THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



55 



being tested. It may, or luay not, be; etiual 

 to the speciosa in this respect." 



To tliis protracted but interesting sympo- 

 sium we will add a word of advice, intended 

 for any wlio may be preparing to plant the 

 catalpa for fence posts, telcgrapli poles, rail- 

 way ties or any other economical purpose : 

 Let the Eastern catalpa alone.— P/ij7. Press. 



BAD BUTTER AGAIN. 



The demand for cheap articles of all kinds 

 stimulates invention and activity to supply 

 them. Most people forget that a staple article 

 of any de.scription cannot be produced and 

 sold below certain well established rates ; and 

 therefore they fall as easy and even as eager 

 victims to those who profess to be able to sup- 

 ply genuine commodities below standard 

 prices. The commodities so sold must, of 

 course, be of inferior quality, more or less 

 adulterated or counterfeit. Formerly the in- 

 genuity of man in this line was mainly exer- 

 cised in the production of textile and other 

 fabrics which could be sold at low prices aud 

 guaranteed as good as geauine, but latterly 

 the adulteration of food appears to be taking 

 the lead of all industries of thisd. scription. 



The New York Legislature is now conduct- 

 ini,' an investigation onthe adulteration of food 

 and its elfects on the public health, which is 

 bringing out some remarkable facts. Butter 

 has become a favorite article for these experi- 

 ments in adulteration. Witnesses before the 

 Legislative committee, a few days ago,testified 

 that 75 per cent, of all the butter invoiced 

 from Chicago to New York is bogus, and that 

 nearly all the wholesale dealers in butter 

 handle imitation goods. A Xew York dealer 

 testified that grocers in that city generally 

 buy a tub of pure butter so as to have in 

 the store, but that they sell live tubs of 

 oleomargarine to one of butter. If a woman 

 does not like oleomargarine at 35 cents, the 

 witness declared, she is shown some of the 

 same make in another tub at 3S cents, and 

 can as a rule be depended upon to say, " Oh, 

 yes, that's better. I'll take some of that." 

 It was computed by another witness that the 

 sale of oleomargarine lowers the price of but- 

 ter fiom live to ten cents per pound for the 

 New York dairymen. Several witnesses tes- 

 tified as to the character of the imitation but- 

 ter made in Chicago and sold in New York. 

 Some of the witnesses were manufacturers of 

 the stufl', and naturally claimed that all its 

 ingredients were healthful. One of the man- 

 ufacturers who testified — a Chicago man who 

 places 10,000 pounds of butterine a day on 

 the New York market — undertook to tell how 

 the butterine was made, but the report states, 

 "left the members of the committee in a 

 dense fog on the cooling process, on the plea 

 of wishing not to give away the secrets of the 

 trade. lie was not willing to tell the com- 

 mittee what ingredents he used, but he 

 felt confident that they were not injurious, 

 though he had never asked the advice of a 

 chemist on the matter. He denied that hogs 

 which had died of the cholera or any other 

 disease were used in making butterine, but 

 declared at the same time that his patent 

 purifying process was sufficient to eliminate 

 all gfirms of disease, if such hogs were turned 

 in with the others.'' An ex-manufacturer 

 testified that butterine is half raw hoe's fat 



and unhealthy, as the lard is not made hot 

 enough to destroy the animal germs in it. 



Of course butter is one of the long list of 

 food products which are imitatiid or adulter- 

 ated. That many of the adulterants and 

 substitutes are innocuous is probably true, 

 but that only mitigates the evil to the extent 

 ot indicating that the majority of venders are 

 content with robbing their customers, and do 

 not insist on poisoning them too. Not only 

 the consuming class, but the honest dealers, 

 suffer from the sales of sophisticated articles 

 of food, for the man who deals in the imita- 

 tion can afford to undersell his competitor 

 who handles only the genuine article. 



Just how all this can be helped no one can 

 say. A law compelling the naming of the 

 article adulterated at its true worth and char- 

 acter might do some good. Experience shows 

 us that in a measure all such laws have been 

 failures. The best waj to get good food is to 

 be willing to pay a fair price for what is 

 genuine or not to patronize any dealer unless 

 he is known to be an honest man. We will 

 all be honest when it is drummed into our 

 heades that it pays. —Examiner. 



SELECTING SHADE TREES. 



The matter as to the selection of the best 

 kind of shade trees waS' brought before a 

 meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society at a recent date, aud thoroughly 

 and ably discussed by the members. W. C. 

 Strong, whose long and extensive experience 

 entitles his opinions to great weight, said 

 tliat he sold more of the rock maple than all 

 oiher shade trees together. We understand 

 tliis name to apply to the sugai maple, al- 

 though sometimes used for the black maple, 

 which exceeds the sugar maple in rich and 

 luxuriant foliage. Mr. Strong thought its 

 shade too dense, the sun's rays not penetrat- 

 ing the foliage, and the soil remaining wet 

 beneath the large trees. The horse chestnut 

 was still more objected to as being too dense, 

 and dropping its leaves too soon in autumn. 

