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THE DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
President Giiant 1ms sent to Hie Senate 
the nomination of Frederick Watts ns 
Commissioner of Agriculture, for contirma- 
tion. Mr. Watts’ first Report is before us, 
and a review of bis recommendations will, 
in some measure, disclose bis fitness or un¬ 
fitness for tbc position. The eloquent plea 
for specific or professional Agricultural 
Education is well enough, but hackneyed; 
nud tbo Commissioner’s suggestion as to the 
co-operation of the Department with the 
Agricultural Colleges is a matter o! course; 
it ought to co-operate. But that all the 
information developed hy the experiments 
at these Colleges should first be concentrated 
at and analyzed and disseminated hy the 
Department, we do not agree. The Colleges 
should make reports to the authorities of 
their respective Slates, and the information 
contained therein should be spread broad¬ 
cast at once through the public press. 
Buit it, is to the Seed Division that we de¬ 
sire to pay especial attention. The Com¬ 
missioner regards the seed distribution as of 
“immense benefit” to the country. And 
we are informed that Senators and 'Mem¬ 
bers of Congress have received 240,427 pack¬ 
ages; Agricultural Societies, 98,102; cor¬ 
respondents, 128,529 ; moleorologicul ob¬ 
servers, 15,020; foreign countries, 2,150: 
and miscellaneous, 151,742—a total of 047,- 
321 packages distributed. 
When Commissioner Carron received 
his appointment, it was announced Hint, the 
seed distribution should lie revised and re¬ 
duced as rapidly as possible. We have no 
means at. baud for comparison, but tbc fore¬ 
going figures dp not look like a reduction. 
Nor do we see that the Character of the 
seeds sent out has materially improved. 
This free distribution of seeds has always 
been a notorious imposition upon the peo¬ 
ple, an injury to private enterprise, and a 
prostitution of public moneys for partisan 
purposes. 
It lias been an imposition on the people, 
because a vast amount of worthless seeds 
and noxious foreign insects have been intro¬ 
duced in the country, the people footing the 
bills; and because the people have received 
these “gratuities” from the Government os 
evidence of I bo distinguished regard for 
their interests hy their representatives. 
It has been an injury to private enterprise, 
inasmuch as every package distributed has 
depreciated proportionately the legitimate 
demand from seed dealers whose enterprise 
and resources are ample to supply all de¬ 
mands. 
It has been a prostitution of tho public 
funds for partisan purposes, by members of 
Congress and Senators, inasmuch ns it has 
been one of the agencies used to promote 
their own popularity among the people, at 
the people's expense, and without adequate 
return to the people. 
We arc therefore in favor of the abolition 
of this outrageously expensive, unjust and 
useless free seed business. There is no more 
reason why the agriculturists of this coun¬ 
try should he furnished with free seeds than 
that mechanics should be furnished with 
free tools, or painters with free oils and col¬ 
ors. There is no more reason why Members 
of Congress should distribute seeds in this 
wholesale manner to their consl.it.uen is than 
t lint they should, distribute shoes, buttons, or 
needles and thread. We say down with 
this free seed business; and we hope the 
people will insist that their Representatives 
in Congress shall pay out nl their own pri¬ 
vate purses for any gratuities they may think 
proper l,o send to their proselyting agents; 
ami that those who buy and pay for seeds 
shall not he compelled to pay for seeds for 
those equally able to buy their own. 
The Commissioner regards the inode of 
distribution of the Annual Report as very ob¬ 
jectionable, and expresses the opinion that 
it should cease to be published and be en¬ 
tirely superseded by the monthly reports 
now issued by the Department. Or, if it is 
to be continued, he suggests that, a small 
number ho delivered for gratuitous distribu¬ 
tion ami tho balance of the edition be 
deposited with tho Public Printer, to be sent 
to those who may desire il on receipt of cost 
and postage for delivery. We are entirely 
in favor of the suspension of the publication 
of the Annual Report—or that part of it 
which is not legitimately a report of the 
transactions of the Department. We know 
no good reason why Government should 
publish and gratuitously distribute books 
for agriculturists any more than it should 
undertake the publication and free distribu¬ 
tion of school hooks. Private enterprise in 
this country is adequate to this work. And 
we object, with equal emphasis, to making 
the monthly report anything hut an exhibit 
of the official work of tho Divisions of tho 
Department. The journalistic character 
which il now assumes is not legitimate ; and 
the same objections exist to its publication 
and that of the Annual Report and tlieir 
free distribution that exist in relation to 
the purchase and free distribution of seeds. 
