428 
THE RURAL. ?3EW-Y0RKEH. JULY 8 
the same advice has been given in the Tribune- 
Prof. Law was the acknowledged author in 
the former cases, and I presume this last 
emanated from him. I am amazed that a man 
so well informed in veterinary practice should 
blunder as he has done in these cases. He 
surely has not written from experience. A 
filling of crude gutta-percha in the grinding 
surface of a molar tooth of horse or steer, 
would wear away in a few days, so that it 
would be of no practical benefit whatever. 
The material is too 6oft to be of service in such 
cases. Being a practicing dentist of many 
years’ experience, I feel justified in speaking 
quite positively regarding the durability of 
materials that are used for filling teeth. 
There are different forms or preparations of 
gutta-percha used for filling human teeth ; and 
I have never made use of one that would not 
withstand the wear of mastication much better 
than the crude article. But even in this im¬ 
proved form, dentists never make use of it 
with the expectation that it will serve more 
than a temporary purpose, except in places 
where it will be exempt from the attrition of 
chewing. 
In a tooth of the horse or ox or other beast 
that chews hay and grain, a filling would be 
subjected to an incomparably more Bevere ser¬ 
vice than in a human tooth; and yet in the 
latter case, the purified and hardened gutta¬ 
percha wiil last but a brief time. Now we can 
see the absurdity of the advice to fill the tooth 
of a beast with crude gutta-percha. 
Before closing, I will say that dentists con¬ 
stantly make use of a filling material that, I 
think, would endure for a long time the severe 
test we are considering. It is amalgam. It is 
plastic when prepared for introduction into a 
tooth, and would be as easily put in as gutta¬ 
percha. It soon becomes very hard, aDd in 
human teeth it never fails on account of its 
wearing away. If the filling of animals’ teeth 
is practicable, it can only be so by using this 
material. 
jfttistrllantous. 
KILL OFF THE DOGS. 
Evert week the papers bring us accounts cf 
valuable cattle lost from madness caused by 
the bites of rabid dogs. Every year the enor¬ 
mous loss to the sheep industry from worrying 
dogs startles us by its size, and yet we go on 
year after year risking life and property and 
suffering discomforts, if not death, from the 
fangs and diseases of these hordes of worthless 
dogs. 
They do not protect us from burglars once in 
a hundred times. If a burglar is determined 
to enter a dwelling and bolts and bars do not 
stop him, surely a dog will not. A faithless 
dog is entieed away ; a resolute dog is quickly 
quieted by a bit of poisoned meat. Nor are 
they desirable companions for our children; 
they teach them nothing good and they make 
them overbearing and cruel. Nor do they pro¬ 
tect our farms and buildings to any great ex¬ 
tent from vermin; a good steel trap will free a 
barn from rate and a field from wood-chucks 
more satisfactorily than a dozen dogs. A 
“boom” has lately been started in favoi of the 
dog, on the ground that he will thu6 fr.ee the 
farmer from these indoor and outdoor pests; 
after long trials and much bitter experience, 
I say one steel trap against a score of dogs. 
If dogs are used to drive cattle serious injury 
may be done to the cows and certain injury will 
be done to the butter made from the milk of a 
“ dogged ” beast. 
A dog in hie life-time will frighten or bite 
one’s friends or one’s children a hundred times 
for once that he will protect from a determined 
burglar. A dog by jumping over a roadside 
fence or barking at a horse on the highway 
may subject his owner to greater loss of time 
and money than the good done by all the dog6 
of a county would amount to. Dogs kept as 
house dogs on a farm or in a village, are a relic 
and evidence of barbarism, of a wild and 
savage state of existence not yet passed away. 
Where dogs are kept birds are Bcarce; and 
birds are now recognized as among the far¬ 
mers’ and villagers’ most valuable friends. 
Without the bir ds, the worms and bugs and all 
the insects injurious to vegetation and dis¬ 
tressing to human beings would exist in count¬ 
less swarms, and the toad in ganlens is as busy 
and useful as the bird in the tree or meadow. 
And against all, toad, bird, sheep, cows, chil¬ 
dren, friends, does this cur wage unceasing 
warfare. When he is not biting he is barking. 
And day and night, year in and year out, the 
useless dog is more or less of a wild bea6t in 
our midst; and not seldom he is a source of 
the deadliest danger. Madness in the dog, and 
the communication of this terrible disease to 
human beings, are facts—and terrible facts. 
Hardly a month passes in this country in 
which we do not see accounts of the death of a 
human being in one of its most terrible 
forms, and where death does not follow the 
bite of a dog which is rabid, or supposed to be, 
the agony of apprehension darkens the life of 
many a happy home. 
