AUG. 14 
THE BUBAL HEW-VOBKEB. 
521 
speaking countries, for, after all, there is no 
incentive to national amity and good-will so 
strong and lasting as an identity of language. 
This old “border” town, which, in the days 
of English and Scotch warfare stood many a 
siege. was this year selected by the Society for 
its forty-first annual exhibition, which opened 
on Monday, duly 12. From the first day to the 
last the weather was simply execrable—as bad 
a* last year at Kilburn. Just as then, the misery 
started by dripping and pouring clouds over¬ 
head, was completed by deep, ubiquitous mud 
under foot—yes, and over foot. Planks had 
to be laid here, too, along the ehief walks to 
enable visitors to get about with even a sem¬ 
blance of comfort. The northern folks are a 
sturdier race, however, than the Cocknies, and 
care less for rain and mud, so that, in spite of 
all discomforts, about 100,000 paying visitors 
inspected the exhibits during the week. This 
number is from twenty to Bixty thousand less 
than that of the visitors to the four last shows 
of the Society; but these were held in much 
more thickly populated districts, and the weath¬ 
er was much more favorable at all except last 
year at Kilburn, and then of the 120,284 visi¬ 
tors, 67,000 were admitted during five addition¬ 
al days through which the show was extended; 
so that, in view of the wretched weather and 
the location of the exhibition, this fair was a 
success so far as visitors were concerned. 
It was a success, too, in the number and 
excellence of the exhibits. Omitting last year’s 
show at Klburn, a suburb of London, for which 
special efforts were made ou account of its 
Metropolitan character, the numbers of cattle 
shown here were fully an average as compared 
with the exhibits of the past seven years. 
Short-horns, of course, were far more numerous 
thau any other breed. This is the case at all 
the local and natioual shows in England. 
Here there were just tour times as many of 
them as of their rivals in beet—the Herefords; 
about nine times as mauy as of their rivals in 
milk—the Ayrshires ; and more than three 
timcB as many as of the Jerseys. The multi¬ 
tude of this breed at every show is both a 
cause and an effect of their paramount popu¬ 
larity. The many prizes they win, owing to 
their intrinsic merits and their great numbers 
add to their reputation ; which, in turn, 
increases the number of medium-quality 
Short-horns raised and of choice ones ex¬ 
hibited. The number of entiies of all classes 
of each breed was as follows: Short-horns, 
146; Polled Angus, 48; Jersey, 43 ; Polled 
Galloway, 38; Hereford, 37; Devons, 24; 
Polled Norfolk and Suffolk, 20; Sussex, 18; 
Long-horn. 18; Ayrshire, 15. Iu most cases all 
the entries were not filled; for iustauee, out of 
146 entries of Short-horns, 133 only were ex¬ 
hibited ; and out of 37 Hereford entries, only 
33 were shown. 
Horses. 
The horse, the noblest animal on the farm 
and its motive power, comes first iu the cata 
logues and iu the admiration of the general 
public, and of horses the agricultural horse 
very properly takes precedence in an agricul¬ 
tural exhibition. Of this kind there were 279 
entriee. of whichlOT were stallions of all kinds, 
123 mares and fillies and 50 mares, colls, and 
geldings competing for special premiums. 
Agricultural, or cart, horses are here divided 
into three principal classes—Shire horses, Suf- 
folks and Clydesdales, each of which breeds 
has its special admirers, and is also excellently 
adapted to certain conditions. The short¬ 
legged, aetive and hardy Clydesdale is well 
suited to a rough, uneven country and a 
severe climate; and hence is a favorite among 
the Canadians on your side of the water; the 
pondrous Sbire-brtd is justly a favorite on 
level country roads and city streets; while the 
short, thickset, cleau-Iegged Suffolk will prove 
more satisfactory than either In aelayey coun¬ 
try where tho adhesive mud would soon clog 
and weigh down tho tufted legs of his rivals. 
Here as in nearly every department in these 
exhibitions, it is noticeable that some exhibit¬ 
ors take the lion s share of the premiums in 
eertaiD classes year after year and at county, 
district and “ Royal" show after show. They 
are always wealthy and generally titled meu 
who, for honor or profit, pay special attention 
to the breeding and purchase of thebestof their 
kind in one or more particular lines of farm 
animals. Having ample means to secure the 
best of the beat breeds and the most skillful 
help to manage their stock, they have so geart 
an advantage over ordinary, well-to-do stock¬ 
owners, that the latter are seldom williDg to 
incur the trouble and outlay necessary to pre¬ 
pare an animal for exhibition, for it takes a 
couple of years of careful handling to fit, say, 
a Short-horn for the show, and even should it 
win a premium, the chief reward would lie in 
the reputation thereby gained for the owner s 
hird. 
