55o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 12 
THE PORK'S A-GETTING LOW. 
When the farmer's stock of fodder 
He has placed vritliin the barn, 
When he’s gathered all the apples 
And has placed them safe from harm, 
When the butcherl-g Is over. 
Then the farmer feels sc-so, 
But he's always sort of worried 
Fears the pork’s a-glttln’ low. 
He sees the signs of winter 
In the breast-bone of a fowl, 
And he fears a spell of weather 
For he's heard a tooting owl; 
As he tills the yawning wood-box 
He remarks •* It’s going to snow," 
Then he says, “ We must be keeful, 
For the pork's a-glttin’ low." 
When the cold and snapping breezes 
Bend the sear and leafless trees. 
When a pile of feathery snow-flakes 
Is the most a farmer sees; 
Then he comes In from the tavern, 
A d he whispers rather slow: 
“ Goin’ to be a freeztn’ winter, 
An’ the pork’s a-glttln’ low.” 
So throughout the winter season 
And a part way through the spring, 
The farmer feeds the cattle, 
And doesn’t say a thing; 
But when he sees us eating, 
With his face expressing woe, 
He remarks, while helping mother, 
That, "the pork’s a-glttln' low." 
HOWARD R. GARI8. 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
I’ick Out His Bear —How many there 
are of us who would prefer to pick out 
our own punishment like the little boy 
thus described in Harper’s Young People: 
The boy was covered with mud to the 
top of his kilt skirt; there were mud 
patches on his face and hair, and he had 
lost his hat, but in his hand he grasped 
a chicken—a limp, wet and muddy 
chicken. It was the cause of his trouble, 
for he had thrown stones in the yard that 
afternoon, and had accidentally killed 
the chicken. His sister had declared 
that she could not love such a cruel boy. 
Then he had disappeared, and had been 
found stuck in a swamp. 
When he saw his mother his feelings 
overcame him, and he burst into a loud 
wail. 
“ My sister doesn’t love me! my sister 
doesn’t love me! I want to get-losted in 
the woods, and let the bears eat me !” 
“But,” said his mother, “you cried 
when you pinched your fingers with the 
clothespin, and it would hurt you far 
more if the bears should eat you.” 
The boy was interested, and dried his 
tears. “ I mean a kind, tame bear,” he 
said, choking a sob. 
“ But a tame bear has sharp teeth.” 
The boy rubbed his eyes with his 
muddy hand, and was lost in thought for 
a while. Then he raised his head. His 
countenance was cheerful, there was not 
a trace of sorrow in his tone, and he 
cried, “I mean—I mean a nice little 
curly dog wifout any teef.” 
Old-Time Marketing. —In the Inde¬ 
pendent, Alice Morse Earle gives this ac¬ 
count of the market trips known to New 
England farmers of the olden time. 
Shortly after Christmas the farmers of 
the neighborhood would start together 
for the distant market town : 
The two-horse pung, or the single¬ 
horse pod, shod with steel shoes an inch 
thick, was closely packed with the accu¬ 
mulated farm wealth—whole pigs, fir¬ 
kins of butter, casks of cheese (four 
cheeses in a cask), bags of beans, peas 
or corn, skins of mink, fox and fisher-cat 
that the boys had trapped, birch brooms 
that the boys had made, yarn that their 
sisters had spun, and stockings and mit¬ 
tens that they had knitted—in short, 
anything that a New England farm 
could produce that would sell to any 
profit in a New England town. So 
closely was the sleigh packed, in fact, 
that the driver cculd not be seated. The 
sturdy and hearty farmer stood on a lit¬ 
tle semicircular step in the rear of the 
sle’gh, his body protected against the 
sharp, icy blasts by the high sleigh-back. 
At times he ran alongside or behind his 
vehicle to keep his blood in '.risk circu¬ 
lation. 
Though every inch of the sleigh was 
packed to its fullest extent, there was 
always found room in some corner for 
plenty of food to last the thrifty traveler 
through his journey ; often enough to 
supply him liberally even on his return 
trip—cold roasted spareribs of pork, 
doughnuts, loaves of “rye an’ iDjun” 
bread, and invariably a bountiful mass 
of frozen bean porridge. This latter 
was made and frozen in a tub, and when 
space was hard to find in the crowded 
vehicle the solid mass was furnished 
with a loop of twine by which to hang 
it to the side of the puDg. A small 
hatchet, with which to chop off a chunk 
of porridge, formed the accompaniment 
of this unalluring arctic provender. Oats 
and hay to feed his horses did the farmer 
also carry. 
There were plenty of taverns in which 
he could obtain food if he needed it, in 
which, indeed, he did obtain liquid sus¬ 
tenance to warm his bones and stir his 
tongue, and make palatable the half- 
thawed porridge which he ate in front 
of the cheerful tavern fire. But it was 
the invariable custom, no matter what 
the wealth of the farmer, to carry a sup¬ 
ply of food for the journey from home. 
This kind of an itinerant picnic was 
called “ tuck-a-muck”—- a word of Indian 
origin—or “ mitchen,” while the box or 
hamper or bucket that held the provis¬ 
ions was called a “ mitchen-box.” I can 
fancy no thrifty or loving housewife al¬ 
lowed the man of her household to go to 
market with too meanly filled a mitchen- 
box, but took an honest pride in sending 
him off with a full stock of rich dough¬ 
nuts, well-baked bread, well-filled pies, 
and at least well-cooked porridge, which 
he could devour without shame before 
the eyes of his neighbors. 
THE DOG REDEEMED. 
CIVILIZED by labor. 
