MOORE’S RURAL REW-TORKER, 
f AJT ORIOrNAL WKBKI.Y 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Carp* of Able Awlrt i«nt* and Contributor*. 
CHAS. D. BRAODON. Western Corresponding Editor. 
Thb Rcbat. Nkw- VOREBR is designed to be nnenrpsssed 
in Value, Purity and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance. It* Conductor devotes hia 
peraeoal attention to the supervision of It* various 
departments, aud earme'.ly labor* to reiyler the RoRaL an 
eminently Keliat.le fimde on all the important Practical. 
Scientific and other Subject* Intimately connected with the 
business or those whose interests it vealouRly advocates. 
As a Family Journal it is eminently Instructive and 
Entertaining—being so conducted that it. can he wifely 
taken to the Horne* of people of intelligence, taste and 
discrimination It embraces more Agricultural. Horticul¬ 
tural. Scientific. Educational, literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with appropriate Engravings, than any other 
journal,— Tendering it the most complete Agricultural, 
Litkraky and Family N’kw.-PAPTSR in America 
In addition to the usual variety heretofore given in the 
Practical Department*, the Rural for 18<U will comprise I 
a Nkw avo Important Fkatuhr— a Department exclu¬ 
sively devoted to 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY, 
Conducted by Hon. II k.yry S. Han da ll, LL. D., author 
of “The Practical Shepherd” and other valuable works. 
Dr R is conceded to be the best authority on the subject 
in this country, and cannot fall of rendering this Depart¬ 
ment of great interest and value to all engaged or interest¬ 
ed in any branch of Sheep Husbandry. 
THE CLOSING YEAR. 
The year 1S63 is wasting away. Its days are i 
numbered. Tbe work of the year ends with it. t 
But the influence of that work will not end— < 
ought not to do so. Now, let not the reader get l 
impatient, anticipating a stale homily uu the 
retrospect, introspect and prospect Let us 
look at ‘‘the position” boldly, and honestly try - 
to “ master it” 
Another year 1 b nearly gone. What has been ( 
done cannot be recalled. It may be amended, | 
perhaps improved upon. And it is just this sub* l 
ject which is of importance to us all now. There 
is nu man, probably, hut daily discovers errors 
of action by his retrospections. Now is the Lime i 
to sum them up, and, from the result, work out i 
a better system- a wiser plan oi action. 
Practically, what has the farmer learned? If : 
he has kept a, farm diary, as he ought to have 
doDe, the records of his observations and expe¬ 
riences must, yield him some conclusions. These 
conclusions, negative and affirmative, should be 
summed up, arrayed against each other, com¬ 
pared, aud incorporated in the government of 
his future practice. This work of retrospection 
is important now. It will the better enable us 
to prepare for the future. And a well-defined 
plan of action is important and profitable to the 
farmer, entering upon the woik of a new year. 
It is true these plans, however well laid, “gang 
aft aglee.” But however much modified in de¬ 
tail, the skeleton of the system will remain. It 
is better to think ahead than not to think at all. 
The process of planning—the effort to plan will 
beget Ideas, will revive old ones suggested by 
past practices. And this is the work of the 
winter evenings at the close of the year. Con¬ 
dense the work of the past into formulas. Study 
these, and apply them in practice. 
Preparation for the coming season’s work 
should commence now. The winter months 
should not close before a well developed plan of 
farm operations for 1804 should have been made. 
There is as much good sense manifest in a 
builder who undertakes to build a house with¬ 
out a plan, as in a farmer who woiks without a 
well defined aim. If a field is to be plowed, the 
wherefore and what for is important. If for 
corn, or wheat, or tobacco, the preparation should 
be adapted to the wants and character of the | 
crop. “ Any fool knows that,” says the impa¬ 
tient reader. Perhaps so; but some men, called 
wise, do not practice it. If ground is plowed, it 
is plowed. If it is stirred three, four, six, eight, 
twelve or eighteen inches, it is still plowed— 
nothing more nor less. And yet tbe relative 
depth determines the success of the crop. All 
men agree that ground must be plowed— 11 0 yes, 
I would plorv my ground for a crop, of course.” 
