THE BUBAL IIEW-VOBKEft. 
Cffttr. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Law. 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
RECENT LEGAL DECISIONS. 
Note Made on Sunday.— Where a prom¬ 
issory note is signed ou Sunday, but not de¬ 
livered until a week day following, it is valid. 
The contract embraced in the note is made 
when the note is delivered, not when it is 
signed.—Bell v. Mohin.—Iowa. 
Overflow of Land.—I n an action for 
damages for causing tho water to overflow 
certain land by the erection of a dam, it is suf¬ 
ficient. to describe the laud by the government 
subdivisions excepting therefrom certain parts 
sold to a certain party. It is not necessary to 
state in the complaint tho dimensions of the 
dam erected or how much ubove the proper 
hight it has been erected.—Dake v. Loysen.— 
Wis. 
Purchaser at Sheriff’s Sale.— One who 
purchases real estate at sheriff’s sale and after¬ 
wards receives part of the redemption money, 
has a lien tor the balance unpaid, although he 
bolds only by certificate of purchase. The 
statute of limitations does not run against such 
balance of unpaid redemption money.—Riugle 
v. 1st Nat. Ba«k.—Ind. 
Sale on Execution.— Where a sale of real 
estate has been made by tho sheriff and tho 
deed executed, the court has no power to set 
the deed aside upon motion. If set aside at all 
it must be by a court of equity.—The case of 
Merriweather & Jenkins .and Holliugwortb v. 
Koon—Ill. 
School-Land-Contracts.— The failure to 
pay the purchase money or iuterest on school 
lands as per contract on the day it is due, does 
not necessarily work a forfeiture of the land 
if the purchaser shows good faith in the trans¬ 
action. The notice of such delinquency pub¬ 
lished in a newspaper in the county where 
such land is situated is sufficient notice to a 
non-resident and failure to comply with the 
notice will bar the rights of the purchaser.— 
Richardson vs. Pratt. 
if. //., Hickory , Wis. —What is the best ac¬ 
tion to take against dogs which make them¬ 
selves a nuisance in a small country village by 
destroying seed-beds. I do not wish to excite 
the ill-feeling of my neighbors. 
Ans. —There is no way to do it. All odo 
can do is to go to the owner of the dog or dogs 
and lay the case before him, insisting, in a 
kindly way, that he shall see that his dog be 
restrained at home. If the owner disregards 
such a complaint., there is but one course left 
—to bear the nuisance. 
M. R. S., Seneca Falls, N. Y. —Is a claim 
which is outlawed iu this State ami maybe in 
Colorado revived upon a written letter from 
the debtor to pay the same in the near future, 
and can the debt be sued in Colorado upon 
that written promise, written iu Colorado. 
Ans. —A new promise to pay a debt takes it 
out of the statute of limitations, which begins 
to run once more from the date of this new 
promise. Under this uew engagement the 
debtor may be sued wherever he can bo 
found. 
L. H. M., Rochester , N. Y.~ If I hold a 
lease of tho house I live in to May 1,1838, and 
the house is for sale at public auction next 
month, can the buyer compel me to move out 
before my lease runs out? 
Ans. —In this State if the lease is iu writing, 
not recorded, and for a term not longer 
than three years from its date, it will hold 
good against the buyer, unless the sale is under 
the foreclosure of a previous mortgage. If 
for a louger term than three years, and re¬ 
corded, it will still hold good. But au oral or 
verbal lease for more than a single year would 
not be valid against the buyer. 
To Several Inquirers. —There are sever¬ 
al mercantile agencies, the principal of which 
are in this city, which make it their special 
business to investigate the business standiug 
of every concern of auy importance all over 
the couutry. The results of their iuvestiga 
tions are printed every year in large, costly 
books which are never sold; but each agency 
lends its volume of reports to its own sub¬ 
scribers, uuder a certain specified agreement, 
reserving the right to take possession of the 
book iu case of its violation. In very brief 
•terms, these give the amountof capital invest¬ 
ed in the business of each concern; whether 
it is slow or prompt pay ; whether it has sus¬ 
pended, compromised, failed or assigned; 
whether it has mortgaged, insured, been 
protested, had judgments recorded against it, 
and many other particulars affecting its busi¬ 
ness standing. There are all over the country 
a number of petty concerns, some of them top- 
heavy with big names,which are too insignifi¬ 
cant to be mentioned at all in these works. A 
considerable number of others are of sufficient 
importance to be mentioned; but their mer¬ 
cantile standing is so doubtful, for one cause 
or auotber, that they are not rated—that is, 
nothing is said of their business reliability. 
