224 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 4 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATION AT. IT .LUSTRATED 
RURAL. LITERARY AND lAHILf NSffSPAPIB. 
d. n. T. MOORS, 
Founder and Conduoting Idditor. 
CHA8. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
Associate £ditor«, 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
KlMTOlt Vf TUI DkPAITMWT or SMKKP HCfl3A»DRY, 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y„ 
Editor of th* Department of Dairy Husbandry. 
G. A. C. BARNETT, Publisher. 
TERMS, IN ADVANCE: 
8uliMcripllon. Single Copy, *2.50 per YOHr. To 
Clubs:—Five Copies, and one copy free to Agent or 
getter upoi Club, for *12.50; Seven Copies, and one 
free, for *16: Ten Copies, and one free, *20—only *2 
pe.r copy. A* we are obliged to pro-pay the American 
postage on papers mailed to foreign countries, Twenty 
Cents should be added to above rates for eueh yearly 
copy mailed to Canada, and One Dollar pur copy to 
Km ope. Drafts, Post-Office Money Orders and Regis¬ 
tered Cotters may be mailed at our rUk. US’* .Liberal 
Premiums to all Club Agents who do not take free 
copies. Specimen Numbers,Show-Hills,Ate.,suntfree, 
ADVERTISING RATES: 
Inside. 14th and Kith pages (Agate space).fiOc. per line. 
•• 13th page. 70 
Outside or lust page.1.00 *' 
Fifty per cent, extra for unusual display. 
Special Notices, loaded, by count.1.25 “ 
Business * 1.60 “ 
Reading “ 2.00 " 
Disoount on 4 insertions. 10 per ct.: R ins., 15 per et.; 
13 ins., 20 per ot.i 26 inB., 25 per ct.: 62 Ins., 33H! per ct. 
fW~ No advertisement iuserted for less than $3. 
PUBLICATION OFFICES: 
No, 5 Beekman Street, New York City, and No. 67 
East Main St, (Darrow's Bookstore, Osburn 
House Block,) Rochester, N. Y. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 4. 1874. 
NOW FOR THE NEW QUARTER 
THE TIME TO SUBSCRIBE! 
SOME SUGGESTIVE FACTS AND FIGURES. 
The Rural New-Yorker ent ers upon a New 
Quarter witli this issue, and tiie present, is 
therefore a favorable season to subscribe, or 
renew, for either six months or a year. We 
add to our edition In order to supply new sub¬ 
scribers from tills date for some weeks to 
come; but the only sure way to secure all the 
numbers from the beginning of the Quarter is 
to subscribe mon, as our rule Is “ first come first 
served." Agents will please note Unit single 
additions to clubs may be made at the lowest, 
rate—$;1 per year, or f 1 for six months—and that, 
all copies added can bo counted for Premiums. 
Friends of the RURAL, and especially those 
who are careful readers, need not bo told, we 
trust, that the numbers of I tie Quarter just 
closed have been so replete with choice and 
valuable Reading Contents and Illustrations as 
to fully maintain, If not materially augment, 
the character and reputation of the paper. 
Onr aim has been to make every page, column 
and paragraph of value or interest, and cer¬ 
tainly no journal of its class has furnished such 
a variety of really useful and entertaining 
reading. What has been given during the past 
thirteen weeks in the Practical und Scientific 
Departments alone (tosay nothing of the pages 
devoted to Literature, News. Markets, &c.) 
would fill two or three duodecimo volumes in 
ordinary book type, and in that form cost from 
$3 to $6!—and yet club subscribers have it for 
the paltry sum of fifty cents 1 Moreover, the 
matter we furnish is more timely and seasonable, 
and hence more available and valuable to the 
soil cultivator, than can be found in any book. 
