240 
APB1L H 
MOOBE’S BUBAL NEW-Y0BK1R. 
“PROCRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATIONAii ILLUSTRATED 
». D. T. MOORE, 
3Touiid.er mid Conducting Elditor. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
AHMOoiutt! Kditorn. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D„ Cortland Village, N. Y., 
Eihtou oi xam Pipmwiiii or Sum.*- Hdshanuby, 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Utile Tails. M. Y„ 
EDIIOK OF THE DllPiKTMBST or 1 )a lliV Hebhanuhy. 
G. A. C. HARNETT, Publisher. 
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SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1874. 
THE SPRING CAMPAIGN OPENED. 
SOME TIMELY THOUGHTS. 
Aye, the Spring Campaign Is now, or soon 
will be, fairly opened In Garden, Orchard, 
Vineyard, Dairy and Field throughout, the 
States and Provinces wherein most of our read¬ 
ers reside. The notes of preparation have 
given way to the actual conflict, and cure and 
activity are in order, (loth brain and muscle 
are in demand, and the be-st. efforts of each 
will be required to so prosecute the Spring 
Campaign as to secure profitable results in Au¬ 
tumn. The best seed* and plants, and good tools 
and implements, arc among (he first requisites 
to success; but these will prove of little avail 
unless careful attention md proper culture are 
bestowed upon the crop* grown whether beds 
of onions or strawberries in a small garden, or 
large fields of grain on a ! holism,d-m-re farm. 
In either Case, whether a small or large culti¬ 
vator, knowledge and experience will tell and 
those who have not these requisites should in¬ 
form t hemselves by reading and studying the 
best-Rural Journals and Books, attending and 
participating in ihi* discussions of Farmers’ 
Clubs, and visiting and consulting with the 
most successful cultivators In their vicinity. 
In this age of rivalry and competition no one 
in business of any kind, whether Professional, 
Commercial or Agricultural, am afford to dis¬ 
pense with printed guides and text-books, if 
a merchant, he must have various periodicals 
and books relating to his business. And the 
same is true of 1 lie divine, physician, lawyer, 
banker and manufacturer. Each requires his 
authorities In the shape of books and journals. 
And the farmer, the horticulturist or the gar¬ 
dener should consult the best authorities upon 
bis specialty. The breeder or herdsman needs 
such a work as ALLEN’S American Cattle, and 
the dairyman cannot afford to dispense with 
Willard’s Dairy Husbandry. The horseman 
requires one or more of the several works on 
the management and diseases of the noblest 
of all animals while breeders of sheep, swine 
and poultry will find such works as Randall’s 
Practical Shepherd, Harris on the Pig, and 
Lewis' Poultry Book of great advantage. Uee 
culturists should have (lie works of Stick au¬ 
thorities ns QlTLVBY and LANOSTBOTti, while 
those devoting attention to fish culture can 
profitably peruse the pages of Seth Greejn, 
Norris and others. And the same is true of 
almost every specialty. Fruit growers have 
such authorities as Downing, Barry, T.momas, 
&c.: gardeners, Quinn,Henderson and others; 
and ns to Rural Architecture, Small Fruit cul¬ 
ture, mid other specialties, there are many good 
text-books, thanks to the demands of our peo¬ 
ple and the enterprise of publishers. 
FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANCE,-IL 
There is no need to reasserttbeexistence of 
defects, and even grave abuses which have not 
been, and do not promise to be, eliminated 
from the practices of life insuring, nor to ad¬ 
duce in confirmation the testimony of thou¬ 
sands who, having paid heavily for the discov¬ 
ery, sullenly avoid occasion to repeat their 
varied but uniformly unhappy experiences. 
The question is not one of fact, but of cause, 
effect, and possibly also of remedy. The expe¬ 
riences oi those who have, beyond dispute, 
ample reasons for their disaffection and dis¬ 
trust are, however, by no means exceptional. 
The purchaser who docs not know what lie 
wantB la always easily imposed upon, and if 
confessedly no Judge either of tbe quality or 
value of the article paid for, need not neces¬ 
sarily go to a life insurance company to find a 
dealer who is ready to take a mean advantage 
of ignorance and Inexperience. 
