84 
February  6 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
among  such  horses  to  the  contrary  ;  for  it  is  neglect  of 
the  hocks  in  the  stable  that  causes  the  trouble.  The 
preference  is  more  on  account  of  the  symmetrical  mas¬ 
siveness  of  the  feet.  Heavy  draft  horses,  needed  for 
the  great  London  brewers’  drays,  require  immense 
feet;  hence  they  need  this  “feather”  to,  as  it  were, 
complete  their  symmetry  ;  and  in  cities  thick  mud  is 
not  so  superabundant  as  on  farms,  and  the  stables  are 
warmer  than  in  the  country.  R.  c.  A. 
Some  Long-Milking  Guernseys. — Some  Guernsey 
cows  cannot  be  dried  off  easily,  and  I  do  not  think  a 
cow  ought  to  be  nearly  starved  in  order  to  get  her  dry. 
I  cease  feeding  all  heavy  grain  for  four  to  six  weeks 
before  she  is  “  due,”  and  give  two  or  three  quarts  of 
bran,  and  keep  on  milking.  I  have  one  five-year-old 
which  has  had  four  calves,  and  she  has  never  been  dry. 
He.*  milk  is  as  good  the  day  before  calving  as  at  any 
time,  and  she  has  made  half  a  pound  of  butter  the  day 
before  she  dropped  a  calf.  I  have  a  sister  to  this  one, 
which  was  milked  16  months  between  her  first  and 
second  calf,  and  she  gave  five  quarts  of  milk  before 
calving.  The  mother  of  these  heifers,  now  10  years 
old,  “due”  in  two  weeks,  lam  milking  once  a  day. 
I  have  a  Guernsey  heifer  due  to  drop  her  second  calf  in 
two  weeks,  and  she  is  being  milked  once  a  day.  In  Jan¬ 
uary  1891,  I  had  a  two-year-old  heifer  with  her  first 
calf,  a  three-year-old  with  her  first,  a  four-year-old 
with  her  third,  and  the  old  cow;  and  on  October  1,  a 
two-year-old  came  in,  and  we  made  1,167  pounds  of 
buttir,  and  used  milk  and  cream  enough  to  have  made 
60  or  70  pounds  more.  I  get  30  cents  per  pound  the 
year  round  for  the  butter.  I  ought  to  have  made  more 
of  it,  but  the  weather  had  been  very  dry  here  in  Dover, 
N.  H.,  and  as  I  never  turn  my  cows  into  the  field, 
they  did  not  do  as  well  as  they  ought,  and  my  fodder 
corn  gave  out  earlier  than  usual.  w.  K.  R. 
Some  New  Forage  Plants  for 
Missouri. 
So.ja  Bean. — The  past  season  I  grew  about  eight 
hills  of  this  bean  in  good  garden  soil.  The  seed  was 
put  in  four  feet  each  way  and  two  grains  in  a  hill.  A 
fair  calculation  showed  that  the  yield  would  be  about 
70  bushels  to  the  acre.  Even  for  chicken  feed  I  would 
consider  it  profitable.  Hut  from  one  trial  of  it  for  the 
table  I  consider  it  of  no  little  value.  It  is  a  sort  of 
medium  between  a  bean  and  a  pea,  and  equal  to  the 
best  of  either. 
Soak  overnight  before  cooking  them.  I  have  a  notion 
that  treated  as  the  Yankees  cook  beans,  they  would  be 
excellent.  Hereafter  I  shall  plant  them  but  three  feet 
apart  and  put  but  one  grain  in  the  hill.  The  plant 
makes  a  little  tree,  quite  different  from  any  pea  or 
bean  I  know  of.  From  the  lateness  of  its  maturing 
here,  I  have  doubts  of  its  success  much  further  north 
of  Montgomery  County. 
