RURAL BREVITIES 
pany or, better still, reject any and all enig¬ 
matical policies. These are devices of the worst 
agents and companies; the better despise and 
should combine to reach the guilty parties. 
FALLACIES OF LIFE INSURANCE, 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
A self-raking reaper in Iowa is said to nett 
a leg a day. 
Sheep-eatino bears are troubling the farm¬ 
ers of Itipton, Vt. 
The yield of corn in Southwest Georgia is al¬ 
most unprecedented. 
Cu.xeorkiA peaches are selling in New Mex¬ 
ico at $1.50 per dozen. 
One steamer brought 40,000 water melons into 
lioaton on the 18th inst. 
Fix Baxter steam canal-boats are now run¬ 
ning upon the Erie Canal. 
Torn hundred Angora goats are on the way 
from Liverpool to San Jose, Cal. 
Severe frosts are killing the buckwheat and 
early vegetable crops of New Brunswick. 
Sack am ento. Cal., fruit-dealers shipped 550 
tons of fruit to various points in one week. 
EAB1.T frosts—but as yet few killing ones are 
reported in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota. 
A disease resembling cercbro-splnal men¬ 
ingitis is fatally attacking cattlo in different 
pm* of Connecticut. 
A man in Jasper Co., Gn., gathered from one 
head of wheat 2,570 grains. His corn will aver¬ 
age forty-five bushels to the aero. 
Mn. A. ft. Binquam <-f Barry Co., Mich., esti¬ 
mates bis apple crop this year at 20,000 bushels 
ami his poach crop at OOQ bushels. 
John L. MuADF.n of Wolfoborough, New 
Hampshire, has in his possession a hoe which 
has been in u «* ninety-four years. 
Raising cork trees seems to bo an approach¬ 
ing industry in California. They are said to 
grow very rapidly among the foot-hills. 
Two thousand five hundred perch are to be 
taken from the waters of the Susquehanna and 
placed in the Schuylkill river at Reading. 
Tin: Battle Creek, (Mich.) Journal has been 
told of farmers who were feeding wheat to 
their horses in preference to oats or corn. 
The cranberry cron In Wisconsin Is reported 
aa exceedingly good tbi* season. In some In¬ 
stances a larger yield than for years before. 
Mn. .1. Anderson, of Albion, Mich., has re¬ 
ceived (luring the post three years $8,033 lor the 
wool from a flock of sheep averaging 449 in 
number, 
“Oenkrai, Castkt.ab" was recently sold for 
$2,000. He is a black Spanish rooster, and was 
considered worth that sum by Mr. Win, G. 
Davis or Portland. 
The hay In some parts of Iowa is so very 
abundant and cheap that It has been found 
more economical as a fuel for steam purposes 
Ilian peat or any other substance. 
The Benton Harbor, (Mich.) Palladium men¬ 
tions that u peach grower near Paw Paw Lake 
has had 100 baskets of peaches this season that 
averaged only 25 poaches to the basket. 
The Mark Lane Express, a high authority, 
expresses the opinion that the price of wheat 
in England cannot be much reduced. It says 
the crop in that country will bo but littloabovo 
the average. 
The mushroom crop in Anglosea. England, is 
so heavy that for three days the London & 
Northwestern Railroad Company were obliged 
to run special trains for the conveyance of the 
crop to ike London market. 
In Massachusetts the law is that “adozen 
eggs shall weigh one pound and a half.” It is 
time that the hens should be brought under 
discipline; they have hitherto laid as largo or 
as small eggs as they pleased. 
Siek culture along the Pacific Coast, and es¬ 
pecially at the foot hills of the Sierras, is be¬ 
coming a fixed interest, gradually developing 
a prosperous outlook that promises to be of 
great value at no distant, period. 
The Brodbead, Wis., Independent says War¬ 
ren Gardner, living a few miles north of 
Brodhead, brought two loads of wool into 
market recently, which weighed 4,555 pounds, 
it being the produce of 800 sheep. 
The attempt to export young American shad 
to Germany tor stocking the livers, has proved 
a failure. Although abundantly supplied with 
fresh Croton water, all of the hundred thousand 
fish died of starvation before the end of the 
journey. 
