1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
8o3 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
( Continued .) 
When we take into consideration the early 
history of those who come to us as domes¬ 
tic servants, the marvel turns oat to be, 
not that they are so deficient, but that they 
are not more so. * * * Here is, to speak 
not too figuratively, a large, red-armed, 
strong German girl on one side of the 
street, saying, “ Give me work or I perish I” 
Oa the other side is the pale wife of the 
lawyer or doctor or minister, saying, “Send 
me some help, or I faintand the two 
never come together. Where is the missing 
link? * * * 
Servants are becoming a separate com¬ 
munity ; our enemies, rather than our 
humble friends; a lava bed beneath our 
feet, full of danger and pitfalls and hidden 
honeycombing. They have little or noth¬ 
ing in common with the families with 
whom they live. Their joys and sorrows, 
their employments in their spare time, 
their pursuits, aims, and friendships are 
all alien to those of the family whose roof 
shelters them. Were it not for the blessed 
interposition of children, there would be 
no chord of attachment, no bond of union, 
between the family and those who serve 
them The latter are unknown strangers 
for everything except work and duty. Is 
it, therefore, to be wondered at that they 
are faithless ? We treat dogs and horses 
much more reasonably; we make them love 
us, we feed them, we bespeak them gently, 
we praise and we notice them. Surely, in 
the practical working of domestic life, there 
should be more mutual good will. 
Let no mistress be afraid that she may 
break down her authority or make herself 
common, or would be likely to evoke a 
response of impertinence, by being kind to 
her servants. It is not kindness, but an in. 
judicious use of kindness, which makes 
anybody rude who ought to be respectful 
and deferentially civil and grateful. A 
kind mistress finds a safe and a royal way 
to the hearts of her servants, by taking an 
interest in their health, their pursuits, 
even their tastes. They grow to love her 
and to kiss the hem of her garments, if 
they see that she is thinking of them as 
being human. If she is grateful for an un¬ 
expected service, she need indulge in no 
undignified familiarity. Indeed, they will 
respect her the more if she is stern with 
them, so far as her duty requires her to be ; 
but if she is sympathetic, her gentle and in¬ 
telligent manner of being firm will correct 
the flippancies of a careless and ignorant ser¬ 
vant ; it will put a heart into the faithful 
blunderer who would “ like to please.” 
The mistress will not receive au eye-ser¬ 
vice, a perfunctory service, a mechanical 
service, but a real service. * * * Now 
that organizations are so possible and 
thorough as we see in the woman’s tem¬ 
perance societies and in many philanthropic 
and artistic combinations, why should we 
not attempt the importation of female ser¬ 
vants who, being helped and educated, 
shall be bound by some contract to stay in 
their places until their education is paid 
for—that education not being Shakespeare, 
not French or Italian, not the piano (ex. 
cepting to dust it), but the finer and rarer 
art of making a house pleasant to live in, 
of cooking an eatable dinner, of doing the 
work of a kitchen neatly and well. 
[Wouldn’t any arrangement of this kind 
be debarred by the spirit and letter of the 
national Contract-Labor Law ?—Eds.] 
BRIEFS. 
“The popular theory is that potatoes 
must be dry and stored in the earth w hich 
adheres to them or they will certainly ba 
spoiled.” So says a writer in the New 
York Tribune. In gathering our potatoes 
from the R. N.-Y. experiment plots, which 
together are usually something over a half 
acre, it is necessary to rub off the soil from 
each potato, so that the actual weight of 
the crop may be obtained. The potatoes 
are then stored in barrels, and kept in a 
cellar which is rather warmer during the 
winter than desirable. These potatoes— 
and we speak from nearly 20 years’ experi¬ 
ence—always keep remarkably well. It is 
true they sprout badly before planting 
time, but the per cent of rotten potatoes is 
small. How much of this exemption is 
due to ridding them of all adhering soil 
before storage is, of course, not known. It 
may fairly be conjectured, however, that 
it does not induce rot. 