Wc must, for lack of space, refrain from 
further notice of the report. We see noth¬ 
ing in it to indicate any remarkable depart¬ 
ure from the grooves of the past on tho part 
of the Commissioner, or that strikingly indi¬ 
cates any peculiar fitness for the place. But 
he may he ns well qualified as the next man 
a political party may select. So long as the 
Department is controlled hy the politicians 
in Congress, so long will the hands of the 
Commissioner he tied. 
Gp 
cp 
ic Uoultni-lktrt). 
0+1 * <fe> ^ 
PRIZE POULTRY. 
characteristics of a draught horse any detri¬ 
ment to his strength ? 
One of the highest attainments of art is to 
combine tho useful with the agreeable, 
“ UtUe cum duke." We fanciers desire to 
have our poultry as pleasant to the eye, as 
luscious to the taste, and we maintain that we 
can combine ihc two without detracting 
from ciLher. I shall, in my next article, ex¬ 
amine the writer’s idea of a Standard ol 
Excellence. 
" Examine well, ye writers ; weigh with care, 
What suits your genius; what your strength can 
bear.” 
Greenville, N. J. Isaac Van Winkle. 
- - 
Mv attention was called to an article in 
tho Hearth and Home, Nov. 4th, entitled 
“ Prize Poultry,” in which the writer says 
some good tilings, but ns a whole he betrays 
a wonderful degree of ignorance of ihc sub¬ 
ject, or a willfulness to underrate the culti¬ 
vation not only of pure bred fowls, but pure | 
bred stock of all kinds. I wish, myself, that 
tl>c real object of raising fancy poultry, and 
competing for prizes, was better understood 
and more highly appreciated by the people 
of this country; hut for Hie comparatively 
short time that our breeders have been en¬ 
gaged in cultivating good stock, 1 think our 
progress in that way is not to he underrated. 
Poultry shows have their advantages and 
disadvantages—their merits and demerits— 
their “ rings” and their “ Bulletins,’' and the 
advantage of finding judges in their own 
interests. I know, myself, of an instance of 
a judge awarding a premium to a trio of BulT 
Cochins, (which he sold Die party ,) fearfully 
hocked, over a trio equal in size and all other 
respects, not hocked. 
All these petty and selfish tricks discour¬ 
age and disgust honest exhibitors. I think 
the great eagerness for imported poultry 
slock is fast dying out. The fowls now 
raised in this country will compare favor¬ 
ably with any sent from England, and in 
many respects are superior. I think we 
show better taste in the color and plumage 
of our birds Ilian the English, and they have 
not surpassed us in the size of their fowls. 
They still exhibit and sell a great many of 
those hrqwn-brcasled Dark Brahmas which 
have been almost entirely discarded, with 
the exception of a few breeders. I hope 
that this chokin'/ up of our shows by a 
sickly lot.'of imported breeds, is about run 
out. Our “fancy hater” of the Hearth and 
Homo asserts that pure bred fowls have no 
economic advantage over good fowls of the 
common breed. This is rather begging 
the question, as the good qualities of the 
common breed are obtained from pure blood. 
Cross a common cow with an Alderney or 
Jersey bull, and you infuse new blood. 
