PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANCE 
ravages; North Carolina, 91; a loss of 1 per 
cent. South Carolina and Georgia have risen 
to 10 per cent, above the average. Florida, 102, 
maintains her July average. Texas declines 
from 106 to 102. The other Gulf States show 
enhanced averages, as followsAlabama, 107; 
Mississippi, 95; Louisiana, 77. 'Die lasl-namcd 
Is partially recovering from the effects of the 
freshets; some insect injuries are rspnrted. 
Of the Southern Inland State*. Arkansas, &5 
and Kentucky 80. show some Improvement, 
while Tennessee 70, and West Virginia 82, In¬ 
dicate the continuance of un.avorabli: condi¬ 
tions. These low averages are accounted for 
by severe and extensive drouth. North of the 
Ohio River all the States show a depressed con¬ 
dition from drouth and insoct Injuries. Cbtnch- 
bugs were active in Ulnois and grasshoppers 
In several counties of Wisconsin. Tue State 
averages are as follows; Ohio, 93 per cent.; 
Michigan, 98; Indiana, 100; I.lluois, 86; Wis¬ 
consin, 98. 
HAVAGES OK GRASSHOPPERS, ETC. 
From the same returns we learn that west of 
the Mississippi River the ravages of grasshop¬ 
pers and chincb-bugs have been .severely felt in 
some counties, in some cases sweeping all the 
summer crops. It is very remarkable that In 
Minnesota, whom local injuries have specially 
occupied public attention, the highest state id 
the crops In counties not affected by the pests 
hnve raised the condition to a full average. Ail 
the other States, however, show a decline as 
follows: Iowa from 10-1 to 108; Missouri, 100 to 
74; Kansas, 102 to 70; Nebraska, 109 to 43. In 
the last-named State every county reports 
.severe injuries from grassbup; era. On the 
Pacific Coast, California has raised her average 
from 99 to 103, and Oregon has depressed hers 
from 103 to 100. 
land in the blue grass region, and raises cattle 
and takes them to market like other drovers. 
The last time she came to Pittsburgh she 
brought two car loads, and was helped by her 
son of seventeen years. She Is a smart woman, 
and is respected by the other drovers. 
Number XXI, 
The attitude of the policy holder is nearly 
wholly passive. The company pre-arranges the 
plans—fixes the terms and conditions, controls 
the management, holds the purse, keeps the 
reckoning and allots the benefits, leaving to 
the members the simpler duties of compliance 
with the stipulations of the contract. The 
theory of mutuality is that the members 
have entire control by electing the directory, 
but since it is practically Impossible to con¬ 
vene them for the purpose, they usually ap¬ 
point some director to vote for them by proxy. 
Even this Is ra-vly done. The company. In fix¬ 
ing conditions, retains the Initial advantages, 
and drives a one-sided bargain. The rate of 
expected mortality is purposely exaggerated, 
in order to be high enough for any emergency. 
The rate of Interest is assumed to be so low t hat 
the experience of perfectly safe investments 
will never fail below it, and the addition for 
expenses is several times as much as should be 
required. 
Tiicse are conditions with which the policy 
bolder may safely comply, if, ns Is assumed, he 
believes the business will be honestly conduct¬ 
ed ; for those errors, if they bo errors, arc easily 
corrected by the repayment of surplus pre¬ 
mium. The condition of forfeiture for non¬ 
payment of premium is not so defensible. The 
policy bolder, who Is always pretty safely as¬ 
sumed to be ignorant of the consequence*, 
until educated by experiment, baa for a hun¬ 
dred years submitted to Its imposition without 
knowing why, at a cost of fully one-t hird of all 
the millions paid in premiums. This condition 
is the bane of the policy holder. It place* the 
reserves at the mercy of the management, and 
gives the company a control over the policy 
holders, not justified by the necessities of the 
insurance part of the transaction. It 1* a pen¬ 
alty grievous to the Insured, profitable to the 
Insurer und Indefensible as an expedient, be¬ 
cause It either enriches stockholders or magni¬ 
fies the profit* of fortunate and persistent mem¬ 
ber# at the expense of the unfortunate. It |* 
the pena'ty paid for the sin of a precarious In¬ 
come and a short purse. 
