i ‘tL? 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARSH 3 
Industrial prattles. 
N. J. STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The Second Annual Meeting of this Society 
was held in Geological Hall, New Brunswick, N. 
J., on the lat and 2nd of February, 1877, with a 
large attendance. Owing to the extreme drought 
the past summer, the show of fruit was limited, 
but with it and the flowers the table presented a 
fine appearance. 
Mr. Haxce, from tho ^ruit Committee, re¬ 
ported a vast amount of neglect and poor culture 
among the farmers of the State relative to tbeir 
orchards. While ordinary crops were cultivated 
thoroughly and welT fertilized, orchards were left 
to t»ae care of themselves, priming being almost 
I wholly neglected; the fruit, of course partaking 
J of this neglect, was indifferent and unsatisfac¬ 
tory and the business pronouooed a failure. He 
urged closer observation and increased attention 
and interest to this most important branch of 
Horticulture. 
Mr. Goldsmith, from the Vegetable Commit¬ 
tee, reported that owing to the tiisvere drought 
that prevailed throughout the State the past 
summer, it was one of the most disastrous sea¬ 
sons for vegetables known for many years, many 
crops—especially the importautonos of cabbages 
and potatoes—having been almost entire failnres. 
There had not been much of novelty brought to 
the notice of the Committee, and on this point 
they would observe that it would add much to 
the value of these reports if, when anything new 
pertaining to the subject comes to the notice of 
members of the Society, they would communi¬ 
cate tho same to the Committee. 
A variety of Red Top Turnip, from Long Is 
land, we believe, has boon noticed the past sea 
son, which we tlffnk Is an improvement and ibso 
pronounced by the public, it having met a quick 
sale in our markets at $1.25 to $1.50 per bbl., 
when nice ones of the old varieties were slow of 
sale at 50 cts. It is sweeter, more crisp and ten¬ 
der than the old kind,and retains its good quali¬ 
ties later in the season. 
The different modes of putting up Asparagus 
for market have been noticed to make a difference 
of 100 per oent., and sometimes even more, to 
the returns for sale of same. In the light Hoils 
of the southern part of this State and Delaware, 
where it is largely grown, it admits of being cut 
six to eight inched below the surface, and as the 
portion of the stock below is much larger than 
that above ground, there is a gain in quantity in 
so cutting; but it is moro than lost in quality, as 
the part grown beneath the surface is not edible, 
and after one or two purchases customers reject 
it altogether, if anything else iu to be had. 
We would suggest that if any members of the 
Society have had any experience in growing the 
Christiana Muskmelou and .would give it, it 
would probably be a benefit as. judging from 
what little Las come to our notice, it ought to be 
more generally known. The quality is almost 
invariably good if web grown, and although not 
very inviting iu outward appearance, it is desired 
by all w'ho become acquainted with it. It appears 
to have been grown in the vicinity of Newark, N. 
J., for a number of years, but is as yet compara¬ 
tively unknown even there. 
The growing of Lettuce, Radishes, Egg Plants. 
Ac., under glass, is a branch of gardening that 
is increasing very rapidly in, the northern portion 
of tho .State, and owing to the lateness of the 
season iu tho spring of 1870 and the cutting off 
of somoof the crops by frost In the Bouth, it has 
proved quito profitable. It is a business requiring 
a good deal of experience and careful and con¬ 
stant attention, a neglect of a few hours iu such 
fluctuating weather as generally prevails at tho 
time of year when operations are most active iu , 
the business, will destroy the labor of weeks and ] 
sometimes the profits of a whole season. The ] 
labor of providing and distributing water for the ] 
growing crop is a heavy portion of the whole, ] 
and we soo that witidmills and tanks are coming < 
into use for the purpose. In conclusion, we call 
attention to the very beautiful specimens of i 
Squash named Excelsior, a cross of Boston i 
Marrow and Custard, exhibited by D. C. Vocm- j 
hees of Blaweubergh. It is represented as verv i 
superior for family use, fully equal to tire famed 1 
Boston Marrow, yielding abundantly, and some- < 
times attaining a weight of 100 lbs. t 
Mr. Idkj.l asked for a Committee of one from t 
each County to collect facts and write up the l 
early history of small fruit culture in the State. 1: 
After considerable discussion, the matter was t 
postponed till afternoon, when Mr. Ideix gave 1 
his views more at length on the subject, and t 
also some very interesting items he had gathered 
relating to the early history of cultivating aixl t 
marketing the Strawberry in this State. f 
The President’s Annual Address contained p 
many valuable hints and suggestions relative to c 
the future action and labors of the Society, and tl 
was listened to with marked attention by a large ii 
audience. ^ 
Mr. Cabman of the Rural New-Yorker read f 
a very interesting paper on “ Planting Lawns and 
Dooj-yards. It abounded in hits at tho incon¬ 
gruities and abeordities so frequently apparent 
in the so-called attempts at imitating nature, 
and was replete with practical common sense 
suggestions, of special value to all who have 
work of this character to perform. 