Kaffir  Corn. — The  stalks  of  this  are  excellent  for 
fodder  and  the  grain  for  poultry  or  cattle.  Recently 
I  threw  out  some  of  the  tops  of  the  seed  for  the  chick¬ 
ens  to  pick  off,  and  the  cows  and  horses  came  and  took 
the  larger  share.  One  of  its  greatest  features  is  that 
it  will  mature  a  crop  in  a  dry  season  when  common 
corn  will  be  a  failure,  and  the  yield  of  seed  to  the  acre 
is  greater,  while  I  consider  the  fodder  fully  equal  to 
corn  fodder  in  value. 
Teosinte. — For  fodder  alone  this  beats  anything  I 
ever  grew.  A  single  grain  in  a  hill,  the  hills  four  feet 
apart  each  way,  will  yield  three,  or  I  may  say,  four 
times  as  much  food  as  any  other  plant  we  have.  It 
can  be  cut  in  midsummer  for  feed  and  will  give  another 
large  crop  by  fall,  and  can  be  fed  until  the  advent  of 
pretty  severe  frosts.  If  not  cut  in  summer,  each  hill 
will  make  a  full  armful  for  any  man ;  and  horses,  cat¬ 
tle  and  hogs  eat  it  greedily.  It  stools  wonderfully,  and 
in  my  grounds  grows  eight  to  ten  feet  high.  Hut  we 
must  buy  our  seed  from  the  seedmen  each  year,  as  our 
seasons  are  too  short  to  mature  it  here.  s.  miller. 
[The  R.  N.-Y.,  as  older  readers  are  aware,  tried 
Teosinte,  Soja  Reans  and  Kaffir  Corn  or  sorghum,  the 
first  two,  12  years  ago,  the  last,  about  six  or  seven 
years  since.  What  our  correspondent  says  may  be 
true  enough  for  Missouri,  but  they  are  not  as  valuable 
here  as  many  other  similar  plants. — Eds.] 
How  a  Squirrel  “Gets  His  Bearings.” 
I  feel  an  interest  in  the  inquiry  of  a  subscriber  on 
page  37,  under  the  caption,  “  How  does  the  Squirrel 
Know  Where  he  Huried  the  Nut  ?  ”  I  live  in  a  walnut 
woodland  in  Kentucky,  and  have  thousands  of  times 
watched  and  mused  over  this  wonderful  show  of  in¬ 
stinct.  From  my  observations  I  don’t  believe  that  the 
squirrel  hoards  or  hides  nuts  when  he  feels  assurance 
of  plenty  without  the  exercise  of  such  foresight.  A  pair 
of  squirrels  have  occupied  an  old  Honey  Locust  quite 
near  our  dining  room  for  several  years,  and  the  chil¬ 
dren  have  taught  them  that  a  nut  can  generally  be  had 
by  coming  for  it.  They  enter  through  a  window,  or  if 
that  is  closed,  pass  around  the  house  and  enter  through 
the  door  and  wait  till  a  nut  is  placed  on  the  floor.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  season  of  plenty  we  rarely  see  them,  but  dur¬ 
ing  the  spring  and  summer  they  are  frequent  callers. 
If  more  than  sufficient  for  present  need  be  given,  the 
excess  is  carefully  hidden.  I  have  watched  this  pro¬ 
ceeding  hundreds  of  times  and  am  confident  that  they 
take  bearings  from  objects  above  the  ground,  both  be¬ 
fore  and  after  the  hiding.  The  hiding  is  so  deftlv 
done  that  I  have  often  been  unable  to  find  the  nut  when 
I  had  never  removed  my  eye  from  the  exact  spot  not  10 
feet  from  the  point  of  observation.  In  finding  the  hid¬ 
den  treasure  the  process  is  not  that  of  the  surveyor  in 
locating  a  stone  or  stake.  There  seems  to  be  an 
ability  to  return  to  a  general  locality,  and  the  exact 
spot  is  determined  by  scent.  I  reach  this  conclusion 
from  observations  under  other  circumstances.  Not  100 
feet  from  where  I  write  stands  a  large  walnut,  bearing 
small  nuts  with  very  thin  hulls.  The  squirrels,  appre¬ 
ciating  this  fact,  congregate  here  from  all  parts  of  the 
woodland.  The  nuts  are  not  secreted,  but  scattered 
on  the  grass  just  as  they  fell — some  years  as  many  as 
20  bushels.  When  the  earth  is  deeply  covered  with 
snow,  I  have  watched  20  squirrels  at  one  time  feeding. 
