Consumptive fathers very naturally have con¬ 
sumptive children. If the unhapppy propagation 
of this great scourge were limited to offspring, the 
injury inflicted on the human family would be con¬ 
siderably less thau it really is. A consumptive hus¬ 
band may have a wife who was free from the least 
taint of phthisis when married. Can she remain so 
after she is the mother of children who inherit the 
malady of their father? Unquestionably not, ex¬ 
cept by accident. All equally exposed to the virus 
of small pox. or other contagious disease, are not 
equally attacked, —but the entire escape of some 
does not prove the absence of poison and danger. 
What I have said of consumption may be affirmed 
of hereditary insanity, syphilis, scrofula, and a score 
of other deep seated maladies. There arc many rea¬ 
sons (to which no allusion can now be made,) why 
civilization, when undirected by the light of physio¬ 
logical science, tends powerfully to breed down¬ 
ward ■—to the constant, deterioration of our species. 
Everywhere the people need more physiological 
light; and one familiar with this subject from long 
study aud extended observation, might take jileas- 
ure in writing for their benefit. 
of oru-,uncut to which we have no clue. In other 
wonl- be ho- been indulging in a day dream of 
which he bus given us a few unconnected fragments. 
We can hardly believe that he thinks that every man 
who is anxious to do a good business would cheat. 
His article considered as a homily on the texts “ lie- 
ware of covetousness,” and “Ihe love of money is 
the root of all evil,” is most excellent. But when 
viewed as a “Talk” from one “good" farmer —or 
at least from one farmer who “ means to be good”— 
to another, we regard it as decidedly objectionable. 
Our belief ha- always been that money is oue of 
the main springs that, drive our factories, our farms, 
aye, and many of our churches ! Our grocer stands 
behind his eouuter for—money; our manufacturer 
furuishe- us with goods for—money; our preacher 
us and prays for us, 
And yet they are 
in our coffee; 
t been a 
Party Politics and the Rural.— 1 “ Strike, but Hear!" 
—We occasionally hear from some persoa having exceed¬ 
ingly long ears, or distorted visual organs, who thinks he 
flees—what, no one else ran-that, the Ruuai. is political, 
and favors this or that party. Sometimes we are accused 
or being on one side, then on the other; during one Pres¬ 
idential campaign we had the honor in a single month, 
Of being charged with favoring each of the three parties 
having candidates in the field t -which some considered 
good evidence of our independence or neutrality. Tn ex¬ 
citing times, when political spirit runs high, we cannot 
even advertise for a leading political paper of either party 
without being pitched into by some asinine genius. If 
we advertise ‘ The World " or •• Day Book,” some silly 
‘'radical” at once complains, and a prospectus of “The 
Trihune” produces a protest or spasm from at least, one 
sillily'sensitive ‘‘conservative,” 
— Now, for Hie information of the very few donkey a 
who take and read this journal, we ought perhaps to say 
l hat it metr hoe been,is not now. aud (while controlled by 
its original and pre a ent manager,) will not be either the 
organ or advocate of any political party or taction what¬ 
ever. We say this squarely now, because the people and 
country arc on the eve of an exciting political campaign, 
during which many ordiuarily calm aud Sensible folk will 
no doubt become mi exercised or prejudiced as to imagine 
they discover such a mare’s nest as partisan bias or advo¬ 
cacy in the Rural, while senrte would-be correspondents 
will in vain seek (as others have aroro'itne, and of Jate,) 
to propagate their peculiar party dogmas and doctrines 
through its pages. For each of these classes we have a 
preaches to us anti prays for ns, in am irt tcasl > 
for money. And yet they are ftll honest men. The 
first does not put peas in our coffee; some of our 
garments at leurt have not been shoddy, and our 
pastor is an earnest Christian man 
works for money; he has a large family and bis 
determination must be 'o make his calling pay, 
for he has before him the fear of the text—“He 
that provideth not for lbs own household has denied 
the faith and is worse than an infidel.” Aud we 
Bold that the uiau that accuses him of wrong doing 
therein is either a fool or an atheist. 
Talk as we may, do bwinC6B will be followed by 
those who can get out of it unless it will pay. And in 
our estimation v e do want active, energetic, scien¬ 
tific young men who will make farming the business 
of their lives, and this they will do only upon con¬ 
dition that it will pay —for they were fools else. 
