4 
Vol XU. No. 1GS6. NEW YORK, MAY 20, 1882. price five cewts, 
___ $2.00 PER TEAR, 
I Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 18S2, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.) 
Derail l)ica l. 
BlllTIl Pi ACE OF DaHWIN. Kill. 1 11. 
- ■ ♦ •-- 
OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY. 
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 
Charles Robert Darwin, the great Eng¬ 
lish naturalist and author, was born at The 
Mount, Shrewsbury, on February 12, 1809, 
and died on April 19 last, in his 74th year. He 
was the son of Dr. Charles Waring Darwin, 
and a grandson of Erasmus Darwiu, the phys¬ 
iologist and poet, author of the “ Botanic Gar¬ 
den,” “Philosophy of Agriculture and Gar¬ 
dening,” and several other works widely 
known towards the end of the last century. 
The subject of this brief sketch received his 
early education at the Shrewsbury Grammar 
School whence, in 1826, he went to the Uni¬ 
versity of Edinburgh, where he studied for 
two years. He then entered Christ’s College, 
Cambridge University, where he took his de¬ 
gree in 1831. In the Autumn of the same year 
he volunteered as naturalist to accompany 
Captain Fitzroy, in the ship Beagle, on his ex¬ 
ploring expedition round the world. 
During this long voyage, lasting five years, 
the greater part of the South American coast, 
the Pacific islands, Australia, New Zealand and 
the Mauritius wore visited and examined and 
the results of his research were from time to 
time published in England and gave Mr. Dar 
win a foremost place among rising naturalists. 
Before the close of the voyage he was elected a 
Fellow of the Royel Society, in 1834. In 1839 
U narrative of the voyage was published in 
three volumes, of which the third, containing 
an account of the discoveries in natural his¬ 
tory and geology, was contributed by Mr. 
Darwin. From that time until 1859 he pub¬ 
lished “The Structure and Distribution of 
Coral Reefs" in 1842; “Geological Observa¬ 
tions on Volcanic Islands ” in 1844; “Geologi 
cal Observations in 8oi:th America” in 1846; 
“ Monograph on the Family of Cinripedia ” in 
two volumes in 185 L and 1858, and soon after¬ 
wards two volumes on the fosil species of the 
same class, besides numerous articles contribu¬ 
ted to periodical literature on scientific sub¬ 
jects. 
Hitherto, though well known to a limited 
circle of readers, Mr. Darwin was compare 
tively unknown to the general public, but in 
1859 his fame was extended to all lands by the 
violent discussions that arose on the publica¬ 
tion of his work “ Origin of Species by Natural 
Selection.” This work has passed through 
many English and American editions, has 
been translated into a large number of foreign 
languages, including Freuch, German, Dutch, 
Italian and Russian, and has been the subject 
of more reviews, pamphlets and separate 
books than any other work of our age. As 
long ago as 1878 a German catalogue of the 
literature of Darwinism contained 36 octavo 
pages of the titles of the works and the names 
of 312 authors, while every review, magazine, 
monthly, weekly and daily throughout the 
English-speaking world and largely elsewhere 
also have fre .juently discussed the same subject. 
In .this work Darwin Attempted to account 
for the diversities of life on the globe by 
means of continuous development without the 
intervention of special creative fiats at the 
origin of each species. The extreme con¬ 
clusion from his reasoning is the relationship 
and community of origin of all living beings. 
Bitterly denounced as atheistic at the outset 
and ridiculed as absurd, his views have since 
been generally accepted, in principle if not in 
detail, so that the terms “evolution,” “hered¬ 
ity," “variation," “battle of life,” “surviral 
of the fittest," have become household words. 
In 1862, he published “Fertilization of Or¬ 
chids "and in 1868, “Variation of Animals 
and Plants under Domestication." In 1871 he 
gave to the public his treatise on “The De¬ 
scent of Man and Selection in Relation to 
Bex.” This work is complementary to that on 
“Origin of Species,” and in It the author con 
eludes that “ man in descended from a hairy 
quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed 
earB, probably arboreal in its habits.” 
Among a large number of important sep¬ 
arate papers by him those of most interest to 
agriculturists and indeed to the general public 
are, those “On the Formation of Mold by 
the Earth-worm," “On the Movements and 
Habits of Climbing Plants,” “ On the Expres¬ 
sion of the Emotions in Men and Animals,” 
and, latest of all, “ On the Action of Am¬ 
monia on Roots.” 
Mr. Darwin entered but little into general 
society and wns personally known to only a 
very small number of tbo tens of thousands of 
his admirers and opponents. He was always of 
a retiring disposition and for many years his 
health was all the time feeble. Both by his 
own researches and the bent these gave to the 
investigations and labors of other scientists 
no man of the present age has done more for 
scientific progress than Darwin. Justly there¬ 
fore did all classes and denominations in his 
own country mourn his death, which is re¬ 
gretted everywhere. Justly too was a final 
resting place accorded to his mortal remains 
in that Pantheon of British notabilities. "West¬ 
minster Abbey, where, in the honoring pres¬ 
ence of some of the highest dignitari s of 
Church and State, of sorrowing scientists and 
a mourning public, beside Sir John Hersehell 
and close to Sir Isaac Newton, was laid away 
the other day all that was mortal of Charles 
Robert Darwin. 
form (fconomij. 
