MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
320 
“PROCRE88 AND IMPROVEMENT. ’ 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATIONAL TI.LUST RATED 
111!HAL, IITEEABV AND FAMILI KEffSPAPEE. 
9. 9. T. MOORE, 
Founder and Conducting Editor. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
AKHOClntc Kditors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
Kditok or th« D«r*»TMK«T nr Sunni' Hotbakpby. 
X. A, WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y„ 
EdIToJL OF IffR OKPARIMKhT OF pAlKV Hunuandby. 
CJ. A. C. BARNETT, Publisher. 
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fiuslneBB “ LJO ‘ 
Heading •* 4...J.OO 
Discount ou t insert,Ions. 10 per ol.:8 Ins., )A per ct.i 
13 ins., 20 per ct.; 20 Ins., 2.1 per oh; 52 Ins., 33X per ct. 
Z3T No advertisement Inserted for less thun >3. 
PUBLICATION OFFICES: 
No. 78 Duane Street, New York City, and No. 67 
East Main St, (Darrow’s Bookstore, Osburn 
House Block,} Rochester, N. Y. 
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1S74. 
REMOVAL 
Moore's Rural in New Quarters. 
The Principal Publication Office of this Jour¬ 
nal has been removed to 
NO. 78 DUANE ST., 
NEAR (AND EAST OF) BROADWAY, N. Y„ 
Where all business letters and communications 
should be addressed, and where we shall be 
happy to see the friends of iho Rural. 
A SUMMER-Y OUTLOOK, 
After weeks of cold, wet, and generally dis¬ 
agreeable and discouraging weather—rendering 
all of April and the early part of May more like 
Winter than Spring—we at last have glorious 
sunshine and a high temperature. Indeed, we 
have experienced “ too much of a good thing *’ 
all at once—for almost immediately succeeding 
suow and hail storms, cold rains and frost, 
came an almost overpowering burst of mid¬ 
summer heat, t he thermometer (in N. V. City) 
marking 82 t ' In the shade on theflfh (against 50° 
the corresponding day of last year,) and reach¬ 
ing 94° on the 10th. Sunday I The heat was in¬ 
tense or course, and. coming so suddenly, 
proved very oppressive and enervating. Though 
probably glad to escape “the winter of our 
[their] discontent," we fancy most city people 
thought an extra quautity of “glorious sum¬ 
mer’’ was furnished “by the sun of [New] 
York"—while the “mine hosts” of sea-aide 
and other summer resorts were no doubt thank- 
ful for a change which usually presages their 
prosperity. 
But the sudden advent of Summer is or most 
importance to farmers, horticulturists, garden¬ 
ers arid others engaged in rural pursuits, and 
they have abundant reason to rejoice. Though 
long deferred, the blessing of warm weather 
has at last been vouchsafed, and doubtless is 
appreciat ed, and will be taken advantage of, by 
soil cultivators throughout the large extent of 
country Just released from a state of hiberna¬ 
tion. True, the sudden oncoming of both Spring 
and Summer involves extra care and labor, as 
it necessitates the performance of much work- 
in little time. But farmers who manage well, 
using time and labor where they will prove 
most advantageous, will be rewarded in due 
season. Those who undertake to do too much 
with insufficient, help, may miss Jt— for, as a 
rule, the thorough culture of a few acres is 
more profitable than the careless, half-culture 
of many. The wise cultivator will have the 
best laborers, teams and implements, and so 
time and place them that the various opera¬ 
tions will be performed iu the best manner. 
FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANCE-VIL 
All other things being equal, the insurance 
which requires least outlay Is best and most 
desirable. The difficulty consists in determin¬ 
ing the equality of these other conditions. Se¬ 
curity is the first essential. Tbo company must 
be provided with means ample for the com¬ 
pletion of Its contracts — a condition which 
would appear to be dependent upon a high 
rate of premium, and to bo more thoroughly 
complied with by the mutual company. Pre¬ 
miums are high or low only In relation to the 
purposes to which they are to be applied. The 
low premium that suffices for losses and ex¬ 
penses. necessary expenses, is relatively high 
enough, and the excess of a high premium a 
redundancy inviting extravagance, and the per¬ 
petuation of dividend fallacies. The eligibility 
of either plan, even the question of ultimate 
expense, depends rather more upon skill and 
integrity of management than upon the mag¬ 
nitude of initial outlay. The high premium is 
not a feature peculiar to mutual companies, 
for, under the laws of this State, and most oth¬ 
ers that affect paternal supervision of what 
should be a private affair, all companies are 
required to have a deposit capital. Mauy com¬ 
panies professing to be mutual, collecting high 
or mutual premiums, and promising to “dis¬ 
tribute all profits among their policy holders," 
are really “ mixed companies." having a small 
hut exceedingly productive capital. Between 
this class and the mutual companies on one 
hand, and the proprietary or stock companies 
on the other, a broad line of demarcation must 
bo drawn. They are as amply supplied, by large 
premiums, with a surplus of men ns at their 
disposal to cover up those errors of manage¬ 
ment that imperil continued solvency, as the 
mutual companies are, and have, In their cap¬ 
ital stock, all the incentives to prudent and 
economic management which risk of loss is 
supposed to beget. Yet, at least in this coun¬ 
try, no mutual or proprietary company haa ever 
come to grief or failed to complete its con¬ 
tracts, while a score or more of mixed compa¬ 
nies have failed. Some succeeded In honorably 
transferring their business without subjecting 
their policy holder* to loss or inconvenience, 
other than temporary apprehension, while the 
record of many Is deeply stained with dishonor, 
and morethaD a suspicion of disgraceful fraud. 
Between the mutual aud stock rate Is a mar¬ 
gin of about one-third of the latter—a margin 
of additional expense which the best mutual 
companies have more than compounded for by 
dividends, which reduce the actual expense 
below that of the better stock companies ; but 
even when a dividend affecting such reduction 
is made, it is not, as in the stock company, a 
reduction In advance, but n reduction at the 
end of iho year, and contingent upon the pay¬ 
ment of the premiums to be reduced. The 
benefit of a reduction is always, too, dependent, 
upon the continued ability of the company to 
make it, and is at best a doubtful and perpetu¬ 
ally deferred benefit. Many companies have 
been able to make little or no returns of divi¬ 
dends or surplus premium, and the number 
that have actually afforded insurance as cheaply 
as the best stock companies can be counted 
upon the fingers of one hand. 
An advantage of low-rate or stock insurance 
worth considering is, the definiteness of the 
contract. Indefinlteness promises to be a per¬ 
ennial defeet of life insurance. A century of 
observation might be expected to fix the rate 
of mortality, and thirty odd years of trial the 
maximum of Interest that should be assumed 
in computing premiums, so that the price of 
insurance could be more than proxlmately de¬ 
termined. Yet, when dividends are promised 
as part of the consideration for which a high 
premium Is paid, the resultant expense may 
vary so much as to be a source of inconvenience 
and disappointment; and when dividends are 
used to purchase additions to the policy, or 
notes are givon in part payment of premiums, 
and remain unredeemed and drawing interest, 
it Is next to impossible to predict either tbe 
extent of future outlay or tbe amount of bene¬ 
fits which a variable premium will purchase. 
This vexatious and as yet unsolved problem 
will bo worked out, If at all, by the stock or 
proprietary companies, when the Intelligence 
of the policy taker demands "so much insur¬ 
ance for so much or little money," and a def¬ 
inite, instead of an indefinite, contract. 
Whatever the plan or premium, or however 
they may be combined, all insurance le, in one 
respect, mutual between the parties thereto. 
