AUS. 2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
$ann ®ofics. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs’’ as with 
the many unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life.— 
Eds] 
DOES INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE COST 
TOO MUCH 1 
Without doubt it does. Notwithstanding 
the fact that we are constantly seeing compa¬ 
nies retiring from the business because it 
doesn’t pay, it is still true that the public at 
large pays more for insurance than it could be 
afforded for. We are pointed to the risk as¬ 
sumed ; we in return point to the dividends de¬ 
clared. A president of a New York company 
told me to-day that notwithstanding the heavy 
losses sustained by the great fires of Chicago 
and Boston—which at that time seriously 
threatened the continued existence of the com¬ 
pany—the average dividends had been Si per 
cent, since the formation of the company, 
some twenty-five or more years ago. Another 
company, the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
whose organization was celebrated last fall by 
the directors and their friends, who ate a Del- 
monico dinner at the expense of the stock¬ 
holders, boasts, we are told, of an average of 
fully 14 per cent, dividends during its whole 
existence. And these arc not exceptional 
cases. I admit that insurance stock should 
pay large dividends—10 per cent, in expect¬ 
ancy, and all the risk, is not really so good for 
the investor as six or seven per cent, on a 
sound bond and mortgage. 
But we are sure fair dividends can be made 
and still insurance be furnished for a less rate 
than that charged at present. The trouble is, 
it costs too much to ruu the business. At least 
one-third of all the money received for pre¬ 
miums in New York, is expended in pay 
ing the running expenses of the compa¬ 
nies. This is too much. In the first place, 
too high salaries are paid; expenses are not 
economized I have in rniud one company 
whose capital was less than $200,000. Its pres¬ 
ident and secretary received $15,000 a year, 
beside a certain amount charged to expenses 
allowed by the directors for the entertainment 
of visitors from abroad, of which no items 
were rendered. Moreover, an agency for an 
out-of-town company was kept at this office, 
not a penny of the profits of which eveV 
reached the stockholders. If complaint was 
ever made, the dividend account was pointed 
to. with the query ‘‘ Ought you not to be satis¬ 
fied with that ?” The insured pay the differ¬ 
ence. 
There are too many insurance offices, with 
their managers’ clubs, etc., to be supported. 
In New York alone are sixty-five companies, 
whose capital aggregates less than $14,000,000, 
or a little over $200,000 each. Now, suppose 
these sixty-five companies were consolidated 
into fifteen, what would be the saving in the 
expense of their management ? In the first 
place, there are fifty presidents and fifty sec¬ 
retaries less to salary. The clerical force 
would not be reduced in proportion, but it 
could be largely curtailed. Rents, stationery, 
and every item of expense would he reduced, 
and the same amount of business done at prob¬ 
ably one-quarter of what it costs now. The 
stockholders could have their usual dividends 
and the savings be applied to the reduction of 
rates of insurance. 
Local companies are complaining bitterly 
because foreign institutions come here and cut 
down rates. They can afford it. They have 
large capital and proportiouably small ex¬ 
penses. 
The truth about it is that these little compa¬ 
nies are usually gotten up by somebody to se¬ 
cure a nice paying position for himself and his 
friends. Examine closely into the matter and 
you will find them, to a great extent, family 
affairs or governed by a ring for its own in¬ 
terests. L. A. K. 
Jitltt €xtsp. 
NOTES FROM RURAL FARM. 
Pearl Millet. 
It is now the 23d of July. Pearl Millet aver¬ 
ages less than 10 inches in bight, and it re¬ 
quires a passing amount of faith to believe 
that it can still be cut four times (as some dis¬ 
tinguished writers have asserted) before frost. 
We have faith that our plants will attain an 
average bight of eight feet or more, because 
we tested it thoroughly last year. But we do 
not believe that it can, in this climate, he cut 
advantageously more than twice. The dispo¬ 
sition to exaggerate the value of new plants by 
those who have a hand in their introduction or 
dissemination is greatly to be deprecated. In 
the end, those who sell the seeds or plants and 
those who, with insufficient knowledge, pub¬ 
lish inaccurate accounts of their good traits, 
are alike injured with those who are induced 
to purchase the seeds and cultivate them. 
Alongside of our Millet is a plot of 
Doura. 
There are several varieties of this, which are 
distinctly marked. Some scarcely ever pro¬ 
Mr. Taylor’s Hereford 
duce a sucker, but develop a single tall, heavy 
stem, with very broad leaves somewhat clus¬ 
tered at the top. If these be cut off at any 
time, that is the end of growth. But the vari¬ 
ety of which wc speak tillers remarkably, and. 
when cut off, at once continues to grow as if 
it suffered no check in consequence. Now, 
while Pearl Millet is, as we have stated, not 
over 10 inches in hight, this is three feet high 
and each plant, on an average, has at least six 
stalks. We are cutting it from time to time, 
so as to be able to report later how many times 
it may be cut aud how much green food it may 
thus be made to produce per acre. 
