THE IRRIGA110N AGE. 



215 



Agent Downer and Foreman E. N. Edell 

 of the Grand Central station had every- 

 thing clear at this end. Three mammoth 

 wire-screened vans stood in Depew place, 

 each with a pair of horses that had a re- 

 cord of thirteen minutes from the Grand 

 Central station to the Christopher street 

 ferry. 



The special mail puffed on track ten 

 minutes late. Its time of arrival is 10 

 o'clock. Uncle Sam's representatives 

 sprang at the sealed mail car, and the 

 doors flew open. 



Then it rained mail sacks for seventeen 

 minutes. The car was shifted into the 

 canal along the side of th baggage rooms, 

 and the sacks were flung first on the bag- 

 gage room floor, and thence into the mail 

 wagons backed up to the doors on the 

 other side. 



Amid a bedlam of shouts, yells of offi- 

 cials checking off each sack as it was flung 

 in, and a running to and fro of other men 

 giving special directions for the route to 

 the steamship, the mail was loaded up. 



Across Forty-second street to Eighth 

 avenue the wagons flew down Eighch ave- 

 nue to Fifteenth street, across Fifteenth 

 street to Tenth avenue, and thence to 

 Twelfth street, bringing up at the Cunard 

 .pier as the crew of the Campania were pre- 

 paring for the final order to cast off. 



The queen's mail came from New Zeal- 

 and in a ship that was making her maiden 

 voyage over the South Sea route, the So- 

 noma. Built by the Cramps, she flies the 

 American flag, and she is called "the 

 flyer of the Pacific." In its career around 

 the world the mail covered some 18,000 

 .miles. 



TAKING AN INVENTORY. 



All successfull Business men annual in- 

 voice their stock; they are not simply sat- 

 isfied with a bank account which shows 

 'that they are grov/ing in financial strength; 

 ut the stock on hand is gone over that 



just what is on hand may be known and 

 also what its present value, whether it has 

 advanced or depreciated, whethe certain 

 classes of stock are ready or slow sale and 

 all like considerations that the yearly in- 

 ventory reveals to the thorough going 

 business man. 



The farmer usually knows how many 

 head of horses, cattle, tfheep and pigs are 

 on the farm and can closely estimate tiie 

 bushels of wheat oats or corn and the 

 quantity of timber but these are not the 

 most valuable facts that an invoice on the 

 farm should disclose. But rather, how 

 many acres have been required to sustain a 

 given number of cows sheep or pigs. What 

 are the yields per acre, what the profitable- 

 ness of cerfain kinds of grain, what the 

 farm knowledge gained from the experiment 

 patch, what has a well systematized corp 

 rotation done for the- farm, what has the 

 flock of hens done towards lessening the 

 cash outlay for household expenses, what 

 has the garden paid, what has been the ac- 

 tual amount paid in cash or trade for fam 

 ily expenses, what expenses have been in- 

 curred for farm machinery and repairs, are 

 there unncessary fences on the farm, what 

 disposition has been made of manure, and 

 like questions should be answered as the 

 season's harvest reveals the contents of 

 storehouse and barn. 



When the merchant has completed his 

 inventory he immediately prepares for the 

 new stock and its sale, thouSh he may give 

 the impression of doing little; if he is to 

 enlarge his business he is at work; so the 

 farmer known by his thrift and fine farm is 

 known, when harvesting his crop, planning 

 by the light of his own experiences and by 

 gaining knowledge from those of other 

 farmers preparing for the crops of another 

 season. The history of excessive yield 'al- 

 ways reveals that the soil was studied, the 

 seed carefully selected and the most intell- 

 igent cultivation gtven. If the inventory 

 the farmer makes shows where mistakes 

 have been made as well as cuccesses scored 

 it is accomplishing its purpose. Colman's 

 Rural World. 



