Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

The most serious and perhaps, the only embarrassment which I should refer to in this report, was the absence of so large a proportion of the members of awarding committees originally selected, rendering it necessary to fill the places of the absentees by selections from the by-standers after the cattle had been called to the rings. Some of you "have been there" and have a realizing sense of the difficulties involved in the effort to make these substitutions intelligently and with conscientious care, on the spur of the moment. To do so in all cases with satisfaction to one's self is simply impossible, and to do it in all cases with satisfaction to unlucky competing exhibitors is not to be expected. If I could do the first and feel sure that the talisman had been wisely selected, it would be easy to disregard complaints, if any, which are known to be unjust.

The question of so modifying our committee system as to avoid the embarrassment I have referred to and thus to secure a better deserved confidence in the justice of the awards is one I hope to hear discussed at this meeting as it has been probably at every meeting of our predecessors for the past thirty years.

Possibly we are in the light of our own experience, with a different system at the Fat Stock Shows prepared to try something else at the fairs; but of this I do not feel certain.

THE FAT STOCK SHOW.

The remarks I have made in regard to the display at the fair and the great interest it excited apply with, if possible, still greater force to the Fat Stock Show. Your record shows all material facts in respect to numbers and quality of the stock on exhibition, and I need not enlarge.

The importance of this enterprise, in its relation to the meat supply of the world, can hardly be over-stated, and its direct results to the producers of the meat producing breeds of stock as well as to the consumers, are too apparent to require discussion.

The rules and methods adopted by the board for conducting this show seems to need but little change--some slight modifications of the requirements of the premium list will be proposed when that subject shall come up for consideration, but beyond these there is but one subject which I regard as of sufficient importance to demand a suggestion from me at this time. I refer to the number of and division of duties among the awarding committees.

The method of selecting judges seems to me all right and there was much less difficulty in securing their attendance than at the fair. A few did not respond, but their places were filled satisfactorily in most cases. The wisdom of the appointment of your committee to decide upon the age of all animals on exhibition, prior to the commencement of the work of the judges and entirely independent of any suggestion or wish on the part of exhibitors, was practically demonstrated so that there is probably now no desire to discontinue it. In this case their discussions corroborated and established the statements and good faith of the exhibitors themselves in every instance except one, in which one the result was unimportant.

The special feature to which I desire to call your attention may perhaps be best understood if I express my own views in regard to it.

At present it is the practice for one committee of judges to make the awards on the animals of each breed in their several rings of yearlings, two-year-olds, and three-year-olds. After that has been done it is the practice for another committee to select the sweepstakes animals from among all the entries of all ages of that breed without regard to the prizes which the former committee may have awarded.

Now it not infrequently happens, and is always liable to occur, that the latter committee selects as the best animal of any age one which the former committee did not deem worthy of any prize at all or at least not a first prize, when judged by them in competition with these of its own age only. Evidently there is a mistake somewhere. Both decisions can not be correct. Both committees, we are bound to assume are equally honest, disinterested, and competent, because the members of both committees considered in making up a decision such discrepancy of judgment and the system which renders it possible may be almost excusable, perhaps, but in the Fat Stock Show, where we deal so fully in details and exact figures, and where we pretend to use our best efforts in every practical manner to get at and publish for the benefit of a confiding world the reliable, bottom facts obtained by the labors of paid experts, reach a conflicting record is not, in any judgement, one to be greatly proud of.

There is one plain, just and proper remedy for this, to wit: Restrict the award of sweepstakes prizes in the several breed rings to such animals as have taken first premiums in the rings for ages, and restrict competition for _grand sweepstakes_ to such animals as have taken _sweepstake_ prizes in the breed rings as have not otherwise competed at all. The awards of all special prizes should follow the decisions in the regular rings when not offered for animals not included in the regular rings.

Under this rule every animal competing for a sweepstakes prize, with possible exceptions in the grand sweepstakes, would have received the highest indorsement of the committees, and hence there could be no pretense of prejudice on the part of the judges and hence, too, it would matter very little whether a new competent committee were called for the grand sweepstakes or that committee was composed of judges who served in the rings, the latter, in my opinion, being preferable, because of their larger opportunity in becoming familiar with the points of difference between the competing animals.

I am persuaded that no objection to the remedy as I have stated it, would or could properly be made except by those whose animals were not included in the first prize or sweepstakes winners, and the only objection I have ever heard to the adoption of the rule, even at the fairs, is based on the idea that those animals (or the owners) failing to take prizes in the rings for ages, should have a "new trial" before an entirely new jury in sweepstakes. But how about those who won the verdict in the first trial! Is there any justice in requiring them to submit to another trial between themselves and those they have once vanquished? and if there is any propriety in that, why not in still another new trial and more new trials before new juries until every animal in the show has received a first prize, or the treasury has been exhausted or the community fails to furnish any more jurymen?

If it were simply the "consolation stakes" to non-prize winners, some loose practice might seem justifiable, but it is not the best policy in conducting the competitions of the Fat Stock Show to be influenced by any considerations except those which relate to fair, impartial and intelligent decisions, and no decisions can be fair, impartial and intelligent which conflict with each other and which, as a whole, fail to form a consistent record.

JOHN P. REYNOLDS,
Supt. Class A.