Now, if we put on one side the Iobs of our 
most valuable property, as well as the frequent 
cases of human death, suffering and sorrow; 
and on the other side, the few benefits which 
these semi-wild beasts confer upon the com¬ 
munity, shall we hesitate long in deciding on 
which side the balance lies ? R. G., Jr. 
Lenox, Mass. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Progress has the following: “ We have, in 
America, so firm an opinion that they do every¬ 
thing ever so much better abroad, that the 
following little incident must be read with sur¬ 
prise. In a Leicester County (England) police 
court a dairyman was charged with a breach of 
an Order in Council by allowing persons suf¬ 
fering from scarlet fever to take part in the 
management of his dairy, which supplied Bixty 
gallons of milk per day to people in Leicester. 
The inspector found five persons in the defen¬ 
dant's house suffering from the disease. The 
defendant was fined sixpence (twelve cents), 
with costs. According to section Bixty of the 
act under which the Order in Council referred 
to was issued, any person guilty of an offence 
against the act or the Orders in Council made 
under it, is liable to a penalty not exceeding 
twenty pounds (one hundred dollars). The 
British Medical Journal, referring to this mat¬ 
ter, thinks it wonid be instructive to learn the 
reasons which induced the magistrates to re¬ 
gard the imposition of a fine of sixpence as a 
sufficient penally for bo monstrous a disregard 
of human life and of the most ordinary sani¬ 
tary precautions.” 
The Knife and the Yellows.— Judge Law- 
ton asked what precaution should be taken in 
pruning peach trees so as not to disseminate 
the yellows. 
Prof. Beal thought this a very important 
matter, inasmuch as a tree might have the 
yellows enough to impart the disease and still 
not exhibit any signs of it distinguishable to 
the eye. He thought an alcohol lamp could 
be taken along by the pruner, and the blade of 
the implement be passed through the flame 
after finishing each tree. 
Mr. Tracy said he had used crude carbolic 
acid for similar purposes with good effect. 
The liquid could be purchased very cheaply, 
and a can or pail of it could be carried about 
the orchard in ease of pruning, and between 
trees tbe implement could be dipped in the acid. 
Mr. Bitely.—Would there be any doubt about 
this material being effectual iu killing any 
germs of the disease that might adhere to the 
knife ? 
Prof. Beal.—I think none at all; and this 
would be a better choice than the lamp. 
Mr. Tracy.—I employed the liquid in a 
single case of pear blight that was found in my 
orchard. I cut the diseased limb below the 
blighted part, and then applied the carbolic 
acid. I think perhaps it may have had the 
effect of saving a further dissemination of the 
disease in the tree. One thing is certain, the 
odor of that acid was discernible a year after¬ 
ward, exhibiting the fact that it is not quickly 
lost. 
A question.—Do you consider carbolic acid 
a remedy for pear blight ? 
Mr. Tracy,—No; 1 have no such idea; I 
have no theory iu the matter. The fact is, I 
used it in this case and the blight did not re¬ 
appear ; it might uothave reappeared anyway. 
Still, it I had another case I should try a sim¬ 
ilar expedient. The above we take from the 
Proceedings of the Mich. Pomological Society. 
Some Corn. —We find the following in Truth 
aN. Y. daily paper; “II he who causes two 
blades of grass to grow where one grew before 
is a public benefactor, what shall we say of a 
man who invents a new kind of corn that 
flourishes like a green bay tree and multiplies 
itself fiye-thousand-fold ? "Blount’s White 
Prolific” is the name of this wonderful cereal. 
The seed was all bought up by the Rural New- 
Yorker last spring and sent out to its sub¬ 
scribers in small packages containing about 
100 kernels each, and a prize of $100 in gold 
was ottered for the best yield. The lucky prize 
winner was a certain Mr. Chamberlin, M. D., 
hailing from Bkaneateles or Medina or some 
such place up in the Western part of the Stale. 
The following extracts lroin nis report may 
prove interesting to your leaders. Says the 
doctor; "I planted my corn, 100 kernels, May 
20th. It was so cold and wet it did not come 
up till June lQik.” This reads queerly to a 
regularly ordained farmer. Now, up our way 
corn generally rots if it lies iu me ground 
during two or three weeks of wet weather. We 
suppose, however, that Chumberiiu, M. D., 
gave each hill a dose of quinine or something 
ol that kind, whicn preserved the corn through 
the wet spell and caused it to sprout alter 
twenty-one days. That is the only way we can 
explain it. Tne agricultural doctor, in de¬ 
scribing the growth of his wonderful corn 
says: “It grew beyond anything I ever saw or 
heard of in the corn line. Day and night it 
kept growing." Well, we don’t see anything 
strange in that. Corn usually grows night and 
day when it once gets started. Some people 
may have imagined it commenced growing at 
seven in the morning, took an hour’s noouiug 
and then knocked off work at six p. m. the 
same as a day laborer; but this is a mistake. 