We want men who can furnish wheat for half what 
it now costa, so that the pittance of the poor may 
go twice as far as it now docs; men who can make 
And yet he 
Very respectfully, 
tt - ©cjcpn’s 'Department 
INFANTADO RAM “MAJOR,” 
tTY OF DEARDORFF, WALTER A CO , TUSCARAWAS CO., OHIO. 
[. a. Saxton’s Thousand Dollar Ram, by America, by Hammond’s Sweep. 
W. R. Sanford, she by Wooster bred by Mr. Hammond. Major’s weight 
BEE-HIVES AND THEIR POSITIONS, 
It is a common practice among amateur apiarists 
to place their hives close together, thus economizing 
space while facilitating the work of sheltering them 
and diminishing the expense of it. Besides, it is as- 
when the colonies are placed side by 
suraed that 
side, they are in a bettor position to repel forays 
from foreign marauders than when isolated from 
each other. How much of truth' there may be in this 
assumption we are not prepared to say, nor is it neces¬ 
sary t.o discuss its reasonableness or pass upon its 
correctness here. If stocks are to be wintered upon 
the summer stands it would seem natural to infer 
that, by placing the hives close together, they would 
become mutual aids in the generation of heat, and 
thus pass through the cold season with less chance 
of disaster from its rigors than when exposed singly 
to them. 
But, when spring opens, the condition of things is 
changed, and so should be the position of the bee 
colonies, with relation to each other. It is well 
known that during the honey season, when the 
weather is oppressively warm, bees, if their Liver, arc 
in contact, become restive and less orderly in their 
daily routine of labor than when placed in a position 
of greater isolation. Another reason in favor of 
this summer change, is mentioned by professionals, 
It tends to prevent the loss of queeus when out on 
their annual excursions. When hives having a gen¬ 
eral resemblance to each other, are placed compactly 
together on stands, queens, in returning home, es¬ 
pecially if hurried by threatening weather, some¬ 
times enter the wrong one and fall a sacrifice to the 
jealousy of the colony whose domain they have in¬ 
voluntarily invaded. For these and other reasons 
not necessary to enumerate, it would seem best, in 
spring, to place the colonics several feet asunder, 
thus mitigating the heat in thehives while BOOtbing 
the workers and diminishing the chances of losing 
fertilized queens at the time their presence is most 
necessary to the colonies to which they pertain. 
Agricultural College, Pa. 
EDITED BY HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D. 
RULES FOR BUYING WOOL, 
GROUP OF EWE TEGS, 
Y OF U. C. DEARDOHFF, CANAL DOVER, TUSCARAWAS C< 
left in group, Paular and Infantado cross. Center teg got 
,y Long^Wool, by Old Greasy, by Wooster, by Old Black, 
First fleece 10)4 lbs. wool to 4,1 lbs. carcass. 
entertained about the practicability of any united 
action among wool growers wnich shall secure to 
them justice iu the marketing of their product. 
The patience aud forbearance of the mass of w r ool 
growers have been sufficiently prolonged, not only 
in regard to having tne amount of our product arbi¬ 
trarily fixed by the buyer, but. also in the matter of 
his fixing 
It has appeared to me that the chief attention of 
wool growers’ organizations should be directed to 
marketing, especially at the present time. It is in 
this matter that the united action of the woolgrow- 
ers of the whole country is not merely important, 
but indispensable; while Ihe improvement of our 
flocks, qtc., can be quite successfully carried on by 
detached individual effort. Nothing can be easier 
thau for wool growers to defend themselves against 
the unjust demands of buyers, if they will only 
think so, and act accordingly. It is a trite saying 
that “it takes two to make a bargain; ” but in the 
marketing of wool, heretofore, it seems to have 
been too much conceded that it was only two buyers 
that were required. The grower has scarcely been 
recognized as a second party. He has deferentially 
dant, prices rule high. When the market is evtr- 
stocked with them, and money is “tight,,” prices 
are low. These effects are as uutural and necessary 
in trade, as are the ebbs aud flows of the oceau tides 
in the natural world. All expect them. AH in turn 
obtain the advantage of them,—for every man con¬ 
sumes much that he docs not produce. By no other 
standard could the proper amount of production m 
any article be regulated. 
t exception to other products 
It is no more entitled to exernp- 
dowus of trade than grain, 
since. They nave pruaeDtty ana caiuuy wwum 
unbroken ranks for the “ better time coming. 1 
When niiddUmen, dealers and speculators sought 
to impose unjust redes on them, they have rushed 
into no hasty retalitaory measures, but given ample 
time for their enemies—for enemies they are in prac¬ 
tice—to take the “ sober second thought.” And no 
digressive action should now be entered upon. The 
wool growers of the country should, we believe, 
co-operate in defending their rights and interests, 
aud nothing more. Thus they will carry the respect 
and sympathy of all classes with them; and their 
eventual triumph will be certain. 
