352 
BOOSE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
. 27 
PROORESS 
IMPROVEMENT.’ 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED 
EURAI* LITERSEV AND FAHILV SKIWAPM. 
D. D. T. MOORE, 
Il’ouixdei- and G’cmclticting Editor. 
WM. J. FOWLER, ANDREW s. FULLER 
ABnooiate Editors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
Eniroa o» ran DtontKXT o» Bbxkp H«, k«ki,by. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y., 
Editor o» hi Dspikivkht o» Duet Hpk*em>»*. 
U. A. C. BARNETT, Publisher. 
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SATURDAY, NOV. 27, 1875. 
THE FALLACY OF OVER-PRODUCTION. 
Idleness Not a Cure for “Hard Times.” 
It 1b said that ifudozeu Yankees were wrecked 
on a desolate island, every one of them w ould 
make himself rich before night by trading jack- 
knives among each other, The point of this 
story is not bo much to II lust rain the well- 
known Yankee propensity for a trade, hut to 
show the absurdity of supposing that addition¬ 
al wealth can bo created without an absolute 
increase of valuable commodities. Individuals 
may and do gaiu by mere barter, but a com¬ 
munity becomes richer only by increased pro¬ 
duction. 
We go one step further, and add that every 
increased production of whatever is useful In 
any way to mankind, adds to the sum of human 
wealth and happiness. Herein we run counter 
to some popular fallacies and prejudice*. The 
low prices of farm products for two or three 
years have led many to believe that there has 
been an over-production of the great staples. 
The result, of this belief is an attempt to de¬ 
crease production by enforced idleness of bands 
and lands as the means of restoring the balance 
essential to t he return of good times. Many 
people think that if we had less wheat, less cot¬ 
ton and less corn, the price of these staples 
would rise high enough to give the planter 
and farmer more money for the smaller Quan¬ 
tity. Ooo fallacy In this calculation appears at 
once. In a small crop the producer la com¬ 
pelled to be ono of the chief consumers of Ills 
own products. It is only the surplus which 
remains after home consumption which can be 
sold. Economy Is called In to make this leas 
quantity equal the greater. '‘Stand still; do 
nothing, and buy notbiog," are the methods of 
this school of political economy. As a final re¬ 
sult we have diminished production, dimin¬ 
ished consumption, and, consequently, less 
enjoyment and happiness uraong all classes as 
the best which this Idea can do for the public 
welfare. Only the grasping acquisiilveness ol 
the miser remains. Even this defeats Itself, I 
for with diminished production there is less of 
everything to acquire, and the larger part of 
the community must suffer loss. 
We believe most heartily the reverse of this 
theory. Whoever makes two blades of grass 
grow where one grew before, sad whoever, la 
any field of industry, produces anything for use 
or beauty, is a public benefaotor. Compared 
with this Ideal of creative beneficence, econo¬ 
my—the attempt to enrich by petty savings— 
seems an absurdity. Economy is a virtue of ( 
the individual—sometimes, a6 in the miser, his £ 
vice. For a community, or for the world, rcon- * 
omy lu this seise Is an Impossibility. The { 
nearest approach to it is thrift, which means ' 
making the best use of everything, and this £ 
best use is to make It something mure or bet- 1 
ter. The whole world cannot board money as a 
miser does, for money thus hoardeu would lose 
its value. Steadily and surely the wealth of the t 
world is increasing; but Ibis wealth Is eipbod- c 
led in articles of use or value which can be 
kept from year to year—not merely things to 
consume or wear, but articles of home adorn¬ 
ment, machinery to lessen toll and still further 
slimiiInto production; paintings, poems and 
books, the thoughts of great thinkers, the wis¬ 
dom of grave moralists, and pleasant fantasies 
of graceful writers. All these add to human 
enjoyment, and, by that fact, are parts of the 
world’s wealth. 
