THE PRAIRIE FARMER A Weekly Journal for THE FARM, ORCHARD, AND FIRESIDE. ESTABLISHED IN 1841. ENTIRE SERIES: VOL. 56--NO. 4. CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1884. PRICE, $2. 00 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. [Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents was originally located onpage 56 of the periodical. It has been moved here for ease of use. ] THE CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER. AGRICULTURE--Raising Onions, Page 49; Royalist 3d, 4500, 49; IllinoisTile-Makers' Convention, 50-51; Better Management Needed, 51; Seed Cornfrom South, 51; Field and Furrow Items, 51. LIVE STOCK--Items, Page 52; Herd Books and Records, 52; Competing forSweepstake Prizes, 52; Raising Young Mules, 52. THE DAIRY--Wisconsin Dairymen, Page 53. VETERINARY--Impaction of the Paunch, Page 53; HORTICULTURE--Lessons of 1883, Page 54; Illinois Hort. Society, 54;Diogenes in His Tub, 54-55; Possibilities of Cherry Growing, 55;Prunings, 55. FLORICULTURE--Gleanings by an Old Florist, Page 55. EDITORIAL--Items, Page 56; The Cost of Cold Winds, 56; Good Work atWashington, 56-57; Wisconsin Meetings, 57; Answers to Correspondents, 57; Wayside Notes, 57; Letter from Champaign, 57. POULTRY NOTES--Chicken Chat, Page 58; Chicken Houses, 58; Items, 58. FORESTRY--Items, Page 59. SCIENTIFIC--Official Weather Wisdom, Page 59; A Remarkable ElectricalDiscovery, 59; Items, 59. HOUSEHOLD--Christian Charity (Poetry), Page 60; Items, 60; The NightCap, 60; How to Treat a Boy, 60; Pamphlets, Etc. , Received, 60; CompiledCorrespondence, 60. YOUNG FOLKS--Jule Fisher's Rescue, Page 61. LITERATURE--Between the Two Lights, Poem, Page 62; The Two Overcoats, 62. HUMOROUS--Bait of the Average Fisherman, Page 63; Whose Cold Feet, 63;Changed Relations, 63; It Makes a Difference, 63; Items, 63. QuestionAnswered, 53. NEWS OF THE WEEK--Page 64. MARKETS--Page 64. RAISING ONIONS. There are two causes of failure to make this crop uncertain. One isbecause the soil is not kept clear of weeds, and the other is that it isnot properly enriched. To raise a good crop of onions requires a light, loamy soil, worked into as fine a condition as possible, to rendercultivation easy. The greater part of the preparation should be done in the fall, andespecially the application of the manure. Well rotted manure is thebest, and that which is free from grass, oats, or weed seeds, shouldalways be selected. Of course, if the manure is properly rotted thevitality of the larger portion of the seed in it will be killed, butunless this is done it will render the cultivation much more difficult. Stiff, clayey, or hard, poor land can be made a great deal better forthe onion crop by a heavy application of ashes or well rotted bagasse. Iprefer to apply ashes as a top dressing in the spring, working it in thesurface, as I find by experience that they are not only valuable as afertilizer when used in this way, but are also of great benefit inkeeping down the weeds. A plot of ground that is seeded with crab-grass should not be selected, as the pulling up of the grass injures the growth of the onions. Onionsfeed near the surface; in fact, the larger portion of the bulb grows ontop of the soil, and as a natural consequence the plant food should bewell worked in the surface. Of course it is too late now to talk aboutfall preparation. If we want a crop of onions from seed this spring, whatever preparation there is must be done between now and seeding. Ishould plow or spade up the soil as soon as possible, if there is a thawout either the last of this or any part of next month. If you can save up and rot a supply of poultry manure and leaves, youcan have the very best manure for a good onion crop. Another important point in raising a good crop of onions is to have goodseed and sow it early. The first favorable time in the spring must betaken advantage of, if you would have the best success with your crop. As good seed is necessary in any crop, so it is with onions. Test yourseed before risking your entire crop, as by the time you plant once andfail, and procure seed and plant again, it will be too late to make agood crop. I always take advantage of the first chance in March to sowmy onion seed. We usually have a few warm days sometime about the middleof the month when this work can be done. Of course I do not say thatthis is the case every year. The first favorable opportunity should betaken advantage of, is what I want to impress upon those who expect tomake a crop; let this time come when it will, any time early in thespring. If the ground has been plowed or spaded well during the winter, a good harrowing or raking should be given. If you have the poultrymanure, now is the best time to apply it, working it on top of the soilwith a rake. If you have not the poultry manure and have ashes, give agood strong dressing of ashes, raking evenly over the surface. Mark offin drills twelve inches apart, and not more than one inch deep; lay offthe drills as narrow and as straight as possible, and then drill theseed evenly. Try to keep them in a straight row, as it will aid much inthe cultivation. Cover lightly, but press the soil firmly upon the seed. They will withstand considerable cold, damp weather before rotting. Last year I sowed my onion seed on the 23d of March; the next ten dayswere cold, rainy, dark, dismal days, with two or three freezes. Yet myonions came up all right and made a good crop. As soon as the shoots make their appearance above the ground a goodraking with a fine steel rake can be given. This will give them a goodstart and destroy the young weeds that will begin to make theirappearance at the same time. After the onions start to grow, cultivationis the making of the crop, and the cleaner they are kept and the oftenerthe surface is stirred the better will be the crop. As to varieties, the old Red Wethersfield and the Danvers Yellow are myfavorites. The Yellow Strasburg is a good yellow variety, and there arequite a number of others that are good. In cultivating I keep thesurface level, as they do better if kept in this way than if they arehilled up. Thin out so that the plants do not crowd each other--theyshould stand two or three inches apart--if you want large onions atmaturity. N. J. SHEPHERD MILLER CO. , MO. ROYALIST 3D, 4500. [Illustration: Royalist 3^{rd} 4500 Elmwood Stock Farm PROPERTY OF COL. C. F. MILLS, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. ] The bull Royalist 3d, 4500, here portrayed, stands at the head of thesuperb Jersey herd owned by Col. Charles F. Mills, Springfield, Illinois. He was bred by Mr. Samuel Stratton; dropped December 13, 1878;got by imp. Royalist 2906; dam imp. Nelly 6456. Royalist 2906 receivedthe first prize over all Jersey in 1877; first prize and silver cup atSt. Saviour's Show in 1877; first prize at the great St. Louis Fair asa three-year-old, and grand sweepstakes at St. Louis Fair in 1879 as thebest Jersey bull of any age. Her sire, Duke (76), won first prize overthe Island, Herd Book Parochial prize, and first Herd Book prize atRoyal Jersey Show in 1875. Merry Boy (61), I. H. B. , grandsire ofRoyalist 2906, won first prize at St. Mary's Show in 1874. Stockwell II(24), I. H. B. , great-great-grandsire of Royalist 2906, won third prizeover the Island and second Herd Book prize at the Royal Jersey Show, 1871; the bronze medal at the Channel Island Exhibition in 1871, andthird prize at the Royal Jersey Show in 1872. Nelly, the dam of Royalist 3d, 4500, has produced 21 pounds of butter inseven days since importation, and Mr. Stratton is authority for thestatement that she received the special prize at the Farmers' Club, Island of Jersey, for the best butter cow, having made 16 pounds Jerseyweight of 18 ounces to the pound, or 18 avoirdupois pounds, in sevendays. Her sire, Lemon (170), is the grandsire of Mr. C. Easthope'scelebrated Nancy Lee 7618 (test 95 lbs. 3-1/2 oz. Unsalted butter in 31days), and Daisy of St. Peters 18175 (test 20 lbs. 5-1/2 oz. Unsaltedbutter in seven days). Taking all things into consideration, we doubt if there is a betterJersey bull in the world than Royalist 3d. Certainly he has no superiorin this country. Mr. Mills' Jersey herd is a model in all respects, andthe popular chief clerk in the State Agricultural rooms may well beproud of it. * * * * * The Northwestern Importers' and Breeders' Association, Minneapolis, Minn. , have bought $20, 000 worth of Fresian stock of the UnadillaCompany, West Edmeston, N. Y. * * * * * [Illustration] AGRICULTURAL Farmers, Write for Your Paper. Illinois Tile-Makers' Convention. BUSINESS OF THE YEAR. (_Continued from last week. _) An interesting feature of the proceedings of the Tile-Makers' Conventionwas the brief reports of members regarding their business last year. About forty manufacturers reported. In the majority of cases the demandhas been fair; in a few very brisk; in quite a number it was said thatsales could be made only at a reduction in prices. It was easy to seethat in some sections of the State the work of tile-making was overdone, that is, the supply is in excess of the demand. It was the generalexpression that prices could not be greatly reduced and leave areasonable profit to the manufacturer. HOW TO INCREASE THE DEMAND was the question this year. Last year at this convention the talk wasupon "How shall we supply the demand?" The answers to the question ofhow to increase the demand were various. Some advocated a rigidadherence to fair living prices, and thus teach farmers that it isuseless to wait for cheaper tile; make a first-class article and thecheap tile that is hurting the trade will be forced out of the market. There was a general advocacy of a wider dissemination of a knowledge ofthe benefits of drainage. Show farmers and fruit-growers that they canadd new acres to their farms, and take from tiled land a sufficientlyincreased yield the first year to pay for tiling, and that their land isworth more dollars per acre after tiling than the expense amounts to, and the demand will multiply many fold. Teach the farmers how to laytheir drains properly, so that no disappointment will result, and everyacre drained will advertise the profits from drainage. Circulate factsin regard to drainage as contributed to the agricultural papers, andeven the newspapers. Subscribe for these papers and distribute them. Circulate the essays read at tile-makers' conventions. Talk drainageeverywhere and at all times. These were among the means sensiblyadvocated for increasing the demand for tile. WINTER TILE-MAKING. It is but recently that the manufacture of tile has been carried on inwinter, but now many establishments are running the year round. It wasnot claimed that the business can be prosecuted as advantageously inwinter as in summer. But it gives employment to men, and themanufactories are thus enabled to keep skilled labor always on hand. Itwas thought that though the profits are small it is really better to runin winter where there is a demand for tile. In most cases it is betterto make brick a portion of the year. There is always a demand for goodbrick at paying prices. If it will not pay to produce all tile, or somuch tile as may be turned out, this will afford relief and keep themachine in motion. TILE MACHINERY. Mr. Billingsby, whose position allows him an excellent opportunity ofjudging, said there has been rapid improvement in the machinery fortile-making. Great advance has been made in machines for preparing clay, especially in the rapidity of handling it. The buildings for drying tilewere a great deal better than five years ago. The means of ventilationare becoming excellent. The kilns are better and can be moresatisfactorily managed. There is yet need for a cheaper tilefactory--one where the investment of only a few hundred dollars willanswer. PROTECTING DRAINS. It was generally conceded that it is best to have some device at the endof the drains to keep out rabbits, water animals, etc. Wires stretchedacross did pretty well but must be carefully looked after to clear awaythe roots and refuse that come through the drains. Two or three devicesto take the place of wire were exhibited and were generally thought tobe greatly superior. OPEN DITCHES. An interesting feature of this convention was the introduction, for thefirst time, of the discussion of tile ditching by machinery in a paperprepared by Hon. F. Plumb, of Streator, Ill. Mr. Plumb has beenexperimenting for several years with tile ditches, using both animal andsteam power. He gave it as his conclusion that the machine of the futurewould be a machine that would perfect the ditch by one passage over theground. He has perfected and is now manufacturing a steam power machine, at Streator, Ill. , which is spoken of very highly by all who have seenit at work in the field. Mr. Plumb claims that the machine will cuttwenty rods of three-foot ditch in an hour, and give a grade and finishto the bottom of the ditch equal to the very best hand work. Thecapacity of the machine is varied to any depth up to four feet, and forany sized tile up to nine-inch. Two men can operate the machine. Thecost of cutting ditches, laying and covering tile is reduced to aboutten cents per rod. He has already sold several of his machines, and isto be congratulated on the success he has attained in securing a goodtile ditcher. We can conceive of no one thing that will conduce to thesale and use of tile so much as such a machine as the Plumb Steam TileDitcher. The machine is indorsed by C. G. Elliott, of Tonica, DrainageEngineer; by Mr. Pike, President of the convention, and others who haveseen it at work in the field. LAYING TILE BY MACHINERY. There was nothing among the devices exhibited at this convention thatattracted more attention or received more favorable private comment thana model of Chamberlin Brothers' Patent Apparatus for Tiling. The modelonly was shown, but working machines are in operation in Iowa, and theyare giving excellent satisfaction, as attested by such men as Thos. B. Wales, Jr. , of Iowa City, and Daniel H. Wheeler, Secretary of theNebraska State Board of Agriculture. The apparatus is upon the oldprinciple of the mole ditcher requiring the same capstan power. One teamis sufficient to run it. The apparatus is composed of a beam or sill, horizontal in position, and a coulter seven feet long at the rear end ofthe beam, and perpendicular to it a spirit level attached to the beam, aids in regulating. The coulter can be run anywhere from one to fivefeet deep. The front end of the beam is provided with a mud or stoneboat to prevent sinking in the mud, and with a jack screw for regulatingon uneven ground. Attached to it, and following the mole, is a carrier200 feet long, made concave in form. On this the tile are laid andcarried into the ground. A start is made at an open ditch or hole ofrequired depth; when the carrier is drawn in full length a hole is dugjust back of the coulter, two by three feet, down to the tile, a stopplaced in front of the tile, the machine is started which draws thecarrier from under the tile, when it is again located as before, and soon. Different sized moles are used according to the size of the tile tobe laid. Any one can easily count up the advantages of this mode oflaying tile, provided the machine can do the work it is claimed to do, and of this there seems to be no question, if we may believe thetestimony of those who have seen it in operation. DRAINAGE LAWS. The following by Senator Whiting, of Bureau county, was read by theSecretary: Illinois is a good State as nature made her, and drainage is destined toadd wealth almost inestimable. Drainage enterprises are everywhereseen--in extent from the small work beginning and ending in the samefield, to the levees of Sny Carte, and the canal-like channels throughthe Winnebago swamps. Drainage is naturally divided into two classes: 1. Individual drainage, where the land-owner has his own outletindependent of others. 2. Combined drainage where one can not drain without joining withothers. The smallest of these combined works is where two only are concerned. The Hickory Creek ditch now in progress in Bureau and Henry counties isthirteen miles long, has a district of about 15, 000 acres, owned by overseventy-five persons. This combined drainage partakes of the nature ofpublic works. For this class the constitution has been twice amended, and many elaborate laws have been enacted. These laws have had theirvicissitudes, and are not yet free from complications. The firstdrainage legislation commenced forty years ago, by a special act, todrain some wet lands near Chicago. In 1859 two special acts were passedfor lands on the American bottoms. In 1865 a general act was passed. Allthese enactments were under the constitution of 1848 which was silent ondrainage, and the courts annulled most of these as unconstitutional. In1870 the new constitution was framed containing a brief provision ondrainage. The late Mr. Browning, a leading member of that convention, drafted a drainage bill which was enacted into a law without change. Large enterprises were organized and got well started; but again somecomplaining person appealed to the courts, and this law too, wasdeclared too big for the constitution. The constitution was thenenlarged to meet if possible, the views of the court. Two elaborate lawson the main question were passed in 1879, and these with severalamendments since made rest undisturbed on the statutes. One of these isgenerally known as the "levee law, " and the other as the "farm drainageact. " They cover nearly the same subject matter, and were passed tocompromise conflicting views. These laws relate to "combined drainage. ""Individual drainage" was not discussed. As the law does not undertaketo define how deep you may plow or what crop you shall raise, so it wasthought unnecessary to make any provisions about the drainage of yourown land. COURT DECISION. --To the public surprise the Appellate court at Ottawa intwo decisions pronounced individual drainage unlawful. As this decisionis notable, and the subject of controversy, its history should be known. In 1876, Mr. C. Pilgrim, of Bureau county, laid about sixty rods oftwo-inch tile up a slight depression in his corn-field, discharging thesame under a box culvert in the public road. This depression continuedinto a pasture field of Mr. J. H. Mellor, of Stark county, abouteighteen rods to a running stream. Mr. Mellor sued Mr. Pilgrim fortrespass, and the case was twice tried successively in the circuitcourts of Stark and Bureau counties. The juries each time decided forMr. Pilgrim, but the Appellate court each time reversed the decision;and finally worried Mr. Pilgrim into yielding to a judgment of one centdamages. The material part of that decision is as follows: MELLOR VS. PILGRIM. --"The appellant had the right to own and possess hisland free from the increased burden arising from receiving the surfacewater from the land of appellee through artificial channels made byappellee, for the purpose of carrying the surface water therefrom morerapidly than the same would naturally flow; and the appellant havingsuch right for any invasion thereof the law gives him an action. * * *If, as we have seen, the appellee by making the drain in questioncollected the surface water upon his own land and discharged the sameupon the lands of the appellant in increased quantity and in a differentmanner than the same would naturally run, the act was unlawful becauseof its consequences, and the subjecting of appellant's lands to suchincreased and different burden than would otherwise attach to it, was aninvasion of appellant's rights from which the law implies damages, andin such case proof of the wrongful act entitles the plaintiff to recovernominal damages at least. " Under this decision it is not easy to see how a man can lawfully cut arod of ditch or lay tile on his own land, unless he can contrive someway to stop the flow of water. 1. The lower man may recover without proving that he is damaged becauseto drain is "wrongful. " 2. Such drainage being a continuing trespass, subjects the perpetratorto never ending law suits and foredoomed defeats. 3. The lower man may forbid you to drain, or exact such tribute as hemay dictate. 4. As the first man below must be consulted, why not the second, and howfar this side of the Gulf is the limit of this trespass? Here, as I have elsewhere, I challenge this as bad law. It reverses theorder of nature, as well as custom, and can not be endured as the publicpolicy of Illinois. Let us contemplate the exact opposite principle. "Aland owner may drain his land for agricultural purposes by tile or openditch, in the line of natural drainage, into any natural outlet on hisown land or into any drainage depression leading to some naturaloutlet. " This proposition is generally regarded as self evident, but out ofrespect to the court, let us give some of the considerations on which itrests: 1. Improved agriculture is an element in civilization. 2. Drainage belongs to good agriculture, is extensively practiced andmust often precede the plow. 3. The surplus water can not be stored or annihilated, and the course ofdrainage is indicated, in most places determined by nature, in thedrainage depressions which are nature's outlets. 4. The law of gravity, with or without man's work, is constant andactive in moving the waters to the lower level. The ditcher's art is toremove the obstacles to a freer flow. 5. Excessive water is a foe to agriculture; and for the general good itshould be collected into channels, and as speedily as possible passedalong on its inevitable journey. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. --It is said to be a universal law maxim, "that youmay use your own as you will, but not to the detriment of yourneighbor, " and that this principle forbids this kind of drainage. Thismaxim may be general, but it is not universal. My neighbor may havebuilt his house and other domestic arrangements in the lee of a naturalgrove of timber on my land. The removal of this grove may be a realgrievance by giving the wind too free a sweep; yet my right to changethis waste into a grain field will not be questioned. My warranty deedis my right thus to improve my land, though it be "to the detriment ofmy neighbor. " He should have foreseen the contingency of a removal ofthese woods. On like principles a land owner may remove an excess ofwater so as to raise corn and not rushes. In the removal of woods myneighbor may not have an immediate remedy for his ills, but the effectof my ditches may be turned to good account by continuing them, and thusimproving his land as I have mine. My warranty deed is my right tocultivate my own land, and this right carries the right to cultivate itin the best manner. The lower man should have taken judicial notice thatwater runs down hill, and that in this progressive age ditches may becut and tiles laid. But it is said that this court decision follows the English Common law;and now being settled by a decision, it is not open for furtherconsideration. In this progressive age nothing is settled until it issettled right. Judge Taney once judicially settled the status of theAfrican race. The common law was held to forbid the bridging ofnavigable streams. Harbors could only be made where the water was saltand affected by the tides. The Dartmouth college decision was held to socover railroad corporations as to shield them from legislative control. These have all been overturned by the march of events, and thisAppellate court decision is not necessarily immortal. For fifty yearsthe farmers of Illinois knew no such rule. The public roads have beenimproved by side ditches which dropped the water into the firstdepression. In 1873 there was placed in the road law a provision that aland owner may drain on the public road by giving timely notice, andthis stands through all revisions. Blackstone in his commentaries doesnot class this kind of drainage as a nuisance or trespass to lowerlands, but he does its opposite, where the lower man neglects to "scour"a ditch, and thus sets back the water to the harm of the upper man. Ifthis court rule is common law, as claimed, then it may be further saidthat a rule for the dark ages when drainage was exceptional, is notnecessarily the true rule, since drainage has become so large a part ofgood agriculture. ACTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. --Early in the last session, bills wereintroduced into each House to overturn this court decision. These weredefeated, but late in the session there passed with much unanimity abill of the following title, which became a law: "An act to permitowners of land to construct drains for agricultural purposes. " Sec. 1 ofthis act reads as follows: "That the owner or owners of land in thisState shall be permitted to construct drains for agricultural purposes, only, into any natural water-course or any natural depression wherebythe water will be carried into any natural water-course, or any drain onthe public highway, if the road commissioners consent thereto, for thepurpose of securing proper drainage to such land, without being liablein damages therefor to any other person or persons or corporation. " Thiswas intended to establish the right of "individual drainage. " But we are told that the courts will not respect this law, for thereason that it seeks to legalize trespass. Here we join issue with our objectors and stand by this declaratory law. It embodies the general opinion and practice of the people; it isplainly conformable to the physical laws of nature and the requirementsof civilization. Lands are held subject to laws thus grounded, and theseconsiderations will not tolerate laws or decisions the very opposite. These declarations are not much more radical than a declaration that westand by the law of gravity as constitutional. The public are busy in overturning this court decision by everywheredisregarding it. The few who stopped draining in deference to the court, have resumed under shelter of the statute. If all violators should beprosecuted with vigor, tile-making might decline, but courting would belively. Courts and judges must be multiplied, and every lawyer in theState would have fat business for the next ten years. Some judge willsoon give us a precedent in accordance with reason, and this will settlethe matter as effectually as did one taste of the tree of knowledgereveal good and evil. It will soon be seen that individual interest isbest promoted by general and free drainage--that presumption should bein its favor, and that one man should not be clothed with power to stopothers from making improvements. NEW LAWS. --The next legislative work on drainage should be to revise andconsolidate the law. On some points the law is duplicate, and on onetriplicate. It is generally demanded that the law shall be less cumbrousand more summary. This can be done to some extent when it shall be foundthat the courts favor drainage. So far they have had a very tenderfeeling for complaints. When drainage shall be acknowledged to belawful, laudable, and necessary, like plowing, laws may be greatlysimplified and made more effectual. RIVER DISTRICTS. --Illinois being generally level, many of our inlandstreams waste a large amount of land by overflow and drift. Roads, crops, and bridges are insecure. To a large extent this may be remediedby straightening the channels, and hereafter keeping them in repair andclear of drift wood. If the lands along these rivers, which wouldreceive benefits from this work, were made into a district andclassified according to benefits, the burden on them for properimprovement would not be great, and it is believed that dollars would berealized for cents expended. This waste is growing worse year by year. Enough land could be reclaimed along the Kaskaskia, Little Wabash, BigMuddy, Saline, and Henderson to more than make a New England State. TheState may well afford to do the engineering and give an enabling act, that the people interested may organize as they decide to improve theirrespective rivers. When so improved, it will become practicable to moreeffectually drain the district by lateral works. Illinois being so generally level, and much of our black soil resting onclay, here is to be the favorite field for the ditcher and tile-maker. Invention has an inviting field, and already foreshadows rich results. Your association, though a private one, touches the public interest verybroadly. You reveal and make possible new sources of wealth, whichpromises to agriculture a new era of development. You may do much tosettle true principles and proper public policy, so that this greatdrainage enterprise may move along harmoniously. The law-maker and thetile-maker are necessary factors in this grand march of improvement. Other valuable papers were read which we shall take occasion to publishat some future time. BETTER MANAGEMENT NEEDED. A little forethought on a farm is a good thing. It saves time, money, and much of the vexation that is liable to come without it. Like thewatchman on a ship a good farmer must always be looking ahead. He mustbe quick in his judgment of what should be done at the present time, andhe should have a good perception to show him the best thing to do forthe future. It is a mistaken idea that many possess who think there is no brain workneeded on a farm. Farmers are usually looked upon as an ignorant classof people, especially by many of the city friends who often do not seethe large, sympathizing feelings that lie hidden beneath the roughexterior of country people. They are in many cases better educated thanthey look to be, and they have a chance to use all the education theyhave at their command in the performance of the many and different kindsof duties that are to be done in the occupation of agriculture. There ismuch work to be done and it requires to be done at the right time togive a profitable return for the labor. To have things done properly afarm requires a good manager to eke out the labor force in the way itwill do the greatest amount of work. Most farmers are willing to work, and take pleasure in doing so. All perform the harder parts of farmingwith an energy that is surpassed by no other laboring class in theworld. Farmers deserve praise for this, I think, for it requires a greatdeal of pluck to work as hard as many of them do. It is not, however, the actual hard manual labor that pays the best. Thehardest part of the work may be done and there still remain enough torender the job far from complete. The minute parts of an occupation arethe ones that distinguish it from others. These parts constitute trades. They require a special training to perform them, and the more perfectlythey can be performed by any one, the more successful will that personbe considered as a tradesman. A fine workman receives more pay for lesswork than one who does rougher work, simply because it is the minuteparts that bring in the profit. This is so in the mechanical trades; itis so also in farming and yet many seem to be unaware of the fact. Hownumerous are those who leave out the minutia; mechanics learn a trade ina short time at least well enough to make a living by it. Many farmershave spent their whole lives upon farms and are still scarcely able tomake a decent living; and the reason of it is because they have leftundone those parts which would, if performed, bring