;bfrp fjusbanirrg. 
H. S. RANDALL, LL. D., EDITOR, 
Of Cortland Village, Cortland County, New ^ obk. 
TREASURY DEP’T DECISIONS. 
A correspondent asks; “ Do the East 
India, Oporto and Castel Branco woois, 
ruled by .the Treasury Department from 
classes one and two, into class three, em¬ 
brace very large amounts of wool? Do 
they constitute a large proportion of the 
wool now or heretofore imported in class 
three?” 
They are mere “ drops in the bucket.” 
The East India wool, we understand, did not 
prove a profitable speculation, notwithstand¬ 
ing Mr. MoCulloch's “ blood decision.” We 
have not before us the imports of Oporto 
and Castel Branco wools, but they consti¬ 
tute but a very insignificant proportion of 
the wools imported in class three. 
It is the principle and precedent of the de¬ 
cisions and the manner of makuaj them we 
mostly complain of. We hold that to pre¬ 
serve the essential features of a law safely, 
the effort should be to preserve it entire. If 
encroachments on it, even in minor points, 
are not vigorously resisted, encouragement 
is given to attempt greater ones; and, such 
is the tendency of tilings, the success of 
each encroachment renders the next one 
easier. The enemy who is permitted to 
take the most trilling outwork of the fortress 
is in a better position to take more, and each 
brings him nearer the citadel. 
The decisions made by the Secretary of 
the Treasury in such cases have been gen¬ 
erally made on a purely ex parte hearing. 
Where they involve the construction of the 
law, the parties bringing them up obtain a 
hearing. They are generally wool import¬ 
ers seeking to obtain a ruling which will 
favor their own interests. Those interests 
of course lie on the side of the lowest du¬ 
ties, and consequently are adverse to pro¬ 
tection. Yet the friends of protection—the 
producers—get no hearing. They first learn 
there has been such a case when the ruling 
of the Department finds its way into the 
public journals. Ex parte decisions are pro¬ 
verbially unsafe. They are made not only 
on arguments, but in a measure on represen¬ 
tations as to facts. There is no chance for 
the opposite parlies to cross-examine or in¬ 
troduce rebutting testimony. If our courts 
of justice did business in this way, how 
would the laws bo administered — bow 
would personal rights and interests be pro¬ 
tected? Every sensible man knows that, 
under such a state of tilings, the wisest 
judges would be liable to be constantly mis¬ 
led, and that the “ administration of justice ” 
would become, at least half the time, the ad¬ 
ministration of injustice. 
Take the case of Jlr. McCulloch's" blood 
decision," so called, in relation to East India 
woois. We do not believe there is a mod¬ 
erately good lawyer in the country, who 
will, on proper examination, say that the 
ruling was a sound one. There was not, in 
our opinion, even plausible ground for such 
a decision. It was the result of the ex parte 
system. Mr. McCulloch did not hear the 
case. One of his subordinates did. If we 
arc correctly informed, it was represented to 
that officer that the tariff was framed as a 
“blood tariff”— i. e., to classify all wools by 
blood—and was generally accepted as such ! 
Under this entirely erroneous view, a de¬ 
cision was made, Intended to he conformable 
with that theory of construction. Had there 
been any one to challenge this version of 
the intent of the law—to induce the officer 
carefully to examine the law itself (which 
the particular wording of the decision clearly 
enough shows was not done,) it is scarcely 
conceivable that such a mistake could have 
been made. 
In the case of the Oporto and Castel 
Branco wools, no principle of law was vio¬ 
lated. The question simply was whether 
by their character they did or did not belong 
in the third class. Tk“y were submitted to 
experts in several cities. The experts (how 
unanimously we are not informed) decided 
that they belonged in ck: a s three. If they 
were right, no one is entitled to object to the 
result, But if those experts were selected, 
as has been the frequent fashion of selecting 
them, their judgment lacks the essential in¬ 
gredient of impartiality, and cannot, there¬ 
fore, be expected to be received with un¬ 
qualified confidence. So far as we have been 
cognizant, of such matters, the selections 
(outside of Custom House officers) have been 
from wool merchants and manufacturers— 
—principally, we think, from the former. It 
is proper to sav that it is easier to find the 
requisite skill in these occupations, and on 
the score of respectability and honor no oc¬ 
cupations stand higher; but as a general 
thing, the wool merchants are bitterly hos¬ 
tile to the wool tariff because they think it 
adverse to their interests; and manufactu¬ 
rers, whether they belong to that illiberal 
class who oppose all protection, or to those 
who support the tariff of 1867, would not 
be expected to lean towards loo strict an ap¬ 
plication of its provisions. On the whole, 
the bulk of the experts consulted in such 
cases are interested pecuniarily against pro¬ 
tection, and consequently in relaxing the 
stringency of the laws which enforce it. 