The temporary superabundance of rome pro¬ 
ducts lu some localities Is more apparent than 
real. Did the world ever have too much wheat 
or too much cotton? “ Yes,” says the farmer 
or planter who fails to receive paying prices. 
Yet the world never had ono-bulf enough wheat 
to give all the human family wheaten flour. 
More than one-half of mankind live on rice, 
corn, oats, barley, or possibly inferior food, be¬ 
cause wheat is too dear or not attainable at «ny 
price. With all the abundance of cotton, mil¬ 
lions of men go naked In barbarous countries, 
while millions mo o in civilized lands wear rag- 
ged clothing instead of whole. What docs this 
prove ? Only this—that the producers of cotton 
and wheat Jmve Increased limit production*out 
of proportion to those of other articles. Hence, 
however much wheat or cotton may be wanted, 
there Is nothing to pay for them except at un- 
remunerative rates. 
The practical romedy for this apparent over¬ 
production Is not in idleness, but In turning 
industry into new channels. In Agriculture it 
Is a diversified system, instead of relying on one 
or two staples. Farmers should grow liuits, 
vegetables, flowers, and seeds, as well as wheat 
and corn. Not one-half the farmers’ tables in 
the country have berries in theirseason, except 
as grown wild In the woods or by the roadBide, 
costing more to gather than they are worth. 
Of course It costs something to establish a fruit 
garden, but there 1 b no way In which part of the 
accumulated wealth of a year can be more 
wisely invested. Thiswise Investment of wealth 
to secure a greater production Is the only econ¬ 
omy possible for communities which always 
either use up or invest each year the produc¬ 
tions of the previous season. As a rule. If a 
people do not buy what they deem useful or 
desirable, it la only because they are too poor. 
Some individuals deny themselves, but com¬ 
munities never do. Indeed, the world never 
suffers from over-production of anything val¬ 
uable. It fs always lack of production which 
brings loss and hardship. If, through the pov¬ 
erty of other communities, tide abundance may 
not be immediately available to Its producers, 
it is none tbo less an incrcuse of the world’s 
wealth and a blessing to mankind. 
■-■ 
DECREASE OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 
In a recent meetlngof theSocial Science Con¬ 
gress in England was read along and somewhat 
prosy speech on the decrease of crime which, 
however, presented some facts of interest and 
value, showing that grime, in proportion to 
population, Is decreasing, lu nineteen years 
from 1850 to 187b though 4,475,000 has been added 
to tbo population of England, the decrease In 
committals per year has been 2,208 and in con¬ 
victions 2,074. This is a gratifying exhibit, and 
may offset the fears that the world is steadily 
growing more wicked. It must, however, be 
remembered that English population is fluc¬ 
tuating. Jts more active and also more turbu¬ 
lent elements have steadily been emigrating to 
other countries offering wider fields of adven- 
twte, to gay nothing of the forcible expulsion 
from Engl’sh shores of many convicted crimi¬ 
nals to the English perial colonies. These, of 
course, must be subtracted from the total of 
English criminal classes, and there is no doubt 
that their elimination from society makes suc¬ 
ceeding generations less vicious and disposed 
t o crime. It would be really a blessing to the 
world were one quarter and possibly more of 
its population incapable of perpetuating their 
kind. There wouldn't be nearly so many peo¬ 
ple in the world, but they would be ol better 
quality. As it is, England's gain by the expor¬ 
tation of her criminals Is the loss of far-away 
Australia, w hose peopling by criminals seems 
now of little consequence, but will some time 
become a fact oreerIou3 import. 