But, all men do not agree as to the amount of 
plowing, nor the depth of plowing necessary to 
get the largest crop of a specific character from 
the soil—the largest crop in proportion to the 
amount of money and labor expended. Nor is 
the best lime for plowing always regarded. Dif¬ 
ferent people Ihink differently on this subject 
at least their practice indicates a difference. 
Such practical questions as these can only ho ne 
settled by experiment. The experience of the pc 
past years should have enabled us to come to m< 
some conclusion, or taught us to modify a former 
one, with reference to our farm policies. It is go 
this work of determining these questions, pre- fie 
paring past experience for future use, to which in 
it, is the object of this article to call the Rural St 
reader’s attention. There are a thousand prac- hi 
tical questions that might, be suggested, but, t'u 
space permits only this general allusion to them, u] 
___ I th 
“THE PRACTICAL SHEPHERD” ON BREED- al 
ING AND BREEDING IN-AND-IN. at 
- at 
BY PROF. 0. DEWEY, LL. D. jll 
I began to read the “Practical Shepherd” L?' 
soon after its publication, aud more reading C( 
unfolds more and more its importance. The 
work seems to be as nearly a complete treatise as (ji 
is to be expected. Indeed, though the more gl 
learne 1 in sheep husbandry may find something J 
deffi lent, this haB not been a discovery of mine. 
It is concise, and yet full; and the conciseness of v 
its neat style renders its fullness admirable. It ^ 
does not tire one in tho reading of it. Its details ( 
are lucid, and yet thoroughly practical. Two ! 
instances of Ihe practical possess much philo- j 
BOjihical value, to which I direct attention. ^ 
It is ihe great law of the vegetable and the ( 
animal worlds, that they produce “ after their j 
kind,” or that “ aperies and varieties conLinue to , 
: I reproduce themselves.” In the Chapter on f 
Breeding, page 101, this maxim, “like produces ^ 
like,” is held to imply “that the special Individ 
5 ual characteristics of parents are also transmitted j 
. t.o progeny.” So that the finest specimens of two 
- excellent varieties may he expected to produce a 
t liner or more desirable breed. The author 
b remarks that “this is the prevailing rule, but it 
s has a broad margiu of exceptions and variations,” 
f while the real specific distinctions are not altered. 
The exceptions are thus stated—“ Animals are 
i oftentimes more or less like their (immediate) 
', parents, yet, inherit a very distinct resemblance 
>■ to remoter ancestors—some limes to those several 
e generations back.” Such result is termed “breed- 
s ing back,” and thus very undesirable properties 
e often recur, which were thought to have been 
t eradicated. It Is also called “ atavism,” from the 
Latin word which means remote ancestors, which 
f may be defined descent of ancestral characters or 
e properties. This is a well known fact in the 
i- breeding of cattle, horses, hogs, as well as of 
e sheep. This result can be only partially con- 
e trolled; enough to be highly beneficial to the 
i- flock indeed, and yet leaving the proof complete 
>f that neither Darwin’s “natural selection,” nor 
n Lamorck’s ‘ development,,” has power to control 
is the law or to show there is no law of production 
d “ ufter their kind.” 
ie The other point is in Chap. 12, page 116, 
r- “ Breeding in-and-in. Of this the author gives 
ig the only true meaning, that is, “breeding be- 
e- tween relatives, without reference to consanguiu- 
It ity.” This has been followed for years In the 
1. breeding of sheep, cattle, horse*, rabbits and 
11 fowls, to the manifest improvement of tho quality 
»y of tbe animals, and not showing any degenera- 
ie ting tendency. In the human family the contra¬ 
il- ry is held to be the fact or law, consistent with 
ly which is the Mosaic provision against marriages 
between blood-relations, so fully approved in 
rk civilized, and generally, in uncivilized nations, 
bs This is a marked distinction, which separates 
of man from the animals, proving the human family 
e. to be constituted differently from that of the 
a mere animal world. Degeneracy soon appears 
h- in the children whose parents are closely allied 
a by blood. It is to be avoided only by special 
he adherence to the principle on which the nacred- 
or ness of the blood-ties of families is secured and 
Id perpetuated, enforced not by mere instinct or 
he sense but by moral power. The mere animals. 