in profit. It is not the lack of an education that causes so much poor success. Itis a lack of care in action and a want of observation in seeing. A man'sexperience is what makes him wise. He gains this experience by coming incontact with and observing those things which he meets. In schools children are taught from the works of men. These works arearts, and since art is but the imitation of nature, all education is butimitation of that which the farmer boy has the chance of seeing beforeit becomes second hand. There is no place that has greater facilities togive observation its full scope than a farm. All farmers can, with theaid of the right kind of books and papers, be reasonably well educated, and most of them have a better comparative knowledge than they thinkthey have. Many of the city cousins are superficially educated. Citypeople can talk, but the greater part of the talk of many of them mightbe more properly called chattering. No farmer need feel below thembecause he is more retired and has a greater amount of modesty. It is true, perhaps, that one can not seem more insignificant than hereally is. Great men are constantly dying, but the living move on justthe same. Each person's position seems valuable to few, and yet there isalmost an entire dependence of man to man. Every one can not fill thehighest positions, but they should make the best possible use of thefaculties that are given them. If this is done there will be no regretsin the future in regard to what might have been done in the past. Lifewill then be thought worth living and much more happiness will clusteraround it than now does. There is no greater lack of education, perhaps, in agriculture than inthe other vocations of man, and most farmers have a good share of welldeveloped muscle to aid them in their work. The requisites are supplied. How many use them, at least in the way they should be used. All of thework could be done, but there is too small a number of good managers tooversee and carry out the performance of the little jobs that require tobe performed at the right time. There are some people in every business who, in the race for success, far outrun their competitors. This may be noticed on a farm. It takesbut a short time to tell by the work a man does whether he is a goodfarmer or not. If a person is a good farmer and unites that quality tothat of business management he will be successful in his attainments. Through success he will be honored by the members of his profession. Hewill be praised by all other people, and above all he will in the silentthoughts of his own mind have the satisfaction and pleasure of knowingthat he is not a cipher in the vast human family. He will be pointed outas an example to those who are perhaps bowed down by discouragement. Hewill in all probability be called lucky when his success is really dueto decisions that are arrived at by the experience and close observationof the past. If more farmers would be content to give their thoughts, aswell as time, to farming, there would be more success and happiness inthe occupation that depends above all others on good management. S. LAWRENCE. QUINCY, ILL. SEED CORN FROM SOUTH. I am an interested reader of THE PRAIRIE FARMER, and knowing thatthousands of farmers take the advice they get from its pages and actupon it, I wish to say that the suggestions of B. F. J. , Champaign, Ill. , regarding seed corn from portions of the country South of us willnot do. Last spring hundreds of farmers in Western Iowa planted seedcorn that came from Kansas and Nebraska, and the result was that none ofthat from Kansas ripened, while but little of the Nebraska seed did anybetter. It all grew nicely, but was still green and growing when thefrost came. It may be claimed that much of that grown from native seedwas no better, but it was better and considerable of it ripened, andfrom this native seed we have the only promise of seed for next year'splanting. If farmers expect a good crop of corn they should not get seedfrom a southern latitude. No Iowa farmer would buy seed corn now thatgrew in Kentucky, Kansas, or Missouri. The only seed corn on which ourfarmers rely implicitly is that which they have gathered before frostcame and hung up near the fire to be thoroughly dried before it froze. That corn will grow. S. L. W. MANNING, IOWA. FIELD AND FURROW. All manures deposited by nature are left on or near the surface. Thewhole tendency of manure is to go down into the soil rather than to risefrom it. There is probably very little if any loss of nitrogen fromevaporation of manure, unless it is put in piles so as to foment. Rainsand dews return to the soil as much ammonia in a year as is carried offin the atmosphere. Rice contains more starch than either wheat, rye, barley, oats or corn. Of these grains oats carry the least starch, but by far the largestproportion of cellulose. In nitrogenous substances wheat leads, followedby barley, oats, rye and corn, while rice is most deficient. Corn leadsin fat, and oats in relative proportion of water. Wheat leads in gum andrice in salt. Convenience of farm buildings is an important aid to good farming, especially where much stock is kept and there are many chores. Watershould always be provided in the barn-yard, the feeding boxes should benear where the feed is kept, and the buildings should not be very farremoved from the house. If this results in more neatness about barns andbarnyards than has been thought necessary, it will be another importantadvantage gained. The President of the Elmira Farmers' Club tells the Husbandman that hiscrop of sorghum got caught by the frost, and too much injured to be ofvalue as a sirup-producing substance. But he fed it to his cows whichate it greedily, and soon began to gain in milk. He thinks he got aboutas much profit from the crop as if it had been devoted to the originalintent. Governor Glick, in a short address before the State Board ofAgriculture, last week, stated that Kansas history is the mostremarkable on record; that in 1883 her people had more money to the headthan any other people under heaven; that the State had received 60, 000immigrant population in 1883; that it will receive 160, 000 in 1884; thatin ten years it will have 2, 000, 000 people, and that thereafter Kansaswill not care anything about bureaus of immigration--it will have peopleenough to work with, and the rest will come as fast as they are needed. Farmers' Call: The experiments conducted during the last season at theMissouri State Agricultural College fully demonstrate the advisabilityof mulching potatoes. We believe every experiment so far reported gave asimilar result. The cost of the materials for mulching is usually verysmall, leaves or straw being plentiful and cheap upon the farm. Thematerials manure the ground; and mulching saves hoeing. The potatorequires a cooler climate and moister soil than our latitude affords. Mulching tends to secure both. The result in every case has been largelyincreased yields of superior quality. The old saying, no grass no cattle, no cattle no manure, no manure nocrops, is as true to-day as when first spoken. Grass takes care of himwho sows it. The meadow is the master mine of wealth. Strong meadowsfill big barns. Fat pastures make fat pockets. The acre that will carrya steer carries wealth. Flush pastures make fat stock. Heavy meadowsmake happy farmers. Up to my ears in soft grass laughs the fat ox. Sweetpastures make sound butter. Soft hay makes strong wool. These are someof the maxims of the meadow. The grass seed to sow depends upon the soiland here every man must be his own judge. Not every farmer, however, knows the grass adapted to his soil. If he does and seeds by the bushel, or other measures, he is apt to be misled. Including millet and Hungarian there were in Kansas this year 3, 730, 150acres of land devoted to the raising of hay. The yield per acre was 1. 61tons, or a total product of 6, 002, 576 tons. None of the tame grasseshave as yet attained a large area in this State, the most extensivelygrown being timothy which has an area of 95, 844 acres. The great bulk ofthe grass lands mentioned above is the prairie, protected by fence. Theeastern third of the State probably contains four fifths of the tamegrass area. The question of the growing of tame grasses in Kansas isreceiving much attention from farmers, it becoming of vast importance aspeople increase the number of their farm animals. The question no doubtwill be satisfactorily solved within a few years, and the tame grassarea will increase to its just proportion. The agricultural changes in Great Britain continue to be of a markedcharacter. The area devoted to grain crops the past year was 8, 618, 675acres, which is 214, 705 acres less than in 1882. Potatoes were plantedon 543, 000 acres, and turnips and Swedes on 2, 029, 000 acres--allshowing a slight increase; but mangolds, vetches and other green cropshave declined by 21, 000 acres on the figures for the previous year. Clover and the grasses show an increase of 58, 500 acres. The change fromtilth to permanent pasturage is again conspicuous, there being15, 065, 300 acres as compared with 14, 821, 600 last year. Ten years agograss covered 13, 000, 000 acres, while arable land has fallen during thatperiod from 18, 186, 000 to 17, 319, 000 acres. Orchards are on theincrease, and also market gardening. In the matter of live stock thereis an improvement which leads to the hope that the heavy losses ofrecent years will be made up. * * * * * Illinois Central Railroad. The elegant equipment of coaches and sleepers being added to its variousthrough routes is gaining it many friends. Its patrons fear noaccidents. Its perfect track of steel, and solid road-bed, are aguarantee against them. * * * * * FARM MACHINERY, Etc. NICHOLS & MURPHY'S CENTENNIAL WIND MILL. [Illustration] Contains all the valuable features of his old "Nichols' Mills" with noneof their defects. This is the only balanced mill without a vane. It isthe only mill balanced on its center. It is the only mill built oncorrect scientific principles so as to govern perfectly. ALL VANES Are mechanical devices used to overcome the mechanical defect of forcingthe wheel to run out of its natural position. A wind wheel becomes its own vane if no vane if used, hence, vanes--saveonly to balance the wheel--are useless for good, and are only useful tohelp blow the mill down. This mill will stand a heavier wind, run steadier, last longer, and crowlouder than any other mill built. Our confidence in the mill warrants usin offering the first mill in each county where we have no agent, atagents' prices and on 30 days' trial. Our power mills have 25 per cent more power than any mill with a vane. We have also a superior feed mill adapted to wind or other power. It ischeap, durable, efficient. For circulars, mills, and agencies, address NICHOLS & MURPHY, ELGIN, ILL. (Successors to the Batavia Manf. Co. , of Batavia, Ill. ) * * * * * Sawing Made Easy Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine! Sent on 30 Days test Trial. A Great Saving of Labor & Money. [Illustration] A boy 16 years old can saw logs FAST and EASY. MILES MURRAY, Portage, Mich. Writes, "Am much pleased with the MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWINGMACHINE. I sawed off a 30-inch log in 2 minutes. " For sawing logs intosuitable lengths for family stove-wood, and all sorts of log-cutting, itis peerless and unrivaled. Illustrated Catalogue, FREE. AGENTS WANTED. Mention this paper. Address MONARCH MANUFACTURING CO. , 163 N. RandolphSt. , Chicago, Ill. * * * * * CHICAGO SCALE CO. [Illustration] 2 TON WAGON SCALE, $40. 3 TON, $50. 4 Ton $60, Beam Box Included. 240 lb. FARMER'S SCALE, $5. The "Little Detective, " 1/4 oz. To 25 lb. $3. 300 OTHER SIZES. Reduced PRICE LIST FREE. FORGES, TOOLS, &c. BEST FORGE MADE FOR LIGHT WORK, $10, 40 lb. Anvil and Kit of Tools. $10. Farmers save time and money doing odd jobs. Blowers, Anvils, Vices & Other Articles AT LOWEST PRICES, WHOLESALE & RETAIL. * * * * * THE PROFIT FARM BOILER [Illustration] is simple, perfect, and cheap; the BEST FEED COOKER; the only dumpingboiler; empties its kettle in a minute. OVER 5, 000 IN USE; Cook yourcorn and potatoes, and save one-half the cost of pork. Send for circular. D. R. SPERRY & CO. , Batavia, Illinois. * * * * * HOOSIER AUGER TILE MILL. [Illustration: Mills on hand. Prompt delivery. ] FOR PRICES AND CIRCULARS, ADDRESS NOLAN, MADDEN & CO. , RUSHVILLE, IND. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. EVAPORATING FRUIT [Illustration] FULL TREATISE on improved methods, yields, profits, prices and generalstatistics, free. AMERICAN M'FG CO. WAYNESBOROFRANKLIN COUNTY, PA. * * * * * SELF CURE FREE Nervous Lost WeaknessDebility Manhood and Decay A favorite prescription of a noted specialist (now retired. )Druggists can fill it. Address DR. WARD & CO. , LOUISIANA, MO. * * * * * 40 (1884) Chromo Cards, no 2 alike, with name, 10c. , 13 pks, $1. GEORGE I. REED & CO. , Nassau, N. Y. * * * * * REMEMBER _that $2. 00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _from thisdate to January 1, 1885; For $2. 00 you get it for one year and acopy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-classweekly agricultural paper in this country. _ * * * * * [Illustration] LIVESTOCK DEPARTMENT. Stockmen. Write for Your Paper. American breeders imported from Scotland 850 head of polled cattle lastyear. * * * * * W. C. Vandercook, Secretary of the Northern Illinois Merino SheepBreeders' Association, recently took 900 Merino sheep to his recentlypurchased ranch in Norton county, Kansas. * * * * * Mr. Estill, of Estill, Mo. , passed through Chicago, a few days ago, withforty head of Angus-Aberdeen and Hereford cattle. Estill & Elliott nowown one of the best polled herds in the West. * * * * * The second regular annual meeting of the Kansas State Short-hornBreeders' Association will be held in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol, Topeka, Kan. , during February 12 and 13, beginning at 7 P. M. Of the12th. * * * * * The seventh annual meeting of the Dutch-Fresian Association of Americawill be held at the Butterfield House, Utica, N. Y. , February 6, 1884. Essays and addresses are expected from a number of distinguished stockbreeders. * * * * * The Lafayette County Thoroughbred Live Stock Breeders' Association wasrecently organized at Higginsville, Mo. They will hold annual publicsales and otherwise advance the improved stock interest. Their firstsale will be held at Higginsville, October 15 and 16, 1884. * * * * * The following is a list of Jerseys exported from the island during thepast year: Mr. Francis Le Brocq exported 848 cows, bulls, 28--total, 876. Mr. Eugene J. Arnold sent out 656 cows, 47 bulls--total, 703. Sundry shippers sold 158 cows and 7 bulls--total, 165. Grand total, 1, 744 head. * * * * * Our readers will not fail to notice the public sale ad. Of Mr. Wm. Yule, of Somers, Wis. , who will, on the 19th day of March, disperse his entireherd of thoroughbred Short-horn cattle. The herd numbers forty head, andis the opening sale of the season, and will be one of the mostattractive ones of the year. They are all of his own breeding. Send forcatalogue, which will be ready about February 15. * * * * * Horse-stealing seems to be as prevalent in England as in this country. Alate London live-stock journal says there is as much of it going on asthere was half a century ago. A gang has recently been operating inKent, Essex, and Surrey quite extensively. The thieves are no respectersof breeds, taking hunters, cart horses and carriage horses with equalboldness. Arrests are becoming frequent, and it seems likely the gangwill soon be broken up. HERD BOOKS AND RECORDS. The following addresses may be of use to many readers of THE PRAIRIEFARMER who may wish to record stock or purchase books: American Short-horn Herd Book--W. T. Bailey, Secretary, 27 Montaukblock, Chicago, Ill. National Register of Norman Horses--T. Butterworth, Secretary, Quincy, Ill. American Clydesdale Stud Book--Charles F. Mills, Secretary, Springfield, Ill. American Hereford Record--Breeders' Live Stock Association, Beecher, Ill. Holstein Herd Book--Thos. B. Wales, Secretary, Iowa City, Iowa. Herd Register--American Jersey Cattle Club, Geo. E. Waring, Secretary, Newport, R. I. American Poland-China Record--John Gilmore, Secretary, Vinton, Iowa. Central Poland-China Record, Mr. Morris, Secretary, Indianapolis, Ind. COMPETING FOR SWEEPSTAKE PRIZES. Our readers will remember that we last week made mention of a change inthe sweepstakes rings at the next Illinois State Fair. This was a slighterror. The change was made with reference to the Fat Stock Show. In thisconnection we present the argument of Hon. John P. Reynolds, on thesubject before the board and which governed the board in its action. THE ARGUMENT. _To the State Board of Agriculture. _ GENTLEMEN. --The undersigned, Superintendent of class A. , respectfullysubmits the following report for the past year, including the fair inSeptember, and the Fat Stock Show in November. THE FAIR. It was perfectly apparent to any one familiar with the displays ofprevious years in this department, that the breeding of fine cattle inthis country is, at the present time, attracting the attention andcommanding the best and most intelligent care of not alone the farmerswho have been bred to their avocation, but of capitalists, whocomprehend the great money values involved, and who either of themselvesor through their sons have set out to identify themselves with thisgreat interest. As the result of the fact the display of cattle was morevaried as to breeds and greater as to number, if not superior as toquality, than at any fair, while the visitors in attendance seeking topurchase and studying the question of breeds with a view to purchase forbreeding purposes, were never so numerous nor so much in earnest. Under such circumstances, it may easily be imagined that the awards ofprizes, not for the money value of the prizes themselves, but for thebearing of such honors upon the interests of exhibitors in regard tosales, assumed an unusual importance and involved a correspondingresponsibility on the part of this board. Impressed, as I think, with aproper sense of that responsibility, and of the embarrassment whichalways surround that position, as your representative I discharged theduty to the best of my ability. The most serious and perhaps, the only embarrassment which I shouldrefer to in this report, was the absence of so large a proportion of themembers of awarding committees originally selected, rendering itnecessary to fill the places of the absentees by selections from theby-standers after the cattle had been called to the rings. Some of you"have been there" and have a realizing sense of the difficultiesinvolved in the effort to make these substitutions intelligently andwith conscientious care, on the spur of the moment. To do so in allcases with satisfaction to one's self is simply impossible, and to do itin all cases with satisfaction to unlucky competing exhibitors is not tobe expected. If I could do the first and feel sure that the talisman hadbeen 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 theembarrassment I have referred to and thus to secure a better deservedconfidence in the justice of the awards is one I hope to hear discussedat this meeting as it has been probably at every meeting of ourpredecessors for the past thirty years. Possibly we are in the light of our own experience, with a differentsystem at the Fat Stock Shows prepared to try something else at thefairs; 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 thegreat interest it excited apply with, if possible, still greater forceto the Fat Stock Show. Your record shows all material facts in respectto numbers and quality of the stock on exhibition, and I need notenlarge. The importance of this enterprise, in its relation to the meat supply ofthe world, can hardly be over-stated, and its direct results to theproducers of the meat producing breeds of stock as well as to theconsumers, are too apparent to require discussion. The rules and methods adopted by the board for conducting this showseems to need but little change--some slight modifications of therequirements of the premium list will be proposed when that subjectshall come up for consideration, but beyond these there is but onesubject which I regard as of sufficient importance to demand asuggestion from me at this time. I refer to the number of and divisionof duties among the awarding committees. The method of selecting judges seems to me all right and there was muchless difficulty in securing their attendance than at the fair. A few didnot respond, but their places were filled satisfactorily in most cases. The wisdom of the appointment of your committee to decide upon the ageof all animals on exhibition, prior to the commencement of the work ofthe judges and entirely independent of any suggestion or wish on thepart of exhibitors, was practically demonstrated so that there isprobably now no desire to discontinue it. In this case their discussionscorroborated and established the statements and good faith of theexhibitors themselves in every instance except one, in which one theresult was unimportant. The special feature to which I desire to call your attention may perhapsbe 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 theawards 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 thepractice for another committee to select the sweepstakes animals fromamong all the entries of all ages of that breed without regard to theprizes which the former committee may have awarded. Now it not infrequently happens, and is always liable to occur, that thelatter committee selects as the best animal of any age one which theformer committee did not deem worthy of any prize at all or at least nota first prize, when judged by them in competition with these of its ownage only. Evidently there is a mistake somewhere. Both decisions can notbe correct. Both committees, we are bound to assume are equally honest, disinterested, and competent, because the members of both committeesconsidered in making up a decision such discrepancy of judgment and thesystem which renders it possible may be almost excusable, perhaps, butin the Fat Stock Show, where we deal so fully in details and exactfigures, and where we pretend to use our best efforts in every practicalmanner to get at and publish for the benefit of a confiding world thereliable, bottom facts obtained by the labors of paid experts, reach aconflicting record is not, in any judgement, one to be greatly proud of. There is one plain, just and proper remedy for this, to wit: Restrictthe award of sweepstakes prizes in the several breed rings to suchanimals as have taken first premiums in the rings for ages, and restrictcompetition for _grand sweepstakes_ to such animals as have taken_sweepstake_ prizes in the breed rings as have not otherwise competed atall. The awards of all special prizes should follow the decisions in theregular rings when not offered for animals not included in the regularrings. Under this rule every animal competing for a sweepstakes prize, withpossible exceptions in the grand sweepstakes, would have received thehighest indorsement of the committees, and hence there could be nopretense of prejudice on the part of the judges and hence, too, it wouldmatter very little whether a new competent committee were called for thegrand sweepstakes or that committee was composed of judges who served inthe rings, the latter, in my opinion, being preferable, because of theirlarger opportunity in becoming familiar with the points of differencebetween 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 notincluded in the first prize or sweepstakes winners, and the onlyobjection I have ever heard to the adoption of the rule, even at thefairs, is based on the idea that those animals (or the owners) failingto take prizes in the rings for ages, should have a "new trial" beforean entirely new jury in sweepstakes. But how about those who won theverdict in the first trial! Is there any justice in requiring them tosubmit to another trial between themselves and those they have oncevanquished? and if there is any propriety in that, why not in stillanother new trial and more new trials before new juries until everyanimal in the show has received a first prize, or the treasury has beenexhausted or the community fails to furnish any more jurymen? If it were simply the "consolation stakes" to non-prize winners, someloose practice might seem justifiable, but it is not the best policy inconducting the competitions of the Fat Stock Show to be influenced byany considerations except those which relate to fair, impartial andintelligent decisions, and no decisions can be fair, impartial andintelligent which conflict with each other and which, as a whole, failto form a consistent record. JOHN P. REYNOLDS, Supt. Class A. * * * * * James F. Scott purchased 200 mares and 500 one and two year old colts tobe 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, keepinggood mares from which young mules can be raised is certainly aprofitable business; especially so where corn and hay are grown on thefarm, 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 goodpasture, with hay and corn during the coldest weather, and when at work, this branch of farming is not only easy, but certain and profitable. Amare in good condition, not counting pasturage, can be kept for eightdollars a year. Service of jack here is generally six dollars, makingkeeping of mare and service cost fourteen. There has been no time sinceI came to this part of the State when a mule colt would not bring allthe way from twenty-five to fifty dollars, depending, of course, uponthe size, form, and general condition at weaning time. Allowing nothingfor the work the mare would be able to do, which certainly ought to besufficient 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 wehave a good profit left. The difference paid for young mules shows twofacts: first, the importance of a good sire, or jack, and the other of awell-formed mare. It certainly costs no more money to keep a well-formedanimal than it does to keep a poor one. Of course, at the start, one mayrequire a somewhat larger outlay of money, and in this way, if we countthe interest on the money invested, cause young mules to cost a triflemore than if cheaper animals were used. But this is more thancompensated for by the larger price the colt will bring. The difference between a mare that will bring a mule that only sells forthe lowest price here at weaning time, twenty-five dollars, and one thatbrings 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 herkeep, and especially where the same animals are kept quite a number ofyears 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 beled, bring from eighty to one hundred dollars. When two years old, andbroken to to the wagon as well as saddle, one hundred to one hundred andtwenty-five dollars is the general price. Of course a pair of wellmatched mules, well broken to harness, at three or four years, will sellall the way from three to five hundred dollars, depending upon theircolor, form, size, etc. And this difference is, in nearly all cases theresult of the difference between good and poor jacks, as well as goodand poor mares. One other point must always be taken into account inthis 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 farmingor stock-raising are those who, when they have secured a valuable broodmare that is sure of bringing a first-class mule colt, they not onlykeep her, but they take good care of her; and in this way they securethe very best results and realize the largest profits. Where proper care is taken not to overwork or strain them, mares canalways 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 payfor what they eat and the pasturage. So that the cost of service andinterest on the money invested is what the mule costs at weaning time. After that time, of course, they cost something more, as weaning timegenerally comes in the fall at about the time that pastures fail, andcorn fodder, wheat straw, and hay, with a small amount of grain duringthe winter must be fed to keep the colt growing in good condition. Manyfarmers 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 buythese up at whatever prices they are obtainable, and keep until they aretwo or three years old; during this time they are broken to lead, toride, 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 whomanage to get enough cash ahead will buy one or two mule colts in thefall at weaning time and keep them until well broken in, and they sellat a profit, and in this way make a good start for themselves. Ascompared with other branches of stock-raising, there is less risk inthis than in almost any other branch of farm stock. N. J. SHEPHERD. MILLER CO. , MO. [Illustration] THE DAIRY Dairymen, Write for Your Paper. WISCONSIN DAIRYMEN. The convention of Wisconsin dairymen, at Lake Mills, last week, was anexcellent one. It was largely attended by the most prominent andexperienced dairymen of this wonderful dairy State. The people of Lake Mills did their utmost to make the visit of delegatespleasant, and they succeeded admirably. The crowning feature of theirhospitality was the banquet on Thursday night. The feast was prepared bythe ladies of the M. E. Church. The supper, the toasts and responses, the music and all were enjoyable in the highest degree. Wisconsindairymen believe in banquets. A leading member of the conventiondeclared that the prosperous history of the association began with itsfirst banquet. Governor Rusk was in attendance at this convention, and his address wasone calculated to encourage and help on the association. He assured themembers that if they thought the association needed legislative aid, allthey have to do is to ask for it. If they ask for $5, 000, he will do hisbest to have the appropriation bill passed, and he will sign theenactment promptly when it reaches him for signature. He believesWisconsin one of the foremost of dairy States, and he wants it to retainits position. Among other prominent gentlemen present who participated in thediscussions were Prof. Henry, of the Agricultural Department of theState University; Hon. Clinton Babbitt, Secretary of the StateAgricultural 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 lastyear 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 Canadiangovernment as inspector of cheese and butter factories. We will give itin 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 thisdate to January 1, 1885; For $2. 