Any rash eli ps or claims—any concerted action to 
obtain advantages not possessed by growers of other 
products—any exhibition ota determination to con¬ 
trol and coerce other interests, or to violate the 
sound and established principles of trade,—will not 
only fail, but will destroy the prestige and influ¬ 
ence of our wool growers’ organizations and take 
from them all power to do good. 
The above remarks will not lie understood as an 
objection to the most free aud searching “discus¬ 
sion,” in wool growers' organizations or elsewhere, 
Wool constitutes no 
iu this particular. - - - 
tion from the ups and 
meat, or butter. It has no fixed value more than 
they have. Its growers are no more entitled to any¬ 
thing savoring of monopoly—or to the right of dic¬ 
tating a fixed scale of prices—than the growers of 
any other product whatever. Would the wool 
grower submit for a moment to the dictation, in 
the prices of articles which he consumes and does 
not produce, of a combination of oilier producers 
or dealers iu those articles? If he would not, he 
must remember that sauce for goose should be sauce 
for gander. 
Besides, all attempts to regulate prices by combi¬ 
nation, or even quasi combination, are wholly im¬ 
practicable iu the light of abstract justice. Is all 
men’s wool nominally of the same kind, actually of 
the same value? Is it all equally fine, sound and 
clean? Take the case of Merino wool, so-called iu 
the market. Is there not really more than a dozen 
grades of it in quality and condition ? Would it be 
right towards the buyer or consumer—or even the 
grower—to establish a uniform price and enforce it 
by combination? Would it be right thus to com¬ 
pel the producer of the nice, clean article to accept 
l acc than the proportionable value of bis clip ? On 
The Dixie Farmer. -This is the title— a taking one 
for that latitude—of a weekly quarto journal just started 
by Wm. S. Bliss <to Co., Columbia, Tens., at $3 per an¬ 
num. No. 1 contains quite a variety of original and 
selected articles under appropriate headings, and wisely 
Ignores party politics and sectional hi rite. The motto of 
the Farmer,—“ Pray to God and keep the Plows agoing 
—is a sensible one. and shows that the editor believes in 
both faith and works. If the people of Dixie heed the 
advice, eschewing politics and other vices, they will soon 
be ‘'reconstructed” on the enduring basis of a rich soil 
and good culture, and become as prosperous as of yore. 
Success, therefore, to the “ Dixie Farmer,” aud confusion 
to all nolitical dcmairoeues, of whatever party or name_ 
A. Willson, Marcellus, writes; — “I have been 
trying experiments with my bees. SeeiDg a recom¬ 
mendation in the Rural to put them in the cellar, 
in the winter, I tried it, and, in order to know, for a 
certainty, the best way to rnaunge them, I weighed 
two hives and loft them out on the stands; weighed 
one aud put it in the chamber aud two iu the cellar, 
Thi'v were weighed December 15th. March 2Gth, 
State Fair in Maine.— The State of Maine, after an 
interregnum of seven years, is to enjoy once more the 
excitement of a State Fair. The matter is in the hands 
of a Board of Trustees, embracing many of the promi¬ 
nent agriculturists of the Slate, who are determined to 
make the Fair a successful one. The location is still a 
subject of competition among the more prominent cities 
of the State. 
Arkport Farmers' Club.— Some of the more promi¬ 
nent farmers of Steuben Co., N. Y., have organized a 
club for the purpose, of holding weekly meetings for the 
discussion of topics connected with rural operations. A 
readable report of the proceedings had at the first meet¬ 
ing of the Club, is supplied by the Canisieo Valley Times. 
householders whose means will 
There are many 
not enable them to buy a cow or to provide keeping 
for her were they in possession of one. But they 
may be equal to the purchase of a colony of bees 
and to provide hives for the swarms resulting there¬ 
from. Bees, like other stock, require pasturage, 
but, unlike horses, cattle and sheep, they are free 
commoners, ranging at will In search of stores, nor 
can they be arrested and punished for their intrusion 
upon premises alien to their owners. A single col¬ 
ony of bees, in good condition in the spring, may be 
counted upon to double or triple their numbers in 
a siuglc season, securing ample stores for winter 
consumption, while supplying a gratifying surplus 
each autumn for household uses. This accumula¬ 
tion will prove most acceptable in families espe¬ 
cially, while the price of butter rules so high as to 
place it beyond the reach of those not blest with 
elongated and plethoric purses. Try a colony of 
| bees as an experiment. 
