result in much good aud create a better feel 
ing oil both sides. 
Walworth Co., Wis. 
FROM COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
There is a growing determination among 
farmers not to wash the wool on the sheep. 
It saves tagging on the sheep and a considera¬ 
ble waste of wool which gets dirty when the 
sheep are turned out. There is no liability 
for the sheep to get fly-blown, provided they 
are sheared early, which can be done whenever 
they are not kept for washing. When this is 
the ease they must be kept till the weather is 
warm, and then, with mnuy, two or three 
weeks to give the wool time to dry and 
the oil to start. All of this delay is torture to 
the sheep. Early sheariug is a blessing to 
them if they are protected from the cold 
wind. Tins is easily done by keeping them 
in a tight inclosure, where the heat from 
their own bodies will temper the cold to such 
a degree that they will not even take cold. 
Such has beeu my experience for two years, 
w ith sheep shorn April 1. When turned out 
for the first two weeks they are brought in at 
night as they should be any way, and fed 
grain, and hay. A shorn sheep is in better 
condition to have a lamb and it w'ill not get 
thin so readily when suckliug aud the lamb is 
not perplexed with wool tags and filth. More 
interest in this subject is wanted anil more 
unity of action with farmers. There is no 
philosophy in the idea of expecting a sheep to 
carry a fleece of wool in warm weather and 
at the same time furnish milk to suckle and 
make a fine lamb. A little more reason and 
less greed in this connection would be more 
humane to say the least. I am sure there is 
more profit in early shearing than otherwise. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
VISITING AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 
I heartily thank the Rural for its edito¬ 
rial note urging farmers to attend the com¬ 
mencement exercises at the agricultural col¬ 
leges of their States. Let me suggest, espe¬ 
cially as commencement time is over at. many 
of these colleges, that it may be still wiser to 
visit them at anytime when they are doing 
ordinary work, when there will be no attempt 
made “to put the best foot foremost,” and 
when the absence of crowds will give a better 
opportunity to learn what facilities exist for 
giving an education in agriculture. 
It has been ray pleasure, in recent years, to 
visit and somewhat carefully examine the ag¬ 
ricultural colleges or agricultural departments 
of universities, in New York, Ohio. Indiana, 
Michigan, Minnesota ami Iowa, aud I kuow 
something of the institution in Illinois. Wide¬ 
ly tli tiering as these institutions do in many re¬ 
spects, 1 believe any one of them possesses 
more and better facilities for helping a young 
man to get a good agricultural education than 
were to be found in auy school in the world not 
many years since. No farmer in auy one of 
these States need send his son away from its 
bound* in order to secure such an education; 
aud 1 am sure the same is true in many other 
States, i do not mean that I consider all 
equally good, but u student with a desire to 
study “the branches of learning relating to 
agriculture”will find,at auy of the institutions 
lhavo visited, competent instructors who will 
faithfully help him, and I believe the presence 
of larger numbers of such young men is ear¬ 
nestly desired by the trustees and teachers in 
these colleges. 
If farmers would more generally visit their 
agricultural colleges 1 believe they would ap¬ 
preciate them better, aud would come to have 
mon* faith in the possibility of a useful train¬ 
ing for the farm in a school, than many of 
them now have. Such visits would show how 
utterly unfounded are many of the criticisms 
against them, aud would also show what are 
their real faults, and help to just criticism. 
Doubtless there is room for vast improvement 
in many of the agricultural colleges, but I 
grow more and more strong in the belief that 
the greatest need in the matter of agricultural 
education is more demand for it. 
There is yet much difference of opinion con¬ 
cerning courses ol study—just what shall be 
studied, how much time should be given, etc. 
The statement is frequently made that a four 
years’ course loading to form a graduation is 
too long. Mauy of the colleges have met this 
by providing short courses. For years past 
the institution with which 1 am connected has 
invited attendance to a special agricultural 
and veterinary course for one year, aud to a 
still more special course of three months, and 
something like this is true of a number of 
other colleges. 
1 would be very glad if those who believe, 
as I do, that a special education for the farm 
that shall be of great value can be obtained in 
schools,would urge this belief aud urge young 
men expecting to be farmers to attend some 
one of the colleges provided for this purpose, 
criticise them, remodel them, establish others, 
if these things seem best; but in the meantime 
it certainly seems wise to make use of what we 
have. G. E. morrow. 
