whatever as to their own, “Wait till we get on 
the farm, and we will show the natives how 
good crops are grown!” This is the thought 
and often the language of men who hope some 
day to bo farmers. We met such a one years 
ago, who had bought a hundred-acre farm and 
retired from professional business. “I pre¬ 
sume I shall have no trouble in managing the 
fama. I have learned that the secret of success 
is always to use plenty of manure on every 
crop.” “ Certainly,” we replied, a good deal 
piqued by his affected mastery of the mysteries 
of farming in one easy lesson. “ It is just as 
easy, Doctor, as your old business, 
of success in medicine lies i 
remedies adapted to cure the disease, 
simple and easy.” r 
He became afterwards 
hoeing corn with two or three men, and he says, 
“Boys, have you heard the news?” And he 
memorandum booa where you can see 
Did yon ever hoar of a slovenly farmer 
ch ? No, not one of you. * Then do 
— KC » u «, FO , xo muiuioB w your work well, as it pays the best in the end. 
relate, and what little corn is hoed while the If you are making fences, make them to Btay as 
boss is relating the “news,” is but half- built, for years. A good farmer may be known 
hoed, and might as well not have been hoed at by his fences alone. 
all. Now, a day is made up of minutes, and the 1 8. Carry a memorandum book in your pocket, 
HOLSTEIN BULL AND COW “UNCLE 
TOM” AND “ISIS.” 
We have the pleasure of presenting the read¬ 
ers of the Bubal, portraits of two tine animals 
of the Holstein breed belonging to the herd of 
Messrs. Smith & Powell of Syracuse. The 
bull, “Uncle Tom,” by “Hip Van Winkle," out 
of “ TopBy,” was two years old in April last, and 
when put on the scales in October, weighed 1710 
pounds. The cow “ Isis ” is his full sister, was 
four years old last summer and then weighed 
1510 pounds. 
Mr. W. It. Smith has recently returned from 
Holland bringing with him ten yearlings, two 
two-year-old and one fonr-year-old ecw, for 
this herd. They are represented as a very ante¬ 
rior lot,even in size, uniform in coin- Large, 
smooth and handsome. 
This strikingly handsome breed of cattle it 
steadily increasing in favor, there being a good 
number of importations every year. In size 
they fully equal and often surpass the Short- 
Horns. Black and white are the only admissible 
colors, if that expression be allowable. The 
cows are great milkers, and it is for their dairy 
qualities that they are so much valued. The 
best come from Friesland and North Holland. 
The secret 
in always giving i 
->. It is all ML 
The Doctor took the hint. fP 
•J an excellent farmer, but qS 
he learned how difficult it often, and indeed 
always, is to follow his excellent agricultural 
prescription, “ Plenty of manure for every 
crop.” That is exactly what we all want, but 
how and where shall this enormous amount of 
fertilizers be obtained ? k. 
Good practical farming involves a greater 
amount of thought than aDy other avocation. Jfgl 
The conditions of Bucoess are more complex '^0$, 
than iu any other. It is, least of all, a business 
for lazy, listless men who dread the drudgery atW&& 
thinking. Nor is mere acquaintance with the* 
ideas and practices of progressive farming 
enough. There must be practical experience on 
the farm and some degree of practical work and 
attendance by the owner. Thousands of farm- 
ei s fail for lack of this, especially men who dis¬ 
dain to learn the ways of common farmers in 
the conceited assurance that they can do a great 
deal better. There can be no greater mistake 
than this. If we want to improve anything the 
fiist requisite is to thoroughly understand its 
methods and management. No man learns to 
be a superior farmer until he first learns how to 
be a good ordinary farmer. Honest Joe 
Gargery's advice to Pip, when that young 
gentleman aspired to be something uncommon, 
contained a world of shrewd and homely wis¬ 
dom. “ You will never get to be uncommon 
till you have first got to be common.” TbiB is 
fine of almost everything and Is especially true 
of farming. 
Possibly the later recruits to the agricultural 
interest come with humbler notions and more 
teachable spirit to learn its mysteries. If so, 
their chance for success will be so much the 
greater. It is best at first to attempt no inno¬ 
vations on the established customs of the neigh¬ 
borhood. Improvements are doubtless possible, 
but let them be 8ugge. t od by practical experi¬ 
ence. This may make progress slow; but it 
will be sure, and it may save you from mortify¬ 
ing failures. After yon have first become 
‘common " there may be hope that you will be¬ 
come “ uncommon.” In the meantime there is 
consolation in the fact that farmers throughout 
Ibo country are reasonably sure of a good living, 
and that is more than thousands in the cities 
have been able to make these last few years. 
