name of subscribers as printed upon this paper each week. The first two
figures indicate the volume, and the last figure or figures the number
of 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 the
first of July of the present year, volume 56. Any subscriber can at once
tell when his subscription expires by referring to volume and number as
given on first page of the paper.
* * * * *
OUR PREMIUM LIST.
Revised, extended, and properly illustrated will this week be sent to
every subscriber. There must be something offered in it that every one
needs or would like to have. The terms are the most liberal ever
offered. All readers are hereby constituted agents to solicit
subscriptions to THE PRAIRIE FARMER. If those who can not enlist in the
work will hand the PREMIUM LIST to some person who will do so, they will
confer a great favor upon the publishers and editors. What we all want
is to double our present list before the first day of April.
* * * * *
RENEW! RENEW!!
Remember that every yearly subscriber, either new or renewing, sending
us $2, receives a splendid new map of the United States and
Canada—58 × 41 inches—FREE. Or, if preferred, one of the books offered
in another column. It is not necessary to wait until a subscription
expires before renewing.
* * * * *
WE WANT AGENTS
in every locality. We offer very liberal terms and good pay. Send for
sample copies and terms to agents.
* * * * *
[Transcriber’s Note: Original location of table of contents.]
* * * * *
Here is a little PRAIRIE FARMER toast that we like, and though we get
such often, we never tire of it. It was prepared by Mr. J. W. Hall, of
Bates Co., Mo.: “THE PRAIRIE FARMER, the Western man’s friend. It grows
better all the time; may it continue the good work.” We respond to all
such toasts by striving to better deserve them every week in the year.
* * * * *
Our esteemed correspondent, Alex. Ross, this week tells farmers how they
may keep their pork fresh for summer use. It will be generally
regretted, we fear, that Mr. Ross did not contribute this article
earlier in the season. It is timely to those who have not yet salted
their pork, and for those who have, the recipe will keep, as well as the
pork, until another season. Do you all file THE PRAIRIE FARMER?
* * * * *
The Smiths have it this week! We mean J. M. and J. A., one in the
Horticultural and the other in the Dairy department of THE PRAIRIE
FARMER. If any agricultural paper of this week contains two more
valuable essays than these two, that is the publication we should like
to see. The dairymen have a little the best of it, for dairymen all need
good gardens, and hence both essays meet their cases, but the “Farmer’s
Garden” is alone worth the subscription price of the paper to every
farmer. Ought not the dairymen to subscribe for two copies?
* * * * *
If you are an active young man or young woman, or if you are not so
young and active as you used to be, do not sit down and say to yourself
that you can not secure some prize as offered in our premium list. There
is hardly a present subscriber who may not get others to subscribe, or
interest some one else to do so. We propose to give away a great deal of
money value in these prizes, and the more we are called upon to give the
better we like it, for we know that while increasing our list we are at
the same time widening the influence of the paper and conferring
benefits upon the country. Be assured that we offer no “snide” or
worthless articles. We give genuine goods for genuine work.
* * * * *
They have a barbarous way of testing the comparative strength of draft
horses in some parts of England. At Huddersfield the other day two
owners secured the tail-ends of their carts together and then put their
teams to the draft to see which would give way. First one and then the
other was drawn backward, “_while the macadam was torn up to the depth
of five inches by their struggles_.” The horses were kicked and beaten
to make them do their best. The London Live Stock Journal says the
brutes, the men we mean, not the horses, were arrested and fined $5 each
for their fun. It should have been $500 apiece and imprisonment. The
whipping post is none too severe for such criminal inhumanity to man’s
most useful animal.
* * * * *
France has about one-half the agricultural implements in use that
England has, though the cultivated acres in France are greatly in excess
of those of England. The reason, doubtless, lies in the fact that French
farms are very small and do not warrant the purchase of the larger
labor-saving machines. The manual labor of the members of the family is
often sufficient to carry on almost all the operations of the little
farm “patches.” The late French census gives the following list of
implements: 4,800,000 plow and diggers of various kinds, 1,650,000
harrows, 20,000 drills, 15,000 mowing machines, 18,000 reapers, 60,000
chaff-cutters, and 55,000 root-cutters. As compared with our own country
this is indeed a small showing. We have dozens of reaper factories that
turn out yearly more machines than are owned in all France.