* * * * *

James F. Scott purchased 200 mares and 500 one and two year old colts to be delivered on the 15th of March at the San Antonio Viego ranch.

* * * * *

RAISING YOUNG MULES.

Where land is not too high, and pasturage good as well as cheap, keeping good mares from which young mules can be raised is certainly a profitable business; especially so where corn and hay are grown on the farm, and the mares can be profitably worked at least part of the year.

With a liberal supply of corn fodder for winter feeding, and a good pasture, with hay and corn during the coldest weather, and when at work, this branch of farming is not only easy, but certain and profitable. A mare in good condition, not counting pasturage, can be kept for eight dollars a year. Service of jack here is generally six dollars, making keeping of mare and service cost fourteen. There has been no time since I came to this part of the State when a mule colt would not bring all the way from twenty-five to fifty dollars, depending, of course, upon the size, form, and general condition at weaning time. Allowing nothing for the work the mare would be able to do, which certainly ought to be sufficient to pay for her keep, there is left a good margin for profit. Or if we count the interest on the money invested in the mare, still we have a good profit left. The difference paid for young mules shows two facts: first, the importance of a good sire, or jack, and the other of a well-formed mare. It certainly costs no more money to keep a well-formed animal than it does to keep a poor one. Of course, at the start, one may require a somewhat larger outlay of money, and in this way, if we count the interest on the money invested, cause young mules to cost a trifle more than if cheaper animals were used. But this is more than compensated for by the larger price the colt will bring.

The difference between a mare that will bring a mule that only sells for the lowest price here at weaning time, twenty-five dollars, and one that brings a mule that will sell for fifty, the highest generally obtained, would make quite an item in the amount of profit to be derived from her keep, and especially where the same animals are kept quite a number of years for this purpose, as is often the case.

And this is not all; the mule will himself pay handsomely for keeping. Mules a year old, that are broken to the halter, so that they can be led, bring from eighty to one hundred dollars. When two years old, and broken to to the wagon as well as saddle, one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five dollars is the general price. Of course a pair of well matched mules, well broken to harness, at three or four years, will sell all the way from three to five hundred dollars, depending upon their color, form, size, etc. And this difference is, in nearly all cases the result of the difference between good and poor jacks, as well as good and poor mares. One other point must always be taken into account in this work, and that is in having mares that are sure breeders.

I find that those who have made most money out of this line of farming or stock-raising are those who, when they have secured a valuable brood mare that is sure of bringing a first-class mule colt, they not only keep her, but they take good care of her; and in this way they secure the very best results and realize the largest profits.

Where proper care is taken not to overwork or strain them, mares can always be profitably worked in planting and cultivating the corn crop, as well as cribbing it in the fall; fully enough work can be done to pay for what they eat and the pasturage. So that the cost of service and interest on the money invested is what the mule costs at weaning time. After that time, of course, they cost something more, as weaning time generally comes in the fall at about the time that pastures fail, and corn fodder, wheat straw, and hay, with a small amount of grain during the winter must be fed to keep the colt growing in good condition. Many farmers who do not care to go to the trouble of breaking young mules, dispose of them at weaning time; while others find it profitable to buy these up at whatever prices they are obtainable, and keep until they are two or three years old; during this time they are broken to lead, to ride, and to work.

To be sure, there is some risk connected with this, but, on the whole, it is considered very remunerative--so much so that many young men who manage to get enough cash ahead will buy one or two mule colts in the fall at weaning time and keep them until well broken in, and they sell at a profit, and in this way make a good start for themselves. As compared with other branches of stock-raising, there is less risk in this than in almost any other branch of farm stock.

N. J. SHEPHERD.
MILLER CO., MO.

THE DAIRY

Dairymen, Write for Your Paper.

WISCONSIN DAIRYMEN.

The convention of Wisconsin dairymen, at Lake Mills, last week, was an excellent one. It was largely attended by the most prominent and experienced dairymen of this wonderful dairy State.

The people of Lake Mills did their utmost to make the visit of delegates pleasant, and they succeeded admirably. The crowning feature of their hospitality was the banquet on Thursday night. The feast was prepared by the ladies of the M. E. church. The supper, the toasts and responses, the music and all were enjoyable in the highest degree. Wisconsin dairymen believe in banquets. A leading member of the convention declared that the prosperous history of the association began with its first banquet.

Governor Rusk was in attendance at this convention, and his address was one calculated to encourage and help on the association. He assured the members that if they thought the association needed legislative aid, all they have to do is to ask for it. If they ask for $5,000, he will do his best to have the appropriation bill passed, and he will sign the enactment promptly when it reaches him for signature. He believes Wisconsin one of the foremost of dairy States, and he wants it to retain its position.

Among other prominent gentlemen present who participated in the discussions were Prof. Henry, of the Agricultural Department of the State University; Hon. Clinton Babbitt, Secretary of the State Agricultural Society; Hon. Hiram Smith, Chester Hazen, S. Favile, J. M. Smith, J. H. Smith, J. B. Harris, Inspector of Dairy Factories, Canada, and T. D. Curtis, Syracuse, N. Y.

The election of officers resulted in retaining the incumbents of last year for another year's service. These gentlemen are: W. H. Morrison, Elkhorn, President; D. W. Curtis, Fort Atkinson, Secretary; H. K. Loomis, Treasurer.

