m 
MOORE’S RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
toothless ewes and ten wether lambs which 
never thoroughly recovered from the. effects 
of castration. If a flock of sheep of this 
extent can bo so successfully carried through 
a severe and protracted storm, such as Kan¬ 
sas has not witnessed for many years, with 
so low a mortality, what success and profits 
may not be anticipated with further im¬ 
proved breeds and careful management ? I 
attribute my success greatly to the provid¬ 
ing of commodious, well sheltered stone cor- 
rails, whose shedding alone can contain up¬ 
wards of 8,000 sheep ; to a systematic ar 
rangement for feeding ; but principally to 
the natural advantages of the country. 
There have been a groat man}’- failures in 
wool growing, throughout the Suite ; but 
when we take into consideration the faet 
that ninety per cent, of the flocks in this 
country are owned by men having no prac¬ 
tical experience of the industry whatever, 
who imagine that any kind of ram is good 
enough to breed from, need w<> wonder at 
the consequent results ? The failures arise 
mainly from the injudicious selection of 
rams, and from the want of providing proper 
Jndu'itrhil 
MISTAKEN IDEAS. 
The following extract from a very clever 
and good man’s tribute to one of the best of 
all departed and ever-to-be beloved patriots, 
is taken hold of just to show how in stating 
facta and doing justice, mistaken ideas are 
held by intelligent writers: — “Not a ten¬ 
antry paying all the profits that severo labor 
can wring from the soil t.o great land own¬ 
ers, but ourselves the lords of the soil devot¬ 
ing the profits of our lands to their improve¬ 
ment and to the. education of ourselves and 
our children.” Now, there never was nor 
never can be anything which conveys a more 
mistaken idea than this ; for I was a farmer’s 
son, my father the same, and I can remem¬ 
ber 17 uncles and great uncles, two grand¬ 
fathers, one great uncle and two great¬ 
grandfathers, all farmers renting farms aver¬ 
aging from 200 to MX) acres, or, say 300 acres, 
each ; imd though when a boy T have heard 
shelter. If the former were attended to, a them all talk about their rents, taxes, tithes, 
breed of sheep would be produced that parish rates, &c., there never was any ill- 
would always be in demand at the meat 
market, instead of their present miserable 
substitutes ; and if the latter were earned 
out adequately and consistently, they would 
have, in addition to saving their flocks from 
the severity of winter storms, a finer quality 
of wool, as shelter performs to sheep the 
same office as a blanket to a horse—softens 
and refines their fleece. 
I shall be very happy at any time to ex¬ 
change ideas through your columns with any 
of your readers that take an interest in this 
industry of the country. George Uroot. 
Victoria, Ellis Co., Kansas. 
chiclet 
POTATOES IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN. 
Ol'R potato was extra good here the 
Jbp* .^oiaiOn, considering that the “bugs” 
were as thick as usual; but the Paris green 
did the business for the bugs, and we have 
plenty of potatoes and good ones. A word 
about varieties. The Early Rose takes the 
lead os an early potato on account of Its 
early maturity. It is out. of the way of the 
bugs sooner than the later varieties ; it is 
very productive, makes a good baking po¬ 
tato for winter, and is generally a favorite. 
The Peerless does well with us, yields heavily, 
and is u good long-keeping potato, its size 
and beauty making it a favorite in market, 
liut of all the potatoes we have ever raised 
here, either new or old, the Peachblow is the 
best, its lateness in ripening being its only 
fault. It is by far the best cooking potato 
we have ; it will keep and be good until new 
potatoes grow again. It is worth ten to 
t wenty five cents per bushel more than any 
other variety in our local markets. Mauy of 
the newer varieties sent out and tested here 
arc poor and worthless, the Late Roses being 
the poorest humbug of the lot. None which 
wo have as j’et tested are equal in value to 
Uni Peachblow, the Peerless and the Early 
Rose. Farmer. 
-♦+.*.-■* 
FIELD NOTES. 
Product, of Five-sixteenth,i of an Acre. — 
Noticing in the Rural. New-Yorker the 
account by Sam B Priest of Mr. Bolton’s 
(?f Pendleton Co., W. Va.,) remarkable yield 
from seven-eighths of an acre, for whim he 
was offered $100. &c., I send you a statement 
from fifty rods, • >r five -sixteenths 
of an acre, in the town of Clayton, Jefferson 
Co., N. Y., set. to cabbages in rows two and 
a half feet eneh way (making about. 1,700 
plants.) S >lrl 1,140 heads at 10c . $114 ; gave 
away about 900; saved 00 for family use ; 
made t K barrels sauerkraut, “just for sick¬ 
ness” Being a novice in cabbage-growing, 
shall hope i,o do better next time.— C. P. 
