1886 
THE BUBAL WEW-YOBKEB 
e 
Sheep Experiences.— Mr. Davidson, of 
Charlton, N. Y., favors the Farm Journal 
with some of his sheep experiences, He began 
with full-blooded Merino ewes and crossed 
them with a Leicester ram. This was in war 
time, when coarse wool was the most iu de¬ 
mand. This cross made large sheep and he 
sold some for 810 a head. He crossed these 
Leicester-Merinos with South Downs, and kept 
these cross bred sheep until three years ago. 
when he got a Golddrop Merino ram and bred 
a flock of Merino-South Dowus with a little of 
the old Leicester cross in them. He saved 16 
ewe lambs of this cross and they are the best 
sheep he ever had. They all have white faces, 
are square-built, broad, short-legged and won¬ 
derfully hard}'. They are grand sucklers. 
The lambs sell for almost as much as the all 
coarse-wooled, and they shear more wool. The 
first year the whole 16 only lacked one pound 
and a half of shearing seven pounds each of 
washed wool without any tags in it. The 
next year they averaged 6U pounds. These 
lambs and sheep were wintered on hay alone. 
The wool is nearly three inches long and 
brings the highest price, tine buck lamb was 
wintered and killed in the Spring, and his 
pelt when dry weighed 21 pounds. His notion 
is that the best way is to use a Merino buck on 
coarse-wooled ewes. Iu this way one gets 
more fleshy and compact lambs, and such will 
be ready for the butcher sooner than the cross 
the other way. Then, ugain, the ewes will 
afford more milk and the lambs will grow 
faster. If grain is fed to sheep it must bo fed 
with care, or it will do more hurt than good. 
Sheep should be fed regularly with food which 
is suited to them. They will never do well on 
coarse or swale hay, and Timothy is not good 
for them. Clover is best; Red Top is good or 
fine, old meadow hay. They should be kept 
dry an«l at the same time they must have good 
air and some exercise. Mr. Davidson lets his 
sheep out into the yard every pleasant after¬ 
noon, and all the rest of the time keeps them 
in a stable where they are dry. They should 
have water whenever they want it, and not be 
made to get very thirsty and then given all 
they will drink. This excess of cold water 
chills them and is liable to bring on stomach 
troubles. His sheep make the best of mutton 
and they will weigh, alive, from 130 to 150 
pounds- He recommends farmers to use large 
Merino bucks ou the coarse-wooled ewes in or¬ 
der to get a more hardy and better sheep. 
The Public Domain—Alien Landlord¬ 
ism.— “The rapid appropriation of our public 
lands,” says the President in his message, 
“without bona fide settlements or cultivation, 
and not only without intention of resilience, 
but for the purpose of their aggregation in 
large holdings, in many cases iu the hands 
of foreigners, invites the serious and immed¬ 
iate attention of Congress. I recommend 
the repeal of the pre-emption and timber cul¬ 
ture acts, and that the homestead laws be so 
amended as to better secure compliance with 
their requirements of residence, improvement 
and cultivation for the period of five years 
from date of entry, without commutation or 
provision for speculative relinquishment. I 
also recommend the repeal of the desert land 
laws unless it shall be the pleasure of Con¬ 
gress to so amend these laws as to render them 
less liable to abuses.” For years wo have had 
reports on reports, and recommendation after 
recommendation on this subject, yet what has 
been done to remedy the abuse? If the fault 
Is in Congress the people should know it, and 
apply n remedy themselves, by sending better 
men to better represent them. 
Contagious Pleuro-Pneumonia. —After 
several good words, in a rather vague sort of 
way in favor of the labors of the Agricultural 
Department, President Cleveland says: 
“The existence of pleuropneumonia among 
the cattle of various States has led to burden¬ 
some and in some cases disastrous restrictions 
ou an important branch of our commerce, 
threatening to affect the quantity and quality 
of our fool supply. This is a matter of such 
importance and such fur-reaching consequen¬ 
ces, that I hope it will engage the serious at¬ 
tention of Congress, to the end that such a 
remedy may be applied as the limits of a con¬ 
stitutional delegation of power to the General 
Government will permit,” Yes, and let us 
have prompt action on the matter. 
Inter-State Railroad Regulation.— 
“By a recent decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States it has been adjudged that 
the lu ws of the several States are inoperative 
to regulate rates of ti nusporbilion upon rail¬ 
roads, if such regulation interferes with the 
rate of carriage from ouc State into another. 
