he
surplus water of vegetation before hard weather set in. However, the
early frosted and shrunken cane fit for seed may be confined to this
county or neighborhood, or a narrow area, and therefore I advise every
one who thinks of making use of it to ascertain for himself, by the
usual methods, whether the germ is sound or not.

* * * * *

Several parties have written me--one from Missouri, another from
Indiana, and a third from Kentucky, that they have seed corn for sale,
cheap and in quantity. I have no doubt of it, and I have accordingly
advised each to advertise it in THE PRAIRIE FARMER, if they are really
desirous of selling, stating briefly what variety, where grown, and at
what price. I should be glad to advertise it for them gratuitously, but
the contract of THE PRAIRIE FARMER with its contributors contains a
clause to the effect that "they shall neither use its columns to grind
their own axes nor the axes of anybody else." With the recourse of early
frosted corn to go to, and the assistance of appropriately selected seed
from abroad, the gross mistakes and disappointments of 1883 are pretty
certain to be avoided in 1884.

* * * * *

No doubt many who are more or less familiar with the Reports on Hog
Cholera in the official publication of the Department of Agriculture,
ask themselves why Dr. Detmers is singled out by Frenchmen as the sole
authority on swine diseases, when his colleagues of the commission, Dr.
Salmon and Laws went nearly as far as he did in their extravagant
statements. But the prominence Dr. Detmers has obtained in the
estimation of Frenchmen is now explained in this: At a late sitting of
the French Academy of Sciences that eminent savant, Pasteur, referred to
him and his investigations in flattering terms. Giving an account of the
discovery of the microbe which causes the rouget of swine in France,
Pasteur said: "Respect for historic truth compels me to state, however,
that in the month of March, 1882, the microbe of the rouget was
discovered at Chicago, in America, by Professor Detmers, in a series of
investigations which did great honor to their author." With the
indorsement of one of the most eminent scientists in the world, before a
body equally distinguished, Dr. Detmers may find some compensation in
being singled out as the scape goat for an unfortunate commission which
has cost the country many millions.

B.F.J.