1883.] 
AMERICAS AGRICULTURIST. 
453 
Even the contemplation of his hoarded dimes, 
quarters, half dollars and dollars, does not confer 
on him the bliss which the tenting season brings 
with it. From miles and miles around on circus 
day the share farmer will travel to 
town. He will bring his whole 
family with him,•from grandsire to 
suckling, park his wagon in a 
suburb or a public square, along 
with scores like him, the night be¬ 
fore the eventful oocasion. One 
might fancy he was in some cap¬ 
tured town in war time to strike 
such a camp at night, with its 
camp fires blazing, its cattle picket 
ed around and the campers busy 
preparing the evening meal or 
later slumbering around the flames 
like soldiers sleeping on their arms. 
The share farmer’s one vice is 
that of all of his class. He will 
drink. But even his drunkenness 
is rather grotesque and amusing 
than disgusting. Still with all his 
faults and weaknesses, the share 
farmer contributes nothing to the 
criminal or dangerous elements of 
society, but preserves a primitive 
honesty and decency, which are 
both noteworthy and praiseworthy. 
For the past few years the apple 
crop has so generally failed in 
England that.it has paid our ex¬ 
porters to send other than the 
best fruit. Some, however, was 
so poor that it did not pay the 
freight. The reports from all parts 
of Great Britain indicate that there 
will be, if not a very large, yet a 
fair crop. Those who ship apples 
to England should take warning. 
Even in their seasons of abundance 
our finest apples will pay, but only- 
the finest. Any inferior fruit sent 
this year will result in a loss to 
the shippers. The reputation of 
American fruit has suffered great¬ 
ly on account of the bad character 
of very many of the shipments. These were not 
only of poor fruit, but dishonestly “topped.” 
A Practical Test of Brahma Eggs. 
It is the practice in some of our Agricultural 
Journals, we notice, to slur the dark-buff eggs of 
the Asiatic fowls, in comparison with the light shell 
eggs of the Leghorns, and the common dunghills. 
Nevertheless as you go into the country stores, 
you find that a large majority of the eggs are buff, 
Fig. 4.— THE FARMER. 
showing that the Brahmas and other Asiatic fowls, 
and their grades are steadily gaining on their rivals. 
At the Quincy Market in Boston, where the econo¬ 
mies and the esthetics of the table are supposed 
to be duly appreciated, a large dealer in eggs gives 
this testimony. Our best customers will buy no 
other eggs but the Brahmas, if obtainable at any 
reasonable price. A single first-class restaurant in 
this city sometimes buys of us ninety dozen a day 
of these dark-colored eggs. All our leading hotels, 
clubs, and many private families arrange for a 
supply of them, paying us at the present time, 
thirty-five cents for a dozen, when we could supply 
common fresh eggs, at twenty-five cents per dozen. 
The product of the light Brahmas are the heaviest 
in the market. We sell thousands of dozens a week, 
and could increase the deliveries, if we could secure 
larger supplies of fresh Brahma eggs. Some of 
our best caterers assert that Brahma eggs, dozen 
for dozen, are worth from fifty to one hundred per 
cent more, in all branches of cooking, than the 
Leghorns or dunghill kinds. They are richer, 
larger, heavier, and more effective. Do you sup¬ 
pose our shrewdest hotel men, and keepers of eating 
houses would pay me thirty-five cents per dozen, 
to-day, for fresh Brahma eggs, when other kinds of 
eggs are on sale for from twenty-four to twenty- 
eight cents, if they did not believe they were get¬ 
ting value received. Such people make a study 
of their business and know where and how to 
economize, but they never buy cheap eggs, 
when the best are on hand. 
This is the testimony of an egg dealer, in the 
largest market of New England, after an experi¬ 
ence of twenty-five years. After a still longer ex¬ 
perience in the raising of a great variety of the 
popular breeds, we have settled upon the Light 
Brahmas as, on the whole, the best breed for a 
villager to keep. Bred in their purity they are 
handsome enough to meet the esthetic demand, 
they are excellent winter layers, the eggs are A. 
No. 1, they make early broilers, and when an adult 
bird is cooked, you have enough for the family. 
Further evidence of the superiority of dark-colored 
eggs, is found in the fact that the celebrated “Cre¬ 
ole Eggs ” of New Orleans are buff. These are re¬ 
garded as so much superior, that the hotels gener¬ 
ally have them on the bills of fare as a distinct item. 
The Safety of Paris Green on Cabbages. 
We are but just recovering, in some of the rural 
districts, from the scare of using Paris Green to 
kill the potato bugs. Some farm¬ 
ers are still afraid to use it, from 
fear that in some unaccountable 
way it may poison the tubers. 
Many will not use potatoes if they 
know that they have been grown 
where this poison is used. A like 
prejudice is being fostered in some 
of our exchanges against the use 
of Paris green upon cabbage to kill 
the green worm. This poison is 
the most convenient and effectual 
for killing the worm upon the cab¬ 
bage of anything we have ever 
tried, and after using it for some 
years, and eating the cabbages thus 
raised, we know it to be just as 
safe as the potatoes saved by the 
same poison from the potato bug. 
This any one can see if he will use 
his eyes and his reason. The Paris 
green is applied in water from a 
common watering-pot, the same as 
in the treatment of potatoes. The 
use begins as soon as the pest ap¬ 
pears upon the cabbage, in the 
earlier stages of its growth, before 
the head is formed. All the edible 
part of the cabbage is formed after 
the application, it growing from 
within outward. Not many ap¬ 
plications of the poison are needed 
to destroy the pest. The subse¬ 
quent applications are washed off 
by every rain that falls. Late cab¬ 
bages that have the early treat¬ 
ment are generally entirely free 
from worms long before they are 
fully headed, so that there is no 
need of late treatment. For the 
last six weeks of growth there 
are usually abundant rains, and no 
trace of the poison is left upon 
the vegetable. Then, again, in 
preparing the cabbage for the table, 
the outer leaves, where alone the poison could ad¬ 
here if any were left, being coarse and tough, are 
removed, and the vegetable washed in clean water 
before it is put ill the pot. We have never heard 
of a case of poisoning from this source, and con¬ 
sidering the way cabbage grows, and the fact that 
the edible part never comes in contact with the 
Fig. 5.— THE BANKER. 
poison, we consider the apprehension of peril to 
health or life from this source entirely groundless, 
where the poison is properly applied. Of course 
no one of ordinary intelligence will poison the 
eatable portion of his cabbages. The proof of 
the pudding is in the eating, as we all know. 
Fig. 3.— A GEORGIA interior. — Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
