DE€, 43 
(Jap (Sowing. 
MATTERS AND THINGS IN ILLINOIS. 
Dear Rural It is » long time since I 
have written you, but I have taken no less 
interest in the reading of your ample and 
•well filled pages. The crisis lias brought us 
a lesson of no small value. For nearly a year 
we have been fighting railroad freights, mo¬ 
nopolies and other phantoms, to find that we 
had been farming on b large scale on bor¬ 
rowed capital, and that we had drifted into 
many extravagant habits that had seriously 
retarded the paying of our debts by a grad¬ 
ual absorption of our incomes. The crisis 
lias pointed out the fact that we have too 
large farms, that we have attempted to get 
rich too fast, and have lived beyond our in¬ 
comes. In short, we have went on borrow¬ 
ing more money, paying the brokers five per 
cent, interest annually in semi-annual pay¬ 
ments. This is at least one of the feathers 
that has assisted to break the camel’s back 
and ruined the camel’s income. Then we 
have voted large amounts of township and 
county bonds to bulkl new railroads, and the 
builders have put these or t.ho avails of them 
into their pockets and built the roads on first 
mortgage bonds. The Oilman, Clinton and 
Springfield Railroad is u fair sample. It has 
just been proved, in court, that the road cost 
$1,500,000, and that the construction com¬ 
pany (of which the officers of the road were 
the principal corporators) hiui received in 
stock and bonds the moderate sum of $4,000,- 
000. But these now, like “ Boss” Tweed, 
are apt to come to grief, and to be ground 
under the heel of this “ Farmers’ Movement” 
which, by the way, is aimed at every species 
of fraud, mismanagement, speculation and 
extravagance. While the Patrons of Hus¬ 
bandry are sitting with closed doors and 
darkened windows in their regalia, resolving 
and re-resolving, the “ Farmers’ Movement” 
is pressing right on, in open daylight, strik¬ 
ing to the right and to the left, and clearing 
the path for reform. 
A large number of our farmers have ap¬ 
pealed to “Providence” for smaller yields of 
corn, in order to have the prices enhanced ; 
and as if “ Providence” knew that these men 
are farming on borrowed capital, tile prayers 
appear to have hoen granted ; and yet these 
men are not happy ! They have demanded 
low freights to the East ; but the low freights 
only lessened the cost, to the consumer, and 
he is happy. 
Let me tell you, confidentially, that we had 
the crisis and the panic a year ago. The 
price of our great staplo had fallen below 
the level of our five per cent, commission 
and ten per cent, interest • which, added to 
our costly mode of living, was pushing us to 
the wall. We did not really know what was 
the matter, and so we started t he “ Formers’ 
Movement,” to see if that would not let us 
into the secret. The Pavroas said it was the 
railroads, the middlemen and the salary 
grabbers. They forgot that a large part of 
the railroad men were their sons, brothers 
and cousins, who had made a good thing out 
of the building and managing of railroads, 
and that their own votes had given value to 
the township and county bonds. Well, some 
people have bad memories, and these are 
unpleasantly shocked when reminded of past 
acts 
But we have found out what was the mat¬ 
ter, and that, too, months before the Jay 
Cooke panio ; and we set about to repair our 
old implements, and concluded it a better 
policy to do so and to house them, than to 
buy new ones on credit; and when we did 
buy, we paid cash, and made the dealers sell 
30 to 30 per cehl. cheaper. That was a val¬ 
uable discovery that flashed on the vision of 
us farmers, that ready cash had such magi¬ 
cal influence in lessening the price of com¬ 
modities. Taking advantage of this, our 
people have been paying cash and eschewing 
credit. Of course, this has lessened their 
purchases, especially of articles of luxury ; 
but the best of it is, we keep within our 
means ; for when a man goes on credit, he 
does not know how to keep within his in¬ 
come. Credit is an uncertain quantity when 
based on the ehauge that crops may make 
in both quantity and market value. 
We have thus been enabled to learn many 
things of value. Among these is the value 
of ready pay for our purchases; for this 
keeps us out of new debts, uud we are not 
compelled to market our products in time, of 
bad roads or ruinous prices. Then we have 
learned that an old debt is not a good thing, 
and these we will try and wipe out as soon 
as possible. You see these old debts are not 
small in the aggregate. Nearly every plaoe 
PCOBE’S RURAL .NEW-YORKER. 
of importance has a loan office, in which 
Eastern funds are loaned, as before stated. 
