quantity of milk in 24 hours was won by Lady 
Fay, owned by Smiths, Powell & Lamb. She 
gave 65 pounds 13 b, ounces, while Mecht- 
childe, ownpd by F. C. Stevens, was only 14 
ounces behind her. It takes a trifle over two 
pounds of milk to make a quart. There can be 
no doubt about the accuracy of this test. All 
of the cows would have done better at home. 
The noise and excitement which surrounded 
them had a perceptible influence upon their 
milk yield. This is but proof of the old truth 
that dairy cattle caunot do their best when 
worried or frightened. 
HIGHER PRICES FOR MILK. 
TnE milk question is of much interest at 
presen t oi i account of low prices. The average 
price paid for April was 2% cents per quart, 
or£l per cau of 40 quarts. This is what is called 
“road” price, which is made by the New 
York Milk Exchange. Taking into account 
the cost of feed of all kinds given to produce 
this milk, the money paid for help to take 
care of the cows, and interest on money in¬ 
vested in them, what is left for the milk pro¬ 
ducer? Nothing but the manure! The farm¬ 
er says, “What can we do? We have the cows 
and must make them pay their way.” My an¬ 
swer is this: “You have over-done the business 
aud made the supply greater than the demand. 
You blame the New York Milk Eschange for 
low prices while really you are to blame your¬ 
self. Make the supply nearly equal to the 
demand, aud keep it short, that is, make one- 
fourth less milk all the time and get just as 
much for tho remaining three-quarters as you 
do now for all of it. Bell off the surplus 
cows for what they will bring, take bettor 
care of those left aud get living prices for your 
milk, aud when milk begins to briug fair pay¬ 
ing prices, do not agai n overstock and push 
the supply away beyoud the demand, buc keep 
the business in a healthy state. It will not hurt 
the consumers, for they pay their city retail 
dealer about the same price no matter what 
the farmer gets.” john j. mitchell. 
Morris Co., N. J. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Steam Engines and Boilers.— Catalogue 
from James Leffel & Co., Springfield, Obio— 
This excellent pamphlet is one of the best we 
have examined. The cuts are excellent, the 
paper and printing first-class. The Bookwal- 
ter euglne is the specialty offered. This engine 
is too well known to require a word of com¬ 
mendation from us. Tho liberal couditions 
of trial offered by the manufacturers, seem to 
make it possible for every farmer to satisfy 
himself before purchasing. The object of 
the manufacturers as expressed in the cata¬ 
logue, is to do good, honest work, aud furnish 
a reliable article at the lowest figures consist¬ 
ent with business. 
Cornell University —Annual register of 
this institution. We wish every farmer boy 
in New York State could read this volume. 
We need more students in the agricultural 
department. There are hundreds of bright 
boys on the farm to-day who ought to be at 
college. They might bring much good to 
themselves aud to their State by attending the 
agricultural course at Cornell. This register 
should have a wide circulation. It can be 
obtained by addressing the Treasurer of Cor¬ 
nell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
Royal Salt.— Circulars from the Butter 
Preservative Salt Co., 2b4 W. 11th St New 
York.—The composition and healthfuluess of 
this preservative have been considerably dis¬ 
cussed by the agricultural press. Wo have 
frequently stated our opinion of it. We know 
that many good dairy men are using it and that 
they continue to send in orders for it. It bus 
been before the public for two years. Were 
it injurious the health authorities would 
long since have closed its sale. Its preserva¬ 
tive powers have never been disputed, that 
we know of. 
Shade Treks and Insect Defoliators. 
—Bulletin No. 10, from the Division of Ento¬ 
mology, United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture, by C. V. Riley. In this pamphlet of 
64 pages, Dr. Riley condenses what has previ¬ 
ously been written concerning four principal 
leaf-eaters, viz.: the imported elm leaf-beetle, 
the bag worm,the white marked tussock-moth, 
aud tho fall wet-worm. It is a valuable pum- 
phlet which ull interested in the subject should 
read. 
Colonial Liquoii Laws.— Pamphlet from 
the United States Brewers’ Association, con¬ 
tains an epitome of the liquor regulations en¬ 
acted m the United States up to the close of 
the revolutionary war. 
tVmtum’s Wxrrk. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
OUTSIDE ADORNMENT. 
