480 
JULY 48 
r it makes me sad to look at my favorite little 
J apan Judas Tree. The Winter has shorn it of 
all its beauty. It is dead down to a foot or so 
of the ground, where it is now, however, mak¬ 
ing a strong growth. I have seen the tree 
much in the same condition in parts of New 
Jersey and Connecticut, though generally not 
quite so bad, some of the plants having a 
moderate show of flowers. How is it else¬ 
where, especially out West? Will someof the 
Rubai, family respond? [Ours is killed with¬ 
in an inch or so of the ground. Eds.] 
HOhTICOLA. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
My attention was first called to Styrax 
Japonica by articles published m the Rural 
several years ago, and at the earliest oppor¬ 
tunity, I procured a plant, and so from exper¬ 
ience 1 can now indorse all that Horticola and 
others have said in its praise. Here it passed 
through the Winter without injury; and I am 
surprised that “Leon’s” specimens were killed 
to the grouud, as I was under the impression 
that it was perfectly hardy in the vicinity of 
New York. _ 
The Persian Yellow gave me the first out- 
of doors rose this season. I regret to have to 
report that my large plant of Rosa rugosa is 
dead to within an inch of the ground; but it 
is now throwing up an abundance of strong, 
healthy shoots. _ 
Referring to “Leon’s” notes on tomatoes 
(page 417), 1 would say that, for out-of-door 
planting, I prefer to sow about the first of 
April, as the plants thus obtained are most 
suitable for the main or general crop; but 
where they are required for earlier or later 
use, additional sowings are necessary. For 
late use, I prefer to sow in the hill, where the 
plants are to stand. This is done the last week 
in May. I would here say that I prefer the 
Perfection to any other sort for out of-door 
cultivation. The Acme rots so badly here 
that it is not worth cultivation, and the Trophy 
is so rough as to be unsuitable for family' use. 
Now I wish that some one would inform me 
in what respect do the Paragon, Perfection 
and Mayflower differ from each other. Given 
ordinary cultivation, I am unable to distin¬ 
guish one variety from the other, [This was 
the gist of the Rural’S report two or three 
years ago.—Eds.] 
Cleveland’s R. N.-Y. Pea again proved 
to be the earliest variety with me; after pick¬ 
ing once the vines were removed, so evenly 
did the crop mature. 
i ,^*ade my first picking of strawberries on 
J^Lfc'X)—variety Seth Boy den. 
As Leon has to report the loss of an im¬ 
mense number of Lilium auratum, so have I 
to report the loss of the greater portion of my 
Lilium candidutn bulbs, and I presume from 
the same cause. 
The rose Queen’s Scarlet belongs to the 
China group, and is evidently a sport from 
the well known Agrippina, on which it is a de¬ 
cided improvement. It is of the same free- 
flowering habit; but a much stronger grower, 
and the flowers are much larger and more 
double, rarely if ever showing the anthers. 
For the garden it is truly an ever bloomiDg 
rose, and so nearly hardy that a slight pro¬ 
tection will enable it to withstand any ordi¬ 
nary Winter. _ 
Cannas, in order to do well, should be 
grown in a deep, thoroughly enriched soil, 
and in the event of drought, a heavy mulch 
of coarse littery manure, with copious appli¬ 
cations of liquid manure water, will be found 
to be of decided benefit. 
Queens, L. I. chas. e. parnell. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Friend Curtis is right—“I cannot see 
through or around a Short-horn” any more 
than I can through or around a millstone. But 
lean see the Short-horn every time. And I 
beg to differ from Col. Curtis this time when 
he says Short horns are not suited to the State 
of New York. What will Mr. Talcottsay and 
General Curtis and scores of other breeders 
and the great dairyman, Harris Lewis, for one 
and a lot more who keep pure or high-grade 
Short-horns, all of which show how the Short 
horns bave not gone down and out? Not at 
all. Colonel, New York State would be in a 
very sorry plight without its Short-horns, 
and so would our general live-stock interest. 
