There is no healthier food than fruit, and 
it brings a pretty penny besides. 
Keep the fruit trees, berry bushes, etc., 
trimmed and the worms destroyed. 
Do not trim too much at a time. 
Hogs are a good thing in the orchard. 
The breed of hog is in the feed. 
Sell most of the pork and buy fresh beef 
and mutton when needed. 
Have plenty of light in the poultry-house 
and make it too warm to freeze. 
Principal causes of disease in fowls are; 
exposure to winds, cold, rain, or hot sun, sud¬ 
den change of diet, filthy food, drink, or 
apartments. 
A'Fowl that is diseased, or one that eats 
eggs should be separated from the others; sur¬ 
est cure is decapitation. 
Feed small black pepper corns to little 
chicks. 
Raw Indian meal is bad for chicks; it hard¬ 
ens in their crops aud kills them; better feed 
cooked pudding, or scalded meal with pepper 
in buckwheat, or cracked corn. 
Give fowls fresh water and sour milk every 
day. They need change of diet frequently. 
Sell old hens before they moult. Ho fun in 
picking pin-feathers. 
Be quiet, geDtle and kind with cattle. 
Pet the cows, they will give more milk. 
Carding cattle is one of the best means of 
taming them. 
Most money is made by keeping as many 
cows as possible, and no other stock except 
the necessary team. 
Under ordinary circumstances all the cream 
in milk will rise in 12 hours, nearly all in 
three. 
It is said by those who have tested all kinds 
of deep setting and shallow for milk, that if 
the milk be cooled to 45 degrees and kept 
there a few hours, it does not matter what 
kind of setting is used. 
Attend to all the butter work in its proper 
time. 
Buckwheat feed makes a large quantity 
of milk. 
Oil-meal and corn meal are good for fat¬ 
tening stock. 
Light food is best for growing stock. 
Keep a few bees to furnish honey for the 
table. They are worth studying too; but the 
general farmer has business enough without 
many bees. 
Keep a yoke of oxen and fewer horses for a 
new or rough farm. 
Keep more sheep and less dogs. 
Think about every piece of work before 
beginning it. Whether it will pay—what is 
the best way to do it, and whether everything 
is ready to begin. 
Then remember “the more haste the less 
speed;” work in a neat manner, else more 
work is made in the doing, and keep steadily 
at tbe task till it is done. These are the 
secrets of dispatch, or “turning off” work. 
Sharpen the knives and shears once in two 
months. 
Keep things fixed up, and looking tidy; “a 
stitch in time saves nine.” 
“Make hay while the sun shines.” 
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” 
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” 
No reason why a farmer should not be a 
gentleman. 
With young people beginning life, a debt 
on the farm may induce economy, industry, 
steadiness and perseverance. With older 
people it is apt to cause niggardliness. 
A farm should not carry more that one- 
third its worth of debt. 
Avoid small debts. Pay as you go. If you 
'cannot pay, do not go. 
Put by something to save every year before 
you buy all you need. 
Old age should eDjoy the fi uits of its labor. 
LENA CLAYBOURNE. 
LETTERS TO THE SMITHS. 
To Asa Smith.—I have long had it in mind 
to write, hoping to benefit not only yourself 
but some others whose farm management has 
attracted my attention. 
There is much to commend about your farm 
operatic ns; your system of tillage, its thor¬ 
oughness and its tendency to abridge manual 
labor, are admired by every careful observer 
who passes. Your ideas concerning fertilizing 
the soil are in the main correct, and no one 
could apply them to practicable purposes with 
better success. Then there is your experiment 
in drainage on the west lot, so perfect, not 
only in its general system, but all the minor 
details, as to completely transform a worth¬ 
less waste into a productive field covered with 
luxuriant vegetation. But from an observer’s 
standpoint you have some habits which seri¬ 
ously retard your progress in agricultural 
pursuits, and if I direct your attention to 
some of these, your quick perception will re¬ 
call the others. It seems to me you lack con¬ 
fidence in your own well-educated judgment 
concerning the exact time when the various 
farm operations should be commenced. You 
delay somewhat and permit your neighbors 
to take the lead. 