00 you get it for one year and acopy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-classweekly agricultural paper in this country. _ * * * * * [Illustration] 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 orhoove, mainly thereby that the distention is more solid than gaseous, itbeing either with food alone, or with food and gas. Symptomatically itdiffers also from hoove by the absence of eructation, and by thehardness of the flanks and the smaller volume of the swelling. It arisesfrom gorging with almost any kind of food, even with grain or withchaff, at a sudden change of diet; but it is particularly liable toarise from a surfeit of turnips, fresh grass, or any other succulentfood at the commencement of the season. The instrument called a probangought to be introduced, either to decide whether the case be one ofhoove or one of mawbound, or to ascertain the degree in which the latterdisease exists. If the probang bring on a sudden rush of gas, thedisease is wholly or chiefly hoove; and if it encounter a solidresistance, the disease mawbound, and exists in a degree of aggravationproportioned to the nearness of the point at which the resistance isfelt. In mild cases of impaction of the paunch, when the animal does not seemto suffer much pain, and is not materially fevered, but merely ceasesrumination or chewing of the cud, refuses to eat, and lies long andindolently in one posture, a dose of oil, or a little forced walking, are frequently sufficient to effect a cure. In cases which, though onthe whole mild, are accompanied with a kind of inertia, or with aninsuperable reluctance to rise or to move about, stimulants, such asether diluted with alcohol and water, may be required to rouse thepaunch into renewed action; but whenever such remedies are necessary, they must be given in cautious doses, and always accompanied with somegentle purgatives. In very bad cases, when the animal seems sinkingthrough inertness into death, or in which moans, swells at the sides, becomes almost as a board in the flanks, appears to suffer great andincreasing pain, and seems eventually to be overwhelmed with anguish andto be passing into unconsciousness, it must be promptly decided whetherwe have sufficient time and encouragement to try the effect ofstimulants, purgatives, the stomach pump, and other comparatively gentlemeasures; and if not, we should, without much delay, cut through theleft 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; andthis, in consequence of its indigested condition, resists absorption orexpulsion, undergoes an irritating decomposition, and may very probablyoriginate some serious inflammatory disorder. Any animal which hassuffered a very bad case of impaction of the paunch, ought, immediatelyafter complete restoration to health, to be sent to the shambles; for, independently of the lurking danger consequent on the artificialextraction of the food, or even upon the relaxation which follows theadministration of a stimulant, the paunch is so much overstretched andinjured by the mechanical effects of the distension as to be temporarilyincapacitated for the proper discharge of its functions. Queries Answered. PROBABLY RINGBONE. --W. B. S. , Sciola, Iowa. In the absence of anyinformation to the contrary, the lameness may be regarded as due to thedevelopment of ringbone. There is no certain cure for this disease. Allthat may be expected from treatment is to retard or stay its progress ordevelopment; but in all cases more or less stiffness or lameness willremain, depending upon the extent of its development. Then, subsequenthard work, or any cause of renewed irritation, will be apt to furtheraggravate the case, and cause additional enlargement and increasinglameness. The usual course of treatment in such cases consists inblistering or firing, or both combined, with subsequent long rest or aseason's liberty on pasture. * * * * * Uneasiness is a species of sagacity; a passive sagacity. Fools are neveruneasy. * * * * * REMEMBER _that $2. 00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _from thisdate to January 1, 1885; For $2. 00 you get it for one year and acopy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-classweekly agricultural paper in this country. _ * * * * * [Illustration] 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 allassociations and of all agricultural and horticultural societies andjournals; and to study the results of each year's experiences andobservations, comparing them with those of previous years, and also withthe ideal of perfection which each laborer in these several departmentsof industry has pictured in his own mind, is the best preparation forachieving desired results in the future. In the present paper we will take a brief retrospect of the fruit cropsof 1883, and inquire into the causes of successes and failures. STRAWBERRIES. We begin with the strawberry, which, though small and unpretentious, hasbeen from year to year rising in importance until it has become secondonly to the apple in the estimation of a majority of consumers. The past year's experience has taught, as does that of each year, thatgreat care should be taken in selecting varieties adapted to eachparticular soil and situation. This may be said to be the importantthing in strawberry growing. It is a difficult thing to find such varieties by the ordinary means ofselecting; namely, recourse to the catalogues of growers. Man has awonderful amount of selfishness in his composition. I say wonderful, forit is a wonder when we consider how much better he would enjoy life wereall selfishness eliminated from it, and benevolence, coupled with trueself love, were substituted. "Each crow thinks its own young theblackest, " and each (almost) originator or "exclusive owner" of a newvariety of plant or tree, labors hard to convince himself and othersthat he has the best of his kind; but, owing to the weakness of humannature, even the sincere among these are liable to be biased, and thusmislead others. The only safety, therefore, lies in planting suchvarieties as you know to succeed well near you in similar soil, whilenew varieties, commended as superior by persons of known integrity andexperience, for similar soil and climatic condition, should be triedonly on a small scale as an experiment. If they succeed, you can soonhave plenty of plants of your own growing--if you prefer to grow them. This advice, though often before given will bear frequentrepetition--for the desire for "something new" is as prevalent with usnow as it was with the Athenians in St. Paul's time. We have seen BigBobs, Great Americans, and other monstrosities dwindle to pigmies in thehands of ordinary cultivators, and the demand for Sharpless become lesssharp through its sensitiveness to the influence of Jack Frost; andhosts of other sorts, really good and valuable somewhere, and underpeculiarly favorable conditions to be comparatively valueless forgeneral cultivation. Therefore every person designing to plant shouldrepeat to himself this injunction--"Go slow on new varieties. " It is not desirable for persons who plant for their own use solely toselect the pistillate varieties; for these, although the most profuselyproductive when well fertilized, are liable to overrun their staminateneighbors, and soon render the "strawberry patch" unproductive, orproductive only of small or imperfect fruit. The leading pistillatesoffered 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 profitablereturns on a variety of soils, and which may be considered safe toplant. These are Charles Downing, Miner, Bidwell (kept in single rows orsingle plants), Piper, Cumberland Triumph, Phelps ("Old Iron Clad"), Sucker State, Finch, Capt. Jack (acid), Longfellow (with good, richculture), Mt. Vernon (late), and for sandy soil, Kentucky (late). Thislist may be said to constitute the cream of the thousand and onevarieties offered which have been well tested. Of course those who growstrawberries for market will plant largely of some of the pistillatesorts, owing to their great productiveness. The past year has taught the folly of too great haste in removing thecovering from strawberry plants; as those which bloomed early were badlydamaged by the frost. Plantations, also, which were partially screenedby rows and belts of evergreens produced twice to three times thequantity of fruit that was obtained from the same varieties fullyexposed. Plants in orchards also escaped to a great degree, for thetrees were in leaf when the destructive frost occurred, and thus gavepartial protection. Strawberries are at home in a young orchard; thecultivation given the plants is good for the trees, and the slight shadeof the young trees is no perceptible detriment to the plants or fruit. The general crop was about one-third an average--the chief damage beingdone by the frost--though the tarnished plant-bug was very destructivein Southern Illinois, and did some damage in other localities. Priceswere from fifty to a hundred per cent higher than usual--supply anddemand 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. Inthirty years' experience in strawberry culture I have never, except intwo instances, found any advantage in summer or fall planting, and inthese pot-plants were used, which are too expensive for general plantingand not always preferable. Three or four of the varieties named, 100 ofeach, planted as early in spring as the ground is in good condition, inrows three to three and a half feet apart, and confined, as they run, tonarrow strips, will give an abundance of fruit for two or three yearsfor a large family. Certainly such planting and care is as good aninvestment 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, thanstrawberries, but owing to a different cause, namely, the severe cold ofthe previous winter. None of the cultivated varieties escaped unharmedwherever the mercury sank lower than 30 degrees below zero, and 32degrees below was marked nearly everywhere north of the latitude ofPeoria and Bloomington, in Illinois, and in many places 36 degrees belowwas recorded. Blackberries also suffered; even the hardy Snyder notescaping; and a similar disaster threatens the crops of these species in1884, for as I write, on a clear, sunny day, the mercury has not risenhigher than 16 degrees below zero, and this morning (January 5, ) was 33degrees below here in Peoria, and 35 degrees below in Bloomington. Thecanes went into the winter in good order, however, and, if no intensecold prevails hereafter, the damage may be less than last winter whenthey were not as well hardened. Since we can not prevent the recurrence of these polar regiondown-pours, we can prepare our canes of raspberries and blackberries forenduring such extreme cold, by commencing cultivation early in thespring and discontinuing by the middle of June, also by stopping thegrowth of young canes, by pinching or chopping off, when not more thantwo and a half feet high, and again, as soon as another foot in lengthis made, stopping both uprights and laterals. If all weak canes are keptcut out, and those shortened for fruiting the next year not allowed tostand nearer than eight or ten inches of each other, they will become"ripe" and firm in texture before cold weather overtakes them. Thehardiest of the red varieties are Turner, Thwack, and Cuthbert; and ofthe black-caps, the Soughegan (earliest), Tyler, and Gregg (latest). Theblack-caps named endured the winter fully as well as the hardy redvarieties. Of blackberries the Snyder still heads the list for hardiness andgeneral value north of the latitude named, though Early Harvest bidsfair to be of value. Taylor was damaged a little more than Snyder, whileBarnard, Ancient Briton, and Stone's Hardy rank with Snyder forhardiness. Raspberries and blackberries should be planted early in the spring, ifnot done in late autumn, in rows six to eight feet apart. Redraspberries may be set two feet apart in the rows, and black-caps andblackberries wider--two and one-half to four feet, according to stock ofplants or desire for quick returns; for all will bear the next yearafter planting. Give good cultivation the first year and mulch in thefall, along the rows of both raspberries and blackberries, with manurefree from grass seeds, and cover the entire surface between the rows ofblackberries with old prairie hay, corncobs, or straw; or, ifcultivation the next year is intended, the inter-row of mulch may beomitted. The intense cold of these two consecutive winters should not deter landowners from planting these fruits. These extremes come in cycles; and, though old Jupiter is now, and was last winter, exerting an unusualdisturbing influence upon our planet, he will this year calm his temperand give us nine or ten years of respite from his powerful magneticsway. CURRANTS, GOOSEBERRIES, AND GRAPES were less affected by the severity of the winter of '83-'84 than by thelate frosts of spring, which destroyed the young shoots of grapes andthe blossoms and young fruit of the berries. Currants are yearly growingin favor and the price of the fruit advancing; and now currant cultureis 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 allwood of three years' growth (or after first crop is often consideredbetter), 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, withlittle trouble and expense, grapes enough for a family's use. Plant suchhardy sorts as Moore's Early, Worden, Concord, and Martha, in rows sevenor eight feet apart, and same distance in the row, give good cultivationthe first year, cut back to two or three feet in autumn, lay the shortcanes on the ground and hold down with a spadeful of earth. Plant postsfour feet high and stretch two No. 15 wires along them--the upper one ontop--and in the spring, as the vines grow, tie to the wires, keeping onecane 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 everyyear, and encourage those starting nearest the ground, cutting back eachautumn one-half or two-thirds the growth; cut out old canes. It is notnecessary to lay the canes down and hold them to the ground or cover inthis 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 HorticulturalSociety 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 publicinterest, after which the board proceeded to arrange for a grand fruitexhibition, to be made by the society at the next State Fair. Thiscollection will not be entered for a premium, but only to show thediversified 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 thekind ever held in the Northwest, and the State Horticultural Society, desiring to keep abreast of the times, will make a display of fruit thatthe State may well be proud of. It was also decided to offer liberal premiums for horticultural productsto be exhibited at the next winter meeting, which will be held in theIndustrial University, at Champaign, the first or second week inDecember. After some discussion as to the best method of interesting the studentsin our work, it was decided to offer premiums, first and second, for thebest essays on horticultural subjects. The board and members of thesociety hope that this offer will be the means of bringing out a numberof papers from the young gentlemen and ladies of the institution. There seems to be a determination evinced by the members of the boardand society to make an aggressive, vigorous campaign the present year, and to bring our work more prominently before the people than everbefore. 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 ofthe board from each horticultural district. A portion of them asked timefor consultation, which was granted. When the entire committee inappointed, 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 thatstruck us on Saturday the 5th of the year, and its probable effect onthe fruit product. Great fear is manifested on all sides, and notwithout grounds: yet the conditions, it seems to me, have been sofavorable that there is cause for hope. Remember that there was no verysudden change, the temperature having been low for two or three weeksbefore, and no sudden rise since. The sudden changes seem to be theones--coming in the midst of winter--that are the most destructive toour fruits. So I conclude there is ground yet for hope; and unless somefuture disaster should occur, Dio. , if living, will expect to eat ofseveral sorts of fruit this year grown on his own grounds. Keep in goodheart, brethren; Providence will send us all we deserve. But hasn't that man at Cape Girardeau a level head? Dio. Himself couldnot have given as many sensible suggestions concerning farmers'libraries, as he did in No. 1. All farmers and horticulturists can notgo as deeply into periodicals as he, but they can profitably go muchdeeper than they do. Take a farmer's home provided on his plan, and thenimagine, if you can, sensible sons running off to breaking on freighttrains, or selling soap and candies behind counters! Improbable. And then, again, in No. 2, his thoughts on naming country houses. Howsuggestive! The Editor in No. 1, favors interdiction of French liquors, etc. , asretaliation for their interdiction of American pork. Dio. Says interdictthem as a matter of protection to ourselves, without regard to hog orhominy. "Man of the Prairie" was looking out for a little colder weather. Did hefind it--and is he satisfied? An extremely suggestive paper that, of Prof. Budd's on the "CherryPossibilities. " Further investigation in the wide field of Europeanhorticulture is demanded, not only in regard to this but to most otherfruits. Even unpromising sorts, not prized there, transplanted here, mayturn out to be the most valuable of any. I fear the agriculturalcolleges are not taking as much interest in this matter as they ought. Our State Society ought, and doubtless does, feel thankful to Prof. B. , for his presence and wise counsel at its late Bloomington meeting. Hisremarks will be found valuable reading in the forth-coming volume ofTransactions. Seedsmen's catalogues will soon be floating around thick as autumnleaves, and planters will be puzzled what to buy. My experience may beworth something: Of tomatoes, I know nothing better than Acme andTrophy, and I think favorably of the Golden Trophy--though with some thecolor is objectionable. The Short-horn carrot can't be beat for tableuse, nor the Egyptian beet. Of the former, planted pretty thick in goodsoil, in rows two feet apart, 400 bushels per acre can easily be grown;and besides being good for stock, they are mighty good for men andwomen. In squashes the Hubbard and Boston Marrow are standbys, and thatlittle Perfect Gem is likely to prove A No. 1. And give me the StowellEvergreen sweet corn and the Winningstadt cabbage yet all the time. ButDio. Will not be fooled with so many new sorts in 1884 as he has been informer years. Yes--increase the tax on dogs, and collect it; so say the Iowastock-breeders, and so echoes every sensible friend of the farmer andhis interests. Next time Dio. Proposes to call up a subject of much importance toeverybody, and one that badly needs ventilating. DIO. POSSIBILITIES OF CHERRY GROWING. The insertion of one little word gives too unfavorable an idea of thebest varieties of the Griotte cherries, grown all over the interminablesteppes north and east of the Carpathian mountains in Europe. As printed the paragraph reads: "Some of the thin-twigged Griottes, withdark skins and colored juice, are as large as the Morello and nearly orquite as sweet. " The copy reads--or should read--"as large as the English Morello andnearly or quid sweet. " As you say my object in talking the matter up is the hope of interestingsome of the large nurserymen, like those at Bloomington, in thedesirable work of importing and propagating the Griottes, Amarells, andthe Asiatic sweet cherries known as "Spanish, " of the East plain, on alarge scale. Why should our Western propagators permit our importing of fruits, ornamental trees and shrubs, to be done by the nurserymen of the EasternStates. If we turn to a good map of Europe we will see at a glance that theimporting of fruits so far has been from the west coast of France, Belgium, and Holland, or from the south of England. As with our westcoast, this whole region has been made a land of verdure by the soft, humid air of the Gulf stream. Tracing on the map the line of theCarpathian and Caucasus mountains, we find three-fourths of all Europe, north and east of these ranges, without a mountain or hill traced on thegreat expanse except the Valdai hills, and these are only bluffs not ashigh or extensive as those of our rivers and dividing ridges. It is thegreatest plain section of the world, and is the ancient home of the bestfruits of the temperate zones. Common sense should lead us to give trialto the horticultural products of this plain. To find apples, pears, cherries, and plums as hardy, and as well adapted to the hot summers andcold winters of Illinois and Iowa as the Fameuse apple, we need notenter the empire of Russia. Northeastern Austria has a variable summerand winter climate, which will not permit the growing of apples of thegrade of hardiness of the Ben Davis, Stark, Jonathan, and Dominie; ofpears of the grade of Flemish Beauty, or of cherries of the grade ofEarly Richmond as to foliage and ability to endure low temperature. Thecommercial nursery-man who will visit the "King's PomologicalInstitute, " at Proskau, in North Silesia, will see at a glance, as hewanders over the ground, that the fruits, forest trees, ornamental treesand shrubs of the nurseries of England, France, Belgium, etc. , suddenlydisappear with the Carpathians on the edge of the great steppes. J. L. BUDD, AG. COLLEGE, AMES, IOWA. Prunings. The soil for window boxes is the same as for plant culture in pots; thebest is that formed by rotted sods with a little well decomposed stablemanure mixed with it. Rhubarb requires deep, rich soil. A good dressing of well-rotted manure, put on the ground this winter when it is not frozen, will start off theplants briskly in the spring. The same is true for asparagus. Mr. Russel Heath, Carpenteria, Cal. , has an "English walnut orchard" oftwo hundred acres of rich, level land, near the sea-shore. The trees arefrom ten to twenty-five years planted. His crop in 1882 was 630 sacks of70 pounds each; this season he expects the harvest will aggregate aboutone-third more. Gardener's Monthly: The writer found among the gardeners in Canada, whenin that country recently, that the English plan of preserving grapes inbottles of water was in not uncommon use. The bunches are cut withpieces of stems, and then so arranged that the ends are in bottles ofwater. By this plan the grapes can be preserved far into the springseason. The American Cultivator: "Can you tell we what kind of weather we mayexpect next month?" wrote a farmer to the editor of his paper, and theeditor replied: "It is my belief that the weather next month will belike your subscription bill. " The farmer wondered for an hour what theeditor was driving at, when he happened to think of the word"unsettled, " and he sent a postal note forthwith. The Farmer and Fruit Grower: Mr. Willis, Lamer, a prominent fruit growerof the Cobden region, says he very distinctly remembers that the freezeof 1864 killed young fruit trees to the snow line, and that he cut hispeach trees to that line, and saved that much. In 1864 the temperaturewas about the same as it was on January 5, 1884--in the neighborhood of21 degrees below zero. Mr. Lamer thought no damage was done tostrawberry plants. A pomologist gives the following excellent advice in regard tomaintaining the fertility of fruit lands: "Encourage the utmost varietyof vegetable growth near and upon your orchard lands, and never rob thesoil of its honest dues. Give judicious and thorough cultivation andpruning; and with our generous soils and climate, I do not believe thechild is yet born that will live to see our orchards languish on accountof poverty of soil, or any necessity arise for the importation offertilizers. " The Country Gentleman says two things are necessary for the growing ofgood asparagus, namely, plenty of room for the plant to grow, andcopious manuring. The latter is best applied to thick beds by coveringthe whole surface with manure two or three inches thick, late in autumn, and forking it in very early in spring, before the new shoots start. Thick beds, however, should not be planted, but the plants allowed threeor four feet each way to each. Three by five is a common and suitabledistance, and large stalks may be obtained in this way. Charles Merritt, of Battle Creek, has been very successful withstrawberries. His plan is to plant rows about two and one-half feetapart and plants nine inches in the row; he prefers the spring time. Hemanures highly, cultivates thoroughly and mulches with clean straw latein the autumn. The next season he gets a large crop, and, while he istaking it off, another patch is being treated in a similar manner forthe next year's crop. The second year with any bed he simply pulls outthe weeds, and after picking turns it under. This plan proves to besatisfactory. T. F. Leeper, of Warsaw Horticultural Society, says: I have been greatlyinterested in the condition of orchards this season, and have examinedquite a number. One orchard in my neighborhood died during the summer--Isupposed it was winter-killed, but an investigation showed that theroots had been destroyed by mice. Last spring I reported a number oftrees in my orchard, winter-killed. These trees have been dug up and itappears that they too, were killed by mice. In my orchard the greatestinjury by winter-killing has occurred in the draws or low places and Iwould not plant another orchard without tile drawing such places. [Illustration] FLORICULTURE Gleanings by an Old Florist. THE PANSY. Gray, in his Manual, says: "Viola tricolor (pansy or heart's-ease) iscommon in dry or sandy soil. From New York to Kentucky and southward, doubtless only a small portion of the garden pansy runs wild. Naturalized from Europe. " Seen in this condition the flowers are very small, not more thanone-half an inch across and oblong in shape. Cultivated at its best ithas a flower two inches in diameter, almost an exact circle in outline. All this has been brought about by lovers of flowers during a longperiod of years, by saving the seed of only the best, a sort of survivalof the fittest, and only to be kept up by rich soil and constantcultivation, for if left to itself the pansy dwindles back into itsoriginal nature. It has another peculiarity also: the young plants always bring thelargest flowers, so that if the extra large flowers are wanted they canbe obtained only by seed annually, or a division of the old roots bycuttings. The latter is too much trouble for most cultivators in thecountry, and named kinds are never thought of, while in the old theyused to be; perhaps it is still common for the pansy grower to name hispets, and reproduce them each year by cuttings or division of the roots. The seed that brings the largest and best flowers generally come fromGermany, although some of our own florists save them themselves forseveral consecutive years. I was a long time before any fixed characterwas maintained in color in this flower, but now seed from certain kindswill mainly reproduce its like, hence are often so used for massingkinds of a color. The plant being a native of the cooler and moisterparts of Europe is better adapted to their climate than ours, and henceas our spring weather is more nearly like their original climate thanour other seasons, they luxuriate in it; it is the only season in whichthe florist finds much of a market for his goods, and even then hereceives some round abuse for selling very large noble flowers thatquickly deteriorate after leaving his hands. This, however, is not hisfault, the hot weather being one cause, the other that the plant refusesto produce large flowers except in its young state. There are two methods adopted by a florist in the preparation of hisstock; one, by sowing the seed in the fall and wintering the youngplants in cold frames, or even by means of a slight protection of brush. The other by sowing the seed on a bench in the green-house in January. If sown in the fall early enough to get well into rough leaf, if they donot flower in the fall, which they usually will do, they are ready to doso at the first peep of spring, as they flower at a comparatively lowtemperature. If sown in January, they are transplanted once on otherbenches, from which they are lifted and transferred either to theoutside borders or to other cold frames as the case may be. It is notbest to keep them in a green-house longer than necessary, say the firstof March, as the conditions of a green-house will bring about the smallflowers similar to the hot weather of the summer. [Illustration: THE PANSY. ] By the different systems the market florist can have his goods always attheir best during the selling season, which ranges from the first ofMarch up to the first of June. They are so easily grown he can afford tosell cheap, even if his goods are of the very best, and will usuallybring about seventy-five cents by the single dozen, down to as low asthree dollars by the hundred. Enough sod should hang to the roots tokeep them fresh, and they will, after planting, go on flowering just asthough they had never been disturbed. Nothing can be done with thisplant, at least worthy of the name, in the window, hence it should notbe attempted. To enjoy the large flowers as long as possible duringsummer, if there is any choice of position, give them the coolest andmoistest place in the garden, not forgetting plenty of watering in dryspells. A rich, loamy soil, inclined to be porous, will give the bestsatisfaction, but almost any garden soil will grow them. EDGAR SANDERS. * * * * * DRAINAGE. PRACTICAL FARM DRAINAGE. WHY, WHEN, and HOW TO TILE-DRAIN--AND THE--MANUFACTURE OF DRAIN-TILE. By C. G. ELLIOTT and J. J. W. BILLINGSLEY PRICE, ONE DOLLAR. For sale by THE PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , 150 Monroe St. , Chicago, Ill. * * * * * THE SHEPHERD'S MANUALA PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE SHEEP. Designed Especially for American ShepherdsBY HENRY STEWART. Finely Illustrated PRICE, $1. 50, by mail, postpaid. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , Chicago. * * * * * $2. 00. FOR THIS AMOUNT WE WILL send a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for one year, also a handsome Colored Map of the United States and Canada--size, 4×2-1/2 feet. * * * * * OUR NEW CLUBBING LIST FOR 1884. THE PRAIRIE FARMER IN CONNECTION WITH OTHER JOURNALS. We offer more liberal terms than ever before to those who desire totake, in connection with THE PRAIRIE FARMER, either of the followingweekly or monthly periodicals. In all cases the order for THE PRAIRIEFARMER and either of the following named journals must be sent together, accompanied by the money; but we do not require both papers to be sentto the same person or to the same post-office. 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'S [Illustration] Illustr'd Garden Manual of VEGETABLE and FLOWER SEEDS, ready for allapplicants. Market Gardeners SEEDS a Specialty. Write for Wholesale Price-List, SENT FREEROCKFORD, ILLINOIS. * * * * * CONSUMPTION. I have a positive remedy for the above disease; by its use thousands ofcases of the worst kind and of long standing have been cured. Indeed, so strong is my faith in its efficacy, that I will send TWO BOTTLESFREE, together with a VALUABLE TREATISE on this disease, to anysufferer. Give Express & P. O. Address. DR. T. A. SLOCUM, 181 Pearl St. , N. Y. * * * * * "THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST. " ENGINESSAW MILLS, THRESHERS, HORSE POWERS, (For all sections and purposes. ) Write for FREE Pamphlet and Prices toThe Aultman & Taylor Co. , Mansfield, Ohio. * * * * * PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. _THE PRAIRIE FARMER is printed and published by The Prairie FarmerPublishing Company, every Saturday, at No. 150 Monroe Street. _ _Subscription, $2. 