A man may he good for what he is; but 
through the future results of his life here— 
the progeny he leaves behind him to carry on 
the battle of life when he lays down his armor 
and is borne to his rest—he is worth very much 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
more than for what he may otherwise effect 
n this world. Our day is short; but the Great 
Infinite has given man the glorious power and 
privilege of perpetuating his race and of ful¬ 
filling the great designs of the creation. Now 
i consider any one of the lower animals just 
in this same light. When I see a grand Short¬ 
horn I see into him, and my ideas go out into 
the future when I see in my mind’s eye, great 
herds dotted over the plains; handsome cattle 
grazing in fenced pastures; the great stock 
yards filled; the ships carrying thousands of 
cargoes abroal; and the happy citizens of our 
grand countrj T with their children seated 
about the family table enjoying the luscious 
steak or juicy roast from some fine falling, 
and these all appear to me to be grades of 
Short-horns first; reds, roans, whites and spot¬ 
ted cattle of grand proportions; then grades of 
the White Faces and the Black Polls, and 
the red Devons; but all showing some traces 
of the pure bloods which find their purposes 
in existence fulfilled in raising our poor scrubs 
to almost an equality with themselves; and a 
word in your ear, gallant colonel, the Short¬ 
horn was more hurt by that great hollow 
boom at New York Mills a dozen years ago 
than by any other untoward accident which 
ever befell the breed,and the excellent Jerseys 
have carried a threatening disease all over the 
West through the equally crazy boom of the 
last few years. Moreover, all we live for is 
not butter, but yet the Short-horn to day puts 
more batter into the market than 10 times the 
number of Jerseys are doing, and this it does 
through its grades. Of milk I say nothing; if 
I did, the Jerseys would be drowned under an 
ocean flood. 
A remarkable case which recently occurred 
has a very important bearing upon the ques¬ 
tion of inchoate or undeveloped diseases in 
animals. It was the death of the fool hardy 
man who leaped from the Brooklyn suspen¬ 
sion bridge and was killed by striking the 
water on his side. A post-mortem examina¬ 
tion developed the fact that this man, who 
was a picture of robust health, was really 
seriously diseased, or at least carried in vari¬ 
ous organs the seeds of several fatal diseases. 
The kidneys contained several cysts, and one 
was marked by fatty degeneration of the tis¬ 
sues. The lungs were taberoulosed and, on 
the whole, the man exhibited a remarkable 
instance of how perfect health could exist 
with so much natural tendency to disease. 
The fact Is that the man’s habits and course 
of life kept these diseases in a latent condi¬ 
tion, aud preserved his health and vigor. Any 
mistake in bis regimen might have started 
these seeds into active development, and he 
might have soon been attacked by fatal 
disease. _ _ 
Such cases are by no means rare or even 
uncommon, and it is equally true in case of the 
lower animals. It shows how very importautit 
is that diseases should be prevented or evaded 
by precautions, and not left to be cured. It 
shows too,why it is that when any untoward in¬ 
fluences, as of weather, or the effect of a bad 
season on the food, occur, disease becomes 
prevalent; epidemics or epizootics spread and 
what is supposed to be contagion is far more 
the effects of a prevalent cause upon a pre¬ 
viously existing unheulthful pondition in a 
large number of animals. 
The time in now drawing near when these 
precautions may be put in practice, especially 
in regard to the serious losses among swine by 
what is called cholera. In spite of the prob¬ 
able objections which may be made by some 
persons who will believe nothing else than 
that hog cholera canuot be avoided or pre¬ 
vented, I will repeat that it is wholly prevent¬ 
able. A well known farmer in Illinois who 
has a large herd of swine, says, in regard to 
this disease, “Efforts must be made to pre¬ 
vent and not to cure.” He is right, for this is 
the whole practice of medicine both human 
and animal, so far as l know of both of these. 
History at least proves the truth of this. All 
the most fatal contagious diseases are now 
avoided by the excellent sanitary regulations 
which prevail in the cities and in rural local¬ 
ities, by reason of the better knowledge spread 
abroad by good agricultural journals. 
There are examples of large herds of swine in 
the midst of contagion, as it is called, which 
always escape. I know a large hog raiser who 
has been in the business since the first settle¬ 
ment of Central Illinois, 3U years ago, who 
has never lost a hog by cholera. He is precise 
and careful in breeding only from mature and 
healthy animals; he always grows clover for 
his hog pasture; he dries the soft corn thor¬ 
oughly in a kilu before feeding it, and mixes 
it with sound old corn, aud be grows a good 
many pumpkins. HU hogs are kept in a good 
shelter, the troughs are kept clean aud the w a- 
ter is from a cistern, and is pure, Cholera 
germs find no favorable soil in which to grow 
in these hogs. We might as well expect 
thorns, thistles and other foul weeds to grow 
on the bare sands of the shores, where the 
seed may fall but has no encouragement to 
germinate. 