— Such being the facts, we confidently present 
the claims «»f this journal—t lie pioneer Rural, 
Literary and Family Newspaper of America— 
to its friends and the public as worthy of in¬ 
creased support, all over the land, upon its 
merit$ alone. We ask no patronage, as such, 
but if Moore's Rural is, as we claim, and a 
host of people affirm, the Rpst and Cheapest 
Journal of its Class obtainable, it is not only 
entitled to the high standing and popularity it 
has attained, but to the recognition of thou¬ 
sands who would find it to their advantage to 
become readers of its pages. But to secure 
this recognition we must have the aid of read¬ 
ers, near and distant, and therefore repeat our 
request of last week, that its friends advertise 
the paper personally, by speaking “ good words” 
for It whenever opportunity offers, and inviting 
their neighbors and acquaintances to Join the 
Rural Brigade. How many of its friendly 
readers and admirers—we trust all are such— 
will kindly comply with the above request, and 
thereby aid In augmenting the Rural's pros¬ 
perity and usefulness ? 
--- 
FALLACIES of life insurance, 
Whatever may be said of the importance 
and necessity of Life Insurance, of its claims to 
consideration ns a peculiar beneficence, or Its 
more questionable advantages as an In vestment, 
it 1« a melancholy and significant fact that a 
faulty system of propagation has stripped it of 
Its natural attractions and made It a thing to 
be mentioned deprecatively and apologetically. 
I’he steal of its house has eaten It up. The com¬ 
panies and their canvasser* have advocated and 
solicited insurance with an Industry and Im¬ 
portunity that had far more to do with its rapid 
Increase than the adaptiveness of their plans to 
the requirements of policy holders, but neither 
the companies nor those whom they employed 
have ever endeavored to make life insurance 
comprehensible as a business matter. The In¬ 
centive* to neglect the technical education of 
the canvassers may be conjectured. Perhaps 
they were too eager for business to be receptive, 
or it might have been that the companies had 
more substantial reasons for withholding actu¬ 
arial confidences, or that the experiences of the 
policy holders had not yet taught them to re¬ 
quire more explanatory whys and wherefores. 
The consequences, which are more Important 
than the causes, are, that the average policy 
holder knows little more of Ids relations to the 
company and to ids co-insured fellows, than 
that he Is obligated to pay so much premium 
for so much Insurance, and has been promised 
so much in dividends, as the case may be. Of 
the underlying equities of the system, or why 
the company should receive each year several 
times as much as Is expended, he Is probably as 
guiltless us of an acquaintance with Sanscrit or 
his own int ernal economy. Yet a large propor- 
tton of t he eight hundred thousand who con¬ 
tribute one hundred millions annually to the 
support, of this institution are intelligent, men 
whom the mystery of life insurance methods 
repels rather than attracts, and t,o whoso Intel¬ 
ligence a perfectly Just system would appeal 
more effectively than the Impulses of cupidity 
or domestic affection. Not, only so, but It Is 
but, reasonable to believe that their continued 
allegiance would be better assured to a system 
whose advantages and disadvantages might be 
measured by mercantile figures and business 
rules, than to one which demands confidences 
without, reciprocating them. 
There may be wisdom in this waiting race 
with the spirit of intelligent inquiry. There 
may be valuable business reasons for exposing 
their wares for sale while declining to disclose 
the secret of their manufacture and composi¬ 
tion ; but it is Just possible to continue this 
sort of reticence too long. The circumstance 
that there is oleomargarine In the life insur¬ 
ance market may lessen the demand for real 
but undistiugulBhable butter or Incite the but¬ 
ter lover to cultivate analytic chemistry. Sit,her 
might be equally fatal to illicit profits. The 
tendency in this direction Is observable rather 
in a falling off in the prosperity of curtain com¬ 
panies and the popularity of certain plans, than 
In an increase of inquiry. There 1 b no special 
demand for the books which treat of life insur- 
[ ance in the abstract, but there is a ypry unmis¬ 
takable disinclination 1o Invest more money in j 
insurance until that which Is already irrecluim- j 
ably locked up begins to yield better returns. 
The policy holder has been indoct rinated with 
an idea that life Insurance is a good investment 
in the commercial sense, a financial game he 
need not necessarily die to beat,, and he is wait¬ 
ing to mature his experiences. 