Rood. 
New Potato Disease in Algeria,—A new 
potato disease has made its appearance in 
Algeria vrittitn the last two years, and has 
totally destroyed two-thirds of the crop, , 
and threatens to do even a larger amount of 
injury. Potatoes attacked by the nest are 
utterly worthless for any purpose whatever. 
No animal will eat them, and on opening the 
t ubers it is found that they are honeycombed 
iu the centre, and filled with a blackish ma 
tonal that gives forth a very offensive odor. 
The grub which works the mischief is un¬ 
known in Europe, and the name has been 
given to it of Bryotrapha dvlunclla . 
Productiveness of Alfalfa.—A farmer in 
Fresno county, California, reports that, from 
a field of five acres he cut 20 tons of alfalfa 
hay, which netted him $10 per ton ; also one 
crop of alfalfa seed, weighing 2,200 pounds, 
which netted him 20 cents per pound. This 
is a clear profit of $128 per acre, thou’ll it is 
not stated that any allowance is made for 
interest on the value of the land or the ex¬ 
haustion produced by the eroppiug. 
feeling towards the landlords, excepting in 
one instance, where a parson was the land¬ 
lord ; for though the others were rented 
from country squires, baronets, lords and 
dukes, yet it was well understood there was 
not one of these farms but would let for one- 
third more money if offered to the highest 
bidder, 
I have visited these relatives at all seasons 
of the year, ami never saw one who severely 
labored ami only three or four who labored 
at all with their hands, and t.ho°f- were the 
ones who prospered the least. But, setting 
aside one’s own kin, l have known hundreds 
Of Other farmers intimately, and was steward 
over a large estate belonging to one of the 
peers, yet 1 never knew an Instance where 
“all the profits that severe labor could wring 
from th« soil ” went to the landlord. T ha ve 
been in this country nearly twenty years, 
and have never seen the profits of the soil go 
to improvement of the land. T have been 
out "West, and not only is there no improve¬ 
ment made but the soil is being reduced to 
the lowest condition by ignorant, men who 
cultivate on shares for the sake of what they 
can wring from the soil. Even the so-called 
best farmers in the East mis state improve¬ 
ment. Now, genuine improvement of the 
soil is bringing soil into condition to grow 
double the crops ; but instead of this being 
the case there are thousands of farms which 
can be bought for less than “ t he improve- 
iner. Yet a writer has entertained the sin¬ 
gular idea that English- farmers pay all the 
profits to the landlords, and that American 
lords of the soil expend them in improving 
, hbo land, when statistics prove the United 
I States soil does not bear half the number of 
bushels it used to do, and instead of being 
improved and t.he*proflts being expended in 
improvements, the soil is bereft of all fer¬ 
tility, and the universal cry is “ Farming 
don’i pay I ” While it is well known that 
durir.g the time American land has gone 
down to grow only half what it used to do, 
English farms, farmed by tenants, have 
doubled their yield. 
The profits are also * '•.presented to be spent, 
in education of children. Now, I ask any 
disinterested and impartial reader how edu¬ 
cation by farmers acts on \he rising genera¬ 
tion i Does it not open tK'ir eyes to the 
slowish condition of farmers nn d disgust, 
them with farming ? and is it r^t, a general 
lament that the sons will not remain with 
their fathers on the farm, but. go off » 0 other 
pursuits ? They show wisdom in doihj 8 o, if 
i a living cannot be made without wooing 
more hours and sweating iu the sunsllfp v 
more than is required iu any other calling ; 
for why should the}’ drudge and uioil when 
they can be gentlemen, with their evenings 
at leisure in other professions or business. 
It is not so in England ; the only cause P-r 
sons leaving the farming business wing the 
difficulty of obtaining farm* to rent; and j 
this is a complete contradiction to the slander 
that all the profits go the landlord, for there 
is never a farm at liberty; but if belonging 
to the genuine aristocracy (not the mush¬ 
room or money mongers who, when they 
chance to buy land, always rent it very 
dear,) t,fiery arc scores of applicants, all anx¬ 
ious to to get it; and in some instances 
stewards we attempted to be bribed by 
comparative strangers; but generally the 
nearest relative to the deceased tenant gets | 
it—that /s, the nearest one who applies and 
is eligible. When a father of a family diet 
there 8 no change takes place, excepting 
such in the heirs think proper to make then- 
selves; aud it is notorious that under tie 
teiip.it system in England the changes are 
not nearly as frequent as iu this count ry of 
“ lt^ds of the soil.” 
