an action to recover the value of the horse the 
defendant, alleged that the plaintiff was 
guilty of contributory negligence in allowing 
a fence to b out of repair, whereby the horse 
became a trespasser. Held, that there was 
no evidence to show contributory negligence, 
the defendent was liable —Bullard v. Mulli¬ 
gan. Iowa 
Contract for Cutting Timber —Where 
one contracts for the purchase of timber landsi 
agreeing to cut and delivertimber in payment 
for the land, and having performed the con¬ 
tract in part is evicted for a breach of the 
contract, he is en til led, both before and after 
eviction, to the possession of the timber which 
he has cut on the land.—Seeley vs. Garey— 
Pa. 
Assessment of Land-owners for Roads. 
—Changing a free public road to a turnpike 
confers no special benefit on the land-owner, 
and the converse is also true in changing a 
turnpike to a free public road. It follows that 
the statutory provisions authorizing the as¬ 
sessment of the price of the turnpike upon the 
land-owners is unconstitutional and void.— 
State vs. Essex Public Road Co.—N J. 
The Supervisors of a town have no authori¬ 
ty iti improving highways to so construct 
drains or ditches as to cause adjacent lauds to 
be overflowed to a greater extent than would 
naturally occur.—Blakely Township vs. De- 
vine—Minn. 
Where the executors of a mortgagee un¬ 
dertake to foreclose a mortgage, and it clearly 
appears that, the mortgage notes have been 
paid, the sale under the mortgage may he re¬ 
strained by injunction.—Long vs Pomeroy- 
111 . 
One having made a homestead entry of 
public lands, mav make a valid mortgage on 
the same after receiving his final certificate 
and before obtaining a patent therefor.— 
Lewis vs. Wetbercll—Minn. 
Where one enters upon the lot or land of 
another and lays water-pipe without tho con¬ 
sent of the owner, the measure of damages is 
the actual damage sustained.—Graesele vs. 
Carpenter—Ta. 
L.M •§., Jefferson , Ohio— Under what cir¬ 
cumstances is a farmer liable for damages for 
injury done by his hired help? 
A NS. —A farmer is liable fm* such injuries 
when they have been caused through negli¬ 
gence, fraud, deceit or even wilful miscon¬ 
duct; but, only if done within the scope of the 
hired baud’s proper employment. Iti makes 
no difference if the farmer did not authorize 
or even know of the act or neglect. Even if 
in the commission of the act which caused the 
injury the hired man had wilfully disobeyed 
the farmer’s ordprs; still if the act was done 
in the course of bis regular employment, the 
farmer is responsible. The farmer, however, 
is not responsible for any act or omission of 
his hired man which is not connected with the 
work for which he was eugaged, and does not 
happen in course of his employment. In all 
cases the hired baud must reimburse the farm¬ 
er when a third person has brought an action 
and recovered damages against the farmer for 
injuries sustained owing to the hired man’s 
negligence or misconduct in doiug the work 
set him or executing the orders given. The 
amount for which the mau is liable is the judg¬ 
ment which the farmer has had to satisfy, to¬ 
gether with costs and such reasonable lawyer’s 
fees as he may have paid or become responsi¬ 
ble for. 
1\. if., Grafton, Neb —A gives a chattel 
mortgage to B on a thrasher, and B duly filed 
the mortgage in the couuty where A resides. 
Later A moved with the thrasher to another 
county. Does the record of the mortgage still 
hold good ! 
Ans.—Y es. The proper filing of the mort¬ 
gage is sufficient notice in any county to which 
A may go. 
jRiscfiUiu'cnis. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Report of the Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture. —The report for 1886, just at hand, 
is in many respects, the best of the series. 
There is an immense amount of information 
packed iuto this volume. We believe that, the 
farmer is not truo to his calling who would 
not study it. Write to your Congressman aud 
tell him you want this report. We have al¬ 
ready given extracts from the reports of the 
chemist and entomologist, but we could not 
give one-tenth of the items of value without 
devoting tho entire paper to the task. The 
report of t he Forestry Division.of the Pomolo- 
gist aud Botauist are very interesting. Dr. 
