FEB. 7 
THE 
EW-YOBKEB. 
On this occasion the most prominent of her 
citizens lent their presence to give interest and 
tone to the meetings. It is not in many States 
that the Governor will put himself out so much 
as to attend a gathering of farmers, especially 
if no election is in the immediate future. 
Speakers of prominence from other sections 
were engaged to handle the special subjects in 
the dairy. 
Local talent was called upon the first day in 
the opening exercises, and many good things 
were laid before the attentive audience. After 
electing the old officers—Hon. E. D. Mason, 
President, H. W. Vail, Treasurer, and 0. 8. 
Bliss, Secretary,—the regular order of business 
was resumed. The president gave a cursory 
sketch of the Vermont display at the Interna 
tional Dairy Fair, complimentiug his State on 
the appearance and management of the fair 
generally, and expressing his particular de¬ 
light at the information he gained there that 
should his cows ever again become unprofit¬ 
able, he could drive them down to the foot of 
42nd Street a*d have them turned into butter— 
hide, boofB, horns and all. 
An address from Dr. Mott was read, in 
which he called the Channel Islands “ Alder¬ 
ney Islands,” and stated that there were four 
of them, each possessing a separate breed. 
This will be news to Jersey breeders, especially 
as to Sark and Alderney. He also quotes Dr. 
Sturtevant describing the model Ayrshire with 
short legs and short teats, and a mirror within 
her escutcheon. For once the doctors do 
agree! 
Ex-Governor Smith paid an eloquent tribute 
to the dairy history of Vermont, but warned 
the farmers to be on the alert against their 
wide-awake rivals of the West. He advised 
greater thoroughness and the keeping of 
records on the farm, in order to raise the aver¬ 
age of Vermont cows, which average a yearly 
yield of only 98 pounds of batter. While he 
lamented the distress of England and Ireland, 
he still congratulated this country upon its 
ability and opportunity to feed them. He 
made the remarkable statement that farm 
products, like beef and wheat, could be laid 
down in England by farmers living a thousand 
miles west of Chicago, at a profit, and at lower 
prices than those at which English or Irish 
farmers could produce them, even if they had 
their land rent-free, or owned it as Western 
farmers do theirs. 
He was called upon to explain why it was, he 
being the president of the Vermont Central 
Railroad, that butter and cheese were carried 
from Chicago to Boston for less rates than 
that passing over that road from St. Albans to 
Boston. This looked like a fearful discrimi¬ 
nation against local freights. The Governor, 
however, apparently gave universal satisfac¬ 
tion by proving that the butter from Chicago 
was not made in Chicago, but had paid as high 
rates to get to that city as Vermont butter pays 
to get to Boston ; thus whatever charges were 
mide from Chicago were that much more on 
the butter and in favor of the Vermont dairy¬ 
man ; that is, most of the Western batter is 
made in Western Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, 
and averages 100 miles from Chicago, and to 
get it there costs $1.40, $1.60 and $1.60 respec¬ 
tively. 
L. S. Hardin spoke a piece on the subject of 
testing cows. He said that a number of promi¬ 
nent breeders of each class of dairy animals 
had organized the Natioual Dairy Cattle Club 
for the purpose of recording the yields of dairy 
cows. This was done that the poor ones might 
be weeded out and the best bo bred from, just 
as the process is now carried on of recording 
the performances and improving the breeds of 
trotting and running horses. He claimed that 
no dairyman had a correct estimate of the 
value of the cows in bis herd, and instanced 
his own surprise at the mistaken estimates he 
had put upon his own cows before he recorded 
their yields. 
Mr. Willard then took a range pretty much 
all over the dairy interests of the country. He 
pictured in striking colors the peaceful and 
harmonious pursuits of the farm when com¬ 
pared with the stormy and exacting life of a 
city merchant. Even oleomargarine, he 
thought, might do the farmorsome good by cat¬ 
ting off the tail of the market and foreing all 
butter makers to make a prime article. He 
then reviewed the improvements of the dairy. 
Higgins’s process of shipping butter, when in 
granules, In barrels of brine, had been tested 
by sending a lot of it to England, and when put 
upon the market it brought the same price as 
the best home-made English goods. He touched 
upon many other new ideas and had even a 
good word for Durand’s cow milker. He was 
in favor of farmers keeping records, and con¬ 
cluded with the special charge that all the 
good things we have were not furnished by 
nature, but by art. He aptly put it thus: 
11 No Short-horn cattle or thoroughbred horses 
roamed our primeval forests; no golden wheat 
or luscious fruits or wholesome vegetables 
grow upon the uncultivated lands.” It seems 
to be, at least in some instances, a case of the 
sweat of the hired man's face. 
