ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
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ami address or the writer to Insure atteutlou. Before 
nskliiK a queatloti. please see If It is not answered In 
our advertlslinr columns. Ask only u few questions at 
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STIFI.K-J01NT LAMENESS. 
K. A ., Aberdeen , Dak .—For over three 
years a mare has been troubled with stifle- 
joint. lameness, caused by severe injury to one 
of tbo feet while working in a harvester in 
1888. Very little lameness was shown till the 
spring of 1884; but she was kept at work all 
the time till last fall. Siuce theu she has been 
too lame to do anything. She is very thin and 
seems broken down. She will have complete 
rest this summer: how should she be treated? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. I,. KILBORNK. 
With a case of so long standing the personal 
attention of a competent veterinarian should 
be secured, when possible. From a simple 
description we cannot tell to what extent the 
joint has boon injured, or what its condition 
is at the present time. In a general way, the 
treatment should be as follows: Apply a high- 
heeled shoo to relieve the straiu upon that 
joint. Tf there is sufficient inllammation to 
cause increased heat and tenderness about the 
joint, fomentations or wet. bandages should be 
applied until the inflammation is reduced. 
Then apply a cantharides blister over the 
joint. Clip the hair short and rub the blister 
well iu against the direction of the hair for 10 
or 15 minutes. Do not forgot the precaution 
to tie the animal's head so that she cannot 
reach the blistered surface with her month. 
If inclined to switch the tail, this should lie 
tied. When the blister is well raised, care¬ 
fully wash off and apply vaseline daily. A 
long period of rest, at. least several months, 
will be essential to successful treatment. 
Gettiug down and up will hinder recovery so 
that it may be necessary to place slmgs under 
the animal, to prevent her lying down. They 
should be so placed that the animal can stand 
on his feet or settle Into the slings to rest 
at his pleasure. Repeat the blister os soon as 
the effect of the first has passed off. If blister¬ 
ing does not succeed, liriug with a hot iron 
may be demanded. A laxative diet should be 
maintained throughout. Even after apparent 
recovery the animal should be worked very 
carefully for several mouths to avoid a repe¬ 
tition of the injury. 
MELON BESTS. 
N. II., Creedmoor, N. V .—I would like to 
know the cause and remedy of the disease— 
for such 1 might call it—of my vines of all 
kinds, particularly melons and squashes. I 
have scarcely been able to get a specimen of 
melon to maturity for some years, while they 
were once as sure a crop as any I planted. 
Now when just grown to nearly full size, the 
vines wilt and die, leaving the fruit to ripen 
as they will from the green state, but they 
arc a poor substitute for well-ripened melons. 
I have many varieties this year, ami if any 
one can put rue in the way of securing a 
healthy, ripe melon, he will undoubtedly con¬ 
fer a favor ou others as well as on myself. 
Ans.—W e have no doubt that the grubs of 
the striped beetle do the injury referred to. 
They eat into the stem or roots near the 
ground aud, iu> if stricken by a blight, the 
viuo wilts. Our friend can easily ascertain 
whether we are right hy pulling up the first 
vine that dies and examining the roots. The 
grub is white and slender, and scarcely halt' 
an inch long with a brown head. Strong to 
banco water has been used with success, pour¬ 
ing it about the roots of melons, cucumbers, 
or squashes. Our correspondent, Mr. 11. Stew¬ 
art, finds the following an effectual remedy: 
Take one pound of common soap (or soft 
soap) ami dissolve it iu a gallon of hot water. 
Thin this down with enough water to till a 
pail. One pint of kerosene oil is then added 
and the whole shaken until an emulsion is 
formed. Sprinkle this over the vines and 
pour some directly over and about the roots. 
