AUG. 27 
574 
THE RURAL «”W-V£RKER. 
, Rafting for tfir going. 
LITTLE CHILDREN. 
Round the cheerful fireside vrlowinjr. 
When the wintry winds are blowing’, 
And the cold and dripifing rain 
Dashes on tile wilidow-pmo. 
Come the little children creeping 
Where we still the logs arc heapiug, 
And enrich the ruddy blaze 
With the suiiehlne of their gaze. 
Sweet the echoes now am ringing, 
From these little children bringing 
All their bright and gladsome mirth 
To refresh us worn of earth; 
All their pretty ways beguiling 
Us from sorrow into smiling. 
As ft while we bury strife 
In the brightness of thoir life. 
Gaily climbing on our knee. 
Laughing, talking merrily, 
Purest ionooence and grace 
Beaming from each roguish face; 
Capture they with sunny wile 
Many a soul-illumined smile. 
As they play their tiny parts, 
Climbing right into our hearts: 
Where shall man discover treasures, 
Where shall be enjoy such pleasures, 
As those resting on liis^arm, 
In their pure delightful charm ? 
Or those playing on his knee, 
In their sweet simplicity ? 
They below for comfort given. 
Emblems also are of heaven ! 
-- 
FARMING FOR B0Y8 AND GIRLS—NO. 32, 
HENRY STEWART. 
Exhaustion of the Soil. 
The business of farm lng may very easily be so 
carried on as to soon reduce the soli and Its 
owner to poverty, if a farmer were to keep on 
year after year in growing wheat, corn, potatoes 
and hay, and selling these, and putttDg the money 
in his pocket be would soon be able to tell pre¬ 
cisely the value of the fertility of the soil, for by 
and by he would not be able to produce anything 
because the soli wou id be exhausted. This la a 
very unwise course to pursue and yet many far¬ 
mers have done this and are now working hard to 
bring back to their farms some of the fertility 
whljh they once possessed, but which they have 
taken out of them and sola. 
Lee us suppose a case. A man owns some cows 
and feeds tnem well so that they yield rich milk 
which he sella for money. Wlih a part of this 
money he buys food tor the cows; with another 
part he supports and clothes himself and the rest 
he puts into the bank for use when he is old and 
unable to work, Anoi her man has the same num¬ 
ber of cows, but he kills one of them every month 
and eats some of the meat and Bells the rest of it 
and spends the money forclorhee and other neces¬ 
saries. Now which of these two men is the wise 
man and whtch is the foolish one ? And If we 
put a farm In place of the cows, we may and thou¬ 
sands of tarmera who have done just as we have 
supposed the foolish man had done wllb Us cows. 
It is true that he has not precisely killed and 
eaten his land, but he ha3 done what comes to the 
same thing he has made It useless and unproduc¬ 
tive and has consumed the proceeds of his waste. 
But the soil cannot be wholly exhausied. Be¬ 
fore that can happen the whole of it must be car¬ 
ried away, which is clearly impossible. We may 
grow crops upon a held for a hundred, nay, a 
thousand years, and we shall be unable to per¬ 
ceive that any part of the soil has been taken 
away at.d yet every year with each crop a part 
of It has been dissolved and removed. So that 
while the soli Itself remains It will still contain 
some of the potash, lime, phosphoric acid, soda, 
magnesia, etc., of wbten It la made up, but these 
will not be In sucU a state that they can bo dis¬ 
solved In water and taken up by the roots of the 
growing crops t xeept lu very small quantities 
and these small quantities will be unable to pro¬ 
duce such a crop as will pay the farmer for his ■ 
trouble and labor. This Is what we mean by ex¬ 
haustion of the sol), 
Some soils are really inexhaustible, some rich 
clay soils may continue to grow crops for hun¬ 
dreds of years and some do so continue; but some 
poor sandy or gravelly soils are worn out so much 
in 20 years that they cannot be made to grow 
wheat or corn with profit, unless they are ma¬ 
nured liberally. But the poorest soils will recover 
from their exhaustion In course of time, because 
there Is a gradual wearing down of the small par¬ 
ticles by the rain, and the effects of the air upon 
them, and the large pieces are broken up by frost 
and these smaller fragments In their turn become 
smaller every year and gradually wear down Into 
so fine a condition that they become soluble in 
water, so that we see the soil cannot really be¬ 
come exhausted completely, for it will be able to 
produce something, however little that may be. 