A visitor to the different fairs, too, will 
be sure, year after year, to see the same 
prize-wiuuevs at all the principal shows, the 
veterans at the head of each class occasionally 
changing places with each other, according to 
slight changes in their respective conditions, 
or, more commonly, according to the whims or 
prejudices of the j edges ; but in nearly all cases 
shutting out from the premium list all not be¬ 
longing to their artistocratic clique. These 
usually begin by appearing at the different ex¬ 
hibitions in the youngest class, advancing each 
successive year to an older one, until they 
have become “ adult," after which they appear 
until age or death puts an end to their victori¬ 
ous careers. Of course, there are many advan¬ 
tages iu such a practice, especially to the own¬ 
ers of the successful animals, but it strikes 
me forcibly there are some disadvantages, 
especially in a little country like this, within 
whoso narrow borders the necessarily frequent 
sight of the same prize animals must become a 
trifle monotonous and uninstructive to the visi. 
tor. It adds to the evil, too, that the animals 
are never weighed; so that the eye aided by 
the memory is the only j udge of any changes 
in their conditions from one exhibition to an¬ 
other. 
As an illustration of the above remarks the 
Earl of Ellesmere, of VVorsley Hall, near Man¬ 
chester, took all but one of the first premiums 
for Shire horses, besides three second and one 
third premium in the same department. In 
pigs also he carried off four first and three 
second preroinms for the large White breed, 
three first and one second for the Small White 
breed and three first for other breeds. His 
Short-horn, Attractive Lord, too, was consid¬ 
ered by many a better beast than the first and 
second adult prize-winners, but had to be 
content with the third premium. On the 
whole, the display of these horses was excellent, 
that of Shire horses being the largest and finest 
and that of Clydesdales being the least excellent. 
The premiums for horses agggregated $10,285. 
—To be continued. 
(fiutomoloprai, 
OUR ENEMIES, THE INSECTS, AND THEIR 
CONTROL.-No. I. 
It is oecoming more apparent each year 
that agriculture is seriously threatened by the 
great increase of its insect enemies. TheStates 
and general government appoint and set on 
foot costly inquiries. All the ingenuity of 
man is exhausted in mechanical inventions 
and poisonous destructives, yet it is but too 
apparent that, notwithstanding all our efforts, 
noxiouB insects are on the increase, and the 
present methods of destroying them by hand¬ 
picking and mechanical means, as well as by 
vegetable or mineral poisons, are alike inade¬ 
quate. Our feathered friends, the birds have 
been so reduced iu numbers that Nature’s bal¬ 
ance of power is also destroyed, and a like 
condition is found with reference to beneficial 
insects. There are no statistics sufficiently 
full aad accurate to enable us satisfactorily 
to estimate the amount of injury done to our 
crops by these pests every year. It clearly 
may be counted by millions for New York 
State aloue. The sums to be added tor the 
nation atlarge, and for all the other nations of 
the world are simply beyond computation. 
This is the condition in ordinary years ; in 
exceptional ones as when Calopteuus spretus, 
the hateful locusts, or Blis&ua leucopterus, the 
chinch-bug, prevails, the calamuy becomes 
paiulul to contemplate. People of all nations, 
civilized aud savage, at present and in past 
ages have felt aud been forced to suffer hun¬ 
ger aud starvation from calamities caused by 
insects. The common tarmer and the scien¬ 
tific agriculturist have alike studied the prob¬ 
lem without finding adequate relief, but at 
length it is thought there is a glimpse of hope. 
The word eutophytes is employed lo denote 
those parasitic plants which grow in or upon 
living insects and animals. The term is not 
confined to a particular class, some eutophytes 
being algie, others fungi; they belong to the 
lower sections of the orders of Cryptoga- 
mia. Many of them are common lo both 
plants aud animals, it is through the use of 
the Bpores of these parasitic plants found ua- 
lurally or germinated artificially, and employed 
as intectiona or poisons to insects that relief 
may finally come to our imperiled agriculture. 
This subject has been so little investigated 
that scarcely any definite and precise informa¬ 
tion is attainable, and what inquiry has been 
made, has uiaiuLy been confined to scientific 
men for scientific purposes. The subject needs, 
in part, to be taken out of the hands of scien¬ 
tists as a purely learned inquiry, and to be 
popularized or, as much as possible, divested 
of its technicalites and taken up by agricultu¬ 
rists for practical and economic advancement. 