00 per year, in advance, postage prepaid. Subscriberswishing their addresses changed should give their old as well as newaddresses. _ _Advertising, 25 cents per line on inside pages; 30 cents per line onlast page--agate measure; 14 lines to the inch. No less charge than$2. 00. _ _All Communications, Remittances, etc. , should be addressed to_ THEPRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING COMPANY, _Chicago, Ill. _ * * * * * The Prairie Farmer ENTERED AT THE CHICAGO OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. CHICAGO, JANUARY 26, 1884. * * * * * WHEN SUBSCRIPTIONS EXPIRE. We have several calls for an explanation of the figures following thename of subscribers as printed upon this paper each week. The first twofigures indicate the volume, and the last figure or figures the numberof the last paper of that volume for which the subscriber has paid:EXAMPLE: John Smith, 56-26. John has paid for THE PRAIRIE FARMER to thefirst of July of the present year, volume 56. Any subscriber can at oncetell when his subscription expires by referring to volume and number asgiven on first page of the paper. * * * * * [Transcriber's Note: Original location of Table of Contents. ] * * * * * 1841. 1884. THE PRAIRIE FARMER PROSPECTUS FOR 1884. SEE INDUCEMENTS OFFERED SUBSCRIBE NOW. For forty-three years THE PRAIRIE FARMER has stood at the front inagricultural journalism. It has kept pace with the progress anddevelopment of the country, holding its steady course through all theseforty-three years, encouraging, counseling, and educating its thousandsof readers. It has labored earnestly in the interest of all who areengaged in the rural industries of the country, and that it has laboredsuccessfully is abundantly shown by the prominence and prestige it hasachieved, and the hold it has upon the agricultural classes. Its managers are conscious from comparison with other journals of itsclass, and from the uniform testimony of its readers, that it isforemost among the farm and home papers of the country. It will not bepermitted to lose this proud position; we shall spare no efforts tomaintain its usefulness and make it indispensable to farmers, stock-raisers, feeders, dairymen, horticulturalists, gardeners, and allothers engaged in rural pursuits. It will enter upon its forty-fourthyear under auspices, in every point of view, more encouraging than everbefore in its history. Its mission has always been, and will continue tobe-- To discuss the most approved practices in all agricultural andhorticultural pursuits. To set forth the merits of the best breeds of domestic animals, and toelucidate the principles of correct breeding and management. To further the work of agricultural and horticultural organization. To advocate industrial education in the correct sense of the term. To lead the van in the great contest of the people against monopoliesand the unjust encroachments of capital. To discuss the events and questions of the day without fear or favor. To provide information concerning the public domain, Western soil, climate, water, railroads, schools, churches, and society. To answer inquiries on all manner of subjects coming within its sphere. To furnish the latest and most important industrial news at home andabroad. To give full and reliable crop, weather, and market reports. To present the family with pure, choice, and interesting literature. To amuse and instruct the young folks. To gather and condense the general news of the day. To be, in brief, an indispensable and unexceptionable farm and homecompanion for the people of the whole country. The style and form of the paper are now exactly what they should be. Thepaper used is of superior quality. The type is bold and clear. Theillustrations are superb. The departments are varied and carefullyarranged. The editorial force is large and capable. The list ofcontributors is greatly increased, and embraces a stronger array oftalent than is employed on any similar paper in this country. Wechallenge comparison with any agricultural journal in the land. THE PRAIRIE FARMER is designed for all sections of the country. Inentering upon the campaign of 1884, we urge all patrons and friends tocontinue their good works in extending the circulation of our paper. Onour part we promise to leave nothing undone that it is possible forfaithful, earnest work--aided by money and every needed mechanicalfacility--to do to make the paper in every respect still better than ithas ever been before. * * * * * SPECIAL NOTICE To each Subscriber who will remit us $2. 00 between now and February 1st, 1884, we will mail a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER FOR ONE YEAR, AND ONE OFOUR NEW STANDARD TIME COMMERCIAL MAPS OF THE UNITED STATES ANDCANADA--showing all the Counties, Railroads, and Principal Towns up todate. This comprehensive map embraces all the country from the PacificCoast to Eastern New Brunswick, and as far north as the parallel of 52deg. , crossing Hudson's Bay. British Columbia; Manitoba, with its manynew settlements; and the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, completedand under construction, are accurately and distinctly delineated. Itextends so far south as to Include Key West and more than half of theRepublic of Mexico. It is eminently adapted for home, school, and officepurposes. The retail price of the Map alone is $2. 00. Size, 58 × 41inches. Scale, about sixty miles to one inch. * * * * * READ THIS. ANOTHER SPECIAL OFFER. [Illustration] "THE LITTLE DETECTIVE. " WEIGHS 1/4 OZ. TO 25 LBS. Every housekeeper ought to have this very useful scale. The weight ofarticle bought or sold may readily be known. Required proportions inculinary operations are accurately ascertained. We have furnishedhundreds of them to subscribers, and they give entire satisfaction. During January, 1884, to any person sending us THREE SUBSCRIBERS, at$2. 00 each, we will give one of these scales, and to each of the threesubscribers Ropp's Calculator, No. 1. * * * * * OUR PREMIUM LIST. Revised, extended, and properly illustrated will this week be sent toevery subscriber. There must be something offered in it that every oneneeds or would like to have. The terms are the most liberal everoffered. All readers are hereby constituted agents to solicitsubscriptions to THE PRAIRIE FARMER. If those who can not enlist in thework will hand the PREMIUM LIST to some person who will do so, they willconfer a great favor upon the publishers and editors. What we all wantis to double our present list before the first day of April. * * * * * RENEW! RENEW!! Remember that every yearly subscriber, either new or renewing, sendingus $2, receives a splendid new map of the United States andCanada--58 × 41 inches--FREE. Or, if preferred, one of the books offeredin another column. It is not necessary to wait until a subscriptionexpires before renewing. * * * * * WE WANT AGENTS in every locality. We offer very liberal terms and good pay. Send forsample copies and terms to agents. * * * * * The Adams County (Ill. ) Fair at Camp Point will be held the first weekin September. The premium list is out. * * * * * The seventh annual fair at Jerseyville, Ill. , will be held commencingTuesday, October 14, 1884, and continue four days, with $5, 000 premiums. * * * * * At the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society's trials, November 11, 1883, the Johnston Harvester Company were 1st in the trial field, andalso for the machine best adapted for the colony. * * * * * The growth of the Western live stock business has stimulated parties toorganize a Union Stock Yards Company at Sioux City, Iowa. The companyhas a capital of $100, 000. The shipping of dressed beef may become abranch of its business. * * * * * One of the most popular and instructive essays at the late WisconsinDairymen's Convention was entitled "THE FARMER'S GARDEN, " contributed byJ. M. Smith, Esq. , of Green Bay. This essay will appear, in full, in thenext issue of the PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * French papers declare that the Government crop reports for 1883 areexaggerations. If land has risen in value and stock doubled in price, the extra cost of running a farm more than makes up for it. The impostduty on all agricultural products has also alarmingly increased. * * * * * Mr. Merritt, United States Consul General at London, directs attentionto the falling off in the value of exports from Great Britain to theUnited States during the fiscal year ended September 30, 1883. The totalvalue of declared exports from the various United States consulardistricts in Great Britain and Ireland during the year was $165, 207, 987, a reduction from the figures for the preceding year of $14, 231, 858. * * * * * Mr. Calkins, member of Congress from Indiana, succeeded on Monday ingetting a suspension of the rules and the passage of a bill providingthat in any suit against an innocent purchaser of an articlemanufactured in violation of the patent law, if the plaintiff shall notrecover twenty dollars or over, he shall recover no costs. This bill isa blow aimed at the drive-well patent agents, and others of that ilk whoare perambulating the country to the annoyance of farmers. If the billpasses the Senate, and there appears no valid reason why it shall not, it will put an end to this species of robbery now so prevalent. * * * * * The only general advices we have regarding winter wheat come through theextensive grain commission house of W. T. Baker & Co. , Chicago. Theyhave private reports which indicate that the crop maintains a very highaverage, and, with the exception of a few points in Southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, is doing as well as could be expected at thisseason of the year. In Kentucky and Tennessee the ground is quite bareof snow, but north of the Ohio river, from Kansas to Ohio, the wheat, asa general thing, is well covered. The crop, however, was generally sownlate, and in many quarters fears are entertained of the final outcome. * * * * * The Nebraska State Farmers' Alliance held a meeting at Kearney onWednesday of last week. A platform was adopted declaring in favor ofnational legislation to regulate railway traffic, demanding theabolition of national banks and the substitution of Government currency, demanding a tariff for revenue only, expressing sympathy with labor, asking protection to labor organizations, recommending the abolition ofconvict labor, asking Congress to reclaim all unclaimed land grants andreserve the public domain for actual settlers, and opposing theacquisition of public land by foreigners. * * * * * Do not forget that the Annual Farmers' Institute, or AgriculturalLecture Course, at the Illinois Industrial University will be held fromTuesday, January 29th, to Friday, February 1, 1884. Four lectures willbe given each day, at 10 a. M. , 11 a. M. , 2 p. M. And 3 p. M. , by Dr. Peabody, Regent of the University, Professors Burrill, Jillson, McMurtrie, Morrow and others. The topics discussed will be:_Soils_--Their Origin, Physical Characteristics, Chemical Composition, Drainage, Cultivation, Fertilization; _Plants_--Their Structure, Growth, Nutrition, Seeds, Movement of Sap, Development and Distribution, Economic Products. Addresses will be given in the evenings by Dr. Peabody, Governor Hamilton and others. These lectures and addresses aregiven as a part of the work of the College of Agriculture of theUniversity. No fees or examinations are required. All interested arecordially invited to attend. THE COST OF COLD WINDS. Prof. Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural College, puts the question ofsheltering stock in an exceedingly pointed manner. He has lately beenfeeding ten steers in an experimental way. He found that for the periodof ten days ending December 29, the average gain per head was thirty-oneand one-tenth pounds. The weather was warm and sunny. The steers werefed in an unbattened board shed. During the succeeding ten days, whenthe cold was intense almost the entire time, the same steers, fed on thesame rations, and in the same shed, gained but six and six-tenths poundsper head. About a year ago the Professor fed a lot of pigs for threeweeks of the coldest weather, in open yards, and found them to consumemore than three times the amount of food to pound of increase than thesame number of pigs in the warm basement of the barn. He has a cow keptin a bleak "Kansas barn" which shrinks in her milk from one-fourth toone-half after twenty-four hours of very severe weather. From all thisthe conclusion is what we have so often taught in these columns, thoughnot as forcibly as the Professor teaches by his careful experiments, that you can not burn feed as fuel to support the body of an animal andat the same time have the animal stow it away in the form of muscle andfat. The fact is that our farmers throw away one-half their feed infurnishing animal heat that they might just as well save by paying asmall lumber bill and expending a moderate amount of labor. GOOD WORK AT WASHINGTON. Surely the House of Representatives is getting down to solid work sincethe holiday vacation. Mr. Holman, for instance, found no greatdifficulty in getting a resolution passed declaring that in the judgmentof the House all public lands heretofore granted to States andcorporations in aid of the construction of railroads, so far as the sameis subject to forfeiture by reason of the nonfulfillment of theconditions on which the grants were made, ought to be declared forfeitedby the United States, and restored to the public domain. This was good work, but Mr. Holman's second resolution, also passed, wasfully as much in accordance with public feeling and desire. It is to theeffect that our laws relating to public lands should be so framed andadministered as to ultimately secure freeholds to the greatest number of_citizens_, and to this end all laws facilitating speculation in publiclands authorizing or permitting entry or purchase in large bodies oughtto be repealed, and all public lands adapted to agriculture, subject tobounty grants, and those in aid of education ought to be reserved forthe benefit of actual and bona fide settlers, and disposed of only underthe provisions of the homestead law. There was some opposition to this resolution. Mr. Kasson feared such alaw might work injury to the cattle industry. Mr. Bedford, however, neutralized Mr. Kasson's influence by declaring that he did not proposethat four or five cattle kings should own the West as four or fiverailway kings own the East. It may be that our readers would like to take down the names of memberswho voted against the resolutions. Here they are: Barksdale, Bingham, Bisbee, George, Horr, Kean, Libbey, Lyman, Morse, Muldrow, Poland, Ranney, Reed, Rice, Russell, Stone, Van Eaton, Whiting. Now that the representatives have resolved that these things ought to bedone let us see if they will stand up to the rack and attend to theirpart of the doing. WISCONSIN MEETINGS. Feb. 5 and 6--The State Horticultural Society in Senate Chamber, Madison. Feb. 5--The Wisconsin Cane-Growers Association, Madison. Prof. Wiley ofthe Department of Agriculture will be present. Feb. 6, 7, and 8--Farmers' State Convention, under the auspices of theState Society, at capitol. Feb. 13 and 14--16th annual meeting of the Southern WisconsinCane-Growers' and Manufacturers' Association at Whitewater. Feb. 6--The Wisconsin Swine Breeders will hold a meeting at the capitol, for the transaction of such business as may come before them and thediscussion of subjects appertaining to successful breeding and feedingof swine. All interested in this subject are invited to attend. Answers to Correspondents. J. C. MCCONAUGHY, ROCHELLE, ILL. --1. How can I secure a blue-grasspasture? 2. How much seed to acre? 3. Can blue-grass be grownsuccessfully mixed with other grasses? 4. What season and what soil isbest adapted to secure a good catch? 5. Can it be grown on low, wetland? ANSWER. --1. There are almost as many ways to obtain a blue-grass pastureas there are men who undertake the job, though essentially the practicesare alike. The usual method is to sow the seed in the spring or fall, either alone or with clover or timothy. 2. The seed is very light andchaffy, and weighs only fourteen pounds to the bushel, and the amountsown varies from five to seven pounds to the acre. 3. Yes, though aftera few years blue-grass, on a true blue-grass soil, roots every othergrass out and reigns with a divided empire with white clover. 4. Anygood corn or wheat soil will produce good blue-grass--the usual methodof obtaining a blue-grass pasture is as follows: To one bushel of goodtimothy seed one quart of red clover is added, and this quantity is madeto cover from five to six acres. The seeding may be done in the fallwith fall grain, in the spring with oats, or on stubble or wheat land onthe snow in February. After, in the month of August from a peck to ahalf bushel of blue-grass is sown upon the young timothy and clover. Butlittle or nothing can be seen of the blue-grass for the first year andit does not show vigorously until the third year. Thereafter if the soilis a true blue-grass one and the land is pastured, blue-grass and whiteclover dominate to the exclusion of everything else. Perhaps the surestway to obtain a stand of timothy and thereafter a set of blue-grass, isto prepare the land carefully and sow rye in October. On this sowtimothy and red clover as above on the snow in February or March;pasture the rye, but not too closely, to 15th of May. Harvest the rye atthe usual time, and the yield will be all the better for the pasturing, and sow the blue-grass seed on the stubble in August. 5. No, but red topwill in spite of your best efforts to the contrary unless you till andthoroughly break up the land. JOHN ZIMMERMAN, CAMERON, MO. --1. Has setting trees on a fence line asposts for barb-wire been a success? 2. If so what kind of tree is thebest? 3. Will the hardy catalpa do, if so what distance apart? ANSWER. --1. Barb-wire has not been introduced and used long enough fortrees set for the purpose of posts to grow to a sufficient size. But inmany cases aged Osage orange hedges, which have been suffered to growup, have been thinned out so as to leave a tree every ten, twelve, orfifteen feet, and on these barbed-wires have been strung and made afence, which so far has proved satisfactory. The same success wasobtained where fruit and shade trees standing in a line have hadbarbed-wire attached to them. But the precaution must be taken to nail astrip--a common fence picket will answer--to the tree and then thebarb-wire to that. If this is not done, and the wire is fastened by astaple to the tree, the wood soon overgrows, cracks and increases thestrain on the wire, damages the tree and spoils the fence. 2. Almost anyfast growing tree will do, but hard wood varieties are preferable. 3. The hardy catalpa may do, but for low land we would just as soon havethe common willow. Eight feet apart is a good distance. The wires may befastened to these when they have acquired a diameter of four or fiveinches, and later every other post may be removed. For high and dry landin your latitude one Osage orange is worth a half-dozen catalpas, because it is just as easily grown--and when grown it furnishes thestrongest and most lasting timber known. We may add here, that where afence is wanted across sloughs, or through permanently wet or moistland, posts large enough for barbed-wire may be grown in a couple ofyears or so--this by cutting stakes six or seven feet long and fromthree to five inches in diameter from the common willow, and settingthem in March. The stakes require attention the first summer, in case ofdry weather or drouth, but nothing more than that the moist earth shallbe pressed up against them to prevent the young roots from drying out. M. D. VINCENT, SPRINGFIELD, MO. --1. Can you tell me how badly orangeswere frosted during the late cold spell in Florida? 2. Is there a recordof colder weather at Charleston, S. C. , Savannah, Ga. , if so when wasit? ANSWER. --1. It is hard getting at the facts. One report is that neitheroranges nor the trees were injured at Palatka, fifty miles south ofJacksonville, while another just as credible says the fruit was badlyfrozen on the trees as far south as Enterprise, 100 miles south ofJacksonville. The probabilities are, that there was a good deal ofdamage done to fruit on the trees, but no permanent or serious injury tothe orchards. 2. The mercury may not have been lower for 100 years atCharleston or Savannah than the late cold spell, but during the winterof 1834-35 the weather was so severe the orange trees were killed to theground 100 miles south of Jacksonville. Snow to a foot in depth fell atMillidgeville, Ga. , Lat. 33, and several inches over all northernFlorida. Some apprehensions are felt that these southern sections arenot safe from severe frosts for this winter and the next, since it ispretty well known that these extreme cold periods return about everyhalf-century--the winters of near fifty and one hundred years ago havingbeen made remarkable by terribly severe and protracted cold. J. H. J. WATERTOWN, WIS. --Give us the best remedy for chillblains? ANSWER. --Tincture of iodine painted over the parts; or 10 grains ofsalicylic acid extended in an ounce of half water and half alcohol. Bothto be applied with great caution, and largely diluted where the skin isbroken and ulcers have formed. CHARLES C. PETERS, OLNEY, ILL. --If you were about to plant an orchard onlevelish, but at the same time naturally well drained land, would youadvise throwing up ridges as the common custom is in some sections? ANSWER. --It might be advantageous to throw up ridges so as to securepermanent moisture; but the trees should be set in the depressionbetween them instead of on the ridges. THOROUGHBRED, LEXINGTON, KY. --There is a belief or an opinion currentamong a class of breeders, always ready to accept and experiment withnew fangled notions, that the draft breeds imported from abroad, especially the high priced French horses, are fed from birth on a moreor less regular ration of bone or flesh meal. This they claim is for thepurpose of developing bone and muscle. What do you know of the facts? ANSWER. --Not much. Some of the foreign journals contain accounts ofexperiments in feeding soluble phosphates of lime, but no two agree onresults, except that when the salt is judicially fed, no harm is done. The subject is worthy of investigation and especially by Kentuckybreeders, since it would establish the claim that their soil, beingespecially rich in the phosphates and nitrogen, produces grain, hay, andforage of superior strength for feeding purposes, which appear again, intheir high bred stock of horses, sheep, and cattle. * * * * * The fourth National Agricultural Convention, under the auspices of theAmerican Agricultural Association, will be held at the Grand CentralHotel, New York City, Wednesday and Thursday, February 6th and 7th, 1884. Addresses will be delivered and papers read by leading thinkersand writers on topics of general interest, and all identified withagriculture and kindred pursuits are cordially invited to be present andparticipate in the proceedings. Delegates will be present from allsections of the country, and arrangements for reduced rates of fare arebeing made with the railroads leading into New York. The annual meetingfor the election of officers and the transaction of other business, including the matter of a national agricultural fair, will be held at 12 m. Of the first day of the Convention. Wayside Notes. BY A MAN OF THE PRAIRIE. I notice that Mr. Sanders, of the Treasury Cattle Commission, thinks itbeneath the dignity of Congress to adopt retaliatory measures againstFrance and Germany for prohibiting American pork products from enteringthose countries. He thinks it a far better scheme to appoint a smallarmy of inspectors to examine all the pork before it is shipped fromthis country. This might be more dignified, and after a time effectual, but how shall we make France and Germany stop shipping their poisonedgoods to this country? Will they be equally "dignified" and appointinspectors on their side that will be satisfactory to our people. Probably they would after a few months of prohibition; never before. Dignity is a good thing, but protection to the health and wealth of thepeople is better. Besides, Government inspectors are expensive luxuries, and by no means always efficient. A fat Government appointment is a nicething--for the appointee, as Mr. Sanders is aware, but it is notprofitable to the tax-payers of the country to multiply them tooextensively. In my opinion the easiest way out of the muddle is tostrike back and to hit where it will hurt worst. * * * * * Clinton Babbitt, Secretary of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, is reported to have said at the late meeting of the State Dairymen'sAssociation that he had a very poor opinion of editors. In fact, that heheld them in about the same esteem as Ben Butler does. Now I don'tsuppose it makes an iota of difference to any editor under the sun whatButler or Babbitt think of him; what Ben and Clint need to look out foris what the editors think of them. Big Ben got an inkling of this a fewweeks ago; Little Clint's turn may come next. * * * * * For some time I have been noticing the advanced style of writing in thetwo or three "Down East" agricultural papers that come under my notice. They bear evidences of "culcha" that are truly encouraging, but here isa case that is actually exhilarating, or would be were it not somewhatbewildering. It is from an article about the Jersey Lily, Mrs. Langtry:"Who ever vocalized such a word with a more complex intonation, or witha more marvellously intimate union with a more inextricably intertwinedrelationship to the most exquisite sensibilities that accompany and markthe infinite flights and reachings of the soul, as within its humancasement it burns with fire divine?" Now, I call that decidedly fine, and were I the owner of a whole herd of Jerseys I should endeavor toengage this genius to write them up for me. At any rate I think heshould be brought West to help on the Jersey boom. * * * * * I sent the editors of THE PRAIRIE FARMER, the other day, fromSpringfield, where I was paying a flying visit to the agriculturalrooms, a copy of the Reynolds argument for a change in the awarding ofsweepstakes prizes on cattle. Mr. R. Applied it to the Fat Stock Showalone, and I believe the State Board adopted the suggestions. But forthe life of me I can not see why the principle is not equally applicableto the State Fair premiums, and indeed to similar exhibits at all ourfairs. Next year I hope the State Board will extend the innovation tothe State Fair, and from this it may be it will extend to similarorganizations of lesser magnitude. * * * * * I notice that the National Academy of Sciences have decided that glucoseis not injurious to health. Well, this is good news, at any rate, but itdoes not follow that manufacturers and merchants have the right to mixit with cane sugar or sell it to us for genuine cane sirups, or realhoney, or pure sugar candy, or in any of the other ways in which we aremade to pay two or three times what it is really worth. It does not doaway with the great need of a rigorous food adulteration act, thoughthere is great satisfaction in knowing that when we eat it we are nottaking in a mild death-dealing potion. But, come to think of it, thereare other great scientists in the country besides those composing theNational Academy. Some of them have decided in a contrary manner. Is itnot best to have the question decided by a majority vote of reputablechemists, and then stick to the good old things, whichever way thedecision may be? On principle I don't object to suine, oleo, or any ofthe objectionable articles. All I want is to know when I am buying, andpaying for them in real genuine dollars. Bogus dollars are every whit asrespectable as bogus butter or bogus honey, though the law makes it alittle unhealthy to use them with any degree of liberality. Letter from Champaign. A light rain yesterday (the 18th) was the first for five weeks, and thefirst sign of a January thaw we have had. But it began to snow at dark, continued lightly all night, and has been snowing, blowing, and driftingto-day up to this hour, 2 P. M. Coming soft at first, that part of itwill lay where it fell, and the uncovered portion of the wheat has got anew blanket, which we hope will out-last January. We have had but one solong uninterrupted spell of sleighing for these many years, and that wasin the winter of '78-'79. With the exception of the few very cold daysbefore and after the 5th, the month has been quite favorable for stockand all the labors of the farm. * * * * * The damage done by the cold wave of January 4th to 7th is believed to begreater than first reported. Growers tell me that Snyder blackberriesare killed down to the frost line, which proves it is not iron-clad, assome believe. Accounts from the Cobden fruit region are of the gloomiestcharacter, everything being given up for lost but the strawberries. TheFruit-Grower says they will have to rely on them and their truck patchesthis year, and advises an extension of early potatoes, tomatoes, andJapan melons. According to local records at Anna, there has been nothinglike it since the first week in January, 1864; and the estimate of thedamage done in '84 is computed from what followed in '64, rather thanfrom what is absolutely known. Let us hope that they are mistaken, andthat the Cobden fruit region will sustain its well-earned character asthe source of a perennial fruit supply. * * * * * It appears the cold wave did not reach its minimum in Central Florida, lat. 27, till the night of the 9th, ice having been found on the morningof the 10th, near Enterprise, three-fourths of an inch thick. Oranges onthe trees were frozen through, and the leaves killed so they will drop. But though here and there a branch may be frosted and will die and haveto be removed, little permanent damage to the groves has probablyresulted. Central Florida is distant, as the crow flies, from CentralIllinois, about one thousand miles. Suppose the cold wave moved steadilysouthwest, it follows, then, its rate of speed was not far from 200miles every twenty-four hours. It is easy to comprehend how a completesignal service might warn of the approach of cold waves in time to takeevery necessary precaution to meet and disarm them. * * * * * But as much of a stinger as the late cold turn was, it was a mere coolbreeze compared with that which fell on Florida and the entire Southwestin the winter of 1834-35. Then snow covered all Northern Florida, and inCentral Georgia it lay on the ground some days, a foot deep. The youngorange trees were all killed to the ground, and few of the aged treesescaped without the loss of most of their branches. But they soonrecovered--sprouting from the roots and stumps with great vigor, as theywill again do after the late freeze. And this is one of the strongpoints of the orange. It will sprout from the stump or root when thetrunk is removed, as surely as the young hickory or chestnut, and whentransplanted young and trees of considerable size, will bear mutilationwith about as much indifference as the Osage orange or soft maple. * * * * * Those who expect Congress to do anything that will hurt German andFrench importers, by way of retaliation for prohibiting pork and porkproducts, will be pretty sure to be disappointed. Senator Williams isresponsible for the statement that the reason why agriculture is treatedwith so much contempt, is it sustains no lobby. But you may be sure theimporters will not fail in that respect, as millions will be spent toprevent legislation which will seriously interfere with the enormousprofits of the foreign importing houses in New York. Perhaps SenatorWilliams will inform us what it will cost to keep up a well appointedlobby in Washington, and how much the average one-horse lawyers inCongress expect, in money down, in the way of a retainer. Huntingtoncould tell, and so could Jay Gould; but both are silenced for thepresent, and Villard too. * * * * * "Put your thumb down there. " That the trees on low lands which bore bigcrops in 1874-75, are just the trees which bore crops equally in '83, and the very trees also which have made the most vigorous growth bothpreviously and last year. The whole matter is a question of nutrition. B. F. J. * * * * * REMEMBER _that $2. 