1875.] 
449 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
ket gardener, purchased last spring of R. II. Allen & Co., 
a quantity of cabbage seed. The plants from this seed, 
treated in the usual way, failed to head, but run to flow¬ 
er, and VanWyck brings suit against Allen & Co. for the 
value of the cabbages which he might, could, would or 
should have raised, and a jury award him $1,972.13. We 
are not informed what the 13 cts. are for, but it is well to 
be particular about such things. We have not seen the 
evidence that was presented, and have not the data upon 
which to form an opinion, but the case will be immedi¬ 
ately appealed to a higher court. If the “ Court of last 
Appeal” shall decide that every seedsman is responsible 
for the estimated value of the crop that the purchaser 
thinks should be raised from the seed lie buys, why that 
is an end of the seed business. A full report of the trial 
might put a different aspect upon it, but as the matter is 
briefly given in the daily papers, it seems to us to be—to 
say the least, the most remarkable decision on record, 
and unless the complainant can show intentional fraud, 
a thing not possible in a house like that of K. H. Allen 
& Co., it is hardly possible that this decision can be sus¬ 
tained. The matter docs not end with the seed business; 
to carry out the same principle: if we sell a persona 
cow in calf, and the calf turns out, to be mal-formed, we 
are responable for all the milk, butter, cheese and beef 
that calf should have made. Or if one sells a setting of 
eggs, which hatch all cockerels, the buyer can claim 
damages for the eggs that he thinks the setting should 
lay. If this is to be a precedent, dealers will cease to sell 
seeds altogether, or make a contract with each purchaser 
that they shall not bo held responsible for damages if 
the seeds fail in any respect. 
lAtctii res oes Tre<‘"!»re— Vorlesungen 
i'tber Dendrologie. Von Karl Koch, (Stuttgart, Enke, 1375, 
pp. 40S, 8vo.) This is a book to be commended to our 
German readers, and also to amateurs who read German. 
Karl Koch is one of the Botanical Professors in the Uni¬ 
versity of Berlin, and the most experienced dendrologist 
living. Ilis book on the trees and shrubs in cultivation 
in northern andvniddle Europe, is the standard authority. 
This present volume, (which Schmidt, of this city, has for 
sale), is a course of popular lectures which Prof. Koch 
delivered in Berlin last winter, and it is full of interest¬ 
ing matter treated in an interesting way. The first part 
is a historical sketch of landscape gardening and gardens 
from the earliest times down to our own days. The sec¬ 
ond discourses on the structure, growth, and life of trees, 
the importance of woods and trees to man, and their re¬ 
lations to climate. The third deals with coniferous trees 
in four lectures. Although popular in form, they are full 
of good scientific matter, plainly expounded. A. Gray. 
Advance in Freights. —At the close of 
navigation an advance of freights is threatened which 
will raise the cost of transportation of a bushel of wheat 
from Minnesota to New York to 54 cents. This is nearly 
double the present rates, and will simply reduce the 
value of every bushel of wheat west of Chicago 21 cents a 
bushel; for, unfortunately, the price of our wheat is fixed 
not in our own market, but in a foreign one. 
-«- ■ '«=! O g» ' ► «*■- 
Very Suggestive “Quotations.” 
“_The enclosed $25 I wish you to invest securely at 
6 per cent, and for the annual interest, send the American 
Agriculturist during the next 33 years, to my nephew 
and namesake, who has begun farming in-, Iowa, or 
to his widow or children after him, and in 1910, A. D., 
pay the principal over to the survivors. You see I have 
full faith that the paper will go on another 33 years just 
as it has in the past, and I wish to avoid annual renewals, 
and oversight on my part. Prom my own experience, I 
believe your paper will be worth thousands of dollars to 
him in the end, if his life is spared. Single hints I have 
gained in reading it, that made no strong impression 
upon me at the time, have started trains of thought and 
investigation that have been worth to me more than the 
cost of your paper for five hundred years....” 
“_I am a Wisconsin farmer, Cl years old, and five 
years ago I scouted the idea of ‘ book farming,’ but was 
over-persuaded by my children to try the American Agri¬ 
culturist for a year. I have got so many good ideas from 
its common-sense reading, that I would not be without 
it for five or ten times, nor twenty times its cost. The 
enclosed $1.00 is part of what I got from a load of pota¬ 
toes hauled 12 miles and sold at 25 cents a bushel. I 
would not have missed renewing my subscription if it 
had taken the whole load....” 
