TERMS, $3.00 PER YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
[SINGLE NO. TEN CENTS. 
ESTABLISHED IS 1850. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS ORIGINAL WBRKLY 
agricultural, literary and family newspaper. 
CONDUCTFTD BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
HON. T. C. PETERS, 
Late Prcs't N. Y. State Ag. Soe’y. Southern Cor. Editor. 
GLEZEN F. WILCOX, Associate Editor. 
Thb P.okal New- York Kit Is designed to bo unsur¬ 
passed In Value, Purity, and Variety of Contents. Its 
Conductor earnestly labors to render the Rural a Reli¬ 
able GnUle on all the important Practical, Scientific and 
other Subjects connected with the business Oi those 
whose Interests it zealously advocates. As a Family 
Journal it Is eminently Instructive and Entertaining — 
being so conducted that It can bo safely taken to the 
Homes of people. ol‘Intelligence,taste and discrimination. 
It embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scleottflc, 
Educational. Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
with appropriate engravings, than any oilier journal,— 
rendering It by far the. most complete Agricultural, 
Literary and Family Newspaper In America. 
Local Club Aqbnts.— We want a live, wide-awake 
agent for the Rural In every town where there Is none. 
Reader, If yon cannot act as such, please Induce your 
P. M. or some influential friend to do so. 
ESrFmt Terms and other particulars see last page. 
, , C7 ; 
-«R-» f _ 
'VVIIjD HORSES OF SOUTH AMERICA. [See next page.] 
I th |a comm'unieatiou, to any person or party. 1 
certainly have not Intended it. The advocates 
of “ In-and-in" breeding enn scarcely esteem mo 
as their unqualified opponent when they shall 
have read the foregoing cont'esaiou ol' faith, and he 
further advised that In my now business of sheep 
raising (if I can compass such terrltie prices,) I 
fully intend and expect to breed from “ Gold 
Drop," through “ Sweepstakes,” up to “ Old 
Wrinkly,” and hack, and then downwards on the 
same principles, until I liml (what these palri- 
iirelis seem not to have reached nor approach¬ 
ed,) the line of danger as to softening and en¬ 
feebling the produce, Nothwithstuuding this, 
my present belief, (that stoutness ami constitu¬ 
tional hardihood scon to bo the special and pecu¬ 
liar result of in-breeding,) 1 can see no reason, 
why I should he required or expected to shut 
my eyes and to close my lips upon indubitable 
facts because they are or seem adverse to my 
own theory. At any rate the question Is of vast 
importance in every view—moral, social, religi¬ 
ous and financial. I have thus contributed my 
little fact. Let naturalists and breeders reason 
and deduce from all the facts the underlying 
great law of generation and inheritance. 
Ellman. 
MAKING MAPLE SUGAR. 
Winter, counting by the months which make 
np the season, is already nearly exhausted. 
One or two weeks more will bring about the 
sugar season in what is commonly denominated 
“ the bush,” Hence it is time for those who 
have the trees, for the production of this saeh- 
arine luxury, to be prepared for the running 
season, that not a day may be lost wheu the 
maple trees are ready to “bleed,” as some of 
the backwoodsmen used to phrase it. Where 
sugar making has become a settled Institution, 
it is presumed that the buckets for catching the 
sap, and the necessary fixtures for storing and 
evaporating it, arc in order for use, or can he 
readily made so; hut in new sections of country 
—if any such arc left—the case may he different. 
Hence a few words about the necessary prepara¬ 
tions may not be untimely or inappropriate. At 
points where sap buckets are not easily attain¬ 
able, reliance must be placed upon a substitute, 
in the shape of a sap trough—an articlo rapidly 
manufactured byagood ax-man, if timber suited 
to the purpose is at hand. The manner of mak¬ 
ing these need not be described, and the matter 
is only alluded to as a hint to be ready when the 
sugar-making season arrives. 
When everything Is prepared for catching, 
storing and evapuratiug the maple lluid, much 
has been done toward a successful sugar season; 
but to make good sugar, or molasses, even, re¬ 
quires considerable care, and some experience 
in the business. Aud here it should lie re¬ 
marked and remembered that care and cleanli¬ 
ness are essential to the production of a good 
article of BUgar. If leaves, decayed pieces of 
wood and coals from the fire are allowed to boil 
in the sap, while evaporation is going on, it will 
be impossible to make clean sugar, while the 
taste of the article will be impaired by these 
foreign ingredients. To exclude them all may 
be an impossibility, but the amount may he 
greatly lessened by proper attention in straining 
the sap before it goes to the boilers, and screen¬ 
ing it during the process of ebullition. Much 
will depend, too, on cleansing the sirup after it 
is in a proper state for “sugaring off.” To raise 
the impurities to the surface a mild degree of 
heat should be used, and in no case ought the 
fluid to be allowed to boil till the skimming is 
completed. When this is done the ebullition 
may go on, but the fire should be confined to 
the bottom of the evaporator, and not allowed 
to play up the sides, as burning is almost cer¬ 
tain to follow from such an application of heat. 