00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _from thisdate to January 1, 1885; For $2. 00 you get it for one year and acopy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-classweekly agricultural paper in this country. _ * * * * * [Illustration] POULTRY NOTES. Poultry-Raisers, Write for Your Paper. Chicken Chat. Somebody says that "Plymouth Rock pullets are not always early layers, for they often grow for ten or twelve months before laying, though somelay as early as six months after hatching. " Well that's news to us, and we have kept Plymouth Rocks quite a while, too. We have had Rock pullets commence laying at six months, and once wehad a few that didn't do a thing toward earning their own living tillthey were almost eight months old; but seven months is nearer theaverage, and that is what we count on when selecting the pullets thatare to be kept for winter layers. The pullets that are hatched from thefirst of March up to the first of May, commence laying all along fromthe middle of September to the first of December. Pullets that we wantto commence laying in February, are selected from those hatched in July. It would really be very gratifying to me if the people who know no moreabout the Plymouth Rocks than they do about the fate of Charlie Ross, would keep their twaddle out of print. * * * * * One of my correspondents is very anxious to know if the Langshans arethe "coming fowls. " Hardly. Fanciers who have tried them pronounce themthe "best birds that were ever imported from China, " which is prettyhigh praise, but all the same they are not popular with farmers. Theywill never hold the place that the Plymouth Rocks hold. Since you wishto buy fowls of the breeds for which there will be the greatest demandnext season, I should advise you get Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes. These, in addition to the Light Brahmas and Brown Leghorns that youalready have, will give you the four breeds that are the most popular, and if you have good stock, and let people know that you have eggs tosell for hatching, you will probably have orders for all the eggs thatyou will care to sell. * * * * * Another correspondent wants to know the meaning of the word "strain, " asapplied to fowls, and I don't wonder that he asks the question, for theword is used "promiscuous like" by every tyro in poultry breeding. When any poultry-raiser has bred fowls of any breed long enough to fixhis notion of what constitutes a standard fowl of that breed upon thempermanently, he may claim a "strain. " For instance: Smith believes thatthe Light Brahmas should have very short legs, and he breeds for shortlegs until they are permanently fixed, and everybody who knows anythingabout Light Brahmas knows one of Smith's short-legged Brahmas at sight;then, but not before, Smith may claim a strain of his own, and it isproper for others to speak of "Smith's strain" of Light Brahmas. ButJohnson, who buys of Smith, or of some one who has Light Brahmas ofSmith's strain, this year, should not next year talk about "my ownstrain" of Light Brahmas. It takes years of steady, judicious breedingafter a certain type to establish what may truthfully be called astrain, and it can only be done by breeders of rare skill and longexperience in mating fowls for breeding. FANNY FIELD. Chicken Houses. I often read inquiries about the best plan for building hen houses. Myplan is, for 100 fowls, to build a house for them to roost in, eight oreven ten feet wide and sixteen feet long, one story high with tightfloor of yellow pine flooring. I prefer a tight floor because it iseasily cleaned out, and every time it is cleaned out and swept the floorshould be well covered with slaked lime; one cleaning a week is oftenenough. A building of the same size should be built with a dirt floor, or closeone, as preferred, about ten or fifteen feet from the roosting house forthe hens to lay and sit in. A petition may be made of laths dividing thehouse into two compartments, the front arranged for the laying hens andthe back compartments for sitting hens; then the laying hens will notdisturb the sitting hens. A closed passway should be made, say one andone half or two feet square leading from the roosting house to thelaying house with a sliding door at each end to be used at pleasure. Asit often happens in cold, snowy weather in winter it is not desirable tolet the fowls out, then the slides at each end of the passway can beopened and feed and water placed in the laying house (because the floorin that house will always be cleanest), and all the fowls will soonlearn to go in there to eat and drink, and lay if they want to. It is, Ithink, bad policy to force fowls to roost, lay, and sit all in the sameroom. The boxes that contain the nests should be made so that they can be atany time taken out and the nests turned out in a pile, set on fire andthe boxes held over the fire to kill any lice that may be sticking tothem. B. F. C. HIKE'S POINT, KY. * * * * * A person signing himself a "Nobleman's Gardener, " says in an Englishpaper that it is a mistake to use poultry manure as a top-dressing forgarden crops; for farm crops also, if the poultry and pigeon dung werein any considerable bulk. This, however, is not usually the case, and ahundred weight or two would not make much of an impression on a farm. The manure in question is a powerful fertilizer, containing ammonia, phosphates, and carbonate of lime in considerable quantity, also uricacid, all of which are valuable ingredients for the support of crops. The simplest method of preparing the manure for use is to partially dryit, then mix it with perfectly dry sifted soil or ashes in sufficientquantity that will enable the entire mixture to be rubbed through ahalf-inch sieve. A man can do this comfortably with the hand inclosed ina thick leather glove. In this finely powdered state it can be stored ina dry shed till wanted for use. It is an excellent top-dressing foronions, strawberries, and, in fact, for all vegetable crops that needassistance, also for fruit trees and lawns. It is best applied inshowery weather in the spring--for lawns at the rate of two ounces, vegetable crops and strawberries three ounces, and fruit trees fourounces per square yard. If in very large bulk and needed for use infields it would scarcely be necessary to pulverize it, as mixing it withdry soil, etc. , and turning the heap over a few times would suffice forits ready application. * * * * * The strength of the donkey mind lies in adopting a course inversely asthe arguments urged, which, well considered, requires as great a mentalforce as the direct sequence. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. Cheapest Farms for Sale in Illinois. BEST FRUIT REGION IN THE STATE. Send for my List of Farms and timbered Lands for sale. DEWITT C. SMITH, Land Agent. Stone Fort, Saline Co. , Illinois. When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * MARKET GARDENERS, AND ALL OTHERS who want the BEST Cabbage, Onion, Beet, Carrot, Parsnip, Cucumber, Tomato, and other Seeds, DIRECT FROM THE FARM, at the LOWESTPRICES, can now get them at wholesale rates. Catalogue, with directionsfor cultivation, FREE. Address JOSEPH HARRIS, Moreton Farm, Rochester, N. Y. Seeds for the Children, 25 per cent discount. If you do not wantthe Catalogue, let the Children send for it, and send at once, as thisadvertisement will not be repeated. When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * BLUE STEM SPRING WHEAT!!! The best variety of Prairie Wheat known. Yieldslargely and is less liable to blight than any other variety. Also celebrated Judson Oats for sale in small lots. Samples, statement of yield, and prices sent free uponapplication to SAMPSON & FRENCH. Woodstock, Pipestone Co. , Minn. , or Storm Lake, Ia. When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * EUROPE EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 1884 COMBINING UNEQUALLED ADVANTAGES. Send for Descriptive Circular, Free. _Register early. _ E. TOURJEE, FRANKLIN SQ. , BOSTON. When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * FOR SALE--One-half interest in a thoroughly equipped CREAMERY located inone of the best dairy districts of Wis. J. G. SNYDER & SON. , Mt. Hope, Wis. When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER. * * * * * CUT THIS OUT & Return to us with TEN CTS. & you'll get by mail A GOLDENBOX OF GOODS that will bring you in MORE MONEY, in One Month, thananything else in America. Absolute Certainty. Need no capital. M. Young, 173 Greenwich St. N. York. * * * * * FARM IMPLEMENTS. Etc. THE "NEW" BIRDSELL CLOVER HULLER. [Illustration: MONITOR JUNIOR] SAVES all the Seed, CLEANS Ready for Market as Threshed. [Illustration: THE BIRDSELL COMBINATION SPRING WAGON. ] Besides manufacturing the "NEW" BIRDSELL Clover Huller, forwhich we have the sole right, we make a specialty of HALFPLATFORM and THREE-SPRING WAGONS. Send for illustrated Catalogue and prices. Address BIRDSELL MANF'G CO. SOUTH BEND INDIANA. --> When you write, please mention this paper. <-- * * * * * SEED CORN FOR SALE. A large quantity of first-class, selected Iowa seed corn, inlarge or small quantities. Address _MITCHELL, VINCENT. _ Onawa, Iowa. Please state you saw ad in this paper. * * * * * [Illustration] THE STANDARD REMINGTON TYPE-WRITER is acknowledged to be the onlyrapid and reliable writing machine. It has no rival. These machines areused for transcribing and general correspondence in every part of theglobe, doing their work in almost every language. Any young man or womanof ordinary ability, having a practical knowledge of the use of thismachine may find constant and remunerative employment. All machines andsupplies, furnished by us, warranted. Satisfaction guaranteed or moneyrefunded. Send for circulars. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 38 EastMadison St. , Chicago, Ill. * * * * * SEEDS ALBERT DICKINSON, Dealer in Timothy, Clover, Flax, Hungarian, Millet, Red Top, BlueGrass, Lawn Grass, Orchard Grass, Bird Seeds, &c. POP CORN. Warehouses {115, 117 & 119 Kinzie St. {104, 106, 108 & 110 Michigan St. OFFICE. 115 Kinzie St. CHICAGO, ILL. * * * * * FAY GRAPES CURRANT HEADQUARTERS ALL BEST NEW AND OLD. SMALL FRUITS AND TREES. LOW TO DEALERS AND PLANTERS. STOCK First-Class. Free Catalogues. GEO. S. JOSSELYN, Fredonia, N. Y. * * * * * --> A CHANCE OF A LIFETIME! This Offer Holds GOOD UNTIL MARCH 10th ONLY. $40, 000 IN PRESENTS, GIVEN AWAY. NO BLANKS! every Subscriber gets a Present. The proprietors of the well-known and popular weekly paper, THE GOLDENARGOSY, being desirous of introducing their paper into every home whereit is not now taken, have organized a stock company with an AUTHORIZEDCAPITAL OF $200, 000 for the purpose of pushing the Argosy extensively, and have decided to give away to all who subscribe before March 10, 1884, $40, 000 in presents. READ OUR GREAT OFFER. FOR ONLY FIFTY CENTS We will enter your name on our subscription books and mail THE GOLDENARGOSY regularly for three months, (thirteen numbers), and immediatelysend a printed numbered receipt, which will entitle the holder to one ofthe following magnificent presents. PARTIAL LIST OF PRESENTS TO BE GIVEN AWAY: 5 Cash Presents of $1, 000 each $5, 000 5 Cash Presents of $500 each 2, 500 10 Cash Presents of $200 each 2, 000 10 Cash Presents of $100 each 1, 000 10 Cash Presents of $50 each 500 3 Elegant Upright Pianos, $300 each 900 5 Elegant Cabinet Organs, $100 each 500 25 Sewing Machines, $30 each 750 20 Gents' Solid Gold Watches, $40 ea. 800 30 Ladies' Solid Gold Watches, $25 ea. 750 20 Beautiful Diamond Rings, $30 ea.. 600 20 Gents' Solid Silver Watches, $15 ea. 300 25 Ladies' Chatelaine Watches, $10 ea. 250 30 Boys' Silver Watches, $10 each 300 100 Waterbury Watches, $3. 50 each 350 20 Gents' Solid Gold Chains, $20 each 400 20 Ladies' Gold Neck Chains, $15 each 300 20 Solid Gold Bracelets, $15 each 300 10 Elegant Bicycles, $85 each 850 5 Silver Tea Sets, $100 each 500 5 Sets Parlor Furniture, $100 each 500 10 Elegant Boys' Suits, to order, $20 200 10 Girls' Outside Garments, $15 each 150 50 Gold Pens and Holders, $2 each 100 500 Extension Gold Pencils, $1 each 500 500 Pair Nickel-Plated Skates, $2 each. 1, 000 500 Large Photograph Albums, $2 each 1, 000 500 Pair Roller Skates, $2 each 1, 000 500 Two-Dollar Greenbacks 1, 000 500 One-Dollar Greenbacks 500 500 Magic Lanterns, $1 each 500 500 Boys' Pocket Knives, $1 each 500 500 Ladies' Pocket Knives, $1 each 5001000 Oil Pictures, $1 each 1, 000 500 Solid Gold Rings, $2 each 1, 0001000 Autograph Albums, $1 each 1, 000 AND 92, 532 OTHER USEFUL AND VALUABLE PRESENTS RANGING IN VALUE FROMTWENTY-FIVE CENTS TO ONE DOLLAR, making a grand total of 100, 000presents to be given to the first one hundred thousand subscribersreceived. EVERY ONE GETS A PRESENT. All of the above presents will beawarded in a FAIR AND IMPARTIAL MANNER by a committee chosen by thesubscribers. Among the last 92, 532 presents are 50, 000 of one article, which we manufacture and own the patent, and that retails at One Dollarthe world over and never sold for less; it is something needed in everyhome, AND IS WELL WORTH FIVE DOLLARS IN ANY FAMILY; millions have beensold at One Dollar each. Being owners and manufacturers we can afford togive 50, 000 to our subscribers, believing that you will be so wellpleased that you will always be patrons of the ARGOSY;--besides all thisyou have a chance to get one of the most valuable presents offered inour list. THE AWARD OF PRESENTS WILL POSITIVELY TAKE PLACE MARCH 10, '84. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY IS A WEEKLY PAPER for the FATHER, the MOTHER, theBOYS, and the GIRLS. It is the most BEAUTIFUL, USEFUL, ENTERTAINING, INSTRUCTIVE, AND POPULAR WEEKLY published. It has the best corps ofFIRST-CLASS AUTHORS in the United States, including such as HORATIOALGER JR. , EDWARD S. ELLIS, OLIVER OPTIC, HARRY CASTLEMON, FRANK H. CONVERSE, REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE, and a host of others too numerous tomention. It is BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED, and its reading matter is alloriginal from the pens of noted authors. Its regular subscription priceis 50 CENTS FOR THREE MONTHS; $1. 00 FOR SIX MONTHS; $1. 75 FOR TWELVEMONTHS; without present or premium; but in order to secure 100, 000subscribers at once we make the FOLLOWING LIBERAL OFFER. FOR 50 CENTS we will send you THE GOLDEN ARGOSY, weekly, for threemonths and one numbered receipt, good for one present. FOR $1 we willsend THE GOLDEN ARGOSY, weekly, SIX MONTHS, and TWO numbered receiptsgood for TWO PRESENTS. FOR $1. 75 we will send THE GOLDEN ARGOSY, weekly, for ONE YEAR and FOUR numbered receipts, good for FOUR PRESENTS. A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO YOU. If you will CUT THIS ADVERTISEMENT OUT andshow it to your FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES AND NEIGHBORS, and get five tosubscribe for three months, and send us $2. 50, we will send you yoursubscription free, and one numbered receipt; get ten to subscribe and wewill send you TWO numbered receipts and THE ARGOSY for six months; gettwenty to subscribe for three months and we will send you the ARGOSY ONEYEAR, and FOUR numbered receipts, good for FOUR PRESENTS. A few hours'work will give you A SUBSCRIPTION FREE and a CHANCE TO WIN ONE OF THEMOST VALUABLE PRESENTS. SAMPLE COPIES FREE. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is a well ESTABLISHED weekly paper and is backed byHALF A MILLION DOLLARS CAPITAL, so that every subscriber may be sure ofGETTING JUST WHAT WE PROMISE. LIST OF THE AWARDS will be forwarded toall subscribers immediately after Mar. 10th. HOW TO SEND MONEY. Send small sums, from 50 cents to one or two dollarsby POSTAL NOTE, cash or stamps; larger sums should be sent by REGISTEREDMAIL OR POST OFFICE ORDER. Address all orders to THE ARGOSY PUBLISHING CO. , 81 WARREN STREET, NEW YORK. REMEMBER, THE ABOVE PRESENTS ARE GIVEN ABSOLUTELY FREE TO OURSUBSCRIBERS. CUT THIS OUT AND SHOW IT TO YOUR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS ANDACQUAINTANCES. --> IT WILL NOT APPEAR AGAIN. <-- AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE. WHAT SUBSCRIBERS SAY. I cannot SPEAK TOO HIGHLY of the ARGOSY, my boys think they could neverdo without it. Mrs. M. E. AXTELL, West Richfield, Ohio. THE ARGOSY has been SO GOOD this year I MUST HAVE it another; enclosedis $1. 75. DAN. W. HUNTINGTON, Boston. I LIKE THE ARGOSY VERY MUCH, and think it GREATLY IN ADVANCE of theusual style of papers for the young--THE BOYS LIKE IT. Mrs. AGNES S. ARMSTRONG. Ephraim, Utah Ter. I have taken a number of papers, but I NEVER HAD ONE I LIKE AS WELL asTHE ARGOSY. To sit before the fire these cold evenings and read it ISTHE BEST ENJOYMENT I KNOW OF. To-night I am reading my old papers overagain. W. S. KNOWLTON, Portland, Me. I should take the ARGOSY another year IF I HAD TO SIT UP NIGHTS TO EARNTHE MONEY TO PAY FOR IT: enclosed is $1. 75. ED. L. PEMBERTON, Ansonia, Conn. I am SO DEEPLY INTERESTED in the ARGOSY I SHOULD BE LOST WITHOUT IT;please extend my subscription another year. WINNIE S. MOORE, Audubon, Ia. I have been a reader of the ARGOSY the last year, and CANNOT NOW DOWITHOUT IT, LET IT COST WHAT IT WILL. D. E. BROTHWELL, Wakefield, Kan. THE ARGOSY is the VERY BEST PAPER of the kind published. I WOULD NOT DOWITHOUT IT FOR TWICE $1. 75. FRANK G. JOHNSON, Painesville, O. I prize the ARGOSY ABOVE ALL YOUTH'S PAPERS. Its high moral tone andinstructive reading is sure to leave a LASTING IMPRESSION WITH ITSREADERS. Mrs. IDA AUSTIN, Fort Halleck, Wy. The character of the ARGOSY COMMENDS ITSELF TO ALL. WM S. CLARK, Washington, D. C. I have read the _Golden Days_, _Youth's Companion_, and _Wide-Awake_, for boys and girls, BUT GIVE ME THE ARGOSY; I WOULD NOT GIVE IT FOR ANYOTHER PAPER I EVER SAW. A. B. WILLIS, Brooklyn, Ill. NOTICES FROM THE PRESS. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is handsomely printed on tinted paper, and isfreighted with reading matter that can be safely placed in the hands ofour youth. --_Herald_, Norristown, Pa. It is SPARKLING and PURE, interesting and HIGH-TONED. The best authorsin America contribute to its columns. --_Journal_, Lewistown, Me. Parents and guardians who would place fascinating as well asinstructive, reading before their children, WOULD DO WELL TO SUBSCRIBETO IT. --_Church Union_, N. Y. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY has ECLIPSED, in EVERY respect, its older but lessenterprising contemporaries. --_Daily Transcript_, Peoria, Ill. Full of LIFE and VIM, it commends itself to those desiring to beentertained and instructed. The illustrations are SUPERB. We commend itto the reading public. --_Vanity Fair_, San Francisco, Cal. It has taken a LEADING PLACE among the best papers of its class. Thepublisher EVIDENTLY UNDERSTANDS boys' tastes. --_Times_, Indianapolis, Ind. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is a BRIGHT, SPARKLING paper for boys and girls;NEITHER SENSATIONAL ON THE ONE HAND NOR DULL ON THE OTHER. --_Press_, Philadelphia, Pa. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is a youths' paper, and CONTAINS MORE INTERESTINGREADING MATTER than any other similar publication in thecountry. --_Telegraph_, Dubuque, Iowa. IT IS A FIRST-CLASS PAPER, FULLY EQUALLING THE _Youth's Companion_, and, being once introduced into the home, will be sure to remain. --_Herald_, Camden, Me. THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is AS FAR REMOVED FROM THE PROSY INANITY OFSUNDAY-SCHOOL LITERATURE AS IT IS FROM THE DEMORALIZING SENSATIONALISMOF THE HALF-DIME DREADFULS. --_N. Y. World. _ THE GOLDEN ARGOSY is not only BEAUTIFUL IN APPEARANCE, but every wayCOMMENDABLE IN the CHARACTER OF ITS CONTENTS. IT IS ONE OF THE FEWPAPERS for young people that JUDICIOUS FATHERS AND MOTHERS care to putin the hands of their children. --_Detroit Free Press. _ * * * * * REMEMBER _that $2. 00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _from thisdate to January 1, 1885; For $2. 00 you get it for one year and acopy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-classweekly agricultural paper in this country. _ * * * * * FORESTRY. Henry Stuart writes the New York Times: A wise and careful system ofagriculture might have left our fields still fertile and productive, soan economical use of the forests might have made them a perennial sourceof wealth. Fortunately the injury is not beyond a remedy, for it iseasier to restore a growth of timber than it is to bring back fertilityto a barren soil. It is easy to care for what is left and to replant andrenew the growth, and even to do this better and more quickly and withmore and quicker profit than nature has done it. It is easy, too, by awise and practical use of the forests that are left, to so husband themas to take regular harvests from them as the farmer regularly harvestshis fields or selects the fatlings from his flocks. He does not gatherin all these at one fell swoop, taking the fat and the lean and theyoung and the old, as the fisherman gathers all into his nets, and asthe lumberman has felled the woods, but he selects those that are ripeand carefully rears the rest until they are ready. Had the timber beenculled in this way from the forests year by year there would have been aperiodical harvest, and as the mature trees were cut out a new growthwould spring up. But, on the contrary, as in the old fable, the goosehas been killed for its golden eggs, and the source of a lasting profithas been recklessly sacrificed. Fortunately the land is left, and can be put to its proper use as soonas it can be controlled. And still fortunately, by a wiseadministration, the forests may be made a profitable source of publicincome, instead of, as heretofore, the prey of the spoilers. It isuseless to complain of past mistakes. They have been, as we have pointedout, mere incidents of our system, and possibly unavoidable. But thetime has come when the system must be changed, and the necessity for achange has become so apparent that it can not be long delayed. It is notonly the commerce of the country that must suffer by a continuance ofthe system, but agriculture suffers still more; and it is not only thepublic who will gain by a change, but the example will be followed bythe farmers, who will doubtless soon learn to take care of their owntimber lands and plant more, and so the benefit will be general. Besides, the farmers will not be long in discovering the profit ingrowing timber, and would plant groves as one of the most profitablecrops that could be grown upon their rougher lands, or as a resting andrestorative crop for their worn soil. * * * * * Before the New York Academy of Science a few days ago, Professor AlbertR. Leeds gave some "facts gathered from eight years of personalinspection as to the alleged destruction of the Adirondack forests. " Hesaid that a rapid course of spoilation was going on in the outskirts ofthe forest, and the effect of it would soon be felt in the flow of theHudson. The impression that the Adirondacks were pine-producing was afalse one. Pine trees were seldom seen and the mountains were coveredwith spruce and hemlock. But the spruces, owing to a disease whichattacked them a few years ago, are rapidly dying off. On the Ausableriver and along the shores of Lake Champlain the destruction of theforest is especially great. Persons living about the forest start firesin the woodland which spread rapidly and are more destructive to thetrees than the lumbermen. Professor Leeds thought that the railwayswhich are making their way through the forests would be an importantelement in their destruction, for the sparks of the locomotives wouldoriginate forest fires. He said that the purchase of the forests by theState might not require so great an expenditure of money as wasanticipated. * * * * * In closing an article on "Forestry and Farming, " the GermantownTelegraph maintains that the idea that farmers and land-owners generallyentertain that they may not live to enjoy the advantages of thetree-planting, should be utterly banished from their minds. It willrequire only about twenty years to realize the most liberal hopes ofsuccess; at least it will add to the value of the farm by the fact thatthe amount of timber is to be increased instead of diminished. We allknow how anxious every purchaser of a tract of land is to know whetherthere is any and how much timber upon a farm offered for sale. In fact, there is no greater mistake made than to cut down the wood upon a farmwhen purchased, with a view to meet the second payment; and this mistakeis invariably brought home to everyone in a few years. It is like takingthe life-blood out of the land. SCIENTIFIC. Official Weather Wisdom. Almost from its invention the barometer has been vaunted an indicator ofimpending weather, and now we are in possession of numberless rules forinterpreting its indications, mostly of a vague and indefinite purport, few, if any, pretending to accuracy and certainty. As mankind are alwaysdesirous of attaining weather wisdom, these rules have tended to givethe barometer its widely recognized reputation, rather than any reallyinfallible principles, clearly formulated. With no other philosophicalinstrument have people so deluded themselves as with the barometer. Meteorology having become almost an official monopoly, the officialsseem to have made the readiest and largest amount of reputation out ofthe barometer as a weather glass; for all that they have had to do is tocompile rules from a number of authors, without any necessity ofacknowledgment, print as much as they please at the Government expense, give it away freely, and the notoriety of authorship is secured easilyand expeditiously. Thus the British nation has been officially suppliedwith about eighteen different editions of the Barometer Manual, widelydiffering from each other according to the views of the authors; foralthough the book remains the self-styled authors change, much the sameas with the Cambridge books on mathematics. A study of the edition, "Coast or Fishery Barometer Manual, " teaches that the barometerforetells coming weather; that it does not always foretell comingweather; that only few are able to understand much about what it doestell us; that it may be used by ordinary persons without difficulty;that its indications are sometimes erroneous: that any one observing itonce a day may be always weatherwise; that its warnings do not applyalways to the locality of the instrument; that storms frequently occurwithout its giving any warning; that barometer depressions happen withand without gales; and similar ambiguous or contradictory assertions adnauseam. It is perfectly astounding to contemplate that officialauthority sanctions such inconsistent teaching, and moreoverdisseminates it far and wide, forcing its circulation by giving it awaygratuitously on humane and eleemosynary grounds. Where only suchconfusing advice and direction can be given is it becoming to stamp itas official? it is lamentable inconsiderateness to expect fishermen tobe able to dodge the weather by such guidance; and it is time to stopthis easily concocted nostrum for notoriety; for it is vague andinconclusive in every precept, and has scarcely an assertion which isnot contradicted by some other. --_Engineering. _ A Remarkable Electrical Discovery. The London Times of recent date states that a new electrical contrivancehas been perfected by Mr. A. St. George, the inventor of the telephonewhich bears his name. This invention, which is really supplemental tothe telephone, will enable every description of conversation carried onthrough the instrument to be not only recorded but reproduced at anyfuture time. Briefly stated, Mr. St. George's invention may be thusdescribed: A circular plate of glass is coated with collodion and madesensitive as a photographic plate. This is placed in a dark box, inwhich is a slit to admit a ray of light. In front of the glass is atelephone diaphragm, which, by its vibrations, opens and closes a smallshutter through which a beam of light is constantly passing andimprinting a dark line on the glass. Vibrations of the shutter cause thedark line to vary in thickness according to the tones of the voice. Theglass plate is revolved by clock work, and the conversation as it leavesthe telephone is recorded on the sensitive plate, the imprinted wordsspoken being fixed as is done in photography. The plate can be broughtforward afterwards, and when replaced in the machine and connected witha distant telephone, will, when set in motion, give back the originalconversation. * * * * * On October 15, 1881, a gentleman in Newburgh, N. Y. , inclosed a spiderin a small paper box. He carefully guarded and watched it, and affirmsthat for 204 days it partook of no food or water. It showed noemaciation, and appeared as active and strong as at first until within avery few days of its death on May 7, 1882. Tamerlane learned patiencefrom a spider; perhaps Tanner was taught by them how to fast. The Hour, from which we take this item, also has the following: Another spiderstory is sent from California by the Rev. Dr. McCook, of honey-ant fame. He found a small cocoon of eggs and young spiders, which had no lessthan five other kinds of insects living in and about it. These intrudersconsisted of small red ants, a diminutive beetle, and a series formed bya minute chalcid, parasitic on a larger chalcid, which was parasitic onan ichneumon, which was parasitic on the spider. All were seeking todevour the eggs and spiderlings, yet the whole cocoonful, victimsincluded, seemed to be living on most amicable terms. * * * * * Various methods for hastening the conversion of cider into vinegar havebeen recommended. A French method is as follows: Scald three barrels orcasks with hot water, rinse thoroughly and empty. Then scald withboiling vinegar, rolling the barrels and allowing them to stand on theirsides two or three days until they become thoroughly saturated with thevinegar. The barrels are then filled about one-third full with strongpure cider vinegar and two gallons of cider added. Every eighth daythereafter two gallons of cider are added until the barrels aretwo-thirds full. The whole is allowed to stand fourteen days longer, when it will be found to be good vinegar, and one-half of it may bedrawn and the process of filling with cider be begun again. In summerthe barrels are allowed to stand exposed to the sun and in cold weatherkept where the temperature is 80 degrees. * * * * * A Party of the United States Geological Survey have found it practicableto ride to the highest peak of Mount Shasta, and suggest theestablishment there of a third elevated station for weatherobservations, similar to those on Pike's Peak and Mount Washington. * * * * * A herring produces from 30, 000 to 50, 000 eggs, and the eggs are so smallin size that 20, 000 can be put one layer thick on a square foot ofglass. * * * * * COUGHS AND HOARSENESS. --The irritation which induces coughingimmediately relieved by use of "_Brown's Bronchial Troches_. "Sold only in boxes. