Oct.  29 
7ro 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
A  SHORT  SERMON. 
Seest  thou  the  selfish  man.  Mark  him 
well,  for  perchance  he  resembleth  thee. 
Hold  up  his  picture  before  your  eyes  and 
frame  it  on  memory’s  walls.  A  selfish 
man  is  a  hog.  No,  not  a  natural  hog,  for 
by  nature  swine  are  as  generous  as  are 
horses.  Man  has  compelled  the  hog  to 
be  greedy  and  rude.  The  hog  really  has 
a  soul  above  filth,  but  man  has  forced 
the  poor  animal  to  live  od  leavings  so  loDg 
that  the  hog  has  lost  hope  and  ambition, 
and  is — only  a  hog.  The  tendency  of  the 
selfish  man  is  to  make  hogs  of  those 
around  him,  because  he  gives  to  all  an 
example  of  hoggishness.  This  man  cap¬ 
tures  the  best  seat  by  the  fire,  the  best 
food  on  the  table  and  the  most  comfort¬ 
able  place  wherever  he  goes.  His  wife 
runs  at  his  bidding  to  save  his  stronger 
legs,  others  take  what  he  sees  fit  to 
leave.  He  knows  not  the  pleasures  of 
self-denial  in  his  great  haste  to  look  out 
for  the  comfort  of  No.  1.  The  selfish 
man  is  a  “  Nq.  1  ”  man  pure  and  simple. 
He  never  can  be  truly  great,  because  he 
is  supremely  little  in  his  great  love  of 
self.  Lo  !  the  picture  of  the  self¬ 
ish  man.  Does  it  fit  you  ?  If  the 
fits  you  put  it  on  and  pray  for  humidity. 
Cure  your  selfishness1  while  yet  there  is 
time,  and  be  a  man. 
PARNY  ANN  ON  KEEPIN’  HENS. 
P’raps  I’ve  made  mention  of  it  before 
how  the  neighbors’  hens  pestered  me  ; 
I  really  think  they  was  on  the  premises 
before  I  was  ;  for  I  have  a  dim  remem¬ 
brance  of  seein’  some  scuttlin’  off  the 
front  door  step  as  I  drew  up  to  the  house. 
Wall,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  neighbors’ 
hens  did  about  plague  the  life  outer  me 
the  first  year  I  lived  on  Uncle  Polly- 
carpuse’s  farm,  and  early  in  the  spring  of 
the  next  year  I  made  up  my  mind  there 
had  got  to  be  a  new  order  of  things  or  I’d 
know  the  reason  why.  So  one  fine  day 
I  dressed  me  up  in  my  best  and  went  out 
to  call  on  my  neighbors,  specially  on 
them  that  kep’  hens. 
I  didn’t  want  no  quarrel  with  none  of 
’em,  but  I  felt  that  the  time  had  come 
when  I  must  say  somethin’.  So  as  soon 
as  I  got  well  settled  in  each  house  I 
begun  mildly,  but  firmly  on  the  hen 
business.  I  told  the  folks  jest  how  ’twas, 
that  I  was  about  worn  out  with  the 
pesky  things,  and  I  wanted  somethin’ 
done  right  away  about  keepin’them  hens 
to  home. 
Wall,  all  them  folks  said  was,  “dew 
tell!”  “  you  don’t  say  so!”  “I  swan  ’tis 
too  bad,”  and  such  like  remarks,  never 
one  of  ’em  sayin’  anything  about  shuttin' 
up  their  hens  or  tryin’  to  keep  ’em  within 
proper  bounds.  No,  not  they,  and  they 
all  closed  their  remarks  by  sayin’  very 
smilin’  like,  “If  you  don’t  want  to  be 
bothered  by  other  folks’  hens  you  must 
keep  hens  yourself.” 
I  tell  you  I  was  mad  clean  way  through, 
but  I  didn't  let  on  about  it  but  went  home 
quiet  seemin’  enough,  but  when  I  got 
fairly  inter  the  house  I  just  broke  down 
and  boo-hooed  like  a  great  baby;  to  think 
that  a  poor  lone  woman  should  be  so  put 
upon.  But  after  a  spell  I  spunked  up 
and  I  sez  to  myself,  Parney  Ann  will  keep 
hens  and  she  will  get  some  of  the  very 
hatefullest,  fightinest  kind  she  can  scare 
up  anywhere. 
I  had  often  heern  tell  on  a  great  hen 
man  who  lived  in  a  town  a  few  miles 
away,  and  the  next  mornin’  good  and 
early,  sayin’  nothin’  to  nobody,  I  tackled 
up  Old  Spotty  and  started  out  for  a  whole 
day’s  cruise. 