Nicholas Smith, the United States Con¬ 
sul at Liege, Belgium, sends the State 
Department a bright article on the Bel¬ 
gian dogs that are used as draft ani¬ 
mals. He says, in part: 
Has Had His Day. —From time imme¬ 
morial this hereditary loafer has been 
given over to pleasure ; but, like certain 
others of the privileged classes in this re¬ 
volving world of ours, he has had his day 
—at least in Belgium. Such amateur ser¬ 
vice as he has rendered in the past in aid¬ 
ing the shepherd, guarding the house¬ 
hold, and rushing with sledges through 
the frozen regions of the North is too 
much in accordance with his instincts to 
be classified as labor ; so it is here, for 
the first time in his history, that the ne¬ 
cessity of doing something for which a 
natural repugnance is felt (and this, I 
believe, constitutes the essential differ¬ 
ence between work and play) has been 
forced upon him; but, like the oid 
noblesse, he accepts the change cheer¬ 
fully, and patiently performs his task. 
Liege is a city of large wealth and 
great industrial activity, possessing the 
largest manufactory of machines and ma¬ 
chinery in the world, and employing as 
many horses as any othet town of its size 
in Europe, and yet for every horse at 
least two dogs are to be seen in harness 
on its streets. They are to be met at all 
hours of the day, but in the early morn¬ 
ing the boulevards are literally alive 
with them. Traffickers (mostly women) 
with gaily painted carts drawn by well- 
fed dogs are then seen striving to be first 
in the market place. Not only the gar¬ 
dener, but also the butcher, the baker, 
the grocer, the porter, the expressman— 
common carriers of all kinds, indeed— 
engage his services. His step is so much 
quicker than that of the horse that he 
will in an hour cover twice the distance 
and carry with him a greater burden in 
proportion to his size. 
What Dogs Can Do. —Six hundred 
pounds is the usual draft of an ordinary 
dog, though a mastiff is often taxed with 
as much again. They are driven single, 
double, and sometimes three and four 
abreast, and are hitched, indifferently, 
in front of, beneath, or behind the cart 
or wagon. When the vehicle is loaded, 
the driver walk s, directing its course and 
in emergencies laying his shoulder to the 
wheel; bat when the load has been dis¬ 
charged, he often mounts the box and 
rushes like Jehu through the streets. 
A gentleman of Liege,retaining his fond¬ 
ness for lounging upon the boulevards 
after losing the use of his legs, had a 
perambulator so constructed that a 
Danish hound which had been his com¬ 
panion for years could be hitched and 
almost concealed between the wheels 
and now appears as regularly in his old 
haunts as any of his friends. The hound 
is not only as happy as when he loitered 
at his master’s heels, but is manifestly 
proud of the service he renders him. 
Rigorous discipline and the long habit 
of wearing muzzles seem to have sub¬ 
dued the belligerent instincts of these 
dogs, for they now meet as strangers at 
the crossings without those supercilious 
inspections and hostile demonstrations 
which characterize both men and dogs 
till they have received the last touches 
of civilization. There remains, however, 
a rudimentary love of the chase, of which 
the artful driver often avails himself to 
quicken their speed ; though, they have 
learned to hunt without barking. But a 
more interesting incident of their labor 
is the complete extinction of the sheep¬ 
killing propensity. Gentlemen bred in 
the country assure me that this offense 
against pastoral morality is no longer 
known in Belgium—a reformation which 
would in itself justify the harnessing of 
all the dogs in America. 
The expense of feeding them where a 
number are kept or when placed, like 
horses, at livery is from five to six cents 
per day, horse-flesh and black bread form¬ 
ing the staple of their food ; though here, 
as elsewhere, the maintenance of one or 
two in a family is practically without 
cost. The expense of shoeing, no small 
item to the keeper of herses, is also saved. 
Breeding Working Dogs —111 the ex¬ 
periments of breeding which have from 
time to time been tried for the improve¬ 
ment of horses are now being made to 
produce a dog of special fitness for har¬ 
ness. Newfoundlands and rough-coated 
St. Bernards are ruled out on account rf 
their hair. The mastiff has been found 
too long in the back and legs, and it is 
thought a desideratum to graft the 
snlendid chest and breathing capacity of 
the bulldog upon this stalwart stock. 
Markets are established, where they are 
bought and sold like their equine cola- 
borers at Tattersall’s, and it is no un¬ 
usual thing for a compactly built and 
well-broken dog to sell for $20 or $25. 
It is the fashion in America to bewail 
the loss of power at Niagara, though no 
thought is taken of that equal force 
which is running to waste at the very 
heels of the people. Since the days of 
Caligula horses have fed upon golden 
oats, and yet an energy which is free, 
always at hand, and aching to be em¬ 
ployed is still everywhere ignored. 
Without having the census at hand, I 
assume that there is a general average 
of one dog to two electors in the United 
States, giving us, in round numbers, a 
canine population of 7,000,000. Esti¬ 
mating the strength of a dog at 500 
pounds—and it is a low estimate—we 
have an idle force in America of 3,500,- 
000,000 pounds, or a power which, like 
faith, if once exercised could remove 
mountains. But it is not in its mass, 
but in the simple divisions in which we 
find it, that its value consists. 
Though the inanimate forces are doing 
the heavy work of the world, a multitude 
of minor tasks to which they can not be 
profitably applied remain to be per¬ 
formed by man and his assistants. For 
them the horse possesses superfluous 
energy, and his maintenance is too ex¬ 
pensive for the poor. They are left, 
therefore, to this clean, cheap, noiseless 
and intelligent animal—the dog—who, 
besides being out of business—for even 
hunting dogs are following hunting 
nobles into oblivion—seems to be spe¬ 
cially fitted by nature to meet the re¬ 
quirement. 
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remedy for Coughs and Colds, Dr. D. Jayne’s Expec¬ 
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Dr. J. W. CHILES, Dixon, Ill. 
CORN Harvesting REVOLUTIONIZED 
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