Ever since Pasteur studied the silk-worm dis¬ 
eases of southerp Europe, aud proved that the 
disease was caused by Botrytis bassiaua, an 
entophyte (or mold), sporadic iu its origin, it 
has been dimly apparent that here was possi¬ 
bly a factor that, if rightly employed, might 
solve the problem of controlling msect rava¬ 
ges. This silk-worm disease has never been 
subdued, aud the utmost precautionary or eau- 
itary measures have still to be maintained 
throughout the silk districts of Franco aud 
Italy. Healthy, uncontamiuated eggs from 
California and Japan have to be anuually inr 
ported at great expense, iu order to maintain 
the present status. The parasite appears, and 
on microscopic examination, can be even seen 
in the eggs laid by the affected insects. 
Herein is where hope is apparent for agri¬ 
culture. If the parents can be poisoned so that 
they cannot lay sound, healthy eggs, and if the 
poison continue effective through the larva 
and pupa stages, and is again developed in 
the mature insect, finally causing death and 
entailing such conditions upon ail descendants, 
the ultimate solving of the whole problem 
may, perhaps, be confloed to finding out, first, 
the parasites that are destructive to each par¬ 
ticular group of insects; second, the means of 
obtaining or oi artificially propagating the 
spores, and, third, their proper employment in 
the work of destruction. 
The spores of the common yeast plant, and 
a number of others have beeD employed for 
tliia purpose with some apparent success, and 
a number of other varieties have been sug¬ 
gested; but it will, doubtless, be iound that a 
siugle one or a single class will not answer for all 
insects, and that inquiry must be made among 
the various classes and orders of Oyptogamia, 
for those appropriate to different insects. 
Insects of different classes and orders have 
often been observed to become the prey of 
fnngi, but the subject is too voluminous 
to be entered upon here. It will be suf. 
ficient, at this time, to state that insects are 
often destroyed in large quantities iu some 
mysterious manner by natural causes, aud the 
probabilities are that entophyles in some of 
their occult or unstudied forms, are usually the 
means or cause of destruction. D. S. Marvin. 
®!jt $oultrij jjarii. 
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 
HENRY HALES. 
Sometime ago, I promised the Rural read¬ 
ers that I would give some attention practi¬ 
cally to hatching by artificial incubation, and 
report my experience through your columns. 
Iu keeping this promise I lay myself open to 
criticism by those whose experiences have 
been different from my own. As this subject 
is now receiving much attention, those who 
report a great success are likely.to be applaud¬ 
ed as sharp, clever men. Now, I do not claim 
this, and, dall as I may be, I will give yon the 
honest result of my observations I started by 
examining the merits of many different ma¬ 
chines, all claiming to he perfect, and selected 
the one that appeared to have all the requisites 
and little or no complicated arrangements, and 
which wa3 sold at a reasonable price. I hear 
some one say I bought too cheap a uiachiue. 
Well, I found one that was brought out last 
Spring for $25. I procured it early in 
March. I thought the cellar under the house, 
being light aud dry, would be a good place for 
it, and I have often heard such a place men¬ 
tioned as being a good one for an incubator. 
In this I was much disappointed. I found the 
temperature too much disturbed by the violent 
changes of the weather outside at that time of 
year ; later in the season it would be better. 
The temperature of my machine was too irre¬ 
gular ; the cellar was subject to a change of 
from 15 to 30 degrees in a few hours, so my 
first batch of one hundred eggs was nearly all 
spoiled. I believe it imperative daring such 
seasons to have an iucubator iu a place where 
at least a little of the effect of fire is felt, to 
moderate the severity of such changes. I did 
not wait more than five or six days before I 
[earned how my eggs were going on, for with 
an egg tester one can see plainly by that time 
which are good. 
As soon as I fouud my mistake I shifted the 
machine to a second-story landing, where the 
temperature was about as even as could be 
desired. Auotber batch of eggs was deposited 
and this time most of them started right. The 
thermometer kept very regular and every¬ 
thing looked prosperous. In about two weeks 
many eggs became rotten; they appeared to 
dry up too much iu the shell, as the air bub¬ 
ble got much too large. This could hardly 
come from too dry au atmosphere, as a large 
pau of wet sand was kept constantly under 
the egg-drawer, the bottom of which was of 
drugget. I thought, perhaps a very light 
sprinkle of hay for the eggs to lie on might be 
better, but did not find it so after a trial. The 
temperature of the egg drawer was kept at 
about 100 degrees. I sometimes sprinkled the 
eggs with tepid water, yet they wasted away 
too much iu the 6hell. The result was that a 
ew weakly chicks and ducks hatched, but 
many more could not break the walls of their 
little prisons. 
