Part 6

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TRUE & CO., Augusta, Maine.

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Address, GIRARD WIRE MILLS, Philadelphia, Pa.

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[Transcriber's Note: Original location of Table of Contents.]

The next fair of the Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Agricultural Society will be held the second week in September.

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The potato which has sold for the highest price in Boston all the season is the Early Rose. This has been one of the most remarkable potatoes known in the history of this esculent.

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A Gentleman residing at Milk's Grove, Iroquois county, Illinois has obtained a patent for a new and cheap building material; this material is straw and concrete pressed together and bound with wires. He thinks he has a good thing. Time will tell.

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The Chamber of Commerce at Lyons, France, protests to the government against the embargo on American pork. Trichiniasis prevails in various parts of the German empire. It is traced to the use of uncooked home-grown pork. Here we score two points in favor of the American hog product.

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The excellent articles on Silk Culture by E. L. Meyer, Esq., have attracted very general attention, as is proven by the number of letters we have received asking for his address. This was unintentionally omitted. Mr. Meyer resides at Hutchinson, Kan. The article was originally prepared for the quarterly report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture.

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Our Indiana friends should remember that in that State, Arbor Day occurs April 11th. A general effort is being made to interest the teachers, pupils, and directors of the district schools in the observance of the day by planting of trees and shrubs in the school yards. It is to be hoped that the people generally will countenance the observance in all possible ways.

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Prof. S. A. Forbes writes us that there is needed for the Library of the State Natural History Society, back numbers of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for the following years and half years: 1852, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, second half year of 1862, 1864, and 1874. Persons having one or all of these volumes to dispose of will confer a favor by addressing the Professor to that effect at Normal, Ill.

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Florida vegetables are coming into Chicago quite freely. Cucumbers are selling on South Water street at from $1.50 to $2 per-dozen. They come in barrels holding thirty dozen. Radishes now have to compete with the home-grown, hot-house article, and do not fare very well, as the latter are much fresher. Lettuce is comparatively plenty, as is also celery. Apples sell at from $4 to $6 per barrel, and the demand is good.

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Mercedes, the famous Holstein cow owned by Thos. B. Wales, Jr., of Iowa City, died on the 17th inst., of puerperal fever, having previously lost her calf. Mercedes enjoyed the reputation of being the greatest milk and butter cow in the world. Her last year's calf it will be remembered was sold for $4,500. The cow and calf just dropped were valued at $10,000. The butter record alluded to was ninety-nine pounds six and one-half ounces in thirty days. The test was in 1883.

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The Mark Lane Express in its review of the British grain trade last week says the trade in cargoes off coast was more active, but the supply bare. California was taken at 39@41s per quarter. Two cargoes have gone to Havre at 39s 11-1/2d@39s 3d without extra freight. Seven cargoes have arrived, ten were sold, eight withdrawn, and one remained. Sales of English wheat for a week, 59,699 quarters at 37s. 7d. per quarter, against 57,824 quarter at 42s. 2d. the corresponding week of last year.

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At the next American Fat Stock Show in Chicago, there promises to be an extensive exhibit of dairy products. The Illinois Dairymen's Association will have it in charge, and the State Board of Agriculture has decided to appropriate $500 as a premium fund for the Dairymen's Association. It is rather strange, yet nevertheless true, that Illinois has never yet had an exhibition of dairy products at all commensurate with the importance of the dairy interest of the State. It may now be reasonably predicted that this remark will not remain true after November next. We have heard nothing said about it, but it is to be presumed there will be no extra charge to visit this exhibit. The managers of the Fat Stock Show have not been satisfied, we believe, with experiments in this direction.

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Many years ago a young Scotch gardener brought from Mexico to Kenosha, Wis., a specimen of the Century plant. It was then supposed to be about twenty years old. For more than forty years this man cared for his pet with unflagging faithfulness. Dying at the age of sixty-five he left it to the care of a little daughter of a lady who had shown him kindness. This girl grew to womanhood and to middle age caring tenderly for the plant. About two years ago the plant exhibiting signs of blooming, a gentleman joined with the lady and erected a building for it near the Exposition building, in this city. Here it has since been, but through carelessness it was unduly exposed to the terrible freeze of the first week in January last, and the plant is now past recovery. The lady had expended upon it about all the means she possessed expecting to reap from admission fees to see it a rich reward. Thus eighty years of care and constant expense came to naught in a single night. A neglect to order coal resulted in the fire going out just when the cold was the most intense. One can hardly imagine the disappointment and regret of the lady who had nursed it with such care for nearly a lifetime.

