MISCELLANEOUS.

NICHOLS & MURPHY'S

CENTENNIAL WIND MILL.

Contains all the valuable features of his old "Nichols' Mills" with none of their defects. This is the only balanced mill without a vane. It is the only mill balanced on its center. It is the only mill built on correct scientific principles so as to govern perfectly.

ALL VANES

Are mechanical devices used to overcome the mechanical defect of forcing the wheel to run out of its natural position.

A wind wheel becomes its own vane if no vane is used, hence, vanes—save only to balance the wheel—are useless for good, and are only useful to help blow the mill down.

This mill will stand a heavier wind, run steadier, last longer, and crow louder than any other mill built. Our confidence in the mill warrants us in offering the first mill in each county where we have no agent, at agents' prices and on 30 days' trial.

Our power mills have 25 per cent more power than any mill with a vane. We have also a superior feed mill adapted to wind or other power. It is cheap, durable, efficient. For circulars, mills, and agencies, address

NICHOLS & MURPHY, Elgin, Ill.

(Successors to theBatavia Manf.Co., of Batavia, Ill.)

Sawing Made Easy

Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine!

Sent on 30 Days test Trial.

A Great Saving of Labor & Money.

A boy 16 years old can saw logs FAST and EASY.Miles Murray, Portage, Mich. writes, "Am much pleased with theMONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE. I sawed off a 30-inch log in 2 minutes." For sawing logs into suitable lengths for family stove-wood, and all sorts of log-cutting, it is peerless and unrivaled. Illustrated Catalogue,Free. AGENTS WANTED.Mention this paper. AddressMONARCH MANUFACTURING CO., 163 N. Randolph St., Chicago, Ill.

CHICAGO SCALE CO.2 TON WAGON SCALE, $40. 3 TON, $50.4 Ton $60, Beam Box Included.240 lb. FARMER'S SCALE, $5.The "Little Detective," ¼ oz. to 25 lb. $3.300 OTHER SIZES. Reduced PRICE LIST FREE.FORGES, TOOLS, &c.BEST FORGE MADE FOR LIGHT WORK, $10,40 lb. Anvil and Kit of Tools. $10.Farmers save time and money doing odd jobs.Blowers, Anvils, Vices & Other ArticlesAT LOWEST PRICES, WHOLESALE & RETAIL.

CHICAGO SCALE CO.2 TON WAGON SCALE, $40. 3 TON, $50.4 Ton $60, Beam Box Included.240 lb. FARMER'S SCALE, $5.The "Little Detective," ¼ oz. to 25 lb. $3.300 OTHER SIZES. Reduced PRICE LIST FREE.

CHICAGO SCALE CO.

2 TON WAGON SCALE, $40. 3 TON, $50.

4 Ton $60, Beam Box Included.

240 lb. FARMER'S SCALE, $5.

The "Little Detective," ¼ oz. to 25 lb. $3.

300 OTHER SIZES. Reduced PRICE LIST FREE.

FORGES, TOOLS, &c.BEST FORGE MADE FOR LIGHT WORK, $10,40 lb. Anvil and Kit of Tools. $10.Farmers save time and money doing odd jobs.Blowers, Anvils, Vices & Other ArticlesAT LOWEST PRICES, WHOLESALE & RETAIL.

FORGES, TOOLS, &c.

BEST FORGE MADE FOR LIGHT WORK, $10,

40 lb. Anvil and Kit of Tools. $10.

Farmers save time and money doing odd jobs.

Blowers, Anvils, Vices & Other Articles

AT LOWEST PRICES, WHOLESALE & RETAIL.

THE PROFIT FARM BOILERis simple, perfect, and cheap;the BEST FEED COOKER;the only dumping boiler; empties its kettle in a minute.Over 5,000 in use;Cook your corn and potatoes, and save one-half the cost of pork. Send for circular.D.R. SPERRY & CO., Batavia, Illinois.

THE PROFIT FARM BOILER

is simple, perfect, and cheap;the BEST FEED COOKER;the only dumping boiler; empties its kettle in a minute.Over 5,000 in use;Cook your corn and potatoes, and save one-half the cost of pork. Send for circular.D.R. SPERRY & CO., Batavia, Illinois.

HOOSIER AUGER TILE MILL.

Mills on hand.

Prompt delivery.

FOR PRICES AND CIRCULARS, ADDRESS

NOLAN, MADDEN & CO., Rushville, Ind.

EVAPORATING FRUITFull treatiseon improved methods, yields, profits, prices and general statistics, free.AMERICAN M'FG CO.WAYNESBOROFRANKLIN COUNTY, PA.

EVAPORATING FRUIT

Full treatiseon improved methods, yields, profits, prices and general statistics, free.

AMERICAN M'FG CO.WAYNESBOROFRANKLIN COUNTY, PA.

Self Cure Free

NervousLostWeaknessDebilityManhoodand Decay

A favorite prescription of a noted specialist (now retired.) Druggists can fill it. Address

DR. WARD & CO., LOUISIANA, MO.

40(1884) Chromo Cards, no 2 alike, with name,10c., 13 pks, $1. GEORGE I. REED & CO., Nassau, N.Y.

REMEMBERthat$2.00pays forThe Prairie Farmerfrom this date to January1, 1885;For$2.00you get it for one year and a copy ofThe Prairie Farmer County Map of the United States, free!This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.

LIVE STOCK DEPARTMENT. Stockmen. Write for Your Paper.

Americanbreeders imported from Scotland 850 head of polled cattle last year.

W. C. Vandercook, Secretary of the Northern Illinois Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, recently took 900 Merino sheep to his recently purchased ranch in Norton county, Kansas.

Mr. Estill, of Estill, Mo., passed through Chicago, a few days ago, with forty head of Angus-Aberdeen and Hereford cattle. Estill & Elliott now own one of the best polled herds in the West.

Thesecond regular annual meeting of the Kansas State Short-horn Breeders' Association will be held in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol, Topeka, Kan., during February 12 and 13, beginning at 7P. M.of the 12th.

Theseventh annual meeting of the Dutch-Fresian Association of America will be held at the Butterfield House, Utica, N. Y., February 6, 1884. Essays and addresses are expected from a number of distinguished stock breeders.

