1 889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKek. 
659 
tion that will not set the pernicious exam 
pie of voting some men’s earnings into 
other men’s pockets on a pretense of “ pro¬ 
tecting industries;” when the real object 
is to protect individual or corporate greed, 
and which will treat all combinations to 
control production and prices as conspir¬ 
acies against the public weal to be roughly 
handled without mittens. All interference 
with the free, easy and natural operation 
of supply and demand, save for purposes of 
raising public revenue, whether by combin¬ 
ations inside or outside of congressional 
halls, start because somebody scents some¬ 
thing to be made out of them, not for, but 
from the great producing crowd in which 
the farmers have most prominence. 
Prattsburgh, N. Y. 
FROM A. L. CROSBY. 
1. Yes. 
2. It, and the discriminations of the rail¬ 
roads have made the raising and fattening 
of beef cattle in this section a very uncer¬ 
tain business. If the railroads favor the 
live meat interests in the fall, farmers will 
buy cattle to feed during the winter ex¬ 
pecting to get fair prices in the spring; but 
when spring comes the railroads may have 
changed their rates in favor of the dead 
meat trade, and farmers will get low and 
ruinous prices for their cattle. But, apart 
from the action of the railroads, the im¬ 
mense quantity of dead meat shipped here 
has injuriously affected the beef interests 
of farmers. 
3. Yes; many of them sell nothing but 
Chicago dressed beef. 
4. A great disadvantage, as, though the 
farmer may buy his fresh beef cheaper— 
and this is not a very large item in most 
farmers’ accounts—he can make little or no 
profit in feeding his crops to beef cattle. 
5. Break up the trusts. “How can that 
be done ?” By farmers’ votes. “When ?” 
As soon as the farmer will learn to vote 
for principles, not parties; when he will 
ask, not whether the candidate for office is 
a member of his party, but whether he is 
honest and whether he will use his influ¬ 
ence to euact. laws that will give the farmer 
as good a chance as any other citizen to 
make a fair profit on his labor. 
“Will that time ever come ?” It surely 
will, but things must get to their worst, 
they haven’t touched bottom yet. 
Catonsville. Md. 
FROM A. G. 8TURTEVANT. 
In this section neither the local butchers 
nor the stock growers as yet have felt any 
bad results from the Chicago dressed beef 
trade, owing to the universal prejudice of 
the people against it. The sale of it has 
been tried and discontinued. In the city of 
Wilmington it is sold to some extent. 
What effect, it may have locally I cannot 
say. If a State has the interest of its farm¬ 
ing public at heart as all candidates for 
offices would have us believe, it can easily 
protect its farmers by passing a law that 
all beef should be inspected on foot within 
the tate before killing. This would be ef¬ 
fective. 
Dover, Del. 
R- N.-Y.—It is rather doubtful whether 
such a law would be constitutional. In 
States in which such laws have been passed, 
whenever their constitutionality has come 
before the courts the decision has always 
been adverse. 
FROM C. M. LUSK. 
Broome County does not raise very many 
cattle for beef. It is principally a dairy sec¬ 
tion and turns off only dry cows and work¬ 
ing oxen when fat. The trade in Chicago 
dressed beef has made itself felt among us, 
as we are unable to sell our beef stock, 
there being no buyers. Up to two or three 
years ago, the butchers from the city of 
Binghamton came out in the count ry to buy 
beeves to supply their markets, and coun¬ 
try butchers also bought homo cattle. 
Now, almost all buy Chicago dressed beef, 
and we have no market for our fat cattle. 
It has made a great difference with the 
business of local butchers. As they buy 
Western dressed beef, we have no sale for 
our fat cattle. We used to supply them 
entirely. The change is a disadvantage to 
the farmers and cannot be otherwise. The 
number of slaughter-houses in Broome 
County is very limited, whereas two or 
three years ago almost every market had 
its slaughter-house, and men out buying. 