All the reports of all the agencies relate only 
to the “credit” of the concerns—the degree of 
probability or certainty that they will pay all 
the debts incurred by them. The reports are 
all for the benefit of merchants in their deal¬ 
ings with each other. Not one of them has 
any reference to the quality of goods sold by 
any firm. A concern may, therefore, be 
“rated” very high by these agencies so far as 
the likelihood that it will pay all just debts to 
those from whom it has bought goods on cred¬ 
it ; while at the same time it may sell to its 
customers a poor quality of goods at the prices 
of better kinds. As a rule, however, with 
very few exceptions, a firm that deals honest¬ 
ly with its creditors by paying its debts 
promptly, will also deal honestly with its cus¬ 
tomers by giving them the worth of their 
money, so that the mercantile rating of a con¬ 
cern shows, to a great extent, its re¬ 
liability with regard to its -customers. 
If its rating is good, it is very likely to deal 
honestly with everybody. If a concern is 
mentioned without any rating, it shotos that 
it really has an established existence of suffic¬ 
ient importance to be known to some extent 
in its own locality. If a firm is not mentioned 
at all, it shows that either it has started with¬ 
in the year,and therefore too late for mention 
in the yearly volume; or that it is too small 
for notice; or that it is one of those fleeting 
affairs that is here to-day and anywhere-else 
or nowhere to-morrow, just as fortune or 
chance may favor or oppose it. It is very ev¬ 
ident that such concerns could get neither 
goods nor money on credit at, home; and people 
at a distance cannot therefore be too cautious 
in trusting them. Some of these deal quite 
honestly so loug as they are making money 
freely, but, even in case of these, if trouble 
threatens, they are sure to take care that it 
hurts their patrons before it comes near them. 
Others are premeditated swindlers from the 
outset. Mauy of the inquiries sent to us as to 
the staudiug of various concerns, chiefly ad¬ 
vertising affairs, relate to persons at a dis¬ 
tance, and the most convenient way for us to 
obtain the desired information is to refer to 
the best mercantile agencies here. The above 
explanation will enable our readers to attach 
the proper significance to the mercantile 
mention we may make iu each case this 
week and thereafter. The following con¬ 
cerns, about which inquiries have lately 
been made, are not mentioned at all; The 
Albany Supply Company, Albany, N. Y.; the 
Cincinnati Publishing Company and the Peo¬ 
ple’s Aid, both of Cincinnati..We do not 
recommend Allen & Co, or the Kennedy U. 
S. M. Co., both of this city. The Public 
Herald, of Philadelphia, Pa., is a fairly good 
paper in its line.Montgomery, Ward & 
Company, of Chicago, are quite trustworthy. 
.J. B. Aldeu, of this city, publishes 
books which are fairly worth the price. 
We do uot recommend Hurst & Co., of this 
city.“The American Homestead” seems 
to us a “patent” “premium” catchpenny 
affair. Yes, there is such a paper published 
here, or at any rat© there's a party here that 
claims to publish it.“The German Money 
Lottery in Hamburg,’" which is papering the 
whole country with its mendacious circulars, 
has beeu declared a fraud by two of the Ger¬ 
man Consuls iu this country, as was announced 
here several weeks ugo. The swindlers are 
still forwarding their circulars everywhere, 
however, and last Wednesday sent a batch, all 
the way from Hamburg, to the Eye-Opener, 
whose name they must have learut from the 
New York City Directory. The Eye-Opener 
shows his appreciation of the missive in this 
way. 
wind. Mr. Wright adds: “We find it, so far, 
one of the very best apples we have for our 
cold, northern climate;” and he says that he 
sent several boxes of the Wealthy to the Inter¬ 
colonial Exposition in London. Notwith¬ 
standing this entirely correct statement of 
Mr. Wright, I have had quite a number of 
complaints in regard to the Wealthy dropping 
its fruit, and always from the same parties a 
complaint that it is a poor keeper. As both 
of these allegations run counter to my own 
experience, and as my Wealthy orchard is, I 
feel sure, the oldest and largest of that variety 
in New England, I desire to give to the read¬ 
ers of the Rural the result of a careful in¬ 
vestigation of the matter. 
The Wealthy, in Northeastern Vermont, is 
fully colored, in skin and seed, usually by or 
before the 20th of September. Up to the first 
of October it Is one of tho very best apples to 
hang on iu a high wind that I have ever seen. 
