48S8 
THE AURAL NEW-YORKER 
643 
Smimljtx'if. Entomological, 
PIG USES. 
THE CHINCH BUG IN MINNESOTA. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
That pigs are not made more profitable on 
the farm is not so much the fault of the pigs 
as of the owner. Shut up in the barnyard, or 
in some close pen or yard, the pig is expen¬ 
sive, for it must be fed all it will eat, and it 
must be waited on. As time is money, the 
account runs up, and then the food is all more 
or less costly. These facts form the basis for 
the head of this short exhortation. 
If farmers would calculate, more especially 
about, the pigs, they would have a great deal 
less trouble and more money. They forget 
that pigs will eat grass, aye, are fond of it, 
and actually yearn for it. When only three 
weeks old, they will eat it, and it does them 
good. Now the thing is to have a place to 
turn the pigs to eat the grass. Where shall 
this be? Anywhere, provided there is a fence 
to keep them in. What shall the fence be ? 
Anything, if it is tight. Pigs don't jump— 
they crawl through. Higlit is not the ques- 
ion, but tightness. A stone wall is good, so is 
a board fence; one made of two boards and 
two twisted wires is capital; all wires will do 
but not more than four inches apart, 
with posts every six feet; rails are good if there 
are no holes; an old, broken-down wall will do 
leveled up and a barbed wire stretched along 
the top, just where the hog’s head would come 
if he tried to climb over it. Such a fence has 
kept hogs in at Kirby Homestead for two 
years. 
A ring well put in in the Spring will last all 
Summer, and then there will be no trouble 
about rooting, My text is “ Pig Uses/’ Pigs 
should be used to enrich the farm, and the place 
to do this is iu the fields. They may have a 
pasture by themselves, or be put into next 
year’s prospective corn-field, or even in the 
meadow. I keep pigs all over, and the next 
year the result is seen in the early and strong¬ 
growing blades of grass, and in a good crop 
when corn and other grains are raised. No 
man can afford to keep pigs beyond the ex¬ 
tent of slops, when shut up in a barnyard or 
a close pen; but any man can afford to keep 
pigs, if he will use the means he may, and at 
the same time his enterprise may cause his 
pigs to be factors for increased profit. Let the 
pigs out to grass. 
NEW YORK HOG SUPPLY* 
The hogs reaching this market average be¬ 
tween 6,000 and 7,000 daily, about. .37,000 a 
week, or 2,000,000 a year. They come almost 
exclusively from the West, as the Eastern 
States raise only about enough to supply local 
demauds aud the neighboring towns aud cit¬ 
ies. All arrivals here are first taken to the 
large yard at the foot of West Fortieth Street, 
owned and controlled by the New York Cen¬ 
tral Railroad Co., where 60,000 cau be accom¬ 
modated at once. Thu charges are five cents 
per 100 pounds, aud corn Is supplied at £1,50 a 
bushel. They remain there to rest aud recu¬ 
perate from 24 to 36 hours. There is another 
reception depot on the Hackensack River west 
of Jersey City; aud this receives at least os 
many as the New York inclosure. Hog slaugh¬ 
tering is coufined to lass than 30 concerns here 
aud in Jersey City. These kill aud dress, aud 
then pass over the carcasses to the packers, 
smokers aud large provision houses, some of 
whom cut, cure aud distribute among retailers 
from 4,(XX) to 7,000 hogs a week, though 1,500 
a week is a good trade. The dressed meat for 
export comes almost entirely from the West, 
and in passing through New York bulk is not 
broken. The large slaughtering houses keep 
buyers in the West. The hogs are shipped iu 
double-decked care averaging 140 medium- 
sized hogs i*'r load. In dressing the shrinkage 
is said to average 23 per cent.—chiefly bristles, 
offal, blood, etc. The supply is less by about 
10,000 a week iu Summer than in Winter, as 
the demand for roasts, chops, sausages, etc., is 
leas. The demand for bacon, hams, etc., how¬ 
ever, is greater, but nearly all the large gro¬ 
cery houses obtain these almost exclusively 
from the West. The shipments of fresh pork 
from the same quarter, which are very heavy 
indeed iu cold weather, are entirely suspended 
in the warm mouths. Of the hogs that arrive 
here there u re th ree grad os. The fi ret., consisting 
of jugs weighing between 120 and 130 pounds, 
is most in demand for good family trade. 
