And while I have strayed so far away from home for a subject for a “note” I may as well stay there long enough to say that the English dog is not a whit less fond of mutton than is the average canine of this country. And further, it does not seem that British law regarding the protection of sheep is at all in advance of ours, either in its provisions or the manner of its enforcement. In Cheshire, for instance, dogs, in the course of the first two weeks of this year, killed 140 sheep valued at $1,500, and the most that was done about it was to hunt up the offending cur—no it was not a cur but a Retriever—and kill it. The dog is a great favorite in England, certainly he seems there as here to have more friends than the sheep that clothes and feeds. When will man, anywhere, become fully civilized and humanized?
I met a Wisconsin tobacco and corn-grower the other day, and he was bluer than a pipe stem. The frost last fall cut off both his corn and his tobacco. He said he had actually nothing to sell but a little wrapper tobacco which grew in a protected place, and now the Government had nipped his hopes for this in the bud by declaring that Sumatra tobacco should be admitted into the country on a duty of 35 cents per pound, while it is acknowledged that it is worth at least five times as much as the best Wisconsin with which it competes. Probably a later decision by Secretary Folger that this Sumatra leaf must pay 75 cents per pound has done one of his sores some good. The only thing I could then, or can now, recommend as good for the other—caused by the untimely frost—is, that he no longer put all his eggs in one or two baskets. I am convinced that for farmers of moderate means through the acceptance of the doctrine of diversified farming alone lies their permanent and universal salvation from financial hades in this world.
In the Punjaub, British India, there was last year an outbreak of the cattle plague. The authorities took hold of the matter, and by means of isolation of affected cattle and the prescriptions of the veterinarians, the disease was completely eradicated. The authorities were jubilant over their success. The natives were congratulated on being ruled over by a Government which kept such excellent watch over their interests. But the natives, while they admitted the existence of the disease, wherein they were more intelligent or less prejudiced than are some of our citizens regarding pleuro-pneumonia, did not have a much better opinion of the vets and commissioners than your correspondent, B. F. J., seems to have. They said to an official: “Yes, sahib, the isolation of cattle gave great trouble, and the salutries’ hunger was difficult to appease. When they had left the village, we got a holy man, who drew a line on the ground round the herd. Then he got on horseback and rode round the herd, sprinkling water and repeating the creed. It was that which cured the cattle.” What we farmers want is the isolation and the vets.’ advice, and if Mr. Allerton and Gen. Singleton have a “holy man” at command to draw a line about the infected herds, perhaps we can get rid of the disease, and thus all parties will be satisfied.
[Letter From Champaign.]
We have now (January 25) had forty days of snow, and nearly uninterrupted good sleighing, and the end is not yet—neither of snow nor sleighing, for there is fully a foot of the former now on the ground, and few, if any, bare spots. But the steady cold is quite as uncommon as the snow or sleighing, and will make the winter of 1883-84 a memorable one. Another remarkable feature is the low range of the thermometer where mild winters are thought to be insured by the latitude. Thus, Central and Southern Kansas and Missouri have had as cold weather as Central Illinois—a good example of which was the 27 degrees below zero registered at Makanda, a few miles north of Cobden, Ill., while the lowest point reached, 200 miles further north, was only a degree or two lower. It may be winter will break up soon—and it may be deeper snows and intenser cold are in store for us, as in some other winters of great severity.