Puslapio vaizdai
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queer smile drew it into leathery wrinkles.

"Hit were hoky-poky, by gum!" he muttered. "The dern ole scamp! Presently he filled his pipe, and lighted it, grinning all the while, and saying:

"The triflin' ol' rooster he hed half er dozen dif'ent names fer it; but hit were hoky-poky jes the same. The dern old coon!

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THE day passed, likewise the night; but Grim did not return. A week, a month, six months; no Grim, no mule. Sherman had swept through Georgia, and on up through the Carolinas; Johnston and Lee had surrendered. Peace had fallen like a vast silence after the awful din of war. The worn and weary soldiers of the South were straggling back to their long-neglected homes to resume as best they could the broken threads of peaceful lives.

Rudgis missed Grim more as a companion than as a slave. He mourned for him, in a way, recalling his peculiarities, and musing over that one superb stroke of wit by which, perhaps, his life had been saved. Never did he fail, at the end of such a reverie, to repeat, more sadly and tenderly each time, "Hit were hoky-poky, blame his ol' hide!" The humor of this verbal reference was invariably indicated by a peculiar rising inflection in pronouncing were, by which he meant to accentuate lovingly Grim's prompt prevarication.

Spring had come again to the mountains, bringing its gush of greenery, its mellow sunshine, and its riotous birds. Into the Pocket blew a breeze soft, fragrant, dream-burdened, eddying like a river of sweets around the lonely, embowered cabin.

Early one morning Rudgis was smoking in his accustomed seat on the veranda. In his shirt-sleeves, bareheaded and barefooted, his cotton shirt open wide at throat and bosom, he looked like a bronze statue of Emaciation, so collapsed, wrinkled, and sear was he. His Roman nose was the only vigorous feature of his unkempt and retrospective face.

The sound of a mule's feet trotting up the little stony road did not attract his curiosity, albeit few riders passed that way; but when Grim came suddenly in sight, it was an apparition that relaxed every fiber of Rudgis's frame. He dropped lower in the old chair, his arms fell limp, and his mouth opened wide, letting fall the cob-pipe. He stared helplessly.

"Yah I is, Mars Rudgis; got back at las'. How ye do, Mars Rudgis?"

ENGRAVED BY J. F. JUNGLING.

"PRESENTLY HE FILLED HIS PIPE, AND LIGHTED IT."

There was the ring of genuine delight in the negro's voice- the timbre of loyal sentiment too sweet for expression in written language. He slid from the mule's back,- not the same mule that he had ridden away, but an older and poorer one, and scrambled through the lop-sided gate.

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"Well, by dad!" was all Rudgis could say. Well, by dad!"

"Tol' yo' dey could n't sot dis niggah free, did n' I?" cried Grim, as he made a dive for both of his old master's hands. "I's come back ter 'long ter yo' same lak I allus did. Yah sah; yah sah."

Rudgis arose slowly from his seat and straightened up his long, lean form so that he towered above the short, sturdy negro. He looked down at him in silence for some moments, his face twitching strangely. Slowly the old-time expression began to appear around his mouth and in his eyes. With a quick step he went into the house, and returned almost instantly, bearing a ramrod in his hand.

"Well, Grim," he said, with peculiar emphasis, "ef ye air still my prop'ty, an' ye don't objec', s'posin' we jes finish up that air leetle game er hoky-poky what we was er-playin' w'en them Yankees kem an' bothered us."

Maurice Thompson.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING FOR

THE FARMER.

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HE farmer was never before so prominent a figure in the United States. This fact is all the more noteworthy when considered in connection with the decreasing proportion of our population living in the country, and with the growing importance of our city industries as compared with agriculture. The explanation is to be found in the fact that the United States has just reached a point of marked change in agricultural conditions.

For more than a century the pioneer farmer has been working his way, year by year, toward the West. Beginning on the Atlantic coast, he cut the forests of New England, exhausted the fair fields of Virginia, tried and passed by the fertile valleys of central New York, stopped for a time in the Ohio Valley, completed the conquest of Kansas, quickly took possession of Nebraska and Montana, and now has come face to face with the agriculture of the Pacific Slope. During all this time he has planted his seed and gathered his crops without giving a thought to the destruction his methods were bringing upon the fertility of the soil. The exhaustion of the soil was a matter of no serious import, for to him its only meaning was an easy move to a new location. We of to-day see the birth of agriculture in the United States. The farming of the past was land-skimming; the farming of the future must be land-culture. Suddenly the old pioneer farmer has found the play played out, and the present wide-spread interest in the farmer is the manifestation of the fact that our agriculture-still the greatest of our industries-is under the necessity of accommodating itself to new conditions.