It will require some work, but this is only fulfill¬ 
ing the original decree passed upon man that iu 
tae sweat of bis brow bo should earn his daily 
bread. Trying to evade this decree, is one chief 
cause of hard times. When we see a return to 
habits of industrv. the rAVIVfll rvf oil I 
JOTTINGS FEOM MY NOTE-BOOK, 
CLINTON, 
PUMPKINS FOR DAIRY STOCK. 
The wise man tells us that “ There is nothing 
now under the sun.” But, verily, the idea re¬ 
cently advanced by some that pumpkins, con- 
holstein bull, 
waste of a few in this or that way constantly 
during the day, is sure to result in unsuccessful 
farmiug in the end. Say to your man, in plain 
English : “ Shut up aud attend to your work, or 
take your money and go. I hire men to work — 
not to spend their time in talking.” 
4. Don’t covet the name 
to work for 
many years; “ He is a hard man to work for. 
but he is good pay." That meant that I made 
my men do a fair day's work, which hired men 
now-a-days call “hard.” The fact is, farmers, 
I that nine farm-hands out of ten won’t do half a 
day’s work, on an average, if you are so easy with 
them that they call you “ a nice man to work 
for.” 
5. To do good work, you want the best farm 
implements that you can obtain, and plenty of 
them, so that if one gets out of order while in 
the hurry of work, you can use some other im¬ 
plement till the broken one is repaired. You 
will Bave money in the end, by throwing away 
your old plows, which were made about the 
time of the deluge, and getting the best pat¬ 
terns, with steel mold-boards, as they pay for 
themselves in a single season in the saving of 
horse- ilesh in their draft. Again, see the old 
rusty hoes that many of yon use, bought per¬ 
haps twenty years ago ! Take out the handles 
and sell the hoes as old iron, and buy new ones, 
because you can do one-third more work, and 
do it much better, in a day with one of the 
most improved new ones, than you can with 
one of those old 6tubs that some of you use. 
6. Feed your land, if you expect it to feed 
you. Make all the manure that you can, as this 
is the bank that pays your drafts aud notes. 
The be6t farm that exists may be ruined in a 
few years by a continued cropping, without 
applying manure; and put under the plow- 
only what land you can fertilize liberally. 
Adopt a rotation of crops, and keep your pasture 
and meadow lands in good condition, as the 
profits ou your cows depend on the quality of 
UNCLE TOM.” 
in which to not© down things that are to be 
done, or that are wanted ; and by bo doing you 
will save much time. Your team, for instance, 
is going to th© village. You refer to your 
memorandum book, and you find, “plow-share 
to be sharpened,” “ a new helve for ax,” “nut 
, “he is a good man I f or mowing machine,” and other things that 
but rather the name that I had | >'°u would not have thought of, if they had not 
been noted down in your boo’;,- (Lis may 
save you the time and trouble of sending again 
to town the next day. Farmers, there is money 
in liead-xoork, as well as in your physical streugth. 
To-day is pleasant, and you and your help are 
at work in the fields. Now, suppose you think 
over in your mind , “ What can we do if it shall 
rain to morrow, or next day, or at any time?” 
Well, the idea strikes you that you have a few 
hundred fence posts in the woods, that could be 
holed on a rainy day, under your barn-shed, if 
you bp.<G »ui there; so after dinner you send 
a team for a load or two of noats. as the 
taining their seeds, are speondly hnrtfui when 
fed to milch cows, is certainly new to me. From 
my earlieet recollection, they were thus fed by 
my father, as they had been by his father before 
him; and I continued the same practice during 
the succession of years in which I was engaged 
in dairying, without ever dreaming of the risk 
we are now supposed to have run. 
The practice was to collect a quantity of the 
pumpkins, as soon as the flush of fail feed began 
to diminish, and each evening, after milking, 
scatter them about on clean grass ground in 
some convenient place, breaking them up into 
pieces of convenient size for the cows to masti¬ 
cate freely, without a thought of any necessity 
for first removing the seeds. It strikes me as 
somewhat remarkable that if this new theory in 
regard to the injurious effect of the seeds on the 
cows, is correct, that I never discovered it in the 
course of more than forty years' opportunity for 
observation, and I flatter myself that I paid 
more than ordinary attention to all such matters, 
and I think I may safely say this without sub¬ 
jecting myself to the charge of egotism ; and I 
will further say, that during the whole time that 
I was engaged in dairying, I never lost a single 
animal by disease, never had one affected by 
anything more serious than mere temporary ill¬ 
ness, and never bad a single case of abortion in 
my herd. During all this time, my cows were 
fed freely with pumpkins—seed and all—every 
fall, according to the supply. 