Beauty of Hebron. 
We are more than ever pleased with this 
variety. Last year we tested it beside Early 
Rose, and found it a few days earlier. This 
year we have about a quarter of an acre of 
each, but the Beauty of Hebron was planted 10 
days later. The y ield. so far as can be guessed 
at from digging a hill here and there for family 
use, will be more than one-third greater than 
that of Early Rose. Of course, we shall 
measure the two yields and report definitely 
at the proper time. 
Oats. 
Atiioug seven sorts of oats tested this season, 
we have reason to think very highly of two 
new sorts called ‘‘Mold’s Black Tartarian” and 
“Challenge.” The first bears the heaviest and 
most compact panicle as well as the heaviest 
straw of any variety we have ever raised, and 
our neighbors pronounce the same opinion as 
to their experience. Wc may have something 
further to say of this variety that will espe¬ 
cially iuterest our farmer readers. Our main 
crop of oats has this season been the largest 
we have ever raised. The field was broken up 
seven years ago, manured with bone flour, 
sown to rye and seeded to timothy and clover, 
in which it was kept until last year, when 
corn was planted, with Mapes's corn manure 
in the hill only. This spring we sowed, at the 
rate of GOO lbs. per acre, a special concentrated 
fertilizer for oats, with the result as above 
stated. The yield per acre will be giveu as 
soon as we determine it. The field was cut the 
15th inst. 
Blunt’s Corn. 
We have just visited a plot of this corn, 
which was entered for the Rural premium. It 
was planted in garden soil and manured with 
fish, two to a hill of three seeds. Some of the 
stalks are now 10 feet high and most of them 
over eight. The severe drought which at pres¬ 
ent prevails is curling the leaf, aud, of course, 
interferes with the setting of ears. Few stalks 
as yet show the tassel. Upon one of these we 
counted five sets. Upon others there was no 
sign ol a set—the tall, thick stalks looking de¬ 
cidedly barren. The interest manifested in 
this corn hereabouts at this time runs high, 
and we hope that the finale will not disappoint 
Bull, “Thoughtful.” 
the “ Great Expectations ” that have been 
raised. 
llisrfllaittous. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Mixed Grasses. —An editorial in the New 
York Times says that the common grass, tim¬ 
othy, has usurped too high a place in the 
opinion of farmers. It may be that there are 
other grasses that equally deserve a place in 
our practice. As a rule, mixed sowings, 
whether of grain or of grass, are the most pro¬ 
ductive. So a mixture of grasses will produce 
more pasture and more hay than any single 
grass. This is seen in the usual mixture of 
timothy and clover, which yields a double 
crop. If orchard-grass is added to the mix¬ 
ture, a still further gain is made. If blue- 
grass is added, bottom growth, which is most 
valuable for fall pasture, is secured. The fol¬ 
lowing mixture, viz., six pounds of timothy, 
six pounds of red clover, 20 pounds of orchard- 
grass and 20 pounds of Kentucky blue-grass, 
will give three cuttings or crops in one season. 
It has done so with the writer. The first cut¬ 
ting was made on the 10th of May ; the second 
is in progress at the present writing (July 10), 
and a third will undoubtedly be made in Sep¬ 
tember. Tbe first cutting consisted of orchard- 
grass and clover; the timothy had not then 
reached a sufficient hight; the second cutting 
consists of timothy and clover, with a thick 
bottom of broad leaves of orchard-grass ; the 
third crop has heretofore been, and will be, 
pasture, and will consist mainly of blue-grass, 
orchard-grass atid clover. A liberal top-dress¬ 
ing of coarse manure will make up for close 
pasturing, and will protect the sod during the 
winter aud hasten growth iu the spring. 
Firming. — S. M. Carr says that last spring 
he planted four rows of potatoes, and on every 
piece dropped he stepped, bearing his whole 
weight. Those rows are finer in appearance 
than any others he has seen this year .—The 
Husbandman. 
Pear Blight. —No unfailing remedy says 
the Husbandman, has been discovered, al¬ 
though there is hope that a course of 
treatment employed by Mr. M. H. Wells, of 
Elmira, with apparent success, may prove 
effective in general practice. He syringes 
the whole top of an affected tree with a weak 
solution of potash, aud he has made so many 
experiments resulting in cures, even where the 
disease has been well established, that he has 
no doubt of the efficacy of the treatment. By 
way of testing the virtue of the application he 
has used it on leaves partly blighted, with the 
surprising effect that the disease has been ar¬ 
rested at the precise line of its progress where 
the solution has been applied, the healthy por¬ 
tions of the leaves remaining thereafter wholly 
free from blight. 
