426 
JUNE 26 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
for t\jt 1 )airao;. 
HARVEST. 
HE harvest time has begun on 
many of the farms where the 
Cousins live. It will soon be 
here for those farther north. 
I can imagine, you these busy 
duys working in the field with 
the men, flying about the 
house, helping in the prepar¬ 
ation of breakfast, dinner, 
and supper, going to the garden for veget ables, 
to the orchard for fruit, carrying water to the 
fields for the men, and making yourselves as 
useful as you con, while the w’heat fields are 
being cleared of their wealth. 
Fruit harvest has begun, too. You have 
gathered strawberries, and are enjoying cur¬ 
rants and gooseberries. How rnuny of the 
girls are learning to can fruit? How many 
of the boys have gathered cherries, straw¬ 
berries, and currants for the canning kettle# 
Unless you have tried it, you do not know 
how much more you will enjoy the fruit next, 
Winter if you help, these harvest days, in pre¬ 
serving it. 
We gather the grain and the fruit when they 
are ripe, at, just the time when they are the best 
for food. Hid you ever think that there are 
many other t hings that hove a harvest time, a 
time when they are ready to gather# What are 
ohm of the t hings that* are ready now, those 
ong summer days? 1 will tell you of a few, 
and you can think of more and tell me of 
them. There is a large crop of facts all ready 
to be gathered, such a big crop that no one of 
you can gather it alone, but each cue can 
gather enough to use through the coming 
Wiuter. Choose from among them those 
things you enjoy most, to begin with. Gather 
facts about either birds, insects, plants, trees, 
or stones. Keep your eyes open and your 
minds active. See how many birds live in the 
country round you, learn their names, as far 
as you can, the color of their eggs, of what 
their nests are made, what their songs are. 
Or watch the insects, learn all you can of 
them. Have you ever examined a “mud- 
dauber” wasp’s nest, or seen the wasps gather¬ 
ing halls of mud to make the nest# What do 
you know about tire-flies, those of you who 
live where they are common# 
If you study plants, look at every one that 
grows in your neighborhood. If you look 
closely you will see many curious, small blos¬ 
soms that you buve never noticed before. 
Notice the shapes of leaves: pull up some of 
the weeds and examine their roots: notice the 
seed-pod* and shapes of seeds. How many of 
the nieces and nephews can name all the varie¬ 
ties of treeB in their neighborhood, or toll what 
their blossoms are like? 
Wlmt kind of stone is commonest where you 
live? If there are fossils imbedded in the rocks, 
you can learn much by observing them closely. 
You will And almost as soon as you begin to 
notice those things, that there is a great deal 
you cannot learti by looking at them, but what 
you can learn is very important. 1 hope you 
will store It up until the long evenings next 
Winter, and then use it, by getting some good 
book to study, that will tell you the hundred 
things yon could not tind out. alone. 
After studying one Winter you will be sur¬ 
prised to find how much that is uew you can 
see the following Summer. 
Don't wait to see something unusual before 
you liegiu to look for facts, but notice the 
common things, and you will find much that 
is now, I am sure. 
Hut your uncle is writing too much. There 
are good letters from some of you waiting 
their turn to be printed, and I must not crowd 
them out. UNCLE MARK. 
A LETTER FROM LOUISIANA. 
Dear Rural:— Your weekly visits are a 
pleasure and a benefit; but of all the good 
you do, 1 believe, l most value your mission to 
the wee bairns. God bless every one. of them! 
What a training you are giviug to their 
hearts and their heads; it makes one rejoice 
to think of it. That, was a loving-hearted 
little creature who, in some numbers back, 
wrote about having only a canary and a mouse 
for pets. And those strawberry letters, how 
they are bringing out the children! Bessie C. 
Underhill’s is delightful. And, while talking 
of the strawberry, that queen of fruits, I wish 
you would tell me what, to do with mine. Last 
year I had Sharpless aud Monarch of the 
West; they both bore well, Sharpless a murvcl 
Of size, beauty aud delicious flavor, aud being 
mulched with cotton seed, the fruit was dainti¬ 
ly clean. When warm weather camo, I was 
told that cotton seed was too warm a mulch, 
and that I must take it off 1 . I did so, and the 
sun burned up nearly all the plants. In order 
to renew the bed, I sent iu Autumn to Roches¬ 
ter for 500 plants each of Sharpies*, James 
Vick. Cumberland Triumph and Crescent 
Seedling. They were all set out in the garden 
by the first of November. They are blooming 
well, and many have fruit already formed; 
now what mulch ought I to use# Would Til - 
landsia, the long gray moss that hangs on our 
trees, be good, or is straw better, or what is 
the very best? 
I agree with all you say about buying one 
or two grape-vines every year. Last year 
I bought a root each of Pocklington and 
Lady; they would willingly have borne after 
being set out, but I pinched olT the little green 
fruit. This Spring i cut them back very much, 
and planted the cutting* in flower pots; from 
these 1 huve nine beautiful vine*, doing very 
well. I have certainly four, and perhaps six 
seedlings of the Niagara Grape you sent. me. 
