howl until we are hoarse and deaf and lame! 
There have been wet seasons and dry seasons 
in the past, and they will bo repeated in the 
future, until the end of time. All wo accom¬ 
plish by grumbling is to exasperate ourselves, 
cultivate our querulousness, and render miser¬ 
able those compelled to associate with us, 
* * * 
One of my neighbors is a man who a few 
years ago was a noted passenger conductor on 
a leading western railroad. He is a very 
quick and irascible person, and like such peo¬ 
ple is very desirous of having Nature shape 
her course to suit his particular ideas. After 
he had gotten his hay crop safely housed this 
summer, he walked out to the middle of the 
barnyard and glancing up and around, re¬ 
marked iu a familiar and patronizing manner 
that he was now ready for rain, and would be 
pleased to have it as soon as possible! An 
hour or two later he walked out again, and 
looking around to see whether Ins request, or 
order, was about to be complied with, he 
observed a small bunch of clouds in the West. 
“Aha!” said he, with evident satisfaction, “I 
see she’s fixing up in the West there. Now, if 
the wind holds where it is an hour we'll get 
it!” Sure enough “she” did fix up a good 
shower, but it went thundering off to the 
south. When be saw the course it had taken 
he fairly gnashed his teeth with rage. Shak¬ 
ing his fist at it, he shouted: “tin, if you want 
to, you miserable, old, thundering, wooly- 
headed squirt! There ain’t enough of you to 
wet a shirt-tail anyway! Go to blazes, you 
contemptible fistful of log. 1 could drink you 
dry at one gulp!" Turning about ho happen¬ 
ed to glance up at the vane on the barn, and 
seeing its tail turned toward the retreating 
shower, he snorted out: “Oh, that’s what did 
it! I see now. You have turned around, you 
diabolical jimerack! You abominable stick 
of iniquity! You -, you -” but lan¬ 
guage failed him, and he strode angrily into 
the house. 
* * * 
My thermometer hangs iu a nice, shady cor¬ 
ner of my north porch, and yet for three 
weeks the mercury has ranged between 98 and 
110 degrees. Such hot, dry weather so long 
continued has a very depressing effect on the 
human system, and about one-fourth of the 
population are sick, while one half of the re- 
maiuder imagine they are. While waiting in 
a drug store a few minutes the other day I 
took a few notes, A big, raw-boned Irish¬ 
man entered. 
“ I want to get a little quinine, an’—an’, as 
it is bad shtuff to take, couldn’t ye sort o’ mix 
it wid a little o’ somethin’?” The druggist in¬ 
formed him that he couldn’t. “Thin,” said 
he, faintly, “ I guess I’ll have to take it in a 
little wathor, an’ that’s a barrud thing to do!” 
In came a bronzed and muscular son of the 
soil, with Weary and watery-looking eyes. 
“ I want u bottle of Blank’s hitters. 1 ain’t 
a-feelin’ very well, an’ 1 want something to 
tone me up." While the druggist was wrap¬ 
ping the bottle up a little, weazen-faced, saf- 
fron-hued, dried-up chap entered uud seeing 
the other, squeaked out: 
“ Hello, Benjamin! How d’ye do?” 
“ Well, Jimmy,” replied the big fellow, 
plaintively, “ I ain’t a-doin’ very well. I'm a 
little under the weather to-day. How’s 
your folks?" 
“Oh, they’re a-kickin’round; but I’m feel¬ 
ing like a bay pig with a boil, myself. 
Caught cold t’other night, au ! it’s settled iu 
my back. Came in to get a plaster for it. 
How’s the wife and baby ?” 
“Well, Ann aiu’t very well—been iu bed 
most all day. Baby’s kiud o’ sick, too. We 
thrashed yesterday, and I carried the wheat— 
about 850 bushels of it—about 40 yards to the 
granary. It was awful hot, you know, and 
I guess I got over-bet! Aim didu't have any 
help in the house, an’ she had to cook and do 
for 17 men, an’I guess she overdoue herself, 
too. I think a few good doses of these hitters 
’ll tone us up, an’ we’ll be’round again in a 
day or two ?” 
* * * 
The only objects on my lawn that show a 
lively, refreshing green* just now are 
the cedars. To look at them one would never 
dream that the ground is as dry as punk, uud 
cracked like amateur plastering. 1 could set 
fire to the grass aud it would burn like pine 
shavings, so dry is it. All the flower-beds 
look sad and forlorn, except that planted with 
petunias. Despite the heat and drought and 
scorching winds these hardy rustlers have 
growu aud flourished until they cover the 
ground. They have bloomed steadily and 
continuously for over two months, and to-day 
the bed is the one bright spot of beauty iu a 
desert of brown, dead grass. Hundreds of 
flowers have been cut from it, and hundreds 
more will bo before Jack Frost smites with 
his icy smile. 
* * * 
When the soil is as dry as a brick-kiln, the 
suu glowing like molten iron, and the air like 
the breath of a furnace, thero is oue pluut iu 
my vegetable garden that continues to fatten 
and flourish and thrive as luxuriantly as a 
cut-worm in clover, and that is “pussley!” 
How exasporatiugly cool ami juicy and defi¬ 
ant it looks, with its little yellow eyes peering 
upward so calmly. Full it up, turn it upside 
down aud let the sun grill its roots all day, 
and the next morning it will look as fat aud 
happy and bellicose as ever. It is the only 
thing in my vegetable garden that looks green 
—that is, when I’m not there. 
Christian Co., Ill., Aug. 9. 
[It is a fact not known as well as it might be 
that there are few, if any, so-called bedding 
plants that will endure drought as well as 
petunias. Besides, they thrive and bloom 
during the entire summer until late fall, unless 
severe frosts prevent. The best petunias of 
Geneva aud Caznovia, and from their banks 
many a summer morning scene could be paint¬ 
ed that would smile like life on canvas. 