TheLafayette County Thoroughbred Live Stock Breeders' Association was recently organized at Higginsville, Mo. They will hold annual public sales and otherwise advance the improved stock interest. Their first sale will be held at Higginsville, October 15 and 16, 1884.

Thefollowing is a list of Jerseys exported from the island during the past year: Mr. Francis Le Brocq exported 848 cows, bulls, 28—total, 876. Mr. Eugene J. Arnold sent out 656 cows, 47 bulls—total, 703. Sundry shippers sold 158 cows and 7 bulls—total, 165. Grand total, 1,744 head.

Ourreaders will not fail to notice the public sale ad. of Mr. Wm. Yule, of Somers, Wis., who will, on the 19th day of March, disperse his entire herd of thoroughbred Short-horn cattle. The herd numbers forty head, and is the opening sale of the season, and will be one of the most attractive ones of the year. They are all of his own breeding. Send for catalogue, which will be ready about February 15.

Horse-stealingseems to be as prevalent in England as in this country. A late London live-stock journal says there is as much of it going on as there was half a century ago. A gang has recently been operating in Kent, Essex, and Surrey quite extensively. The thieves are no respecters of breeds, taking hunters, cart horses and carriage horses with equal boldness. Arrests are becoming frequent, and it seems likely the gang will soon be broken up.

The following addresses may be of use to many readers ofThe Prairie Farmerwho may wish to record stock or purchase books:

American Short-horn Herd Book—W. T. Bailey, Secretary, 27 Montauk block, Chicago, Ill.

National Register of Norman Horses—T. Butterworth, Secretary, Quincy, Ill.

American Clydesdale Stud Book—Charles F. Mills, Secretary, Springfield, Ill.

American Hereford Record—Breeders' Live Stock Association, Beecher, Ill.

Holstein Herd Book—Thos. B. Wales, Secretary, Iowa City, Iowa.

Herd Register—American Jersey Cattle Club, Geo. E. Waring, Secretary, Newport, R. I.

American Poland-China Record—John Gilmore, Secretary, Vinton, Iowa.

Central Poland-China Record, Mr. Morris, Secretary, Indianapolis, Ind.

Our readers will remember that we last week made mention of a change in the sweepstakes rings at the next Illinois State Fair. This was a slight error. The change was made with reference to the Fat Stock Show. In this connection we present the argument of Hon. John P. Reynolds, on the subject before the board and which governed the board in its action.

To the State Board of Agriculture.

Gentlemen.—The undersigned, Superintendent of class A., respectfully submits the following report for the past year, including the fair in September, and the Fat Stock Show in November.

It was perfectly apparent to any one familiar with the displays of previous years in this department, that the breeding of fine cattle in this country is, at the present time, attracting the attention and commanding the best and most intelligent care of not alone the farmers who have been bred to their avocation, but of capitalists, who comprehend the great money values involved, and who either of themselves or through their sons have set out to identify themselves with this great interest. As the result of the fact the display of cattle was more varied as to breeds and greater as to number, if not superior as to quality, than at any fair, while the visitors in attendance seeking to purchase and studying the question of breeds with a view to purchase for breeding purposes, were never so numerous nor so much in earnest.

Under such circumstances, it may easily be imagined that the awards of prizes, not for the money value of the prizes themselves, but for the bearing of such honors upon the interests of exhibitors in regard to sales, assumed an unusual importance and involved a corresponding responsibility on the part of this board. Impressed, as I think, with a proper sense of that responsibility, and of the embarrassment which always surround that position, as your representative I discharged the duty to the best of my ability.

The most serious and perhaps, the only embarrassment which I should refer to in this report, was the absence of so large a proportion of the members of awarding committees originally selected, rendering it necessary to fill the places of the absentees by selections from the by-standers after the cattle had been called to the rings. Some of you "have been there" and have a realizing sense of the difficulties involved in the effort to make these substitutions intelligently and with conscientious care, on the spur of the moment. To do so in all cases with satisfaction to one's self is simply impossible, and to do it in all cases with satisfaction to unlucky competing exhibitors is not to be expected. If I could do the first and feel sure that the talisman had been wisely selected, it would be easy to disregard complaints, if any, which are known to be unjust.

The question of so modifying our committee system as to avoid the embarrassment I have referred to and thus to secure a better deserved confidence in the justice of the awards is one I hope to hear discussed at this meeting as it has been probably at every meeting of our predecessors for the past thirty years.

Possibly we are in the light of our own experience, with a different system at the Fat Stock Shows prepared to try something else at the fairs; but of this I do not feel certain.

The remarks I have made in regard to the display at the fair and the great interest it excited apply with, if possible, still greater force to the Fat Stock Show. Your record shows all material facts in respect to numbers and quality of the stock on exhibition, and I need not enlarge.

The importance of this enterprise, in its relation to the meat supply of the world, can hardly be over-stated, and its direct results to the producers of the meat producing breeds of stock as well as to the consumers, are too apparent to require discussion.

The rules and methods adopted by the board for conducting this show seems to need but little change—some slight modifications of the requirements of the premium list will be proposed when that subject shall come up for consideration, but beyond these there is but one subject which I regard as of sufficient importance to demand a suggestion from me at this time. I refer to the number of and division of duties among the awarding committees.

The method of selecting judges seems to me all right and there was much less difficulty in securing their attendance than at the fair. A few did not respond, but their places were filled satisfactorily in most cases. The wisdom of the appointment of your committee to decide upon the age of all animals on exhibition, prior to the commencement of the work of the judges and entirely independent of any suggestion or wish on the part of exhibitors, was practically demonstrated so that there is probably now no desire to discontinue it. In this case their discussions corroborated and established the statements and good faith of the exhibitors themselves in every instance except one, in which one the result was unimportant.

The special feature to which I desire to call your attention may perhaps be best understood if I express my own views in regard to it.

At present it is the practice for one committee of judges to make the awards on the animals of each breed in their several rings of yearlings, two-year-olds, and three-year-olds. After that has been done it is the practice for another committee to select the sweepstakes animals from among all the entries of all ages of that breed without regard to the prizes which the former committee may have awarded.