The two original vines which i bought are full 
of little hopeful looking clusters. I should 
like to bag them; but the paper bags sold at 
the stores here are miserable things, and soon 
let in the rain. I wish I knew where to pro¬ 
cure the true article. 
It gives me pleasure to see “A Rural Read¬ 
er” call attention to the Strawberry Tomato 
It is indeed a nice little fruit, and f should like 
to suggest, that all the boysand girls who rend 
the Rural, buy a flve-cent package of the 
seed and sow an 1 cultivate it carefully. If 
they will single out two or three plants and 
make special pets of them, they will be aston¬ 
ished at their productiveness. 
I have nearly 200 Rural Tomatoes ready to 
set out, the Cleveland Pops are in bloom, and 
the Garden Treasures up. Your friend, 
Louisiana. mrb. d. c. 
Perhaps some of the boys or girls can tell 
Mrs. C. whether Tillandsia, or gruy moss, 
mukes a good mulch for stra wberries. If you 
have tried it, let us hear from you. Straw is 
very good for the purpose. 
See article ‘ ‘Bagging Grapes,” in this num¬ 
ber of the Rural. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Uncle Mark: —I would like to be a mem¬ 
ber of the Youth’s Horticultural Club. I live 
on a farm in Indiana. I have planted this 
Spring a small bed of strawberries, which 1 
shall cultivate carefully. They are said to be 
a very large variety. 1 do not, know the name. 
I have also planted five bushels of the Bur¬ 
bank Potato, which sell well iu qur nearest 
town, about miles distant, I am going to 
make some spending money, you see. I shall 
try raising peanuts too, as I am very fond of 
eating them. Yours truly, 
Grant Co., Iud. Herbert lknfestey. 
Dear Uncle Mark:—I am sorry I forgot 
to give my County and State when I wrote 
before. 1 am 10 years old, not 1(5, as put iu the 
Rural. 
How I plant pop-corn:—1 murk out the 
ground in three rows three feet apart, and put 
the grains iu eight inches apart iu the rows. 
I use plenty of manure and keep down all 
weeds. My papa had some ears of pop-coru 
given to him when we first came to the coun¬ 
try. and he was told uot to plant the grains at 
the ends, because they would uot form ears I 
begged them, and planted as stated, and grew 
a fine crop, and sold part of it; so it is not 
true that the end grams will uot grow ears. 
I am now planting two bushels of early pota¬ 
toes, four ears of pop corn, and numerous 
other things, and will tell you how much 1 
make out of them. 1 use the Fire-fly plow to 
keep the weeds dowu. Papa bought it forme. 
Your nephew, omar ramsdkn. 
Winnebago Co., Ill. 
I aui glad to know you are experimenting. 
Were the ears on your stalks of corn as large 
as the others# Were there as many oars to 
each stalk? uncle mark. 
Dear Uncle Mark.—I received the flower 
seeds; l think they all came up. 1 hope to 
have a nice flower garden this Bummer. I 
study botany, aud have analyzed about 70 
flowers. 
1 watched some ants making their home the 
Other day. 1 could uot make out for some 
minutes what, they were doing. They would 
come to the top of the hole aud run right back 
in again. At last I saw they brought up 
d.rt every time. They took us much as would 
cover a pinhead at one time. Your niece, 
Franklin Co., Mass, sadie steiglkder. 
Dear Uncle Mark:—I am ignorant of 
the culture of strawberries, having never, 
that I can remember, even seen one. This will 
uot seem quite so strange, whtu I tell you that 
1 live iu n little out-of-the-way place. Until 
the last year or so, with the exception of my 
father, there have been very few farmers here, 
and they grow corn, vegetables and potatoes. 
Grapes are cultivated, and when once started 
do very well. Plums are grown and flourish 
here; wild plums also grow in abundance. 
Figs are plentiful; there are four or five kinds- 
The large white fig is the earliest, and seems 
to do better than any other kind. Huckleber¬ 
ries also grow Ln great abundance. 
No attempt is made to cultivate stra wher¬ 
ries here, but papa intends to set out a large 
bed of them this Fall. I have paid, and shall 
continue to pay, strict attention to all advice 
given by the Rural on the culture of straw¬ 
berries. 
We planted the flower seed you sent us; 
some are just coming up, and others are al¬ 
most ready to bloom. Is there any difference 
between the Flowering Balsam and the Ca¬ 
mellia Balsam? The plants are exactly alike. 
I will send you some of each Wind of my flower 
seed this Fall. Fearing I have written most 
too long a letter, I will close, promising here¬ 
after to write oftener and with more brevity. 
I remain a* ever, your niece, 
Aransas Co., Tex. katie g. btrne. 
