320 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 4 
VOLCANOES. 
While we are talking about the formation of 
soil, a word about the science of a volcanic erup¬ 
tion will be in order. A volcano is a mountain 
with a hole in it running down to the interior of 
the earth. We know that the earth’s interior is a 
mass of fire and melted slag or stone. This ter_ 
rible heat, of course, drives off various gases. 
We know gases expand with heat, and that when 
certain of them mix. a big explosion results. 
Again, as the earth’s surface cools more and 
more, it naturally contracts and, of course, 
presses harder on the fluid fire inside. Another 
thing is that sea water works its way slowly 
downward till it finally reaches the interior region 
of fearful heat. The result is a new and power¬ 
ful force of steam and all these mighty forces 
combining in the caverns of the earth, at last find 
vent through the volcanoes, and burst out with 
the accompaniments of lava, smoke and ashes. 
It is really a mighty pop-gun worked on much the 
same principle as that employed by the boy who 
cleans the pith out of an elder branch, and shoots 
paper wads through it by the pressure on the air 
forced by a stick. 
* 
Well what about it? You have read The R. 
N.-Y. long enough to know that some business 
application is now due. No more science till next 
week, so if you don’t want to see where The R. 
N.-Y. of it comes in, you would better quit now. 
Way back on page 170, we stated that any man 
who would tell why he shouldn’t get a few sub¬ 
scriptions to The R. N.-Y., could have space to 
give his reasons. Well, now, here is a man from 
Tennessee who wants that space: 
“ The editor proposes to give a column to the per. 
son giving the best reason for not taking subscrix>- 
tions for The R. N.-Y. Let an agent ask a farmer 
here to take the paper and see what he says. ‘I 
don’t believe in book farming. I don’t believe a 
word that is printed. It is all put in to fill up 
space.’ This is the hardest place in the country 
to get subscriptions. There are hundreds of 
farmers here who grow nothing but corn, and 
cannot grow enough to supply them over winter. 
If the editor of The R. N.-Y. was here, he could 
very easily tell why they don’t subscribe for the 
paper. Plenty of families live all the year ’round 
on bread, meat and cow peas ; some do not have 
that. I know a man who owns 120 acres of land 
and cultivates 70 of it, who doesn’t make a living. 
What’s the matter ? He farms the old way, and 
doesn’t read a paper. I tried to get him to read 
The R. N.-Y. He said that it did not tell the 
truth. I long to see this county pulled out of the 
ruts. Think of young men who live on a farm, 
work hard, but can’t go to church on Sunday for 
want of clothes ! Think that there’s no church 
but once a month ! What’s the matter ? Bad 
management. Think of boys having to milk poor 
cows in the snow at zero ! Think how cold these 
poor cows must be to stand out all night with 
scarcely any feed ! Think of a young man desir¬ 
ous of obtaining a good education, but is not able 
to pay his way! He has to milk the cows in sleet, 
snow and rain ! No profit, no pleasure ! I am 
trying to live in hopes that a brighter day will 
come. It will take a wiser man than I to tell how 
to get this country on a move. I wish that some 
of our scientific men would come to this region 
and give us a lecture or two. We are located 
seven miles east of Chattanooga.” 
* 
Now we don’t want to be accused of showing 
any sectional spirit, so right alongside of this, we 
give the following letter from a Rhode Island 
friend: 
“I have been a juryman for a month past, and 
thought it would be an excellent chance to get 
some subscriptions; so I went at the country 
members so far as I could prove them to be 
farmers, and between our profound deliberations, 
I talked with all the eloquence of which I was 
master in favor of The R. N.-Y.; but they all 
appeared to be sick of eloquence, while a part of 
them dozed, and the others buttoned up their 
pockets and looked as though they thought I was 
playing some confidence game. One might as 
well have looked for subscriptions among the 
jury that tried Pickwick. However, each took the 
sample that I gave him, and when I had no more 
to give, the unlucky ones had intelligence enough 
to look sorry. Still, I am on the watch tower, and 
when I see a man with “ speculation in his eye,” 
and “ up to date ” in his actions, I ask him if he 
doesn’t want to take The R. N.-Y. He ’most always 
says that he’s taken it from a boy up. The fact 
is, Rhode Island is hunted over and over by 
the agents of other papers, and the game laws 
are not respected. One paper has an agent here 
who makes the farmers take his paper whether 
they like it or not, and no matter how much 
they wish to stop it, it keeps on and on, like the 
cork leg in the song, carrying its unwilling victim 
along with it. But this is not always the case. 
