40S 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 21 
of budding leaf and opening flower and animal 
birth, ha* no interest for him, except as it 
brings more dollars into his treasury, then he 
will have no u*» for a knowledge of the “re¬ 
lationship between agriculture and the various 
branches of natural science,” because be will 
not have that “breadth between the eyes” 
necessary to co-ordinate that knowledge, and 
apply It to his daily work- 
If our knowledge of agricultural chemistry 
be merely the ability to analyze soils; if the 
only use of our knowledge of botany be to 
enable us to distinguish species and varieties 
of plants, then our chemistries and our botan¬ 
ies may well lie laid away alongside of our 
dusty algebras, for all will be alike useless in 
t he daily affairs of life, whatever our vocation. 
Agricultural science is yet iu its infancy. 
True, Lawos. Johnston, Liebig aud Boustin- 
gault began their work half a century ago; 
but it is only within a decade that their teach¬ 
ing has become by any moans general, aud the 
most sanguine votaries of this science cannot 
yet claim for it more than a brilliant promise. 
That this promise i«, indeed, a brilliant one, 
is evidenced by the number of intelligent men 
who are now beginning to explore the fields 
to which it beckons; but to assert that it is 
only an Idle promise because, in the first out¬ 
burst of enthusiasm kindled by the prospect 
it indicated, extravagant claims weio made 
for it by men who had caught but half 
glimpses—uo man lias yet had a full view—of 
the glory beyond; or because, In the few years 
that have elapsed since our teachers or scien¬ 
tific agriculture—Ur. Beal and Joseph Harris 
being among the wisest of them—began their 
work, there have been few shining examples 
of money-getting among those who have faith 
in it, is the very bight of absurdity. 
Yet. we have on every hand farmers of good 
education, according to the generally accepted 
meaning of this term; men who have credit¬ 
ably gone through their four or six years of 
college life, aud who could once have read 
page after page of Homer or Cicero in the 
original tongue without, the use of a diction¬ 
ary. who could hu ve solved the most intricate 
problems iu algebra, or even have analyzed 
flowers, and who yet look back upon all the 
years of toil necessary to acquire these accom¬ 
plishments as merely so much “broadening 
between the eyes.” 
These are the men who first cry out that the 
agricultural college is a failure, because it is 
impractical; yet they are the very men who 
make it impractical by foisting upon its 
management the educational theories of ages 
long dead, and thus prevent it from reaching 
forward, free and untrammeled, to grasp and 
absorb the new life which is unfolding before 
it, us leaf and flower open iu t he spring time. 
Springfield, O. C. K - thorn k. 
£ov IVomen. 
CONDUCTED BY MlSl RAY CLARK. 
SKETCHES OF GERMAN LIFE. 
UERTRA A. ZED! WINKLER. 
SCHOOL DAYS. 
As one may imagine, they are auythiug but 
holidays to those children of toil whose oppor¬ 
tunities for play are largely stolen from their 
daily tusks. Before break fast, it is memorizing 
lessons while they carry burdens of linen to 
be bleached on the green, or, with little bags 
hanging in trout of them, gather the fallen 
fruit, or fagots, as the season may be. For 
this part of the day’s exercises, however, they 
have reason to be grateful Lessons are ac¬ 
quired much quicker on an empty stomach 
and a wide-awake mind, to say nothing of the 
physical benefit derived from out door activity 
before breaking the night's fust One should 
see these children do away with their simple 
meal of bread-soup and potatoes. Biliousness, 
dyspepsia, lassitude are miseries they cannot 
even simulate for an occasional excuse of ab¬ 
sence from school. Toothache and earache 
were generally feigned for that object aud 1 
very well remember how one boy, becoming 
quite chronic with those compluiuts, aftei 
having his ears examined and pronounced 
quite well, and almost half a dozen teeth ex¬ 
tracted, eauio in one morning complaining of 
the heartache. “This” be told bis comrades in 
confidence, “couldn't be pulled nor examined. ” 
The idea was too bright tor the school-master, 
however, and a lesson from the rattan taught 
him the practical inapplicability of sentiment. 
Alongside of these educational burdens are 
the innumerable little tasks of assistance here, 
and there and everywhere. Leading the ox. n 
for the ploughman, watering live stock, feed¬ 
ing poultry, cutting and carting grass from 
the wayside, setting poles, and binding grape¬ 
vines, planting corn, bagging potatoes, 
gleaning fields, trimming willows, carting 
flax, and, worst of all, sitting iu the dark 
damp cellar to pluck potato shoots, with no 
other company but cider barrels and imagin¬ 
ary hob goblins which play terrific havoc in 
the nervous system. Saturdays the streets 
await their sweeping brooms, sand stone bus 
to lie ground for strewing the floors, and a 
row of family boots and shoes demand their 
Sunday rout? of black, to the infinite chagrin 
of the youngest, whose task it ts, no matter 
how many crowd the stage between 10 and JO. 