This competition for farms proves two 
thfrigsFirst, that sous would not have 
firming for other occupations if farms eould 
iv had, and this proves that it must be the 
rearing drudgery of farming and the little 
.vcreation in America that drives spirited 
young men to leave it. Every now and then 
we read of men who have follower! their last 
FEB. 20 
as the other men. She says the farmers’ 
wives have no men to board, so that I don’t 
see how the farmers in America are better 
situated than those who rent their farms in 
England. I believe girls who go out to help 
here are paid much better and are treat¬ 
ed better than servant girls are in the old 
country; but farmers’ daughters and sons 
seem to have a much worse time. 
Annie Laurie. 
SHte ^u’int-§e L i;d. 
meats cost” that is, for less than the cost J son to the grave, and there is not one to sue- 
lP. ..1 V _ 1_II A *_ _ . 
of the erection of fences and farm buildings, 
English lords of the soil purchase land 
which does not, pay them two per cent., and 
rent their old entailed estates at sums paid 
half-yearly, which would purchase land in 
the United Btatea ; but t he system of crop¬ 
ping, the custom of the country, in ideas it 
imperative for the tenant to follow and the 
numbers of sheep and cuttle necessary to be 
kept to eat the. green and other crops, bring 
and keep the land in such a rich stalk of fer- 
tllity, that it requires no wringing by severe 
I labor, and, moreover, all the best farmers go 
beyond the conditions custom den rinds aud 
feed great quantities of extra forcing food, 
which feeds the land to fatness while laying 
flr.h and fat outlie bodies of the live stock. 
Thus it I# altogether a mistaken idea that the 
English tenant is hard, done by; for, ou the 
contrary, the tenant farmers cl England are 
the most independent of any class whatever; 
and let any American see them at home, at 
the weekly markets or out with the fox 
hounds, and he will at once say it is a most 
extraordinary case of lack of information 
for any one t o represent, the fanners of tin- 
two countries in such a light as nbuvo stated; 
for it. is very nearly exac tly T.lie reverse. In 
England nobody ever thinks of working the 
farm laborer more than the mechanics and 
town laborers are worked, the hours being 
exactly the same. I must know, for I paid 
80 farm laborers, 15 carpenters und about 8 
masons on one estate, and know the hours 
everywhere else; and I never heal’d a word 
as to the necessity of the farmer saying, 
“ Come along boys,” or doing aught beyond 
what the merchants and professional men 
are required to do, viz: — attend to their 
business, which, can bo best done by super¬ 
intending and directing und using good 
judgment iu employing trustworthy men. 
But hero in America the lords of the soil are 
always spoken of and thought of ns men 
who must earn their bread by the sweat of 
their brows; who must dig into the work 
themselves from morn till night; and, nob 
content with the English hours, they must 
be dragging their men along from an hour 
before tbe mechanics turn out. who have 
double the pay, till two hours later iu sum- 
oecd on the farm; for in yout/i the early 
morning air and the lute chill of t he evening 
in autumn are injurious to health; yet farm¬ 
ers alone of all creation, and American 
farmers alone among the farmers in the 
world, keep their sons at work after those 
who do lighter work und receive double the 
pay. Of course the farm laborers, or the 
majority of them, are the lowest in the scale 
of intelligence, or they would escape to a 
higher calling; and '-very good-mannered, 
pleasing-spoken laborer looks out to get a 
place to work ft garden, milk a cow and 
groom a horse fri’ a doctor, lawyer or par¬ 
son ; or he will go with a horse and wagon 
and deliver guilds for a store, or work on a 
railroad or doanythiug, rather than work on 
a farm whe/e the pay is less and the hours 
more than anywhere else. Sons of farmers 
will not, when educated, remain on a farm. 
A Working Farmer. 
-- 
FROM ANNIE LAURIE. 
My father is a farmer, and 1 assist my 
mother in the house work, which, as we are 
ft large family, is a good deal; and then there 
is the dairy, which mother sees to morning 
and evening. At this season of the year we 
have nice evenings, and pa reads to the boys, 
I listen while sowing. Wo take papers 
enough to have reading every night, which 
keeps the boys from going around for com¬ 
pany, some of which might not bo good for 
them ; and for a long time we shall enjoy 
our home ; but in the summer the boys do 
not get in till late, and, our supper being late, 
we have no evenings for recreation, which 
makes me wish my father was anything be¬ 
sides a fanner ; for we have neighbors who 
are tradesmen or meelinuics, and they get 
homo at six o’clock, thus having time for 
enjoying some leisure the same as we do in 
winter. My parents came from England be¬ 
fore I was born, and ina says the laborers 
go home at six o’clock in summer, excepting 
in harvest, and then, too, unless they are | 
hauling home grain ; and she says the teams j 
come to the stable by four o’clock, so that 
the teamster and the plow boys clean and 
feed the horses and leave at the same time 
PIG-PEN PAPERS. 