Insects.— The Country Gentleman,in “Timely 
Topics,” says that an efficient mode for clear¬ 
ing destructive insects from small crops might 
be more extensively and profitably resorted to 
in the employment of boys to gather them, 
paying for the hundred or measure. Those 
who have a quick eye and ready fingers will 
reach them more easily and do more than 
men. Try the experiment early in the sea¬ 
son, when “potato bugs” appear, aud give 
them a specified sum per quart. In tbe same 
way they will keep clear a patch of cucum¬ 
bers or squashes, usiug a pan with a thin 
coat of molasses in the bottom, to secure their 
prey. We discovered, many yeatB ago, that 
the white grub was destroying a valuable plan¬ 
tation of seedling Pears. Fifty cents per hun¬ 
dred to a few young hoys brought them in, 
aud as the insects became scarce a double aud 
quadruple price produced a wild excitement 
among tbe little fellows, and every straggler 
was cleared. The sum paid was small; the 
saviug of the crop was of great value. The 
same remedy may now be applied to tbe green 
cabbage worm, aud when they are not numer¬ 
ous, the riddance is easy. 
Of the Curculio, the writer says that the 
crop of plums which set on the forty trees in 
his small orchard was observed this season to 
be quite moderate, and as soon as the calyx 
had fallen from the young fruit, the curculios 
began their work in vast numbers. The jar¬ 
ring system was promptly commenced, and in 
the first two days over 1,200 insects were 
caught and destroyed. For some days, and 
while they continued iu large numbers, the 
trees were examined twice a day, and after¬ 
ward only once a day. The work was contin¬ 
ued thirty days, and over 4,100 in all were 
caught. The result of this close vigilance aud 
constant work is a fair crop of plums, and the 
cost of saving them only fifteeu hours iu the 
aggregate, or nut five cents per tree. 
Renovating a Poor Farm.— Our friend Mr. 
M. B. Batehain speaks of our esteemed con¬ 
tributor, Mr. W. I. Chamberlain, in the Ohio 
Farmer, as follows : “He was a graduate and 
tutor iu Hudson College, but some ten years 
ago he purchased an old clay farm of about 
one hundred acres, a mile or two cast of the 
village ; it had been long run as a dairy farm, 
and was considered too poor to produce much 
else than light erop& of grass. Mr. C. resolved 
to attempt its renovation as fast as it could be 
done by dint of labor aud intelligence. At first 
tbe gross income from the farm was only about 
five hundred dollars annually, aud the expenses 
exceeded that sum : but for several years past 
the products of the farm have been from three 
to four thousand dollars annually, aud the 
cash value of the land has more thau doubled. 
I have not time to speak of all the methods 
by which this renovation has beeu accom¬ 
plished. Suffice it to say it has not beeu by 
large expenditure ol money, but chiefly by the 
use of educated brains aud persevering indus¬ 
try. The chief factors in the work, I may say, 
are thorough drainage along with judicious 
saviug and use of manure. At first, he was 
told that wheat, potatoes aud apples could not 
he grown to advantage on such clay lands; 
but for several years past he has grown the 
best crops of these iu the township, aud last 
year, it Is believed, he had the best ten acres of 
wheat iu the whole State, on one of 
his underdraiued fields—the yield 
being over fity bushels per acre.” 
Artichokes. —A Couutry Geutle- 
inau correspondent says that it took 
him five years to exterminate them 
from the grouud, but by so doing it 
made this, and the peach trees on it, 
the best trees and grouud on the 
estate. He can eradicate five crops 
of Canada thistles easier thau one of Jerusalem 
artichokes. Put them ouce into theground, aud 
rest assured they will eventually become the 
oldest inhabitant. He- recommends them to he 
grown by every dyspeptic Individual, as twenty 
feet square of them will give him all the work 
he wants in trying to root them out. Farmers 
should avoid them as they would the plague. 
Effect of Manures.— Dr. R. VVarriugton 
says that no dressing of manure is completely 
consumed by the crop to which it is applied. 
Soluble aud active manures produce their prin¬ 
cipal effect at once, and are of little bcuefit to 
subsequent crops. Manures sparingly soluble, 
and those which oust suffer decomposition in 
the soil before they are of service to the plant, 
as bones and farmyard manure, will on the 
contrary produce an effect over many years. 
Farmers have a prejudice iu favor of the latter 
class of manures, but it is clear that the quick¬ 
est return for capital invested is afforded by 
the former cIubb. 
Gen. Divkn says that h« has raised turnips 