“ —Though working ten hours a day in a factory, I 
have a little plot of 50 x 90 feet behind the house, which 
almost solely by the aid of the American Agriculturist , 
I have cultivated myself, nights and mornings, and wife 
figures up a saving in grocer’s bills of $55 in the vice 
and fresh vegetables we have raised. The plot was a 
mass of weeds, until I subscribed for your paper, to 
oblige a young lad who was raising a club to get a pre¬ 
mium sewing machine for a soldier’s widow....” 
“....I am only a ‘village parson,’ but I read the 
American Agriculturist regularly, not only for the help it 
gives me in my garden plot, but by keeping up with what 
is going on, and studying the new ideas you give, I am 
able to talk intelligently with my rural parishioners 
when I meet them at work on their farms, and not unfre- 
quently give them hints which they put into profitable 
practice_Those who joined the club I sent you two 
years ago to get the premium melodeon for our S. S. 
room, all show the good results of ‘ reading and thinking 
about their business’....” 
“_For the enclosed $5.40 send four copies of the 
American Agriculturist , post-paid, all to me. Last year I 
kept one copy in my store, fastened to the counter by a 
string, and it was thoroughly worn out long before the 
next number came, by those customers who dropped in 
of an evening and took turns at reading it. This one copy 
has done a heap of good in stopping idle gossip, by lead¬ 
ing callers to talk about some useful thing seen in the 
paper. I know many a man has carried home use¬ 
ful ideas. For the next year I shall have four copies in 
as many different places in the store. I can’t do more 
good in any other way with a ‘ V ’_” 
“... .Your multitude of suggestions about housework, 
care of children, etc.,'have been of great value and com¬ 
fort tome. I would sacrifice almost anything else, rather 
than be without them. I wish every other mother in 
the land, and those who are to hereafter 311 such a place, 
would take and read the American Agriculturist ” 
“_I would not have my boys without the illustra¬ 
tions and descriptions given in the American Agricultur¬ 
ist , if the paper cost ten times as much. It sets them to 
thinking and reasoning, and attaches them to their 
work....” 
We could add a multitude more of like character. 
'i’Bae WBneut Crop ana KaBg'laaaalL—Mr. 
Lawes, of Kothamstead, England, whose estimates have 
heretofore been singularly accurate, figures up the quan¬ 
tity of imported wheat that will be needed by the English 
people before next harvest as 13,066,000 quarters, or about 
110 millions of bushels. To provide this enormous quan¬ 
tity will draw heavily upon the chief granaries of the 
world, of which ours is the most available. 
'I’lie SSesisniacs <>4'«>siir IPsiftesut litiws, 
—A correspondent from Hudson, N. Y., inquires if he is 
legally liable to pay a patent right fee on an ice house or 
ice closet supplied with a ventilator. Now this is a diffi¬ 
cult question to answer. We know that there is a certain 
patent on ventilating refrigerators, or ice chambers, but 
we cannot see that this can affect an ice house which may 
be provided with a ventilator. There are so many 
patents granted for trifling, and even old and obsolete 
contrivances, that one can hardly use anything without 
the risk of infringing a patent. Possibly the most absurd 
illustration of this, is the fact that a patent has recently 
been granted for a shirt made with unfinished sleeves and 
other parts, these less important parts being supplied by 
the purchaser of the unfinished garment. Any mother 
then who should make such an unfinished garment for 
her married son, and send it to her daughter-in-law to 
finish, would infringe this patent, and might make her¬ 
self and her son liable to damages. In the case of the 
ice-house, it would be the least trouble to pay the fee 
demanded, as it would probably cost more to employ a 
lawyer to look into the matter than the amount of the fee. 
0 afflatuses! UffltleB-.—“ L. D.,” Lonsdale, 
R. I. To relieve an inflamed udder it should be well 
bathed and fomented with warm water, several times a 
day. If there is difficulty in drawing the milk, a solution 
of carbonate of soda or saleratus should be injected with 
a common syringe into the teat, and milked out again 
repeatedly, until the milk comes freely. The alkaline so¬ 
lution dissolves any milk that may have clotted in the 
udder, and which stops the flow. This relieves "the in¬ 
flammation, which is greatly increased by the absorption 
of the milk in the diseased glands. 
HaiversieDa Slae GJ£ea*us.—“ Alfd. B. 