The returns of the business of last year Indi¬ 
cate the extent. to which their procrastination 
affects the totals which have always heretofore 
been the theme of much vainglorious gratula- 
tion. There were on the first of January of Fhat 
year eight hundred and four thousand four hun¬ 
dred and forty-four policies and two billions 
one hundred and fifteen millions of Insurance 
In force, and twelve months later eighteen 
thousand (18.000) more policies, but eighteen 
millions six hundred and eighty-nine thousand 
less Insurance in force, though meanwhile one 
hundred and ninety-three thousand policies 
and four hundred and fifty millions insurance 
bud been issued. In brief, nine policies went 
oil t he books for every ten that, went on, and 
eighteen millions more insurance was lost than 
gaingyl. The falling off in numbers and Insur¬ 
ances is partly compensated by an Increase of 
assets by thirty millions. The outlook for the 
current year is not perhaps more hopeful or 
encouraging. Several companies have aban¬ 
doned their organization since the new year 
and others are preparing to emulate their dis¬ 
cretion. Quite a number might reinsure with 
the more prosperous of their rivals with benefit 
to their following, both in the matter of ex¬ 
pense anji security. Whatever may occur, noth¬ 
ing can long postpone certain reforms in the 
method* of insurance which most injuriously 
affect the policy holders. The history of the 
business of insurance, during the past two 
years, show* that it I* quite possible to so use 
the appliances of canvassing as to obtain a con¬ 
siderable number of new policy holders, but 
that the appliances for rrinininq them arc corn- 
pensatively defective. It appears just possible 
that this wholesale defection may arise from a 
discovery of jjleerepanoie; between the prom¬ 
ises and the realization—a condition of affairs 
which lserni neatly suicidal because It educates 
a considerable number of new entrants to dis¬ 
trust annually, and for which there Is but one 
remedy, to wit., frankness, truthfulness, and so 
much, at least, of initiation Into the mystery 
as will enable them t-o understand and appreci¬ 
ate their duties and privileges. 
To this complexion we must come at last. 
However sore his needs, no intelligent man will 
long remain faithful to ii compact he is not per¬ 
mitted to comprehend, or He content lo pay pen¬ 
alties unless they are justified by concep¬ 
tions of desert. There are thousands of intel¬ 
ligent, men who have been encouraged to persist 
In paying premium* in order to have policies 
with “cash values," who in their hour Of need 
have lost policy values arid all Ess cause unable 
to continue. Who can undertake to reconcile 
him to his loss by demonstrating the justice of 
forfeiture? Or if he has given note* for a por¬ 
tion of each annual premium upon theoanvuss- 
ser’s assurance that they will be successively 
cancelled and paid by dividends, and finds that, 
Instead, he is paying more and more money 
each year for less real Insurance, wlint will lie 
and Ids friends think when told that the com¬ 
pany Is In no degree responsible for the acts of 
Its agent.*? The result of such abuse* t* defec¬ 
tion and distrust. The remedy must be expect¬ 
ed to begin at the Instance of those who lose, 
not those who profit by them. Tim first step Is 
in the direction of a better acquaintance with 
the underlying principles and their application 
to the practical business of life insuring, 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
“What’s In a Name’?”—Much when it is 
your own and some one else puts in an appear¬ 
ance with one like it ! For instance, our talent¬ 
ed young contributor. Miss Mart C. Bartlett 
(“Cousin JOHNNIB") of Mata wan, N. J„ has, 
until recently, enjoyed the sole and undisputed 
title to her name In literature. But now, be¬ 
hold, “ McB." of Boston, one of the Independ¬ 
ents contributors, at the request of the editor, 
hits commenced writing over her own name, 
and that name proves to be Mary C. Bartlett 
also. As our Miss B. is a contributor to the 
Christian at Work, and other religions papers— 
and as her namesake, as well as herself, writes 
for children — much confusion may occur if 
each signs herself Mary C. Bartlett. Mis* B. 
of Boston desires to retain her original signa¬ 
ture, but the editor of the Independent, object *, 
—therefore Mtss B. of Mata wan, in order to re¬ 
tain her Identity, hue decided to aibscribe her¬ 
self, in the future, thus: — Mart 0. (Johnnik) 
Bartlett. By the way, t here is a spicy article 
from Cousin Johnnie In our present number. 
m 
Our Premium* Pay Ageui*.— The claim that 
wo give all who form eiub< for the Rural 
" Good Pay for Doing Good." is verified by the 
frequent acknow lodgments and notes of thank* 
received from the recipients of our Premiums. 