We do not complain that these kinds of 
men are employed on such juries, if we may 
so term them ; hut we do complain that they 
are exclusively employed. We think we 
have never heard of an instance of a Secre¬ 
tary of' the Treasury voluntarily selecting a 
wool grower to officiate as an expert on such 
an occasion—or any man prominently rep¬ 
resenting the wool growing Interest. We 
cannot possibly see why it is not as proper 
that the growers’ interests should be repre¬ 
sented ns the dealers or manufacturers—if 
there are any growers competent to dis¬ 
charge the duty. If the omission to consult 
growers is placed on the latter ground, let 
us lie frankly informed of it, so that we shall 
understand that it is from necessity, and not 
from preference, that growers are subjected 
to the decisions of men who have a rival and 
hostile interest to their own in the very mat¬ 
ter decided! 
-♦■-*-♦- 
THE MERINO SOCIETY OF THE 
MIDDLE STATES. 
Robert C. Davis of Philadelphia, a cele¬ 
brated collector of old manuscripts and 
documents, forwards us a pamphlet of six¬ 
teen pages, containing “ The Constitution of 
the Merino Society of the Middle Slates of 
North America,” &c. &<\ A preliminary 
meeting was held In Philadelphia in 1810 and 
the Society was fully organized by the adop¬ 
tion of “Constitutional rules” and the 
election of officers, July 6, 1811. The follow¬ 
ing officers were elected J as, Caldwell, 
Esq., Haddonfield, N. J., President; E. J. 
Dupont, Esq., Brandywine, Vice-President; 
Juo. Warner, merchant, Philadelphia, Treas¬ 
urer; Win. Young, near Wilmington, Del., 
Secretary. Twelve members were elected 
“ the committee of correspondence the 
present year,” viz., llis Excellency Edward 
Lloyd, Governor of Maryland; llis Excel¬ 
lency Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsj’l* 
vania; Samuel Ingham, Bucks, Pa.; James 
Mease, M. D.,Phihi.; Peter Bavdcvy, Now 
Castle, Del.; James Yard, merchant, Pliila.; 
George Logan, Pa.; Richard M. Cooper, N. 
J.; Ww. Anderson, Chester, Pa.; Wm. D. 
Phillips, New Castle, Del., Win. Buckley, 
Lancaster, Pa.; Col. Robert C. Johnson, 
Salem, N. J. Among the above will be 
recognized several distinguished names. 
The meetings of the Society were “ to he 
held at the houses or farms of the members, 
where the flocks were kept, the first Saturday 
of every month throughout the year,” the 
flocks being inspected at every such meeting 
by every member present. As the “ resident 
members” included those of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, these 
monthly meetings, if kept up, must have 
made no small demand on their time. Can¬ 
didates for membership had to be nominated 
one stated meeting preceding election, and 
could only be admitted by a unanimous vote 
of the members present. The initiation fee 
was ten dollars, with an annual payment of 
ten dollars, “ until the number of members 
Should warrant the reduction ” of the latter. 
The Society was annually to propose subjects 
for premiums, and pay at least fifty dollars 
for the best “communications or improve¬ 
ments” in respect to them. Premiums were 
open to those who were not members, but 
the claimant must “ at least, however, pos¬ 
sess one toll blooded Merino ram and ewe.” 
The premiums proposed for 1812 included 
one of $50 for the best essay on one of six 
well-selected subjects, which we have not 
space to enumerate; $80 for the best year¬ 
ling ram, and $20 for best yearling ewe, 
“The quality and quantity of the wool, the 
form of the carcass and the live weight 
of the animal were to be taken into view.” 