The "loin grade,” from 130 to 160 pounds, make 
hams, etc., best suited to the demands of res- 
taurents, hotels, etc. The ''bacon grade’’ com¬ 
prises hogs heavier than the above. There is 
usually a difference of about 25 cents pier UK) 
jxrnnds between the above grades, number one 
briugiug the highest price. Brooklyn aud 
Jersey I’itv are partly supplied from the above 
yards, and partly by stock skipped alive or 
dressed from the adjacent country. 
GEN. WILLIAM G. LE DUC. 
The special misery that has affected the 
agriculture of this section of country during 
the past season has been the chinch hug. 
Last year these jiests were abounding and de¬ 
structive in places, but this year they are in¬ 
finite in number and have damaged the cropis 
so much, and over so wide an area, that their 
presence and work may well be considered a 
great calamity. Last season (1885), they were 
plentiful iu my wheat fields, six miles west of 
here, and reduced the crop one-third iu quan¬ 
tity and one-half iu quality or grade; but they 
were not hatched out early enough to do all 
the mischief they might have done; and while 
they partly ruined the wheat, the barley aud 
oats escaped unharmed, and the corn was but 
little damaged. In some pieces of wheat 
seeded to clover and fertilized by sowing 
salt, it was thought that their ravages were 
prevented almost entirely. But this season 
the warm weather came upon us two weeks 
earlier than usual; the bugs hatched out iu 
such numbers that on close observation it 
seemed as if the entire surface of the ground 
was alive and in motion. The favorable con¬ 
dition of the weather pushed vegetation rap¬ 
idly forward, but before the wheat could form 
heads the work of destruction had begun, the 
stalks aud leaves of the wheat and barley 
were black with minute-moving parasites 
sucking the juices ; soon the stalks weakened, 
turned yellowish white, and began to sag 
down, and aided by the severe drought, 
which began just before wheat harvest, 
whole fields of straw broke down into a 
tangled, matted mass, entirely ruined 
and worthless for any purpose, and the 
bugs at this time half-growu left the blasted 
wheat-fields for the vigorous and promising 
maize. 
They advanced in masses through prai¬ 
rie grass, clover and timothy meadows, 
across dusty roads or plowed grouud, and as¬ 
saulted the corn iu columns by divisions. 
Each division taking a hill of corn would 
cover the stalks to the bight of two or three 
feet, aud at a short distance it looked as if some 
careless painter had daubed the stalks over 
with the dregs of a paint kettle to that bight. 
The bugs following would pass by to the next 
hills or rows, and when the juices of the plants 
iu the first row were exhausted the bugs would 
desceud aud push forward further into the 
field. After a few days the field of corn would 
begin to look as if scorched by fire, and a few 
days after the bugs had passed, the stalks aud 
leaves would fall to the ground and seem to 
disintegrate and lose all identity. It was 
said that when the hugs had develojied their 
wings they would no longer damage the corn. 
This I found to be a mistake. Having wings 
they spread over the whole country, flying 
iu clouds and settling wherever food could be 
found, even in the town gardens aud city 
grounds. A little patch of seven acres of corn 
(which I hoped would approach in yield the 
extraordinary crop I saw growing ou the 
Rural Long Island Farm) on my home place 
here, inside the corporate limits of Hastings, 
I thought was inuo danger from chinch hugs; 
but they came; they saw, they settled upon 
aud destroyed or greatly damaged the entire 
patch. Aided by the very severe drought, they 
have brought to the ground much of the Lacka- 
waxen, an early eight-rowed yellow flint corn, 
aud are now giving their malodorous aud ma¬ 
lignant attention to the best field of white 
dent I have ever seen in Minnesota, 
I suppose when we recover somewhat from 
our amazement and semi-paralysis we will do 
something to avoid or prevent loss from the 
minute insect whoso presence has brought dis¬ 
tress aud dismay to the farmers of this part of 
Minnesota. 
Hastings, Minn. 
MORE LIGHT ON FERTILIZERS. 
I was glad to see iu a recent Rural the 
merits of different fertilizers as giveu by State 
agricultural stations. Give us more of the 
same sort. We farmers want to know where 
we can get the best fertilizer for the money. 
Experiments with fertilizers would be of the 
greatest, help to your readers. The Eye-Opeuer 
helps us, but men who are too shrewd to drop 
to these confidence games are cheated by the 
thousand in fertilizers that are not wortli half 
the money paid. The majority of farmers are 
back from the markets aud canuot get the dif¬ 
ferent brands to experiment with. Thus they 
are induced to try some brand not worth half 
as much as other kinds that cost but little 
more. I know that fanners are swindled out 
of vast sums of money in this way. The Rural 
would be worth twice what it now is to me if 
on your experimental plots you would use dif¬ 
ferent brands of fertilizers and report the re¬ 
sults, hit or miss. Post us ou the best brands 
of fertilizers. Give us the results of Mapes, 
Lister’s, Bradley’s, Peter Cooper’s and all the 
rest. Thousands of farmers will bless you for 
such work, for they cannot well do it them¬ 
selves. E. p. 
