FEB. %% 
Southern llorists, who make a specialty of rare 
and curious plants from that district, so that 
it would generally he difficult to obtain plauts 
from the North, except where specially or¬ 
dered. I am well aware that thiselussof plants, 
like the California Gymuogramnia triangu¬ 
laris, can he dried oui to apparent death, and ' 
still grow under favorable circiiuistuiices, and 
also that Ihe above Tillamlsia, when dried, is 
very ornamental for the deeoratiou of rooms; 
in fact, it is scarcely possible for a novice to 
distinguish between the dried plant of com¬ 
merce and Ihe living plant for ornament, hut the 
difference can he readily seen when if is placed 
under circumstances favorable for growth. 
Tito plant, naturally growing on trees, like 
Orchids in # Mic tropics and Moss in the North, 
does not require soil of any kind for its support, 
but as if grows most luxuriantly in dense 
swamps, it requires a moist atmosphere to se¬ 
cure the best success with it. As it is difficult 
to give this in rooms, the next best substitute 
is to ] ic.g if <>\ci baskets or pols of plants which 
require frequent watering, and it will then 
grow freely and add a I rush feature to the 
room. It will also grow freely on brandies of 
trees or blocks ol wood, suspended from the 
roof and occasionally dipped in water, and 
being a plant of much vitality, if it is neglected 
for a time, it soon recovers and recommences 
to grow. 
Middlesex Co., N. if. 
THE PENNSYLVANIA DAIKYMEN. 
Necessity of organized discussion of dairy mat¬ 
ters ; ' rash versus credit system of selling: 
disadvantage of lack of uniformity in dairy 
products; J’emisylvunia at the International 
Dairy Fair ; best forms of dairy buildings. 
Tee sixth Annual meeting of flic dairymen 
of this ,State was held ou the 5th and fitli ol 
this month at Meadvillc. This Association, 
although younger than those of several other 
States, Jius made rapid progress in organizing 
the dairy industry. Some of its leading meu 
have seen clearly the necessity of beginning 
reform at the foundation-among the dairy¬ 
men themselves. And to this end they initiat¬ 
ed a course ol lectures to be given in dairy dis¬ 
tricts, so that dairymen might get such in¬ 
struction us would unable them to reform their 
faulty practices in Ihe keeping and manage¬ 
ment of rows and the bundling of milk. They 
determined to make a si rung effort to hilug 
Pennsylvania up to the New York standard of 
dairy goods; and, at this meeting, they point¬ 
ed with gratification to Ihe honorable position 
secured by Ule Stale in the International Dairy 
Fair. It w as stated here that the course of 
lectures given by Prof. L. B. Arnold was heard 
by some 5,001) dairymen, and Unit it. bad 
awakened a high degree of interest, and was 
likely to result in much improvement in their 
practices. Yet llie members of the Meadvillc 
Board of Trade reported Unit the qualify of 
the dairy goods was so wanting in uniformity 
that they could not be purchased without a 
strict examination of each lot—that one lot 
might be of a very liue quality and the other 
very inferior. The President Of the Associa¬ 
tion, Mr. A. M. Puller, who has been most 
energetic in promoting its interests, gave a 
very clear opening address, in which his rec¬ 
ommendations w ere generally very sound —and 
especially in urging primary organizations of 
the factories, where the patrons may be 
brought together every month, and hold dis¬ 
cussions upon the proper management of their 
dairies. The patrons of a factory are all nat¬ 
urally interested in everything relating to the 
conduct anil management of the business, and, 
as a body, they should control the action of its 
individual members, as the delivery of bad 
milk at the factory from a single cow may 
fatally injure the make of a vat of milk. This 
is a most important and needed improvement 
in factory management—each factory should 
become a dairy school for the mutual educa¬ 
tion of the patrons. 
