THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Amelia .—You will find your answer in another 
column. 
M. C. Scott. —(1). What is the best means of 
covering hay when in cocks in the field ? (2). 
Whose is the best Tedder in use ? 
Anh.—(1)- Cloth caps are the best covering 
for hay when cocked up in the field. A kind of 
glazed cloth is made expressly for this use. Hay 
carefully put up into conical-shaped oocks will 
turn a severe rain storm without, getting much 
wet. (2). Terry’s Hay Tedder, Utica, N. Y. 
Communications rkckivkd fob tub wbbk bniuno 
Saturday, Dbc. 1st. 
H. H.—T. B. M.—M. E.—M. A. K. W. V.— J. H.— 
E. E., received; will answer as soon as possible.— 
J. T. B.—. A. O.-F. H. R.-Dr. Goodenough- 
E. 8.—F. L. T—.J. W. K.—M. B. 1*., thanks- 
8. B. H.—Mrs. L. W. B.—Mrs. 8. J. C.—Mrs. A. L. J. 
—P. D. C. — Mrs. M. A. L. — W. J. F. — J. M. G.— 
J. M. A.—8. B. P., No. 2.—A. C. 8.—B.—Enoch 
Spencer. 
Itrtos of % (tcltflt. 
HOME NEWS PARAGRAPHS. 
J. A., Morristoum.—P lease toll me through 
your columns where I can buy broom handles 
by the quantity. Is there any such place in the 
city of New York ? 
Anb. —Eabi.y A Lane, New York, will give you 
all information on the subject. 
A. B. C .—Would you kindly, through the 
Rural, let me know what are the points of ex¬ 
cellence of White Brahma show fowls. 
A ns. —The birds must be of a creamy white 
except tail and flight feathers which are black ; 
hackle, with a black stripe down the oenter of 
oach feather ; legs, yellow and woll feathered ; 
ear lobes, red ; comb, pea or triple, the middle 
part of the three divisions being highest; wings, 
carried up tightly so as not to show the black 
flights. The bird- should be large and square, not 
long on their legs, well liUod behind with soft 
downy feathers or JlufT, which gives the bird a 
bulky, heavy appearanoe without any black on 
back or body. 
J. B. T. Wheeler, Kane Oo., III .—Ihaveacow 
six years old that on the 26th ult. commenced to 
bloat. She would be worse in the morning, and 
sometimes at night the bloat would bo all gone. 
The next mom she would fill up, sometimes in 
from 30 minutes to an hour, and site still con¬ 
tinues to be affected in the same manner. Who 
calved the 10th inst.,fuud so far as we know, 
everything in the line of calving did admirably. 
There had boon no sudden change of food at 
the time this commenced. Uor feed at present 
is good timothy hay, bran, and ground oats; 
each is given separately and the two last are just 
fresh ground. Of course, she does not eat 
largely of the feed in lino weather; for she then 
runs with 20 or 30 others, all of the same dairy, on 
tamo moudow where there is an abundance of 
feed. Now what I wish to know is this: 1st. 
What is the disease. 2d. The treatment. 
Anh.—T aking it for granted that all the symp¬ 
toms ate given—it is undoubtly a case of Gas¬ 
tritis. Treatment—Change of feed, dose of 
Salts. I >o not lot her eat as much as she has 
been eating. Put a half teacup of powdered 
charcoal in her feed in the morning. 
Chas. P. Silk-man , Marion Co., Kansas.—I 
am referred to you by a friend of your paper as 
one who will give me a description of a Shep¬ 
herd's Crook for catching and holding sheep. 
While giving this information will you also have 
the kindness to state what work is the best au¬ 
thority on sheep. 
Ass.—A Shepherd's Crook has very much the 
appearance of a stair which is used to lead a bull 
by a riug in his noso, only its iron bow is larger. 
Of course it has no spring or anything else to 
hinder hooking i( In a sheep's hind leg, jt re¬ 
quires to be handled very carefully or it will lame 
the sheep j the shepherd who haB habitually used 
one can place it just above the hock of the hind 
leg and gently raise the hind part of the sheep 
at the same time drawing it toward him or step¬ 
ping to it when it struggles, and holding it firmly, 
though at the same time giving way, to a certain 
extent, as a ttshermnn handles his rod when he 
lands a fish. The sheep must be held by the 
Crook only long enough to draw it back so as 
to take hold of it by the ucek. It is just like any 
other instrument or tool, it requires practice to 
use It deftly. Randall’s Practical Shepherd and 
Youatt aud Randall on Sheep are the best works 
on American Sheop Husbandry. 