It is not claimed that the pumj- kin furnishes 
any great amount of nutriment, in proportion to 
its bulk, as we know it is composed largely of 
water. The same is true in a greater or less de¬ 
gree of the beet, the carrot, the turnip, and the 
cabbage, and yet we find them all to be valuable 
feed for dairy stock. That the pumpkin tends 
to increase the flow of milk, I have had ample 
evidence. Another advantage in the feeding is 
found after beginning to feed bay, in keeping 
up ibo color of the butter as well as its flavor, 
and in this respect it is only equaled by the car¬ 
rot. Partly with these objects in view, the prac¬ 
tice has been to gather the pumpkin crop prior 
to the coming on of hard frosts, store them 
under cover, and feed them out daily in the 
stalls. Should the weather become quite Bevere 
before the supply is exhausted, a covering of hay 
or straw may be used for further protection. 
fgM. The diuretic property of the seeds of the 
pumpkin has long been believed in, and was 
^formerly almost proverbial. But personal expe- 
rience induces me to believe the idea was very 
—=— much exaggerated. When the country was new, 
•V fruit was far less abundant than at present, and 
;./to make up for the deficiency, it was customary 
each fall, to dry large quantities of pumpkins 
for future use. My father's family was not an 
exception to others iu this usage. While a boy,, 
it was part of my duties to assist in the prelimi¬ 
nary preparations for this drying, and an import¬ 
ant perquisite to me was the privilege of saving 
as many of the seeds as I desired for my own 
future use. After drying them carefully, I 
stored them away as carefully, for that purpose, 
and used them as frequently and as freely at any 
and at all times, as I desired, without experi¬ 
encing the least injury or inconvenience to my¬ 
self. Indeed, I nsed them as freely as peanuts 
(then unknown to us) or other nuts are used by 
RURAL TOPICS 
HOW TO MAKE FARMING PROFITABLE. 
I will lay down a few rules for successful 
farming as follows: 
1. Have order aud system in all you do, hav- 
iu your mind in advanco what orops you in¬ 
tend to grow ; and provide the seed, so that no 
10 ' 4 -' n ill occur when the time oomes for sowing 
?. u fating. You shou.d also closely estimate 
e amount of stable dung that you can spare 
w crops, so that in no case shall a crop ho 
grown on land that has already been over- 
wopjjed, unless some fertilizer has been applied 
2 . Obtain good help, if possible, as half of 
} our 8 UCC 088 depends on the kiud of hired help 
iuu iave ; and don’t employ too many handH, as 
a man aud a boy will often do as much as two 
“en, especially if the latter are left to work by 
hemselves, as they frequently spend half of 
f " ‘T in Gibing ; but a man is not apt to 
ttiut* boy, and the consequence is 
that t° a enti8 k° bis work. Of all the nuisances 
JrJ eve , r 8Qff ered on a farm, I have found 
Wh fi , ll T S ^ elP t0 be tbo moat unprofitable, 
mi Jt r bUe a man ’ 1 tel1 P lai, ‘ly that ho 
2? **ay hU time (my time) in 
want ” , tu °tber men while at work, unless he 
wants his “ walking papers.” 
unwl V ° r *u ^ V0Ur Thi8 is ihe k ey that 
don’t* 8 6 d °° r that leads to prosperity; bnt 
on t say any more to them while at work than 
tellinp 088 ^’ “ y ° U 8ot a bad example by 
telbng “yarns” etc. Suppose that a farmer is 
it* Y't 
COW “ 1.SXS.” 
one for three dollars; and I have found it very 
useful in driving stakes into the ground in 
making fences, and for various other purposes. 
So I say to farmers, don't borroic, but buy what 
you need. 
Linden, N. J. 
HOLS'I'Eim 
their pastimes, and the quality aud quantity of 
hay that you cut; and keep good stock, as a 
cow that gives twenty quarts of milk a day, can 
be kept almost as cheaply as one that gives only 
five quarts. 
7. " What is worth doing, do well” Put this 