Greene Co., N. Y. 
A very common dodge of swindlers, which 
has several times been exposed here, is to ad¬ 
vertise for help of various kinds, who are 
required to deposit a certain sum ‘‘as secur¬ 
ity.” After a number of victims have made 
the required deposit, the sharpers clear out, 
without having furuished the promised em¬ 
ployment to any. Often they give some sort 
of work to the first dupes for a short time so 
as to allow them time to swindle more; but in 
the end they always disappear with all the 
deposits, unless the law impedes or hinders 
their flight. Not a week passes without a 
record of such knavery. The number of 
sharpers is greatest in larger cities; and coun¬ 
trymen seeking employment there are the 
principal victims; but frequently the rogues 
make excursions into smaller towns, where 
they play the same game through the local 
papers. Very often the employment is to be 
given at some distant point, but the securitv 
is always wanted off-hand, and as the salary 
promised is usually liberal, the swindler 
plausible, the deposit moderate, aud the hints 
at great competition for the place persuasive, 
the knaves are, as a rule, successful. Some¬ 
times they have desk room in a large store 
and tell their dupes they own the whole. We 
have heard of several eases where the sharper 
took his victim into a large store which he 
claimed to own; told him to wait for a few 
minutes until he had transacted some urgent 
business in his private office, went into the 
office of the concern, where he passed some 
time talking to the owner, iu the character of 
a dealer elsewhere who intended to buy goods; 
then returning to his dupe, walked with him 
to a neighboring hotel aud had no difficulty in 
fleecing him out of a $200 “deposit.” Some of 
them go into small couutry places and adver¬ 
tise for workmen or clerks in another part of 
the country; they ask either for a deposit to 
insure fidelity or merely for the whole or part 
of the railroad fare. When they have collec¬ 
ted a lot of money in this way, they vanish. 
Others put up at hotels, and pretend to be 
passing through or merely visiting small 
places, or buying goods at large ones: and 
advertise for help at home; but du one excuse 
or another, all want money in advance, and 
having got all they can, all disappear. 
Nothing so exasperates these rascals as the re¬ 
fusal to be caught by a person who has been 
nibbling at the bait. If they know* 
such a person has money, they will run almost 
any risk to get it. They appear to think it 
belongs to them, and will generally venture 
more to get hold of it than an honest man 
would venture to recover the same amount 
from those who had robbed him of it. Within 
the last six months the Eye-Opener has noted 
over a dozen cases where such sharpers have 
been arrested in this city for using violence or 
intimidation to obtain the money from their 
victims. Similar crimes are committed all 
over the couutry. Last Tuesday a fellow 
called Synunous put up at a hotel iu Chicago, 
advertised for a hotel clerk needed in the 
country, aud asked applicants for u deposit of 
£•5. One of these hail £61, but refused to part 
with it, although Symmous generously de¬ 
clared that amount would be sufficient. Find 
mg his premises aud blandishments ineffectual 
the rascal knocked down his victim, beat hin 
so severely that there is little or no hope o 
his recovery, took every cent the poor fellov 
had, aud disappeared. A brief condeusatioi 
of the accounts of this form of swindling 
noticed by the Eye-Opener every week in dif 
ferent parts of the couutry, would fill a col 
umu here, and would be interesting until i 
became monotonous, as the variations iu tin 
details of the swindle are trivial. 
To Several Inquirers.— J. D. Morton 
M. D., Chicago, Ill., is u fraud, aud his Mon 
butto Coca Compound, a humbug, J. W 
A\ alker, Macou Co., N. C., who advertise! 
Japan Clover (Lespedeza striata) aud othei 
seeds for sale, aud writes about them to several 
papers, is “a fraud ami a swindler,” we tux 
assured by oue who knows him well. In 
Macon Co., where the fellow lives, this Japan 
Clover is worthless, as it is elsewhere except 
iu the low, waste lauds of the cotton couutry 
where it grows alone with horse nettle, dog 
fennel and other pestilent weeds. Walker’s 
puffery of it is absolutely false, and he must 
know it. The. fellow is a microscopic counter- 
? irt of Bain, the Ohio chicken fraud. 
he Reliable MTg Co., Philadelphia, Pa., is 
by no means reliable. F. Mallard & Co., of 
Boston, is a concern of the same kidney. 
