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[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
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OUR CANDIDATES FOE THANKSGIVING. 
To the group of feathered bipeds portrayed 
on this page—the raonarehs of the dunghill 
with their sultanas—there are indeed troub¬ 
lous times. Could they understand poetry, 
they would indeed agree with Bryant when 
he says: 
The melancholy days have eooae, 
The saddest of the year. 
After the autumnal holocaust of the poli¬ 
ticians, with which the Rural as a journal 
has nothing to do, but in which Ruralists of 
both parties ought always to do their part, 
there comes another and more agreeable en¬ 
tertainment, a genuine “slaughter ot the in¬ 
nocents, 1 ' wherein pompous turkey,the hum¬ 
bler goose, the waddling duck and the strut¬ 
ting barnyard fowl are made to serve their 
country and mankind, by tickling the palate, 
satiating the appetite and stimulating 
thought, affection and all the virtues in that 
genuine old fashioned and thoroughly Ameri¬ 
can institution, the Family Thanksgiving 
Dinner. Geese saved Rome once, but to our 
mind the Turkey is the true American Bird 
of Freedom, < ml especially about Thanks¬ 
giving time. Not the Eagle surely, though 
this venerabie king of robbers is blazoned as 
our National emblem—for ho comes to tho 
front chiefly in times of war and civil strife. 
Our Thanksgiving Isa time of pleasure and 
rejoicing, fit preparation for tho coming 
Christmas anniversaries, when the long-.-ince 
uttered prophesy—“Peace on earth and 
good will toward men ” is again echoed 
throughout the world. We are approach¬ 
ing the Centennial year of the existence of 
this country as an independent people, and 
it is not too much to say, that the New En¬ 
gland custom of having a yearly day devoted 
to Thanksgiving, with the religious, moral 
and educational culture, which such an ob¬ 
servance implies have inspired the love of 
borne and of country on which the perpetuity 
of Republican Institutions depends. We are 
glad to see this old New England time- 
honored custom extending in all parts of the 
country. We are one people, with one des¬ 
tiny and common aspirations. There is no 
place where strife and prejudices are more 
likely to be allayed than around a well 
loaded Thanksgiving dinner table. All honor 
to whatever serves to complete this work. 
Though only a barnyard fowl, a turkey or 
possibly even a goose, he becomes a public 
conciliator, and whatever his life, has surely 
not died in vain. 
Readers of tho Rural will find its candi¬ 
dates for Thanksgiving honors below. We 
are sure of an overwhelming majority, as 
politicians say, “for the entire ticket.” 
«> » — 
CAEE OF FOWLS IN WINTER. 
This is the method of caring for fowls in 
the winter season that Was practiced by the 
late C. W. Dickjcrman : 
My winter quarters for them are not as 
large us they should be, being only 12 feet 
square for from 20 to 80 fowls, but they have 
the run of the yard whenever the snow does 
not forbid. Instead of cleaning out these 
quarters weekly or oftener, as frequently 
recommended in hooks,I occasionally throw a 
few shovelfuls of earth (from boxes filled for 
the purpose) over the droppings. Their quar¬ 
ters are not as warm ns l should provide 
were I to build a honse expressly for them ; 
but 1 have two large windows in the south 
and east sides, which gives them all tho 
benefit of the sun's warmth and wukos up 
for considerable lack of battening. 
Cold weather is the trying time wnen 
most people complain that their liens do not 
lay. It requires more attention to the fowls 
to get eggs in the winter than in summer, 
but they can be had. Give them sunlight 
and keep them warm, in the first place, and 
CANDIDATES FOR, TKCAJSTKSO-XVIIvra- HONORS, Nov. 35, 1875. 
VOTi. XXXII. No. 20. 
WHOLE No. 1346. 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y., NOV. 13, 1875. 
j PRICE SIX CENTS. 
I 82.63 PER YEAR. 
