THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JAN. 22 
airing for for |) omtg. 
A LITTLE STORY TELLER. 
What do you think 
Has happened to Rover ? 
The most dreadful thing: 
The whole world over— 
Tf anybody else had told ine so 
1 wouldn’t have believed it—no no, no ! 
Oh, dear—let me see— 
I suppose 1 must tell— 
You know our folks 
Have got a big- well; 
It’s dark and it’s big, and. oh, such a place ! 
I’ve told him so to his very own face. 
He’s a bad, bad child: 
. He wouldn’t mind; 
He would go on the edge 
As if he were blind; 
And, oh! don’t you think, he's tumbled way over. 
And the water’s all covered my poor little Rover! 
8 ee, here comes Rover now ! 
See,he ain't dead 1 
Now can’t I make up things 
Out of my head 1 
I gue&e if the editors knew what was smart 
They'd take my stories instead of yours, Uncle 
Mark. 
- *■■*■*■ - 
FARMING I OR BOYS AND GIRL8-N0. 10. 
HENRT STEWART. 
Harrowing. 
It will be plain, to one who knows liow plants 
feed and grow In the soil, that the finer the soli Is, 
the better the plants can feed and grow. Every 
little rootlet is a mouth pushed out to find food. 
If It meets In its course only fine particles, 
through which It can penetrate with ease, it 
throws out branches In Its course until It occu¬ 
pies the whole soil, in this way the roots or a 
plant soon form a close net-work of fibers, whloh 
grasp and surround the soil and suck up from it 
its moisture, in which la dissolved the plant food. 
But It the soil Is In hard lumpB, the root pushes 
on with all Its strength, vainly trying to enter 
these masses, and becomeamerely a single thread, 
gathering no food, hut really tiring out Itself 
until It Is starved or greatly weakened. 
Again, wh°n the soil la in lumpsand clods, there 
are large air spaces between these and the sur¬ 
faces become dry, because the moisture evap¬ 
orates from such soli or sinks down Into the 
subsoil too quickly. Then the root perishes, and 
the plant not only falls to find food, but all the 
work It has done is lost, and it is to that extent 
weakened. 
From this it will be seen how necessary it is to I 
break up the son and reduce it to as fine a state as 
possible. This is done by harrowing the soil, Im¬ 
mediately after it la plowed and while it is fresh 
and soft, and can be easily broken up. But there 
is a right and a wrong way to do everything, and 
the harrow may either not be well adapted for its 
purpose or It may not be properly used. A harrow 
Is usually a wooden frame provided with Iron or 
steel pins or teeth, set upright in the frame or 
slanting backwards. Recently an improvement 
has been made which consists of using sharp- 
edged discs or wheels mounted on a frame Instead 
of teeth, and for some purposes this is very useful. 
For instance, when a sod has been plowed and 
turned under, it Is very dimcult to use a straight 
toothed harrow without tearing up the sod, and 
this has a bad effect, and prevents the farmer 
from reaping the moat advantage from his work, I 
as we shall see when we come to think about the 
plowing under of sod. The sharp wheels of the 
diBC harrow, cut up the surface into very small 
pieces and as they are placed a little sideways on 
the harrow, they scrape the sou to one side a little 
and turn it up into small ridges of soft, loose sou 
and thus prepare a very excellent bed for the seed. 
The same effect Is produced, bur. only to a smaller 
extent, by the sloping-moth harrow which passes 
easily over the surface without tearing up the sod 
under it, and for some purposes, such as covering 
seed, this kind of harrow is very useful. 
