MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4ULY 44 
T 
I ". ' ..~ '.. 
PROCRE88 AND IMPROVEMENT. 9 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED " . 
! fiDBAL LITERARY AM) FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
D. D. T. IVIOORE, 
Fonndor and Oonduoting Editor. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW 8. FULLER, 
yVoMooiatn Editor*. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL. D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
KniTOR or TM« D*Y**TM*„T OF SUFFF IlDIIODM, 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y., 
Editor or thb Department or Dairy Husbandry. 
Ct. A. C. BARNETT. Publisher. 
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SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1874. 
THE. GROWING CROPS: 
PROSPECTS AND PROSPECTIVE PRICES. 
From data published elsewhere In this paper 
—under headings of “Crop Reports for Juno," 
(that of our Department of Agriculture, con¬ 
densed,) and “Groat Britain's Imports of 
Wheat,’’—it will be seen that the proapeotaof 
our staple crops are very encouraging, while 
the probabilities are that prices will prove re¬ 
munerative. The Reports ol the Department 
of Agriculture show, for example, a large ag¬ 
gregate increase of both winter and spring 
wheat, stating tho condition of the crop to be 
bettor than the average for a series of years. It 
Is also announced that In most of the States 
the average of rye Is fully equal to or surpasses 
that of last year,—while the breadth of oats Is 
Increased two per cent., though the condition 
of the crop is regarded as slightly below the 
average. The cotton crop Is put at 10 per cent, 
below the nrea of 1870, and its condition, for 
June, slightly below that of the corresponding 
month of last year. The apple crop is reported 
ns above the average in 21 States, while 12 fall 
Southern) report It below. Tho reports from 
peach-growing districts are unfavorable, and 
the pear crop is considered below the average 
in most States oast of the Mississippi, the ex¬ 
ceptions being Southern New England, New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania. On tho whole the 
outlook is favorable for a good yield of the 
staple crops of the country, and It is not be¬ 
lieved prices will be materially reduced aftor 
harvest. 
The statements under tho heading of “ Great 
Britain's Imports of Wheat ’’ indicate that tho 
present prices of breadstuff's will probably be 
sustained, or not materially diminished. Tho 
figures show that not, only the United States 
but most, foreign countries which export to 
Great Britain must be short of stock, and 
hcnco the prospect Is that, prices will remain 
comparatively Arm. Wo are therefore of the 
opinion that prim will rulo higher than hist 
year, though our judgment rnny prove erro¬ 
neous. The figures given in the article Just 
alluded to show that the Importations Into 
Great, Britain during tho first, five months of 
this year greatly exceeded those of the same 
period for 1873, and hence, as already stated, 
the stocks or supply of exporting countries 
must ho reduced. 
— Our conclusion from tho Information at 
present obtainable, Is that the grain growers of 
ximerlca have reason to take heart, for the 
prospect is that their products will be in de¬ 
mand at remunerative prices. Fruit growers 
will also probably reoel vn average prices from 
present indications, while the prospects for 
other producers are encouraging. Whereat we 
rejoice, and congratulate soil cultivators that, 
notwithstanding the unfavorable Spring in 
most sections, the harvest promises to be 
abundant and their remuneration above the 
average. 
FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANOE-XV, 
The ordinary contract, of life insurance in¬ 
volves and requires the deposit of a portion of 
the premiums, to be held in trust by the com¬ 
pany until the policy mat ures by Its terms. This 
condition of insurance, which arises out of the 
use of an equal or level premium. Is never ex¬ 
pressed In t-bc policy, though it Is Implied in 
the recognition of what Is (improperly) called a 
“ reserve or reinsurance fund." A true reserve 
-that. Is, a fund which may be and Is intended 
to be drawn upon to defray extraordinary loss¬ 
es and outlays—Is indispensable to the Integrity 
of any Insurance In which the ratio of loss is 
liable, as In fire Insurance, to vary very greatly. 
Such a fund Is not needed in life insurance, 
because the ratio of loss, tho average mortality, 
is very constant and regular. Nor, Indeed. Is 
any such fund known to life insurance. What 
is called reserre, and ns often and Improperly 
capital, is neither reserve nor capital, but the 
sum of the deposits of policy holders who, to 
the extent of such fund, provide money to pay 
their own claims with, and so, partly, insure 
themsel vca. Whatever the losses, whatever the. 
emergency, the company cannot, legally, use a 
penny more of this fund to pay a loss than be¬ 
longs to n policy that entails tho lo&s. Each 
penny of It belongs as really and truly to some 
policy holder as his deposits with a savings 
hank, and in no more tho capital of the com¬ 
pany than arc the deposits of a savings bank. 