This important field of control and regulation 
having been thus left entirely unoccupied, the 
expediency of Federal action upon the subject 
is worthy of consideration." So says the 
President’s message. The whole country, 
every industry iu it, demands better regula¬ 
tion of transportation facilities. Congress 
cannot be too prompt in acting in this line, 
The Silver Question.— In Secretary Man¬ 
ning’s report the subject given greatest prom¬ 
inence in place and space regards the silver 
question—“the opening of the mints of the 
governments of the United States of America 
and of the leading European States to the free 
coinage of both gold and silver into unlimited 
legal tender money at a ratio fixed by inter¬ 
national agreement.” The nations of the 
world are deeply Interested in this matter. It 
greatly affects international trade and domes¬ 
tic industry. One of the chief causes of the 
recent low prices of wheat iu this and other 
countries is attributed to the depreciation in 
the value of silver. Silver is the chief—near¬ 
ly the only—currency in British India. Hin¬ 
doo ryots, or farmers, sell their wheat at a 
certain figure—in silver. They know and 
care nothing about the rise or fall in the value 
of silver iu the world at large—it is always 
worth the same among their neighbors. The 
European dealers—almost exclusively English 
—buy silver iu London or elsewhere at its 
greatly decreased value, carry it to India and 
pay it out for wheat at the “same old figures,” 
and thus get wheat, from 30 to 2o per cent, 
cheaper than formerly. They can therefore 
sell it much cheaper iu the European markets, 
and. of course, the price at which India wheat 
is offered influences the prices offered for 
wheat from other countries. Of course, this 
can’t last. Even the ignorant Hindoo ryots 
will, iu time, learu that the price of silver 
varies as compared with gold; or a fixed ratio 
between the two will be established by inter¬ 
national agreement. This is advocated at 
great length in the report. Anyhow the 
exportable surplus of India wheat is limited, 
aud the recent rise iu the price of wheat here 
and elsewhere probably shows that the end of 
the surplus from tho last crop has already 
been reached, _ 
The Wat To Success.— Twenty clerks in 
a store, 20 hands iu a printing office, 20 ap¬ 
prentices in a shipyard, 20 young men in a 
village—all want to get on in the world, and 
expect to do so. says the Industrial Gazette. 
One of tho clerks will become a partner aud 
make a fortune; one of the compositors will 
own a newspaper aud become an influential 
citizen; one of the apprentices will become a 
master builder; one of tho villagers will get a 
handsome farm and live like a patriarch—but 
which one is the lucky individual I There is no 
luck about it. The thing is almost as certain 
as the rule of three. The young fellow who 
will distance his competitors is he who will mas¬ 
ter his business, who preserves his integrity, 
who lives cleanly and purely, who devotes his 
leisure to the acquisition of knowledge, who 
gains friends by deserving them, aud who 
saves his spare money. There are some way3 
to fortune shorter than this old dusty high¬ 
way; but the staunch men of the community, 
the men who achieve something really worth 
having—good fortune, good name and serene 
old age—all go on this road. 
Canadian Cattle Quarantine.— Dr. Mc- 
Eaehran, Dominion veterinary inspector, has 
made a recommendation to the Government 
that, in consideration of the fact that pleuro¬ 
pneumonia* has existed for several years in 
Chicago, the distributing point of breeding 
stock for the West and Northwest, quarantine 
should be established there. He has also re¬ 
commended the establishment of a ninety days' 
quarantine south of Milk Rock in Alberta, 
Oak Lake in Saskatchewan and at Emerson 
for Manitoba, and that at these points only 
cattle be allowed to enter the Northwest. 
The Doctor left on Saturday for England, 
and while there will confer with the veterin¬ 
ary officers of the Privy Council on behalf of 
the Dominion Governments particularly with 
regard to quarantine matters. He expresses 
the belief that pleuro-pneumonia has been 
completely stamped out at Levis, but the cat¬ 
tle will be detained several mouths longer as 
a precautionary measure. 
SPICE. 
The Montreal (Canada) Horticultural So¬ 
ciety recommends for profit the following ap¬ 
ples for the Province of Quebec: Fameuse and 
Wealthy for Winter; Duchess of Oldenburg 
and YeUow Transparent for Summer; Alexan¬ 
der for Fall. The five best for family use, 
named in the order of their ripeuiug, are: 
Yellow Transparent, Duchess of Oldenburg, 
Lawrence (Fall), Fameuse (early Winter), 
Golden Russet (late* Winter). 
Mu. W. C. Barry says, in the Albany Cul¬ 
tivator, that iu his estimation, tho compara¬ 
tively new pear Superfin cannot lie surpassed 
for flavor. It is large aud handsome with 
smooth aud glossy skin and juicy, vinous, rich 
flesh. The tree grows well aud bears a moder¬ 
ate crop. The pears are too delicate to ship.. 
Mr. Barry praises the Pitmaston Duchess 
as oue of the most promising among newer 
pears. Large, handsome and of excellent 
quality. The tree is not a great bearer. 