The common kind of harrow works the best on 
stubble laud and when drawn across the furrows. : 
It should always bo drawn from a corner or near ' 
the corner, as tilts brings the lines of Che teeth ( 
close together and breaks up the soli more thor- 1 
oughly. When aharrowotlhlsklndIsdrawnacross 1 
the furrows, the teeth break up the rurrow- 9 llces 1 
very completely, and as they break these and stir 1 
the ground they fill up all the loose spaces between I * 
ths lumps with fine soil, and make the ground f 
compaot as well as soft, and fit it precisely for the 
needs of the roots which are to grow In it. But 
when drawn along the furrows It is very clear 
thatlt cannot break up the ground nearly as wall, i 
because hard slices cannot be peueirated by the I ® 
teeth. s 
To produce the best effect the harrow should be I 
drawn by a short chain, which permits It to vl- v 
brate from side to side with a sort of zig-zag mo- l 1 
tton, and also causes the harrow to lie flat, so o 
that every tooth does Its work and none of them f 
are lifted out of the soil, which would be the case k 
If the harrow was hitched short and close to the d 
traces. Harrowing is thought to be a very simple t: 
thing and Is too often alighted on this account. 0 
But if we consider les purpose and what Is gained P 
by it, and watch a harrow at work and examine B 
the soli before and arter harrowing, we shall find K 
It a very important business, and one that should a 
be done with the greatest care and attention. In a 
fact, by such consideration we shall learn that tJ 
there Is no work on the farm, hut has a deeper oi 
urpose to It than appears at first sight, or to one w 
who does not think; anrl that thinking about the 11 
work will help us very much to do it in the best 1 
manner. ni 
thinks It clever to cheat his taUor, or to 
sneak out of his little debts at college, has already 
laid a sure foundation of ill fortune. Nothing is 
known so quickly or Bticks to a man so long as 
the reputation of dishonesty. It 1b the fleck of 
mRdew which eats and growB blacker and spreads 
from year to year. 
Boys are fatuously blind to the lengthening 
shadows whloh these faults of sharp-dealing and 
lying in their earliest years throw down their 
whole future. In a year or two they will be ask¬ 
ing for patronage from the public or a chance m 
the business world, and they will find that In 
damaging their character they have already 
squandered their only capital. No merchant 
would take a boy even as porter Into employ who 
was not known to be honest. 
We take It for granted our boys are honest, in 
the coarsest meaning of the term. But t here Is a 
finer honesty that enters Into a man’s nature and 
lifts him above his fellows. He Is no sneak nor 
sham, neither to his companions, hla God, nor 
even to himself. 
As the boy begins, eo the man wlU end. The 
lad who speaks with affectation, and minces for¬ 
eign tongues that he does not understand at 
school, will be a weak chromo In character all his 
life ; the boy who cheats his teachers into think¬ 
ing him devout at chapel, will be fbe man who 
will make religion a trade and bring Christianity 
into contempt; and the boy wbo wins the highest 
average by stealing his examination papers will 
figure some day as a tricky politician. 
The lad who, whether rich or poor, dull or 
I clever, looks you straight In the eye and keeps Ills 
answer Inside of the truth, already counts friends 
who will last all hts life and holds a capital which 
will bring him In a surer Interest than money. 
Then get to the bottom of things. You sec how 
It is already as to thut. It was the student who 
was grounded In the grammar that took the Latin 
prize; It was that slow, steady drudge who prac¬ 
ticed firing every day lust Winter that bagged the 
most game.In the mountains: it is the clerk who 
studies the speciality of the house In off hours 
who is to bo promoted. Your brilliant, happy-go- 
lucky, hlt-or-mlas fellow, usually turns out the 
weight of the family by forty-five. 
Ready for you In your early manhood, there are 
plenty of pleasures waiting for you to conquer— 
applause, money, society, this and that kind of 
philosophy or faith. Take nothing on trust; 
weigh it, Bee what It is worth. You will have 
rough disappointments, but you will come to the 
granite underneath at last.—Tribune. 
LETTERS FROM 
C0USIN8, 
Dear Uncle Make and Rural Cousins :—I have 
long cherished a wish to write to you and tell you 
how much l love and appreciate the dear Rural 
it has been a constant and welcome visitor to me 
for the past three years, and In renewing my sub¬ 
scription, I must say that I cannot afford to do 
without it. 
I remember the first one that I ever saw some 25 
years since; it had the dear and dumb Alphabet In 
it which I took great pleasure In learning. I 
would like to join the Horticultural Club, as I am 
a great lover ot flowers, and the beautiful In gen¬ 
eral. I admire the artistic taste displayed by 
woman in ar ranging her flower-pots and in flower 
culture. I admire her devotednres not only at 
home, but on the battle-field administering to the 
wants of the wounded and dying soldiers, as only 
a woman can, aud in carrying the Gospel to the 
benighted heathen and In many other wajs her 
devotedness is exhibited. How many sad hearts 
have been cheered and strengthened for life’s bat¬ 
tle in the perusal of the Rural's pages ? Who can 
tell? 
