1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
equally vigilant and careful in not placing the 
Society’s indorsement upon an animal which 
he would not add to his own pure-bred herd. 
Will not Jersey breeders and Scale-of-Points 
makers consider and criticise these views ? 
A Ring for Pigs. 
When pigs are to be turned into a clover 
field or a meadow, their natural propensity to 
root for their living must be curbed. No con¬ 
trivance is so effectual as a ring. One of the 
best rings for this purpose (that is not a ring) 
is shown in the above engraving. It is made 
of soft iron, or horseshoe-nail rod, and when 
inserted into the pig’s nose and the points bent, 
it can not come out. It should be inserted from 
the front of the snout and the points bent down¬ 
ward. The curved part should be turned 
forward and bent down securely. 
Care op Manure in Winter. —It is quite 
easy to prevent manure from becoming frozen 
during the winter. By proper management, it 
may be worked over so as to be made in the 
best condition on the opening of spring for use 
on grass land to be plowed for corn, or fine 
enough to harrow into plowed land. To effect 
this, it should be kept piled in a compact heap, 
in which shape it will ferment, and maintain 
sufficient heat to resist the severest frosts and 
melt all the snow that may fall upon it, and so 
keep moist enough to prevent fire-fangiug. The 
heap should be turned once or twice, and the 
outside coarse manure put into the center. By 
this treatment early in spring, it may be made 
fine and perfectly well-rotted. 
Tlie Better Education of Farmers. 
We are apt to take too much of a dollar- 
and-cent view of the question of agricultural 
education. In so many years, a young man 
could earn so much money; will it pay him to 
give this up in order that he may get an educa¬ 
tion which will enable him in later life to make 
more money than he could without it ? Will 
any education that can be gained at schools 
make a better money-getter of a boy than would 
the same amount of time and attention given 
to learning the practical operations of the farm ? 
Without stopping to answer these proposi¬ 
tions—which are foreign to our purpose—we 
desire to call attention to other considerations 
that must have weight with all thoughtful per¬ 
sons. The greatest prosperity of farmers, as a 
class and individually, must come from causes 
which will advance farming as an occupation. 
No permanent and satisfactory prosperity can 
attend any calling which is not held in good 
repute, and no calling in these modern days 
can be held in good repute which is not repre¬ 
sented by at least a fair proportion of men of 
education aud intelligence. In the so-called 
“ professions,” in mechanics, and in trade, the 
tendency is toward better and better education 
and a more and more cultivated intelligence, 
and the degree of'respect in which they are 
severally held is in all cases proportionate to 
the intelligence of its representative men. 
In the future allotment of honor and influence, 
aud consequently of prosperity, that calling 
will take the lead whose representative men are 
the most distinguished for education and culti¬ 
vation, and that will fall to the ..rear in which 
there has been the least progress in these re¬ 
spects. The road of the future is an ascending- 
one, and progress over it is to be secured much 
more by the aid of mind than by the aid of 
matter. Those who take aud keep the lead in 
the race will do so because of their brains rather 
than of their bodies, and the leadership will imply 
control over those who are behind (and there¬ 
fore beneath) them. How far their rule will be 
merciful will depend on conditions which we 
can not now foresee, but that they will rule is 
as certain as that mind lias always ruled over 
brute force. If farmers can take the lead, 
farming will be a favored and a fortunate occu¬ 
pation. If they must fall to the rear, it will be 
a degraded and an unfortunate one. "Whether 
it is one or the other, depends bn the extent to 
which farmers are educated and enabled to stand 
a fair chance in the “struggle for the lead,” and 
our successors will be the lords of the land or a 
down-trodden peasantry, according as they are 
educated or not. We assume, of course, that 
prosperity and intelligence will go hand in hand, 
and that as we gain in education we shall gain 
in wealth. At the same time, we believe that 
the best chance for the future of our craft 
lies in the ability of its representatives to take a 
high stand for education and intelligence. Be¬ 
lieving this, we long for the better general edu¬ 
cation of farmers; not of those of the farmers’ 
sons who are destined for other occupations, 
but especially for those who arc to stay on the 
farm. Let us bring better-trained brains to the 
performance of our work, and shed the light of 
cultivation and refinement over our hearth¬ 
stones, and we may confidently look for a suc¬ 
cess which mere wealth could not secure. 