J. D. W. French gave a most admirable es¬ 
say upon the virtues of the Ayrshire race of 
cattle. He acknowledged that after listening 
to such an argument, Jersey men would go 
home Jersey men and Short-horn men would 
go home Short-horn men. Bat he came to speak 
to that large class that had not adopted any of 
the breeds. He thought the Ayrshire cattle 
were adapted especially to the wants of New 
England, with her rugged pastures and often 
thin soils. He touched on the history of the 
breed and dwelt with energy and force upon 
the proposition that the Ayrshire cow would 
make a greater atnouut of milk from a given 
quantity of food than any other breed. He 
has kept the record of his cows for six years, 
and is a firm believer in the necessity for such 
a method in improving the dairy value ot 
cows. He told of the preacher who was called 
upon for a short address to a gathering of 
dairymen. He described the killing of the 
fatted calf. He was sure it was a blooded ani¬ 
mal and had been cherished and preserved in 
the family for many years. 
Mr. Adams, Secretary of the New Hampshire 
Board of Agriculture, gave many happy sug¬ 
gestions as to the Deeded improvements in farm 
management, such as harrowing growing 
crops, using new kinds of machinery, some of 
the riding harrows, droppers, etc., needing but 
one improvement, and that was a place for the 
horse to ride. 
Governor Proctor pictured in striking colors 
the rising splendors of the State. All he knew 
of dairying was his first experience when as a 
handler of milit, he became large enough to 
wind up his daily petition with, “ Give us this 
day our daily bread and cheese." 
Prof. Eoglehart told all about how to keep 
the stable as sweet as a young lady’s boudoir. 
He prefers sulphur, burnt with alcohol on a 
frying-pan, as the best disinfectant. Salt, he 
says, will absorb bad odors, and therefore 
should rot be kept near coal oil, Balt or dried 
fish, etc., if it is to be used in butter or cheese. 
He then described his methods for testing 
milk, as he was the milk inspector of Syracuse. 
The farmers did not seem to be favorably im¬ 
pressed with his reliance on the lactometers. 
He admitted a variation of 14 degrees in milk, 
but they were willing to agree that if the milk 
In the can in town showed a variation of 18 
degrees from the milk when drawn from the 
cows at the stable, there was a strong proba¬ 
bility that some one had been baptizing it. H. 
UUstfUaiuous. 
THE OTHER SIDE. 
The Rural New-Yorkjsb has received a 
goodly number of kind words and compli¬ 
ments during the past two years, a few of 
which, during subscription times or as cam¬ 
paign documents, it has thought well to place 
before its readers. It will seem, however, that 
ail who examine the Rural are not of the 
same opinion, as will appear from the follow¬ 
ing letter, it may be well to remind the writer 
that the Rural New-Yorker being national 
in its field of woi k, cannot give special con¬ 
sideration to anv one of the agricultural or¬ 
ganizations of our country:— 
“I have received the specimen of your paper. 
I have examined it carefully and find it a first- 
class, old-fashioned farm journal, conducted on 
the basis that all farmers are fools, and always 
will remain fools, so that they require a sort 
of dry-nurse in the shape of a weekly maga¬ 
zine to warn them of the stumbliug blocks in 
their way, and to keep them from being im¬ 
posed upon. I cannot believe that you are 
ignorant of the fact that some years ago there 
was an association stai ted in this country to 
enlighten, educate, and improve the farmer. 
It now numbers over half a million of mem¬ 
bers : owns hundreds of halls that are used ex¬ 
clusively for their weekly or fortuightly meet¬ 
ings; has established hundreds of schools that 
are owned and controlled exclusively by farm¬ 
ers for the education of their own children; 
in short, it has done more In ten years to 
elevate the farmer, teaeti him to attend to his 
own business in a busiuess-like way, and to 
grapple with the discomforts of his isolated 
life, than all the agricultural journals that 
have been published in the lost forty years. 
I have looked in vain through your columns 
for any notice of this movement; and for you 
to pretend to publish a farmers’ paper and 
ignore a fact of such vital importance to them, 
is a positive insult to their understanding. 
When you devote a portion ot your paper to 
defending and teaching the principles of the 
Patrons of Husbandly, and to giving the 
farmers some account of what they are doing 
for their own advancement, you can consider 
yourB a farmers' paper. Until you do so, you 
must be content to take a back Beat among the 
“old fogies," who famish the farmer with a 
paper at the lowest price and then throw in a 
jack-knife, or, if he will get a lot of fools in the 
B&nie trap, will give him his choice from a 
pencil to a $800 piano I took the sample 
copies you sent to our grauge meeting last 
Saturday and told the brothers that if any of 
them, who were subscribing to our grange pub¬ 
lications wanted agood agricultural paper, they 
could not do better than to take yours ; but that 
their first duty was to support their own or¬ 
gans. There were between thirty and forty 
present. Robert H. Gilman. 