C. F. McCloud .—Please give the name, in the 
correspondents’ column of the inclosed wild 
plant which I find creeping over the ground. It 
has no blossom that I have ever seen, nothing 
but what I send of leaf aud branch. 
Anr.—L ycopodiums appear to be intermediate 
between ferns and mosses and are generally found 
in boggy patches, in mountainous, or, at least, 
hilly places. Spores in what are called flower- 1 
less plants are the same as seeds. The Bpore ] 
oases (sporangia) form in the axilB of the leaveB 
which are very small upon the fertile brunches. 
These Club-Mosses are used for Cl , isLmas 
greeus as they are easily tied into wreaths or ' 
formed into festoons for tho walls or picture 1 
frames. That which you send is Lycopodium . 
complanatum. It is a favorite for Christmas •. 
trimmings. \ 
Little Holland has 10,000 wind-mills. 
A girl nineteen years ot age, In Providence, R. 
i 1.. Is a victim of leprosy. 
J Leprosy prevails and Is on tho Increase among 
> the Chinese in San Francisco. 
The statistics of Niagara Falls' casualties show 
i a decreased falllng-olT during the last year. 
An over-confident hawk attempted to carry off 
a glided rooster from a church steeple In Ralelglx 
1 N.,C. 
The coffee trade In the West la said to bo worth 
$ 20 , 000,000 a year to the port or entry which se- 
i cures It. 
New York has 002,000 horses, which at an aver- 
prlco of $85.61 each, aggregate a total value of 
$69,298,486. 
Two Siamese twin oysters were recently round 
in the Chesapeake. They were Jolued by a liga¬ 
ture running from heart to heart. 
French tobacco contains seven to etijht per 
cent, or nicotine; Virginia tobacco, six to seven; 
Maryland and Havana about ten per cent. 
It Is estimated that tho raising and manufact¬ 
uring or tobacco In this country, furnishes em¬ 
ployment to more than one million persons. 
A largo shed in Somerville, Mass., lias been 
stocked with wood, saws, and sawbucks, and 
tramps are at liberty to earn their meals there, 
or to go hungry. 
The Grangers of California own and run a bank 
which, during Its three years of existence, has 
paid In dividends$LT4,912.T0. Lastyearlt received 
and paid out over $ 8 , 000 , 000 . 
'There is a crusade against, dancing, In Balti¬ 
more social circles. Many young ladles who are 
church members, are dropping the amusement 
from their list, or party engagements. 
Fifty-eight vessels left New York last week with 
consignment* or breadstuff’s and provisions for 
Europe. The total exports included 822,456 bush¬ 
els or corn, ami 15,144 barrels of Hour. 
Wolves are becoming so plentiful and ravenous 
about River Falls, WIs., that the heaviest sheep 
raisers are selling off their stock and either 
emigrating or going out of the business. 
A Bangor man has received a note, enclosing 
$ 1 . 50 , from a man with a lender conscience, as pay 
tor a pair ot chickens worth seventy-live cents, 
which he stole when a boy, fifteen years ago. 
Of tobacco, Massachusetts averages a yield per 
acre or 1640 pounds, New Hampshire, isoo ; Penn¬ 
sylvania, 1380; Connecticut, 1220 ; Wisconsin, 800 : 
Kentucky, 680 ; Maryland, 690; Virginia, 600 
pounds. 
The shipment of live and dead stock to Europe 
has almost entirely ceased, with the advent or 
cold weather it may be resumed, but the proba¬ 
bility Is that It. will not be shipped to the extent 
of last winter. 
The Irish riflemen have challenged tho Amer¬ 
icans to shoot not only for the centennial trophy 
next, year, but also In an Irjsh- American match 
at Paris next year, on the sume conditions as for 
the centennial match. 