One of these men told me that his house had 
loaned $3,500,000 of Eastern capital, all of it 
on farms, and generally on live years’ time. 
He also stated that the interest had been 
promptly paid, and that the first loans fall¬ 
ing due had thus far been met; ami he had 
no doubt that all of this indebtedness would 
be wiped out hi less than ton years. His field 
of operations embraced33 counties ; abranoh 
house had been started west of the Missis¬ 
sippi ; “ For,” said he, “ this kind of business 
is about played out iu tills State.” 
This $3,500,000 of capital had been borrow¬ 
ed to increase the amount of farm products ; 
and after paying an average of 11 per cent, 
per annum, it had left a profit; but the pres¬ 
ent low price of corn had cut oil' this part of 
our income. 
But, dear Rural, don’t worry about us ! 
We shall neither starve nor refuse to pay out- 
debts, for we are simply going through a 
course of cleaning, paying cash for what we 
do buy and in alt possible ways cutting down 
our expenses. We are not going to allow 
the railroad builders to cheat us out of our 
stock subscriptions, and to run off with all 
the money that they can mortgage the roads 
for. That we shall make a less spread is 
quite certain ; and we shall depend more cn 
economy than on Providence—for the latter 
has disappointed us on several occasions. 
The present prices are quito fair consider¬ 
ing your Eastern panic, and we feel as though 
we were nearly out of the woods ; far more, 
we know what is t.ho matter with us. Do 
not, be surprised if yon double your readers 
in this State for the year 1874, for our people 
are in search of useful knowledge. 
1 should like to send old “Daily Rural 
Life” a few bugs, as we have a variety of 
the order humbug ; but as yet they in no 
particular excel those sent out from your 
city and vicinity, it would scarcely warrant 
the postage. M. L. Dunlap. 
Savoy, 111, Nov.37. 
$It({ drnutyt. 
MUSHROOM CULTURE. 
An English mushroom grower writes the 
Practical Farmer :—The mode of culture 
which Is the best adapted for a farmer to 
carry out, is that which the market garden¬ 
er practices, who collects short litter from 
the stables “ In town,” throws it into a heap, 
turns it over occasionally till he “gets the 
the out of it,” then makes his beds into a 
long ridge, spawns and molds his bed, when 
ready, in the usual way, and to protect the 
bed from the two extremes of heat, he puts 
over it thatched hurdles, propping them 
some few inches above the surface of the 
bed. On these hurdles ho adds straw, long 
litter, or any oblior fibrous refuse at hand, in 
thickness according to the external tempera-. 
Wire. In early autumn the north side 'if a 
high wall is a good situation for such a pur¬ 
pose. The ground round the bed is then cov¬ 
ered with litter several feet wide as a means 
of keeping down excessive heat and warding 
off excessive cold. 
.-♦»» ■■■■■' 
CANKER LETTUCE. 
Inclosed I scud you a plant for name, I 
would like to know If it possesses any medi¬ 
cal qualities. It is called here Canker Let¬ 
tuce and is considered an excellent, remedy 
for sore mouth and mild eases of diphtheria. 
It grows on low, swampy land and remains 
green through the winter. Please answer 
through the Rural.—Old Suuscuibkr. 
The botanical name of the plant is Pyrola 
elliptic a. Th >ro are several nutive species of 
the Pyrolas, and they are known by several 
common or local names. If they possess any 
medicinal properties no one but quack doc¬ 
tors have ever discovered them. Common 
lettuce would probably bo just as efficacious 
in curing sore mouth or diphtheria ; but 
there is nothing like faith in such matters— 
if one only firmly believes in a remedy it 
may do a wonderful amount of good. Then, 
again, if it was not for faith and confidence, 
wliat would our thousands of quack doc¬ 
tors do ? 
-♦ »» — ■ ■ 
GARDENER’S NOTES. 
The Best 'Tomato .—After the experience 
of another year, I should like your readers 
to vote upon tomatoes. Which is best ? I 
should like to see a hundred thousand votes. 
I vote for the Trophy 1 All things considered 
I regard it the best and I have tried nearly 
all varieties. Who has a better variety ’l —An 
Amateur. 