 He therefore regarded the elm as superior, 

 an opinion generally agreed to by the mem- 

 bers. The white and the cutleafed birches 

 were recommended for their airy form. The 

 oak was particularly recommended, but the 

 Norway maple was pronounced be^t of all. 



There is a serious objection to the Amer- 

 ican elm, not mentioned by any of the mem- 

 bers, which would make it especially objec- 

 tionable to farmers. It sends its roots 

 near the surface of the ground to unusually 

 long distances, exceeding in each direction 

 the height of the tree, and these roots draw 

 hard upon the soil. It has been estimated 

 that for every mile planted with a line of 

 elms a strip of soil four rods wide is spoiled 

 or greatly injured for farm purposes, making 

 a loss equal to seven or eight acres. The 

 sugar maple is badly injured for ornament 

 in many places by a twig-borer. The cut- 

 leafed birch, as Mr. Strong remarked, is a 

 fine tree for ornamental planting, to which 

 the black birch might be added as one of the 

 very best, having none of the faults men- 

 tioned. Another faultless tree is the sweet 

 gum, handsome in form and foliage, and 

 the leaves assume a brilliant crimson in 

 Autumn. 



Marshall P. Wilder said that the tulip tree 



is one of the most desirable on his grounds, 

 lie recommc'nded also the linden, the ash- 

 leafed mai)le, the cut-leafed birch, and the 

 magnolia acuminate or cucumber tree. J. 

 McCullough, of Cincinnati, regarded the tulip 

 tree as the mo.st beautiful of all, although it 

 has a narrow geographical limit. He thought 

 the Norway spruce the most valuable for 

 shade and roadsides. John B. Moore said 

 the objection that the elm was liable to the 

 attacks of the cankerworm is of little weight, 

 as it is easily kept off by any one who will 

 take the trouble. No winds will break its 

 limbs unless they are loaded with ice. He 

 recommended evergrces for shelter, but they 

 .should be some rods distant from the plants 

 sheltered. He cannot make grapevines grow 

 nearei than two or three rods to a wood. 

 The white pine is one of the best, but the 

 hemlock was regarded by him as the most 

 beautiful evergreen. He had seen them in 

 New England five or six feet in diameter, 

 clothed with limbs to the ground, " perfect 

 in shape and of wonderful beauty." We find 

 that the hemlock will bear almost any amount 

 of pruning, if it is done in the spring before 

 the commencement of growth. In one in- 

 stance a line of hemlock trees, intended as a 

 moderate screen, having become too tall, 

 were cut off to half their height. They soon 

 sent out a profusion of side branches, and in 

 a few years were covered with a dense mass 

 of beautiful foliage. 



THE OPINION OF A DAIRYMAN. 

 G. A. P. McL/onough, N. Y., writes i "I 

 notice a recent assertion of Dr. Sturtevant 

 before the Dairymen's Association that breed 

 largely determined the value of a cow for 

 milk, butter or cheese, and that breed went 

 before feed. I cannot agree with this, nor do 

 I think that practical daii-j'men can be made 

 to believe it. If there is any truth in the 

 statement that breed is before feed for milk, 

 butter or cheese, then if a man had breed of 

 some particular kind he would have all that 

 could be needed for large returns and success 

 in his business, and feed would be of second- 

 ary imjiortance, aud a lack of it would not 

 materially affect the receipts. Experience 

 teaches me that this is not true. I com- 

 menced dairying the place I now occupy five 

 years ago with a herd of IS native cows in 

 fair condition. I made 130 pounds of butter 

 per cow without grain ; was not satisfied and 

 concluded I could do better. Next year the 

 average was 150 pounds per cow, next year 

 ISO pounds per cow ; in 1SS2 200 pounds per 

 cow, and in 1SS3 IS cows, three of them 

 h'ifers 2 years old, gave 4,500 pounds of but- 

 ter. In these five years the product has been 

 increased from 13C pounds per cow to 2.50 

 pounds, and mostly the same cows ; and the 

 increase in product has been in direct propor- 

 tion to the increase of extra feed. The cows 

 are all native stock, without any breed or 

 blood more than can be found in any common 

 dairy, and are mostly of my own raising. The 

 doctor would probably tell me that Mr. Crosier 

 makes 300 pounds or over from a cow from a 

 larger herd than mine, of Jerseys and grades, 

 which is undoubtedly true, but if we were to 

 examine the matter closely we would probably 

 find that the extra care and feed would easily 

 make all the difference in product. Then, 