The price of the choicer magnolias at 
nurseries is always high, and, unless raised 
in pots, they do not transplant with certain¬ 
ty that they will live. The bright red seeds 
are now dropping from the cones. These 
may be gathered and planted in frills at 
once. A fair proportion will grow next 
spring and the next year, if care be exer¬ 
cised to take them up preserving all the 
fibrous roots, and as much soil as will ad¬ 
here, all will thrive in their permanent 
homes, and many will bloom the second or 
third year thereafter. 
Select the largest native chestnuts and 
either plant them in drills of mellow soil 
or keep them moist in sand during the 
winter, and plant them next spring. 
The Country Gentleman remarks—truly 
and forcibly too—that political papers have 
no lack of adherents eager to forward the 
party cause, and denominational zeal as¬ 
sists the religious journals with unfailiDg 
fidelity. Arid while the agricultural so¬ 
ciety and the farmers’ club should work 
hand in hand with the agricultural journal 
(which is not always the case) it is espec¬ 
ially the Individual effort of each apprecia¬ 
tive reader which accomplishes the most in 
extending its circulation. 
We are told by some writers that it is 
better to leave the old dead canes of rasp¬ 
berries and blackberries until spring before 
cutting them away because they give pro¬ 
tection daring winter to the canes of last 
summer’s growth which will bear the fruit 
for next year. They write this without or 
with very little thought evidently. So, too, 
we may conceive of cattle being sheltered 
by wire fences!. 
Some 15 years ago The R. N.-Y. was 
taken to task because it insisted that there 
wasn’t any such thing as an absolutely 
hardy blackberry or raspberry. Some kinds 
are hardier than others. That was granted. 
Some kinds will stand exceeding cold bet¬ 
ter than others; some will stand violent 
and quick successions of freezing and thaw¬ 
ing better than others. Some will stand 
long-continued wind or Ice or winter 
drought better than others. But there is not 
one that, from one or another of such 
causes, will not be found one year or an¬ 
other to have so suffered that the inexper¬ 
ienced may well declare that the Snyder, 
Agawam or Taylor, the Cuthbert, Shaffer, 
or Turner is tender with them. 
It is the same, though to a less extent, 
with grapes, with peas and apples ; with 
deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. 
Hardiness is, in fact, a relative term, mean¬ 
ing one thing in one climate and another 
in a different climate. 
ABSTRACTS. 
-David Stork Jordon in The Forum ; 
“ There is no treachery in Nature’s 
laws.” 
“ There is no pardon for the man who 
wastes his own time.” 
“ The man who has wasted his time must 
take the last choice ; he comes in for the 
little that’s left.” 
“ Is it not true that this ‘ yawning, re¬ 
lentless hell ’ is due to the presence among 
us of the yawning, relentless horde of men 
who would gain something for nothing ? ” 
“ Nowhere are forethought and intelli¬ 
gence better paid than In our dealings with 
Mother Earth. She is as honest as eternity, 
and she never falls to meet the just dues of 
those who have claims upon her.” 
“Mortgages are growing where once 
forests grew, and with greater rapidity ; 
and many of our best farms, both East and 
West, can be bought for the bare cost of 
their buildings.” 
“ I GO back to the old farm in New York 
on which I was born—the farm my father 
won from the forest, and on which he lived 
in freedom and independence, knowing no 
master, dreading no tyrant. With poorer 
tools than are now used, poorer buildings, 
inferior facilities for transportation, lower 
prices and uncertain markets, still he knew 
nothing of “agricultural depression.” 
When crops were small and prices low, he 
simply worked the harder. I find on that 
farm to day tenants who barely make a 
living. I go over the farm. I see unpruned 
fruit trees, wasted forest trees, farm imple¬ 
ments rusting in the rain and sud, falling 
gates, broken wagons—evidences of wasted 
time and unthrifty labor. I wonder whether 
the oppression of the farmer is the fault of 
the times, or the fault of the man.” 