Care of Lambs. —Sheep are the only farm 
stock that have retained or advanced their actual 
value in the market during the past year. It 
is therefore for the farmer’s interest that he care¬ 
fully watch his ewes and lambs at this season. 
Ewes need better care than wethers, and should 
be removed to pens where they can be looked 
after daily. As they near the time of lambing, 
they should be again removed to a warm, dry 
pen aud watched closely. If the lamb comes 
weakly, it should have a mouthful or two of 
warm milk until it is active enough to suck. If 
it should become chilled, let it be removed 
at once, and warmed and fed until restored. 
But there will be few weak lambs if the ewes 
are fed previously with good clover hay, a few 
roots, and a handful of oats daily. No hogs 
should be permitted near a pen of lambs; and 
the tamer and more gentle the sheep have been 
made, the less danger there will be of the ewe 
resenting any interference either with herself oi¬ 
lier lamb, and disowning it in consequence. 
Poor Butter.— The produce dealers in New 
York are complaining of the quality of the 
butter. They say more butter is sold for grease 
at 16 cents a pound than of first-class butter at 
30c. or 40c. a pound. They desire the factory 
system in making butter to be extended, as in 
the cheese manufacture. 
Farmers Hiring Help in Cities. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
The city papers are discussing the troubles 
that are found with our autocrats of the kitchen, 
but never a word is heard of what our farmers, 
particularly those far removed from the city, en¬ 
dure with the help of the farm. I believe it is 
the experience of the majority that if they 
have to hire six men in the course of the year, 
two at least will quit before they have been 
twenty-four hours domiciled. This is not 
even the worst of the difficulty, as appears by 
the statement of a farmer who called on me the 
other day. It appears that there is an organized 
system of swindling in this business which ha3 
long been carried on, though, as far as we know, 
it has never been exposed in the Agriculturist 
or other papers read by farmers. 
The swindling game is played in this way: 
A farmer or gardener wants men; after selling 
out his load of produce, he drives his wagon up 
to one of the many emigrant intelligence-offices 
in Greenwich street. The fees of the “office” 
man are $3 ; $2 to be paid by the farmer who 
hires, and $1 by the man who is hired. Of 
course the emigrant has no money, and the 
farmer advances the $1. The “ help” gets into 
the wagon, and is driven to the ferry. The 
farmer in the rush there is occupied with his 
team, so that it is an easy matter for the “ help” 
to slip from the wagon aud get out of the sight 
of his new employer. If the farmer has time 
to return to the intelligence-office and state the 
fact, the worthy in charge there pretends to be 
astounded at his tale, and vows all kinds of 
vengeance the first time he again sets eyes on 
the “tliafe of the wurld.” It is needless to say 
that the keeper of the intelligence-office and the 
“emigrant” are confederates, and that there is 
division of the fee received from the unfortunate 
farmer. It may be supposed that this is rather 
a small business, but as one man may so “jump 
the fees ” three or four times a day with different 
farmers, it will be seen that it pays the rascal 
much better than honest labor. Besides, every 
now and then, when a farmer is found to be 
credulous enough, they impose on him in 
other ways. My informant stated that an old 
gentleman, one of his neighbors, not only paid 
the fee of $3, but advanced the honest youth be 
had hired $3 more to pay a washing bill which 
his conscience would not permit him to leave 
the city without paying. Pat’s washerwoman 
lived in the neighborhood of Fulton Ferry— 
just the way the old farmer was going to reach 
his farm on Long Island. Pat would step out 
and pay, and be back in a minute. He did step 
out, and the minutes ran into hours. The con¬ 
scientious emigrant had evidently lost his way, 
for lie never returned, and the old man jogged on 
moralizing perhaps on the pitfalls set for age 
as well as youth in this wicked Gotham of ours. 
The lesson to be learned from this is to take a 
sharp look at your “emigrant” before you hire 
him. If you have seen much of this class, it will 
be easy to distinguish the counterfeit from the 
honest seeker for hire. The swindler is usually 
a denizen of the lower wards of the citj r , and is 
a professional “ repeater ” at the polls as well as 
at the intelligence-offices. He has long since 
thrown off the old-country brogans and frieze- 
coat, and faded patent-leathers and along-tailed 
garment of black usually take their place. 
He has a look about him which, if you come near 
him in a crowd, makes your thoughts quickly 
revert to your watch or your pocket-book. 
