697 
130V. 2 
germination. There are men who believe very 
firmly that weeds are natural to the soil and 
grow spontaneously ; and others, that potato 
beetles and other insect pests are sent and come 
and go by some mysterious dispensation. Now, 
as regards cheat, the origin of tbe delusion 
seemB to be that the true cheat is merely an ab¬ 
ortive or degenerate grain produced by plants) 
diseased and stunted by the attacks of an ani¬ 
malcule known as Vibrio tritioi. Instead of tbe 
plump graiu expected, a shriveled, chaffy abor¬ 
tion, called “ drips ” by some, is gathered and 
this has been known as cheat for centuries past 
in England. Here is the basis from which the 
prevalent error has sprung, and anything that 
has had the appearance of the blasted grain, has 
come to be called cheat or chess, which are 
synonymous. To look into the origin and nature 
of things iB necessary to the discovery of error, 
and if farmers could only study a little of the 
botanical character of the grasses, they would 
easily discover the truth of this matter. 
INFECTIOUS BOOMS. 
Our correspondent, Mr. 8. Rufus MaBon, 
writes us that he is just recovering from a very 
dangerous attack of typhoid fever, and a knowl¬ 
edge of the way in which the disease was con¬ 
tracted may be a warning to others against ex¬ 
posing themselves to infection in places where 
the air is vitiated by the germs of putrefaction, 
whose presence is often indicated by offensive 
odors. 
Common Millet, (Panicum mtltaceum) after 
Flint. —(See page 691) 
In the latter part of August Mr. Mason was 
called to an old friend and neighbor to write his 
will. He was dying from an abscess in his side, 
of a most offensive character, which had already 
commenced to mortify. The stench was intol¬ 
erable. He was in a tight room, only six by 
eight feet, with no ventilation, while the ther¬ 
mometer was at 84°. For two lion re the visitor 
was shut up with him, and nearly fainted before 
bo got through, but afterwards he thought no 
more of it. On the first of September, however, 
he was striokou down with the fever, confined to 
his bed for over three weeks, and, as stated 
above, is now Hlowly recovering. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
To Relieve Choked Cows. —In the always 
interesting proceedings of the Elmira Farmers’ 
Club, as efficiently reported in the Husbamlm n, 
" e the following My way is to open the 
mouth of the choked animal and insert a clevis 
wide enough to keep the jaws distanded, and 
give space for tho passage of a boy’s hand. I 
hold the clevis in pUoe, while my boy passes his 
land through and picks out the apple or other 
obstruction. Any boy whose baud is small 
enough to pass without crowding, can easily 
|emove the trouble with eutu-e safety. I 
iave tried to do it myself bat my hand is too 
aige.. There is no difficulty or danger if the 
clevis is firmly held in position.” 
Another member said that an easy way to 
ling relief is to oause the ohoked animal to 
jump over bars as high as may be leaped with 
considerable exertion. It never fails to eject 
THE BUBAL HE W-YOBKEB. 
the offending substance or cause it to pass 
downward. He had tried it many times, always 
with success. 
Fig. 3. Elusine cobacana, (fbom life.) 
Pbogbess or the Phosphates. —Professor 
Caldwell remarks on this subject, in the Weekly 
Tribune, that Mr. Lawes, whose name is as 
familiar a household word among English and 
American farmers as Liebig’s, was the first to 
manufaoturo superphosphate on a large scale, 
and offer it In tho markets as an article of trade. 
In 1858 he made 12,000 tons, procuring the raw 
material from beds of mineral phosphate in 
England owned by himself, from Norway and 
Sweden, and from bones imported from Amer¬ 
ica and Germauy, In 1870 the product of his 
manufactories amounted to 40,000 tons. In 
1872 he retired from the business, and his ex¬ 
tensive works were purchased by a company 
with a capital of about $3,000,000. 
In another part of the article he says that 
Georgia is now the banner State of the Union 
with respect to tho consumption of commercial 
fertilizers; and the State Government has set 
an example that might well be followed by other 
States iu the older parts of the country, in the 
enactment of laws for the protection of con¬ 
sumers from fraud, and—what is often quite as 
important as the enactment of laws—in making 
liberal appropriations for carrying them into 
effect. 
Farming in England. — “ Our local weekly 
papers teem with advertisement of sales by auc¬ 
tion of live and dead farming stock, and it is 
interesting to read the “ why and wherefore ” of 
such and such sale. Some are relinquishing 
business, some going to a far-off country, others 
declining farming, and others Bpeak of then- 
tenancy expiring; and some we know of, have 
failed in their business, broken their covenants, 
and, if reports be oorrect, have not paid their 
last year's rent yet. It is no manner of use people 
going into farming if they have not got capital 
at their back. The tight-screw principle or 
make-shift system will not pay. We have before 
our eyes two fields of turnips very near to each 
other on the same 3ido of the road we travel 
along; one is tenanted by a well-to-do farmer, 
who has muoked and worked his land well before 
Bowing, and there is a good crop. The other 
belongs to a poor farmer, who cannot afford to 
buy manure, and is very nipping with labor, and 
consequently has only half a crop. London Ag. 