In reference to the* proper system of dispos¬ 
ing of dairy goods, Mr. Fuller was inclined to 
adhere to the present method of selling ou 
commission, staling that the selling for cash 
of all the dairy goods offered was “simply im¬ 
possible." He held that there was not money 
enough, at command, to buj' them. This 
question raised a lively discussion. Many of 
the factory-men present thought till cheese 
should be paid for in cash- Mr. Carpenter ex¬ 
pressed himself strongly against the credit 
system, lie charged it had brought disaster 
to large dairy districts, and thought that all 
sales ought to be brought to the test of cash, 
and if there is such over-production that it 
could not be sold except on credit, dairymen 
ought to know it. 
Prof. Stewart, on being called out, said he 
thought the credit system in selling dairy pro¬ 
ducts had resulted iu much loss; that the 
patrous of a factory iu the interior could know 
nothing of the responsibility of a merchant iu 
New York, ftud that dairy goods should be 
THE SURAL NEW-YORKER, 
sold the same as cattle, bogs and sheep ar 
sold by the farmer—for cash. The liog pro¬ 
ducts bought for exportation amounted to four 
times all the dairy products exported; the 
purchase of cattle required more money than 
the purchase of dairy products, and yet there 
was money enough to pay the farmer for both 
bug products and cattle on delivery. 1 le main¬ 
tained that there was really uo valid reason 
why dairy products should uot be paid for in 
the same way. lie urged that the present sys¬ 
tem was simply a scheme by which the dairy¬ 
men of the Country furnished capital for the 
New Y r ork butter and cheese merchants to do 
business on, 
Mr. Harris Lewis thought the New York 
commission merchants, as a class, were high- 
minded, honorable men, and thought that 
much less money had been lost by them than 
by those who purchased the goods, nominally 
for casli or 30 days, and tailed with large obli¬ 
gations. 
Prof. Arnold was opposed to the credit sys¬ 
tem and thought there was money enough to 
buy all the dairy goods the market required. 
8. A. Farrington, a local buyer, said the 
real difficulty was the want of uniformity in 
the goods, lie admitted that all known first- 
class goods would be taken for cash readily ; 
hut when the character of the goods was 
doubtful, they could not run the risk of buy¬ 
ing except ut very low figures He referred to 
Harry Burrill, of Little Kails, who had dealt m 
dairy goods for 40 years, and had always paid 
a hundred cents, hut was sometimes forced to 
ask indulgence for a few months. After a free 
expression of opinion, it was evident that the 
balance leaned towards cash sales and the 
breaking-up of the credit system. 
At the evening sessiou Hon, Harris Lewis 
gave a very Instructive address upon dairy 
stock and its management. Had there been a 
large attendance of the rank and file of Penn¬ 
sylvania dairymen, they might have listened to 
his suggestions with great profit. But, unfor¬ 
tunately, the audience was made up principal¬ 
ly of factory managers, who could only receive 
his suggestions uud carry them to their 
patrons. 
At the morning session of the second day 
Air. 8. A. Farrington read a critical paper 
upon the International Dairy Fair, to which 
he awarded due credit for its bringing together 
a most instructive illustration of the dairy re¬ 
sources of the country, and lie showed under 
wliat difficulties this Pennsylvania Association 
had contributed its share to the show. They 
had found the factories so unwilling to under¬ 
take the display of their goods at the Fair, 
that it became necessary to select a few cheeses 
from each of the best factories and purchase 
them for exhibition, and under such difficulties 
did the State come to its honors iu the Fair. 