One of the prominent papers read was on Co-operative Dairying, by J. B. Harris, Esq., of Antwerp, N. Y., who is employed by the Canadian government as inspector of cheese and butter factories. We will give it in full, and follow next week with some account of the discussions.

CO-OPERATIVE CHEESE-MAKING.

In all human efforts, grand results have been attained chiefly
by concert of action.

In our own time, everything is done by co-operation. Railways
across continents, canals uniting oceans and seas, bridges
almost of fabulous proportions, enterprises in engineering and
commerce, never before known, evince the extent to which modern
genius is availing itself of concert of effort in testing human
capacity.

There is a visible tendency in all branches of business toward
co-operation and centralization.

In looking down upon a large city, the unity visible even in the
diversity of human affairs manifests itself in a manner truly
wonderful. The air is literally filled with a vast net-work of
wire, crossing and re-crossing in every conceivable direction,
and over these, backward and forward, the thoughts of men are
made to vibrate with the speed of lightning, in the elaboration
and consummation of thousands of business schemes, and the air,
as well as the buildings and streets, is full of human activity
and enterprise. The lawyer, sitting comfortably at his desk in
his office, talks with his banker, physician, grocer, a hundred
clients, and his family, all seated like him himself at home, or
at their various places of business. Thus is the telephone made
the instrument of human co-operation and concert of action.

It is now less than thirty years since dairymen stumbled into
the practice of co-operation in the business of making-cheese.
Previous to that time cheese-making in this country was, to say
the least, a crude affair. Every farmer ran his own factory,
according to his own peculiar notion, and disposed of his
products as he could "light on" chaps. In that day,
cheese-making was guess work and hap-hazard. To-day it is a
science. Then there were as many rules and methods as there were
men. To-day the laws which nature has enacted, to govern the
process of converting milk into cheese, are codified, and
cheese-making has become a profession. In that day the
accumulated results of the cheese industry of a neighborhood or
township was a sight to behold--all manner of circular blocks,
of concentrated error, large and small, thick and thin, when
heaped together presented a spectacle that would now bring a
smile upon the countenance of the most sober and dignified
cheese-maker in the State.

The condition of the market at that time was quite as crude and
irregular as the system, or rather the want of system, in
manufacturing. There was no cable, no regular reports from the
great business centers of the land, no regularly organized
boards of trade, railroads not as numerous, less daily papers
were in circulation, and many other circumstances which left the
seller comparatively at the mercy of the buyer, and the purchase
and sale of a dairy was conducted upon principles similar to
those usually practiced in a horse trade.

The great changes which since that day have taken place in the
dairying world are due chiefly to a division of labor, the
introduction of system and co-operation. Our machinery, we are
sorry to say, is not yet quite perfect in all its parts, and
does not move with the precision and harmony of the orchestra,
to which we have already alluded. Yet, although still in its
infancy, it has already produced and does annually produce
results grand indeed.

If we take a glance at the various industries at which men are
to-day engaged, intellectual, commercial, and mechanical, the
painstaking exactitude everywhere practiced will be found to be
a growing subject of wonder and admiration. The secret of this
lies in the fact that perfection in any department of business
not only enlarges that business but also enriches those engaged
in it. For example: there are perhaps ten times as many watches
manufactured in the world to-day as at any other period in its
history. It is a profitable business, or men would not engage in
it, and the superhuman effort that is being continually put
forth to increase the value, by making as perfect an article as
human power can produce, establishes conclusively the assertion
that there is always a profit in doing well. I am glad to
observe that in the cheese industry of the United States and
Canada, the light of this truth has to some extent aroused the
slumbering dairymen. To quote from the Utica Herald of Sept. 11,
1883: "It is estimated that about 700,000 men are employed in
this business, in one capacity or another, and that about
15,000,000 cows are used to furnish the one product of milk. The
returns from this product are over $800,000,000. The total
amount of capital invested in dairying in the United States is
estimated to reach the enormous sum of $2,000,000,000." In
consulting these figures we hope there is no person so dense of
understanding as to entertain for a moment the idea that had the
old system of every man his own cheese-maker prevailed that
anything approaching this grand result would ever have been
attained. Never. The concert or effort attained in the factory
system is the key note to this grand, soul-inspiring chorus.

But an experience of twenty-five years in the dairy industry
leads me to the conclusion that in the music of our business
there is yet much discord. The dairymen and factorymen fail to
understand the spirit of the piece we are attempting to perform,
and fail to catch the idea that individual profit and prosperity
depend upon the success of the business as a whole. No chain is
stronger than its weakest link, and so long as there remains a
slovenly dairyman in the business just so long our system will
be incomplete and the working of co-operation remain imperfect.
Perfect concert of effort, unbroken unity of hand with hand, in
all the various details of the business, reaching down to the
most unimportant items in the production of milk and the making
of cheese, will produce in the long run the most profitable and
permanent results to the individual as well as to the community.

"But," say some, "there is too much of the millennium, too much
of theory, too much of the unattainable, in all this." To such I
answer that there is much of the millennium, much of theory, and
much of the unattainable in the Sermon on the Mount, and yet our
Divine Master preached it, nevertheless.

