i89i 
435 
Lawn Tennis is a game that has come to 
stay. It is a pleasing exercise for the mind 
as well as for the body and to just such a 
degree as one cares to exercise either or 
both. It is not a game of chance. The best 
players in the long run will win. It is pre¬ 
eminently the game for a progressive farm¬ 
er’s home. The game has come to stay. 
Make your courts, farmers, and buy a ten¬ 
nis outfit. Your children will thank you 
and you, yourselve?, will be the better and 
happier for the investment. 
Barley, as Prof. Storer notes, is culti¬ 
vated in Sweden and Norway more than 
any other grain and has been longer culti¬ 
vated there than any other cereal. It was 
grown earlier than rye. The name “ corn” 
has been applied exclusively to barley by 
the Northmen from early times. 
If the Kansas farms were covered two 
feet thick with irredeemable shinplasters, 
the farmers would be no better off ; in the 
end they would be much worse off. Neither 
cheap money nor cheap talk will help the 
farmer. He must help himself and not 
rely upon the printing press to make him 
rich. So speaks the last United States re¬ 
port of Agriculture. The advice, comments 
Farm and Fireside, is sound and wholesome 
for Kansas farmers and all others, even if 
it does come from an Eastern political jour¬ 
nal, which, however, is the best one of its 
class. The farmer who does not help him¬ 
self, but sits down and waits for the Federal 
Government to make him rich with a gift 
of cheap money or irredeemable paper cur¬ 
rency, is the dupe of political demagogues 
of the most contemptible stripe. 
The French chemist Sanson was the first 
to discover that oats contain an excitant 
which he called avenine. It is, he says, 
capable of exciting the motor cells of the 
nervous system. He found, however, that 
crushing the oats, or grinding them con¬ 
siderably weakens their power of excita¬ 
tion. It Is thought that the air destroys 
the avenine. The discovery, as Storer says, 
goes far to justify the common practice of 
feeding the oats whole, in spite of constant 
and familiar evidence that the grain is not 
completely digested by horses when eaten 
whole. Large consumers of oats might find 
it profitable to crush them just before feed¬ 
ing them out. 
ABSTRACTS. 
-N. Y. Herald : “ If truth lay at the 
bottom of a beer barrel instead of at the 
bottom of a well more of us would get at 
it,” 
-Farm and Fireside : “ The scarcity 
of farm labor has largely increased the sale 
and use of improved farm implements. 
On this account many farmers were obliged 
to purchase labor-saving implements long 
before they would have done so, if the num¬ 
ber of farm laborers had been equal to the 
demand. Tne drift from farm to town has 
greatly stimulated the manufacture of ag¬ 
ricultural machinery.” 'n. 
-Philadelphia Press : “ Idle men rust 
out faster than their more ambitious fel¬ 
lows wear out, and the same truth will ap¬ 
ply to the implements which men work 
with.” 
“ It isn’t so much what a man makes as 
what he saves that gives him a compe tence, 
and his neglect of farm implements is the 
leak through which dribbles many a hard- 
earned dollar.” 
‘‘In short, the man who doe3 not tale 
care of his tools does not take care of his 
farm.” 
-Department of Agriculture: ‘‘It is 
pioper to eay that the tendency is towards 
a better distribution of crops, and to higher 
prces and greater profits. The proportion 
of agricultural labor will decrease, non- 
agikultural will increase, agricultural pro¬ 
duction will be more varied, rural intelli¬ 
gence and skill will advance, and the 
farmer be In better position to demand and 
secure an equitable share in the net pro¬ 
ceeds of national industries.” 
W. F. Massey in Weekly Press: “I 
know of a very good ammoniated fertil¬ 
izer which is made at a cotton-seed oil 
mill, which owes all its nitrogen to the 
cotton seed meal, its potash to the ashes of 
the cotton-seed hulls, and its phosphoric 
acid to dissolved South Carolina rock—all 
honest materials, but a ton of them can be 
had for a little more than half the price of 
the branded article. Farmers seem to im¬ 
agine there is some great mystery about 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the mixing of these things (there doubtless 
is a great deal of mystery about some of 
them), and fear that they cannot mix them 
themselves. A great change Is setting in, 
however, with the increase of knowledge 
among farmers In regard to the chemistry 
of fertilizers.” 