One of these little ones was heard to exclaim 
with hopeful satisfaction In reply to some tan 
tallying remark of elder sisters, “Just wait 
till / get, big aud you got little 1 11 make you 
black my shoes every day, see if 1 don’t.” 
This work for young hands is staring at them 
everywhere and at all seasons. A more char¬ 
acteristic, though droll, reply could not have 
been made than is attributed to a simple mind¬ 
ed Jakob, who, upon being asked who he wus 
and what he did, said, “I am Jakob-come here- 
myIsiy-yoke-up-tho-eteerB-quick-donwT- wet- 
fer-your-loafing.” And yet, thanks i<o good 
constitutions and God’s fresh air, youths, 
boundless elasticity still sends forth the merry 
whistle and the song. No limbs so woarv but 
they will bound at the sight of a skipping 
rope! No brain so taxed with proverbs aud 
multiplication tables but it will scheme mis¬ 
chief ! Happy, busy, troublesome, sunshiny, 
showery school-days, 
“How ye have faded away!” 
Their remembrance lingers ouly in the plea¬ 
sant echo of its distant school bells, in deal 
associations, and childish, gleeful noises. Even 
the “whizz” of the school master’s rattan has 
lost its terrific sharpness, though it outdid 
every other noise we ever heard of, and in¬ 
spired more awe aud impromptu prayers than 
the thunder crashes of a July tempest. Had 
its peculiar music. !»een played only upon mis¬ 
conduct. it might have stayed and sang its 
gentle tune among brother branches in the 
forest, for Germany’s youths present iu school 
session, under the master’s keen eyes, as sub¬ 
missive a body us Germany’s venerable wis 
dom under the Chancellor’s iron brow in Lbe 
session of the Reichstag. But it only came 
forth for defective memories and stammered 
lessons. 1 f, in the recitation of one of Luther’s 
solid ten-lined, twelve-versed hymns, the puj.il 
missed but a line ho quite contritely stretched 
out his baud for as many rattame whacks 
without dreaming of a ty raunie age. An ordi¬ 
nary day’s lesson consisted of arithmetic, his¬ 
tory, grammar, geology, etomology, ortho¬ 
graphy, liesides the recitation of church 
hymns, proverbs, and extracts ou the “Duty 
of Obedience aud Reverence to Government,” 
which had been memorized or composed ovr 
Sunday. Their education is religious as well 
as semi-military. A boy knows just as well 
that his memorized battle hymn must some 
day stir his nerves against the foe, as a girl 
knows that her iwsay on “Feminine Patriot¬ 
ism” must on that same day lead her to her 
brother’s vaeaut place at the plow. These 
subtle intricacies of despotism are yet too ap¬ 
parent. to need more than passing mention. 
Confining ourselves, therefore, to reminis¬ 
cences of actual school-days, we proceed to 
mention some of its more pleasant features. 
Among these are the singing lessons and violin 
solos by the teacher, always an expert iu the 
tuneful art, as he alto tills the office of organ¬ 
ist at the church Then the numerous privi¬ 
leges the teacher grants to favorites of putting 
his room in order, blacking his boots, and run¬ 
ning bis errands; tasks ordinary enough, to be 
sure, and quite irksome done at. home for our 
mothers. But here it is the ostentatious honor 
that attends them, aud children everywhere 
have yet to learn the value of that deeper, 
higher honor which accompanies duties done 
lor their own sake aud the benefit they give 
to our loved. Then they have the semi-yearly 
exhibitions iu the school-room of natural 
curiosities given by some small showman for 
the small admission fee of two eggs, occasion¬ 
al excursions to the woods with their teacher, 
aud his active participation in all sorts of 
athletic sports, from which, happily, the girls 
are not excluded. They can leap over a rope 
and catch a ball as well as any boy, and no 
oue hesitates to give them credit for it. 