So long as the supply of virgin land was sufficient, agriculture asked few favors. The Eastern and Middle States have long been studying methods for preserving the soil, diversification of products, and means of protection from plant diseases, insect pests, and other enemies. But it is only recently that crop disasters or low prices, affecting the great staple-producing regions of the West, have brought the farming population to an agreement in the demand for help. This demand has called men of science to the study of the principles that underlie the VOL. XLIV.-61.

right practice of agriculture, and has asked the lawmakers for such protection and help as it is in their power to afford.

It is the purpose of this article to state very briefly the principal points of some of the more important legislation bearing upon agricultural interests. Space, however, makes it necessary to leave a large and important part of the field uncovered. By special exception, railroad legislation is treated in another article. Nor will any attempt be made to trace the effects of legislation, which, though of great influence on the welfare of the farmer, yet touches his interests only in common with those of others. This exception will throw out any consideration of the general effect of the tariff on the tiller of the soil. The specific protection meant for his direct benefit will be noticed, but it will not be possible to touch the still more important and more difficult consideration of the net results of the McKinley Act, arising from giving him control of the home market with increased prices for some of his products, and at the same time requiring him to pay increased prices for some of the articles which he consumes. Another important class of laws is composed of those relating to banking and money. The changes which are asked in these lines deserve the respectful and careful consideration both of the people at large and of Congress, but they can not be considered here. Another tempting topic which the writer must not discuss is the fairness to the farmer of the laws which distribute the burdens of national, State, and local taxation. Another body of laws of the greatest interest is State legislation; but all that can be done in this article is to make mention of some of the more interesting subjects which it covers. Prominent among these at present are the making and the care of country roads; and if it be true, as stated, that it often costs more to haul grain ten miles by wagon to the railroad than to carry it by rail and steamer from the interior of the United States to Liverpool, it will be seen that this subject deserves even more attention than it is now receiving. Other subjects are the control of the fertilizer trade, the inspection of milk, butter, meats, and other products, the liabilities of owners of stray stock, the necessity of fences, the regulation of the slaughtering of animals, the duties and privileges of grain-elevators and other public

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warehouses, the work of commissioners of agriculture and of boards of agriculture, farmers' institutes, district libraries, and the like.

It is, then, the object of this article to state very briefly the essential features of the more important recent acts of Congress bearing upon the development of agricultural interests in the United States.

OLEOMARGARIN.

IN 1886, at the solicitation of the dairy interests, Congress passed a law, which the President approved August 2, defining butter and imposing a tax upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation of oleomargarin.

In 1867 a French chemist, Mége-Mouries, surmising that the presence of butter in milk was due to the absorption of fat contained in the animal tissues, began experiments on the separation of the oils of animal fat. He succeeded in separating fatty matter into stearin and oleomargarin, the second of which he used for butter-making. His discovery became known, and when introduced into the United States, led to the development of a large industry for the manufacture of artificial butter from beef fat. This fat is composed chiefly of three oils or fats-stearin, olein, and palmatin. The second and third are the largest constituents of butter. Stearin appears, but in very much reduced proportion. The manufacture is based upon the circumstance that the three fats melt at different temperatures, olein requiring the least heat and stearin the most. The animal fat is first carefully washed in cold water and cleaned from all portions of flesh and from other impurities. It is then heated until melted. The mixture of oils obtained is allowed to cool until some of the palmatin and a large part of the stearin become solid. The mixture is then subjected

to heavy hydraulic pressure. The fluid portion extracted is known as oleomargarin. When churned with a certain proportion of fresh milk a butter is produced which mixes with it, and the buttermilk imparts a flavor of fresh butter to the mass, making an imitation so perfect that it can scarcely be distinguished by taste from fresh butter. There seems to be little doubt that the product of this process, when made from carefully selected fats, by the best method, is pure, sweet, wholesome, and more palatable than some butters.