It may perhaps be considered chimerical and theorizing to talk
of a time when there will be no such persons among dairymen as
what are known to the cheese-maker as a skimmer or stripper, but
we hope such a time will come, nevertheless.

To what purpose do A., B., and C., and a score of other
industrious, honest, painstaking fellows, exert themselves to
collect a model dairy, sparing neither time nor expense in
providing themselves with perfect sets of improved appurtenances
for those dairies, from rich, well-watered pastures down to
good, substantial three-legged milking stools, and labor
incessantly from sunrise until sundown, that their barns may be
in perfect order and everything connected with the business neat
and clean, in order that their material may come into the hands
of the manufacturer in a perfect condition--if heedless, lazy,
shiftless, dishonest, ignorant, good-for-nothing D. keeps about
him a herd of sick, disconsolated racks-of-bones, to wander over
his arid and desolate fields in search of food and drink in
summer, or with backs humped up, hover together for shelter
under the lea of a wheat-straw stack, their only food in winter,
and using a kit of dairying tools, the very best article of
which is an old, water-soaked, dirty wooden pail, drawing his
whey from the factory in the old, rusty, time-embattled milk
cans, in which it is allowed to stand until the next milking,
and which, after an imperfect washing, and refilled and returned
to the factory, freighted with a compound sufficiently poisoned
to nullify and undo the best efforts of a hundred A., B., and
C's. It may be theorizing and visionary to talk of a time when
the spirit of co-operation shall have driven such fellows out of
the dairying business, to betake themselves with a pick-ax and
spade to the ditch, but that such a time may come ought to be
the earnest prayer of every thorough-going friend of
co-operation in the land.

It may seem like castle building and an unprofitable waste of
time to indulge in theories and construct plans by which the
rivalry among factorymen may be kept within a limit sufficiently
circumscribed to prevent the fear of loss of patronage from
interfering with, and lowering the standard of, our cheese. It
is too often the case, nowadays, that factorymen are deterred
from a full and complete discharge of their duty to themselves,
their patrons, and the world in general, by a fear, by no means
groundless, that a bold and upright course with regard to the
material brought to them will result in a damaging, if not
entire loss, of their occupation.

The unwise extent to which men have gone in the erection of
cheese factories, has increased competition to an extent
decidedly prejudicial to the interest of the cheese-consuming
world. A., having invested his entire capital in the
construction and equipment of a factory, will be quite likely,
when B., C., and D. erect factories in his immediate
neighborhood, to hold his peace when sundry varieties of swill
milk are offered at his door, instead of speaking out an
equivocal protest against the insult thus offered to his
professional pride and sense of decency.

To the dairyman naturally given to slovenly and careless habits,
the restraint to which he might otherwise be subjected is
practically removed when nearly equi-distant from his place of
abode there are three or four factories, instead of one, and he
knows that if rejected at one place, he can without
inconvenience go to another, and thus it transpires that at five
factories in every ten there will be found a conspicuous absence
of thorough and inexorable discriminations which ought always to
prevail in the receipt of milk for factory purposes.

For this abuse there is, in our estimation, a remedy however
theoretical and visionary it may appear, and that is concert of
action and co-operation among factorymen. Men in all branches of
business, nowadays, associate with each other, and form
themselves into bodies for the purpose of closer union and
mutual protection, and when this is done for the general good,
as well as individual advancement, the purpose is laudable and
universally successful.

We know of no business in which the necessity of combination is
so great as that of cheese-making, and, what, let me ask, could
be more desirable and praiseworthy than an association of
cheese-makers, for the purpose of sending the swill milk of the
country to the hogs, where it belongs, instead of making it up,
as at present, for human consumption.

We have an idea that such an association might be successfully
formed, and that, when once in effectual operation, it might ask
the legislative body of its country to enact a law, entitled "An
Act for the suppression of swill milk, and for the general good
of mankind," in which it should be provided, among other things,
that in every case where a dairyman has left a factory on
account of having had his milk rejected for cause traceable to
his negligence, that in all such cases, the factory or factory
company knowingly receiving the milk of such rejected party,
shall be liable to some appropriate penalty.

The extreme sensitiveness of milk in the absorption of taint
from the atmosphere, or any substance with which it comes in
contact, ought to be thoroughly understood by all persons
engaged in handling it, but, we believe, that but few
comparatively are alive to the true facts of the case. I
herewith present several paragraphs clipped from journals of
recent date:

"There are seventy-five cases of typhoid fever in the town of
Port Jarvis. Dr. McDonald attributes the spread of the disease
to the use of milk from the farm of Mrs. Thomas Cuddebach, in
whose family there have been several typhoid cases, holding that
the milk conveyed the disease germs. Nearly all of the parties
now sick had used milk from the farm."

"A dairyman from Dundee has been apprehended and fined for
allowing his wife and daughter to milk cows and assist in the
sale of milk, after they had been engaged in nursing a child
suffering from scarlet fever. No less than nineteen cases of
fever, four of which resulted fatally, were traced to this act
of carelessness."

With these facts in view, how can it be expected that any amount
of diligence on the part of a cheese-maker can atone for the
unpardonable sin committed, day after day, by the heedless and
unobserving patrons, of leaving a can of freshly drawn milk
standing all night in an unwholesome barn or yard, until it has
absorbed a whole family of pestilential odors, and then to carry
it to the factory to corrupt and poison everything with which it
comes in contact.