DISCUSSION. 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
L. E. S., Camden, Del.— I noticed in a late 
Rural an article on “the late increase of the 
duty on foreign wheat imported into France.” 
ike writer says that, “owing to the increase 
in the price of bread, less wheat will be con¬ 
sumed, und more of cheaper foods, and what 
little may he needed will come from Hungary, 
Egypt, Russia or India, all of which can de¬ 
liver wheat in France at a lower figure than 
America can.” Now, the query with mo is 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
whether the American fanner is not as well 
off relatively as the farmer of Hungary, 
Egypt, Russia or India? If we could furnish 
part or all of the wheat required by France 
before the increase of duty, can we not fur¬ 
nish a like proportion now? As France un¬ 
doubtedly levies a duty on pork and wheat to 
help her fanners, I cannot see that the taking 
off all our duty on fine wines, high wines and 
silks from France, would help the American 
farmer. Take England and the United 
States—the former admits our breadstuff's 
free. Why do we tax her imports? Because 
we think it to our interest. So, if the French 
people consider it a national necessity or bless¬ 
ing to curtail the use, or raise the price of 
wheat they will undoubtedly do so without 
regard to our tariff. My next neighbor, svho 
is a Free-trade Democrat, talks somewhat 
like the Rural. He says, “take off all the 
tariff and England will buy all our surplus 
breadstuffs”—an assumption that seems to me 
absurd. Now, with the premise that I am 
only a small farmer in the little State of Dela¬ 
ware, and therefore not supposed to know' 
much, I desire to state a few propositions: 
t. Protection lias been and still is a national 
necessity and benefit. It has built up manu¬ 
facturing industries without number that 
could not have stood the competition of foreign 
goods, and has thus diversified labor and 
created a home market and so benefited the 
farmer. 2. The amount of wheat us¬ 
ually' carried over in this country is 
none too large for prudence and safety. The 
vicissitudes that attend our crops are such, 
and the number of stomachs to be filled at 
home is Increasing so rapidly as to make a 
reasonable surplus a good thing. 3. The.great- 
est burdens of the former, in my judgment, 
are entirely' independent of the tariff, aud 
are to be found in excessive rates of transpor¬ 
tation and exorbitant prices for agricultural 
implements. It took 50 per cent, of my berry 
crop last year to send it to New York city and 
sell it. The inventors and manufacturers of 
agricultural implements under the patent sys¬ 
tem have grown very' fat off the farmer. A 
good mauy of these articles are still sold for 
50 per cent, above their cost. With the light 
I now have, it does not seem to me that the 
farmer or auy one else (except perhaps im¬ 
porters) would bo benefited by the destruction 
of the tariff system. When we can manufac¬ 
ture the five or six hundred million dollars' 
worth of goods we now import, it will do to 
consider tariff reduction. 
R. N.-Y.—A great deal has been said on 
both sides of the free-trade question in this 
and other countries; but in no country has 
either side yet succeeded in convincing the 
other. In free-trade England there are many' 
who still believe in “protection," and free- 
trade Eugland has not been able to persuade 
oven Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 
her own dependent colonies, that free trade is 
the best policy. Every one of them taxes im¬ 
ports even from the Mother Country. The 
doctrine of free trade is of quite modern iu- 
veution, and England has been its chief and 
almost its only evangelist among the nations. 
True, for the last half century a number of 
political economists aud doctrinaires as well as 
many who would he benefited by Its adoption, 
huve advocated it elsewhere; but that they have 
failed to convince the rest of the world of its 
wisdom, is shown by the fact that England is 
still the only nation in which free trade pre¬ 
vails, and even there it has not full play, as 
tobacco, wines, spirits and numerous other 
imported products are still taxed—“for rev¬ 
enue only,” they say. England is almost en¬ 
tirely a manufacturing and commercial coun¬ 
try uud holds an exceptionally favorable posi¬ 
tion both for manufacture and commerce. 
Almost all her imports are raw materials to 
be used either to feed her workmen or to bo 
worked up iu her factories. The food of the 
workman and the raw materials for the facto¬ 
ries are both, in great part, exported in the 
form of manufactured goods. When import¬ 
ed they are merely held, as it wore, “in bond” 
to bo exported later on as finished products at 
a vast increase in price. It is always a great 
advantage to a manufacturer or to a nation 
of manufacturers to get “raw materials” at. 
the lowest price, aud to sell the finished pro¬ 
ducts from them at the highest. By admits 
ting the raw materials free of duty (almost 
the only things of importance so admitted) 
England gets them at the lowest figure. 
