TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
YOL. IX. NO. 52. i 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1858. 
{WHOLE NO. 188. 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AX ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AH ABLE COB/PS OP ASSISTANT EDITOBS. 
Thb Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Valne, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes bis personal atten¬ 
tion to the supervision of its vnrions departments, and earnestly labors 
to render the Rural an eminently Reliable Guide on the Important 
Practical, Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected with the 
business of those whose interests it zealously advocates. It embraces 
more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational. Literary and 
News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful Engravings, 
than any other journal,—rendering it the most complete Agricultu¬ 
ral, Literary and Family Journal in America. 
CJ/”A11 communications, and business letters, should be addressed 
to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms aud other particulars, see last page. 
THE RURAL TO ITS READERS, 
ON THE CLOSE OP ITS NINTH YEAK AND VOLUME. 
Reader, the last nnmber of the Ninth Volume 
o tho R* i \ \ '"k iker is before you, termina¬ 
ting our labors for tho year and closing our en¬ 
gagements with the majority of its subscribers— 
t to many thousands of substantial friends whose 
subscriptions nt v expire. In accordance with a 
custom wherjof ihs memory of newspaper readers 
scarcely nmuf.th to the contrary, it is eminently 
proper, and may feed be considered oar duty 
to review tbs past, and allnde to the present and 
: Cure — n isring sentiments appropriate to the 
subject and occasion. But, however much we 
may «.»tnarr. tv; venerated custom, there are times 
when it msy perhaps be “more honored in the 
breach thaa in the observance”—when, for in¬ 
stance, as in our case, there is neither time nor 
space, and ye trust no vital necessity, for extended 
remarks; and he ace in the belief that our readers 
in the East a:. . West, North and South have al¬ 
ready formed a proper estimate of the Rural, we 
shall dicpe ise with any attempt at special pleading 
or fine writing, even on an occasion when an ex¬ 
pression of the most heartfelt emotions would be 
'• ’inis” to the Ninth Volume is 
therefore Tain .v brief, if not altogether perti- 
noui and appropriate. 
As we have sai i on a similar occasion, during 
v tweR :-m >nt n which the fifty-two numbers 
of t s volume e been prepared and issued, we 
ha\ s j mse: moo uly sought to discharge aright 
our duty t uni dual Readers, Families and Com- 
jjunity. Our con tant and earnest aim has been to 
render t! e pr minently Instructive, Useful and 
Entertain i enhance, so far as in our power, 
the Physical ests, and promote the Home Hap¬ 
piness of all its readers—without misleading the 
judgment, injuring the morals, or vitiating the 
taste of a single individual. How well we have 
succeeded in this honest endeavor, the discrimi¬ 
nating reader can best determine. We trust, how¬ 
ever, that whatever errors have been committed 
will be regarded in their true light—as those of the 
head or judgment rather than of the heart or in¬ 
tention—and that they are not considered of such 
magnitude or importance as to induce any right 
thinking and reasonably charitable individual to 
banish the Rural from his home and family. Be 
that as it may, we submit the results of a year’s 
earnest and untiring labor in the confident belief 
that the decision of a tribunal which we have ever 
found just and discriminating, will be alike charita¬ 
ble and favorable. 
Of the value and importance of the Rural, or 
what it may have accomplished in behalf of the 
cause it advocates, and the country throughout 
which it circulates, it does not become us to speak 
in confident or positive terms. Yet we cannot 
refrain from expressing the opinion that during 
the nine years of its existence, it has consistently 
and earnestly, if not ably aud successfully, labored 
to advance real “Progress and Improvement”— 
not only in its sphere as a Rural Journal, but as a 
promoter of Education, and the Scientific and 
Domestic Arts, as well as in elevating the thoughts 
and sentiments and ennobling the minds of those 
it has had the pleasure and responsibility of ad¬ 
dressing. Of the extent of these labors during 
the year now closing, the reader can best judge by 
an examination of the Contents of this volume,— 
comprising, as the Index given in this number 
shows, several thousand distinct articles, and hun¬ 
dreds of illustrations, on Useful, Important and 
Interesting subjects. In quantity and variety, and 
we think also in quality and value, the articles in 
this volume far surpass those of any of its prede¬ 
cessors, or contemporaries. That it has gladdened 
the homes, and promoted the best interests, of its 
tens of thousands of supporters all over the land,— 
and that it is now recognized and acknowledged 
as the Standard (as well as most popular and 
largest-circulated) Rural, Literary and Family 
Journal of the Age—affords just cause of gratu- 
lation on the part of all interested in the Rural 
and its Objects. May we ever use wisely and well 
the power for good which has been accorded us by 
the generosity and judgment of a large number of 
the American People! 