>a- directed in this matter wholly by instinct, iguu- 
ed rant of any higher law, aud unable to apprehend 
, it any moral distinctions, are improved by t) e 
bt, breeding which is destructive to our race. The 
I— law is great and wise and benevolent, and it 
ve arises from the immense difference in kiud be- 
Yll tween the powers of the man and the brute, 
es, Ttiis distinction has been made aud stated from 
e.” Socrates, Plato and AristuTLR to this day. 
of It should be observed, too, that while the animal 
to returns to the characters of the ancestor, the de- 
om generated man shows no tendency to put on the 
the likeness to a strong hut remote ancestor. 
CONCERNING FUEL. 
Rochester, IX 1SC3. 
Fuel, in some form or other, is a grave 
necessity of our mortal state. "Whatever is dis¬ 
pensable, fuel is indispensable, and so claims a 
measure of attention not hitherto accorded to it. 
The first settlers of a wooded country are 
solicitous tone to tict rid of their timber; their 
descendants’ troubles are certain to be reversed. 
Iu most of the populated districts of the United 
States lands with timber on are now valued 
higher than with the timber off—and often the 
timber will bring twice as much as the land 
upon which it grew. It is observable, however, 
that the increased price of wood is viewed with 
alarm and dissatisfaction by multitudes who, 
accustomed to former prices, do not cheerfully 
accede to the altered state of things. It is but 
justice to all concerned to lay down some tacts 
and principles which will help determine our 
future supply of fuel, and tho price it ought to 
command. 
Our attention is at once turned to our coal 
fields. Beginning near the north line of Penn¬ 
sylvania and extending south, hounded on the 
oast by the main ridge of the Allegany Mount¬ 
ains and occupying tho Central and South* 
1 Western parts of tho State, there Is a vast 
bituminous coal field of some 60,000 square 
miles, which extends south as far as Northern 
Alabama, occupying portions of Southern Ohio, 
Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and Western 
Virginia. Another great coal Held, of nearly 
equal extent, embraced* large portion of Illi¬ 
nois, Western Indiana, and a small part of North- ^ 
Western Kentucky. This is separated by a . 
narrow belt from a large coal region in Southern ( 
Iowa and Northern Missouri. Michigan claims " 
a coal area of some three million acres, and , 
' there are still other beds In Maryland, Virginia, ( 
1 North Carolina and elsewhere. 
| No trouble about fuel, say you? Yet there is ' 
trouble about fuel. Bitter complaints find their i 
' way into the public prints. Scarcity und high ( 
prices occasion wide-spread and serious appre- 
• henslon, which our “Statistics of Coal” do not , 
’ fcem to dispel. Coal sells in England for one* 
] third of Its price in New York, and yet we com- 
| placently boast, of coal mines equal in extent to 
(he whole of Great Britain. We seem to be very 
much in the condition of the minister who had a 
8 good sermon in his head, but couldn’t get it out. 