The difference consists only In the circumstance 
that, in becoming a party to the insurance con¬ 
tract, the depositor inadvertently, or ignorant¬ 
ly, relinquished the right to withdraw it or 
otherwise dispose of it. With the oxception of 
a small capital stock, which is always the prop¬ 
erty of those who purchase it, the entire accu¬ 
mulations of a life Insurance company is one 
huge debt to its policy holders. So far from 
being wealthy corporations, they are very poor. 
The largest and beat company in tho world, if 
called upon to settle equitably with its mem¬ 
bers, would not, after paying all Its debts, he 
able to buy the pen used In making up the final 
balance. 
It Is not Indispensable that the policy holder 
should insure himself by depositing money 
with the company, to be returned to himself or 
to his heirs when the policy matures; It is only 
more convenient to pay In equal premiums, 
Tho rtoerve arises from the use of a premium 
greater than is needed to defray current ex¬ 
penses and losses. Where, as in at least one 
company and plan, the assured Is permitted to 
pay each year for the actual Insurance had and 
enjoyed during the year, and is required to pay 
no more, no such fund is created or required, 
arid the penalty of forfeiture (aavoided. Where 
such fund is created and the penalty of forfeit¬ 
ure Is imposed, the resenv; becomes hii adjunct 
of life Insurance, expensive to t he policy holder, 
without any compensative benefit. For exam¬ 
ple, a man thirty-five years old may he Insured 
one thousand dollars for one year, wit bout al¬ 
lowance or addition for expenses, for #8.93, and 
may continue such insurance for nineteen 
years before the natural increase would equal 
the net equal annual premium of a whole life 
policy. By paying #19.87 of net premium every 
year during nineteen years, he insures himself 
the first year #11.48 by depositing nearly this 
sum with tho company, thereby reducing the 
risk of the company to #088.82, for which he 
pays out of the premium #8.83, instead of $8.93. 
He saves apparently ten cents by depositing 
$10.48; but does this small margin of profit 
compensate him for the risk of forfeiting his 
deposit ? The second year be saves a few cent.-*, 
but risks nearly $19, and at the end of the tenth 
year saves a dollar of insurance ex penso by risk¬ 
ing $108. Tie could l>e insured a thousand dol¬ 
lars one year at the age of fifty-four for $19.63, 
and by continuing the payment of a regular 
annual premium for nineteen years preceding, 
ho creates a fund of $.301.35 to pay his own claim 
with, leaving the actual or company’s Insur¬ 
ance less than #700. For this he pays $13.65 and 
saves $5.88; but in view of the fact that he 
risks #300, which he la nearly as certain to for¬ 
feit as he is to live, had he not better think 
awhile before he makes a bargain of thte kind ? 
The qticstion very naturally arises, Why does 
the company require the policy holder to create 
n reserve, if it Is possible to afford life Insur¬ 
ance without this expensive complication ? 
The answer is in a nutshell. Tho custody of 
the reserve makes the company a hank. The 
Insurance of lives from year to year for what it 
is, or was, or may be discovered to be wort h, 
might or might not. he profitable. The experi¬ 
ment. is yet. to he tried ; but insurance with the 
hanking attachment Is profitable. Tho trouble 
Is that the conditions of suoh hanking are such 
that they may bo abused, to the detriment and 
loss of the insuring depositor. The hotter com¬ 
panies have not done so, but the worst may. 
- -» ♦ ♦ - 
“ NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.” 
Never, during our experience of twenty 
years in the Editorial harness, have we known 
so little that Is really new doing in the agricul¬ 
tural and horticultural world. There is plenty 
of new talk —of agricultural buncombe. There 
is, too, a re-adjustment of relations—or an effort 
towards re-adjustment, Perhaps the stagnancy 
referred to Is due to this transforming effort. 
Perhaps it is a necessary preliminary to agri¬ 
cultural and horticultural progress. We know 
there are many good people who tljink so; but 
these relations arg bo interlaced} ftn4 lutertvoyep 
that there must first he a radical upturning and 
overturning of things before they can be reor¬ 
ganized upon any new basis. This effort Is an 
exhausting otic. It is resisted by great powers 
and will require a compactness of combination 
and a faithfulness in co-operation that can 
only he born of the strongest, convictions of its 
necessity and the greateet faith in Its justice. 
Meantime, food must he produced, the indus¬ 
tries must go on, commercial transactions must 
be executed and the dally and hourly evidence 
of the mutual dependence of all classes and 
Interests upon each other must recur. Each 
attempt at reorganization will bring with it its 
penalty, immediate or remote—Just as the fur¬ 
thest brtek in the row feels, finally, the fall of 
the first. The pluck with which such penalties 
are borne by those who Incur them, will bo evi¬ 
dence of the honesty of tliclr convictions and 
purposes. Here comes the test - and hero the 
struggle is to he. It will become a question of 
endurance and of relative power. 