University of Illinois. 
XUonum’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
SUNBEAMS. 
OLIVE E. DANA. 
Round us too often do the shadows gather 
Their gloom to bring; 
Not ulwavs by Divine decree, but rather 
Of our own summoning. 
They can but dwell In gloomy, sunless places 
Aloof who hold 
From all the life about, from cheerful faces 
Of young arid old. 
Through kindly, human speech 
Unto the soul may reach 
Some sunbeams, warm and bright, 
From Gtid Himself, our Light. 
.•1 uffuata , Maine . 
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN. 
We hear that wonteu have excelled the men 
at the Cambridge examinations, and we now 
learn that at the competitive examinations 
for promotion in the Quartermaster-General’s 
office the fair sex showed a marked superior¬ 
ity. Two women out of 27 failed to reach the 
minimum of excellence, while six men out of 
31) failed. The general average among the 
women was higher than among the meu. 
In “Jo’s Boys,” which Miss Alcott declares, 
is the last chronicle of the March family we 
all love so well, there is much to interest tue 
girls, especially those w ho expect to Vie bread¬ 
winners. Among books to be road by helpful 
girls the authoress names Miss Cobbe’s “Duties 
of Women,” Miss Brackett’s “Education of 
American Girls," and Mrs. Duffy’s “No Bex iu 
Education.” 
After reading all these reports of the wo¬ 
men who are distinguishing themselves iu 
their studies we are inclined to think that 
the Chicago News is consumed with euvy, 
judging from a recent article in that paper. 
It declares that one of those bright Vassal* 
graduates says that there is no particular ad¬ 
vantage to be derived from being present at 
commencements. “Those of us,” she adds, 
“who have beeu through it ourselves kuow 
that the authors of ‘Yesterday, To-day and 
To morrow,’ ‘Life’s Failures,’ ‘Lights Ahead,’ 
‘Philosophy vs. Rationalism,’ ‘Which, When 
and Why,’ 'The influence of Metaphysics ou 
Society,’ ‘The Sovereignty of Change,’ ‘Look 
Aloft,’ ‘The Mirage of Life,' ‘Our Country’s 
Perils,’ ‘Anarchical Tendencies of Modem 
Civilization’—the authors of these papers, 
essays and orations will, 10 minutes after it is 
all over be saying: 
“ ‘1 got 10 bouquets.' 
“ ‘ Didn’t it go off lovely ?’ 
“‘Did my train Liang all right?’ 
‘“How did 1 do, auyhow ?’ 
“ ‘I was scared nearly to death.’ 
“ ‘ I was so worried about my hair.’ 
‘ ‘ Did my sash ends hang right ? ’ 
“ 4 You did splendidly.’ 
“ ‘So did you,’ 
“ ‘ Your essay was just grand.’ 
“ * How lovely of you to say so ! ’ 
“ ‘ Everything was just perfect.’ 
“‘1 thought I’d die wheu my name was 
called. But 1 remembered that my dress cost 
$00, aud that helped me out.’ 
“ ‘ I’m afraid that uot half the audience 
knew that the flounce on my train was real 
lace.’ 
“ 1 I’m dying to see what the papers say ! ’ 
“ 1 It’ll be perfectly horrid if they don’t de- 
eribe the costume.’” 
♦- - 
AN AGRICULTURAL PILGRIMAGE. 
Up among the hills,shining with daisies and 
sparkling with starry cone-flowers, we jour¬ 
neyed one summer day. Our Mecca was a 
great model farm, noted for its matchless 
herd of patrician cows, as well as its natural 
beauty. 
This place shows farming as it should be, 
both practical and poetic. But alas ! it is uot 
always easy to regard the poetic side* of agri¬ 
culture, wheu stern necessity compels one 
ever to look closely at the dollars and cunts. 
But at this Arcadia there are not only well 
tilled fields and waving pastures, but pictur¬ 
esque glens aud wild hillsides, where a flock 
of blue-blooded sheep crop the short rich 
grass. 
Under a little knoll is a spring-house where 
the milk is cooled iu the clear running water, 
and opposite is the new dairy, where every¬ 
thing Ls to be of the latest a nd most approved 
fashion. It would delight the heart of every 
farmer’s wife. 