Some may suppose it a mere theory to speak of a condition of
things in which abuses of this character can not be found, but
during an experience of five years as cheese instructor, in the
Province of Ontario, during which I superintended the making of
cheese in about 400 different factories, and during the last
year inspected the milk from about 65,000 cows, the property of
about 7,000 dairymen, I occasionally made up vats in which there
was no discoverable taint and which, I was pretty certain, came
from the farms of well drilled, well posted dairymen, and, from
a circumstance of this character, I am led to the conclusion
that what has been done once can be done again, and I make such
facts a text upon which I found my plea for more thorough
co-operation and diligent painstaking in the work of producing
milk for factory purposes.

* * * * *

There may be times when peculiar atmospheric conditions will
exert unfavorable influences, and seasons when drought and wet
weather will produce changes, over which human efforts have no
control, and for these sufficient allowance must be made. We
quarrel with the stupidity, shiftlessness, and ignorance of men,
and not with the providence of God.

In this day and age of the world there is no excuse for
ignorance upon the points to which we have alluded. Wisdom
uttereth her voice in the streets, and he who will not hear her
ought to be drummed out of the camp of dairymen. As a rule, a
common carpenter puts more thought into his business in a month
than many dairymen do in a year. Indeed, it would be difficult
to point out a single branch of human industry, of one-half the
magnitude which the manufacture and sale of cheese has reached,
carried on in a manner so slipshod and slovenly as dairying.

The banker, the columns of whose ledger fail by one cent of
balancing, spares neither time nor money in searching out and
correcting the error; the merchant brings to bear upon his
business a care and insight so unceasing and laborious that his
locks are soon sprinkled with premature silver; the machinist
works to plans from which the variation of a thousandth part of
an inch can not be allowed to pass uncorrected; but the dairyman
too often stumbles along through his work without thought, or
employs the little intellect he has in putting in and harvesting
his crops, leaving the dairy in the meantime to take care of
itself. There are too many men engaged in dairying who can see
nothing in the business beyond the factory dividend; men to whom
filling the milk pail and the can are the Alpha and Omega of
life. To such men such a thing as an ambition that their county,
town, or neighborhood shall attain and hold a reputation for
being the banner cheese district of the State or nation, is as
thoroughly unknown as the configuration of the bottom of the
Dead sea.

In saying what we have about the patrons of cheese factories,
and the closer and more thorough co-operation among them, we
have been actuated by no feelings of unkindness or ill will, nor
have we arraigned them upon trivial or imaginary charges. The
indictments we have found against them are all true bills,
against which too many of them will be unable to sustain the
plea of not guilty. We have been constrained to our present
course by an overmastering sense of the importance of greater
care, deeper thought, and closer union in pushing forward one of
the greatest industries of the day. I am confident that before
another step can be taken in advance it must be preluded by a
correction of the errors which we have feebly attempted to
portray, all of which lie outside and prior to the factory. As a
body, cheese-makers can do little better than they are now
doing, until there is some improvement in the material upon
which they are called upon to exercise their skill, and the
practice of crimination and recrimination, the factorymen
tossing the blame upon the dairymen and the dairymen upon the
factorymen, which is made use of to conceal the real source of
our mistakes, will continue to shield him from the eyes of a
discriminating public until the care and diligence of dairymen
strip him of this shelter and drive him forward on the march to
improvement.

* * * * *

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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VETERINARY

Impaction of the Paunch.

Impaction of the paunch (the first stomach or rumen) in cattle, sometimes also called grainsick or mawbound, differs from bloating or hoove, mainly thereby that the distention is more solid than gaseous, it being either with food alone, or with food and gas. Symptomatically it differs also from hoove by the absence of eructation, and by the hardness of the flanks and the smaller volume of the swelling. It arises from gorging with almost any kind of food, even with grain or with chaff, at a sudden change of diet; but it is particularly liable to arise from a surfeit of turnips, fresh grass, or any other succulent food at the commencement of the season. The instrument called a probang ought to be introduced, either to decide whether the case be one of hoove or one of mawbound, or to ascertain the degree in which the latter disease exists. If the probang bring on a sudden rush of gas, the disease is wholly or chiefly hoove; and if it encounter a solid resistance, the disease mawbound, and exists in a degree of aggravation proportioned to the nearness of the point at which the resistance is felt.

