AUGUST 1, 1916 



others, and sometimes I venture a remon- 

 strance against hasty words. Now, here is 

 something from our good old friend the 

 Sunday School Times which hits the matter 

 to a dot. Read it, and see if it hits you, 

 my good friends. 



ANSWERING THE TELEPHONE. 



To rebuff a visitor is neither courteous nor Chris- 

 tian. Most of us pride ourselves on the fact that 

 we would not do such a thing. Yet telephone dis- 

 courtesy is one of the commonest and one of the 

 strangest events in the everyday life of both Chris- 

 tians and other ordinarily courteous folks. Stop 

 and think a moment ; with what toue of voice do 

 you answer the telephone if the bell rings at a 

 moment when you would rather not be interrupted ? 

 An amazingly large proportion of well-bred and 

 well-mannered Christian people make their first 

 word of reply to the phone call in a tone either of 

 noticeable impatience or of curtness or of weariness. 

 Let those same ptrsons be addressed by a friend 

 entering the room unexpectedly, and they would not 

 think of greeting him in any way except that of 

 courteous, inviting welcome, even if they did not 

 feel " welcoming " inside. Yet over the telephone 

 they abandon that tone and spirit whenever they feel 

 like it, and they do not realize what a sharp rebuff 

 it means to the unknown caller at the other end of 

 the wire. The simple test is this : do we answer the 

 telephone exactly as we greet our friends face to 

 face ? If not, let us be properly ashamed of our- 

 selves, and never fail that way again. 



While making the above clipping from 

 the Times I found something right below it 

 which it seems to me must have a place. 

 A good many times in this busy life of mine 

 when I have worked hard to accomplish 



689 



something — yes, may be I have worked for 

 months and years, and, after it was done, 

 instead of giving me credit the great busy 

 world gave credit to somebody else. I used 

 to feel hurt at such times, and perhaps got 

 a little sour toward the world. But I be- 

 lieve I have mostly gotten over it. Now 

 below is that second item from the Times: 



■WHOSE RECCGNITION? 



Can we be happy when we are ignored ? Not if 

 our chief happiness comes from our interest in self. 

 But if that is our idea of happiness, we are satisfied 

 with a poor counterfeit of the real thing. We have 

 yet to know the meaning of the joy that is centered, 

 not in what we are, but in what Christ is. Joy for 

 the first time begins in any one's life when Christ 

 has become the whole in his actual life and being. 

 Charles E. Scott, of China, punctures a common 

 failing when he says: "When one is in Christ, liow 

 silly and inordinate it is to waste any time or 

 strength in trying to get ' recognized.' And what 

 .ioy it is to try to get Christ recognized I My expe- 

 rience is that, the closer I live to him, the more it is 

 a matter of indifference whether I personally get 

 credit from fellow-workers for things accomplished 

 or not." To be in Christ is to be dead to self. So 

 the struggle for self's recognition ceases after our 

 burial with him into death, that -in all things be 

 may have the pre-eminence. 



In answer to the question, " Can we be 

 happy when thus overlooked? " yes, we can 

 even " rejoice and be glad " because an 

 opportunity is afforded us to show forth a 

 Christlike spirit. Chai'ity, you will remem- 

 ber, not only " beareth all tilings," but 

 '' seeketh not her own." 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



SWEET CORN FOR POULTRY; SWEET CLOVER 

 SPORTING ; HIGH YIELD OF POTATOES. 



Mr. Root: — On page 562 you have an item on 

 sweet potatoes and peas preventing hens from lay- 

 ing. I have often heard that sweet corn would stop 

 hens from laying, but have fed my White Wyandottes 

 Golden Bantam almost exclusively for months at a 

 time, and they laid well, and found also that they 

 preferred it greatly to common Dent corn, as they 

 would pick out all the Bantam and leave the Dent 

 on the ground. 



You mention a period between old and new pota- 

 toes. I usually have old Carman No. 3 away after 

 new potatoes, in a common cellar, in fine condition 

 even up to September 15 one year. We eat them 

 " skins and all." 



Last summer I told you of a remarkable plant of 

 sweet clover, and promised you seed. It grew over 

 seven feet tall from seed planted April 15, with large 

 thick leaves ten times as large as the common ; but 

 it was an annual variety, or annual sport, and died, 

 dead as a ragweed. I picked off its few attempts at 

 blossoming, or it might have seeded, and proved of 

 value ; but I fear frost would have killed it before 

 doing so. It is odd, too, that its root was very small 

 as compared with common sweet-clover plants of the 

 s.^me age. I am certain some plants with much 

 smaller amount of stems and foliage had roots ten 

 times as large. I regret its loss. 



I planted seed of sweet clover taken fresh from 

 plants last .\ugust, and they are now over six feet 



tall, and blossoming. Alfalfa planted at the same 

 time is only about two feet high — in blossom too. 



Mr. Baldwin's thoughts on different names for the 

 same plants are interesting. I came from Sidney, 

 Ohio, in June, 1907, and have found names of 

 plants here in many cases different from Ohio. I 

 wrote you once about poke of Ohio being called 

 skoke here, while poke is a swamp plant which 

 grows in company with skunk cabbage, and is said 

 to be poisonous. What we know in Ohio as lamb's- 

 quarter is here called pigweed, but is used for 

 greens. Dogfennel is here called Mayweed ; timothy 

 is herd's-grass ; sycamore-trees are buttonball. I 

 have heard them called buttonwood in Ohio. 



We have a potato here known locally as Double 

 Yielder, deemed by many as superior to any other 

 in quality. It is good at digging-time. Last fall I 

 found one hill with 35 potatoes, which I saved care- 

 fully to plant this spring. On examining this spring 

 one was scabby, and discarded. The remaining 34 

 weighed 54 ounces at planting time; 23 were plant- 

 ed whole, and 11 cut to two pieces, planting 45 hills. 

 I like undersized potatoes for baking or boiling, for 

 eating " skins and all." By selecting those hills 

 containing the largest number of potatoes when dig- 

 ging I have reduced the size of my strain of Carman 

 No. 3, while increasing the number in the hill. 



Packer, Ct., July 5. E. P. Robinson. 



Friend R.,*I am glad to know that sweet 

 corn is preferred by poultry* I feel sure it 

 must be more nourishing, and I could hard- 