* * * * *
Our readers will notice that in our premium list, as sent out last week,
the Saskatchewan fife wheat is among the prominent offers. Here is a
pointer showing the estimation in which the wheat is held by those who
have grown it. We take it from the Detroit Record: “Last Spring
twenty-six members of the Becker County Farmers’ Union clubbed together
to the extent of $5 each for the purpose of giving the Scotch fife wheat
(as grown in the Saskatchawan Valley) a trial, and the result has been
most satisfactory. Thirteen bushels of the wheat were bought at $10 per
bushel, and Iver Christianson, of Richwood, sowed it on thirteen acres
of new land, for one-fourth of the yield. The wheat was threshed last
Wednesday and divided among the stockholders yesterday, each receiving
twelve bushels for his investment of five dollars, the total yield being
403 bushels, 61 pounds to the bushel, of the finest quality of No. 1
hard. Mr. Wellman, of whom the said wheat was purchased, began growing
the wheat several years ago from a few kernels received in a letter from
the Saskatchawan Valley, and the grain has been hand picked and kept
perfectly clean each year.” The members of the club express themselves
as perfectly satisfied with results and indorse the wheat in the highest
manner. In all our premiums we have aimed to select useful articles, and
such as are calculated to meet the wants of farmers and friends.
* * * * *
The Northern Illinois Horticultural Society held an interesting meeting
at Elgin last week. The attendance was not large, but included such life
long leaders in Illinois horticulture as A. R. Whitney, S. G. Minkler,
J. W. Cochrane, D. C. Schofield, A. Bryant, Jr., Dr. Slade, Wm. Kellogg,
of Wisconsin, D. Wilmot Scott, H. Graves, A. L. Small, L. Woodard, and
others. The papers read were brief and excellent. Robert Douglas, O. B.
Galusha, and Samuel Edwards, who were not present contributed
instructive essays. The election for the ensuing year resulted in the
choice of S. M. Slade, Elgin, President; A. Bryant, Jr., Princeton, J.
V. Cotta, Mt. Carroll, and David Hill, Dundee, Vice-Presidents; D.
Wilmot Scott, Galena, Secretary; E. W. Graves, Sandwich, and J. S.
Rodgers, Marengo, Recording Secretaries. The society voted to hold its
next annual meeting at Elgin. We will give a digest of proceedings in
next week’s paper.
* * * * *
The alleged operations of certain patent sharks as recorded on third
page of this paper reminds us of a couple of swindling operations
humorously noticed in a late New York Tribune, viz: Certain Michigan
farmers gave their notes, ranging from $50 to $500 each, for “hulless
oats,” payment to be made out of the crop produced at $1.50 per bushel.
But the I. O. U.’s were promptly sold on liberal terms at the bank or
elsewhere. The persuasive agent “lighted out,” and the victims now think
they perceive symptoms of the cutting of belated teeth, of the eye
variety. Another interesting “little game” is this: Two men, apparently
strangers, meet at a farm-house; get acquainted; arrange to stay over
night. During the long evening they make a bargain with each other for
some piece of property, draw writings, and ask their host kindly to
append his name as witness. Just as might have been expected, the
farmer’s signature turns out to be the most important of the three,
since the document is so artfully constructed that by cutting it in two
pieces one of them becomes a promissory note, which is subsequently
negotiated, and, under the present bad law, has to be paid.—In view of
such occurrences as these (still astonishingly common after years of
repeated exposure by the press) the aggressive “Jabez” of the Tribune
maintains that the countryman who doesn’t treat as frauds all tramps, no
matter how well dressed, who seek his autograph, under any pretense
whatever, would better have given his time to reading and not learned to
write, for these bad signs indicate that he will never be forethoughtful
enough in such emergencies to make his mark.
