MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AU8. i j 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATION AT. IT .LUSTRATED 
llOm, L1TEBAKY ANB FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
d. d. t. moor.E, 
Founder and Conductiuji Kditor* 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
Associate Editors. 
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Editor or th* Dkcautmicxt or Shkki* Hmmutiuv. 
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FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANCE. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 1, 1S74. 
AND NOW FOE THE FAIES! 
The Akicultukal Fairs and other Indus¬ 
trial Exhibitions— Horticultural, Mechanical, 
&c.,—for the Autumnal Season of 1874, will soon 
be in order, and lienee now Is the proper lime 
to “ make ready" therefor. Taking It for grant¬ 
ed that most of ear readers believe that Ru¬ 
ral Fails and Shows may bo rendered highly 
beneficial however badly some of them may 
have been managed, or mismanaged, in the 
post—we urge farmers, horticulturists) manu¬ 
facturers, mechanics, and ail other industrial 
producers, topreparoin season (o present speci¬ 
mens of their products, wares, etc.., at the 
approaching exhibitions. Farmers, and their 
wives, sons and daughters, should especially 
take palus to attend, and contribute to the 
variety and valuo of the exhibitions held in 
their respective localities. Our idea is that 
every farmer, horticulturist, gardener, etc., 
ought, os » rule, to contribute first to the near¬ 
est Fair—whether Town, Union or County—and 
exercise his influence to see that it. is conducted 
in an unobjectionable manner. By becoming 
a member, and attending annual and other 
meetings, any farmer can do much toward the 
proper direction of the affairsof a Societ y. A rid 
this Is much better than keeping aloof and 
complaining of faults and errors which his 
presence and advice might have obviated. 
But how about attending, and exhibiting 
samples of your products at the Fairs Y Thai 
our Rural Fairs would be much better, in all 
respects, if more generally attended and con¬ 
tributed to by the great, mass of our best farm¬ 
ers, breeders, etc., there can lie no doubt. And 
these are the people—leading, well-to-do farm¬ 
ers aud their families—who should control the 
Fairs and see that they are so conducted as to 
bring no disgrace upon the cause of Progress 
and Improvement. Their personal attendance 
and influence would tend to prevent much that 
is out of place and objectionable, if not demor¬ 
alizing, in many exhibitions, and to render them 
instructive and beneficial, as well as highly en¬ 
tertaining and enjoyable. Indeed, our Fairs 
should not only he instructive and profitable 
to practical people, but so managed as to prove 
interestingto all intelligent, right-moaning per¬ 
sons, of both sexes aud all ages, w ho may attend 
them. Just how to combine with a useful ex¬ 
hibition such recreation and amusement as 
shall be unobjectionable may require some 1 
thought and attention, but ought not to be a 
difficult problem. There ought to be brains 
enough in every society to arrange a combined 
Fair and Festival, so as to render the occasion 
not only profitable as n school of instruction to 
those engaged in Industrial pursuits, but also 
a pleasant holiday to all participants. 
— And now. Header kind, get ready for the 
Fairs!- not only as a spectator, but as an ex¬ 
hibitor to one or more departments, and thus 
aid in promoting Rural Improvement. 
Number XVIII. 
Though the ordinary premiums of life insur¬ 
ance provide very liberally for I ho expenses of 
management, this allowance has often proven 
insufficient for the outlays of ambitious officers, 
and a large share of the capital stock has been 
known to have been wasted before the State 
officials could Interfere to prevent utter insolv¬ 
ency. The Superintendent has the alternative 
to place such a company In the hands of a le- 
ceiver, who will wind up its affairs as provided 
by statute; but as this unavoidably leaves the 
impaired live? without Insurance or the possi¬ 
bility of obtaining It. the usual course is to cut 
off the chief expense by interdicting new busi¬ 
ness until I In* deficit is made good. The stock¬ 
holders, recognizing this restriction as a virtual 
closing of the company's doors, Improve the 
opportunity to reirubuiTe themselves as far as 
possible by reinsuring their risks with some 
other company. How they do so honestly, is 
mm of those conundrums which abound in this 
peculiar business. They abandon the business 
because they have not enough assets to cover 
their liabilities, yet, with their Inadequate re¬ 
sources, expect not only to reward the company 
that accepts and assumes their liabilities, but 
also to leave a margin of profit for themselves. 
Such a feat of financial adroitness, though im¬ 
possible in any ot her business, lias been so fre¬ 
quently performed in life insurance a#, to Im u 
familiar lilt nf aerobatic*. The English com¬ 
panies did it, so often and so profitably to them¬ 
selves as to provoke a distinguished writer to 
assert that “all the thieves in F.nglnnd had not 
stolen as much money as the life offices." 
