Glendales are the best, as their tough, 
meaty texture preserves their form better than 
such soft, watery berries as Sharpless, Jersey 
Queen, etc., can be kept. Have the fruit per¬ 
fectly clean, fresh and bright. Indeed, so dif¬ 
ficult is it to get outsiders to grow suitable 
stock that wo do not pack anything save the 
produce of our own farms, a little asparagus 
grown liy an old friend and neighbor alone 
excepted, Never wash the berries. If you 
can’t grow them clean enough to cau without 
washing, give up the business. Hull them 
carefully, without mashing, directly into two- 
pound round tin cans. About eight quarts of 
nice fruit will fill 10 cans. Have sirup ready¬ 
made, 20 u , 80° or 40°, in weight according to 
the grade of goods you wish to pack. The 
following is about the proportion of sugar to 
fruit for each degree—rather over than under: 
SO 0 — hi pound to t pound fruit. 
fq “ •• l •• *• 
40 u — 1 “ “I " “ 
The highest commercial grades arc put up 
only with 80 Q sirup. Fill the cans up to with¬ 
in a quarter of an inch of the top with boiling 
simp; cap the same as asparagus; lower into 
the cooking vats, the water in which must be 
boiling; let them stay there five minutes, pull 
out vent and put back for five minutes more. 
Cool off, label and pack in two-dozen cases. 
Sirup-testers, all graduated and ready for use, 
may he bought of almost any glass instrument 
maker. They lesetnble a lactometer some¬ 
what. 
2. Glass jars are used instead of tin. Prepare 
the fresh fruit as in Method 1. Have 80 de¬ 
grees sirup boiling, drop enough berries to fill 
a jar into the vessel of boiling simp: let them 
remain in it for six minutes; dip them out 
with a strainer and put them in the glass jars 
without any additional sirup. Enough of the 
latter will adhere to the berries when dipped 
from the sirup. Seal the cans nud put them 
away in a dark, cool place. 
3. This method is that employed by the Ger¬ 
man and French preservers in packing the 
goods so much admired iu the fancy grocers’ 
windows. Select extra smooth largo fruit, 
place it in a vessel with a false strainer bottom, 
with a faucet in the side near the both mi. Muke 
40 degrees sirup boiling hot; pour it over the 
berries and let them stand 24 hours. Draw 
off the sirup, boil down to 40 degrees; and 
pour it-over the fruit again. Repeat this pro¬ 
cess twice more, or four times iu all, leaving 
the berries 06 hours in the thick sirup. They 
will become meaty and tough, of a beautiful 
color and most delicious flavor, and will not 
float. Such goods bring $0 wholesale per 
dozen of pint jars. 
Raspberries are similarly treated, save that 
they should lie cooked 10 minutes and vented 
15 minutes. Blackberries can be treated in the 
same way. 
So can Bartlett pears. Feel tbe pears; put 
them in cans; pour the boiling sirup over them; 
cook for 10 minutes, vent and cook 10 min¬ 
utes more. Bartlett pears, if cooked in glass 
jars with the tops off, should be boiled half an 
hour. 
We have given our methods weary years of 
watching, waiting and experimenting: now for 
the results and the cost. A man for $250 can 
buy a very fair four-horn- power boiler; $15 
worth of one inch galvanized pipe and fittings 
will make his cooking apparatus as good as 
ours; $10 worth of two-inch pine plank will 
make his cooking vats, labor and iron braces 
thrown in; $50 will pay the Niagara Co, for 
irons and trays; $25 for sundries. Thus $350 
will start him in business, lie will then be 
independent of his market. When produce 
sells low he cans; when it brings good prices 
he ships. p. h. scudder. 
Glen Head, L. I. 
porno logkal. 
DELAYED FRUIT COMMENTS. 
T. n. HOSKINS, M.D. 
At the time the American Bornological So¬ 
ciety held its last meeting at Grand Rapids, 
Mich., the Rural printed a short-hand 
report of the proceedings, w hich I laid aside 
for comment, but overlookod. 1 have just 
come upon the annotated copy, and it seems 
that tbe remarks I should have made then may 
still be useful. The Yellow Transparent, Ap¬ 
ple being under discussion, Mr. Woodward 
asked if it was not apt to crack and become 
dry and mealy. Prof. Budd replied “Only 
when over-ripe,” I have had the Yellow 
Transparent in fruit ever sluee 1874, and I 
find it the best keeper and shipper of any early 
apple, without exception. If gathered just as 
it begins to turn from pale green to straw- 
color, it is good for throe weeks under any fair 
handling. If left on the tree it keeps in good 
eating order and improving, for a mouth 
after the first samples are ripe. During this 
time it slowly changes from yellow to ivory 
white in color, and finally drops, but does not 
grow mealy or crack. I grow a great many 
of them for market. The Charlottenthaler 
being referred to, Prof. Budd said it was much 
like Yellow Transparent, but five or six days 
later. I do not note any difference, either in 
season, size, shape, color or quality between 
these two apples and their mate. Grand Sultan; 
but the Yellow Transparent has the soundest 
tree, both the others being much more subject 
to bark blight on the body and limbs. I have 
set the trees in parallel rows, and have had to 
replace noTrausparents,but many of the others. 