Merriaui’s report on the English sparrow con¬ 
tains the answers to the questions to which we 
called attention last year. A few of the facts 
stated concerning this little pest will be of 
THE RURAL REW-YCRKER IFF 
interest. The first importation was made in 
1850 when eight pairs were brought, to Brook¬ 
lyn, N. Y. In 1852 a larger colony was im¬ 
ported. For years the birds were protected 
and provided with food. The foolish kind¬ 
ness of those who first brought the Dest here 
has well-nigh inflicted a curse upon American 
agriculture. It is estimated that if all lived, 
the progeny of n single pair of sparrows would 
in 10 years amount to 275,716.983,098. The 
sparrows first invade the larger cities, then 
the smaller towns and cities, then the villages 
aud hamlets, and finally 'he populous farming 
districts. The sparrow is now found in every 
State east of the Mississippi and in portions of 
Kansas Nebraska and California. From 1870 
to 1875 they spread over 500 square miles; 
from 1875 to 1880. over 15 040 miles; from 1880 
to 1885 over 500,7(50 square miles and in 1886 
over 510 500 square miles. It appears thatthe 
niartm is the only barn bird that has been able 
to hold its own against the sparrow and in 
many instances martins have been driveu 
a«ay or killed outright by the fierce sparrows. 
Robins, yellow birds and o'hers suffer seriously 
from the attacks of the sparrows. The pest is 
the enemy of the gardener and fruit grower. 
He attacks growing vegetables aud picks 
fruit out of mere wantoness. He destroys 
grapes and grain. As an insect destroyer he 
is a miserable failure. He kills very few him¬ 
self and drives off other birds that would kill 
them Dr. Merriam recommeuds legislation 
that shall legalize the killing of the English 
sparrow or even place a price upon his head. 
The public are entreated to join in the work of 
destroying the pest on all occasions. 
James M. Thorburx & Co., No. 15 John 
St., N. Y.—A first-rate list of bulbs and other 
flowering roots suitable for beds or forcing, 
with cultural directions. Send for it, you 
who care for hyacinths, tulips, lilies and the 
like. Now is the time to plant them. 
Hiram Sibley & Co., Rochester, N. Y.— 
A list of fall and winter flowering bulbs and 
plants comprising all the choicest leading va¬ 
rieties. 
(Ihimjwljcre. 
A TRIP THROUGH MICHIGAN AND 
WISCONSIN. 
Bains ancl their effects; severe winters injure 
apple trees ; marshlands for cranberries; 
rockui formations; corn a fair crop. 
Western Michigan was favored with a 
shower during the night of August lUth—the 
firet effective one since the early part of July. 
It, however, can suffice only for temporary 
relief, since it was by uo means copious. Tsvo 
days later, in visiting Wisconsin, although 
the rain of the 16th had also reached there, 
a similar condition of affairs was found to 
exist. Corn seemed to have suffered some¬ 
what less than in Michigan, generally, so far 
as we observed, giving promise of a fair yield. 
A few plats of tobacco, although, apparently, 
not as far advanced as usual at this season, 
were doing very well. The crop of fruit, es¬ 
pecially along the easterly slope toward Lake 
Michigao, although a very moderate one, is 
better than farther inland, except the crabs, 
which are almost universally bearing pro¬ 
fusely where we have been able to observe 
them. This is especially true of Trauseeudent, 
which is almost without exception fruiting 
heavily. The severe drought, however, seems 
sure seriously to injure the crop as a whole, 
since the specimens are likely to be much below 
the usual size. 
Recent severe winters must doubtless also 
be held responsible for the fact that, almost 
universally, so far as we have observed, the 
apple trees are either dead or very seriou-ly 
injured. Tnis is especially the case after we 
pass beyond the more immediate influence of 
Lake Michigan; althougheveu elsewhere some 
of the hardier varieties, and especially many 
of those of Russian origin, yet appear sound 
and healthy, except for the blighting of the 
branches of many varieties—a malady to 
which mauy of them a.e here subject, equally 
as iu the case of native varieties. Mr. A. G. 
Tuttle, of Baraboo. was an early experimenter 
with these, having commenced even before 
the visit of Messrs. Budd aud Gibb to Eastern 
Russia. 
Some four of the interior counties of the 
State are alleged to contain not less than 50.- 
000 acres of marsh lands admirably adapted 
to the production of cranberries, which are 
found growing iu a wild state iu mauy of 
them. The cultivation of this fruit here is 
already an important business, iu which a 
very considerable amount of capital is in¬ 
vested. We visited and looked over oue of 
these, embracing 1,000 acres, upon which 
nearly or quite £30,0o0 are said to have been 
expeuded. This marsh is being improved by 
J commencing at the most elevated point and 
raising dams across the slope, at no great dis¬ 
tance from each other, by digging a ditch and 
throwing up the earth upon the lower 
side, each having a sluice, with a gate, 
to retain or discharge the water 
at pleasure. The ground occupied by the 
water thus held becomes a reservoir from 
which the water is supplied to the lower lands, 
when needed to prevent injury either from 
frost or drought. It is found that saturating 
the ground, during a single season, by thus 
retaining the water upon it, suffices to kill the 
brush aud other woody growths: so that the 
ground is in proper condition for the sponta¬ 
neous growth of the cranberry plant, from the 
stock already existing, thus avoiding the ne 
cessity of clearing and planting the ground 
Under this treatment nearly one-half the 1,000 
acres has already become well stocked with 
plants, which are bearing a very large crop of 
fruit, now nearly ready to be gathered. 