With proper cure in collecting the sap, in 
storing it, in boiLing down to sirup, cleansing 
it, and graining or sugaring off, an article greatly 
superior to that usually thrown upon the mar¬ 
ket will be produced. 
In a future number we may illustrate aud de¬ 
scribe the, most approved modern apparatus 
used in boiling maple sap, with further sug¬ 
gestions on the subject of sugar making. 
COMPULSORY LAND DRAINAGE. 
— 
This is a subject which seems to attract some 
attention at the present time, as we Infer from a ! 
petition in circulation in relation to it. The peti- 
tlon (to the Legislature of the State of New 
York) asks “that tlic laws in relation to drain¬ 
age maybe so amended that any land owner who [ 
inay be aggrieved by want of a sufficient outlet 
for drainage, may, by due process of law, secure 
the opening and maintaining of such outlet 
through all intervening lands, and cause the 
expense thereof to be assessed, pro raia, upon all 
lands so drained or benefited thereby.” The 
petitioners express a conviction that such a 
compulsory assessment “would be neither un- . 
just nor oppressive,” and that “it Is the only j 
basis upon which a general system of thorough j 
drainage can he carried into effect.” 
This is a matter of considerable importance, 
especially to the farming portion of commu¬ 
nity in this State. Hence they should be care¬ 
ful to see that the changes made in the present 
law, if any, are such as arc culled for by the 
general interests of agriculture and likely to 
promote them. The security of proper outlets 
for drains is a matter of much Importance to the 
farmer, and is provided for, to some extent, by 
existing laws, but these arc said to be mainly in¬ 
operative from the lack of the compulsory power 
asked for in the petition now in circulation. 
BREAKING HORSES. 
Some may object to the term breaking as 
suggestive of the tragical and terrible. Well, 
that is about what you want to describe when 
you speak of processes in vogue. Colts ran 
wild till they Imve attained nearly their full 
strength and have acquired very positive ideas 
about personal freedom aud the rights of horses! 
Then all at once the man who lias been passing 
himself off' as their owner, (a point not conceded 
by the “ party of the other part,”) takes it into 
his head that he is in pressing need of their ser¬ 
vice, and seta himself at once vigorously to work 
to get it. 1 will draw a Yell over what follows; 
it is always sad to see brutes contending. I beg 
leave to add— 
First —That colts should be handled and made 
tame from the very start. 
Second — They should be accustomed to the 
harness and made to draw light loads when two 
or three years old, hut never put to severe busi¬ 
ness till they are seven or eight. 
Third —A broke horse should hack as well as 
draw; should obey the rein promptly, and be 
made to avoid a slouching gait; should always 
stop at the word; should he familiar with rail¬ 
road engines in full blast, and be accustomed to 
things about his heels; show no repugnance to 
the country’s flag, and accept a military escort 
with perfect composure. No horse is educated— 
“ broke," if you please,—till he lias been made 
familiar with all these tilings. No horse should 
ever be seat out to work hi3 way in the world till 
he is incapable of taking fright at anytbiug. I 
have seen a cavalry horse hold perfectly still, and 
not even wink, when a bludgeon was swung 
furiously within two inches of his head. 
Fourth —All, except heavy draft horses, should 
bo. trained for riding. They should obey the 
rein, walk, trot or gallop, as desired, aud keep 
the gait they are put on till required to change. 
There is an case and regularity of motion obser¬ 
vable in circus horses that greatly assists the 
rider and makes pastime of what is nearly allied 
to torture when the animat is in a crude and un¬ 
disciplined state. Horseback riding should he 
vastly more common than” is among men and 
women, boys and girls. 
Fifth — Now is the time to break colts and 
steel’s, before the busy time comes;—it is hard to 
practice the cardinal virtue in horse-breaking, 
patience, when we arc in a hurry. 
Sixth — Rarey was a saint, or something of 
that sort. H. T. b. 
■ BREEDING “ IN- AND -IN.” -THE NATURE 
AND HABITS OF WILD HORSES, Etc. 
— 
HUMBER TWO. 
It does not matter a straw to me, Messrs. 