Jlmiqutimpl. 
SOME OF THE CAUSES OF FAILURE IN 
FLORICULTURE. 
Like most of our failures in life, the fail¬ 
ure. on the part of the general cultivator to 
have his or her efforts to produce a satisfac¬ 
tory supply of flowers crowned with success, 
is clearly traceable to ignorance ; and igno¬ 
rance is a very diffusive term. It permeates 
through and into all the strata of human 
events and calculations. It meets you at 
the outset when you undertake to choose 
your seedsman, from whom you hope to ob¬ 
tain good seeds. But its pressure is still more 
formidable when, with catalogue in hand, 
you undertake to make your selection of 
varieties. You fail to know what is best 
suited to your climate, to your maimer of 
gardening, or to the spot upon which you 
intend to grow your flowers. But your seeds 
selected, and ignorance causes failure in the 
time or place of planting ; in supposing that 
one plant may bo as readily transplanted as 
another; or, still worse, in allowing all the 
seeds that germinate to go on growing up in 
a moss of herbage that will destroy the vi¬ 
tality of all the plants, instead of thinning 
out to a few that will do credit to your ef¬ 
forts. Ignorance, too, will lead you to plant 
in the sunniest spots those very plants that 
require shade, and, on the other hand, to 
plant in the shade those plants which require 
all the strong, invigorating influences of 
sunshine from morning till uight. It will 
befool you into buying “blue tulips” and 
“ blue dahlias,” and perhaps blue roses, too 
(if the “ brass” of nursery agents has yet at¬ 
tained to that climax), without reflecting 
that there never were and never can be blue 
flowers of any of these species. Remember 
that those classes of plants which produce, 
red, yellow and white dowel's never produce 
blue (as roses, dahlias, tulips), and those 
classes which produce blue, red and white 
flowers never produce yellow (as asters, &e)., 
Borne one may take exception to these state¬ 
ments, but I think I am prepared to meet 
them. 
If a double team be found necessary for 
completely demolishing all our efforts at 
floriculture, let Laziness be harnessed with 
Ignorance, and a “successful failure” will 
be secured. I am not fully certain but you 
might allow Ignorance to be withdrawn ; I 
think Laziness could “ move on your works " 
alone and accomplish their complete dest,na¬ 
tion. In other words, you may lie a perfect 
Flora in the knowledge of flowers, but un¬ 
less you give to their cultivation time, labor 
and patient watchfulness, "Paul may plant, 
Appolloh water,” but flowers will not be 
the result. There are many other tilings 
beside “ Liberty ” whose cost price is “ eter¬ 
nal vigilance.” And, as if the foregoing 
causes were in any degree liable to failure 
under any circumstances, an army of acci¬ 
dental causes are ready to supply the de¬ 
ficiency, Earth-worms, slugs, plant lice, cut¬ 
worms, supplemented with an &c., whose 
name is legion, are among the aggressive 
enemies to floriculture. Added to these is a 
chapter of accidents to be act down both as 
sins of omission and sins of commission—such 
as omitting to water plants or to repot them 
when they require it, and committing a 
mortal sin by using too freely of mixtures to 
kill vermin and thereby killing your plants 
as well; or by watering too much and at 
wrong season and thus rottlug the roots. 
Again, there are sins of stupidity — acci¬ 
dents arising from stupidity, and, says Car 
lisle, “ Against stupidity the gods are 
powerless ! ” The most exasperating case of 
accident from stupidity of which I have any 
personal knowledge occurred last. year to a 
friend of mine whose success iu flowers has 
always been very marked, and deservedly 
so, for she gave to them her best energies, 
directed always by carefully-gleaned floral 
intelligence. During a season of great drouth 
the domestics bad been directed to save all 
the slop water suitable for watering plants, 
and at evening Peter would carry the water 
to the garden, where my friend received and 
dispensed it with great care and discretion. 
But, alas for her poor plants ! one pail con¬ 
tained the water from the ice cream freezer, 
and thirteen elegant fuchsias led the list of 
“dead and dying” in her morning’s bulle¬ 
tin, which she had the grief to announce at 
the breakfast table, and the list included 
choice Achimines and many other plants, 
and ended gloomily with three luxuriant 
hanging baskets t Is not the above a power¬ 
ful demonstration of Carlisle ? 