A Kansas correspondent of the Prairie Far¬ 
mer trench plowed about forty acres of prarie, 
used four yoke of cattle and a Michigan double 
plow, gave tiie ground a good hamm ing, and 
planted corn; lie gave no cultivation and 
gathered over forty bushels of good corn per 
acre. 
“ Cheap transportation " Is found to be a 
double-edged weapon which cuts troth ways. 
In Iowa it was supposed that reduced railroad 
rates would make everything lovely. But. now 
come the California farmers who raise early 
turnips, and monopolize the Des Moines mar¬ 
ket as to that commodity. 
A Michigan man, writing from the far West 
in speaking of the wholesale destruction of 
crops from grasshoppers, says that "U you 
want a free fight on your hands, just congratu¬ 
late one of the Grangers on having disposed of 
his crops to the consumer without the inter¬ 
vention of any ‘ blarsted middlemen. *" 
Chicago elevators, as per official returns, con¬ 
tained on Aug. 18th, 929,691 bushels of wheat; 
1,503,907 bushels of corn; 173,999 bushels of oats; 
21,363 bushels or rye, and 34,Oil bushels of bar¬ 
ley, making a grand total of 2,715,019 bushels, 
against 2,177,283 bushels one week previously, 
and 2,470,120 bushels at the same period last 
year. 
A correspondent of Thfi London FieM re¬ 
lates that a cat belonging to a neighbor having 
brought forth her young within a few yards or 
a hen's nest, the hen occasionally takes posses¬ 
sion of the kittens, driving the old eat away 
with great fury, brooding the kittens, and mak¬ 
ing as much fuss over them as if they were her 
own. 
Number XXVI 
Though the promise of impossible dividends 
has misled, perhaps, hundreds of thousands 
into making profitless investments, It continues 
tube the most successful device of unscrupu¬ 
lous canvassers. An appeal to the domestic 
affections 1» ordinarily sufficiently effective to 
induce men to insure, and to pay for insurance, 
but when it comes to payings heavy premium 
for the sake of speculation, it becomes neces¬ 
sary to supplement the other inducements with 
appeals to cupidity. Fortunately for those who 
will not In any other way learn the true pur¬ 
poses and uses of Insurance, the desire to profit, 
by others' losses brings with It its own peculiar 
retribution. 
There are other tricks of agents less profitable 
to them, and in their effects more injurious to 
the policy holder. For his own benefit the agent 
endeavors to present greater inducements to 
insure than his competitors. He has been 
known to underbid ail others in the matter of 
premium, though the rales of premium were 
the same, and offer to dsllver the same kind and 
amount of insurance cheaper. This is done in 
several ways. Sometimes he will purposely u in¬ 
stall) (in. age nf the applicant, causing him, In 
the application for Insurance, to appear several 
years younger. The company issues the policy 
for the premium of the younger age; the pre¬ 
miums are paid until death occurs, when the 
widow, or other beneficiary states the age cor¬ 
rectly In the proofs of loss, disclosing the trick 
of the agent and forfeiting everything insur¬ 
ance, premiums and all. There Is no legal rem¬ 
edy. The act of the agent is assumed to be the 
act of the applicant. The promised provision 
for the bereaved and helpless family w as swal¬ 
lowed up years before to satisfy the greed of a 
wily scoundrel. The remedy in future cases 
is preventive. In all cases tbo applicant should 
at the time he is examined make a true copy of 
the application, compel theagontnndphysician 
to certify Its correctness, and thou send the 
original t o the company, posting It with his own 
hand to prevent any possible alterations or 
erasures. There is at least one New Fork com¬ 
pany that makes this course compulsory and 
will grant no policy whatever until it is com¬ 
piled with. 
