Chapter II: Part 2

No nation has so large a relative portion of its wealth in
domestic animals, and none can show such strides in material
advancement during the present century. But what is our
foreign trade? The exports of provisions from the United
States during the last fiscal year were in value about
$107,000,000. Those in 1882 amounted to $120,000,000, equal
to a falling off in a single year of $13,000,000. Our exports
of manufactured articles for the last year aggregate
$211,000,000, against $103,000,000, a gain of $108,000,000 in
a single year. It was a reasonable expectation that our
animal exports would have increased in like ratio as the
manufactures, which would have enhanced the value of all
domestic animals and furnished, instead of a mortifying fact,
a proud exhibit.

The causes of a decline are not found in high prices at home
nor in inferior product; rather in suspicions of diseases,
and the clamor of interested parties which led to arbitrary
restrictions, oppressive quarantine regulations, and
forbidding beeves which were ripened for the highest markets
to pass beyond the shambles; and the egress of young immature
cattle on the English pastures. Pork products up to the
Chicago meeting were prohibited by France, and they are
inhibited now from Germany, our long-time valuable customer.
It was their whims, caprices, jealousies, commercial
restrictions and bans which decreased our exports and led the
Commissioner of Agriculture to call the Chicago meeting of
November.

The convention developed facts and was fruitful in results:
That there were solitary cases of pleuro-pneumonia, and
limited to the eastern border States; that Western herdsmen
had just cause of alarm on account of the shipment of young
stock West from the narrow pastures and dairy districts of
the East. It was shown that across the ocean there was a
morbid appetite for suspicions and facts which would justify
severe restrictions and an absolute inhibition of our
products.

The Cattle Commission formed by the Treasury Department gave
decided opinions and imparted valuable information, but they
were constrained to admit that they were powerless in an
emergency to stop the spread of contagious diseases, and that
it was a vain hope that there would be an increased foreign
demand for our cattle and meat without radical Congressional
enactment.

Skilled veterinarians, fancy breeders, political economists,
and savants from the East met the alarmed ranchmen,
enterprising breeders, and delegations and officials from
many agricultural and State associations, representing
millions of cattle and hundreds of millions of dollars,
resolved that a meeting should be held at Washington, and a
committee was appointed to secure appropriate legislation.

In the discharge of duties assigned to the Secretary I at
once repaired to Washington for consultation and to gather
pertinent facts. The heads of the State Treasury and
Agricultural Departments were awake to the necessity of early
and radical legislation. President Arthur evinced great
cordiality, and gave good proof of his interest by calling
attention in the annual message to the approaching meeting in
Washington, which I have called the 10th of January.

FACTS.

I have sent out in a circular to the committee the following
"head-land" facts of startling import, which should be well
considered:

1. That there is an investment of $1,008,000,000 in cattle as
estimated by the Department of Agriculture, representing
41,171,000 animals. That of swine is $291,000,000,
representing over 43,000,000 animals.

2. That losses annually on exportation of cattle and beef,
consequent upon restrictive regulations and the decreased
relative consumption of our beef, aggregates many millions of
dollars. We reach an approximate estimate by these facts
relative to our foreign trade as follows:

The exports of 1880-81 were 368,463 animals. Those of 1882-83
were 212,554--a loss of 155,009 animals, and in value a loss
of $11,506,000 in two years.

The exports of fresh beef for two years were less by
40,071,167 pounds, and by a value of $2,191,190. The value of
pork products decreased in the same time to the extent of
$35,679,093.

This shows a falling off of about $25,000,000 per annum for
two years, as compared with the receipts for the two
preceding years.

CONTAGION TO BE AVERTED.

It should be known that the pleuro-pneumonia often mentioned
as a scare or a myth by the thoughtless and optimist is a
stern reality. Its journeys and track of destruction among
cattle have been as marked as that of small pox and
cholera--contagious diseases which have so tearfully
decimated the human family. Lung diseases of the modern type
were known before the Christian era, and were considered by
Columella and other Latin writers. Australia resigned her
great herds to flocks of sheep, as did South Africa, never
yet recovered from the blow to her cattle industries.

England has been tardy in the publication of her losses by
lung-fever, yet it is a fact which forbids secrecy that
calamity has reached the enterprising breeders, and colossal
fortunes have been swept away by the cattle-plague. In our
own country it has been no more the policy of secretive
owners to publish facts than that of city authorities to
proclaim the prevalence of small-pox in the town. Still,
startling facts have sprung from original sources of inquiry.
A town meeting is called in the State of Connecticut,
terror-stricken owners in New Jersey, Maryland, and
Pennsylvania meet for council. Massachusetts had a Governor
twenty years ago bold in telling truth, which led to
searching investigations by experts and officers of the
State. With autocratic power they made a diagnosis of
diseases, which led to the stamping out of the infection by
law, and a truthful proclamation that the plague was stayed.

The sacrifice of 1,000 brutes at a cost to the Commonwealth
of about $70,000 was a trivial sum compared to the perils
that beset a State valuation of $7,000,000, for bovines, and
the cattle of the Nation, numbering 40,000,000, and worth
nearly $1,100,000,000.