Some of them like it, think it the best of all, 
and even try to quote from it. One benighted 
wretch quoted an article on the culture of aspara- 
gtis that he said was as good as any paper could 
publish, and was worth more than 10 years’ sub¬ 
scription to bim. And he showed it to me. I 
told him that came from the catalogue of a cer¬ 
tain nursery company, and proved it to him. It 
was word for word, except whereitwas garbled.” 
Now between the Tennessee mountaineer who 
believes all editors are liars, and the Rhode 
Island juryman who thinks other papers are just 
as good as The R. N.-Y., there is, as you see, a 
strong bond of sympathy. By a light stretch of 
the imagination, you might compare them to the 
volcanoes. The hole that connects their heads 
with progress and true agriculture, is about stop¬ 
ped up. Inside these men, you will find one of 
two conditions. The forces of discontent and un¬ 
happiness may be raging within them—like the 
gases in the volcano. The trouble is, they find 
vent through the mouth, and are not strong 
enough to get through that stopped-up passage 
to the head, and force the whole machinery of the 
man’s make-up into new methods and thoughts 
Or it may be a case of atrophy of judgment and 
energy. A man may fall into the habit of think¬ 
ing that because his condition in life satisfies him, 
his family, of course, ought to be satisfied, too— 
so he will make no particular effort to change. 
You see, therefore, that both discontent and 
content need a new element—like the sea water 
that gets inside the volcano, and with its steam 
helps force the passage through the mountain. 
The discontent isn’t strong enough to open the 
road to the brain, and the content doesn’t care to 
make any effort at all. Something else must 
come in to shake them up, and belch out the vol¬ 
cano so that progress and new ideas can get in. 
Now, then, we nominate The R. N.-Y. for this new 
element. Get it into any family for a year, and 
you’ll see a change. It is made and put together 
for the purpose of stirring people up to better 
thinking and working. It ought to be a serious 
question with you whether it isn’t a duty you owe 
to your country and profession to see to it that 
The R. N.-Y. finds its way into the families of 
those who have fallen a little behind in the agri¬ 
cultural race. We thought first of putting this 
thing at you as a business proposition, but we 
won’t do that—it’s now a question of philan¬ 
thropy, pure and simple. 
One of our friends went to a farmers' institute 
at Penn Yan, N. Y. He remarked what a small 
proportion of the farmers in the county attended. 
He says : 
“ Many, perhaps half of those who do attend 
the institute, are well-informed, progressive farm¬ 
ers and fruit grower’s. One of them remarked to 
me that, while he enjoyed the institute, and gath¬ 
ered considerable inspiration for next season’s 
work, there was really very little that he had not 
read in the agricultural papers or the bulletins 
from Cornell or Geneva. He thought that the 
thousands of dollars which the institutes cost the 
State, could be better expended in buying 20,000 
subscriptions to The R. N.-Y., and giving them to 
people who won’t subscribe for it, or won’t attend 
the institutes. What say ?” 
The R. N.-Y. doesn’t ask any State or National 
aid, or any public favors that are denied to other 
people in business. The way to get the paper 
into the hands of 20,000 new people, is just to go 
and place it there. Don’t look to the State to do 
it, but do you, gentlemen, who tell us all these 
handsome and inspiring things— act as well as 
talk l 
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TO HEAR THE NEWS. 
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