The Tenth Volume of the Rural New-Yorker 
will, unless our arrangements and intentions are 
defeated, be a decided improvement upon the 
present in both Contents and Appearance. Our 
determination is to keep pace with the spirit and 
progress of the age in all respects, but we leave 
the result to the developments of the early Future 
—only adding that, if improved material, better 
facilities, riper experience, augmented interest in 
the cause, and a resolution stronger than ever 
before, will enable us to do so, the upward and 
onward tendency of onr glorious motto, “ Excel¬ 
sior,” will be more abundantly manifested in all 
departments of the forthcoming than any prece¬ 
ding volume of this Journal. 
THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 
The last ten years have been marked by decided 
improvement in agriculture. Buildings, fences, 
fields, cattle, crops, all contrast favorably with the 
preceding decade. What has wrought this change? 
The Agricultural Press more than any other single 
instrumentality. Here’s to the Agricultural Press, 
and the Agricultural Department of all the presses. 
(Standing.) 
You have heard that small pox is catching— 
contagions, to be more polite. Have you heard 
that grapes are contagious? Oil paint and white¬ 
wash are contagious. Gang plows and gridirons 
are contagious. Black Hawks, Durhams, Devons, 
and Merinos, are contagions—so is the hen fever. 
In these, as in other cases, there must be some 
medium of communication. Contagion implies 
contact. The Agricultural Press is the conductor 
that carries improvement from farm to farm, from 
neighborhood to neighborhood. Agricultural and 
Mechanical Fairs do something, conversation and 
travel do more, but the great, efficient agent in 
summer and winter, fair weather and foul, is the 
Agricultural Press. 
Fruits and flowers, delicious and attractive; bal¬ 
conies rich in architectural proportions; golden 
cereals; lan dscapes where graceful shrubbery hangs 
its branches over carpets of green, shed their ra¬ 
diance, and foreshadow the realities, at every fireside 
where the Press has its messenger. An improve- 
rnent, great or small, heralded in the Journal, is at 
once tested and adopted on the banks of the St 
Johns and in the Valley of the Willamette. 
The man who asserts that he can learn nothing 
from the columns of the press, is supremely wise 
or transcendantly arrogant. Granted that wo who 
write, in knowledge and attainments, are a little 
behind those who do not—bat then we publish the 
best things we know or hear of, and (though im¬ 
mensely modest) we claim that no one can lose by 
leaving off the worst of his doings to adopt the 
best of onr suggestions! Seriously, if there is a 
class of men wiser than all who write and all who 
read, have we not a right to demand in the name 
of piety and patriotism that they should some out 
from under the bushel, and let the light of their 
knowledge and experience shine through the col¬ 
umns of the paper? 
When the great Apostle to the Gentiles said 
“Woe i3 unto me if I preach not the gospel,” he 
asserted a general principle, rather than an indi¬ 
vidual fact. Whoever can deliver a message of 
utility or usefulness is bound to deliver it, no mat¬ 
ter to what part of the wide circle of human 
interests it relates. It is no more than a just ac¬ 
knowledgment to say that the Newspapers of the 
present age combine a great amount of talent, 
knowledge and zeal in every good work—they not 
only reflect the age, but they create it. They 
gather fugitive thoughts, and isolated facts from 
the by places of human experience, and send them 
on errands of mercy to man. They famish mate¬ 
rials to science and history. For the want of ready 
communication between men and a record of 
life’s lessons, humanity stood still through the 
dark ages. It is different now. A conjecture—a 
thought—a fragment of a thought,—born in one 
mind takes forms of beauty and utility in another. 