Jersey Bed Pigs.—A Connecticut corres¬ 
pondent of the Rural New-Yorker asks 
“Can you inform me who has any Jersey 
Red Figs ? I would like to get a young sow 
i (hat will farrow in March. I think the 
cross with the Berkshire makes the finest 
pigs of any I ever saw, and I nave had most 
all the crosses. I had seven wintered pigs, 
that I killgd in December that weighed 8,300 
pounds—the largest weighing 505 pounds; 
and thoy were the handsomest pigs I ever 
saw. Can you also iniorm me wnerw » 
Obtain a Jefferson Co, sow with pigs, to 
farrow about the same time as the ubove ¥’ 
Wo answer, ncto both questions. 
Blind St adders in Pigs.—Prof. Law gives 
the following :—When the hog is attacked, 
dash bucketfuls of cold water over the body, 
throw * purgative injection into tlie rectum, 
composed, of six ounces of sulphate of soda, 
and one or two teaspoonfuls of spirits of tur¬ 
pentine in ten ounces of water. Batons sat¬ 
urated with turpentine may bo inserted 
inder the skin behind the ears, or the back 
of the neck may be blistered by rubbing in 
the following mixture : Spirits of turpentine 
aud liquid ammonia one ounce each, with 
powdered cantharldes, two drachms. 
Feeding Hogs Clover and Com.—A Cler¬ 
mont Co., O., farmer say<i 4 • My experience 
is that a hog that has been previously highly 
fed on corn does not do well on clover. And 
while the hog is on olovor ho should have no 
corn at all, and when com is afterward given 
for the purpose of fattening, ho should have 
no clover. I claim that a hog, after being 
fattened in the fall, is larger if he had in the 
summer good clover aud uo corn, than if he 
had had a little corn mixed with it. Thus 
fed a hog seems to be healthier aud to fatten 
much faster.” 
A New Ploy Disease .—A Grenville, Ohio, 
correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette- 
says The pigs in our settlement are having 
u strange disease, commencing in the head 
and nose. Symptoms: First, the no 9 e 
swells, the swelling lasting a few days. 
Then the nose and head get sore. The 
sores appear to be of an eating nature. They 
get larger, and spread over the pig till dead. 
We have lost over one hundred, aud saved 
perhaps six or eight out of ull that took the 
disease. But even the saved ones are of but 
little account. 
Costive Notes.—A correspondent of the Cin¬ 
cinnati Gazette says :—A brood sow, when 
carrying her young, is very apt to be costive, 
and especially a few days before she farrows 
and a few days after she has furrowed. This 
brings on milk fever, and sometimes causes 
a sow to eat her young. To prevent this, 
and cause a natural flow of milk, ibe best 
thing 1 ever tried is to give a tablespoouful 
of Epsom salts in some slops once a day, for 
tln-ee days in succession, the last days before 
she farrows. 
Retribution for Dealers in “ Chester 
White ” Pigs. -This is what a writer in the 
Livestock Journal says about, ii :—“ When 
the day of final reckoning shall come, and 
all the deeds of men be brought to light and 
balanced in the scales of unerring justice, 
some dealers will find a heavy load against 
them in the transactions in which so-called 
Chester-White (figs were sold to theii credu¬ 
lous fellownu-n.” 
Boiling Potatoes for Pigs.—In boiling 
potatoes for pigs, says the Gardener’s Chron¬ 
icle, they should be strained, as the water 
from them is injurious to a less or greater 
degree, as it contains the poisonous alkaloid 
called solanine, which, it should be noted, is 
more abundant when the tubers begin to 
bud out. 
Trade-Marks on Pigs, especially where it 
involves the cutting of the pigs with a knife 
to the depth of a quarter of an Inch, is not 
tolerated by English magistrates, who im¬ 
pose an exemplary fine upon such offenders. 
Quality in Pork.— Grain is what is wanted 
to make good, sweet pork—pork that is solid 
and will fry well. Rank pork is unendurable. 
Give clean quarters and feed grain. 
