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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 21 
THE QUESTIONS OF A CHILD. 
Parents or teachers who have puz¬ 
zled over the questions of a little child 
will be interested in this translation 
from the German which we find in Popu¬ 
lar Science Monthly: 
My little daughter is sitting very 
quietly on the floor beside me, busi’y en¬ 
gaged in arranging her colored house 
blocks in streets and lanes. She seems 
so completely absorbed in her play that 
I am careful not to speak to her, or even 
to look at her, lest I should disturb her. 
Suddenly, however, she drops her little 
houses and, looking earnestly at me with 
her blue eyes, she asks : 
“ Mother, does everybody die ? ” 
“Yes, dear, everybody,” I answer, 
struck by her question. 
“ The very good ones, too ? ” she ques¬ 
tions on timidly. 
“ Yes, the good ones, too. God takes 
them to Him because He loves them, and 
wants them to be with Him in His beau¬ 
tiful heaven.” 
For a while the little one remains quiet; 
then again, coming up and nestling at 
my side, she says : 
“ Mother, wouldn’t it be all the same 
to the loving God if He didn’t take me 
into heaven, but left me always here 
with you ? ” 
Drawing her closer to me, I try by 
caresses and loving words tc calm all the 
doubts of her little heart. She is in an 
inquiring mood, however, and shortly 
begins anew : 
“ Mother, does the angel who brings 
the little babies carry them in a box or 
just in his hand ? ” 
Unprepared for this question, I answer 
hesitatingly, “ No, notin a box.” 
“But they have dresses on, haven’t 
they ? ” 
“No, darling, the little babies come 
naked into this world.” 
“But then, mother, how can the par¬ 
ents tell whether it is a girl or a boy ? ” 
Once more I am at a loss, but make out 
to say, “Oh, we see that in their faces.” 
The little one is satisfied for the mo¬ 
ment, for she turns again to her toys. 
Suddenly an idea strikes her. “ Mother, 
father said the other day that I had the 
face of a boy. Perhaps I am not a girl 
at all.” This time I can answer without 
hesitation : “ No, dear, you are certainly 
mother’s own dear girl. But now don’t 
ask any more questions, but come and 
help me to bake in the kitchen.” 
The child is quite content to do as I 
say, and, following me, devotes her mind 
with as much seriousness to the cooking, 
or rather to watching it, as she had be¬ 
fore shown in trying to arrive at the 
origin of mankind. Truly, there is some¬ 
thing wonderful in the growing mind of 
a child. The world and life are full of 
insoluble problems for the adult under¬ 
standing, but to the mind of a child 
every new phase of things comes as a 
riddle and a mystery. What wonder, 
therefore, if in their struggle for knowl¬ 
edge, and the efforts they make to learn 
from the experience of their elders, their 
whole being becomes, as it were, one big, 
interminable question ! 
At times, of course, it cannot be de¬ 
nied, the questions become irksome, but 
who would wish a child to ask no ques¬ 
tions ? Julius Sturm tells, in one of his 
pretty fairy tales, how a grandfather, 
driven into impatience by the constant 
questionings of his grandchild, ex¬ 
claimed, “I wish your tongue were out 
of joint! ” but when, unexpectedly, his 
wish was fulfilled, and the child became 
dumb, how he joyfully exchanged one of 
the two years which an angel had proph¬ 
esied he was yet to live for the privilege 
of hearing the little one’s prattle again. 
A child whose questions are not an¬ 
swered by its parents will either turn to 
others who are willing to gratify its 
desire for knowledge, but who perhaps 
are unable to distinguish between what 
is gocd for a child to know and what is 
not, or else it will lose its fine natural 
susceptibility, and learn to look upon 
life in a dull, spiritless way, without in¬ 
terest or curiosity. Worse, however, 
than not answering a child’s questions is 
to ridicule them. Nothing wounds a 
child so deeply as finding its inexperience 
abused and its earnestly-meant questions 
made the subject of mockery. How com¬ 
mon a thing it is to hear a child’s ques¬ 
tion impatiently and even contemptu¬ 
ously condemned as “silly”! Yet, in 
most cases of the kind, the silliness is 
not with the child, but with the older 
person who fails to understand how a 
child’s mind works Every child has in¬ 
voluntarily a feeling of distrust for 
grown-up people, which is only expelled 
through trust in the love of its parents. 