Among many acknowledgment* of recent date 
we give, us a specimen, this appreciative one 
from Geo. A. Green, P. M„ Andover, N. Y. : 
“ The Organ came all right this morning, and 
I scarcely know Just how to thank you. It Is 
an elegant one, and In every map far superior to 
what I hud expected. I don't think I could 
purchase as fine a one with the money at the 
price placed on It— £125. I deem myself under 
many obligations to you, ami shall ever, in 
every legitimate manner, endeavor to advance 
the interests of the Rural and yourself, and 
again thanking you I remain, as over, most 
truly your Friend." 
. «»«- 
Pou1 1 ry for Profit. -Poultry is now generally 
believed to be a necessity on every farm,where 
they can bo fed at, com parti vely small expense 
and keep their owners supplied with eggs and 
thanksgiving dinners without end. In towns 
and villages, too, poultry is commonly kept. 
Few people, however, calculate whether it 
would be cheaper to buy their eggs and poultry 
or to raise them, and we regret to say that 
many people keep fowls at a loss. To make 
them profitable, i. e., to make them yield more 
than tho cost of keeping, requires a knowledge 
of tbeir management, habits and treatment, all 
of which can be very easily learned by con¬ 
sulting the People’s Practical Poultry Book, 
advertised on page 229 of this paper. 
Uniformity in Weights and Measure*. — We 
cordially and earnestly second till efforts that 
may be made to secure a National and uniform 
standard for weights and measures throughout 
the United States and Territories. This stand¬ 
ard should as certainly be uniform as that the 
standard of a dollar should l>e the same. Our 
constant Inter-state commerce renders it abso¬ 
lutely necessary in order to an equitable and 
ready adjustment of values. This is a legiti¬ 
mate subject for the attention of Farmers’ 
Clubs and Granges. 
-m- 
Transportation of Live Stock.—Some of the 
transportation companjps and others interested f 
are making an effort to induce Congress to ex- 
tend the time now fixed by law in which live 
stock shall be confined without food or drink 
in cars, from 28 to 87 hours. We notice that 
farmers are moving in opposition to such 
change, and it will be well if there is concerted 
protest against It on the part of all organiza¬ 
tions Interested In putting live stock on the 
market in good, healthful condition, to say 
nothing of the humane motives which should 
be Involved in such remonstrance. 
Level-Headed Mr. Fonl.—Mentioning the va¬ 
rious modes by which weed seed la scattered, 
Mr. Sylvanus Ford of the Batavia N. Y. Far¬ 
mers’ Club is reported as follows“ The thistle 
has its down and the maple Its wings to bear it 
away to distant fields. The seed of the rag 
weed Is carried for inilesln the mud that clings 
to our wagons, while the daisy Is transported 
from place to place In loads of hay. There is 
the man who sell* charlock, shepherd's purse, 
May weed, t he different varieties of daisies, and 
forty other kinds of vile stuff for clover seed. 
And lastly there Is the ‘Department of Agri¬ 
culture,' which distributes seeds!" 
A Lawyer'* Opinion.— In renewing bis sub¬ 
scription for the Rural,, a lawyer of Kansas 
City, Mom writes:—“I have been a subscriber 
for several years, but, owing to ‘hard times,’ 
thought I would not take it this year; but my 
wife says ‘you must.,' and, us you arc a married 
man, you know what that mean*. It is the 
‘ BlackSTONE’ at our house; but then I obey 
the law in this instance very readily, as I look 
upon the Rural, as the best, the most useful, 
family paper published that I have any knowl¬ 
edge of, and I take several others regularly.” 