We do not mean tho outside adornment de¬ 
nounced in Holy Writ—the plaiting of hair or 
putting on of raiment—but the adornment of 
our own dooryard. True, the slovenly exter¬ 
ior that we read of among farmers is a rarity, 
in our experience, at least. All our country 
neighbors—and they are not a few'—are anx¬ 
ious to brighten their surroundings with the 
aid of plants and flowers. But a great many 
are uncertain what to do in this respect, so we 
will try to give a few suggestions in practical, 
and, be it added, inexpensive floriculture. 
Permanence in a garden is an advantage, as 
elsewhere. For this reason, while leaving 
space for anuuals or bedding plants, we al¬ 
ways advocate tbe use of flowering shrubs aud 
the like, which increase in beauty from year 
to year. 
China offers us a number of very hardy 
shrubs, admirable in every way. Early in the 
spring are the golden blossoms of the For- 
sythia, popularly called Golden Bell, we be¬ 
lieve. Then there is the well known bridal 
wreath, the fragrant mock orange and the 
Deutzcus, hoi h single and double. The rosy- 
blossomed Weigelia is another beautiful thing, 
and these are all admirably hardy. 
In making flower beds do not try to be too 
ambitious. It is a mistake to attempt elabo¬ 
rate beds in fancy shapes, stars and triangles, 
or gorgeous ribbon beds. Simple round or 
rectangular beds, tilled with few varieties of 
plants will prove most satisfactory . 
Out* may get much satisfaction from old- 
fashioned annuals, sown in the open border 
through April and May. Nothing makes more 
show'than a packet of mixed double poppies, 
sown in this way. They go through an infin¬ 
ite variety of colors, and bloom to au unlim¬ 
ited extent. Put them on a sunny bank aud 
they flourish like the proverbial green bay 
tree, and you will get seed enough to stock 
the whole county for the next season. Annual 
and perennial phloxes are good things to grow 
from seed. Then there is a whole army of 
composites to choose from; coreopsis aud 
calliopsis; calendulas and gaillanlias, and a 
variety of everlasting flowers. The everlast¬ 
ings are put up m mixed seed packets; they 
are very useful for winter bouquets. They 
should be cut before they are fully matured, 
aud hung head downwards iu a dark place 
until they are dry. 
And no matter how small our garden is, we 
should always have at least a corner for Queen 
Rose. Nothing is easier to grow; her majesty 
only demands plenty of light and air, and a 
good supply of nourishment. The list of va¬ 
rieties is infinite; a good selection has been 
named from time to time in the Rural. A 
good half-dozen would be Jacqueminot and 
Marie Baumann, dark red; Paul Nejrou, 
rose pink; Mabel Morrison, white; Baroness 
Rothschild aud Captain Christy, pale pink. 
These are very hardy, aud a very little care 
and expense would make any dooryard a joy 
forever with the simple materials we name. 
REMINISCENCES OP AN OLD HOUSE¬ 
KEEPER.—NO. 5. 
MRS. S. H. ROWELL. 
It is considered very fortunate for a farmer 
to have nice, early lambs ready for market, aud 
so one spriug we went iuto the speculation. 
Such a time os we had! The iambs were sure 
to arrive iu the very coldest time aud the little 
creatures would get chilled an 1 grow stiff and 
die. Will's mother came up one day and told 
me how to take care of them, “It is but a few 
minutes’ work to save them aud thou all is 
right.” So after that we got along finely. 
The lambs were brought iuto the kitchen by 
the warm Are, aud iubbed with straw, and a 
little whisky put iuto some milk aud led to 
them, taking care not to give too much. In 
less than an hour they would give their faint 
bleat; uext, stretch their legs, aud iu au hour or 
two be traveling around tbe kitchen floor, and 
then carried to the stable and fed from their 
mother. One day we hud 13 of the little mites 
brought into tbe kitchen to be resuscitated, 
and the men were up all night, tramping from 
the house to the barn, bringing in, aud carry¬ 
ing back the little shivering atoms. Such a 
mess as we had, but we saved all but one of 
them; he was too far gone to swallow when 
they got him to the tire. Poets sing and write 
of the dear little lambs frolicking on the hill¬ 
side, but that night’s experience took all the 
poetry out of me, as far as sheep and lambs 
are concerned. 1 like to see them gumbol and 
jump iu the pasture aud reckon what they will 
briug iu murket, but the sweet illusions of ear¬ 
lier years are all dispelled. I did not 
regret the care and troubio, however, wheu 
my husband sold them for five dollars each, 
aud they were pronounced to Be the choicest 
lot of lambs of the season. Year after year 
I had tho same operation to go through, for 
farmers aud their wives have to pass through 
a good many disagreeable times aud do dis¬ 
agreeable work to tuako money, and money is 
the chief aim and end of work on a farm, and 
raising lambs is as profitable, perhaps, as any 
other department of the barnhold; for there is 
always a ready market for them, and they 
briug in cash. In fact, I do not think it any 
harder, or more trying to one’s olfuctory 
nerves than it is to have a basketful of wee 
pigs brought into the kitchen, to be saved 
from the unnatural mother devouring them. 