Founber in Horses.—H., in the Rural World rays a 
foundered horse may be cured by throwing a tablespoon- 
ful of pulverized alum well back in the mouth of the horse 
as soon as the founder is discovered. The animal should 
be kept from water a day or thereabouts. This was tried 
on several occasions, and aever without success. 
RURAL BRIEF- MENT10NIHGS. 
Charles A. Ashley, West Springfield, Mass., has a 
matched pair of cattle which weigh 5,600 pounds. 
Farming lands in So. Jersey are steadily appreciating 
in value. That section is the paradise of fruit growers. 
Tub institution of a Farmers’ Cluh iu each town now 
destitute of one would, as a general thing, prove a good 
investment. 
Crop prospects in Ohio and the West generally are 
highly flattering. The promise of wheat is much better 
Thebe is some contrariety of views among bee¬ 
keepers as to tbe elevation of bives best suited to 
the habits and safety of bee colonies. As an indica¬ 
tion of the instinct, which guides bees when they 
o-q wild, it is observable that they ustiaUy seek an 
entrance into forest trees weU up towards the prin¬ 
cipal limbs even when convenient openiugs offer in 
the trees selected nearer the ground. This peculi¬ 
arity in bees we have noticed, on several occasions, 
When they have gone wild, but do not assert that 
this is uniformly their practice. But, assuming that 
bees are good judges of location, the fact mentioned 
would seem strongly to favor an attic positiou 
for the hives in the bee-house. It is inferred that 
such an elevation renders the colonies less liable to 
intrusions from moths and other vermin inimical to 
them, while supplying increased vigor in the accu¬ 
mulation of stores during the honey season. 
genitors; and these forces meet and mingle, not. 
only in tbe embryo and foetus, but in every part of 
the growing mother. Why, then, should it surprise 
any one that the inoculation is permanent, and that 
the mare becomes thereafter in some degree a hybrid 
in constitution ? For the sake of reaching truth 
with all due care and caution, let us assume that her 
deterioration is an open question. In after life, 
when this full grown mare is bred to good horses, 
we find that she gives birth, not to good colt6, but 
those that have through life the large, ugly heads 
and ears, and the small, narrow feet of the mule. 
Now, whit is the legitimate inference? Is it not 
that the procreative cells of a vigorous, braying 
mule have found a nidus in her system, and grown 
there like healthy buds grafted into another tree ? 
This mare may give being to fine mules,—but, as 
for raising superior colts, her “blood” is ruined 
Remarks.— Concurring iuuy with our respected 
correspondent that it is both legitimate and expedi¬ 
ent to resort to defence co-operation among grow¬ 
ers to resist and protect themselves from arbitrary 
and unjust rules for buying sought to be imposed by 
dealers or other aggressive combined action,—and 
hoping every Wool Growers Association in the 
country will take firm ground on this subject,—we 
cannot agree with Mr. Thorne that it would be 
either right or expedient for growers to attempt to 
establish a fixed price for wool and to attempt to 
sustain that price by combination—if indeed such 
is his meaning. That would be combination as¬ 
suming its worst form Commodities h3.ve no pre¬ 
cise intrinsic value which can be uniformly meas¬ 
ured by a fixed price in money Demand controls 
supply in extent, and, with other circumstances of 
trade, also controls price. When grain, meat or 
butter are scarce iu the market and money is abun- 
commerce and trade, and in tne end is oeueucuu w 
nobody. 
We do not understand our correspondent as rec¬ 
ommending such action. But we know that many 
will interpret his views as pointing in that direction. 
Aud to those who have not sufficiently considered 
the subject, it is a “ taking” doctrine. The wool 
growers of the country now occupy an interesting, 
if not a critical, situation. They joined together 
two years since to procure National Legislation 
which they believed vital to their interests. They 
united and co-operated throughout all the wool 
growing States,—but their action did not embrace 
a siDgle clement of combination in the commercial 
sense of that term. It was the wisdom and moder¬ 
ation of their action, even more than their numbers 
aud political influence, which gave them success. 
Ground for Buckwheat. —If you have bees save 
a patch of ground for buckwheat for their pasture. 
If you have no bees this grain will not come amiss 
in pancake times. 