It is accomplished in exchanging the policies 
of the new company for those of the old. The 
old policy had been in existence many years, 
and had a large row.tw, which w as also a large 
liability or debt of the retiring company, while 
the now policy required a small reserve. In 
making the exchange l he company gets rid of a 
large llabilit > or debt, and retains, if the policy¬ 
holder will submit to It, all the accompanying 
assets. The company enjoys the advantage of 
knowing what the old policy is worth, while 
policy holder may not he aware that it is worth 
anything whatever, and being pretty badly 
frightened by the prospect of entire loss may 
gratefully accept the exchange. 
Quite a number of reinsurances have been 
effected In tills country also, and have proveu 
profitable to all parties except the policy-hold¬ 
ers. The (’ontlnontnl Life insurance Company 
lias done rather more than its allotment of this 
business. On its books are to be found policies 
taken out originally In as many ox four com¬ 
panies, perhaps more. First came the British 
Commercial, a foreign company declared in¬ 
solvent many years since, whose risks In this 
country w ere turned over to the Continental in 
consideration of some hundreds of thousands 
of dollars. Then the Empire Mutual, which 
hud itself reinsured the American Tontine Life 
ins. Co., was in turn reinsured by the Conti¬ 
nental. The Hmpire was always regarded as an 
offshoot of, and a sort of tender to, the Cont i¬ 
nental, and created little surprise when "It 
went homo to Its mother." How many of the 
policies of the Empire were really reinsured by 
the Continental is not known, hut it is sup¬ 
posed that quite a number were uot, for the 
Continental had 23,350 policies and $53,700,000 
Of insurance in 1870, and 25,054 policies and $57,- 
000,000 Insurances in 1871— again of 3,000 poli¬ 
cies and $4,300,000 insurance; while it had only 
28,579 and $60,250,000 Insurance, after having 
professedly reinaured the Empire with 6,810 pol¬ 
icies and $14,000,000 insurance. Allowing that 
the Continental t ransacted its usual amount of 
business, ami gained on its own account as 
many policies and insurances as usual, it should 
have had at the end of 1872, after reinsuring the 
Empire, 34,603 policies and $75,100,000 insurance 
in force, instead of 28,570 policies and $00,200,- 
000. There was a fearful falling off, somewhere, 
of 0,114 policies and $15,000,000 of insurance, and 
as each U>*t policy represents a gain to the re¬ 
insurers, it is probable that the Continental 
made this Bort of business pay. 
Perhaps the memory of former profits may 
have encouraged the Continental's attempt to 
reinsure its own policies. The offers made by 
this company to exchange policies exhibit an 
induration of cheek which may have been edu¬ 
cated by long practice, but coukl never be spo¬ 
radic. A gentleman holding a paid-up life pol¬ 
icy in the Continental reoeived the following 
summons: 
“ Dear Sir You will find it to your interest 
to call at Hi is office with reference to Policy 
No.-, which you hold in this Company. 
“Yours respectfully, 
“G. \Y. Crofct, for Sec'y. 
He called, and heard and rejected an offer to 
allow $75 in cash, and three and a-half years’ 
premiums on a term policy of fifteen years, in 
exchange for his paid-up life policy. It was in 
his case represented to be an insurance for 
whole life. The policy he held was worth about 
$600, and free from future expense to him; the 
new one called for eleven and a-half payments 
of $73.40 each $808.40 in all—for an insurance 
terminating peremptorily in fifteen years. Had 
he accepted it. the company would have gained 
—and he would have lost—at once, about $470 
in cash, and for $800 more could be insured the 
same amount for twelve years additional. As¬ 
suming that this Is a fair sample of the ex¬ 
changes offered by the Continental, would it 
not be best to suspect any offer and reject all 
incontinently and finally? An offer to ex- < 
change would scarcely be made if the company < 
would not gain by the transaction, and if the 1 
company gains some one must lose. i 
--- 
MACHINERY ON THE FARM, 
The early cutting of hay which has become 
the fashion now because it is profitable could 
not have been done this year but for the ad¬ 
mirable mowers which are distributed in every 
neighborhood. Instead of the hay harvest lin¬ 
gering along through July and far into August, 
a* was formerly the case when the farmer and 
liia hind man nibbled away day after day at one 
side of a badly-lodged clover field with their 
scythes, the mowers have cleaned the fields 
out in short order. Gross, a* a rule, has been 
cut and received when it ought to be—the ted¬ 
der following thelmower, the horse rake, the 
tedder, and the horse pitchfork relieving the 
farmer of the stilling and perspiring work of 
unloading and stowing away. Then the time 
saved ! Half tbo help and one-fifth of the time 
is required that used to be in the good old days 
when scythes, boys to spread the hay, hand- 
rakes, at d ordinary pitchforks and farm muscle 
had this work to do. Then, also, blessed 1* the 
man who Invented hay caps—those canvas or 
cotton concern* that are pegged right over a 
cock of hay as soon as a shower threatens. 