Texas produces more cotton than any other 
State in the Union, its crop in 1870-7 was 735,000 
bales; that of Mississippi 639,000 bales, which 
was the next highest, Arkansas was tho next 
highest, 690,000 bales. 
It. Is announced by the managers of tho Phtla- 
phla Permanent Exhibition that the opening or 
the building on Sunday will be for the present 
discontinued. Thts is a concession to the de¬ 
mands of tho church-going public. 
Apples continue to be abundant, and consider¬ 
ing that the crop was almost an entire failure in 
this State, New Jersey and Delaware, the prices 
are not high. In Ohio the crop is unusually large, 
and Is estimated at. 15, 000,000 bushels. 
A Louisiana man has liua three.wlves In four 
years. He traded one for a farm, another for a 
pair of horses, and the third for a mule. He is 
only forty years old, and expects to stock his 
farm entirely 11 he has good luck. 
Two men traded horses on meeting in the road , 
in Newburyport, Mass., and while making the 
exchange, one of the beasts tell down and died. 
Then both claimed the live horse, and then had a 
fight about It, with a lawsuit to follow. 
Prof. Hitchcock, the geologist, has found at 
Wethersfield Cove, Conn., four fossil bird tracks, 
measuring a foot from heel to toe, and propor¬ 
tionately wide, whlehTie thinks must have been 
made by a bird at least twelve feet high. 
) Adam Grimm of Jefferson, Wla., made over 
$ 50,000 exclusively from beea, by keeping a 
- very large number, and having all the labor con- 
. nected with them performed by members of his 
own family, and thus avoiding expense. 
A dispatch from Berlin to the London Times 
. says the Government ot Germany and the United 
- States have entered into negotiations on a mu- 
1 tual naturalization treaty to supersede the trea¬ 
ties In force with separate German States. 
At Crccdmor, lately, Thomas Lamb, Jr., one ot 
the reserves of the last American rllleteam, made 
the astonishing and unprecedented score of thirty 
consecutive bull’s-eyes at 900 yards. But the 
score was not made in a match, and so doesn’t 
count. 
There arrived at Galveston a few days ago, 150 
German Immigrants on their way to Marion Co., 
Texas. On the train from Galveston the bag¬ 
gage-master was struck with the peculiar shape 
of a bundle, and upon examination, found 1 n It a 
big Dutchman. 
The lumbermen along the Kennebec river are 
unusually active In sen ding men and horses Into 
the woods. Nearly double the usual amount of 
lumber will be cut. The winter’s work along the 
river will possibly reach 180,000,000 .feet against 
65, 000,000 last year. 
The United states utilizes In agriculture ten 
per cent, of its area, Great Britain fifty-eight per 
cent.; France Ant Belgium eighty-three; Austro- 
Jiungary eighty-eight; and Holland Beventy. 
This shows conclusively whence the agricultural 
growth must spring. 
A Warsaw, N. Y, girl married a mendicant of 
elghty-two to get rid of marrying a fellow, who 
wanted to marry her fortune. She then put off 
to Europe, the conditions having been that her 
mendicant husband, for a Certain sum, should 
keep himself forever out or her sight. 
A Rochester milkman lost two lady customers 
because a newspaper charged him with putting 
ufjua pura In his milk. They said they had ail 
t hey could do to stand the water he put in, but 
now that he was caught adding that nasty drug, 
they wanted no more of his milk in theirs. 
In a Chinese man robber’s room were recently 
discovered by the San Francisco police a thou¬ 
sand lettore, many containing bank remittances 
and drafts, as high as $ 6,000 m value, and paya¬ 
ble to bearer; but the thief could not read Eng¬ 
lish, and the money had been os so much waste 1 
paper In his estimation. 
