THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
force latent buds out from the bark of the 
body, and these will grow into limbs, and form 
handsome and thrifty tops. 
The important thing, then, in setting trees is 
to have pleuty of roots, and to have the earth 
so placed arouud them that there will be no 
lack of moisture. This can best be done by 
putting the richest soil next to the roots, and 
ftien tilling up the hole with manure, well 
rotted, and soil on lop. If a dry time should 
come, cover the surface of the ground around 
the trees with manure, or some other mulch. 
A good rule for trimming fruit trees is to cut 
the tops down when transplanted, 60 that a 
half-bushei can be put over them. This is as 
good as any arbitrary rule eau be. and it will 
be found to be on the safe side. Fully one- 
third of the trees set out each year never come 
to bearing, and some careful observers put it 
as high aB one-half- This ought not to be so, 
and would not, if there was more care in dig¬ 
ging and close pruning of the tops. It is also 
a mistake to buy large trees. Smaller ones 
are more apt to live, aud will generally bear 
fruit first, because they have more roots. 
They will also make longer-lived trees. 
_ F. d. c. 
darm ®o|iirs. 
TOOLS; PARTNERSHIP FARMING. 
T. H. HOSKINS. M. D. 
The rapidly-iucreaeiug use of mechanical 
appliances in agriculture is becoming a most 
serious matter, especiallj' to smuli farmers, 
and I am glad to see it discussed editorially iu 
the Ritual. A vast amount of the almost 
hopeless indebtedness iioav weighing, like an 
incubus, upon the hopes and prospects of 
farmers of moderate means, was incurred for 
tools aud machines that they thought they 
urast have, because their neighbors had them. 
The agricultural implement “drummer’' is ou 
every farm ; he is generous iu giving credit at 
a geuerous price ; but pay-day comes quicker 
than the money can he made out of the ma¬ 
chine, and pay Ave must. Having contracted 
the debt, it, is better to pay it, but how much 
batter, even if the farm must be mortgaged 
to raise the money, would it be to buy for cash, 
rather than to pay 50 or 100 per cent, ad¬ 
vance in price for a twelve-month's trust! 
A farm machine agent Avas iu my house yes¬ 
terday. In reply to questions, he said the 
business went hard, aud he found those most 
willing to buy were men 60 heavi ly in debt 
that they knew they could never pay. “Hard 
business," said he, “to sell dairymen any¬ 
thing, with butter bringing only 15 cents a 
pound.” Men are becoming prudent, but 
many of them are doing so too late to save 
themselves. Thousands of farms in Vermont 
must go under foreclosure within a year, if 
the mortgagees dare to sell. Lots of them will 
never briug the amount for which they are 
bonded; for, besides the decline in value, the 
embarrassed farmers have, iu their poverty 
and discouragement, let fences, buildings aud 
land run down until the buyer must be pre¬ 
pared to add to bis purchase many a heavy 
balance for immediate repairs and fertilizers. 
Many of these over-mortgaged farmers also 
OAve largely for implements and supplies. Of 
some ot those who have died in my neighbor¬ 
hood within the past few years, supposed to 
be quite Avell-off, the estates have paid less than 
fifty cents ou the dollar. The commercial 
press Avhich ha* been congratulating the farm¬ 
ers on the superiority of their position over that 
of the business classes, shows great ignorance 
of the true situation. An indebted tarrner 
hangs ou long, especially Avhen his creditor 
delays, in order to coax a few more years, in¬ 
terest out of him ou an investment from which 
he fears that he cannot realize the principal. 
It appears to me that half the farming laud 
must change hands in the next two or three 
years. The most puzzling question is, who is 
there to buy it? It would seem that all the 
land, as well as ali the money, must be iu com¬ 
paratively feAv bauds when settling-day is over. 
We iiave servilely copied England’s financial 
methods, and are realizing England’s results. 
But for those of us who have not been caught 
in the nip, who can pay our debts though by 
the hardest effort, whom the usurers have not 
quite skinned alive, but who are left for the 
“next haul,” what lessons have Ave learned? 
Mainly what the Rural has so forcibly put iu 
its editorial, “Cash versus Credit." These 
ideas weie the fundamental ideas of the 
“Grange,” and their promulgation, seven or 
eight years ago, had weight with many, who 
owe their financial safety to-day to these prin¬ 
ciples reduced to practice. If more had come 
into the ark then, there would have been less 
waiJing now. 