It never drops its fruit for the reason which 
causes the Tetofsky to fall, which is that the 
latter apple grows in close clusters and has a 
very short stem, so that, as the fruit enlarges, 
the growth causes them to crowd cue another 
off. The Wealthy, although a more produc¬ 
tive tree than Tetofsky, has its fruit distri¬ 
buted along the branches instead of being 
clustered, ou spurs, and its long and strongly 
attached stem (both to fruit and limb) holds 
very firmly until the fruit begins to be over¬ 
ripe. If gathering is delayed until this period 
has arrived, the apples begin to lose their firm 
adhesion to the tree and to fall to the ground 
—the wormy ones first, but soon also those 
which are perfect. 
Experienced orchardists never allow apples 
to become over-ripe before harvesting. Early 
fruit, so left, will not endure transportation, 
while winter apples will be much impaired in 
their keeping qualities. But a large number 
of ordinary farmers aud amateur growers are 
ignorant of this fact, and it is for their bene¬ 
fit that I make this statement. As regards 
any apple which it is desirable to keep into 
the winter, it should be gathered as soon as it 
is fairly colored up and the seeds are browu 
—two signs which iu most cases come nearly 
together. North of 40“ iu New England and 
Canada, if gathered promptly at this period, 
carefully handled and stored at once in a cool 
properly ventilated fruit cellar, it is a true win¬ 
ter apple, keeping well until the first of March 
or later. I still have them to-day (March 23) 
in full flavor and firmness of flesh, although 
we had au unusually loug and warm autumn. 
If, however, I had let this fruit remain upon 
the trees until it had beguu to drop badly 
from over-ripeness and had then left it exposed 
to the alternations of temperature unavoid¬ 
able in above-ground storage until bard freez¬ 
ing weather, as is often the custom, it would 
have been necessary to market the whole crop 
before Christmas, But stored iu a deep cellar 
with the windows all open every dry, cool 
night, and closed at all other times, they have 
kept with hardly any loss as above stated. 
Tho Wealthy, when growu south of 45 v , as 
iu Northern Illinois and Iowa, and in Southern 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, ripens quite early 
in September, and I think it can never there 
be made any more thau an early winter apple. 
Even as far north as I atn, (right on 45'-'), T 
find that in the low-lying and warm Cham¬ 
plain Valley, only 30 miles westward, the 
Wealthy does not keep nearly as well as here 
in the hills, at from 1000 to 1500 feet above the 
sea level. This point is not sufficiently under¬ 
stood in regard to fruit. The high-lying 
mountain lands get early frosts and cool 
nights, while the valleys hold a high tempera¬ 
ture much longer. Grapes furnish a good 
test ou this point, and I should say that any¬ 
where or in any season, that tho Concord 
grape ripens sufficiently to be eatable, the 
Wealthy apple wifi not keep much louger than 
Christmas: while in those localities where 
only the earliest grapes ever ripen, and that 
not surely, the W calthy, properly cared tor, 
will prove a true ail-winter apple. 
Newport, Vt. 
ancons 
omo l finical. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL 
LXXXI. 
LETTERS.— 
“DROPPING” OF THE WEALTHY 
APPLE. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
In the March issue of the Canadian Horti¬ 
culturist a correspondent asks if the Wealthy 
Apple has the defect of dropping off tho tree 
before it is ripe, and if it is easily shaken off 
by winds? To these questions M. A. A. 
Wright, of Renfrew, Out,, replies that he has 
never been troubled with the Wealthy drop¬ 
ping its fruit prematurely, as the Tetofsky 
does; neither is it easily shaken off by the 
Four days in New Orleans; the Exposition 
buildings; Lake Fonchartrain; a young 
alligator; hostility to novelist Cable; a 
Northern-Southern clerical; cemeteries; not 
overplcased. 
One morning we went out to take a 
look at tho Exposition buildings—common¬ 
place iu comparison with those of the Centen¬ 
nial—and there was nothing tine iu the grounds 
but oak trees draped with moss. Negro 
women and children were fishing for eraw- 
fishes.in a slimy stream along the street. We 
took a long rido through Camp Street and 
St. Charles Avenue where are the beautiful 
residences in the new part of the city. St. 
Charles Avenue is fine aud the dwellings and 
grounds about them of great attraction. 