The Cellini was referred to as a good early 
apple of fair quality nud Scottish origin, about 
as hardy as Famous©, I will add that top- 
grafted on Olden lmrgb, l find it nearly as iron¬ 
clad, us early and profuse a bearer and as 
large as that variety, and fully a month later. 
It is a fine-looking, red-striped apple, though 
duller in color than Oldenburgh. Its quality 
is excellent for cooking and fair for eating. 
Its distinguishing mark is its widely-opened— 
even dissected—calyx, which was well showu 
iu the cuts of it given about a year ago in the 
Rural. 
Prof. Budd spoke of McMahon’s White ns 
being about as hardy as Wolf River. Wolf 
River is a very close duplicate of Alexander, 
and probably a seedling of that variety. 
Neither is much hardier than Ben Davis when 
root-grafted, but both succeed well top-gruft- 
ed on Tetofsky. McMahon’s White is much 
hardier here, not so large as Alexander and 
Wolf River, and with very little color. In 
quality it is rather better, and also a some¬ 
what better keeper. 
The discussion of the Mann Apple did not 
bring out so fully as it should have done the 
gross misrepresentations made as to its hardi¬ 
ness, which has been repeatedly stated to lie 
equal to that of Oldenburgh. The fact is that, 
while it may be hardier than Rhode Island 
Greening, which it externally resembles, it 
has not the slightest title to be called an iron¬ 
clad, or even extra-hardy. It will not endure 
our mildest winters on Lake Memphremagog. 
Its quality is very poor, but it is a good keeper, 
and the tree is highly productive in a favor¬ 
able locality. 
President Barry remarked: <l I think very 
few people will plant the hardy Russian 
apples except where the winters are so severe 
that other kinds could not be grown.” This 
is a strong remark to be made by a veteran 
nurseryman who has for a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury been recommending the three Russians, 
Astrachan, Oldenburgh and Alexander, for 
general planting. The Yellow Transparent is 
a better apple than these, and 1 have at least 
a dozen more Russians in bearing which com¬ 
pare very well with American varieties iu all 
desirable qualities. I believe the whole list 
of “Department Russians’ will average equal 
in all points to a similar number selected 
from our standard American sorts, except in 
keeping quality. 
Newport, Vt. 
Ojftinj i'jfisbtrntm}. 
MILK SICKNESS. 
E. W. PERRY. 
Various theories as to its cause; m uch more 
prevalent formerly than nou>; its common¬ 
est. local inns; object ions to alleged ca uses; 
analogous to malaria; due to bacteria; 
myriads often in the blood of affected uni- 
mats; also in water and the blood of human 
patients; treatment; a caution. 
To nearly all who have kuown of the exist¬ 
ence of milk sickuess, the cause of that malady 
has remained a mystery. Many haveascribed 
it to the growth of a fungus on the forage 
eaten by cattle, and others bold that the earth 
where the disorder originates contains some 
mineral which rises with the evaporation dur¬ 
ing the day, and settles with the dew at night, 
to lie eaten by the stock. One correspondent 
living near Mount Carmel, Ill., says of this 
matter; “In regard to milk sickness, we have 
it in the river bottoms and among the foot¬ 
hills, where there is an undergrowth of bushes. 
We also have it on the rolling, high laud, re¬ 
mote from the bottoms. The worst, place for 
the disease 1 ever kuew was a small field of 
high, rolling land covered by a sugar orchard. 
All except the maple trees had been cleared 
away. Through this piece was a ravine, in 
w hich water ran all the year ’round. Horses, 
cattle, or sheep turned in there were almost 
sure to die of milk sickness.” Half a century 
ago, when there was lar more undrained 
swamp, impure water, and malarial air than 
there is now, there were many more cases of 
the disorder than there have been of recent 
years. Then the very buzzards, the hogs, the 
turkeys, and the dogs aud cats that a to of the 
carcasses of animals which had died of the 
disease, themselves di“d of milk sickness. 