Certainly we must buy no more of anything 
on time. We must consider well before buy¬ 
ing any neAV implements whatever. Let us fix 
up what we have, aud take better care of them. 
Some of them are iu the fence corners now, 
with a mourning drapery of dead weeds over 
them. The wastefulness of the flush times 
! must come to a dead halt. The economical 
i practices of our fathers must be revived. And, 
O brother farmers, had we not better study the 
i science of government, and send somebody 
other than lawyers to Congress ? Something 
' of our “hard times" is due to our oavu per¬ 
sonal short-comings; but 1ioav much more to 
ignorant and venal legislation ! 
What costly implements we must have, let us 
buy for cash, and as much as may be in part¬ 
nership, and let us see if we cannot use partner¬ 
ship property honestly and carefully enough 
to make It profitable. It Is only honest aud 
careful meu whom we can afford to join iu 
such purchases. One scalaAvuy will burst up 
the Avholo thing. Let us have some sound 
rules as to the use of company implements, aud 
live up to them. Don’t keep them idle Avhen 
another is Avaitiug for them. If one is brokeu, 
have it repaired at once. And Avhen the sea¬ 
son of use is over, don't allow everybody’s 
business to be nobody’s business; but clean, 
polish, oil and paint, and put safely aAvay till 
the next season. Why cannot we be as care¬ 
ful and proud of the company harvester us 
firemen are of their engine? 
Many of our unfortuuate farmers Avho ha\ T e 
lost their land, have yet some property saved 
to them under exemption Iuavs. These may 
sometimes rent land, aud sometimes why may 
they not rcut or buy in company, and till in 
company? Farmers are too independent, we 
are told, to do well iu business association. 
They pull all Avays, quarrel, aud break up. 
These times ought to bring- wiih their other 
lessous—the lesson that such “independence” 
is utter folly. If good men will join to farm 
together a6 a company under the general Iuavs 
of many of the States, with simple but strict 
rules and sharp penalties for their violation, 
there is no reason why five or ten men cannot 
take hold of a piece of land sufficient to give 
them profitable employment, hang together, 
and make a liviug and more too. ft is a good 
school, not only of fellowship but of farming, 
and all having the benefit of Avhat each knows. 
Such a “farmers’ club” ought to make co¬ 
operation a success. 
-- *-*-4 - 
EVILS OF THE CREDIT SYSTEM, 
“ Go in debt if you Avant to make money,” 
was the advice which a successful old man 
once gaA r e me, hut he immediately added, “ You 
must kuow what to buy, hoAv to buy, and 
where aud Iioav to pluce your indebtedness so 
that it will neither aunoy uor cripple you.” 
What are the debts that annoy aud cripple ? 
First: Store bills, grocery bills, shoe bills, 
butchers’ bills, printers' bills and, last and 
greatest, farm machinery and implement bills. 
If you purchase ou credit, the chances are 
that many things will be bought Avbich you 
could do without, aud some which will result 
in positive damage. At the end of the season, 
there will be OAVing twice us much as you 
Counted upou; for the man Avho habitually 
ruus iu debt, always guesses at things. Who 
ever guessed high enough ou a store bill ? The 
result is, he never has any mouey that is hie 
own, and never knows when he will have, but 
guesses he’ll have some next week and makes 
promises ou the strength of his guess. Of 
course, he breaks them and dodges around the 
coruei to avoid his creditors. He is accounted 
by good business men a liar, and I think the 
term is not too strong. But this is ouly one 
of a score of debts due and promises broken. 
How long cau the debtor thus prevaricate be¬ 
fore he becomes a sneak, a liar aud possibly a 
thief? With all manhood aud dignity gone, 
hoAv can there he any noble aspiration, ener¬ 
getic effort or true eujoymeut ? Who can be a 
man aud yet be ashamed and afraid to look 
his neighbor iu the face? This is Avlml the 
old man meant, I judge, by debts that auuoy 
aud cripple, 
But iu the course of human events it is fre¬ 
quently uecessary to get into debt. I have even, 
by implication, advised doiug so. Let us sup¬ 
pose that some farmer this spring fiuds him¬ 
self without money. Iu looking over his fields 
aud herds, lie judges that in all probability he 
will have one thousand dollars' worth of pro¬ 
ducts to sell during the year ; even with a had 
season five hundred cau certainly bo realized. 
