. 
- - ■■■■ H » » . ► 
FLOOD GATES. 
It is often necessary to have a flood gate; that is, 
a gate that will rise and fall with the motion of the 
water in the stream. For this purpose there are hut 
few styles of gates used, and all are constructed 
upon the same plan. The two shown in the ac¬ 
companying engraving are well adapted to the pur- 
FLOOD GATE MADE OF POLES. 
pose; the one at the top is made from poles of the 
desired length, woven together with strong wire, 
which, in turn, is secured to the overhanging pole. 
As the water rises the poles float upon its surface 
and do not in the least impede its onward progress. 
The one given below is more expensive in its con¬ 
struction; it. consists in inserting through holes 
made in the overhanging axle three or more rods or 
pendants, of sufficient length to reach near the bed 
I^.. - _rc j • y\ m J' gfi - " __ , 
• ~ 
FLOOD GATE MADE OF BOARDS, 
of the stream. To these are firmly nailed hoards, as 
shown. The lower ones are close together, which 
precludes all possibility ot its becoming filled or 
choked up with flood-wood or other rubbish that 
may have gathered in the current. This, like the 
one at the right, adapts itself to the surface of the 
stream. The advantage and superiority of these 
gates over a permanent structure across swift flow¬ 
ing streams, is obvious to oil. 
Ashes.— A writer in the Rural Gentleman says: 
Ashes operate as a manure upon the wheat, even in 
the limited quantity of eight bushels per acre. They 
push the wheat forward several days, and in time to 
escape the hot, sultry days which often prevail about 
the time of the “heading out” of the wheat; and 
they strengthen the stem, giving it substance and 
solidity. 
favoraoie .'Season for fanning—imgalum, Its mces- 
sity, Uoio it is Done. ID Good Effects. 
The First Annual Agricultural, Stock and Mineral 
Fair of Montana has just closed. It was a signal 
success in all particulars, the most sanguine expecta¬ 
tions of its projectors having been realized. The 
receipts exceeded the expenditures sufficiently to 
leave the Executive Committee in unencumbered 
possession of all the halls, stalls, etc., with ample 
funds on hand for a more extensive demonstration 
next year. The oats, barley, wheat and corn ex¬ 
hibited would have been creditable to any Agricul¬ 
tural Hall of the West; hut as regards the last 
named cereal, it is proper to say that its cultivation 
required the choicest condition of soil and the most 
favored locality. Its culture will never be generally 
successful in Montana. The oats, wheat and barley 
were of the best quality — kernels clean and well 
filled. The vegetable display was varied and highly 
encouraging—potatoes weighing five and turnips 
twenty pounds, both solid aud well flavored. The 
parsnips, carrots, melons, squashes, pumpkins, to¬ 
matoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, onions, etc., had 
healthfully matured, and were of the best quality. 
Some blooded cattle aud horses, recently imported 
from the East, were on exhibition. 
This was a most gratifying feature. The moun¬ 
tains, foot-hills and valleys of Montana are clothed, 
nearly “the year round,” with the most nutritious 
grasses of spontaneous growth on the face of the 
earth; she Is destined to be one of the wealthiest 
stock countries of the new Northwest; and it is all 
Important to begin her career in stock breeding with 
animals of unexceptional pedigree. The native 
stock exhibited, though never stalled a day until 
brought within the enclosure, were of good size, 
and “rolling in fat.” Everything considered, such 
as scarcity of cora in all parts of the Territory, and 
the limited number of hogs as yet imported, the 
swine entered were by no means discreditable to 
their owners. Sheep having thus far been brought 
in only for the slaughter house market, none have 
yvit reached ns save the inferior “ rants ” of Lower 
California, and consequently none were put on 
exhibition. But with our broad expanses of grazing 
lands, on which, between the summits and the low 
valleys, wild and domestic herds thrive winter and 
Bummer, and the splendid facilities almost every¬ 
where for running machinery by water, there is no 
reason to doubt that the day is near at hand when 
the production and manufacture of wool will rank 
high among Montana’s industrial interests. The 
vast number of wolves, from the audacious little 
cayote to the huge “ white buffalo wolf,” which 
now infest all parts of the country, deter oar stock 
men from investing extensively in sheep; but 
increased settlement will soon exterminate these 
ravenous marauders, when we may expect each 
down-going Upper Missouri steamer to carry to 
St. Louis and Chicago hundreds and thousands of 
snowy fleeces. 
The exhibition lasted seven days, the fifth attract¬ 
ing the greatest number of visitors, from the fact 
that on it occurred the display of female equestrian¬ 
ism. There were seven competitors—a costly and 
elegant silver pitcher being the first prize, and a 
magnificent side-saddle the second. Contrasting 
the feverish love of excitement peculiar to a gold 
mining population with the more staid and conser¬ 
vative temperament of mechanical and agricultural 
communities, aud then considering the interest 
usually manifested in this feature of a Fair in the 
East, will prepare the reader to believe me, when I 
say that the appearance on our mountain course of 
these fair equestriennes was marked by the wildest 
enthusiasm. The hundreds of admirers of each 
cheered vociferously as, one by one, they rode up 
to the judges’ stand; and when thoir spirited steeds 
leaped forth together to make the circuit of the 
grounds, the thunderous applause of the combined 
multitude — six thousand at least — awoke the 
surrounding hills to such echoes as they had never 
heard from human lungs before. 
The daring skill of a California lady captivated 
the popular eye. Exchanging her own horse for a 
wild and fiery three-year old colt, on which she 
ordered a gentleman’s saddle, she mounted the 
fractious animal, and, flying with the wind, plied 
the whip until approaching exhaustion rendered 
the young horse as docile as a pet of the barnyard. 
But all her skill aud Intrepidity were Insufficient to 
convince the judges, who, considering the distinc¬ 
tion between boldness and grace — the correctness 
of their judgment I neither affirm nor deny—awarded 
both the premiums to other ladies. No sooner were 
their decisions generally known than scores of purses 
bloated with yellow dust were untied; and the sum 
i of five hundred dollars, to undo the supposed wrong, 
, was quickly contributed, The next day the fair 
i- Californian was presented, at the clOoe of an appro- 
t priate speech, with a horse, saddle and bridle which 
j cost twenty-eight ounces of pure gold. This is the 
„• way the Montana boys do business. 
. As regards the exhibition of ores, I consider the 
. Executive Committee acted ridiculously absurd in 
offering premiums thereon. They should have been 
admitted with no other view than of increasing the 
. general attractiveness — merely to gratify the eye 
, of curiosity. For how could a committee of men, 
7 by merely glancing at collections of auriferous and 
, argentiferous quartz, tell anything about the rich¬ 
ness of the deposits from which they were taken, 
l when it is a well attested fact in every quartz mining 
l country under the sun that some of the richest 
specimens of ore are taken from the poorest veins, 