This trust once thoughtlessly abused and 
shaken may perhaps never be restored to 
its original purity and strength ; and who 
could have the heart deliberately to im¬ 
pair such sweet confidence ? 
It is true children sometimes ask ques¬ 
tions which it is not easy to answer, at 
least not in the short, simple form suited 
to the mind of the questioner. For ex¬ 
ample : 
“ Do the little sparrows know they are 
sparrows ? ” 
‘ Do animals go to heaven, too ? ’ 
“ Can God do everything ? ” 
“Can He make my birthday come twice 
in one year ? ” 
Or, again : 
“ Why does the fire burn ? ” 
“ Why is ice cold ? ” 
To answer such questions may bailie 
our knowledge, but we should at least 
make an honest and patient effort to say 
something helpful. If we can not give 
all the light we could wish, we can at 
least give sympathy and encouragement. 
RAISIN CULTURE 
IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 
I will endeavor to give a short descrip¬ 
tion of the way raisins are produced in 
southern California, in El Cajon Valley. 
The vines are generally planted 10 feet 
apart each way; on the largest raisin 
ranch in this valley they are planted 10 
feet one way and 12 feet the other. 
The vines are thoroughly cultivated from 
the time they are planted until the 
first crop begins to ripen, about the 
second season after planting. The first 
crop will be small, but the next season 
will show quite an increase, and for 
eight seasons, under proper management, 
the increase will be steady. After that 
the vines seem to have “done their best.” 
Pruning is done between the middle of 
December and the middle of February, 
and the brush burned on the ground; the 
canes are pruned back to within two 
buds of the crown, the number of such 
spurs left depending on the age and 
strength of root. In the spring the 
vines are “ suckered,” all shoots grow¬ 
ing below the spurs are broken off, most 
of the canes starting between the spurs. 
When the vines begin to bloom, the ends 
of the canes are clipped to check the 
growth in that direction. 
Muscat grapes begin to ripen here 
about the last of July, but picking does 
not begin until about September 10. The 
bunches are cut from the vine and placed 
on trays three feet long and two feet 
wide, about 15 pounds on a tray. In 
order to make a good marketable raisin, 
this picking must be done with a great 
deal of care ; each bunch must be handled 
separately, and handled ODly by the 
stem, to preserve the bloom of the grape; 
wherever the bloom is removed from the 
grape it will show a black spot when 
cured. The trays are placed on the 
ground in rows, the trays from four rows 
of vines being generally placed in one 
“ tray row.” 
The time it takes to cure the grape, of 
course, depends on the weather, if hut 
and dry, a very few days of sun will turn 
them brown, and when they are brown 
on the top, they are turned, which is 
done by two men taking an empty tray 
and placing it, top down, on a filled tray, 
both trays are thtn firmly grasped and 
quickly inverted, leaving the grapes bot¬ 
tom side up on the new tray. Then sort¬ 
ing begins; the best clusters are sorted 
out, and placed by themselves to make 
‘London Layers,” so called. On the 
Boston ranch the clusters are branded 
“Fancy Clusters” and “Extra Fancy 
Clusters” in place of the old London 
Layer brand. As they beco ne dryer 
those sufficiently cured are placed in 
sweat-boxes and those intended for 
“Loose Muscatels” are at once run 
through a machine, while the clusters 
are taken to the sweat-room to undergo 
a sweating process to soften the stems 
preparatory to packing. It requires 
from three to six weeks to make a raisin; 
packing begins as soon as there are any 
sufli ;iently cured raisins to pack, and 
those first cured are on the market in 
New York while some of the same crop 
is almost green on the trays. The larger 
and finer the grape, the longer it takes 
to cure it, so it is not the best raisin, 
always, that goes on to the market first. 