The abuses which have done most to bring 
insurance into (what is to be hoped is only tem¬ 
porary) disrepute, are directly traceable to 
the ready credence given to the statements of 
agents and canvassers, who were, all the while, 
merely yielding to the tradesman-instinct to 
overpraise and misrepresent the advantages i f 
the plans which returned to them the largest 
profits or commissions. It has cost a great 
deal of time, money and disappointment to 
discover that there was, in t he matter of ve¬ 
racity, little difference between the magnetic 
and voluble agent arid the equally voluble and 
magnetic salesman who winds up with “Going, 
going, gone l“-but, having satisfactorily meas¬ 
ured his claims to a hearing, the victims of 
overweening confidence seem to be eager to 
have their money's worth of vicarious snub¬ 
bing. i f one is determined to do so, it Is always 
possible to be absolutely inueeossible ; but this 
is at best a cowardly and precarious defense, 
for so long as the need of insurance remains 
and pleads its own case, the possible policy 
holder who does not. know' enough to make for 
himself an intelligent selection of plans and 
companies Is always liable to fall, defenseless, 
into the toils of some more than ordinarily 
adroit Philistine, who will plunder him to his 
heart's content. 
The trouble is, that buck of the nearly always 
ignorant canvasser is the company, ready *.t 
Short notice with some new and attractive trap 
for the cash and confidences of sanguine peo¬ 
ple, for whom there is u bag of gold at the end 
of every rainbow ; and it Is precisely the facility 
with which these new plans find acceptance 
that encourages their indefinite multiplica¬ 
tions, With Micli incentives as are afforded by 
the ignorance and carelessness of nine out of 
ten applicants, to make the most of a virtual 
monopoly of the business of insuring, tbe com¬ 
pany might almost claim to be something more 
than a human and very ralllbje creation, if it 
declined to foist, upon a willing and unsuspi¬ 
cious applicant the most expensive article lie 
could be persuaded to pay for. The purchaser 
is supposed to know liis own inind and to be 
the best judge of what will suit him; if he is 
mistaken it is his own fault, for which it. would 
be vcry r difficult to hold the company account¬ 
able, The great mistake Is in supposing that 
the parole statements made by the canvasser 
to induce compliance with his solicitations to 
insure are in any sense binding upon the com¬ 
pany. The bargain with the company (to pre¬ 
vent aa far as possible a I] misconception of re¬ 
ciprocal duties) is made a matter of contract, 
of which the application and policy are, con¬ 
jointly, a succinct and complete record. What¬ 
ever is “nominated in the bond," the several 
parties can he compelled by law to abide by. 
The duties of the agent are wisely confined 
and limited to the transmission of applications, 
policies and premiums. There Is scarcely a 
company in existence which would last a year 
if It was compelled to keep all the promises of 
its representatives, in t he matter of prospec¬ 
tive dividends alone, and since In dealing with 
tin* company one must almost necessarily come 
into contact with the ag3nt, the first essen¬ 
tial to solf-protcctlon consists in crediting only 
so much of his statements as are eonflrmeu by 
l lie statements and stipulations of tbe policy. 
He may have asserted that the company bad 
paid a cash dividend of fifty per cent., regular¬ 
ly, during ten centuries of business, and be 
able to prove it: but ho exceeds his limit when 
he becomes prophetic in regard to the next 
year, and is entitled to no credence whatever. 
He lias no special facilities for knowing any¬ 
thing about the arnouut of dividends declara¬ 
ble next year, and at least, one strong incentive 
to exaggeration. Whatever the dividend may 
be. it is not, in any sense, a profit upon the 
money invested In premiums. It is only a re¬ 
turn of a portion of an excessive premium. 
The grocer who sells u pound of butter for two 
prices, with the understanding that ha will, if 
his business prospers, let the next pound go at 
the regular quotations, declares and pays a 
dividend under precisely the same conditions 
and In the same way as a mutual life ineurence 
company. 
As a precaution against possible misunder¬ 
standing it is worth while to remember that, 
the agent is almost useless as a teacher, though 
he may lie a good exhorter. The company 
usually declines to teach him much of tbe 
principles or methods of the business, because 
such information is supposed to “ impair his 
effectiveness,"—and ids statements are corre¬ 
spondingly unreliable, because, in his euger- 
ness to impress his views, he is liable to draw 
upon his imagination for facts and figures. 
His interests nearly always antagonize those 
of the applicant, to whom lie is anxious t<> 
make some expensive plan appear profitable 
as an Investment. The larger the premium the 
greater the agent’s profit, and the more potent 
the inspiration to importunate and persuasive 
eloquence. Tbe applicant who knows what lie 
really needs, and also that the agent’s commis¬ 
sion comes directly out <>f hi* own pocket, will 
not be readily seduced Into paying for any 
costly advantages he does not require. Indeed, 
if lie knows what sort of insurance will best 
meet his requirements he may dispense en¬ 
tirely with the agent's services and make his 
application himself, thereby avoiding the 
chances of having some unfavorable statement 
modified eo as to insure acceptance by the 
company. This sort of tampering with the ap¬ 
plication has vitiated many old and valuable 
policies. Whatever assistance may be ren¬ 
dered by the agent. It should never be forgot¬ 
ten that, In point of responsibility and real au¬ 
thority, the agent, no miscalled, is rat tier more 
the agent of the applicant than of the com¬ 
pany, and that nothing he may say or do In the 
matter is in any manner or dogree binding 
upon the company for which he is acting. 