II.,” Louisville. The inversion of the uterus or womb in 
a newly calved cow, is not unfrequent. There are several 
causes. The principal one is weakness of the supporting 
ligatures, which are not able to resist the severe contrac¬ 
tions which follow the birth of the calf, and the whole 
organ is inverted and expelled. In such a case the womb 
should be washed with warm water and be returned with¬ 
out loss of time; a bandage with a sufficient opening to 
allow the urine to pass, should then be applied, and the 
cow placed on a floor which slopes forwards. One ounce 
of tincture of opium should then be given, to allay 
spasmodic action if this were feared. Delay in returning 
the organ, or any injury to the parts by dogs, would be 
certainly fatal. The womb maybe amputated safely by 
a skillful surgeon, if it fails to be retained, and the ani¬ 
mal’s life saved. Upon the surface of the uterus there 
are numerous glands, which secrete an abundant glairy 
mucus at the time of parturition. These are sometimes 
enlarged, and appear as small tumors. It is possible 
that the tumors referred to were really these glands. 
Sundry Humbugs. 
Our friend F. K. Phoenix, 
(who will excuse us for put¬ 
ting his name at the head of 
a humbug column, but he 
can stand it), writes in com¬ 
mendation ofour opposition 
to swindlers and humbugs. 
Besides managing one of 
the most extensive nurser¬ 
ies in the country, at Bloom¬ 
ington, Ill., Mr. Phoenix 
finds time to give thought 
to the various social prob¬ 
lems, and is always found 
in the first rank in every 
cause of reform. lie thinks 
that the suppression of 
swindles may be materially 
aided by looking into the 
causes, and says: “The 
two immediate parties to 
every fraud are, 1. The gut¬ 
ter, 2. the gull. To these we must add as really the most 
responsible of all, party number 3.—The great public, 
which knowingly tolerates gullers, gulls, and gull-traps, 
the whole country over.”—His view is that public opin¬ 
ion is wrong, and were this set right, the whole tribe of 
frauds could at once be crushed out. Ilis next step is to 
inquire, “ why is public opinion wrong—what makes or 
regulates public opinion?—To say that education does, 
is true, but too indefinite. Let us rather say ; 1, religion, 
2, politics, and 3, the business of the country. Then to 
fight fraud successfully, let ns go to the fountain head, 
and humbly and faithfully seek to purge out the popular 
errors in American religion, politics, and business. 1 be¬ 
lieve this to be to-day our highest privilege, and the best 
paying investment for the American farmer.”_It is in¬ 
teresting to know the views of a long time reformer like 
Mr. Phoenix, but'he lays out altogether too large a job 
for us, and we must leave the errors in “ religion, poli¬ 
tics, and business” to others, and keep on in the humble 
way in trying to show not only the “American farmer,” 
but the great circle of readers of the American Agricul¬ 
turist, “ the ways which are dark,” and therefore to be 
avoided. While we present the pecuniary loss which 
follows in the train of every species of humbug, we have 
endeavored not to neglect the moral aspect of the matter, 
and to show the unhappy effects upon the community of 
the various swindling schemes. Taking Mr. Phoenix’s 
own view, that it is the duty of the “ American farmer ” 
to reform “religion, politics, and business,” we get a 
step nearer the first cause than he does, for we have the 
ear of the farmer himself, and many others besides_ 
Among the many attractive forms in which humbug pre¬ 
sents itself, is that of 
INHERITANCES IN ENGLAND, 
and there are chaps on the other side who are quite as 
“cute” as any of our own swindlers, who make a busi¬ 
ness of securing the claims of heirs upon property there, 
which if their stories are to be believed, is actually going 
a begging, for the want: of its rightful owner to come and 
take it. These chaps advertise in our papers, that s 
party by the name of Tompkins, Jones, or some other, 
has died, leaving a large unsettled estate, “ for further 
particulars address, Blunderbuss & Co., Cannon street, 
London.” One Tompkins who lives in Indiana or Penn¬ 
sylvania, has heard that his great-grandfather came from 
England, and thinks that now his chance has come; he 
writes to Blunderbuss & Co., who, perhaps, by the same 
steamer get a hundred other letters from other Tompkin¬ 
ses all over the country. B. & Co. reply that they 
must first have a search; that is not in their line of 
business, but nothing can be done unless the searcher’s 
fee—always some moderate sum, such as $20 or $30, is 
forwarded. The varions Tompkinses each thinks, this 
isn’t much to venture, and send the money. B. & Co. 
thus get a handsome income, and if those who send 
money get any reply at all, it is to the effect that they are 
not Tompkinses of the line in which the estate descends. 
In some cases this matter of looking up inheritances has 
assumed considerable importance, and meetings of the 
descendants of a certain “one of three brothers” who 
came over in 17— and something, have been called, and 
much money collected and expended in sending a special 
agent to Europe; wo have known of several cases of this 
kind, but never heard of any instance in which the antic¬ 
ipated millions were distributed among the heirs. These 