The members of a mutual company Insure each 
ptliers' lives by contributing capital to create a 
common fund; but so, in reality, do the policy 
holders of a stock company, If indeed It Is pos¬ 
sible to conceive of the company as a distinct 
i entity, except as the custodian of the fund and 
the manager of the business. The reciprocity 
feature consists in the numerical basis of an 
average expense and mortality, and consider¬ 
ing insurance as a wager justified only by its 
usefulness, it is tlie certainty of these averages, 
when predicated of considerable numbers, that 
I removes the transaction from the domain of 
mere gambling. Insurance is mutual, even if 
the company Is regarded as one party and the 
assured auother, for, to the extent of the re¬ 
serve of the policy, the assured as truly and 
really insures tfie company, its prosperity and 
continued solvency, as the company insures 
the life at risk. When it is remembered that 
about one-fourth of all the life insurance com¬ 
panies iu this country have failed within four ! 
years, this feature of the matter assumes a new 
importance, and renders a rigorous examina¬ 
tion and a discriminative selection as much the 
duty of one party as of the other. 
-» »» 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
National F«rr»trr Again.—A friend Of ours 
informs ub there is a strong lobby Influence at 
work in Washington making an effort to secure 
the creation of the office of a National Forester 
—and as a natural sequence, with tbe name of 
the tit men for tbo place, ready to suggest to 
the appointing power nr to insert, in the bill. 
Hadn't we better have a National Supervisor of 
Com Culture? another of Wheat Culture? a 
Grand Master of Potato Culture?—a National 
Herdsman?—a United States' Swine Commis¬ 
sioner ? a National Cotton Factor ? -a National 
Inspector of Pumpkins?—a Superintendent of 
American Dairies?—and a dozen or two others 
of high old fellows that will help to absorb all 
the surplus money laboring men can contribute 
to the National Treasury ? We wish Romo one 
would give uc an inkling as to who these men 
are who are urging this measure upon Congress. 
Perhaps we should know better what ooooanut 
to crack in to find the milk we are after I 
— Since the above was written, a dispatch 
from Washington, dated May 4, says that " the 
bill to aut horize the appointment of a Commie- 
slouer of Forestry was beaten to-day by a vote 
of 48to08. As is usually the cash with such 
projects for the creation of new offices, tbe bill 
derived what little life It had from the efforts 
In Its behalf of the friend* of a gentleman who 
is ambitious to obtain the salary and honors of 
the proposed ooomiiBslonorshlp." We supposed 
so. It lathe way such things work, and the pre¬ 
cise manner in which the people arc made to pay 
for what they do not need. We have not seen 
It stated who this ambitious gentleman is, nor 
do we know his name. We might guesB several 
names whose owners would be likely to be 
willing to thus sacrifice themselves to promote 
American Forestry; hut wc arc glad to know 
that Congress la too magnanimous to require 
such sacrifice, and we hope this magnanimity 
will l ist some time. 
■ M » - - 
J. U. A. Warren.—We suppose It Is this per¬ 
son wbO sends us the Brighton (Eng.) Gazette 
of February 28, containing an account of the 
“Soiree of the Brighton and Sussex Natural 
History Society.” In It wo find Mr. Warren 
figures in this wise: 
Mr. J. Q. A. Warren of America, who Is stay¬ 
ing in Brighton, exhibited a beautiful specimen 
of Conglomerate Shells, from the raised beach 
at St. Augustine, Florida, U. S. A., found on the 
beach near tbe entrance to the channel, over 
100 feet, from the water mark, and embedded 
some 20 feet in a solid nuuo of shells, supposed 
to have been forming for centuries. This is 
probably the first specimen ever soon In this 
country, except a duplicate which liar, been 
secured by tbe British Museum, obtained from 
Mr. Warren, the discoverer and collector. It 
is a close, compact mass of small shells, while 
cropping out of the center are the larger spe¬ 
cies, in t he most perfect state. On Lielug re¬ 
moved from its locality at first, it is in a very 
soft and moist state which, in » short time, be¬ 
comes quite hardened by contact with the 
atmosphere, like that of tin: famous building 
stone of Paris, and like that It is also U6ed for 
building purposes, more especially fur the foun¬ 
dations «>f buildings, for which purpose it is 
admirably adapted, as well as being used in 
various ornamental ways, for fancy articles, 
etc. The specimen ought to be secured for the 
Society of Natural History here, as it would be 
somewhat difficult to procure another in such 
a perfect stale, iL having been brought a dis¬ 
tance of nearly ‘>,000 miles. As the visit of Mr. 