“ An old woman I once knew in the Ten¬ 
nessee mountains expressed a great eco¬ 
nomic truth in these words : 4 Poor folks 
has poor ways.’ Too often it is the poor¬ 
ness of their own ways, not the aggression 
of wealthy neighbors, which has plunged 
these folks into poverty. If a man spends a 
day in the harvest time in efforts to send a 
fool to the legislature, or a knave to Con¬ 
gress, should he complain if the laws the 
fools and knaves make add to his own 
taxes ? Who but he is to blame, if the laws 
ostensibly made in his interest simply 
shift the burden from one of bis shoulders 
to the other ? If he stand all day in the 
public square spellbound by a tramp with 
an accordion, or, still worse, if he lounge 
about on the sawdust floor of a saloon, talk¬ 
ing the vile stuff we agree to call “ poli¬ 
tics,” never readings book, never think¬ 
ing a thought above the level of the 
sawdust floor, need he be surprised If 
his opinions do not meet with respect ? It 
is not cheaper money the farmer needs, but 
dearer meD,—men whose time is money, 
and whose labor is worth the labor of other 
meD,—men who know how to do the best 
thlDgs in the best way, and can thereby do 
their part in alleviating industrial depres¬ 
sion.” 
“I hear the farmers complaining to-day 
of high tariffs, and it may be that they 
have a right to complain: still no tax on 
iron was ever so great as the tax he pays 
who leaves his mowing machine unshel¬ 
tered in the storm. The tax on the land is 
high ; but he pays a higher tax who leaves 
his meadows to grow up to whit^-weed and 
thistles. The tax for good roads is high ; 
but a higher toll is paid by the farmer who 
goes each week to town in mud knee-deep 
to his horses. There is a high tax on per¬ 
sonal property ; but it is not so high as the 
tax on time which Is paid by the man who 
spends his Saturdays loitering about the 
village streets. All the farmer’s income 
arises from the wise use of his time. One- 
sixth of his time means one-sixth of his 
income. If he has learned to make use of 
his time,all other ills will cure themselves.” 
“ Mowing machines, thrashers, harvest¬ 
ers, and ail the array of contrivances 
produced by the ingenuity of a labor- 
saving age, are burdens and not helps to 
the farmer, if the labor they saved be 
turned into unproductive channels. La¬ 
bor-saving machinery is the costliest of 
luxuries, if the time preserved is l ~>st again 
in idleness or dissipation .” 
“ I HAVE no palliation for unequal taxes, 
ud just discriminations, or any form of in¬ 
justice to any man. If the farmer is the 
victim of any of these, it is his privilege 
and his duty to set matters right. Even 
though some of his attempts recall the fine 
discrimination of the bull in the china 
shop,—as when he votes for bad roads, 
cheap money, and crippled public schools, 
—there is no occasion for discouragement. 
He will know better than this when his 
eyes are fairly opened. But no legislation 
will amount to much until each farmer 
shall feel himself responsible for his own 
4 industrial depression.’ He must do hi 
work with intelligence and economy. He 
must spend nothing which he has not 
earned, be it time or be it money, and must 
not do in a poor way whatever can be done 
in a batter.” 
“ The advance of civilization means the 
elimination of unskilled labor. The man 
who does not know and does not care how 
farming should be carried on has no right 
to pretend to be a farmer. Whatever human 
laws may do, the laws of the gods will not 
leave him long in possession of the ground. 
Sooner or later, by the operation of these 
inexorable laws, the farmer who does not 
realize the importance of knowing his busi¬ 
ness, and attending to it, must let go his 
hold upon the earth. The process of change 
of worse men for better must always ap 
pear as an ‘industrial depression.’ For 
this suffering there is but one certain rem¬ 
edy. In the words of a successful farmer 
whom I know : ‘Let other people’s affairs 
alone, mind your own business, and you 
will have prosperity.’ ” 
“In other words, whatever the other fac¬ 
tors and subsidiary causes may be, the 
natural penalty for laziness is one of the 
important elements in what we call our 
‘agricultural depression.’ ” 
“Sickness and accident aside, who ever 
heard of a poor man in America who has 
not in some way fairly earned his poverty ? 
Accident aside, who ever heard of a poor 
man who could or would pay the price of 
wealth ?” 
-Farm Journal : “ Peter Tumbledown 
is apt to be sarcastic and gruff when talk¬ 
ing to his wife, but quite otherwise when 
he addresses other women.” 
“It is part of my physical religion to 
never think when I am in bed.” 