The butchers claim that they can buy in 
just such quantities as they desire, from a 
side upwards, and can have it every day 
without the anxiety of looking after it, and 
that the beef is of a better and more even 
grade, and that their customers prefer it at 
an advance over the price of home-raised 
beef. This being the case, I can suggest no 
remedy. If it be a fact that the meat is 
superior and that people prefer it to home 
beef, I cannot see how the trade can be 
stopped. I live 20 miles from the city of 
Binghamton. Years ago men were here 
from Binghamton, Philadelphia and other 
places to buy our fat cattle, and for the last 
three or four years there has been a con¬ 
tinual falling off of buyers; now a buyer of 
fat cattle is a curiosity. In all probability 
they can buy Western cattle and Western 
beef to a better advantage. It is hard on 
us to compete with the Great West in beef, 
pork, butter and grain, as it has an ad¬ 
vantage over us in the cost of production, 
and it costs me as much to get a tub of 
butter or anything else to the city of New 
York as it costs men to get their produce 
there from Buffalo, and the freight is nearly 
as much as that from Chicago. Therefore 
I can “ suggest no means to regulate the 
matter.” 
Broome Couuty, N. Y. 
FROM SIMON EMERICK. 
The Chicago dressed t>eef trade has 
made itself felt in this section. The change 
is manifested by lower prices of beef to the 
consumer and consequently lower prices 
for live cattle. It has affected the raising 
and fattening of beef cattle in this way: 
whereas the business formerly paid a small 
profit, now it would not pay expenses. 
This can be said especially of stall-feeding 
and preparing cattle for the spring market, 
consequently this industry has been almost 
entirely abandoned in this part of the coun¬ 
try. Only a few local butchers have retired 
from the business even inthecity of Dayton, 
where there is an estimated population of 
60,000. Some of them buy the dressed beef, 
while the far greater number purchase their 
supplies on foot as formerly, but, as I have 
intimated, at lower prices. Of course the 
effect proves detrimental to the farmer’s in¬ 
terest, and to this extent it cuts off a de¬ 
mand for one of the products of the farm 
and with it one of the sources of the supply 
of stable manure. 
It would, obviously be a difficult matter 
to suggest any means by which this out¬ 
growth of steam transportation by rail can 
be fairly regulated in the interest of the 
farmer. Whatever may be said of the 
merits or demerits of protection to home 
industries, the principle cannot be applied in 
this case, as the people of the United States 
occupy one common country, and therefore 
should enjoy equal privileges and facilities 
in interstate commerce trade. Dakota 
wheat has certainly proved detrimental to 
the farmer’s interest here in Ohio; yet it 
would be absurd even to talk about pre¬ 
venting its introduction here. If dressed 
beef can be shipped from Chicago to Liver¬ 
pool, England, in prime condition for hu¬ 
man food, it assuredly can be shipped from 
Chicago into Ohio in as good order,and there¬ 
fore would be a legitimate article of com¬ 
merce. Of course, our legislature has the 
power and the undoubted right to prevent 
the sale of adulterated and unwholesome 
food in our State; but the exercise of this 
power would not necessarily exclude Chica¬ 
go dressed beef. However much we may in¬ 
veigh against the monopolistic character of 
the St. Louis and Chicago capitalists who 
have rendered the cattle industry so un¬ 
profitable to the farmers of Ohio and other 
States, still the fact remains that they 
have cheapened the price of beef to the con¬ 
sumers. This latter class are more numer¬ 
ous than the farmers, and they naturally 
point to the results as the effect of legiti¬ 
mate competition. We are evidently passing 
through a transition period iu American 
agriculture—a period of over-production, 
and consequent low prices for the staple 
products of the farm; and one of the most 
perplexing questions that confronts the 
farmer to-day is, how long will this period 
continue. I am fully convinced that an 
end will come, for there has never yet been 
a permanent over-supply of the products of 
the soil. 
Alexandersville, Ohio. 
FROM F. P. ROOT. 
1. It has in a large degree, and has near¬ 
ly destroyed the beef-fattening interest of 
Western New York. The early interests 
of agriculture in this section of the State 
depended chiefly on grain growing; other 
branches of farming, such as dairying, 
stock-raising, vegetable and fruit-growing, 
received only incidental attention; but this 
specialty of grain-growing had the same 
effect upon our lands that has been experi¬ 
enced in all countries when special cropping 
has been followed—that of exhaustion of 
fertility and failure of crops. 