Suppose, now, he uiakeB arrangements to bor¬ 
row a buudred dollurs on the first day of each 
month for five or six months, beginning with 
June, giving his note or other good paper pay¬ 
able withiu one year, or before, with interest; 
what will he the result ? In the first place, he 
preserves his manhood; for who was ever 
ashamed to meet his neighbor because he owed 
him a hundred dollars which were properly se¬ 
cured, for the use of which he was paying a 
fair compensation ? I speak from actual knoAvl- 
eldge when I say that ten per cent can be 
saved, on an average, by paying cash as agaiust 
credit; aud at least another ten per cent will 
invariably be saved by doiug without those 
things that can as well be dispensed with as 
not, but which are too frequently purchased 
when charged. What prevarications; what 
sleepless nights; what dodgings and squirm- , 
ings; what loss of Christian character and 
manhood; what law-suits and quarrels; what 
hatred aud misunderstandings between neigh¬ 
bors ; what sacrifice of property; what long 
lists of failures aud figures might be avoided, 
and what vast sums of money saved, if all 
Avould only pay cash or its equivalent, and 
thus fulfill the scriptural law, “ Owe uo man 
anytlriug.” r. 
-»♦ > ■ — — 
PAY AS YOU GO. 
I think one of the worst evils the fanner 
has to eonteud Avith is going into debt. Many 
and many of them are always in debt, for 
their machinery from year to year aud to 
their blacksmith aud their merchant from one 
year’s end to another. Men of this class al- 
Avuys have to sell their wheat as soon as they 
can thrash it, and haul it to market, their 
corn as soon as it is ripe enough to gather, 
aud their stock as soon as the animals are 
salable. They have no choice. They caunot 
wait fora better market because if they keep 
the merchant Avaiting too long, they know 
there will be no chance of getting credit an¬ 
other year, and it takes all they have got this 
year to square up old aceouuts. As a rule 
such farmers are obliged to sell at Ioav prices 
aud pay the highest price for Avlmt they use. 
and therefore lose on both sides. Most 
farmers will fiud it far easier and a great deal 
more profitable to pay as they go. There 
is no question but that they can get goods 
cheaper for cash. Any merchant will tell you 
he can afford to sell goods for less money, if 
he gets the cash every time instead of wait¬ 
ing six months. Precisely the same is the 
ease Avitli all with whom the farmer deals, 
and it will pay any one to live close for one 
year in order ever after to be free from the 
galling pressure of debt. Do Avithout every¬ 
thing that you possibly can live Avitliout. Do 
not buy a new ploAV, or a iioav harrow or any 
other new implement simply because you cau 
buy it on credit. Wait, aud Avait patiently, 
until you can pay as you go, and you will be 
surprised Iioav much you will savo in a year; 
for I honestly believe any farmer will buy 
more, when he is buying on credit, than he 
will if ho pays cash every time. It is those 
Avho are in debt, head over heels, that feel the 
hard times so severely. We farmers who are 
out of debt now, are the most independent 
class of men iu the country. Keep out of 
debt. N. J Shepherd. 
PARASITES ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
No. 2. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
Sheep-Tick. (Mellophagun minus, Linn.) 
This insect is a degraded Dipterou of the 
family Hippoboseid®. Some members of the 
family, like the horse-tick or forest-fly, have 
wings; but the sheep-tick is apterous. The 
body is not compressed laterally as is that of 
the flea, but from above. The head is not 
sunken, as stated by several authors, as will be 
seen by Fig. 1, Avhieli represents the head and 
its organs. The anteuuse (Fig. 1, c) are min¬ 
ute,"sub-globular, and deeply sunken into pits. 
They are covered with very fine hair over their 
entire surface, while from the front project 
quite coarse hairs. It iH stated by some 
entomologists that these organs are close to¬ 
gether, which, as will be seen by the figure, is 
not true. The eyes, (Fig. 1, dj are long and 
narrow. The proboscis, (Fig. 3, a) is plainly 
visible, and as long as the head, aud is really a 
tube withiu a tube. The outer tube consists of 
Fig.1. 
HEAD OF SHBEP-TtCK.—MAGNIFIED 25 TIMES. 
two semi-cylindrical pieces, (Fig. 1, b, b,) 
probably the mandibles, though some authors 
call them the maxillic, which, when close t«- 
gether, form a very perfect tube (Fig. 3, a), 
within these is the second tube (Fig. 1, a) 
which is twice as loug as the other, though, 
when not iu use, it may be so withdrawn as 
not to extend to the middle of the other tube. 