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. To Our Readers. THE PRAIRIE FARMER is the OLDEST, MOST RELIABLE, and the LEADINGAGRICULTURAL JOURNAL OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST, devoted exclusively to theinterests of the Farmer, Gardener, Florist, Stock Breeder, Dairyman, Etc. , and every species of Industry connected with that great portion ofthe People of the World, the PRODUCERS. Now in the Forty-Fourth Year ofits existence, and never, during more than two score years, havingmissed the regular visit to its patrons, it will continue to maintainsupremacy as A STANDARD AUTHORITY ON MATTERS PERTAINING TO AGRICULTUREAND KINDRED PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRIES, and as a FRESH AND READABLE FAMILYAND FIRESIDE JOURNAL. It will from time to time add new features ofinterest, securing for each department the ablest writers of practicalexperience. THE PRAIRIE FARMER will discuss, without fear or favor, all topics ofinterest properly belonging to a Farm and Fireside Paper, treat of themost approved practices in AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, BREEDING, ETC. ;the varied Machinery, Implements, and improvements in same, for use bothin Field and House; and, in fact, everything of interest to theAgricultural community, whether in FIELD, MARKET, OR HOME CIRCLE. IT WILL GIVE INFORMATION UPON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, WESTERN SOILS, CLIMATE, ETC. ; ANSWER INQUIRIES on all manner of subjects which come within itssphere; GIVE each week, full and RELIABLE MARKET, CROP, AND WEATHERREPORTS; PRESENT the family with choice and INTERESTING LITERATURE;amuse and INSTRUCT THE YOUNG FOLKS; AND, in a word, aim to BE, in everyrespect, AN INDISPENSABLE AND UNEXCEPTIONABLE farm and firesideCOMPANION. Terms of Subscription and 'Club Rates': ONE COPY, 1 YEAR, postage paid $ 2. 00 TWO COPIES, " " " 3. 75 FIVE " " sent at one time 8. 75 TEN " " sent at one time, and one to Club getter 16. 00 TWENTY " " sent at one time, and one to Club getter 30. 00 Address The Prairie Farmer Publishing Co. , Chicago. Ill. * * * * * STANDARD BOOKS. ROPP'S CALCULATOR AND DIARY. Practical Arithmetic made EASY, SIMPLE, and CONVENIENT for all, by thisunique and wonderful work. Is worth its weight in gold to everyone notquick in figures. Contains nearly 100, 000 BUSINESS Calculations, SIMPLEand PRACTICABLE Rules and ORIGINAL Methods--the CREAM of this great anduseful science--which makes it possible and EASY for ANY ONE, even achild, to make CORRECT and INSTANTANEOUS computations in GRAIN, Stock, Hay, Coal, Cotton, Merchandise. INTEREST, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Wages, Measurement of Lumber, Logs, Cisterns, Tanks, Granaries, Wagon-beds, Corn-cribs, Cordwood, Hay-stacks, Lands, Carpenters', Plasterers', and Masons' work, besides THOUSANDS of other practicalproblems which come up every day in the year. Will prove of GREATBENEFIT, almost A NECESSITY, in the hands of every FARMER, Mechanic, andTradesman. It is neatly printed, elegantly bound, accompanied by a RENEWABLE Diary, SILICATE Slate, PERPETUAL Calendar, and VALUABLE POCKET-BOOK, allcombined, for the price of a COMMON diary. Fine English Cloth $ . 50Fine English Cloth, with flap . 75Fine Roan Leather, with flap 1. 00 Sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUB. CO. , CHICAGO ILL. * * * * * How to Paint A new work by A PRACTICAL PAINTER, designed for the use of TRADESMEN, MECHANICS, MERCHANTS, FARMERS, and as a guide to PROFESSIONAL PAINTERS. Containing a Plain, Common-Sense Statement of the methods employed byPainters to produce satisfactory results in PLAIN and FANCY PAINTING ofevery description, including FORMULAS for MIXING PAINT in OIL or WATER, Tools required, etc. This is just the book needed by any person havinganything to paint and makes "EVERY MAN HIS OWN PAINTER. " Full directions for using WHITE LEAD LAMP BLACK--IVORY BLACK--PRUSSIAN BLUE--ULTRAMARINE--GREEN--YELLOW--BROWN--VERMILLION--LAKE--CARMINE--WHITING--GLUE--ASPHALTUM--PUMICE STONE, andSPIRITS OF TURPENTINE--OILS--VARNISHES--FURNITURE VARNISH--MILKPAINT--PREPARING CALCIMINE. Paint for Outbuildings --WHITEWASH--Paste for PAPER HANGING--HANGING PAPER--GRAINING INOAK, MAPLE, MAHOGANY, ROSEWOOD, BLACK WALNUT--STAINING--GILDING--BRONZING--TRANSFERRING--DECALCOMANIA--MAKING RUSTIC PICTURES--PAINTING FLOWER-STAND--MAHOGANY POLISH--ROSEWOOD POLISH--VARNISHING FURNITURE--WAXING FURNITURE--CLEANING PAINT-- Paint for Farming Tools for MACHINERY, and for HOUSEHOLD FIXTURES To Paint a Farm Wagon --to RE-VARNISH A CARRIAGE--to make PLASTER CASTS. The work is neatlyprinted, with illustrations wherever they can serve to make the subjectplainer, and it will save MANY TIMES its cost yearly. Every familyshould possess a copy. Price, by mail, postpaid, $1. Forwarded free toany sender of two subscribers to this paper at $2 each. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. Chicago. * * * * * STANDARD WORKS. By PETER HENDERSON Gardening for Profit, A WELL-KNOWN WORK ON Market and Family Gardening Gardening FOR Pleasure A guide to the amateur in the Fruit, Vegetable, and Flower Garden, withfull directions for the Green-House, Conservatory, and Window Garden. PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE, A guide to successful Propagation and Cultivation of Florists' Plants. PRICE, $1. 50 EACH, BY MAIL, POSTPAID. AddressPRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , Chicago. * * * * * TALKS ON MANURES By JOSEPH HARRIS, M. S. Author of "_Walks and Talks on the Farm_, " "_Farm Crops_, " "_Harris onthe Pig_, " _etc. _ While we have no lack of treatises upon artificial fertilizers, there isno work in which the main stay of the farm--the manure made upon thefarm is treated so satisfactorily or thoroughly as in this volume. Starting with the question, "WHAT IS MANURE?" the author, well known on both sides of the water by his writings, runsthrough in sufficient detail every source of manure on the farm, discussing the methods of making rich manure; the proper keeping andapplying it, and especially the USES OF MANURE, and the effects of different artificial fertilizers, as compared withfarm-yard manure, upon different crops. In this he makes free use of thestriking series of experiments instituted years ago, and stillcontinued, by Lawes and Gilbert, of Rothamsted, England. The REMARKABLE TABLES in which the results of these experiments are given, are here for thefirst time made accessible to the American farmer. In fact, there isscarcely any point relating to fertilizing the soil, including suitablemanures for special crops, that is not treated, and while the teachingsare founded upon the most elaborate scientific researches, they are sofar divested of the technical language of science as to commendthemselves to farmers as eminently "practical. " It is not often that theresults of scientific investigations are presented in a manner sothoroughly popular. 12mo. Price, postpaid, $1. 50. PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. Chicago. * * * * * HOUSE PLANS FOR EVERYBODY. By S. B. REED, Architect. One of the most popular Architectural books ever issued, giving a widerange of design from a dwelling costing $250 up to $8, 000, and adaptedto farm, village, and town residences. It gives an Estimate of the Quantity of Every Article Used in the construction, and probable cost of constructing any one of thebuildings presented. Profusely illustrated. Price, postpaid, $1. 50. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , Chicago * * * * * NOW is the time to Subscribe for THE PRAIRIE FARMER. Price only $2. 00per year is worth double the money. * * * * * [Illustration] HOUSEHOLD. For nothing lovelier can be found In woman than to study _household_ good. --_Milton. _ CHRISTIAN CHARITY. O stay not thine hand when the winter's wind rude Blows cold through the dwellings of want and despair, To ask if misfortune has come to the good, Or if folly has wrought the sad wreck that is there. When the Savior of men raised His finger to heal, Did He ask if the sufferer was Gentile or Jew? When thousands were fed with a bountiful meal, Was it given alone to the faithful and true? If the heart-stricken wanderer asks thee for bread, In suffering he bows to necessity's laws; When the wife moans in sickness, the children unfed, The cup must be bitter, O ask not the cause. Then scan not too closely the frailties of those Whose bosoms may bless on a cold winter's day: And give to the wretched who tells thee his woes, And from him that would borrow, O turn not away! --_Dr. Reynell Coates. _ * * * * * A correspondent writes: Will give the readers of THE PRAIRIE FARMER the favor of tellingus all about making sandwiches. How thick should they be whencomplete? Best made of bread or biscuit? and if chicken or ham, how prepared? Please don't say shred the meat and sprinkle insalt, pepper, and mustard, but tell us how to shred the meat. Doyou chop it, and how fine? and how much seasoning to a givenquantity? or do cooks always guess at it? MRS. C. H. --Will not some of our lady readers tell us how they make sandwiches. The question is an important one for city as well as country, where somany thousands of "lunches" have to be prepared daily. --[ED. * * * * * A correspondent writes the lady readers of THE PRAIRIE FARMER concerninga new line of work, which we hope many of them may find profitable: Much has been written regarding proper and remunerative employment forwomen. Silk culture, poultry raising, and various other themes have beenthoroughly ventilated, and the result has no doubt been very beneficial;but there are many ladies who have no opportunity to raise silk worms, or follow any business of that kind. To that class I wish to open whatto me was an entirely new field. Some three months ago an uncle of mine from Albany, N. Y. , was visitingat our house, and we were talking of plated ware, which he is engaged inmanufacturing, and to gratify my curiosity he made a plating machine andreplated our knives, forks, spoons and caster. It only cost $4, and itdid the work perfectly. Some of our neighbors saw what we had plated, and wanted me to do some plating for them. Since then I have workedtwenty-two days, clearing in that time $94. 34. At almost every house Igot from $2 to $3 worth of plating to do, and such work is most allprofit. This business is as nice for ladies as it is for gentlemen, being all indoor work, and any one can do it. My brother, although heworked two days longer than I did, only made $91. 50. I am getting up acollection of curiosities, and to any of your readers that will send mea specimen I will send them full directions for making and using aplating machine like mine that will plate gold, silver and nickel. Sendsmall pieces of stones, ores, shells, wood, leaves of trees, plants, etc. Anything small will do. What I want to get is as many differentspecimens from as many different places all over the country as I can. Address MISS M. F. CASSEY. OBERLIN, OHIO. The Night Cap. In a late letter to the August Constitution Jas. R. Randall discoursesthus pleasantly of the efficiency of the night cap in producing sleep: About 9 o'clock at night we boarded the sleeping coach for Washington. Just before retiring for the night my mind, somehow or other, revertedto an editorial article recently published in the New York Times, halfserious, half earnest, concerning the latest theory of an Englishphysician as to the prepotent cause of insomnia and nervous disordersgenerally. It may be remembered that to the abandonment of the night capof our grandfathers (the cotton or flannel article, not the alcoholic)was attributed the modern tendency of sleeplessness that make even aphilosopher like Herbert Spencer more or less of a crank. What I wanted, and wanted as the fellow did his pistol in Texas, was first-classslumber, just such unmitigated repose as occasionally comes to a highlyorganized baby, unvexed by colic or pure cussedness. I began to thinkthat perhaps that British doctor was right, and that, if it werepossible, I would return to the neglected custom of my ancestors. Justat that moment I plunged my hand into my coat pocket and pulled out asilk smoking-cap--a pretty thing, wrought for me long ago by the dainty, delicate, deft fingers of one who now rests in the graveyard at Augusta. This cap was the very thing. I placed it reverently upon my head, withan act of faith, and lay down. The result was magical. Never since I wasa boy can I remember to have experienced so perfect and delicious arepose. Not a dream rippled the surface of my calm brain, and I awakenedhours afterward with a sense of satisfaction that must be a foretaste ofheaven itself. An incipient headache had vanished. Powers of mind thathad been dulled were restored to animation and keenness. Not a trace ofirascibility remained; but in its place came trooping the sweet angelsthat Father Faber says continually hover over the good-humored man. Ideclare that the metamorphosis was so complete that I almost needed anintroduction to my new self. And this prodigy was created by one grand, complete and unusual slumber, when wearing a nightcap! Subsequentexperiments have been relatively successful; so I am getting to be anenthusiast on the subject. Some folks say that it is a delusion, a merefreak of the imagination. Be it so. If a nightcap can extinguish myimagination at bed-time, thank God for the discovery! My good old mothertells me that when I was a little fellow she used to tie a nightcapunder my chin, and that I was a famous sleeper in those times. She is afirm believer in the efficacy. Likely enough if a man eats pickled pig'sfeet at midnight or drinks unlimited whisky, even a silk or cottonnightcap may not consign him to the arms of Morpheus; but it may workwonders for a sober person who is cursed with the pestilent habit ofconjuring up all manner or odd fancies when his head touches the pillow, instead of dismissing the workmen who hammer on the forges of the brain. The majority of the men will rather suffer nocturnal horrors than belaughed at for wearing nightcaps; just as the majority of women willprefer to wear shoes that are instruments of disease and torture ratherthan have their feet shod comfortably and sensibly. I have a clear ideaas to which is the course of wisdom and which the alternative of folly. But this is a diversion which you, readers, may smile at or not as thewhim seizes you. How to Treat a Boy. Get hold of the boy's heart. Yonder locomotive comes like a whirlwinddown the track, and a regiment of armed men might seek to arrest it invain. It would crush them, and plunge unheeding on. But there is alittle lever in the mechanism that at the pressure of a man's hand willslacken its speed, and in a moment bring it panting and still, like awhipped spaniel, at your feet. By the same little lever the vast steameris guided hither and yonder upon the sea, in spite of the adverse windsor current. That sensitive and responsive spot by which a boy's life iscontrolled is his heart. With your grasp gently and firmly on that helm, you may pilot him whither you will. Never doubt that he has a heart. Badand willful boys very often have the tenderest hearts hidden somewherebeneath incrustations of sin or behind barricades of pride. And it isyour business to get at that heart, keep hold of it by sympathy, confiding in him, manifestly working only for his good by littleindirect kindnesses to his mother or sister, or even his pet dog. Seehim at his home, or invite him into yours. Provide him some littlepleasures, set him at some little service of trust for you; love him;love him practically. Anyway and every way rule him through his heart. * * * * * "Etiquette now admits of a second plate of soup. " That is all right, butif a man's appetite will not admit of a second plate of soup, etiquetteis nothing to him. And if he has the appetite, he will have the soup, etiquette or no etiquette. * * * * * Rand, Avery, & Co. , Boston, announce a new story--a thrilling andpowerful tale--involving the pregnant question of Mormonism. The bookwill be amply illustrated and sold by subscription. The publishers saythat in their opinion this book will serve a purpose not unlike UncleTom's Cabin (of which, by the way, four hundred thousand copies--eighthundred thousand volumes--were issued in this country, every one ofwhich bore their imprint). It will hasten the day for the uprising of anindignant nation, and their verdict will be as in the case ofslavery--this disgrace must cease--the Mormon must go! Pamphlets, Etc. , Received. Honey, as Food and Medicine. Presented by J. L. Harris, 697 W. Lake St. , Chicago. This little work contains many valuable recipes showing howhoney can be made useful medicinally and as an appetizer. Forhousekeepers in the country who have bees it will be found especiallyuseful. Spring catalogue and price list of the Eclectic Small Fruit Nursery. O. B. Galusha, Morris, Ill. New State Fair Grounds: Statement by the executive committee, togetherwith the rejoinder of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture to theFranklin County Society's reply. This pamphlet will be interesting tothe farmers of that State. Landreth's Companion for the Garden and Farm, Philadelphia, Pa. Price 10cents. This book is, as usual, handsomely gotten up, and is truly a"companion. " The prettily colored cover is but an index to the manycolored pages within. It also contains many interesting plates showingthe manner and extent of work carried on by this enterprising firm. Thebook is replete with valuable information. Supplemental Report of the Department of Agriculture of Georgia, for theyear 1883, Circular No. 49, new series. Shows the yield of the leadingcrops of the State as compared with 1882; the average yield per acre, and other matters of interest to the farmers of Georgia. Descriptive Catalogue of C. A. Hiles & Co. 's saws and ice tools, 234South Water street, Chicago. Descriptive catalogue and price list of H. F. Dernell & Co. 's ice tools, Athens, N. Y. A. E. Spaulding's annual descriptive catalogue and price list of flowerseeds, plants, and tools, Ainsworth, Iowa. Report No. 3 of the Department of Agriculture, Division and Statistics, December, 1883, Washington. This report is full of very usefulstatistical information. Foreign Press Opinions of Madame Marcella Sembrich in Mr. Henry E. Abbey's Grand Italian Opera Company. These opinions are very flattering, and if true, the Madame deserves to be well patronized. Chicago Medical Times, edited by W. H. Davis, M. D. $2. 00 per annum, 25cents a single copy. Special Report No. 3 of the Department of Agriculture, miscellaneous, Washington. This report is given up to the discussion of Mississippi, its climate, soil, productions, and agricultural capabilities. By A. B. Hurt, Special Agent. The American Naturalist for January contains the usual number ofwell-written articles, and is finely illustrated. This magazine isdevoted to the natural sciences in the broadest sense of that term. The Silver Dollar: The original standard of payment of the United Statesof America, and its enemies. By Henry Carey Baird, Philadelphia, Pa. , 810 Walnut Street. The twenty-first and twenty-second quarterly report of the PennsylvaniaBoard of Agriculture, 1883. Harrisburg, Pa. The Storrs & Harrison Co. 's Catalogue (No. 2) for 1884. Painesville, Ohio. This catalogue is fully illustrated with cuts of flowers andvegetables of almost every known description, so that the purchaser cansee just what he is buying before sending order. Ohio Crop Report, December, 1883. With analyses and valuations offertilizers, meteorological reports, etc. Compiled Correspondence. Kane Co. , Ill. , Jan. 21. --Cold weather continues. On eight days of thismonth the thermometer has been below zero. It has been above thefreezing point only on one morning, the 13th. Sleighing is good, excepton some of the graveled roads. Cattle are in good condition. The horsedistemper prevails in some localities among colts. Hay is plenty. A fewfat hogs were sold last week. One farmer, in Kaneville, sold 80 hogs, averaging 443 pounds each, at $6. 10 per cwt. There are but very few fathogs left. The cold, dry weather has improved the condition of corn inthe cribs. Coarse feed is scarce. Considerable corn has been shippedhere from Kansas. Bran and middlings are coming in from Minneapolis, andsell at $15 and and $17 per ton. Cheese factory dividends for Novemberfrom $1. 50 to $1. 60 per cwt. Large quantities of milk are daily shippedinto Chicago from this county. J. P. B. * * * * * I see that you request items in regard to the cold wave that swept overour country during the first week in this month. There is no doubt thecold was as intense over the country generally as it has been known formany years, or perhaps ever before, but so far as I can learn thedamage to fruit trees, etc. , is very slight. On the morning of the 16thof December we had our first snow, but the weather was quite pleasant tothe end of the year, with occasionally slight freezing, but thermometernever down to zero. The result of this favorable weather was the thorough ripening up of thewood of all fruit and ornamental trees, so that when on the 5th of thepresent month the mercury ran down to 26 degrees below zero, and in someparts of the country far below that even, the damage was very slight. The writer has been extensively engaged in cutting scions, and knowswhereof he speaks. I have also examined some peach trees and find thewood slightly discolored but not dead. I did not thoroughly examine thefruit buds of the peach, but suppose, of course, they are all killed. Had this intense cold weather occurred early in December, there is nodoubt but the damage would have been immense. There has been a great loss of potatoes in cellars and pits, as mostpeople had worked themselves into the belief that we were to have a mildwinter, and had not prepared their cellars to resist cold at the rate of30 degrees below zero. The result is that thousands of bushels ofpotatoes are frozen and ruined, and although the largest crop ofpotatoes was raised last year that ever was raised in the United States, yet potatoes will be high priced before planting time. H. A. TERRY. CRESCENT CITY, IA. , Jan. 19. Seed Corn Famine. Probably nineteen farmers in twenty must buy seed corn for next spring'splanting, on account of the failure of the '83 crop to ripen. We mustlook sharp to the seeds we buy, that they are better than our own, asmany unreliable parties will offer inferior stocks, to take advantage ofthe demand. We suggest that every corn grower should send to HiramSibley & Co. , the reliable seedsmen at Rochester, N. Y. , and Chicago, Ill. , for their catalogue and seed-corn circulars. This house makes aspecialty of seed-corn and we believe that they will do what they saythey will. * * * * * MAPS. RAND, McNALLY & CO. 'SNEW RAILROAD--AND--COUNTY MAP--OF THE--UNITED STATES--AND--DOMINION OF CANADA. Size, 4 × 2-1/2 feet, mounted on rollers to hang on the wall. This is an ENTIRELY NEW MAP, Constructed from the most recent and authentic sources. --IT SHOWS--_ALL THE RAILROADS, _--AND--EVERY COUNTY AND PRINCIPAL TOWN--IN THE--UNITED STATES AND CANADA. A useful Map in every one's home, and place of business. PRICE, $2. 00. Agents wanted, to whom liberal inducements will be given. Address RAND, McNALLY & CO. , Chicago, Ill. By arrangements with the publishers of this Map we are enabled to makethe following liberal offer: To each person who will remit us $2. 25 wewill send copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER One Year and THIS MAPPOSTPAID. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , CHICAGO, ILL. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH Use the Magneton Appliance Co. 's MAGNETIC LUNG PROTECTOR! PRICE ONLY $5. They are priceless to LADIES, GENTLEMEN, and CHILDREN with WEAK LUNGS;no case of PNEUMONIA OR CROUP is ever known where these garments areworn. They also prevent and cure HEART DIFFICULTIES, COLDS, RHEUMATISM, NEURALGIA, THROAT TROUBLES, DIPHTHERIA, CATARRH, AND ALL KINDREDDISEASES. Will WEAR any service for THREE YEARS. Are worn over theunder-clothing. CATARRH, It is needless to describe the symptoms of this nauseousdisease that is sapping the life and strength of only too many of thefairest and best of both sexes. Labor, study, and research in America, Europe, and Eastern lands, have resulted in the Magnetic Lung Protector, affording cure for Catarrh, a remedy which contains No Drugging of theSystem, and with the continuous stream of Magnetism permeating throughthe afflicted organs; MUST RESTORE THEM TO A HEALTHY ACTION. WE PLACEOUR PRICE for this Appliance at less than one-twentieth of the priceasked by others for remedies upon which you take all the chances, and WEESPECIALLY INVITE the patronage of the MANY PERSONS who have triedDRUGGING THE STOMACHS WITHOUT EFFECT. HOW TO OBTAIN This Appliance. Go to your druggist and ask for them. Ifthey have not got them, write to the proprietors, enclosing the price, in letter at our risk, and they will be sent to you at once by mail, post paid. Send stamp for the "New Departure in Medical Treatment WITHOUTMEDICINE, " with thousands of testimonials, THE MAGNETON APPLIANCE CO. , 218 State Street, Chicago, Ill. NOTE. --Send one dollar in postage stamps or currency (in letterat our risk) with size of shoe usually worn, and try a pair of ourMagnetic Insoles, and be convinced of the power residing in our MagneticAppliances. Positively _no cold feet where they are worn, or moneyrefunded. _ [Illustration] OUR YOUNG FOLKS Jule Fisher's Rescue. It had been an unusually severe winter, even for Northern Aroostook. Snow-fall had succeeded snow-fall, with no interval that could really becalled "thaw, " till the "loggers" had finished their work; and as theycome plodding home on snow shoes, they all agreed that the snow lay fromten to twelve feet deep on a level in the woods. No wonder, then, that the warm March sun came to shine upon it day afterday, and the copious spring showers fell, there should have been a veryunusual "flood, " or freshet. Every one predicted that when the iceshould break in the river, there would be a grand spectacle, and danger, too, as well; and all waited with some anxiety for the "break" to come. One morning, we at the village were awakened by a deep, roaring, booming, crashing noise, and sprang from our beds, crying: "The ice has broken up! The ice is running out!" In hardly more time than it takes to tell it, we were dressed and at theback windows, which looked down upon the river! It was indeed a grand sight! Huge cakes of ice of every shape and size were driving, tumbling, crashing past, as if in a mad race with each other. The river, filled tooverflowing, seemed in angry haste to hurl its icy burden down the fallsbelow. But after a few days the river ran clear, save for the occasionalbreaking of some "jam" above. Along the margin of the broad stream, however, there were here and there slight indentures, or notches, in thebanks, where the ice had escaped the mad rush of waters and still clungin considerable patches. It was upon one of these still undisturbed patches that "Jule" Fisher, arough boy of fourteen, with several of his equally rough comrades, wasplaying on the lovely morning upon which my story opens. These lads were not the sons of the steady, intelligent, church-goinginhabitants of this quiet Northern hamlet, but were from the families of"lumbermen, " "river-drivers" and "shingle-shavers. " For some time theyhad been having boisterous sport, venturing out upon the extreme edgesof the ice and with long poles pushing about the stray cakes whichoccasionally came within their reach. At length they grew tired of this, and began to jump upon ticklishpoints of ice; and as these began to crack and show signs of breakingaway, the boys would run, with wild whoops, back to shore, the verydanger seeming to add to their enjoyment. Then, with poles and "prys, "they would work upon the cracking mass until it floated clear and wentwhirling down the rapid current. "Ahoy, boys!" called Jule, who was seemingly their leader. "Up yender'sa big cake that only wants a shove! Come on! Let's set 'er a-going!" No sooner said than done. Away went the noisy fellows to the projectingpoint of ice. A few smart jumps sent it creaking and groaning, as thoughstill unwilling to quit its snug winter bed. One more jump, and the boysall ran with a shout beyond the place where the ice was crackingoff--all save Jule. It had not broken clear, and he was determined to set it going, when hewould spring on the firm ice beyond, as he had done once or twicebefore. But this time he was over-bold and not sufficiently watchful. A largecake of ice had come floating down the river unnoticed either by him orhis friends, and striking the edge of the nearly loosened mass, shovedit out into the swift, black water. Poor Jule! He ran quickly to the freshly-broken edge--but, alas! toolate for the intended spring. The swiftly-rushing current had borne himmany yards from the shore and from his companions. There he stood--for an instant in dumb amaze--balancing himself upon hisrocking raft with the pole he had been using. To attempt to swim ashorewould have been useless. He was a clumsy swimmer at best; and the cold, rushing waters and floating ice cakes made swimming almost impossible. He could not get off. To stay seemed sure death. Dumb with fright, for amoment he stood in speechless terror. Then there rang across the wild, black river and through the quiet streets of the village, such a yell ofabject fear as only a lusty lad of that age can give. It was a cry thatchilled the heart of every one who heard it. A "four-days' meeting" was in session. The village church-goers werejust issuing from their houses in answer to the church bell, when thatpitiful cry and the shouts of "Help! Help! A boy in the stream!" reachedthem, and drew them all quickly to the river bank. In a few minutes the shore was lined with excited men and women. Yet allstood helplessly staring, while poor Jule on his ice-raft was floatingsteadily down toward the falls. Never shall I forget how he looked as he stood there in the middle ofhis floating white throne! There was something almost heroic in his calmhelplessness. For after the first wild cry, he had not once opened hislips. Downward he floated, drawn swiftly and surely on by the deep, mightyrush of waters setting into the throat of the cataract. The heavy roarfrom far below sounded like the luckless lad's knell. He stood but asingle chance--and that was hardly a chance--of