Another trick Is that of misstating the condi¬ 
tions of 1 he polloy In respect to the time of pay¬ 
ment. The agent prepossesses the applicant in 
favor of a ten-year endowment insurance-^that 
Is, an insurance payable to the party at the end 
of ten years, or to the widow or other repre¬ 
sentative in case of previous death, fixing the 
proposed premium at say fifty dollars per thou¬ 
sand insured, which Is usually about hah the 
table rate for this Insurance. The applicant 
thluks this a good bargain, which Indeed it 
would be If such a policy was ever delivered to 
him. Tnis is not the canvasser's Intention. He 
manages to deliver the pulley at an inconven¬ 
ient hour, usually on the eve of his departure 
or when ho has a pretext for haste; the pre¬ 
mium is paid, the policy filed away with other 
papers, and perhaps several years afterwards 
produced to satisfy the doubts of some other 
agent who detects Iho cheat and pronounces it 
to bo what In reality It is, a ten-payment, whole- 
life policy payable at death only. As in the 
former case cited, there Is no redress. 
Much in the sumo way a simple term insur¬ 
ance may be made to do duty as a ten or fifteen 
payment, whole-life policy, to be exempt from 
further payment at the end of that number of 
years; and in some instances, when the appli¬ 
cant is unusually confiding, unobservant and 
credulous, a bright rnscal has been known to 
palm off a term policy for an endowment. This 
is one of the latest inventions, one tiiat has been 
and is now a source of great profit to the un¬ 
scrupulous parties specializing it. The Idea 
may have originated w ith same exceptionally 
inventive agent, who had gotten profits out of 
the obtuseness or Inattentiveness of his cus¬ 
tomers, but the circumstance that all these 
convertible plans are rechristened with attract¬ 
ive and sometimes Illusive names, suggests a 
suspicion of connivance with the canvasser. 
There are policies in the market called by the 
company and canvassers endowment policies, 
(the word endowment having a distinctive and 
usually pleasing adjective before It,) which are 
In a limited sense true endowments—that is, 
they promise to pay a contain sum of money on 
a certain day, but that sum is not the sum 
named in the face of the policy. A thousand 
dollar insurance of this kiud promises that sum 
in case of death within ten or twenty years, but 
only one hundred or two hundred and fifty, or 
the net value of the policy, at the end of ten or 
twenty years. This is the very latest trick, and 
though it is as easily detected by any one who 
will take the trouble to read the policy, some 
very intel ligent people have been deceived by it. 
The prevalence of these and other devices in 
almost endless variety should warn those who 
propose to insure that “ eternal vigilance is the 
price" of other things besides liberty. There 
is no security except in carefully studying the 
policy proposed to be delivered—the identical 
policy, not by any means a sample —and by 
comparing, the four specific items; the pretnilim 
to be paid, when, where, and how long; the sum 
to be paid at death ; the sum to be paid at ma¬ 
turity if an endowment insurance, and the time 
when such endowment is to be paid. If in 
doubt about any of these, accept the assistance, 
not of the agent, hut of the best lawyer to be 
had. If he is In doubt send it back to the com. 
A NATIONAL II,LUSTRATED 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES 
Ph ase Stop My What 1—Under this head¬ 
ing the Baptist Watchman has a caustic para¬ 
graph which, like a New England Almanac, Is 
adapted to a wide region of this great and gel- 
orlous Republic. Iu fact we reckon I lie econo¬ 
my in brains alluded to, and the preferred in¬ 
dulgence In Btimulunts, ornaments, etc,, pre¬ 
vails ull over tbo Civilized (?) portions of the Con¬ 
tinent. But hear the Watchman“Times are 
hard, business is dull, money is scarce, en¬ 
trenchment is a duty—please stop my—whisky? 
‘O, no; times are not hard enough for that. 
But there is something else that cost, mo a 
large sum of money every year, which I wish 
to save. Please stop my' — tobacco, cigars, 
snuff '! ‘ No, no, not those ; but T must, retrench 
somewhere. Please stop my’ ribbons, jewels, 
ornaments and trinkets? ‘Not at all; pride 
must be fostered, and ir times nre so hard ; but 
I believe I can sco a way to effect quite a saving 
in another direction. Please stop my*—tea, 
coffee and unhealthy luxuries? ‘No, no, no, 
not those, 1 must think of something else. Ah, 
1 have it. now. My paper cost $2 a year; I must 
save that! That will carry mo through the 
panic easily. I believe in retrenchment and 
economy, especially in brains.” 
CflAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
Associate ICditors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
Emtou oir thk Dip* ftTMKNT or Shkkp I!c«»»xi*ky. 
X. A, WILLARD, A. M„ Little Falls, N. Y., 
El>lTOB OF THK DlPillTklNT OF DaIBY HUfcBANDBY. 
ii. A. C. BARNETT* Publisher 
TERMS FOR 1875, IN ADVANCE, 
INCLUDING POSTAGE, WHICH ITUUSItKRS PREPAY. 
SlmMe Copy, $2.86 per Year. To Club*; Five Cop¬ 
ies, nnd one copy free to Audit. or getter UP ol Club, 
for$13,40; Seven Coplncand one free, for $17.20; Ton 
Copies, and one free, $21,W-OOly $2.15 per copy. Tin* 
above roles /nctu,/,- pouf apt-(wliioli we shall be obliged 
to prepay after .Ian. I. 1875,under the oow law,i to 
any part of the United States, and the American 
postage on all copies mailed to Canada. On papers 
mailed to Europe, by steamer, the postage will bo 85 
cents extra—or $<.50 in all. Drafts, Post-Office Money 
Orders and Registered Letters may be mailed at our 
risk. $17” Liberal Premium* to all Club Agents who 
do DOi take free copies. Hpr-elmen Numbers $how- 
Blils, Ac., sent free- _ 
ADVERTISING RATES: 
Inside. 14th and 16th pages (Agate space).00c. per line. 
“ 13th page.•*™ “ 
Outside or Inst page.. ...LOU 
Fifty per rent. Oxl ra for unusuBl display. 
Special Notices, leaded, by count .1.25 
Business “ *-50 
Heading * 2.U0 
Discount on 4 insertions. 10 per ct.; 8 tns., 15 per ct.; 
13 ins.. 20 per ct.: 26 ins., 25 per et.; 52 Ins., 33X per ct. 
B*r Ne advertisement inserted for less than $3. 
Agreeable Reading.—As a rub- there is no 
more pleasant reading in agricultural papers 
than the letters which come fresh from the 
farm, and are written, not by those who make 
it their business to write for the press, not by 
those who have Borne Interest which they think 
they can advance by writing, but by the fann¬ 
ers and those simply interested in their own 
rural avocations and surroundings. The rough¬ 
est farmer need not lie afraid or unkind criti¬ 
cism. His letter will be read by some good 
friend who will prepare It for the printer, and 
it will appear with the initials only, or the full 
name, or an assumed one, ns may be desired. 
Is there anyone who reads this who really 
thinks that, there Is not some useful thing 
which he or she understands, or docs better 
than almost anybody else? Let us hear it. 
Tell us and other folks how to do it, and you 
will learn twice as much from others. 
PUBLICATION OFFICES: 
78 Duane Street, New York City, and No. 67 
East Main St., (Darrow’s Bookstore, Osburn 
House Block,) Rochester, N. Y. 
553 / 6 ', 
The Rain. -The vicinity of New York suffered 
from drouth for some six weeks to two months 
previous to the tilth of August. Then came a 
rain gentle at first and finally powerful and 
soaking. Everybody called It the “Line storm," 
or equinoctial. “OKI Probabilities’' said the 
Middle States would have clear or clearing 
weather day aftor day, but down came the bles¬ 
sed rain in spite of “ Old Prob.” Then on the 
19th he said it would rain and so it did. but the 
sun came out. Those of us attending the 8tate 
and Western New York Fairs found “elcar or 
clearing weather" pretty much all the time, 
and so most likely it was over a large part of 
the Middle States, The papers which criticise 
the weat her reports so savagely would do well 
to study the facts a little. 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 26, 1874. 
RECUPERATION 
says;—“From the agricultural pans ui mi 
country orders are n early os large as usual and 
money is easy." And ibis is an indication of 
what is to come. ThecomplaJntsnf hard times 
which have been in Hie mouth of everybody 
for the past year now bid fair to be replaced by 
reports of active bualness. When the agricul¬ 
tural districts, which comprise the true con¬ 
servative elements of she country, begin to 
purchase, business really commences. 