I think that the free Plant and Seed Distribution 
cannot fall to be of great value in disseminating 
new and choice varieties of plants and seeds, it 
gives children an interest in cultivating the beau¬ 
tiful In Nature and Is far more valuable than the 
so eaued “ Chromos ” and “ oil Paintings ” which 
are “given away " as Premiums. 
I have taken great Interest In the seeds which 
you so kindly sent me from time to time. I receiv¬ 
ed the Cuthbert Raspberry some time ago, for ail 
of which accept my sincere thanks. The relia¬ 
bility, trustworthiness and honesty of the Rural 
places It In the front rank of Agricultural Journals 
and I hope that nothing will ever creep In to 
mar its fair pages, and that t he same sympathy 
and patronage may he extended to It In the ruture 
as It has had In the past. Violet. 
Oxford Co., Canada. 
grafted would It bear fruit, If bo where could she 
get grafts. l. h. 
Oshawa, Ontario. 
IThe lemon tree can be successfully grafted. 
Grafts may be obtained of Parsons & Sons. Flush¬ 
ing, l. I., also of P. j. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga, 
—U. M l 
Dear Uncle Mark :—Many thanks for the seeds 
you so kindly sent me. They grew finely and 
flowered beautifully, especially the phloxes, and 
pinks. We have Just been having a long Califor¬ 
nia rain lasting three weeks, which .some ot the 
cousins will think is awful, but It Is not. The 
weather la nice and warm: t he plants out-doors 
are growing and blooming nicely; the grass Is 
green, and the mercury is up to 58 deg. this morn¬ 
ing. We have boquets of roses and other flowers 
all the time. My brother takes the Rural he 
likes it very much. He received hts potato in 
good condition. I am afraid my letter is getting 
too long so will close. Alice Snvder, 
Pkntz, Butte co„ cal. 
Uncle Mark:— I have a corner In our garden 
that I have tor wild flowers. I have some Blood- 
root. and Wild Phlox. Wild Anemones, both single 
and double Hepalica, Dutchman’s Breeches, two 
species, and some ferns. 1 would like to Join the 
Horticultural Club. My brother takes the Rural 
Nkw-Yohker and we like It, very much. I have a 
parrot, It is so tame we can handle It most any 
way we please ; It talks some. I want to ask you 
a question: Is it natural for Roman Hyaclntns to 
come up now, In this climate. Elsie. 
Bucyrus, Ohio. 
[ Hyacinths sometimes come up in mild Autumns, 
but this weather wUl cure them of that.—U. M.J 
■SabWi) lifting. 
ONE DAY AT A TIME. 
Only one day 
To bear the strain 
Of living:, and to battle with the pain. 
Only one day 
To satisfy 
With food and covering, aa the hours slip by. 
Only one* day 
To-morrow’s caro 
To-morrow, If it comes, itself shall bear. 
Only one day— 
Then waste it not 
In futile planning- where the Lord is not 
Only one day 
Ood gives to me 
At once. Oh, may I ubb It faithfully ! 
■-»-» «- -- 
A NEW COMMANDMENT. 
EXTRACT OPA SERMON, By.luhN STOUGHTON, D. D. 
Uncle Mark and Rural Cousins:— I have read 
the letters Irom the cousins to iny little brother, 
and he has been teasing me to write, so I venture 
for the waste-basket, one of my older brothers 
has taken the Rural for three years and would 
not part with It. 1 am fifteen and my little brother 
Is nine years old. It is so cold In Winter that we 
can only raise animals. We have a few house- 
plants. If we can Join the Horticultural Club 
please put our names on the list. 
Grundy Co., Iowa. 
Rost and Andrew Benton. 