An Ex-Editor In the Lecture Field.—Mr. Wm. 
J. Fowler, formerly or the Rochester press, 
is lecturing on partisanship — giving views of 
politics from a non-partisan standpoint. He is 
a man of brains and independence, and his 
views of politics are becoming popular — a 
wholesome indication of political reform. 
- — 
Sassafras as a Substitute for Coffee. — An 
Alabama paper is urging farmers whose cotton 
crop has not yielded them full purses, and who 
have to pay 40 cents per pound for coffee, to 
“drink sassafras tea and let the coffee alone 
for a while and the price will cotae down.” 
-4-*-*- 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
The Maine Farmer indorses the proposed 
organization of a “ Nation il Association of 
Forestry." 
From A. S. Johnson, North Chill, N. Y., we 
have received his annual catalogue of seeds, 
potatoes, &c. 
From A. Hanck & Son, Red Bank, N. J., we 
have their price list of Bedding, Greenhouse 
and other Plants. 
Salt, at t ho rate of twenty hushels per acre, 
is recommended for garden ground by those 
who have used it. This answers C. N. 
From W. B. Royall & Sox. Brenbam, Texas, 
we have a pamphlet, containing testimonials 
concerning uoyall’s Cotton Worm Destroyer. 
This Kentucky Farmers’ Home Journal an- 
nounceathe serious Bines* of John Harper, 
the veteran horsernun and owner of “ Long¬ 
fellow." 
We acknowledge the receipt of the Proceed¬ 
ing* of the Second Annual Meeting of the Cen¬ 
tral Delaware Fruit Growers' Association, Jan. 
Jan. 14, 1874. 
Thomas Harrison is informed that Cow- 
horn turnip seed can be purchased by the New 
York city and Rochester seedsmen advertising 
in our oolumus. 
Mr. Chas. Y. Riley has got three Illinois 
candidates for the position of Commissioner of 
Agriculture, to wU : — W. C. Flagg, J. P. Rey¬ 
nolds and H. D. Emery. 
It is stated that the entire flock of American 
Merino sheep raised by the late Edwin Ham¬ 
mond, Middlebury Vt., has been purchased by 
L. J. ORCULT of Curemington, Vt. 
L. L. Dorset, Jr., announces that he is going 
to offer at auction. May fi, his entire stock of 
stallions, trained horses, blood mares and colts ; 
with u view to retiring from business. 
In answer to several correspondents who 
ask for the name of men who make a business 
of producing poultry and eggs for market, we 
give the uame of J. 0. Wilbour, Little Comp¬ 
ton, R. I. 
“A Constant Subscriber 'is informed that 
Crook's Incubator is an English invention, and 
we do not know that it can be purchased in 
this country. Why not make one from the de¬ 
scription ? 
S. T. Webster Is Informed that we know of 
no better book, as a guide to a stock raiser, 
than Allen’s American Cattle; price, $2. His 
other inquiry will be aD&wered as soon as we 
have made the necessary invest igation. 
Andrew S. Fuller of this paper has received 
letters of inquiry and orders tor tis i spawn, and 
from different parties. He wishes it distinctly 
understood that he is not in the fish business, 
has Done for sale, and never raised a fish, except 
by the use of a hook and line. 
We have from B. F. Nalle, Genera) Land 
Agent of the Washington City, Virginia and 
Great Southern Railroad, Alexandria, Va„ cir¬ 
cular statement of Virginia lands for sale, 
with maps, &e., showing locality and what has 
been done by settlers. Readers interested 
should send to the above address for informa¬ 
tion. 
B0SINESS NOTICES, 
tWIMPOBTAMT. 
“The Nat’l M'k’o Co.,” 46 pey St., N, Y., have 10 
new articles of domestic utility; j ust out: necessities 
in every family; samples sent by mail. They want a 
good agent in every town; will send an Illust'd Cata¬ 
logue and sample FREE, Satisfaction guaranteed, 
