JULY i8 
462 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
planting in said counties since the organization 
of this company aggregate 286 acres, instead of 
800 to 1,000 as stated. The largest part of the 
vines planted have been sold at 35 to 40 cents, 
and for this the planter gets, in addition to 
the original planting, vines to till vacancies. 
We teach him the business by having practi¬ 
cal vineyard men go from time to time to said 
vineyard and give all the instruction necessary 
for the best management of it, which includes 
the gathering, handling, packing and market¬ 
ing of the fruit, we assisting in the purchase 
of the wire, posts, baskets, etc., in this way 
largely reducing the expenses, all of which is 
clone at the expense of the company and is in¬ 
cluded in the purchase price. A small pay¬ 
ment of cash is received, much smaller than 
that stated, varying, somewhat, according to 
the size of the vineyard; the balance by our 
contract can lie collected only from one-lialf 
of the net proceeds of the fruit without inter¬ 
est, and we have no other claim against the 
party. No party has made a purchase of land 
running in debt for the whole amount and 
borrowing money to make payment ou the 
same, and it would be impossible for such 
party without being otherwise thoroughly re¬ 
sponsible, to get any vines from us. As our 
claim is against one-half of the fruit, it would 
be useless even to suppose that we would plant 
under such circumstances. We do not know 
and do not believe that more than £1,<X)0 have 
been raised at any time anywhere by mort¬ 
gage to make the small payments, and none in 
said counties. 
I am the party referred to as agent, and 
have negotiated almost the entire amount of 
said sales in person. h. p. van dusen, 
General Vineyard Agent for the Niagara 
White Grape Company. 
farm topics. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
NORTHERN SETTLERS IN THE SOUTH. 
In the Rural of Juno 18th an article from 
E. O., Maryville, Tenn., says “The land here 
is fearfully run down and there seems to lie 
but little enterprise compared with what one 
sees in the West.” Now here is what is wrong 
with E. O. and most of the Northern and 
Western people who come here. Instead of 
going out ami looking at the country for them¬ 
selves, they stick down in some town or vil¬ 
lage like Maryville, where the loud is all worn 
out and then write to their friends that the 
country is poor aud w orn out, and the people 
have no enterprise or thrift about them. Now 
1 take E. C)..to be one of those chronic grum¬ 
blers, who, if in the West would find the cli¬ 
mate did not suit him, and uow that he is in 
the South, liuds the land doesn't suit him. 
There are drawbacks here and everywhere 
else on the globe. E. O. says “the land is 
run down here.’’ This is true in part only, for 
we have some land in Blount County as tine 
as any in any other place. It is just like 
every other country—there is good laud inter¬ 
spersed with poor. We of t he South are glad 
to have people settle among us. But many 
people come here from the North and buy land 
that is very poor and imagine to themselves 
that in a few years they will ha ve fine farms; 
but they try to farm here like they do in the 
North aud West, and in a few years they 
leave again for their former homes poorer 
but wiser than when they came here. 
I will give a few instances of this: In 1882, 
or some time along there, a man came here 
from Indiana nud bought a small farm near 
Maryville, for which he was to pay 81MJ0. He 
paid a part down and gave notes and a lieu on 
the land for the balance and then went to 
farming. In'the first place on a six acre lot 
he sowed 18 bushels of oats; result, he did not 
make his seed, as they did not get tall enough 
to cut. Next, for planting corn, he laid his land 
off four feet each way aud planted 10 and 12 
grains in a hill and never thinned it at all; re¬ 
sult, be made a good crop of fodder, but no 
grain to amount to anything. There are too 
many Northern people who come here and 
think the people here are all fools, and so when 
they are advised to do work in this or that 
way they say, “Oh no! I know exactly how to 
do it,” and the result is failure nine times out 
of ten. I have no doubt that there are more 
enterprising people in the West than iu the 
South,but lot a man go where he will,he still has 
something to learn about farming; he never 
graduates. Another tiling 1 wish to say about 
Northern people coming, relates to their bad 
judgment in the selection of land. According 
to the prices they pay for lands of poor quali¬ 
ty,the bottom lands along the rivers should be 
worth from $150 to 8200 per acre. One can 
buy good land here at a reasonable price if he 
will use judgment iu selecting it. Now, don’t 
imagine that 1 am a real estate agent, for I 
am only a farmer. In conclusion, let me say 
to the people of the North that if they want 
to get beyond the rigors of the long winters of 
their section they should come to sunny East 
Tennessee, where, if they have thrift they can 
live comfortably nil their lives. A. R. o. 