Cats, dogs, calves, and chickens that drank 
the milk or ate the flesh of cow's suffering 
from the malady, s-tagger ed around weakly 
for days and died. Many people died of the 
disease, induced by eating butter or drinking 
milk from diseased cows. 
Then the theory was held that the ailment 
was caused by eating some plant that appear¬ 
ed late in the season. Others believed that 
the cause might be found in the earth licked 
up by the stock at what are kuown as salt¬ 
licks. Still others believed that cattle wore 
poisoned by eating grass on which some mine¬ 
ral, carried up with moisture from the earth 
during the warm hours of the day, settled 
with the dew in the cool ovouiog and night; 
and yet others are of the opinion that the dis¬ 
ease is induced by the drinking of water from 
stagnant pools or from impure streams. The 
early settler sometimes fenced about the spots 
where observation taught him the germs of 
the malady lurked. In time tbe land around 
those spots was plowed and seeded, water was 
drained off, and the fences rotted and fell, the 
plow completed the work of purification, and 
the previous existence of the disease was for¬ 
gotten. 
Milk sickness is known in many of the 
States lying east of the Mississippi River. An 
article recently published in the Blue Ridge 
region in Georgia states that the disease exists 
on the north side of the Blue Rfdge and 
among its foothills. In the great valley of 
East Tennessee it is also found in the foot¬ 
hills, where the pastures are rich aud moist 
and the growth of grass vigorous. There is 
no doubt that the malady has prevailed longer 
and more extensively in the southern parts of 
Indiana and Illinois thau iu any other part of 
the land. It appeared regularly each year, 
usually, if not Invariably, in the dry, warm 
weeks of the closing summer, when the streams 
were low and the water supply was generally 
stagnant aud festering with noxious germs. 
Human beings and stock other than neat cat¬ 
tle havo received the germs of tbo malady 
from sources other than the milk or the butter 
of ufllictod cows. Indeed, people who did not 
use mi Ik or butter have died of the disorder, 
and swine and dogs that had no access to such 
food have done the same. In view of these 
facts the theory may be entertained that the 
cause is not found iu noxious weeds, as has 
been held by some, nor cau it be grass or a 
mineral poison like arsenic, as has been be¬ 
lieved, for human beings do not eat such 
grasses and weeds as were thought to cause 
the malady, nor would their food be exposed 
to the contamination of mineral poisons boat¬ 
ing iu the outer air. 
There are reasons which seem to he sound 
for the opinion that milk sickness is caused by 
the presence, in the system of the victims, of 
myriads of bacteria. In Sept.., 188-1, some catt le 
died near Mitchell, Jud. Dr. Yost, of that 
village, obtained blood from one of the ani¬ 
mals affected. This blood was put under a 
powerful microscope and was seen to be liter¬ 
ally swarming with bacteria. Many of the 
forms appeared to bo identical with those 
found iu the blood, sputa and urine of human 
beings suffering from ague nud other malarial 
disorders, as shown by John Saulisbury, 
M. D., in his treatise on such diseases. The 
saino forms were present In vast numbers in 
tbe exhalations from earth infested by ague 
plants, collected by Dr. Saulisbury in his 
studies of malaria, from spots where it was 
known that ague^iud kindred maladies had 
their origin. 
In the second annual report of tbe Bureau 
of Animal Industry au aecouut is given of the 
discoveries made by Dr. "Joseph Gardner, of 
Lawrence County, Indiana, in his investiga¬ 
tions of milk sickness. Describing the results 
of a microscopic examination of the blood 
from a heifer suffering from the malady, Dr. 
Gardner said: “I was startled but not surpris¬ 
ed to see that in the small space embraced 
iu the field, and which could bo covered by a 
transverse section of a fine cambric needle, 
there were countless multitudes of actively 
moving, writhing, twisting bacteria that boro 
in size and behaviour a striking 'resemblance 
to that form of bacteria called by naturalists, 
Bacteria subtilliaiima. They seemed to cling 
to the blood disks, to bo between them, to be 
within some of them, arid to Vie in such an in¬ 
numerable multitude os to fairly fill the ob¬ 
server with horror at the bare thought that 
the blood of even a domesticated animal 
should have such terrible inmates. Koine 
dogs ate of the dead cow, and they too were 
attacked by the ‘slows’ and, in brief, their 
blood showed the same form of bacteria.” 