This little Is i ben the natural fertility of the soil 
which la produced year by year by the action of 
heat, moisture and air and would always remain 
the same If the seasons were all alike. Bur, as 
there are some seasons more or less favorable 
than others, so this natural fertility of the soil is 
greater In some years and less In others. The 
business of the farmer Is to treat this sou so that 
Its natural fertility, however much It may have 
been exhausted, may be restored and Increased; 
and this he does by cultivation. 
There Is an old story to the effect that, an aged 
man about to die called his sons to him and told 
thjm that a quantity of gold was burled Bome- 
where upon the f arm, but he would not say where 
It was hidden; it was their business to dig for it. 
After the old man had died the sons dug up every 
foot of the land in search for the hidden gold but 
found none. They then Bowed the land to crops, 1 
which after the thorough digging yielded very 
bountifully, and the young men then discovered 
that this was the gold which their father deolared 
lay hidden in the soil This old story ha9 a useful 
moral. Whether it actually happened or not, we 
know the lesson It gives is true and that the culti¬ 
vation of the soil recovers It from Ha exhaustion, 
and that by good farming we help this recovery as 
fast as we exhaust It by taking off crops. For. In 
fact, all farming Is an alternate process of exhaus¬ 
tion and recovery. The course of safety, however, 
lies In helping the soil to recover before it is too 
much exhausted and while recovery la easy. 
DAIRYING FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
BY MRS. E. J. R. 
The milk teams were rolling swiftly over the 
country roads; some with one can, and others 
with the milk from many dairies. The creamery 
and cheese raetory, which was the graud objective 
point of all these people, was j ost beyond. There 
the milk of nearly six hundred cows was manu¬ 
factured into cheese and butter by three people, 
and the productions were so perfect that all the 
country round felt a Just pride in the “ White Clo¬ 
ver" creamery. 
“ Not much like the way we used to work fifty 
years ago," said Aunt Esther, looking from the 
window upon the children and old men, who, as 
it was a busy season, drove the milk teams, thus 
leaving the strong hands in the harvest fields. 
“ Did you make butter fifty years ago, Aunt 
Esther ? Please tell us all about it," said one and 
another of the group gathered around her. 
Aunt Esther was a general favorite, a matron of 
nearly four score years, whose visits to her chil¬ 
dren and grandchildren were always most wel¬ 
come, and now the prospect of a story from the 
trim old lady, who always did all she did so neatly 
aud well, was welcome. 
“ I suppose you think Aunt Esther couldn’t make 
gilt-edged butter, eh 7” she said, smoothing her 
cap strings, u but I tell you, children, we had nice 
butter In tlio?e days lr the cream was raised in 
wooden tubs and churned by hand." 
“ Tell us all about it," said a chorus of voices. 
“Weil, we had a dairy of about fifty cows, and 
it, was some work to take care of it. We had small 
tub9 to set, the milk in. and these must be scoured 
every day, Tor everything must be kept sweet and 
clean for butter making. We had a cool cellar to 
raise the cream in, and churned It as soon as it 
was sour enough, but the greatest trouble J had 
was In worrysome neighbors. I washed my butter 
you see, which very few people did in those dajs 
though every one does now. 
“ You'll be sure to spoil the butter, you’ll wash 
all the sweetness out," said one and another who 
came In to give advice. 
I paid no attention to them but went quietly on 
washing my butter. A man came up from Orange 
countv and bought the whole of it in the late Fall 
at a tip-top price." 
“ Did you pack your butter In pails as people do 
now, Aunt Esther?” Bald one. 
" No, we packed it In half barrels, and kept 
brine over It, and It kept nice aDd sweet, but deary 
me, children, there was a Bight of hard work and 
worry about dairying in ihose days, and we 
couldn’t get our money but once in the year. Often 
we had to wait till Spring for the whole of It.” 
“ Dear me,” said Mrs. Buskett. •• How very 
tiresome it must have been, and then you must 
have felt anxious all the time. Now, three persons 
do the work of thirty or forty, and we know the 
goods will sell, so I don’t believe the good old 
times were any better than these.” 
“No, children; a good thing is a good thing, let 
It be made when tc will, and I ain’t such an old 
fogy that I can’t see that the world la growing 
wiser as it is growing older. Yet after all, I will 
stick to it that I made just as sweet, nice butter 
fitly years ago as is now made in your Creamery." 
