one eat, and make him always feel like eat¬ 
ing when meal time comes. Bankers and 
capitalists can set no better table of food 
than the tiller of the soil if he chooses. If 
he does not live well it is his own fault. 
The climate and soil are favorable, but the 
atmosphere only does its part of the work, 
The gardener must aid in growing plants. 
All gardens must be cared for and culti¬ 
vated. Even the Garden of Eden was not 
an exception to this rule. 
A good farmer is known by the neatness 
ot his farm. And this statement is just as 
true with the gardener. Take down the 
hoe from the fence. With the aid of a 
little muscular force, that sedentary people 
call exercise, it will do wonders. Hoe well 
and hoe often. In the rich warm soil of 
the garden weeds grow rapidly and will 
soon sap up the strength that should *go to 
the plants. Constant careful hoeing is nec¬ 
essary to produce rapid healthy growing. 
The hoe must be used until the plants shade 
the ground, when it may be discontinued, 
at least until the vegetables ripen. Hoeing 
gives other advantages besides keep mg 
down the weeds. It keeps the soil loose 
and mellow so that it can be easily pene¬ 
trated by heat, and can absorb dews and 
gentle showers of rain. It gives the roots 
of the plant a chance to expand and take 
up food. It may not keep the soil worked 
damp, but it will greatly aid in retaining 
the moisture in the under layers of earth. 
The use of the hoe is not all that is neces¬ 
sary. Diseased and dead plants should be 
removed, and the cause of their failure 
ascertained and remedied if possible. Inju¬ 
rious insects must be fought and guarded 
against. If they are not captured they will 
take the crop. 
Gardening is an abstruse science. No 
gardener understands all that is to be learn¬ 
ed, and does not succeed equally well with 
all kinds of plants. It is not expected, 
therefore, that every farmer will raise all 
varieties of plants in his garden. The best 
way is to take a few that he values most 
and make a specialty of those. A few sorts 
of vegetables well taken care of will richly 
repay the labor that is given to their care. 
The products of the garden furnish a pleas¬ 
ant and healthful diet for all classes of peo¬ 
ple. No part of the farm, cultivated in 
whatever crop it may be, will be as profit¬ 
able in proportion as the garden, and cer¬ 
tainly no portion will yield a greater 
amount of comfort. 
LOVE’S CREED. 
I hold one simple faith thronghout the days 
That wear on slowly to an unknown end — 
A faith which glorifies the darkest ways 
That lead me to my friend. 
I may not understand the reason why 
Some things are hidden which I fain would see. 
My faith, the faith by which I live — or die — 
Is still enough for me. 
And thus it is I am content to wait, 
For fear and questioning to doubt belong, 
Love knows but this, and proves it, soon or late,- 
The king can do no wrong! 
—The Manhattan. 
Was she an Old Hen or not? 
Having the hen fever bad, I was glad to 
get in proper season every sitting hen I 
could. At one time I got a fearful measly 
looking specimen, but as she was willing to 
sit on anything, even brickbats, she served 
my purpose well. During the process of 
incubation she sat very close and almost en¬ 
tirely abstained from food. When the three 
weeks were up there was hardly enough of 
body left to generate heat sufficient to finish 
incubation. But when she came out with 
her chicks she never declined her rations and 
became very fat when the chickens were 
ready to wean; and, as she was good for 
nothing else, I took her head off, and not 
being the proprietor of a “boarding house ,” 
she was cooked for my own table, and to my 
surprise she was the most delicious fowl I 
ever tasted. And it seems to me this is a 
proper question to place before any scientific 
American — Whether she was an old hen or 
not ? And whether a fowl can be old that 
makes all its growth, except the frame, in 
a few weeks ? 
Let that be as it may, the discovery made 
by me proved fatal to old hens afterward. 
The proper method is to feed well while 
they are with chickens, and kill them as 
soon as the chickens are ready to wean. 
— Jos. M. Wade , in Scientific American. 