Moreover, even “protectionist” countries 
charge no duties on imported goods while held 
in bond,and grant rebates ou foreign dutiuble 
imports when exported. Anil as most of Eng¬ 
land’s imports of raw materials iu the form of 
pabulum for her workmen or her factories are 
exported as manufactured goods, either no im- 
jHirt. duty should lx* charged on them or re¬ 
bates should be allowed on the manufactured 
exports. England nlso secures the highest 
prices for her goods abroad by “bartering” 
them, to a great exteut, for the products of 
the countries with which she deals. She sup¬ 
plies them with manufactured goods, taking, 
in exchange, the crude stuffs they produce 
in excess of their needs. With the in¬ 
dividual customers the trade is an or¬ 
dinary money one; but with the nation 
it is, in reality, a matter of barter, and 
little money passes from one to the other in 
comparison with the volume of trade. The in¬ 
debtedness of one is balanced with that of the 
other, aud the difference only—the balance of 
trade for or against—passes in money from 
one to the other. If England were paid in money 
only for all the goods she sells to other coun¬ 
tries, she would soon absorb most of the gold 
and silver in circulation throughout the world, 
or else lose the trade of those nations which 
are unwilling to be deprived of their circula¬ 
tion ; but by taking raw materials, duty free, 
in part-payment for her manufactured pro¬ 
ducts, she keeps and enlarges her markets, 
gets better prices for her wares, and supplies 
her manufacturers with cheap pabulum for 
their workmen and workshops. For no other 
country is free trade so advantageous as for 
the United Kingdom. France tried it under 
the Third Napoleon; but soon changed her 
policy. Several other European countries have 
approximated to it; but. all are now steadily re¬ 
coding from it by increasing the duties on 
foreign imports. 
Among the nations, then, the only thick- 
and-tkin advocate of free trade is that which 
is in a position to gain most by its adoption 
by other countries. Among protectionist na¬ 
tions, the advocates of free trade are, as a 
rule, chiefly those whose business would be 
benefited by it, just as in free-trade Englaix!, 
the men who oppose the policy most strong¬ 
ly are those whose business is injured by its 
adoption—chiefly the farmers whose products 
are brought by it into ruinous competition 
with cheaper goods of the same kind from 
abroad. 
Whether free trade would benefit or injure 
this country as a whole is a question for the 
discussion of which there is no room here; but 
of all classes in this country it would injure 
the farmers the least, or benefit them the most. 
The cost of the transportation of their goods 
aud the price of their agricultural implements 
are considerably raised by “protection,” as 
heavy duties are imposed on foreign metals of 
all kinds, and in agricultural implements and 
railroad* the price of the metals used in mak¬ 
ing them is uo small part of their whole cost. 
Even if not a pound of foreign metal is used 
iu either, the duty ou it raises the price of do¬ 
mestic metal by a corresponding aniouut, ex¬ 
cept iu the few cases iu which our own goods 
can be sold for lower figures than those from 
abroad without regard to the highest import 
duties. For the same reason the prices of most 
of the other articles the farmer has to buy, 
such as clothing, household utensils, etc., are 
higher under a “protective” tbnu a free-trade 
policy. In each case the extra cost is doubt¬ 
less small, but the aggregate of these small 
Lems is quite important iu a year or a life¬ 
time. 
What does the farmer get in return? Well, 
he gets “protection” for a number of agricul¬ 
tural products which ueed none, as he raises 
an exportable surplus of all of them. He also 
receives “protection” for his wool, but has 
constantly to fight for its continuance. These, 
with a few trifling local exemptions, are the 
only direct exchanges, and the aggregate sum 
of them is comparatively a mere bagatelle. 
But, then, there certainly are very consider¬ 
able indirect advantages, not the least of 
which is the larger and more prosperous homo 
markets which “protection” affords for his 
products. There is little doubt but the adop¬ 
tion of free trade now would thoroughly dis¬ 
organize most of our manufacturing industries, 
and compel hundreds of thousands of artisans 
to seek a subsistence by tilling the soil, thus 
becoming competitors instead of customers of 
our farmers. Theu agaiu, if protection bene¬ 
fits the country at large, the fanner is willing 
patriotically to bear some hardships for the 
general gotxl. 
With regard to the special questions of our 
friend: If Hungary, Egypt, Russia aud India 
can deliver wheat at a lower figure thau 
America cau.au iuerease of French import du¬ 
ties, which might make it impossible to import 
American wheat at a profit, might still leave 
a small margin of profit on the cheaper pro¬ 
ducts from those countries. There is no doubt 
that one of the reasons why most Europoau 
countries are levying higher duties on foreign 
imports is to stop the drain of gold and silver 
iu payutaut for imported goods. This has beeu 
officially declared to be the case with regard to 
goods from this country. If our trade with 
them were more in the nature of “barter,” 
this objection would lie uo longer available. 
