1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
9 
Special Premiums. 
For a renewal and one new subscriber to 
American Agriculturist, or one subscriber to 
Hearth and Home. 
Trophy Tomato has proved so far superior to 
others that we desire to have it widely distributed, and 
we have made such arrangements with Col. Waring as to 
enable us to offer pure seed from headquarters, with his 
trade mark guaranty of genuineness. 
Japan Iiiltes.— We offer from the gardens of A. S. 
Fuller, Esq., several of the beautiful Japan Lilies, some 
of which have been sold by seedsmen within the last two 
years as high as $5 each. Any one of these is an orna¬ 
ment to any garden, and they can be had free as premiums. 
Enmelan Orape-Vines. —Hasbrouck & Bushnell, 
proprietors of the original stock, will supply us with 
vines of this most excellent variety, and we wish all of 
our subscribers would try at least one. 
I.—To every old subscriber to American Agriculturist 
who after this date renews, and sends one new subscrib¬ 
er, with $1.50 for each, and 5 cents for postage on the 
premium, we will send any one of the following eight 
articles that may be chosen: 
1 Package (200 Seeds) of Trophy Tomato Seeds. 
Or1 Bulb Red Japan Lily, Lilium speciosum rubrum. 
Or1 Bulb White Japan Lily, Lilium. speciosum album. 
Or:—1 Bulb Golden-banded Lily, Lilium auratum. 
Or:—1 Bulb Long-flowered Lily, Lilium longifiorum. 
Or:—1 Bulb Gladiolus, or Sword Lily, named varieties. 
Or:—2 Bulbs Tigriclia, or Mexican Tiger Lily,differ’! kinds 
Or:—1 Eumelan Grape-Vine No. 1. 
n.— For one subscriber, received after this date to 
HEARTH AND HOME, for one year, at $3, with 5 cents 
for postage on the article, we will send any desired one 
of the above premiums. Subscriptions taking these spe¬ 
cial premiums will not be counted in other premium lists. 
--» • - -►-».-- 
IMPORTANT ! 
Patching Exhibition Postponed* 
TO BE HELD JANUARY 1 lTH, 12TH, AND 1 3TH. 
We regret the absolute necessity of changing the time 
of the “Patching and Darning Exhibition” until Janu¬ 
ary 11th, for the following reasons: The American Agri¬ 
culturist Buildings are undergoing extensive alterations 
and improvements, at a cost of about $30,000, all of which, 
by the terms of the contract, are to be mainly completed 
before Christmas; but owing to varions entirely un¬ 
looked-for delays, it now appears probable that we are 
likely to be kept in a 11 muss ” until after the time first 
set for the Exhibition, and, of course, it will be impos¬ 
sible to display the garments properly in the midst of 
scaffolding, new paint, etc. As people are too much en¬ 
gaged to visit such an Exhibition during the first week 
of the new year, it seems best to wait until the second 
week; and it has therefore been decided to hold the 
Exhibition on January 11th, 12th, and 13th. 
We exceedingly regret this delay, because to “post¬ 
pone” is not a custom of ours; but perhaps it will be 
just as well for all concerned. The contributions to the 
poor will be none the less acceptable in midwinter, 
when previous supplies are exhausted. 
The numerous parcels already sent in, ana others as 
they come, will be carefully stored in a room set apart 
for the purpose until January 7th, up to which time fur¬ 
ther garments for competition or distribution may still be 
sent in. 
Poultry Sliow in New York.— The 
New York State Poultry Society is holding its Third An¬ 
nual Show as the Agriculturist goes to press. It is a 
great success. The quality of the poultry of the United 
States is increasing in excellence every year, and this 
year the Society has on its list of exhibitors some of the 
first English and Irish breeders. The Show is strongest 
in games and Asiatics, both of which are superb. French 
fowls are in good numbers and very good; Bantams nev¬ 
er beaten at any show in America. Dorkings fair in num¬ 
bers and very superior in size and markings. Hamburghs, 
beautiful and large—of course criticizable, but the best 
we have ever seen. The American Agriculturist Prizes 
have drawn many entries; and the same is true of 
the Rural New-Yorker Prize, for native breeds. The 
foreign exhibitors for President Kingsland’s prizes are 
Henry Beldon, of Bingley, Yorkshire ; J. H. Cryer, of 
Southport, England; and J. C. Cooper, of Limerick, 
Ireland. The show of Turkeys is grand; so of water 
fowls of all kinds, Toulouse Geese and Aylesbury Ducks 
* See Hearth and Home, No. 49, page 778, and Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist , December Number, page 448. 
being especially noticeable. Besides, the Pheasants, and 
Ornamental fowls, the Ponies, Rabbits, Egg-hatching 
Apparatus of two kinds, and sundry Poultry House and 
Yard appliances, all add greatly to the attractiveness and 
instructiveness of the Show. 