The monarchies of the Old World have set us an example; even
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have pioneered for the world by
sagacious acts and the stern enforcement of law in
prevention.

AN AMERICAN POLICY

worthy of us is not secrecy, but boldness--sacrifice
commensurate with exposure. This will lead to the formulation
of a bill by the Washington Convention, which Congress will
enact in the interest of individuals, the State, and for the
National protection. If State-Rights theorists bring
objections, the law may be so equitable to the States that
its ratification may be asked on the ground of a just
National policy and a right which inheres to the General
Government under the Constitution in the regulation of
commerce between the States. This implies a power to destroy
a contagious disease which if allowed to spread would arrest
all commerce in bovines between the States. A State may and
ought to waive the question of damage if it is fixed by a
neutral Commissioner, and the General Government and not the
State meets the losses to which unfortunate cattle owners
maybe subject. This will be the touchstone--trust by the
State and statesmanlike generosity by the Nation--that means
courage for the now fearful ranchman of the unfenced domain,
and the furnishing of a "clean bill of health" for our
products seeking a foreign market. Having evinced zeal in
doing justice, it can ask for justice--that the rights of our
meat-producers be respected under our

COMMERCIAL TREATIES.

Commerce means a mutual exchange, and having performed our
home duty will be in no mood to tolerate a whim or a caprice.
Non-intercourse has been proposed in Congress. That may be a
final resort when a conference, practical discussion, and
even arbitration have failed. A graver subject measured by
dollars may yet engage the statesman diplomat than the Geneva
arbitration, and we shall have no fair status in discussion
or arbitration until our meat and cattle are made healthy by
prevention and the best sanitary laws known to civilized
countries.

THE TIME IS AUSPICIOUS.

Cattle-raising as an attractive and profitable vocation is
now exciting a deep interest. A lull in politics forbids the
wants of our agriculturists, numbering 60 per cent of the
population, being waived out of notice and their voiced
demands drowned by partisan clamor. The treasury has hundreds
of millions in its vaults and a fraction of 1 per cent of our
surplus will only be required, under a just disbursement, to
isolate and destroy the diseases which fetter our commerce
and repress home enterprise.

A full and able convention at Washington is assured by the
responsive letters received. The State of Iowa will make her
requests to Congress by fine-stock meeting and other
associations, as becomes the State with $100,000,000 invested
in domestic animals.

Who can be indifferent in the face of our great perils, and
recounting the losses by foreign restrictions and inhibition?
We are emphatically a Nation of beef-eaters, and by the
extent of our domain and healthful climate are justly
entitled to the honored designation of the first producer
among civilized nations.

It is the question of healthful food for the masses, of
profitable tonnage for the railways, and of deep concern in
cultivating fraternal relations abroad, not less than a
question for the political economist in maintaining a good
trade balance-sheet. If we can impress our Congressional
delegations with the necessity of early and decisive
legislation, we shall have accomplished a noble work and have
earned the warm commendation of millions of citizens whose
interests have been neglected and whose vocation and property
have been imperiled.

For the committee by request of the Chicago Convention.

J.B. GRINNELL.

* * * * *

During the first eleven months of 1883, no less than 411,992 animals in Great Britain were attacked by by foot-and-mouth disease. December opened with a greater number of ailing animals than did November.

* * * * *

An Iowa farmer is experimenting with steamed clover hay for feeding hogs.

PRICES OF 1883.

The average price of Short-horns at the public sales in this country in 1883, as reported by the auctioneers, was $205.56. The Breeder's Gazette figures up the number of cattle of the different breeds disposed of at public sales as follows:

Breeds. | Number. | Totals. | Average. Short-horns | 3,284 | $ 675,057 | $205.56 Herefords | 112 | 53,330 | 476.61 Aberdeen-Angus | 300 | 154,885 | 516.28 Galloways | 263 | 111,200 | 422.81 Angus and Galloways | 44 | 16,865 | 383.13 Holsteins | 239 | 89,290 | 373.60 Jerseys | 1,688 | 690,405 | 409.01 Guernseys | 52 | 12,090 | 232.50 Red Polled | 15 | 4,435 | 295.70 ------------------------------------- Totals | 5,997 |$1,807,557 | $301.41

Of the above Short-horns, 1,609 were sold in Illinois, 541 in Kentucky, and 1,134 in other States. In Illinois the average price received was $222.23; in Kentucky, $271.01, and in other States, $149.73. Of the beef breeds there were sold $4,018, the total receipts were $1,015,772, making the general average $253.80. Of the dairy breeds 1,979 were sold at an average of $400.10.

It will be seen that the average for Short-horns is less than that for either of the other breeds though, of course, the number sold is greatly in excess of the others. In 1882 the average for Short-horns was but $192.10, and in 1881 but $158, so that on the whole the breeders are perfectly satisfied with the way the business is running.

The dairy breeds did remarkably well in 1883, the Holsteins coming up well to the Jerseys, but the latter leads greatly in point of numbers.

