CULTURE 
*ural 
excelsior 
J 11 I’nrK Row, !\Yw York 
7 I M2 HulYulu til., Koi'lioater. 
) <813.00 PER Y EAR. 
7 f Single No., Eight Cents. 
FOR THE W EEK ENDING SATURDAY, JAN. IB, I8B9 
rnv.n, nc^ordiivr ♦*» Act of Onmjri'aa, in the yonr 1S68, by T>. D. 
T. Mount:, in tV Ul-rk’n Office of the District Court of tho 
Uni lei StatM Tor the Southern LMatrirt of Now York. 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
POTATO CULTURE 
Ok late years potatoes have been one <>l 
the most profitable of the staple farm crops. 
Owing to bulkiness, which renders their 
transportation to market costly, they are not. 
extensively grown in localities remote from 
shipping points; their culture, on a largo 
scale, is necessarily restricted to n compara¬ 
tively small class of farmers and area of ter¬ 
ritory. This fact alone has prevented, and, 
doubtless, will prevent, the market from be¬ 
ing frequently overstocked, a ad prices ruin¬ 
ously low, for the potato can bo successfully 
grown In as various soils and climates, and 
yields, per acre, as much human food, as any 
other staple. Profitable potato culture re¬ 
quires a nearness of largo urban populations, 
either actually in point of distance, or prac¬ 
tically by reason of facilities for shipping at 
a low rate, and with such favoring con¬ 
ditions the farmers may safely count on suc¬ 
cess. True, there will bo occasional seasons 
of failure from drouth, disease or glutted 
markets, but latterly these drawbacks occur 
less frequently than formerly, and the farmer 
who “ pursues the even tenor of his way ” 
meets with ample linul rewards. 
„ 7. MOORE, 
Editor unci I’ropriidov 
CUA3. D. BR4GD0N, G. F. WILCOX, A. A. HOPKINS, 
Associate Enrrons. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Enrron of -mi: Ofiv,r.TMlt'.T ov Shkki’ KusIUndby. 
X. A. WILLARD, 
Editor or mi- lJKfA»T»Kxr or Dairy llrimroar. 
DANIEL LEE M. D., 
Of TKX.XEftXKK, Snt’TMXUN OJURIffOUDIMf EDITOR. 
P. PA HUY, T. 0. Pr.TK.HS, 
H. T. BROOKS, CriAS. V. HILRY, 
,T. n. DOOGR, E. w. 3TKWAHT, 
F. II. ELT.IOTT, JAMKS VICK, 
,r. R. oroscoM, m. r>„ j. wiekjnson, 
.1. STANTON GOURD, MltS. K. F. KI.t.RT, 
“ NOW AND THEN," MAItY A. K. WAGER. 
THIS JOURNAL (lexlimeu »■<> he unsurpassBrt ill 
Value, Purity and Variety of Contents. Its Conduct¬ 
ors earnestly labor to render It Reliable Authority on 
the Important PraeUeal und Hctantlllo Subject# con¬ 
nected with the business of those whoso Interests It 
advocates. Tho aim l« to make it, eminently Instruct¬ 
ive, Useful and Entertaining as a Kamii.y Journal, 
by adapting it, to the want# and tastes ol all people 
of inteJUeenea and reilnement. It embraces more 
Agricultural, Horticultural, Sctentino, Eduealtonal, 
Literary, News and Commercial Matter, with appro¬ 
priate Illustrations, than any Other Journal, reudor- 
Int? it by far the moat emupicto RtMUL lAYRHAi* Y. 
FAMILY AND BCSnrXBS NEWSPAPER In the World. 
leno, eight miles west of Fort lliley, on the 
Pacific Railroad. By the former route, they 
are driven through a country devoid Ol grass, 
under a burning sun, until they reach their 
point, of embarkation; here they arc caught 
by a lasso, either by the horns or legs, as it 
happens, and arc then hoisted on board the 
steamboat, where they are thickly crowded, 
frequently without food or drink for four or 
five days. 