Strange, that so soon as the question of 
woman’s intellect comes into consideration, 
German Egoism and Conservatism drop their 
whole weight into masculine scales! The ex¬ 
cursions are by far the most joyful incidents 
of school life, with the exception of that final 
farewell to books aud short dresses ou confir¬ 
mation day. This, the crowuiug reward of 
their toil, is anticipated with an eagerness 
which makes light the added tasks of cate¬ 
chism aud pastoral instruction neee-sary for 
its consummation. As au event marking the 
entrance into womanhood aud responsibility, 
and celebrated with great solemnity, we re¬ 
serve it for auother chapter. 
bers that make some lives dark and others sad; 
they pine for the past and dread the future. 
While such live in a kind of sorrow, there are 
others who would lead ns—if we were asked 
the question—at what time in life people were 
the happiest., to say 70 years and upwards. 
For, from them wo learn that many do look on 
the bright side of life, and go joyfully along 
tbeir way. How well it is that, this is so. How 
well it is that life’s enjoyments can be spread 
over so wide a period. And bow well it is 
that we do not know what these enjoyments 
are to be to-morrow, nor how near we are to 
the termiuus of the journey. For if we all 
knew that the time fixed by the wise man was 
to lie the limit of human action, wo would, I 
think, approach the end of that threo score 
and ten years with more or less sadness. But 
it is a happy thought, that au AII-wise Provi¬ 
dence has made no such boundary to human 
life, but has given us to know that anywhere 
from the cradle forward it may terminate. 
True, there are but a small proportion who 
reach the age of 70 joyous years. But we do 
see them, and iu them have uu example that 
at that time we can still lie young, and our 
usefulness not ended. None of us are to sit 
down and fold the arms because age is creep 
ing over us, and we sometimes hear the words, 
which so many like to hear, “growing old.” 
For, what If the step is not so light as it was 
when we were younger; what if the eyeisnot 
so bright as it was in years gone by; what if 
the form is not so erect as it was when we 
stepped iuta the arena of active life, or on the 
brow here and there Time's furrows are 
seen? It does not follow from this that we are 
to sit. dowu and rust; it does not follow from 
this that wo are to discontinue our activity, 
or give up even our youthful pleasures. 1 
know it. is sometimes soid that we should give 
up the pleasures of the world. But I do not 
agree with him who says it. All the innocent 
pleasures of this life aud the world should be 
continued, for they who give them up shorten 
their days. They who believe there is no mar¬ 
gin left, aud with a kind of sorrow are wait¬ 
ing for the final day to come, they who believe, 
or appear to think that all are wicked because 
the present is not like the past, and that the 
world is retrograding because the times and 
the customs change, will not go down the vale 
of years so joyous and happy as they who keep 
their age green and take life as it is meted 
out. ULRIC. 
tacked on the inside of the door to hold slip 
pers for each one who has boots loaded with 
the unavoidable dirt of the farm, will save 
time—and scolding sometimes—for our boys 
say it does not take so long to change the 
lKXits as it does to scrape and brush them 
clean. A better meal, in quicker time, can be 
prepared in a well arranged kitchen, than 
when the whole family are crowded around 
the cook-stove, asiu the old-fashioned country 
kitchen of long ago. mart kdwgod. 
Domestic (Dccmomi) 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
IMPROVING YOUR OLD-FASHIONED 
KITCHEN. 
‘GROWING OLD!' 
Half a century! Three score! Three score 
and ten! To many, frightful numbers. Num- 
City kitchens are not, as a rule,so well known 
to the public as the country kitchen. When 
calling on city friends I am asked to l>e seated 
in the parlor or family sitting-room. I have 
very seldom seen the kitchen even of my in¬ 
timate acquaintances, unless iu times of sick¬ 
ness or other emergency. The few I have 
seen, are usually made with an idea to con¬ 
venience -with closets, drawers, cupboards aud 
shelves, sink, pump and drain. They are in 
reality a nicely constructed cook-room. Iu 
regard to cleanliness and order are what the 
mistress aud cook make them. 
The country kitchen is usually the living 
room of the family. A person calls unex¬ 
pectedly—they ure given a seat iu the kitchen, 
where work of various kinds is being done, it 
may be cooking or dressing poultry, trying out 
lard, maklug sausages or washiug. If callers 
are expected, the sitting-room is ready to 
receive them, but the kitchen is necessarily 
the largest room in the house, as it is the busi¬ 
ness center of the farm, aud some farmers 
think it a useless expense to keep two fires iu 
Winter; but it they would try it, they would 
be pleased to find how much it adds to the hap¬ 
piness of home. Make your family happy, and 
your home attractive, commencing in the kit¬ 
chen, aud let the light shine through the whole 
house. 
The wheels of progress did well when they 
struck the country kitchen aud removed the 
old fire-place, with its “stack” chimney. It 
is the duty of progressive farmers to clear 
away the rubbish, aud let the wheels move on. 