An Iron mountain, 10 too feet high, and rivaling ’ 
the famous iron mountain of Missouri, has been 1 
discovered in Col Luc county, New Mexico. The ore < 
Is almost entirely pure Iron, and in connection 
with the immense quantities of coal found in Col¬ 
fax county, this huge deposit or lronjore must, at 1 
no distant day, become the source of Industries < 
which will gather and support a large and thrlv- 1 
population, , 
New York city now contains nearly 1,800,000 < 
people, besides the population Of Brooklyn, which 
numbers 650 , 000 . Now Yorkers lay claim also t 
to the Inhabitant* of Staten Island and Jersey s 
City, which including Brooklyn would increase 1 
the census to about 2 , 000 , 000 . The principal cities s 
In the civilized world are estimated, In point of \ 
population, as follows: London, 3,489.488 • New ( 
York, over 2,000,000, and Parts, 1,851,792. < 
In 1861 the exportation of American fruit i 
amounted to $ 209 , 000 . in isos there was a slight 
falling off; a decided one In 1863, when only $ 01 ,- t 
000 was sent away, but since then there has been >. 
a graduul advance, unUl now, in 1877, we have 1 
dispatched $2,831 ,000 worth of domestic fruit. 
Tills year’s exports promise to be 75 per cent, t 
greater than that ot any other previous year. In g 
1865 they reached $ 1 , 000 , 000 , and In 1676—the groat- j 
est year but this—$ 1 , 623 , 000 . f 
FOREIGN NOTES. 
'The coinage executed at the United states 
JUuls in the month of October, 1877, is as follows: 
Double eagles, $5,454,800: half eagles, $5,000; 
quarter eagles, $20,000—total gold coinage, $ 5 , 479 ,- 
soo. Trade dollars, $1,075,050; half dollars, $ 711 ,- 
225; quarter dollars, $554,012 ; 20-cent pieces, $ 10 ; 
dimes* $76,406—total silver coinage, $ 2 , 410 , 702 . 
France produces ski pounds of sugar beets for 
every head ot population. 
In Madagascar there are 220 species of birds, of 
which 104 are found there and nowhere else. 
The only gap In the girdle or derenee at Metz 
has been filled by the construction of a new fort. 
The receipts Of the five leading English mission¬ 
ary societies last year were $2,975,206, and the year 
preceding. $3,195,665. 
The Bonupartlsts are the only members of the 
Versailles Assembly who openly in debate call 
their opponents liars. 
During the last ten years the Italian Govern¬ 
ment has confiscated and sold at public auction 
$ 106 , 000,000 worth of church property. 
The number or desertions from tl)e British 
Army was last year 1 , 751 , as a result of which 
1,746 soldiers were committed to hard labor. 
The German government has brought 266 ac¬ 
tions for libel against the press ol that country 
during the last year. Nearly all were convicted, 
It has been remarked that every European 
prime minister Is a free-mason except the Tur¬ 
kish grand vizier and the Pope’s right-hand ad¬ 
viser. 
About 4000 tons of horns are received annually 
In England from the River Platte ; touo horns are 
usually reckoned as a measurement ton in ship¬ 
ping, though' they are frequently freighted by 
weight. It takes nearly 2000 Horns to weigh a ton. 
It appears from a Blue Book just Issued respect¬ 
ing the great cyclone and storm-wave which vis- 
lted certain districts In Bengal on the morning of 
the 1st of November, lsto. that the total number 
of persons drowned was 90, 000 , and that tbe out¬ 
break of cholera which rollowed, carried off 75 ,- 
000 , making a total mortality of 165, 000 . 
3r Malmalson, the favorite suburban home of the 
a first Napoleon and his Empress Josephine, was 
1 - lately sold by auction to a Mr. Ganllcr of Paris 
Is for 730,000 francs, or about $l 4 «,ooo. 
During last year there were sold In the markets 
•s of Paris 1,098,726 partridges, 522,624 pheasants 
d 945,992 hares, 150,265 woodcock, snipe, and wild 
>* geese, 652 bucks, and 68 wild boars. 
l " The pope has accumulated a fund of $ 6 , 000 , 000 , 
which Is held by Tortonta and some French and 
>t Brussels baukcre, for the pay of ex-ponttfleal sol- 
e dlers and officials, and divers other purposes tael¬ 
s' dental to the papal interest. 
The Chinese Ambassador to England attributes 
1 the famine In India to so much land being devoted 
to the cultivation of the poppy. It Is estimated 
0 that 1 , 033,000 acres of the best land in India Is de- 
., voted to the growth or tho poppy. 
A man was lately liberated from a prison In 
e Madrid, who was considered Implicated In the 
1 assassination or Gen. Prim In 1869. Arter seven 
years of Incarceration the court now decides that 
> there was no evidence against him. 