They  descend  the  tree,  run  out  on  the  snow,  hesitate 
an  instant,  plunge  straight  down  and  return  with  a 
sound  nut  every  time.  This  is  evidently  due  not  to 
instinct  or  a  knowledge  of  location,  but  to  the  exercise 
of  the  olfactory  sense.  h.  f.  h. 
An  Experiment  in  Child  Culture. 
The  day  is  passed  when  an  agricultural  paper  can 
confine  itself  to  crops  and  cattle.  The  social  and  educa¬ 
tional  needs  of  the  farmer  and  his  family  must  be  dis¬ 
cussed.  The  education  of  the  farmer’s  children  is  an 
important  topic.  The  evils  of  the  present  educational 
system  in  most  country  places  are  many  and  great. 
Parents  are  often  conscious  of  them,  but  what  can  be 
done?  There  is  one  thing  that  nearly  all  farmers  can 
do,  but  it  is  something  about  which  very  little  is  said. 
Once  in  a  while  some  one  talks  right  out  plainly,  too 
plainly,  many  might  think.  Here,  for  instance,  is 
what  a  very  well  known  and  influential  man  said  to  an 
audience  of  farmers  a  few  months  ago. 
Finally,  our  common  school  education  as  it  is,  is  an¬ 
tiquated,  worn  out,  a  failure.  It  points  away  from  the 
farm,  away  from  home.  So  far  as  reading,  spelling 
and  writing  are  concerned,  they  can  just  as  well,  and 
better,  be  taught  at  home.  In  fact  we  can  and  must 
do  more  home  educating.  Children  should  not  be  sent 
off  even  to  a  wisely  conducted  school  at  so  premature 
an  age.  Home  must  be  made  more  of  every  way. 
Home  education  should  be  widened  to  the  utmost  pos¬ 
sible  limit.  Meanwhile  we  have  a  just  right  to  demand 
a  revolution  in  primary  common  public  schools.  These 
we  cannot  dispense  with,  nor  can  we  prosper  with 
them  as  they  are. 
These  words  struck  me  forcibly,  because  I  was  work¬ 
ing  along  these  very  lines  with  my  own  children  ;  and 
I  am  so  well  satisfied  with  my  experiment  that  I  have 
thought  it  might  be  well  to  write  out  an  account  of  it 
for  The  Rural  New-Yorker.  When  our  eldest  child 
became  old  enough  to  be  sent  to  school,  we  made  up 
our  minds  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  send  her  a  mile  and 
a  quarter  to  school  to  be  gone  nearly  nine  hours,  for 
the  sake  of  spending  perhaps  five  or  ten  minutes  in 
reading  ;  so  we  began  to  teach  her  at  home  and  her 
progress  has  been  so  satisfactory  that  we  have  never 
sent  her  to  school.  We  are  teaching  two  younger 
children  in  the  same  way,  and  the  further  we  go  with 
them,  the  better  we  like  the  plan. 
Still  I  would  not  urge  people  to  adopt  this  plan  un¬ 
less  they  were  convinced  it  was  best.  Hut  in  many 
country  districts  there  are  only  20  or  24  weeks  of 
school  in  a  year,  and  the  children  could  learn  a  great 
deal  by  studying  at  home  during  the  long  vacations. 