Editors, what pietists or moralists may allege, 
sincerely or in sheer hypocrisy, against the in¬ 
stitution of the Race Course, I am not arguing 
a religious or a moral question. The matter is 
one of pure physical science. And it does uut 
matter at all whether beauty, strength, health, 
speed or endurance in a horse be “a delusion 
and a snare,” to be shunned as a temptation of 
Satan, or, on the other hand, one of “God’s 
creatures,” to be cultivated and used ,—tho facts, 
that running fast is a test of speed; that run¬ 
ning long is a test of endurance; that running 
fast, and far, for a great, many trials and through 
a long life, is a test of constitutional strength, 
can scarcely be denied. No more ought we to 
doubt that the possession of these qualities—as 
thus tested—through a long series o{generations, 
in a degree wholly uuapproached by any other 
family of horses, also proves these qualities to be 
absolutely heritable. The race course, then, (what¬ 
ever its other nature aud evils,) docs prove with 
uncommon accuracy and fidelity, (watched, too, 
by all the vigilance of Avarice, with her counl- 
lcss treasures at stake,) whether the offspring 
resembles, or uot, their parents and ancestors, 
in these powers and jjropertics. And that is 
the only point I here make. You see, therefore, 
I am certainly not in tlic list of your opponents. 
Nor am I one of those writers from whose 
statements the inference (that natural stallions 
revolt at incestuous couplings with their daugh¬ 
ters,) lias been deduced. On the contrary, these 
are the first wordts I have written on this sub¬ 
ject, or, indeed, on any other, for an agricultural 
paper. In truth, I did not even know that the 
unquestionable fact ever had been published. 
You see, then, also, that I am neither an advo¬ 
cate, nor u piqued witness trying to uphold my 
own cause nor a former commitment. So much 
for that doss of my qualifications as a witness. 
For the rest, I have been a breeder of horses 
upon rather a large scale, i begun some years 
Lack with one hundred aud fifty-five (155J mares 
and stallions. And when in}’ unfortunate “ po¬ 
litical” (Union) principles made it Impossible 
lor me longer to continue, at the same time and 
place, in that delightlid pursuit, aud also, in 
that (to me) most unprofitable faith, I had in¬ 
creased my herd ou hand to more than four hun¬ 
dred and fifty (450.) I beg pardon ol your trav- 
i elcr-guest, for the assumption implied in the 
s question,—but, ought I not, therefore, to know 
' something of the fact,—horse ? 
Moreover, my course of breeding and rearing 
horses, (in a land of plains, without stables, 
fences, bridles, or even halter* for this use,) 
wots as little artificial, and as much after the 
natural or “ wild” processes, as could possibly 
be compatible with the relation of human owner¬ 
ship. The stallion was to his numerous family, 
husband, father, guide, guard, teacher and fence. 
Aud now, then, with Buch opportunities, ex¬ 
periences and impartiality, i aver, in the face of 
your and your lnformaitf a derision of my story, 
and of the tantamount statement of “ Stone¬ 
henge” in Eugland, (probably the highest au¬ 
thority extant on the “horse,”) that this re¬ 
fusal of stallions in a state of nature to couple 
with their daughters, Is not “ bosh,” etc., etc. 
— but that, on the direct contrary, it is, to my 
personal knowledge, all true, in force and spirit. 
I will not say, (for I do not know,) what the 
literally “ wild” stallions may actually do or 
refuse. And wluvt can any man, whether trav¬ 
eler or breeder, know of the parentage or the 
offspring of a “wild” filly, or the habits of a 
wild stallion, being, perhaps, tlie shyest of all 
11 farce nuturaf' save the argali V Rut. this much 
I have seen, in instance after instance and spring 
after spring, in my own and in my neighbors’ 
herds, and that, too , without any exception, yW. : 
all the Bullions persistently expelling their own 
daughters by force aud anus—teeth and hool'a— 
as the Latin phrase has it, “ calcebus, dentibm 
et unyuibas," so soon as, and no sooner than, 
they should first indicate, like Lot’s daughters, 
their “unnatural” desire for the embrace of 
their venerable sires. And 1 have also often 
seen the head stallion of one manada chasing his 
own filly from it, day after day, and until lie 
had succeeded in his fixed purpose of expulsion 
aud thereafter joyfully accept another tilly in 
like state of puberty and its desires from a dif¬ 
ferent manadu, and nice versa; from which I in¬ 
ferred that the reason of the refusal and expul¬ 
sion was not a subject of sexual enjoyments. 