It  was  as  pretty  a  spring  mornin’  as 
one  would  ask  to  see,  and  I  enjoyed  my 
ride  and  kep’  thinkin’  all  the  time  how  I 
was  goin’  to  pay  off  them  mean  roosters 
and  hens  in  proper  shape  for  the  damage 
they  had  done  to  my  property.  I  cal- 
kulated  to  teach  ’em  one  and  all  a  lesson 
they  wouldn’t  forget  in  a  hurry. 
The  hen  man  showed  me  around  and 
I  looked  at  so  many  different  breeds  of 
fowls  that  I  got  quite  mixed  up  like.  I 
had  no  idee  that  there  was  half  so  many. 
At  last  I  told  the  hen  men  what  I 
wanted  was  a  rooster  of  some  kind  that 
could  fight  like  all  possessed  and  would 
be  sure  to  keep  other  folks’  hens  lo 
home. 
“Wall,”  sez  he  “I’ve  got  jest  what  you 
want,”  and  he  showed  me  a  curus  kind  of 
a  tall  rooster,  about  all  legs  and  chest, 
with  a  tail  like  a  whip  lash,  and  sez  he, 
“  here’s  the  chap  that  can  whip  all  crea¬ 
tion.” 
“  Then  he’s  the  critter  I  want,”  sez  I, 
and  out  with  my  money  purse  and  paid  a 
good  round  sum  for  the  queer  bird. 
Then  I  got  six  hens  of  the  same  kind, 
[Game,  the  hen  man  called  ’em,]  so  the 
rooster  wouldn't  feel  lonesome  and  would 
be  sure  to  stay  to  home  where  he  was 
both  wanted  and  needed. 
My  fowls  was  all  nicely  packed  inter  a 
box  and  hitched  on  behind  the  wagon 
and  I  druv’  home  feelin’  in  quite  a  gale. 
There  was  goin’  to  be  a  big  surprise 
party  for  some  folks  very  soon. 
That  night  I  fixed  a  nice  place  for  my 
birds  in  a  part  of  the  big  wood  shed  where 
no  one  would  be  likely  to  see  ’em. 
When  I  thought  they  felt  kinder  to 
home,  I  let  ’em  out  early  one  mornin’  and 
fed  ’em  well.  I  went  into  the  house, 
leavin’  em  peacefully  pickin’  around  in 
the  front  yard,  and,  as  the  newspapers 
say,  waited  for  further  developments. 
I  didn’t  have  to  wait  long,  I  can  tell 
you.  I  hadn’t  hardly  got  in  when  neigh¬ 
bor  Green’s  old  Shanghai  come  marchin’ 
over  as  fine  and  proud  as  you  please,  but 
’twan’t  but  a  mighty  short  space  of 
period  when  he  was  a  runnin’  home 
again  as  fast  as  •  he  could  leg  it  down 
the  road,  his  hens  flutterin’  aid 
squawkin’  after  him  ;  such  a  howdy-do 
you  never  see  as  there  was  that  day  on 
my  premises. 
Several  flocks  come  over,  but  none  of 
’em  stayed  long. 
I  ain’t  much  for  seein’  fightin’  and  I 
kep’  pretty  close  to  the  house  all  day 
and  let  ’em  go  it. 
Once  in  a  while  I  would  peek  out  to  see 
if  John  L. — as  I  named  my  bird — was  get- 
tin’  the  worst  on  it,  but  he  never  was ; 
he  was  just  as  sassy  lookin’  and  as  peart 
as  ever,  and  I  didn’t  feel  no  call  to  inter¬ 
fere,  as  he  was  to  home  and  sartainly 
mindin’  his  own  business,  and  if  he 
didn’t  care  for  visitors  and  didn’t  treat 
’em  well,  the  remedy  was  known  to  ’em 
— they  could  stay  to  home  too.  The  last 
time  I  peeked  out  all  the  neighbors’  hens 
had  gone,  and  John  L.,  calm  and  un¬ 
ruffled,  was  a  standin’  at  the  front  gate 
a  lookin’  out  with  the  air  of  sayin’ 
“  Come  on  now,  I’m  ready  for  ye.” 
Wall,  after  a  few  days  of  this  sort  of 
wrork,  not  a  blessed  fowl  dared  to  set 
foot  onto  my  yard,  and  I  concluded  that, 
though  I'd  hated  hens  all  my  born  days, 
if  I’d  got  to  keep  ’em  in  self-defense,  as 
it  were,  I’d  better  get  some  kind  more 
profitable  for  general  use  than  the 
Games. 
(To  be  continued.) 
ODDS  AND  ENDS. 