I  think  that  farmers’  children  could  ordinarily  get 
twice  as  good  an  education  if  they  studied  at  home  as 
well  as  at  school  as  they  can  by  studying  only  at 
school  or  while  school  is  keeping.  Usually  when 
school  stops  study  stops.  This  is  best  in  city  schools. 
As  things  are,  the  farmer  needs  help,  he  thinks  his 
children  are  going  to  help  him,  but  just  when  they 
get  old  enough  to  aid  him  they  must  go  away  to 
school,  out  from  under  his  influence,  and  often  they 
learn  to  dislike  the  farm  home  and  as  soon  as  possible 
go  away  for  good.  All  this  is  changed  when  home 
study  is  taken  up  and  followed.  When  a  child  studies 
at  home,  he  studies  until  he  gets  his  lessons ;  then  he 
is  free  to  work  or  play.  At  school  he  must  stay  in  so 
many  hours,  no  matter  if  he  can  get  his  lessons  in  one- 
half  of  the  time.  The  rest  of  the  time  he  must  try  to 
keep  still. 
No  science  is  taught  in  the  country  schools,  but 
every  child  ought  to  have  instruction  in  natural  sci¬ 
ence.  Literature  is  almost  unknown  in  the  school, 
but  every  child  should  learn  to  love  the  best  books, 
and  at  least  get  started  in  the  right  way  in  his  reading. 
I  believe  it  is  a  great  mistake  for  farmers  to  trust  the 
entire  education  of  their  children  to  the  schools.  Take 
reading,  for  instance  :  nearly  all  of  the  reading-books 
now  in  use  are  designed  for  graded  schools ;  and  the 
children  begin,  not  with  books,  but  with  blackboard. 
A  primary  teacher  cannot  get  her  30  or  more  pupils 
around  her  to  read  from  a  book  and  have  her  point 
out  the  words.  On  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  of  the 
ungraded  school  cannot  find  time  to  use  the  city  meth¬ 
ods.  Hence  when  the  country  child  takes  a  first  read¬ 
er  which  is  prepared  for  pupils  who  have  had  black¬ 
board  drill,  he  finds  it  very  hard.  I  have  found  a  book 
— Collard’s  Beginner’s  Reader — which  obviates  this 
difficulty.  It  is  so  simple  that  any  parent  or  teacher 
can  use  it,  and  the  average  child  who  would  find  the 
ordinary  reader  very  hard,  can  go  on  easily  and  learn 
rapidly  by  using  this  little  book.  If  any  one  wishes 
to  see  how  children  are  taught  in  the  graded  schools  of 
cities,  he  should  get  Badlam’s  Suggestive  Lessons  in 
Language  and  Reading.  Miss  Badlam  has  prepared  a 
first  reader  which  contains  some  of  the  best  ma  tter  I 
have  found  in  any  book  of  the  same  grade.  Here  I 
must  condemn  the  practice  of  drilling  a  child  in  one 
book  till  he  knows  it  by  heart.  The  school  has  one 
set  of  reading  books,  it  does  not  take  a  pupil  long  to 
read  one  through,  he  must  not  go  on  too  rapidly,  so  he 
has  to  turn  back  and  go  over  and  over  the  same  one. 
The  child  should,  instead,  read  three  or  more  books  of 
each  of  the  primary  grades.  One  plan  is  to  use  a  reg¬ 
ular  series  of  readers  and  then  fill  up  the  time  with 
supplementary  reading.  For  this  purpose  it  is  well  to 
use  books  of  simple  science  and  books  of  literature. 
For  a  regular  series  of  readers,  I  prefer  the  Normal 
Course  in  reading,  because  it  teaches  children  how  to 
see.  For  science  made  bright  and  plain  and  interest¬ 
ing  to  children  I  like  best  Nature  Readers,  Sea-Side 
and  Way-Side.  This  is  for  summer  reading.  For  lit¬ 
erature  there  is  nothing  better  than  the  Riverside  Lit¬ 
erature  Series  and  Classics  for  Children. 