1 There is reason, however, to fear that, our esti- 
mates, founded upon the extent of our coal 
1 lands, are eminently delusive. The mines of 
r England, Belgium, the West Indies and other 
L ‘. countries, are by far more productive than our 
lf own. Michigan, with Its 8,000,000 acres of coal, 
is capable of furnishing only one-third as much 
° coal as the Lancashire district in England, which 
0 is only one-eighth the extent of the Michigan 
I district 
On a great extent of territory our coal mea- 
n sures are so thin and lie so deep as not to be 
available. Some of our coal mines —on James 
’’ River, Virginia, for instance—have been worked 
8 for seventy-live years, and yet coal is generally 
“ dear throughout the United States as compared 
** with other coal countries. I should like to see 
16 the evidence that it would ever be otherwise. It 
(1 wc suffer our forests, hitherto our main depend- 
Y ence, to be annihilated, and city and country, 
il ‘ railroads, steamboats, factories aud all to depend 
il upon coal, what assurance have we of a uniform 
^ supply at fair rates? The expense, of mining, 
^ owing to the high price of labor, and the eoudi- 
U1 tion of our mines, must be much greater than in 
8 ' England, while transportation and monopoly 
, H will make the burden much heavier. The more 
absolute our dependence upon coal, the greater 
30 danger from combination and extortion among 
, dealers. 
I propose, by way of obviating the sad effects 
* of deficient fuel, the planting and preservation of 
' , forests. Wood should be grown for market as 
II we would groyf any other crop, and it should 
[ jr bring a remunerative piice. I utterly deny the 
right of this generation to waste aud destroy the 
timber, and then make free with the coal that, was 
I hid away for the use of Goo's children, just as 
^ good as we are, that will be here two thousand 
j ( years hence! 
je _ As an agriculturist, 1 assert that all farm pro- 
t e ducts that we raise now might he grown upon 
)m one-half of tbe land under cultivation, and the 
other half devoted to timber to beautify the 
ml country, protect it from winds, and supply us 
le- with wood. Farmers would grow wood if they 
:he were paid for it, but what is a fair price? I sold 
my neighbor Gorton an acre ot wood lor $"ii, 
which had occupied the land forty-eight yearn 
TTA T.TTi'gj IMPROVED SHKEP RA-CK. 
Our engraving represents what is claimed to 
be a great improvement in sheep racks. It was 
invented, we are informed, by a gentleman who 
owns and keeps one thousand sheep, and who de¬ 
voted much time and labor to Us perfection. 
The rack has been patented (or a patent has been 
applied for) by Koukrt Hale, of Fitchburg, 
Mass., who is now introducing it to the public. 
It is said to bo highly approved by flock-masters 
who have used tho Invention. Tho rack is thus 
described: 
“ Tliis apparatus is intended to economize feed 
and to obtain the greatest benefit from it by pie- 
venting the sheep from having access to Ihe fod¬ 
der except at proper times; it is bIho adapted to 
other purposes, being capable of conversion into 
a shearing table, and as a weather-proof salting 
house, or shed in tho summer or mild seasons. 
The engraving represents one side, A, ot the 
rack turned in, disclosing Ihe feeding-troughs, B, 
and the internal arrangement of the rack or box, 
more properly speaking. These feeders, A, are 
swung on pivots In the upright bar, C, and when 
in the position indicated in the engraving on the 
aide where the sheep are feeding, permit them to 
have access to the fodder at all times. When 
rools or fine feed are used in the feed-troughs, it 
is necessary to clean them out occasionally; and 
to do this tbe feeder boards, A, are turned up, as 
shown at. D, and the attendant can then go 
inside and sweep out the troughs through the 
door, E, without being hindered or delayed by 
the crowding or desire of the sheep to get at the 
feed. The feeding hourda can also be turned up 
In a horizontal position, so that by merely 
placing a bar underneath the two leaves, when 
so turned up, a table is made which may be fined 
for shearing on in the spring; or by partially in¬ 
clining the sides in l he form of a roof and placing 
a ridge-piece over them, the salt, which is usual 
to supply the sheep with at certain seasons, can 
be thrown In the troughs Instead of scattering 
around under foot and on rocks to be wasted; the 
inclination of the roof serves to keep off rain and 
dew, and is thus turned to good account iu this 
respect.” 