Dear Uncle Mark:— I am a little boy nine 
years old. My pa takes the Rural and I like to 
read the letters from the cousins very much, l 
want to join the Horticultural club and be one or 
the cousins. I cultivate a garden every year, 
and raise beans and peas, beets, radishes, toma¬ 
toes, cucumbers etc. I gralted some wild goose 
plums last Spring, and some of them grew and 
are doing well, I have lots of pretty flowers too, 
such as portulaca, balsam, petunia, phlox and 
lark spur. Please send me some seeds next spring. 
Dallas Co., Texas. Emmanuel C. Hatcher 
Cjjf 
HIDDEN PARTS OF A HOUSE. 
1. Urban is terribly plain. 
2 . How Alile grows. 
3. I need proof. 
4 . He shall not go. 
5 . Too flat, he said. 
G. Gralt Ernest’s orange tree. 
T, Try corn Ice cream, 
s. Please do, or sorry you’ll be. 
t». Do win Dow’s premium. 
10. Flo, order must be preserved. 
It. Trace “ IL ” In green. 
12. Philip last, Erllng first. 
13. Come Tom, or terror may ensue. 
14. Use spar, Lorlng, 
15. Such a din In grooms. 
1G. Kit. Cheuangols a county of N. Y. 
IT. Bob Athroo moved, 
18. That ticking Is too loua. 
19. The cigar retches me. 
20 . is the parcel large ? 
21 . Hear the clock strike. 
22. Ben Bolt sang of Alice, 
23. Thou hast air surely. 
24. Shut Tersle’a door. 
25. The man tells two tales. 
Answer In two weeks. Little One. 
A WORD TO YOU, BOYS. 
First : Be honest. By which we do not mean, 
slznply, not to steal. That goes without saying. 
The young man who, before hla beard la grown, 
Dear Uncle Mark I think It la about time I 
wrote and thanked you for the seeds you so kindly 
sent me last Spring. I wrote a letter some time 
ago but as it was pretty long, I did not see It In 
print and I supposed It found the wasu basket 
where a great rnaiiy letters go. I had pretty good 
luck with my seeds last Summer. The musk mel¬ 
ons were Just splendid, one weighing seven pounds. 
As a general thing they were not very large but I 
had a great number of them, they were or such a 
delicious flaver that every one admired them that 
tasted them. Out of the five okra seeds I received 
only three grew. The pinks, portulacas and 
phloxes were very nice and flowered until the 
frost killed them. Every thing was nice but the 
mignonettes ; they grow and covered Hie ground 
all over but they did riot have any sweet smell at 
all. l did not receive any coxoomb seeds, I have 
three hybrid penstemons, one magnolia tree and 
one grape vine. My brother had a lot of mangolds 
one weighing sixteen pouDdB. The outs also were 
nice. Out ot the three willow cuttings two grew. 
1 am a great lover of flowers and have a great 
number; among them, I have eight different kinds 
of rosea. Grandma has a lemon tree about thirty 
years old. it is about four feet high and Its leaves 
are about six inches long. She puts It out In the 
garden In the Summer time and keeps it in the 
house in a big box in the Winter; it never blos¬ 
soms nor beam any fruit. I wlah to ask If it was 
A PYRAMID PUZZLE. 
A consonant; a river ot England ; part of a 
wagon; a god-parent. Centrals form a bird. 
Answer In two weeks. 
NAME PUZZLE. 
Place three female names so as to form a fourth. 
S%r Answer in two weeks. l. o. 
A SQUARE. 
1, Seasoning; 2, an Eastern country; 3 , to halt. 
4, a narrow fillet. Gua. 
C® 1 ” Answer in two weeks. 
PUZZLER ANSWERS.-Jan. 8. 
H, Railed; Id, fauilaufe'O; l«, Cotillion; 17, quickstep 
IS, sehotusli ; 19, the lancers. 
Squabk Word.— 
MITE 
I T E M 
T E K M 
EMMA 
Cbosi Word.—H ieratic. 
I Commentators are not agreed as to whether our 
Lord intended that his new commandment should 
be taken as an addition to the ten delivered on 
Sinai. Be that as it may, even it it be a misno¬ 
mer to call it the eleventh commandment, we 
shall all agree that. It points to something In the 
Gospel of our savior which goes seyond the Law 
of Moses. That something, I shall endeavor at 
once to illustrate. 