The pure bred cattle business of the country as indicated by these sales is exceedingly prosperous.

In Great Britain the Short-horn sales were less numerous than last year, or, in fact, any year since 1869, but the average was better than since 1879. In 1880 the average for 1,738 head was $225, while in 1881 and 1882 the average further declined to $175. In 1883 the average was close upon $230, but, upon the other hand, the number of animals sold fell to 1,400. The highest price paid was 1,505 guineas, for a four-year-old cow of the fashionable Duchess blood, which was purchased by the earl of Bective at the sale of Mr. Holford's herd in Dorsetshire. The Australians purchased largely at the Duke of Devonshire's annual sale in 1878, and this year American and Canadian buyers bid briskly for animals of the Oxford blood. These were the only two sales at which the average reached three figures, the next best being that of a selection from Mr. Green's herd in Essex, when forty-one lots averaged $360 each, or less than half secured by the Duke of Devonshire's Short-horns.

DOCKING HORSES.

An English veterinary society has lately been discussing the question of docking the tails of horses. The President looked upon docking as an act of cruelty. By docking, the number of accidents from the horse holding the rein under the tail was greatly increased, for the horse has less power of free motion over the tail. If a short dock is put over the rein, the animal has so little control of the tail that he can not readily liberate the rein. The "stump" is sensitive, the same as the remaining part of an amputated finger. In the majority of cases he considered docking entirely unnecessary.

On the contrary, Doctor Axe (rather a suggestive name for an advocate of docking) thought the practice improved the looks of a horse, thus rendering it more salable. His sentimentality did not allow him to argue this question of increased value. He did not think docking increased accidents. Statistics, not assertions, were needed to establish facts of this kind. As to the remark of the President, that the shortened tail could not be so easily freed from the rein, he said it would depend on who was driving; an expert would more quickly disengage the rein from a docked tail. It may be true, he said, that there was more flexibility in an uncut tail because its more flexible portion had not been removed; but the docked tail had not the same power of covering and fixing down the rein that the long tail possessed. The long retention of a certain degree of sensibility after amputation was a known fact, but neither this, nor the operation itself, involved much pain. He detailed the structures divided, and said that they possessed a low degree of sensation. He would be glad to see horses have the free use of all their members, if practicable, and would leave them their tails if the removal of them could not increase the animal's comfort, value, or power of being safely used, but he would not do anything to lessen the value of horses without good reason.

It seems that prosecutions for docking, under the cruelty to[***] common in England [***] convictions are not [***] in the discussion [***] vigorous prosecutions are [***]

We notice that with [***] and docking are on the increase [***] of this country. Fortunately [***] beasts, public sentiment in this [***] against the barbarous act; still [***] is it that fashion has not yet so [***] the taste of the majority of people [***] convince them that docking adds to [***] beauty of the noble animal. But the rage is now to imitate the English in nearly all manners and customs, and it may not be long before the miserable fashion will gain new headway with us.

* * * * *

Too much care can hardly be taken in packing pork so as to have it keep through the season. The chief requisites are pure salt and freeing the meat from every taint of blood. The pieces of pork should be packed as closely as possible. After a few weeks if any scum rises on the surface of the brine it should be cleaned out and the brine boiled so that all impurities may be removed. If pork is to be kept all summer twice boiling the brine may be necessary. For some reason a barrel that has once held beef will never do for a pork barrel, though the rule may be reversed with impunity.

* * * * *

One of the firm of Galbraith Brothers Janesville, Wis., is now in Scotland to make selection for an early spring importation of Clydesdales. While making mention of this we may say that Messrs. Galbraith though disposing of twenty-one head of Clydesdales at the late sale in Chicago, have yet on hand an ample supply of superior horses of all ages from sucklings upward. They will be pleased to receive a visit from intending purchasers of this class of stock, and from all interested in the breed.

* * * * *

The first lot of Dr. W.A. Pratt's Holsteins, from quarantine, recently arrived at Elgin. The Doctor informs us that the animals are in prime condition and choice in every respect. He says he is preparing to open a ranch near Manhattan, Kansas, for the breeding of high grade Holsteins and Short-horns. He will also keep on this ranch a choice herd of pure-bred Holsteins for supplying the growing Western demand for this very popular dairy stock.

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THE DAIRY.

Dairymen, Write for Your Paper.

LESSONS IN FINANCE FOR THE CREAMERY PATRON.[A]

Any business to be permanent must make reasonable returns for the capital employed and give fair compensation for the labor bestowed upon it, otherwise it will be abandoned, or if continued at all it will be done under the protest of economic law. In addition to the ordinary circumstances attaching to business enterprise, the creamery business is essentially and peculiarly co-operative. It thrives with the thrift of all concerned--owner and patrons. It fails only with loss to all. The conditions of success, therefore, to the patrons are included in the conditions of success to the creamery, and vice versa.

The object of this paper is to suggest some of these conditions and some of the instances of violation of them.