We are not sure that this absence of anything 
new In the agricultural world Is not a healthful 
omen. Besides, there Is something new 1 It Is 
a wholesome, healthful newness tool Tho 
adoption of the cash system, the resolutely set¬ 
ting face against, asking or giving credit, looks 
as If the days of vicious speculation and gas¬ 
eous enterprises and successful humbugs were 
“drawing to a close.” Tills will he something 
new, if It happens in Ihis nineteenth century. 
It is worth working for, too. Every man who 
puls his shoulder to tho wheel to roll It In this 
direction should bo patted on the shoulder and 
called “ Good fellow I” 
GREAT BRITAIN’S IMPORTS OF WHEAT. 
We have In the English papers a statement 
of tho Imports of wheat Into Great Britain 
during the five months ended May 81, 1874, as 
compared with those of the same period for 
1873, with the names of the countries whence 
the Importations were made. From Russia In 
1874,1.940.353; in 1873,4,784,431 cwt. From Den¬ 
mark in 1874,70,951; in 1873, 232.848. From Ger¬ 
many in 1874, 1,440,348; In 1873,1,075,117. From 
France in 1874, 4.227; In 1873, 1,128,607. From 
Turkey, Wallaclda and Moldavia In 1874, 374,- 
770; In 1873, 168,363. From Austrian Territories 
in 1874, 482; in 1873, 15,009. From Egypt in 1874, 
73,311; in 1873, 664,925. From the United States 
in 1874, 9,318,895; in 1873, 5,585,189. From Chili 
in 1874, 039,467; In 1873, 555,706- From British 
North America in 1874, 1,219,153; in 1873,1,012,- 
034. From other countries in 1874,1,219,153; in 
1873,1,012.034. The total imports for the time 
named in 1874 wore 15,184,491 cwt.: in 1873, 
15,199,993—a falling off in the imports of 1874 as 
compared with those of 1873 of 65,502 cwt. Bn t 
It should he noticed that the imports from the 
United States in 1874 as compared with those 
of 1873 is increased 2,629,388 cwt., while the im¬ 
ports from Russia In 1874 are lees than one-hair 
of those of 1873; from Denmark about two- 
thirds less; from France only over u 220 part; 
from Austria fmly a flftioth part; from Egypt 
not one-fourth ns much, and from British 
North America less than in 1873. Only Turkey, 
Wnllachia, Moldavia, Chill, Germany and the 
United States have increased their exports. 
- 4 » » 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Mortgaging the Farm to Build n House.—“ I 
have a good farm unincumbered. My barn is a 
pretty good one, but not as good as I wish it 
was. My house is comfortable, though old and 
without, 'modern Improvements.' My children 
are growing up, and they and their mother 
want a new house. I have not ready money 
enough to build with, and can only do so by 
mortgaging my farm. Would you advise it?" 
So asks a correspondent of t he Ritual New 
Yorker. We have too high a regard for the 
happiness of that family to advise mortgaging 
the farm for such a purpose. Wo would not 
like to know they were enslaved by debt—that 
In consequence of our advice, poor crops, sick¬ 
ness in the family or any nther possible disas¬ 
ter, the failure to pay off the mortgage should 
cause them to lose their house. It is easier to 
build a house by earning and laying up the 
money for it first, with such a stimulus to 
effort, than to pay for tho house after It is built 
and furnished. Besides, there Is no family but 
will enjoy a home paid fur more than one In 
which they live with the consciousness that 
there Is a mortgage on the farm to he lifted. 
Wo linvo Been too many such experiments and 
their consequences to bo willing by the slight¬ 
est assent to enoourage another. 
The New England Fair is to be held at Provi¬ 
dence, Rhode Island. Last year there was a 
good deal of horso about it. This year, it is as¬ 
sorted, there is likely to be far more; Indeed, 
Maine asserts that It was the overpowering 
horse interest in the Society that deprived her 
of the fair this year and gave It to Rhode 
Island. But Maine should take comfort; for 
here is a crumb thrown to her. Tt is announced 
in the Society's Boston organ that at a meeting 
of the ex-Commlssloners of the New England 
and Rhode Island Societies “ there was a unani 
mous feeling in favor of breaking up betting 
and gambling at the fairs and allowing worth¬ 
less horses to take premiums. All were in 
favor of taking steps in the direction of secur¬ 
ing a higher degree of practical usefulness 
from the Society’s exhibitions,”—which seems 
to be equivalent to saying that the New Eng¬ 
land fairs Jiave i?een scenes of betting and 
$ 
gambling; that worthless horses have been 
allowed to take premiums, and that the practi¬ 
cal usefulness of the fairs has been too slight. 
Well! that’s something to confess! 