[You know, Messrs. Editors, “ there can be too 
much even of a good thing! j Again, 1 have ob¬ 
served that a stallion, breeding in a state of 
nature, will expel his daughters for the offence 
of discovering the sexual passion rather sooner 
than he will expel his suns for it, although the 
latter insolent shall be arching bis liret mane in 
a direct rivalship to Ilia stately father; from 
which I inferred that the disgust for incest with 
his daughter was a stronger principle with him 
than jealousy of a sire, rival in love. All these 
things l have seen and know; and I presume 
that every horse breeder of the plains (i. e,, on 
natural principles,) would give like testimony. 
As to travelers, — but what can a traveler, as 
such, kuow of these matters ? 
It is due to perfect fairness for me to add, 
that, although my fellow horse breeders seemed 
unanimously to accept these invariable facts as 
t he testimony of pure nature against incestuous 
interbreeding, I have yet observed that my ow n 
stallions would, in like manner, refuse to en¬ 
gender with and expel those of their step-daugh¬ 
ters which had been foaled in their respective 
herds. Others may speculate and draw line 
distinctions over and about this exception, aud 
in regard to all these facts, as they please. I 
have iny own ideas about it and them; hut I am 
now only testifying. 
Finally, Messrs. Editors, all I have more to 
say is, that I trust i have given no offence, by 
RENOVATING OLD COTTON LANDS—No. IV. 
The declino of fertility is in proportion to the re- 
movat of mineral nutriment: the renewal of produc¬ 
tiveness is in proportion to their restoration.”- Liebig. 
In this section of the cotton zone a bale of f>00 
lbs. to three acres is considered an average crop. 
Thesu 500 lbs.— according to Professor Jack- 
son —contain about seven or eight, pounds of 
ash-constituents. To this amount of plant food 
the throe acres is impoverished. The amount of 
seed taken from the bale by the process of gin¬ 
ning is about 1 ,“00 lbs., more or less, which con¬ 
tains about 48 lbs. of ash-constituents. If both 
bale and seed are removed from off the farm, and 
nothing returned to the land, in the way of com¬ 
pensation, then the three acres arc impoverished 
in inorganic cotton plant food to the amount of 
fifty or sixty jammls weight. It must be seen at 
once that continual cropping without a renewal 
system, rapidly diminishes tlic fertility of the 
soil. The best system of cultivation umy force 
from the soil Its last particle of mineral plant 
food, and it umy make the soil hold out for a 
long time, hut it does not add the least iota to 
tlic stock of inorganic material in the soil. The 
soil cannot be compensated simply by good 
tilling, or even rest, for without compensation 
it is found to decline in fertility. 
To keep up the fertility of the our cotton 
lands we must restore, in the form of manures, 
the plant food that has been taken away by con¬ 
tinual cropping. “Rut, will it pay?” is the 
question. My judgment, observation aud expe¬ 
rience decide in the affirmative. My best land 
yields, in a good season, 1,100 lbs. of lint to 
three acres—whereas, the same amount of thin 
land will only yield me 500 lbB. Now, if I can 
be successful in restoring my thin land to equal 
productiveness with my good land, I shall feel 
amply rewarded. 
Sometimes friends will walk with me through 
my cotton patch. They have been acquainted 
with the plantation almost from the cutting of 
the “first stick.” They will point out certain 
spots that were once very fertile, and tell me 
wlmt enormous crops were gathered from certain 
fields. But they remark that it lias had its day, 
the land is worn out, aud not worth the fence 
around it, and they suggest, us the best econo¬ 
my, “to throw the field out.” I have always 
thought different. The land was not barren. 
The subsoil does not coutaiu any poisonous or 
sterile qualities. It only lacks humus and ash- 
oonstituenta, and these can be restored. It re¬ 
quires labor and means, if you have any, hut it 
is a safe investment. 
We build barns, stables, sheds and cribs as 
necessary to the purposes of a farm. But they 
require a great outlay of means and expenditure 
of labor, aud yet are perishable. They not only 
yield to the hand of time, but are also exposed 
to the hand of the incendiary. In an hour or 
two, either by design or accident, they may bo 
reduced to ashes. Even while they stand, to 
serve the purpose for which they were built, 
they do not by any virtue in themselves keep up 
the fertility of the soil, the primary cause of 
their necessity. By adopting the renewal system 
we make 'an investment that will not only make 
more safe, but will really make more ample aud 
valuable our most important capital, and give us 
large returns besides. 
Soiuerville„Tcnn. 
Geo. F. A. Spilleh. 
YOL. XYIH. NO. 8. t ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENIIING SATURDAY, FED. 23,I8G7. 
1 WHOLE NO. 892. 
