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^culture^ 
^URAL 
EXCELSIOR 
■'ll I*nrU Row, New Yorlc 
H2 Buffalo Kt., ItochcHter. 
) $3.00 PER YEAR 
7 j Single No., Eight C< 
WHOLE NO, 983 
FOR THE WEEK ENOING SATURDAY, JAN. 30, 18G9 
able manure was a compost, which con¬ 
tributed every element of fertility. I Ie made 
it of leached ashes, the refuse of paper mills, 
dead animals wlnm he could get them, and 
with leaves. Black muck is the basis of all 
his composts, lie collects bones and puts, 
them into casks with unleached ashes, sprink¬ 
ling it, occasionally with water; the bones de¬ 
compose rapidly, and produce a line effect on 
grass lands. 
The speakers all concurred in the undesir¬ 
able ness of cutting grass before the dew was 
off; most, of them approved of raking it and 
putting it in cock in the afternoon,opening the 
cock next, day for an hour or two, and then 
drawing it in; some, however, favored the 
idea of drawing if in the day that it wais 
moved from the wind-row■. Col, .M kad slated 
that if hay was put. into the mow too green 
it would show h, condensation of moisture on 
the top ; where this moisture did not appear 
it was n sure sign Ilia! there was no danger, 
lie also stated that in the early part of the 
winter lie fed his working oxen tin lute c.ut 
hay. About the first of March he weighed 
them, and began to feed them on early cut 
hay; about the middle of April lie weighed 
them again, and found that they had gained 
250 lbs; ho has often tried this experiment, 
and knows that the animals gain much faster 
on early than on late cut luxy. 
Several gentlemen had used hay caps, gen¬ 
erally about four lee.t square; but one gentle- 
had used them six feet square, which 
Entjcubo, Jiccordintf to Act of Conjcresa, in the year I960, by p.p. 
T. Moore, in th« Clcrit’s Offl.'u of the District Court of the 
Uni tod States for tho Southern District of New York. 
“PROCRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
AN OHIG1 NAD WEEKLY 
RURAL. LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
D. ». T. MOORE, 
Cmuluotmg Editor tmd Proprietor. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, G. F. WILCOX, A. A. HOPKINS, 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D„ 
Editor ok tmk Dkpautmkxt op SirtKt* Husbandry. 
X. A, WILLARD, A. M., 
Editor oktiik Dkpa»»th<bt op Dairy Husbandry. 
DANIEL LEE M. D„ 
Of Texnekokk, Kii iicrnrr CmtRicarn.fman Editor. 
(Special Contributors t 
T. C. DETERS, 
[)KS, CHAU. V. RILEY, 
HE, E. W. STEWART, 
OTT, JAMES VTCK, 
1COM, M. D., -I. WILKINSON, 
N COULD, MRS. K. K. BLLET, 
t> TIIEN," MARY A. E. WAGER 
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Chnraotl according to position. No advortlsomcnt In¬ 
man 
lie thought, a much better size. They had 
eyelet holes worked In the corner, and stout, 
wires, about eight, inches long, were hooked 
into them and then fastened. These cups arc 
much better when soaked in linseed oil and 
then dried. Every gentleman who had used 
them was well pleased with their use. There 
were, however, so inn drawbacks; there was 
a good deal of trouble in drying t hem so that 
they would not mildew; they were very apt 
to get lost. 
They were very handy for many things; 
they would be taken to tlirow r over barrels 
of apples and potatoes In cold nights, and 
would thus get, torn ; very often there was 
no time to get them in before the shower 
In consequence of these difficulties many 
gentlemen who procured them, and liked 
them, and found that they gave a very effi¬ 
cient protection to the cocks, had not renewed 
their supply.—[To be continued. 
altitude of ten to fifteen thousand feet, and 
descending to lower ranges in winter. It is 
sure-footed and fearless, very shy, and there¬ 
fore. very difficult to secure. It may ulti¬ 
mately prove to he of as much utility as any 
Asiatic goats which could be acclimatized in 
this country, though away from mountain 
regions it might be of no value whatever. 
long and coarse, the other a short, fine cov¬ 
ering, pronounced as delicate in fiber and 
texture as that of the famous goat ol Cash¬ 
mere. Its horns are much like those ot the 
chamois, being jet, black, polished, slender 
and conical. This animal is found on all 
the more elevated portions of the Northern 
Rocky Mountains, reaching in summer an 
The Rocky Mountain Goat, — Aploc.crm 
montnnus , — is in reality not a goat, hut one 
of two species of gon.t.-ant.clope existing in 
North America, and allied to the gazelle and 
Chamois. It is larger than the domestic 
sheep, with longer legs, and erect head and 
neck. Its coat, which is very thick, is com¬ 
posed of two classes of hair, one extremely 
culture 
FARM DISCUSSIONS, 
evaporation whatever could take place ex¬ 
cept, that which passed through the leaves. 
