y si hi; j 
.. 
pfe i 
TWO DOLLARS 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
[ srsSLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WKF.KLY 
agriculturai., litkrary and family journal 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AIT ABLH CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL < 
II. T. BROOKS, . 
T. C. PETERS, 
H. C. WHITE, 
CONTRIBUTORS: 
Prof. C. DEWEY, 
L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
T. E. WETMORE 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique find 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity and 
Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor to make it 
a Reliable Guide on the important Practical Subjects connected 
with the business of those whose interests it advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Mechan¬ 
ical, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with many appro¬ 
priate and beautiful Engravings, than any other paper published 
in this Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Lit¬ 
erary and Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
SUGAR MAKING THII 
The time for making maple sugar is now at 
hand. There are questions of economy, of sci¬ 
entific and unscientific arrangements for the 
manufacture, which, at the present lime, it 
would do well to consider. Most of us, or at 
least those who have reached middle age, re¬ 
member the primitive mode pursued in elabo¬ 
rating the saccharine principle, which was 
something as follows. 
In the midst of a dense forest of maples and 
other trees commingled, with the ground en¬ 
cumbered by underbrush and fallen, half decay¬ 
ed trunks, the trees were tapped, it may be by 
a ghastly wound inflicted with ax—a rude spile 
was inserted, and the drippings were received 
into troughs formed from the half section of a 
moderate sized tree. The encumbered sta e of 
the ground rendering it impossible to penetrate 
the bush with a team, a neck-yoke and a pair 
of buckets were called into requisition for the 
purpose of collecting the sap as it exudes from 
the tree. This was collected and brought once 
or twice a day to a central point, where a huge 
cauldron, and perhaps one or two five-pail kettles 
were swung upon a pole sustained by crotches, 
up against which were rolled on either side a 
green log of wood, and under and around the 
kettles was piled the fuel. As the flames and 
current of heated air and smoke rolled up be¬ 
side the boilers, a furious ebullition was kept up 
within, and, to prevent the sap from wasting 
over the side, a piece of fat pork was occasion¬ 
ally ad led. On the principle of Esty’s venti¬ 
lators, the upward current of smoke and flame 
opening further and further until it reached the 
top of the kettles, formed above them a partial 
vacuum, into which were whirled soot and ashes, 
scorched leaves and cinders, and then very 
gently dropped into the boiling fluid. The 
wood used for fuel was generally green, or at 
least dead or fallen timber, cut and split each 
day as required. It, need not be said that such 
a process was laborious, unscientific, uneconom¬ 
ical—that there was a vast waste of fuel, and 
an inferior production. 
The process of sugar making is very simple, 
and consists merely in evaporating the water 
which holds the sugar in solution, and obtain¬ 
ing the latter in a state of comparative dryness. 
The chief requisites, therefore, consist 1 in using 
fuel economically, in warding off all extraneous 
matter, and in presenting as large an evapora¬ 
ting surface to the air as possible. These re¬ 
quisites are obtainod by using a shallow sheet 
iron pan set in an arch, in keeping the sap free 
from leaves and dirt, and in using dry and well 
prepared wood. A difference of opinion exists 
as to the preference of a bit or gouge in tapping; 
but either will do if care be taken to wound the 
tree as little as possible. Sap troughs should 
never be used ; the labor required to prepare 
them will pay for wooden buckets, which are 
infinitely to be preferred. The latter can pro¬ 
bably bo o! tained by the quantity at twelve 
and a half cents each, and, if properly cared for, 
will last a life time. Tin buckets are a superb 
article, but somewhat expensive. A good tin 
bucket holding ten quarts, shaped like a flaring 
tin pail, and having the wire over which the 
tin is turned at the top bent into the form of a 
loop for suspending the bucket, costs, by the 
hundred, twenty-seven cents. It is a question 
for each man to decide for himself, whether he 
can pay that price for tin buckets, and if he can 
he may be sure that nothing can be better. 
The bush should be cleared of brush and 
logs, so as to be penetrable in all directions with 
tions to this process—that it takes up room and 
is in the way of plowing, and is apt. to get out 
of order, as the stakes soon rot off where they 
are inserted in the ground, and then tip up and 
throw the rider.. The ordinary staking is bet¬ 
ter done by setting them in the center of the 
length, rather than in the corners, and putting 
the riders in a straight line ; it does not. look 
quite as well, but is equally as strong against 
wind and animals, and does not take up any 
room, as they project no further than the cor¬ 
ners of the fence. 
The most perfect and durable method of se¬ 
curing a rail fence, is to get a quantity of No. 
10 or 12 iron wire, heat it red hot, with burning- 
chips, as smiths heat wagon tire—cut it into'the 
proper lengths, and after adjusting the corners 
ot the fence nicely, set the stakes perpendicu- 
larly and pass the wire round them three rails 
from the top, and twist tight with a pair of pin¬ 
cers, and it is of no consequence if they rot off, 
or in fact no use driving them into the earth at 
all. The strength of the wire is equal to 3,000 
lbs. pull, and will outlast the longest life-time. 
It is a much better operation than the cap pi- 
yoke, as they are short-lived and soon split and 
or copperas, (sulphate of iron,} which is a process 
of Kyanizvng that will render any kind of wood 
as durable as red cedar posts, which, the boy 
said, would last a hundred years, for his father 
had tried them many a time. 