The following officers wore elected for tlie cur¬ 
rent year: President— Geo. Thcrkkr, (p. O. 
address 245 Broadway, N. Y.,) of Bergen Co. 
Vico-Presets. A. 8 . Puller, Ridgewood, Bergen; 
J- S. Collins, Moorestown, Burlington; G. M. 
Colo, Deerfield, Ctuuberlaud ; J. C. Beardsley, 
Newark, Essex ; C. W. Idell. Hoboken, Hudson; 
E. Allen, New Brunswick, Middlesex; J. Van 
Horen, Man&lapan, Monmouth; J. Van Deven¬ 
ter, Princeton, Morcer; B. T. Errington, Whit¬ 
ing. Ocean; H. E. Chitty, Paterson, Passaic; 
E. Dayton, Bemarclsvilie, Somerset; N. W. Pkr- 
coll, Elizabeth, Union. Rec. Sec.- E. Williams. 
Montclair, Essex. Cor. Sec.—B. B. Banco, Red 
Bauk, Monmouth. Treas.—W. If. Goldinnith, 
Newark. Ex. Com.—P. T. Quinn, Newark; E. 
Roberts, Fellowship, Burlington ; S. C. Deoou, 
M dodos town; T. Coie, Deerfield ; D. McLaury, 
New Brunswick. Fruit Com. B. B. Hance; 
W. Paury, Oinnaminson, Burlington ; D. Mc- 
Lauiy: C. W. IdeJl ; P, T. Quinn. Vegetable 
Com.— W. H. Goldsmith; H. Campbell, Free¬ 
hold, Monmouth; W. H. Denise, Freehold. 
Flower Com.—H. E. Chitty; G. Such, South 
Amboy, Middlesex ; E. S. Carman, River Edge, 
Bergen. 
quills, or primary feathers, have their upper 
edges turned outward instead of under the next 
feather. This is a malformation that cannot be 
cured, as the sockets of the feathers are started 
awry in the fleBh of the wing. Squirrel tails— 
tail leaning over the back towards the head—are 
bred so by selection, and can only be bred out 
again by a like process. Many persons select 
such birds, but this feature is classed as a de¬ 
formity by breeders for qualities. All styles of 
combs are bred by selection. Single combs 
should not l>e too large nor have moro than five 
or six points; and tho rose comb should bo with¬ 
out a cup-like hollow in the center of tho top, as 
this is considered a deformity iu combs of this 
shape. Hejjrv Hales. 
Jitsunmrt Bcprtnunl. 
THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO. 
foultrjr Jarir. 
BREEDING FOR QUALITIES.-No. 6. 
To bo a successful brooder of poultry it is uot 
enough to breed for qualities only; care must 
also bo taken to avoid deformities, the causes of 
which will now claim our attention. 
Domestic fowls are more subject to those mar¬ 
ring evils than any other clasH of animals in na¬ 
ture with which I am acquainted. It is by no 
means an uncommon thing to Bee a yard of fowls 
of which from ten to twenty per cent, are de¬ 
formed. This, perhaps, may Beem a high esti¬ 
mate, but the practiced eye of a breeder detects 
many defects that others do not recognize. There 
are few yards of pure-bred stock without some 
such birds. These deformities embrace crooked 
backs or breasts, wry tails, monstrous combs, etc. 
Of those distortions, one of the worst is the 
crooked back. It is one that has given rise to n 
great deal of controversy. One fancier is very 
positive that it is caused by sitting on narrow 
perches; auotber that it is the result of roosting 
on Hmall branches of trees ; while a third asserts 
that it is produced by Bitting ou round, smooth 
perches, because the bird has to grip tightly to 
hold on while sleeping; and lastly, a fourth 
maintains that it iB caused by the fowls jumping 
down from trees or high roosts ami hurting their 
backs on striking the ground. Any one of these 
reasons may look plausible and each has its be¬ 
lievers. In a few cases some of them are no 
doubt true; but many facts go to prove that 
they are not sufficient to account for so many 
wry backs and tails as are commonly Been among 
pure-bred Block. 
As to the first supposed cause—narrow perch- 
on—how comes it that some farmers’ fowls that 
roost ou the edges of thin board partitions, be¬ 
tween stalls of cows or horses, very seldom have 
crooked backs ? In yards of mixed breeds this 
trouble is very rare, while it is commonly seen 
in yards of pure-bred ones, despite all the care 
ful arrangements made for roosting. Many a 
fowl in a little one-sided, but the defect is often 
unnoticed till stripped of its feathers. If you 
examine such a bird, you will see that the whole 
frame-work of bone is twisted to one Hide, and 
not bad forward bow-like, as it would most 
likely be from bolding too tightly on a thin 
perch ; again, a fall might hurt the breast of a 
chicken, but that would not twist its whole frame. 
