OCT. 26 
THE 
nohes deep, and they do better if set as early as 
September, or early in October. 
The Tulip begins to bloom before the Hya¬ 
cinth is gone, and what can be more gay than a 
bed or border of them! Some are quite fragrant 
and all are showy. They are the easiest for be¬ 
ginners to cultivate, requiring only any good 
common soil to grow to perfection. It is best 
to take them up every third year as soon as the 
leaves are dry, then set out again in October. 
The Narcissus in several varieties also de¬ 
lights us. Some are as early as the Hyacinth 
others later than the Tulip. 
The Lilies, the beautiful Lilies, that Solomon 
in ah his glory could not equal in raiment,, 
gladden our eyes after these. What can com¬ 
pare with the purity of the Lilium candidum 
and longiflorum, the gorgeousness of the Aura- 
■tum or the riahness of the Lancifolium, all 
sparkling like gems and all spreading abroad a 
delicious fragrance. 
These have all proved perfectly hardy with 
me and are easy of cultivation, as they only 
need to be let alone to blossom freely. There 
are several other varieties, that are frequently 
cultivated and some of our native ones are well 
worth a place with the rest. My advice to every 
one that has never tried bulb3, is not to let this 
Ootober pass without getting a few, and while 
they are getting some for next spring, save 
a few CrocuseB, Hyacinths and Duo-Van-Tholl 
Tulips for the house next winter. My method 
of growing them for the house, is to take moss 
from the woods, fill whatever I use to grow 
them in, nearly full; then set the bulbs on top, 
put a thiu layer of moss over all, keep just a 
little moist, then put in the cellar for a few 
weeks, and afterwards bring them up into my 
sitting-room where they are placed in the sun- 
chine, and in a short time they delight all in 
the room with their fragrance and beauty. 
Cortland, N. Y. Mrs. H. w. B. 
tUtiscfUaiifom 
HAND LABOR AND MACHINERY. 
It is a somewhat popular idea amongst what 
may, perhaps, well be called the “dissatisfied 
class" of laborers, as well as amongst some peo¬ 
ple supposed to be intelligent, that much of the 
present trouble is caused by the extensive use 
of machinery. Recently there have been riotous 
demonstrations against agricultural machinery, 
especially against harvesters and self-binders. 
The idea is, that for every machine uu equiv¬ 
alent number of laborers are displaced, and re¬ 
duced to enforoed idleness. It is a very plaus¬ 
ible idea, but to show its utter untruth is far 
from difficult. The facts which exist every¬ 
where prove its falsity. Without entering into 
any argument or discussion, we may just now 
refer to a few pertinent facts whioh are so plain, 
apparent, and widely known, that nobody can 
deny them. 
It is well known that there is more machinery 
used in every department of labor or industry hi 
the United States than in any other country. 
People even go up stairs by machinery (eleva¬ 
tors), barbers brush thoir customers’ hair by 
machiuery; there are type-writers to save labor 
in copying, aB well as all sorts of labor-saving ma¬ 
chinery ; and from these light labors up to the 
heavy work of hoisting ships’ sails and anchors, 
puddling iron, drilling rocks, and mining, human 
labor is displaced by machines. For human 
labor, everywhere it is possible, we use horse- 
labor; aud horses, in their turn, are pushed aside 
by steam. Indeed, steam itself is probably on 
the eve of displacement by some cheaper and 
more effective power, and, if over this happens, 
we may bo sure it will begin in this country. 
At the same time there is no other country in 
the world where wages and, in fact, the rewards 
for all sorts of labor, are higher than here ; nor 
is there any place in the world where there ex¬ 
ists more comfort and ease in the circumstances 
of the people. 
Now, lot ub look at the reverse of this, In 
China, everything is done by manual labor. 