That always seemed so unnatural for a 
sow to eat her offspring; but we learned how 
to avoid that after a couple of years. Before 
the pigs came we used to give the mother hog 
brands of half-burnt wood, quenched in the 
swill pail, to cat, and decayed chunks of wood, 
and some way that seems to satisfy the appe¬ 
tite, and they treat the little gruuters with 
more consideration, and saved us a world of 
trouble and vexation; aud hogs are au indis¬ 
pensable article on a farm, as they save all the 
table waste, the sour milk, and are indispen¬ 
sable os a matter of economy iu furnishing a 
variety of food for the supply of the family, 
in the form of salt pork, ham, bacon, sausage, 
lard aud souse. These animals all pay for 
raising and the extra paius taken to make 
them live, for if one has to buy them all it 
would take a small fortune. Raising poultry 
is another industry that is a payiug occupa¬ 
tion on a farm. I bad turkeys, chickens and 
ducks, and as I look back on the years that 
are past I tbiuk this business was as pleasant 
a part of the exercises as there was, for it gave 
me a good, refreshing sniff of morning air 
each day, and that is what everyone needs. 
But there are vexations in raising poultry, 
'and if you succeed in raisiug half that are 
hatched you are real lucky. But experience 
and practice work wonders iu the business, 
aud there is solid pleasure in feeding the little 
birdies. 1 wanted to raise geese, but my hus¬ 
band said it would not pay. There was no 
running water near by, and they were such 
greed}’, dirty birds lie would rather buy what 
feathers were needed than to bother with having 
them around the premises. I liked my ducks 
ever so much, aud it was fun to see them 
waddle off iu Indian file after they had their 
meals, and then to bear them quack, quack 
for their suppers. Their call would always 
bring out the feed pail in haste. It was dis¬ 
couraging to have half-grown chickens get 
drowned in the swill tub, or to have them get 
lousy or have the gapes, or see the little tur¬ 
keys with drooping wings come up to the 
house; but after a while I learned bow to cure 
all these evils, and I was quite a successful 
poultry raiser, till I got so old that I gave the 
business iuto younger bauds, and contented 
myself with poundiug broken crockery for 
their digestion, aud telling others my experi¬ 
ence and what 1 should advise to do if I had 
the management of them. 
THE HIRED MAN QUESTION.—II. 
HIS POSITION IN TIIE HOUSEHOLD. 
CARRIE D. HIGH. 
The position the hired man occupies in the 
household depends both upon the kind of peo¬ 
ple who make up the household aud the man¬ 
ner of man who is hired. But I will try to 
sketch, as briefly as possible, tbe position of 
the average hired man. Now I know 
“average” is a bad word, and that the criti¬ 
cisms upon the title of the novel, “Au Aver¬ 
age Mau” tbut appeared a year or two ago, 
were endless, many contending that it is im¬ 
possible to strike a u average in men. 1 con¬ 
fess to having doubts myself about their being 
any “average” men but for want of a better 
word I must use this ambiguous one. 
First, I think everyone will concede that it 
is our highest, duty to contribute as much to¬ 
ward the happiness of those with whom we 
come iu contact as is possible. For it, is hap¬ 
piness tbut we are all seeking and if we get a 
little from one and a little more from another, 
these mites go to make up our final sum just 
as surely as one penny aud one penny make 
two pennies. And it takes so littie to make 
some people happy, a smile or bright word 
will make many a dull, disconsolate face light, 
up with pleasure. It may be only for u mo¬ 
ment, yet every moment counts. 
The hired man enters your house a stranger. 
It is foolish to talk ubout equality. No man 
is uuother man's equal in the t rue sense of tho 
word, for God never rnadu two men exactly 
alike. If two persons could grow up under 
precisely tbe same circumstances, one would 
differ essentially from the other, though they 
might, be well matched aud congenial com¬ 
panions. 
The hired man, however, should be treated 
with as much respect as would be awarded to 
any stranger who might chance to be as one 
of the family for a time. 