In mild cases of impaction of the paunch, when the animal does not seem to suffer much pain, and is not materially fevered, but merely ceases rumination or chewing of the cud, refuses to eat, and lies long and indolently in one posture, a dose of oil, or a little forced walking, are frequently sufficient to effect a cure. In cases which, though on the whole mild, are accompanied with a kind of inertia, or with an insuperable reluctance to rise or to move about, stimulants, such as ether diluted with alcohol and water, may be required to rouse the paunch into renewed action; but whenever such remedies are necessary, they must be given in cautious doses, and always accompanied with some gentle purgatives. In very bad cases, when the animal seems sinking through inertness into death, or in which moans, swells at the sides, becomes almost as a board in the flanks, appears to suffer great and increasing pain, and seems eventually to be overwhelmed with anguish and to be passing into unconsciousness, it must be promptly decided whether we have sufficient time and encouragement to try the effect of stimulants, purgatives, the stomach pump, and other comparatively gentle measures; and if not, we should, without much delay, cut through the left flank into the paunch, and with the hands withdraw the contents. The cutting operation itself is attended or followed with little danger; but in the extracting of the food, no matter how carefully performed, some small portion is liable to drop into the abdominal cavity; and this, in consequence of its indigested condition, resists absorption or expulsion, undergoes an irritating decomposition, and may very probably originate some serious inflammatory disorder. Any animal which has suffered a very bad case of impaction of the paunch, ought, immediately after complete restoration to health, to be sent to the shambles; for, independently of the lurking danger consequent on the artificial extraction of the food, or even upon the relaxation which follows the administration of a stimulant, the paunch is so much overstretched and injured by the mechanical effects of the distension as to be temporarily incapacitated for the proper discharge of its functions.

Queries Answered.

PROBABLY RINGBONE.--W. B. S., Sciola, Iowa. In the absence of any information to the contrary, the lameness may be regarded as due to the development of ringbone. There is no certain cure for this disease. All that may be expected from treatment is to retard or stay its progress or development; but in all cases more or less stiffness or lameness will remain, depending upon the extent of its development. Then, subsequent hard work, or any cause of renewed irritation, will be apt to further aggravate the case, and cause additional enlargement and increasing lameness. The usual course of treatment in such cases consists in blistering or firing, or both combined, with subsequent long rest or a season's liberty on pasture.

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Uneasiness is a species of sagacity; a passive sagacity. Fools are never uneasy.

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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.

Lessons of 1883.

BY O. B. GALUSHA.

Progress in all arts and sciences is the one grand aim of all associations and of all agricultural and horticultural societies and journals; and to study the results of each year's experiences and observations, comparing them with those of previous years, and also with the ideal of perfection which each laborer in these several departments of industry has pictured in his own mind, is the best preparation for achieving desired results in the future.

In the present paper we will take a brief retrospect of the fruit crops of 1883, and inquire into the causes of successes and failures.

STRAWBERRIES.

We begin with the strawberry, which, though small and unpretentious, has been from year to year rising in importance until it has become second only to the apple in the estimation of a majority of consumers.

The past year's experience has taught, as does that of each year, that great care should be taken in selecting varieties adapted to each particular soil and situation. This may be said to be the important thing in strawberry growing.

It is a difficult thing to find such varieties by the ordinary means of selecting; namely, recourse to the catalogues of growers. Man has a wonderful amount of selfishness in his composition. I say wonderful, for it is a wonder when we consider how much better he would enjoy life were all selfishness eliminated from it, and benevolence, coupled with true self love, were substituted. "Each crow thinks its own young the blackest," and each (almost) originator or "exclusive owner" of a new variety of plant or tree, labors hard to convince himself and others that he has the best of his kind; but, owing to the weakness of human nature, even the sincere among these are liable to be biased, and thus mislead others. The only safety, therefore, lies in planting such varieties as you know to succeed well near you in similar soil, while new varieties, commended as superior by persons of known integrity and experience, for similar soil and climatic condition, should be tried only on a small scale as an experiment. If they succeed, you can soon have plenty of plants of your own growing--if you prefer to grow them. This advice, though often before given will bear frequent repetition--for the desire for "something new" is as prevalent with us now as it was with the Athenians in St. Paul's time. We have seen Big Bobs, Great Americans, and other monstrosities dwindle to pigmies in the hands of ordinary cultivators, and the demand for Sharpless become less sharp through its sensitiveness to the influence of Jack Frost; and hosts of other sorts, really good and valuable somewhere, and under peculiarly favorable conditions to be comparatively valueless for general cultivation. Therefore every person designing to plant should repeat to himself this injunction--"Go slow on new varieties."

It is not desirable for persons who plant for their own use solely to select the pistillate varieties; for these, although the most profusely productive when well fertilized, are liable to overrun their staminate neighbors, and soon render the "strawberry patch" unproductive, or productive only of small or imperfect fruit. The leading pistillates offered in the catalogues now are Crescent, Col. Cheney, Windsor Chief, Jersey Queen, Big Bob, Manchester, Green Prolific, Golden Defiance, Champion, Park Beauty, Gipsey, and some others.

There are a few sorts, having perfect blossoms, which give profitable returns on a variety of soils, and which may be considered safe to plant. These are Charles Downing, Miner, Bidwell (kept in single rows or single plants), Piper, Cumberland Triumph, Phelps ("Old Iron Clad"), Sucker State, Finch, Capt. Jack (acid), Longfellow (with good, rich culture), Mt. Vernon (late), and for sandy soil, Kentucky (late). This list may be said to constitute the cream of the thousand and one varieties offered which have been well tested. Of course those who grow strawberries for market will plant largely of some of the pistillate sorts, owing to their great productiveness.

The past year has taught the folly of too great haste in removing the covering from strawberry plants; as those which bloomed early were badly damaged by the frost. Plantations, also, which were partially screened by rows and belts of evergreens produced twice to three times the quantity of fruit that was obtained from the same varieties fully exposed. Plants in orchards also escaped to a great degree, for the trees were in leaf when the destructive frost occurred, and thus gave partial protection. Strawberries are at home in a young orchard; the cultivation given the plants is good for the trees, and the slight shade of the young trees is no perceptible detriment to the plants or fruit.

