f®x tije 1 Jami 0 . 
NOTES BY UNCLE MARK. 
Not unfrequently I receive letters from 
the Cousins asking why we do not give the 
full addresses of the letter wTiters when the 
letters are published, as sometimes they wish 
to correspond with each other. We have re¬ 
frained from doing so for the reason that there 
are all kinds of sharpers, advertisers of quack 
nostrums, etc., who are always on the lookout 
for names and addresses of young people, and 
we do not wish to have any of the Cousins 
troubled by these sort of persons. Whenever 
any member of the Club desires the address 
of another member for correspondence I shall 
be very glad to give it, as I have all the 
names and addresses on my list. I think it is 
a good idea for the members to correspond 
occasionally with one another. 
A correspondent suggests that we give a 
few rules on punctuation and the use of capi¬ 
tals and write what might be termed a model 
letter, in order that the Cousins may use 
greater care and have something by which 
they may be guided in writing. 1 think this 
a good suggestion, at any rate, I will give a 
few rules on writing and perhaps sometime a 
“formal” letter, though 1 would not like to 
term it in every respect a “model.” 
In compliance with the request the following 
abbreviated and most common rules are given 
for punctuation: 
The Period must be placed after every com¬ 
pleted sentence, also after every abbreviated 
word, 
'1 he Comma is used to separate words, 
phrases, clauses and short members closely 
connected with the rest of the sentence, but 
requiring separation by some point on account 
Of the construction. 
The Semicolon comes between members of a 
compound sentence and great divisions of 
sentences when minor sub divisions occur. A 
colon before an enumeration of particulars 
requires a semicolon between the objects 
enumerated. 
The Interrogation Point always follows 
every direct question. 
The Exclamation Point, comes after every 
exclamatory sentence. 
The Dash is used to express a break in the 
construction. It is also used before a repeated 
word or expression when the repetition is ab¬ 
rupt or exclamatory. 
Parentheses are used to enclose words which 
explain or modify the leading proposition of 
a sentence. 
1 am waiting patiently for notes on the next 
Discussion on watermelon culture. It seems 
as if many might write n thi9. 
In a short time we shall try to interest the 
members of the Horticultural Club in getting 
subscribers for the Rural.. We are trying to 
decide on some attractive and useful premiums 
to offer to the young people, and we shall 
make them such that everyone will want to do 
all they can towards helping the Rural and 
get a premium. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSTNS. 
Dear Uncle Mark: —It is a long time 
since I wrote my last letter so I thought I 
would write again. I will tell the cousins my 
experience with strawberries. Last Spring I 
set out 100 plants, in all consisting of three 
varieties as follows: 40 Charles Downings, 
30 Wilsons, and 30 Crescent Seedlings. The 
Charles Downing had tbe best flavored berry 
and yielded good. The Wilson did not have 
as large a berry as the Charles Downing, nor 
was it as sweet; it yielded well. The Cres¬ 
cent Seedling is a nice market berry. It did 
the best of all. From the 30 plants I made a 
row about 45 feet in length and averaged 14 
inches in width. This one did the best of the 
three for yielding. From the 100 plants I set 
out one year ago last Spring 1831, 1 picked an 
average of six boxes per day. The average 
selling price was 22 cents. I advise all my 
cousins to set out a bed next Spring. The 
culture is as simple as simple can be, and ‘all 
it requires is to keep the bed free from weeds. 
In setting them out select a rich, sunny spot, 
spade it deeply, turning under one inch or two 
of well-rotted manure; plant out in rows 
about 30 inches apart and about 15 inches 
apart in the row. Make the holes with a 
trowel large enough to take in all the roots 
without crowding. If the roots are more 
than four or five niches long, or the ends are 
dried, it is well to cut them off a little, then 
fill the hole without water if the ground or 
season is dry. Put the roots in up to the 
crown of the plant, and press the soil firmly 
to them. If th 3 ground is not rich, scatter a 
handful of fine manure around the plants 
when hoed. I applied wood ashes twice last A 
year which I think helped them greatly, and 
I was not troubled with the worms. The hoe 
should be used often enough to keep all weeds 
down and the soil loose until the plants 
begins to blossom. To keep the berries clear 
and the ground from drying up, scatter ®traw 
or hay an inch deep along the rows under 
each plant before they begin to bloom. Next 
time I will tell you how I raised currants on 
the old La Versai liaise bushes as large as any 
of my cherry currants. A Cousin. 
