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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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ten were sold, eight withdrawn, and one remained.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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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 L3 or
L4 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.
* * * * *
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?
ANSWER.--We know of no way the thing can be done unless a part of the
methods are used that are employed in the tanning of goat skins for making
Morocco leather. These are: to soak the skins to soften them; then put
them into a lime vat to remove the hair, and after to take the lime out in
a douche consisting of hen and pigeon dung. This done, the skins are then
sewed up so as to hold the tanning liquid, which consists of a warm and
strong decoction of Spanish sumac. The skins are filled with this liquid,
then piled up one above the other and subsequently refilled, two or three
times, or as fast as the liquid is forced through the skins. If the furs
or pelts were first soaked to soften them, all the fatty, fleshy matter
carefully removed, after sewed up as goat skins are, and then filled and
refilled several times with a strong decoction of white oak bark, warm,
but not hot, no doubt the result would prove satisfactory.
DR. J. F. SCHLIEMAN, HARTFORD, WIS.--Are there any works on the
cultivation of the blueberry, and if so could you furnish the same? Do you
know of any parties that cultivate them?
ANSWER.--We have never come across anything satisfactory on the
cultivation of the blueberry except in Le Bon Jardiniere, which says: "The
successful cultivation of the whole tribe of Vacciniums is very difficult.
The shrubs do not live long and are reproduced with much difficulty,
either by layers or seeds." The blueberry, like the cranberry, appears to
be a potash plant, the swamp variety not growing well except where the
water is soft, the soil peaty above and sandy below. The same appears also
to be true of the high land blueberry; the soil where they grow is
generally sandy and the water soft. You can procure Le Bon Jardiniere (a
work which is a treasure to the amateur in fruit and plants) of Jansen,
McClurg & Co., of Chicago, at 30 cents, the franc. Some parties, we think,
offer blueberry plants for sale, but we do not recollect who they are.
H. HARRIS, HOLT'S PRAIRIE, ILL.--Will it do to tile drain land
which has a hard pan of red clay twelve to eighteen inches below the
surface?
ANSWER.--It will do no harm to the land to drain it if there is a hard pan
near the surface, but in order to make tile draining effective on such
land, the drains will have to be at half the distance common on soils
without the hard pan.
SUBSCRIBER, DECATUR, ILL.--In testing seed corn, what per cent must sprout
to be called first-class. I have some twenty bushels of Stowell's
Evergreen that was carefully gathered, assorted, and shelled by hand.
This I have tested by planting twenty-one grains, of which sixteen grew.
How would you class it?
ANSWER.--Ninety-five, certainly. If five kernels out of twenty-one failed
to grow, that would be 31 per cent of bad seed, and we should consider the
quality inferior. But further, if under the favorable condition of trial,
31 percent failed, ten grains in every twenty-one would be almost sure to,
in the field. It was a mistake to shell the corn; seed should always
remain on the cob to the last moment, because if it is machine or
hand-shelled at low temperature, and put away in bulk, when warm weather
comes, it is sure to sweat, and if it heats, the germ is destroyed. Better
spread your corn out in the dry, and where it will not freeze, as soon as
you can.
L. C. LEANIARTT (?) NEBRASKA.--I wish to secure a blue grass pasture in my
timber for hogs. 1. Will it be necessary to keep them out till the grass
gets a good start? 2. Shall I follow the directions you gave Mr. Perkins
in THE PRAIRIE FARMER, February 9? 3. Is not blue grass pasture the best
thing I can give my hogs?
ANSWER.--1. Better do so, and you will then be more likely to get a good
catch and full stand. 2. Certainly, if the conditions are the same. 3.
Blue grass is very good for hogs, but it is improved by the addition of
clover.
C. C. SAMUELS, SPRINGFIELD, ILL.--1. What pears would you recommend for
this latitude? 2. Are there any which do not blight? 3. I have some grape
vines, light colored fruit, but late, Elvira, I think the nurseryman told
me, which appear to be suffering from something at the roots. What is the
phylloxera, and what shall I do to my grape vines if they infest the
roots?
ANSWER.--The Bartlett for _certain_--it being the best of all the
pears--and the Kieffer and Le Conte for _experiment_. If the latter
succeed you will have lots of nice large fruit just about as desirable for
eating as a Ben Davis apple in May. 2. We know of one only, the Tyson, a
smallish summer pear that never blights, at least in some localities,
where all others do more or less. 3. If your Elviras are afflicted with
the phylloxera, a root-bark louse, manure and fertilize them at once, and
irrigate or water them in the warm season. The French vine-growers seem at
last to have found out that lice afflict half starved grape roots, as they
do half starved cattle, and that they have only to feed and water
carefully to restore their vines to health.