The general crop was about one-third an average--the chief damage being done by the frost--though the tarnished plant-bug was very destructive in Southern Illinois, and did some damage in other localities. Prices were from fifty to a hundred per cent higher than usual--supply and demand being the factors, in the fruit trade, as well as in all others, which regulate prices.

Spring is better than summer or autumn for planting strawberries. In thirty years' experience in strawberry culture I have never, except in two instances, found any advantage in summer or fall planting, and in these pot-plants were used, which are too expensive for general planting and not always preferable. Three or four of the varieties named, 100 of each, planted as early in spring as the ground is in good condition, in rows three to three and a half feet apart, and confined, as they run, to narrow strips, will give an abundance of fruit for two or three years for a large family. Certainly such planting and care is as good an investment as can be made upon any farm or in any garden.

RASPBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES

were more nearly a failure, generally, as a crop, in 1883, than strawberries, but owing to a different cause, namely, the severe cold of the previous winter. None of the cultivated varieties escaped unharmed wherever the mercury sank lower than 30 degrees below zero, and 32 degrees below was marked nearly everywhere north of the latitude of Peoria and Bloomington, in Illinois, and in many places 36 degrees below was recorded. Blackberries also suffered; even the hardy Snyder not escaping; and a similar disaster threatens the crops of these species in 1884, for as I write, on a clear, sunny day, the mercury has not risen higher than 16 degrees below zero, and this morning (January 5,) was 33 degrees below here in Peoria, and 35 degrees below in Bloomington. The canes went into the winter in good order, however, and, if no intense cold prevails hereafter, the damage may be less than last winter when they were not as well hardened.

Since we can not prevent the recurrence of these polar region down-pours, we can prepare our canes of raspberries and blackberries for enduring such extreme cold, by commencing cultivation early in the spring and discontinuing by the middle of June, also by stopping the growth of young canes, by pinching or chopping off, when not more than two and a half feet high, and again, as soon as another foot in length is made, stopping both uprights and laterals. If all weak canes are kept cut out, and those shortened for fruiting the next year not allowed to stand nearer than eight or ten inches of each other, they will become "ripe" and firm in texture before cold weather overtakes them. The hardiest of the red varieties are Turner, Thwack, and Cuthbert; and of the black-caps, the Soughegan (earliest), Tyler, and Gregg (latest). The black-caps named endured the winter fully as well as the hardy red varieties.

Of blackberries the Snyder still heads the list for hardiness and general value north of the latitude named, though Early Harvest bids fair to be of value. Taylor was damaged a little more than Snyder, while Barnard, Ancient Briton, and Stone's Hardy rank with Snyder for hardiness.

Raspberries and blackberries should be planted early in the spring, if not done in late autumn, in rows six to eight feet apart. Red raspberries may be set two feet apart in the rows, and black-caps and blackberries wider--two and one-half to four feet, according to stock of plants or desire for quick returns; for all will bear the next year after planting. Give good cultivation the first year and mulch in the fall, along the rows of both raspberries and blackberries, with manure free from grass seeds, and cover the entire surface between the rows of blackberries with old prairie hay, corncobs, or straw; or, if cultivation the next year is intended, the inter-row of mulch may be omitted.

The intense cold of these two consecutive winters should not deter land owners from planting these fruits. These extremes come in cycles; and, though old Jupiter is now, and was last winter, exerting an unusual disturbing influence upon our planet, he will this year calm his temper and give us nine or ten years of respite from his powerful magnetic sway.

CURRANTS, GOOSEBERRIES, AND GRAPES

were less affected by the severity of the winter of '83-'84 than by the late frosts of spring, which destroyed the young shoots of grapes and the blossoms and young fruit of the berries. Currants are yearly growing in favor and the price of the fruit advancing; and now currant culture is profitable and likely to continue so for a series of years.

Ground can not well be made too rich for currants and gooseberries. Plant in rows four feet apart and plants three feet apart in the rows; give thorough culture or deep mulch over the entire surface, cut out all wood of three years' growth (or after first crop is often considered better), and a good crop is almost certain. Red Dutch, White Grape, Victoria, and Versailles are still the favorites; and American Seedling (or Cluster) and Houghton are usually the most profitable gooseberries.

Every one who can raise corn and potatoes can as easily raise, with little trouble and expense, grapes enough for a family's use. Plant such hardy sorts as Moore's Early, Worden, Concord, and Martha, in rows seven or eight feet apart, and same distance in the row, give good cultivation the first year, cut back to two or three feet in autumn, lay the short canes on the ground and hold down with a spadeful of earth. Plant posts four feet high and stretch two No. 15 wires along them--the upper one on top--and in the spring, as the vines grow, tie to the wires, keeping one cane only for fruit this year and two new ones for next year's fruiting; and a crop is as certain as a crop of corn. Cut out weak canes every year, and encourage those starting nearest the ground, cutting back each autumn one-half or two-thirds the growth; cut out old canes. It is not necessary to lay the canes down and hold them to the ground or cover in this latitude, though this work will pay well.

