58 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



[April 



old. Fiiither, as said above, hogs from coun- 

 ties never seriously invaded by the swine 

 plague werealniotst invariably found free from 

 tricliinie. In cue carload of hogs from Dakota 

 one animal was found to be trichinous, but 

 the trichinse were old, showed incipient calci- 

 fication, and it is tolerably safe to say that 

 hog, very likely, not a native of Dakota, but 

 born and invaded by trichinse in Illinois, 

 Iowa, or some other State, from vtrhich many 

 people emigrated to Dakota. 



" Another proof that a prevalence of swine 

 plage, or numerous deaths caused by that dis- 

 ease, and that consumption of the dead hogs, 

 constitutes the principal source of trichiniasis 

 in swine, is furnished by the following facts : 

 A few years ago, when swine plague was ex- 

 tensively prevailing in the West, and when 

 the losses caused by that disease were by far 

 greater than they are at present or have been 

 during the last two years, the percentage of 

 trichinous hogs reported by other investiga- 

 tors was much higher than that found by me 

 in the fall of 1SS3, from August till date, not- 

 withstanding that my examinations have 

 been made in a most conscientious manner, 

 and with a microscope that has a large me- 

 chanical stage, which permits a systematic 

 examination of every portion of the slide. If 

 numerous deaths of hogs by swine plague or 

 from other causes, and a subsequent con- 

 sumption of dead hogs by the living, does not 

 constitute the most fruitful source of trichi- 

 nous hogs coincident with the gradual disap- 

 pearance or decreased prevalence of swine 

 plague I can not find a rational explanation. 



THE INDUSTRIOUS HENS. 



"If I owned all the hens in this country," 

 said the marketman, as he counted out a 

 dozen eggs and put them in a customer's 

 basket, '' and had a place to pasture them in, 

 all I would ask would be ten years in business, 

 and I'd make it very warm for Vanderbilt.'' 



"How's that ?" asked the reporter. 



"How's that? Why, easy, that's how. 

 Maybe you don't know, young man, that 

 26,000,000 cackles, announcing the birth of 

 the same number of eggs, kept the farmer 

 boys busy every day last year gathering in the 

 efforts of 26,000,000 hens ? But they did. 

 Well, those efforts for 365 days resulted in 

 9,600,000,000 separate and distinct eggs, or 

 800,000,000 dozen, as near as I can calculate. 

 Now, it took just 750,000,000 dozen of those 

 eggs to supply the demand for Tom and 

 Jerrvs, puddings, hard and soft boiled eggs, 

 egg nog, and ham and eggs in this country 

 last year, and eggs was eggs at that. I figure 

 that 30 cents a dozen, for lss3, was about the 

 average price. Thirty cents a dozen for 750,- 

 000,000 dozen climbs plumb up to the com- 

 fortable little purse of 8225,000,000. There's 

 nothing mean about me, and if 1 had the 

 handling of those offerings of the nation's 

 hens, I'd be satisfied with a profit of two cents 

 on a dozen. 



"What would be my little divvy? Well, 

 if I haven't forgot what old Daboll drummed 

 into me, I make it out that when the old year 

 died I would lug home something like $15,- 

 000,000, clean and slick, ahead of the game. 

 Ten years of that, and I think I could sit 

 down with the boys and stay with as heavy a 

 jack pot as any of 'em." 



" What would become of the other fifty mil- 

 lion dozen ?" asked the reporter. 



" There you are again !" replied the market 

 man. "If I owned all the hens, there's 

 another little item that would help to keep 

 me from worrying about the punctuality of 

 the rer.t and infallibility of the gas meter. 

 Last year must have been a good one for peo- 

 ple visiting in the country, for folks broiled, 

 fricasseed, and roasted something like six 

 hundred million chickens, young and old. 

 That used up the little balance of fifty million 

 dozen eggs. That fifty million dozen of eggs 

 were turned into chickens that gobbled up 

 $.300,000,000 of the hard-earned coin of this 

 realm, ciphering the thing down close at fifty 

 cents a chicken. I don't deal in poultry, but 

 from the size of the diamond pins of the ones 

 that do I don't hesitate a minute to say that 

 there can't be less than five cents profit on 

 every chicken they sell. Old Daboll comes up 

 again and lays it down for a nickel-plated fact 

 that if I owned all the hens in this country I 

 would have to make two trips home from the 

 shop at the end of the year, for here I would 

 have f 15,000,000 more piled in the till to be 

 carried away and stuffed in the stocking, and 

 $15,000,000 is plenty for one man to carry at 

 one time. 



" So you see what a nice nest egg I'd have 

 at the end of ten years. And you'd hardly 

 believe that New York City would chip in 

 about one-thirtieth of the whole pot every 

 year, would you ? But she would. Last 

 year it took 25,000,000 dozen of eggs to satisfy 

 her, and she paid $9,000,000 to get them. 