Gazette. 
Obiqin of the Jerusalem ob Sun-floweb 
Aktichokk.— A correspondent, J. J. Miller, 
Kansas, U. S., iu the Rusal New-Yobkeb, 
writes:—“ I am not wise enough to decide who 
invented the Jerusalem Artichoke, but this I 
can say, and vouch for, that it is found growing 
wild in abundance on the banks of the streams 
in this section, where none has ever been plant¬ 
ed, where the virgin soil has never been touched 
by plow or any instrument or implement. They 
were here when tho first white man arrived.” 
The Town and Country Journal, of Sydney, 
Australia, commenting on the above, says:_ 
“The plant is indigenous to Brazil. How can 
Mr. Miller prove that it was found or existed 
before the advent of Europeans? He cannot 
have studied geographic jDotany." 
[The editor of the above journal is mistaken. 
The Jerusalem Artichoke did not come from 
Brazil, but probably did originate in the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley from a spooies of Sunflower, Heli- 
autlius doroniooides, winch there grows wild._ 
Eds,] 
An INTEBE8TTNG HYBRID CONIFEB. —In his 
private garden at Vorrieres, says the London 
Ohroniole, M. Henry Yilmorin has, among 
other choice coniferous trees, an interesting and 
very handsome hybrid Conifer, obtained from a 
cross between Picea Pmeapo and P. Cephalon- 
ica. We do not remember at the moment which 
was the seed-bearing parent, but whichever it 
may have been, a dozen cones wore fertilized. 
Of these, only one “ set,” and in this there was 
only one fully developed seed, which gave birth 
to the plant in question. The specimen, which 
measures eight feet in hight and as much in 
diameter of branches near the ground, is thickly 
furnished, differs from both its parents in the 
arrangement of its leaves, and promises to make 
a distinct and noble-looking tree. 
“Importation of Amkiucan Cheese,” the 
London Gazette states, “ is growing, and appears 
to grow in Bpite of our low prices, which alone, 
however, can be trusted to check it. The pinch 
thus given us will be felt more and more. Let 
ua hope that it will stimulate ns to a greater at¬ 
tention, carofnlness, and skill at home. In the 
contest of qualities thoBe which are good will ob¬ 
tain a sale, and the inferior sorts will be more 
aDd more absolutely refused as the quantity of 
the latter increases in the market. 
If our English dairies would, as they might, 
turn out the higher qualities alone, the Ameri¬ 
can importation would be nowhere in competi¬ 
tion, and we should be saved.” 
Personal Generosity, says the Town and 
Country (Australia), needs undoubtedly to be 
exercised judiciously, but when bo exercised it 
is worth all the other generosities ia the world. 
The man or woman who will take a fellow- 
creature by the hand and assist him to rise out 
of the mire into which he may have fallen, or 
stands by tho sick and suffering, and with tender 
care and loving words softens their anguish, 
performs an angel’s part. Would there were 
more who did this ! There would be little need 
for big institutions and their long lists of sub¬ 
scribers who never, from year’s end to year's 
end, enter the building they maintain. 
Fultz Wheat.— The American Miller thinks 
this is the best variety now in the market, and if 
properly farmed, it will yield on an average equal 
to any wheat in the country. Many farmers 
claim 40 bushels per acre this season. It has a 
stiff straw, and does not lose any grain in hand¬ 
ling, and when cut, will lie compact and take np 
less barn room than any other variety of wheat. 
It will weigh 64 lbs. per bushel, if clean; it 
always sells readily for the highest price, and 
the flour manufactured from it has no superior. 
Fig. 2. Hungarian Grass. (Setaria Italica) 
from Life.—(S ee page 694.) 
Pounds to the Bushel. —Blue Grass, 14; 
Oats, 32; Hemp Seed, 44; Timothy Seed, 45; 
Castor Beans, 46; Bariev, 48; Flaxseed, 56; 
Rye, 56; Shelled Corn, 56; Onions, 57; Wheat, 60; 
Clover Seed, 60; Salt, 75; Corn on the Cob, 75. 
“Unless prices take a turn before another 
season, many makers of second-class English 
cheese will turn their attention to something 
else.”— London Farmer. 
The Western Rural says that the game the 
lightning-rod men play is, “ Heads I win—tails 
you lose.” 
Dairj fttsfraiiirnr. 