There Ls the"cleau, cool cow-stable, where 
each milky mother reposes iu her own stall 
with her name above. It is one of the sights 
of the farm to see the herd walk iu decorous 
order, each into her own personal stall. 
But’the farm-house itself is most interesting 
to the housekeeper. It is the boarding-house 
for a dozen or more young men employed 
upon the place, and is a roomy abode, as it 
need be. There is a wide piazza and big, airy 
rooms; the kitchen is large enough for a jolly 
dance, and the cook may do her duty 
without feeling us if she was being 
broiled on her own range. And as loug 
as there is a flower to be found, in woodland 
or meadow, there is always a bouquet in the 
center of the dining table. The busy house¬ 
wife fiuds little leisure in providing for her 
always large family, but she always has time 
for this little bit of adornment, aud we think 
her household would miss this quite as much 
as a more solid part of their meal. The shady 
sitting-room contains a good library and a 
piano, and all its appointments are neat and 
tasteful. We get the better side of farm life 
in such a place as this, and realize that it is 
indeed the noblest, of all professions. Of 
course every farmer cannot have blooded stock 
and every new r fancy or idea iu labor-saving 
machinery and tools. Nor can every house¬ 
wife have the big, airy kiteben and its con¬ 
veniences that we see here. But the same 
neatness and taste may be displayed in the 
humblest country house. These little trifles of 
home adornment mean little, either in time or 
money, but they give a good deal of comfort 
as we go along, and that is really the best part 
of life. 
THE DUTIES OF GUESTS. 
A. M. Turner says, in the Phila. Press, that 
much has been written about ihe art of en¬ 
tertaining and the duties of a hostess, but is 
there no obligation on the other side? To be a 
really acceptable guest requires iufinite tact, 
or else possession of most of the cardinal vir¬ 
tues. How mauy a guest has gone tiome a 
little less liked by the hostess! A little care 
aud thoughtfulness will make “visiting” a less 
trying ordeal. Iu the first place, it is better to 
understay rather than overstay an invitation, 
and it is pleasanter for both parties if the 
length of the visit desired is stated beforehand 
by the hostess. Perhaps the most important 
consideration of all is that the family routine 
should be disturbed as little as possible. 
Be up in time for breakfast and prompt at all 
meals. Do not ask for tea or milk at odd 
times, Or order what is not ou the table. Re¬ 
member you are not at a hotel. We once saw a 
lady guest call for olives wheu they were uot 
on the bill of fare, aud the hostess has never 
forgotten this particular act of rudeness. 
Make as little trouble as possible. 
If there is only one overworked servant, 
why uot make your own bed? 
Have some employment of your own as an 
excuse for retiring to your own room for 
some time each day. Do uot follow your 
hostess about all the time, as she generally 
has mauy duties, and especially respect pri¬ 
vate rooms, uuless particularly invited to 
them. Do not give your washing to the 
house-servant. Pay for your own luggage in 
coming and going, if a public conveyance is 
employed, and do not sponge upon your host¬ 
ess for car furo aud trivial expenses. These 
little things make many a friendship h 1 ** 
warm. You certainly would not take one of 
your friends with yon unless particularly in¬ 
vited to do so by the hostess. Do not demand 
too much attention Bo easily pleased, and 
chime in most cordially with anything pro¬ 
posed. Try to please the tastes of your host¬ 
ess every way. Consult their likes and dis¬ 
likes even in matters of dress; be interested in 
what interests them; be sure not to hurt their 
feelings. Do uot criticise the family you 
visit; admire wbnt is good; do not notice the 
rest Do not always tell of the fine things 
you have seen or eaten elsewhere. Help your 
hostess; amuse a child or entertain other 
guests. Show your love for your hostess iu 
all little ways. Give the servant who waits 
upon you some money. It makes it easier for 
the mistress if the servants do “not object to 
company.” Try to make some return for 
your visits—either an invitation, a timely 
gift, or at least honestly expressed gratitude 
or appreciation. Lastly, study some one who 
is an ever welcome guest and try to grasp her 
secret. 
MY FIRST QUARREL. 
ELSIE. 