To restore the wasted fertility of our 
soils we were obliged to resort to mixed 
husbandry involving several interests aside 
from the exhaustive business of grain grow¬ 
ing, and one of the most profitable branches 
pursued, leading to the enriching of the 
soil, was that of beef-making. The fatten¬ 
ing cattle consumed on the farm all the 
coarse grain, hay, straw, etc., and much pur¬ 
chased feed was also brought on the farm to 
be consumed there, making a large amount 
of manure of the richest quality to be ap¬ 
plied to the land, and at the same time af¬ 
fording a fair profit in the sale of beef cat¬ 
tle, which the local markets were always 
ready to take at paying prices. A few years 
ago our local butchers began to deal in 
Western dressed meat, and the prices of 
home-grown beef began to decline. At the 
same time the local retail trade has been 
but little reduced—nothing in comparison 
to the decline in the prices of live stock, 
which have fallen off about 30 to 40 per cent, 
from those current five or six years ago. 
The present range of prices has destroyed 
the beef-making business; for our farmers 
cannot bear the sacrifice which the prevail¬ 
ing prices involve. 
2. A reduction of at least 50 per cent, 
during the past year, and during the com¬ 
ing winter few or no beeves will be fatten¬ 
ed as in former years. One farmer near me, 
who has in past years stall-fed from 50 to 
100 steers each succeeding winter, now feeds 
none. Others have also discontinued the 
business. 
3. Certainly; local markets are largely sup¬ 
plied by Chicago dressed beef. It deprives 
the farmer of one of the chief sources of 
enriching his farm by the manufacture of 
manures which otherwise are not available, 
and without which our farms must depreci¬ 
ate in productiveness and value. The ag¬ 
riculture of England has doubled in value 
during the past 60 years, mainly through 
their system of beef fattening, which has 
furnished manures for enriching the land, 
and our agriculture has been greatly im¬ 
proved through the same source during the 
past decade, and would continue to im¬ 
prove under a system of stock feeding, but 
this can be done now only at a great disad¬ 
vantage. It is not easy to suggest any 
means by which our present condition can 
be relieved. We are hedged in on every side 
by a relentless monopoly which in every 
case “takes all the traffic will bear,” and 
there seems only a chance for the “survival 
of the fittest.” The Chicago butchers are 
controlling the beef markets of this country 
and of Europe, and in order to be able to 
undersell others in dressed beef they have 
monopolized the cattle trade of the West 
and so reduced the price of beef as to des¬ 
troy production at the East, and while the 
Western plains shall supply their wants, 
I can see no remedy short of such legisla¬ 
tion as will make monopoly and control of 
prices of food a crime, or until our farmers 
are so organized as to follow the example 
of the laboring class—order a strike and 
lay by until reasonable prices are granted. 
It is claimed that it makes no difference 
whet her the Western beef cattle are sent 
East on foot, or whether they are butch¬ 
ered in Chicago and sent through as 
dressed beef; the supply is the same in 
either case. This is an error in its applica¬ 
tion to markets. When fat cattle were sent 
forward by the drover he had regard for 
the Eastern market so that it was not over¬ 
supplied, and then there was a reasonable 
competition between dealers: but when the 
Chicago butchers came to control both 
ends of the market, buying and selling at 
their own figures, the only result is to de¬ 
press markets, and take from the producers 
“all the traffic will bear.” 
Monroe County, N. Y. 
FROM J. E. SHEPARD. 
Chicago dressed beef has completely 
revolutionized the raising of beef stock 
as a business hereabouts. Beef is now 
only a secondary object. Steers and 
oxen are worked and then fattened; cows 
and heifers take their turn in the dairy and 
then go for what they will bring. 