“ Great corporations that are always 
looking after the little economies, hold that 
where five men are employed it pays to hire 
another man to advise and direct, even if 
he does not do a stroke of work with his 
own hands. This - being the case, there 
ought to be room among the multifarious 
cares which the running of a farm involves 
for at least one “ professional ” thinker. 
Still it is not necessary that one should 
stand with folded hands to think to a pur¬ 
pose, and a truly thoughtful man will be 
likely to use his hands to considerable pur¬ 
pose every day.” 
-Success With Flowers: ‘‘Flowers 
will rest you.” 
“ It saves many a backache by trans¬ 
planting your flowers in the garden in 
straight rows; then the hoe or hand- 
cultivator can do most of the work.” 
“Mr. William Spooner, the President 
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci¬ 
ety and veteran rose grower of Jamaica 
Plains, recommends white hellebore for 
keeping off the pssts that infest the rose in 
the open ground. He commences as soon 
as the plants come into leaf, and, by a per¬ 
sistent use of it, keeps the foliage in fine 
shape, as all can testify who have seen his 
roses on exhibition.” 
“ If there is any fashion In flowers, 
tuberous begonias and French cannas 
take the lead this summer.” 
“ I do not know of a hardy rose that pos¬ 
sesses so many good points as the Mrs. 
John Laing. I think it only a question of 
time when it will be as largely planted as 
the General Jacqueminot.” 
"A cushion made of canvas and stuffed 
with straw is a good thing to kneel upon 
while weeding. Save the back as much as 
possible. Always wear gloves; the soil 
will make the fiDgers rough and coarse.” 
-Christian Union : “Any careful stu¬ 
dy of Mr. Valentine’s successful business 
career will reveal two preeminent charac¬ 
teristics. First, he was a seer rather than 
a logician. His mind was intuitive. He 
did not reason—he knew. His mind leaped 
and his delicacy and open-handedness in be¬ 
stowing disclose his ingrained idealism; he 
was a poet even in business, and he showed 
that bioad, generous and noble views are 
consistent with great commercial success. 
He would havescornei success on any other 
terms.” 
“And none the less, rather indeed far 
the more, because he would not dictate, he 
did direct.” 
“He was the ozone in the atmosphere 
which we all breathed.” 
-Major Alvord in the Country Gen¬ 
tleman : “ One of his strongest and life¬ 
long attributes, was a profound admira¬ 
tion and respect for the occupation of farm¬ 
ing. Recognizing in this the greatest and 
all important industry of the country, he 
believed that its advancement should keep 
pace with the other industries, and it was 
his ambition to do something for the pro¬ 
gress of American agriculture. He admired 
the tiller of the soil and grower of crops, 
and the skillful breeder. While knowing 
little of the details of their business, he 
recognized in a general way the difficulties 
with which they contended, and longed to 
assist them in their work.” 
“ Houghton Farm was for a few years of 
public interest, agriculturally, and prom¬ 
ised to be be of some importance. There 
were then but half a dozen experiment sta¬ 
tion in the country, and the fact that one 
public-spirited citizen had instituted In 
America a work similar to that of Lawes & 
Gilbert in England, was worthy of atten¬ 
tion. OnCe fully enlisted, Mr. Valentine 
treated the farm with his characteristic 
generosity. In organization, buildings, 
live stock, general equipment and land im¬ 
provement, expenditures were liberal, and 
nothing was withheld which promised to 
add efficiency. If there was a fault, it was 
too lavish outlay and undertaking too much 
at the outset.” 
“ When the first general manager of the 
estate assumed his duties and asked in¬ 
structions, all he received was an ample 
bank deposit, a check book, and a sign to 
place over the office desk, having in big 
letters the single word, ‘ Results.’ This 
became the motto and the ambition of 
Houghton Farm. But while impatient, 
Mr. Valentine was kiudly so and showed 
his feeling mainly in words of encourage¬ 
ment, offers of help, and in a wonderful 
Inspiration to more and better work, which 
he imparted to all associated with him.” 
-Garden and Forest : “ Nothing is 
plainer than the fact that the towns and 
cities are increasing in wealth, in popula¬ 
tion and in influence at the expense of the 
rural communities.” 