It is hardly necessary to discuss the case in which peculiarity of soil or climate, the greater profitableness of some other kind of industry, or other reason, would so restrict the size and number of dairy herds as to make the locality a barren dairy region. Notwithstanding the splendid achievements of the dairy industry it is safe to say that it may not be profitable in any and every locality. Given the soil, the climate, the water, the people intelligent and disposed toward the exacting duties of this business, there are still many questions to be considered and many mistakes to be avoided.

It has been a pet idea in this country that competition is the corrective of all industrial evils. Competition without doubt holds an important place among the industrial forces, but may be carried so far as to defeat the very objects it is adapted to subserve, when intelligently encouraged. Carried to the extent of employing two persons or more to do the work of one, of absorbing capital without the full employment of it, it becomes destructive and expensive. We find, for instance, in many towns, a large number of commercial establishments doing business at an immense profit on single transactions, but the transactions are so few and so divided up among struggling competitors, that neither secures a profitable, nor even a respectable, business. With choice cuts of meat from twelve to eighteen cents a pound and butcher's stock at three and four cents, we often see butcher shops multiply, but the price of meat usually remains the same. Indeed, the very increase of middle man establishments beyond the employment of these to their full capacity, and the consequent full utilization of the capital and labor employed, is a sure loss to somebody, and if it does not all go to the producer it is almost always shared by him.

One of the greatest burdens which the creamery business has to carry to-day is the excessive number of its creameries beyond legitimate demands. The co-operative idea, so far as it enters into this business, implies the most profitable use possible of the resources employed in it both of patron and creamery owner, and a fair and equitable distribution of the profits. Said a large creamery owner to me recently, "I find the comparative value of my butter steadily decreasing from year to year. I have the same territory, the same butter-makers, the same patrons, substantially, but my butter is not up in quality and price as it used to be. I ascribe it to the excessive competition prevailing in it, i.e., it is one of its results. I have lost my influence over patrons in securing the best quality of cream. If I make any criticism of their modes or practices they say to me, 'Mr. ----, if you do not want my cream I will let the other creamery have it. Do just as you like about it; take it or leave it.'" But the loss of one or two cents a pound on the net proceeds of a season means five or ten per cent of its value, or of the entire season's results enough difference to make any community in a few years rich or poor, thrifty or unthrifty, according to the circumstances in the case.

Further: the idea of co-operation implies the doing of equal and exact justice to all included within the co-operative limits. This, an excessive and unprincipled competition greatly interferes with. It can properly be demanded by every fair and honest patron of a creamery that every other patron should be as fair and honest as himself. Indeed, this is an essential part of the implied contract. But in the case of excessive competition no restraints can be imposed and no penalties can be made to follow attempts to violate the principles of equity, except the possible inconvenience of changing from one creamery to another. The straight and honorable patron is powerless; the owner of the creamery is powerless; and the co-operative element is rendered a nullity.

Further: the co-operative element, in the relations of creamery and patrons, requires that the price of milk or cream shall vary with the market price of the finished product. Contracts for the future are mere speculation, as a rule. If the transaction is large and the turn of the market unfavorable to the creamery, ruin is liable to come to the business, and loss and disaster follow to all concerned. If the turn of the market should be the other way, among the numerous patrons there is sure to be more or less dissatisfaction and a more or less breaking up of the condition of friendly reciprocity which should exist between creamery and patron. Patrons may damage their own interest by exacting too much from the creamery as well as by accepting too little, and a greedy grasping after an unreasonable share of the profit on the part of the creamery owner is sure to bring retaliation, disturb cordiality of feeling, and bring loss to all concerned.

The remedy for most of these evils can only come from intelligent and wise action on the part of the creamery patrons of a given locality. They should study to prevent an unseemly and expensive competition. They, as the encouraging source, will surely in the end pay the expense of it. It has been said that no people in the world enjoy paying taxes like Americans, provided they are only indirect, sugar coated, and with some plausible pretense. It would seem, however, that even American dairymen could see that the maintenance of superfluous creameries, superfluous teams for hauling cream and milk, superfluous men for manufacturing and handling the product is an extra expense of which they will surely bear their full share; if not at once, they will do so before the outcome is reached.

Another thing the patrons of creameries may properly take note of is that the expense of manufacturing butter in all well regulated creameries is nearly the same, and the value of the product does not widely differ. When a creamery therefore claims large and peculiar advantages, and offers a price for milk or cream markedly above the ordinary price paid for it by other creameries, you may be sure there is something illegitimate about it. It may be done to drum up business, to beat a rival, or it may be a downright swindle, it surely will not be lasting, and the operator intends at some time to recoup for himself.

It is to be remembered that the dairy business is not one which can be taken up and laid down hastily without greater or less inconvenience, expense, and loss. Like most other branches of agriculture, it must be engaged in with the purpose of a steady, long, strong pull in order to be a success. It has the advantage of springing directly from the earth without fictitious help, props, or governmental protection, so-called. It taxes no other industry for its own benefit, and has expanded to its present magnificent proportions in spite of the burdens laid upon it from outside sources.

