well; but if long continued damp or rainy 
weather succeeds, the corn is liable to heat 
and mold, thus injuring it. 
Many farmer* prefer letting the crop stand 
till the grains are principally glazed, and 
then cutting all near the surface of the ground 
and ahocking in the field, letting it remain 
there till dry enough for husking. Some 
contend the corn ripens as well as if left upon 
the separate hills. The fodder, as a whole, is 
thought to be worth much more cured by 
this method than by any other process. The 
crop, when thus cut up and shocked, is placed 
beyond injury from frost—a matter of much 
consequence some years. 
There is but little if anything gained by 
cutting and shocking corn after it has been 
stricken by frost. In cutting up the corn ns 
soon as fairly glazed, the fields can be cleared 
in season for sowing winter wheat or rye 
sometimes a matter of much consequence. 
Some contend that the soundest and heaviest 
com can only be grown by letting ** nature 
take its course”—that is, let the whole plant 
remain uncut till the com is “ dead ripe.” 
“ catch” will be the best. Indeed, it is one 
compensation for a poor wheat crop that the 
succeeding clover-lay is almost always a go~d 
one. . . 
If timothy is wanted the fall is by odds the 
best time for sowing the seed. Our best 
farmers think little of timothy, but there are 
some circumstances which make its growing 
advisable. A clover sod is worth little after 
the second year, and even the best calcula¬ 
tions lor plowing it up at the right time may 
be upset by some unexpected failure of the 
grass seeding. It ix be3t to have two strings 
to one’s bow and have some kind of a bead¬ 
ing in case of the partial fuflure of clover. 
Besides, there are in every field occasional 
patches where clover from some cause will 
not take well, if these are only a foot square 
EDUCATED WORKERS. 
The Maine Farmer discusses the subject 
of educated labor in an article which we copy 
in part ; the remarks are especially applica¬ 
ble to agriculturists: 
Outside of the so-called "learned profes¬ 
sions,” men have not, until within a compar¬ 
atively recent period, regarded framing for 
any employment as necessary other than 
that somewhat mechanical training which 
persons are supposed to need who take up 
any trade—mental or intellectual fitness lor 
such pursuits has not been deemed essential. 
This last remark was at one time especially 
applicable to farmers. They were not sup¬ 
posed to have a use for any education, and 
the thought that an education beyond that 
furnished bv the common school would be of 
any service to the farmer was laughed at. 
The farmer plodded along, and the fanner’s 
son who was to remain at homo was a com¬ 
plete dunce ; he need not know anything. 
Fortunately, this has now all changed, and 
labor, particularly upon the farm, calls for 
educated men—aiad educated men find em¬ 
ployment in agriculture and the productive 
arts in preference to those who are not edu¬ 
cated. How often do we hear the remark 
made by young men, who may be " out of a 
job,” say, “If I only had an education, I 
could obtain a situation. ” And if a merchant 
or a farmer or a manufacturer is to employ 
a young man -he will, if possible, obtain one 
with n goed education. 
In the industrial arts, in manufactures, in 
certain branches of agriculture there is now 
very close competition ; those men who suc¬ 
ceed are the men who best uuderstand the 
busiuess, who know how to conduct it upon 
the best established principles, and apply to 
its prosecution the I jest knowledge and skill 
possible. In fact, this is now necessary in 
order to success, and it is the application of 
scientific knowledge, of skill, of education, to 
these practical pursuits—which render suc¬ 
cess reasonably certain. 
In nearly cdl departments of practical life 
and actual business pursuits, it is the edu¬ 
cated men that arc taking the best places. As 
overseers of manufacturing establishments ; 
as foremen of farms and uurseries and com¬ 
mercial gardens as loading employes upon 
railroad constiuction aud building enter¬ 
prises, and in other industrial occupations— 
the leading man is the man who is educated. 
Not only this, the labor that is educated is 
the labor that pays. It will not do to engage 
a buDgler to perform work in a line in which 
competition is great—it must be skilled labor 
that is employed, and the products of skilled 
and educated labor are the only products 
that find a ready market at a paying price. 
This being the case, it is the duty of every 
man to encourage in every possible way the 
establishment and support of special schools 
whose aim it is to educate our young men to 
occupy high positions among the productive 
classes of the community. 
"Field Crops,” Mr. Isaac Esmay of boutu 
Bend, Ind., shows the "ragged edge” of his 
disposition in attempting to disjoint my arti¬ 
cle in the Rural of June 6, reflecting on an 
article of his in the Rural of April 23, he 
claiming that my article was full of errors 
and misstatements. Now, in the first place, 
the land under consideration is the grass land 
of Northern Indiana. Admitting the high, 
dry and rolling prairies, such land is held at 
from $40 to $100 per acre, and Is not left to 
nature to raise her natural grasses at $1 per 
ton standing, or $2 
per acre, (Mr. Esmay’s 
value of the grass in his article of April 25,) 
but with the cl eared lands are used for agri¬ 
cultural purposes, thereby returning to the 
owner a more liberal income than $2 per acre. 
To see where they get their one dollar hay 
and to Eee my statement verified, one lias 
only to pass along the borders of the Kanka¬ 
kee Marshes—to say nothing about the small¬ 
er ones, which are numerous — which cover 
thousands of acres in both St. Joseph and 
Laporte Counties, where can be seen thou¬ 
sands of tons of bay, “ Marsh hay,” and some 
of it appropriately called “ rip gut,” put up 
for home consumption aud for market near 
and far, and the greater portion will not 
compare favorably with the Prairie hay of 
Illinois, and to its value in market 1 will give 
to day’s (Sept, lj quotations, taken from the 
Chicago Times, to wit:—"Timothy hay,No. 