Now it not infrequently happens, and is always liable to occur, that the latter committee selects as the best animal of any age one which the former committee did not deem worthy of any prize at all or at least not a first prize, when judged by them in competition with these of its own age only. Evidently there is a mistake somewhere. Both decisions can not be correct. Both committees, we are bound to assume are equally honest, disinterested, and competent, because the members of both committees considered in making up a decision such discrepancy of judgment and the system which renders it possible may be almost excusable, perhaps, but in the Fat Stock Show, where we deal so fully in details and exact figures, and where we pretend to use our best efforts in every practical manner to get at and publish for the benefit of a confiding world the reliable, bottom facts obtained by the labors of paid experts, reach a conflicting record is not, in any judgement, one to be greatly proud of.

There is one plain, just and proper remedy for this, to wit: Restrict the award of sweepstakes prizes in the several breed rings to such animals as have taken first premiums in the rings for ages, and restrict competition forgrand sweepstakesto such animals as have takensweepstakeprizes in the breed rings as have not otherwise competed at all. The awards of all special prizes should follow the decisions in the regular rings when not offered for animals not included in the regular rings.

Under this rule every animal competing for a sweepstakes prize, with possible exceptions in the grand sweepstakes, would have received the highest indorsement of the committees, and hence there could be no pretense of prejudice on the part of the judges and hence, too, it would matter very little whether a new competent committee were called for the grand sweepstakes or that committee was composed of judges who served in the rings, the latter, in my opinion, being preferable, because of their larger opportunity in becoming familiar with the points of difference between the competing animals.

I am persuaded that no objection to the remedy as I have stated it, would or could properly be made except by those whose animals were not included in the first prize or sweepstakes winners, and the only objection I have ever heard to the adoption of the rule, even at the fairs, is based on the idea that those animals (or the owners) failing to take prizes in the rings for ages, should have a "new trial" before an entirely new jury in sweepstakes. But how about those who won the verdict in the first trial! Is there any justice in requiring them to submit to another trial between themselves and those they have once vanquished? and if there is any propriety in that, why not in still another new trial and more new trials before new juries until every animal in the show has received a first prize, or the treasury has been exhausted or the community fails to furnish any more jurymen?

If it were simply the "consolation stakes" to non-prize winners, some loose practice might seem justifiable, but it is not the best policy in conducting the competitions of the Fat Stock Show to be influenced by any considerations except those which relate to fair, impartial and intelligent decisions, and no decisions can be fair, impartial and intelligent which conflict with each other and which, as a whole, fail to form a consistent record.

John P. Reynolds,Supt. Class A.

James F. Scottpurchased 200 mares and 500 one and two year old colts to be delivered on the 15th of March at the San Antonio Viego ranch.

Where land is not too high, and pasturage good as well as cheap, keeping good mares from which young mules can be raised is certainly a profitable business; especially so where corn and hay are grown on the farm, and the mares can be profitably worked at least part of the year.

With a liberal supply of corn fodder for winter feeding, and a good pasture, with hay and corn during the coldest weather, and when at work, this branch of farming is not only easy, but certain and profitable. A mare in good condition, not counting pasturage, can be kept for eight dollars a year. Service of jack here is generally six dollars, making keeping of mare and service cost fourteen. There has been no time since I came to this part of the State when a mule colt would not bring all the way from twenty-five to fifty dollars, depending, of course, upon the size, form, and general condition at weaning time. Allowing nothing for the work the mare would be able to do, which certainly ought to be sufficient to pay for her keep, there is left a good margin for profit. Or if we count the interest on the money invested in the mare, still we have a good profit left. The difference paid for young mules shows two facts: first, the importance of a good sire, or jack, and the other of a well-formed mare. It certainly costs no more money to keep a well-formed animal than it does to keep a poor one. Of course, at the start, one may require a somewhat larger outlay of money, and in this way, if we count the interest on the money invested, cause young mules to cost a trifle more than if cheaper animals were used. But this is more than compensated for by the larger price the colt will bring.

The difference between a mare that will bring a mule that only sells for the lowest price here at weaning time, twenty-five dollars, and one that brings a mule that will sell for fifty, the highest generally obtained, would make quite an item in the amount of profit to be derived from her keep, and especially where the same animals are kept quite a number of years for this purpose, as is often the case.

And this is not all; the mule will himself pay handsomely for keeping. Mules a year old, that are broken to the halter, so that they can be led, bring from eighty to one hundred dollars. When two years old, and broken to to the wagon as well as saddle, one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five dollars is the general price. Of course a pair of well matched mules, well broken to harness, at three or four years, will sell all the way from three to five hundred dollars, depending upon their color, form, size, etc. And this difference is, in nearly all cases the result of the difference between good and poor jacks, as well as good and poor mares. One other point must always be taken into account in this work, and that is in having mares that are sure breeders.

I find that those who have made most money out of this line of farming or stock-raising are those who, when they have secured a valuable brood mare that is sure of bringing a first-class mule colt, they not only keep her, but they take good care of her; and in this way they secure the very best results and realize the largest profits.

Where proper care is taken not to overwork or strain them, mares can always be profitably worked in planting and cultivating the corn crop, as well as cribbing it in the fall; fully enough work can be done to pay for what they eat and the pasturage. So that the cost of service and interest on the money invested is what the mule costs at weaning time. After that time, of course, they cost something more, as weaning time generally comes in the fall at about the time that pastures fail, and corn fodder, wheat straw, and hay, with a small amount of grain during the winter must be fed to keep the colt growing in good condition. Many farmers who do not care to go to the trouble of breaking young mules, dispose of them at weaning time; while others find it profitable to buy these up at whatever prices they are obtainable, and keep until they are two or three years old; during this time they are broken to lead, to ride, and to work.

To be sure, there is some risk connected with this, but, on the whole, it is considered very remunerative—so much so that many young men who manage to get enough cash ahead will buy one or two mule colts in the fall at weaning time and keep them until well broken in, and they sell at a profit, and in this way make a good start for themselves. As compared with other branches of stock-raising, there is less risk in this than in almost any other branch of farm stock.