I MAY as well confess that I was not feeling 
particularly amiable wheu I went down 
stairs on that morning of my “first quarrel;” 
in fact, 1 was in that irritable state of mind 
supposed to be caused by getting “out of the 
wrong side of the bed.” (However expressive 
the latter phrase may he, it is certainly in¬ 
elegant.) Still, I shall always maintain that 
the quarrel would not have occurred if my 
clean gingham dress had returned from the 
wash. As it had not, I put on an afternoon 
dress with the usual loo pings and drapings, 
which latter arrested my progress by catch¬ 
ing on the knob of the kitchen door, and add¬ 
ed to my ill-temper by a most provoking sound 
of ripping, and the most aggravating kind of 
a three-cornered tear. I was just, a little late 
anyway, and the few stitches that this 
mishap necessitated could ill bo spared, but I 
did struggle manfully with ray growing irri¬ 
tation until—that dress again—when 1 went 
to make the biscuits for breakfast I found it an 
utter impossibility to roll up my sleeves. 
Now, the woman who can make biscuit or 
bread with sleeves down to her wrists, and 
still pursue the even tenor of her way, is, to 
my mind, a subject for canonization. 
Just at that moment when, my hands being 
covered with flour, I was unable to go to the 
rescue, I felt my biggest hairpin slipping 
down my back, and Tom could not have 
chosen any other time to look in at the kitchen 
door, and suggest that he had only three- 
quarters of an hour to catch his train. I will 
leave it to auy fair-minded woman if I had 
uot sufficient grounds for a quarrel. I felt 
in uiy own mind that, many a womau had ob¬ 
tained a divorce on less. I bad a sense of 
having beeu outrageously used, and resented, 
as the bight of insult, Tom’s attempt to nulli¬ 
fy me with a joke on my “flowerv” appear¬ 
ance. And so we bad our first quarrel 
(we had been married a whole year), hut I am 
not going to give you the benefit of it, be¬ 
cause you have all been through just such 
crises; or at, least if yefn have not, you are fit 
for immediate translation. 
When Tom started off after his most cheer¬ 
less breakfast, 1 sat down to indulge in a fit of 
retrospection over the events or that ill- 
starred day, and I had no difficulty in tracing 
the whole matter back to “that dress,” with 
its abominable draperies. And so my quar¬ 
rel, which might have hud a much more un¬ 
happy eudiog, but for Tom’s sweet temper, 
taught me a good lesson, and I shall never 
again wear in my kitchen anything but a 
plain house dress made iu such a maimer as 
to bid defiance to door-knobs and keys, and 
all such pitfalls aud snares which the enemy of 
mankind may spread about to destroy a 
woman’s peace of mind. The sleeves .dm II be 
wide enough toadmii of their beiug rolled up. 
I will wear a plain liuen collar, and no nich¬ 
ing to discomfort me with its loosening, or 
scratching, or pin-pricking, and my boots 
shall be neatly buttoned. With all these ele¬ 
ments of comfort, my peace of mind, and the 
utter impossibility of auother quarrel, will be 
foregone conclusions. 
NEW BUSINESS. 
MRS. S. H. ROWELL. 
“What in the world am I ever to do with all 
my apples and cider ?”said Susan Elmore,as she 
sat by the cook-stove iu Mrs, Wilson’s tidy 
kitchen, one afternoon iu October, with a dis¬ 
couraged look on her face. 
“How many apples have you, Mrs. El¬ 
more?” she asked. 
“Oh, as many as fifty bushels! They are 
beauties, too; but wo can never use them all; 
only three of us iu the family.” 
“Have you dried auy yet?” suid Mrs. Wil¬ 
son, kindly. 
Now Frank Elmore had married a young 
lady that lived in a populous village, aud she 
knew noth lug of the work in a farmhouse. 
She supposed life ou a farm was one lasting 
holiday, aud was uot a little astonished wheu 
she awoke from her dream to tiud that life was 
a duty. But she faced the inevitable fact 
with a brave face, und determined to live and 
learn. When she met any dillieulty that she 
did uot kuow how to overcome, she always 
ran over to ask Mrs, Wilson about it, for the 
good old lady was Frank’s aunt, and she took 
very kindly to the little woman, who was so 
anxious to learn how to work aud do things 
just as they should be done. 
“Why no, Auntie! bow do you dry apples? 
I thought they always bought dried apples by 
the pound.” she laughingly said. 
“So they do, my dear, when they buy, but 
farmers dry them by the bushel. It is not 
good economy to let your apples go to waste 
when you have an abundance of them and 
buy dried apples to use. You ought to put up 
When Baby was sick, we gave lier Castorla 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she.became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla. 