In assisting the little creatures to freedom, I 
fouud the shells of the hatching chicks in a 
condition entirely different from that of an 
egg hatching under a hen ; that from the incu¬ 
bator was as hard as a newly-laid eeg, while 
that from under a hen was quite soft and easily 
broken, having a rotten appearance, as it 
yielded quite easily to the pressure of the young 
chick. I think much more has to be learned 
iu this direction, as so mauy chicks are not 
able to get out of their shells in incubators. 
It has been generally supposed that this oc¬ 
curred because the chicks are weak; is it not 
that the shells are “trong ? Perhaps the natu¬ 
ral perspiration of the hen rots the shell to 
such an extent that it mav be easily broken by 
the delicate chick. I tried slightly greasing 
the shells nf some with lard when I put them 
into the incubator, but I did not find that this 
gave any help. 
I tried a third batch of eggs with no better 
result. My eggs were all from my own yards, 
of eight varieties of fowls and two of ducks. 
Precisely the same kind of eggs hatched well, 
at the same time, under hens. What confirms 
my theory about hard shells is that I found 
that the eggs of Plymouth Rocks, which have 
harder shells for their size than the eggs of 
most other fowls, were hatched more tardily 
than those of White Leghorns and other thin¬ 
ner-shelled eggs. 
I have made inquiries of others who tried 
incubators this Spring, and find opinions vary 
very much concerning them ; many were more 
successful; some were successful with one 
batch and afterwards failed ; others had no 
better luck than myself. Altogether, I did 
not consider my experiment a soccess. I did 
better with the poor old biddy, and with all her 
faults I love her still. [We should be pleased 
also to publish the experiences of other readers 
with incubators.—Eos,] 
Jnhstrial Implements. 
Messrs. J. A. Field, Son & Co., of St. 
Louis, Missouri, have made a valuable im¬ 
provement in their Star three-roll cane mill. 
The scraper in all this style of mills has 
heretofore collected more or less of the 
finer portions of the crushed stalks which 
have to stay there over night—or until the mill 
is used again. This matter, if the weather is 
warm or murky, ferments, and many a batch 
of sirup, the first in the morning, has been 
spoiled by this, when the maker has not known 
the cause of it. The improvement consists of 
a simple arrangement by which the scraper 
can be removed and the mill washed out in 
two minutes perfectly clean. 
IHisccllaittous. 
London-purple. —A correspondent writes 
ns:—“By the way, I have just make a trial 
with London-purple on my potatoes. I am 
sorry I had so much faith in it; my neighbors 
have proceeded with more caution. I mixed 
one ounce of the pnrple with three gallons of 
water, and sprinkled about half of my patch- 
The only effect that I could see was that it 
killed all the potatoes that I put it on, and all 
the inconvenience it gave thu bugs was that 
they had to foot it to the other potatoes, and 
there was not a bug that even walked lame. 
The merchant wishes to find somebody that 
wants a house painted purple.” [We have 
used London-purple on several acres of beetle- 
iufested potatoes with results entirely satisfac¬ 
tory, and have received, equally favorable ac¬ 
counts from other quarters.— Eds. 
Certain Death to the Potato Beetle, 
— A Canadiau genius hailing from lively 
Toronto, sends us the following very effective 
though perhaps a trifle slow mode of exter¬ 
minating the Doryphera decern lineata:— 
“Take two blocks of wood, two inches square; 
pick up the bug and lay it on block No. 1; lay 
block No 2 on block No. 1, so that the bug 
rests between the two; then sharply press the 
blocks together, and that bug will never trouble 
potato vine more. Repeat the operation with 
other bugs until thepotato patch has been thor¬ 
oughly rid of the pests.” The remedy is cer¬ 
tainly more effectiv e than a number of those 
we have seen recommended, and almost as 
practicable. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
We find the following in the London Mark 
Lane Express: ' • A certain agricultural institu¬ 
tion—it would be cruel to mention its name—has 
recently added another feather to its already 
weighty plume. A short time ago one of the 
members of the staff, finding there were certain 
plants absent from the botanic garden, sent a 
long list of plants to one of the leading botanic 
gardens in this country, and asked for specimens 
on the ground that they could not be obtained 
in the neighborhood, nor yet from the nursery¬ 
men and florists. In this list of plants occur¬ 
red, amongst others: 1, Secale cereale; 3, Tri- 
ticnm repens; 3, Phalarls Canariensis. The 
people at the botanic garden are immensely 
tickled at this, inasmuch as No. 1 is the com¬ 
mon rye of which any farmer would have 
given the professor a few grains; No. 2 is the 
troublesome Couch grass, which the farmers 
have had iu far too great a quantity during 
the past Spring ; and No. 3 is the Canary grass 
which may be easily grown from the canary 
seed with which we feed our feathered pets.” 