Whether crime Is Increasing or decreasing in 
tbo United States is not easily determined. The 
heterogeneous and changing character of our 
population would lu any event make us no fair 
te. t of the world's progress towards either vir¬ 
tue or vice- That we aro not so bad as is gen¬ 
erally supposed. Is very probable. The wider 
publicity given to crime and even to the grosser 
forms of vice, makes American society seem 
much worse thau It is, and of all that we are 
gul'ty a very large proportlou Is justly charge¬ 
able to turbulent and vicious elements from 
abroad which here find a home. The old times 
were not nearly so virtuous nor evea free from 
gross crimes as Is generally supposed. There 
was less publicity, and social lapses or graver 
guilt was more quickly forgotten. There are 
very few neighborhoods wherein grave suspi¬ 
cions of arson and sometimes even of murder, 
are not remembered—suspicions which in mod¬ 
ern days would attain a wide publicity and 
culminate in trial and punishment, but which 
were left to die a natural death, and all that 
cm now he he^rd on tbesubjsct ts tbecommou 
return k, “ Nothing was ever done about it." 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIE3. 
The Close of (be American Institute Fair,_ 
on Saturday evening Inst,—after a very success¬ 
ful Feason of ten weeks, was attended by five 
thousand people, A brief but pertinent address 
was delivered by Col. F. D. Curtis, who said 
the history of the Institute was In many re¬ 
spects the history of the country; its records 
were t he records of the development, the pros¬ 
perity, and the greatness of America, The in¬ 
dustry of the nation ant! the plans of the thou¬ 
sands of inventors owed their success to a great 
extent to the encouragement they received 
from the society, the period of whose existence 
has been the most eventful In the progress of 
science and the creations of genius. At its be¬ 
ginning agriculture, although the oldest, occu¬ 
pation of man, was only elementary in Its char¬ 
acter. The plow was an unwieldy implement, 
vexing the soul of the farmer, who now, watch¬ 
ing the graceful roll of the sward from the pol¬ 
ished mold-board of liis steel plow, finds plow¬ 
ing to be almost a delightful pastime. Steam 
was in Its infancy and railroads were unbuilt, 
and the paddle of Fulton'S rude boat parted 
the water* of the Hudson. The various parts 
of the exhibition showed the wonderful pro¬ 
gress made In the am, sciences, and industries 
of the A uK ricao people. Mr. Cuicus closed hl» 
address by formally deelarlng.tte Fair ended. 
The list of exhibitors to whom premiums 
have been awarded Is unusually large, the ma¬ 
jority of the awards being for '• maintained ” 
and " continued " excellence. 
Pponlnncou* Combustion,—A correspondent 
asks us If it Is possible for hay, grain or other 
vegetable matter to beat to such an extent as 
to cause fire. It la possible, but not probable, 
that this may sometimes betheresuit. Usually 
In “ heating," there is a large quantity of water 
expelled In hot steam from too decomposing 
substances, and this prevents lire. If a lumpof 
quick lime Is dropped Into the mass of beating 
grain, or hay, i t will absorb water so rapidly as to 
sot Are to that with which It comes in contact. 
Spontaneous combustion is quite apt to orig¬ 
inate with oil or grease In contact with wool, 
often In connection with rusty Iron. Old ashes 
long secluded in dark arid damp places ofteu 
become suddenly inflammable from the potash 
which they contain becoming a nitrate. ABh 
houses should always be made of stone or brick. 
-■ -- 
Maiingi-incni of Fruit Treeit.—The Maryland 
Farmer endorses a method of piling earth 
around pear trees fifteen or eighteen inches 
high mb a means of promoting health and pre¬ 
venting the ravages of the borer. Only a year 
or two ago, a correspondent of some of our 
exchanges was enthusiastic in favor of removing 
the earth from around the trunks and roots of 
peach trees leaving the top bare and he too waa 
decided in his praise of what he called the 
" barefooted •’ system of managing peach trees. 
The moral of this seems to be that the advo¬ 
cates of these new fanglod systems generally 
give their trees unusually good care and atten¬ 
tion in other respects, with these trees will 
thrive under almost any “ system," Attention 
may be ever so widely mUdirected but It is al¬ 
ways better with fruit tree s than the let-alone 
policy. 
Get your neighbors to join you in ordering 
next year's Rural— especially borrowers, e&pb 
of whom ought to have a copy of bis own. 