We gather from some prefatory remarks 
that the Society was originated by the pur¬ 
chasers of the imported Merino sheep sold 
in Philadelphia in 1810. The Society was, 
judging from its list of officers, composed of 
gentlemen of high respectability and intelli¬ 
gence—tlm most ardent Merino sheep im¬ 
provers in their respective States. Of the 
history, results and end of this Association 
we know nothing; we do not remember 
ever before to have met with a trace of its 
existence. It is most probable that it con¬ 
tinued throughout the war with England, 
during which sheep husbandry and fine 
wool growing flourished so exuberantly, 
and then was swept away in that tornado of 
revulsion which followed the Peace of 
Ghent in 1815. This leaf from the past is 
worthy of preservation. The men who 
made the first effort to establish a wool 
growers’ organization extending beyond the 
limits of a single State, deserve to be re¬ 
membered. If any of our readers possess 
facts not herein embraced in regard to this 
Society—its history—an account of its annu¬ 
al fairs, if it held any—they will do us a great 
favor by furnishing us such information. 
THE SKIN-WOOL AMENDMENT. 
We have heretofore stated that Hon. E. 
B. Bigelow, President of the National 
Association of Wool Manufacturers, speaking 
as irax understood for that Association, fully 
assented to the Skin-Wool Amendment. A 
manufacturer of skin-wool doubts whether 
we properly understood Mr. Bigelow “ as 
speaking for anybody but himself.” Will 
our friend be better satisfied after reading 
the following assurance trout the Secretary 
of the Association? Mr. Haves writes to 
us:—“You are authorized to stale that the 
propriety of this amendment is admitted by 
the executive officers of our Association.” 
We further learn that probably not one of 
the representatives of the manufacturers iu 
Congress will vote against the Amendment, 
and that it is looked upon with decided favor 
by the representatives of the agricultural in¬ 
terest. There is, therefore, no doubt of its 
passage, if any hill on the subject of wool 
and woolens passes Congress. 
-♦♦♦ -- — 
NEW YORK SHEEP MARKET—1869. 
Tiie Ohio Farmer says:—From a report 
of the New York Live Stock Market for 
1869, we learn that there were sold in that 
city, during tile year, 1,479,508 sheep; a 
weekly average of 28,458, or 4,742 per day, 
exclusive of Sundays. 
These figures show an increase over those 
for 1868, which were, for the year, 1,400,623; 
a weekly average of 26,935, or 4,487 per day, 
exclusive of Sundays. 
The highest price for which sheep sold 
during J869 was the range of seven to ten 
cents per pound, reached April 12, 17 ; and 
the lowest price was three and a-half to five 
and one-fourth cents per pound, touched No¬ 
vember 1, 8. 
Commenting upon the report, the New 
York Tribune remarks:—in comparison 
will) the previous year we find very little 
difference in the price of sheep, closing about 
as they commenced last year. There may 
have been a little improvement in quality, 
but there is room for much more. 
lanirscapt SWbtrong. 
OO /T ) 
Rural Arclntfcturr. 
v$> 'ep 
PLAN FOR A KITCHEN, 
Seeing in the Rural a wish for the plan 
of a kitchen and pantry, I send you one 
which 1 think very good. Presuming it is 
only desired for culinary purposes, ! attach 
a wash-room, with closoi ami store-room, 
&o. C is a china closet connecting with the 
dining-room; IT is a hall leading to the 
large enough for cooking room, a workshop 
in winter for many odd jobs and also for 
butchering hogs, poultry, and doing all dirty 
work in, &c. Water should be handy and 
under head if possible so as to draw it from 
a cock with rubber hose into any vessel or 
boiler, thus saving much labor, to say nothing 
as to convenience. 
This plan is designed to accommodate the 
pockets of all classes. Enclosing A, only, to 
start with for small means, and extending as 
circumstances require. E, or the wing is one 
story. The cooking room may be the wing 
dining-room, out, upon the verandah, aud a mid hut one story, while the same plan is 
stairway to the kitchen chambers; P, pan- observed as to convenience and hack yard 
try; St., store-room ; K, kitchen ; S, stove; 
T, a white pine table ; O, sink. 
arrangement. It would also be well to have 
the cooking room as secure from cold as 
possible, anti an opening for the escape of 
steam, &e, It will be noticed that this plan 
is not intended for sueh costly structures as 
are many times presented in our agricultural 
journals ; but all is designed to be economical, 
neat and convenient, and in its arrangement 
will save, much labor in feeding, cleaning, &e., 
to say nothing of the, (to my mind,) indis¬ 
pensable back yard arrangements for compost, 
poultry, or for letting out hogs for exercise 
and in aiding the manufacture of manure. 