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HORT. SOCIETY
The fifth annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society
held at Kansas City, Mo., January 22-25, was the most interesting and
profitable ever held by this vigorous and valuable organization.
Delegates were present from fourteen States, covering the great
water-shed embraced by the “Father of Waters,” and its tributaries—in
and of itself, an empire. The personnel of this body was excellent; it
was a convention of practical, brainy men, alive to the interests of one
of the most important pursuits in range of the rural industries. The
essays, and the discussions they provoked, were full of interest, and
highly instructive. We have attended scores of such assemblies during
the last quarter of a century; none of them equaled this, all things
considered, and we think this opinion was shared by the oldest and most
prominent among those in attendance.
Our columns, as we find on our return home, are too crowded this week to
admit of publishing a synopsis of the proceedings, but will make room
for the eloquent, touching, and well-deserved tribute of the society to
the memory of Dr. John A. Warder. Next week an epitome of the work of
the convention will be given, and two of the papers that were read will
also appear, to wit: “The Best Fruit Packages,” by E. T. Hollister, of
St. Louis, Mo., and “The Educational Influence of Horticulture,” by Mr.
G. A. Lyon, of Galesburg, Ill. Other valuable and interesting papers
read at this meeting will soon appear in THE PRAIRIE FARMER; among
them, Prof. S. A. Forbes’ paper on “Insects Affecting the Strawberry”
(which is supplemental to a former paper which we published last year);
another by Prof. John W. Robson, of Cheever, Kansas, on the “Circulation
of Sap,” and others which are very useful, on various leading
horticultural topics.
The re-election of Parker Earle, as President, W. H. Ragan, Secretary,
and T. C. Evans, Treasurer, was a fitting indorsement of the faithful
and efficient services of these officers.
WHEN IT IS TIME TO RESIGN.
We observe a general tendency this winter to re-elect about all the old
officers of the various dairy, horticultural and other meetings, and
this regardless of age or previous terms of office. While this practice
is highly complimentary to men who have held the positions, and is a
recognition of services well performed, we think the more frequent
infusion of new blood an excellent remedy for stagnation and other ills
liable to creep into association management. At several meetings this
winter writers and speakers have expressed regret that more young men
were not in attendance. Perhaps if the old members were a little more
willing to give young men a fair proportion of the management there
would be less cause of complaint in this direction. We have often
wondered at the tenacity with which some old and otherwise sensible men
hold on to offices in State agricultural societies. They indeed seem to
think it a personal slight if they fail of renomination. We have in mind
one clever old gentleman, now in almost every way ill-fitted for the
position, who has for long years held the office of president of a State
Association. Every member of the organization is aware that the days of
this old gentleman’s usefulness in the position have long since passed
away, yet he was re-elected almost by acclamation at a late annual
meeting. It was remarked, in our hearing, that some younger, more
vigorous and active man should be selected, “but,” it was added, “it
would break the old man’s heart to put another man in his place, and
that is the way all feel about it.” Such a sentiment speaks well for the
hearts of the members with whom the old gentleman is associated, but
less can be said of the judgment that is manifested. We respect age,
especially if it has been attained while doing good service for the
public. But something is due to the present and the future as well as to
the past. It is to be regretted that men do not better recognize the
fact that these little affairs of the world would move along just about
as well if their management were sometimes resigned to other hands
before death compels the change. But such is seldom the case. We have
known a man, once a president of a State Agricultural Society and long
one of its vice-presidents, who has really felt that many of his old
friends and associates became his personal enemies the moment they aided
in electing another man to his position. He thinks them so still, yet
the fact is he has no more faithful, well-wishing friends on earth. It
was one of those cases where public good demanded the sacrifice of
private preference. It will be better for all our organizations when
such adherence to correct principles universally prevails, or when
failing faculties bring with them self-consciousness of weakening
powers.
LOCATING THE MINNESOTA STATE
FAIR.