But it is written "And Satan came also." Nothing could more aptly describe the full influence of adulteration which has come upon this industry. It has come clothed in deceit and fraud, the very habiliments of the devil. It can be exterminated no more than sin itself. It must be fought by exposing its nature; by stamping upon it its own features. Wise legislation, I believe, will be in the direction of Government inspection and the sure and prompt punishment of fraud. The interest of the creamery patron is more deeply involved in this matter than that of any other class, just as in other branches of production the perils and losses by fraud, deterioration, and adulteration ultimately fall back upon the producer of the raw product. The apathy now existing among the producers of milk and cream is ominous of evil, and discouraging to those who are working in the interest of unadulterated goods. We have no doubt that the time will come when not only the adulteration of butter, but the adulteration of other food products as well, will only be carried on under the stamp and inspection of Government supervision.

The thoughts I have presented are intended to be suggestive rather than dogmatic, and I leave the subject with the hope that the intelligence of the average dairyman may be as active in tracing and comprehending the subtler principles of trade and commerce relating to the products of his labor as he is in comprehending the more immediate facts of his calling, such as breeding, seeding, and the handling of the raw products of his herd.

[A] Paper read before the Illinois Dairymen's Convention by C.C. Buell, of Rock Falls.

VETERINARY.

FEVER.

Many kinds of horse fevers have been described by antiquated veterinary writers; but most exist only in the imagination of the writers, or have been manufactured out of the mistaken analysis of human fevers. All the real fevers of the horse may be comprised in two,--the idiopathic, pure or simple fever, constituting of itself an entire disease, and the symptomatic fever, occasioned by inflammatory action in some particular part of the body, and constituting rather the attendant of a disease than the disease itself.

Though idiopathic fever is comparatively infrequent in occurrence, it unquestionably meets the attention of most persons who have extensive stable management of horses, and its general tendency to degenerate into local inflammation and symptomatic fever, seems to arise far less from its own nature than from foul air, vicissitudes of temperature, and general bad management. If idiopathic fever is not easily reduced, the blood accumulates in the lungs, the viscera, or some other internal part of the body, and provokes inflammation; or, if a horse, while suffering under this fever, be kept in a foul or ill-ventilated stable, or be exposed to alternations of heat and cold, he speedily becomes locally inflamed from the action of the filth or exposure. The symptoms of idiopathic fever are shivering, loss of appetite, dejected appearance, quick pulse, hot mouth, and some degree of debility; generally, also, costiveness and scantiness of urine; sometimes, likewise, quickness of breathing, and such pains of the bowels as accompany colic. Idiopathic fever, if it does not pass into inflammation, never kills, but is generally always curable.

Cattle are subject to both idiopathic and symptomatic fever, very nearly in the same manner as the horse, and require, when suffering them, to be very similarly treated. The idiopathic fever of cattle has, in many instances, an intermitting character, which may easily be subdued by means of ordinary care; and, in other instances, has a steady and unintermitting character, and is exceedingly liable to resolve itself into pleurisy, enteritis, or some other inflammatory disease. The symptomatic fever of cattle is strictly parallel to the symptomatic fever of horses, and is determined by the particular seat and nature of the exciting inflammation. But besides these fevers, cattle are subject to two very destructive and quite distinct kinds of fever, both of an epizootic nature, the one of a virulent and the other of a chronic character,--the former inflammatory and the latter typhoid. Numerous modifications of these fevers, or particular phases of them, are more or less extensively known among our readers as black-leg, bloody murrain, etc. The fever which in many instances follows parturition, particularly in the cow, is familiarly known as calving fever, or milk fever; and the ordinary fevers of sheep, swine, dogs, upon the whole, follow the same general law as the ordinary fevers of the horse, and are classifiable into idiopathic and symptomatic.

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A MYSTERY OF THE SEA.

THE FATE WHICH OVERTOOK THE "CITY OF BOSTON."--CAPTAIN MURRAY'S IDEAS AND EXPERIENCES.

A few years ago, the City of Boston sailed from harbor, crowded with an expectant throng of passengers bound for a foreign shore.

She never entered port.

The mystery of her untimely end grows deeper as the years increase, and the Atlantic voyager, when the fierce winds howl around and danger is imminent on every hand, shudders as the name and mysterious fate of that magnificent vessel are alluded to.

Our reporter, on a recent visit to New York, took lunch with Captain George Siddons Murray, on board the Alaska, of the Guion line. Captain Murray is a man of stalwart built, well-knit frame and cheery, genial disposition. He has been a constant voyager for a quarter of a century, over half of that time having been in the trans-Atlantic service. In the course of the conversation over the well-spread table, the mystery of the City of Boston was alluded to.

"Yes," remarked the Captain, "I shall never forget the last night we saw that ill-fated vessel. I was chief officer of the City of Antwerp. On the day we sighted the City of Boston a furious southeast hurricane set in. Both vessels labored hard. The sea seemed determined to sweep away every vestige of life. When day ended the gale did not abate, and everything was lashed for a night of unusual fury. Our good ship was turned to the south to avoid the possibility of icebergs. The City of Boston, however, undoubtedly went to the north. Her boats, life-preservers and rafts were all securely lashed; and when she went down, everything went with her, never to re-appear until the sea gives up its dead."

