THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
689 
1893 
THE PROSPECT. 
Alabama has just bought 2,500 acres of well- 
watered land containing plenty of red clay, and is 
going to set her convicts at work farming, brick¬ 
making, etc., instead of leasing them out, as hereto¬ 
fore, to mine operators and private employers. The 
latter has been a disgraceful system, subject to hun¬ 
dreds of abuses. Little need of the gift of prophecy, 
however, to foretell that the creditable innovation 
will soon encounter virulent protests from aggrieved 
and wrathful representatives of “ organized labor.” 
tit 
Talk about high-priced eggs, indeed! Do you 
think those of extinct feathered monstrosities alone 
bring startling figures ? Why, among living birds a 
well-marked set of the red-winged grosbeak are 
worth anywhere between $1,500 and $2,000! At a 
recent London sale of zoological rarities, two fine 
specimens of golden eagle eggs brought $75, and one 
egg of the swallow-tailed kite $15. As long ago as 
1830, a set of two eggs of the Pallas sand grouse, an 
Asiatic species, were bid up at auction in the British 
Metropolis to $G00. When you talk of high prices for 
fowl fruit, please remember these. 
X i i 
An English farmer was recently arrested for selling 
milk below the legal standard. The milk furnished 
contained from six to eight per cent more water than 
it should. The defense was that the milk was not 
adulterated, but that it was sold just as it came from 
the cow. To prove this statement the farmer had the 
cows milked in the presence of a chemist, who ana¬ 
lyzed the milk at once. It showed the same surplus 
of water. The j ndge dismissed the case on the prin¬ 
ciple that the State could only prevent the man from 
watering the milk ; it could not punish the cows for 
not putting more fat in it. In this country the law 
holds that milk must reach a certain grade to be legal. 
If a farmer’s cows cannot reach that grade, he must 
get others that will. 
From statistics in this and other countries, it appears 
that the necessity or distaste for agricultural pursuits 
is steadily tending in a direction unfavorable to them. 
I rom the last census reports it appears that in this 
country there has been a constant decline for a quarter 
of a century in the number of people engaged in agri¬ 
culture in proportion to those employed in other gain¬ 
ful occupations, and the last census of England and 
Wales shows that the total number of both sexes 
engaged in agriculture, which was 1,153,544 in 1871, 
and 1,091,941 in 1881, was only 980,278 in 1891, showing 
a total decrease of 173,271 in 20 years in spite of tne 
large increase in the general population. The same 
process is observable in all other European countries. 
Agriculture is both necessary and honorable, but in 
this age of rapid acquisition and keen excitement it 
appears to be losing some of its attractions. 
X X X 
The Republic oi Switzerland has made the most 
notable advance in the powers of the average voter. 
In case certain private citizens do not approve 
of legislation before the national congress, they have 
the right to obtain a vote of the people which vote 
shall be final. That is, when 50,000 persons petition 
the Swiss legislature for the chance to vote on any 
proposition, it must be submitted to a popular vote. 
For example, if a certain number of American citizens 
should sign petitions in favor of a vote on the silver 
question, the whole matter would be referred to the 
people, and their majority would be final. The first 
question brought in this way before the Swiss people 
was in reference to the manner of killing cattle. The 
Jews will not put an animal out of its pain before its 
throat is cut. The vote was on the proposition that 
the slaughter of animals that had not been previously 
stunned should be prohibited throughout Switzer¬ 
land, and this was carried by 195,000 votes to 120,000. 
t X X 
Matrimonial. —Refined and cultivated young lady, living unhap¬ 
pily with her guardian, a good housekeeper, fond of country life, and 
worth 130,000, wishes to correspond with some honorable agriculturist 
or stock raiser who Is matrimonially Inclined. No attention will be 
paid to answers unless the writers contemplate Immediate matrimony. 
State age and religion. Inclose picture, If convenient. Address, Box 
9, Niagara Falls Centre, Ontario, Canada. 
A few weeks ago the above “reading notice” 
appeared in a large number of papers which appeal 
to rural readers throughout the country. Niagara 
balls Centre is just across the Niagara River, in Can¬ 
ada, and Box 9, was hired by “ Ed Moore,” alias W. C. 
