*3.00 PEB, YEAR. 
Single Copy, Six Cents. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
would summer. In most cases it would be advisa¬ 
ble to purchase oil-cake or more corn, in order to 
fatten more stock in winter, and thus increase the 
manure. If rightly managed the farm could not 
fail to constantly increase in fertility under the 
operation of this system. Gradually the arable 
land would be brought to the highest state of cul¬ 
tivation, fall plowing, with subsoiling for the root 
and barley crops, would be advisable, and thorough 
under draining of the whole if the ground was of a 
springy or retentive nature. Most of the interior 
fences might be dispensed with, and system and 
order would reign over the domain of the farmer. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
CONDUCTED BTf D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed 
in Value. Parity, and Variety of Contents. Its Conductors 
earuestly labor to render It a Reliable Guide on the important 
Practical, Scientific auft other Subjects connected with the 
Pus!ness of those whose interests it zealously advocates. 
As a Family Journal It is eminently Instructive and Enter¬ 
taining,—adapted to people of intelligence and taste in both 
Town and Country. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientlilc, Educational, Literary, News and Com¬ 
mercial Matter, with appropriate Illustrations, than any 
other Journal,—rendering it by far the most complete Kubal, 
Literary, Family and Bttbinkss Newspaper in America. 
grass is coarse sedge. The river lauds produce 
sugar, cotton and coru ■ the range supports cow 
stock well; it is too coarse and rank for sheep and 
horses, besides flies and mosquitoes are exceedingly 
troublesome, — fine-skinned American horses are 
annoyed and worried to death. Sheep, however, 
have done well on the Islands and peninsulas on the 
shore, where there is a constant sea-breeze and veg¬ 
etation somewhat less rank than on the main land. 
This lower country is not well adapted to white men 
from t he north. Chills and fever are prevalent, and 
the yellow fever occasionally reaches some distance 
inland. 
A t from thirty to 11 fty miles from the coast the land 
rises suddenly aud continues to ascend rapidly all 
the way to the mountains. From Austin to La 
Grange on the Colorado, from New Braonfells to 
Victoria on the Guadalupe, and from Ban Antouio to 
Goliad on the Ban Antonio River, the fall in about 
one hundred miles is six hundred to eight hundred 
feet. The rivers are clear, beautiful aud rapid, and 
the drainage perfect, there are no ponds, swamps 
or staguant waters. The formation is what Geolo¬ 
gists call tertiary—a great part of the soil of the rich¬ 
est alluvia],— iu the river valleys this rich, black 
humus is from three to eight feet deep. The river 
valleys are from half a mile to three, miles deep, 
with generally a heavy growth of timber near the 
water. The bottom timber consists of cotton wood, 
pecan, elm, white ash, box elder, burr oak, hack- 
berry, wild-china, mulberry, wild peach, Bycamore, 
cypress, and vast quantities of vines, especially the 
Mustang grape. 
Between the river bottom and the upper lands 
lies the rich valley prairie, which for productiveness 
and easiness of cultivation is unsurpassed. Next 
back from the valley the ground rises abruptly to 
hills and bluffs of flint pebbles, gravel and sand 
stone, with immense beds of marl, composed of 
innumerable minute sea shells; there is also fouud 
near or on the surface a light, shaly limestone that 
makes excellent lime for building; it is uot so strong 
and caustic as the product of the hard, blue lime¬ 
stone, but possesses hydraulic properties which the 
other does not. Generally on this eminence over¬ 
look! ug the valley, are what are called “motto”—that 
is, groups of trees. They are composed of magnifi- 
TnE rapid wastiug away of the forest trees, espe¬ 
cially of the sugar maple, has induced greater cir¬ 
cumspection on the part of the owners of sugar 
orchards thau was exercised during the early settle¬ 
ment of the country. Then a tree was regarded as 
an enemy to be slaiu, and as the sugar maple gene¬ 
rally had possession of the best ground for farming 
purposes, tapping the trees by boxing was regarded 
as a ready means of getting a present supply of BUgar 
while promoting an early death of the tree itself. 
By this process a tree would be girdled in three or 
four years and be the more readily removed from 
the soil. But times are changed. The sugar maple 
is now regarded as a friend to be preserved,—hence, 
in extracting its yearly contributions of saccharine 
matter, the boxing system has been abandoned and 
the less exhausting one of boring substituted for it. 