We are advised by some to attach a good- 
size d piece of sponge to the bridle of a horse, 
between the ears, and keep it moist with wa¬ 
ter. I have but little faith in this practice. 
1 consider au occasional sponging of mouth 
aDd nose a better plan. I would like to hear 
from others on this point. A. G. s. 
Dover, Del. 
Tnic Thomas Smoothing Harrow is an 
implement that agricultural papers do not 
praise enough. In fact that would be a diffi¬ 
cult thing to do. To do the work it is made 
for merely as a smoother and finer of the soil, 
is the least part of its usefulness. It is ns a 
weeder that it deserves most praise, but the 
trouole here is that only a small part of our 
farmers get and keep their tillage land iu such 
a condition that this harrow can be properly 
utilized as a weeder. The mowing machine 
has been a grand reformer in forcing upon the 
farmers of the country the necessary prepara¬ 
tion of the land for its use. Would that iu 
like manner the pecuniary advantage of bar- 
row culture for hoed crops might force on 
that careful plowing, preliminary harrowing, 
and planting, needed to give the Thomas har¬ 
row a fair chance to show what it can do as a 
weed killer. 
The East is A wav Behind in the econo¬ 
mics of cheap ami effective tillage on the 
broad scale. True, the smaller fields and un¬ 
even surfaces of a good many Eastern farms 
are serious obstacles iu the way of the most ef¬ 
fective machine tillage. But there are a vast 
number, not only of our valley but of our up¬ 
land farms, that are almost or quite as well 
suited to exclusive machine tillage asany part 
of the West. On that kiud of laud it is al¬ 
most, ami will soon he, quite a sin to fiddle 
away costly time with any sort of baud till¬ 
age. W by, even the market gardener is about 
done with the hoe. He got rid of the spade a 
good while ago, and to-day about all that 
must not be douo by the hand is done by 
horse-drawn implements. T. H. H. 
WATER FOR STOCK IN MISSISSIPPI. 
PROF. F. A. GULLEY. 
Over a considerable portiou of this State 
the farmers depend on pools—artificial ponds 
—for water for stock. Notwithstanding it is 
claimed that cattle will become unhealthy if 
compelled to drink stagnant w ater, and that 
good milk and butter cannot be had unless cows 
are supplied with water from runningstreams, 
springs or w ells, the fact is that we have on 
t his place some 300 head of cattle all told, 75 
cows giving milk that supplies our families 
ami is made into butter, and these cattle, as 
well as ourselves, live and thrive, and the cows 
drink pool water during the summer. We 
forward sweet cream daily, except Sundays, 
to .New’ Orleans to & retailer, the cream being 
on the road 12 hours, and we use no preserva¬ 
tive except ice, while our creamery butter 
made from our own and patrons’ milk, sells 
for the highest prices paid for any butter 
through the Slate, including Iowa and Wis¬ 
consin Creamery. 
A peculiarity of the pool water here is 
that it keeps sweet and clear except when it 
is stirred up, and after stirring it settles at 
once aud seems to be all right again. There 
is something in our soil that seems to precip¬ 
itate impurities in au insoluble form aud 
purify the water, even when cattle stand in the 
edge of the pools for hours at a time. Since 
1881 we have excavated seven stock pools on 
this farm in the different fields, to which the 
stock have free access. The pools vury in 
size from less than one-quarter to more than 
half an acre, ami hold a depth of from six to 
twelve feet of water. 
In making a pool we select, if possible, the 
head of a ravine or depression, where un area 
of land not more than six times larger than 
the pool will drain iuto it. By throwing up a 
dam on the lower side of the depression, mak¬ 
ing it from earth scraped out from the bot¬ 
tom, it is not so groat au undertaking us one 
might suppose. Before building, a ditch is 
scraped out about two feet deep, where the 
dam is to stand aud then filled in again, other¬ 
wise the water is apt to work u channel 
through at the surface underneath the bauk. 