When exposed to the sunshine, the plants 
would exhale their own weight of water in 
a few hours; but when gypsum was held in 
solution by Hit! water the exhalation was less 
than half what if. was before. Some sub¬ 
stances, such as dilute acids, greatly increased 
the exhalation. The effect of plaster was in 
effect to double the supply of water in the 
soil. 
Wednesday morning the discussion was on 
Tin* iHannflrftitient of Mowing Lands nud f!m- 
ti UK and Curing Hay. 
Mr. Gold observed t hat ho hoped that the 
meaning of tho programme would be fully 
understood. By “ meadows” 1m meant all 
lands that, were mowed, some persons did 
not call upland grass lands meadows, but 
everything that was mowed was Included 
under the term meadows in the programme ; 
their “management” included everything 
which would make them better, such as ma¬ 
nuring, draining, irrigation, etc. “ Cutting ” 
included everything relative to its severance 
from tiie soil, the proper time to cut, as well 
as the mechanical appliances used for the 
purpose. “ Curing” meant the railing, cock¬ 
ing, tedding, loading and moving. 
Mr. Hyde of the Massachusetts Board of 
Agriculture, opened the discussion. He 
spoke warmly of t he necessity of sowing a 
variety of seeds, and asserted that, a variety 
did not exhaust the soil more than a single 
species. He has found the meadow fescue 
a very valuable variety, and it should be used 
far more extensively than it is. We lose 
much of the nutritive value of our grasses 
by cutting them too late. Nearly all the 
speakers agreed fully with Mr. IIydk in this 
remark. When cut early, tho milk and flesh 
of animals is kept up much better, and their 
health is more vigorous, as attested by the 
expression of eye and the coat. Top-dress¬ 
ing should lie done in the fall after the second 
cut tin"'. Grass lands should he top-dressed 
in the spring, hut other seeds grow best when 
sowed in the fall. 
Tire practice of pasturing late in the fall 
was severely condemned by every speaker. 
When land is seeded after plowing, all agreed 
that the ground should be harrowed very 
fine and smooth, and that the seeds should 
not bo covered more than a quarter of an 
inch dee]); all agreed that tho seed should 
not ho dragged in with an iron-toothed har¬ 
row, hut some were in favor of a bush har¬ 
row and some of doing it, with a wooden 
roller. 
Every one recommended sowing seed on 
a liberaFscale. Prof. >rewek said lie was 
raised on a farm where they grew clover seed 
for sale, and he had always observed that 
the poorest farms were those on which the 
least seed was sown, and that such farmers 
groaning about hard times; 
he professed himself unable to do so. He 
spoke at length on the Texas cattle disease, 
which he said was the same as what was 
known as darn or red water in England, and 
also on plouro-pneumonia, which he said 
might easily be restrained by inoculation. 
At the conclusion of the lecture a resolu¬ 
tion requesting Congress to investigate the 
causes of the cattle disease in Texas, was 
adopted with great unanimity and en¬ 
thusiasm. 
The discussion in the evening session was 
devoted to 
Seitiliiu! Lauds to Grass. 
The speakers were Messrs. Collins, Wil¬ 
lard, Alger, Andrews, Noble and Prof. 
Brewer. The prevailing opinions amongst 
the speakers may be thus summarised. There 
is not a sufficient, variety of seeds sown in 
Connecticut; it is rarely that more than one. 
or two kinds are sown. 
Mr. Collins sowed orchard grass, tall 
meadow oat, grass, rye grass, timothy and 
red top. When he sows timothy alone, he 
sows half a bushel of seed and twelve 
Dounds of red clover. When he makes a 
WESTERN FARMERS’ MISTAKES, 
were always 
men who sowed seed liberally did not find 
times so hard nor grumble about their taxes. 
The Secretary, Mr. T. S. Gold, said that 
one of bis neighbors, a very penurious man, 
always had light crops of rye. lit! was 
asked how much seed he sowed. He replied 
“ l always sow three pecks; you can’t sow 
too much!” He thought many farmers in 
Connecticut, were laboring under a similar 
delusion relative to grass seeds. 
The question was asked by one of the 
gentlemen present whether plaster was ever 
beneficial withiu five mites of salt water. 
Several gentlemen said that they hud found 
excellent results from plaster contiguous to 
the sea coast, but that it was very capri¬ 
cious, and no rule could bn laid down for its 
application. Somet imes one lot, on the farm 
was great ly benefited, while other lots which 
did not appreciably differ from it in the tex¬ 
ture of the soil, received no benefit what¬ 
ever. Mr. Noble thought plaster was gene- 
wheat growing. All Minnesota, last year, 
might have been likened unto one grand, il¬ 
limitable wlieat-fiold —a waving ocean of the 
staple product. What was the result,? Al¬ 
most the bankruptcy of our young Common¬ 
wealth. 1 t hin k the experience, however, 
will prove quite as salutary upon farming in 
Minnesota hereafter as anything I might say 
on paper. A “ variety of crops ” is now the 
topic, and, upon every account, 1 am glad t«> 
see it. A very large proportion of the ground 
that last year was devoted to wheat, will, the 
coming season, produce barley, corn, oats, 
rve and beaus. ’Tie well.” 
