MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
'JULY 2S 
Jit(Iusti;i;tl Scipicfi. 
FARMERS’ DECLARATION OF INDE¬ 
PENDENCE. 
They have procured charters by which Legislature—enemies to the producer—to the 
they condemn and appropriate our lands J monopolists, friends. 
without adequate compensation therefor, and We, therefore, the producers of this State 
arrogantly claim that by virtue of these j n onr scvcra i counties assembled, on this the 
charters they are absolutely above the con- I anniversary of that day that gave birth to a 
[The farmers of the West have declared 
their independence in the language which 
follows, and held, July 4th, ratification meet¬ 
ings all over the West, We give the text of 
their declaration as a matter of general inter¬ 
est and record.] 
When in the course of human events it 
becomes necessary for a class of people, suf¬ 
fering from long continued systems of oppres¬ 
sion and abuse, to rouse themselves from an 
anathetic indifference to their own interests 
which has become habitual; to assume 
among their fellow citizens that equal sta¬ 
tion and demand from the government they 
support those equal rights to which the laws 
of nature and of nature’s God entitles them; 
a decent respect for the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should deelare the cause 
that impel them to a course so necessary to 
their own protection. 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that ull men are created eq ual; that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain in¬ 
alienable rights; that among these are life, 
liberty and the pursuit, of happiness. That 
to secure those rights governments are insti¬ 
tuted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that 
whenever the powers of a government be¬ 
come destructive of these, either through the 
injustice or inefficiency of its laws, or through 
the corruption of its administrators, it is the 
right of the people to abolish such laws and 
institute such reforms as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their safety and happi¬ 
ness. Prudence indeed will dictate that laws 
long established shall not be changed for 
light and trifling causes and, accordingly, all 
experience hath shown that- mankind are 
more disposed to suffer while evils are suffer¬ 
able, than to right themselves by abolishing 
the laws to which they are accustomed. But 
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces 
a desire to reduce a people under the abso¬ 
lute despotism of combinations, that, under 
the fostering care of government, and v ith 
wealth wrung from the people, have gown 
to such gigantic proportions as to overshadow 
all the land, and wield an almost irresistible 
influence for their own selfish purposes, iu 
all its halls of legislation, it is their right—it 
is their duty, to throw oil such lymnny and 
provide new guards for their future security. 
Such has been the patient sufferance of the 
producing classes of these States and such is 
now the necessity whieh compels thorn to 
declare that they will use every moans save 
a resort, to arms to overthrow tliis despotism 
of monopoly, and to reduce all men claiming 
the protection of American laws to an equal¬ 
ity before those lows, making the owner of a 
railroad as armytable thereto as the “ veriest 
beggar that walks the streets, the sun and 
air his sole inheritance.” 
The his*r>rv of the present railway monop- ' 
oly, Is A history of repeated injuries and 1 
oppression, all having in direct object the 1 
establishment of an absolute tyrrany over 
thr people of these States unequalled in any ' 
monarchy ol' the Old World, and having its ' 
only parallel in the history of the medieval 1 
ages, when the strong hand was t he only law, J 
and the highways of commerce were taxed 1 
by the feudal barons, w ho from their strong- ‘ 
holds, surrounded by their armies of vassals, 1 
could levy such tribute upon the traveler as 1 
their own wills alone should dictate. To 
prove this let facts be submitted to a candid 1 
world: i 
They have influenced our executive officers, 1 
to refuse their assent to laws the most whole- u 
some uud necessary for the public good, and J 
when such laws have been passed they have 1 
utterly refused to obey them. f 
They have procured the passage of other 
laws, for their own benefit alone, by which 0 
they have put untold millions into their own v 
coffers, to the injury of the entire commer- v 
cial and industrial interests of the country. 0 
They have influenced legislation to suit c 
themselves, by bribing venal legislators to n 
betray the true interests of their constilu- tJ 
ents, while others have been kept quiet by g 
the compliment of free passes. u 
They have repeatedly prevented the re- e 
election of representatives, for opposing, with f< 
manly firmness, their invasion of the peo- tl 
pie’s rights. a 
They have by false representations and f] 
subterfuge induced the people to subscribe u 
funds to build roads, whose rates, when ji 
built, are so exorbitant that in many in- a< 
stances transportation by private conveyance tc 
is less burdensome. ox 
trol of legal enactments. 