That a thorough-bred has no advantage over 
a hybrid is a proposition loo absurd to argue 
about. 
if the writer’s experience is as limited, 
and his mental vision as contracted as his 
notions of the economical qualities of poul¬ 
try, it would be well to indulge his taste, 
somewhat, so as to hn able to judge between 
the llcsli of a Dorking, a Iloudan, and a 
Dunghill fowl. The confectioner or the 
pastry maid will soon moke known to him 
the difference in the quality and richness of 
t.hc eggs, of one from the other. The epi¬ 
cures of ancient Greece ami Rome seemed 
to have show’ll a decided preference for llie 
live toed fowl. The English Dorking may 
probably date its antiquity to the Limes of 
the jolly old Greeks and Romans, the latter 
washing down its flesh with good old Fa- 
lurnian 
“From Cmculjian vintage press’d.” 
If size, jueiness and tend ernes of flesh, 
and the rich properties of Lhe egg belong to 
the economical qualities of a fowl, where 
will you get a better combination of all those 
qualities than in pure bred poultry. But our 
“ Poultry Savant” seems to think it is only 
in the cross-breeds wc can get the “utilita¬ 
rian value," but these he says arc not recog- 
uized at poultry shows. 
As I have remarked before, pure blood 
infused into common blood may help it con¬ 
siderably, but all this style of argument only 
refutes the writers own remarks. 
” Tint not iliroiifrh Nature’s sacred rules to break, 
Monstrous to mix the cruel ami the kind. 
Serpents with birds, and lambs with tlttors join'd.” 
But it is in lixjng “ fancy points wherein 
the breed is spoiled in all practical purpos¬ 
es.” Pray tell us how? I am impatient to 
know how a straight and handsome comb, 
clean legs ami beautiful plumage detracts 
from Hie utilitarian qualities of a fowl, Do 
they not rather indicate, in some manner, 
Hie health andgood constitution of the bird? 
Can wc not have all lhe useful improve* 
inenis and accommodations of a house with 
grace and style of architecture? Are a small 
head, delicate nose, full bright eye, trim logs, 
soft, and glossy skin and symmetry of shape 
any detriment to a fast horse; or tho flue 
POULTRY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
The Comiuff J’ouliry Shown. 
Every poultry breeder and fancier “should 
not forget to remember ” that the N. Y. State 
Poultry Society will hold its Fourth Annual 
Exhibition and Fair at Twaddle Hall, in the 
city of Albany, February 7t.h to 14th. An¬ 
other thing to he borne in mind is that the 
entries close January 20th, Those desiring 
entry blanks, should address the Correspond¬ 
ing Secretary, M. C. WELD, No. 27 Chatham 
street, N. Y. city. We hope to sec this Fair 
a grand success — surpassing any heretofore 
held. This can he done if the friends of the 
organization will but work to accomplish 
that object. 
The Western New York Poultry Show 
will he held at Buffalo, January 17th to 
23rd. The Society offers $1,800 in premiums, 
independent of the large number of the Spe¬ 
cial Premiums. Western and Central New | 
York, will, ns usual, make a fine display of 
fancy fowls. Let no one neglect to he pres¬ 
ent at Ibis Show, and encourage the Society 
by their attendance and influence. 
Wc can assure those of our friends who 
visit either of the above exhibitions, that 
they will he well repaid for the time and 
money invested. 
peared. Has any one else had such experi¬ 
ence ?—R. h. n._ 
Poultry Cataloffiio. 
Our thanks are due to J. Y. Bicknell, 
Esq., Westmoreland, N. Y., for a copy of his 
finely illustrated Catalogue of Fancy Poul¬ 
try, just issued. This little work 1ms many 
practical hints for amateurs and fanciers 
which will prove very acceptable. It also 
contains spirited and life-like portraits of 
fancy fowls, ducks and pigeons. 
A Touub lieu. 
Some time ago I threshed my clover straw 
that had lain in an old house about six 
weeks, and when we came to Hie floor we 
found a lien that had been covered up in the 
straw. She was still “ alive and kicking,” 
though she “kicked the bucket” the next | 
day.—H. W., Shiloh, O. 
Gniiio Fowl* nt* Etrsr-Pro«!ncer*. 
J. R. Masters, Yates Co., N. Y.—Yes, 
we consider game fowls good egg-producers 
—second to none. We speak from practical 
experience. 
Jfitrm feconomn. 
DEEP vs. SHALLOW PLOWING. 
trb smart. 
