©GT. 22 
£ox i\)t Benin n;. 
FARMING FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 
No. 37. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Barley. 
Only good fa liners can grow barley. But 
this should not prevent farmers from growing 
it, because every one who has a farm should 
determine to succeed in everything he under¬ 
takes to do. and therefore a diliieulty should 
be met and conquered, rather than let it over¬ 
come him. So that because barley is a difficult 
crop to grow, every one should try to grow it, 
until he succeeds, and then there is nothing 
but what he may be able to do in the way of 
growing good crops ? Barley was once the 
principal bread grain of the world. The an¬ 
cient Egyptians believed it to have been the 
first grain used by mankind, and as was their 
habit in regard to valued things, they oelieved 
it to have been brought into the world by a 
goddess, Isis. This of course is only an imag¬ 
inary fiction, but it shows how ancient the 
use of this grain was in the earliest times, and 
how much it was valued. We remember how 
Ruth gleaned barley in the field, and how 
Abraham set barley cakes before the angels 
who visited him. It is certain that barley was 
far more commonly' used than wheat, and that 
its origin is so far back that no one knows 
where it was first growu. It probably orig¬ 
inated in Syria, which was the earliest inhab¬ 
ited country in the world and where it was 
used for the bread of mankind and for grain 
for horses. 
There are four species of this plant. Com¬ 
mon barley is a Spring grain and is six-rowed; 
two-rowed bai ley is also a Spring grain, and 
is grown more than any' other kind because it 
is preferred by brewers on account of its good 
quality for making malt. Winter barley is 
four-rowed or square-headed. There is also a 
beardless variety which is rarely cultivated. 
With the exception of the last mentioned va¬ 
riety. barley is bearded: and the beards are 
much slider, stouter and longer than those of 
wheat and rye. A grain of barley measures 
about one-third of an inch (.845) in length and 
a barley-corn has been considered as a meas¬ 
ure, for centuries; three barley-corns being 
equal to one inch. 
This grain is more cultivated over the world 
and supports a larger number of people than 
any other. It grows with great rapidity and in 
some countries two crops of it are taken from 
the ground in one year. In far northern cli¬ 
mate, as in Lapland and Siberia, where the Sum¬ 
mers are very short and very warm, the barley 
matures in six weeks from the sowing of the 
seed. No other grain could be grown in such 
a short Summer as prevails iu that northern 
latitude. Bark y is therefore seen to be more 
important to the subsistence of mankind than 
wheat. It will grow upon any kind of soil that 
is well manured. The best soil is a rich strong 
loam, but it succeeds very well with good tillage 
on light sandy soils. It is the most nutritious 
grain for horses and poultry, but as we can 
produce corn more cheaply than barley', the 
latter is rarely grown here for that use. It is 
grown in America only for the use of the 
brewer. It is preferred for this use because 
it contains about six percent of a sort, of sugar 
which makes it valuable for making malt. 
Malt is the grain of barley', steeped in water 
and put iu heaps until the young sprouts and 
rootlets appear; it is then dried in kilns. This 
process changes some of the starch of the 
grain into sugar and the malt is remarkably 
sweet. It is this sugar which is changed into 
alcohol by the fermentation of the malt in¬ 
fusion which is thus made into ale and beer. 
The invention of this popular drink is said to 
have boen made by the ancient monks, who 
certainly were very' good brewers and loved 
good ale. Some persons think it is wrong to 
grow bai ley for this use, as it is very certain 
that much misery happens to many persons 
who drink liquors to excess. It is no doubt 
wrong for any man to do a thing he believes to 
be wrong; but whether it is wrong or not to 
grow barley is a question every one must de¬ 
cide for himself. It is a profitable crop as it 
yields on good soil 40 or 50 bushels to the acre 
and the straw is valuable for feeding. 
DAISY’S YEAR IN SOUTHERN CALI¬ 
FORNIA. 
ALICE P. ADAMS. 
Dona Eulalia Perez Guillen. 
'Violet aud Daisy were looking over the 
contents of the card receiver. This was 
a quaint affair, made of thin sections of cactus 
from which the succulent tissue had boen re¬ 
moved, leaving a framework which, for beauty' 
and delicacy, could not Joe surpassed by the 
.finest carving. The basket was varnished, 
the sloping sides were tied by blue satin bows, 
and the whole formed a dainty ornament for 
any parlor table. 
a 
Under the cards were a number of photo¬ 
graphs that Daisy took, hoping to recognize 
some old acquaintances; but at sight of the 
first she exclaimed, “Violet Erman, what 
creature is this?” 