"What, in your opinion, Captain, was the cause of the loss of the City of Boston?"

"The City of Limerick, in almost precisely the same latitude, a few days later, found the sea full of floating ice; and I have no doubt the City of Boston collided with the ice, and sunk immediately."

Captain Murray has been in command of the Alaska ever since she was put in commission and feels justly proud of his noble ship. She carries thousands of passengers every year, and has greatly popularized the Williams & Guion line. Remarking upon the bronzed and healthy appearance of the Captain, the reporter said that sea life did not seem to be a very great physical trial.

"No? But a person's appearance is not always a trustworthy indication of his physical condition. For seven years I have been in many respects very much out of sorts with myself. At certain times I was so lame that it was difficult for me to move around. I could scarcely straighten up. I did not know what the trouble was, and though I performed all my duties regularly and satisfactorily, yet I felt that I might some day be overtaken with some serious prostrating disorder. These troubles increased. I felt dull and then, again, shooting pains through my arms and limbs. Possibly the next day I would feel flushed and unaccountably uneasy and the day following chilly and despondent. This continued until last December, when I was prostrated soon after leaving Queenstown, and for the remainder of the voyage was a helpless, pitiful sufferer. In January last, a friend who made that voyage with me, wrote me a letter urging me to try a new course of treatment. I gladly accepted his counsel, and for the last seven months have given thorough and business-like attention to the recovery of my natural health; and to-day I have the proud satisfaction of saying to you that the lame back, the strange feeling, the sciatic rheumatism which have so long pursued me, have entirely disappeared through the blood purifying influence of Warner's Safe Rheumatic Cure which entirely eradicated all rheumatic poison from my system. Indeed, to me, it seems that it has worked wonders, and I therefore most cordially commend it."

"And you have no trouble now in exposing yourself to the winds of the Atlantic?"

"Not the least. I am as sound as a bullet and I feel specially thankful over the fact because I believe rheumatic and kidney disease is in the blood of my family. I was dreadfully shocked on my last arrival in Liverpool to learn that my brother, who is a wealthy China tea merchant, had suddenly died of Bright's disease of the kidneys, and consider myself extremely fortunate in having taken my trouble in time and before any more serious effects were possible."

The conversation drifted to other topics, and as the writer watched the face before him, so strong in all its outlines, and yet so genial, and thought of the innumerable exposures and hardships to which its owner had been exposed, he instinctively wished all Rheumatic Cure which entirely eradicated who are suffering from the terrible rheumatic troubles now so common might know of Captain Murray's experience and the means by which he had been restored. Pain is a common thing in this world, but far too many endure it when they might just as well avoid it. It is a false philosophy which teaches us to endure when we can just as readily avoid. So thought the hearty captain of the Alaska, so thinks the writer, and so should all others think who desire happiness and a long life.

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THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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It is not required that both papers be sent to one address, nor to the same post-office.

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REMEMBER _that $2.00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _from this date to January 1, 1885; For $2.00 you get it for one year and a copy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country._

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HORTICULTURAL

Horticulturists, Write for Your Paper.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The ad-interim committee of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for the northern part of the State reported through Mr. O.W. Barnard and Arthur Bryant, Jr. Mr. Barnard had found the orchards thrifty and healthy. The yield of apples had not been large this season, but orchardists generally felt encouraged in regard to the future of their orchards. He had found the high clay soils preferable for the apple. Mr. Bryant reported the apple crop small. Some orchards had borne good crops, especially of the Ben Davis. In others, this variety had failed.

ORCHARD CULTURE.

Mr. W.T. Nelson, of the committee on orchard culture, recommended the planting of orchards on high, sloping ground. In the rather low and level country in which he lived (Will county) orchard trees lasted but fifteen or twenty years. But few varieties seem to do well in any locality. He would advise men about to set out orchards to ascertain what varieties do well in their particular locality, and then plant no others. He would not prune young orchards. He recommended the tiling of orchards.

HIGH OR LOW, LAND.

Mr. Nelson's report opened up the subject of high or low lands for orchards. Mr. Robinson got more apples from trees on low lands than from elevated sites. Prof. Budd did not commit himself to either theory, but remarked that some varieties do best on low lands, while others preferred the higher situations. Parker Earle thought that this theory of low lands for our apple orchards was contrary to the past teachings of the society. In his opinion high grounds are preferable. The subject was a complicated one for Prof. Burrill. He had seen many low ground orchards that bore good crops this year. There are many modifications that effect the crop. It is not merely the elevation of orchard sites. It was his belief that high ground, all things considered, is the best. Mr. Robinson was not enthusiastic about the tile drainage of orchards. Our trees need more water than they usually get. They do not suffer from too much water, but from dry summers and rolling land. Mr. Spalding, of Sangamon county, had found his nursery trees poorest when planted on a depressed surface. He tiled extensively. His subsoil was a clay loam. Nine years ago he laid tile 3-1/2 feet deep and 30 feet apart. He did not believe in manuring young trees. Too rapid growth is not wanted. Trees in Illinois grow as much in one year as they do in two years in the State of New York, where they raise more fruit than we do. The most rapid growing trees are the tenderest. He does not force the growth of his orchard trees. He is satisfied nurserymen have manured their young stock too much. The question of high or low land was not settled. It was hard for members to give up the old theory that high lands are best for orchards in Illinois; but it may be set down as a fact that the matter, as first brought to public discussion through THE PRAIRIE FARMER by B.F. Johnson, Esq., of Champaign, is having wide discussion among our fruit men. It will result in close future observation and closer scrutiny of past results. Without doubt this is the leading new horticultural question of the day. It requires a careful collection of facts and a broad generalization. The theories and teachings of the past are nothing if facts are opposed to them.