Communications 
•Compost, in hill, half shovelful, 48 
“ top hill, “ £6 
Quicklime, in liiil, lialf handfull, 33 8 
“ top hill, “ 30 
Gypsuru, in hill, “ 36 
“ top hill, “ 33 
Ashes, in hill, small handfull, 30 12 
“ top hill, « 38 8 
Eqttnl parts lime, 
gypsum and ashes, in hill. “ 32 4 
“ top hill, “ 35 8 
f Guano, in hill, tablespoonful, 20 
“ top hill, “ 38 8 
f Guano and sup. 
phosphate lime, in hill, do. of each, 51 4 
“ top hill, “ 37 
§ Sup. phos. lime, in hill* tablespoonful, 37 8 
“ .. “ top hill, “ 45 
||Eqtial pkrts poudrette, ‘ 
Sup. phos. & guano, in hill, “ 43 ’ 
“ “ top hill, “ S3 8 
Poudrette, in hill, handful, 41 12 
Night soil composted, in hill, doublo do. 33 4 
Hog manure, “ « 4!) 
Unfermented horse do. “ half shovelful!, 39 12 
“ “ top hill, “ 28 
Hen manure, in hill, handfull, 48 
Carb. ot lime, “ “ 42 
No manure, 32 
lime mature consiaeraoiy earlier than the com¬ 
mon varieties; it not only renders the corn crop 
mote certain in this latitude, hut to those who 
wish to sow their corn ground to winter grain 
in the fall, it, furnishes ample time to do so. It 
is a very common thing for corn to stand in the 
field till the first frosts of autumn, in order to 
have it mature as fully as the weather will al¬ 
low before cutting it, and thereby the corn and 
stalks are both very materially damaged. 
In the spring of 1854 I received from the 
Patent Office two small papers of the “Improv¬ 
ed King Philip or Brown Corn,” and although 
I had done planting, I planted it at a safe dis¬ 
tance from any other corn to prevent its mixing, 
and it ripened early and gave, indications of 
being a productive variety. Last season, from, 
the product of the above, I planted some three 
acres, and had a fair opportunity to test its pro¬ 
ductive qualities, as well as its relative time of 
it ripened two weeks earlier than the 
• Composed of 4 muck, 4 hog manure, 1 lime, 1 ashes. 
f Intermixed With soil, seed injured. 
{Super phosphate on seed. Guano on outer edge of hills. 
. § In contact iyith seed. 
|| Intermixed with soil. 
The above experiment consists of twenty-eight rows, .md 
forty hills in each row. The ground was green sward 
plowed early in the spring, about four inches deep, har¬ 
rowed thoroughly and marked out into rows two ways at 
right angles, three, feet apart each way. Planted 12th 
.May, with a “ White Flint’’ variety of corn, The,cultiva¬ 
tion of the growing crop consisted mostly in the use of the 
cultivator, Which was run through the rows four times al¬ 
ternately in different directions, with one slight hoeing 
with hand hoe. Soil, gravelly loam. 
In addition to this,, quite a number of speci¬ 
mens of marls from different parts of the State 
have been sent here for analysis during the 
year, and most of them have proved very valu¬ 
able fertilizers. There can be no doubt that in¬ 
exhaustible deposits of this character will be 
found, and when brought into actual use will 
prove highly advantageous. When the labora¬ 
tory in the new building is completed, we shall 
be able to meet promptly all calls for analyses. 
ripening 
common eight-rowed yellow corn, and was har¬ 
vested before the first frost, while the other corn 
had been left standing to ripen, and was there¬ 
fore ripened, though greatly damaged by the 
frost. The ear is smaller than the large eight- 
rowed yellow ; the kernel is good size; the 
color a dark yellow. There is a strong tenden¬ 
cy to productiveness shown by the frequency of 
its growing two or more good ears on the same 
COMMENCING ON THE PRAIRIES. 
But few comparatively of the Eastern farm¬ 
ers, or those that are natives of thickly wooded 
regions, have any idea oi the ease with which 
a new prairie farm may be fitted properly for 
the purposes of agriculture. A large propor¬ 
tion of the prairie farms are cultivated without 
a fence to protect the first year’s crops. A per¬ 
son comes along, looks at the country, and falls 
in love with prairie life at first sight. He not 
nnfrequently comes with small means, and with 
his own hands he puts up a shanty that an¬ 
swers to live in for a season, and a prairie stable. 
This done, he is ready to commence plowing. 
The best time for breaking up the sod is be¬ 
tween the months of April and July. This first 
time plowing (termed here breaking) is done 
by from one to ten yoke of cattle to one plow. 
RAIL AND BOARD RENTES. 
It seems rather unseasonable to talk about 
planting and booing, of transplanting and trim¬ 
ming, at this period of the death of all things 
vegetable; so we will take up the stitch drop¬ 
ped last week and preach a little more about, 
fences, which are always iu order, or ought to 
be at auy rate. 
Good and secure fences are better than a hot 
toddy, or all the soporific drugs of Turkey or 
Arabia to sleep upon ; you not only know 
where your cattle are, but where they are not. 
The common rail fence, as the old Indian said 
of white men, is “ quite onsartin,” at least with¬ 
out staking and ridoring, and there are objec- 