Sometimes there are showers during 
raisin curing, and right there is where 
the work comes in, in dead earnest. A 
spatter of rain will ruin the looks of a 
raisin, and sometimes the sale of it, and 
ail hands turn out at the least indicati'n 
of rain, and sta- k the trays; they are 
stacked 15 to 20 high and two or three 
empty trays placed on top to turn off 
the water. This stacking is done when¬ 
ever it seems necessary, day or night, 
Sunday or weekday, and is done as fast 
as human hands can do it. 
On the Boston Ranch, the largest raisin 
vineyard in these parts and one of the 
largest in the world, it requires 300 men 
to do the picking; 125 to 150 men and 
women through packing ; no less than 
20 men at any time of the year, and 
from that to 50 when work crowds a 
little. Twenty-five work horses are kept 
at work nearly the whole year ; a black¬ 
smith is kept busy making cultivator 
shovels, and doing repairing, horseshoe¬ 
ing, etc. There are 550 acres of Muscat 
vines, some table grapes; 40 acres of 
orange trees ; 25 acres of olives, besides 
seven miles of olive trees along the 
avenues, and several hundred lemon 
trees. It requires a little cash to run 
such a ranch, for everything is cash 
here. G. R A. 
R££3 
ii hi i i ii MHHiH i m i n i m i i iii iii t~ 1 11 1 i ~r i "irririTr^ 
SMALL FRUITS, GRAPES, SHRUBS, ROSES. 
HARDY PLANTS. BULBS. 
FOR FAFF PFANTING. 
Immense Stock. 1(>0 page Catalogue Free. 
ELLWANGER & BARRY, 
FRUIT and ORNAMENTAL Mt * 
THE TUBULAR CARRIAGE LAMP. 
No further need for the inconvenient and inefficient lantern when driving on 
dark nights. The Dietz 
blow out, ” 
tubular lamp is convenient, “ will not 
gives a clear, white 
light; its power¬ 
ful reflector, like a 
locomotive headlight, 
throws all the light 
straight ahead 200 to 
400 feet. It burns kero¬ 
sene. It has a strong 
spring attachment for 
attaching to the dasher 
at any point, in an in¬ 
stant. Price $2.50, by 
express, not prepaid ; 
with a year’s subscrip¬ 
tion, $3 25 ; with a renewal and a new subscription, $4. 
Given free for a club of nine new subscriptions. 
THE CHRISTY KNIVES. 
These knives are well named “ Wonderful,” as they are far and away the best 
things in kitchen and carving knives that we have seen. Use in our own house has 
demonstrated their quality. There are three in a set: a bread knife, sharpened 
only on one side so that, with its reflex curves, it cuts even warm bread in thin 
The Wonderful Christy Bread Knife \ 
PATENTED NOV I2tw.89 - OCT 6th 91. 
slices without crumbling ; a eake knife cuts the finest frosting, and a paring knife 
that is perfect in paring or cutting fruits and vegetables. All are nickel-plated and 
handsomely finished. Price of the set $1, express prepaid. With a year’s subscrip¬ 
tion, $1.75. Given as a premium for a club of four new subscriptions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER POCKET KNIFE. 
So many knives are called for by subscribers 
that we have made a careful search 
and believe that we liave found as 
good a farmer’s knife as there 
is made. It is so good 
that we have named it 
the “ Rural New- 
Yorker” knife. 
It is brass- 
lined, with 
German 
silver bol¬ 
ster, han¬ 
dle buck- 
born, blade 
of fine ra¬ 
zor steel. Price, by mail, prepaid, $1. With a year’s subscription only $1.85. With 
a renewal and a new subscription, $3 60. Free, for a club of fou’" new subscriptions. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