Factllloti* Poultry Faring St. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of Nov. 11th, 
I read an article headed “ Factitious Poul¬ 
try Farms,” and in your issue of Nov. 25th, 
1 find seven questions from F. F. E., of Bos¬ 
ton, Mass. Practically, 1 know but little of 
“chicken raising” on a large scale, and 
trust, that the correspondents of your valua¬ 
ble paper will agitate, the matter. 1 am 
afraid that F. F. E. will meet with severe 
disappointment should he try the experi¬ 
ment of keeping chickens by the thousand. 
I have, for the last fifteen years, had a good 
deal to do with chickens, and I have found 
that, in spit - W<H the core bestowed upon 
them, they die in greater numbers, out of 
every brood hatched, than those who have 
not kept, them for several years can imagine. 
At present, 1 have nothing hut Games, and 
although they have a warm, sunlit Ionise, 
and ft good sized yard to nui in, out of some 
three dozen (old and young included,) 1 
cannot call more than five of them healthy 
fowls. Last year 1 had hardly any trouble 
with them; this spring, out of some fiflv 
hatched l have lost more than half; they 
had all Hie care needed, and yet 1 could not 
save them; four years ago I had the same 
luck; such, also, has been the experience of 
my friends. We have all kept, but a few 
dozen at a time, and have come to the con¬ 
clusion that the raising of chickens on a 
small scale, even, is a somewhat uncertain 
thing; and until some man who has kept 
them for several year, in large numbers, 
(say one or two thousand,) and made them 
pay, will inform us through your columns of 
| his success, myself and friends must continue 
to doubt the glowing-accounts met with oc¬ 
casionally of extensive chicken farms. 
Try and keep ibis matter before your 
readers until we obtain accurate informa¬ 
tion from reliable men.. —Pcunax, 
DineitMMl Cliickous. 
In answer to your correspondent, asking 
“ What ails his Chickens ?" I will say that I 
have had similar experience. About live 
years ago I received some eggs from one of 
my neighbors; these produced while chicks, 
wind 1 supposed to he the White Leghorns. 
When they became large enough for the 
table, some of them were dressed and found 
just, as has been described by your corrc- 
j spomlent. We have had some of them ever 
since, We can tell them from their appear¬ 
ance; they have black legs and bodies per¬ 
fectly white; their meat is ns good as any 
other; they seem to ho it distinct variety. 
We have tried to get rid of them by killing 
all that had that black appearance, but have 
failed.—F. M. M., Lowellvillc, Mahoning Co., 
( Ohio, __ 
Black Hones niul Flesh. 
In answer to J II. S.,I would say:—Two 
summers ago my Light Brahmas had a run 
whore there were alder berries and wild cher¬ 
ries. In the full and early winter my chick¬ 
ens were black, so much so that the first one 
killed I did not eat. On dressing the second 
1 recognized the smell of alder berries. Af¬ 
ter that I had no objections to eating them, 
(t hope I have not been eating sick chick¬ 
ens.) Before January the dark color disap- 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
Mniiniteniont of n We*tern Slock Farm— 
liiquf I'len. 
I purchased a farm, Sept.. 1st, of three 
hundred acres*with nil the late improve¬ 
ments in the way of buildings for feeding 
stock, with steam engine, &c., for steaming 
food. The farm is divided us follows:—One 
hundred acres in corn, twenty acres in oats, 
eighty acres in timothy and clover, and one 
hundred acres in blue grass. I desire to feed 
on tlie place all that it will produce to hogs 
and cattle, as I think it to he the: best way 
to keep a farm up. I now have fifty ihrec- 
year-oul steers, six cows, and three hundred 
shoals—Berkshire, Poland and Suffolk; will 
breed filly sows this winter, so that they 
will come in May next, when it will be warm 
and the grass up. What I want to know is 
Lliia:—What age steers to lmy in order to he 
the most profitable in feeding? 1 thought, 
of buying, next fall, sixty-five two vcar-old 
steers, let them run all winter on the timo¬ 
thy, clover and corn stalks; in the spring, 
feed them on Hie blue grass pasture, and as 
soon as the new com will do to teed, give 
them all they can eat and have them ready 
for early market Again, 1 have thought of 
buying twenty five or thirty half-breed Dur¬ 
ham heifers and a thorough-bred hull, 
and raise my own stock. You no doubt 
have a number Of subscribers that have had 
years of experience. 1 would like very 
much to hear from them through your pa¬ 
per, as 1 am anxious to learn, ami do not 
think I know it alb 1 want to farm so it 
will pay.—H. P. Beattie, Scott Co., Iowa, 
TnERE are many experienced stock-feed¬ 
ers in the Western States whose experience 
would be of great practical value to others 
as well as to the above correspondent. Will 
they not exchange their experiences with 
each other in response to the foregoing? 