FARMERS “BEARING” THEIR OWN 
MARKET. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Farmers have complained bitterly of the effect 
of the oleomargarine manufacture upon the price 
of batter, and there is no doubt in regard to the 
fact that oleomargarine has killed the market for 
cheap grades of dairy butter. It is, in fact, a 
sin to convert good milk into poor batter or 
cheese, and we should all be glad when any sin be¬ 
comes plainly unprofitable. The thing to be done 
now is to learn how to make good butter, and make 
it, or quit dairying for some business requiring 
less skill, care and Deatness. “Scrub-farmiDg,” 
of all sorts, is getting very unprofitable in this 
new era of small margins, and the result will be 
such improvement in agriculture as comes from 
the pressure of dire necessity—a force of far 
greater potency than the persuasive voice of the 
agricultural editor, charm he never so wisely. 
The “ root-hog-or-die ’’ principle is being ap¬ 
plied to a good many of us iu these days, and as 
necessity is the reputed mother of invention, it 
is possible that a good many owners of cows will 
come to the conclusion that there is a difference 
between good keep and poor keep, between clean 
milking and dirty milking, between a careful 
and a slovenly handling of milk and making of 
batter, between a “ good -enough ” not seen by 
the buyer and the “first quality ” that is suffi¬ 
ciently evident to be recognized in the market. 
There is no doubt at all that the market for 
dairy products is, in the languageof Wall Street, 
“ beared"—that is, depressed, by the very large 
quantity of inferior goods forced upon the public 
over and above the natural demand. This de¬ 
mand is indeed now well supplied by oleomarga¬ 
rine, which takes the place of, and is generally 
preferred to, the cheaper grades of dairy butter. 
Yet this is not the ‘ * bearing ” of the bntteT 
market which I had in mind when writing the 
heading of this article. I wish to call the atten¬ 
tion of dairymen to a depression of the market 
for even first-class butter, wrought by the pro¬ 
duct of cows that do not pay their way. In 
almost every herd there are cows that never 
make butter enough to pay for their keep. In 
not a few of our dairies 25 per cent, of the cows 
are of this class. I have known whole herds 
that, with the keep given, did not yield a collar 
of profit to the owner; and perhaps would not 
with any keep. 
Now, let ns suppose that one-fifth of the cows 
kept for making butter in this country are of 
this class—cows that do not make enough butter 
to pay expenses. This butter goes into market 
at cost, or less than cost, even when well made 
and bringing the top of the market. The farmer 
has the care of them and the labor of manu¬ 
facturing and handling their butter, yet without 
profit. If at an aotual loss as, in many cases, 
this loss must be deducted from the small profit 
yielded by the rest of the herd. And yet this 
butter comes upon the market in competition with 
that of pay mg com, and must depress the price 
of their product. 
It is said that Vanderbilt objects to competing 
iu freight tariffs with bankrupt railroads that do 
not pretend to pay any dividends. In this Van¬ 
derbilt shows the shrewd oommon sense of a 
trained business tnau—a common sense which is 
quite as useful to the farmer as to the man who 
carries the products of the farm to market. Are 
not the farmers who are running twenty-five 
“ bankrupt" cows in competition with seventy- 
five that pay dividends, lacking in business sense ? 
Are they not filling the market with goods upon 
which no profit is possible, and thus weakening 
the price of those goods on which they must 
make what gain they have to depend upou for a 
living? Are they not plainly “bearing” their 
own market; thoughtlessly, stupidly hurting 
their own trade far worse than the oleomargarine 
makers, who only compete with a class of goods 
that never should be made at all ? 
I put these questions squarely to the intelligent 
dairymen who read the Rural and are farming 
for profit: “ Had you not better at once, if you 
have not done so already, begin a thorough test¬ 
ing of each and every cow in your herd, with 
the purpose of ascertaining whether she makes 
butter enough to pay you for keeping her ? And 
if you find that she does not, does not your in¬ 
terest, as a dairyman, demand that all such cows 
shall at once cease to make any butter at all ?" 
If the cows now producing butter at a loss 
were all put into beef this fall, the supply would 
be reduced and prices must rise. Thus the dairy¬ 
man will make a double gain. He ceases to lose 
on the poor cows, and makes more money on his 
good ones. He stiffens his market instead of 
weakening it. He puts his feed and his labor 
wnore they will do the most good. He shows 
business sense, am' if this view of the question 
could be brought home effectively to the minds 
of the dairymen of this country this very fall, 
the profits of dairyiug would be raised fifty per 
cent, next year, even though the price of butter 
did not advance at all. But if, as we might just¬ 
ly expect, a short supply was followed by an ad¬ 
vance in price, dairying would have a stiH 
jfc 11 11 iitt put uptu it. And it needs it. 
