THE RURAL WEW“¥©RKER, 
477 
1888 
reference to their utility and reference to 
the separate or combined requirements of the 
buyers. Under this system, which is the in¬ 
evitable because the only logical outcome, the 
fiddling and fooling of ignorant and selfish 
breeders will be ignored, and only the broad 
lines indicated by common sense will be ad¬ 
hered to. 
Another Point. Wherever on the broad 
continent any particular breed is most at home, 
and, being so, there best and most completely 
preserves the characteristics which give it 
business value, that place will become its rec¬ 
ognized head-quarters; and thence breeders 
elsewhere will seek to recruit their stock. No 
one can yet say with certainty where this lo 
cation will be, for each breed. It may be in 
more than one place for[sections ot each breed, 
as for beef aud dairy Short horns and Polls, 
and so around among every kind of stock. But 
such locations there will certainly be, deter¬ 
mined mainly by exact local adaptations, but 
sometimes influenced also by a local develop¬ 
ment of skill and experience, springing per¬ 
haps from the personal influence of some no¬ 
tably skilled individual. 
A Chance for Ale. —Among the many 
species and varieties of farm stock, there is 
scarcely a locality that may not have a chance 
to distinguish itself as a “ head quarters” for 
something of special value, which will be 
recognized abroad, and bring desirable pa¬ 
tronage. Here is a stimulus for ambitious 
endeavor all around, aud honest rivalry of 
this sort merits all the encouragement which 
the press and the public can give it. When 
this principle thoroughly penetrates and per¬ 
meates the entire stock-breeding class, we 
shall have the foundation and material for 
great sectional competitions, conducted on so 
large a scale, aud by such sound methods, 
that awards given there will possess a value 
far beyond anything heretofore known. The 
power of rings will be broken by the com¬ 
bined force of broad, general interests, and 
bottom facts will be reached by unsparing 
tests and thorough investigation. Stockmen 
should keep this idea in view, and make its 
realization their great objective point. 
farm Copies. 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
Farmers immemorial grumblers ; causes of 
dissatisfaction with existing conditions ; 
the dark side of other vocations; one of the 
greatest hindrances to agricultural success: 
how to counteract it; blessings of agricul¬ 
ture. 
Our Canadian farmers, like those of the 
States, are prone to grumble, and apt to exhibit 
the dark, rather than the bright side of their 
existence. Some reasons must exist for these 
universal complaints. Perhaps we overlook the 
tendencies of our times. Modern facilities for 
travel excite a desire for change; the cheap 
newspaper makes every one acquainted with 
tempting chances for making money; railways 
concentrate population at their termini, aud 
towns and cities assume an abnormal growth. 
Thus rural populations are drained of their 
most active elements, and cities are surcharged 
with adventurers who often lapse from specu¬ 
lation into crime. 
Farmers forget that 90 per cent of our mer¬ 
chants fail in business; that the learned pro¬ 
fessions are overcrowded, and not a tenth of 
those entering their ranks ever attain to 
wealth or eminence; and that in large business 
centers, mechanics, and operatives, in times 
of commercial depression, are often on the 
verge of starvation. They forget that a large 
fortuue is not assured happiness, and that a 
moderate competency, almost always to be 
secured upon a farm, is one of heaven’s best 
material gifts. 
In my opinion, one of the greatest hin¬ 
drances to the advancement and success of 
agriculture in our day, in the early departure 
of the brightest and most ambitious of the 
boys and girls from the farm, to seek fame 
and fortune where they may be more rapidly 
attained. These boys and girls forget, or ig¬ 
nore, the example of One who worked at the 
old homestead until he was 30 years of age, 
and had repaid bis parents for the care of his 
infancy and the cost of his education. They 
forget that this fairest example of all history 
amounts to a sacred and binding law on all 
his professed followers. 
The question arises, can nothing be done to 
counteract this evil, and to create a relish in 
farmers’ children for rural pursuits? I would 
not go so far as Count Tolstoi, and maintain 
that all men should earn their own living by 
cultivation of the soil; but I think something 
practical could be done to render farm life 
more attractive to farmers’ children. The 
education furnished by our common schools 
fails in this. Higher agricultural teaching 
tends to unfit the student for manual labor. 
Experimental stations, exhibits, and farmers’ 
institutes are all very well in their way: but 
these are beyond the majority of country 
children—the boys who in a few years will 
be the men of America. 
I would not advocate the introduction of dry 
text books on agriculture into our common 
schools; but I would supplement them with 
technical, industrial, or kindergarten schools 
of agriculture. The necessary building should 
have a few acres of land attached, where in 
the balmy summer weather both boys and 
girls could be taught “how things grow;” and 
where in winter in the workshop, boys could 
learn “how things are made;” and where 
girls, in the industrial rooms, could be in¬ 
structed in house-keeping. Knowledge ac¬ 
quired in this natural and pleasant manner, 
by children, say from six to 12 years of age, 
would never be forgotten, and would prove 
of great practical value in after life, whether 
in town or country. 