Frozen  Milk. — The  English  farmer  is 
to  have  another  rival — the  Australians 
propose  to  sell  sweet  milk  in  the  London 
market!  The  scheme  is  to  freeze  the 
milk  solid  and  send  it  in  ice  cold  storage 
and  sell  it  in  blocks  like  ice.  The  house¬ 
wife  will  thus  obtain  cold  and  milk  in 
the  same  dish.  The  Mark  Lane  Express 
says  about  it: 
With  regard  to  the  prediction  that  we 
shall  soon  see  milk  imported  from  Aus¬ 
tralia  in  frozen  blocks  and  retailed  like 
ice,  most  practical  men,  while  admitting 
that  it  could  be  done — for  frozen  milk  on 
shipboard  is  not  a  new  thing — yet  con¬ 
sider  that  the  operation  of  thawing 
would  involve  too  much  trouble  and  risk. 
Frozen  milk  would  needs  have  to  be  used 
speedily,  as  immediately  it  attained  to 
its  normal  temperature  it  would  begin 
to  “turn.”  Some  boiling  process  would 
have  to  be  adopted,  if  the  thawed  milk 
should  be  supplied  in  cans,  like  the  con¬ 
densed,  hut  in  that  case  it  would  be  in 
no  way  “  fresh  ” 
English  Farmers’  Troubles. — The 
English  farmer  is  in  a  bad  way.  What 
is  the  trouble?  The  doctors  are  all  try¬ 
ing  to  tell  us — here  is  the  latest  from  the 
London  Farmer. 
What  is  the  cause  of  the  unsettled  con¬ 
ditions  of  agricultural  classes  of  this 
country?  A  definite  answer  has  never 
been  given,  although  it  is  not  difficult  to 
conceive  of  certain  contributory  causes. 
Foreign  competition  is  the  cause  mainly 
assigned  for  the  depressed  state  .of  farm¬ 
ing  matters  in  Great  Britain,  and  yet  it 
is  but  a  contributory  one.  The  intro¬ 
duction  of  machinery  for  all  kinds  of 
farm  work  set  so  many  rural  families— 
that  hitherto  made  their  bread  easily 
and  contentedly  on  the  farm — at  liberty, 
that  the  few  of  them  that  remain  avail¬ 
able  for  farm  work  are  in  a  position  *o 
dictate  their  own  terms  to  their  employ¬ 
ers.  But  the  accessibleness  of  virgin 
lands  of  younger  countries  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  the 
British  farmer.  He  has  not  been  able 
latterly  to  undersell  the  foreigner  in 
markets  from  which  he  is  not  a  mile  re¬ 
moved  for  every  thousand  mile*  that  the 
foreigner  has  to  travel. 
CURTI8  STEEL  ROOFING  CO.  sells  IRON  and  STEEL 
ROOFING 
direct  to  YOU  at  AGENTS  prices.  Write  for  their  GUARANTEE  and  prices  on  BEST  KNOWN  PAINT 
for  metal  roofs.  Address  BOX  1303,  NTILES,  OHIO. 
PennsylvaniaAgricultural  Works, York, Pa. 
n  Kn&ine*>  Saw  Mills,  Shingle  Mills 
Grist  Mill*  and  Standard  Implements  Generally.  ( *! 
Catalogue.  Portable,  Stationary,  Traction  and  Automati^En- 
^  gines  a  specialty.  VVarranted  equal  or  superior  to  any  made. 
R  Ofc.tNUIbrCaCtM.Q. 
A.  B.  FARQUHAR  CO.,  York,  Pa. 
The  Most  Progressive  Agricultural  Weekly  Paper  in  America. 
A  Paper  for  the  Farmer  from  Maine  to  California  and  from  Minnesota  to  Texas,  is  THE  PRACTICAL  FARMER  of  Philadelphia.  Established  in  1855.  You  need  it. 
T.  B.  Terry  writes  for  no  other  publica¬ 
tion,  this  year  or  next. 
John  Gould  edits  the  Dairy  Department. 
•Joseph  Meehan  edits  the  Horticultural. 
T.  Greiner  edits  “Short  Cuts.” 
Prof.  W.  F.  Massey  the  “Experience  Pool.” 
Over  one  hundred  different  correspondents, 
representing  the  best  practical  Agricultu¬ 
rists  in  America,  contribute  to  every  issue. 
You  Can  Have  it  Every  Week  toJan’y  1st,  ’94,  for  $100. 
In  Clubs  of  Five,  75  cents  each,  with  Free  Copy  to  Club  Raiser. 
F°r  Free  Sample  Copies,  Address  THE  PRACTICAL  FARMER,  PHILADELPHIA,  PENNA. 