Why cling so to the old-fashioned kitchen? 
There are many “ fond recollections,” 1 know, 
clinging to it, but let it go iuto history and 
song with the “ OJd Oaken Bucket.” “ Grand¬ 
father’s Clock,” aud “Grandma’s Spinning 
Wheel.” Partition off a part of it into closets 
aud cupboards, after the style of the city kit¬ 
chen, only oti a larger scale. A large table for 
pastry cooking and many other purposes, is 
indispensable. Have a pump in the sink iu 
your cook-room; a range sufficiently large to 
cook for 18 men, and make oil-meal porridge 
for 10 or 15 calves if necessary. Partition off 
a little hall or closet for the men to hang up 
their outside garments, that have been worn 
while doing stable work, and do not have the 
odor of “new mown bay.” Such clothing 
never ought to be worn at the table. A boot 
jack by the door, and strips of strong cloth 
FOR MOTHERS. 
MRS. I. E. E. 
Art thou weary, O. fond mother, 
Training little hands and feet ? 
Doth thy way sometimes seem dieary, 
Or thy life seem incomplete? 
Take thou courage! Thou art moulding 
Future greatness, future fame ; 
For the patience of a mother 
Oft may win the child a name. 
AU thy tcaehlllK, all thy training, 
Every Joy thou dost forego; 
These Khali meet a blest requital 
In the land where conies no woo. 
Betier fur than earthly dower 
Is a child to bless thy name; 
If thou teach him truth and goodness, 
He will never bring thee shame. 
Cla«p the little hands more closely 
“Tired mother;” here Is rest! 
Fill the little lives with nuushlne, 
This will cheer thy faithful breast. 
By and by, in life’s dim gloaming, 
Their strong arms thy strength may be; 
Teach them love, that In the future 
They may love and cherish thee. 
Teach them trust, and thou hast gained them, 
For the trusting heart is true; 
Teach them faith Ui God, and Heaven— 
They will bless and honor you. 
What more glorious faith, I ask you, 
Mothers, can your hearts desire. 
Thus to guide youth's onward footsteps — 
Ever leading high, aud higher? 
PITHS. 
Flowers are the most beautiful ornaments 
in the world. 
Tea or coffee should be made with water 
which is freshly boiled. 
The bent bread flour makes a very tough pie 
crust. 
Teach your childreu to be kind and respect¬ 
ful to tbeir grandparents. 
It is said that the happiest women are those 
who lead the ordinary borne life. 
If you are bilious, try the juice of a lemon in 
a cup of cold wuter—no sugar—before going 
to bed. 
Don’t forget that baby needs frequent sip* 
of cold water during the warm mouths. Milk 
does not relieve thirst. 
For neuralgia, wring a flannel out of hot 
wator aud apply to the affected parts. Repeat 
until relief is obtained. 
Gii'ls, can you point to one case where the 
wife’s influence has had any effect in keeping 
her husband from drink? Beware! 
When a little girl is seized with the cooking 
fever, pray indulge her: it may annoy you and 
delay your work, but it will surely bring forth 
good fruits, 
Mr. J. Hales says pie is an abomination, 
aud that, he thinks it monstrous to convert 
good materials into an indigestible mass. His 
family eat au abundance of fruit, fresh and 
canned, the year around, aud are the better 
for it. 
Ice-boxes aud refrigerators in general are 
not half cared for. They should be washed in 
every part with hot soda water, riused with 
clean water, dried aud aired each time before 
putting in fresh ice. Between times, wipe up 
any milk, gravy or vegetables that may be 
spilt. 
It is well occasionally to deprive childreu of 
some article of food of which they are especi¬ 
ally fond. The having of one s appetite under 
control is a grand thing, and if the inestima¬ 
ble lessons of Belf-deuiul and restraint were 
ofteuer taught in childhood, there would be 
fewer wrecks of men and women who are now 
slaves to passion and the appetite. 
A good wife, according to Fope, is 
“ Slie wlio ne’er answers till her husband cools, 
Or It she rules him, never .‘hows the rules, 
Charms t>y accepting, hy submitting sways. 
Yet has her humor must wheu she obeys.” 
Beauty that depends ouly ou peach-like 
cheeks and regularity of form will assuredly 
fade, but the pleasant expression that shows 
cheerfulness of temper may become more and 
more oue with the face on which it shines, so 
that the advancing years ever deepen and in¬ 
crease the charm. 
TO “CHARITY.” 
A great deal of advice has already been 
given to “ Charity,” and the ground has been 