-♦ ♦ » 
LETTER8 FROM THE 00U8INS. 
Uncle Mark.— I wrote a letter a long time ago 
to Uncle True, which he printed and now 1 have 
something to tell you, Uncle Mark, so will write 
again. Accompany ing this letter Is a box con¬ 
taining five wheat heads. I asked my uncle if he 
was Intending to send Borne, but he said he 
thought he would not. I send these not thlnktDg 
to gala a prize, but that the Rural may see some 
of the Wick s Wheat of which we are very proud, 
as my uncle Is the originator of It. This is not a 
lair sample really for wheat In this section 1 b a 
very poor crop this season, and the heads are a 
t rule green, as I gathered them Just before writing. 
The millers all agree In saying that it makes a 
better quality of fljur than any other variety and 
will pay more for It for that purpose. The yield 
may not be greater but for n jur it la unsurpassed 
anu Is In great demand about here for home use. 
1 said I had something to tell you. We received 
our Rural seeds and the potato. The pinks I 
Bowed in my cold-frame and It seemed to me that 
every seed grew. When it came time for trans¬ 
planting l had a large bsd of pinks. A lady visit¬ 
ing us one day went to Bee our fiowers and won¬ 
dered why we were raising celery with them. I, 
being rather Indignant at that, informed her that 
what she called celery was a very choice variety 
or pinks, wUloU we had received from the Rural 
New-Yokkbk. She told me to taste, which I did. 
Surely It tasted like celery,but I would not be con¬ 
vinced until l called on a friend who had received 
seeds also, and found her pinks dolDg nicely. One 
glance at them satisfied me that mine were really 
celery. 1 1 would have done you good to hear that 
lady laugh. But now l have set my celery In 
trenches and perhaps next Winter, when we are 
enjoying It, we shall not very much regret the 
mistake “some one" made. You know the old 
saying, “ihere la no great loss without some 
small gain,” though In this case I do not think the 
gatn small, for we have a quantity of oelery and 
also the pinks. Now, Uncle Mark, do not Infer 
from this that I never saw any pinks, but I had so 
much confidence In the Rural that I could scarce¬ 
ly believe my own eyes. The other seeds are 
doing nicely. Yours, AltikW. J. 
King’s Ferry, N. Y. 
[Quitea seller? affair, was It not? However, I 
think the mystery can be explained. Perhaps 
“Altle W. J.” wilt remember that in connection 
with other seeds we sent a package of celery Beed 
to eaen of the cousins, and It Is probable that one 
found Its way to her home by this means or It 
may have been an “ extra ” in the, regular distri¬ 
bution.—n. M.J 
. Dear Uncle Mark.—As I have not acknowl¬ 
edged the receipt of the seeds you so kindly sent 
me I will do so now with many thanks. The seeds 
you sent mother all grew and look promising but 
I am afraid the chintz bugs will get the best of the 
Washington oats and the Branching Sorgum as 
soon as the wheat and rye are cut they travel to 
the cane, corn and to whatever they can find. 
They have beeu here eight years. I think we will 
have to starve them out by ralBlng bay, oorn and 
stock. 1 would like to tell the cousins what use I 
made of my first dollar. Well I bought a heifer 
call which is now seven years old. She has had 
four calves, one of which died. We realized 54 
dollars besides having a $to steer left. The dollar 
that I paid for my calf was gathered In a little 
savings bank in small bits from,a penDy to a dime, 
l am afraid I will worry Uncle Mark’s patience so 
I will close by asking for an agent’s outfit I think 
we can get several subscribers for the Rural New 
Yorker. Most every one thinks the seeds worth 
the price of the paper. Bkrtte Shine. 
Wankoo, Iowa. 
Dear Uncle Mark.—As It has been a long time 
since I wrote to you, I thought 1 would write to¬ 
day. Sister and I are now golDg to school, and 
have a long and dusty road to travel. We hav’nt 
had any rain since the soth of June. We have to 
learn pieces, but I don’t like to deliver them; but 
mamma says If I don’t learn at school I will never 
make a public speaker. I told her t believed 
the garden business was llB best any way, and 
I would only have to learn to talk to my custom¬ 
ers. We have the most of our vegetables on bot¬ 
tom land, consequently we are not suffering as 
much as our neighbors. The 'mercury stood one 
day at 110 deg In the shade; It is now cooler, with 
some appearances of rain. I wish you could see 
our Caiadlum bed It Is said to be the finest In 
tuts country, f wish I could scud you some of my 
watermelons. Willie Deckner. 