The act above referred to, popularly known as the Oleomargarin Act, with the exception of section 1, which contains a definition of butter, is devoted entirely to oleomargarin. It lays a special tax of $600 upon manufacturers, of $480 upon wholesale dealers, and of $48 upon retail dealers. A stamp tax of two cents a pound, to be paid by the manufacturer, is assessed upon every pound or upon every package containing a fraction of a pound. It provides for exportation free of tax, and subjects imports to an internal revenue tax of 15 cents per pound in addition to any customs duty. Each package is to be marked, stamped, and branded as prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Severe penalties are imposed for manufacturing or selling without paying the proper tax, for buying from those who have not paid the proper tax, and for failing properly to label packages. The law, as introduced in Congress, was doubtless intended to prohibit the manufacture; but, as passed, it is a protective measure. It protects the buttermaker not, as originally intended, by imposing a tax sufficiently great to deprive oleomargarin of the advantage of cheapness, but by freeing butter from the competition of oleomargarin under the name of butter. It protects consumers from the imposition of imitation butter for real. The reports of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue show the following figures:

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For 14 months ending June 30, 1891. The law of Oct., 1891, made the "special tax year" end June 30, to conform with fiscal year.

Those who wished to prohibit the manufacture and sale have been disappointed, for the oleomargarin industry has actually increased since the passage of the act. It has not, however, failed in noteworthy results. It has helped to raise the price of butter, especially that of good butter. Further, by confining the oleomargarin competition to the poorer grades of butter, it has doubtless caused improvement in these grades. Again, by preventing oleomargarin from masquerading as a more expensive article, it has kept the price down, greatly to the advantage of consumers. And, lastly, by compelling oleomargarin to be sold under its own name, it has relieved that product from the reproach of being a fraudulent article and has given it an honorable position in commerce as a legitimate means of utilizing waste products, and as a cheap, wholesome substitute for an expensive necessity.

THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER.

THE weather service of the United States was until recently under the charge of the War Department, and its conduct was a part of the work of the Signal Office. Under this management it devoted itself chiefly to the interests of commerce, though some attempts were made to help the farmer by warning him of frosts and floods, and by studies in lines in which he is especially interested. By an act approved October 1, 1890, the weather service was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Agriculture, of which it became a bureau, and it is expected that every effort will now be made to increase the value of the service to agriculture. The development of the work of this bureau will be of great interest to the farmer. In the past, good reasons have rendered it impossible to make the weather service of very great value to him. In the main its work has been the preparation of the familiar predictions, which have been made for large areas. At present the areas selected are single States. The predictions are made by an officer in Washington to whom observations are reported from a large number of stations situated in various parts of the country. He glances over these reports, noting the places where rain has fallen, and the network of temperatures and barometric pressure; sees how the conditions have been changing since the last predictions were made; and, perhaps with scarcely time to weigh the reasons for his conclusions, makes up his predictions in regard to the weather of the immediate future. He can give but a very small amount of time-perhaps two minutes to each State. Any decrease in the size of the districts would, by increasing their number, make shorter the time to be devoted to each.

Moreover, an increase in the number of the details to be considered, such as would result from making the districts very much smaller than the States, would greatly augment the difficulty of making any predictions at all. It will be seen that it is impossible for one observer at Washington to make local predictions.

The farmer, however, cares very little to know that rain is to fall in his State or that a frost is likely to occur within three or four hundred miles of him. He wants to be warned of the frost and the summer downpour that now find him unprepared. But in order to make such predictions as his needs require, it is necessary to take local conditions into consideration. Á lake, a river-valley, or a forest may affect the weather of adjacent regions. Mountains or hills quite insignificant in the calculations of the Washington prophet will sometimes determine the weather of many farms. If these influences are to be considered, the work of forecasting the weather must be divided, and, in addition to the general predictions from Washington, we must have local predictions prepared by officers in charge of small districts. Such officers have already been appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture, and their number will doubtless be increased when the usefulness of their work is shown. This, however, can not be fully demonstrated until, by the cheapening of telegraph and telephone service, and by the extension of free mail delivery, effective means are found for carrying the predictions to the farmer in time for his use. The present work of the local observers is of service in perfecting their,methods, and their forecasts are of great usefulness to the farmers who can be reached; but their full value can never be realized until it is possible to put them promptly into the hands of all the farmers who can use them.