Corn grows twenty-four hours in the day, and 
the particular kind our friend (the doctor) 
raised must have grown forty-eight hours a 
day, at least, to make the wondeiful showing 
it did at harvest time. He says: “I harvested 
it on October 1, and to tie the stalks I used a 
step-ladder seven feet high, aud then could not 
reach the top of the stalks within several feet." 
This sounds rather tall, but then the corn may 
have been planted on a sidehill, and the doc¬ 
tor may have set his step-ladder at the foot of 
the hill. That is the only way we can account 
for hiB failing to reach the top of the corn 
while standing on his seven-foot step-ladder. 
Finally, the doctor reports that from the 100 
kernels planted he raised 295 psunds of shell¬ 
ed corn, or at the rate of nearly 200 bushels 
of shelled corn to the acre. This is something 
unparalleled iu the annals of corn-raising. No 
wonder the doctor took the prize! a. b. 
(A. B. need throw no doubs upon the hight 
of Mr. Chamberlin’s corn. Quite a number 
of those who competed for our premium re¬ 
ported its hight at from 12 to 15 feet. For 
the rest, the report was duly sworn to.— Eds.] 
Emigration. —The London Agricultural Gaz¬ 
ette has the following: An American Short¬ 
horn buyer, now in England in order to make 
purchases, reports that—owing to the demand 
on space for emigrants on vessels returning to 
the States—few, if any, cattle can be shipped 
at reasonable rates. He proposes now to wait 
until the Autumn when emigration slackens. 
It is undoubtedly an encouraging fact for Eng¬ 
lish farmers that American breeders should be 
coming here to buy; yet it is a curious impedi¬ 
ment to have to report that these cannot carry 
away their purchases because English popula¬ 
tion—i. e., the be6t customers to English farm¬ 
ers—are also leaving the country wholesale. 
Beef and beef eaters would alike seem to be 
bent on crossing the Atlantic. 
Fertilizing Value of Sea-weed.— The N. 
Y. Times says: Sea-weed is of considerable 
value as a fertilizer, probably more from its 
indirect action on the soil during its decompo¬ 
sition than from its direct contribution of fer¬ 
tilizing matter. Yet it does add some valuable 
matter to the soil when plowed in or spread 
upon grass lands as a top dressing. Three 
hundred or 400 loads per acre are often plowed 
in or spread on grass lands. It contains some 
nitrogen, and an unusually large proportion 
of ash, amounting to 10 per cent., consist¬ 
ing of six and one-half per cent, of gypsum, 
three and one-half per cent, of carbonate of 
lime, three per cent, of soda salts, and three 
per cent, of phosphates and silica, with some 
iodine in combination with the soda. It is 
considered as worth two-fifths the value of yard 
manure. 
Best Six Roses. —A correspondent of the 
London Garden says that out of the hundreds 
of first-class roses in cultivation, it would be 
a difficult task to name the best six. A good 
six for garden decoration a6 standards would 
be—Victor Verdier, Souvenir dc laMalmaison, 
Aimee Vibert, Cheshunt Hybrid, Gloire de Di- 
jun, aud Belle Lyonnaise. For garden decora¬ 
tion as .bushes—General Jacqueminot, Anna 
Aloxieff. Glory of Cheshunt, Glory of Waltham, 
Perfection de Blanches, and Madame Devert. 
A good six fine show roses, which have been 
out some years without being superseded by 
newer introductions are: Jules Margouin, Al¬ 
fred Colcomb, Charles Lefebvre, John Hopper, 
Senator Waise, and Maurice Beruardiu. A 
very high-class six exhibition roses—Captain 
Christy, Marie Baumann, Duke of Edinburgh, 
Prince Camille de Rohan, Madame Vietor Ver¬ 
dier and La France. 
•‘The truth is," remarks the Country Gen¬ 
tleman, " while every iarmer knows that clean 
culture is absolutely essential to success in his 
common farm crops, many fail to apply the 
6ame knowledge to their more expensive or¬ 
chards.” 
" Layering of many things, 6hrubs, half 
shrubby perennials, etc., should be done before 
the young wood becomes too hard, if good 
plants are required the first year,” says the 
Gardeners’ Monthly. “ Most plants roo. more 
quickly by having a notch cut in the layered 
shoot. Good, rich soil, put just about the 
layers, is very important. Good soil favors an 
abundance of roots. One of the greatest mis¬ 
takes in gardening is the prevalent notion that 
plants in a poor soil have a greater proportion 
of roots than in a rich one." They certainly 
need rn’ore roots. 
Fashion in Flowers.— Mr. Vick writes the 
following in his magazine for June: “There 
is fashion in flowers, as in all other things. 