[This is such a letter as I really enjoy read¬ 
ing, as no doubt the Cousins will. We shall 
hope to hear soon about the currants, u. m] 
Dear Rural Young People: —Write, 
write, write! Don’t be discouraged if your 
first, second or even third letter is not print¬ 
ed. Try again. Have something to say and 
keep trying. I am glad to see the Cousins 
asking for addresses that they may write to 
each other. I wish every one would choose a 
correspondent from the Club and exchange 
letters. Now the long Winter evenings are 
coming soon, and I hope, boys and girls, you 
will improve them. One good way of doing 
so is writing letters. Try to write neatly, 
plainly and to the point. Use capitals and 
punctuation marks. I wish Uncle Mark would 
give a few rules for both; and also write a let¬ 
ter—a model—in good form; that is, priut it 
in the form of a written letter, as they do in 
works on letter-writing; as all of us are not 
able to buy one. I have some dear old letters 
from a cousin I never saw. He began writing 
to me when I was about 11 years old, and I 
have kept all his letters and have now a large 
bundle, written during 10 or 12 years. And, 
again, Uncle Mark, wouldn’t you like every 
member of tiiis large Club to write what he 
or she intends to be when grown up, and*why 
they like their chosen calling, or what charm 
it has for themi [Most certainly, u. m.] 
Each one could write in this style. Ever since 
I can remember I have meant to be a school 
teacher. I love children and I love to Btudy. 
I find I can learn faster and understand a 
thing better to talk it over with some one. 
And I love the close attention and the bright, 
wide-open eyes of dear little boys and girls 
when one tells them plainly some new facts. 
Every one of you should have some object in 
life—should mean to be something. Tell us 
what it is in a few words, that Uncle Mark 
may find room for all. Your friend and well- 
wisher. Sept. 
Dear Uncle Mark. —When I first sent my 
name as one of the “ Cousins,” I think I did 
not quite understand that it was for the bene¬ 
fit of the little ones of the Rural family, 
you had started tbe Horticultural Club. I have 
enjoyed that part of the paper as much as 
any. The seeds you have sent me I have 
sowed and planted, taking as much care of 
them as I could. Last year it was Dwarf 
Celery, and it was splendid. Every one that 
ate of it pronounced it the best. This year 
it is watermelons. I have 17 melons on three 
vines; 12 of them are of good size but grow¬ 
ing still. I presume there are more as the 
ground is a perfect mat of vines eight or ten 
feet one way and 10 or 12 the other. How 
large have they been known to grow 'i We 
Lave some of another kind that look like 
pumpkins. I should think they might weigh 
25 pounds now. But they were quite large 
size before there were any sottson the Rural 
melons. Another thing I have seen this Sum¬ 
mer that I never saw before on any potato, 
and have only seen it on the Beauty of He¬ 
bron ; little potatoes growing along the stalk 
sometimes half way up, and just at the top of 
the ground there would be a real nest of them 
and some would have green leaves starting 
from their eyes. Your niece, 
Bradford Co., Pa. T. G. Towner. 
[The melons are not large growers._ Thanks 
for invitation to visit “ Pleasant Farm.”— 
u. M.] _ 
Uncle Mark: —We are often reminded of 
you and your excellent cause, and wonder 
why among so many hundred members of the 
Horticultural Club there is notone dozen who 
can or will respond to your call and write an 
excellent, spicy letter. We are all hungry 
for something we have never had. Who will 
produce it? Not that we are in any way dis¬ 
satisfied with the Rural; we all love it, and 
we cannot mark one column that is not good. 
Please accept our heartfelt thanks for the 
good we have received through your efforts 
in the Rural. Your niece, 
Helen Leikem. 
[That letter does us good. u. M.] 
Dear Uncle Mark:— I have written you 
one letter, but as I did not see it in print, I 
thought I would write you another. I planted 
my melon I got from the Rural in three hills, 
but only two seeds came up. They have 
blossomed and set fruit. I have a little gar 
den in which I have got pansies, marigolds 
and several other kinds of flowers. I have 
got a horse and six sheep, and my brothers 
and I have 10 fleeces of wool. E, Driskkll, 
Edgar Co., Ill. 