As an illustration : the spring-time of last 
season was very backward, frost remaining in 
the ground till well into May, and southerly 
wiuds for a long time kept the surface soil too 
damp for tillage. No sooner did the weather- 
vane indicate a brisk, northwesterly wind, 
than your neighbor Jones was at work in his 
onion field, and before another change in the 
weather, his ground was well-fined, made 
firm, and his seed sown in a workman like 
manner. As a risult, he has an average har¬ 
vest for the locality. You were a few hours 
later in commencing, and a small portion of 
your field was not as well prepared on ac¬ 
count of increased dampness of the soil. It 
was not lumpy; perhaps the casual observer 
might call it well-fined, still there were small 
crumbs ot soil among which the seed was 
scattered. Some of it failed to germinate, 
some did not grow luxuriantly, and matured 
imperfectly, causing a shortage in the crops. 
It is true this shortage was small and ex¬ 
tended only to a small proportion of your 
field, but when added to others of a similar 
character, they would amount to considerable 
in the total. 
The same general remarks will apply to 
your late cut hay for dairy stock, against 
which we have so often heard you declaim. 
Hoping these hints will be kindly received, I 
remain old uncle ned. 
THE POST-OFFICE CLUB. 
That actor that I spoke of last week, has 
decided to stay with us a while. The stage 
never paid him very well, it appears, so he 
determined to try country life for a time. 
There is plenty of work just now at cutting 
c f rn aud digging potatoes. He is not much of 
a farm hand, but it must be said in justice to 
him that he does his best to learn how to 
work. He is a good story-teller. He seems to 
have been everywhere and to have done 
everything. Here is the substance of a story 
he gave us the other night at the store. 
’RASTUS. 
’Rastus was a catl That is to say, he was 
a cat once. All that I ever saw of him was 
his rough, gray hide and his fierce yellow 
eyes. The taxidermist who took ’Rastus in 
charge must have been an amateur. No cat 
ever dreamed of living with such great 
bunches at the stomach, such great ridges of 
hide at the neck, aud such square angles on 
its legs as the taxidermist’s straw had pushed 
into view on ’Rastus. The eyes were natural, 
however. They were big and yellow and 
fierce. They glared at you with a fixed and 
stony glare that held your attention and gave 
you an idea that ’Rastus must have been a 
creature of considerable importance before 
the taxidermist spoiled his proportions. 
We saw ’Rastus in the parlor of the Wood¬ 
land House, Newago County, Michigan. We 
drove up to this place of entertainment long 
after dark one autumn night, with a crowd of 
tired horses and hungry men, to find the din¬ 
ing-room undergoing preparations for a 
country dance. The chairs and tables had 
been taken out, two fiddlers were practicing a 
waltz in one corner, while two men in their 
shirt-sleeves were whittling candles over the 
floor and double-shuffling the whittlings in. 
It looked like a hard place for supper, but 
our host, Josh Benson, was equal to any 
emergency. He walked us into the parlor, 
where, by the light of three sputtering candles, 
we managed to eat enough to carry us through 
the night. 
’Rastus occupied a space on the mantel ex¬ 
actly opposite my chair. His fierce, yellow 
eyes watched every mouthful that found its 
way from my plate to my mouth. The straw 
within him seemed to swell with dismay as he 
saw his owner’s profiis disappear down my 
throat. 
Jim Foster eyed ’Rastus curiously. 
“Gut the stuffin’ inter yon cat sorter corner- 
ways, ain’t ye?” he remarked, as he passed 
his cup for more coffee. “Looks as ef sum- 
thin’ sorter growed inter him an’ busted. 
Ain’t no discount on them eyes, though— 
them’s sound's a rock.” 
Josh could only rub his head and look 
wisely at ’Rastus by way of an answer. 
“What ye gut him perched up thar fer?” 
said Jim, after the third gulp had reduced the 
coffee to the dregs. “Pet cat, I ’spose—friend 
o’ the children, likely.” 
“Wall, no,” said Josh; “mebby ye won’t 
believe it, but that ar tom-cat’s gut a history 
ez runs like unto a story. It ’pears that he 
was stuffed nigh about 15 year ago. When 
ole Mis’ Turner died, her folks had a sorter 
sale an’ my wife bein’ on band an’ knowin’ 
how ’twas, bid the critter in fer a song. I 
ain’t no friend of no cat myself, ’cept its a 
dead un.” 
It ’pears that Mis’ Turner’s sister wuz a 
terrible ole maid. It beat all how she run 
’round tryin’ fer ter ketch a feller when they 
wasn’t none o’ the likely chaps but ’ud run a 
mile fer ter git away frum her. She fished an’ 
fished but wouldn’t nobody bite till along 
come a big fat feller what ’peared jest achin' 
fer ter git married. 