I should do injustice to my most solemn con¬ 
victions did I not acknowledge in this connection 
that there is a class of papers pestilential and per¬ 
verse-papers essentially devoted to the wildest 
vagaries of disordered imaginations, whose “thril¬ 
ling stories ” and over-wrought descriptions of 
human life intoxicate immature and undisciplined 
minds, creating a morbid taste which sickens at 
nature and reality. It is shocking—it is dreadful 
in the extreme—that men and women should turn 
away from biography and history where life is da- 
guerreotyped most perfectly, to delight in the 
coarsest daubs and the silliest caricatures. If 
mankind would study man let them consult the 
historian, and assist their own observations by 
reference to the “ news of the day.” 
We want Religions, Scientific, and Political 
Journals, aud especially we want Agricultural Jour¬ 
nals. For other subjects we have ministers, teach¬ 
ers, schools and libraries, but Agriculture, crude 
and unformed, almost without science and without 
system, is left pretty much to chance and the pa¬ 
pers. 
If farmers had nothing to do but to follow in 
the footsteps of their illustrious grand-fathers, 
they could do that without “ taking the papers," but 
if a change of circumstances requires a change of 
practice, if new diseases require new remedies, 
and modified relations occasion modified results, 
then men want the latest intelligence and the full¬ 
est. If all who ought to know, will read, and all 
who do know, will write; if we search with dili¬ 
gence for what is hidden, and communicate with 
freedom what is found out, progress will be sure, 
and it will be rapid. In this good work the Agri¬ 
cultural Press is our ally and friend. It speaks a 
word for the housewife at her toil; it suggests the 
adornments that minister to her taste, and the im¬ 
plements and improvements that lighten her labor. 
It points out the way to make the homestead a 
fond remembrance, and the farmer elevated in his 
purposes and useful in his calling. 
There is a mine of exhaustless wealth in “the 
Orchard and the Garden ” which it is busy in de¬ 
veloping. In the matter of fruit there is great 
neglect and great want of information, especially 
as concerns the “Bmall fruits,” which like the 
“small sweet courtesies of life ” are of great mag¬ 
nitude in the aggregate. Through the paper, the 
inventor has access to the public, and the public 
has access to the inventor. Nor, should I fail to 
mention the encouragement given to undeveloped 
genius in the columns devoted to contributors—lie 
who first writes about the best way to preserve cu¬ 
cumbers may live to preserve republics. 
Past all doubt the world is something of a lot¬ 
tery, but the chances to draw a prize in the shape 
of some valuable hint by investing a dollar or two 
in the printers’ office, is, to say the least, as good 
as in any other office.— h. t. b. 
RACKS FOR FEEDING SHEEP. 
In the Rural of the 11th inst., we promised, in 
answer to an inquiry, to give plans for Sheep Hacks, 
which promise we now redeem. The following de¬ 
scription of the Hopper-Rack, is from Randall’s 
Sheep Husbandry : 
grain, and supplying the place of separate troughs 
for provender: 
The dimensions are 30 inches high, 28 inches 
wide, bottom formed by nailing together four 
boards 8 or 9 inches wide in the shape of two 
troughs, resting on a cross piece as seen at B. The 
cant boards A A should be about 2£ feet wide, hung 
in the centre, lengthwise, with hinges to the top of 
the rack and inclined over it at an angle of 45°, 
secured in this position by a movable brace or hasp 
at the end. These boards prevent the chaff and 
hay from falling upon the backs and necks of the 
sheep. When grain is to be used, move the brace, 
and the boards will assume a vertical position! 
shutting out the sheep from the troughs entirely' 
thus dispensing with the necessity of turning them 
into another yard or pen and preventing the tamer 
ones from getting more than their part, while the 
grain is being dealt out. The dirt and sticks may 
be swept out and the feed put in at pleasure.— 
When all is ready bring the cant boards up to their 
proper inclination, and each sheep has an equal 
chance, while the upright slats on the outside, 8 
inches wide, 7 inches between—keep the stronger 
from crowding the others along. Racks of some 
description are generally used this way, though 
few have got all the improvements. 
To conclude we give a sheep rack much used in 
France, under cover, fastened to the building. 8. 