LUMBER AND SHINGLES.

The white pine lumber product of the Northwest last year was according to latest returns, 7,624,789,786 feet against 3,993,780,000 in 1873, and more than double what it was in 1874. In 1882 the production was nearly 100,000,000 feet less than last year. The smallest product of the decade was in 1877--3,595,333,496 feet. What is termed the Chicago District, including the points of Green Bay, Cheboygan, Manistee, Ludington, White Lake, Muskegon, Grand Haven, and Spring Lake, and a few scattering mills gave a product in 1883 of 2,111,070,076 feet. At Ludington and Grand Haven there has been a decline in the product since 1873; at all the other points the increase has been considerable, amounting to a total of nearly 800,000,000 feet. The largest cut is on the Mississippi river in what is known as the West of Chicago District. Here in 1873 the product amounted to 650,000,000 feet; last year it reached 1,290,062,690 feet. The Saginaw Valley gives the next greatest yield 961,781,164 feet. The total Saginaw district gave last year 1,439,852,067 feet against 792,358,000 ten years ago. The total of the West of Chicago District was 3,134,331,793 against 1,353,000,000 in 1873. The Railroad and Interior Mills District has increased something over 200,000,000 feet in this period.

In shingles we have the grand product in all the Northwest of 3,964,736,639 against 2,277,433,550 in 1873. The greatest increase was in the Chicago District as given above, and here Ludington and Grand Haven come in for an increase at the former place of over 33,000,000, and the latter of more than 100,000,000. The total production of shingles in 1882 was larger than last year by about 130,000,000, but with that exception was the largest ever known.

The census of 1880 placed the annual lumber product of the United States at 18,000,000,000 feet. The Northwest then produced 5,651,295,000 feet or nearly one-third the entire product of the country. If this ratio has been uniform since we must now have a yield of over 20,000,000,000 feet. These are figures of enormous magnitude and of varied import. They mean employment to an army of men, a large shipping interest, vast investments in mills and machinery, and vast incomes to owners of pine lands; they mean houses and barns and fences to a new and populous empire; they mean numberless farms and millions of live stock. They also signify a rapid destruction of our immense forests from the face of the earth, enormous prices for lumber to future generations, and possible floods to devastate our river bottoms, and drouths to scourge the highlands. They should impress us all with the necessity and the profitableness of timber planting on the unsettled and newly settled prairies and in thousands of places in all the older States.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.

Alarming reports from different parts of the country announcing the presence of foot-and-mouth disease have caused no inconsiderable excitement among the people and in Government circles. First there came news of an outbreak in Effingham county, Illinois, then in Louisa county, Iowa, quickly followed by similar information from Adair county, Missouri.

Dr. Paaren, dispatched to Effingham county by the Governor, reports the trouble there not foot-and-mouth disease. There does exist a disease there, however, similar to foot-rot in sheep, that is proving fatal to many cattle. There have also been outbreaks of disease among cattle near Duquoin and Xenia, Illinois, which Dr. Paaren has been directed to investigate.

No official reports as to the disease in Iowa and Missouri have been received, though Government Veterinary inspectors are now upon the ground making their investigations. It is said that several hundred head of cattle are affected in Missouri, though this is probably an exaggeration.

There is no news regarding the disease in Maine.

Reports from Kansas say the infected herds are strictly quarantined, and that as yet no fresh outbreaks have occurred. It is proposed to annihilate the five infected herds.

Gov. Glick has convened the Legislature of Kansas in order that proper measures may be taken to protect the cattle interests of the State.

A Des Moines dispatch dated the 15th, says letters from Louisa county to the Governor in regard to the new cattle disease were read in the House, and on motion of Mr. Watrous that body adopted the substitute for the bill providing for the appointment of a State veterinary surgeon. The substitute authorizes the veterinary surgeon to destroy all stock affected with contagious disease. The bill is intended to enable the State to take action in the foot-and-mouth disease now affecting the stock. Discussion then followed upon the substitute, which was taken up section by section, and it was for the most part adopted.