Our average annual ruinfull Is about 50 inches, 
and the evaporation from the surface of a 
pond of still water is not supposed to exceed 
the rainfall, consequently the drainage from 
six times the area of the pool, after allowing 
for the absorption, would give 10 or 12 feet of 
water. Where a greater area drains into the 
pool more sediment is carried in, causing it to 
fill up. We have located our pools so that an 
iron pipe can be put in to convey the water 
from the pool to a watering tank on lower 
ground, from which the stock may drink, and 
where the tank may be kept full of water, but, 
prevented from running over by an automatic 
valve operated by n float. When we get the 
pipes and tanks arranged, and the pools and 
the adjacent land from which the water is 
caught, feuced, to keep out all stock, I shall 
consider our water supply just as good as a 
permanent running stream, aud nearly, if not 
quite, equal to a well orspring. 
Another peculiarity of our pools is that 
they become stocked with fish—mostly perch 
No matter where wo make the pool, there are 
always plenty of fish m it the second year, 
and the boys frequently carry away 20 to 50 
fish, five to eight inches long, after a couple of 
hours’ fishing in any of our pools. It may l>e 
that the fish help to keep the water pure. But 
few windmills havebeeu put up in this State, 
as cattle are allowed access to pools. With the 
arrangement I have referred to, there is no 
necessity for a windmill, except to elevate 
water to tanks around the barns, and to pump 
water up to a tank when the pool cannot be 
excavated on high land. Windmills would 
undoubtedly work satisfactorily, as we seldom 
have a day, even in midsummer, without a 
breeze for au hour or more. 
Agr’l College, Starkville, Miss. 
(Tljt IjfriXswmu 
INFLUENCE OF ARRESTED DEVELOP¬ 
MENT ON SUBSEQUENT GROWTH 
OF YOUNG ANIMALS. 
PROFESSOR J. W. SANBORN. 
It produces a change in the normal propor¬ 
tion of parts; development of fat from high 
feeding of a stunted calf; influence on skel¬ 
eton development , and digestion and assim¬ 
ilation; undoubted loss from stunting 
when young, _ 
The Rural writes: “Wo take the ground 
that a “stunted call”—one that has had poor 
care and treatment enough to arrest its de¬ 
velopment.—will never make a first-class ani¬ 
mal, no matter how much care may be given 
it later. Are we right? Will this “stunted” 
condition of any animal be overcome by food 
and care later iu life?” 
This is a question of both theoretical aud 
practical importance. It opens a fine field for 
speculation, and one in which a patient inves¬ 
tigation should be rewarded by a large fund 
of information. It is a study of the influence 
of arrested development. Darwin would en¬ 
lighten us as well as others. As I have scarce¬ 
ly’ a moment, I will content myself by observ¬ 
ing what all have noticed iu plant life, name¬ 
ly, that arrested development does result in 
a marked chauge in the character of the 
plant. This is at once observed in the changed 
ratio of stem to plant. It is well understood 
that feeding the plant at various stages of 
growth has a positive influence on its charac¬ 
ter, not on its size merely, but on the ratio of 
its parts to each other. I believe that the 
same or analogous results may be aud are 
gained in calf feeding. The early growth of 
a call' when in normal condition is the growth 
of bone and muscle. Grant that we stint the 
normal development of these parts until the 
usual time when the animal has accumulated 
the heavy ratio of fat that belongs to mature 
years—n«t only of outside fat, but of intercel¬ 
lular fat, which latter is the greater amount 
—and that we then, at this period when fat 
should have been formed, begin with this 
stunted calf rapid or high feeding, we shall 
have as a result not only large development of 
outside fat of kidneys etc.,but a small ratio of 
fat between the muscular tissues. 
The development of the skeleton is likewise 
affected. If development is arrested, and the 
expansion of the bony frame-work in youth is 
not caught up and carried forward in just the 
ratio existing when the nuimal was dropped, 
a failure to obtain a symmetrical growth is 
the result. The influence of arrested develop¬ 
ment on digestion and assimilation is more 
obscure, but is obvious in its temporary, if 
not in its permanent, results. This wo know 
that maintenance fodder is lost during arrest¬ 
ed development through insufficient fet'd, uud 
that the limit of consumptive capacity is nar¬ 
rowed and the normal capacity recovered, if 
ut all, after a fitting period of feeding. I 
must agree with the Rural’s general conclu¬ 
sions,if a prolonged period of arrested develop¬ 
ment is referred to. I do not believe in regal'd 
to digestion and assimilation that powers of 
this character can remain dormant for a 
material period when they naturally should 
be very active, and then, at a more advanced 
stage of life, take on the activity of youth 
and the force that u»e would have given 
them. 