Bucli is my experience at least. 
nbusfrutl jfepirs. 
OUR PUBLIC ROADWAYS. 
The stove has a tin heater behind, a cop- Abotjt one year sUwe ; niore or less was 
per water tank tor soft water, and a copper su j ( | j n t | ie ft URAI) New-Yorker and other 
pipe from a reservoir in the attic, passing journals respecting our public roadways and 
through the stove, to heat water for the corresponding road line fences; Iml like all 
bath-room, and for the use of the sink, O, 
which is also supplied with a faucet for cold 
water, The wash-room contains a pump, 
slop hole,stove, wash-bench,&c., with cellar¬ 
way and coal-room. 
A. pantry is nice with one side a closed 
cupboard for victuals and one or two rows 
of small drawers for towels, napkins, spices, 
knives, spoons, &c. Above can be shelves 
for dishes, with glass doors to keep dust out; 
the rest of the pantry to tie shelves. 
North Huron, N. Y. A Farmer’s Wife. 
PLAN OF CHEAP HOG-PEN. 
CARE OF LAWNS- D. R. Prindle, East, Bethany, N. Y., sends 
- us the accompanying plan of a cheap hog- 
Theue is no season of Ihe year when pon with manure, back yard, and poultry 
refill aud persistent, widi^.’ul attention accommodations. He says: — It will he 
id labor is more requisite to the perlection i observed that no manure is to lie seen at the 
a lawn than that of the early spring sides of the building as is too often the case, 
cmtbfl. Nor is there any season during Allis neat and clean except the hack yard, 
Inch the same amount, of labor is better which is enclosed with a tight fence. A, B, 
careful and persistent, wailful attention 
and labor is more requisite to the perfection 
of ti lawn than that of the early spring 
months. Nor is there any season during 
which the same amount, of labor is better 
repaid by the future results. A severe rain, jq the main building—A, for cooking room, 
followed by a sharp frost, or a half dozen 
clear days, warm* and bright, with cold, 
freezing nights, always result in throwing 
more or less of the turf and grass roots, 
which, if not at once and almost daily rolled 
and again pressed down, would by exposure 
&o., and B, for hog-pen. E, (omitted by 
engraver,) is a wing when more room is 
required; or B, C, may be main building 
with A for Ihe wing. To accommodate the 
pockets of small farmers we will suppose 
that A is the only building enclosed and only 
other matters, it had its little run, and its 
advocates have since lain upon their oars, 
waiting the turn of the tide. Permit, me to 
remind them that, soon again will come the 
Street Supervisor in all his power, and with 
all liis ignorance he will plow a big ditch 
directly iu front of you, because he wants to 
run off the watei from a spot just the other 
way, which is twenty feet long and eight 
inches below the level of the road directly 
in your front. He will dig a square hole, 
taking out the. smooth turf right in front of 
your foot-path entrance, because lie wants 
it to till up a rut. lie will—but enough; 
one item is as good as a hundred to show a 
point; and of these two 1 have taken you 
know that plowing and scraping to till I hot 
twenty feet ot low ground would bo better 
and really cost less than the excavating of a 
deep ditch, the earth from which is piled up 
to inconvenience and disfigure the property 
abutting. 
You all know that if a rut is to be litlled 
other than by leveling the road way, it never 
has been, nor ever will be, of use to apply 
loamy turf when gravel can he had within a 
mile. 
One othfjr point on the road is that of the 
breadth. I have been surprised to see men 
less of a rough, uneven, surface, caused by do farmer, we will suppose that A, B, is 
some lines of soil being finer aud heavier main building one and a half stories high 
than others, ami therefore settling more with corn, storage, &c., over head, and per- 
rapidly and firmly. 
haps a small corner for poultry. A sub- 
If by any previous neglect, the lawn has division of B is for bed room for sow and 
already got, upon its surface small pit holes 
or undulations, varying from lour to six 
inches across and half thereof in depth, 
now is the time to go over it with a harrow 
of tine soil and till them up, at the same 
time tilling the soil with a heavy seeding of 
pure lawn grass seed ; then finish by rolling 
again and again. 