W. Jewett says:—I use them altogether now, and 
consider them superior to all others which I have 
seen. They are built similar to the common horse- 
rack and manger. The trough in front of the rack 
IBM 
“A piece of durable wood about 4£ feet long, 
6 or 8 inches deep, and 4 inches thick, has two 
notches, a, a, cut into it, and two troughs, made of 
inch boards, b, b, b, b, placed in these notches, and 
fast, constitutes the foundation. If the rack is to 
be 14 feet long, three sills will be required. The 
ends of the rack are made by nailing against the 
side of the sill-boards that reach up as high as it is 
desired to have the rack, and nails driven through 
these end-boards into the ends of the side-boards 
f f secure them. The sides may be further 
strengthened by pieces of beard on the outside of 
them, and fitted into the trough. A roof may be 
put over all if desired. With a roof, the fodder is 
kept entirely from the weather, and no seeds or 
chaff can get into the wool.” 
1 lAWWiX/// 
1 ;- 
ulLa^" i fr r I 
One of the most convenient racks yet contrived 
is shown in the figure above. With the dimensions 
added, the cut explains itself. Width 26 inches; 
height 40 inches, trough one foot from the ground; 
slats two inches wide, and three inches apart. This 
rack was originated by a correspondent of the 
Michigan Farmer. 
An old correspondent in New Hampshire, who 
has had much experience with sheep, sent us 
some time since the drawing and description of 
the following rack, which, he states, for economy 
in saving fodder and convenience in feeding, seems 
to combine the good points of all others now used, 
answering equally well for feeding hay, roots or 
is to catch the hay that may drop from the rack, 
and for feeding them their grain. It stands two 
feet high, and is seven inches wide on the bottom. 
The slats, or uprights, are of good oak timber two 
inches wide, three-fourths of an inch thick, and 
twenty-six inches long. They stand three inches 
apart in the rack. No hay is wasted in this man¬ 
ner, and the wool is not worn off the head and neck 
of the sheep. 
WHEAT GROWING IN CENTRAL MICHIGAN. 
Mr. Editor: — I have not troubled you for a 
long time to spell out my communications, altho> 
at times I have felt moved to write. Under the 
head oj Wheat Midge in the Rural of the 20th 
inst., your correspondent from the Grand River 
Valley, says he hears from all parts of Michigan of 
the almost total destruction of the wheat crop by 
the weevil. Now, my dear sir, allow me to contra¬ 
dict this sweeping assertion. It is due to fact and 
the fair fame of this delightful and productive 
country. That in many localities this wicked imp 
destroyed whole fields, and perhaps in some quar¬ 
ters cat off the wheat very generally,—yet in many 
other portions of the State its ravages were exceed¬ 
ingly limited. In the county of Calhoun the wheat 
crop was a fair average, taken as a whole, although 
here, I am sorry to say, there is unmistakable proof 
of the coming enemy. The Mediterranean wheat 
has generally thus far escaped the ravages of the 
midge when got in early and well. Some other 
varieties, the White Flint, for instance, when early 
sowed and on new land, has yielded very satisfac¬ 
torily. I gathered 24 bushels per acre of Flint 
wheat the past harvest, and should doubtless have 
gathered 30 if it had not lodged in a driving storm 
which occurred about the time it was in the milk. 
In this field the midge was found, but few and far 
between. The vast majority of our farmers have a 
handsome surplus for market, say fromtwo hundred 
to twelve hundred bushels. Surely this cannot be 
considered so terrible a falling off, that your cor¬ 
respondent should represent us as verging toward 
starvation. So long as the enemy complained of 
treats us in Central Michigan as gingerly as in the 
past, we will engage to exchange, at fair rates, onr 
good, plnmp, white wheat for the lumber and plas¬ 
ter of the Grand River Valley. We will also 
remember our Eastern Fatherland, and with the 
more solicitude, because of her golden glory now, 
for a time, at least, obscured. You, my old friend ? 
know something of this charming country and her 
golden harvests. Please stand up for ua until we 
cry peccavi. 