-— - 
WOMEN INTERESTED IN INDUSTRIAL 
PURSUITS. 
It cannot have failed to have attracted the 
attention of intelligent and thoughtful ob¬ 
servers and readers that a remarkable change 
has been and is being wrought in this country, 
relative to the practical interest American 
women are taking tn Industrial affairs. Look¬ 
ing through the columns of the Rural Nr.vr- 
Yohkeh, w e find that there is scarce a depart¬ 
ment of husbandry to which we devote atten¬ 
tion to which women among our readers have 
not contributed something of interest and 
value in the shape of facts or practical ex¬ 
perience. And judging by the character and 
number of the inquiries we almost daily re¬ 
ceive from women, the area of their observa¬ 
tion and experience In practical matters is 
rapidly extending, and the spirit of Inqui y 
among them in reference to stable and serious 
matters affecting the dally economies Is stead¬ 
ily being generally diffused. We need not say 
that we regard this a most gratifying sign of 
the times, nor that we commend and encourage 
It with all our power. It Is a token that the 
era when men shall find in women real and in¬ 
telligent arul efficient help-meets and copart¬ 
ners is at hand. Something beside companion¬ 
ship is needed by the woman and by the man 
who marries—desirable and, indeed, essential 
as that may be. It la true that the inoat com¬ 
plete companionship and sympathy cun only 
exist where there is the most intelligent and 
complete co-opeiatlon. We hail this growing 
order of things as an index of the good time 
coming when homes shall become Homes in 
the broadest and best sense of the word, and 
where the links that bind hearts together 
there shall by strengthened by the united in¬ 
terest. and co-operation of each member of the 
family in all that concerns its welfare and 
solidarity. 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Home Markets.—The Rural Nkw-Yokker 
is and always has been in favor of developing 
home markets for all kinds of farm produce. 
To tlds end it has advocuted the encourage¬ 
ment, by all legitimate means, of home manu¬ 
factures; and the Dairy Depa.it,ment of the 
paper has contained more than one article 
urging effort to develop the greater consump¬ 
tion of cheese at home and the adaptation of 
cheese manufacture to the demands of local 
markets. Tills, IL still seems to us, is the 
w isest policy of American farmers ; for in just 
such proportion a> they are distant lrom the 
markets where they sell t heir products, in Just 
such proportion are the chances of competition 
increased. We refer to this matter again be¬ 
cause wc notice that the State Dairymen's As¬ 
sociation or Wisconsin recently passed resolu¬ 
tions advising manufacturers of cheese to so 
manufacture their product as to render it suit¬ 
able for shipment to foreign markets. This is 
certainly a legitimate thing to do, provided 
there is a large surplus over the home demand. 
But the question is, do the Wisconsin dairymen 
supply Wisconsin with the cheese it. consumes'/ 
If not, why not? If they do not, they ought 
to, and ought to render it impracticable for 
the cheese of other than adjacent States to 
compete in the home markets with theirs. 
We have no interest in the matter beyond t he 
desire that the products of a locality shall be 
sold at home, and shall be absorbed by the 
home demand so far as possible. This as a mat¬ 
ter of political economy. 
■ * ** 
The Hural Pays iu Renders.— Of this fact 
w'e have abundant evidence from both old and 
comparatively new subscribers, but of course 
cannot publish the letters we receive on the 
subject. Here is u brief and emphatic expres¬ 
sion, however, for which we make apace. Mr. 
Wyman Elliott vf Hennepin Co., Minn., in re¬ 
mitting fur a club of subscribers, thus closes 
his letter“ This is my eighteenth yeartaking 
your paper, and I have received hundreds of 
dollar’s worth of Information from it. f n many 
instances one single article has benefited me ■ 
more than the price of ten papers for a year." [ 
And here is a pointed note on the same sub¬ 
ject from Mr. Alfred Nellis of Montgomery 
Co., N. Y., who writes:—“I have been a sub¬ 
scriber to your valuable paper for the past, six 
or seven years. Have never regretted the few r 
dollars expended, which I consider loaned at 
an enormous per cent. Tn fact, the Rural 
gives the young farmer the experiences of a 
score of years. Hoping success may crown so 
laudable an enterprise, I am," &e. 