'ibis I* the penalty against which the policy 
holder now revolts, which lies at the founda¬ 
tion of the recent enormous waste of business 
and which earnestly demand* to be abrogated. 
The dissatisfied policy holder* manifest their 
will in refusing to accept, this penalty. Their 
attitude is passive, but their position 1* strong. 
Their strength lies in their passivity. They 
may not be able to define the burden, but they 
feel it, and since their concurrence is both 
nutrition and existence to the companies, they 
will ultima ely dictate more liberal conditions. 
The corporate Mahomet will go to tuo 
A NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED 
ML. LITERARY AMI FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
UoliiHinith Maid Ahead at Rochester. —The 
Inaugural Meeting of the Driving Park Asso¬ 
ciation, last week, was marked by the greatest 
trotting event ever known. On the second 
day, Aug. 13, Goldsmith Maid trotted a mile 
squarely in 2:14$i, the fastest time on record. 
This is a wonderful performance and eclipses 
the Maid’s previous efforts—while Honker's 
celebrated Dexter, and all other fast trotters 
are thrown completely in tiie shade. 
Founder and Conducting PCditor 
CHAS. D. BEAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER 
AKKoeiate Iiiditori*. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y„ 
Editor or the Department oi> Sheep Hpehapdry. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y., 
Editoh or thk DmtnurxT nr Diur Hcmahdkt. 
«. A. C. HARNETT. Publisher 
Oli! for f> nod Ronds,— Our roads are a dis¬ 
grace to our intelligence, a just reflection on 
our habits of economy, or rather, of no econo¬ 
my, and an index of our stupidity. Wait until 
the fail race* come and overy thoughtful man 
who drives a team over them will Indorse this 
unreserved opinion of the Rural Nkw-York- 
kk. It is easy to have good road*; It is co>tly 
to have poor <>nes; and yet nine-tenth of the 
Rural population do not seem to think so! 
TERMS, IN ADVANCE: 
Subscription.— Single Copy, 12.50 per Year. To 
Clubs:—Kivu Copies, and one copy free to Agent or 
getter up of Club, for 412.50; Seven Copies, usd one 
free, for till; Ton Copies and one free, 420—only 42 
per copy. As we ure obliged to pre-pay the American 
postage on papers mailed to foreign countries, Twenty 
Cents should be added to ubovo rates for each yearly 
copy mailed to Canada, and One Dollar per copy to 
Eui ope. Drafts, Post-Oflloe Money Ordersand Regis¬ 
tered Letters may be mailed at our risk. IIT Liberal 
Premiums to all Club Agent* who do not take free 
copies. Specimen N umber*. Show-Hill*, &c„ sent free 
The Life of the Agriculturist (*aid Lord 
John Kussm.i.) in amoral point of view is the 
most pure nod holy of any class of men; 
pure, because it I# healthful, and vice can 
hardly find time to contaminate it; and holy 
because it brings the Deity perpetually before 
bis view, giving him thereby the most exulted 
notions of supreme power, and the most 
fascinating and endearing view of mortal 
benignity. 
ADVERTISING RATE8 : 
Inside Htii and Intb pages! Agate space).(10c. per line, 
'• liUh page..............70 “ 
Outside or last page.1.00 " 
Fifty per cent.extra for unusual display. 
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Reading “ ...2.00 ** 
Discount on 4 Insertions. 10 per ct.; * Ins., 15 per ct.; 
13 hi*., 20 per ct.; 2Mn*., 25 per ct.: 52 Ins., 33X per ct. 
IUF" No DdvertlKiMUcnl inserted for loss than 45. 
RURAL BREVITIES 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES 
The first bale of tin* new cotton crop was re¬ 
ceived at Galveston, Ttx., on July 35. 
Six men recently caught 1,000 pounds of trout 
in one day from a Montana rttitiam. 
Five bushel* of grape* upon a single vine 
make glad Hie heart of its owner In Indiana. 
The Grasshoppers are making sad havoc 
among the pota.o and grain fields in Andro¬ 
scoggin Co., Me. 
Rev. W. II. II. MunitAY has begun the con¬ 
struction of a buif-mile track on bis farm at 
Guilford, Conn., lor the exercise of his horses. 