After this paper, Prof. E. W. Stewart de¬ 
livered an address upon “ Dairy Buildings and 
their Management." lie said iu the future 
only skill could win ; that dairy products had 
now reaehd such a low point in price that only 
the host article could pay a profit ou cost of 
production. That it was now imperatively 
necessary Uiat the dairy man should uianuge 
his business in the most economical w ay—that 
he must suffer no wastes by exposing his cows 
in cold stables or, worse, to the open air, 
which would require the consumption of so 
much extra food and necessarily reduce tin* 
milk production. He showed how easily uud 
cheaply the dairyman could raise up his burn 
and place under it a tight concrete wall, mak¬ 
ing a warm basement for stabling his dairy 
slock, where the consumption of food to keep 
the animal warm would be reduced to a min¬ 
imum. He showed how important it is to 
avoid nervous excitement iu milch cows ; that 
they should be watered in the stable where they 
could not be molested. He gave an illustrative 
plan of the manner of wateriug in ibe stable, 
and llien slowed the economy of giving water 
at (HI degrees temperature, instead of from a 
trough in the open air at a temperature of 33 
to 34 degrees. He said that it required food to 
warm this water iu the stomach of the cow, 
which is all saved by wateriug cows in a warm 
stable. Ho dwelt at some length upon the 
cheapest and host form ef ham, whiel* he 
thought to ho cither square or octagonal. In 
such a structure the amount of lumber and 
labor would be much less Ilian iu a building of 
the ordinary form, and the octagonal form 
would he much more compact and convenient, 
requiring no interior posts or beams, which 
obstruct labor. He also described his mode of 
tying, which is simple uud cheap, giving the 
euw great freedom, and ill the same Lime hold- 
iug her iu the center of her place, so that site 
cannot annoy her neighbors. His self-cleans¬ 
ing stable or platform, on which cows keep 
perfectly clean, saving all the labor of clean¬ 
ing the stable, exeited much interest. 
Frof. L. B. Arnold read a report ou butter 
exhibited at this Convention, and the points 
he made called out many questions, which he 
answered iu a very clear and familiar way. 
He urged more atteution to the proper wash¬ 
ing of butter with briue uud propel- packing. 
He thought suspension in brine the best me¬ 
thod of packing butter when it is to t>« kept 
for any length of time. He said when proper¬ 
ly made and packed in hermetically sealed 
cans, it will keep as long as canned fruits. 
The officers of this Association for the ensu¬ 
ing year are: .1. H. Lenheart, of Meadvillc, 
President; J. M. Bigger. Cambridgoboro, Cor. 
Secretary; A. M. Fuller, S. A. Far ring tou, S. 
II. Findley, Executive Committee. 
This is truly a lively Association and des¬ 
tined to revolutionize the dairy productions of 
Pennsylvania. s. e. w. 
—-♦ ♦ »- 
POISONOUS CHEESE. 
T. u. nos KINS, M. I>. 
It is a well-known fact, not unfrequently 
brought to public notice in the newspapers, 
that occasionally a cheese is found which pos¬ 
sesses poisonous properties. Kecord is made 
of very suvure and occasionally fatal cases, 
where, the symptoms could Ire attributed to no 
other cause than the eating of cheese,—where, 
indeed, every individual partaking thereof was 
more or less affected. Some five years ago 
almost the entire Legislature of the State of 
Vermont, on the occasion of au entertainment 
offered to its members at adjournment, were 
thus made sick, and, albeit some sport was 
made of it at the time, it was by no means a 
laughing matter, though all who were affected 
by tlic poisonous cheese, recovered. 
The symptoms ol Ibis cheeso-poUouing are : 
nausea, followed by violent and protracted 
vomiting; pain in Ihe bowels ; strong purga¬ 
tive action and great prostration, with fever. 
When the patient recovers there remains for 
some time a tenderness and soreness of the 
bowels, indicating continued inflammation. 
Tiie attack, to the inexperienced eye, very 
closely resembles one of cholera morbus; while 
to the physician if bears some of the marks of 
arsenical poisoning. These facts have very 
Tiiuch misled the public, so that in Mm one case 
the idea has prevailed that no real poisoning 
occurred, but that the symptoms simply indi¬ 
cated the over-eating of indigestible food, or 
the indulgence iu unaccustomed beverages; 
while, on the other, the attending physician 
has been led to suspect carelessness in the use 
of Paris-green, or in the application of arseni¬ 
cal fly-poison to the outside of the cheese. 