I know another case. This is in Kansas. A 
large farmer there has been in the pork busi¬ 
ness since 1872. Every year he has lost many 
hogs, and is a poor man, He feeds in a lot on a 
creek bottom for the sake of the water. The 
dead hogs are never buried, but are consumed 
by the survivors. The watering holes are.and 
always have been, pools of the most offensive 
filth. The hogs get all the soft and smutty 
corn. This has been the usual way, and is 
continued on the old principle that it can 
not be helped, because there is no time to 
make any change, in the feeding season, and 
no occasion for it at aDy other time. 
There is time now, aud every occasion should 
be taken advantage of for urgiug that meas¬ 
ures be taken in time to combat this disease 
and to keep it out of the herds by fortifying 
them against its entrance. 
We are just now struck hard by another 
folly. Kansas farmers have been paying 
much attention to sheep and the improve¬ 
ment of their flocks. Most creditable success 
has repaid their efforts. I bave frequently 
mentioned what has been done in this way,and 
a year ago gave a number of instances of how 
profitably many flocks had been graded up, 
and now many of these very men who have 
been patiently working and waiting for years, 
are kicking down the structures they have 
built up, just because of a popular delusion 
which prevails that sheep are not profitable. 
Some of these men have made 75 per cent, 
every year from their flocks, and some have 
done better, and now they are grumbling be¬ 
cause they are selling sheep at 25cents a head, 
and the price is their own making. It is a 
sad fact that the sheep business is marked by 
periodical panics and eras of utter foolishness, 
wbieh are unknown iu any other business 
whatever. Men slowly build up, like a boy 
with bis house of cards, and then, still like the 
child, because one card does not fit, he slaps 
over the whole thing and goes into a fit of the 
sulks. 
A Kansas stockman is making quite a com¬ 
motion by his manner of dishorning his cat¬ 
tle. He simply saws off the horns close to 
the skull and leaves the wound to cure itself. 
He avers that it does not hurt the cattle which 
leave the stanchions and go to feeding. I re¬ 
member how much was said a year or more 
ago, when I suggested the advantage of cut¬ 
ting out the embryo horn from the calf’s 
skull. This is not a painful operation; not so 
much so as docking a lamb’s tail, and not one- 
hundredth part so much as castrating an 
animal. Yet we do these for the sake of con¬ 
venience and profit, and why should we not 
remove the horns, which are an intolerable 
nuisance and a source of much danger to the 
owners of the cattle. 
[Friend “Stockman” has seut us a considera¬ 
ble installment of “Notes” in reply to the crit¬ 
icisms which have appeared in our columns 
with regard to his expressed views on conta¬ 
gious pleuro pneumonia and the conduct of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry. It goes without 
saying that his language is terse and vigorous, 
but the subject has already been so fully dis¬ 
cussed in the Rural that anything originul 
or even novel on it, couM[hardly be expected, 
and there is so much pressure on our space by 
other matter, that we are forced to exclude, 
for the present at least, all further discussion 
of the topic. All parties have had their “say,” 
and the columns of the Rural are for the in¬ 
struction of its readers, not for the aspersion 
or, beyond a certain limit, even for the vindi¬ 
cation of its contributors.—Eos.] 
♦ ♦ » — 
EACH HAS A PLACE. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Jersey cows will make more butter than 
any other breed. While this statement is 
made in the most flat-footed manner. I am not 
so blind that I do not see and accord to 
other b reeds special merits. It is now almost 
a dozen years since 1 wrote up for the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture an account of fresh meat 
shipments to Europe. At that tune, Timothy 
C. Kastman, the pioneer and great shipper of 
the Union Block Yards, New York City, told 
me the lack was beef good enough to ship. 
Steers which would dress not lees than 800 
pounds were required for the foreign market, 
and these were hard to get. I promised him 
to urge upon Western beef makers the use of 
Short-horn blood, aud improve the beef and 
increase the weight, and I did so, not only in 
the report for the Government, but through 
the press. 
In a recent interview with Mr. Eastman ho 
expressed a great deal of satisfaction at the 
improvement which had been made, so much 
to the credit of the Short-horns, though he 
did not attribute it altogether to them. 