....Thompson & Co., of “Brahma Yan, the 
Hindoo Deafuess Cure,” notoriety bare been 
exposed here over aud over again. The con- 
cere and its “cure” aresheer humbugs. 
“Miss M. Casey,” of Oberlin. Ohio, is an alias 
or stool pigeon of Bain, the poultry fraud.... 
.. .We cannot recommend the Monarch Light¬ 
ning Saw, or the Monarch Potato Digger. We 
have had a large number of complaints of 
each. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.—LXIV. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Snow on the mountains in the middle of 
March; low-cut vineyards; a winery at 
Clover dale ; nbo'ut wines; a deferred visit; 
Poison Oak , or Poison Ivy; local archi¬ 
tecture; intemperance due to the ivine- 
making industmj; sage-growing 
As we continued our upward journey from 
Santa Rosa, amid vineyard after vineyard, 
it looked odd to see the mountain tops—no¬ 
tably St. Helena—white with snow that had 
fallen the previous night; the trees on the 
mountain tops being white as if heavily 
loaded with it. It was a cooler morning than 
usual, and when late in the evening we were 
on the ferry crossing San Francisco Bay a pas¬ 
senger said it was the coldest day that had 
been iu San Francisco for a year, but there 
was no frost. 
Some of the older vineyards in this valley, 
all the way up to Cloverdale, look in their 
low-cut condition like fields of planted stumps 
root end up. The vine stumps are from four 
to 12 inches in diameter, and the vineyards 
are cultivated like a corn field. Olives grow 
well iu Sonoma County, aud in Santa Rosa 
Valley prunes do especially well, and many 
orchards have been planted. Every thing pre¬ 
sents an appearance of wealth, but it is the 
general verdict that the many moderately 
wealthy men there, have in large part, made 
their money elsewhere. The land here is 
claimed to equal the very best in Los Angeles, 
San Jose, or Santa Cruz, and is much cheaper, 
although it is very far from being cheap. 
^ arious kinds of fruits do well here—apple, 
peach, pear and plum trees being in bloom. 
When we reached Cloverdale we found that 
we would have between two and three hours 
to use as we pleased before the return of the 
train. As one of the large wineries of the 
valley was near the railway station, we 
first visited that—a substantial brick struc¬ 
ture, filled with huge casks, a grape-press, and 
lengths of hose for transferring the wine from 
tanks to barrels. The wine made here is “fin¬ 
ished” off in a winery at Santa Rosa. One of 
the men in charge gave us to drink—the 
wine was pure as water—and the red wine 
from the Mission grape was very pleasant. 
As I do not like white wine, I could not 
judge of that. The red wine is the entire 
grajie crushed and fermented together; while 
the white is only the fermented juice. How 
much the manufacture of wine has added to 
the drunkenness of the people I have been 
uuable to learn. Good new wine costs about 
75 cents the gallon. Last year the grape crop 
was light. Vinevardists receive from £18 to 
£22 per ton for grapes, and it is conceded that 
if a man gets 15 cents a gallon for his grape- 
juice he makes about £500 per acre off his 
land. There are various private wineries 
which consume many grapes. A few years 
ago a great deal of wheat was raised in this 
valley, but now the fields of wheat are rare— 
mostly vines and fruit trees. For the produc¬ 
tion of tannin in wine, the hill-sides are con¬ 
sidered the best for vines. At the convention of 
viticulturists in San Francisco, a good deal of 
attention was given to the question of unhealth¬ 
ful germs iu wine, which the eminent French 
chemist, M. Pasteur, claims to be auimal, and 
his method of destroying them by heating the 
wine to 150 degrees and suddenly cooling it, 
which also arrests fermentation, awakened 
great interest. 
From the wiuery we walked through the 
town at the head of the valley—the mountains 
coming together on both sides—and stopped 
for a time to talk with a livery-man about 
horses aud a carriage to drive to the Geysers, 
some 16 miles to the east. His charge would 
be £5, but he left us to infer that if we drove 
there and buck we wouldn’t care to repeat the 
trip, a narrow, daugerous road, but the Gey¬ 
sers were always sjxmtiug, we might be sure 
of that! However, we concluded, as we 
walked through the pretty towu, named be¬ 
cause there is no clover iu it, at least I saw 
uoue iu the grass out into the cauyons and on 
to the mountains, that we would leave the 
Geysers and the petrified forest for our old 
age. In our tramp we found everywhere, as 
usual iu our climbing expeditions, a profusion 
of Poison Oak, just coining into bloom. It is 
evidently what in the East we would call 