In journeying by rail thence to St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, some very poor land is passed, 
covered with scruh oak and dwarf pine. At 
Devil’s Lake, south of Baraboo, a ledge of rock 
occurs, nearly or quite 600 feet above tbe 
level of the lake, in some places nearly perpen¬ 
dicular; at others the ledges are broken into 
angular fragments piled up nearly as steep as 
they will naturally lie. Perhaps 100 miles 
farther toward the northwest we noticed a 
similar formation occupying the top of a 
ridge of very considerable bight, and stand¬ 
ing in perpendicular, isolated walls and col¬ 
umns. apparently 40 or 50 feet in bight above 
the ridge. Interspersed with these formations 
are much larger quantities of apparently ex¬ 
cellent land, much of it occupied by well im¬ 
proved farms. Oh very many of these were 
large crops of grain, probably wheat and 
oa's, still standing in the shock, some of it ap¬ 
parently already discolored from exposure to 
the weather, apparently left in this condition 
to await the advent of the thrashing machine. 
he coru crop is large and apparently well 
eared, and, so far as we were able to discover 
from a passing railroad tram, it seemed to 
have suffered very little from drought. 
t. t. LYON. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Dakota. 
Aberdeen, Brown Co , Aug. 14.—The 
squash and sweet corn sent out in the 
Rural New-Yorker’s free seed distribution 
this spring are tbe earliest I have seen out 
here. The squash is ripening and the coru is 
nearly ripe. 
Doland, Spink Co., Aug. 17.—Last year 
the Jim River Valley suffered from drought 
aud hot winds. This year the trouble is too 
much wet weather. For the last two weeks 
there has been so much rain as to seriously 
interfere with harvesting, for two or three 
days are lost during the week on account of 
rain. The heavy rains, however, are not lost 
bv running awayio freshets, but are absorbed 
by the ground, and uo doubt will be stored for 
next year’s crops. Delays in harvesting will 
result in some loss to the farmer, as wheat is 
shelling one to five bushels per acre. No 
thrashing has been done here yet, so that ex¬ 
act figures cannot be given as to yield. All 
crops are doing well. Wheat, oats and flax 
have the same areas as last vear, and will be 
full crops Corn increased area and above an 
average. All root crops are excellent. All gar¬ 
den vegetables are abundant and luxurious. 
Hay is above the average, aud thousands of 
acres for pasture are idle, not bemg used be¬ 
cause we haven’t the stock to put on them 
This is evidently a fine stock country; pas¬ 
tures from March 1 to December l, and mauy 
days between December 1 and March 1 can be 
be used to pasture. We could accommodate 
with pasture and feed many herds in the 
drought districts of Illinois, Iowa and W is- 
consin. J. w. r, 
R. N.-Y. —This would bean excellent time 
to buy stock at low figures. Owing to the 
great depression of the live-stock business ou 
the l anges and in Texas, aud the scarcity of 
feed on the Western farms, cat tle of all kinds, 
except the best beef animals, are now unpre¬ 
cedentedly low. Even fair pure-bred stock 
can be obtained at figures which good grades 
ordinarily sell for. The present condition 
can only be temporary, aud where feed is 
abundant as in our correspondent's section, 
few better investments could be made than in 
cattle. Next year prices are sure to be high¬ 
er, aud still higher the year after. 
Illinois. 
Champaign, Champaign Co., Aug. 20. 
—The sharp edge of our drought has been 
taken off by three or four good rains, the first 
coming on the 11th and the last ou the 17ih, 
affording in all, three inches of precipi¬ 
tation. This has started tho grass, washed 
the accumulated dirt from the trees, laid the 
dust in the roaus, stopped the prairie aud 
railroad side fires, and given material to make 
dews out of, so that stock short of water i 
somewhat better off. But tbe shallow wells 
have not been affected for the better, except 
bv the increased secretion due to a low 
barometer, and if another hot term comes, the 
lack of water will be as distressing as before. 