It Is a new commandment, in a certain sense 
It is from the beginning—the law as well as of the 
Gospel—yet also it is new, as to its torm. There 
was a compression, a terseness, a pungency in our 
Lord’s teaching quite original. He did not deal In 
a multitude of words, a thick forest or verbiage In 
which a listener la presently lost. No crowd of 
particulars, no host of minute specifications, such 
as learned casuists have been wont to suggest, do 
you find In his leasons-but that which Is to the 
point—that which strikes Into the heart of a sub¬ 
ject, cleaving it and laying It open. 
Compared with the wearisomeness or Rabbini¬ 
cal teaching, our Lord’s method was obviously 
new. Even the old ten commandments, delivered 
on Stnal amidst lightnings and an earthquake, 
and which pealed out, one after another, In slow 
solemn grandeur, the great teacher condenses into 
two brief sentences-” Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy Goa with all thy heart., and with all thy soul 
and with all thy mind. This Is the first and great 
commandment. ADd the second is like unto it 
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these 
two commandments bang all the law and the 
prophets.” Here we have a new and abridged 
edition of the Slnaitlc code. One of the ten pre¬ 
cepts might easily be dropped out of the enumer¬ 
ation, but these two com alned the essence of the 
whole, and no drop of either could be ever lost. It 
la true, each of the epitomes Just cited may be 
found In the wrltlDgs of Moses, but there you do 
not find the two compactly brought together aa In 
tUe words of Christ: so entwinBd here are they 
In the most portable of forms, that they can hard¬ 
ly ever, through fault of memory, be rent asunder 
Our Lora’s summary was something new. 'The 
textis in exact keeping with the second Raying— 
“ Thou snait love thy neighbor aa thyself,” only 
It presents the law of charity under a new aspect 
In thla way. 
it la not addressed to the world at large-not to 
Lhe mere citizen, who may live In the same street, 
aext door to another who has only a common claim 
)n his regard; but It Is addressed by the Savior 
o his own disciples—to those whom he had called 
>ut of the world, and brought into select feiiow- 
ihlp with Himself, to those whom he addressed by 
he endearing epithet “ little children’ —an ex- 
iresslon we can icarody help uniting with hla 
vords on another occasion: “ Except ye be con- 
'erted, and become as little children, ye shall not 
rnter into the kingdom of heaven.” These men 
o whom he spake were within the kingdom, they 
tad bowed down their heads and entered the low 
trait, gate us little children—they had been new 
iorn Into his own new family of love; and now, 
ooklng on them with a smile of affection, he bids 
hem be brotherly, be bids them be united, he 
Ids them clasp hands together in his presence, 
nd swear a league ot undying friendship. “ a 
ew commandment I give unto you,” members of 
Dew spiritual family such as were never seen on 
arth before—” that ye love one another.” 
It la new in point of example, and here we get 
loser to the true idea of Its newness. Ho exem- 
llfled It Himself—as Moses had never done, as the 
rophets had never done. A pattern or perfect 
ive had never before been beheld in this selfish 
orld. The love of Jacob for Rachel was very 
sautlful and tender; the love of Jonathan for 
avid was passing the love ot women; the love of 
le .Maccabees for their country was noble and 
heroic; so was tie love of certain Greeks and 
Romans—but Christ ’s love rose above that of wire, 
or friend, or country, was ot another order, of 
another stamp, of another spirit, went more en¬ 
tirely out ot self, so as to carry not the falnlest 
shadow of self where It went, .such other loves, 
as those Just touched on, fall back again, if I may 
say so, on the lover. The wife, the friend, are part 
of self, and are essential to the lover’s enjoyment, 
without them he cannot live. They minister to 
his felicity, he Is lost without them—so with his 
country to the Impassioned patriot; he pines away 
and dies apart from It. 
- ♦ - 
A good conscience la the palace of Christ, the 
temple ot the Holy Ghost, the paradise of delight, 
and the standing sabbath of the saints. 
% 
When the winds of applause blow fresh and 
strong, then sleer with a steady hand.— M. Henry. 
Why be sick and ailing when Hop Bitters wlU 
Btirely cure you ? 