It is also to be expected that the Weather Bureau will undertake the study of those problems which lie in the common domain of meteorology and agriculture. Thus it will doubtless make systematic studies of the climate, which is almost if not quite as important to the farmer as the soil which he cultivates; for it is the climate more than the soil which fits a given region for particular crops. We speak of the peach land of New Jersey and Delaware, but it would be nearer the fact to speak of the peach climate. It is chiefly climate that fits Florida and California for the orange, the North for corn and wheat, and the South for cotton and sugar-cane. In this line the Weather Bureau can be of great service to the farmer, and it need not wait for improvements in the facilities for communication, for climate is permanent, and there will be no difficulty in presenting results of its study in time. Very little work of this kind has yet been done,

but the following quotation from an article by the present chief of the Weather Bureau, written before his appointment, will indicate some of the possibilities:

The State services have in several cases published climatic studies of their own States which

are useful, although they have not exhausted even the material on hand. They are in all cases to be looked on as provisional, mere sketches and outlines, to be followed by more complete studies. There are also many individual problems which have been studied with more care. Professor Chickering has called attention to the warm band existing half-way up the Alleghanies. Mr. Alexander has found a cold island in southeastern Michigan. Mr. Curtis has made a careful study of the hot winds of the plains. More complete are the studies made by Dr. Waldo on the distribution of average wind velocities over the States; by Professor Davis and others on the sea breezes of the Massachusetts coast; and by Professor T. Russell on our cold waves. These are all of high importance to the farmer, but the number of them is so small that they hardly do more than serve as specimens of what can and ought to be

done for him.

This work will doubtless be entered upon at once, and we may confidently look forward to the time when we shall have a complete climatology for each region of our country. From this the farmer may learn the danger of torrential rains or cloud-bursts, the amount of dew to be expected, the average temperature and the extremes of variation, the frequency and amount of rain, danger of droughts, distribution of snow, amount of sunshine, and the like. These data will go a long way toward indicating the possibilities of profitable culture in any region.

There are other important problems which the bureau will study or which it will perhaps. assist the agricultural experiment stations in studying. Among these are, for instance, the meteorological conditions most favorable to the growth of individual plants. It has been found that the cotton-plant requires in the earlier part of its growth plenty of warmth and moisture to develop stem and foliage, while in the later period of growth less moisture is desirable in order to favor full and early development of seed and lint. The meteorological conditions of South Carolina are generally favorable, but the right cultivation of the soil is necessary. Of late years the improvements in the regulation of the moisture by the management of the soil are noteworthy. Sea-island cotton is famous for its quality, and brings a high price, yet some years ago it was thought that the culture of this cotton must be abandoned even on the sea islands, largely because its season of growth, which was so long as to render it liable to be caught by frosts, made the crop very uncertain. Improved methods of culture have, however,

materially hastened the maturity of the plant and brought it well within the length of the season. Similar determinations of meteorological requirements should be made for other staple crops.

Studies should also be made of the way in which plants are affected by removal from one climate to another. We know that an apple which is successful in New York may be an entire failure in Virginia, but we know little of the laws which govern the adaptability of plants to climates. Still other problems are connected with forests, soils, the movement of water in the soil, and the effect of climatic conditions on insect and other pests.

It is easy to see that when specialists turn their attention to this field of work, as yet almost unexplored, many opportunities will present themselves for investigations of great moment to the farmer, and it is not improbable that the act which placed the weather service in charge of the Department of Agriculture may some day come to be regarded as one of the most important originating in the eventful Fifty-First Congress.

A NEW SUGAR INDUSTRY.

THE act making appropriation for the United States Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1891, contains the following provision:

Any manufacturer of sugar from sorghum may remove from distillery warehouses to factories used solely for the manufacture of such sugar distilled spirits in bond free of tax, to be used solely in such manufacture; all distilled spirits when so used may be recovered by redistillation.

For a number of years sugar-making experiments with sorghum have been conducted. by the Department of Agriculture. Sorghum, sometimes called Chinese sugar-cane, is a canelike grass, having the general appearance, stature, and habit of broom-corn and the taller varieties of maize, but more slender than the latter and bearing no ears. It contains an amount of sugar which many years ago caused it to be regarded as likely to become one of the important sources of our sugar supply, but till recently this expectation has not been realized ; for although a ton of sorghum contains 200 or more pounds of sugar, but 80 pounds could be crystallized out of the concentrated syrup, or molasses. To ascertain the cause of this fact, the Department made investigations which led to the discovery that the substances which prevented the crystallization of the sugar were chiefly gums, which could be entirely taken out by the addition of alcohol to the juice. Alcohol causes the gums to collect and settle, so that

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