I hope that some one who can secure the 
leisure w ill study the physiology of this case 
from the standpoint of accumulated data in 
this aud other domains of life, and place the 
facts clearly before us in a logical way. This 
we all know, that it is miserable policy to let 
the most active period of growth lie fallow 
while the expense of the existence goes on. 
Wo also know that it is slow work to restore 
thrift in a stunted calf, and that it will be a 
long while before the appearance of a good 
animal can be taken on. 
Ag’l Coll., Columbia, Mo. 
THE AMERICAN CATTLE TRUST. 
E. W r . FERRY. 
Objects of the organization; can't monopol¬ 
ize the cattle trade; opposition of distrust- 
fid, jealous stock-owners; a mere consolid¬ 
ation of numerous industries for mutual 
protection and profit; can't be an injury, 
may be a benefit. 
Naturally the recently formed American 
Cattle Trust has been the subject of much com¬ 
ment, Many seem to think that such an or¬ 
ganization may have power to affect materi¬ 
ally the welfare of owners of rattle in all parts 
of the country. It seems scarcely likely that 
the purposes of the now Trust are fully known 
to any one except the members thereof; never¬ 
theless newspapers have not hesitated to de¬ 
clare that the intern ion of the Tiust is to so 
monopolize the entire cattle business of the 
country that prices of beeves may be kept 
down to the lowest paying point, while prices 
of beef are at the same time to be maintained 
nt the highest pract icable figure. On the other 
hand, it has been asserted that the chief, if 
not the only causes leading to the organization 
of the Trust, were a determination to improve 
the methods and reduce the expenses of beef- 
growing iu the arid region: to correct abuses 
to which live stock owners have long submit- 
ed; to lower the cost of placing beef before 
consumers; to curtail losses incident to the 
cattle traffic, and to in other ways promote 
the welfare of owners of cattle. 
It has been held that an accused should be 
considered innocent until proof of guilt ends 
all doubt; but it may be well to assume for 
the preseut, that the new Trust intends to do 
all the evil charged against it by the news¬ 
papers, and to consider what and how great 
that evil may be. It may be also worth while 
to consider what measures may be taken 
in time, if danger threatens, to successfully 
meet the new conditions; or to encourage and 
support the new movement if it promises good 
to the live stock industry or to consumers. 
Such a Trust as this may in time be able to 
dictate to farmers the prices for which they 
may sell their beeves and to consumeis the 
figures for which they may buy meats, if it 
can first obtain control of at least 20 millions 
of cattle now held iu small lots by farmers 
scattered over the whole Union. The reader 
can judge for himself how long a time would 
be required to win the consent of these farm¬ 
ers to any such arrangement. The new organi¬ 
zation has been compared to the Standard Oil 
Trust; but the latter had only to get control 
of a few wells and refineries, owned by a lim¬ 
ited number of speculators, or by men gov¬ 
erned by the vicissitudes of wildly speculative 
markets, and its greatest difficulties were end¬ 
ed. To wield such power as the Standard Oil 
Trust exercises, the Cattle Trust must gain 
control of a million or more independent 
farmers who do not speculate. Oil comes 
from a common center through the hands of 
a very limited number of operators; beef is 
supplied from practically numberless inde¬ 
pendent sources, controlled by millions of 
producers. A few wells furnish all the petro¬ 
leum used in America—hundreds of thousands 
of farms furnish beeves, and each lmmlet, vil¬ 
lage and town bus its butcher who can supply 
the meats required, despite any combination 
of capitalists. Any attempt to drive local 
butchers out of compel it ion can be successful 
only by underselling them. So little capital 
is required by the retail butcher that be would 
at once enter the field again on the restoration 
of prices of meat to figures that would pay 
him. The world can nfl’ord to pardon the 
syndicates for reducing prices permanently, 
as iu truth they have usually done, even 
though they grow rich from so doing. The 
forgiveness may be the more cordial if the 
producer loses nothing in the operation. It is 
by no means difficult to see how producer, 
Cattle Trust and consumer may lie mutually 
benefited. 
There is perhaps little need of using space 
here to show that any attempt to bring mil¬ 
lions of farmers to consent to be governed by 
any syndicate would be hopeless. To such an 
undertaking as that would be, the recent 
attempt to corner the wheat market was as 
child’s play. All efforts to manage shipments 
of slock, even from very small farming dis¬ 
tricts, so as to prevent glutting the markets 
have failed. Every owner of stock seems to 
