cubation. “ The eggs, say 50 or 100 dozen, 
are spread out in a box, which is buried in a 
large hot-bed, arid by means of ventilation 
the temperature is kept at about 110 ; 
though when the chickens are beginning 
to hatch they need 10’ less. When hatched, 
they are provided with warm, spacious quar¬ 
ters, where they are well cared for; and 
thus the works run on indefinitely.” 
feeder is placed a tape, a narrow strip of 
canvas (or any other suitable material) of 
whatever length may be required. This is 
firmly pressed down by a spring bar, so that 
the sheaf coining up to be bound passes over 
the small surface of tape presented. At the 
commencement of the first piece of tape 
three stitches are made in it. By a simple 
spring and click the needle is raised out of 
the way of the coming corn ; this then 
presses against the spring, which, held tigh 
WHITEWATER WAGON WORKS, 
MELON, SQUASH AND PUMPKIN SEED 
FOR FOWLS. 
A GREAT WESTERN ENTERPRISE - THE WORKS AT 
WHITEWATER, WISCONSIN. 
In a recent tour of observation, made with 
pencil in hand to note the marks of Western 
development, we visited several places of 
wonderful interest, of which we shall write 
hereafter, devoting ourselves for the present 
to a short account of our impressions rt the 
great Wagon Works at Whitewater, Wis, 
We were not surprised with a mere matter 
of growth, for we can never forget that a 
nation has grown within a short century, 
and our manufacturing enterprises have 
naturally been abreast, with the increase of 
our numbers. These Whitewater Works 
commenced thirty years ago with a black¬ 
smith shop, with u sweep power moved by 
au old plug horse, cheered up occasionally 
by the manly voice of “Winch,” as he was 
called, when the charger’s speed was not 
sufficient to raise the wind inside. It slowly 
passed through the various stages of dignity 
until a modest reputation of good, honest 
work began to spread itself around among 
farmers and freighters, and emigrants to 
California and Pike’s Peak. The increasing 
demand for the product caused from time to J|| cko wj-ca,cm 
time the necessity for room and facilities, 
aud additions were made during prosperous 
years—the establishment spread over acre 
after acre until at last appeared the scene, 
as represented in our engraving, of a good- 
sized manufacturing town, with numerous 
smoke-stacks, railroads running through, 
water communications, and an army of 
workmen — all the bustle and energy di¬ 
rected to the one main point of making 
wagons for the nation. Trains of materia] 
(timber, iron and paints) are always unload¬ 
ing at the tracks, to be deposited in sheds and 
warehouses until wanted for use. Trains of 
finished stock, dean and bright and perfect, 
are always loading for shipment, by a force 
of men who do nothing but load. Division 
of labor, accurately figured down to ft sys¬ 
tem, runs through every branch. One set of 
men are molding skeins, another setting 
tires, another ironing bolsters, another fram¬ 
ing beds ; others attend machinery for saw¬ 
ing, planing, making axles, driving spokes, 
boring hubs, while the various processes of 
painting, scrolling, striping and lettering, 
are all distinct parts that are essential, and 
result in the finished and complete White- 
water wagon. 
But where do they all go? That was our 
most eager question to the superintendent. 
“ They go almost anywhere and everywhere 
you might name,” said he, “but from us di¬ 
rect, for the most part to the general mar¬ 
kets, thence to he distributed to smaller 
points—St. Paul distributes to Minnesota 
and the extreme Northwest, San Francisco 
to the Pacific coast, Salt Lake to the mining 
districts of Utah, Baltimore and Charleston 
to the tobacco and cotton regions of the 
Southern Atlantic coast, New York to the 
Eastern States and South America, while 
the city of St. Louis, central to the conti¬ 
nent, sends them far and wide through all 
the States, and carries oUi* name and lame 
almost everywhere that there is n market 
for this class of goods. The United States 
government sends its orders here for ship¬ 
ments to all points where wagons are need¬ 
ed for the public service ; and the British 
government, through their representatives 
in Canada, tit out from here their expedi¬ 
tions in British America.” 
Such wore our incomplete memorandums 
of this prosperous Western company,whose 
name of Whitewater is now a household 
word in our growing conntry, among those 
busy and sturdy classes who make our crops, 
transport our merchandise, and pioneer our 
civilization through the vast sections of our 
mighty continent. 
