16 
SEED-TIME AIIO HARVEST. 
An Illustrated Monthly Rural Magazine. 
Conducted by Isaac F. Tillinghast. 
FOR EVERY ONE WHO PLANTS A SEED 
OR TILLS A PLANT. 
SUBSCRIPTION 50 CENTS PER YEAR. 
Advertising Rates, Cents Per Line. 
Entered at the post-office as second class matter. 
VOL. V., NO. IV. WHOLE NO., XXX. 
La Plume, Lackawanna Co., Pa., April, 1884. 
We are glad that our correspondents 
have thoughtfully supplied us with good 
original contributions enough to fill this 
number, and heartily thank them for their 
favors for they must know that we have but 
little time now for editorial work. We 
hope they will continue to keep us well sup¬ 
plied for two or three months to come, for 
we shall not have time to eat or sleep in 
peace before August. Then we shall go 
fishing and will tell you all about it. 
• 
Our readers must realize that the busy 
season is now fully upon us. Seed orders 
and subscriptions are pouring in by the 
thousand, and although our working force 
has been more than doubled, we find it im¬ 
possible to attend to everything the mo¬ 
ment it should receive attention. But we 
beg to assure all that they shall be well and 
faithfully waited upon at the earliest possi¬ 
ble moment, and if mistakes occur we 
simply ask that they take them good natur- 
edly, and in writing for corrections please 
give us the number of the order if possible, 
and state definitely what is wrong and just 
what you wish us to do to perfectly satisfy 
you. If we ever loose patience it is when 
a man writes indefinitely about as follows: 
“Unionville, Mar. 20, 1884. 
Sir: You made a blunder in filling my 
order. If you don't make it right I shall 
publish you in the Thunderbolt as a fraud, 
and take it out of you ten-fold. Yours, T. G.” 
This is a fair sample of the way some 
men complain. First he gives no State, 
and no clue is to what or when he ordered, 
or what his particular dissatisfaction is, or 
what we must do to escape the condemna¬ 
tion about to be inflicted upon us. And in 
signing his name he does it with such a 
flourish of satisfaction at having thus per¬ 
formed his duty, that no earthly power can 
be certain even what his initials are. We 
suppose that signature is so familiar to him 
that he thinks any one may know it by in¬ 
tuition. Now if instead of the above, he 
had kindly and plainly have written: “In 
order No. 9640, your clerks by error sent 
me a half ounce of Boston Market Lettuce, 
which should have been Boston Market Cel¬ 
ery,” we should lose no time in dispatching 
the correct article by return mail, providing 
his name and address were given, and if 
they were not, by the number given we 
could turn to our books and find it. 
We have a special request to make of 
the farmers’ boys who receive this number. 
It is that you befriend the birds. When a 
boy we spent a large share of the spring 
months in studying ornithology. No other 
boys of otar acquaintance were so familiar 
with the nesting place and habits of so 
large a number of birds as we. The blue¬ 
birds were our especial favorites. They 
have now arrived and are prying around 
your homes in search of nesting places. 
Will you not make them some boxes ? Two 
pieces of siding, six inches wide and ten 
inches long, (with a hole If inches in diam¬ 
eter, in one piece), nailed to two pieces of 
batting of the same length and three inches- 
wide, will make a bird house that any fam¬ 
ily of bluebirds will be proud of. Nail a 
perch just under the entrance, and fasten 
the box securely on some out-building or 
tree, high enough to be out of the way of 
cats. We will give a year’s subscription to 
Seed-Time and Harvest to the boy who 
will get the most birds to build in different 
boxes, and will announce his name if those 
who fix boxes will report. Pleasefilo it now. 
Early Cabbage Plants and Toma¬ 
to Plants. —We have sowed in the Green¬ 
house this spring a much larger space than 
usual to early cabbage and tomatoes of the 
best varieties, and will supply, after the 15th 
instant, nice seed-bed plants of a suitable 
size for transplanting into hotbeds or cold- 
frames T at $2.50 per lOCfl. Those living 