Blnck-lit'E *n 1'n.lves. 
Out of twenty-live calves I have lost five 
this lull; and one year ago three out of 
seventeen. They arc till Aube led. alike, ap¬ 
parently. They are taken at any time of 
the day or night. The first signs I can see 
are -.—They begin to droop, and grow worse 
very fast; soon they stagger and fall, some¬ 
times get. up only to fall again ; hut us often 
they never get Up, and are soon dead and 
bloated. 
1 have opened some of them, ami find the 
blood settled and clotted very thick next to 
the skin, and smelling very bad. 1 have lost 
non© hut fat calves. Several of my neigh¬ 
bors have also lost more or less in the same 
way. They all call it Bloody Murrain, but 
caii give no remedy. 
Last fall 1 fed sulphur with suit, and it 
seemed to help them, as they stopped dying 
as soon as cold weather set in. This fall the 
sulphur did not seem to do much good, so I 
tried saltpeter. I have lost but one since, 
and Ihul soon alter beginning to feed the 
saltpeter. They have run in the pasture 
and had good lood and plenty of water all 
the fall. As I have seen untiling on this 
subject in the Rural New-Yorker for the 
last year, my object in writing this is to call 
the attention of others to the subject, hoping 
thereby, through the medium of the Rural, 
to find the cause and cure.— A Subscriber, 
Tompkins Co., N, Y. 
Wic think Hie trouble with your calves 
| should ho called Black-leg, or Quarter III, 
judging by your description. Sec what we 
said of it in the Rural New-Yorker of 
December 1G. The cause is too much blood, 
resulting from too much food. The aim 
should lio to keep calves in a healthy, grow¬ 
ing condition, but not to fatten them. The 
host preventive is good (but not loo much) 
feed and good water. If it is found that 
they put on flesh faster than they ought, 
withhold feed. 
President J. P. Gulliver, of Knox Col¬ 
lege in Illinois, is the owner of a Jersey bull, 
two Jersey cows, and three others varying 
from seven-eighths to thirty-onc-thirty-scc- 
oiuls in Jersey blood. They were imported 
from Connecticut last August. 
Col. W. S. Kino of Minneapolis, Minn., 
has recently made some costly additions to 
his herd of Short-Horns, hy purchase from 
Mr. CocniiANE, and to his Ayrsliircs from 
the herds of Mr. Cochrane, ami Walcott, 
and Campbell. 
I venture to offer a few remarks upon 
the much controverted subjects of deep and 
shallow plowing. It is, clearly, certain to 
me that all soils will not admit, of the same 
operation if we intend to secure the largest 
amount of crop. Some soils will yield a far 
greater amount of grain of one kind than of 
another. The soil in Cattaraugus county 
was, when first, cleared of the forest, remark¬ 
ably Avell adapted to the production of oats, 
but would not give a very good crop of 
either winter or spring wheat. It was not 
reliable for corn, but it gave the largest 
yields of potatoes. 
I fully tested the results of deep and shal¬ 
low plowing upon that soil. I found that 
deep plowing very greatly lessened Hie crop. 
I did not use the subsoil plow as I then did 
notown one. I have tried the effect, of deep 
and shallow plowing upon the soil of Wy¬ 
oming county, where I have resided for 
more than twenty-one yen is, and I write 
what I know. Deep plowing will not oper¬ 
ate favorably for corn, if done in the spring. 