Dairying, horse-raising and other branches 
of farming are now occupying the time and 
attention of the once successful beef pro¬ 
ducer. To prove that the result has not been 
for the bad, in this State, there is a largely 
increased valuation of live-stock which in¬ 
dicates that beef raising was not the best 
paying business for New Hampshire farm¬ 
ers. Western beef has made our local 
butchers independent of any beef produced 
in this region, a fact they are not slow to 
take advantage of. They can go to the re¬ 
frigerator and buy a whole carcass, a side, 
a quarter or any cut they wish, and 
they prefer so to do rather than to 
kill for themselves. As a result the 
farmer with fat cattle must sell at a 
price lower than the Chicago beef. To get 
a price equal to that for Western beef, the 
stock must be extra choice. The farmer 
must sell for what the buyer will give or 
keep the animals. The ready dressed beef 
has induced a lively competition among the 
retailers and the effect is lower prices to 
the consumers. This has resulted indirect 
ly as a benefit to our farmers, who have of 
necessity given up beef raising and gone 
into other branches of farming. The bus¬ 
iness ability of our farmers is increasing 
with the change; for statistics show that 
the value of live stock has greatly increased 
in the last few years in our State. The law 
of supply and demand, aided by a law re¬ 
quiring the rigid inspection of all live 
animals before slaughter and of all dressed 
meat where received at distributing points, 
seems to me the only fair means of regulat¬ 
ing this traffic. 
West Concord, N. H. 
FACTS FROM FARMERS. 
Sprayed Fruit Trees.— That great ad¬ 
vantage is derived from spraying fruit trees 
with London-purple is no longer a question 
but an established fact, which is proved by 
the testimony of all the leading agricultur¬ 
ists and entomologists not only in this coun¬ 
try, but through the whole civilized world. 
Some of the more intelligent among fruit 
growers have not been slow to take advan¬ 
tage of the benefits it yields; but there are 
still millions who, either from carelessness 
or a natural tendency to disbelieve in any¬ 
thing new till its virtues have been thor¬ 
oughly tested by their neighbors, have as 
yet not tried it, thus letting some competi¬ 
tors get ahead of them in their own particu¬ 
lar profession. For years the agricultural 
press has been a warm advocate of this op¬ 
eration. By destroying insect pests the life 
of the tree is often prolonged in full vigor 
thus enabling it to feed its fruits and bring 
them to perfection. The fruits from sprayed 
trees are not only more sightly (an impor¬ 
tant, if not the chief point in a marketing 
sense), but they are much larger and more 
numerous. Any expense for necessary out¬ 
fit, would be repaid the first season ten 
times over by the increase in value and 
quantity of the fruit. Spraying is not only 
an absolute necessity to the professional 
fruit grower, but the small producer or 
farmer whose few trees are expected to sup 
ply only his own household, and who in 
many cases, from neglect, fails to obtain 
fruit fit for anybody but the hogs, would 
be benefited in pocket as well as by making 
his now unsightly, leafless trees a pleasure 
to the eye and more in accordance with the 
rest of his well cultivated farm. h. e. b. 
Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 
The best way I have ever found to kill 
Liveforever is to dig a hole about four or 
five feet in diameter and five or six feet 
deep (the deeper the better) to put it in; 
leave two feet on top. Then fill up with the 
soil thrown out. Be sure to dig it before 
plowing. I found a stalk of Liveforever in 
the hay last spring; I put it in a plant dish 
and it grew nicely. Such a hole is a splen¬ 
did place into which to throw weeds that 
are nearly ripe, broken glass and all waste 
from the kitchen. It will give an oppor¬ 
tunity for a clean back yard. Of course, in 
some soils it would be hard to dig such a 
hole w. h. D. 
Middlebury, Vermont. 
As the time for husking corn has ar¬ 
rived, I send the Rural my method of sav¬ 
ing corn husks for bed mattresses and ticks. 
Do not loosen the husks from the ear, but 
press it close to the base and break it off. 
The rough, coarse husks will be left on the 
stalk and all the fiuer sort on the ear. 
Throw the ears in a pile and when enough 
are broken off husk them, sort out the 
“silks,” and you will have a very superior 
article. l. h. 
Dansville, N. Y'. 
Ddinj ijitsbanlinj. 
DAIRY NOTES FROM A DAIRY 
RANCH. 
No. V. 
RAISING CALVES, TESTING COWS, AND HAND¬ 
LING BULLS. 
As 1 have better uses for my new milk 
than to raise calves upon it, all of my calves 
are hand-fed. If the mother is a young cow 
the calf is never allowed to suck, for if it 
does it will be all the harder to break the 