Atlanta. Gft, 
Dear Uncle Mark :— I thought I would write 
and tell you about mamma’s pinks. She sowed 
part of them and they grew very nicely. She has 
about thirty different kinds to blossom. We have 
a good many flowers. 1 guess I sent my name In 
too late or did not direct my letter right last 
Spring, as I did not receive any seeds in the Hortl- 
cukural distribution to the CouBlnB. We like the 
Rural very much. Your nephew, 
Lime HUl, Pa. Clare Bkamhall. 
[The Beeda were sent all right to your pres¬ 
ent address. Am sorry you failed to receive 
them. U. M.J 
Dear Uncle Mark :—I am ten years old. My 
grandpa takes the Rural and I like to read the 
cousins letters very much. The seeds tnat my 
grandpa received did well, all but the oats, the 
rust spoiled them. He has 68 pinks and they are 
all in blossom. He cut the White Elephant pota¬ 
toes Into thirteen pieces, and I wilt tell you in my 
next letter how they yield. I go to school and 
have to walk a mile Out 1 have a little time nights 
and mornings to attend to flowers in my garden. 
Your niece, Phiney Stkahl. 
Polo, III. 
Dear uncle Mark ; I have never written to 
you before, but I have been reading the Cousins' 
letters and tnought I would like to join your cluh. 
My father's farm is two miles from the little village 
of Hales Eidy, and on it we keep eight cows, one 
of which l milk every day. The Elephaut potato 
Is growing nicely; my sister Helen keeps the hugs 
off of It, and she gets two cents a day for doing 
it, k. e. c, 
Hales Eddy, N. Y, 
-- ♦ » ♦ - ■ - 
AN INDIAN BOY’S LETTER. 
Below is given a letter written by a Sioux 
lad, of fifteen years, in which he compares country 
and city life. Perhaps the Cousins will be inter 
ested In his queer manner of expression. It Is 
written to his grandfather, 
•• Sometimes when one day very warm 1 am 
very tired 1 do not like to a farmer. When I am 
tired that Is not right, sometime when I want 
working I take the basket and the ladder and I 
climb up the trees l pick up the apples. When 
tne basket is full l am walking I take home and 
again take the other basket again I go round walk 
and which one tree is good apples again 1 cltmb up 
the tree and now 1 came back to the new York 
O very beautiful big city great many people Uvea 
in the new York I see great many kind, big sea 
and 1 see great maDy steamboats they In the new 
Yoik and again this Summer two boys going to the 
Pnlladelphla. ■ • • 1 t hink they like to the larmer- 
mg very good that Is best way the work and learn¬ 
ing in the School room mo. ana you try never do 
not j u Uke the tired vou try very hard in me 
f&rmcilng never tired when you work do not tired 
because the farmer la very best way because the 
farmer Is earning money.’- 
--- 
[Rural New-Yorker.) 
The best people will vote for the best man every 
time. And we judge by me number of me St. 
Jacobs Oil constituency, mat it is the best remedy 
for the rheumatism known. Prof. Tice, of 8t, 
Louis, among others, sayB so.— Adv. 
£falrkt| pairing. 
I WONDER WHY. 
Why doth my life from year to year 
A useless, aimless thing appear? 
Why domy daily actions prove 
The less of faith, the jack of love ? 
And stiil for graces of the mind 
The more I seek the less I find. 
And often to myself I sigh— 
2 wonder why, I wonder why. 
The friends I love, the trite and brave, 
Are called to shat e an early grave, 
Aud these the dearest to my heart 
Who live, will soon Bias ! depart. 
Why am I spared amid the strife? 
What is the object of my life ? 
Why li ve 1 on while others die ? 
I cannot tell. T wonder why. 
Aud yet there mti at some reason be 
Why' life was grunted uuto me. 
When X my duty nau fulfill 
With ready baud aud yielding will; 
When I the daily cross can bear, 
And learn the easy yoke to wear; 
When I can thus myself deny 
1 shall not need to wonder why. 