Wariu'.v to Brighton is a brief one, to look 
Into the various attractions, principally of a 
scientific nature, we hope our naturalists will 
make themselves know n. 
We quote the foregoing paragraph as a mat¬ 
ter of history, and to show how a man whom 
we regard as a first-class charlatan and adven¬ 
turer, cau brass hta way through the world. 
We haven't the least evidence nor belief that 
this Warrkn was ever the discoverer or col¬ 
lector of anything in any field of Natural His¬ 
tory, unless it was to collect from other men’s 
collections, for his own use and profit and at 
their expense. He is one of the men we wish 
would die out for the credit of this country. 
The Patrons of lluibondry.—The following 
note 16 from one who has for many years been 
an activo and influential Agent-Friend of the 
Rural, We trust many have taken good hints 
from this journal, and that if Granges have 
been organized through its influence the result 
will prove beneficial to both members and 
community. So far as we are aware—and we 
know somewhat whereof affirmation Is made— 
tbe Patrons of Husbandry are doing much 
good, and our sincere aspiration Is that they 
may continue in so doing and multiply abund¬ 
antly : 
Mr. Rural— Sir: A Grange has boon organ¬ 
ized here (Northeaat Pa.), with thirty charter 
members. A great many of them are. Rural 
readers, and I see by the Rural you are rather 
favorable toward that class. Further, I think 
they took the hint from you. for during long 
and weary yours you have labored aud toiled 
hard for the farmers; and, surely and truly, all 
vour life long you have been the farmers 
friend. I have heard many a hard-working 
man and woman say, “ God Ideas the good old 
Rural and It* Editor! Lone may he live to 
wield the Rural peri, and cheer on the hearts 
of many of Goo’s tolling men and women!" 
And now, dear Sir. while you are working 
hard with heart and head, to encourage and 
strengthen others, they are encouraged to toil 
on, for surely the farmer feedeth all, and as 
God crowns our years with corn and plenty let 
us thank llim and toil on while life shall last, 
Yuurs-A Northeaster. 
Give the Boy* nnd Girl* a Chance to grow 
vegetables and flowers. By allowing them 
plots of ground for such purposes you will lose 
nothing in tbe end. They will be encouraged 
and become more attached to home. It will 
incite them to work and manage for them¬ 
selves, while the premises will be made more 
ornamental and attractive by their efforts. 
And if you give them domestic animals for 
their own, no harm will be done. Let JOHN or 
James have a calf or colt, and Mary or Fanny 
a lamb and some chickens, (or both, in each 
case,) and you will be repaid In the pleasuro 
they will derive, If Indeed you do not receive 
other and more substantial remuneration. 
Yes, parents, give the young people oppor¬ 
tunity to work arid act on tboir own account, 
and if t.he result is not sat isfactory report to 
these headquarters. 
-H*-- 
Exchange Information.— It may lie regarded 
by some as pure selfishness on our part that 
we urge our readers to exchange experiences 
on practical subjects. But it would be unjust 
so to judge our motives, although we do not 
undervalue our own gain. But the wider the 
range of experience our readers get. upon t he 
groat number of subjects demanding attention, 
the better 1 —tbe surer they are to find somothing 
that, will meet, individual wants. Hence both 
inquiries and answers are always welcomed to 
our columns as a means of bringing the Rural 
Family into closer and more profitable relations. 