I raw an article by C. W. Harding in the 
Rural New-Yorker of Jan. 10, in which he 
doubts the probability of squas i, melon and 
pumpkin seeds, causing the mortality among 
INSURANCE NOTES AND NEWS 
Contraction in Life Insurance. — The re¬ 
cent report of the Superintendent of Insur¬ 
ance in this State shows that the Life In¬ 
surance interest has retrograded during the 
year, having 7011,554 policies and $1,997,236,- 
230 of insurance in force, as against 817,081 
policies and $2,080,027,178 of insurance in 
1873. The loss of 17,547 policies and $88,761,- 
000 of insurance iB partially compensated by 
an increase of assets by $27,140,000, and of 
surplus by nearly $10,000,000. The number 
of policies issued is sot down at 144,7S0, in¬ 
suring $851,800,000. Of this number 8,555 
matured by death or otherwise, The aver¬ 
age policy steadily decreases in amount, 
having been, in 1872, $2,620 ; in 1873, $2,553, 
and in 1874, $2,408 ; wh fie the average reserve 
of each policy lias increased from $345 in 
1873, to $307 in 1873, and to $401 in 1874. 
Significant and Promising .—The New 
York Companies had in force at the begin¬ 
ning of 1874, 78,300 Endowment policies, in¬ 
stiling some $180,000,000. They had at the 
end of the year only 69,438, insuring $158,150,- 
000, though they had meanwhile issued and 
“revived” 11,720 policies, insuring about 
$22,000,000. The loss of this class of policies 
was not less than 20,080, insuring about §43,- 
000,000. The public is learning, slowly and 
at fearful expense, that Endowment insur¬ 
ances are not profitable investments, and 
that the life company lias nothing to sell ex¬ 
cept insurance pure and simple, that cannot 
be purchased cheaper of some other institu¬ 
tion. 
Judicial Decision .—Judge Pratt regards 
the re-insurance of life insurance risks in¬ 
valid, unless the consent of the parties in 
interest has been first obtained, and says 
that wlien such re insurance has been com¬ 
pulsory the interested parties may recover 
all premiums paid for or on account of the 
new insurance. This is the position held by 
this paper for more than a year. We hope 
that every person who has been compelled 
to surrender a policy for less than its full 
value, in exchange for a policy of insurance, 
whether with the original company or an¬ 
other, will bring suit to have the old policy 
restored. 
Suspicious.—It is becoming very common 
for life companies to report a larger amount 
of note assets than the interest receipts indi¬ 
cate to be on hand or productive. A com¬ 
pany accustomed to collect seven per cent, 
interest upon notes ought to have one hun¬ 
dred dollars in notes for every seven dollars 
of interest receipts, und no more. If it re¬ 
ceives seven dullars for interest, yet claims 
to have one hundred and fifty or two hun¬ 
dred dollars in note assets, it should require 
something more than a bare statement to ac¬ 
quit it of the imputation of “ padding,” if 
not fraud. 
Fruits of a Hard Winter .—'The physicians 
say that the combined intense cold and 
dampness of the past season have sown the 
seeds of lung diseases that will be ripened 
into consumption for fifteen or twenty years 
to come, and that the lungs that did not suf¬ 
fer from some malady lust winter need not 
fear any that iB likely to follow it for many 
years to come. Lung diseases have been 
especially fatal to those who resorted to 
stimulants to fortify themselves against the 
rigors of a low thermometer und an equally 
low barometer. 
Deposits Not Alienable. —The Superin¬ 
tendent of Insurance says :—“ For the pur¬ 
pose of quieting any apprehension that may 
exist in any quarter upon this subject, policy 
holders are assured that no security deposit¬ 
ed here (at Albany 7 ) for their protection, will 
be delivered up to any one, except upou an 
order of the courts, unless the law providing 
for such surrender is clear, unambiguous 
aud explicit.” Policy holders of the North 
America wiil find comfort in this announce¬ 
ment. 
Term Insurances appear to be growing 
into public favor One company that had 
but few policies of this sort a year since has 
now nearly half its business upon that plan. 
We have always believed in renewable short¬ 
term insurance, because it requires but little 
investment and is so cheap as to be accessible 
to everybody. 
tHIIl'Wl 
IMS 
WINCH 
WA.&ON WORKS AT WHITEWATER. WIS. 