N. J. Shepherd.Miller Co., Mo.

The Dairy.Dairymen, Write for Your Paper.

The convention of Wisconsin dairymen, at Lake Mills, last week, was an excellent one. It was largely attended by the most prominent and experienced dairymen of this wonderful dairy State.

The people of Lake Mills did their utmost to make the visit of delegates pleasant, and they succeeded admirably. The crowning feature of their hospitality was the banquet on Thursday night. The feast was prepared by the ladies of the M. E. church. The supper, the toasts and responses, the music and all were enjoyable in the highest degree. Wisconsin dairymen believe in banquets. A leading member of the convention declared that the prosperous history of the association began with its first banquet.

Governor Rusk was in attendance at this convention, and his address was one calculated to encourage and help on the association. He assured the members that if they thought the association needed legislative aid, all they have to do is to ask for it. If they ask for $5,000, he will do his best to have the appropriation bill passed, and he will sign the enactment promptly when it reaches him for signature. He believes Wisconsin one of the foremost of dairy States, and he wants it to retain its position.

Among other prominent gentlemen present who participated in the discussions were Prof. Henry, of the Agricultural Department of the State University; Hon. Clinton Babbitt, Secretary of the State Agricultural Society; Hon. Hiram Smith, Chester Hazen, S. Favile, J. M. Smith, J. H. Smith, J. B. Harris, Inspector of Dairy Factories, Canada, and T. D. Curtis, Syracuse, N. Y.

The election of officers resulted in retaining the incumbents of last year for another year's service. These gentlemen are: W. H. Morrison, Elkhorn, President; D. W. Curtis, Fort Atkinson, Secretary; H. K. Loomis, Treasurer.

One of the prominent papers read was on Co-operative Dairying, by J. B. Harris, Esq., of Antwerp, N. Y., who is employed by the Canadian government as inspector of cheese and butter factories. We will give it in full, and follow next week with some account of the discussions.