There are the amiable and noble Herefords. 
At the Chicago Fat Stock Show last year I 
really thought the Hereford grades the hand¬ 
somest cattle on exhibition. They were 
grand, and it was a drawn battle between 
them and the Short-horns which were best. I 
was glad of this, not because I want to see the 
Short Horns in the background, but when a 
race is close there is more interest, and the 
hind animal has some chance. Aristocracy 
or “oneocracy” is not good. It seems to roe that 
the Herefords are the gentlest-looking cattle 
of all breeds. They don’t look as though they 
could get excited or ferocious. They may 
not equal the Short-horns in width and thick 
ness of loin and choice roasts, but they are 
good enough. With two such magnificent 
breeds the wants of the foreign shippers should 
be supplied with the best of beef, and the prai¬ 
ries ought to be satisfied. For the more ex¬ 
posed and scanty plains the polled breeds 
are specialy adapted, with their thicker coats 
of hair and sturdier frames. They are the pict¬ 
ures of hardiness, and this is not all—their 
beef is good. They fatten easily and will 
thrive where the more stately Bhort-horn 
and Hereford would be a stack of bones. 
How fortunate we are with our diversified 
climates and pastures to have cattle suited to 
them all, in which the highest degree of per¬ 
fection has been obtained By utilizing all of 
these breeds in the localities and conditions 
suited to them, we can turn prairie and plain 
into beef-producing pastures, and all our sur¬ 
plus fodder into profit. Short-horns cannot fill 
all of this demau i, nor can the Jersey, all 
that is wanted in the way of milk. Other 
breeds help us out in these respects. 
Off in) fjnshffit&ri). 
IMITATION BUTTER.—HOW TO RE¬ 
FORM THE EVIL. 
ROYAL EDWARDS. 
Let us recognize the power of the enemy .— 
How to restore genuine butter to the place 
it should never have lost. 
The worst enemies of the dairy interest, 
and the best friends of the makers of imita¬ 
tions of butter are those who are too ignorant, 
too lazy or too nasty to make good butter, or 
to keep it pure aud sweet when made. The 
stuffs sold by such people destroy by associa¬ 
tion the virtues of butter made by intelligent, 
painstaking and neat housewives. It has by 
containiuutiou helped to bring the mass of 
true butter into bad odor with the public. Is 
it not the duty of every friend of the dairy 
interest to promptly help to reform the evil? 
Can that reform be best accomplished by 
charging with all manner of abominations 
those who offer to consumers what butter- 
makers have never provided—a sufficient quan¬ 
tity of food that, whatever its secret character 
may be, is at least uniformly pleasant in color 
odor, texture and flavor? Will it not be wiser 
to frankly admit al 1 that can be justly claimed 
for the imitations, to recognize the full power 
of the enemy, rather than to deceive ourselves 
and our friends by underestimating or by 
misrepresenting him, and to seek for better 
ways than have been adopted for meeting the 
encroachments of the dealer iu bogus butter? 
Some success worth mention has attended 
efforts to obtain the enactment of laws for¬ 
bidding the sale of spurious butter, except 
under regulations intended to protect the 
buyer and the maker of honest butter. But 
it may be as well to look this matter iu the 
face squarely, and decide whether or not there 
is a probability that those laws will be en¬ 
forced. The imitations find their way to the 
consumer through too many devious and hid¬ 
den ways to leave much hope that the traffic 
can be suppressed. Some of the channels by 
which bogus butter readies the consumer, lead 
through the milk-room of farmers the laws 
are designed to protect. Some of those farm¬ 
ers sell oleomargarine us the honest product 
of their own chums. At the time when peti¬ 
tions were circulating for signatures in the 
West, asking the General Assembly of Illinois 
to pass a law to restrain makers of imitations 
of butter fro n practicing deceit in their busi¬ 
ness, farmers were sending to Chicago for the 
addresses of dealers in such imitations. Those 
farmers stated, as their reasons for asking for 
the addressee, that their neighbors were mix¬ 
ing and selling oleomargarine with butter, 
aud that no honest man could successfully 
compete with them; therefore these corre¬ 
spondents determined to join the ranks of the 
miscreants. It might be unwise to hazard a 
guess here, as to the number of meu who are 
engaged sending oleomargarine and kindred 
goods from their farms to market. 
Knowing that such frauds are committed 