They have procured a law of Congress by 
' which they have dispossessed hundreds of far- 
1 mern of the homes that by years of toll they 
'* have built up ; have induced others to mort- 
' gage their firms for roads never intended to 
r " be built, and after squandering the money 
thus obtained have left their victims to the 
’ mercy of courts over which they held abso¬ 
lute sway. 
s They have obstructed the administration 
11 of justice by injunctions procured from venal 
s judges, by legal quibbles and appeals from 
° court to court,, with intent to wear out or 
1 ruin the prosecutor, openly avowing their 
' determination to make it so terrible for the 
public to prosecute them that they will not 
dare under luke it. 
They have virtually made judges depend- 
*' ent on their will alone, and have proexired 
° their appointment for the express purpose of 
reversing a decision of the highest court of 
' the nation, by which millions were gained to 
0 them, to the injury of the holders of the 
l * bonds and the breaking down this last safe- 
^ guard of American freemen. 
They have affected to render themselves 
H independent of and superior to the civil 
j power, by ordering large bodies of hirelings 
to enforce their unlawful exactions, and have 
protected them from punishment for an in¬ 
jury they might inflict upon peaceful citizens 
while ejecting them from their conveyances 
j for refusing to pay more than the rate of fare 
prescribed by laws. 
They have arrested and summoned from 
g their homes for f inal, at distant points, other 
‘ citizens for the same offense of refusing to 
I pay more than the legal fare, putting them 
to as great inconvenience and expense as 
possible, and still further evincing their de- 
r termination to make it too terrible for the 
jieople to dare engage in any legal conflict 
with them. 
They have combined together to destroy 
competition and to practice an unjust dis¬ 
crimination, contrary to the expressed pro¬ 
visions of our constitution and the spilit of 
our laws. 
They have virtually cut, off our trade with 
distant parts of the world by their unjust 
discriminations and by their exorbitant rates, 
of freight, forcing upon us the alternative of 
accumulating upon our hands a worthless 
surplus, or of giving tlxrcc-fourths of the 
price our customers pay for our products for 
transportation. 
Under the false and specious pretence of 
developing the country, t hey ha ve obtained 
enormous grants of public lands from Con¬ 
gress, and now retard ratlxor than develop 
its settlement, by the high prices charged for 
such hind. 
They have converted the bonds fraudu¬ 
lently obtained from the government into a 
great corruption fund, with whieh they are 
enabled to bribe and control legislatures and 
subvert every branch of government to their 
own base and sordid purpose. 
They have increased the already intolerable 
burden of taxation, which the people have to 
endure, compared with whieh the tea and 
stamp tax which precipitated the war of the 
revolution seems utterly insignificant, by the 
appropriation of money from the public 
treasury, wlifle they have escaped taxation 
themselves bv evading and violating the 
expressed provisions of their charturs. 
In every stage of these oppressions we have 
petitioned our Legislatures for redress in the 
most humble terms. Our repeated petitions 
have been answered only by silence, or by 
attempts to frame laws that shall seem to 
meet our wants, but that are, iu fact, only a 1 
legal snare for courts to disagree upon and 
for corporations to disobey. 
Nor have we been wanting in attempts to 
obtain redress through Congress. We have { 
warned them from time to time of these , 
various and repeated encroachments upon ( 
our rights; we have reminded them of the i . 
circumstances of our emigration and settle- j 
ment here ; we have appealed to them as c 
the administrators of a free and impartial f 
government, to protect us from the encroach- c 
meats, which, ii continued, would inevitably 1: 
end in the utter Uestruetion of those liberties c 
for whieh our father* gave their lives, and g 
the reinstatement of privileged classes and E 
an aristocracy oft wealth worse than that 
from which the wfr of the revolution freed 
us. They, too, liava been deuf to the voice of 
justice and of duty. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity which compels us tl 
to denounce their criminal indifference to p 
nation of freemen and to a government of 
which, despite (he corruption of its officers, 
we are st ill so justly proud, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the world for the recti¬ 
tude of our intentions, do solemnly declare 
that we will use all lawful and peaceable 
means to free ourselves from the tyranny of 
monopoly, and that we will never cease our 
efforts for reform until every department of 
our government gives token that the reign 
of licentious extravagance is over, and some¬ 
thing of the purity, honesty and frugality 
with which our fathers inaugurated it has 
taken its place. 