“ Violet laughed. “ Oh, that is the picture 
I’ve been intending to show you. I wondered 
what had become of it. Now can you tell 
which of our numerous relatives that is? And 
don’t you think I strongly resemble her? 
“ Stop your nonsense, and tell me who it is,” 
answered Daisy. “If any'of y'our relations 
are as hideous as this 1 think they would be 
justified in committing suicide.” 
The card she held in her hand represented a 
blear-eyed, hollow-cheeked old woman in a 
dark calico dress. There was no trace of 
comeliness in her face or figure, and Daisy 
gave utterance to a most natural opinion 
when she pronounced the picture “ hideous.” 
“ Who is it?” she asked again, impatiently. 
“ How' mean you are, Violet, not to tell 1” 
“ That, my dear, is, or rather was, the old¬ 
est woman in the United States,” said Violet 
with a tragic gesture toward the subject of 
this discussion. “ Shall I give y’ou an histori¬ 
cal sketch of the lady' I learned from one of 
the papers some time ago ? ‘Dona Eulalia 
Perez Guillen was bora in Lower California, 
and there married; and when San Diego was 
first settled in 1769, she was the mother of four 
children, and accompanied her husband, who 
was a Spanish soldier, to that place. He was 
transferred to the Mission San Gabriel soon 
after its founding in 1771.” 
“Oh I givens a rest! as Bert would say,” 
laughed Daisy. “You know I can’t endure 
history', and you have poured enough into my 
unwilling ears t.o last me for the rest of my 
natural life.” 
“ You wouldn’t have stopped me so easily, 
young lady,” responded Violet, “ only' I forgot 
what came next.” 
That wus fortunate for me. But now I 
would really like to know more about this 
woman. What did you say her name was ?” 
“ Dona Eulalia Perez Guillen," drawled Vio¬ 
let. “ But that’s too long for every day. The 
people about here always called her ‘ the old 
woman.’ Not a very beautiful title, but we 
all knew who it meant.” 
“ Is she alive ?” 
"No, she died three years ago in the Sum¬ 
mer. I remember asking one of the girls who 
lived near what was the matter with her, and 
she said that she died of old age ! She was not 
sick at all, but died while sitting at the table.” 
“ And y’ou say' that she was the oldest wo¬ 
man in the United States. I believe San Ga¬ 
briel has more than its share of objects of in¬ 
terest. How old was she ?” 
“They'could not tell her exact age," said 
Mrs. Erman, w'ho seated herself in a rocking- 
chair, sewing in hand, but from different 
events that she remembered they knew she 
must be between 140 and 145 years old. She 
had been married a number of years when our 
Mission church was built, and that was one 
hundred and ten years ago.” 
‘ ‘ Where did she live ?” 
“ In a little adobe house about a mile and a 
half from here. She lived with her youngest 
daughter, a Mrs. White, who is considerably 
over eighty.” 
“ There ajre over one hundred and seventy- 
five of her descendants now living,” contin¬ 
ued Mrs. Erman as she turned a hem. “They 
claim to be the only pure Spanish at the 
Mission; but I am sure some of them look as 
if there might he a large proportion of In¬ 
dian blood in their veins.” 
“ Of course you have seen the lady.” 
“ Yes, we all went to the house ouee with 
some friends who were visiting us,” said Violet. 
“She was sitting iu one of the doorways as 
we drove up, but went into the house when 
she saw us, and we found her ready to re¬ 
ceive us in the best room. This was long and 
narrow, and I remember there were several 
large pieces of embroidery and queer old 
pictures there.” 
* ‘ But how did she look? Like this photo¬ 
graph?" 
“ Yes, only worse, if that is possible. Her 
skin was dreadfully' wrinkled, and looked 
more like old leather than anything else. She 
could see without glasses, but her eyes were 
quite sunken and the lids were very red, the 
lower ones seemed to be turned almost inside 
out, so that I could not bear to look at her. 
Of course she had lost all her teeth years and 
years before, but they said she fed herself 
without any help.” 
“ I was surprised at one thing, Daisy,” in¬ 
terposed Mrs. Erman. “ and that was the 
appearance of her hands. They were not 
contracted and drawn out of shape as is fre¬ 
quently the case with very' old people, but 
were still well-proportioned, and her fingers 
were tipped with finely-shaped nails that 
many a younger person might have envied. I 
had abundant opportunity for observation as 
she made a great many gestures.” 
‘ I suppose her hair was white,” said Daisy. 