By the way, I like D. M. Fox’s pluck. He don’t 
mean to give up. That’s right. Go into stock and 
wool growing and try the Mediterranean wheat 
and Winter barley, and the Dutton corn, or the 
Sweet Rose, or any other variety, except the King 
Philip, — that’s the thing I would call a humbug, 
but the Rural says it’s an inelegant term, so I 
won’t call it that. Oat West we never say die till 
we are twice dead and plucked up by the roots.— 
May be I’ve said enough, and perhaps too much. 
I wanted to vindicate Calhoun. Her reputation is 
dear to me—she gives me bread, and good bread, 
too. Come, Mr. Editor, and share the hospitalities 
of your hundreds of subscribers in this county, 
and we will feast you on our fat things. 
o. c. c., JR. 
Marshall, Calhoun Co., Mich., Nov. 23, 1868. 
Remarks.— Our esteemed correspondent — from 
whom we are right glad to hear again, and who 
ought to write often for the benefit of the public— 
is correct in saying we know something of Central 
Michigan, and in assuming that we will stand up 
for her to the last. We do know that many sections 
of Calhoun and adjoining counties are not only 
“charming,” but most fertile and productive, and 
moreover possessed by an intelligent, progressive 
and prosperous people. And we rejoice to learn 
that this fair region has thus far escaped the rava¬ 
ges of the midge. As to the kind, closing sentence 
of our friend’s note, we respond aye, whenever 
convenient—if ever—for we know, from former 
experience, that the hospitality of Calhoun is 
genuine. 
AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 
Eds. Rural: —Your suggestions in regard to 
practical lectures during tho winter that is before- 
us, upon subjects pertaining to Agriculture in its 
various departments, seem to me to be just the 
thing for the present time. The rage for fancy 
lectures,—displays of intellectual fireworks, which 
dazzle the mind for an hour, but leave it no better 
informed, perhaps darker than before, bewildered 
and befogged,—is passing away. People of sense 
demand something more substantial, and are call¬ 
ing for lectures upon science and art. They want 
knowledge, information, and the stimulus which 
this imparts, to return with refreshed and increased 
vigor to their ordinary pursuits. 
If in any department of life there is both scope 
and need for this increase of information and stim¬ 
ulus, it is in that connected with, and dependent 
upon, the culture of the soil,— the science and art 
of Agriculture. Incalculable good has been done 
within the last few years, and more will be done in 
an equal number of years to come, by means of 
Agricultural books and papers. But there is a 
place which these cannot fill, — a natural demand 
of the mind for sympathy and communion of feel¬ 
ing in the very act of obtaining knowledge. We 
like to read, but we want also to hear, and to bear, 
too, in company with others. We want, moreover, 
to get at the living experience of practical men, 
observations which they have made, but never 
published. The lecture affords the best of oppor¬ 
tunities for this. 
Nor is what is said by the lecturer alone, the 
sum of the information to be obtained. The 
conversational discussions among neighbors and 
friends, upon the topics of the lecture, will call 
out and disseminate knowledge perhaps quite as 
important and valuable a3 any contained in the 
public address, while the mental excitement, and 
the social influence of these meetings will be far 
more healthful than the influence to which a large 
proportion of the community will be subject dur¬ 
ing these winter evenings in case something of 
this kind is not provided. 
It is believed that a course of lectures might be 
secured in almost every farming community, which 
would be in every way profitable, not only to those 
whose living, and pecuniary prosperity depend 
upon Agricultural knowledge, but to the people 
generally. Most of these lectures could probably 
be obtained, at little expense, from competent men 
in the immediate vicinity. But good lectures, 
even if at considerable expense, would he a profita¬ 
ble investment. One new idea of practical impor¬ 
tance in regard to manures, or draining, or any 
other of the numerous subjects belonging to Agri¬ 
culture, would pay, in the results of the next sum¬ 
mer’s labor, for the whole course. u. 
Hudson, Ohio, Nov., 1858. 
Remarks.— We are pleased to know that the sen¬ 
timents expressed in the article above alluded to 
have been “endorsed” by several correspondents. 
In answer to our request for the names and 
addresses of competent lecturers, we have received 
a few responses, and hope to be able to give, ere 
long, quite a list of such persons, located in dif¬ 
ferent sections of the Union. Meantime, let the 
Clubs and Societies hold frequent meetings for 
discussions, lectures, &c. 