his ice-raft lodgingagainst a tilted-up "jam" of cakes and logs which had piled against ajagged ledge that rose in mid-stream, just above the brink of theprecipice. This "jam" had hung there, wavering in the flood, for thirty-six hours. Every moment it seemed about to go off--yet still it clung, in tremor, as it seemed, at the fatal plunge which would dash it to pieces in thethundering maelstrom below. Good fortune--Providence, perhaps--so guided Jule's ice-raft that itstruck and lodged against the "jam, " just as the horrified watchers onshore expected to lose sight of the lad forever in the falls. "If itwill only hang there!" muttered scores, scarcely daring as yet to speaka loud word. They could see the cake, with Jule on it, heaving up and down with themighty rhythmic motion of the surging torrent; and all ran along downthe banks, to come nearer. The boy stood in the very jaws of death. Beneath, the cataract roared and hurled up white gusts of spray. Just at this moment, a short, thick-set man, with a round, good-naturedface, joined the crowd. For a moment he stood looking out at the lad, then slapping another young man on the shoulder, said, hurriedly, "Isn'tthere an old bateau stowed away in your shed, Lanse?" "Yes, " was the reply. "Quick, then!" exclaimed the first speaker. "There isn't a moment tolose. " "But, Mac, " answered Lanse, as he hurried after him. "I'm afraid she'sno good; she's old and she's been stowed away all winter. Ten to one theold thing leaks like a riddlin' sieve. "But we mustn't lose a chance!" exclaimed Mac. "That jam will go outwithin half an hour, if it doesn't within ten minutes!" By this time the two had reached the shed. They quickly drew the bateaufrom its wintering place, and taking the long, light boat upon theirshoulders, ran rapidly through the village and down to the river. Meantime, two or three other men had run to fetch "dog warps" and"towing-lines, " a large number of which are always kept in thesebackwoods lumbering hamlets, for use on the rivers and lakes, when logsare rafted out in the spring. Acting under Mac's prompt orders, a six-hundred foot warp was at oncemade fast to a ring in the stern of a bateau, and another line laidready to bend to the first. Jumping into the bateau, paddle in hand, and a boat-hook laid ready forinstant use, the bold young fellow now ordered the men to shove off theskiff into the river and then pay out the line, as he shoulddirect--thus lowering him, yard by yard, down toward the "jam" whereJule stood. Rod by rod, they let him down toward the roaring abyss of furiouswaters, till the bateau--guided by the paddle, and held back now by themain strength of twenty men--touched the ice-cake. But even as it touched, the cake began to slide off the jam; and Julewas thrown on his hands and knees. Quick as thought, however, his courageous rescuer struck his boat-hookinto the ice and held fast while Jule, stiff with fright, tumbled in atthe bow of the bateau. He was hardly in the boat when the whole mass of ice and logs went overthe falls. A shout arose, and when a few minutes later the bateau was drawn safelyback up the stream, and Mac stepped ashore with a rather bashful smileon his round, fresh face, every one joined in long and prolonged cheers. As for Jule, he had to be helped out of the boat and led home; for hewas, as they said, "limp as a rag;" and it was noticed that after thisperilous adventure he was a much more sober and thoughtful boy. Pray do not imagine, reader, that I have been telling you a "made-up"story, for what I have related is true, the writer herself being aneye-witness to the incident while a teacher in a backwoodsschool-district on the banks of the Aroostook. * * * * * LIVE STOCK, Etc. PUBLIC SALE OF Short-Horn Cattle AT_Somers, Kenosha Co. , Wis. _ ON Wednesday, March 19, 1884. I will sell at public sale, at my farm near Somers, Wis. , at above timeand place, my entire herd of Thoroughbred Short-horn cattle, numberingforty head. Among them are many of the choicest families. Included inthe sale will be the grand young bull Orpheus 13th, bred at Bow Park, abeautiful red, and one of the finest bulls in the West. The cows are allBreeders, and will have calves by their sides, or be safe in calf. Ioffer this grand herd of cattle with reluctance, solely on account of myadvanced age and failing health. Catalogues ready about Feb. 15. Lunchat 12. Sale to begin at 1. Free conveyances will meet the trains onmorning of sale at Somers, on C. M. & St. Paul, and at Kenosha for C. &N. W. R. R. WM. YULE, Somers, Kenosha Co. , Wis. J. W. JUDY, Auctioneer. * * * * * 10 JERSEY BULLS FOR SALE, All of fine quality, solid color and bk. Points. Ages, from six toeighteen months. Sons of Mahkeenae, 3290; brother of Eurotus, 2454, whomade 778 lbs. Butter in a year, and out of cows of the best butter blood, some having records of fourteen and fifteen lbs. Per week. No fancyprices. A. H. COOLEY, Little Britain, Orange Co. , N. Y. N. B. --If I make sales as formerly will send a car with man in charge toCleveland, getting lowest rates. * * * * * SCOTCH COLLIE SHEPHERD PUPS, --FROM-- IMPORTED AND TRAINED STOCK --ALSO-- NEWFOUNDLAND PUPS AND RAT TERRIER PUPS. Concise and practical printed instruction in Training young ShepherdDogs, is given to buyers of Shepherd Puppies; or will be sent on receiptof 25 cents in postage stamps. For Printed Circular, giving full particulars about Shepherd Dogs, enclose a 3-cent stamp, and address N. H. PAAREN, P. O. Box 326, CHICAGO. ILL. * * * * * _SEEDS_ Our new catalogue, best published, FREE _to all_. 1, 500 _varieties_, 300 _illustrations_. You ought to have it. BENSON, MAULE & CO. , Philadelphia, Pa. BREEDERS DIRECTORY. The following list embraces the names of responsible and reliableBreeders in their line, and parties wishing to purchase or obtaininformation can feel assured that they will be honorably dealt with: SWINE. Chester Whites. W. A. Gilbert Wauwatosa Wis. SCHEIDT & DAVIS, DYER, LAKE CO. , IND. , breeders of Victoria swine. Originators of this famous breed. Stock for Sale. Write for circular A. * * * * * RAILROADS. [Illustration] A MAN WHO IS UNACQUAINTED WITH THE GEOGRAPHY OF THIS COUNTRY WILL SEE BYEXAMINING THIS MAP THAT THE CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC R'Y By the central position of its line, connects the East and the West bythe shortest route, and carries passengers, without change of cars, between Chicago and Kansas City, Council Bluffs, Leavenworth, Atchison, Minneapolis and St. Paul. It connects in Union Depots with all theprincipal lines of road between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Itsequipment is unrivaled and magnificent, being composed of MostComfortable and Beautiful Day Coaches, Magnificent Horton RecliningChair Cars, Pullman's Prettiest Palace Sleeping Cars, and the Best Lineof Dining Cars in the World. Three Trains between Chicago and MissouriRiver Points. Two Trains between Chicago and Minneapolis and St. Paul, via the Famous "ALBERT LEA ROUTE. " A New and Direct Line, via Seneca and Kankakee, has recently been openedbetween Richmond Norfolk, Newport News, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Augusta, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati Indianapolis and Lafayette, and Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Paul and intermediate points. All Through Passengers Travel on Fast Express Trains. Tickets for sale at all principal Ticket Offices in the United Statesand Canada. Baggage checked through and rates of fare always as low as competitorsthat offer less advantages. For detailed information, get the Maps and Folders of the GREAT ROCK ISLAND ROUTE, At your nearest Ticket Office, or address R. R. CABLE, Vice-Pres. & Gen'l M'g'r, E. ST. JOHN, Gen'l Tkt. & Pass. Agt. CHICAGO. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. Don't be Humbugged With Poor, Cheap Coulters. [Illustration] All farmers have had trouble with their Coulters. In a few days they getto wabbling, are condemned and thrown aside. In our "BOSS" Coulter we furnish a tool which can scarcely be worn out; and when worn, thewearable parts, a prepared wood journal, and movable thimble in the hub(held in place by a key) can be easily and cheaply renewed. WE GUARANTEEOUR "BOSS" to plow more acres than any other three Coulters now used. OUR "O. K. " CLAMP Attaches the Coulter to any size or kind of beam, either right or lefthand plow. We know that after using it you will say it is THE BEST TOOLON THE MARKET. Ask your dealer for it. Manufactured by the BOSS COULTER CO. , Bunker Hill, Ills. * * * * * [Illustration: NEW Vegetables A Specialty GREGORY'S SEED CATALOGUE. 1854-1884] My Vegetable and Flower Seed Catalogue for 1884, the result of thirtyyears experience as a Seed Grower, will be sent free to all who apply. All my Seed is warranted to be fresh and true to name, so far thatshould it prove otherwise, I agree to refill orders gratis. Mycollection of vegetable Seed, one of the most extensive to be found inany American Catalogue, is a large part of it of my own growing. As theoriginal introducer of Eclipse Beet, Burbank Potatoes, Marblehead EarlyCorn, the Hubbard Squash, and scores of other new Vegetables, I invitethe patronage of the public. In the gardens and on the farms of thosewho plant my seed will be found my best advertisement. JAMES J. H. GREGORY, Seed Grower, Marblehead, Mass. * * * * * Send for Catalogue and Prices. ATLAS ENGINE WORKS [Illustration] INDIANAPOLIS, IND. , U. S. A. MANUFACTURERS OF STEAM ENGINES AND BOILERS. CARRY ENGINES and BOILERS IN STOCK for IMMEDIATE DELIVERY * * * * * SIBLEY'S TESTED SEEDS, For all Climates, For all Soils, All Plants. EVERY SACK TESTED FOR VITALITY. ALL TESTED IN GARDENS FOR PURITY ANDVALUE. CATALOGUE AND PRICE LIST OF ALL TESTED VARIETIES, FREE. Mail order promptly filled, making a Seed Store at home. Send forCatalogue. HIRAM SIBLEY & CO. , Rochester, N Y. And Chicago, Ill. * * * * * [Illustration] LITERATURE. BETWEEN THE TWO LIGHTS. No use talking, missy--no use talking 'Bout de daylight and dat kind ob ting 'Tween the two lights--sunset and sunrising-- Dis ole nigger happier dan a king. Dis ole nigger don got all he want to, All he want, and more 'an he can say; Gib him night, de darker and de better, White folks more 'an welcome to de day. In de day him ole and pore and wretched, Got to tote de load and swing de hoe, Got to do jest what de white folks tole him, Got to trabel when dey tole him go. Don't own nothing but an empty cabin; Got no wife, no chillen at him knee; Got no nothing but a little pallet, And a pot to bile him hominy. In de day him gits no 'spectful notice, Him is only "dat ole nigger Brown;" In de night him tells you, little missy, Things git mightily turned upside down. Den somehow him's young and rich and happy, Den him own more acres dan him see: Den him got a powerful lot ob hosses, Den de white folks stop an speak to he. Den him hab a big house like ole massa's, Dan Melinda is him lubly wife; Den de little chillen call him pappy, Den him see de bery best ob life. Den sometimes him talking in de meeting. An' him feel de biggest in de town, For at night him neber "dat ole nigger, " Him the Reberend Mister Isaac Brown. "Dreaming, " is him? Dreaming, do you call it? Then him s'pose it's living in de day. Well, him likes de night-time and de dreaming, For him griefs wid sunshine go away. No use talking, missy, no use talking 'Bout de sunshine and dat kind ob ting; 'Tween de two lights--sunset and sunrising-- Dis ole nigger happier dan a king. THE TWO OVERCOATS. When Amos Derby came out of Levi Rosenbaum's pawnshop, the richer byfive dollars, but leaving his overcoat in the hands of the Jew, he madehis way directly to Sillbrook's saloon, where, he felt sure, he shouldmeet half a dozen at least of his boon companions. He was not mistaken. The bar-room was crowded, and a general shout ofwelcome greeted him as he entered, for Amos was a generous fellow, andwas always willing to treat. The five dollar bill was quickly broken by the jovial bar-keeper, andtwo hours later when Amos waked rather unsteadily out of the saloon, hehad not a cent in his pocket. But this did not trouble him in the least. He had spent too much money in Sillbrook's during the last two years tothink anything of squandering in one evening such a paltry sum as fivedollars. As he left the saloon by the main entrance, he saw a man emerge from aside door of the building, and cross the street with rapid strides; atall man, well dressed, and bearing about him a look of prosperity. Hewore a very handsome overcoat with sealskin cuffs and collar, a sealskincap, and well fitting gloves. Drunk as Amos was he recognized him atonce; it was Sillbrook himself. "Been in the back room countin' up his gains, most likely, " he mutteredthickly. "He's above standin' behind the bar nowadays. " Amos could well remember when Sillbrook had been only a mill-hand likehimself, earning twelve dollars a week. But he had been a prudent, saving man always, and had early made up his mind to be rich, no matterat what cost of conscience and principle. With this end in view he hadpurchased a saloon, and cordially invited his former fellow workers atthe mill to patronize him. This they were very willing to do, forSillbrook knew how to make his saloon attractive; and he soon had asmuch custom as he could well attend to. At length he hired a bar-keeper, and after a couple of years was never seen behind the bar himself. Hehad grown rich very rapidly, and now owned one of the finest houses inthe town, and was able to gratify every taste and whim, while those whohad helped him to his wealth by drinking his liquors were as poor asever--many of them poorer. Amos Derby had been one of Sillbrook's best customers ever since thesaloon had been opened, and as a natural consequence had had little tospend in comforts for his wife and children. He still lived in the smallcottage he had bought on first moving to the town, and had seen it growmore and more dilapidated every year without making any attempt torepair it. But though the outside was far from attractive, the inside was alwaysneat and clean, for, whatever her faults of temper, Jane Derby was awoman who believed thoroughly in abiding by heaven's first law, and wholabored early and late to make both ends meet, something she would nothave been able to accomplish had she not possessed skill as adressmaker, for Amos seldom gave her any of his earnings. She wassitting in the kitchen sewing when her husband came in, and a bitterexpression crossed her face as she saw his condition. "Drunk, as usual, " she said, harshly, "when were you anything else?" "When you was kinder spoken, perhaps, " answered Amos, with spirit. "Thisis the sort of welcome I get every night in the week. 'Tain't muchwonder I go to Sillbrook's. " He dropped into a chair as he spoke, andbegan to pull off his boots. "If you didn't have one excuse you'd make another, " said Jane, flushing, and bending closer over her sewing. "Perhaps you think I ought to feelpleasant when you come home in this state. Well! it ain't human nature, that it ain't! I mind the time you brought home your wages reg'lar, every Sat'day night, and I was willin' enough then to speak kind to you. Now the children would starve if it wasn't for me. Where's yourovercoat?" a sudden pallor creeping into her face as she asked thequestion. "Yes! where is that overcoat?--what have you done with it thatyou haven't it on--where is it?" "Where d'ye s'pose?" said Amos, roughly. "Down at the pawn-shop, of course, " cried his wife, angrily, "whereevery decent coat you ever had has gone. But you promised me you'd neverpart with this one, Amos Derby, and you've broke your word. I might haveknown you would! And to think how I worked for it, and let the childrendo without shoes! It's too bad! I declare it is! I gave twelve dollarsfor it only a month ago, and I'll wager you let Levi have it for half o'that. It's a shame, a dreadful shame. " "Stop that. I won't have it, " said Amos in a threatening tone. "There'sno use whining over it now. If you say another word about it I'll go outagain, right off. " "Go!" said Jane, fiercely, "and I wish it was forever! I wish I wasnever to look on your face again! You're naught but a trouble and adisgrace to us all!" "All right, " said Amos, as he pulled on his boots again, "I'm goin'. I'll take you at your word. You won't see me again in a hurry; now youjust mark that. A trouble and a disgrace, am I?" "Yes, you are!" said Jane, her anger increasing as her mind dwelt uponthe loss of the coat she had worked so hard to earn. "I mean all I'vesaid, and more, too! Go! go to Sillbrook's! Ask him to show you theovercoat he's wearin'. I saw it yesterday, and yours wasn't acircumstance to it! Go! Give him every penny you've got! He needs it!"with a bitter little laugh. "His children's feet are all out on theground, and his wife hasn't a decent dress to her name, " with a glanceat her faded calico gown. "Help him all you can, Amos Derby, he's inneed o' charity. " Amos made no answer. He was considerably more sober than when he hadleft the saloon, for the walk home through the fresh winter air had donehim good, and he felt the force of his wife's words. They rung in hisears as he slammed the kitchen door behind him, and, taking the roadwhich led by the mill, walked rapidly away. He was soon in the heart of the town, but he did not think or care wherehe was going. His only idea was to get away from the sound of Jane'ssharp voice, and he turned down first one street and then another, without pausing, until he came to Elm Avenue, on which were situated thehandsomest houses in the town. There was a large, square brick house onthe corner, with stables in the rear, a conservatory on one side, and abeautiful lawn in front, and this place seemed to possess some strangefascination for Amos, for he stopped suddenly at the gate and stoodthere for fully five minutes, admiring, perhaps, the mansion's air ofsolid comfort and wealth. The iron gate was open, and presently, as if impelled by some impulse hecould not resist, he entered, and walking softly up the graveled path, looked in at one of the long windows. The room upon which he gazed was very handsomely furnished. The chairswere luxuriously cushioned, a large mirror hung over the mantel, thecarpet was of velvet, a crystal chandelier depended from the ceiling, and a bright fire burned in the open grate, before which sat a ladyrichly dressed, reading aloud to three children, sitting on ottomans ather feet. For a long, long time Amos Derby stood by the window, his eyes wanderingfrom one article of luxury to another, a dark frown on his face, and histeeth set hard together. "My money, " he muttered, when at last he turned away. "I've given it tohim, cent by cent, and dollar by dollar, and I've naught to show for it, while he! he's got his fine house, and his rich carpets, and hishandsome clothes. It's the same money, only I've spent it in one way, and he in another. " As the last words left his lips a hand fell heavily upon his shoulder, and a voice--the voice of Sillbrook--asked him harshly what he wanted. "A look into your fine parlor, " answered Amos roughly. "Strange I wantedto see it, wasn't it? It ought not to matter to me, of course, what useyou make o' my money. " "Your money!" said Sillbrook, with a loud laugh. "That's a crazy joke!Come, my man, you're drunk. Get out of here, or I'll have you put whereyou can make your jokes to yourself. " "You think you're rich enough now to speak to me as you choose, " saidAmos hotly. "Time was when you wouldn't have dared. But I tell you, Jason Sillbrook, I've come to my senses to-night. It's a poor bargainwhere the gain's all on one side. We started even, and you've got alland I nothin'. But I tell you now, that, heaven helpin' me, you'll neverhave another dollar o' mine to spend. You'll never buy another coat likethis out o' my money, " and he struck in sudden passion the seal-trimmedgarment which covered Sillbrook's ample proportions. "Be off with you, " said the saloon-keeper. "You're too drunk to knowwhat you're talking about. " "And who made me drunk? answer that question, Jason Sillbrook, " screamedAmos. "I'll answer nothing, " said Sillbrook, and, tearing his coat from thegrasp Amos had laid upon it, he strode up the path and disappearedwithin the house. The next morning, when the superintendent made his round of the mill, hemissed one of the machine hands. "Where's Derby?" he asked, angrily. No one could answer his question. No one had seen Derby that day. And noone at the mill saw him for many a day to come. "I might have been kinder to him, " thought Jane, when at last she becameconvinced that her husband had in truth left her. "Perhaps I did saymore'n I should at times. Poor Amos! he was no more to blame than I was, after all. Perhaps he would have kept out o' that saloon if I'd onlycoaxed 'stead o' railing at him. He wasn't bad-hearted, an' he nevermeant more'n half he said. " And as the days went by, and she forgot her past sorrows, she had onlykind thoughts of her absent husband, and blamed only herself for theirmutual misery. She wished with all her heart that she could "begin allover again, " and try the effect of kindness and forbearance on Amos. But no such opportunity was given her, and she had little time forbitter thoughts or unavailing regret. The superintendent of the mill gave her eldest child, a lad of fourteen, a situation where he could earn $4 a week, and a girl a year youngerfound work in a millinery store. Thus Jane was relieved of much anxiety, and she was so skilful with her needle that she soon found herself ableto "lay by something for a rainy day, " as she expressed it. Gradually the children were provided with comfortable clothes and weresent to church and to Sunday-school, from which they had been debarredfor several years, owing to a lack of decent apparel; the house wasrepaired, new furniture bought, a flower garden laid out in front of thecottage, and a new fence erected. People began to speak of Jane as asurprisingly smart woman, and to say that her husband's desertion hadbeen a blessing in disguise. But in spite of her prosperity there was anache ever at Jane's heart, and a regret which no good fortune couldstifle. "If I'd only been kinder!" she would say to herself, as she lay awake atnight and thought of her absent husband. "It was my fault he drank; Isee that now. He was always telling me that my temper'd ruin him in theend, and now his word's come true. " She felt as if she ought to make some atonement for her past sin, eventhough she was never to see her husband again, and with this end in viewshe determined to cure herself of the habit of scolding andfault-finding about which poor Amos had complained so bitterly. After a few struggles at first, she found her new path very pleasant toher feet, and was encouraged to persevere by the artless comments madeby her children on the improvement in her temper. "You're so good, now, mother, " they would say, when, instead of thesharp rebuke they had expected on the commission of some childish folly, came very kind words of regret and gentle reproof. "You are so differentfrom what you used to be. If father could only come home and live withus now how happy we would all be. " But Amos did not come. Year after year passed, and he sent no word orsign; and at length both wife and children grew to think of him as dead. Seven years! Seven years to a day had passed since Amos Derby had lefthis home, and up the street and past the mill came a tall man, with acap of sealskin pulled low over his eyes, and handsome overcoat trimmedwith the same costly fur over his arm. He whistled as he walked, andseemed in great good humor, for occasionally he would break out into aloud laugh. But as he came near the cottage where Jane Derby lived, he became morequiet, and an anxious expression stole into his face. "I wonder if she'll know me, " he muttered. Going up to the window of the kitchen, he shaded his eyes with one handand looked in. Jane was setting at supper, her five children about her. The room lookedwarm and comfortable. A bright fire burned in the stove, the kettle sangmerrily, and a big maltese cat dozed among some plants on the broadwindow seat. Fred, the eldest son, a muscular young man of twenty-one now, wasspeaking, and his words came distinctly to the ears of the watcheroutside. "Brooks goes to-morrow, " he said, "and we are to have a newsuperintendent from ----. I hope he'll have a better temper than Brooks, and I wish----Who's that?" as a sudden knock came upon the door. "The new superintendent, " said the tall man, as he walked into the roomand threw his overcoat on a chair. "Jane, don't you know me?" With a glad cry that was almost a sob, Jane sprang forward, and wasfolded in the stranger's arms. "Children, " she said, when she could speak, "this is your father, comeback to us at last. " "And to stay, please God, " said Amos Derby, fervently, as in turn heembraced his children affectionately. "Jane, you shall have no room tocomplain of me in the future. I mean to make up to you for all I madeyou suffer before I found out what a fool I was to think more of myappetite than of my wife and children. Do you know what taught me mylesson?--Sillbrook's overcoat; and I've got one just like it. It will bea reminder, you know. And I've something better still--the place ofsuperintendent at the mills here. I've worked hard, Jane, but my rewardhas come at last. When I left here I resolved never to come back until Icould make myself worthy of you and the children. I found a place in themills at ----, and worked my way up to be superintendent. Where there'sa will, there's always a way, you know. I learned that you didn't needmy help, so I waited on year after year, and now----" "We are together, never to part again this side the grave, " finishedJane, "Amos, God rules us all for the best. Let us thank Him for theblessings He has bestowed upon us; and then--suppose you let us see howyou look in the overcoat you've come by so justly. " The news that Amos Derby was the new superintendent soon flew about thetown, and great was the surprise thereat. No one was more astonished, perhaps, at the turn affairs had taken than Jason Sillbrook, and hewondered greatly at the good fortune of the man he had once so despised;but he never knew that it was largely due to the lesson Amos had learnedfrom the saloon-keeper's overcoat. --_The Christian at Work. _ * * * * * CONSUMPTION CURED. An old physician, retired from practice, having had placed in his handsby an East India missionary the formula of a simple vegetable remedy forthe speedy and permanent cure of Consumption, Bronchitis, Catarrh, Asthma and all throat and Lung Affections, also a positive and radicalcure for Nervous Debility and all Nervous Complaints, after havingtested its wonderful curative powers in thousands of cases, has felt ithis duty to make it known to his suffering fellows. Actuated by thismotive and a desire to relieve human suffering, I will send free ofcharge, to all who desire it, this recipe, in German, French, orEnglish, with full directions for preparing and using. Sent by mail byaddressing with stamp, naming this paper. W. A. NOYES, _149 Power'sBlock, Rochester, N. Y. _ * * * * * Honesty of purpose must not be held as evidence of ability. * * * * * [Illustration] HUMOROUS BAIT OF THE AVERAGE FISHERMAN. H. C. DODGE. This is the bait the fishermen take, the fishermen take, the fishermen take, when they start out the fish to wake so early in the morning. They take a nip before they go--a good one, ah! and long and slow, for fear the chills will lay them low so early in the morning. Another when they're on the street, which they repeat each time they meet for "luck"--for that's the way to greet a fisher in the morning. And when they are on the river's brink again they drink without a wink--to fight ma- laria they think it proper in the morn- ing. They tip a flask with true delight when there's a bite; if fishing's light they "smile" the more till jolly tight, all fishing they are scorning. An- other nip as they depart: one at the mart and one to part, but none when in the house they dart, ex- pecting there'll be mourning. This is the bait the fisher- men try who fishes buy at prices high and tell each one a bigger lie of fish- ing in the morning. Whose Cold Feet? "Are you troubled with cold feet on retiring?" asked Yeast ofCrimsonbeak, Saturday night, as they were returning from marketfreighted with provender. "I should say I was!" replied Crimsonbeak emphatically, while a regularchills-and-fever shudder was seen to distribute itself over his frame atthe recollection which the question recalled. "I suppose you would like to learn how to avoid them?" replied thephilanthropist, smiling at the thought of an opportunity to fire off oneof his pet theories. "I would give almost anything to be fortunate enough to escape them, "said the despairing Crimsonbeak, in all truthfulness. "Well it is easy enough done, " went on his companion; "soak your feet incold water the first thing when you get up in the morning; towards nightrun about three-quarters of a mile, and then soak your feet again incold water on retiring. " "Well, I can't see how that is going to keep her feet from troublingme. " "Her cold feet from troubling you!" repeated Yeast, a little confused. "What do you mean?" "Mean? Why, I mean that my wife's cold feet are the ones that chill mewith an Arctic region touch. Whose feet did you suppose I meant, mymother-in-law's?" shouted the excited Crimsonbeak, darting into his gateand leaving his neighbor to his own reflections. Changed Relations. "Now that we are engaged, " said Miss Pottleworth, "come and let meintroduce you to papa. " "I believe that I have met him, " replied young Spickle. "But in another capacity than that of son-in-law. " "Yes--er, but I'd rather not meet him to-night. " "Oh, you must, " and despite the almost violent struggles of the youngfellow, he was drawn into the library, where a large, red-faced man, with a squint in one eye, and an enlargement of the nose, sat lookingover a lot of papers. "Father, " said the girl. "Hum, " he replied, without looking up. "I wish to present to you--" "What?" he exclaimed, looking up and catching sight of young Spickle. "Have you the impudence to follow me here? Didn't I tell you that Iwould see you to-morrow?" "Why, father, you don't know Mr. Spickle, do you?" "I don't know his name, but I know that he has been to my office threetimes a day for the past week with a bill. I know him well enough. Ican't pay that bill to-night, young man. Come to my office to-morrow. " "I hope, " said Spickle, "that you do not think so ill of me. I have notcome to collect the bill you have referred to, but--" "What? Got another one?" "You persist in misunderstanding me. I did not come to collect a bill, Ican come to-morrow and see you about that. To-night I proposed to yourdaughter, and have been accepted. Our mission is to acquaint you withthe fact and gain your consent to our marriage. " "Well, " said the old fellow, "is that all? Blamed if I didn't think youhad a bill. Take the girl, if that's what you want, but say, didn't Itell you to bring the bill to-morrow?" "Yes, sir. " "Well, you needn't. Our relations are different now. Wish I had adaughter for every bill collector in town. " It Makes a Difference. "So you have been fighting again on your way home from school!" "Y-yes, sir. " "Didn't I tell you this sort of business had got to stop?" "Yes, pa, but--" "No excuses, sir! You probably provoked the quarrel!" "Oh, no! no! He called me names!" "Names? What of it? When a boy calls you names walk along about yourbusiness. Take off that coat!" "But he didn't call me names!" "Oh, he didn't? Take off that vest!" "When he called me names I never looked at him, but when he pitched intoyou, I--I had to fight!" "What! Did he call me names?" "Lots of 'em, father! He said you lied to your constituents, and wentback on the caucus and had!"