“ Old Lady : ‘ What’s that awful 
smell?’ Farmer: ‘That’s the fertilizer 
we’re puttin’ on the field yender.’ Old 
Lady: ‘For the land’s sakel’ Farmer: 
* Yes, ’m.’ ” 
Ptecctluttcoujsi 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural. 
GRAPE VINES 
IOO Varieties- Al90 Small Fruits. Trees,&c- nM ‘ 
rooted stock. Genuine, cheap. sample vines mailed for Be- 
scriptive prieo list free. LEWIS ROESCH. Kro.lonla N.Y. 
T. V. MUNSON, DENISON, TEXAS. 
Headquarters for Parker Earle Strawberry, Bril¬ 
liant, Campbell, Kommel and Herman Jaeger 
Grapes. Descriptions and Prices on Application. 
BERRY plants, 
“ ». ■ Small froit pli 
Low prices. 
Small fruit plants. Large stock. 
Catalogue free. VM. STAHL. Quincy, III. 
FRUIT 
TREES 
PEACH Specialty 
A full selection of all the leading varieties. 
A correct descriptive I Also a full lineof 1*1,ANTS and 
and finely Illustrated OKNAJIENTAI.S. Plants 
Catalogue FREE I and Trees by mall. Address 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON &. CO., 
1 f : 11_Ui.ht.tnuin N -H 
I TT It. HARDY.Abingdon, III.,Tannerof Galloway 
1 l m and Angus Hides. Galloway Cattle for Sale. 
Maker of Rones. Coats, Rugs, Caps. Gloves, Mittens, 
Collars etc., always on hano. Send for Olrcu'ar. 
F OR SA LTC.—Piedmont. Va., Farms, Timber and 
Mineral Lands; and Florida Phosphate and 
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ADVERTISER, Charlottesville, Va. 
Valuable Dairy Farm 
For sale In Amenla, Dutchess Co., N. Y. 220 acres 
cultivated; ll 0 acres wood. Price, #15,000. 2t$ miles 
from Wassalc, Harlem Railroad. Will keep 50 cows. 
Milk sold at the Borden’s Condensed Milk Factory, 
Wassalc, for the past 25 years. 
F.DWAKD E. CLINE, Amenla Union, N. Y. 
CLAREMONT Land Association, aSKLTvi. 
Offers GOO choice farms; 3,000 handsome town 
lots on James River, with terms to suit purchasers 
Free circular. 
.KEYSTONE 
CORN SHELLERS 
To-(lay, as for 20 Years, Simply the Best. 
Run lighter—Saving Horseflesh 
Do more work—Suving Time 
Keep-in repair—Saving Expense 
Clean perfectly—Pleasing Buyers. 
| Mechanically impossible for them to grind 
, the cob, crack the grain, or only partly 
' shell the ear. All sizes, from Pony 
1 11 anj> Shelled to great 8 Hole Self 
Feeder of 8 Horse Power. Sold under 
warranty. Send for “Sheller book” to 
Keystone Mfg. Co., 
Mention paper. Sterling, III. 
^BKANt'IIKS: Kan.u City, Ho., St. Louln, Ho. i 
Couneil Bluffs, In , Columbus, O. 
SIX HOLE 
Power 
SH ELLER. 
THE STEVENS 
FRENCH BUHR STONE 
CORN & FEED MILLS 
POWER CORN SHELLERS, 
ALL STEEL 
Spring-Tooth Harrows, 
ALL STEEL 
SULKY HAY RAKES 
RIDING and WALKING 
CULTIVATORS, 
TRACTION ENGINES 
THRESHING MACHINES. 
A. W. STEVENS & SON, 
45 Washington St., AUBURN, N.Y 
PenmylTWiI* Agricultural Works, York, Vi. 
ratftku’i Staadaxt u4 Sew Mills. 
Ut r.rtekl., Ria. 
Suar;, TrMtt.a u< Aatwa.M. »*. 
gfMaaafMialty. TeRuM^ui N 
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Elm Street, DALLAS, TEXAS. ( Branch Houaea ’ 
WE WILL SELL YOUR PRODUCE 
TROTH a MOORE, 313 N. Water St., Phila. 
Poultry, Kggs and Game. Apples. Potatoes and 
Onions in car lots. £#"i:orre8pondence Solicited. 
