Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1874-01-10
FIELD AND GARDEN


BESRTrTs OF THE PANIC
Extravagance is the great sin Of the
pcopie of this country. Extravagance
In living and in ideas Of life and OF hap
piness = causing distaste for honest
labor and the God-ordained method Of
gaining substance and wealth by the
tillage of the soil. For the past ten
wears, especially, our people have been |
running wild with speculation and Wis
ionary enterprise, prompted by inordi-
nate thirst for wealth and distinction
But the laws Of business ard Of wealth |
are the laws Of Nature and Of God, and
cannot be long violated with impunity.
Sooner or later the penalty or panic will
come, and the Bible says, "When Gods
Judgments are abroad, the people Will
learn righteousness"
One Of the benefits resulting from the
revulsion in commercial affairs win
doabtess be. . tevisetg sa aarteaitaps.-
Farming and farm life will be more re-'
spected, for while at least, and more
Of eur enterprising and educated young
men viii be content 70 stay on the farm,
or IL srought upin other pursuits WIN
choose farming as profession; and the
older class OF farmers with their chill
dren. viii love and respect their homes
and take more pains to improve them-
selves and their homesteads. As soon
as more young blood is infused into our
farming--more brains as well a. muscle
deyoted 10 agriculture, Il win speedily
revive; and the Rumerous fine old farms
now showing neglect and diiapidation,
because their owners have grown old
and their sons have All left them, will
be restored to freshness and fertility
Such we believe win be some Of the BEN
efits OF the panic and of the great Farm
er's Movement now going on in this
country. Let all who can do SO, help on
the work, and thus promote the real
prosperity Of the nation-s s.tz
GRAPES FOR RAIsfNs.
One of our lady readers asks why,
when grapes are plenty and cheap, they
cannot be made into raisins with advan-
ts9e. atz least for home use, IN families
where women and children. can do the
work of picking and drying.
This question is not new one. The
chief difficulty is, none of our American
grapes viii make good raisins- They
ara all 90 Juicy or watery in the texture
OF the berry, that it is difficult and ex-
pensive drying them; and when dried,
there is nothing left but akin and seeds
with few grains Of sugar.
Most of the European grapes, and es-
pecially those used for raisins, are Of
Armers eonsistence,5 like the common
Malaga grapes, and such can be dried
intoraisins without much difficulty or
loss; bat none of these foreign varieties
are found to succeed In this country, ex-
cept In California. There 1t is probable
that good raisins can be made. II the
amount of labor required is not too great.
But with the average price of iaisins in
this county and the nsnal rates Of labor
we do not think grapes would be worth
over three cents pound for making
raisins.
WINTER FOOD FOR cows.
With the scarcity and high price Of
hay, more straw and bran or eorp-meal
: than usual is being fed to COWS. In
feeding corn meal, especially, it Is im-
portant that it snould be mixed with cut
straw or other coarse material, and not
fed alone or in slop.
At a recent meeting of the N. Y,
Dairymen's Association, Hon. 81. Lewis
said s'corn meal is not food adapted to
the cow-it is too concentrated. He
would give 500 per ounce for all the
corn meal found in the first stomach Of
a cow killed fifteen or twenty minutes
after feeding; or $500 per ounce for all
found in the fourth stomach. Cornmeal
slides through COW, like whiskey down
toper's throat, and does no more good. !"
Mr.. BATEHAM will meet with, and ad-
dress the Willoughby Plains Farmers
Club, next Saturday, Jan. 18th, at Q P.
M, il their school house.
( DEPARTMENT OF. AGRIcULTURE--cRoP
REPORTS.
A few weeks since, we took occasion
to criticise the Department of Agricul-
ture at washington, especially its sys-
tenn of crop reporting and distribution
of seeds. This called out response,
through the Ohio Farmer, from j. r.
Dodge, the Statistician of the Depart
ment, in defense of the crop reports, to
which the following Is our reply, In last
weeks Former :: = 1ssAs-s = =
My grateful acknowledgements are
due to the statistican of the Department
of Agriculture for his condescension in
attempting to correct my Statistical
MISREPRESENTATION" But judging from
the slashing style in which he rebukes
"the American newspaper critic" am
afraid that the recent foreign tour has
not had altogether a beneficial effect on
the formerly modest member of the
newspaper fraternity. AS to the croI
reporters, wish it to be distinctly un-
derstood that l have no other feeling
than high personal regard for Mr.
Dodgei and il is my;desire tnat he may
long be retained in the position he now
fills; or, better still, be placed at the
head of the Department. And the gen.
tlemen he names as among his crop re.
porters in Ohio, l know to be men .oi
honor and ability. Such mels are moi
TO blame for the errors of which com.
plain. Nor is my own Statistical mis-.
apprehension" SO much at fault as Mr.
D., would have his readers suppose.
was aware that the published report.
previ0us to Nov. lst, claimed to give she
percentage of condition rather thar
probable yield of the crops; but who, ]
would ask. would report the "condi
ton" Of the peach crop at the season o.
gathering the fruit, lAug. and Sept,
without making the yield or amount o
the crop the chief basis of his estimate
And who but the Feriest tsCheap Johu''
would report the crop at 20 per cent
when It was in fact complete failure ir
eighty-six of the eighty-eight countie.
\ In the State, and not a quarter of a crol
In the remaining twop Surely J. r. b
must admit that, in this case at least
somebody blundered.
In reference to the potato, grape ant
other crops Of which complaints ar,
made, the errors Ia the printed report
are probably not so much the fault O
the reporters, az of the clerks of the De
partment, or rather the want of suf
fcient number of clerks to revise ans
compile the reports for publications
And this niggardliness is owing tn tn,