The wild daisies of our fields are now favorites 
of fashion, and, when in season, the ladies 
search for them in the fields about as eagerly 
as they seek the beautiful trailing arbutus in 
the early spring, while no flower more fre¬ 
quently decorates the hat and dress. We are 
glad the lovers of flowers are looking once 
more to tbe beautiful flowers of the fields, 
and hope next Autumn our elegant native asters 
will not be forgotten. A few years since 
almost auy single flower was discarded, even 
though the double varieties were far less beau¬ 
tiful. All tubular flowers, like the campanulas 
and daturas, are really deformities when they 
become double; and cup-shaped flowers, de¬ 
pending for their beauty upon broad masses 
of color or delicate markings, are seldom im¬ 
proved. We do not hope to see the pansy or 
the gladiolus double, for in this form they 
would lose much of their beauty. The beauti¬ 
ful little cineraria is now to be obtained in a 
double form, but it is a good flower spoiled, 
having lost its chaste markings and delicate 
coloring. A change, however, has taken place 
in public sentiment, ami soon we may rush 
heedlessly to the other extreme. The cry 
is now for single hollyhocks and poppies, 
psaonies, and even dahlias, and we know not 
how loDg ere the florists will find a demand for 
single asters aud stocks and roses.” 
tf'Ofrpgm. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada, Ddertou, Out., June 2fi.—We com¬ 
menced cutting grass (Orchard) June Sth—is it 
not remarkably early for this latitude ? Wc 
had two large loads per acre—and, by the way, 
this is the sixth year- of cutting and the 10th 
crop ; that is, it has been cut twice each sea¬ 
son since seeding except one year, I never 
saw our country look as well, or crops more 
promising. Cattle are doing well. B. g. 
III., Virden, Macoupin Co., June 20.—We 
commenced harvest on the 15th. Wheat is a 
good average; corn aud oats are good. New 
wheat is engaged at S5c. a bushel. h g. b. 
New Jersey, Camden, Camden Co., June 
21.—The Army worm has made its dreaded ap¬ 
pearance in this county in great numbers. It 
has already done a great deal of damage and 
is sure to do more. Some of the farmers who 
harvested their hay earlier than usual and 
stored it away iu their barns have been forced 
to empty them on account of the sickening 
smell of the worm, as it was found that a large 
quantity of dead worms were in the hay. It is 
reported that other crops huve suffered serious 
injury by the worm. w. A. L. 
N. C., Tryon Valley, Lynn Co., June 20. 
—Years ago a very distingoished divine of 
New York City, havmg journeyed to the land 
mentioned in Sacred History, wrote a very in¬ 
teresting book entitled " The Laud of the Vine.” 
In Syria the vine holds great prominence in 
the work of the husbandman. The wonderful 
adaptation of the soil and climate to the growth 
of the vine of that country, is an old story. 
The mountains of this region are nearly, 
if not exactly, in the latitude of Mount Le¬ 
banon and Damascus and the soil and cli¬ 
mate are both in a more remarkable degree 
fitted for the culture of grapes. The atmos¬ 
phere in and upon the “ belt’’ is a “ dry atmos¬ 
phere,” so much so that in summer there is 
hardly ever much sign of dew and, of course, 
where there is little or no dew there will be 
little or no frost. It will bo seen in the agri¬ 
cultural reports of the United States for 1S7'J. 
that the object in cultivating grapes under glass 
is to get clear of the moisture in the atmosphere 
(?). Here Nature has constructed her own hot¬ 
house, which answers this purpose without 
the aid of glass, iud the vines that in other 
lands need a glass covering can here be grown 
in the open air. All our fruits are progressing 
well. We have ripe apples iu abundance. I Lis 
called the May apple and can always be used 
for eating aud cooking by the last of May. 
Strawberries are not quite done, for some 
reason their season is prolonged beyond the 
usual time. Huckleberries and cherries of 
numerous kinds, and blackberries aud rasp¬ 
berries are all ripe and are iu luxuriant abun¬ 
dance. The early peaches are coloring very 
rapidly aud we expect them to be fit for use in 
10 duys. The crop is very abundant only on 
and around the "Thermal Belt.” 
Grapes are expected in just 30 days to be 
fully ripe. Our vineyard is quite full. Hero 
grapes do not fail. They are cultivated some¬ 
what upon the California plan, by cutting back 
the vines every year. l. r. m’c. 
Texas, Waco, Me Lennau Co., June 12.— 
The wheat aud oat6 harvest is pretty well over 
with us, and the yield will be entirely satisfap- 
tory, as we had raius in Lime to make the grain. 
The corn is considered made, aud is the finest 
crop in this country in many years; in fact, 
there will be an immense crop of corn raised. 
The cotton is all that could be wished of it to 
the present time, and the only hindrance to a 
a large crop will be worms, of which there is 