The Minnesota State Agricultural Association is now working under the
provisions of the new law passed by the Legislature last year. This law
entitles to vote delegates in the management of the State Society, from
each county association holding a fair and paying premiums to the amount
of the donation by the State to these local organizations. At the late
meeting at St. Paul over twenty county societies were represented. It
was also decided to allow one vote each to the State Horticultural
Society, and to the Southern Minnesota Fair Association.
The financial report showed that the State Society received from all
sources in 1883 the sum of $14,068.78. The disbursements amounted to a
little less than this sum. As it is a matter of interest everywhere to
know what it costs, by items, to run a State society, we here give them
for Minnesota: Salaries of officers and assistants, $3,601.39; printing
and advertising, $1,415.65; general expenses, $2,520.97; special ring
purses, $2,434; premiums, $3,945.50.
It will be seen that a little over sixty-one per cent of the whole
amount of prize money went to the fast horse interest. Thus it is
considered in Minnesota that racing is worth more money to the State
Fair, that is, it brings more money from attendance and “privileges,”
than all the cattle, farm horses, swine, sheep, fowls, farm products,
vegetables, flowers, machinery, fine arts, domestic products, and
everything else that can be brought out at the State exhibition. We do
not take Minnesota as an example because it is any better or any worse
than other States in this respect, but to show to the farming people of
this country wherein lie the attractions of the modern agricultural
fair. They are at liberty to draw their own conclusions. These fairs are
in their own hands, or should be, and if reforms are needed it is from
them that they must emanate.
For several years there has been a feeling of intense rivalry between
the Fair Association at Minneapolis and the State Society. The rival
fairs have been held at the same time, and the result has been
detrimental to both organizations. We suppose the feeling had its birth
in the commercial rivalry between the cities of St. Paul and
Minneapolis. However this may have been, or whether good or ill has
resulted, the State Society and the farmers of the State are to be
congratulated that a movement is on foot to obliterate all differences,
and to establish somewhere between the cities of St. Paul and
Minneapolis permanent fair grounds that shall secure to Minnesota one of
the greatest fairs of the Northwest. At the meeting, about which we
began to write, it was resolved to instruct a committee, appointed for
the purpose, to negotiate with the citizens of the two cities for eighty
or one hundred acres of land for a permanent location of the State
Society. It was also advocated to call upon the Legislature for
appropriations for the construction of permanent buildings.
WAYSIDE NOTES.
BY A MAN OF THE PRAIRIE.
I can’t help remarking to myself as I read my two or three foreign
agricultural papers, how great is becoming the influence of American
agriculture upon the farming of Great Britain. Our ways are gradually
insinuating themselves into British practice and it will not be long
before our respected “cousins” will be ready to acknowledge that we have
in great part paid off the debt we owe them for the many lessons in
methods of thorough culture and intelligent breeding they have given us.
What has led me to mention this matter is an item in a London journal
showing a tendency to bring beef stock to the block at an earlier age
than has formerly prevailed in that country. It was not until
inaugurated at the Chicago Fat Stock Show, I believe, that the English
ever took it into their heads to make a record of average daily gain of
bullocks for their Fat Stock Shows, or of the amount of food it took to
bring them into show condition. It is only lately that stock raisers
there have thought about selling by weight instead of the “guess” of the
buyer. Farm scales are not half enough in use here, but we are manifold
ahead of the farmers of Great Britain in this respect. It was only after
Americans had pronounced upon the benefits of the silo that British
farmers thought it worth their while to experiment with the innovation
from across the channel. But about this early maturity question: I
notice that a correspondent of the Yorkshire Post mentions that at the
late Fat Stock Show two Prize Hereford bullocks weighing (dressed) 896
pounds, and 700 pounds, were aged respectively one year, nine months,
and five days, and one year, seven months, and twenty-two days. At the
Grimsby show there were two Short-horns weighing 14 cwt. and 13¾ cwt.
live weight, the first being one year and nine months old, and the other
one year, nine months, and fourteen days. They took the second prize as
grazing steers. I don’t need to mention anything about the new farm
implements we have given the old country, nor the many modifications
that her own implements, wagons, etc., are undergoing, especially in the
way of lightness in construction, that are directly traceable to the
influence of American manufacture. Indeed, if the intelligent and
unprejudiced Englishman of to-day who is familiar with our agriculture
will sit down and reflect upon the subject he will readily acknowledge
that the influence of the United States upon the political ideas of
England has not been more marked than it has upon her agricultural ideas
and practices.