The series of reported outbreaks mentioned has aroused Congress to the necessity of action. The Senate on Monday passed a joint resolution appropriating $50,000 for the suppression of the disease in whatever State or Territory it appears.

It is to be hoped that the Animal Industry bill will at once pass and become a law. The cattle dealers at the Chicago Union Stock Yards have organized a Live Stock Exchange, and the first action taken by it is to fight this bill in Congress. Emory A. Storrs, attorney for the heavy brokers, is in Washington working might and main for its defeat. He finds it uphill work, evidently, for on Monday he sent a dispatch to Nelson Morris in these words: "Send to-day a delegation of strong men; everything now depends on backing; wire me at once protest; have seen several senators this morning; advise me when delegation starts; have them stop at Riggs house."

Acting under this advice the Exchange passed the following resolutions of "unbelief."

Whereas, It is the universal sentiment of the Chicago Live Stock Exchange, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, that the bill now pending before Congress, known as the "Animal Industry bill," is dangerous in its design, not called for by the condition of the live stock interest in this country, and tends to place too much power in the Department of Agriculture at Washington; therefore,

Resolved, That Elmer Washburn, Allan Gregory, F. D. Bartlett, B. F. Harrison, and H. H. Conover, members of this exchange, be, and hereby are, appointed a committee, with instructions to proceed forthwith to Washington, and present these resolutions to the proper authorities to prevent the passage of said "Animal Industry bill."

Resolved, Further, that owing to the present excitement throughout the United States over the false alarm of pleuro-pneumonia and "foot-and-mouth" disease, that we, as a body, should express our views fully upon this question.

1. We do not believe there is such a disease as contagious pleuro-pneumonia existing throughout the United States.

2. We do not believe that such a disease as the foot-and-mouth disease exists in either Illinois, Iowa, or Kansas.

3. That at no time within the space of twenty years have the cattle, sheep, or hogs of this country been in as healthy a condition as at the present time; for while we are in favor of strict quarantine laws to prevent any importation of disease into this country from abroad, we believe if any disease should break out in this State, or any other State, that the citizens would be interested sufficiently to stamp it out without expense to the National Government.

While these resolutions were being discussed Dr. Detmers appeared in the hall (accidentally of course!) and gave it as his opinion that not a single case of foot-and-mouth disease existed in America to-day. But the Doctor has so often put his foot in it in his mouthings about animal diseases in the past that his beliefs or disbeliefs have little weight with the public. The Doctor is evidently "put out" because he was not called upon to visit the infected districts, for he is reported as ending his harangue by declaring he was tired of working for the Government, and offered his services to the Live Stock Exchange.

Such, in brief, is a summary of the news of the week concerning the foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in the States.

PREMIUMS ON CORN.

As briefly stated in a previous issue of THE PRAIRIE FARMER, the Illinois State Board of Agriculture offers a premium of $100 for the best bushel of corn (in ear) grown this year in the northern division of the State, and $50 for the second best bushel: and a like premium for the best and second best bushel grown in the central and southern divisions. These divisions correspond with the three judicial divisions of the State. The following are the conditions:

Each of the parties awarded the first premium to deliver twenty-five bushels, and each of the parties awarded the second premium to deliver fifteen bushels of corn in the ear in sacks to the State Board of Agriculture at Springfield, Ill. The corn delivered to be equal in quality to the samples awarded the respective premiums. The premiums to be paid when the premium bushels of corn and the amounts called for are compared at the rooms of the Department of Agriculture and favorably reported upon by the committee.

Affidavit as to measurement of land and yield of corn are required.

We suppose also that competitors are to furnish characteristics of soil, variety of seed, kinds of manure used, mode of cultivation etc., as these facts would seem to be necessary if the public is to receive the full benefits of the experiments the premiums are likely to bring out.

It is understood that the corn delivered to the State Board as per above conditions is to be in some judicious manner distributed to the corn-growers of the State for planting in 1885.

THE FIRST UNFORTUNATE RESULT.

There recently began in Scotland an earnest movement to induce the British Government to remove the restrictions regarding the importation of American cattle, so far at least as to allow the admission of store cattle for feeding purposes. Meetings have been held in various parts of Scotland at which petitions like the following were adopted.

To the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone.