My attention, both as a farmer ami as a phy¬ 
sician, has I icon repeatedly called incases of this 
kind, and 1 am fortunate now in being able to 
lay before the readers ol the UukaL the account 
of a case ia which the circumstances give a 
very satisfactory clue to the real nature of the 
poison of cheese. 
Air. Edsou Tracy of Brownington, Orleans 
Co., YT., is one of the best dairymen of his 
locality. This is attested by the fact not only 
that he lias had a large experience as a cheese- 
maker, extending over a period of twenty 
years, but that cheese of his make is iu great 
demand by private families for home use, and 
lias repeatedly received the highest award 
when exhibited at the County Pair, where the 
committee is composed of skilled buyers ol 
dairy products. On the third day of July. 1877, 
Mr. Tracy began to make cheese, and continued 
the manufacture for forty days, making twenty 
single and ten double cheeses. AVheu these 
cheeses were suitably cured for market—about 
the 351 h of Sept.-—they were sold, and out of 
the number five of the twenty single cheeses 
were found to be poisonous. The symptoms 
produced were those usually noted, and the 
severity of the aLtaeks varied, in some instances 
being so severe that fatal results seemed immi¬ 
nent; but, fortunately, all those affected final¬ 
ly recovered. 
By reference to Mr. Tracy’s day-book it was 
shown that all these five cheeses were made in 
one week. The same record shows that the 
next week one Of the cows of Mr. Tracy’s herd 
began to give bloody milk, and that this milk 
was not afterwards used. This was on the 16th 
of July. The cow became very sick, and was 
near losing her bag, which, alter swelling to 
the size of a six-quart pail, broke, with a pro¬ 
fuse discharge, after which the animal slowly 
recovered. This abscess Mr. Tracy atlributes 
to an external injury to the cow’s bag. Kerry 
cheese mads? from milk of which Uud from this 
cow constituted a fifteenth part —there being 
that number of COWS in the herd—/or Jive days 
Is fore the milk itself gave evidence of anything 
wrong, was a poisonous cheese. 
Now, a pathologist knows that, iu all prob¬ 
ability, before blood appeared in that milk, 
warning Mr. Tracy of its unfitness (or use, and 
that something ailed the cow, pas hud existed, 
and had passed from the diseased gland into 
the milk ducts, and thence to the pail and 
the cheese vat. In this pus the microscope 
would undoubtedly have revealed organic 
genus capable of multiplication to au in¬ 
definite exteuL. The milk in cheese-making, 
ie not subjected to a lieut exceeding 130 de¬ 
grees, and consequently these germs are uot 
destroyed. On the contrary, they are placed 
In conditions eminently favorable to their 
growth aud multiplication, so that we cannot 
doubt that each cheese made from this milk, 
became intensely charged with them, produc¬ 
ing a mass of substance similar in nature to 
that putrescent animal matter upon the action, 
of which in the blood, is dependent that class 
of so-called zymotic diseases of which typhoid 
fever ami diphtheria are examples. I say 
“ similar," because as yet we liave no certainty 
that these, poisonous germs are the same, no 
matter wliat form the disease produced by 
them may assume; neither are we sure that 
they are different. We only know that when 
they are taken into the body in sufficient quan¬ 
tity, and under ordinary circumstances, beri- 
ous disease follows. We have had a striking 
illustration ol this in the severe epidemic oc¬ 
curring, the. past summer, iu llie town oi’ Rich- 
ford, Franklin County, Vermont, among those 
using water from a public well in Ihe village 
street, info which sewer water obtained access, 
occasioning the death or many individuals. 