1, $18 per ton ; No. 3, $15 ; Prairie hay, No. 
1, $9 ; No. 3, $8 sho jvmg its value a trifle 
over one-half that of timothy, as a feed for 
horses and cattle in Chicago ; and it would 
be rated about one-fourth as a feed for cows 
in the manufacture of “gilt edge” butter, aud 
instead of the grasslands being dry and no 
weter standing on them at all, they are so 
wet, especially the larger marshes (and they 
are what constitute the natural grass lauds 
now) that only a small portion of them are 
mowed at all—part mowed by machinery 
and part by hand—and the grass is,as I stated, 
rough and wiry. If nuy one will bo deluded 
with the idea that they can make a success 
at manufacturing "gilt edge” butter from 
the milk of cows fed on Prairie or Marsh 
grass or hay grown in Northern Indiana, 
with the hard, limy water that ismostabun- 
dant hero, they are welcome to the trial. I 
opine that their butter, like the liny, will be 
rated at half price in auy market—except, 
perhaps, South Bend, where Marsh or Prairie 
Hay is preferred to timothy .Before ventur¬ 
ing into the dairy business here, I would 
earnestly recommend a careful survey of 
this section of country, to establish the truth 
of my statements, where I am confident they 
will fled an agricultural region unsurpassed, 
but not up to the mat k for fancy dairying. 
As to my statements giving the number of 
bushels of wheat, oorn, &e., which might be 
raised with proper cultivation to the aero, I 
am under the limits, rather than above ; 23 
to 80 bushels of wheat to the acre is not an 
uncommon yield here this season ; and that 
on laud that ha* had no ferlilizers for three 
to five years, and then nothing but one crop 
of clover plowed uuder, aud some with the 
above yield that never had any manurir.g of 
any kind. But I am done, and will occupy 
no more of your valuable space with the sub¬ 
ject of Indiana’s natural grasses, but will 
leave all that are or may be interested on the 
subject to come and find out the truth, for 
" it is mighty and will prevail.” If I thought 
it would be of any benefit (pecuniarily ox- 
otherwise) to Mx\ Esma.y to know my name 
or business I would tell him ; but not imag¬ 
ining that he would receive any benefit by 
know.ng, therefore he must be content by 
learning that my business is " legitimate,” 
and that I am oontent with my nom-dc- 
plume. Observer. 
Argos, Ind. 
VENTILATION OF BEE-HIVES. 
Tu eke lias been a great deal written and 
said about ventilating hives. We all know 
that the bees will stop every crack they can 
with propolis or " bee-glue ” and thus secure 
themselves against drafts of cold air in se¬ 
vere weather. Iu summer, bees hang more 
or less outside the hive, and by fanning with 
their wings at the entrance indicate that 
plenty of air is acceptable. We find some 
commendably sensible notions on this sub¬ 
ject credited to Mr. S. C. Balch as read 
before the Michigan Bee-Keepers’ Association 
at a recent meeting. 
I have my hives made as tight as the best 
mechanics can make them, (they are double 
hives at that) and in the fall allow the bees 
to glue the top as close as they will, pvnd 
they will make it nearly air-tight) and am 
vei’y careful not to remove the covers too 
late for them to do so. I then elose the en- 
ti'ance so as to leave not. moi-e than one inch 
How can a single man with but anu 
and a strong active frame to rely on, become 
a farmer 1 I am willing, to begin small, but 
for myself. I am at present a dry goods 
clerk, but with some knowledge of farming 
and a strong dislike to the slavish life of a 
jobbing house salesman. To go W est would 
use rp my capital in railroad faie,— Clerk. 
Your course is to be fixed by oue thing. 
If you are really determined to be a farmer, 
that is, to depend upon the soil for your 
livelihood, then you will be one, aud a good 
one—perhaps a rich one. Before you leave 
the dry goods business understand enough 
of it to appreciate the necessity for accuracy 
and care in accounts, essential to any thrifty 
busiuess. Then go to any good farmer who 
will take you, and work a year as “ hired 
man.” Don’t propose to work for nothing 
or for poor board—demand wage9 and earn 
them, if you are blistered and burned and 
ache all over. Learn to do all kinds of farm 
worxtas much better than any of the other 
hands, as you may be more intelligent than 
they; fight off that indolence of mind which 
condemns most farmers to plod at hand 
labor all their lives, because they don't read 
and become capable of doing better work 
with their heads than they can with their 
hands. Study principles, improved machi¬ 
nery, markets and the course of trade. Live 
CUTTING UP AND SHOCKING CORN 
SEEDING WITH WHEAT 
Farmers find it difficult to get a good 
"catch” of clover on a newly-plowed sod, 
especially if the sod bo clover. Seeding is 
usually good on stubble ground plowed up- 
better still on summer fallow or with wheat 
after corn or potatoes. Various theories have 
been oidginated to account for these facts, 
but tlio most plausible and probably most 
correct theory Is that it greatly depends on 
the mechanical condition of the soil. A bar¬ 
ley cr oat stubble plowed twice ‘gives a bet¬ 
ter " catch" than if plowed only once, and if 
cultivated and rolled so as to make a mellow 
seed bed, it does better stilL Often when the 
ground is light and fine for wheat the gr&ss 
