to run three years longer before the trees are 
to be planted. If they are sold, they are 
usually made into “homesteads," or “pre¬ 
emptions,” and so timber culture, so far as the 
act is concerned, is a huge failure. Quite a 
common saying is “Trees don’t do any good 
anyhow in Dakota,” but the few claims planted 
to trees are a complete refutation of that 
statement. Com. Sparks simply tells people 
they must abide by the law instead of the 
fraudulent custom of the past. After many 
inquiries all around here, even 
amongst those who think it the 
right thing to abuse him, I have 
not been able to find a single case 
where anything contrary to the 
spirit or the letter of the law has 
been enforced, Neither have I 
seen a bima-Jiilc case of injustice 
reported in the press, nor cau it 
be (lone. Instead of all this abuse, 
he ought to have the thanks of 
the American people for the 
manly stand he is making against 
the wholesale stealing of Unde 
Barn’s lands for so mauy years. 
The day is not far distaut when 
all the public lands will be ex¬ 
hausted, and what are we to do 
with our surplus population and 
^ our ever fresh immigrants? 
. T. M AOALPINE. 
Raymond, Dakota,_ 
get his patent. This opened the door to rich 
men for all sorts of jobbery and seriously in¬ 
terfered with the rights and interests of honest 
settlers, to whom only the law intended to 
give 100 acres. Commissioner Sparks will not 
allow the conversion of a “homestead” into a 
“pre-emption,” 
The Pre-emption Act requires six months’ 
residence, the erection of a house and 
the cultivation of the land. Thousands of 
acres were taken up under the act, a small 
species. The Commissioner’s rulings are in¬ 
terfering very much with the land agents’ 
business, hence their outcry, and the same re¬ 
mark a pplies to the gentlemen of the press who 
find their advertisements growing small by de¬ 
grees aud beautifully less. Every one, on 
proving tip, must advertize his intention of so 
doing for five consecutive weeks in a county 
paper. This is the most lucrative part, of the 
business of such papers, as it brings ready 
cash, the loss of which must cripple their iiumi- 
cial resources very much. But one may very 
properly ask. is the land business to be run for 
the benefit of these men? I say emphatically 
Iiavc rMVlppCVA OUV11 ^ - 
It may not be out of place to state that in 1880 
there were 05),91)7 insane persons, 76,85)1 idiots, 
88,665 paupers. 59,355 prisoners, or 816,813 per¬ 
sons. everyone of whom can trace a portion at 
least of his trouble to liquor. 
Anti-oleo Legislation in England. A 
bill to prevent the sale of fraudulent butter 
has been drafted in England. The word 
“butter” is defined as an article made front 
the milk of the cow alone. The bill pro¬ 
vides that all compounds of butter and fat, or 
of various fats without butter, or of 
any substances of a fatty, greasy, 
or oleaginous nature, and intended 
to be sold for human consumption, / 
shall lie called by names clearly and fa 
entirely distinguished front the word /Jr 
“butter,” and from any compound |jj 
modification or derivation of that |M 
word, and no adjectival or explan- w) 
atory word shall be coupled with the w 
word “butter.” All manufactories N 
of fatty substances are to he regis¬ 
tered. Any such establishment car¬ 
ried on without such register must 
pay a penalty for each day so 
conducted. All imitation butters 
are to be colored some other color than 
yellow or orange. It is to be hoped y 
that some of these laws will prove J| 
sound. This law seems to go at the 
matter in the right way. fell 
— 
What’s in an Egg?— The Ameri- fa 
can Cultivator, speaking of the differ- Jy t- 
ence in quality of different eggs, 
says: “The white of a Leghorn egg is || 
like milk or lime-water, while that of 
a Brahma has substance, is gelatinous 
in appearance and will hold together 
if lifted a few inches.” The Poultry 
Keeper says that a perfectly developed 
chick will grow from the ‘milk or lime- ' 
water.’ Young Leghorns and Brahmas 
have been weighed in lots of ten, as 
soon as hatched, aud the difference 
in weight is so slight as to be un¬ 
worthy of notice, w hich proves that 
there is as much nutrition in the Leg¬ 
horn egg as in the Brahma. The 
elements are there—nature places 
them there—and if the eggs were as represent¬ 
ed above, but few of them would hatch, aud 
we cau best know T what is in an egg by that 
which comes out of it. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS, 
„„„ anean stood the Whiter a great 
PRESIDENT MAS PEAR. From Nature. Fig. 103. deaI better than Martin’s Amber 
or Democrat, and tvas ripe 
much earlier. The Rural New-Yorker Pea is 
grand for one so early. Carter’s Stratagem 
are fine—immense pods well filled. The 
Prince of Wales looks as if it would make a 
good field pea. Flageolet Beans poor. Corn 
all too late. Tomatoes did well. Garden 
Treasures were treasures indeed. The Blush 
Potatoes are the host keeping pota¬ 
toes I have — very few rotten: 
other varieties from one-half to 
three-fourths rotten, when dug 
and still rotting. N. n. 
Colorado. 
Ft. Collins, Larimer Co.. Feb. 