Mr. S. McDonald, who intends to take out a 
colony from Ontario, la now at Fort Garry, 
Manitoba, in seareh uf a suitable tract of land. 
A Clydesdale mare, exhibited at a recent 
Agricultural Fair at S; irling, Scot land, was sold, 
for expoftntiou to America, for the sum of 
82,000. 
Two different reaping machines, with au¬ 
tomatic siieaf-bindingattachments, hive been 
tried in the harvest fields this seasi n with ap¬ 
parent success. 
E. Townkbnd, Pavilion Center. N. Y., has 
sold to c. Callaghan & J. M. Campbell of 
Texas 57 nr-riim rums fur $1,275, and two year¬ 
ling ewes at $100 each. 
X. A. Willard or tiie Rural New-Yorker is 
to deliver the Address at the Fair of the Ham¬ 
ilton Agricultural and Mechanical Associa¬ 
tion, at East Hamilton, N. Y„Sopt. 17. Go and 
hear him! 
Some wretch lately shut off the water from 
the trout ponds of the Hou. James W. Quig- 
GLE. at M' Elbaltan, Penn., whereby 1,883 lively 
trout were destroyed. The fellow desorves 
never to taste trout aguln. 
Gen. Fitzii irGU Lee of Virginia favors the 
objects of the Grangers, but objects to their 
seinecy and the introduc'd n or women into 
membership, two point* which most members 
of the Order think essential. 
Tin. Indiana Farmer says information from 
many counties leads it to believe that the h<>g 
crop will fall near one-fourth below an average 
one tbis year. Th • bog cholera, which has 
been very fatal, is given as the principal cause. 
An Agricultural Club has just been or¬ 
ganized in Jacksonville, Fla, It is to have a 
reading-room for members and the transaction 
of business, and fruits, flowers and prize vege¬ 
tables are to lie exhibited weekly. A good 
move. 
The Fish Commissioners of Massachusetts, 
with Gov. Talbot and Staff, are to liavo a fort¬ 
night's sport ai Sebago Luke In Maine, begin¬ 
ning tliis week. Tiiey have in view the trans- 
Butler mid Cheese ni ilie 81 . LoiiIh Fair.— 
One thousand dollar* is offered in pi em I unis on 
butter and cheese to bo exhibited at the St. 
Louis Fair. Most of the premiums are to bo 
competed for by parties in Missouri and other 
Southern States and the West. Some compara¬ 
tively small premiums for butter and cheese 
are open to general competition. A copy of 
the premium list, giving the requisite Informa¬ 
tion concerning the. rules to be observed in re¬ 
gard to exhibitors competing, may be had of 
G. O. ICald of St. Louis, Secretary of the Asso¬ 
ciation. Wo are glad to see our Southwestern 
iriends alive to the interests of the dairy. 
These liberal premium* will very likely bring 
out it number of exhibitors, and must stimulate 
to renewed exertion in producing a first-class 
article. The St. Louis butter and cheese deal¬ 
ers, by whom, it is understood, the premiums 
are offered, are to bo commended lor their en¬ 
terprise aud liberality, x. a. w. 
IWOpHE’S 
SATURDAY, AUG. 22, 1874. 
THE INDUSTRIAL FAIRS. 
nimiu- 
tain, If the mountain does not come at his 
bidding. If the asaurant will not accept the 
company’s terms, the company will abate their 
sev rily until the exacting customer is suited. 