If done in the fall it will do better. But 
upon my land tho best results follow from 
blind ditching and moderately deep working 
with the furrow plow, and then opening Hie 
subsoil to as great a depth as a good subsoil 
plow will work. Bucli an operation cer¬ 
tainly increases every kind of crop! 
How such a proceeding would affect the 
soil of other sections 1 cannot tell. I wish 
that all til lore of the soil, in every part of our 
country, would adopt and pursue an intelli¬ 
gent course. I wish they would set apart a 
plot of ground of sufficient size to give a fair 
test and apply themselves long enough to 
effectually settle every question. Then they 
could all say u we know." It is not pleasant 
to read assertions and counter-assertions 
made by men who fail to give us the care¬ 
fully prepared statements of their own ob¬ 
servation and practice. I lire when 1 hear 
persons “guess” and “assert,” hut give no 
evidence by which anyone: can he guided. 
One of the most important things for all 
emigrants to know, is how to engage in the 
cultivation of the soil of the section in which 
lie intends to locate. No system of rules is 
of universal application. It. would be crim¬ 
inal In me to ask any person, living in a 
place remote from that which 1 occupy, to 
pursue m v practice with a hope of success, 
as a general, thing. It. would not be advisa¬ 
ble. Soils differ; climates are different; 
productions are different; practice should 
vary. Wlint we need is, correct instruction 
with regard to each locality and with regard 
to the productions of every kind of soil. 
Can we obtain what we so much need ? 
Castile, N.Y. ltcrrus Peet. 
-- 
PATENT WIRE FENCE. 
As 1 have been a subscriber for your 
11 can't do-withoul It-puper ” for a term of 
years, and have never troubled you with in¬ 
quiries before, 1 beg a hearing now. The 
information 1 seek is this There is a man 
traveling through our county (Do Kalb) sell¬ 
ing the right to build a “ patent wire fence," 
claiming it lobe “Pratt’s patent,” issued 
in 1857. Now, then, the fence that lie ex¬ 
hibited in our Congressional District, and 
claimed to he “ Pratt’s patent,” is precisely 
the same ns was illustrated in the Rural 
New-Yorker of February 15, 1808, under 
patent of A. Todd, Jr., & Co., Pullney- 
villc, IVaync Co., N. Y. Now the question: 
Can there bo a patent issued to Pratt a ml 
Todd of that fence? And, if there cannot, 
who is the imposter? We are " fast,” for tho 
fence, as it commends itself to our prairie 
country, but don’t like to gel into u “ snap. 
_W. E. Draper, Osborn, lie Kalb Co., Mo. 
We know Mr. Todd, and believe him to 
he all right. We do not know Pratts 
patent, aiid do not know whether it is all 
right or not. Two patents cannot he issued 
to two individuals for precisely the same 
tiling. Pratt’s patent may he similar ami 
yet there may be sufficient variation from 
Todd’s to secure a patent on that variation. 
We, of course, cannot say whether this is so 
or not. Write lo.Mr, Todd, or to the Com¬ 
missioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.» 
for information ns to the difference, if any, 
between the two patents, supposing Pratt s 
fence is patented. You are certainly wise 
to be cautious. This Pratt’s patent may 
be an infringement upon Todd’s. It is well 
to find out before investing. 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Muck lVoin Mtcliiirao. 
R. P. C., Ionia, is Informed that the sam¬ 
ple of muck lie sends will he found useful, 
if applied direct to ids sandy loam in Hie 
fall, or used as an obsorbcnt. in his compost, 
and applied to any soil requiring maiiute. 
Tlx: tine to (ina l.iinc. 
An English writer says:—“It may he 
applied a wagon load per acre after being 
turned over and over in compost u dh vege¬ 
table earth ; or he plowed in after a winters 
having W» s|>‘™d soon after 
Harvest. It is a mischievous caustic until 
thoroughly oxidized by exposure by which 
it becomes a mixture of chalk and gypsum. 
Il hud better uot be mixed with farm-yard 
manure.” 
jl 
11 
> 
jJL. 