I’m a fellin’ this ez it cums ter me an’ 
’praps I ain’t gut it straight, but it don’t make 
no odds so’s it cums out even. This fat feller, 
he beat ’em all. His stummick wuz so big he 
wanted him a wheelbarrer fer ter carry it 
’round in. His nose wuz ez red ez a beet an’ 
it beat all how bald his head wuz. Didn’t no¬ 
body know jest whar he cum frum—didn’t no¬ 
body care. He courted it up ter Mis’ Turn¬ 
er’s sister in big shape an’ she wuz so happy 
over it an’ ’tother folks they wuz so glad ter 
git her started that nobody didn’t show no 
spite. 
This tom-cat yunder wuz named ‘Rastus. 
He wuz a tarrer, so I’m told. It ’pears that 
the night this fat feller made up his mind fer’ 
ter make sure ’bout hitchiu’ bosses with Mis’ 
Turner’s sister, this here ’Rastus wuz sorter 
rarin’ ’round in the garden. It wuz a hot 
night an’ the fat feller he set by the winder 
with that bald bead o’ his’n jest shinin’ like a 
star. Mis’ Turner’s sister she wuz clos’t by an’ 
’Rastus, he eyed ’em fer all he wuz worth. 
He didn’t like that bald head. He scratched 
an’ rared but didn’t neither on ’em pay no 
attention. Finally things gut ser fur that 
the feller he riz up an’ dropped onto his knees 
in front of Mis’ Turner’s sister. Them knee 
jints they squeaked good, but down he went. 
Jest ezhegutto what he wuzgontersay, yon 
’Rastus he give a spring an’ come in through 
the winder, ker flop. He lit clearn astride o’ 
the fat feller’s head an’ the way he made them 
claws o’ his’n fly beat the world. The fat fel¬ 
ler, he jest run fer dear life. They found him 
doubled up over a fence. Mis’ Turner’s sister 
she jest yelled an’ dropped. ’Rastus, he skip¬ 
ped out an’ made fer the barn. Thar he is 
now—all that’s left on him.” 
Jim Foster had been deeply interested. 
“Ole maid hed him killed an’ stuffed outed 
revenge I ’spose?” He said with another glance 
at the yellow eyes. 
“Sum sez so an’ sum sez not, It ’pears that 
afore the fat feller gut his head patched up 
sos’t he cud finish what he wuz a gonter say, 
the sheriff come along an’ wanted him fer 
stealin’ a hoss an’ runnin’ away frum his wife. 
Then Mis’ Turner’s sister braced up an’ sed 
she’d a knowed he wuz a rascal all the time, 
an’ that’s why she give him the mittin. ’Rastus 
he gut ketched into a bear trap an’ the men 
folks killed him an’ throwed him away, but 
Mis’ Turner’s sister she took his hide an’ stuffed 
it full o’ straw—jest ez ye see it. She alius wuz 
sorten cranky accordin’ to pop’lar tell. She 
done a poor job accordin’ to my figgerin’.” 
The music had started in the dining-room, 
and there came a great stamping of feet for 
the opening dance. We made haste to join 
the dancers. I took a backward look at 
‘Rastus. He glared at me with his yellow 
stare as though fully prepared to take another 
leap to protect the honor of the family. 
SMALL PICA. 
'ffiimtlmm?.-# fl&viartigittgo 
Purify the Blood. 
We do not claim that Hood’s Sarsaparilla is the 
only medicine deserving public confidence, but 
we believe that to purify the blood, to restore and 
renovate the whole system, it is absolutely 
unequalled. The influence of the blood upon 
the health cannot be over-estimated. If it be¬ 
comes contaminated, the train of consequences 
by which the health is undermined is immeasur¬ 
able. Loss of Appetite, Low Spirits, Headache, 
Dyspepsia, Debility, Nervousness and other 
“ little (?) ailments ” are the premonitions of 
more serious and often fatal results. Try 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
Sold by all druggists. $1; six for $5. Made 
only by C. I. HOOD & CO., LoweU, Mass. 
IOO Doses One Dollar 
LOG CABIN SUCCESS. 
What ails the young men ? 
Robert Garrett’s father left him a fortune 
of twenty millions. He was from childhood 
reared in luxury: he received a spleudid edu¬ 
cation with an especial training into a thor¬ 
ough knowledge of railroad management and 
was expected to succeed his father as a railroad 
king. 