By the other route they are pushed for¬ 
ward by the same savage Texan drovers, 
ninety miles during the first two days. The 
cattle then sicken and are unable to travel; 
the drovers are then compelled to slacken 
their pace; tho sick cattle have plenty of 
grass and water and rest, when they recover, 
and thus arrive in fair condition. Those 
which are sent by lx>nt suffer much more 
severely, and these Cattle arriving by bout 
are the chief distributers of the disease to the 
cattle of Illinois, as is shown by recorded 
cases. Very many droves of the Abilene 
Why nil Animals llaviuer Spores In their 
IStooil nre not Diseased. 
We are not fully certain to this day, that 
Texas cattle have the disease in Texas. It 
is only recently that we have known with 
certainty that Texas cattle had the disease 
at all. For many weeks, and even months, 
after the disease had broken out in the West, 
it was supposed that Texas cattle, while 
they communicated the disease to native 
animals, were themselves exempt from the 
malady. It is now known with certainty 
that Texas cattle do have the disease. The 
New York Commissioners, as late as the 24th 
of November, saw two Texas steers at 
Buffalo. A post mortem exmninut ion showed 
several attacks of t he 
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fvbsmair 
that they had had three 
disease before the. fourth and last at tack, ot 
Which they died. They have examined the 
stomachs of over fifty Texas steers, nnd every 
one of them showed marks of having had 
the. disease. Horses and mutes certainly 
have it in Texas. Mules died of the disease 
at Tolono 111., and at, St. Louis, Mo. Mr. 
J. H. Tice of St. Louis, saw a sow that, had 
eaten a diseased liver die with all the symp¬ 
toms of the Texas cattle disease. If, then, 
the spores of the Tilletea are the real cause of 
the disease, why do not ttie cattle in Texas 
all die, since they all receive them into their 
stomachs? This question may be answered 
as follows: 
This disease, like most others, requires two 
factors for its production. There must he, 
first, the spore; second, a soil in which it 
will germinate. It would seem that an ani¬ 
mal in a perfectly healthy condition wllL not 
germinate the spores, and hence they may 
be received into the stomach with impunity, 
and remain there perfectly innocuous; but 
when the animal, cither in consequence of 
misusage, or privation of food or water, or 
from eating poisonous matters, becomes dis¬ 
eased, then the. proper soil is furnished and 
the spores germinate at once, bringing all 
symptoms of the Texas cattle disease in their 
train. While the Texas cattle remain in 
their native pastures, they are rarely inter¬ 
fered with by man, hut are left to take their 
own way in all things; being abundantly 
supplied with herbage by nature, the spores 
do not injure them. But when they are as¬ 
sembled in droves to be sent to eastern mar¬ 
kets the, case is far different. They are sent 
by two routes—one by the way of the 
bavous of Louisiana to the mouth of the Red 
THE TEXAN CATTLE DISEASE 
mules and cattle coming from thence are 
filled with these spores, it. is exceedingly 
probable that they will bo found there when 
a search is made for them. Many farmers 
and drovers congregated at Springfield, who 
knew nothing whatever of these microscopic 
appearances in the blood and bile, asserted 
that when the disease was most rife in their 
localities, they had observed that the pasture 
grasses were covered with rust, which seems, 
as for as it, goes, to confirm the views above 
expressed. When these spores are taken 
from diseased animals, and are fed with let¬ 
tuce to rabbits, they, after a certain period of 
incubation, exhibit all the symptoms of the 
Texas cattle disease, both externally and in- 
temally, and their blood shows the spores 
and the crenatcd blood globules. This ex¬ 
periment seems to show pretty conclusively 
that the presence of liie spore in tho blood 
is the cause of the disease. When blood is 
placed upon the stage of a microscope, and 
covered over with a film of bile taken from a 
diseased animal, it will be seen that the cor¬ 
puscles will suddenly vanish from sight, like 
a Hash from a gun, showing that bile, loaded 
with these spores, is absolutely destructive of 
t he blood disks. 
♦Continued from i>a;;e 22, last number. 
case, 
Send ou the results of your exper 
the past year. Give and receive imf< 
lion which comes of lann operations. 