In all human efforts, grand results have been attained chiefly by concert of action.In our own time, everything is done by co-operation. Railways across continents, canals uniting oceans and seas, bridges almost of fabulous proportions, enterprises in engineering and commerce, never before known, evince the extent to which modern genius is availing itself of concert of effort in testing human capacity.There is a visible tendency in all branches of business toward co-operation and centralization.In looking down upon a large city, the unity visible even in the diversity of human affairs manifests itself in a manner truly wonderful. The air is literally filled with a vast net-work of wire, crossing and re-crossing in every conceivable direction, and over these, backward and forward, the thoughts of men are made to vibrate with the speed of lightning, in the elaboration and consummation of thousands of business schemes, and the air, as well as the buildings and streets, is full of human activity and enterprise. The lawyer, sitting comfortably at his desk in his office, talks with his banker, physician, grocer, a hundred clients, and his family, all seated like him himself at home, or at their various places of business. Thus is the telephone made the instrument of human co-operation and concert of action.It is now less than thirty years since dairymen stumbled into the practice of co-operation in the business of making-cheese. Previous to that time cheese-making in this country was, to say the least, a crude affair. Every farmer ran his own factory, according to his own peculiar notion, and disposed of his products as he could "light on" chaps. In that day, cheese-making was guess work and hap-hazard. To-day it is a science. Then there were as many rules and methods as there were men. To-day the laws which nature has enacted, to govern the process of converting milk into cheese, are codified, and cheese-making has become a profession. In that day the accumulated results of the cheese industry of a neighborhood or township was a sight to behold—all manner of circular blocks, of concentrated error, large and small, thick and thin, when heaped together presented a spectacle that would now bring a smile upon the countenance of the most sober and dignified cheese-maker in the State.The condition of the market at that time was quite as crude and irregular as the system, or rather the want of system, in manufacturing. There was no cable, no regular reports from the great business centers of the land, no regularly organized boards of trade, railroads not as numerous, less daily papers were in circulation, and many other circumstances which left the seller comparatively at the mercy of the buyer, and the purchase and sale of a dairy was conducted upon principles similar to those usually practiced in a horse trade.The great changes which since that day have taken place in the dairying world are due chiefly to a division of labor, the introduction of system and co-operation. Our machinery, we are sorry to say, is not yet quite perfect in all its parts, and does not move with the precision and harmony of the orchestra, to which we have already alluded. Yet, although still in its infancy, it has already produced and does annually produce results grand indeed.If we take a glance at the various industries at which men are to-day engaged, intellectual, commercial, and mechanical, the painstaking exactitude everywhere practiced will be found to be a growing subject of wonder and admiration. The secret of this lies in the fact that perfection in any department of business not only enlarges that business but also enriches those engaged in it. For example: there are perhaps ten times as many watches manufactured in the world to-day as at any other period in its history. It is a profitable business, or men would not engage in it, and the superhuman effort that is being continually put forth to increase the value, by making as perfect an article as human power can produce, establishes conclusively the assertion that there is always a profit in doing well. I am glad to observe that in the cheese industry of the United States and Canada, the light of this truth has to some extent aroused the slumbering dairymen. To quote from the Utica Herald of Sept. 11, 1883: "It is estimated that about 700,000 men are employed in this business, in one capacity or another, and that about 15,000,000 cows are used to furnish the one product of milk. The returns from this product are over $800,000,000. The total amount of capital invested in dairying in the United States is estimated to reach the enormous sum of $2,000,000,000." In consulting these figures we hope there is no person so dense of understanding as to entertain for a moment the idea that had the old system of every man his own cheese-maker prevailed that anything approaching this grand result would ever have been attained. Never. The concert or effort attained in the factory system is the key note to this grand, soul-inspiring chorus.But an experience of twenty-five years in the dairy industry leads me to the conclusion that in the music of our business there is yet much discord. The dairymen and factorymen fail to understand the spirit of the piece we are attempting to perform, and fail to catch the idea that individual profit and prosperity depend upon the success of the business as a whole. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and so long as there remains a slovenly dairyman in the business just so long our system will be incomplete and the working of co-operation remain imperfect. Perfect concert of effort, unbroken unity of hand with hand, in all the various details of the business, reaching down to the most unimportant items in the production of milk and the making of cheese, will produce in the long run the most profitable and permanent results to the individual as well as to the community."But," say some, "there is too much of the millennium, too much of theory, too much of the unattainable, in all this." To such I answer that there is much of the millennium, much of theory, and much of the unattainable in the Sermon on the Mount, and yet our Divine Master preached it, nevertheless.It may perhaps be considered chimerical and theorizing to talk of a time when there will be no such persons among dairymen as what are known to the cheese-maker as a skimmer or stripper, but we hope such a time will come, nevertheless.To what purpose do A., B., and C., and a score of other industrious, honest, painstaking fellows, exert themselves to collect a model dairy, sparing neither time nor expense in providing themselves with perfect sets of improved appurtenances for those dairies, from rich, well-watered pastures down to good, substantial three-legged milking stools, and labor incessantly from sunrise until sundown, that their barns may be in perfect order and everything connected with the business neat and clean, in order that their material may come into the hands of the manufacturer in a perfect condition—if heedless, lazy, shiftless, dishonest, ignorant, good-for-nothing D. keeps about him a herd of sick, disconsolated racks-of-bones, to wander over his arid and desolate fields in search of food and drink in summer, or with backs humped up, hover together for shelter under the lea of a wheat-straw stack, their only food in winter, and using a kit of dairying tools, the very best article of which is an old, water-soaked, dirty wooden pail, drawing his whey from the factory in the old, rusty, time-embattled milk cans, in which it is allowed to stand until the next milking, and which, after an imperfect washing, and refilled and returned to the factory, freighted with a compound sufficiently poisoned to nullify and undo the best efforts of a hundred A., B., and C's. It may be theorizing and visionary to talk of a time when the spirit of co-operation shall have driven such fellows out of the dairying business, to betake themselves with a pick-ax and spade to the ditch, but that such a time may come ought to be the earnest prayer of every thorough-going friend of co-operation in the land.It may seem like castle building and an unprofitable waste of time to indulge in theories and construct plans by which the rivalry among factorymen may be kept within a limit sufficiently circumscribed to prevent the fear of loss of patronage from interfering with, and lowering the standard of, our cheese. It is too often the case, nowadays, that factorymen are deterred from a full and complete discharge of their duty to themselves, their patrons, and the world in general, by a fear, by no means groundless, that a bold and upright course with regard to the material brought to them will result in a damaging, if not entire loss, of their occupation.The unwise extent to which men have gone in the erection of cheese factories, has increased competition to an extent decidedly prejudicial to the interest of the cheese-consuming world. A., having invested his entire capital in the construction and equipment of a factory, will be quite likely, when B., C., and D. erect factories in his immediate neighborhood, to hold his peace when sundry varieties of swill milk are offered at his door, instead of speaking out an equivocal protest against the insult thus offered to his professional pride and sense of decency.To the dairyman naturally given to slovenly and careless habits, the restraint to which he might otherwise be subjected is practically removed when nearly equi-distant from his place of abode there are three or four factories, instead of one, and he knows that if rejected at one place, he can without inconvenience go to another, and thus it transpires that at five factories in every ten there will be found a conspicuous absence of thorough and inexorable discriminations which ought always to prevail in the receipt of milk for factory purposes.For this abuse there is, in our estimation, a remedy however theoretical and visionary it may appear, and that is concert of action and co-operation among factorymen. Men in all branches of business, nowadays, associate with each other, and form themselves into bodies for the purpose of closer union and mutual protection, and when this is done for the general good, as well as individual advancement, the purpose is laudable and universally successful.We know of no business in which the necessity of combination is so great as that of cheese-making, and, what, let me ask, could be more desirable and praiseworthy than an association of cheese-makers, for the purpose of sending the swill milk of the country to the hogs, where it belongs, instead of making it up, as at present, for human consumption.We have an idea that such an association might be successfully formed, and that, when once in effectual operation, it might ask the legislative body of its country to enact a law, entitled "An Act for the suppression of swill milk, and for the general good of mankind," in which it should be provided, among other things, that in every case where a dairyman has left a factory on account of having had his milk rejected for cause traceable to his negligence, that in all such cases, the factory or factory company knowingly receiving the milk of such rejected party, shall be liable to some appropriate penalty.The extreme sensitiveness of milk in the absorption of taint from the atmosphere, or any substance with which it comes in contact, ought to be thoroughly understood by all persons engaged in handling it, but, we believe, that but few comparatively are alive to the true facts of the case. I herewith present several paragraphs clipped from journals of recent date:"There are seventy-five cases of typhoid fever in the town of Port Jarvis. Dr. McDonald attributes the spread of the disease to the use of milk from the farm of Mrs. Thomas Cuddebach, in whose family there have been several typhoid cases, holding that the milk conveyed the disease germs. Nearly all of the parties now sick had used milk from the farm.""A dairyman from Dundee has been apprehended and fined for allowing his wife and daughter to milk cows and assist in the sale of milk, after they had been engaged in nursing a child suffering from scarlet fever. No less than nineteen cases of fever, four of which resulted fatally, were traced to this act of carelessness."With these facts in view, how can it be expected that any amount of diligence on the part of a cheese-maker can atone for the unpardonable sin committed, day after day, by the heedless and unobserving patrons, of leaving a can of freshly drawn milk standing all night in an unwholesome barn or yard, until it has absorbed a whole family of pestilential odors, and then to carry it to the factory to corrupt and poison everything with which it comes in contact.Some may suppose it a mere theory to speak of a condition of things in which abuses of this character can not be found, but during an experience of five years as cheese instructor, in the Province of Ontario, during which I superintended the making of cheese in about 400 different factories, and during the last year inspected the milk from about 65,000 cows, the property of about 7,000 dairymen, I occasionally made up vats in which there was no discoverable taint and which, I was pretty certain, came from the farms of well drilled, well posted dairymen, and, from a circumstance of this character, I am led to the conclusion that what has been done once can be done again, and I make such facts a text upon which I found my plea for more thorough co-operation and diligent painstaking in the work of producing milk for factory purposes.There may be times when peculiar atmospheric conditions will exert unfavorable influences, and seasons when drought and wet weather will produce changes, over which human efforts have no control, and for these sufficient allowance must be made. We quarrel with the stupidity, shiftlessness, and ignorance of men, and not with the providence of God.In this day and age of the world there is no excuse for ignorance upon the points to which we have alluded. Wisdom uttereth her voice in the streets, and he who will not hear her ought to be drummed out of the camp of dairymen. As a rule, a common carpenter puts more thought into his business in a month than many dairymen do in a year. Indeed, it would be difficult to point out a single branch of human industry, of one-half the magnitude which the manufacture and sale of cheese has reached, carried on in a manner so slipshod and slovenly as dairying.The banker, the columns of whose ledger fail by one cent of balancing, spares neither time nor money in searching out and correcting the error; the merchant brings to bear upon his business a care and insight so unceasing and laborious that his locks are soon sprinkled with premature silver; the machinist works to plans from which the variation of a thousandth part of an inch can not be allowed to pass uncorrected; but the dairyman too often stumbles along through his work without thought, or employs the little intellect he has in putting in and harvesting his crops, leaving the dairy in the meantime to take care of itself. There are too many men engaged in dairying who can see nothing in the business beyond the factory dividend; men to whom filling the milk pail and the can are the Alpha and Omega of life. To such men such a thing as an ambition that their county, town, or neighborhood shall attain and hold a reputation for being the banner cheese district of the State or nation, is as thoroughly unknown as the configuration of the bottom of the Dead sea.In saying what we have about the patrons of cheese factories, and the closer and more thorough co-operation among them, we have been actuated by no feelings of unkindness or ill will, nor have we arraigned them upon trivial or imaginary charges. The indictments we have found against them are all true bills, against which too many of them will be unable to sustain the plea of not guilty. We have been constrained to our present course by an overmastering sense of the importance of greater care, deeper thought, and closer union in pushing forward one of the greatest industries of the day. I am confident that before another step can be taken in advance it must be preluded by a correction of the errors which we have feebly attempted to portray, all of which lie outside and prior to the factory. As a body, cheese-makers can do little better than they are now doing, until there is some improvement in the material upon which they are called upon to exercise their skill, and the practice of crimination and recrimination, the factorymen tossing the blame upon the dairymen and the dairymen upon the factorymen, which is made use of to conceal the real source of our mistakes, will continue to shield him from the eyes of a discriminating public until the care and diligence of dairymen strip him of this shelter and drive him forward on the march to improvement.