Dr. Lucy M. Hall, iuthe Christian LTuiou, 
asks us to imagine a woman with a corsage 
which renders a full inspiration impossible, 
sleeves so tight that the arms ache from pres¬ 
sure, 10 to 20 pounds of skirts hangin i from 
her hips and twisting about her ankles, as 
many pounds of cloak suspended from her 
shoulders, and narrow-toed, high-heeled shoes 
on her feet, trying to take a six or ten mile 
walk! SurelyNaturemadeawise provision 
for the human race when she made women 
hard to kill, otherwise the woiid would soon 
be depopulated for lack of mothers. 
Washington’s last message to Congress 
(1796) has these words. They mast not be for¬ 
gotten: “It will not be doubted that with refer¬ 
ence to either individual or national welfare, 
agriculture is of primary importance. In pro¬ 
portion as nations advance in population and 
other circumstances of maturity, this truth 
becomes more apparent and renders the culti¬ 
vation of the soil more and more an object of 
public patronage. Institutions for promoting 
it grow up, supported by the public purse, 
and to what object can it be dedicated with 
greater propriety?”. ...... 
“At all events,” said a young doctor as he 
heard of another one of his patients’ death, 
“I can take life easy if I am poor."—Life. 
Mr Beecher says that the Anarchist, the 
Socialist, and the dynamiter are as much ene¬ 
mies to our state of society as in the natural 
world are the wolves, the bears and the hy¬ 
enas. In extirpating them there is no more 
harm than there would be in extirpating ad¬ 
ders, rattlesnakes and copperheads.. 
The new Jessie is spoken of by Matthew 
Crawford and others as the most promising 
strawberry they have seen. We shall report 
next season... . 
The next number of the Rural New- 
Yorker will be the Index Number—the last 
of the year. Our subscribers are respectfully 
asked to renew early. 
The honest labor movement of the country 
has an objectionable weight about its neck in 
the shape of that class of “labor agitators” 
who do not labor when they can avoid it, says 
the Kansas Industrialist. 
Idleness and ignorance are the bane of a 
free country. 
The Breeders’ Gazette says that a grade bull 
is better than a scrub, but he is not as good as 
a pure-bred, and if a little of a good thing is 
desirable why is not as much more as possible 
of a good thing more desirable? . 
Orchard and Garden reminds its readers 
thot the amateur can get considerable enjoy¬ 
ment from a few fig trees in this climate.— 
They most be raised in tubs or boxes which 
are to be kept in the cellar or under similar 
shelter in the Winter and out-of-doors in the 
Summer. -. 
The Bredeers' Gazette believes that the 
8100,600 or more expended in the purchase 
and distribution of seeds by the Washington 
Seed Store serve little good purpose beyond 
enabling Congressmen to delude their farmer 
constituents with the idea that their interests 
are being looked after, when, in point of 
fact, their interests are being shamefully 
neglected... 
Farmers can abolish this disgraceful 
Washington seeds business if they will. 
Orchard and Garden does not know of any¬ 
thing more suitable for a shade tree in the 
yard than the stately pecan. It combines 
shade, beauty and utility... 
T. V. Munson says that a peeau tree 15 
years old should produce from three to five 
bushels of nuts, making an income per tree of 
$15. to 820 00. 
Mr. Lovett says that the Lueretia Dew¬ 
berry is best (because it is the simplest way) 
grown as a trailer. But, then, he says, “a 
mulch of clean straw should he provided in 
the Spring.’’ But this is rather expensive 
business.. 
Youjhaveu’t room for a fruit tree in your 
front yard? Then can't you find a place for a 
grape-vine?.... 
The whole country, says Harper's, rose in a 
cry of consternation and indignation at the 
crime of European Anarchists upon American 
soiL It was a crime at once monstrous aud 
causeless; it struck at liberty and justice and 
order. It was perpetrated by the most worth¬ 
less set of men who are pests ever} where and 
whose presence iu this country American 
generosity has tolerated. In this country 
and under our institutions the crime was un¬ 
pardonable .. 
Dr. Beaulieu, iu the Econom iste Francais , 
gives the following as the amount of tobacco 
consumed by each 1,000 people in Europe, each 
year: In Spain, 110 pounds; Italy, 128; 
Great Britain, 138; Prussia, 182; Hungary, 
907; France, 210; Denmark, 284; Norway, 
229; Austria, 278; Germany, 336; Holland, 
448; Belgium, 560.... 
A New Treatment for Consumption 
which is attracting the attention of physician s 
is the injection of remedies directly into the 
lungs by the hypodermic syringe, the needle 
PECAN POTATO. From Nature. Fig. 458. (See p. 840.) 
CHARTER OAK POTATO. From Nature. Fig. 459. (See p. 840.) 