Anecdote of President Madison.— Mr. Madi- 
sox, a nephew of the President is atill living in 
Switzerland, Ohio, near Cincinnati. He well 
remembers a visit from the ex-President while 
he and his father. Job Madison, the President’s 
brother, were living in N. y. and working In a 
bay-field. The Virginian remarked to his 
brother, "Job, you should have some of our 
black boys to relieve you of this drudgery." 
“James," was the plain and blunt answer, “I 
don't like your black bov system of labor." 
The President paused a moment thoughtfully, 
acknowledged that the slave system was wrong, 
and said, “be had long feared that civil war, 
possibly a disruption of theUulon would be the 
result. You aud I will Dot live to see It; but 
these boys may." Which prediction has been 
fulfilled te the letter. 
A Welcome Sanctum Visitor —Was Mr. C. D. 
Bbaodon, our loruier Associate, who stopped 
in New York some two weeks while eu route 
from his home; In Oswego Co. to Florida. Our 
readers will be glad to learn that, Mr. B. is at 
least no worse—we think better-than he was 
last Spring, and that his pluck continues 94 to 
the square inch, which Is a good Indication. 
Acc ompanied by bi6 devoted wife and daughter, 
Mr. B. took s.earner on Saturday last for Flor¬ 
ida, where heintend6 to remain several mouths, 
dusieg which we expect some Of not frequent) 
epitjy and Interesting letters from him for pub¬ 
lication In the Rural. We are confident that 
hosts of Ruralists will join us In wishing Mr. B. 
andl his family a bon voyage, pleasant sojourn 
In tfeo "Land of Flowers," and 6afereturn. 
A Pearl-y Oyster.— A few days ago Mr. Eli¬ 
jah COX, the polite oysterman at the popular 
and excellent restaurant of C. F. Holtz, corner 
of Broadway and Duane St., this city, presented 
us ninety-one pearls, which be bad taken from 
a single Eist River oyster of ordinary size. The 
pearls were small-from the size of a pi n head 
to that of a very small pea—but the fecundity 
of the oyster producing them was certainly re¬ 
markable. Mr. Cox, who is an experienced 
oysterman. says he never saw or heard of any 
such yield of pearls before, and that it is rare 
to find over a dozen in one oyster. 
The National Grange.—The annua] meeting 
of the National Grange, P. of H., which opened 
at Louisville, Ky., las*, week, and Is still hold¬ 
ing sefsion?, had accomplished little at our last 
( advices, much time having been devoted to 
. preliminary arrangements and matters of no 
| Interest to the public. This is the first meeting 
since the removal of the headquarters of the 
Order to the West, and there la said to be a 
a fine body of delegates present. Itisexpected 
that-important questions will be acted upon, 
and a uniform business system adopted for the 
whole Order—all which and other noteworthy 
proceedings, will no doubt be reported for the 
Rural by Its representative In attendance. 
— ■ — «♦» 
Miss Evelyn M. Clilpman won the prize at a 
recent oratorical contest between representa¬ 
tives of e'ght Iowa colleges. Bhe had oue lady 
and six gentlemen competitors. All the ora¬ 
tions showed marked culture and thought. 
Mtaa Chipman represented the Simpsoj Cen¬ 
tenary College. The. fact that so young a State 
supports eight colleges is evidence of the inter¬ 
est Ste people take in education, t hough they 
would do better to concentrate their efforts on 
half that number, or possibly on oue or two. 
--- 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
WOLVEs'cat 30,C(0 sheep every year In France. 
India has 750.0C0 acres planted In poppies for 
opium thin year, 
Fjne wool Is lower than It has been before 
for eighteen years. 
Don't forget to tell all your friends to sub¬ 
scribe lor the Rural for 1876. 
The boss pumpkin lin* been raised In Franoe. 
It weighed nearly 400 pounds. 
A Potato Fair is the latest, and Is nowin 
order. ComptoD, N. H., has bad one. 