• - *♦« - 
Length of Lll'c or Funners.—In Massachusetts 
there is a State Board of Health, which has 
been paying attention to the sanitary condi¬ 
tion of farmers. Its fourth annual report is 
published, and an article on tho above subject, 
based upon the reports of country physloinns, 
appears. This testimony. Including evidonco 
collected the past twenty-eight years, shows 
that the average life of the Massachusetts 
farmer is 05 'a years a greater longevity than 
that of any other class. Yet. it Is claimed that 
farmers might live much longer if they were 
better and more carefully fed, lived upon more 
nutritious and wholesome diet, ate with greater 
deliberation, and were careful not to engage In 
active exercise too soon after eating. They 
should oat more fruit and vegetables, less of 
pork, pies, cakes, saleratns biscuit, take pains 
to protect themselves better from sudden 
changes of temperature, deodorize cess pools, 
sinks, out-houses, and keep clean back yards; 
change clothing and bathe more frequently. 
Such statistics and suggestions are valuable, 
and deserve the attention of farmers. 
»♦« 
Hard Work ou n Farm does not always mean 
hard manual labor, necessary as that is to suc¬ 
cess. It oftener means to the intelligent farm¬ 
er, hard thinking, close calculation, effort to 
systematize work and so “ straighten things" 
that every hour’s duties shall have its true re¬ 
lation In the farm economy. Hard thinking Is 
hard work. It is exhausting; hut nothing pays 
better on I lie farm if it Is done with a purpose 
and wise conclusions and purposes are arrived 
at. Now that the busy time Is culminating and 
laborers are few, hard thinking will have to he 
done and an effort made to accomplish the 
most with tho fewest resources. It will hurt 
no one to do this kind of head work ; and some 
people who have never done It will be aston¬ 
ished to find how effective it is in overcoming 
difficulties and accomplishing what may seem 
almost Impossible tasks. 
- ■ - . 
College for Mnstieniing Food.— Quoting a re¬ 
cent paragraph from the Rural New-Yorker 
of a late date, commenting upon a proposed 
“College of Invention," tho Boston Cultivator 
says:- “Wo concur with our coteinporary in 
what hosayft of I lie 'College of Invention,’ etc. 
Soon we shall see a proposition for a college 
for masticating food for the lazy and indolent, 
after colleges are established to do nil the 
thinking, as it cun bo done by machinery or It« 
equivalent, routine hook recitations." 
What we Should Like to Receive.—Facts ! 
Opinions are of less account; but facts and ex¬ 
perience for interchange between farmers are 
a little more valuable in thecolumns of a paper 
that Is to be preserved and referred to, than If 
spoken In a Farmers’Club or Grange, where, If 
reported at nil, they are oftener imperfectly 
arid inadequately reported than otherwise. 
Wo hope our readers are accumulating facta. 
Wo hope they will exchange them with each 
other through our columns. 
- ■ — — ■- 
The Overflowed District* of Louisiana.—It Is 
now stated that the prospects In the over¬ 
flowed districts of Western Louisiana are by no 
means as gloomy as has generally been sup¬ 
posed. The prospect is for a fully two-thirds 
crop of cotton, corn, potatoes, rice, peas, etc. 
We are very glad to hear this. 
A Good Time to Buy Farms.—There never 
waB a better time to buy a farm for cash than 
now. There are more mortgaged farms for 
sale that can be bought cheap for cash than we 
have known in twenty years. Real estate is 
low, and now is 1 he time for a man to buy who 
w ants to do so. 
-*♦«- 
“ Less Loud nnd More Capitall” la fast be¬ 
coming a recognized necessity among farmers; 
for more capital and less land means better 
cultivation per acre—the employment of labor 
in such a way as to render the profits from It 
secure. But who will buy the land and pay the 
cash for it ? 
— ♦ ♦ »■ - ■ 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
P. N. Nicholas is informed that we cannot 
inform him where he can get the game fowls 
he asks for. 
Mas. C. W. 8. is informed that currant 
“ wine," made of juice of the currant and sugar, 
does contain alcohol aftor it is fermented. 
We know of no cheaper nor better work on 
Poultry than the People’s Practical Poultry 
Boole— this in answer to Mr. Daniel Green. 
Lactometers, R. 8. is Informed, can be pur¬ 
chased at any of the dairy furnishing houses or 
can be ordered through almost any agricultural 
implement dealer. 
BUSINESS NOTICES, 
LYONS MUSICAL ACADEMY. 
A thorough, practical School for Instruction on 
the Piano-Forto, in Vocal Culture and Musical 
Theory. Students fitted for teachers. Fall Term 
begins Sept. 9th, Catalogues mailed free. 
O. S. ADAMS, Principal, 
Lyons, Wayne Co., N, Y, 