In all human efforts, grand results have been attained chiefly by concert of action.

In our own time, everything is done by co-operation. Railways across continents, canals uniting oceans and seas, bridges almost of fabulous proportions, enterprises in engineering and commerce, never before known, evince the extent to which modern genius is availing itself of concert of effort in testing human capacity.

There is a visible tendency in all branches of business toward co-operation and centralization.

In looking down upon a large city, the unity visible even in the diversity of human affairs manifests itself in a manner truly wonderful. The air is literally filled with a vast net-work of wire, crossing and re-crossing in every conceivable direction, and over these, backward and forward, the thoughts of men are made to vibrate with the speed of lightning, in the elaboration and consummation of thousands of business schemes, and the air, as well as the buildings and streets, is full of human activity and enterprise. The lawyer, sitting comfortably at his desk in his office, talks with his banker, physician, grocer, a hundred clients, and his family, all seated like him himself at home, or at their various places of business. Thus is the telephone made the instrument of human co-operation and concert of action.

It is now less than thirty years since dairymen stumbled into the practice of co-operation in the business of making-cheese. Previous to that time cheese-making in this country was, to say the least, a crude affair. Every farmer ran his own factory, according to his own peculiar notion, and disposed of his products as he could "light on" chaps. In that day, cheese-making was guess work and hap-hazard. To-day it is a science. Then there were as many rules and methods as there were men. To-day the laws which nature has enacted, to govern the process of converting milk into cheese, are codified, and cheese-making has become a profession. In that day the accumulated results of the cheese industry of a neighborhood or township was a sight to behold—all manner of circular blocks, of concentrated error, large and small, thick and thin, when heaped together presented a spectacle that would now bring a smile upon the countenance of the most sober and dignified cheese-maker in the State.

The condition of the market at that time was quite as crude and irregular as the system, or rather the want of system, in manufacturing. There was no cable, no regular reports from the great business centers of the land, no regularly organized boards of trade, railroads not as numerous, less daily papers were in circulation, and many other circumstances which left the seller comparatively at the mercy of the buyer, and the purchase and sale of a dairy was conducted upon principles similar to those usually practiced in a horse trade.

The great changes which since that day have taken place in the dairying world are due chiefly to a division of labor, the introduction of system and co-operation. Our machinery, we are sorry to say, is not yet quite perfect in all its parts, and does not move with the precision and harmony of the orchestra, to which we have already alluded. Yet, although still in its infancy, it has already produced and does annually produce results grand indeed.

If we take a glance at the various industries at which men are to-day engaged, intellectual, commercial, and mechanical, the painstaking exactitude everywhere practiced will be found to be a growing subject of wonder and admiration. The secret of this lies in the fact that perfection in any department of business not only enlarges that business but also enriches those engaged in it. For example: there are perhaps ten times as many watches manufactured in the world to-day as at any other period in its history. It is a profitable business, or men would not engage in it, and the superhuman effort that is being continually put forth to increase the value, by making as perfect an article as human power can produce, establishes conclusively the assertion that there is always a profit in doing well. I am glad to observe that in the cheese industry of the United States and Canada, the light of this truth has to some extent aroused the slumbering dairymen. To quote from the Utica Herald of Sept. 11, 1883: "It is estimated that about 700,000 men are employed in this business, in one capacity or another, and that about 15,000,000 cows are used to furnish the one product of milk. The returns from this product are over $800,000,000. The total amount of capital invested in dairying in the United States is estimated to reach the enormous sum of $2,000,000,000." In consulting these figures we hope there is no person so dense of understanding as to entertain for a moment the idea that had the old system of every man his own cheese-maker prevailed that anything approaching this grand result would ever have been attained. Never. The concert or effort attained in the factory system is the key note to this grand, soul-inspiring chorus.