The foregoing paragraphs constitute mere¬ 
ly a preface to the separate heads which I 
hope to be able to treat separately and in a 
334 
practical way as the season for reading and 
writing advances. Mrs. L. CL Bedell. 
Crown Point, Ind. 
--♦♦♦- 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Pond Lily Culture.— Phbnial Field says: 
“If you admire Pond Lilies and have a 
springy place in your mowing, by digging a 
hole bo that the water will stand from 0 to 
30 inches deep, by sotting roots in the bot¬ 
tom you may have a supply through the 
blooming season. Old roots being set will 
blossom the first season. One-half day’s dig¬ 
ging, four years ago, lios supplied mo abund¬ 
antly, and now 1 have hundreds of young 
roots.” 
A bullion. —Will you please tell me the 
name of the inclosed leaf ? I should like to 
preserve the plant from which 1 clipped this 
leaf, and you would oblige, by telling me 
whether 1 should take it up this fall or 
whether it be hardy enough to leave in the 
ground all winter.— Reader. 
The plant is apparently a species of Ahu- 
tilon, and tender in this climate. It should 
be taken up and kept in some place where it 
will not freeze, 
“The Mexican Climber .''— John Quill 
says: “The fragrance of this beautiful 
climber rivals the rose, the mignonette or 
the Illy. When planted iu a group it forms 
a perfect mass of green foliage fairly covered 
over with spikes of delicate white blossoms, 
sending sweet perfume all around. Should 
be planted in one half sand the other half 
loam and leaf mold, in the open ground and 
a warm situation. 
Hanging Baskets. - Emma S. P. complains 
that she does not succeed well with her hang¬ 
ing baskets- that the plants soon die. This 
may be due to the fact that she does not 
give them water enough. They are so ex¬ 
posed to the air, and if hanging in a room, 
in hot air, plenty of moisture is absolutely 
essential. 
To Freshen Cut Flowers, it Is recommend¬ 
ed to “cut oir half an inch of the stems and 
place them in boiling water or, otherwise, 
place them In fresh water with pure pow 
deied charcoal and place a bell glass over 
them.” 
To Preserve, Cut, Flowers Fresh a longer 
time than by the use of water alone, we have 
seen the experiment of adding to the water 
a small quantity of alcohol—common whisky 
—repeatedly and successfully tried. 
A White Wigelia is reported as having 
been exhibited at thejfall meeting of the 
Germantown, Pa., Hort. Society, said to be 
really snow-white, to flower twice a year, 
and to he hardy. 
DISEASED SWINE. 
A few days ago I killed a couple of hogs 
which had been unusually hearty and thrifty. 
They had fattened very rapidly, and were 
quite fat when they were killed. I never 
knew them to refuse to eat; indeed, they 
ate heartily but a few hours before they 
were killed. But to my surprise, I found the 
meat filled witli great numbers of little 
white specks, or globules or balls, having the 
appearance, somewhat, of a little white 
worm. Ttii; white speck, or ball, or worm, 
seemed to be covered with a sack. When 
the meat was pressed they would pop out. 
They were quite small, not larger than bird 
shot. They were thickly imbedded about 
the jowl, under the ribs, and were in the 
hams also, but not so numerous there. They 
were aiso imbedded in the hearts, on the out- 
ide—here they were much larger, and were 
only half covered—and protruding produced 
a rough, bumpy surface. 
Now, tell me what produced these things— 
the name of the disease, Ac. 1 neglected to 
state that these little balls were surrounded 
by a liquid, or water, in some places. The 
water was not obsereved in the hams or the 
hearts. Is the meat unfit for use ?—J. J. 
Stewart, Salisbury, N. C. 
WEare not familiar with trichina', spiralis, 
as it appears in swine ; nor have we, at hand, 
any description of this worm, as it is found 
there. Seen in the human muscle they pre¬ 
sent the form of spirally-colled worms iu the 
interior of small, globular, oval or lemon¬ 
shaped cysts, which appear as minute spooks, 
scarcely visible to tile naked eye. These 
cysts aru more or less covered, externally, 
with calcareous matter. Of course our first, 
impression upon reading the above note was 
that it might be trichinae ; but of course we 
do not know. We should not eat such moat, 