Pi.srenatteoujs ‘SUmtising, 
A NATIONAL TK0UBLE 
The Trying; Influence of the American Cli¬ 
mate on the Welfare of the People. 
The facilities for communication between 
Europe and America have increased so re¬ 
markably of late years as to bring the old 
and new worlds into closer relations than ever 
before. As a result, the tide of emigration 
coming has been met by a flood of travelers 
and tourists going, all of whom bring new 
ideas and customs to each hemisphere. 
But notwithstanding this interchange of 
thought as well as of goods, the national char¬ 
acteristics, customs and habits remain sub¬ 
stantially the same, and the physical pecn 
liarities of every nation continue even after a 
removal from the native land. 
For some reason—possibly the climate, the 
water, tbe nature of the food we eat, or all 
combined—the American people are constitu¬ 
tionally different from auy otder nation. The 
slowly-moving customs of Europe tend to 
apoplexy; the active and nervous habits of 
America affect the heart or kidneys, usually 
the latter. As has been truly said: “We are 
excessively nervous aud grow more so every 
generation. The terrible rush and strain and 
excitement under which we live tell directly 
upon the nervous system. The high pressure 
of modern life is terribly exhaustive of nerve 
force. Before people are aware of it, nervous 
debility comes in, the system drops into a 
condition in which it is incapable of resisting 
cold aud withstanding the strain of over-ex¬ 
ertion, exposure and excitement.” In-fact, 
nervous exhaustion places the body in a con¬ 
dition to invite disease. What that disease 
will be depends wholly on the state of the sys¬ 
tem at that time; but, there are two vital por¬ 
tions which it is certain to attack unless they 
are specially guarded. These portions are the 
kidneys and liver. This truth is not generally 
known, but it is a fact that nil should under¬ 
stand More than one-half of American ail¬ 
ments arise from disordered kidneys. The 
kidneys are the great and most important 
organs of the system. They are seldom pain¬ 
ful themselves when disordered, but the ma¬ 
jority of troubles have their origin in them, 
among which are the following: Weariness; 
lack of energy; vague pains in the body and 
limbs; loss of appetite; headaches; a putrid 
taste in the mouth, and other more painful 
disorder's which cannot here be enumerated. 
The proposition becomes a simple one, in 
view of these facts, that to meet the disas¬ 
trous influences of American life it i 3 neces¬ 
sary to keep the kidneys and liver in as per¬ 
fect a condition as possible. Organs so im¬ 
portant and delicate as these are hard to con¬ 
trol, and it has always been a problem with 
physicians how best to treat diseases arising 
from tbe kidneys or liver. Within the past 
three years, however, more radical cures have 
been effected than during the previous thirty, 
and the world is beginning to learn that these 
troubles can be completely controlled. Tbe 
compound which has accomplished these re¬ 
markable results is Warner's Safe Kidney and 
Liver Cure, which is unquestionably to-day 
the most popular medicine in the land. Some 
idea of its unusual power may be learned 
from the following facts: Dr. AN, Me Names 
of Waterloo, N. Y., relates the following ex¬ 
perience: “ I had been troubled for several 
years with occasional pains in the back, dizzi¬ 
ness, headache, loss of appetite, and other dis¬ 
agreeable feelings of the urinary organs, but 
paid no attention to them, thinking that it 
amounted to nothing, as I was then strong 
and apparently healthy. This Spring, some 
time in the month of April, I was taken very 
violently with pain in the back and around 
the loins, headache, and all the symptoms of 
what is now known to me to be those of 
Bright’s Disease of the kidneys. 1 visited 
several physicians, all of whom told me that 
I had Bright’s Disease. I took thei r medicines 
for some time, also other proprietory medi¬ 
cines that were recommended for the "cure of 
Bright’s Disease, but all to no purpose. My 
weight went from 208 to 170; my lips and 
mouth were parched aud my tougue coated so 
I could hardly speak, and it also gave me 
great pain aud inconvenience to urinate. I 
gave up to what I then considered to be my 
fate, which was to die, but hearing of War 
ner’s Safe Kidney and Liver Cure and Safe 
Pills I began taking them according to direc¬ 
tions. I was completely cured, and to-day I 
consider myself a well man.” 
This is the experience of one man only; but 
the same symptoms are almost universal, and 
constituti, in reality, a “National trouble,” 
which only care aud attention to the slightest 
indie tions can avoid. 
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