THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



expenses, rather than be idle. In fact, a family 

 containing two or three children of school age, 

 if they live where there are no public schools, 

 can easily obtain the services of a good teacher 

 during the winter at the bare expense of the 

 teacher's board. 



I do not recommend school teachers to come to 

 Florida to make money. But if obliged to come 

 on account of health, they will probably do as 

 well as in most parts of the West. 



As to isolation from all society, thai does not 

 apply to Florida. All through the orange grow- 

 ing counties there are settlements of Northern 

 people, and among them you will And as good 

 society as can be found anywhere in the United 

 States. In this settlement, we have as good 

 neighbors as can be anywhere, and they are 

 much more sociable than is usual at the North. 



In some parts of the South wages are low, but 

 not in the orange-growing counties of Florida. 

 Common labor costs from $1.00 to SI. 50 per day, 

 and carpenters get from S1.50 to 83.00 per day, 

 according to skill. 



We have less sickne.ss in this settlement, in 

 proportion to the number of people, than I ever 

 saw elsewhere, and I have lived in Nebraska, 

 Indiana, New Jersey and New York ; but like all 

 new countries, we do have occasional cases of 

 fever-and-ague and malarial fever. The type, 

 however, is usually milder and yields more 

 readily to treatment than at the North. 



Malaria being always worse in warm weather 

 than in cold, I should have a very poor opinion 

 of the Judgement of a physician who would send 

 a patient, already suffering from malaria, from a 

 cold into a warm climate. A* to this climate 

 being debilitating, [ do not find it so in my own 

 experience, nor in that of my neighbor. Those 

 who were active and energetic at the North, 

 remain so here. A naturally lazy man is not 

 likely to improve here. Less labor is necessary 

 to support life here than at the North ; hence, he 

 has not as great incentives to hard work. 



As I have said in former letters, I think the 

 chances for a poor man to make himself a com- 

 fortable home, are better in Florida than any- 

 where else in the United States. 



Talk is only fit for the lawyers, who are paid for 

 their work according to the length and versatility 

 of their tongues. 



A thousand fairs, or more, are held each year 

 in the United .States. Some one, or more, of these 

 are not many miles away from any farmer. Do 

 not take any stock in fairs, because sometimes 

 the judges have either been incompetent or 

 unjust. When .some enterprising person talks of 

 getting up a show, discourage him from the first, 

 because it cannot pay. 



If you would work in the dark, have nothing 

 to do with any exhibition or gathering of men of 

 any sort. A meeting of sheep men is for the 

 the puri)Ose of pulling wool over the eyes of the 

 farmers with small flocks. The cattle men meet 

 to skin some one, and the swine preachers are 

 perfect bores. The more you know about liorses 

 the less pleased you will be with your own. The 

 wise horse men are forever trading. Avoid all 

 contact with these terrible experts. 



Another method of working in the dark is to 

 have nogarden. It is small business this planting 

 radishes in a bed, and as for setting out a straw- 

 berry bed, it is positively effeminate. Flowers 

 are pretty, but they are not salable, like tine corn. 

 Pork packed away in a barrel is solid living, and 

 there is no fuss about cooking a mess like there 

 is with green peas. 



kitchen slops must be sinking continually into 

 the ground, nor no cess-pools must be sunk 

 within one hundred feet of the well. The well 

 being deep, draws the moisture to it for a dis- 

 tance of one hundred feet in every direction. 

 Take your tape-line and go to measuring. I 

 think you will find many wells not forty feet 

 apart. If you do, remedy it at once. 



Ail the papers say that we are to have tha 

 Asiatic cholera here this summer. I do not 

 know; but I do knmv that we ought to get ready 

 for it. Clean up all decaying matter. Burn it up 

 or haul it away. If a well is in a bad place, 

 remove the surroundings or dig a new one. Is 

 your cellar clean? If not, go to work then at 

 once. Carry out all the mouldy boards and bar- 

 rels. Clean out every particle of decayed vegeta- 

 bles, and whitewash every inch of the walls and 

 over head with lime and copperas. Clean up the 

 tloor well ; and if it is of dirt, sprinkle strong 

 a-shes over it; if of cement, it can be scrubbed 

 like any floor. The kitchen slops, such as are not 

 wanted for the hogs, can be carried away from 

 any dwelling with a tile drain, costing from 

 fifteen to twenty dollars; or you can hang a bar- 

 rel between two old buggy wheels, and when it 

 is full, cart it away and empty on the ground 

 that needs fertilizing. I want to write more on 

 this subject, but I fear the Editor of The Farm 



WORKING IN THE DARK. 



By Beedy Aich. 