But even this is often recklessly done by sending 
the auger deeply into the body, thus weakening it 
and producing speedy decay, when a slight perfora¬ 
tion would eliminate the sap equally well without 
impairing the vitality. When a young sugar or¬ 
chard is intended for a permanent institution, great 
care in tapping the trees shonld be exercised. With¬ 
out this their vitality will diminish rapidly each 
year; hence an orchard, which ought to last a life¬ 
time, will die out in a few years, depriving the owner 
of a domestic luxury which a little care and fore¬ 
thought might have preserved through successive 
generations. If the auger, gouge, or both, aroused, 
t3T~ For Terms and other particulars see 6th and 8th pages, 
the pans maybe of wood,—but iu this case parti¬ 
tions will be necessary at the upper end of each, to 
prevent the wood from burning. The partitions 
may be made of stone or brick and supported by 
bars of iron across the arch. When sugaring oil, 
which is done in the lower pan, keep water enough 
•in the two upper ones to prevent their bottoms from 
burning, and at the very last withdraw the fire and 
raise the lowest pan an inch or two from the arch to 
make sure against the lire.” 
As the season approaches for maple sugar making, 
some, of our readers may wish to re-model their ar¬ 
rangements for boiling the sap, or construct new 
ones. 8 . Grames, Canisteo, semis us a sketch from 
which the above engraving was made, showing a 
range of pans with capacity enough for a large, 
sugar-bush. Mr. G. says .—“ The arch can be made 
of stone or brick, and should be built on a declivity 
to save material and for the convenience of getting 
the sap into the upper pan. The ends and sides of 
alkalies or acids a massive forest may take from 
the ground at one time without damaging it, may 
indicate its capacity to produce and part with wheat 
without Berious Injury. One may trace with satis¬ 
faction the salt yielding rocks in the Kanawha val¬ 
ley, West Virginia, where a large amount of salt is 
made, to Southwest Virginia, where fossil salt is 
only two hundred feet below the. surface of Knox 
county, Tenn., by the 6izc, height and thriftiness of 
the timber. 
Before the opening of t ie Eric canal in 1825, far¬ 
mers bought fair wheat lulls in Western New York 
at from $2 to #4 per acre, of the Holland Company, 
and sold wheat at about forty cents a bushel—giving 
five bushels for au acre of their cheapest farms in 
the forest. Near where the writer resides similar 
lands may be bought at from one to three bushels 
of wheat per acre. D. Lee. 
Gap Creek, Knox Co., Tenn. 
—everybody.’ There is room for all, only come, 
build up the country, and teach us how to manage. 
Factories, mills, machine shops, all can prosper, if 
only the proper effort is made. I see you occasion¬ 
ally direct attention to us, and I am glad of it. Now 
that the. curse of slavery is removed, the country is 
open to competition from all quarters ; and I do not 
think .you can do a better thing for your own people 
and the whole country, than occasionally to call at- 
tention to the genuine inducements the South now 
offers for a thrifty and industrious population.” 
Plastering Wheat In the Hprinx. 
8. C. L., Loekport, N. Y., queries: — “Will 
you please inform a subscriber if it is beneficial to 
winter wheat and rye to sow plaster upon it, and at 
what time is it tho most beneficial ? Much of the 
winter grain here did not have the usual ‘ top ’ at 
commencement of winter, but still looked vigorous. 
Will plaster cause it to mature later and make the 
straw rust V ” 
If a farmer puts barnyard manure on his wheat 
and rye he knows they are benefited by it; it is plain 
to him as the nose on his neighbor’s face. If he 
sows plaster he is not so sure of its good effect, and 
nineteen times in twenty it would be impossible for 
him to prove in a court of law that it was actually a 
benefit. The obvious inference is that the benefit is 
very slight at ail times, and very ofteu, perhaps, 
none at all. On clover and some other crops the 
effect iB more striking. The general belief of farm¬ 
ers is that plaster applied to wheat or rye in the 
spring retards its maturity and tends to rust it. We 
doubt it. Aud as to its effect when applied in the 
fall, unless iu combination with other fertilizers, we 
hardly think it pays the expense. Put the plaster 
on the clover, and the clover on the wheat. 
Castor Oil Plant in Mississippi. 
8. B. writes from China Grove, Miss., that the 
Castor oil bean plant grows spontaneously in large 
quantities in thatState; he thinks some profit might 
accrue by attending to it, and asks for information. 
No doubt the Castor bean will flourish in that State, 
but whether it would be as profitable as other stand¬ 
ard crops is a question. To make the business pay, 
the plant must have cultivation and care, and de¬ 
pendence must not be placed on its growing wild. 
When cultivated for market it is planted in rows five 
or six feet apart each way. The cultivator and hoe 
are used. A fair yield is twenty bushels per acre, 
and the price ranges from $2 to $5 per bushel. 
Thrashing — Flails vs. Machines. 