FRUIT GROWERS AND FRUIT SELLERS.

Mr. Ragan, of Indiana, read a suggestive paper upon the relation of the fruit-grower to the commission man and the transportation companies. The paper led to considerable discussion. Mr. Earle always sells his fruit through a commission house. Without the commission men market-fruit growers could not do business. He found no difficulty in getting honorable men to do business with. When he got a good man he stuck to him. The commission man is just as important a factor in the fruit business as the grower or consumer. He believes in a liberal percentage for commissions. Dealers can not do an honest business for nothing. He is willing to pay ten per cent to the man who sells his fruit to the best possible advantage, and who makes prompt and honest returns. The cheap commission man is to be avoided. The proper handling of fruit by intelligent dealers at fair rates is what we want. He ships small fruits in full quart boxes. Uses new boxes every time. Wants no returned crates. To get best returns we must have neat packages. Stained drawers, baskets, old barrels, and the like do not help to sell fruit. He would advise shipping black and red raspberries in pint boxes; blackberries and strawberries in quart boxes. He picks his berry plantations every day during the ripening season. Sundays not excepted. No man who is not prepared to work seven days in the week during the picking season, or who can not get help to do the same, will succeed in the raising and marketing of small fruits. He has this year paid two cents per quart for picking blackberries and strawberries, and the same for pints of raspberries. It requires from five to ten pickers to the acre. He likes women or grown-up girls to do this work. As to varieties he likes Longfellow and Sharpless. They ripen slowly and everyday picking is not so necessary. Mr. Pearson said the apple growers in his locality find that judgment must be used in marketing apples. The Lord made little apples and we must do the best we can with them. A neighbor had small apples and the shippers grumbled at them. The neighbor would not stand this and shipped his apples to Chicago and had them sold on their merits. The result was satisfactory. An Iowa buyer came down there and offered 50 cents per bushel for apples without regard to size, etc., and he got them and shipped them in boxes to Muscatine where they were made into jelly, dried fruit, etc. We can have no cast iron rules in regard to marketing, but must be governed by circumstances. This year it was better for his people to sell as they come, without the trouble of hand picking, sorting, and careful packing. We must act like intelligent men in this business as in all others. Circumstances alter cases. Good common sense is a prime requisite. Mr. Miller agreed with Mr. Earle about packages for marketing fruit. He uses white wood boxes from Michigan.

MULCHING AND MANURING.

Mr. Earle was questioned about the use of castor bean pomace for strawberries. He uses it mixed with wood ashes. It is capital on poor land. He likes unleached ashes in both strawberry and orchard culture. He pays six cents per bushel for them. The castor bean pomace is good for anything in the poor soils of Southern Illinois. He uses about half a ton to the acre. Spreads with a Kemp spreader. Five hundred pounds per acre will show excellent results. Has tried a tablespoonful of the mixture to the strawberry plant when setting out. Has tried salt to kill grubs in asparagus beds, but found it to kill the weeds and most of the asparagus, while the grubs seemed to enjoy the application. Did not find it of much value as a manure. Bone dust had shown no particular results. Superphosphates acted much like the bean pomace. Does not think coal ashes of much value. He uses the pomace as early in the spring as possible. Sometimes he plows it under and sometimes applies after the plants are set, and cultivates it in. One application answers for two years' cropping. He fruits a strawberry plantation but two years, and he sometimes thinks one year sufficient. He does not agree with some of his neighbors that mulching has resulted unfavorably. Does not think the mulch has increased the noxious insects. Knows of a plantation not mulched at all, that suffered more than any other this year from the tarnished plant bug.

CENTRAL DISTRICTS.

Mr. Vickroy reported for Central Illinois. In August of the present year he visited the orchards in the vicinity of Champaign, among them the noted Hall fruit farm, near Savoy. He found the orchards in fair condition. Many were sheltered by belts of trees. He observed that in the lower or bottom land he found in connection with drainage, the best orchards and the healthiest trees, and that on the more rolling or higher grounds the trees were not as hardy nor did not bear as well. His observations led him to believe in the draining of orchards, although it was opposed to his previous education and of the teachings he had received in this society. He regarded the experimental orchard which he visited at Champaign a failure, for the very reason that it was on too high ground; that the trees were dying, and many were not bearing. There were, however, some varieties that showed good fruit. In his visit referred to, he found the following varieties of apples did well in this latitude:

Fall Varieties--First, Snow; second, Standard; third, Maiden Blush; fourth, Colvert; fifth, Baker Sweet; sixth, Pound Sweet; seventh, Fall Romanite.