Some farmers are frequently so behind hand 

 with their work that they need to prolong the 

 hours of their labor into the evening. This kind 

 of working in the dark is bad enough, but it is 

 Jar better than laboring in the darkness that 

 comes from the lack of mental light. There is 

 but very little excu.se for any one not being up 

 with the times in this age of telegraph and the 

 printing press. It is a blind prejudice that keeps 

 a man from taking a paper in nine cases out of 

 ten. The money is always at hand when the 

 mind is well disposed. The farmer who takes 

 the papers is the most prosperous, and the 

 daily or weekly visits of the papers have some- 

 thing to do with the prosperity of those who read 

 them. Therefore, one of the methods of working 

 In the dark, is to abstain from taking any papers 

 devoted to a person's calling. In this way the 

 methods of others are kept from sight and mind. 

 Any new Invention Is unknown, and not being 

 known is a weapon in the hand of others, who use 

 it, to the disadvantage of all who do not. Let us 

 give an illustration. A neighbor has recently 

 procured a potato planter, with which one man 

 can do the work of seven. Such a machine pays 

 for itself several times over when a hundred rows 

 are to be planted. With this planter, my neigh- 

 bor tells me, he can raise potatoes for less than 

 ten cents a bushel. What is the natural result? 

 He will put in two or three times as many acres 

 as he would otherwise, (it would, of course, not 

 pay to have a machine for a small patch), and he 

 becomes known as a potato raiser, and a person 

 who always has a stock of this food. He can ship 

 his potatoes in car load lots, and gains in freight 

 rates as well as saving In the cost of growing the 

 tubers. The man who does not keep up with the 

 times, with all its modern labor-saving machines, 

 Is fighting a losing battle. 



Another good way to work in the dark is to be 

 always at work. Never go to your neighbors and 

 learn how he does things. Know nothing about 

 his stock. If he is using a full-blooded ram or 

 bull, and thereby increasing the value of his 

 flock or herd nearly two-fold in a single year, 

 never know anything about it. The methods of 

 Improving stock are all given in the stock jour- 

 nals; but they may as well never been printed, 

 because they are not seen. 



Keep away from any farmers' club, because you 

 have not taken the papers and will not be able 

 to understand about potash, nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, pupotency, cross-breeding, etc. Do not 

 think well of such meetings should you chance 

 to hear that they are being held, because the only 

 thing for a farmer to do is to work in the field. | 



If you work in the dark yourself, the children | and G.\rden will think I am occupying too 



will also dwell in the same darkness— at least 

 until they get large enough to see better than 

 you when they soon will be gone. The old home 

 is then empty arid the darkness settles into the 

 deepest night. 



KITCHEN SLOPS. 



By Mahala B. Chadtlork. Vermonl, PuUon Oa., HI. 



Where do they go? Does the drain from the 

 kitchen sink just reach outside the wall a little 

 ways, and is it left to run there half the time 

 without a bucket under it, to .soak the ground 

 full of reeking tilth for rods around? Is the well 

 where it will draw the foul matter into it? 

 Fathers, mothers, as you value the lives of your 

 children, look into this matter, and look into it 

 now; do not wait a single day. All slops from 

 the kitchen should be disposed of in some sure 

 way, and not be left to chance and guess-work. 

 The man that guea.ies that the old, worn-out 

 drain will do until fall, may be lying in a trench 

 himself before fall comes, as the work of that 

 same deadly drain ; or if he escapes because he is 

 not compelled to breath the malaria from the 

 stagnant ground, by reason of his being away 

 from his house all day, his wife and little ones 

 who stay by it most of the time, may be the suf- 

 ferers. I read the other day about how the Per- 

 sian women were shut up in cells, and treated 

 worse than animals. A lady doctor was sent for 

 to see a rich woman, and when she found the 

 patient was out in a shed, she went to her there. 

 The woman lay on some bare boards on the 

 ground, while close by her was a calf covered up 

 in a bed. The article went on to compare the 

 women of that country with American women ; 

 but when I see the kitchen drain emptying into 

 the well, I say this man is no better than a 

 heathen, and he ought to live in Persia. I believe 

 it is the strong point with all sanitarians that no 



much space. 



NOTES BV THE WAY. 



To make a roller, take two old mowing machine 

 wheels, and bolt planks on them. 



Oats ground that is seeded to clover in the 

 spring will usually, if well rolled after seeding, 

 make a better catch, and suffer much less from 

 dry weather. There is also a gain should the 

 oats lodge, of having a level surface to cut over. 



We are Just as careful to deal squarely with our 

 readers as we can be. We do not like frauds, and 

 believe we should do the right thing by every 

 one. We may, when we have so many letters to 

 read, overlook a request, but we never mean to do 

 it. Our readers are our family, and a large one, 

 too, and we shall treat every one of them like one 

 of our own. If we make a mistake, as all do, 

 tell us of it kindly, and we will always see to It 

 that you are righted. 



