13S 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[APErL, 
unobtrusive is the spirit presiding over the whole, tliiit 
we never feel lectured, or as if we were being taught 
in some art by a pedagogue who desires us to realize 
that he is, and that w e are not, already familiar with the 
subject. Each number of the Agriculturist contains 
about forty pages, of which some thirty are reading 
matter and tiie balance advertisements—these latter 
being selected with care, and only such as the editor is 
willing to vouch for the good faith being admitted. This 
notice—it may be requisite to add in these days of 
“puffing”—is a sincere tribute of admiration from The 
Citizen to a pleasant and instructive contemporary— 
having no other object than to call tlie attention of our 
readers to a publication which we tliink it may be for 
their interest, as it has certainly been for our pleasure, 
to study.”-This describes what we aim at doing. 
Mow to write for a. Newspaper. — 
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. Contrive to 
make the title and first sentence so that it must be read ; 
and so of the second, no matter what has preceded, or is, 
to follow.”—Strict attention to these simple rules would 
reduce the number and dimensions of our ‘ blanket- 
sheets,’ speedily bring down the present high price of 
printing paper, and relieve many a weary and perplexed 
editor of the disagreeable necessity of rejecting numerous 
otherwise well-written and desirable articles. 
Tlie NortUwestei’M “ AgTicMltiiral- 
ist.” — The first number of a paper with the above 
name, issited in Chicago, makes its appearance among 
our exchanges. A very fair looking slieet and a generally 
creditable beginning. Only, Mr. Agricultural-Iooral-ist, 
you should spell your name according to good usage, and 
when you take things from the Agriculturist—v/iihont 
the at—you shotild get in a way of giving credit. You are 
a beginner and we merely offer-a bit of friendly advice. 
“Across tlie Contiment,” an account of 
a Journey to the Pacific, by Samuel Bowles, Editor of 
the Springfield Republican, is one of the most readable 
books of the season, and valuable because it has all the in¬ 
terest of the best novel, and will therefore be read through 
by young as well as old, wiiile it gives a large amount of 
information at the same time. Price $2. 
The Department of Agrieulfare. 
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 take what “ books with the pictures 
alt mixed in ” they can get, and such parcels of that old 
lot of seeds as are not yet disposed of, and keep quiet. 
Then th.e papers are meddling with what is none of their 
business. The Country Gentleman does not like it, be¬ 
cause a man was sent to China for the purpose of ascer¬ 
taining how to make sugar from sorghum, and because 
said messenger found out that John Chinaman only grew 
sorghum for “ cliewing 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 former 
government agricultural official obtained by sending a 
man to Florida to try it. What would you have ? Then 
there is the Maine Farmer, which is in the main a quiet 
and dignified sheet; it must interfere. Hear what it says; 
“We have it from a source eminently to be relied on, 
that the Commissioner was engaged in writing a state¬ 
ment respecting sugar cane seed, and being called away 
from his desk for a few moments, one of the clerks made 
a glance at his unfinished manuscript, and found he had 
written it Sliuger cain scad!" Well, Mr. Farmer, we 
should like to know if that don’t spell sugar cane seed, 
what it does spell ? besides, it’s phonography, and more¬ 
over do you expect officials to write like Down East 
Schoolmasters? The Phil.adelphia North American is 
also interfering with the business at the seed shop. Its 
Washington correspondent says : “ But the practice of 
purchasing miscellaneous seeds by the ton, and forcing 
members of Congress to act as seedsmen in general to 
their constituency, is a nuisance which calls for abate 
ment.” Tnen to add to all these annoyances, wliichmost 
seriously interfere with the equanimity necessary to a 
successful competition with the one-horse seed shops all 
over the country, the big screw is lost! The excellent 
press of Hicock has been replaced by a real hydraulic 
press. The Commissioner, when he first saw it, at once 
detected 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 either 
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 to have one gone altogether is “ most 
tolerable and not to be endured.” 
The Rinderpest. 
This terrible scourge still holds almost undis¬ 
puted sway among the herds of Great Britain, 
so far as it has progressed. The latest reports 
give over 13,000 cases per week, as known by 
the government officers. The inoculation and 
other remedies prove ineffectual. Efforts to 
prevent its spread have been imperfect and weak, 
while the cupidity of some individuals, and the 
heedlessness and ignorance of others, has spread 
the seeds of the contagion far and wide. There 
was abundant knowledge in the country how to 
stop the disease, but their government was 
afraid to act with energy, and all that has been 
done is sheer trifling.. In the year 1857, the 
Royal Ag’l Society of England,'with the Ag’l 
Societies of Scotland and Ireland, and receiving 
the co-operatioa 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 oppor¬ 
tunities were afforded him, 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 tliat England was then. 
He found the disease.restricted to compara¬ 
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 by a military cordon, and all traffic in 
cattle stopped within or out from the district thus 
shut 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 that the disease would ever 
affiict the English farmer. He says: “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 
amount 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 possibly 
reach the western side of the German States; 
and moreover,- that 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 very instructive—showing us our great 
danger—and warning us not to rest in fancied 
securitj'-, as did our brother farmers of England, 
until herd 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 countries’ 
where it is domesticated, to the coast, and to 
England. The fact remains,-that perfect isola¬ 
tion of the diseased and of infected cattle, and of 
all persons, animals, and things which have been 
in close proximity to them, or their excretions, 
is perfect security against the disease. And 
we -want the Legislatures to empower the Exec¬ 
utives of the different States to act with all 
power and promptness, sliould 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 Februarj’- number you print an item i 
respecting the late Convention of Cheese and | 
Butter Makers, held at Utica, which contains ' s 
two errors. The newly adopted name of the so- l 
ciety is the “ American Dairymen’s Association,” 
and the undersigned is Secretary and Treasurer. 
It was formed in January, 1864; its purpose ! 
being to advance the interests of dairymen in ;' 
every way—mainly, however, in furnishing a 
medium through which improvements in the ' 
science of cheese making can be best dissemina- i 
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. Dealers at 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 objectionable things in making 
and curing cheese, are not at all understood. | 
For instance, the questions “what makes 
cheese porous ?” and “ what effect has a large 
amount of rennet upon the flavor of cheese ?” j. 
will receive answers as various as the nurnber 
of dairymen questioned. We need a substitute 
for rennet. A substance that would replace this j 
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 
change until sufficient 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 
way all the cheese can be obtained from- the 
milk. It is conceded that the 10 to 11 per cent, 
which we now get ought to be increased to 12 Ir 
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; and 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 i 
in all parts of the dairy regions of America. 
Many of them, keen, practical men, are ex¬ 
perimenting and thinking of these and other i 
matters, and doubtless every year notable pro¬ 
gress will be made. The society ought to have 
sufficient funds to be able to employ the best | 
scientific talent of the land to work out important 
problems, some of which have been suggested; 
but the inexplicable apathy of the great mass of 
dairymen in regard to this matter renders this, 
as j’et, impossible. The propriety of sending an ; 
agent to Europb-the coming season, for the pur- j 
pose of studying closely the processes of mak¬ 
ing Cheddar and Cheshire cheese, as well as the i 
defects of American cheese and the style de- i 
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 
and 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. 