Speculative transactions are mostly confined 
to large cities, while the solid purchases and 
sales are made by and to the Ruralists. As we 
some months ago predicted it would, the coun¬ 
try is fast recoveri n, 
of last October, 
Western Farmer? in want of a market and 
desirous of finding one in foreign countries 
across the Atlantic should remember that one 
manufactory at home employing 100 men will 
support an additional 600 people. Three hun¬ 
dred families will disburse annually, on the 
average, $250, or $75,IKK) in the aggregate. This 
money will be drawn into the town from Hie 
outside, where goods are consumed, and the 
interest of these $75,000 at ten per cent, would 
be $7,500. Three hundred families, too, would 
require houses, thousands of pounds of agri¬ 
cultural produce and thousands of yards of cot¬ 
ton and woolen goods, thus giving health and 
impetus to every branch of business.—ind. Far, 
i g from the terrible shock 
And those same conservative 
elements which were in no wise responsible for 
the panic but which suffered most by it, are 
very justly Hie first to feel the recovery. It is 
eminently proper iu this fast age that conserv¬ 
atism should be rewarded by great prosperity 
and the present outlook indicates justice in 
this behalf. At this time, during the Fair sea- 
sou throughout the country, we may deduce 
from a growing trade the most happy auguries 
for the future, and conclude that, while imme¬ 
diate recovery cannot be attained, our financial 
convalescence is an established fact. 
Usually financial disturbances first arise and 
first subside within the confines of what is 
called the speculative Interest. The late dis¬ 
turbance was not au exception to the rules, 
but the food-producing interest which in this, 
as in fonner cases, waa violently and Injuriously 
effected, reversed the usual order In first pre¬ 
senting evidences of healthy and permanent 
recovery. We cannot but regard this excep¬ 
tionally favorable experience as a foreshadow¬ 
ing of prosperity for that industry which must 
continue to be the foundation of all ot hers. 
But the best sign is a return of confidence. 
Men talk of hard times still, but as if they 
would soon pass, and with the revival of hope 
comes an energy that will despatch the ex¬ 
pected new business vigorously, open new 
avenues for trade, and produce general activity 
in the whole country. Commercial stagnation 
is so nearly synonymous with paralysis of ruith, 
that we recognize the elasticity of feeling now 
apparent, as the most healthful sign yet seen. 
Of course, the rebound from the depression 
of the last few months, will lead some into 
wild speculations, but this, like a stimulant In 
cases of collapse. Will be a benefit for the time 
being. From all the signs, we may expect a 
good business, and mostly a safe one, to be done 
this Fall. 
The Connecticut Tolmceo Drop.—A writer in 
the Hartford Times says The hot, dry weather 
has been very unfavorable for the curing of 
tobacco.—The danger has been that if would 
cure too rapidly, producing a crop similar to 
that of 1870. To avoid this as far as possible, 
please recommend to tobacco growers to close 
their tobacco buildings during the day time, 
and keep them open at night, The rain that 
has now begun, may remove the danger some¬ 
what. 
The Smith Club Wheat.—The Pacific Rural 
Press gives the origin of this variety of wheat, 
now so popular in California. It says that some 
years ago Robert E. Smith found a grain of 
wheat in a lot of coffee purchased in Santa Rosa. 
From this grain sprung the variety of wheat 
now uuiversally grown throughout Sonoma 
County, know n as t he Smith Club, It is, as his 
name indicates, a club wheat, large heads, 
hardy, white and of superior flouring qualities. 
The New Jersey State Fair, held at Waverly, 
was continued, on account of the inclemency 
of the weather, two days beyond the time orig¬ 
inally fixed for it. It was somewhat unfortu¬ 
nate, as the exhibitors were out In full force, 
and many of them will be sadly inconvenienced 
by this necessary extension. If “ Old Probabil¬ 
ities" Is to blame in the matter, he should he 
attended to at once. 
BUSINESS NOTICES 
Those who have once used the Et 
Twist will use no other. It is warra 
rospect. Sold by dealers everywhere 