Working Land on SUares in Vir¬ 
ginia. —A correspondent in Clarke Co., Va., writes us 
that he is working 110 acres of poor, cleared land on 
shares, paying one-third of all the grain and hay raised, 
as rent, and, we presume, the same proportion of animal 
products. He keeps four horses, twenty sheep, and pro¬ 
poses to keep eight or ten cattle, and as many pigs as 
will make bacon for his own use. The soil is a mixture 
of clay, limestone,and gravel, slightly sandy; it is entirely 
free from wet or marshy land, and just sufficiently rolling 
to prevent any stagnant pools. “My wheat,” he says, 
“ brings me in debt two out of three years. The soil 
runs readily into blue or sward grass. Butter brings on 
the average about 25 cents per pound. I have no money 
to help me. I have the farm in five lots, besides a five- 
acre lot designed for mowing. If you can advise me as 
to the best rotation of crops or general management 
please do so.”-Working land on shares is a poor sys¬ 
tem. There is always a temptation to do as little work 
as possible on the land. We doubt whether a man can 
find his own teams, stock, implements, seed, etc., and 
afford to pay one-third of all his produce, and at the 
same time keep up the fertility of the land and make the 
necessary repairs. Perhaps this farm is worth $3,000. 
To work it properly would require the labor of two men 
the year round, and additional help in summer equal to a 
man for half a year—say two-and-a-half men, worth, if 
first-class men, at least $1,000. Then the keep of the 
four horses would cost at least $300 more. Wear and tear 
of implements, harness, etc., would be at least $100 more 
Seed. $100 more, or say $1,500 in all. And you give one- 
third of this sitni, or $500, for the use of a farm worth 
only $3,000. It cannot be done—and in fact is not done. 
Persons who rent farms on shares do not, and cannot 
farm them properly. Usually the crops which pay the 
best are those which require most labor; but out of every 
three days’ labor the landlord gets one, and the tenaut is 
at all times tempted to spend as little for labor as pos¬ 
sible. The more labor he expends, and the more manure 
he uses, the more rent he has to pay, and the better the 
land will be when he leaves it. Our correspondent loses 
money on wheat; and, if so, we do not see how he can 
expect to make a profit on any other cultivated crop. On 
corn or potatoes he must expend more labor than on wheat, 
barley or oats. If two-thirds of a wheat crop will not 
pay him, two-thirds of a corn crop, as a general rule, 
certainly will not. The same remarks will apply to butter 
and cheese making. One-third of all the labor of making 
the butter goes to the land-owner. Better convert thegrass 
into beef than into butter. It requires less labor. Bet¬ 
ter keep sheep for the same reason. In fact, as you get 
the house and firewood for nothing, with two-thirds of 
the fruit for merely picking the whole, better let the fend 
bring forth what it will spontaneously and go and work 
f 'or some one else ! Our object in making these remarks 
is simply to show the tendency of the system of working 
land on shares. The tenant has many inducements to 
impoverish the soil, and few, if any, to improve it. As 
Arthur Young once said, with characteristic exaggera¬ 
tion, “ Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, 
and he will turn it into a garden; give him the nine- 
years’ lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a 
desert.” 
Foot and Mouth Disease in Dutchess Co. 
This disease, which, though not usually directly fatal, 
often produces death by secondary action or its influence 
on other morbid symptoms, has caused very great 
trouble, and loss of property in Great Britain and on the 
Continent of Europe. It has made its appearance in 
Dutchess County, N. Y., and the Secretary of the N.Y. 
State Agricultural Society makes the following state¬ 
ment : 
Farmers in all parts of the country, particularly upon 
the lines of through cattle traffic, should be on their 
guard, and upon the first indication of disease showing 
any of the symptoms stated below, should give imme¬ 
diate notice to the State Commissioner nearest them. 
The State Cattle Commissioners are Lewis F. Allen, 
(address Buffalo, N. Y„) M. R. Patrick, Manlius, Onon¬ 
daga County, and Dr. Moreau Morris, No. 301 Mott 
street, New York. 