Tbe subject is iuterestiug and important, 
though perhaps hardly suited to lengthy die 
eussion in our columns; but the “Small Farm¬ 
er iu the Little State of Delaware” writes 
strongly, pithily aud intelligently ou it, and 
more such short, forcible articles ought to be 
welcomed by our readers. 
Pi.s'fjUanmt.s 
IHIPORTHNT 
TO 
HOUSEKEEPERS 
AND 
HOTEL PROPRIETORS. 
JAMES McCREERY & CO. 
offer Special Inducements to 
Housekeepers and Hotel pro¬ 
prietors in the following lines 
of Housekeeping Goods : 
TABLE DAMASKS, 
50 cts., 65 ets,, 75 cts., 85 cts. and $1.00. 
TABLE NAPKINS, 
$1, $1.25, $1,50, $1.75, $2,00 per dozen. 
TOWELS ALL LINEN, 
$1, $1.25, $1.50, $1.75, $2 per dozen, 
TOWELINCS, 
5 cts., 8 cts,, 10 cts., 12H> cts. per yard, 
CLASS TOWELINCS, 
10 cts., 12)6 cts., 15 cts., 20 cts. per yard, 
BLANKETS, 
$1.25, 1.50, $1.75, $2,00 per pair, 
BED SPREADS, 
85 cents, $1,00, $1.25, $1.50 each. 
UTICA SHEETINGS, 
5-4 6-4 8-4 9-4 10-4 
14 cts., 16 cts., 21 cts., 23 cts., 25 cts. 
together with an extensive 
variety of finer qualities, in¬ 
cluding new and elegant de¬ 
signs in fine Table Cloths, 
Napkins, Lunch Cloths, etc. 
They also offer in their 
UPHOLSTERY DEPARTMENT 
LACE CURTAINS, 
$1.50, $2.00, $3.00 per pair and upward. 
COLORED MADRAS CURTAINS, 
$5, $6, $7.50 per pair and up : hy the yard, 
40c,, 50c., 65c., 75c. per yard and upward. 
PORTIERES, 
$6.00, $7.50, $10.00 per pair and upward. 
SILK PLUSHES, 
24-inch, $1.75, $2.50, $3.50 per yard. 
SILK BROCATELLES, 
52-inch, $4.00, $7.50 and $9.00per yard. 
Holland Window Shades, all 
sizesand colors, Slip Coverings, 
and Cretonnes, &c.. See. 
Orders by Mail or Express 
from any part of the country will receive 
careful and prompt attention. 
Broadway an<l 11th St., 
New York. 
Tue Japan Che-stnuts.— “There is no par¬ 
ticular variety of the Japan chestnut which 
is yet offered for sale. Rural readers, bear 
this in mind In ordering trees, you will get 
seedluurs which may be good, bad or indiffer¬ 
ent, just the same as if you raised plants from 
the seeds yourselves. First rate varieties are 
being propagated, bat they will not be of¬ 
fered for sale in several years, we presume. 
We are anxious that our readers who can af¬ 
ford to experiment should try Hie Japau 
chestnut, but wo would not have them de¬ 
ceived by assuming that because they buy 
aud Diant Japan chestnut seedlings the trees 
w ill bear either large nuts or nuts of good 
quality. The risk is much the same as that 
of raising any other seedlings.”— Rural New- 
Yokkkr. 
Our Country Home quotes the above aud 
replies as follows: 
“A little too strong, friend Rural. Re¬ 
sponsible dealers iu nut trees emphasize the 
fact that the trees of Japau chestnuts they of¬ 
fer are gnifted with the true Giant, not seed¬ 
lings. We would advise experimenting with 
Japan Giant Chestnuts it the purchaser will 
make sure ho does not get seedlings.'’ 
A leading nurseryman who has advertised 
the Japau Giant for several years, was asked,in 
this office, if the Giant is really a variety,and if 
the t rees he offers tor sale are grafted and true 
to name. He replied t hat the largest of the 
Japan chestnuts were planted and that his 
trees were the seedliugs, which, of course, va¬ 
ried as all seedling chestnuts vary. We also 
sent the above notes, as printed, to the Storrs, 