“ Yes, it was when we saw her, and it was 
braided in several queer little tails. But it is 
said that a few months before her death it 
commenced turning black again.” 
“What did she wear ?” asked Daisy, with 
pardonable feminine curiosity. 
“Oh, she had on an old, brown calico dress, 
and had two little bags hanging from her 
neck that mamma thought must contain 
charms—one in front and one behind; and 
fastened to her sleeve was a cross and rosary ” 
“ Could she speak English ?” 
“Not a word,” said Mrs. Erman; “but she 
jabbered incessantly in Spanish, and one of 
her great-granddaugnters—a handsome, dark¬ 
eyed senorita —acted as interpreter. And we 
found that the old lady was trying to tell ns 
how much finer the country used to be, and 
what a great deal of money' the people had be¬ 
fore so many now settlers came ! But I be¬ 
lieve that is the general feeling among the old 
Spaniards. Many of them have lost their im¬ 
mense ranches, flocks and herds through mis¬ 
management, and they throw all the blame on 
the new-comers.” 
“ Some of her relatives were determined to 
take her to the Centennial,” said Violet, “ and 
the poor old creature was crazy to go, for she 
thought it would make her rich, and, more 
than all that, she would learn to speak Eng¬ 
lish 1” 
“ I believe they had quite a law-suit over 
it,” added her mother. “ Her mercenary 
friends were determined to regain a part of 
their lost wealth. But Mr. White said that 
she could not have endured the long journey, 
as she seldom left the house—not to speak of 
the unaccustomed excitement at the Exposi¬ 
tion. It was fortunate that the suit was de¬ 
cided in Mr. White’s favor, for the poor crea¬ 
ture would otherwise have made the vain at¬ 
tempt to gain wealth and wisdom.” 
“And the proprietor of Woodward's Gar¬ 
dens at San Francisco offered five thousand 
dollars for the privilege of exhibiting her a 
few months, but Mr. White would not consent 
to let her go.” 
“When our visit was ended and we rose 
from our chairs she rose also, and as she stood 
by Mrs. Brewster, who is very small, you will 
romembex-, I noticed that Sonora Guillen’s 
head just reached our friend’s shoulder. And 
yet they told us that she was a remai-kably 
tall woman m her prime !” 
“She shook hands with us all in a very 
friendly way, particularly' with papa—how 
she did griu when he left four bits in her 
hand !” Violet laughed aloud at the recollec¬ 
tion. “And as we were getting into the car¬ 
riage she bade us Adios /” 
“And what does that mean?” inquired 
Daisy. 
“ Well, Daisy, have you been here all these 
months without hearing Adios? It means 
good-by'e. Bert, let us say Adios to the old 
woman for to-day. Come, mamma, put up 
your sewing and play a game of croquet with 
us before it is time to go for the mail.” 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Dear Uncle Mark. — I will send you a let¬ 
ter written by' an Indian boy at the “Arapa¬ 
hoe Mission,” Indian Territory. My brother 
brought it when he returned from there. I 
think it is very well written—don’t you ? The 
Mission has scholars from four years to twen¬ 
ty yeai’s of age, the youngest is a wee little tot 
of four years old, just baptized, and she feels 
too important to have anything to say to the 
camp-occupants of her race any' more. Iwish 
the writing could be published as it is. The 
letters are written as school exercises. 
Truly yours, 
Madison, Wis. Frankie Brooks. 
Arapaiioe Mission 
Miss Lounnond I like to write on paper I 
think this letter is good dont you think Miss 
Lounnond ? I think very nice 1 want write 
on paper I saw white man he can hardly walk, 
his name is Mr. Seger he is so slow when he 
walks, just like Corry. Funuyman Mr. Seger 
make laugh, I think that is pretty good, I am 
write too much this night. I think willie is 
pretty good boy he wants to make fun every 
day. I write both sides of my paper that is 
all 
My name is Mr. Paul 
Uncle Mark. —I noticed by the Rural of 
Aug. 20th that one could become a member 
by simply sending their address. My father, 
thx-ough the Chicago Weekly' Inter-Ocean, be¬ 
came a subscriber to the Rural, in which I 
read many' pleasing and instructive things of 
good to me. During last Winter, when we 
lived in Montgomery County, Iowa, we lost 
everything in the house by fixe. Some one 
writing to the Rural from Noi’theasteni Iowa 
has induced my father to go up there to buy 
a house. He is now up thei’e looking up land. 
Your would-be niece, 
Mary Elizabeth Bohn. 
Dallas Center, Iowa. 
