Letter from Champaign.

With the exception of two days, the 22d and 23d, which were stormy and gave us ten to twelve inches of snow, followed by a little sleet and rain, the latter half of December has been as delightful as the first half was, though a good deal colder. The sleighing since the 17th has never been better; and as there is ten inches to a foot of solid snow now lying on the ground, it is likely to last some time longer. The sleet and rain formed a crust an inch and a half thick, and though it is not very strong, it, together with the compact snow, makes getting down to the grass beneath quite out of the question, and stock have to depend on the stalk fields or be fed hay and corn.

This will make a heavier draft upon the grain and hay in reserve than has been anticipated by those who depend on carrying their stock through mostly on grass, and be sure to lessen the surplus and raise the price of corn, oats, and hay accordingly. Corn in the field is drying out so fast under the influence of the dry, cold weather, stock do not refuse soft corn as they did after the first sharp frost in November and December. It is now seen that it would have been better to have left all the soft and some of the immature corn in the field, than to have husked and cribbed it as many did and lost more than would be believed, if reported, by mould and rot.

At any rate the fall wheat is safe so long as the present covering of snow lasts, and this more than compensates for the loss of winter pasture. The snow, as near as I can learn, covers all Illinois, except a few counties on the west, and as usual, is quite as heavy in the timbered regions of which Vandalia is near the center, as in Northern Illinois. So far the cold season considerably resembles the winter of 1878-79, and let us hope it will continue to the end, that we may have light snows and many of them, good sleighing and moderate temperature through January and February.

It has mystified me, as I have do doubt it has many others, why European Governments have had so much to say about trichinæ in the hog, of which we have had scarcely any, and so little of hog cholera, of which we have had a good deal. But the mystery is now cleared up. The sickness and losses from hog cholera, have either by error or intention been reported to the several European Governments as results of almost universal trichiniasis, and they have acted accordingly. That it should be so, seems surprising, but that it is so, we have the proof in the following paragraph from a late number of the Journal D'Agriculteur Pratique. The writer, Dr. Hector George, one of the regular contributors, in a long article opposing rescinding the order prohibiting the importation of American pork products into France, first quotes the report of the Chicago Board of Health, that 8 per cent of hogs slaughtered in Chicago are afflicted with trichinæ, goes on to say: "This per cent, however considerable it may be, is far inferior to the reality if we judge from an official dispatch addressed to Earl Granville by Mr. Crump, English Consul at Philadelphia." in 1880 trichiniasis destroyed 700,000 hogs in Illinois alone. According to an official report by Dr. Detmers to the Government of the United States, the hogs sick or dead from trichiniasis are hurried to the packing houses and are thereafter prepared and immediately sent off to Europe.

M. Paul Bert, from whom we have recently heard on the same subject and in the same strain, no doubt got his inspiration from the article in the Journal D'Agriculteur Pratique after which he probably read the official report of Dr. Detmers, to whom he refers, and like Dr. George, either did not understand or intentionally misconstrued it for political purposes. Perhaps what Dr. Detmers did report was bad enough and extravagant enough, but it had exclusive reference to hog cholera then prevalent, as any one can satisfy himself who will turn to the reports or the Department of Agriculture for the several years 1879, 1880, and 1881. B.F.J.

A Record of Unfashionable Crosses in Short-horn Cattle Pedigrees; a book of 240 pages; the only work of the kind in existence. Send for a circular. F.P. & O.M. Healy, Bedford, Taylor Co., Iowa.

Remember that $2.00 pays for The Prairie Farmer from this date to January 1, 1885; For $2.00 you get it for one year and a copy of The Prairie Farmer County Map of the United States, free! This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.

Poultry-Raisers. Write for Your Paper.