HOW TO KEEP OUR FARMS IN GOOD 
HEART. 
To any close observer of the way farms in 
the West are usually managed, the question 
before us assumes a magnitude of grave im¬ 
portance. In attempting to answer this ques¬ 
tion I will say there must be with many farm¬ 
ers an entirely “ new departure” from their 
present mode of farming. For example, 
neighbor A, (he is the representative of a 
large class) wants to be a progressive farmer 
and keep his farm in good heart; but he has 
only one idea and that is to accomplish this 
end by keeping stock and making all the man¬ 
ure he can So he goes in on the stock ques¬ 
tion—blind, shall I say i He keeps about one- 
third more stock than he has pasture for, so 
that before harvest they are on “ short rations’ 
become restless and breech y, breaking into aud 
injuring the growing crops of grain, and | 
after harvest they are given the range of the 
whole farm to get them into decent condi¬ 
tion to go into winter-quarters. And for 
fear the hay will run short, this free range is 
extended until after seeding the next SpriDg. 
The consequence is, the pastures, meadows 
and “seedings" are nearly ruined for the com¬ 
ing crops of grass and hay, to say nothing 
of the injury to the land by being tramped 
down through all the rains of Fall and Spring. 
If we would keep our farms in good heart, 
we must in the “ new departure," put our 
stock into winter-quarters early, and not 
allow them to leave those quarters until the 
ground is settled in the Spring and the grass 
sufficiently started to keep ahead of the stock 
we wish to keep through the Summer. One 
acre of pasture that has not felt a hoof from 
November to May is worth two that have 
been run over the year round. The same is 
true of meadows, and “seedings.” The free 
range system for stock during Fall, Winter 
and Spring must be given up if we would 
keep our land in good heart and get profita¬ 
ble returns from our pastures and meadows. 
This point gained, the next step in keeping 
up a farm is to seed down to clover all 
the land sown to small grain, which is to be 
plowed up the coming Fall In the “new 
departure” this clover will be permitted to 
grow audisturbed until its growth is checked 
by heavy frosts; then plowed under. Remem¬ 
ber it is raised expressly for the benefit of the 
land. We must feed our land if we would 
feed our stock. 
Of the necessity of using land plaster and 
salt I spoke in a former article. We must 
use manure freely in fields near the barn, and 
in more distant ones, once in about four 
years, plow under a second crop of clover. 
The next step in the “ new departure” is to see 
how much stock we can keep in good condi¬ 
tion on a given number of acres. To settle 
this point, there must be a careful and regu¬ 
lar system of soiling for late Summer and 
Fall feeding; and of raising roots for Winter 
use. I am satisfied in my own mind that 
much of the land now devoted to pastures aud 
meadows might be devoted to raising small 
grains if we were to make this change in our 
practice of farming. By so doing we would 
greatly increase the product of the barnyard 
and add greatly to the fertility of the soil. 
I think a persistent following out of the 
plan above outlined will keep our farms in 
good heart. Th. Loomis. 
Wauskesha Co.. Wis. 
-- 
That Hand Sheaf Binder. 
In the Rural of May 6 is illustrated a 
Hand Sheaf Binder, which, while it may have 
some advantages over the old method of hand 
binding, has, in my opinion, some serious dis¬ 
advantages. It is expensive. A “binder” 
would, of course, be required for every sheaf 
in the field Supposing there were only 10,000 
sheafs (and it would uot take a very large 
field of wheat or rye for that number), there 
must also be 10,000 “ binders.” The plank and 
I twine necessary in the construction, would 
cost more than “a trifle,” and the time “lost” 
in making the “ binders” would be more than 
the time “ gained ” in the binding. If the knot 
for the “ catch” is made at the same place or 
thereabout, in each “binder,” all sheafs must 
be of the same size, else it will not hold. Bat 
sheafs made by reapers are not always of the 
same size, owing to unevenness of grain, and 
even in hand making this_eannot be always 
' attained. The knot is not “adjustable." 
There is great liability of the sheaf’s being ac¬ 
cidentally unbound, especially if an end be 
left, as shown in the cut. A fork tine caught 
under the band near the fastening point in the 
block, might easily lift out the knot from its 
place and unbind the bundle. In loading or 
mowing away the bundles the danger of 
loosening would be great. These are the 
most apparent objections to the device, w. 
CHARLES ROBERT DAR WEST. 
Re-engraved from the (London) Gardeners’ Chronicle.—Fig. 145. 