WKare sowing, dally sowing, 
Countless seeds of good and 111 ; 
Scattered on the level lowland, 
Cast upon the windy hill ; 
Seeds that sink In rich brown furrows. 
Soft with heaven’s gracious rain ; 
Seeds that rest upou the surface 
Of the dry, unyielding plain. 
seeds that fall amid the stillness 
Of the lowly mountain glen ; 
Seeds cast out In crowded plaees, 
Trodden under foot of men ; 
Seeds by Idle hearts forgotten, 
Flung at random on the air ; 
Seeds by faithful BOUlB x’etnembered 
Sown in tears, aud love, and prayer. 
Seeds that lie unchanged, unqulckened. 
Lifeless on the teeming mold ; 
Seeds that live and grow and flourish 
When the owner’s hand is cold. 
By a whisper sow we blessings, 
By a breath we scatter strife ; 
In our words and looks and action* 
Lie the seeds of death aud life. 
Thou, who knowest all our weakness, 
Leave us not to sow alone ! 
Bid thine angels guard tlie furrows 
Where the precious grain is sown ; 
Till the fields are crowued with glory, 
Filled with mellow ripened ears— 
Filled with fruit of life eternal. 
From the seeds we sowed lu tears. 
AN EXQUISITE FLOWER. 
Both iu shape and hue, the rose of Sharon 
is an exquisite flower. Its blossoms are bell¬ 
shaped, and of many mingled hues and dyes. 
But its histoi’y is legendary and romantic in 
the highest degi’ee, In the East, throughout 
Syria, Judea, and Arabia, it is I’egarded with 
the profoundest reverence. The leaves that 
encircle the roxmd blossoms dry and close to¬ 
gether when the season of blossoms is over, 
and the stalk, withering completely away at 
hist from the bush on which it grew, having 
dried in the shape of a ball, which is carried 
by the bi’eezes to great distances. In this 
way it is borne over the wastes and sandy 
deserts, until at lxist, touching somor moist 
place, it clings to the soil, where it immediate¬ 
ly takes root and springs to life and beauty 
again. For this reason the Orientals have 
adopted it as the emblem of resurrection. 
TnE sun may grow dim in the heavens ; 
the stars may burn out in the distant sky ; 
heaven and earth may pass away ; the sea 
may vanish from our’ view ; men may 
fall from their steadfastness, and angels may 
fail to keep their hign estate ; but the Lord’s 
promise will not fail, and He will fulfill His 
woi’d. With this assurance we may bid adieu 
to anxiety and fear, and heed that word which 
says, “ Let your conversation be without cov¬ 
etousness, and be content with such things as 
ye have, for He hath saiil, I will nevox - leave 
you nor fox-sake you. So that we may boldly 
say, the Loi’d is my helper. I will not fear 
what man shall do unto me.”—The Chi’istian. 
The sheep are not always led through green 
pastures. The path is sometimes bestrewn 
with craggy rocks ; sometimes over precipices. 
Sometimes the storm hangs dark, the whirl¬ 
winds blow, the hail cuts, aud the lightnings 
flash. But keep near to the Shepherd—keep 
on upward thx-ough the darkness. The stonn 
will puss away, the rugged path will end, and 
the Loi’d who is our Shepherd will lead us at 
least into the green pastures and beside the 
still waters.—E. H. Chapin. 
-- 
“The Chuteh of the living God,” “the 
\vhole family on eai th” is not shut up within 
the narrow limits of any sect, or environed 
by the creed of any denomination. Bo ours to 
cherish loyally the institutions of our own, 
but saying, at the same time from oui’ heart, 
“ Unto all that in every place call upon the 
name of Jesus Chxist our Lord, both theirs 
aud ours, gi’ace be unto you aud peace from 
God our Father, and from the Lord Je^us 
Christ.”—Dr, Eddy. 
-- 
IV here the mind is left free, religion can 
never have dangerous enemies, for no class 
has then a motive to attempt its subversion; 
while the interests of society demand a foun¬ 
dation for the principles of justice and benev¬ 
olence. Atheism is a folly of the metaphysi¬ 
cian, not the folly of human nature.—George 
Bancroft. 
- • ♦» 
There is only now and then an opportunity 
for displaying great coui’age, or even gx-eat 
wisdom ; but every hour in the day offers a 
chance to show our good nature, chai-ity and 
kindness of heaxt. 
Many mourn for their sins who do not re¬ 
pent of them ; they weep for them, but con¬ 
tinue in them. 
-- 
We ought to school ourselves not to add, by 
word or look, to the unhappiness of those who 
have already enough to bear. 