On this subject a correspondent from Monroe Co., 
N. Y., writes:—“ As our timber is now mostly cut 
off, and but few jobs of chopping to be had, it is of 
the utmost importance that the farmer should fur¬ 
nish employment in winter for the men that he haa 
to have in summer to carry on his business success¬ 
fully. Meu that have idled away the winter cannot 
he expected to take hold of work with as good a will 
in the spring as they would if they hud good, steady 
employment in the winter season. As thrashing 
with a flail Is as cheaply done as with a machine, it 
seems that we should save our grain until winter 
and thus furnish the family of the poor laborer with 
bread. Immediately after the last harvest farmers 
could hardly wait for the thrashing machines to get 
around, so anxious were they to sell their gTain be¬ 
fore it declined in price. I will here try to show in 
figures the advantage of kcepiug cool aud never 
doing things in a hurry: 
Cost of thrashing (JOIni. wheat with a machine.. 3 (X) 
ilo. do. 30(1 bu. oats. 10 50 
Six additional hands 1 day. 9 IK) 
Three do. teams 1 day. . 7 50 
Board for ten men ... 5 00 
Oats for ten horses... 3 00 
Now in February 00 bushels wheat are worth $2.70 
per bushel, $102; in August worth §120. 
Difference.;. 42 00 
Oats have advanced 10 cts. per bushel. 30 00 
The cost of thrashing and loss by selling...$110 00 
Cost of thrashing with a flail 1-10 of 300 bu. oats, 
is 30 bu.. worth 70 Cts .$ 21 00 
1-10 of 00 bu. wheat is 0 bin, $2.70. 16 20 
Board of one man 30 days... 15 IK) 
Three days cleaning gram. 3 00 
This amount...$ 55 20 
Subtracted Trow $110.60 leaves.$ 55 kj 
The chaff and straw are worth double what they 
would have been if thrashed and stacked in summer; 
even if they had been housed they would not be as 
fresh as now. The chaff alone hao been equal to 
fifteen feediDgs of hay, each of which was worth 75 
cents. I find that the mice have wasted but little 
more thau they would had the grain been thrashed 
and stored in the granary. I might have saved the 
The truth is, our people want, aud earnestly board of the man that thrashed the grain,—but as I 
r, immigration. The cry is, ‘ let it come; want him to make good wages, I allow him t/uit, and 
)me—Yankees, Dutch, English, Irish, Scotch find that in return he does his work well” 
buffaloes and even bear, in new countries, before 
man drives them away or destroys them. Nature 
prompts many warm-blooded animals to taste fre¬ 
quently and take into the system a few grains of 
genuine agricultural salts as promotive of both 
health and comfort. Spring or pond water that has 
an appreciable quantity of gypsum or any lime salt 
in solution is prirna facia evidence of wheat land; 
while the absence of lime and sulphuric acid indi¬ 
cates a soil deficient not only in these elements of 
fertility, but several others which are very generally 
associated with them. Rain water falling every¬ 
where on the ground aud percolating through the 
soil and subsoil, and finally appearing in living 
springs, shows by its very variable condition as to 
the quantity of numerous minerals dissolved in its 
course, what earths supply the most plant food to 
this universal solvent, Hence the close study of 
spring, pond and creek water throws important 
light on the intriusic value of fanning lauds aud 
their adaptation to wheat-culture. To aid in devel¬ 
oping this branch of agriculture in the Southwest, 
I may remark that the first agricultural census in the 
United States, by Congress, was taken in 1840, when 
the county of Monroe, N. Y., returned more bushels 
of wheat than any other. The saLt-hearing rocks 
aud their debris, which underlie much of the soil in 
that county, furnish spring water of the type of that 
at Avon Springs, which, if evaporated, will yield a 
commercial fertilizer far more valuable than com¬ 
mon salt. In selecting a farm iu the. Southwest for 
raising hay and wheat fur exportation, 1 have 
thought it not unwise to choose one with some¬ 
thing like living fountains of manure, where irriga¬ 
tion by running water will evenly distribute the food 
of plants by the force of gravitations alone; and 
where a navigable river will cheaply convey hay, 
grain aud other produce to market. 
2. As evidence of adaptation to wheat culture, the 
young farmer should look closely to the timber of 
timbered land and to the density and size of grass 
and weeds on prairie land. A large growth of black 
or white walnut, of tho several species of hickory, 
poplar, buckeye and white oak, Indicates a soil that 
supplies a great deal of potash to their trunks, roots 
and branches, and is not impoverished. Whatever of 
Halter for Bulling Hotscs. 
The contrivance herewith illustrated iB a very sen¬ 
sible one for breaking horses of the bad habit of 
pulling at the halter. It is described in Thomas’ 
Register of Rural Affairs, aud consists of an ordi¬ 
nary ring halter, with the two side rings connected 
by a strong, flexible cord. Whenever the horse pulls 
the inner part of the cord is drawn forcibly against 
his jaw, aud the effect is a severer punishment than 
he is willing to endure. 
PUJ 
. -UrAI - uniiff 