Manures for corn should, for most soils, contain 

 potash in some form, and phosphates. The effect 

 of ammonia on corn is usually not well marked, 

 but potatoes will require all three. Ammonia is 

 a dear manure, but is usually wasted when 

 applied to corn, but valuable for potatoes. 



The best potato manure is composed of 400 

 pounds of dissolved bone, .'iOO pounds of nitrate 

 of potash, and 2(X) pounds of nitrate of soda, 

 well mixed, and applied at the rate of .500 pounds 

 per acre. The cost of the raw materials will be 

 about fifteen dollars per acre, and in a favorable 

 soil the yield shovild be 200 bushels per acre, and 

 will usually make a much better crop than the 

 application of 20 two-horse loads of stable man- 

 ure, and make much fairer potatoes. Experi- 

 ments prove it. -. ■ i 



CIDER 



■■ ■ i/t^n A Should send for oar NEW rnrr 



M A K r KN ^^^^ CATALOGUE mailedrnCt 



III H n L 1 1 W Boomer Jb Boschert Press Co. Sjracose.I.T 



IPDnCPnDFC Telescopes, Spectacles, Barom- 

 lUilUOuUrLO <rf^r5, ThermomFfrrs, Photo- 



graphic Outfit'^ for Amateurs, Opera Glasses, itc. 



W. H. WALM8LCT 4 CO.^ successors to R. &J. Beck, 

 Philadelphia. Illustrated Price-Liat free to any address. 



W 



RIR pay ^or Introducins BUCKEYE CHURN. 

 DIU rui Addre.ss, BUCKEYE CHUKN CO.. Dundee. Mich. 



VINES— Po'keepsie, RedUlstir, 

 Proliflc. NIAtJAKA.and other 

 ofd and new varietien.StrAWberriet, 

 ^_____ ^ Blickberrie^ MARI.BOKO 4 

 ^Z,. .... I ^^ other R&spberriee. Catalogue /r<« 



JUEl^ HOUNKK & HON, Merchancville, N. J. 



GRAPE; 



SEND to KINC & CO.. Oweeo, N.Y.. for Catalogue 

 ' and Price-List of CUSTOM HMD-MADE HARNESS. 



Jlevolvers, 

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I Adiire4t^^^^m 

 ^Or« at Weftei^ 

 S«nW»k>,riuitiurfJ 



inn r.'ARGE Fancy Advertising Cards, all differ- 



■"«» ent. for 30 cIs. CARD WORKS, Montpellcr, Vt. 



THE WONDERFUL CAMERA LUCIDA, Equal to an eye in 



' the back of yonr liead. With it you can see persons 



behind von without beinE; spi^ii hy tliem. Price, 1*2 cts. 



STAR MANUrACTURING COMPANY, Manatunk, Penna. 



DUTCH BULBS AND FLOWER ROOTS 



Peter van Velsen & Sons^suib Growers, 



OVFTRVEEN. HAARl.E.M (lloLLAND). 



(Eitablljlieil 18341, hee to intimate that their NEW WHOLE- 

 SALE TRADE CATALOGUE (or 1885 of BI'T.BS and nil 

 BUI.BOlT.Sand TIIBEROILS-ROOTED PLANTS 

 IS now ready, and mav be had po.>4t-free, on application. 

 FIRST CLASS GOODS-VERY LOW PRICES 



A nt1?'KrT'S Wanted on Sninry or Commission. 

 ^A7Xil« XO J,,. E. wkltney. Nyrternnan. Rocheiler. N.Y. 



THE 6RANEER FAMILY FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 



EVAPORATORS. 



S3. .■50. I«6.00. AND glO.OO. 



Send lorriniilar, EASTERN MANU- 

 FACT'G CO.. 268 S. Flltk St. Pklla. 



GRAINS, Norlhern orewn. New Tested 



SEED v ". 



^^^■^ loei, etc. Pure Seed! cneap. Planlt b< I 

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(46 bu. per A.) Wheal. Date. Com, PoU- 

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^PORTABLE evaporator:- 



Will DRY nil kinds of Fruit HANDSOMELY. 

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TRAWBERRY PLANTS 



July, Auicu«t, and September Prlce-Llut now ready. 

 FORTY varieiic^, inciudinc; Rlvemlde, Topeka, tod Call. 



rornla.— 1^1^*1' thre*; are making a atir among fruit erowera. Alss 

 Parrj, Mrs. Garfleld, Cornelia, Garrison, Atlantic, Dan> 

 lei Boone, aii'l Old Iron Clad. Evfry one who is inCerf^ted 

 ahould send for our price-liaC and learn how it is done. Price! 

 lower than they were last Spring, and we ship hundrcdn of mil«* 

 with perfect safety, even in the h»t month of July. Addresa 



C. BOCCS, MOORTON, DELAWARE. 