But an experience of twenty-five years in the dairy industry leads me to the conclusion that in the music of our business there is yet much discord. The dairymen and factorymen fail to understand the spirit of the piece we are attempting to perform, and fail to catch the idea that individual profit and prosperity depend upon the success of the business as a whole. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and so long as there remains a slovenly dairyman in the business just so long our system will be incomplete and the working of co-operation remain imperfect. Perfect concert of effort, unbroken unity of hand with hand, in all the various details of the business, reaching down to the most unimportant items in the production of milk and the making of cheese, will produce in the long run the most profitable and permanent results to the individual as well as to the community.

"But," say some, "there is too much of the millennium, too much of theory, too much of the unattainable, in all this." To such I answer that there is much of the millennium, much of theory, and much of the unattainable in the Sermon on the Mount, and yet our Divine Master preached it, nevertheless.

It may perhaps be considered chimerical and theorizing to talk of a time when there will be no such persons among dairymen as what are known to the cheese-maker as a skimmer or stripper, but we hope such a time will come, nevertheless.

To what purpose do A., B., and C., and a score of other industrious, honest, painstaking fellows, exert themselves to collect a model dairy, sparing neither time nor expense in providing themselves with perfect sets of improved appurtenances for those dairies, from rich, well-watered pastures down to good, substantial three-legged milking stools, and labor incessantly from sunrise until sundown, that their barns may be in perfect order and everything connected with the business neat and clean, in order that their material may come into the hands of the manufacturer in a perfect condition—if heedless, lazy, shiftless, dishonest, ignorant, good-for-nothing D. keeps about him a herd of sick, disconsolated racks-of-bones, to wander over his arid and desolate fields in search of food and drink in summer, or with backs humped up, hover together for shelter under the lea of a wheat-straw stack, their only food in winter, and using a kit of dairying tools, the very best article of which is an old, water-soaked, dirty wooden pail, drawing his whey from the factory in the old, rusty, time-embattled milk cans, in which it is allowed to stand until the next milking, and which, after an imperfect washing, and refilled and returned to the factory, freighted with a compound sufficiently poisoned to nullify and undo the best efforts of a hundred A., B., and C's. It may be theorizing and visionary to talk of a time when the spirit of co-operation shall have driven such fellows out of the dairying business, to betake themselves with a pick-ax and spade to the ditch, but that such a time may come ought to be the earnest prayer of every thorough-going friend of co-operation in the land.

It may seem like castle building and an unprofitable waste of time to indulge in theories and construct plans by which the rivalry among factorymen may be kept within a limit sufficiently circumscribed to prevent the fear of loss of patronage from interfering with, and lowering the standard of, our cheese. It is too often the case, nowadays, that factorymen are deterred from a full and complete discharge of their duty to themselves, their patrons, and the world in general, by a fear, by no means groundless, that a bold and upright course with regard to the material brought to them will result in a damaging, if not entire loss, of their occupation.

The unwise extent to which men have gone in the erection of cheese factories, has increased competition to an extent decidedly prejudicial to the interest of the cheese-consuming world. A., having invested his entire capital in the construction and equipment of a factory, will be quite likely, when B., C., and D. erect factories in his immediate neighborhood, to hold his peace when sundry varieties of swill milk are offered at his door, instead of speaking out an equivocal protest against the insult thus offered to his professional pride and sense of decency.

To the dairyman naturally given to slovenly and careless habits, the restraint to which he might otherwise be subjected is practically removed when nearly equi-distant from his place of abode there are three or four factories, instead of one, and he knows that if rejected at one place, he can without inconvenience go to another, and thus it transpires that at five factories in every ten there will be found a conspicuous absence of thorough and inexorable discriminations which ought always to prevail in the receipt of milk for factory purposes.

For this abuse there is, in our estimation, a remedy however theoretical and visionary it may appear, and that is concert of action and co-operation among factorymen. Men in all branches of business, nowadays, associate with each other, and form themselves into bodies for the purpose of closer union and mutual protection, and when this is done for the general good, as well as individual advancement, the purpose is laudable and universally successful.

We know of no business in which the necessity of combination is so great as that of cheese-making, and, what, let me ask, could be more desirable and praiseworthy than an association of cheese-makers, for the purpose of sending the swill milk of the country to the hogs, where it belongs, instead of making it up, as at present, for human consumption.

We have an idea that such an association might be successfully formed, and that, when once in effectual operation, it might ask the legislative body of its country to enact a law, entitled "An Act for the suppression of swill milk, and for the general good of mankind," in which it should be provided, among other things, that in every case where a dairyman has left a factory on account of having had his milk rejected for cause traceable to his negligence, that in all such cases, the factory or factory company knowingly receiving the milk of such rejected party, shall be liable to some appropriate penalty.

The extreme sensitiveness of milk in the absorption of taint from the atmosphere, or any substance with which it comes in contact, ought to be thoroughly understood by all persons engaged in handling it, but, we believe, that but few comparatively are alive to the true facts of the case. I herewith present several paragraphs clipped from journals of recent date:

"There are seventy-five cases of typhoid fever in the town of Port Jarvis. Dr. McDonald attributes the spread of the disease to the use of milk from the farm of Mrs. Thomas Cuddebach, in whose family there have been several typhoid cases, holding that the milk conveyed the disease germs. Nearly all of the parties now sick had used milk from the farm."

"A dairyman from Dundee has been apprehended and fined for allowing his wife and daughter to milk cows and assist in the sale of milk, after they had been engaged in nursing a child suffering from scarlet fever. No less than nineteen cases of fever, four of which resulted fatally, were traced to this act of carelessness."

With these facts in view, how can it be expected that any amount of diligence on the part of a cheese-maker can atone for the unpardonable sin committed, day after day, by the heedless and unobserving patrons, of leaving a can of freshly drawn milk standing all night in an unwholesome barn or yard, until it has absorbed a whole family of pestilential odors, and then to carry it to the factory to corrupt and poison everything with which it comes in contact.