-*♦*- 
The Unrol v». Humbug*.— An Indiana corre¬ 
spondent, who sends us valuable Items occa¬ 
sionally, closes a recent letter thus:—By the 
way, 1 have road nothing in the Rural of late 
that I like better than a column editorial on 
‘Coroless Apples.’ It shows to its readers that 
no frauds will In any case bo perpetrated on 
the farmer with tho Rural, aiding and abetting 
it—that If it is possible to expose those who 
swindle producers the Rural will do so, and 
that it can handle the would-be humbuger 
without gloves.” 
---- 
The Struggle Between English Farm Labor¬ 
er* and their employers continues. I n one dis¬ 
trict in England about 2,500 laborers refuse to 
work, and are supported by the funds of the 
National Agricultural Laborers' Union, at a 
cost of £1,200 per week. Emigration agents are 
active among those disaffected laborers, and 
considerable emigration is anticipated in con¬ 
sequence. The employers have an organiza¬ 
tion antagonistic to the laborers. 
-*♦«- 
Send U* Season Item*.— Now that spring has 
p-r-o-b-o-b-l-y arrived—we write hesitatingly 
and in some doubt, as overcoats arc still, (May 
6) in demand—wo hope to hear from farmers 
and planters its to the season, crops, &o., in all 
parts of the country. 
A Hop Grower*' Convention is being agitated 
in Central New York. Why not? and a Hop 
Growers' Association as well! Tho hop inter¬ 
ests of this State are of sufficient magnitude to 
warrant 6uch an Association, we t hlnk. 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
It is asserted that the next New England Fair 
will probably be held at Providence, R. I. 
Our readers should remember that although 
It is " a busy time," we are always glad to hear 
from them. 
Col. D. Wyatt Aikin, It is assorted, has gone 
to Washington to take charge of the Patrons’ 
Bureau of Statistics. 
KmvARD Morris, the author of “Ten Acres 
Enough.” and “ How to Get a Farm," died at 
Burlington. N. J., May 4. 
We notlco. May 8, orchard-house peaches for 
sale in the Broadway fru it stores, Strawberries 
and tomatoes are common. 
Mr. James Vick, the seedsman, has started 
on a trip to California, where he doubtless will 
meet many friends to welcome him. 
The death of Dr. J. W. Dunham, Coilamer, 
Cuyahoga Co.. O., once President of the Lake 
Shore Grape Growers’ Association, and Treas¬ 
urer of ibe Ohio State Ilort.Soc., is announced. 
C. W. is informed that we know nothing of 
the satisfaction the rake mentioned has given 
—probably ho knows more about It than we do. 
we don’t advertiso agricultural Implements in 
the manner lie proposes. 
From w. 0. Flascj, President of the Illinois 
State Farmers’ Association, wo have received 
the Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting 
of said Association, held at Decatur, Dec. 16-18, 
1873. It is a pamphlet of 168 pages. 
The Lock-Nut and Bolt Company, manufact¬ 
urers of the dimming Lock-Nut, have removed 
their place of business from 61 Broadway to 17 
Dey St., as will be seen by reference to their 
advertisement on another page of this issue. 
The Michigan Pomologlcal Society has in¬ 
vited the members of the Western N. Y. Hurt. 
Snc., to its Annual Strawberry and Cherry 
Festival at Adrian, Mich,, June 23, 24 and 2a, 
and P. Barry, the President of the latter, hopes 
many of its members will go. 
Mr. Fleming, seedsman on Nassau St. called 
our attention the other morning to a magnifi¬ 
cent stool of mushrooms—about forty from a 
single root—produced by Mr, Hknshaw. gar¬ 
dener to J. C. Green Esq., New Brighton, 
Staten Island. We never saw anything finer in 
the shape of mushrooms. 
Chas. 8. Horton asks if the process by 
which corn-stareli is manufactured Is patented 
and would like a description of it in the Rural. 
Our impression is that the process is patented. 
If any of our readers, however, know to the 
contrary, lot them inform us. If our corres¬ 
pondent desires to learn the business lie should 
go directly to a manufactory to do so. 