Within three years after the responsibilities 
which his father’s death threw up-n him were 
assumed, he is reported a broken down man, 
with mir.d and health permanently shattered. 
George Law is another young man left with 
millions of money, who is reported among 
the “ wrecks ” His father, bred a stone mason, 
was of gigantic size and strength, with a com 
mensurate brain power, so ho became a grea 
contractor, then a ratlnad king and left hal 
a dozen millions for his son to dissipate. The 
young man is a success as a dissipator. 
The founders of both of these great estate 
were born in the most humble walks of life, 
grew strong mentally and physically by sim¬ 
ple living and honest labor, and developed 
into financial giants. Their sons were reared 
in the lap of luxury and developed into intel¬ 
lectual pigmies. 
The great men of our country havo not, as 
a rule, come from the elegant mansions of 
the cities, buc from the Log Cabins of the 
rural districts. Simple ways of living, free¬ 
dom from dissipation and enervating pleas¬ 
ures, simple remedies for disease, effective 
and which leave no poison in the system, de¬ 
velop brawny, brainy men, who compel the 
world to recognize their strength and power 
The wholesome, old-fashioned Log Cabin 
remedies are the safest and surest for family 
use. Our grandmothers knew how to prepare 
the teas and syrups of roots, herbs and bal¬ 
sams, which drive disease out of the system 
by natural methods and leave no after ill 
effects. The most potent of these old-time 
remedies were, after long aud searching inves¬ 
tigation, secured by H. H. Warner of safe 
cure fame, and are now put out for the “ heal¬ 
ing of the nations” in the Warner’s Log Cabin 
remedies. 
Regulate the regulator with Warner’s Log 
Cabin sarsaparilla, and with pure blood giving 
health, strength, mental and bodily vigor, 
you may hope to cope successfully with the 
most gigantic financial problems of the age, 
without wrecking health and manhood. 
0OLS MEDAL, FAEI3, 1878, 
BAKERS 
Warranted absolutely pure 
Cocoa ■, from which the excess of 
Oil has been removed. It has 
times the strength of Cocoa mixed 
with Starch, Arrowroot or Sugar, 
and is therefore far more economi- 
coating less than one cent a 
cuj. It is delicious, nourishing, 
strengthening, easily digested, and 
admirably adapted for invalids m 
well as for persons in health. 
Seld by Grocers everywhere, 
f. BAER & CL Dorchester, Mass. 
(trees, j§ ceils nml plants. 
HILE30RN RASPBERRY, 
Two years ago thp proprietors of Foothill Nurseries 
of Canada purchased the pntire stock of this valuable 
Black Cap. and can now furnish first-class plams at 
reasonable rates, much hardier than Gregg, fully as 
productive, aud of excellent quality. 
See notice In Rcpal of Sept. 15th. Send for circular 
and price. Address 
STONE tfc VVEl.I 1NGTON, 
Toronto, Canada, 
600 ACRES. 13 CREENHOUShs*- 
TREES ajd PLANTS 
We offer for the Fall trade a large and fine stock 
of every description of KK UIT and Ornamental 
! 5* ,r «bs> Hoses, Vines, SMALL 
T'RlITs, Hedge Plants, Fruit Tree Seed¬ 
lings and Forest Tree Seedlings. Priced Cat*, 
logue Fall of 1888, mailed free. Ettahliahed 1862. 
BLOOMINGTON ^PHOENIX) NURSERY 
8IDNKI TITTLE Si CO. Proprietors, BLOOXl.NUTOX, ILL. 
P ROFITABLE T< VU!, ow 
PYLE’S RED WINTER APPLE 
a arge. red. showy apple; good keeper, and 
abundant bearer. Price, first-class trees, 75 cents, 
second class 50 cents, each. Write to 
GEOltUK ACT1FL1S. West Chester. Pa, 
ALL THE LEADING VARIETIES. 
Apple Trees. 
Varieties for all sections North and South. Special 
collection of winter ke pers for sections where North¬ 
ern varieties do not succeed. Pears, t herry and 
Quince Trees, Grape Vines, ^hatle and v»r« 
namental Trees. For sale Cben p. 80 page Cata¬ 
logue free. The RANDOLPH PETERS NURSERY Co., 
Mention Rural New-Yorker. Wilmington, Del, 