If the lawn lias become impoverished, 
make a mixture of pulverized hen manure 
or guano, two parts, and two parts of lino, 
very fine, bone meal, not bone dust, one part 
of plaster, (gypsum,) together with turn ports 
common salt, (seven parts in all,) and sow at 
the rate of eight bushels to the acre. Sow 
just before a rain, and as soon as the rain is 
over roll thoroughly, and then follow with 
two bushels of clean blue grass seed to the 
acre, aud another and another, and yet 
another rolling. Before doing anything, 
however, rake the lawn thoroughly to clear 
it of chips, stones, etc. Audi. 
—- -- 
LANDSCAPE WISDOM. 
To Cure the Bluest, a correspondent in Illi¬ 
nois advises that farmers devote their blue 
moments to devising some improvement or 
other in the appearance of their premises. 1 
He has found it a sure panacea. It not only 
drives off the cerulean devils, but every im¬ 
provement, made helps to keep them from 
coining again. There is no doubt about it. 
A. New Field for Women may be found in 
this occupation of Landscape Gardening. A 
lady was once criticising, in our presence, 
the manner in which a landscape effect, was 
marred by a gardener, when we said, “ Why 
not enter this profession? You have evi¬ 
dently a taste for it, and are ‘ dying for some¬ 
thing to do.’ ” She replied, “ The time will 
come when woman’s love of the beautiful, 
and her quick perception, will be utilized in 
this direction.” We hoped so then aud do still. 
pigs; o, o , in C, is one board high to keep 
straw in place; x, x, x, partitions say three 
and a half feet high; t, t, t, trough. S, a 
portable steamer for cooking, scalding, trying 
lard, tallow, making soap, &c. W, water ; 
vonieut use increases the cost of keeping 
the said road in good condition just ten per 
ccut. ? or, iu other words, if it costs to keep 
•a. road twenty-six feet wide—which is all 
ever needed—five dollars a mile per year, it 
will cost to keep a road forty feet wide in 
the same good condition at least eight dol¬ 
lars per mile; and then in wet weather 
there will be no regular, even track, and the 
driver will have to curve and turn from rod 
to rod. 
Road Fences. 
A nd now a word on road fences and road¬ 
side. decoration. The cost, of a road fence 
in front of men’s places varies from ten cents 
to ten dollars per foot, and is just about as 
necessary as feathers in the nostrils of the 
horses which wo drive. It serves no pur¬ 
pose of keeping out thieves or beggars; and 
drovers all say that a line of road having no 
fence for miles, is the easiest line on which 
they can travel; their cattle or sheep never 
turn; but when they come to where the 
fences are. all lip, and here and there a gate 
left open or bars down, it’s trouble, trouble, 
toil and trouble, beside the bearing of this 
and that man’s hard words, given in anger, 
forgetting that it was his own fault by leav¬ 
ing his gate open or bars down. So much 
for the practicability of fencing iu connec¬ 
tion with drovers and thieves; l’or now that 
we have laws prohibiting live stock running 
at large and preying on the labors Of the 
industrious for the support of the indo¬ 
lent, these are the only two items against 
which we need urge the unsightliness and 
expense of road-way fences. Let us, there¬ 
fore, take these away, and open up our front 
o, c, cooking vessels; in, mash vat, or cooler l.<i\vns, our flower beds and groups of oraa- 
which is also used for scalding bogs and to 
he headed by steam and is made of two inch 
plank; spouts from bins over head; D, 
doors; w, ro, windows; W in dotted lines in 
back yard for compost heap, aud should be 
namental ah rubs and trees, so that others, as 
well as ourselves, shall be educated and im¬ 
proved in mind and taste. Let us do this 
again for our own aggrandizement, because 
with an unobstructed open lawn in front, 
even a cheap cottage looks attractive ; while 
covered. The back yard may be used for an architectural building would lie enhanced 
hogs, poultry, composting, &o. It will bo 
noticed that the feed vessels m, and c, c, are 
only one step from the trough ; o, o, bins for 
provender or other provisions. 
1 would recommend that A should be 
in appearance at least fifty iter cent,. Again 
let me say, the nearer the house stands to 
the road line, the greater improvement and 
character will this removal of the fence give 
to it, and the less will be the annoyance 
from travel. A. Thorn. 