Horse labor even is uuknowu. Mon carry the 
chests of tea from the interior to the sea-board, 
over mountains and valleys, for hundreds of 
miles, frequently occupying three months in a 
journey, the chests being balancod in pairs 
upon the ends of long poles, whioh are sup¬ 
ported upon men's shoulders, in the way so 
commonly figured in Chinese drawings aud 
upon the old-fashioned ‘ ‘ delf ’’ ware. Passen¬ 
gers are carried in carriages slung upon poles, 
in a similar fashion. Men pull the boats upon 
the rivers or pole them along slowly aud labor¬ 
iously, In short, machinery of any kind is un¬ 
known, and its use forbidden, lest it might dis¬ 
place manual labor. Iu fact, an experimental 
railroad was reoently torn up and destroyed as 
soon as it was built, for thiB reason. There a 
man employs a hundred days iu a work which 
we would finish in a few hours in a lathe. 
There a mau supports himself and family for a 
mouth in comfort for two dollars, and labor is 
worth from three to seven centB a day. 
Let us take an intermediate example. In 
England most of the agricultural labor is done 
by hand. The traveler will see men, women and 
children at work in the fields weeding, hoeing, 
planting, sowing, reaping, mowing, raking hay, 
and doing all those things which we do here by 
machinery, by hand labor for a wage of two and 
a half to three dollars a week for man; a dollar 
a week for women; and twenty-five cents for 
boys and girls. A few years ago a mowing- 
machine could not be seen in England, and even 
now reapers are rarely seen; in fact, many 
farmers dare not use them lest their barns and 
Btacks might be burned by enraged and jealous 
connection with cattle husbandry. Beet culture 
and the raising of cattle are the accompaniments 
of high farming everywhere, and Belgium, which 
is the best-farmed section of the world, contains 
the largest number of cattle per acre. A crop ^.f 
sugar beets he believed to be the basis of good 
farming, for the tops were as good as a crop of 
bay, the pulp was returned to the land through 
the cattle, while sugar was as good a market 
commodity as gold, the world over. The culture 
of beets means high farming, good manuring, 
\ 
sible degeneracy of great historical families, fa¬ 
mous in the Legislature, the Cabinet, or the 
field. Indeed, as a lamentable fact, the taint 
of some lower nature does occasionally reveal 
itself in families with any number of noble and 
royal alliauces The great lords of creation will 
go on marrying whom they plea»e. 
But how about the majority of the great hu¬ 
man herd that work with the hand, that minister 
to our wants, that till or defend the soil ? Will 
it ever be possible to carry out in this sphere 
the principle now established and bearing excel¬ 
lent fruit at Holker? Will a crowded amphi¬ 
theatre of lords and ladies ever see paraded be¬ 
fore their admiring eyes the splendid results of 
careful selection and judicious pairing in the hu¬ 
man spe 'ies ? It is to be feared the elements 
of the question are too complicated for that. 
They are moral as well as physical; and though 
these have much to do with one another, it is 
the moral element that most eludes scrutiny and 
defies assortment. Nevertheless, there is much 
to be learnt in the school of natnre, for even 
the old heathen poet oould observe that eagles 
will not produce doves, and that as there are 
breeds of horses, so there are of men. 
Feeding Indian Meai, to Stock.— The Mass. 
Ploughman says : 
1st. Never feed it to a calf after it is three 
months old, but feed more for growth than for 
fat. 
2d. Heifers intended for the dairy should not 
have meal until after their second calf, and not 
then until the calf is at least ten days old, and 
in small quantities at first. 
3d. The injudicious feeding of meal is one of 
the reasons why farming does not pay, 
4th. All grain fed to farm stock should be 
raised upon the farm, as every dollar put out for 
meal is a positive Iosb, ualess dollar for dollar 
comes back as the direct result of feeding such 
meal, 
5th. Heifers that are kept fat with meal will 
not breed, while those kept in good growing 
order on grass, hay and roots, breed readily. 
Feeding meal to a bull, unless in very small 
quantities, is very injurious, to say the least, as 
it makes him ugly aud renders him an unsure 
getter. 