Further information concerning this invention 
may be bad by addressing Mr. Dale, as above. 
rince my father first bought it; ho sold au acre of 
b-aus for $54, which occupied bis land three 
months. Did he get too much for his beanB, or i 
too little for ray wood ? Who can tell how much 
wood ought Id fetch? Of intangible subjects 
stove-wood beats them all —the Sources of the 
Nile, McClellan’s military genius, aud the 
Northern Lights, are nothing to it. 
To get the real worth of wood in any locality, 
I suppose wo ought to determine first the value 
of the land, and then sec what the lawful interest 
would be per annum on the price, then add laxee, 
then culeulate how many cords of wood, under 
favorable circumstances, could be grown on an 
acre in a year, and divide the interest and taxi s 
by the cords of wood, and see how much the 
wood is worth. Will some of your readers make 
a computation? 
If wood costs high, I shall insist still that it 
ought to be burned. G hie test of luxuries is an 
open fireplace and a wood fire! For such frui¬ 
tion, men might forego wine, cigars and broad¬ 
cloth; women might circumscribe their skirts, 
abjure ribbons and lace, and go to church in n 
very democratic wagon. An open wood fire is 
eminently healthy, and good health is cheap at, 
any price. Stoves, close rooms and coal make 
many a weary bead, und prematurely fill many a 
grave. The good sense of mankind appears to a 
very great disadvantage when il leans to profit- 
gate expenditure in almost every other depart¬ 
ment, and a suicidal parsimony here — H. t. b. 
-- 
SOUND POTATOES, AGAIN. 
The numerous readers ot the Rural will 
recollect that some time last June I gave some 
years of my experience in raising potatoes, both 
in this and New York State,—that I deduced as 
the result of my observations, the rule of plant¬ 
ing and digging early, before the autumnal rains, 
und securing in cool and dry pits or cellars, and 
that,'in case these rains were followed with much 
thunder and lightning, and immediately attended 
by a few days of warm weather, either clear or 
cloudy, potato rot was sure to follow. Light¬ 
ning, or electricity, Is the efficient cansc,— thun¬ 
der is merely its voice in seeking equilibrium. 
Now I desire to give the result, of this year's 
experiments. 
The fore-part of the summer was very favora¬ 
ble to the growth of the potato, so that all early 
varieties matured well by the middle or latter 
part of August. Many were fully ripe for the 
cellar the last, of July. Such was the condition 
of the greater part of my crop,—being early 
Shaws, planted April 28lb, four feet apart. I 
never had better potatoes, or a better yield. I 
intended to have dug them by the middle of 
August., but being away from home, and busi¬ 
ness pressing, they were left in the ground until 
the 6th of September. About, the 20th of August 
we had a heavy rain, attended with tremendous 
peals of thunder and almost blinding flashes of 
lightning. The ground was thoroughly satu¬ 
rated with water. Again about the 1st of Sep¬ 
tember another similar storm occurred, followed 
mmedlufidy by very warm anil cloudy weather 
for three or four days. Within three or four 
days from the subsidence of the last storm, Ihe 
potato rot began to show itself in small, light 
brown spots upon the surface, and only .-kin 
deep, without the least sign of cut or abrasion. 
Iri twenty-four hours, in places where the water 
stood , the points of decay had extended to 
double the size, atnl many were dark and nearly 
black; and within six days, there was a loss of 
one-tenth. The potato lot from which my family 
obtained t heir daily supply being near the home, 
the invasion of the disease was closely watched. 
In tho latter part, of August, while the tops 
were al) green and nearly all would pull up. I 
directed potatoes enough to be dug to fill a bux 
holding six bushels, and put in a cool cellar* 
TWO DOLLARS A. YKAR.] 
“ PROGRESS A. NX) IMPROVEMENT.” 
[SINGLE NO. ITIVE CENTS. 
Y0L. XIV. NO. 51.1 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.—FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19,1863. 
{WHOLE NO. 727. 