Woodward, who put up on the American side at 
Fiiagara Falls. Answers to the alluring advertisement 
poured in from all parts of the country, averaging 
from 25 to 35 per day. On every alternate day Wood¬ 
ward called for his mail, brought it across the bridge, 
wrote the answers in a neat feminine hand and signed 
“Marion Reed,” and then crossed the river and mailed 
them. They told how Marion was imprisoned by a 
cruel guardian who was likely to poison her for her 
fortune, and she suggested that if the “ stock raiser” 
or ‘honorable agriculturist” wrote again he should 
send her the price of her car fare to a place of 
rendezvous which he was to appoint. A short time 
ago complaints came to the post-master at Niagara 
Falls Centre fro n deluded victims from nearly every 
State in the Union, from Maine to California, and the 
States to the Gulf. They had all forwarded remit¬ 
tances to the heiress, who never returned even 
“thanks.” Over 150 letters were seized with Wood¬ 
ward at his lodgings and these were only a tithe of all 
he had received, as he had destroyed the rest. Under 
the pseudonym of Marion Reed the rascal must have 
cleared several thousand dollars, and his victims have 
no redress for, having used the Canadian mails, he is 
not technically guilty of any offense against the gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. Could a 20-fathom 
plummet-line sound the depth of your sympathy for 
those lovelorn “honorable agriculturists” and “stock 
raisers” so bamboozled in their aspirations for unso¬ 
phisticated Marion and her $30,000 ? 
X t t. 
A bill now before the Lower House of Congress 
provides for the annexation of the Territory of Utah 
to the State of Nevada. The present condition of the 
latter seems a disgrace to our system of government. 
It has two members in the United States Senate and 
one Representative in the House, yet its population in 
1890 was only 45,701, and for years it has been steadily 
decreasing. On the other hand, the population of 
Utah has been rapidly increasing, amounting to 207,- 
905 in 1890, or more than four times that of Nevada. 
It has probably reached 250,000 by the present time, 
and if annexed to Nevada, the State would always be 
sure to have a population large enough to justify the 
prerogatives of Statehood. Of course, the chief objec¬ 
tion to such a measure would be the danger lest the 
State should be politically Mormonizad, but the time 
is rapidly approaching when Utah must cease to be a 
Territory, and sufficient constitutional precautions 
against Mormon domination should be provided before 
definite action is taken in the matter. 
X i i 
Jars are fast growing to be regarded with anti- 
Chinese odium on the Pacific Coast. During the rush 
of the hop-picking season the white laborers have 
been warning off alike the Chinese, Japanese and 
even Indians, though the latter have shown greater 
“staying” powers than the other two nationalities. 
As the crop has to be gathered within a brief period 
and sufficient white help is seldom obtainable, the 
growers both in California and Oregon, have, many of 
them, been bitter in their denunciations of the arbi¬ 
trary conduct of the inadequate supply of white 
pickers, especially as a large proportion of them had 
contracted for Chinese, Japanese or Indian workmen. 
Moreover, in addition to driving their rivals away 
at the busiest season, the whites have frequently 
demanded exorbitant wages for their own services 
and having command of the labor market, have gener¬ 
ally succeeded in their extortion. Just now Pacific 
coast hop and grape growers, having felt the oppres¬ 
sion of white laborers during the current harvest, are 
devising means to avoid or minimize their extortions 
next year. XXX 
At last the New York State Dairy Commissioner 
and the Armour Packing Company are likely to “ lock 
horns ” in fierce litigation anent the sale of oleomar¬ 
garine, or that form of it known as “ Silver Churn 
Butterine.” The law passed by the legislature sev¬ 
eral years ago prohibiting the sale or manufacture of 
oleo, or any other imitation of dairy products within 
the State lines, has been sustained by the State Court 
of Appeals, and no doubt the United States Supreme 
Court will find it within the jurisdiction of the police 
powers of the State. Since January 1 the Dairy Com¬ 
missioner has secured the conviction of 39 dealers in 
bogus butter under the criminal laws, and gained four 
civil convictions, and 12 other cases are now pending 
before the Courts. Armour’s butterine is made in 
Kansas City, Kan. The company pays an internal 
revenue tax of two cents per pound ; and a manufact¬ 
urer’s license of $000 there, and an internal revenue 
license of $400 wherever an agency is established. It 
claims to sell the stuff only as butterine, properly 
labeled and branded and only in the “original pack¬ 
ages,” and that it is a thoroughly wholesome article, 
which the concern is legally justified in selling in 
that way. The wholesale price ranges from 17 to 20 
cents per pound ; but canvassing agents get special 
terms as low as 14 cents. The Dairy Commissioner 
declares that he has been “ going slow,’’ but that he 
is now ready to prosecute to conviction, and, if neces¬ 
sary, to carry the case to the highest court in the 
land ; and what wideawake dairyman, careful con¬ 
sumer or honest citizen will fail to wish him success ? 