Good Crops—Cheap Land. —The New-Eng- 
land Farmer remarks that there is plenty of 
land in Massachusetts that is not worth to-day 
in market ten dollars per acre, and yet such 
land can be made to produce good crops of rye 
aud other grains, and at a profit, too. And good 
milk and butter can be made from cows kept on 
such fcod, if it is out early and properly cured. 
- ♦ « ♦- 
CATALOGUES, &c , RECEIVED. 
L. B. Case, Richmond, Ind. Botanical Index 
to the new aud beautiful plauts which he grows. 
This number gives cuts of Polygonum Sieboldi, 
Nymphtea odorata, Diospyros Kilsi, eto., etc. 
G. H. Miller, Norwich, Muskingum Co., 0. 
Circular of the Gregg Raspberry. 
Transactions of the Illinois State Hort. So¬ 
ciety for 1877, for which we are indebted to the 
Secretary and editor, 0. B. Galusba, Morris, Ill. 
Reference will be made to this volume again. 
Bulletin of the American Metric Bureau, 
32 Hawley street, Boston, Mass. Melvil Dewey, 
Secretary. 
Edward A. Frost. Wholesale Catalogue of 
the Genesee Valley Nurseries for autumn of 
1878. Rochester, N. Y., Fruit and Ornamental 
Trees. 
Monthly Crop Reports of the N. 0. Dep. of 
Ag. for September. L. L. Polk, Oom’r, Raleigh, 
N. 0. 
E Y. Teas, Dunreith, Henry Co., Iud. Price¬ 
list, for this fall, of largs and small fruits. 
Geo. Achelis, Wholesale Trade-list. Fruits 
and Ornamental Trees of all kinds. West 
Ohester, Pa 
Beach, Son A Co.’s annual fall catalogue of 
Dutch Bulbs, Lilies, eto., and seeds for autumn 
sowing. Illustrated. 7 Barclay street, N. Y. 
John S. Collins. Price-list of small fruit 
plants for thi9 fall. This list gives engravings 
of several of the new sorts of Strawberries ; the 
Gregg and Reliance Raspberries and the Lady 
Grape. Moorestown. N. J. 
fir lloultri) {lari). 
LEGHORNS vs. PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 
G. D. B , whose communication to the Rural 
appeared in the issue of September 28, seems to 
me to have made a much greater error in his 
poultry record by omittiug to state the amount 
of feed cousnmed by bis Plymouth Rocks, than I 
did in my note published on September 14, in fail¬ 
ing to state the number of oggs my Leghorns laid 
each month. I did not consider the number of 
eggs they laid au exceedingly large yield for 
well-fed hens; but I do believe that with the 
!-amo care and feed, it cannot be beaten by any 
breed of fowls. I should like to hear from others 
who are testing, or have tested, the Leghorns as 
layers. I think that breeders generally pro¬ 
nounce them one of the beat egg-producing 
breeds, G- D. B.’s evidence to the contrary 
notwithstanding. ‘ ’Anon. ’ 
bHELiBURNK GRAPE — (See r>£ige 670.) 
laborers. Men laborers were thought well paid 
at less than two dollars a week, and it is only 
since machines have come into use that farm 
wages and the value of horses have risen to 
nearly double former rates. Do uot these facts 
proclaim a truth so plain that any man can un¬ 
derstand it who is uot blinded by ignorance or 
prejudice? 
Facts are stubborn things; and these are too 
stubborn to bo twisted or turned in any way 
from the purport which they should carry to a 
mind gifted with the most ordinary measure of 
intelligence. It may seem to be strange that 
this Bhould be thus, but it seems equally strange 
to one ignorant of the facts, that the sun is sta¬ 
tionary and does noi rotate around ua ; and yet 
we all believe it, because of the evidences of it 
which appeal to reason aud contradict our very 
sight. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
The Great Holker Sale. —Females not 
bulls realized tho highest sums at the Holker 
sale last week. This, however, does not alter 
the argument in the slightest degree. Mr. 