Some may suppose it a mere theory to speak of a condition of things in which abuses of this character can not be found, but during an experience of five years as cheese instructor, in the Province of Ontario, during which I superintended the making of cheese in about 400 different factories, and during the last year inspected the milk from about 65,000 cows, the property of about 7,000 dairymen, I occasionally made up vats in which there was no discoverable taint and which, I was pretty certain, came from the farms of well drilled, well posted dairymen, and, from a circumstance of this character, I am led to the conclusion that what has been done once can be done again, and I make such facts a text upon which I found my plea for more thorough co-operation and diligent painstaking in the work of producing milk for factory purposes.

There may be times when peculiar atmospheric conditions will exert unfavorable influences, and seasons when drought and wet weather will produce changes, over which human efforts have no control, and for these sufficient allowance must be made. We quarrel with the stupidity, shiftlessness, and ignorance of men, and not with the providence of God.

In this day and age of the world there is no excuse for ignorance upon the points to which we have alluded. Wisdom uttereth her voice in the streets, and he who will not hear her ought to be drummed out of the camp of dairymen. As a rule, a common carpenter puts more thought into his business in a month than many dairymen do in a year. Indeed, it would be difficult to point out a single branch of human industry, of one-half the magnitude which the manufacture and sale of cheese has reached, carried on in a manner so slipshod and slovenly as dairying.

The banker, the columns of whose ledger fail by one cent of balancing, spares neither time nor money in searching out and correcting the error; the merchant brings to bear upon his business a care and insight so unceasing and laborious that his locks are soon sprinkled with premature silver; the machinist works to plans from which the variation of a thousandth part of an inch can not be allowed to pass uncorrected; but the dairyman too often stumbles along through his work without thought, or employs the little intellect he has in putting in and harvesting his crops, leaving the dairy in the meantime to take care of itself. There are too many men engaged in dairying who can see nothing in the business beyond the factory dividend; men to whom filling the milk pail and the can are the Alpha and Omega of life. To such men such a thing as an ambition that their county, town, or neighborhood shall attain and hold a reputation for being the banner cheese district of the State or nation, is as thoroughly unknown as the configuration of the bottom of the Dead sea.

In saying what we have about the patrons of cheese factories, and the closer and more thorough co-operation among them, we have been actuated by no feelings of unkindness or ill will, nor have we arraigned them upon trivial or imaginary charges. The indictments we have found against them are all true bills, against which too many of them will be unable to sustain the plea of not guilty. We have been constrained to our present course by an overmastering sense of the importance of greater care, deeper thought, and closer union in pushing forward one of the greatest industries of the day. I am confident that before another step can be taken in advance it must be preluded by a correction of the errors which we have feebly attempted to portray, all of which lie outside and prior to the factory. As a body, cheese-makers can do little better than they are now doing, until there is some improvement in the material upon which they are called upon to exercise their skill, and the practice of crimination and recrimination, the factorymen tossing the blame upon the dairymen and the dairymen upon the factorymen, which is made use of to conceal the real source of our mistakes, will continue to shield him from the eyes of a discriminating public until the care and diligence of dairymen strip him of this shelter and drive him forward on the march to improvement.

VETERINARY.

Impaction of the paunch (the first stomach or rumen) in cattle, sometimes also called grainsick or mawbound, differs from bloating or hoove, mainly thereby that the distention is more solid than gaseous, it being either with food alone, or with food and gas. Symptomatically it differs also from hoove by the absence of eructation, and by the hardness of the flanks and the smaller volume of the swelling. It arises from gorging with almost any kind of food, even with grain or with chaff, at a sudden change of diet; but it is particularly liable to arise from a surfeit of turnips, fresh grass, or any other succulent food at the commencement of the season. The instrument called a probang ought to be introduced, either to decide whether the case be one of hoove or one of mawbound, or to ascertain the degree in which the latter disease exists. If the probang bring on a sudden rush of gas, the disease is wholly or chiefly hoove; and if it encounter a solid resistance, the disease mawbound, and exists in a degree of aggravation proportioned to the nearness of the point at which the resistance is felt.

In mild cases of impaction of the paunch, when the animal does not seem to suffer much pain, and is not materially fevered, but merely ceases rumination or chewing of the cud, refuses to eat, and lies long and indolently in one posture, a dose of oil, or a little forced walking, are frequently sufficient to effect a cure. In cases which, though on the whole mild, are accompanied with a kind of inertia, or with an insuperable reluctance to rise or to move about, stimulants, such as ether diluted with alcohol and water, may be required to rouse the paunch into renewed action; but whenever such remedies are necessary, they must be given in cautious doses, and always accompanied with some gentle purgatives. In very bad cases, when the animal seems sinking through inertness into death, or in which moans, swells at the sides, becomes almost as a board in the flanks, appears to suffer great and increasing pain, and seems eventually to be overwhelmed with anguish and to be passing into unconsciousness, it must be promptly decided whether we have sufficient time and encouragement to try the effect of stimulants, purgatives, the stomach pump, and other comparatively gentle measures; and if not, we should, without much delay, cut through the left flank into the paunch, and with the hands withdraw the contents. The cutting operation itself is attended or followed with little danger; but in the extracting of the food, no matter how carefully performed, some small portion is liable to drop into the abdominal cavity; and this, in consequence of its indigested condition, resists absorption or expulsion, undergoes an irritating decomposition, and may very probably originate some serious inflammatory disorder. Any animal which has suffered a very bad case of impaction of the paunch, ought, immediately after complete restoration to health, to be sent to the shambles; for, independently of the lurking danger consequent on the artificial extraction of the food, or even upon the relaxation which follows the administration of a stimulant, the paunch is so much overstretched and injured by the mechanical effects of the distension as to be temporarily incapacitated for the proper discharge of its functions.

Probably Ringbone.—W. B. S., Sciola, Iowa. In the absence of any information to the contrary, the lameness may be regarded as due to the development of ringbone. There is no certain cure for this disease. All that may be expected from treatment is to retard or stay its progress or development; but in all cases more or less stiffness or lameness will remain, depending upon the extent of its development. Then, subsequent hard work, or any cause of renewed irritation, will be apt to further aggravate the case, and cause additional enlargement and increasing lameness. The usual course of treatment in such cases consists in blistering or firing, or both combined, with subsequent long rest or a season's liberty on pasture.

Uneasinessis a species of sagacity; a passive sagacity. Fools are never uneasy.

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