My own impression is that these deformities 
are due to a weakness, proceeding from in-breed¬ 
ing. The more fowls are iu-bred the greater the 
percentage of crooked backs and wry tails. 1 
once kept some Spanish fowls that were so highly 
bred that 1 could uot get a change of blood with¬ 
out introducing inferior birds, so I trusted to 
breeding too close in order to keep my strain; 
but in a few years they bred so many crooked 
backs that I had to discard the whole ffock. I 
have seen the some result with other varieties, 
before I was fully satisfied. My fowls had broad 
low perches, and never roosted outside of the 
house. 
A wry tail is the same deformity, only nearer 
the end of the body, so that only the tail is af¬ 
fected. Crooked breasts proceed from the low 
part of tlie breast-bone being twisted, or in some 
cases not being fully developed. Many breeders 
think this is caused by a deficiency of bone-mak¬ 
ing material in the bird’s food and to prevent 
this weakness, boue-me&l is recommended in the 
food for chickens. Twisted wings is where the 
The annual statement, which may be found in 
, another column, of the New York Life Insurance 
: Company, is one eminently worthy of careful 
perusal and hearty endorsement. Not so much 
‘ because it sets forth the financial condition of 
the company with singular but characteristic 
precision; for this ib to be expected of a corpo¬ 
ration known to have its affairs always well in 
hand; but more especially because tho informa¬ 
tion contained in this report demonstrates 
clearly that, so far as concerns this company, 
there is neither impairment of public confidence, 
nor any occasion for it. This old and sterling 
company did a good business last year, receiving 
in premiums nearly six ($5,910,841.00) millions 
of dollars and for interest and rents nearly two 
millions, or more precisely i 1,900,950.00. As us¬ 
ual the interest receipts alone were sufficient to 
pay ail the death claims, and leave a handsome 
margin besides. The entire assets of the year 
were the gofldly sum of seven millions eight hun¬ 
dred and eighteen thousand dollars, of which 
about four mil lions three hupdred thousand were 
returned to the insured in death-claim*, divi¬ 
dends Ac., two millions five hundred and sixty 
four thousand were added to the accumulations, 
increasing the assets of the company to nearly 
thirty-three millions of money. The expression 
millions of money is used advisedly. The assets 
of the New York Life Insurance Company are 
cash assets in the fullest Beuse of that term. 
There is scarcely an item that goes to make up 
the grand total of its thirty three and a third 
millions that cannot be converted into the coin 
Of tho realm. And of these solid assets it has an 
abundant plenty to meet all its liabilities present 
and to mature, and leave besides, over and above 
all the requirements of solvency, a surplus of 
five millions and a half of money from which to 
pay a dividend to its forty thousand policy 
holders. 
The New York Life Insurance Company was 
already an old company before a majority of the 
others were dreamed of, but age bus not wrought 
any diminution of its early vigor, its business 
is as prosperous as ever. Not perhaps aH large 
as during the flush times when money was abun¬ 
dant, but without making any special endeavor 
to attract uew business, or any extra outlay for 
that purpose, this old but vigorous company 
issued last year more thau twenty millions of 
money. Few companies can say as much of 
their business during 187C, for this was a year 
especially unfavorable to life insurance, both on 
account of a dearth of money and an almost 
equal dearth of confidence. One of the items of 
this very satisfactory report giveB the amount 
f 514,505.00—of special reserve belonging to its 
To.,tine policies. Tiffs amount is—it must be 
remembered—iu addition to the legal reserve, 
and premises, it seems to render this sort of 
policy very profitable to the survivors. 
The New York Life Insurance Company is one 
of the few worthy of unstinted confidence. No 
one need fear to entrust his savings to its custody 
for the reputation of the New York Life Insur¬ 
ance Company for solidity, solvency, honesty and 
skillful management is unchallenged. 
-♦♦♦ 
THE AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE CO. 
The time haB long since passed when the hon¬ 
est tiller of the Boil could trust to his owa care 
and vigilance to dispense with the protection of 
the insurance company. Each year’s observa¬ 
tions disclose a marked and significant increase 
of the proportion of farm and residence property 
destroyed. This increase is readily traced to ex¬ 
ternal causes. Farmers rarely burn tbeir own 
bouses. The insurance companies understand 
that the risk that they will do so is very small 
indeed. But of all other people they are most 
thoroughly at the mercy of the worst of theiv 
neighbors. The city incendiary is compelled to 
evade the police and fiYe department in order to 
set fire to a building; but any disappointed 
tramp, discharged farm band, or other malig¬ 
nant and mischievous fool, can stick alighted 
match into a barn or riok. 