-M-*- 
Want to Learn Farming—Annually during 
the past two decades we have had occasional 
calls from young men who wished to learn 
farming, and to be advised where and to w hom 
they could apply for that purpose. Iu many 
instances the sons of wealthy business men 
have thus applied, expressing I heir desire to 
become farmers and spend their lives in the 
country. As a rule these young men seem in 
earnest and willing to work industriously, 
without expecting much if any compensation 
a practical knowledge of the details of farm¬ 
ing being their paramount object. Of course 
they wish to find places with first-class farm¬ 
ers, and though we know scores of such, we are 
frequently at a loss as I o whom to refer them 
for the reason that we are not advised who 
would be likely to want or accept pupils on 
their farms. If those of our readers (say in 
this State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,) who 
arc disposed to aid applicants will give us 
their addresses we shall be enabled to speak 
advisedly, and perhaps benefit both parties. 
--- 
PI anting Trees in Nebraska_Trees are now- 
being planted by millions in Nebraska. Hon. 
J. Sterling Morton, Nebraska City, origi¬ 
nated the idea of “ Arbor Day,” which has been 
adopted in that and ot; er prairie States. The 
first. "Arbor Day " in Nebraska was in 1871, and 
on that, day two millions of trees were, planted. 
In 1872 and 1871 “Arbor Day ” was dropped, but 
farmers were recommended to choose for 
themselves a day to be set apart for tree plant¬ 
ing. This year, however, the State Board of 
Agriculture has fixed upon the second Wednes¬ 
day In April as “Arbor Day," and the State 
Legislature is to be asked to make it a legal 
houaay. Bach owner of land is recommended 
to plant at least one tree, and a premium is to 
be awarded to the one who plants the greatest 
number. 
-»♦♦ 
Den’l Leave llie Farm.—Boys and young men 
who purpose leaving the farm for city employ¬ 
ment, should pause before acting—look before 
they leap. Unless they have places engaged, 
and a special taste or aptitude for the proposed 
business, it will be folly to leave home upon 
an uncertainty—especially the present season, 
when business is w orse than dull and t housands 
of competent young men—clerks, mechanics, 
etc.,—are vainly seeking employment. No, no 
- “stick to the farm" boys,.for it is the surest 
and best, as well as the most natural and 
healthy pursuit, 
--*♦*- 
An Efficient Agent is that good friend of the 
Rural, Mr. Hugh Huls of St. Charles, Ill. He 
has aunually sent usclubs from the time where¬ 
of our memory scarcely runneth to the contra¬ 
ry, and in sending his first list of names for this 
year whites: —“As another year has come 
around I send you a few' names, which I hope 
I may be able to add more to. 'fids makes the 
twenty-second year that I have taken the Ru¬ 
les l, and I don't feel as though I could do 
without it. PJeaso forward the list soon as 
possible," Ac. 
-- 
The Dairy Business is every day increasing in 
importance and interest. The number and 
character of the inquiries we receive warrants 
us in believing that there is no department of 
husbandry just now developing a demand for 
more practical information. The space we can 
give to dairy matters is limited, hence we the 
more confidently refer our readers to Willard's 
Practical Dairy Husbandry, advertised in this 
number, which should be in the hands of every 
one who manufactures butter or cheese. 
-- 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
The Illinois State Grange of Patrons of Hus- 
bandry meets at Bloomington April 14, 
James M. Thorbvkn & Co., N. Y. City, send 
us their price list of tree and shrub seeds. 
The “ National Agricultural Congress” meets 
at Atlanta, Ga., the third Wednesday in May. 
Abram Akjek is informed that the books he 
names do treat of propagation of fruits from 
seed. 
Geo. P. Putnam & Sons, N. Y. City, send us 
the entertaining and instructive Science Gossip 
for 1874—Nos. 2 and 3. 
F. W Blair, Sumner Co., Kan., should ad¬ 
dress the firm named in the article he refers to 
and he will get the information he desires. 
The following Is a list of the officers of The 
Great Southern Railway ot Georgia and Florida 
for the year 1874:— T W. Opbo'k.n, President; 
mikuman Con ant, Vice-President; J. w! 
Johnson, Treasurer; W. F. Wheeler, Secre¬ 
tary; M. II. Alberger, Gen. Superintendent; 
A. C. Osborn, Gen. Agent. 
BUSINESS NOTICES 
C2T IMPORTANT. 
“ THE NAT’L M’f’g Co.," 4U Dey St., N. Y„ have 10 
new articles ot domestic utility; just out; necessities 
in every family; samples sent by mull. They want a 
good agent In every to wn; will send an Illust’d Cata¬ 
logue and sample I- UEE. Satisfaction guaranteed- 