I have seeu this iuuer tube protruded to double 
the length of the other while I have been 
holding the insects in my hands. This central 
tube (Fig. 1, a) consists of three pieces ; one, 
the larger—without doubt the labium—Is 
grooved, aud so receives the other slimmer 
lancet-like pieces—the maxillae, I think—as to 
complete the tube. 
SHEEP TICK, MAGNIFIED FIVE TIMES. 
spider-like insect, about five-sixteeuths of an 
inch long. The gravid female is lighter-colored, 
a little the larger and mottled. (Fig. 3). The 
head is broader than the thorax, while the ab¬ 
domen is rounded, leathery, and with uo ap¬ 
pearance of rings. Iu the axle of the legs on 
the femur, (Fig. 2, a) uear its union with the 
tibia, (Fig. 2, b) are elongated, transparent 
areas, where may be seen a distinct pulse. 
Just back of each leg ou the thorax, may be 
seen the stomata or breathing mouths. These 
spiracles extend along the side of the abdomen, 
not merely to the posterior lateral angles, 
(Fig. 3. c, c), but even form a crescent ou the 
posterior extremity about the vent. 
The pupa (Fig. 4) is 
brown, spheroidal, aud 
exhibits the two rows of 
sphericles very distinctly. 
This insect is a serious 
annoyance to sheep aud 
especially to lambs. It is note-worthy, that it 
attacks coarse-wool sheep much more seriously 
than It does the fine-wool breeds, and the long- 
wool varieties worst of all. This is doubtless 
owing to the less amount of oil in the wool of 
the long-wool breeds. 
Remedies. 
Prof. James Law recommends the following 
for ticks and ulso for scab: “Tobacco, 10 
pounds; oil of tar, 3 parts; soda ash, 20 lbs.; 
soft soap, 4 lbs., wuter, 50 gallons. Boil the 
tobacco and dissolve the other ageuts iu a few 
gallons of boiling water, then add water to 
make up the fifey gallons. This will suffice 
for fifty sheep. Each sheep Is kept in the 
wash for three minutes." One pound of to¬ 
bacco steeped iu five or six gallons of water is 
an effective cure. The lambs and newly-shorn 
sheep are to be immersed iu the decoction. I 
huve uo doubt but that the kerosene and car¬ 
bolic acid washes recommeuded for fleas would 
avail equally well lor ticks. I do not think 
they would be too strong, as I have kept a 
poodle dog in such a fluid for some minutes 
without hurt, aud I should expect a lamb or 
sheep would have no more tender skin than 
such a dog. Tobacco smoke is sometimes 
recommended; but it is difficult to make the 
application sufficiently thorough. To apply 
this nothing is better than than the patent bee 
smokers. The smokers should be applied at 
least three times at intervals of a week, that 
pupai may all develop, and the successive 
broods be killed. — (Drawings by S. Upton. 
—Eds.) 
Midi. Agr. College. 
Fig. 3 
TIBIA AND TARSUS, WITH CI.AAVS. 
sharp and strong, and so toothed as to enable the 
iusects to hold persistently to the wool or hair 
of the animals they Infest. The insects of this 
family may almost be said to be viviparous. 
The oviduct of the female expands into a sort 
of uterus, where the one or two larva 1 are de¬ 
veloped. These are nourished by a kind of 
milk secreted by the inclosing organ. They 
pupate at once after birth, in the larval skin, 
which then assumes a brown color. 
The sheep-tick (Fig. 3) is a gray-colored, 
a 
PROFESSOR G. C. CALDWELL. 
CONCENTRATED MANURES vs. CONCEN¬ 
TRATED FODDER. 
In all good farming, except what passes for 
sueh on our Western prairies, the draft made 
on Die stock of plant-food in the soil by the 
exportation of produce from the farm must, as 
all good farmers kuow, be made good in some 
way, or else partial exhaustion of the soil will 
follow, aud along with that, poor, unremunera- 
tive farming. This restoration of exported 
matters may be accomplished by the importa¬ 
tion either of commercial, or, as they are better 
called, concentrated manures, or of concen¬ 
trated feeding-stuff s. 
Of these two methods of maintaining the 
fertility of the soil, the latter is more largely 
practiced than the former in England, as is 
shown by the following tabular statement, 