A bill now before the United States Senate provides 
that Congress shall enact laws to protect from robbers 
trains engaged in inter-State commerce. There appears 
to be no doubt that Congress has the right to do this, 
under the clause of the Federal Constitution which 
empowers it to “ regulate commerce among the sev¬ 
eral States,” but in practice the exercise of such right 
seems to be inadvisable. The design evidently was 
to give the General Government power to prevent any 
of the several State governments from enact : ng laws 
which would adversely affect the commerce of any 
other State ; and it can hardly be assumed that inas¬ 
much as Congress has the power to regulate the con¬ 
ditions under which trains may be run from State to 
State, it has also the power of legislating to protect 
inter-State trains while they are in a particular State 
whose functions are being exercised to the same end. 
All the States have laws protecting property in transit, 
and the Federal Government has never disputed their 
rights to enact and enforce such laws. If, however, 
by the passage of trains from one State to another the 
danger of robbery is increased or any State is unable 
to deal with the matter, then Congress is likely to step 
in. Hence a majority of the Senators, without regard to 
party lines, are strongly opposed to the extension of 
Federal control in this direction. 
tit 
The close of every summer, characterized by long- 
continued spells of hot weather, is sure to witness 
several outbreaks of forest fires in the timbered 
States, especially in the West. Last year Michigan 
suffered severely ; this season the trouble has stricken 
Wisconsin, and towns and hamlets, as well as isolated 
farm houses shrouded in forest growth, have met 
with distress and disaster. Thoroughly dried by the 
torrid summer, the trees burn like tinder, and the 
flames travel before the wind with a fury which all 
ordinary means of fire-fighting are powerless to check. 
Near settlements the heat is often so intense as to 
drive away the inhabitants before the flames actually 
take possession. The man who takes up his abode in a 
forest takes the same kind of inevitable risk as he who 
settles down in a country liable to cyclones and earth¬ 
quakes. Still in many cases a good deal of the loss is 
due to neglect of the simplest and most obvious pre¬ 
cautions. It has been found impossible to induce 
people living in wooded settlements, or even in saw¬ 
mill towns, to take the trouble to make clearings 
around them, and to choose a favorable time to burn 
a belt of dry grass or under-brush ready to be ignited 
by a spark and spread destruction abroad with ap¬ 
palling speed. It’s a trifle hard to feel proper sym¬ 
pathy with people who thus invite disaster by their 
own carelessness. . . , 
XXX 
Readers of agricultural papers hear not a little 
about the work and hardships to which country 
children are subject from turning the grindstone to 
driving the mowing machine; how often does one 
hear of the toils and troubles of children in towns and 
cities ? In 1880 the number of wage-earning children 
under 10 amounted, in this country, to 1,118,250, and 
it is now estimated that the number is not less 
than 2,000,000, and the proportion of children to 
adults engaged in our multitudinous industries is con¬ 
stantly increasing, for the openings for their employ¬ 
ment are multiplied with every fresh invention and 
improvement in old devices. The child in the work¬ 
shop or factory is exposed to four forms of danger 
from which the country child is for the most part ex¬ 
empt, namely, accidental death, mutilation, perma¬ 
nent ill health, and vitiated morals, and, alas ! often 
the most fortunate child is the one who meets the 
finality of the first of these four. In case of the numer¬ 
ous complaints of accidents to children at factories, 
how often is heard the officials’ complaint about the 
carelessness of children ! Isn’t such a charge an aggra¬ 
vation rather than an excuse for the hardship of set¬ 
ting the little ones to work when they should be at 
study or play ? Are not children lobbed of one of their 
chief prerogatives when they are made care-taking 
little men and women among the roar, whirl and tur¬ 
moil of machinery ? XXX 
BUSINESS BITS. 
We have had many Inquiries from farmers who want to know whero 
they can get feed, bran, etc., in car-loads and smaller lots. In answer 
we would refer to the advertisement of Messrs. Cutter & Bailey, 143 
Washington St., Buffalo, N. Y., In this paper. A letter addressed as 
above will bring full Information, samples and prices. 
We are using the Diamond Balance churn In the home dairy, and 
prefer It to the other makes we have heretofore used. It is easily 
operated, easily and quickly cleaned, and the butter comes In satis¬ 
factory shape. Both milk and butter are easily removed from It. It 
is made by the Barden Automatic Cream Separator Co., Middle Gran¬ 
ville, N. Y. 
Many farmers feed whole grain simply because they have no 
means of grinding It at home, and don’t feel that they have the lima 
to cart it to a mill. Thare is more economy, however. In ground feed, 
and the eqalpmant of no farm Is complete without Its own feed mill. 
The Star mill is said to grind from 12 to 25 bushels per hour, and Is 
sold on trial. The Star Manufacturing Co., New Lexington, O., will 
send particulars. 