We, the undersigned, farmers and others, respectfully submit that the present law which allows the importation of cattle from the United States, and shuts out store cattle, is unjust and oppressive to the farmers of this country, and enhances the price of meat to the public. We therefore crave that her Majesty's Government would open the Scottish ports to the introduction of store cattle from the Western States where disease does not exist.

At a meeting at Montrose, where the above petition was favorably acted upon, Mr. Falconer, an Angus farmer, in supporting the motion, said that the first great remedy for the present depression was to get cheap store cattle, and that would never be got until they opened their ports to the Western States of America. He held that if farmers would agree to insist on live store cattle being allowed to be landed in Britain, they would soon get them. When they get them, he, if then alive, would be quite willing to take all the responsibility if they found an unsound or unhealthy animal amongst them. He appealed to butchers in Montrose, who had been in the way of killing States or Canadian cattle, if they were not totally free of disease; and he would like to ask them how many Irish cattle they killed which were perfectly healthy. If they got stores from America, they would not effect a saving in price, but, as they all knew, sound healthy cattle fed much quicker than unsound, and were of better quality, and thus an additional item of profit would be secured to the farmer.

Mr. A. Milne, cattle-dealer, Montrose, corroborated Mr. Falconer's statements as to the healthiness of American stock, while Irish cattle, as a rule, he said, had very bad livers.

Mr. Adamson, Morphie, said he had recently been in the Western States of America, and had seen a number of the ranches in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. The cattle there were certainly fine animals--well bred, as a rule, either from Herefords or Short-horns, with a dash of the Texan cattle in them. When there, he made careful inquiries as to the existence of disease, and he was universally told that such a thing as epidemic disease was unknown. No doubt in the southern part of Texas there was a little Texan fever, but that, like yellow fever, was merely indigenous to the district. It was never seen out of these parts. He considered it would be a great boon to the farmers of Scotland if they could get cattle £3 or £4 cheaper than at present. It would save a very considerable amount of money in stocking a farm, and would also tell on the profits of the feeders, and the prices paid by the consumers. They had them to spare in America in the greatest possible abundance.

At a late meeting of the Prairie Cattle Company, having headquarters in Scotland, sheriff Guthrie Smith expressed the opinion that the great profit in the future of American ranch companies must be the trade in young cattle. He believed that Scottish farmers would ere long get all their young cattle, not from Ireland, but from the United States. It did not pay them to breed calves; they were better selling milk. The fattening of cattle for the butcher was the paying part of the business, but the difficulty was to get yearlings or two-year-olds at their proper price.

Here promised to arise a new outlet for American stock, and one which most of us probably never thought of. The proposition had in it the elements for the building up of a great commercial industry and of affording a new and rapid impetus to the breeding of cattle upon the plains. But just at this time comes the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Kansas, Maine, and Illinois, and of course puts an end to all hopes in this direction, for many months at least. This is the result of the disease at its first appearance. Here is prospective loss before the Government veterinary surgeons fairly reach the field of operations against its spread--the loss of a trade which would have been worth many millions to the cattle raisers of the great West. It is to be feared that this is but the beginning of the losses the disease will entail upon us. Can Congress longer hesitate in this matter of providing an efficient law for protection from contagious animal diseases? It would seem not. Our State authorities, also, must be alert, and render all possible aid in preventing the spread of this wonderfully infectious disease.

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We have a large number of letters and postal cards asking where various seeds, plants, shrubs, trees, silk-worm eggs, bone dust and so on and so forth to an indefinite extent, may be obtained. We have answered some of these inquiries by letter, some through the paper, but they still keep coming. We have one favor to ask of those seeking this sort of information: First look through the advertisements carefully, and see if what is wanted is not advertised. The seedsmen's advertisements do not, of course, enumerate all the parties have for sale, but it may be taken for granted that they keep nearly all kinds of grass, grain, and vegetable seeds. We would also say to seedsmen that it will probably be found to pay them to advertise the seeds of the new grasses, alfalfa, the special fertilizers, etc., that are now being so much inquired about. We have a large number of inquiries about where to obtain silk-worm eggs. Persons who have them certainly make a mistake in not advertising them freely.

Questions Answered.

O. G. B., SHEBOYGAN FALLS, WIS.--Will you give directions which will be practical for tanning skins or pelts with the fur or hair on by the use of oak bark?