Knowing that some of tho family owning 
the sick cow had not partaken of milk or 
butter, but hud nevertheless suffered from tho 
disease, Dr. Gardner examined with his mi¬ 
croscope the water taken from the springs 
from which the family drank, and found that, 
it appeared clear and pure to tho unaided eye, 
but was filled by the same forms of bacteria 
as swarmed in the blood of tue cow. In all- 
other family a case of the slows or milk sick¬ 
ness had occurred. Dr. Gardner examined 
some of the milk he took from a cow whose 
milk was used by the patients, and found in 
it the same living organisms ns he discovered 
in the blood and water. Afterward he found 
in the blood of two persons not severely at¬ 
tacked the sum© bacteria, but m smaller num¬ 
bers. In giving bis account of his studies of 
this malady, Dr. Gardner said that milk sick¬ 
ness never prevails in wet seasons, when 
springs are flush and streams are full He was 
not willing to assert that water is the only 
medium outside of animals iu which the bac¬ 
teria may propagate in sufficient quantities to 
cause the disease to manifest itself, “but,” said 
he, “we may rest assured that if tho cattle 
aud the families have water of unquestioned 
purity the other sources and uses will not be 
prominent factors in its production.” Ho 
added that gastritis mid bilious fever are tho 
only diseases the physician will he likely to 
confound with milk sickness. The breutmeut 
he adopted consisted of the administration, 
each two hours, of full doses of brandy aud 
honey, or sirup, with sulphur and magnesia. 
Tho patients quickly recovered. 
It. seems to lie important that consumers 
shall he warned of the danger that may lie in 
using milk, butter or meats from districts iu 
Which milk sickness appears, and that physi¬ 
cians, even iu places remote from spots where 
that disorder originates, shall he ready to re¬ 
cognize it. whenever it may appear, and un¬ 
derstand its nature and proper treatment. 
There is certainly some danger, although it 
may be doubted whether there is sufficient 
warrant for tho assertion which has been made 
to the effect that each year hundreds die in 
places far from the localities where the cause 
of their death originates, from the use of 
meats, butter or cheese containing the germs 
of the disease, for tbo meats and dairy pro¬ 
ducts from localities infected by the scourge 
have to seek a market away from home, and 
consequently find their waj' to the larger 
towns. 
Cook Co., III. 
■■ • » ■ 
DAIRY NOTES. 
T. D. CURTIS. 
BUTTER FRAUDS. 
It is remarkable that the professors of 
chemistry in our educational institutions 
should have a kindly leaning toward the ras¬ 
cally oleomargarine manufacturers, who have 
from the first, fraud uloutly foisted their nasty 
stuff’ Upon consumers of butter. In an article 
in the May number of the Century, Professor 
Atwater says: “This is a ease where mechani¬ 
cal invention, aided by science, is enabled to 
furnish a cheap, wholesome and nutritious 
food for the people.” By what sort of logic 
he infers even t hat elean and wholesome fats 
are used by a set of meu who confessedly act 
on the same moral plan on which the counter¬ 
feiter and swindler act, it is difficult to under¬ 
stand, and why oleomargarine should be 
called “food for the people," who universally 
rejeot it when they know what it, is, is still 
more incomprehensible. The law by no means 
prevents anyone from buying and using it iu 
any way he chooses, whether he belongs to the 
class called “the people” or to that other self 
assumed superior class called “society.” I have 
no sort of idea that. Professor Atwater has in 
any way boon interfered with in the use of oleo- 
margarine on his table, nor ihat ho uses it in 
his family in the place of butter. Unless he 
can show that the oleomargarine manufactur¬ 
ers are honest ill the selection of their fats 
while they are dishonest in everything else, I 
can not see by what authority he calls their 
counterfeits “wholesome.” The probabilities 
are that they use the most abominable fats, 
aud I see it announced that the forthcoming 
report of Dairy Commissioner Brown, of New 
York, will contain a mass of evidence show¬ 
ing that “oleomargarine, butteriuo, and sumo 
are unwholesome mid unlit for human food.” 
Already Indisputable evidence of this fact has 
from time to time been given to the public, 
which is beginning to consider certain pro¬ 
fessors frauds, second only to the stuff which 
they indorse. 
STATUS OF IMITATION BUTTER. 
It is unsafe for the individual or tho com¬ 
munity to eat food the origin of which is not 
kuown. or tho ingredients of which are left to 
imagination and faith. Such a class of foods 
are all imitation butters. Neither the source 
nor the quality or condition of tho fats used 
in their production is known. They may be 
dirty or diseased, or from one kind of animals 
or another. Mercenary considerations are 
stronger than honesty or decency in this spec¬ 
ulative age, and the practice of deception 
once entered upon there is no limit to the ex¬ 
cess to which it may be carried. A glance 
at tho criminal list shows how little depend¬ 
ence cau be placed in men when the tempta¬ 
tions of greed come in their way. Hence it is 