When I can feel from sin set free. 
When God’s own spirit dwells in me, 
Wlien I can feel a Saviour’s grace 
ilath found within my heart a place, 
When love doth in perfection bloom, 
Aud hope can rise beyond the tomb, 
And faith can lift unwavering eye— 
I shall notneed to wonder why. 
4 «>- 
THE BIBLE THE BASIS. 
Thk Bible is the basis of the truest, and best 
civilization. Oue of the reasons why is because It 
Includes all ranks and conditions of society, from 
the highest down to the lowest of the low. No 
wonder the Lord Jesus should send back to John 
the Baptist in prison the following message as the 
climax of hts answer to all his queries: " And the 
poor are having the gospel preached unto them.” 
Every non-Christian civilization has simply glided 
the upper crust, but carried heathenism and bar¬ 
barism in its heart. The old philosopher of 
Greece and Rome fawned around the rich and 
powerful, but despised the poor; and would have 
felt insulted at any suggestions to use their wis¬ 
dom and talents to teach aud instruct them. But 
Christ came to “ seek and to save that which was 
lost." It Is Impossible to present to the world the 
spectacle of a redeemed, restored, and refined hu¬ 
manity without due attention to Its less favored 
and less hopeful olass-the “pieces that- are lost.” 
This is just wbat Christianity Is doing. It lays 
the right foundation for a stately and permanent 
edifice. It alms at cultivating the whole field 
without leaving any dangerous Jungle In which 
beasts of prey may lodge, and from which they 
may sally forth to prowl and destroy.—Christian 
Statesman. 
--- 
“ FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES. ’ 
A story is told of acertatn nobleman of Alex¬ 
andria who complained bitterly to the blshcp of 
that city or his enemies. While In the midst of 
his tale the bell sounded for prayers, and bishop 
and nobleman dropped on their knees—the former 
leading in tne Lord's prayer, and the latter leav¬ 
ing tor the time nta story untold. When the bishop 
came to the petition, “ Forgive tfh our trespasses, 
he stopped suddenly, leaving the other to go on 
alone. The nobleman attempted to continue, but, 
startled by the sound of his own unaccompanied 
voice, and recalled by hts companion's silence to 
the significance of the petition, stammered, ceased 
praying, and rose from ills knees, a hopeless man, 
until he afterwards found hope In a better disposi¬ 
tion toward his neighbor. It is an easy thing to 
say; It Is difficult, sometimes, to say It understand¬ 
ing^. If we Btop at this petition when we are re¬ 
peating the Lord’s prayer until we have taken In 
the Idea or It, how many of us will go on ?—Watch¬ 
man. 
- ■ - . » — 
Traveling by Comtass.—A story la told of an 
old hunter in Michigan, who, when the country 
was new, get lost in the woods several times. He 
was told to buy a poeket-oorupass, which he did, 
and a friend explained to him its use. He soon 
got lost, and lay out as usual, W hen found he 
was asked why he did not travel by me compass. 
He said he did not dare to. He wished to go north, 
and he tried hard to make the thing point north; 
but ’twaan’t any use. “ ’Twould shake, rhake, 
right rouDd Ibe point south-east every time.” 
A great many people fall of Hie right directions 
In life for the Bame reason of the mishap which 
befell our Wolverine friend—they are afraid to 
take the Bible and follow J Uat as It points .—Sunday 
Mnqaziw. 
-«- 
Whenever the soul comes into a living contact 
with the fact and truth, whenever It realizes these 
with more than common vividness, there arises a 
thrill of joy, a glow of emotion. And the express¬ 
ion of that thrill, that glow Is poetry. Tne nobler 
the objects, the nobler win be the poetry they 
awaken when they fall on the heartB of a true poet. 
SChairp , 
-♦ ♦ ♦ 
Reclining upon soft cushioned seats In the 
house of God, and listening, It- may be, to elo¬ 
quent sermons, Is not the highest Christian ser¬ 
vice. Christ’s life was a busy one, and is our ex¬ 
ample, to be followed as closely as possible. 
It Is one great fact that Christ came Jnto the 
world to Bave sinners. Another Important fact 
Is that we are all sinners and in need of this sal¬ 
vation. 
--- 
Ice water Is rendered harmless and more re¬ 
freshing with Hop Bitters in each draught.—Ado. 