Certainly he should eat with the family. 1^ 
is the ouly way open to him to learn table 
manners and how to behove in good company. 
Above all it will give liim self-respect. If he 
is at first uncouth and a wkward and raises his 
elbows on a level with his hoad when using his 
knife and fork, why, laugh in your sleeve if 
you must, but be assured gradually and sure¬ 
ly that awkwardness will tone down until the 
stranger will have exactly tbe same manners 
as the members of the family, and it will not 
take years or even months to effect this 
change. 
Some may say, what mattevs it if the hired 
man learns table marmorsornot? 1 ran across 
a very apt reply to this question iu a news¬ 
paper a few days ago, and will give it here. 
“The advantage of good manners to the pri¬ 
vate individual who happens to possess them, 
is very often overlooked, and tho success of 
a uiau in life is wrongly attributed to luck, 
when it should have been ascribed simply to 
his affability aud politeness. A hundred 
anecdotes have been related which prove the 
fallacy of the common idea, and show how 
men have been ‘made’ by umnuers, but per¬ 
haps not one of them exceeds iu interest that 
of the two notable English characters—Ral¬ 
eigh, whose cloak is familiar to every child 
reader of history, aud Marlborough, whose tre¬ 
mendous victories might never have enriched 
our military auuals, had he not first earned 
court favor aud promotion by his consummate 
address,’’The advantages of good manners are 
indeed manifold, but perhaps the greatest is the 
secret satisfaction and outward dignity they 
give their possessor. But to return to the 
hired man iu question. We loft him eating 
with the family. This will, I admit, destroy 
the privacies of family table talk. One could 
not say just what one would, if there were no 
strangers present. But I am ineliued to tbiuk 
this restraint a wholesome one. 
The family would accustom themselves to 
talking on general topics which would provo 
far more edifying than the discussion of the 
business aud love affairs of Neighbor Brown 
or Jones. Our own secrets are generally far too 
serious topics to make table talk of under 
any circumstances. “Eat, drink and be mer¬ 
ry”—who could do’ (hat and talk of matters 
we wouldn’t have a stranger hear for the 
world. The table is no place for serious con¬ 
versation. 
It is selfish and unchristianlike to let your 
hired man eat by himself. You ■set him down 
in the kitchen to “wrestle with his grub" as 
he would term it. And it expresses exactly 
what he would do, for, who would mind man¬ 
ners if there was no one by to notice. 
He may have seentlia^ the family table was 
more neatly set thau kisown. There may have 
been a few loose flowers arranged iu a dainty 
vase or bowl which make the kitchen table 
look bare and meagre by contrast. For I 
think few, if auy, busy housewives take time 
to bestow extra touches on the kitchen table. 
The man will feel oh,so kaanlyl that his posi¬ 
tion is au inferior one and become more or 
less dissatisfied and “touchy.”—Heaven deliv¬ 
er us from touchy people to live with—Lastly 
the man will rush off into some other business, 
even though it maybe less lucrative, simply 
for the sake of gaining a little more respect 
than is commonly accorded a farm baud, and 
not being made to feel every day of his life 
that lie is of one clay aud his employer of a 
far superior kind. Servant girls are doing 
the same thing every day in cities. Leav¬ 
ing comfortable houses which are not made 
homes for them, and seeking wretchedly paid 
]ilaces as shop-girls and seamstresses. 
Real, true Christianity put into daily prac¬ 
tice is the only solution to tho problem of how 
to keep hired help, so that our interests and 
their own shall progress happily together. 
‘Love your neighbor” and “do unto others 
as you would that others should do unto you.” 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
CnARiTY is the salt of riches, without 
which they corrupt themselves. 
Ai.i. thy lift* Is tor thy own, 
Then for mankind's Instruction shown 
And though thy kneo were never bent. 
To Heaven thy hourly in'uyvrsare sent, 
And whether formed for good or 111 
Are registered and answered still.... 
There is frozen music in many a heart that 
the beams of encouragmeut would melt intq 
glorious song... 
If I can put one touch of a rosy sunset iu 
tho life of any man or woman, 1 skull feel that 
I have worked with God. 
A license, while pruteudiug to regulate the 
saloon, apologizes for tho crime that it pro¬ 
duces ..... 
Positive faith is au element of power aud 
is essential to success. Doubt is au element of 
weakness, and insures defeat. 
God’s best gilt to bis children is a great 
and good man; for iu every great and good 
man faith sees though iu a glass, darkly, the 