Tiie present e uergency is especially auspicious 
for concessions, and may be expected to be pro¬ 
lific of liberal plans. The logic of a decreasing 
business is very Imperious,and will not lie mis¬ 
understood. The change will come slowly and 
reluctantly, but it will be made first by the most 
eager contestants, aud eventually by the most 
conservative. The change will probably be de¬ 
layed as Joi gas possible, and will not be per- 
mltted to interrupt the gains wbloh flow from 
the present ratuer precipitous exodus. When 
Prices of Xoled American Horses, —The fol¬ 
lowing are Rome of the prices paid for Ameri¬ 
can horses;—Kentucky, $40,000; Norfolk, 
$15,000; Lexington, $15,OUO ; KiucILhcr, $15,000; 
Gleoeig, $10,000; Smuggler, $15 000; Blackwood, 
$30,009; Jay Gould, $30,030; Dexter, $33,003; 
Lady Thorne, $30,000; Jim Irving, $30,000; 
Goldsmith Maid, $2o.000; Startle, $20,000; Pros- 
pero, $30,000; Rosalind, $20,COO; Lulu, $30,000; 
Happy Medium, $25,000; Clara G, $33,000.; Poca¬ 
hontas, $35,000; Edward Everett. $20,000; Au¬ 
burn horse, $13 W0; Judge Fullerton, $20,000; 
Mambrino Bertie, $10,000, Socrates, $30,000; 
George Palmer, $15,000; Mambrino Pilot, 
$12.000; George P, Daniels, $8,000; J. G. Brown 
$12,0C'0 ; Flora Teinj la sold, when aged, for 
$8,000, for brood mare; $25,000 was offere i and 
refused for Torn Bowling last summer; $30,000 
was offered and refused for Bassett in bis tlirte- 
year-old form ; $25,000 will not to-day buy Bay- 
wood or Asteroid; $10,000 was offered and re¬ 
fused for Woodford Mambrino, and $20,000 for 
Thorn dale. 
these difference*Then the companies profil¬ 
ed by a redundance ol tnone . to specialize ex 
pensive insurances and high premiums. Life 
insurance was advocated as an investment more 
profitable, prospectively, than any other. The 
revulsion will be in an opposite direction, and 
low premiums, cheap insurance and endorsed 
surrender values, will open to the companies a 
field of business almost untried, among those 
who most need but are least aide to pay for 
•irotectivo insurance. There will be, of course, 
a large number of mushroom companies offer¬ 
ing, like the late lamented co-operative compa¬ 
nies, to Bell insurance below first cost. They 
will, as usual, obtain some business, fleece their 
dupes, and repeat the programme of the com¬ 
panies they replace, while the better compa¬ 
nies—those that have vindicated their claims 
MUk for Couauiupiion in Chicago.—Accord¬ 
ing to the Chicago Journal, the milkmen fur¬ 
nishing milk for the Chicago market have de¬ 
cided to employ an agent there who will re¬ 
ceive all their milk and Bell it to the city 
peddlers. Tiie agent is to be held responsible 
forallthe milk delivered to him. It is oigeJ, 
also, that ice-houses be built 1 1 tbo railroad 
station where milk is shipped, and that next 
summer ice be placed around the milk cans in 
the cars. We see no reason why this plan will 
not prove a success. It certainly gives the 
dairyman control of their own business and 
relieves tlietn from abuses which they have 
hitherto been subjected to by the middlemen. 
CONDITION OF THE CORN CROP, 
The Wisconsin Cranberry Crop will this year 
be fair—in some instances a larger one than for 
years previous. The drouth and the fire* have 
done some damage, especially on the higher 
grounds. Carey’s marsh, in Green Lake County, 
which it was estimated would produce from 
20,000 to 30,000 barrels, will fff* I short of that. 
The Wood County marshes promised a short 
crop until lately, when the recent rains doubt¬ 
less brought them out all right. Mr. Rounds, 
a prominent cranberry grower of Berlin, states 
that on his marsh there is a prospect of a larger 
crop than ever before. 
The August returns to the Department of 
[ Agriculture from New England show a general 
improvement in the corn crop during July, 
1 though it is still backward. Maine averages 93 
per cent, of a full crop; New Hampshire, 93; 
Vermont. 87; Massachusetts, 101; Rhode Is¬ 
land, 100; Connecticut, 107. It is very promis¬ 
ing In portions of the Middle S ate*, but in 
other parts it was injured either by drouth or 
excessive rain. A decline Is noted In New 
York, where the average Is 94 and In New 
Jersey 91. Pennsylvania aud Delaware have 
both risen to 1 per cent, above the average. Of 
the South Atlantic States, Maryland shows 96 
per cent, with the crop damaged by drouth, 
especially on stiff soils; Virginia, 90; also 
damaged from the same cause and from insect 1 
A Lady Drover, whom our frieud Miss Minv 
Morgan would admire for her pluck and busi¬ 
ness qualities, is thus made a note of bv an 
exchange:—Mrs. Martha Magee,85 years old, 
of Cyntlilana County, Ky„ owns 400 acres of 