> Late advices from England state that the hop 
crop there, of 1377, cannot exceed 450,000 cwt., 
’ and that a gross amount of ti-om 430 ,000 to 435,000 
1 cwt.. Is about the quantity grown. This repre¬ 
sents an average yield of from 6 to 6# cwt. from 
1 every acre of hop land. 
A disabled veteran named Zulus, lately dis- 
- charged rrorn the German army, applied for a 
• pension. On being told that he was not entitled 
I to one, lie shot himself In the presence of the 
Emperor, as he was leaving his palace. He did 
t not succeed tn kl 1II ng h Itnsclf. 
Ex-Empress Eugenie thinks that the chances 
for re-establlshldg the Empire are now very 
’ slight, and blames Be Fourtou for his bad man¬ 
agement. She also complains bitterly of the ex¬ 
tortion practised upon her in causing her to 
i spend heavy sums toward manipulating tho late 
elections. 
All the German fortresses now building upon 
the Russian frontier will be finished, It Is assert¬ 
ed, by is-so. Of the nine forts of the fortifications 
near Posen, three will be completed in 1878, three 
In 1879, and the rest In the following year. The 
twelve forts near Konlgsborg are equally well 
under way, 
The South Australian Government has sent an 
expedition to explore some of tho unknown dis¬ 
tricts of the northern territory of that colony. 
Tbe objects of the expedition are to make a sur¬ 
vey of the Herbert River and tto tributaries, and 
to examine the neighboring country on the bor¬ 
ders of Queensland. 
Church clockR in the Pays Basque, France, al¬ 
ways strike twice, because clocks are very rare 
many persons cannot read t he hands, and in out 
of-the-way places there is frequently no minute 
hand. The clock of the church strikes the first 
time to give warning, and at the second time 
every one listens to the hour. 
Every year witnesses curious sand showers In 
China, when there Ls neither cloud nor fog In the 
tsky. The sun Is scarcely visible, looking very 
much as when seen through smoked glass. The 
sand penetrates houses, reaching apartments 
which seem securely closed. It Is supposed to be 
carried by whirlwinds from the great desert of 
Gobi, and the storms are Indicative of a year of 
large fertility. 
The Emperor or Brazil was unfortunate enough 
to get home Incline to find that thousands of his 
subjects were perishing for want of food. At 
last accounts there were half a million people re¬ 
ported dead for want of bread, und hundreds of 
thousands dependent upon the government for 
sustenance. Already $1,000,000 had been ex¬ 
pended for food. Failure of crops the cause of the 
famine. 
The AveDlr Mllltalrc thus sums up tbe military 
force of France, without counting the reserve of 
the territorial army, for the spring of tors : Mov¬ 
able field army 677 ,000 men and 123,400 horses; 
Infantry of reserve, 1 62,500 and 20,000 horses; 
movable territorial troops, 179,000 men and 11,000 
horses; garrisons in France, 671 ,000 men and 34 ,- 
000 horses; garrisons in Algeria, 48,400 rnen and 
11,000 horses; total 1,738,500 men and 210,400 
horses. 
Next, to wine, cider is the llquor most consumed 
In France, but within the Last 20 years the con¬ 
sumption has fallen from 42 to 35 gallons per head 
annually. Its use Is now confined to the north¬ 
western departments. The consumption of beer 
steadily Increases, but is almost entirely confined 
to the departments contiguous to Belgium. Ex¬ 
perience has demonstrated that white wines are 
much more likely than red to act on the nervous 
system. 
England tends to become less and less a land of 
wheat, growers, and more and more a fruit bear¬ 
ing country. It is noticed by Mr. Olffen, In his 
report to the Board of Trade, that In one year the 
orchards of Great, Britain have increased to the 
extent of 6,000 acres, whereas the wheat grown 
In 1877 was, though more than last year, still much 
below the ordinary average. The decllue is about 
eight per cent. The stock of horses In the country 
Is increasing; while horned cattle are decreasing, 
thanks to cattle plague, foot-and-mouth disease, 
and scarcity of fodder, which make grazing an 
exceedingly risky business and threatens to make 
it a very unpopular one. 
- — 
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