“Most of the early Presidents and Gov¬ 
ernors of States were farmers, and in one 
early Congressional directory a majority of 
the Senators and Representatives were 
farmers. A large proportion of the trus¬ 
tees of the colleges were farmers, and even 
professional men gave some attention to 
agriculture. In short, men who lived on 
their own farms and secured a competency 
and independence by the produce of their 
land were the most influential class in the 
country.” 
“ Farming is degraded from its proper 
rank among industries when the farmer’s 
boy is eager to abandon his birthplace and 
sees, without a pang, the homestead pass 
into alien hands. The farmer of the old 
style had local attachment and local pride, 
and these sentiments formed the basis of a 
broad public spirit and an intense patriot¬ 
ism. From the homes of contented farmers 
has come the best blood of the Republic, 
and any decline in agricultural pros¬ 
perity should be a matter of public concern. 
Men lose their love for land which cannot 
support them, and if the land bears any 
unequal burdens in the way of taxation or 
restriction, these should be removed. The 
men who carry the products of the farm 
and the men who stand between the farmer 
and the consumer form compact, well- 
organized bodies, able to command their 
full share of the profits of agriculture. 
Farmers are numerous and so widely 
separated that cooperation is impossible. 
That farmers suffer in this unequal compe¬ 
tition is undeniable.” 
-Hon. E. L. Pitts : “ Real estate now 
pays 88 per cent of all the taxes. This is 
not just. One neighbor should not be 
required to pay twice as much tax as 
another, right alongside, who has just as 
much property. The form of the property 
should not be a mpans of avoiding a tax.’ ’ 
to conclusions so swiftly that he did not 
mark or know the steps of the process. 
Second, he had only the highest ideals in 
business, and it was his constant aim to 
achieve his ideals. The best in everything 
was what he wished to produce. If the 
public was not ready for it, so much the 
worse for the public. He was ready to 
make the highest possible product, and 
then bring the public demand up to its 
level. Nothing which he made, or was 
concerned in making, was cheap. He had 
no patience with what was moderately 
good. Nothing less than the be3t interest¬ 
ed him. These two qualities marked his 
whole life-work.” 
“Nothing was troublesome to him that 
he did for the development of his ideals, 
for the happiness of others, and for the 
welfare of humanity at large. And what¬ 
ever he did at all he did with the heartiest 
and most cordial willingness.” 
“ The restless disregard of his own Inter¬ 
ests with which he looked at questions was 
more than an intellectual quality. Yet 
this passion for truth never made him a 
partisan or a partialist. He could never 
have become the advocate of an ‘ism.’ He 
was always hopeful; not because he did 
not see lions in the way, but because he 
had too great a courage to be daunted by 
them.” 
“ Mr. Valentine’s distinction lay in 
his passion for excellence; no lesser word 
will d< scribe it. It was not a desire or a 
determination only; it was a consuming 
passion. With him it was always the best 
or nothing. He rested in nothing achieved; 
the thing done was only a step toward the 
thing he meant to do. He recognized no 
limits to endeavor; set no bounds to achieve - 
ment. He accepted no results as final; there 
was always something better ahead.” 
“ He leaped to conclusions with startling 
rapidity; it sometimes seemed as if he be¬ 
gan with conclusions and worked back to 
methods.” 
“ He held everything in trust; he ad¬ 
ministered his possessions of every sort as 
if others had a paramount claim on him. 
For hi me elf he asked for nothing but free¬ 
dom and facility for work. His generosities 
were so varied and so constant that they 
merge into one continual act of giving; and 
his gifts always had something Of himself 
in them. His largeness of aim in acquiring 
Answering the question of 
Home vs. Church Weddings, 
^ Just Before the Ceremony 
Flowers for the Bridal Hour 
^ The Etiquette j.. 
4 of Bridals 
^ The Belongings 
^ of a Bride 
^ When On the ^ 
^ Bridal Trip J] 
Home After the J| 
Honeymoon f t 
^ See June Number of 1 j Mh \\\ f 
1 The^Ladies Js|| 
Ten Cents a Copy, or 
gj Mailed to any address from now fe. 
to January, 1892, balance of this ^ 
§1 year, on receipt of only 50 cents. j|i 
if] CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Philadelphia, Pa. m 