The couflict of opinion as to tbe outcome of 
the corn crop is as great as I remember to 
have seen it on a similar subject, Some say 
half a crop and even more; while there are 
those as well informed and as unprejudiced 
who say it will not be over a fourth or a third, 
of the common average. At anv rate, it is 
almost impossible to huv corn, where old corn 
is stored in large quantities, even if a cent or 
two more than Chicago figures are offered. 
Our fruit crop is nearly nothing and our 
vegetable crop hardly more and this is true 
for seven-eighths of ihe 35 000 square miles of 
Illinois. 1 write this portly for tbe benefit of 
the readers of the Rural, who live where the 
fruit and vegetable crops are good that they 
mav know how large a demand and how wide 
a market is now open for apples, potatoes and 
indeed fruits and vege*ables of all kinds. At 
present, ripe, sound Irish pnlatoes are in de¬ 
mand at $1 25 and -SI 40 per bushel and apples, 
at 75 cents and £1,00. for inferior goods and 
every thing else in proportion We hear of 
good crons of potatoes in far Dakota and 
hither Nebraska and some apples m Missouri 
aDd lower Illinois: but there is not enough of 
either iu sight, to allow' us to count on laying 
up winter stocks of the tuber under 75 cents, 
nor keeping apples for less than double these 
figures. I was interested in a letter from 
Canon Citv, Colorado, in a late issue of the 
Rural The place is a very interesting one 
and is likely to be beard from pretty fre¬ 
quently and perhaps loudly, one of these days. 
The city lies close under the mountains, which 
tower above it from two to three thousand 
feet, while & broad plain stretches east and 
south. Through a gorge, called the Canon of 
the Arkansas, the river comes down with a rush 
and a roar, affording tbe first large opportun¬ 
ity for irrigation on that stream. A11 crops 
are grown by irrigation, but not a tenth of the 
water supply is used in that way. When it 
is—and there is land enough or nearly enough 
to absorb it—the lower Arkansas will go dry 
in middle and after summer as the South Fork 
of the Platte does from Denver ami above, all 
the way down to where tbe North Fork joms. 
Thus when the plains around are all irrigated 
and cropped, Canon City is sure to be heard 
from as something more than a truck patch 
to supply the mountain markets. Though, as 
the Rural writer says 5,000 feet above the sea 
level, I w T as told European grapes were suc¬ 
cessfully grown in the open air, and about this 
date in 1886, I saw Sweet waters, Chasselas, 
Frontignaus aud others loaded with fine fruit 
approaching maturity It is needless to say 
that these and all other grapes and small 
fruits require to be taken down and covered 
with earth during the winter season, partly 
to avoid warm days, sure to come in Febru¬ 
ary or March, and be succeeded by severe 
frosty weather.and partly to protect them from 
the late spriug frosts your correspondent speaks 
of. And by the way, soft coal is mined in the 
city, less than 100 feet down, within half a 
mile of the towering red and gray granite 
cliffs of the mountains, a fact very clearly 
showing the abruptness of the upheaval. 
B. F. j. 
Pleasant Valley,- Jo. Daviess Co., Aug. 
18.—The present season has been the hottest 
and driest in this part of the West ever 
known to the whites, the mercury standing 
at 100 degrees or over in the shade for a week 
at a time. But the climax was reached on 
Aug 10, and that night we had the heaviest 
rainfall in the past 15 months. Weather 
since very cool and pleasant. Before the 
rain all the large streams in this township 
had ceased ^running Hay is very scarce aud 
dear. Several of the farmers here go 20 
miles or so to the river bottoms along the 
Mississippi aud buy coarse slew hay at from 
£5 to £10 per ton. The rain helped the pas¬ 
tures wonderfully, but we need more. w. s. 
Michigan. 
Gaylord, Otsego Co. Aug. 21.—We had 
splendid rains here at intervals during the 
month of Juue and the hay crop is abundant, 
yielding from one to two tons per acre, which 
is secured in good condition. Oats are yield¬ 
ing from 35 to 50 bushels per acre Wheat 
from 15 to 20. Barley and grass are 
above an average. Coru not extensively 
grown, but what there is, is looking well. The 
general drought, however, lias at last reached 
us and is affecting the pastures and potatoes. 
The early potatoes will uot amount to much, 
but with a good rain daring the latter part 
of this mouth, w<« expect a good average 
yield of the later varieties. This will make a 
good farming couuty and it is rapidly set¬ 
tling up. Most of the county is heavily tim¬ 
bered with maple, beech, elm ami basswood, 
and the soil for the most pare is a rich sand, 
gravelly and clay loam. There are also pine 
lands in some parts of the county where a 