 Now, New York State only keeps hens 

 enough to lay about 8,000,000 dozen, and so, 

 of course, we have to go knocking around all 

 over the country and part of Canada to keep 

 up with the cry for eggs. It would take all 

 the eggs that New York, New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania and Massachusetts hens are responsi- 

 ble for to supply this city with all the eggs it 

 wants. The 25,000,000 dozen eggs used here 

 last year, if laid in a single line, one after an- 

 other, without a hair's space between them, 

 would reach from Boston to San Francisco. 

 I tell you there's a big thing waiting for 

 someone who can get a corner on hens." — 

 Nnv York Sun. 



INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP OF FOR- 

 ESTS. 



The discussion over the destruction of our 

 forests was never so active as it is now. It is 

 difficult to find an exchange that has not an 

 original or copied article on this subject, some 

 papers running on it exolusively, yet from the 

 very nature of things it is extremely doubtful 

 if all this does any good. If the several 

 States owned the forests within their borders 

 all this would be well enough, and it would be 

 an easy matter to resort to protective legisla- 

 tion. Unfortuna,tel.y, however, most of these 

 lands are now under private ownership, and a 

 very different turn is given to the question. 

 The time is not yet when the owners of the 

 soil will willingly submit to legislative dicta- 

 tion in the disposal or management of their 

 property. It would be as logical to try to 

 make farmers plant certain crops and prevent 

 them from planting others, to prevent them 

 from quarrying stones or mining coal on their 

 property, as to attempt to prevent them from 



clearing such of their lands as may be covered 

 with timber. Here is the source of all the 

 trouble and this it is that renders discussion 

 next to useless. The men who own forest 

 lands understand as well as any one the con- 

 sequences that must result from cutting them 

 away. But when did that knowledge deter a 

 man from laj'ing low his trees, and realizing 

 on his lumber ? Suppose you prove to a man 

 that in the heaviest timbered counties in this 

 State pine lumber once sold at a cent per foot 

 and that it is now brought into those counties 

 from abroad and sold at five cents per foot, 

 what do the men care who owned it, cut it 

 down and made fortunes out of it ? That is 

 all they cared for, and it is all most owners of 

 timber cared for. Until that selfish sentiment 

 can be legislated out of human nature, the 

 discussion about forest preservation won't 

 amount to much. If a law can be found or 

 enacted that will enable the State to control 

 men's actions in the disposal of their wooded 

 lands, then something effective may be looked 

 for, and not until then. Men are far more 

 likely to consult their own pecuniary welfare 

 than that of the nation, and this will down 

 our forests. — New Era. 



THE SUMMONS OF THE RAIN. 



When the rain comes down as it did o; 

 March 9, and had been doing for many day 

 there are questions that should come with thi 

 plash of the drops, to farmer and citizen alike 

 " Where is it all going — where are the store- 

 houses to keep it for the summer supply ?" 

 Here is a plentiful down-pour of the fertiliz- 

 ing moisture which the whole Atlantic slope 

 will need to slake its thirst next summer, but 

 it is nearly all swimming away to the sea. The 

 woodlands are few and far between ; the hill- 

 sides are mostly bare, and the absorbent forest 

 soils, that once held the rain to filter it slowly 

 down to the deep springs are displaced by com- 

 pact lands that are but so many steep water 

 sheds to hasten the moisture to waste. These 

 are questions to which but scant consideration 

 is given. Of course we cannot bring back the 

 primeval forests if we would ; but something 

 may be done. Wood tracts can be restored on 

 a limited scale— groves can be planted, or re- 

 served at least to the limits prescribed by Peun 

 for his Sylvania plantations. Retaining reser- 

 voirs can be constructed for other purposes 

 than canal navigation, and upon a much more 

 comprehensive plan. But the trees should be 

 placed and replaced in patches and groves in 

 any event, wherever it is practicable. The 

 open, spongy top soil of the woodland, aud 

 the rock crevices below, are the natural store- 

 houses of rain, which, under existing condi- 

 tions of denuded land, now falls only to run 

 off' to the great streams, aud thence to the 

 sea. It is this quick shedding of the copious 

 downpours of the early spring from the bare 

 hillsides, carrying the waters off in rushing 

 torrents, that largely aggravates, if it is not 

 mainly accouutable for, the disastrous "fresh- 

 ets" and floods which are coming with more 

 and more frequency and with more and more 

 disastrous effect. This and the blocking of 

 the natural channels of the streams by various 

 constructions are certainly accountable in con- 

 siderable degree. 



It is getting to be common, too, that sura, 

 mer drouths follow hard upon the spring 



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