Lake Ponchart rain,reminding one of St. Clair 
and Eva iu Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is one of the 
suburban resorts of the Crescent City. It is, 
in fact, an arm of the Gulf of Mexico, and the 
water is salt, so people go out presumably for 
a breath of salt air, but we found it a hot, sul¬ 
try place—hotels, cake and beer stands, res¬ 
taurants and amusements. One goes thither 
by rail—dummy car—through swamps and 
along a canal, on the opposite side of which is 
a fine carriage drive—unless one has squeamish 
notions about the pools of stagnant,"slimy 
water at every turn. One would suppose 
that all zymotic diseases under the sun would 
flourish here, but the people claim that the 
city is healthy, and that cholera and yellow 
fever never originate here, but are brought 
from other points. Having no system of sew¬ 
erage, the people are saved from the poison of 
sewer gas, but with the whole Mississippi 
River for a water supply there is no reason 
but pure laziness, why the surface ditches 
are not well flushed. Bath houses are built at 
the ends of long piei-s in Lake Ponchartrain 
and steps descend from the houses to the water 
—muddy, alligatorisb-looking water, only al¬ 
ligators do not live in salt water—that I could 
not be hired to enter. A freckled-faced boy 
there had an alligator to sell; he asked fifty 
cents for it and he carried it around slung 
over his shoulder with perfect unconcern. He 
said he had caught it in the canal near-by; that 
it was about five years old; would make a nice 
pet; its teeth could be filed off, only a little pa¬ 
tience would be required in taming it. It was 
three feet long and the laddie was most eager 
to buy it, assuring us that he would carry it 
home over his shoulder. The boy said he had 
captured it with a lasso and he had a rope 
still around its jaws aud tied toVjue' leg, so 
it could neither bite nor run away. We had a 
good look at it; it was a remarkable breather, 
or else its deep breathing was from fright. 
The boy said its skin would stretch “awful" 
aud it would make two pairs of boots. * ‘Mighty 
cheap for two bits.” 
One of the constructions at the lake is a 
tongue of land running out in the water and 
on this walks are laid and flowers and shrubs 
deftly arranged, with seats at intervals. We 
walked to the extreme end of the tongue, 
where we found a clerical-looking gentleman 
reposing in a seat after an unsuccessful season 
at angling. We readily fell into conversa¬ 
tion and the talk lasted for an huur or more, 
myself being chiefly a listener. Anaximan¬ 
der inquired of him the reason for the ill-feel¬ 
ing against Mr. Cable, the novelist. Mean¬ 
time we had talked with various others on the 
same topi;, aud the general verdict was that 
Mr. Cable had maligned the Creoles and to¬ 
tally misrepresented thein,and the feeling was 
very bitter against him—it was quite time he 
left New Orleans, etc. I ventured to say that 
a novelist was not expected to be historically 
or descriptively accurate; he had something 
of the poet's license, and that not knowing 
the Creoles, he had very pleasantly impressed 
me in regard to them. One intelligent lady 
told me that she greatly enjoyed Cable’s liter¬ 
ary quality, but she thought he was untrue to 
the South aud catered to the Bostonians! 
One young man said, very indignantly, that 
he made out the Creoles to be half nigger !— 
which was the funuiest of all the comments. 
The clerical-looking man was evidently a gen¬ 
tleman of unusual culture; he said he had 
voted against the secession measures—bitterly 
blamed Yancey—and gave, as the general 
feeling of the South, one of satisfaction that 
slavery was abolished. When we took leave 
of him I remarked that I had all the while 
been wondering where he was born and 
reared. He laughed aud asked if I had made 
it out. I replied not quite; but north of the 
Mason and Dixon Line. “Well,” he admitted, 
“I was born north of it, in the city of New 
York, but I was educated in the strong pro¬ 
slavery State of Missouri. What made you 
think t was not a Sout herner by birth ?” “Be¬ 
cause of your face and speech—both are of 
the North." 
Iuterment in New Orleans is chiefly above 
ground, and for this reason the cemeteries are 
more than ordinarily interesting-the tombs be¬ 
ing often of great magnificence. I chanced one 
day to be iu the “Fireman’s Cemetery” at the 
close of a burial in the ground, and tasked one 
of the women, walkiug away from the grave, 
how it was managed when the grave quickly 
filled with water as it invaluably diid iu that 
soil. “Just uow it was baled out and the eof- 
fiu quickly put iu,” she exclaimed, “but I have 
seen graves so full of water that a weight of 
stone had to be pub on the coffins to sink them. 
1 think it quite bad enough to be put iu the 
ground without beiug drowned too,” she con¬ 
cluded. On two sides of this cemetery, run¬ 
ning tne full length, is a high, ^ wall-like^strue- 
