The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-12-05

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o a,, W nohoI, anu eliae preJuulGe VIII
To- ,,ors;,ns "J"'V w H'o' iouS aPPhVan'S
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The department of agriculture has con-
tinued, with a good measure of success its
efforts to develop the processes enlarge the
results and augment the profits of Ameri-
can husbandry. 1t has collected and dis
tributed practical information, introduced
and tested new plants, checked the spread
of contagious disease of farm animals, re-
sisted the advance of noxous insects and
destructive fungous growths, and sought to
secure to agricultural labor the highest re-
ward of effort and the fullest immunity
from loss. Its records for the year show
that the season of 1883 has been one of me-
dunn production. A generous supply of
the demands of consumption has been
assured, and n surplus for eXportation, mod
crate in certain products and bountiful in
others, will prove benefacton alike to
buyer and grower. Four years ago it was
found that the great cattle industry of the
country was endangered, and those engaged
in it were alarmed by the rapid extension
of the European lung plague of pleuro-
pneumonia. Serious outbreaks existed in
Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, and in
Tennessee animals affected were held in
quarantine Five counties in New York
and from one to four counties in each of the
states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Della
ware and Maryland were almost equally
affected. With this great danger upon us
and with the contagion already in the chan.
nels of commerce, with the enormous direct
and indirect losses already being caused by
it, and when only prompt and energetic
action could be successful, there were in
none of these states any laws authorizing
,i,n tha stata ~ iaf we laauy vi
with it for this purpose. The department
hof ha
ton and authority. BY securing state CO.
operation = in connection with authority
from congress the work of eradication has
been pressed successfully, and this dreaded
disease has been extirpated from the west
ern states and also from the eastern states.
with the exception of few restricted areas
which are still under supervision. The dam
ger has been removed and trade and COM
merce have been freed from the vexatious
state restrictions which were deemed neces-
sary for a time. During the past four years the
process of diffusion, as applied to the man.
ufacture of sugar from sorghum and sugar
cane, has been introduced into this country
and fully perfected by the experiments car
ried on by the department of agriculture
This process is now universally considered
to be the most economical one, and it is
through it that the sorghum sugar industry
has been established upon a firm basis and
the roads to its future success opened The
adoption of this diffusion process is also ex-
tending in Louisiana and other sugar ro-
ducing parts of the country, and will doubt
less soon be the only method employed for
the extraction of sugar from the cane. An
exhaustive study has also, within the same
period, been undertaken with the subject of
food adulteration and the best analytical
methods for detecting it,
..,
Ihh uoNEhNhENr AND THE RAILROADS.
The adjustment of the relations between
ar1in q
which have received land grants and the
guaranty OF the public credit in aid of the
construction OF their roads should receive
early attention. The report of majority
OF the commission to examine the affairs
and indebtedness of these roads, in which