Thou ands of tons of hay have been saved from 
depreciation tills season by their use, and 
thousands more ought to have been. Besides, 
they are Just as useful on barley cocks, or cocks 
of barley and oats, and on shocks of wheat and 
oats. 
Next come the reapers, self-raking or other¬ 
wise, which save Hie laborious swing of the 
cradles and the raking of the swaths prepara¬ 
tory for binding. Grain can be cut when it 
ought to be, bound at once, set in shocks, 
capped, and then received in the ricks or on 
the scaffolds, or, which Is fast becoming the 
1 practice on the larger grain farms, drawn right 
to the combined thresner, separator and cleaner, 
1 set in the tteldand thrashed and stored In bags, 
’ the straw being loft where it grew. No man 
' need send illy-eleaned grain to market, nor sow 
foul seed at seedlug, for the fanning mills, 
' otherwise known as separators, are now so 
' perfected that the heavy grain can bn separated 
from the light, the cheat from the cockle, the 
grass seed from the clover, &c. Indeed, there 
is no kind of separation the farmer requires 
1 that cannot now bo done with the Improved 
1 machines that, are put upon the market. 
Next comes the fall plowing and fall seeding. 
Here arc the labor-saving machines again! 
Gang plows on wheels, the driver riding and 
managing the plows, turning two furrows with 
more ease and quite as well as he used to turn 
one. An extra horse or two Is all that is re¬ 
quired in the heavier work. The Improved 
S harrows or wheat cultivators help to prepare 
the ground where further pulverization Is nec¬ 
essary. Then the drill, which distributes the 
| seed, both grain and grass, sowing with It fer¬ 
tilizers if desired, and rolling the ground com- 
’ partly upon it, is all done on many farm? at a 
single operation. 
t Again, the door yards and grounds about 
? homes need not wear ragged clothing longer— 
that is, there is no need of a neglected look 
' about the house beoause, forsooth, the farmer 
’ and his boys cannot get time to cut the grass 
^ and weeds. A lawn mower, of which there are 
plenty good ones, costs but a trifle, can be used 
about shrubbery and among flower beds where 
It is difficult to swing a scythe, may be fur- 
, nlshed the women folk, whose pride alone will 
I tempt them to push it over Lhe lawn and yard 
t for the sake of the tidy appearance it secures. 
f If this is thought to be too heavy work for the 
, women, let ua say that we have seen mowers 
j that a girl twelve years old could force through 
} the grass without much exhaustion and de- 
. lighted in doing so. There is, therefore, no ex¬ 
cuse for neglecting the lawn grounds about the 
house because help is so scarce. 
I When it comes to cutting corn, there are ma- 
- chines that are drawn by one or two horses 
I that cut une or two rows at a time as fast as a 
team can walk and deposits it in gavels ready 
for the binder; husking machines to do the 
husking, and we shall have—have now, adapted 
to some soils and localities—potato-diggers to 
save us ibis back-torturing work. 
So we might go on through almost every 
phase of farm life to show what improved im¬ 
plements are doing to revolutionize labor on 
the farm and relieve the farmer and his family 
of once grievouB burdens? But wherefore? 
Don't everybody kuow it? 
-♦♦♦- 
RURAL NOTES AND OUERIES. 
Advice Again.— Mr. J. G. Becker sends us 
another note, in which he says, " I prefer mixed 
farming—raising wheat, oorn, oats, some cattle, 
sheep, &c." He asserts that land is too high in 
his neighborhood to farm. This Is so broad a 
country and there are so many opportunities 
for purchasing cheap lands that It seems in¬ 
vidious to name any locality. Thero are cheap 
lands of good quality near some of the iron 
towns of East Tennessee, where there are good 
markets for ail kinds of produce. But there 
are doubtless objections, which only could be 
known to the settler by going over the field. 
1 lliriois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Wis¬ 
consin and Minnesota each offer opportunities 
for a man with small capital and willingness tq 
work. Localities in each have advantages apd 
disadvantages. The best advice we can give our 
con espondent 13 to spend $150 ol his $1,500 look¬ 
ing for himself. The fixing upon a home is too 
important a matter to be left to the judgment 
of other parties than those most interested. 
During the past five years we have published 
many letters descriptive of lands ami advant¬ 
ages in nearly every State in the Union. Our 
correspondent can consult these volumes at 
any time in our office, if he chocwes to call. 