That to this end we hereby declare our¬ 
selves absolutely free find independent of all 
past political connections; that we will give 
our suffrage only to such men for office, from 
the lowest officer in the State to the President 
of the United States, as wo have good reason 
to believe will use their best endeavors to the 
promotion of these ends; and for the support 
of this declaration, with a firm reliance on 
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to 
each other our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. 
<$m d|ro|s. 
3 ALFALFA HAY-HOW TO CUEE IT. 
$ " » 
, A wUlrica in a Sacramento, Cal., paper 
says :—As many farmers are cutting alfalfa 
for hay who have hod no practical experience 
iu curing the same, a few words of instruc¬ 
tion may not he out of the way. In he first 
place, to make good hay, the alfaffs should 
be sown so thick on tho ground that, Eg stalks 
will crowd each other, and thus be forced to 
grow somewhat spindling. A singb bunch 
of alfalfa grown from a seed plucol in the 
ground so as to have a plenty of room to 
stool will produce large, coarse Stalks, and if 
allowed to stand and mature Its sued these 
stalks become almost like dry sticks, Iu tliis 
condition the hay becomes comparatively of 
but little value. Therefore the soul should 
he sown so thick as to oi'cate a pi'xtty even 
growth all over the ground and to create a 
pretty strong sod. The stalks wil then he 
thin and slender, and the leaves vill boar a 
good proportion to the stalks tlemselve?. 
Alfalfa should be cut as soon us it has fairly 
commenced to blossom, and should be al¬ 
lowed to remain spread upon the ground as 
left by the mower only long enotgh to wilt 
it well. It should then be raked ixto winrows 
and allowed to remain in this coidition only 
long enough to guard against betting when 
put into the cock. It should then be put into 
tile cock and lined so as to prevent, heating 
and mildewing when in the stack or mow 
and no more. When packed in tho stack or 
mow it should be sprinkled with salt pretty 
freely—sny two or three pounds to a ton. 
Alfalfa bay cured in this way is among tho 
most valuable varieties of hay we have for 
homes, cattle or sheep. Those who have fed 
their working teams upon it have found it to 
b fully as nutritious as the best of oat bay. 
When horses have become accustomed to 
eating it they will prefer it to all other kinds. 
For milch cows good alfalfa hay is next to 
green grass In value, and sheep will eat it 
when tie'}' would leave oat or barley hay. 
Our own experience in feeding stock of all 
kinds has been a considerable, and we do not 
hesitate to pronounce good alfalfa hay more 
hearty and nutritious than the other varieties 
of hay now in this State. While wc make 
this assertion we are fully aware that there 
are those whose experience lias been equally 
as great as our own who differ with us. The 
reason of this difference arises more from the 
manner of miring and handling the hay than 
from any other circumstance. If allowed to 
be dried iu the sun as spread out oxx the 
ground by the reaper, the stalk not only be¬ 
comes dry and blittle and loses much of the 
gluten aud saccharine matter that it natural¬ 
ly contains, but the leaf almost entirely drops 
off, even while handling it sufficient to trans¬ 
fer it into the barn. If then it is handled 
over to bale mid send it to market there is 
nothing but dry sticks left, and it is justly ' 
condemned. The great secret in making ' 
good alfalfa hay is in the time of cutting and 
manner of curing. 
this time. Two theories hare long contended, 
or their adherents have, for the mastery, 
and both have been equally unsuccessful, for 
the reason that both are false. One of these 
theories, and the most rational one is, that 
chess is a native, independent plant. The 
other, which has no foundation in science, or 
nature, or art, is that it is a sort of fungus, 
or emanation from an injured stalk of wheat 
before it heads. 
Now, T have another theory which is, that 
chess is a hybrid ; a cross between wheat, and 
a certain grass, (probably Bromus pubescens 
of Prof. Eaton) which does not affect the 
maturing of the wheat the. present season ; 
but the germ, being impregnated with the 
J pollen from the grass, will, when it grows, 
produce a plant different from either. Tliis 
I think is the time solution of the question. 