Against this sort of thing there is no sure 
preventive measure. The farmer cannot perpet¬ 
ually patrol bis premises in person or economi¬ 
cally hire others to do so. The best he can do is 
to purchase indemnity from an insurance com¬ 
pany. They are all very glad to sell it to him; 
but unless he selects the company judiciously, 
he may not, after all. get what he pays for. 
Nearly all the companies insure large amounts 
in cities, “placing” a hundred thousand or so of 
insurance on a block of buildings. Every few 
years there is pretty sure to come a fire like that 
which burned up Chicago, or Boston, or Port¬ 
land, or Virginia City, or—and so on. When 
such a fire comes, it usually burns up a few dozen 
insurance companies, leaving a few hundred 
thousand honest farmers without the insurance 
they have paid for, and in the lurch generally. 
The best way to escape this kind of loss and 
disappointment is to insure only with com¬ 
panies confining their business to residences and 
farm property. Non# of this class of insurance 
companies is ever injured by the great city fires, 
nor do they ever come to grief, except by insur¬ 
ing too cheaply. 
There is one of these prudent companies 
which may be commended as equal to any and 
excelled by none. The Agricultural Fire Insur¬ 
ance Company of Watertown, N. Y., ranks, in 
respect to assets, among the largest, having, ac¬ 
cording to its recent balance sheet, an accumula¬ 
tion of over a million, and a gross surplus of 
over eight hundred thousand dollars. It is now 
nearly a quarter of a century old, has lived and 
flourished during all this time, and thus proved 
that the principle of separating the insurance of 
homes from that of other classes of property is 
a sound one. and will be successful if carefully 
applied. The managers of this company evident¬ 
ly know how to make tin- application, as the 
continuous prosperity of the company from year 
to year indicates. Tho Rural New-Yorker be¬ 
lieves that in giving to the Agricultural indorse¬ 
ment and commendation, it is but doing a duty 
to its readers and a trustworthy corporation. 
Jlomtsltr (jftononti). 
TRUTH FOR WIVES. 
It is uot every woman or man either, who will 
fully agree with the sentiments expressed in the 
following which wo tiud in tho Domestic Month¬ 
ly ; still there is a great deal of truth in it, and 
it may suggest other truths equally as import¬ 
ant ; hence we recommend it, especially to those 
contemplating matrimony: 
In domestic happiness, the wife's influence is 
much greater than her husband’s, for the one 
first cause—mutuul love and confidence—be¬ 
ing granted, tlie whole comfort of the house¬ 
hold depends Upon trifles more immediately 
under her jurisdiction. By her management of 
small sums, her husband's respectability and 
credit arc erected or destroyed. No fortune 
can stand tho constant leakage of extravagance 
and mismanagement; and more is spent iu 
trifles than women would easily believe. The 
one great expense, whatever it may be, is turned 
over and eavefully reflected on, ere incurred; 
the income is prepared to meet it; it is pennies 
imperceptibly sliding away which do mischief ; 
and this the wife alone can stop, for it flue* not 
come within a mau s province. There is often 
an unexpected trifle to be saved in every house¬ 
hold. It is not in economy alone that a wife's 
attention is so necessary, but in those matters 
which make & well regulated house. An un¬ 
finished cruet-stand, a missing key, a buttonless 
shirt, a soiled table-cloth, a mustard pot with its 
old contents sticking hard and brown about it, 
are really nothing; but each can raise an angry 
word or cause discomfort. 
Depend upon it, there is a great ileal of do¬ 
mestic happiness in a well-dressed mutton-chop, 
or a tidy break last table. Men grow full of 
beauty, tired of music, are often too wearied for 
conversation, however intellectual, hut they can 
always appreciate a well-swept heai th and smil¬ 
ing comfort. A woman may love her husband 
devotedly—may sacrifice fortune, friends, family, 
country for birn she may have the genius of a 
Sappho, the enchanted beauties of an Anaida; 
but-—melancholy fact- if with these she fail to 
make her home comfortable, his heart will 
inevitably escape her. And women live so en¬ 
tirely in the affections that without love their 
existence is a void. Better submit, then, to 
household tasks, however repugnant they may 
be to your tastes, than doom yourself to a love¬ 
less home. Women of*a higher order of mind 
will not run this risk; they know that their 
feminine, then domestic, are their first duties. 
.-- 
EGGS AS PRESERVED FOOD. 
Some interesting experiments on the desicca¬ 
tion of eggs with a view to their employment as 
preserved food, are being earned on at Passau. 