Detroit, Mich, jr. w. D. 
In Praise op Pykethrum. —I quite agree 
with the editor in regard to pyrethrum. Too 
much cannot be said in its favor. I have used 
it for four years and And it like the Irish¬ 
man’s rabbit, “good for everything.” It is 
good to kill bed bugs, house flies, chicken lice 
and mites, and I have even killed a week-old 
chicken by powdering in too effectually about 
the head. Nearly every one here employs it 
as a bed bug exterminator. Wo use a small 
pair of bellows and blow the powder into 
every crack and crevice of the bed-stead. 
Next morning all the bugs will be on the floor 
dead. It is a great improvement on the old 
A CONVENIENT COTTAGE. Fig. 317. (See page 560.) 
to-day are very different fyom those of years 
ago, and although their range of color is 
limited, if we wanted a bed of dowel’s that 
would flourish with the least amount of care 
petunias would be our choice.—E ds.] 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
The Old Home State. —After oue has 
seen the wonders of the great “Far West” aud 
found his way back over the prairies to the 
seashore for the Summer, he will conclude, if 
he is honest, that the scenes of the old Empire 
State are as pleasant and inviting for a home 
as auy he has ever beheld. The white roaring 
waters of Niagara are as restless and grand as 
ever. The hills look greener than those “out 
back-breaking, arm-aching process of scald¬ 
ing. We also use the powder for hen’s nests 
and roosts aud find it very effective in des¬ 
troying the troublesome mites. Since its in¬ 
troduction here, four years ago, it has been 
used largely. A druggist told me last sum¬ 
mer that he had sold at least oue-half barrel 
of it during the season. M. d. 
Boise City, I. T. 
Growing Peaches. — I see that various 
professors are discussing the growing of the 
peach. I am no professor, but have had 
nearly 45 years’ experience in peach growing. 
Iu arranging for a peach orchard I look first 
to location. Good peaches do not grow on 
very rich soil. I would pick a light, saudy 
A CONVENIENT COTTAGE. Fig. 318. (See page 560.) 
West,” the trees taller, the houses larger aud 
the landscape finer than he left them iu boy¬ 
hood. He never knew they were quite so 
beautiful before. All along the Central, the 
Hudson River, the Erie ami the West Shore 
lines are parks of hilly uplands covered iu in¬ 
finite variety with groves of walnut, oak aud 
hickory, grouped in rich green clusters and 
planted by nature to captivate the senses. 
These landscape views are even more beautiful 
along the Hudson River and Lakes Cayuga, 
soil, no matter if it was rocky. I would plant, 
16 feet apart, seeds of the best quality where 
the trees are to grow. I like to plant the 
seeds where the trees are to grow, because 
what I consider to be one of the most essential 
points in the life of a tree, viz.. the tap-reot, 
is injured or destroyed iu transplanting. 
Pomeroy, Wash. Ter. a. h. h. 
Troubles ok Farmers Near Cities.—A 
man’s fields, like his stock, tell his character 
more than his clothes, carriage or even his 
editorials. Farming has changed here since 
the facilities of transportation have increased, 
and some of the old heads are puzzled to pay 
their taxes, especially on lands near cities. 
What can a farmer raise on lands that are 
assessed at, say *500 per acre, when the rate is 
*10 to *1“ per thousand? Such is my lix and 
the markets are flooded with vegetables and 
fruit from New Jersey and further south. 
The pushing of farm work, never letting 
things drag, the raising of two or more crops 
on the same land in one year, getting. great 
growths, and educating the masses to believe 
that fresh vegetables and fruits are better 
than wilted ones, is probably one way out of 
the difficulty. j, n. b. 
W. Springfield, Mass. 
Fun All Round. —City people have great 
fuu with their country cousins when they get 
them in the city. I presume we do seem 
awkward and out of place when we go to the 
city for a visit. After working hard and 
constantly for years, it is pretty hard to be 
idle gracefully. We have more than enough 
sport out of the “city folks” when they come 
out here to board to make up for the fun we 
give them. Many of them talk so wisely (?) 
about stock and crops that it is hard to keep a 
straight face while listening to them. One 
woman at our house wanted to water the 
flower garden. She carried pail aftor pail of 
water and poured it carefully over some rag¬ 
weeds. Any farmer who has to do with city 
boarders could tell some amusiug stories about 
the doings aud sayings of his guests. As a 
rule, the farmer is more inclined to overlook 
the absurd blunders of his guests than they 
are to set him right when he comes to the city. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. e. s. h., jr. 
The Rat Pest. — I am satisfied that rats 
rob me of several hundred dollars every year. 
They are the worst pests we have. If our sci¬ 
entists will work out some way to dispose of 
them they would be doing farmers a real ser¬ 
vice. The scientists might think it pretty 
small business, but they would help the farm¬ 
ers far more than they now do with many of 
the investigations they undertake. I have 
never tried poisons for killing the rats, but 
since traps and cats have failed to dispose of 
them I shall try poison. H. G. N. 
Broome Co., N. Y. 
The last cartoon— in the Rural of Au 
gust 6—hits the uail squarely on the head. Of 
all things that are neglected on the farm, san¬ 
itary measures are the uiost. The Rural is 
doing a world of good by bringing these per¬ 
tinent questions before the eyes of the farmer. 
Rockford, Ills. w. D. n. 
Mousers.- I can indorse the Rural’s plan 
of making mousers out of cats. We castrate 
our kittens when about one-half growu. I 
prefer a Maltese or a “tiger.” Of course such 
