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 trichinae 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 regula