McIntosh gave two thousand six hundred and 
sixty guineas for Baroness Oxford 5th, because 
he has a manufactory of his own for this bonnie 
blue blood, at Havering Park. Tho Holker in¬ 
come will cause a more magnificent Havering 
outcome by and by, aud iu pnrohasiug this fe¬ 
male, Mr. McIntosh recovered his old sort, as ho 
bred her celebrated grand-dam. For the same 
reason Mr. McCulloch gave 2,100 guiueas for 
Grand Duchess of Oxford 22d. By mating her 
with an Oxford or Duke sire, he hopes to found 
a manufactory in Victoria of high-class pedigreo 
cattle, aud the rule of tike producing like he no 
doubt desires to seo verified iu a pecuniary sense 
as well, by maguifloent sums somewhat corres¬ 
ponding to the original outlay being realized by 
bis own stock hereafter. lie is seekiug in Eng¬ 
land to collect the very creme de la creme of our 
herds, that he may have the very choicest mate¬ 
rial to offer to his brother colonists in a market 
admitting of great expansion .—London Cham¬ 
ber of Agriculture. 
Sugar Beet. —At the Farmers’ Convention, rb 
reported for the Maine Farmer, Mr. Gennert 
claimed that the culture of the sugar beet was 
needed by the farmers of a new Bcotiou to sub¬ 
due the laud aud to give a crop from whioh cash 
could be obtained; while it was equally as valu¬ 
able to old seotions, as a means of renovation, in 
and clean fields. Inferior cultivation is the 
great cause of non-success with the beet crop, 
generally—hence to succeed with beets, deep 
culture should be practiced. and this will lead to 
better culture for all crops the farmer grows. 
Intensive culture from which comes profit is uot 
obtained without deep pulverization of the soil. 
No country iu the world has ever “ gone back ’’ 
on sugar beet culture when once it has become 
well established as a lending branch of farming. 
Professors Gray and Dana. —These two dis¬ 
tinguished meD, remarks the Boston Journal of 
Chemistry, Hre now in the eyoniug of life, but 
still hard at work. Every hour of every day 
fiuds them either in their cabinets among their 
rare collections of specimens, in the field, or at 
their desks ; but we can only hope that life and 
strength may be spared to them for many years, 
that they may make further and even richer 
contributions to human knowlodgo. Great learn¬ 
ing and exhaustive intellectual labor, as far as 
our observation extends, do not produce unsocial 
habits of life, or pride of position, or arrogance ; 
on the contrary, the truly great man, in science 
or literature, is iu a marked degree genial aud 
condescending. The men uuder consideration 
are in social life, simple, modest, kiud, generous 
approachable. Snoh noble uatures have no 
place for the pedantries and follies which envi¬ 
ron little minds, when fortuitous circumstances 
bring them into notice. The earnest seeker 
after knowledge, however humble or untaught, 
never meets with rudo rebuffs from the truly 
learned ; they are the helpers and patrons of 
tho lowly, if capable and honest. 
Judicious Pairing among Human Animals.— 
The London TimeB says : Achievement breeds 
achievement. If improvement by the continual 
selection of the strongest and the best, is good 
for animals, it must be for the noblest of them. 
To a great extent the law is recognized ; for, as a 
rule, aristocracy intermarries with aristocracy. 
In allrauks, health, strength, vigor of character, 
equitability of temper, aud vivacity of manners 
constitute grounds for preference. The well- 
bred, the agreeable, the practical, the sympa¬ 
thetic—in a word, all who show the true type of 
manhood, or of womanhood, as contrasted with 
abortive, affected, or artificial developments— 
carry the day in the matrimonial race. Though 
with money and rank, the less perfect form goes 
to the wall. 
Nevertheless, there is such an amount of in¬ 
termixture with iuferior qualities, that one may 
sometimes contemplate with dismay the pos- 