[There is no difference in the Flowering and 
Camellia Balsams, except that the Camellia 
Balsams are more double and are so called on 
account of their resemblance^to the camellia 
flower. When the two varieties bloom, if 
you notice any other difference, write us 
about it. uncle mark. ] 
Uncle Mark and Cousins: —I received 
Rural seeds, for which 1 return many thanks. 
I live in Platte County, one-and-a-half mile 
north of Weston. W r e have excellent markets; 
there are four large cities within two hours’ 
ride; they are Atchison and Leavenworth, 
Kan., Bt, Joseph, and Kansas City, Mo. 
There are a great many apple* shipped from 
here north, east and west. This is a great 
apple-growing county, and there is still room 
for a few good farmers. There are few East¬ 
ern people here. My father grows a great 
abundance of other fruits besides apples; the 
fruits are pears, poaches, and small fruits. 
The poach buds were all frozen the past two 
Winters. This is also a splendid corn aud 
wheabgrowjng county, the corn grown in the 
bottom lands, averages from 12 to 24 rows of 
grains to the ear. Some earBgrow very large. 
Our county ranks third in its wheat products 
gwhlicationsi. 
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SONG WORSHIP. 
TUB 3VEW 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL SONG BOOK, 
BY 
Ii. O. EMRRKON and W. F. SllEltWIN. 
Price 35 cent*s $30 per hundred. 
The advent of a new Sunday-School Song Book hy 
two such men a* are the gentlemen above named. Is 
a notable event. 
Mr. Kmckso* <1 unds confessedly In the very front 
rank of church music composers, and Mr. ouvrwtn, 
hI- > eminent as a composer, has had great success ln 
the compiling of the best known Sunday-School 
nmslr hooks, and has for years had charge of the 
musics! deportment nt 
We havosix variotiewof strawberries, Wilson, 
Crescent Seedling, Downing, and others. The 
Downing did the best with us. 
Yours truly, john e. durkes. 
Platte Co., Mo. 
Dear Uncle Mark: — May I join the 
Cousins. My grandfather has given me a 
spot to plant. I will write aud let you know 
what I raise on it. Please send me some seeds 
when you distribute them. 
New London Co., Conn, waldo s. waley. 
CHAUTAUQUA 
and other famous wfBemblleaof Sunday School work¬ 
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mark a step ln advance being far above the ordinary 
Sunday School “jingles,” and are dignified without 
being dull. 
The Hymns are bv eminent writers, and are full of 
the beet religious truth. 
The Mi sic Is of a high order. Superintendents will 
be pleased with the iNUfcxoirSlJKJfeels.of which there 
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Ministers cannot fall to like the hymns. 
One specimen copy mailed post free for t wenty-nve 
cents. Specimen pages free. 
OLIVER DITSON & CO tJ Boston. 
0. H. DITSON & CO.807 Broadway, New York. 
Dear Uncle Mark:— My little grandson 
has succeeded in writing the above all by him¬ 
self, atul I can’t refuse him the comfort of 
sending it to you; he reads the Cousins’ letters 
and asksnumberleaa questions about them and 
you He is only eight, and has just commenced 
writing. 1 think he loves flowers better than 
any child I ever saw, and he loves to help 
raise them. Your friend, maby waley. 
[Waldo's letter is very well written indeed, 
aud 1 am glad to receive it. He will uot be 
forgotten when the seeds are distributed 
again l would send him some now if there 
were any left We will all be glad to hear 
about your garden spot.— uncle mark ] 
Dear LTnclk Mark:—I received the seeds 
you so kindly sent me. Please accept my 
thanks. I planted them April 29. I first 
dug up the ground, then carried manure and 
earth and tilled the bed, then covered the 
top with sand. After planting I watered 
with warm water. A few of the flowers I 
planted last year bloomed, but the frost nipped 
all but the asters before the seeds were ripe. 
The asters were very beautiful. I saved 
enough seeds to plant another bed. I want 
to grow some potatoes, and such things this 
Bummer to take to the fair. 
The Shoe-peg Corn ripened all right. We 
had about 125 bushels of White Elephant, 
and pounds of Blush Potatoes. We did 
not plant the melon seeds or Garden Treas¬ 
ures of this year's distribution. 
From your nephew, c. E. spenck. 
Carroll Co., Ohio. 
Dear Uncle Mark.— The flower seeds 
came. We planted the wheat last Fall, 
but the Wiuter killed it. We have 80 
acres of our own. and have some ground 
rented. We have between 00 aud 70 cherry 
trees ou the place and over 200 buudred i*eaeh 
trees. We have a nice patch of raspberries 
and of Suyder and Kittatinny Blackberries. 
We have some chestnuts and persimmons and a 
nice vineyard; also gooseberries and currants, 
I put out some grape cuttings this Bpriug 
most of them are growing. Our last snow 
storm was on the 21st of April; on the second 
of May we had a freeze that made ice. 
Your nephew, Alexander g. young. 
Lancaster Co., Neb. 
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