It is somelhiug to know whence comes the 
poison of poisonous cheese. The history of 
the case I have given, shows that it conies from 
disease-germs in the milk itself, originating 
from suppurative inflammation in the milk- 
producing organ—the cow’s udder. The les¬ 
son to cheese-makers is plain:—never use 
milk from a cow which shows tenderness, red¬ 
ness, or swelling ol her bag, even though the 
milk may exhibit no ill signs to the eye. The 
germs of disease are there before blood appears 
in the milk, Ituu no risks; lor serious conse¬ 
quences to health, life, and your own pocket 
and reputation may ensue. Customers are 
very shy of buying again from a dairy that has 
mice produced and sold “ Poisonous Cheese.” 
Orleans t o., Yt. 
HINTS FROM AN EXPERT ABOUT THE 
MANAGEMENT OF C0TSW0LDS. 
In the Register of CotBWold sheep, just pub¬ 
lished, the lion. C. P. Mullocks of Maine, lias a 
valuable essay on the above subject, lull uf in¬ 
formation aud practical suggestions, thu prin¬ 
cipal of which are here briefly condensed; as 
nearly everything that is said applies to other 
breeds of sheep also: 
Sheep need freedom of action and variety of 
feed more than any of our domestic animals. 
In winter they require shelter only against 
heavy rains and melting snows, as even a cold 
storm is better than a heated barn, at least for 
Cotswolds. A rough shed, lacing llie south 
and capable ol being closed during rain aud 
snow storms, is quite sufficient. They should 
then be kept iu small Docks, have spacious 
yards to roam iu at all times except during 
storms, and be foil iu racks out-of-doors in ordi¬ 
nary weather. Whore cold storms arc rare, 
and the ground is free from heavy buow, artifi¬ 
cial shelter is hardly necessary, tor Cotswolds 
at any rule. Lambs as well as bucks should be 
kept by themselves. In lambing time warm 
quarters should lie provided, and bo should a 
warm hospital for old, feeble or wounded ani¬ 
mals to which special feed and cure should lie 
given. Sheep should never run or feed with 
other stock in winter, and if It Is desirable to 
feed to them the waste of cattle uud horses, it 
should be gathered and fed to them apart. 
Flocks ol’a dozen or SO of Cotswolds are best 
in winter, and of under a hundred in summer, 
although larger Docks have been sometimes 
kept successfully. 
When confined during inclement weather, 
the best substitute for pasturage is a liberal 
supply of roots—turnips or mangolds—for 
these add to the feed of dry hay wliat sheep 
lose by their change from grass to hay. In the 
absence of roots, a ration of a pint of oats daily, 
per head, is recommended, and also the sub¬ 
stitution, at one meal a day, of corn-stalks, 
oat- oi- pea-straw instead ol hay. Corn should 
be fed to them very sparingly, while oats and 
peas can bo safely and profitably fed in con¬ 
siderable quantifies. Shorts and eotton-Bced 
meal may be fed to advantage, if not too high- 
priced. Although sheep may be successfully 
wintered without water when they have access 
to clean suow, it is a cruel practice. If a lib¬ 
eral supply of salt is not always at hand, it 
should be given them at least once a week. 
Tar, for the sheep to lick at will, is excellent. 
Smearing the uose with it in summer, prevents 
the deposit of eggs in the uoslrils, which may 
afterwards develop into “ grub-iu-Uie-huud.” 
The practice is also good in winter, for the 
medicinal qualities of tar act as an antidote 
against cold nml catarrh, besides benefiting 
the slmep in other respects. A solution of one 
ounce of carbolic acid, to a gallon of water, 
lined once a week by turning a teaspoonful 
down each nostril, will soon cure a discharge 
ai the nose, care being taken not to allow llie 
sheep to swallow the mixture. 
Breeding ewes should bu taken from the 
Hock two or three weeks before lambing aud 
fed upon roots, mixed with oatmeal aud shorts. 
The lambs when a mouth old, may he fed upon 
bran, oatmeal, or even a little corn-meal, in 
addition to the milk from the mother, and this 
can be most easily done by placing the extra 
feed iu a email pen with aa opening large 
