133 
AMI'RICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aprii,, 
unobtrusive is tlie spirit presiding over ttie whole. Hint 
we never feel lectured, or :is if we were being taught 
in some art by a pedagogue who desires us to realize 
that he is, and tiiat we are not, already familiar with the 
subject. Each number of the AgricitUurtst contains 
about forty pages, of which some thirty are reading 
matter and the balance advertisements— these latter 
being selected with care, and only such as the editor is 
willing to voucli for the good faith being admitted. This 
notice— it may be requisite to add in these days of 
*' puffing *'— is a sincere tribute of nduiiralion from The 
Citizen to a pleasant and instructive contemporary- 
having no other object than to call the attention of our 
readers to ;r publication which we think it maybe for 
their interest, as it has certainly been for our pleasure, 
to study." — This describes what we aim at doing. 
IIoM' to ^vi-Uc for a ^'cAvspapor. — 
Rev. Dr. Hallock. the veteran editor of the Amer. Tract 
Society, says; " Contrive to say the most possible in the 
least space. Pitch right into your subject. Contiive to 
make the title and first sentence so that it must be read ; 
and so of the second, no mailer what has preceded, or is 
to follow."— Strict altenliou to tliese simple rules would 
reduce the number anil dimensions of our ' blanket- 
sheets,* sp^eediiy bring down tire present high price of 
printing paper, and relieve many a weary and [lerplexed 
editor of lire riisagreeable necessity of rejecting numerous 
otherwise well-written and desirable articles. 
Xlic ^oi*tl«Avestorii " Agricultural- 
ist," — The trrsl number of a paper with Hie above 
name, issued in Chicago, makes its appearance among 
our exchanges. A very fair looking sheet and a generally 
creditable beginning. Only, ftlr. Agricultural-Iooral-ist, 
you should spell your name accoi'ding to good usage, and 
when you take things from the Ai;ricultHrist—v,'\yhoul 
the a^— you should get in a way of giving credit. You are 
a beginner and we merely olTer a bit of friendly advice. 
"Across tlic C'ontiucnt," an account of 
a Journey to the Pacific, by S:imuel Bowles, Editor of 
the Springfield Reiiublican, is one of the most readable 
books of the season, and valuable because il has all the in- 
terest of the best novel, and will therefore be read lliroirgh 
by young as well as old, while it gives a large amount of 
information at the same time. Price $2. 
The Department of Agriculture. 
It is too bad that the head of the great " National Seed 
Shop,*' just .as spring trade is opening, should be subjected 
to so many annoyances. Congress has put its meddlesome 
finger in and asked what has been done with the money. 
It is the business of Congress to appropriate money, and 
the members ought to t.-ike what " books with the pictures 
all mixed in " they can get, and such parcels of that old 
lot of seeds as are not yet disposed of, and keep quiet. 
Then the papers are meddling with what is none of their 
business. The Country Gerilleman does not liUc it, be- 
cause a man was sent to China for the pni-pose of ascer- 
taining how to make sugar from sorghum, and because 
said messenger found out that John Chinaman only grew 
sorghum for "chewing and sucking the stalks." he must 
pitch into the Commissioner. Is'nt that result as well 
worth knowing, as that alligators' blood will not kill in- 
sects on orange trees — a bit of information that a foriuer 
government agricultural official obtaincil by sending a 
man to Florida to try it. What would you have ? Then 
there is the Maine Farmer, which is in the m;dn a quiet 
and dignified sheet ; it must interfere. Hear what it says : 
*' We have it from a source eiuinently to be relied on, 
that the Commissioner was engageil in writing a state- 
ment respecting sugar cane seed, and being c;illcd away 
from his desk for a few moments, one of the clerks m.ade 
a glance at his unfinished manuscript, and found he had 
written it Sliuger cain send!" Well, Mr. Farmer, we 
should like to know if that don't spell sugar cane seed, 
what it does spell? besides, it's phonogiaphy, and more- 
over do you exi^ect offiruils to \vrite like Down East 
Schoolmasters? The Pluladclphia North American is 
also interfering with the business at Hie seed shop. lis 
Washington correspondent says: "But the practice of 
purchasing miscellaneous see.lsbylhe ton, and forcing 
members of Congress to act as seedsmen in general to 
their constituency, is a nuisance whicli calls for abate 
ment." Then to add to all these annoyances, which most 
seriously iiiteifeic with the equanimity necessary to a 
successful competition with the one-horse seed shops all 
over the country, the big sci-ew is fost ! The excellent 
press of Hicock has been replaced by a real hydraulic 
press. The Commissi<nier, when he first saw It, at once 
delected a defect, and asked " Where's the screw ? "— 
Evidently the screw is missing, and if any one has found 
a screw belonging to a hydraulic press, they will cither 
give notice through the press, or express it to the Depart- 
ment, as it is very necessary it should be there before the 
press of the spring trade. It is bad enough to have a 
screw loose, but lo have one gone altogether is " most 
tolerable and not to be endured.'' 
The Kinderpest. 
Tliis terrilik' soourge slill linlds .almost iimlis- 
piUetl swity among the lionls of Great Britain, 
so far as it has progressoil. Tiie latest reports 
give over 13,000 cases per week, as Itnown by 
tlie government offlccrs. Tlie inoculation antl 
other remedies prove ineffectual. Efforts to 
prevent its spread have been imperfect and weak, 
while the cupidity of some individuals, and the 
Iieedlessness and ignorance of others, has spread 
the seeds of the contagion farand wide. There 
was abundant knowledge in the country liow to 
stop the disease, but their government was 
afraid to act with energy, and all that has been 
done is sheer trifling. In (lie year 1837, the 
Royal Ag'l Society of England, with the Ag'l 
Societies of Scotland and Ireland, and receiving 
the co-operation of the Foreign Office of the 
Government, sent Professor Simonds, of the 
Royal Veterinary College, to the Continent, to 
investigate this disease. The very fullest oi>por- 
tunities were afforded Itim, and he made an ex- 
tended and valuable report. The conclusions 
at which he arrived are of especial interest to 
us now that we, as a nation, are exactly in the 
same condition that England was then. 