In two weeks orchards will be discussed.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of the Executive Board of the State Horticultural Society was held in the agricultural rooms at Springfield, January 9th. Present: John M. Pearson, Godfrey, President; A. C. Hammond, Warsaw, Secretary; S. M. Slade, Elgin, Arthur Bryant, Princeton, Dr. A. G. Humphrey, Galesburg, H. M. Dunlap, Champaign, and E. A. Reihl, Alton.

A large amount of routine business was transacted, not of public interest, after which the board proceeded to arrange for a grand fruit exhibition, to be made by the society at the next State Fair. This collection will not be entered for a premium, but only to show the diversified horticultural products of the State.

The public-spirited citizens of Illinois, and particularly of Chicago, have decreed that the State Fair of 1884 shall eclipse anything of the kind ever held in the Northwest, and the State Horticultural Society, desiring to keep abreast of the times, will make a display of fruit that the State may well be proud of.

It was also decided to offer liberal premiums for horticultural products to be exhibited at the next winter meeting, which will be held in the Industrial University, at Champaign, the first or second week in December.

After some discussion as to the best method of interesting the students in our work, it was decided to offer premiums, first and second, for the best essays on horticultural subjects. The board and members of the society hope that this offer will be the means of bringing out a number of papers from the young gentlemen and ladies of the institution.

There seems to be a determination evinced by the members of the board and society to make an aggressive, vigorous campaign the present year, and to bring our work more prominently before the people than ever before.

The following are the standing committees for the year:

Orchard Culture--B. F. Johnson, Champaign; Henry Mortimore,
Manteno.

Forestry--Thomas Gregg, Hamilton; L. C. Francis, Springfield.

Vegetable Gardening--A. L. Hays, Jacksonville.

Grapes and Grape Culture--Ayres, Villa Ridge; M. A. Baldwin,
Jacksonville; D. J. Piper, Foreston.

Strawberries--J. G. Bubach, Princeton; Henry Wallace, Villa
Ridge; O. B. Galusha, Peoria.

Raspberries, Blackberries, Currants, and Gooseberries--H. G.
Vickroy, Normal; Wm. Jackson, Godfrey; D. Wilmot Scott, Galena.

Pears--C. N. Dennis, Hamilton; Parker Earle, Cobden; W. T.
Nelson, Wilmington.

Peaches--J. B. Spaulding, Riverton; H. C. Freeman, Alto Pass.

Plums and Cherries--Dr. A. H. Sanborn, Anna; L. C. Francis,
Springfield.

New Fruits, Trees, and Plants--J. T. Johnson, Warsaw; E.
Hollister, Alton.

Gathering and Marketing Fruits and Vegetables--R. W. Hunt,
Galesburg; Ed. Rogers, Upper Alton.

Utilizing Fruits--G. H. Clayson, Crystal Lake; ---- Roberts,
Godfrey.

Floriculture--Thomas Franks, Champaign; Joseph Heinl,
Jacksonville.

Landscape Gardening--J. P. Bryant, Princeton; Prof. Standish,
Galesburg.

Vegetable Physiology--Prof. Burrill, Champaign; G. H. French,
Carbondale.

Entomology and Ornithology--Prof. S. A. Forbes, Normal; Miss
Alice Walton, Muscatine, Iowa; Miss Emily A. Smith, Peoria.

Geology and Soils, as Affecting Plant Life--Wm. McAdams, Alton;
Henry M. Bannister, Kankakee; Henry M. Shaw, Mt. Carrol.

Horticultural Adornment of Home--Mrs. Lavina S. Humphrey.
Galesburg; Mrs. H. N. Roberts, Alton; Mrs. P. V. Hathaway,
Damascus.

The appointment of ad-interim committees was referred to the members of the board from each horticultural district. A portion of them asked time for consultation, which was granted. When the entire committee in appointed, the names will be reported to THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

A. C. HAMMOND, Sec'y.

DIOGENES IN HIS TUB.

And first, Diogenes would discourse of that remarkable polar wave that struck us on Saturday the 5th of the year, and its probable effect on the fruit product. Great fear is manifested on all sides, and not without grounds: yet the conditions, it seems to me, have been so favorable that there is cause for hope. Remember that there was no very sudden change, the temperature having been low for two or three weeks before, and no sudden rise since. The sudden changes seem to be the ones--coming in the midst of winter--that are the most destructive to our fruits. So I conclude there is ground yet for hope; and unless some future disaster should occur, Dio., if living, will expect to eat of several sorts of fruit this year grown on his own grounds. Keep in good heart, brethren; Providence will send us all we deserve.

But hasn't that man at Cape Girardeau a level head? Dio. himself could not have given as many sensible suggestions concerning farmers' libraries, as he did in No. 1. All farmers and horticulturists can not go as deeply into periodicals as he, but they can profitably go much deeper than they do. Take a farmer's home provided on his plan, and then imagine, if you can, sensible sons running off to breaking on freight trains, or selling soap and candies behind counters! Improbable.

And then, again, in No. 2, his thoughts on naming country houses. How suggestive!

The Editor in No. 1, favors interdiction of French liquors, etc., as retaliation for their interdiction of American pork. Dio. says interdict them as a matter of protection to ourselves, without regard to hog or hominy.