Lecturer of Milford Grange, Del.. No. 8. Jan., 16. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Food Adulterations. —Our respected con¬ 
temporary, the Boston Journal of Chemis¬ 
try, speaking of “Food Adulterations,” quotes 
from what several Chicago chemists have 
6 aid, adding some very sensible suggestions 
and advice. What these chemists say is 
enough to frighten any nervous person out 
of his wits. One must believe that to eat is 
to be poisoned—6lowly poisoned. The follow¬ 
ing are a few paragraphs of what the Boston 
Journal quotes more at length: 
“ I never use the pickles generally sold in 
our markets. 1 think the yellow pickles are 
quite as dangerous as the green. I know that 
lead is largely used in their manufacture. Ver¬ 
digris is used in making the green. 
I have examined a large number of speci¬ 
mens of oleomargarine, and have found in 
them organic substances in the form of mus¬ 
cular and connective tissue; various fungi, and 
living organisms which have resisted the ac¬ 
tion of boiling acetic acid; also, eggs resem¬ 
bling those of the tapeworm. I have them 
preserved, to be shown to any one who desires 
to see them. The French patent under which 
oleomargarine is made requires the use of the 
stomachs of pigs or sheep. This is probably 
the way the eggs get in. I have specimen a of 
lean meat taken from oleomargarine. There 
can be no question that immense amounts of 
oleomargarine are sold and used as pure but¬ 
ter. I regard it as a dangerous article, and 
would on no account permit its use in my 
family. I do not dare to use the sirups com¬ 
monly sold in our markets, and I use but 
little sugar, as I believe them nearly all adul¬ 
terated. In regard to glucose, I am informed 
and believe that seven-eighths of all the sugar 
sold in Chicago is made of, or adulterated with, 
glucose. I have made more than a thousand 
microscopical examinations of milk in this 
city. I think that not over ten per cent, of 
the milk sold here by dealers is wholesome 
and unadulterated.” 
The Journal of Chemistry concludes its com¬ 
ment* upon the above statements as follows: 
“ Dangerous frauds are no doubt practised 
to an extent demanding serious and prompt 
attention; but any assertion which leads the 
public to believe that every article of house¬ 
hold use is dangerously sophisticated is cal¬ 
culated to do harm, and its falsity should be 
exposed." 
Do Farmers Wibelt Choose Occupations 
for their Sons ?—At a late meeting of the 
Syracuse Farmers’ Club Mr. Edwards said : 
“ A farmer has two sons; one has strong phy¬ 
sical development and a natural taste for farm¬ 
ing ; to use the hoe and follow the plow day 
after day is both congenial to his feelings and 
his health ; hia mind rests in quiet satisfaction 
as he looks out upon his father’s broad acres, 
and views with manly pridethe growing flocks 
and fattening herd, and estimates in dollars 
and cents their value. The other son lacks the 
pdysical strength of his brother, but has fine, 
sensitive nerves, and a deep thirst lor scientific 
or legal knowledge. He goes to the lieldB with 
his brother, with heavy tread because it is his 
duty to go, but his thoughts are anioDg the 
planets,trying to calculate their distances from 
earth, and the influence they have upon the 
seasons. Such a boy can never make a suc¬ 
cessful farmer, no more than the other can 
make a successful astronomer. Barents should 
at least be as wise in looking after the fitness 
ot their hoys for their chosen business, as they 
would in training their colts. But how is it ? A 
farmer goes out to examine his young horses: 
there is fonr-year-old “ Dick,” large, strong, 
close-jointed, and mild-tempered, slow and 
steady, a good horse for the team. There is 
young Flora, smaller, long-jointed, with 
deer-like limbs, and h'gh temper, can be made 
to trot in 2.20, worth $5,000. No farmer will 
ever make the mistake, and put Dick in train¬ 
ing for the race-course and send Flora to haul 
stone. Now, his boys are just as unlike as his 
colts and need as different training. The judge 
naturally wants hi* sons to become lawyers, 
so, too, the minister, merchant, mechanic and 
farmer too often insist that their boys follow 
the inclination of the parent rather than their 
own. It iB a fact that most of the failures re 
suit from not putting the right man in the 
right place. Had Franklin always been kept 
at the tallow chandler’s trade, the lightning 
might never have been subservient to the will 
of man in transmitting our thoughts from 
continent to continent in a moment of time. 