That “ Work i* Worship" has long been art 
axiom with many, but here is an exemplifica¬ 
tion of it. from an unexpected source—India. 
The Hindoo Patriot and Indian Journal says 
that the famine has produced a reformer in 
the person of Pundit A-JOODA P rabid, who 
has succeeded in teaching the Hindoos that 
work i* worship. He la himself a Brahmin of 
high caste, and has given practical example by 
working steadily with a pickaxe and hoe. If, 
would he Interesting to see the effect of the 
teaching of this high caste Brahmin on some of 
the more civilized nations of the earth who do 
not altogether hold that work is worship. There 
are thousands of people in American cities and 
villages who ought to go to school to the wise 
and practical Phased, heathen though ho may 
be called. 
. •*» 
Publishing rtrnd Heni».—A Vermont agricul¬ 
tural paper publishes a list of “ Dead Beats”— 
that is, the names of men who owe for their 
paper and do not seem inclined to pay. We do 
not know which is placed in t, lie worse light- 
the “Dead Beats " thus bulletined or the Jour¬ 
nal which thus proclaims its old fogyistn and 
lack of business common sense by adhering 
to the miserable credit system, which we had 
supposed defunct more than a decade. A paper 
that cannot command the confidence of its sub¬ 
scribers to l he extent of advance pay on sub¬ 
scriptions, ought not to do so mean an act as 
to publish a list of delinquents, and thereby 
proclaim its own weakness. 
—-- 
Times nnd places of Holding Fair*.— As we 
wish to give, two or throe weeks hence, as 
complete a list as possible of the Agricultural 
Fairs to be held during the ensuing autumn, 
the Secretaries of Local, County, District, State 
and Territorial Societies will please notify us 
of the times nnd places designated for holding 
their respective exhibitions. An early com¬ 
pliance with this request will be appreciated 
and enable us to furnish Information of Inter¬ 
est and value to a largo portion of our readers. 
Mr. Secretary, or other officer of an Industrial 
Society, by responding sow you will enable ub 
to give a stunning list. 
-- 
The Foreign Grain Trade.—Our British re¬ 
ports up to July 11 show a falling off in the 
price of wheat, In consequence of the continued 
favorable reports of crop prospects on the Con¬ 
tinent and In Great Britain. Barley, oats, aud 
corn maintain their prices. The weather for 
the week ending the dale named had been 
favorable for maturing the crops—only too hot, 
If anything, being reported 80“ in the shade and 
130° in the sun. The arrivals at Liverpool f*otn 
foreign ports seem to bo quite equal to the de¬ 
mand. 
Si cam in Agriculture.—We must and will 
come to it. The coming agriculturist will as 
surely employ steam power in the prosecution 
of farm operations as the manufacturer now 
does. The old water power is almost extinct. 
Horse power on the best cultivated farms will 
in the next half century give place to stoam to 
a large extent. It Is as sure to happen as that 
mowing machines, reapers, horse rakes, pitch- 
forks and tedders now supplant the old pro¬ 
cesses. Mark the prediction! 
The Sugar Heels nt Freeport, 111.—We see it 
asserted that nearly 000 acres of sugar beets are 
growing near Freeport, 111., to be consumed in 
the manufacture of beet sugar at that place; 
that ** there is every promise of crops suffi¬ 
ciently abundant to insure the full campaign 
of six months at full capacity, using 00 tons of 
raw beets and turning out nearly live ton3 of 
white sugar per day." We hope this may prove 
to be the case, for this plucky experimenter in 
sugar beet manufacture in Illinois deserves 
success. 
♦»«- 
Boston nnd the Milk .Men.—Boston is looking 
after milk adulterators with something of the 
same vigor which obtains in London. Judge 
Ladd recently lined one man $75 lor putting in 
thirty-seven per cent, of water; another was 
fined $20 and cost of analyses, which was $10, 
and the court costs; another has been fined 
$200 for his second offence. If we could only 
have Justice similarly executed in New York 
for each offense we could soon pay our city debt. 
-♦♦♦- 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
H. R. Grant is informed that we are not 
permitted to give the full address of the corre¬ 
spondent named. 
Clarence D. Perry is informed that be can 
get a design of a good henery by sending to 
this office $1.50 for the People’s Practical Poul¬ 
try Book. 
Those of our readers who have fowls or any 
thing else to sell in response to inquiries hi 
our columns must advertise them iu a legiti¬ 
mate way. 
BUSINESS NOTICES" 
Use the Eui’eka Button-hole Twist and Eu¬ 
reka Machine Twist. They are the best. 
JO 