There are many arguments in favor of this 
theory which I need not now name, but con¬ 
tinued examination, and investigation of the 
subject strengthen my com ictions. 
Hartford, Ohio. Edmund Bouden. 
-♦-*-*-- 
WHEN TO CUT GRASS. 
An English paper say*:—If for horses at 
work, the grass should be mowed after it has 
passed out of blossom, when the seed is in 
the milk, because at this stage it contains 
tho largest quantity of nutritious substances, 
such as sugar, starch, gum, etc., which are 
of the highest value, contributing much 
towards rendering hay sucll a choice article 
of food. If for cows, it should be cut earlier, 
so as to leave the grass its nearly in the green 
state as possible—soft and succulent—because 
in tliis condition it contains a larger quantity 
of juices which assimilate well in the animal, 
and produce a greater flow of milk, if for 
young stock and sheep, the grass should be 
mowed when in full flower, because after 
flowering, and as the seed forms and ripens, 
it is exposed to loss in its nutritive matter by 
the seeds being shaken out and the brittle 
foliage breaking off during cutting and mak¬ 
ing, and tho grain itself, especially the rye 
grass, becoming almost a woody fiber, losing 
nearly all its sap and sweet uroiua. In short, 
hay made from over-matured gras3 is no bet¬ 
ter than ordinary straw, if indeed so good. 
4 ♦ »- 
FIELD NOTES. 
Potatoes Growing Without Eyes. —In an¬ 
swer to the query whether a potato, or a 
piece of one, without the eye proper, will 
grow, I will say I took two potatoes and 
cut the eyes all off, from one-eighth to one- 
fourth inch deep ; and then cut them in two, 
and planted. The result was, no sprouts. 
They had tried to grow, so that they had 
formed small tubers on the smooth surface 
of the potato.— t. s. b. 
Stluj !)or;;cmait. 
CUEE FOE COLIC IN HOESES AND MULES. 
To cure colic In the ordinary medical way, 
the Stock Journal says, you can prepare a 
good “colic drench” thus:—Take tincture 
of opium, one ounce; sulphuric ether, half an 
ounce ; mix with a pint of tepid water. If 
necessary, repeat in half an hour. A much 
better way to relieve the horse is the appli¬ 
cation of a fomenting bandage to the abdo¬ 
men. In winter wet a woolen blanket in hot 
water, wring it slightly, and apply to the 
abdomen, bring the ends up over tile back 
and fasten. If the weather be very cold, put 
a dry blanket- over this to keep it from cool¬ 
ing too fast. In the summer apply a blanket 
wet in cool water. This fomenting blanket 
will relieve the horse in a few minutes, by 
determining internal heat to the surface. \V r e 
have found in summer almost instant relief 
to the horse from lying down in the water. 
-♦♦♦- 
NOTES FOE HORSEMEN. 
THE ORIGIN OF CHESS. 
I am aware that this subject has been worn 
threadbare, but not exhausted ; and the im¬ 
portance of the subject, to the farmer, is my 
our wrongs, aud hold them as we hold our apology for bringing it to public notice at 
Brown Oil Sure Cure for Scratches, grease, 
wound, cut, collar gall, aud good for man or 
beast. One quart linseed oil; one quart spir¬ 
its turpentine ; two fluid ounces sulphuric 
acid. Put oil aud turpentine together in 
common stone jug ; add the acid slowly, 
(keeping it uncorked) and keep it in motion 
until eooL To cure scratches use no wash 
but the oil, and after two day’s application 
rub the affected part with a cob and apply 
oil every day.—C. H. DkWolk, Crawford 
Co., Iowa. 
Scratches on Horses. —In answer to inqui¬ 
ries of C- W. C., take 1 oz, spirits of niter ; 
1 do. British oil; do. oil spike ; % do. spir¬ 
its turpentine, well shaken together. Apply 
to the frog of the foot twice a day. Hold up 
the foot and let it soak in thoroughly. I 
have tried this many times, aud given it to 
others, and never knew it to fail.—J, H. 
Rookks, Elmira. 