-- "William, put on your coat and vest, and here's a nickel to buy peanuts!I don't want you to come up a slugger, and I wish you to stand well withyour teacher, but if you can lick the boy who says I ever bolted aregular nomination or went back on my end of the ward, don't be afraidto sail in!"--_Free Press. _ * * * * * One of the Harvard students has fitted up his room at a cost of $4, 000. We suspect that the young man's room is better than his company. * * * * * "Don't be afraid, " said a snob to a German laborer: "sit down and makeyourself my equal. " "I would haff to blow my brains out, " was the replyof the Teuton. * * * * * "Yes, " said Mrs. Egomoi, "I used to think a great deal of Mrs. Goode, she was always so kind to me; but then, I've found out that she treatseverybody just the same. " * * * * * Jerrold said to an ardent young gentleman, who burned with a desire tosee himself in print: "Be advised by me, young man: don't take down theshutters before there is something in the window. " * * * * * Arthur--"I say, what do you mean by fighting my hog all the time?" Bismarck--"I means nodding in de vorld; I vash not fighting dot pig. Wevash choost playing mit one anudder. " * * * * * "Yes, " said a fashionable lady, "I think Mary has made a very goodmatch. I heard her husband is one of the shrewdest and most unprincipledlawyers in the profession, and of course he can afford to gratify herevery wish. " PRINTER'S INK. Little drops of printer's ink, A little type "displayed, " Make our merchant bosses And all their big parade. Little bits of stinginess, Discarding printer's ink, Busts the man of business, And sees his credit sink. * * * * * "Jump on the scale, " the butcher said Unto a miss one day, "I'm used to weighing, and, " said he, "I'll tell you what you weigh. " "Ah, yes, " came quick the sweet reply From lips seemed made to kiss, "I'm sure, sir, that it would not be First time you've weighed amiss. " The butcher blushed; he hung his head And knew not what to say; He merely wished to weigh the girl-- Himself was given away. * * * * * "What did that lady say?" asked Mr. Buyem of his confidential clerk. "I'd rather not repeat her words, sir, " replied the clerk. "But I mustknow, Mr. Blume--must know, sir. " "Oh! if you insist upon it, sir, Isuppose I must tell you. She said you were all business, but you lackedculture. " "So?" exclaimed Mr. Buyem, in astonishment. "Lack culture, eh?Look here, Mr. Blume, d'ye know you' oughter told me that long ago?Let's have some right away before Scribe & Blowhard can get ahead ofus. " OUT OF THE DEPTHS. Our Correspondent's Researches and a Remarkable Occurrence He Describes. ST. ALBANS, Vt. , Jan. 10, 1884. MESSRS. EDITORS: The upper portion of Vermont is one of the pleasantestregions in America during the summer, and one of the bleakest during thewinter. It affords ample opportunity for the tourist, providing hechooses the proper season, but the present time is not that season. Still there are men and women here who not only endure the climate, butpraise it unstintingly, and that, too, in the face of physical hardshipsthe most intense. The writer heard of a striking illustration of this afew days since which is given herewith: Mr. Joseph Jacques is connected with the Vermont Central Railroad in thecapacity of master mason. He is well advanced in years, with a ruddycomplexion and hale appearance, while his general bearing is such as toinstantly impress one with his strict honor and integrity. Several yearsago he became afflicted with most distressing troubles, which preventedthe prosecution of his duties. He was languid, and yet restless, whileat times a dizziness would come over him which seemed almost blinding. His will power was strong, and he determined not to give way to themysterious influence which seemed undermining his life. But the pain andannoying symptoms were stronger than his will, and he kept growinggradually worse. About that time he began to notice a difficulty indrawing on his boots, and it was by the greatest effort that he was ableto force his feet into them. In this manner several weeks passed by, until finally one night, while in great agony, he discovered that hisfeet had in a short while, swollen to enormous proportions. The balanceof the narrative can best be described in his own words. He said: "When my wife discovered the fact that I was so bloated, she sent forthe doctor immediately. He made a most careful examination andpronounced me in a very serious condition. Notwithstanding his care, Igrew worse, and the swelling of my feet gradually extended upward in mybody. The top of my head pained me terribly; indeed, so badly that attimes it seemed almost as if it would burst. My feet were painfullycold, and even when surrounded with hot flannels and irons felt as if astrong wind were blowing on them. Next my right leg became paralyzed. This gave me no pain, but it was exceedingly annoying. About this time Ibegan to spit blood most freely, although my lungs were in perfectcondition, and I knew it did not come from them. My physicians werecareful and untiring in their attentions, but unable to relieve mysufferings. My neighbors and friends thought I was dying and many calledto see me, fully twenty-five on a single Sunday that I now recall. Atlast my agony seemed to culminate in the most intense, sharp pains Ihave ever known or heard of. If red hot knives sharpened to the highestdegree had been run through my body constantly they could not have hurtme worse. I would spring up in bed, sometimes as much as three feet, cryout in my agony and long for death. One night the misery was so intensethat I arose and attempted to go into the next room, but was unable tolift my swollen feet above the little threshold that obstructed them. Ifell back upon the bed and gasped in my agony, but felt unable even tobreathe. It seemed like death. "Several years ago Rev. Dr. J. E. Rankin, now of Washington, wasstationed here as pastor of the Congregational church. We all admiredand respected him, and my wife remembered seeing somewhere that he hadspoken in the highest terms of a preparation which had cured some of hisintimate friends. We determined to try this remedy, accordingly sent forit, and, to make a long story short, it completely restored my health, brought me back from the grave, and I owe all I have in the way ofhealth and strength to Warner's Safe Cure, better known as Warner's SafeKidney and Liver Cure. I am positive that if I had taken this medicinewhen I felt the first symptoms above described, I might have avoided allthe agony I afterward endured, to say nothing of the narrow escape I hadfrom death. " In order that all possible facts bearing upon the subject might beknown, I called on Dr. Oscar F. Fassett, who was for nineteen yearsUnited States Examining Surgeon, and who attended Mr. Jacques during hissickness. He stated that Mr. Jacques had a most pronounced case ofAlbuminuria or Bright's disease of the kidneys. That an analysis showedthe presence of albumen and casts in great abundance and that he was ina condition where few if any ever recover. His recovery was due toWarner's Safe Cure. Mr. John W. Hobart, General Manager of the Vermont Central railroad, stated that Mr. Jacques was one of the best and most faithful of hisemployes, that his sickness had been an exceedingly severe one and thecompany were not only glad to again have his services, but grateful tothe remedy that had cured so valuable a man. Mr. James M. Foss, assistant superintendent and master mechanic of theVermont Central railroad, is also able to confirm this. I do not claim to be a great discoverer, but I do think I have found inthe above a most remarkable case and knowing the unusual increase ofBright's disease feel that the public should have the benefit of it. Itseems to me a remedy that can accomplish so much in the last stagesought do even more for the first approach of this deceptive yet terribletrouble. F. B. * * * * * To be ruined your own way is some comfort. When so many people wouldruin us, it is a triumph over the villany of the world to be ruinedafter one's own pattern. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. ONE CENT invested in a postal card and addressed as below WILL give to the writer full information as to the best lands in the UnitedStates now for sale; how he can BUY them on the lowest and best terms, also the full text of the U. S. Landlaws and how to secure 320 ACRES of Government Lands in Northwestern Minnesota and Northeastern Dakota. ADDRESS: JAMES B. POWER, Land and Emigration Commissioner, ST. PAUL, MINN. * * * * * MEDICAL. DISEASE CUREDWithout Medicine. _A Valuable Discovery for supplying Magnetism to the Human System. Electricity and Magnetism utilized as never before for Healing theSick. _ THE MAGNETON APPLIANCE CO. 's MAGNETIC KIDNEY BELT! FOR MEN IS WARRANTED TO CURE_Or Money refunded_, the following diseases without medicine:--_Pain inthe Back, Hips, Head, or Limbs, Nervous Debility, Lumbago, GeneralDebility, Rheumatism, Paralysis, Neuralgia, Sciatica, Diseases of theKidneys, Spinal Diseases, Torpid Liver_, GOUT SEMINAL EMISSIONS, IMPOTENCY, ASTHMA, HEART DISEASE, DYSPEPSIA, CONSTIPATION, ERYSIPELAS, INDIGESTION, HERNIA OR RUPTURE, CATARRH, PILES, EPILEPSY, DUMB AGUE, ETC. When any debility of the GENERATIVE ORGANS occurs, LOST VITALITY, LACK OF NERVE FORCE AND VIGOR, WASTING WEAKNESS, and all those Diseasesof a personal nature, from whatever cause, the continuous stream ofMagnetism permeating through the parts, must restore them to a healthyaction. There is no mistake about this appliance. TO THE LADIES:--If you are afflicted with LAME BACK, WEAKNESS OF THESPINE, FALLING OF THE WOMB, LEUCORRHOEA, CHRONIC INFLAMMATION ANDULCERATION OF THE WOMB, INCIDENTAL HEMORRHAGE OR FLOODING, PAINFUL, SUPPRESSED, AND IRREGULAR MENSTRUATION, BARRENNESS, AND CHANGE OF LIFE, THIS IS THE BEST APPLIANCE AND CURATIVE AGENT KNOWN. For all forms of FEMALE DIFFICULTIES it is unsurpassed by anythingbefore invented, both as a curative agent and as a source of power andvitalization. Price of either Belt with Magnetic Insoles, $10, sent by express C. O. D. , and examination allowed, or by mail on receipt of price. In orderingsend measure of waist, and size of shoe. Remittance can be made incurrency, sent in letter at our risk. The Magneton Garments are adapted to all ages, are worn over theunder-clothing (NOT NEXT TO THE BODY LIKE THE MANY GALVANIC ANDELECTRIC HUMBUGS ADVERTISED SO EXTENSIVELY), and should be taken off atnight. They hold their POWER FOREVER, and are worn at all seasons of theyear. Send stamp for the "New Departure in Medical treatment WITHOUTMEDICINE, " with thousands of testimonials. THE MAGNETON APPLIANCE CO. , 218 STATE STREET. CHICAGO, ILL. NOTE. --Send one dollar in postage stamps or currency (in letterat our risk) with size of shoe usually worn, and try a pair of ourMagnetic Insoles, and be convinced of the power residing in our otherMagnetic Appliances. Positively no cold feet when they are worn, ormoney refunded. * * * * * PUBLICATIONS. MARSHALL M. KIRKMAN'S BOOKS ON RAILROAD TOPICS. DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A RAILROAD MAN IF YOU DO, THE BOOKS DESCRIBED BELOW POINT THE WAY. The most promising field for men of talent and ambition at the presentday is the railroad service. The pay is large in many instances, whilethe service is continuous and honorable. Most of our railroad men beganlife on the farm. Of this class is the author of the accompanying booksdescriptive of railway operations, who has been connected continuouslywith railroads as a subordinate and officer for 27 years. He was broughtup on a farm, and began railroading as a lad at $7 per month. He haswritten a number of standard books on various topics connected with theorganization, construction, management and policy of railroads. Thesebooks are of interest not only to railroad men but to the general readeras well. They are indispensable to the student. They present every phaseof railroad life, and are written in an easy and simple style that bothinterests and instructs. The books are as follows: "RAILWAY EXPENDITURES--THEIR EXTENT, OBJECT AND ECONOMY. "--A PracticalTreatise on Construction and Operation. In Two Volumes, 850 pages. $4. 00 "HAND BOOK OF RAILWAY EXPENDITURES. "--PracticalDirections for Keepingthe Expenditure Accounts. 2. 00 "RAILWAY REVENUE AND ITS COLLECTION. "--AndExplaining the Organization ofRailroads. 2. 50 "THE BAGGAGE PARCEL AND MAIL TRAFFICOF RAILROADS. "--An interesting workon this important service; 425 pages. 2. 00 "TRAIN AND STATION SERVICE"--GivingThe Principal Rules and Regulations governingTrains; 280 pages. 2. 00 "THE TRACK ACCOUNTS OF RAILROADS. "--Andhow they should be kept. Pamphlet. 1. 00 "THE FREIGHT TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. "--ItsUses Illustrated and Described. Pamphlet. . 50 "MUTUAL GUARANTEE. "--A Treatise on MutualSuretyship. Pamphlet. . 50 Any of the above books will be sent post paid on receiptof price, by PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO. , 150 Monroe St. CHICAGO, ILL. Money should be remitted by express, or by draft check or post officeorder. * * * * * MAP Of the United States and Canada, Printed in Colors, size 4×2-1/2 feet, also a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for one year. Sent to any address for$2. 00. * * * * * GENERAL NEWS. Florida farmers are now planting Irish potatoes. The St. Charles Hotel, Paducah, Ky. , was burned Sunday night. Another relief party for the Greeley arctic expedition is to be sentout. Wm. H. Guion, of the Steamship firm of Williams has failed for$2, 000, 000. Music Hall, in Whitechapel, London, burned on Monday; loss $200, 000. Ice has prevented the ferry boats from crossing the St. Clair river atPort Huron. The prohibitionists declare that they will place a presidential ticketin the field next fall. Lowell manufacturers have given employes notice that there will be areduction of ten per cent in wages beginning Feb. 1. An elevated road, adapted both to passengers and freight, is to beconstructed along the levee at New Orleans within two years. There was a railway wreck, caused by a broken rail, on the Wabash roadnear Macon, Mo. , on Monday; several persons were injured. It is estimated that the United States Senate is the wealthiestdeliberative body in the world, the seventy-six members of that bodyrepresenting $180, 000, 000. A rumor is in circulation at Ottawa, Canada, that the Canadian Pacificroad has asked the government for additional assistance to the amount of$14, 000, 000. A colored base-ball club of professionals has been formed at Chicago, and will be ready to take the road May 1. They are backed by a stockcompany. It is claimed that there is at the present time between 100 and 150foreign vessels engaged in the oyster traffic on the Virginia coastwithout right or authority. The people of Ouray, Col. , lynched Mike Cuddigan and wife Saturday, onsuspicion of having murdered a child whom they took from a Catholicasylum at Denver. It is said that the buffaloes have come north of the Missouri river, inMontana, and the Indians killed eleven hundred in one day not far fromthe mouth of the Musselshell. The horror of the week was the wrecking of the steamer City of Columbusoff Martha's Vineyard, January 19th. There were 129 persons on board ofwhom ninety-seven were lost. A seal was discovered in the track of the steamer Armstrong, atMorristown, N. Y. , on the St. Lawrence river. This was the third orfourth seal seen in that vicinity in the last half-dozen years. The candle factory of E. L. Schneider & Co. , located on the corner ofWallace and McGregor streets, Chicago, was Sunday swept away by fire. The loss is $150, 000, and the insurance $57, 000. The friends of Mr. Hintz, the unsuccessful candidate for postmaster atElgin, Illinois, threaten to defeat the re-election of RepresentativeEllwood in the next campaign, who is held responsible for his defeat. Two Irish members of the British Parliament, Matthew Arnold and P. J. Sheridan, --the latter supposed to be the mysterious No. 1 of thePhoenix Park assassination scheme--are in Chicago the present week. Mrs. Dukes, a sister of the murdered Zura Burns, has left her home inDakota, in company with her father, to give what she claims is damagingevidence against O. A. Carpenter, before the grand jury at Lincoln, Ill. The matter of the final disposition of the assets of the estate of B. F. Allen is being heard by a register at Des Moines. A firm which haspurchased a large share of the claims at 5 per cent offers $330, 000 forthe property remaining, but other creditors hold out for $400, 000. Judge Shepard, in the Superior Court of Chicago, Saturday, dismissedthree bills for divorce, holding that when a wife separated from herhusband her residence as well as her domicile follows his, and that theIllinois statutes excludes from its courts all suits for divorce inbehalf of persons not legal residents. The Onondaga (New York) Indians have held another council, at which itwas shown that a majority of the nation is opposed to dividing the landsin severally, but is willing to agree to a division of such timber landsas can not be protected against depredations. The Christian party is tobe represented at the next conference with the State commissioners. Nearly one-fourth of the business portion of Leipsic, O. , was burnedFriday night, and flames swept away 1, 145 bales of cotton at Murrell'sPoint, La. , and twenty-one buildings at Lowell, Mich. A boiler explosionat Cincinnati, in the Corrugating company's manufactory, Saturday, ledto the destruction of $50, 000 in property. [Illustration] MARKETS. FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL. OFFICE OF THE PRAIRIE FARMER. }CHICAGO. Jan 22, 1884. } Papers devoted to finance and trade inform us that the number ofbusiness failures in 1883 was 9, 184 against 8, 782 in the hard times of1877. The fear is, that the worst is not yet come, but this feelinghappily is not by any means universal among most far seeing businessmen. The transactions at the Chicago banks were a trifle slower than lastweek. The regular loan market was quotable on Monday at 6@7 per cent. Eastern exchange was firm at 60c per $1, 000. The stock markets at the East were a little feverish and here the samefeeling was noticeable. There are rumors of financial embarrassment inhigh places, and Mr. Gould himself is said to be a little nervous overthe weakness in many of his stocks. Government securities are as follows: 4's coupon, 1907 |Q. Apr. | 123-1/44's reg. , 1907 |Q. Apr. | 123-1/44-1/2's coupon, 1891 |Q. Mar. | 114-1/84-1/2's registered, 1891 |Q. Mar. | 114-1/83's registered |Q. Mar. | 100 GRAIN AND PROVISIONS. The receipts of flour at this point for the forty-eight hours endingMonday morning were greatly in excess of those for the correspondingweek last year. In wheat last year the receipts were 28, 007 bushels;this year 50, 532. Corn last year 189, 661; this year 226, 990. Flour was unchanged, the article not yet feeling the uncertain conditionof the wheat market. Choice to favorite white winters $5 25@5 50Fair to good brands of white winters 4 75@5 00Good to choice red winters 5 25@5 50Prime to choice springs 4 75@5 00Good to choice export stock, in sacks, extras 4 25@4 50Good to choice export stock, double extras 4 50@4 65Fair to good Minnesota springs 4 50@4 75Choice to fancy Minnesota springs 5 25@5 75Patent springs 6 00@6 50Low grades 2 25@3 50 WHEAT. --Red winter, No. 3, 92; car lots of spring, No. 2, sold at88-3/4c; No. 3, do. 81@84. CORN. --Moderately active. Car lots No 2, 51@52c; rejected, 43@44; newmixed, 48@50-1/2c. OATS. --No. 2 in store, closed 32-1/2@32-3/4. RYE. --May, in store 57@57-1/2. BARLEY. --No. 2, 49 in store; No. 3, f. O. B. 52-1/2c. FLAX. --Closed at $1 52 on track. TIMOTHY. --$1 31-1/2@1 35 per bushel. Little doing. CLOVER. --Quiet at $6 05@6 10 for prime. PROVISIONS. --Mess pork, February, $14 75@14 78 per bbl; Green hams, 10-1/2c per lb. Short ribs, $7 65 per cwt. LARD. --February, $8 65. LUMBER. Lumber unchanged. Quotations for green are as follows: Short dimension, per M $ 9 50@10 00Long dimension, per M 10 00@11 50Boards and strips, No. 2 11 00@13 00Boards and strips, medium 13 00@16 00Boards and strips, No. 1 choice 16 00@20 00Shingles, standard 2 10@ 2 20Shingles, choice 2 25@ 2 30Shingles, extra 2 40@ 2 60Lath 1 65@ 1 70 COUNTRY PRODUCE. NOTE. --The quotations for the articles named in the following list aregenerally for commission lots of goods and from first hands. While ourprices are based as near as may be on the landing or wholesale rates, allowance must be made for selections and the sorting up for storedistribution. BRAN. --Quoted at $15@12 25 per ton; BEANS. --Hand picked mediums $2 00@2 10. Hand picked navies, $2 15@2 20. BUTTER. --Dull and without change. Choice to extra creamery, 33@36cper lb. ; fair to good do 25@32c; fair to choice dairy, 23@28c; common tochoice packing stock fresh and sweet, 18@22c; ladle packed 10@13c; freshmade, streaked butter, 9@11c. BROOM-CORN. --Good to choice hurl 6-1/2@7-1/2c per lb; green self-working5@6c; red-tipped and pale do 4@5c; inside and covers 3@4c; common shortcorn 2-1/2@3-1/2c; crooked, and damaged, 2@4c, according to quality. CHEESE. --Choice full-cream cheddars 13@13-1/2c per lb; medium quality do9@10c; good to prime full cream flats 13@13-3/4c; skimmed cheddars9@10c; good skimmed flats 7@9c; hard-skimmed and common stock 3@4c. EGGS. --In a small way the best brands are quotable at 27@28c per dozen;20@23c for good ice house stock; 15@18c per pickled. HAY. --No 1 timothy $9@9 50 per ton; No 2 do $8 00@8 50; mixed do $7@8;upland prairie $8 00@10 75; No 1 prairie $6@7; No 2 do $4 50@5 50. Smallbales sell at 25@50c per ton more than large bales. HIDES AND PELTS. --Green-cured light hides 8-1/4c per lb; do heavy cows8c; No 2 damaged green-salted hides 6c; green-salted calf 12@12-1/2cents; green-salted bull 6c; dry-salted hides 11 cents; No. 2 two-thirdsprice; No. 1 dry flint 14@14-1/2c. Sheep pelts salable at 28@32c for theestimated amount of wash wool on each pelt. All branded and scratchedhides are discounted 15 per cent from the price of No. 1. HOPS. --Prime to choice New York State hops 25@26c per lb; Pacific coastof 23@26c: fair to good Wisconsin 15@20c. POULTRY. --Prices for good to choice dry picked and unfrozen lots are:Turkeys 13@14c per lb; chickens 9@10c; ducks 12@13c; geese 9@11c. Thin, undesirable, and frozen stock 2@3c per lb less than these figures; liveofferings nominal. POTATOES. --Good to choice 30@33c per bu. On track; common to fair30@35c. Illinois sweet potatoes range at $3 50@4 per bbl for yellow. TALLOW AND GREASE. --No 1 country tallow 7@7-1/4c per lb; No 2 do6-1/4@6-1/2c. Prime white grease 6@6-1/2c; yellow 5-1/4@5-3/4c; brown4-1/2@5. VEGETABLES. --Cabbage, $8@12 per 100; celery, 25@35c per doz bunches;onions, $1 00@1 25 per bbl for yellow, and $1 for red; turnips, $1 35@150 per bbl for rutabagas, and $1 00 for white flat. WOOL. --from store range as follows for bright wools from Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Eastern Iowa--dark Western lotsgenerally ranging at 1@2c per lb. Less. Coarse and dingy tub 25@30Good medium tub 31@34Unwashed bucks' fleeces 14@15Fine unwashed heavy fleeces 18@22Fine light unwashed heavy fleeces 22@23Coarse unwashed fleeces 21@22Low medium unwashed fleeces 24@25Fine medium unwashed fleeces 26@27Fine washed fleeces 32@33Coarse washed fleeces 26@28Low medium washed fleeces 30@32Fine medium washed fleeces 34@35 Colorado and Territory wools range as follows: Lowest grades 14@16Low medium 18@22Medium 22@26Fine 16@24 Wools from New Mexico: Lowest grades 14@16Part improved 16@17Best Improved 19@23 Burry from 2c to 10c off; black 2c to 5c off. LIVE STOCK MARKETS. The total receipts and shipments for last week were as follows: Received. Shipped. Cattle 42, 110 18, 986Calves 527 346Hogs 140, 814 34, 161Sheep 24, 600 11, 815 CATTLE. --Very few choice lots are coming in. Receipts have fallen offsome 3, 000 head. Of those that arrive the "unripe" predominate. Some ofour feeders are undoubtedly inclined to market too young. Some cattle byexperienced breeders and feeders may be "ripened" at two years, but inthe majority of cases, especially with anything else than high gradeshort-horns, this can not be done. There is more money in holding commonstock a few months longer. The feeling on Monday was very firm, andprices advanced considerably. Good heavy cattle brought as high as$6 65, though the majority sold at less. Six steers averaging 1, 523 lbsbrought $7. Cattle for shippers and canners went at $4 65@5; bulls$2 50@4; cows $2 25@4 75; stockers and feeders scarce at $3 40@4 45 withsome of the latter at $4 50@5. HOGS. --The hogs now arriving are light and the number is not large. Since November 1st, Chicago packers have put up 325, 000 less hogs thanfor the corresponding period last year, and the total packing of thecountry has fallen off 285, 000 head. Our packing houses are now runningto about one half their capacity. Prices are firm. Common to fair stock$5 25@5 75; good to choice heavy $5 80@6 30; skips and culls $4 25@5 15. Note. --All sales of hogs are made subject to a shrinkage of 40 lbs forpiggy sows and 80 lbs for stags. Dead hogs sell for 1-1/2c per lb forweights of 200 and over and [Transcriber's Note: blank in original] forweights of less than 100 lbs. SHEEP. --Arrivals are large. Several carloads from Texas came in onMonday. Common to good $3 30@4 87-1/2; fancy head $5 75. * * * * * COMMISSION MERCHANTS. J. H. WHITE & CO. , PRODUCE COMMISSION 106 S. Water St. , Chicago. Refers to this paper. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. [Illustration] YOUR NAME printed on 50 Cards ALL NEW designs of _Gold Floral. Remembrances, Sentiment, Hand Floral_, etc. , with _Love, Friendship_, and _Holiday Mottoes_, 10c. 7 pks. And this elegant Ring, 50c. , 15 pks. & Ring, $1. [Illustration] 12 NEW "CONCEALED NAME" Cards (name concealed with hand holding flowerswith mottoes) 20c. 7 pks. And this Ring for $1. Agents' sample book andfull outfit, 25c. Over 200 new Cards added this season. Blank Cards atwholesale prices. NORTHFORD CARD CO. Northford, Conn. * * * * * First-Class PlantsOF BEST VARIETIES OF SMALL FRUITS. Catalogues free. AddressO. B. GALUSHA, Peoria, Ill. * * * * * [Illustration] Print Your Own Cards Labels, Envelopes, etc. With our $3 PRINTING PRESS. Larger sizes forcirculars, etc. , $8 to $75. For pleasure, money making, young or old. Everything easy, printed instructions. Send 2 stamps for Catalogue ofPresses, Type, Cards, etc. , to the factory. KELSEY & CO. , MERIDEN, CONN. * * * * * FOR SALE. Pure bred Bronze Turkeys and Pekin Ducks. Also eggs in Season. MRS. J. F. FULTON, Petersburg. Ills. * * * * * $1000 Every 100 Days Positively sure to Agents everywhere selling our New SILVER MOULD WHITEWIRE CLOTHES-LINE. Warranted. Pleases at sight. Cheap. Sells readily atevery house. Agents clearing $10 per day. Farmers make $900 to $1200during Winter. _Handsome samples free. _ Address, GIRARD WIRE MILLS, Philadelphia, Pa. * * * * * AGENTS WANTED, Male and Female, for Spence's Blue Book, a mostfascinating and salable novelty. Every family needs from one to a dozen. Immense profits and exclusive territory. Sample mailed for 25 cts inpostage stamps. Address J. H. CLARSON, P. O. Box 2296, Philadelphia, Pa. * * * * * 500 VIRGINIA FARMS & MILLS FOR SALE AND EXCHANGE. --> Write for free REAL ESTATE JOURNAL. R. B. CHAFFIN & CO. , Richmond, Virginia. * * * * * MARLBORO RED RASPBERRY Send to the originators for history and terms. A. S. Caywood & Son, Marlboro, N. Y. CARDS 40 SATIN FINISH CARDS, New Imported designs, name on and Present Freefor 10c. Cut this out. CLINTON BROS. & Co. , Clintonville, Ct. * * * * * PIG EXTRICATOR To aid animals in giving birth. Send for free circular to WM. DULIN, Avoca, Pottawattamie Co. , Ia. * * * * * EDUCATIONAL. MT. CARROLL SEMINARY And Musical Conservatory, Carroll Co. , Ill. , _Never had an agent_ to beg funds or pupils. The PECUNIARY AIDSYSTEM _is original_, and helps many worthy girls, without means, to an education. _"Oreads" free. _ * * * * * SPECIAL OFFER. $67 FOR $18! [Illustration] A Superb New Family Sewing Machine! Combining all the most recent improvements, and now selling for $65, isoffered by THE PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING COMPANY to subscribers to THEPRAIRIE FARMER FOR $18, including one year's subscription to the paper. This exceptional offer will remain open for a few days only. * * * * * SEWING SILK. CORTICELLI SEWING SILK, [Illustration] LADIES, TRY IT! THE BEST SEWING SILK MADE. EVERY SPOOL WARRANTED. FULL LENGTH, SMOOTH AND STRONG. Ask your storekeeper for CORTICELLI Silk. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS. "FACTS ABOUTArkansas and Texas. " A handsome book, beautifully illustrated, with colored diagrams, givingreliable information as to crops, population, religious denominations, commerce, timber, Railroads, lands, etc. , etc. Sent free to any address on receipt of a 2-cent stamp. Address H. C. TOWNSEND, GEN. PASSENGER AGT. , ST. LOUIS, MO. * * * * * The Cooley Creamer [Illustration] Saves in labor its entire cost every season. It will produce enough moremoney from the milk to Pay for itself every 90 days over and above any other method you can employ. Don't buy infringingcans from irresponsible dealers. By decision of the U. S. Court theCooley is the only Creamer or Milk Can which can be used water sealed orsubmerged without infringement. Send for circular to JOHN BOYD, Manufacturer, 199 LAKE ST. , CHICAGO, ILL. * * * * * Gold Watch Free. The publishers of the Capitol City Home Guest, the well-knownIllustrated Literary and Family Magazine, make the following liberalOffer for the New Year: The person telling us the longest verse in theBible, before March 1st, will receive a SOLID GOLD, LADY'S HUNTING CASEDSWISS WATCH, worth $50. If there be more than one correct answer, thesecond will receive an elegant STEM-WINDING GENTLEMAN'S WATCH: the thirda key-winding ENGLISH WATCH. Each person must send 25 cts. With theiranswer, for which they will receive three months subscription to theHome Guest, a 50 page Illustrated NEW YEAR BOOK, A CASE OF 25 ARTICLESthat the ladies will appreciate, and paper containing names of winners. Address Pubs. Of HOME GUEST, HARTFORD, CONN * * * * * [Illustration] We will send you a watch or a chain BY MAIL OR EXPRESS, C. O. D. , to beexamined before paying any money and if not satisfactory, returned atour expense. We manufacture all our watches and save you 30 per cent. Catalogue of 250 styles free. EVERY WATCH WARRANTED. ADDRESSSTANDARD AMERICAN WATCH CO. , PITTSBURGH. PA.