* * * * *
And while I have strayed so far away from home for a subject for a
“note” I may as well stay there long enough to say that the English dog
is not a whit less fond of mutton than is the average canine of this
country. And further, it does not seem that British law regarding the
protection of sheep is at all in advance of ours, either in its
provisions or the manner of its enforcement. In Cheshire, for instance,
dogs, in the course of the first two weeks of this year, killed 140
sheep valued at $1,500, and the most that was done about it was to hunt
up the offending cur—no it was not a cur but a Retriever—and kill it.
The dog is a great favorite in England, certainly he seems there as here
to have more friends than the sheep that clothes and feeds. When will
man, anywhere, become fully civilized and humanized?
* * * * *
I met a Wisconsin tobacco and corn-grower the other day, and he was
bluer than a pipe stem. The frost last fall cut off both his corn and
his tobacco. He said he had actually nothing to sell but a little
wrapper tobacco which grew in a protected place, and now the Government
had nipped his hopes for this in the bud by declaring that Sumatra
tobacco should be admitted into the country on a duty of 35 cents per
pound, while it is acknowledged that it is worth at least five times as
much as the best Wisconsin with which it competes. Probably a later
decision by Secretary Folger that this Sumatra leaf must pay 75 cents
per pound has done one of his sores some good. The only thing I could
then, or can now, recommend as good for the other—caused by the
untimely frost—is, that he no longer put all his eggs in one or two
baskets. I am convinced that for farmers of moderate means through the
acceptance of the doctrine of diversified farming alone lies their
permanent and universal salvation from financial hades in this world.
* * * * *
In the Punjaub, British India, there was last year an outbreak of the
cattle plague. The authorities took hold of the matter, and by means of
isolation of affected cattle and the prescriptions of the veterinarians,
the disease was completely eradicated. The authorities were jubilant
over their success. The natives were congratulated on being ruled over
by a Government which kept such excellent watch over their interests.
But the natives, while they admitted the existence of the disease,
wherein they were more intelligent or less prejudiced than are some of
our citizens regarding pleuro-pneumonia, did not have a much better
opinion of the vets and commissioners than your correspondent, B. F. J.,
seems to have. They said to an official: “Yes, sahib, the isolation of
cattle gave great trouble, and the salutries’ hunger was difficult to
appease. When they had left the village, we got a holy man, who drew a
line on the ground round the herd. Then he got on horseback and rode
round the herd, sprinkling water and repeating the creed. It was that
which cured the cattle.” What we farmers want is the isolation and the
vets.’ advice, and if Mr. Allerton and Gen. Singleton have a “holy man”
at command to draw a line about the infected herds, perhaps we can get
rid of the disease, and thus all parties will be satisfied.
LETTER FROM CHAMPAIGN.
We have now (January 25) had forty days of snow, and nearly
uninterrupted good sleighing, and the end is not yet—neither of snow
nor sleighing, for there is fully a foot of the former now on the
ground, and few, if any, bare spots. But the steady cold is quite as
uncommon as the snow or sleighing, and will make the winter of 1883-84 a
memorable one. Another remarkable feature is the low range of the
thermometer where mild winters are thought to be insured by the
latitude. Thus, Central and Southern Kansas and Missouri have had as
cold weather as Central Illinois—a good example of which was the 27
degrees below zero registered at Makanda, a few miles north of Cobden,
Ill., while the lowest point reached, 200 miles further north, was only
a degree or two lower. It may be winter will break up soon—and it may
be deeper snows and intenser cold are in store for us, as in some other
winters of great severity.
* * * * *