the top, opposes its entrance my fowls during last summer, claiming that 
essor, falls into the compart- he feeds the squash, pumpkin, &c., boiled, 
ie platform, and thus actually seed and all without any bad result. That’s 
or, us soon as the sheaf has so just the point ; no doubt, when boiled soft, 
that the string has passed all the seeds lose much of their power of doing 
iedle is let go, six more stitches harm, as close observation, by dissecting 
he pad, n knife, acting on a diseased fowls, after reading the notes on 
ud falling on a ledge of hard page 323, convinced me that the trouble 
ty shut down by the operator, arises more from the points of the seeds 
at the third stitch, aud the irritating the crop and Intestines, than from 
ar off into the compressor, the diuretic nature of the seeds. Feeding so 
/ffies are left in the pad ready plentifully on the fruit, with no heavier feed 
>uf, which may now be brought than mill screenings, the seeds being light, 
ry sheaf has a band round it, and no doubt much enlarged by the warmth 
pad under it. The needle is and moisture, remained within the crop for 
est ease kept out of the way of an indefinite time ; thus they became a con 
■n and the work is cleanly and slant source of irritation, even cutting quite 
As soon as the sheaf is in the through the crop, aud thus allowing the 
if- bottom rises, and the top food to pass into the cavity of the stomach 
meet, while a strong clinch is and bowels. This fact was fully demon- 
aside in such a way that the strated on dissection. I found large feeds of 
reused on the top the tighter whole corn, us recommended by yorr corres- 
eorne in. When the sheaf is pondeut, just the needed remedy, us all but a 
own clean out of the road, so few recovered and 1 had no more trouble. A 
i the way of the machine on its few, however, were still drooping. 1 pro- 
1, simple turn of a lever, the cured for them seme kidneys from the 
files the binding from the butchers ; boiled well, and fed freely, but 
hut the two operations do not they continued to grow worse ; consequently 
e. The bar of the “sewiner I concluded to Racraftce them to “science.” 
GANG AND SULKY PLOWS 
A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune 
says “ I have yet to see any value in the 
gang plow, and yet they appear to gain in 
popularity. As a general rule, two horses 
are enough for one man to manage, and for 
these a 14-inch plow is sufficient. There are 
a few farmers and farm hands who can 
manage four horses and a gang of two 
plows, aud such men ought to have the gang 
plows ; but the average farmer, farm hand, 
or boy, should be- excused from using them. 
But the single anlky plow is an implement 
that ought to come into general use. I have 
had a Skinner sulky for nearly ton years, 
aud could not well do without it., or a simi¬ 
lar one. The past fall 1 used a Hapgood 
sulky for plowing out potatoes, and it proved 
the best thing ror that purpott that 1 have 
seen. There was no dodging of the hills. A 
neighbor who had a $25 potato digger also 
gave it a trial and pronounced ii better than 
the digger, as it did better work. For all 
but the most able-bodied men the sulkv 
plow is of inestimable value, 1 know a sol¬ 
dier who lost a leg aud an arm, who does 
all of his plowing with a sulky plow, drives 
his planter, and does lfis cultivating with a 
sulky cultivator. Without these he could do 
little of his farm-work, but, with them, is 
enabled to grow fine crops, with a small 
amount of help. 
“ At the Sidney trial last year a large num¬ 
ber of sulky and gang plows wore present. 
Only a few of the latter were sold, while 
orders for the former were lively. One 
agent told me that he had t aken orders for 
seventy. Most, if not all, of the sulky plows 
are made too heavy, aud no doubt this de¬ 
fect will be corrected. The cost of a sulky- 
plow is the most serious objection against 
them ; but 1 have no doubt that a good one 
will be put on the market at $30 to $35, 
against $ii0 to $70, as at present. In the first 
place they will be cheapened by using less 
material, and, in the second place, by the 
manufacture in greater numbers.” 
POULTRY NOTES 
Foul Questions .—1 have two questions I 
want answered in your paper. First, I have 
a beautiful Creve-coeur cock last year’s 
chicken ; since he was half-grown could not 
hold his tail erect, on the top side of which 
are small red bunches ; neither do the feath¬ 
ers grow any. What is it? Is there any 
remedy ? he is smart every other way and 
“ Cock of the Roost ” over three others. 
Weighs 7 pounds. I also have a Creve-coeur 
chick which passes worms an inch long, in 
bunches of ten or a dozen, size of a common 
pin. What is the remedy ? The cock is a 
very beautiful bird ; when standing erect, 
his head is precisely over his feet with a 
large full breast, neck, &c. If his tail was 
right he would be the handsomest fowl in the 
village. A SUBSCRIBER. 
We cannot answer. Who can ? 
Artificial Incubation in Colorado .—The 
Tribune of Greeley, Colorado, informs us 
that Mr. Nichols of that place is doing some¬ 
thing noteworthy in the way of artificial in- 
A NEW SOUTH WALES BINDING MA 
CHINE. 
The Town aud Country Journal, published 
at Sidney, discribes a reaping and binding- 
machine. Such machines are not novelties 
here, but judging by the description of this 
binder attached to the reaper, it is certainly 
a novelty and the account of it will interest 
our reaper friends. Two men work the 
reaper and binder—one driving and the 
other operating the binder. The whole ma- 
eniue is described as exceedingly simple ; 
but here is what is said of the binder proper : 
By a simple but decidedly ingenious adap¬ 
tation of the sewing machine principle, the 
sheaf is readily bound. Underneath the 