The disease is the epizotic aphtha, commonly known 
as the foot and month disease, which is at this time pre¬ 
vailing to a very annoying extent in Great Britain. It is 
highly contagions, not only by contact with diseased ani¬ 
mals, but also by contact with the discharges from the 
sores, and the contagion may be conveyed by the matter 
adhering to the clothes (especially the shoes) of persons 
attending diseased animals, and also by the matter in 
the dung and litter of animals, on which account there 
is special danger from the manure or dirt thrown out of 
cattle cars at stations or in motion. The disease is also 
readily and frequently (perhaps most frequently) commu¬ 
nicated by the discharges dropped upon the highways by 
sick cattle driven over them, and for this reason the first 
precaution to be taken is to prevent the moving of cattle 
attacked by the disease. The disease sometimes affects 
the udders of cows, and during its course (whether symp¬ 
toms of its affecting the udder part or not) the milk 
should not be used as human food or given to any 
animals. 
The Dutchess County infected district has been visited 
by Prof. Low, of Cornell Uuiversity, consulting veterin¬ 
arian to the State Agricultural Society, who sends the 
following brief statement of the symptoms of the disease^ 
viz: First—From one to two days dullness, loss of appe¬ 
tite, (and of milk in cows,) hot dry mouth, with a ten¬ 
dency to grind the teeth and to slaver, heat and tender¬ 
ness of the udder and teats and of the feet, with frequent 
shaking of the feet, as if to get rid of some irritating 
matter. Second—On the second day, abundant frothing 
at the mouth, loud smacking of the lips and tongue, 
lameness and the formation of blisters of various sizes, 
up to an inch across, on the mouth, udder and teats and 
between the hoofs. Third—In one or two days more 
these blisters burst, leaving raw sores and shreds of loose 
skin inside the upper lip, on the roof of the mouth and 
the tongue, on the teats and between the hoofs. These 
discharge an irritating fluid for some time, then scab over 
and heal up, in favorable cases, in from ten to fifteen 
days. It should be added that the milk should be drawn 
by tubes or syphons in case the udder or teats become so 
sore that the cow cannot be milked as usual, and that the 
sick beasts should be well nursed and nourished with 
soft mashes and gruels. Cooling but not purgative medi¬ 
cines should be given, and the sores washed with some 
mild carbolic acid preparation, or with a weak solution 
of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol). 
-«-«-—BOW- r-m- -- 
Two Important Habits to Cultivate in 
Your Sons. 
It is a generally observed fact that, in this country, a 
very large proportion of the successful men are either 
the sons of poor parents, or orphans—or half orphans; 
and that comparatively few sons of rich men amount to 
much in any business or profession, notwithstanding 
the superior advantages they have of education, position, 
and an inherited capital to start with. The exceptions 
are usually, of course not always, the oldest children of 
those who have gradually grown up to wealth—those 
who received their bent while the parents were them¬ 
selves too thoroughly occupied to carry their children, 
and too economical themselves to allow spendthrift habits 
in their children. Another thing we have observed is, 
that, other tilings being equal, successful men come from 
large rather than from small families. Three-fourths or 
more of the rich men, and the influential men of this city 
to-day, have risen to their present positions from very in¬ 
digent circumstances in early life. Why is this so? Is 
it necessarily so ? Must the well-to-do parent feel that, 
after all his efforts to acquire for himself and his family 
the position that wealth gives, there is some compensa¬ 
ting decree of Providence which ordains that his sons 
must enter upon a descending scale ? 
Our observation has led us to the conclusion that two 
of the strongest elements of success arc, courageous self- 
reliance, and economy. The boy left a poor orphan has 
to fight his own battles. No rich father furnishes him a 
carriage to ride, and so he must walk—and he learns to 
walk. No one reaches out a friendly hand to lead him, 
and he learns to go alone. With a scanty supply of 
pocket money, he is compelled to habits of economy that 
ever after cling to him. “ The boy is father to the man” 
is a trite saying. The poor boy comes up to manhood, 
and instead of leaning upon some one to aid him, or of 
waiting for some one to come to his help, he strikes out 
with a feeling that, to use a vulgarism, he must “root, 
hog or die,”—and he roots away. Look where you will, 
and you will find that ninety-nine out of every hundred 
successful men are inspired with just this self-reliant 
feeling. It is at the very foundation of the go-ahead and 
get-ahead-yourself spirit that animates them. The man 
who was helped by father when a boy, whose school ex¬ 
penses were paid by father instead of having to earn 
them himself, whose expenses in preparing for his pro¬ 
fession, or whose capital in starting business, came from 
some paternal bank, begins life with a dependent feeling, 
and it is next to impossible for him to strike out into the 
world with the feeling that whatever I am I must make 
myself; whatever I get I must get for myself. The only 
son, petted and aided as he could not be if he were only 
“one of several,” lacks this element of self-reliance. 
Even in his “ sums” and his other school lessons, he is 