Number  should  be  taken  up  early  and  can  be  before 
a  child  learns  to  read  by  using  Badlam’s  Aids  to  Num¬ 
ber.  This  is  a  very  simple  device  for  teaching  num¬ 
ber,  and  it  is  surprising  how  quickly  a  child  will 
learn  simple  combinations  of  numbers  by  its  use. 
Quickness  in  figures  is  a  necessity  and  should  be  aimed 
at.  J.  w.  NEWTON. 
(To  be  continued.) 
Taxing  Mortgages. 
That  the  taxation  of  land  at  its  assessed  value,  with¬ 
out  deduction  for  mortgage  indebtedness,  and  taxing 
the  mortgage  at  the  same  time,  is  double  taxation, 
would  seem  to  be  a  proposition  so  obvious  as  not  to 
admit  of  argument.  Suppose  a  farm  worth  $10,000  is 
paying  five  per  cent  on  the  investment.  Infirmity  dis¬ 
qualifies  the  owner  for  further  work,  and  he  must  sell. 
Not  finding  a  cash  customer,  he  takes  notes  secured  by 
mortgage.  If  the  tax  is  one  per  cent,  the  farm,  before 
the  sale,  was  paying  four  per  cent,  free  of  tax,  it  is 
now  paying  but  three.  Neither  party  to  the  contract 
has  any  more  property  than  he  had  before,  in  value;  but, 
between  them,  they  must  pay  twice  as  much  tax.  It 
must  all  come  from  the  land,  and  plainly,  the  reduction 
of  the  profit  from  four  to  three  per  cent,  takes  25  per 
cent  from  the  market  value  of  the  property.  The  same 
rule  applies  wherever  loss  or  misfortune  has  obliged  a 
farmer  to  borrow  on  the  security  of  his  land.  The 
State  acts  the  part  of  the  wolf  toward  the  herd,  sing¬ 
ling  out  the  Aveak  and  infirm  for  its  prey. 
Mortgager  and  mortgagee  are  holders  of  separate  in¬ 
terests  in  the  same  land,  just  like  holders  of  a  life  in¬ 
terest  and  of  a  residuary  interest,  and  it  is  just  as 
iniquitous  for  the  State  to  tax  each  of  the  former  the 
full  value  as  it  would  be  to  do  the  same  to  the  latter. 
There  is,  however,  this  difference  in  the  two  cases  :  in 
the  former  the  whole  injury  is  to  one  of  the  parties, 
the  mortgager ;  for  the  mortgagee  can  withdraw  his 
money  and  invest  it  elsewhere ;  in  the  latter  the  in¬ 
jury  would  be  to  both. 
Apart  from  the  injustice  to  individuals,  as  a  matter 
of  State  policy,  it  is  bad,  not  merely  from  a  moral,  but 
also  from  a  financial  point  of  view.  It  is  a  hindrance 
to  enterprise  and  industrial  development. 
The  chief  factors  in  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
nations  are  the  men  of  skill  and  industry  who  lack 
capital  at  the  outset,  and  are  spurred  to  exertion  be 
cause  of  such  want.  If  such  a  man  can  become  the 
owner  of  a  farm  by  buying  and  mortgaging,  he  creates 
wealth  and  adds  to  the  State’s  resources;  and  the  State 
in  obstructing  him  by  the  imposition  of  an  iniquitous 
tax,  hurts  itself.  It  is  always  politic  for  a  State  to  be 
just. 
It  is  said  in  reply  to  all  this,  that  the  principle  would 
exempt  from  taxation  all  loans  and  investments  in 
interest-bearing  securities.  Very  true,  the  principle 
would  require  such  exemption,  and  a  man  having 
$10,000  worth  of  personal  property,  and  owing  $5,000, 
ought  to  pay  taxes  on  $5,000  only.  The  difficulty  is  in 