He found the disease restricted to comp.ara- 
tively narrow limits this side of the Steppes of 
Russia, from whence it occasionally escaped in 
the ordinary course of cattle traffic into Austria, 
Hungary, Galicia, and Poland, where it is usu- 
ally, as they say, " stamped out " — being sur- 
rounded liy a military cordon, and all traffic in 
cattle stopped witltin or out from the district thus 
slint up from the rest of the world. This prac- 
tice is so perfectly effectual where the disease is 
understood, that Mr. Simonds regarded it as 
entirely improbable tliat the disease would ever 
afflict tlie English farmer. He sa)-s: "That 
no fear need be entertained that this destructive 
pest will reach our shores. Its present great 
distance from us would of itself afford a fair 
amoitnt of security ; but when we add to this, 
that no cattle find their way thence to the Eng- 
lish market ; and that in the event of the dis- 
ease spreading from Galicia, it would have to 
break through hundreds of military cordons, 
one after the other, before it could iiossibly 
reach the western side of the German States; 
and moreover, tliat for years past, commerce 
has been unrestricted, with regard to the impor- 
tation of skins, hides, bones, etc., of cattle from 
Russia, and elsewhere, all .alarm, we believe, 
may cease with reference to its introduction 
into the British Isles." 
This is vet'}' instructive — showing us our great 
danger — and warning us not to rest in fancied 
security, as did our brotlier farmers of England, 
until lierd after herd is swept away. It does 
not prove that this cordon principle is not effec- 
tive, but only that some carelessness allowed 
the escape of diseased animals, or in some way 
the transit of the disease from the countiies 
where it is domesticated, to the coast, and to 
Englanil. The fact remains, that pw'fect isola- 
tion of the diseased and of infectetl cattle, ;tnd of 
all persons, animals, and tilings which have been 
in close proximity to tlicm, or their excretions, 
is perfect security against the disease. And 
we want tlie Legislatures to empower the Exec- 
utives of the different States to act with till 
power and promptness, should any case occur 
in this country, even to the using of the militia. 
American Dairymen's Association. 
To the Editor of the American Agricuturist. 
In your February number you print an item 
respecting the late Convention of Cheese and 
Butter JLakers, Iield at Utica, which contains 
two errors. The newly adopted name of the so- 
ciety is the " American Dairymen's Association," 
and the undersigned is Secretary and Treasurer. 
It was formed in .Tanttary, 1804; its purpose 
being to advance the interests of dairymen in 
every way — mainly, however, in furnishing a 
medium through which iniiirovements in the 
science of cheese making can be best dissemma- 
ted ; in encouraging proper emulation in this 
department of agriculture, and in aiding and 
urging experiments in the various processes of 
cheese and butter making. *Dealersat home and 
abroad admit that great improvement has been 
made in American cheese during the last five 
years. And yet we are very far from perfection. 
Many phenomena remain unexplained, and the 
causes of many olijectionable things in making 
and curing cheese, arc not at all understood. 
For instance, the questions "what makes 
cheese porous ?" and " what effect has a large 
amount of rennet upon the fl.avor of cheese ?" 
will receive answers as various as the number 
of dairymen questioned. We need a substitute 
for rennet. A substance that would replace this 
not over-agreeable article would be worth tens 
of thousands of dollars annually to the dairy- 
men of America We need a preparation 
which, when added to milk that is sweet, but 
near the point of souring, will prevent any 
ch.ange until sufflcient time elapses to convert 
the milk into cheese ; it would be invaluable 
We need an article which, when applied to the 
vat of curd and whey, will indicate instantly 
and precisely the degree of acid which exists, or 
how rapidly the changes induced by the rennet 
are progressing We need to know in what 
w.ay all tlie cheese can be obtained from the 
milk. It is concetled that the 10 to 11 per cent, 
which we now get ougiit to be increased to 13i 
or 14 per cent We need to know why, when 
American cheese is analyzed, and shows most 
butter, and English Cheddar most water, the 
English article is nevertheless better ; antl how 
the 5 to 7 lbs. of water per 100 lbs. of cheese, 
which we lose, can be saved and yet the cheese 
be the better for it. 
The association is composed of members 
in all parts of the dairy regions of America. 
Many of them, keen, practical men, are ex- 
perimenting and thinking of these and other 
matters, and doubtless every year notalile pro- 
gress will be made. The soeiety ought to have 
sufficient funds to lie able to employ the best 
scientific talent of the land to work out important 
prolilems, some of wliii'h have been suggested; 
but the inexplicalrle apathy of the great mass of 
dair3'men in regard to this matter renders this, 
as yet, impossible. The propriety oP sending an 
■agent to Europe the coming season, for the pur- 
pose of studying closely the processes of mak- 
ing Cheddar and Cheshire cheese, as well as the 
defects of American cheese and the style de- 
manded for that market, the diseases of herds 
there, etc., etc., was discussed at the recent con- 
vention. It is not improbable that X. A. Wil- 
lard, Esq., of Little Falls, a practical dairyman 
anil .able writer, who has doubtless had more 
opportunities for observation, and is better in- 
formed respecting American cheese making, 
than any other man, will go on this errand- 
starting in April. Very respectfully, yours, 
Verona, Oneida Co., N. Y. GARDNER B, WEEKS. 