Had Edison been put upon a farm, and kept 
there, his whisperings would not now be heard 
from city to city." 
Coloring Butter.—M r. Hawley, of the 
Onondaga Co. (N. Y.) Farmers’ Club, finds 
that Indian meal fed to a Jersey cow will give 
both the color and aroma of grass butter. 
Buckwheat bran and oil meal both would make 
the color white. 
Mr. Terry said it was absolutely necessary 
to put butter in the market that customers 
wonld take; they wanted colored butter, and 
it must be colored, or the dairyman would 
take the consequences. If the market says 
color, you must color with artificial means or 
by feeding. 
Mr. Overacre urged the farmers to adopt the 
method of natural coloring. First select good 
cows, batter cows, then feed them well, and 
you will get good-colored butter. 
Mr. Geddes said the question was simply the 
old one. When he was a boy they pricked 
horses’ tails to make them carry them high and 
look spirited, and a horse could not be sold 
unless his tail was pricked. The demand in 
the market was for colored butter, and it must 
be colored by feed to the cow, or artificially 
when making. He had eaten butter in Phil¬ 
adelphia, that had cost $1.15 per pound, and on 
the table that Btnff showed the carrot fiber with 
which it had been colored. People who wanted 
to eat their carrots in that way and pay $1.15 
per pound, should he given the pri vilege they 
demanded. The next day, at the same table, 
be had eaten butter that cost 50 cents per 
pound at the corner grocery, and, for his 
taste, it was infinitely superior. 
Dry Cows. —It is a common practice among 
some dairymen to give their cows, when dry, 
but scanty living. When a cow ceases to give 
milk, or is dried up, any feed is considered 
good enough for her. I think this is a great 
mistake, aDd the result is a diminished pro¬ 
duct of milk, both in quantity and quality, 
when she does come in. There is a large 
draught on the system to sustain the calf while 
the cow is carrying it; and to keep the cow in 
good condition good feed is as important as 
when she is giving milk. It is my opinion that 
one dollar’s worth of food when the cow is 
dry is worth one and a half dollar after 
she comes in, An animal in poor condition 
cannot digest as much food as an animal in 
good condition. If the cow is poor when she 
comes in she will not digest enough food to 
support the system, and, at the same time, to 
make a large quantity of milk.—Monthly Bul¬ 
letin of the American Jersey Cattle Club. 
Cows in Milk. — In many countries, says 
the Agricultural Gazette, part or all of the 
field work is done by cows, and if these cannot 
be well cared for, or if they are overworked, 
the flow of milk is immediately more or less 
diminished. On the other side, the advan¬ 
tages of a moderate exercise for the cows 
ought not to be underrated. Cows want ex¬ 
ercise and fresh air as well as other animals, 
and how often do they get little or nothing of 
either? How can we expeet a cow to be 
healthy if she is kept altogether in the stables 
where she inhales constantly bad air? and how 
can she bear healthy and fully developed 
calves under such circumstances ? Moderate 
work for cows cannot be condemned iu prin¬ 
ciple, provided they are not overtired, and the 
slight decrease of milk, which is unavoidable, 
is more than covered by the work accom¬ 
plished. Cows in milk ought not to work 
longer than three hours a day. 
The Cental 8ystem. — la my (eor. Mar k 
Lane Express) opinion the people who would 
he most materially benefited by the uniform 
use of the cental would be the farmers them¬ 
selves. The advant age of being able to compare 
the prices paid in different markets, home and 
foreign, would be very considera'-le. Depend 
upon it the more open and simple a trade is, 
the better it is for both producers and con¬ 
sumers. It ia the middlemen who get the 
advantage of a dark or intricate system. They 
know more of the ins and outs of the trade 
than farmers can know, and they are often 
able to nse their knowledge to their advan¬ 
tage. _ 
To Keep Wells Pure. —A correspondent of 
that sterling paper, the Inter-Ocean, writing 
from Battle Creek, Mieh., says that he purified 
his well of water, which was subject to many 
worms, bugs and other insects as to render it 
almost unfit for drinking, by placing in the 
well a couple of good-sized trout- They have 
kept perfectly healthy and have eaten up every 
live thing in the water. In the winter season 
crumbs of bread or crackers are thrown in. 
The water is perfectly pure and sweet. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Note.—R eaders are referred to our adver¬ 
tising columns for any particulars omitted in 
the following necessarily brief notices : 
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Programmes of Cook’s Grand Excursions 
to Europe for 1SS0 by the Inman and Anchor 
lines of steamers. It is proposed to visit the 
chief points of Interest in all European coun¬ 
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New York. 