15.—Wheat yielded only about 
two-thirds of an average crop— 
about 15 bushels per acre. Corn 
more than an average—from 80 
to 40 bushels. The Rural corn i.oo 
late; peas very fine, and the beans 
yielded over two quarts. Did not 
think muoh of the tomatoes. 
Wheat Is worth only *1.10 per 
cwt.; corn. 75 cents per cwt.; 
V potatoes, *1 per cwt.; hogs, $3.50 
\ per 100 pounds alive, and cattle, 
\ $3. Almost all of the farmers are 
\ going into the stock business, sow- 
\ ing a part, of their land with 
\ Alfalfa and feeding it out to their 
\ cattle in the Winter. Alfalfa 
does well here. I cut a piece four 
times last year, and got. nine loads 
per acre during the season. We 
warm Winter 
DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU PEAR. From Nature. 
Fig. 101. 
box shanty was erected, in which the entry- 
men would sleep two or three times during the 
six months, and hire five to ten acres of break¬ 
ing. Then, with the help of the men who 
were hired, at a high price, to do the break¬ 
ing, they would go to court and perjure them¬ 
selves to obtain a patent for the land. 
no. Until of late, the national laud business 
seemed to be run to support a horde of hungry 
attorneys and land agents all over this Terri¬ 
tory. All men over 21, engaged in the various 
towns, either as clerks, bookkeepers or trades¬ 
men, have filed either a homestead or pre¬ 
emption claim over some land near them, and 
although the nature of their employment 
SAMPLES. 
What is said to be the largest barn in the 
w T orld is situated at Papillion, Nebraska, 
covers five acres, cost $125,000 and 
shelters 3,750 head of cattle. It is the 
intention of the owner to enlarge its 
capacity so as to protect 8,000. The 
immense structure is used for the 
purpose of fattening cattle after 
they have been three or four years 
on the ranges. The great barn has 
a complete system of water works, 
and is thoroughly washed twice every 
day. The cattle are fed upon cooked 
meal—one man feeds the whole herd. 
All he has to do is to turn a large 
faucet and let the feed run to them 
A Chautauqua County, N. Y., 
cheese-maker went to Buffalo the 
other day and brought home a fine 
imported Swiss cheese. All praised 
it but his wife, who, alter the praise / 
had ceased, said she had found her / 
husband’s private mark on the cheese. / 
He had paid 33 cents a pound for the / 
very cheese that he had made and / 
sold for six cents........ 
Statistics show' that about 50 per 
cent, of the deaths in cities last 
year were those of children under five V 
years of age; and also that the glass \ 
manufacturers turned out 10,000,000 \ 
nursing-bottles in the same time. \ 
It is a disgrace to a great State, \ 
says the Philadelphia Press, to insist 
that experimental farms must be run 
for a profit. This “penny-wise-and- 
pound-foolish” policy has been tried 
at many agricultural colleges, with pxJHAMEL DU MONCEAU PEAR. Cross Section, 
the result of clearing the colleges Fig. 102. 
both of students and influence. 
__prevents them from fulfilling the law.in any 
^ A - measure, still they go before the Court and 
swear that they have done so, and get a patent 
for the land. One special government agent 
reports one district w here over 4,000 homestead 
entries had been made a few years ago, and 
now there are only about 100 settlers to be 
found. The Homestead Act distinctly says a 
man mast live on his land continuously und 
cultivate it for five years before he receives 
his patent; but anyone who had money could 
prove up on it after six months’ residence, and 
gj i| K I have had a very 
fijtf 3j M. || / so far, not more than two w’eeks 
l || |jjp J ! $/ / of cold weather all put together, 
\ /f / uu<l not more than three inches of 
\ \\ J Mf j snow at one time. The cattle on 
\ \ I M? / the range are doing well. Success 
\ to the Rural! e. h. 
\ /SOp / Dakota. 
§p5%s. Mandan, Morton Co.—Both 
<s38i£afc'~i -^ kinds of the rural peas were the 
PRESIDENT MAS PEAR. From Nature. Fig. 104. very p ex t I ever saw. G. w. G. 
Delaware. 
Dover, Kent Co., Feb. 23. lhc year com¬ 
menced warm and pleasant: on -Jan. - plott¬ 
ing was being done; then the weather became 
cold, changeable and very disagreeable. Feb¬ 
ruary came in cold aud blustering. On the 
4th snow fell two foot deep, drifting badly aud 
rendering the roads for several days intpass- 
nt.it. On the 6th the mercury went down to 
Now these lauds will lie dormant until the 
efforts of the hard-working settlers around 
them shall raise their value to ten or twelve 
dollars an acre, when the holders will sell out. 
A tree claim can be held by any one over 
21, and requires no residence; hence such 
claims are held by people all over the Western 
country, mostly for speculation. They can 
be held at very little expense for throe years, 
during which time the holders try to sell them. 
If that cannot be done, they trausfer them to 
some other names, and then they are allow'ed 
COMMISSIONER SPARKS AND THE 
LAND LAWS. 
Those who are loudest in their charges and 
most virulent in their attacks on Commissioner 
Sparks and his rulings in land cases, belong to 
the press or the attorney aud land agent 