Winter Varieties--First, Minkler; second, Rawles' Genet; third, Willow Twig; fourth, Little Romanite; fifth, English Russet; sixth, Ben Davis; seventh, Michael Henry Pippin; eighth, Jonathan; ninth, Gravenstein; tenth, Rome Beauty.

In varieties in pears he gave the Howell and the Bartlett. In grapes he recommended the Martha in white grapes.

GRAPES.

Mr. E.A. Riehl, of Alton, read a very exhaustive and complete report on grapes and grape culture, including the so-called grape rot. The suggested remedies were bagging and training vines up on elevated wires, so the sun and air could get freely to the fruit. This point was combated by Dr. Shroeder. Grapes ripen best in the shade. Another gentleman suggested that with the wire system as suggested by Mr. Riehl, the grapes are shaded by the foliage in all the hottest part of the day.

INSECTS.

Prof. Forbes gave a learned and scientific dissertation on contagious diseases of insects, and a number of germinal diseases, and experimental and successful attempts to kill them. The Professor showed that nausea is contagious and may be transferred by diseased worms, and that therefore the spread of disease in worms would considerably lessen the danger to plants and fruits from their inroads. These facts, said the Professor, give us reason to hope that we have discovered another means of defense from destructive insects.

Mr. Earle will try pyrethrum next season for the tarnished bug. Prof. Budd gave a brief sketch of latest methods of killing off noxious insects as followed by J.N. Dixon, of the State of Iowa, one of the greatest fruit farmers in that State or in the Northwest. He destroys the insect by sprinkling the trees with water diluted with arsenic, using one pound of white arsenic to 200 gallons of water. This has proven a great success and is not at all expensive. Some members objected to the use of arsenic on account of its poisonous properties. London-purple or Paris-green were recommended by some. Some members did not like to have hogs running in their orchards; others found them a benefit if but few were permitted. They did a good work. If the orchard is overstocked with them they do harm. They root about the trees and rub against them. It is not an uncommon thing for them to kill the trees in the course of a couple of years.

FRUIT COMMITTEES.

Dr. Schroeder, member of the committee on pear culture, made no formal report, but in brief remarks urged the general planting and raising of the kind of fruit as being profitable and productive. Mr. Samuel Edwards, of Mendota, chairman of committee on currants, read a very interesting report on currants and gooseberries, in which it appeared that the cultivation of this fruit was neglected and was on the decline. Dr. A.L. Small, of Kankakee, made a report on plums, in which he recommended the general planting of this fruit, he making a specialty of plum trees, and regarded the plum as a fruit that was coming more in demand and popular, and one that readily adapts itself to the many kinds of climates and soils.

Mr. Weir also read a paper on plums and plum culture. He recommended the Chickasaw because it is hardy and not liable to have its blossoms injured by a late spring, like many fruits. He named the Newman and Wild Goose among other so-called seedlings that were very good. He expressed the opinion that there was but one distinct species of plum in the United States.

FLORICULTURE.

Mrs. Mary J. Barnard, of Manteno, from the committee on floriculture, strongly urged the cultivation of house-plants, not only as beautifiers, but to give the most pleasant occupation to every lady of the family. She referred to the earlier flowers of summer especially--the crocus, snow-drop, lily of the valley, tulips. Next to these came the annuals; with little trouble these could be had for months. The wild flowers of the prairies were spoken of, and she suggested that we should obtain seed of the flowers and raise such as we wish. The paper was a good one and was well received. Mr. Baller, a florist of Bloomington, said that of late the demand for plants had fallen off. The reason given was that there was an increased general knowledge among the people. At the present, the chief demands are for hot-house, cut flowers, and monthlies. The reason given for the falling off of the demand for plants was the fact that plants were more easily raised since the introduction of base-burners. This, he thought, could be still further increased by having a double sash, and the building of bay windows on the south and east of the houses. He reported, however, that there was still a good market for hot-house flowers among the rich for decorating purposes, funerals, etc.

THE PRAIRIE FARMER will, from time to time, consider other papers and discussions at this meeting, for there was much more of interest said and done than can be condensed into a simple running report. We advise farmers to send one dollar to the Secretary and receive therefor a copy of the Transactions when issued.

A SHORT SERMON ON A LONG TEXT.

The text will be found in Leviticus 16: 21-22-23; but whether its application can be found is uncertain. Horticulturists are prone to find scape-goats to carry their sins of omission and commission; and they load these--a great burden--upon them, and send them off to be lost in the wilderness. Providence is most usually chosen by them for this purpose. Most of their mistakes and failures--sins, let us call them--are ascribed to Providence; and He is expected to carry the burden. But I strongly urge they remain our own after all.