Fok the first time in thirty vears Toronto, 
Canada, Is exporting apple* to New York. 
At a safe of blooded cattle near Chicago, re¬ 
cently. eighty-six aDimais brought on an aver¬ 
age $850 apiece. 
Subscribe early for next year’s Rural, so 
that your name can be put, 1 r* tvpe for mailing 
before the flrH number Is Issued. 
John Elliott of Wadsworth, Ohio, has Just 
busked 040 bushels of ears >»f corn crown upon 
four acres—an average of 160 bushels per acre. 
A VERT complete guide to and through Flor¬ 
ida, that now much sought for State, 1* pub¬ 
lished by the Florida Lund agency, at Jackson¬ 
ville. 
Massachusetts does rot rais« as much to¬ 
bacco this year as last t>v a roillfori pounds. 
The entire vldd of the United States is esti¬ 
mated at2S5,OQO.OOO rounds. 
There arc now 190 Granges in Maine, there 
being only 63 last, year Ttnre are near v 10,000 
members. The S ate Grange will meet at Ban¬ 
gor on the 14th of next month. 
The Spirit of the Times, so long Issued by Mr 
Geohqij Wilkks, Will henceforth ho published 
by George Wilkes and A. E. Buck, propri¬ 
etors. and Mr. Buck will be the editor. 
Tne trees at Galveston, Texas, which were 
denuded of their leaves during the late blow, 
arc hlmaujr in lull le^f, aiid pr^sGiit* h very 
springlike appearance in iheir new dress. 
The Essex Co. (Ma=s.) Ag’I. Society will offer 
special premiums tor the best conducted sheep 
husbandry with a view to raising early lambs 
for the butcher, not leas than ten ewes to bo 
kept. 
The Grange Council at Lexington. Ky., has 
decided to operate large rope factories hereaf¬ 
ter in their own Interest. Hemp win be raised 
in large quantities by them in all p uds of the 
State. 
The weather in South Carolina has been very 
favorable for gathetlng the late cotton crop. 
The product, so far, has come rapidly forward, 
and will apparently be marketed as quickly us 
usual. 
The latest crop reports from Europe show 
that the wheat crop there will be bMu poorer 
than was at flrstsupposed.and as a consequence 
the demand for American grain will be consid¬ 
erably increased. 
Moore's Rural for 1876-will comprise Fifty- 
Three Numbers—there being that number of 
Saturdays in the Ceoveuui.-d Year—and we shall 
strive to make each issue worth the j ear's sub- 
sen iption price to every caretul reader. 
At a recent meeting of the Toronto City 
Cuunoil measures were taken to give a recep¬ 
tion toaConvention of American and Canadian 
breeders of Short - Horn cattle, which meets 
there on the 1st proximo. 
“ The Old Rural "—so called by many be¬ 
cause it is really me pioneer in Its important 
sphere of combined Journalism—expects every 
friendly Trader to obtain at least one new sub¬ 
scriber lor the ensuing year, aud many to repeat 
a score of times. 
One or our correspondents offers to tell the 
whole truth about mosquitoes, whether they 
prevent sickness, etc. The season Is now so 
far aavaoced that these questions cannot be 
decisively settled ; hence tne discussion must 
therefore oe postponed until another year. 
There is a great yield of potatoes this war. 
Hundreds of oar loads arrive here dally. Last 
year th Is State raised al.fl2o.000 bushels c-r Dearly 
one-quarter of all that were produoed In the 
oountry. This year the crop is muon larger In 
New York, and nearly double tn some of the 
other States. 
BUSINESS NOTICES. 
BEIIE & CO, 
769 Broadway, If. Y.. want agents for the best money¬ 
making article in the world. Send for particulars. 
-- 
An Established Remedy.— " Brown's Bron¬ 
chial Troches” are widely known as an estab¬ 
lished remedy for Coughs, Co ds, BrojichitU, Hoarse¬ 
ness and other troubles of the Throat and Lungs. 