I think that there is no question but that 
agriculture, intelligently carried out, is the 
most interesting occupation in which any 
one can be engaged. It certainly is the most 
healthy, and offers just enough difficulties, 
to overcome which cannot fail to build up 
a sturdy character and brighten the intel¬ 
lect. Nor is there any reason why this pur¬ 
suit should not yield to those who follow it 
solid prizes:— 
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our Stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” 
Calumet, Que., l. 
FOLDING GATE. 
M. F. Olds, of El Paso County, Colorado, 
sends sketches to illustrate the gate shown at 
Figs. 259 and 260 In that country, where 
horseback riding takes the place of much of 
our carriage riding, agate that can be opened 
without dismounting is a great convenience 
This, as we understand it, is the main point of 
Fig. 259. 
superiority claimed for this gate—it can be 
opened by a horseman while sitting in the sad¬ 
dle. 
In Fig. 2(50 the gate is shut; at Fig. 259 it is 
shown open. The “philosophy” of the ma¬ 
chine is this:—A large box filled with sand 
forms a weight at the end of the gate. The 
gate turns upwards on a strong bolt at L. 
Stout wires run from b and b, the tops of the 
posts, to the point e on the gate. Two posts, 
h h are set each 16 feet from the gate, with the 
gallows-arm shown in the cut. At the end of 
these arrrs pulleys o o o o are placed, and a 
stout rope runs through each as shown in 
the cut. Another rope extends from b near 
the sand box to a point c on the rope which 
raises the gate. With the gate shut, a horse¬ 
man is supposed to ride to either post, h Fig. 
260, and pull on the rope at d or d.” This raises 
the rope to an angle of 45° when the heavy 
sand box will leave it as shown at Fig. 259. We 
consider this more of a mechanical curiosity 
than anything else—like most self-closing 
gates. It is ingenious but too complicated for 
practical use. 
A CONVENIENT HOG HOUSE. 
M. G. L. Gilbert of Montgomery Co., 
Ohio, sends us the plans of the building 
shown at Fig. 258, which he says will be 
found large enough to accomodate a sufficient 
number of stock and fattening hogs for any 
one farmer’s own use. The cut shows the in¬ 
terior arrangement, but a few words of ex¬ 
planation may be needed. 
The house, not including the ground pen, 
is 14x24 feet. The feed room at the center 
is four feet wide. It runs to within two feet 
of the back. This remaining space, two feet 
wide, forms a passage-way between the two 
1- 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
Ground 
Pen 
i 
jDoor 
1 
Door ! 
V 
o 
o 
Passage § 
Manure 
Pit 
Feed ^ 
(5 
Floor | 
Door f— 
IMF 
Stair 
Feed 
3r Feed 
o Floor 
ct 
H ; Door 
Manure 
Pit 
Sleeping; ' 
Room 
Sleeping, 
Trough 
Room 
Door/") 
Room 
Trough 
□ 
□ 
□ 
Spout 
Stair Spout 
Entrance 
Doors forThrowing in Feed 
Fig. 258. 
feed floors. These feed floors are 9x10 feet, 
and the sleeping rooms are 5x10 feet. 
At O, Dear the door of the feed room, is a 
place for a swill tub. The troughs near the 
feed-room are seven feet long. The partitions 
are 3% feet high. The manure pits are 6x14 
feet. The stairs are at the back of the feed- 
rcom. The upper floor is six feet above the 
first fleor and high enough to hold all the 
feed required for the hogs. The smaller cut 
at the bottom shows the arrangement of this 
upper floor. Mr. Gilbert says he used the 
following bill of lumber: 
Shingles, 3,450; two-inch planks for the low ¬ 
er floor and trough, 1,050 feet; la'h 1,250 
feet; fencing for the pits, 110feet: inch lum¬ 
ber, 1,000 
CURIOUS GROWTH OF FOREST TREES. 
Thebe is something wonderful in the way 
trees grow, and when there is an}' remarkable 
departure from what is known as natural 
growth, the exceptions are noted. How it is 
that a branch can become a part of the main 
trunk, and lose its identity in the growth 
above the point where it turns back upon the 
parent stem, I do not pretend to say; and I am 
at a greater loss to know how two trees of 
different species can join themselves together, 
and as far as I can determine exchange sap, 
or,at least, make an interpenetration of growth 
so that an axe fails to find the linn of jointure. 
I noticed a large beech limb which has been 
blown down during a 
storm, having a smaller 
limb growing out of 
it and then growing 
back into it again; but 
the point of entrance 
w as as hard and solid 
from passage of sap, as 
vas the point from 
which the limb started. 
The large limb was 
about 10 inches in diam¬ 
eter, and the smaller 
one about four inches 
through, and from the 
growth it had evident¬ 
ly been quite a small 
branch when it took 
its present form. See 
Fig. 252. 
I find frequent in¬ 
stances where oak trees 
divide near the root, 
and become one tree some distance up, just 
as though there was but one trunk. See Fig. 
253. 
There is in particular one tree near Baton 
Fig. 253. 
Rouge, the like of which I never heard of. It 
has one stump, separates into two trunks and 
about 15 feet above, the two trunks are joined 
by a branch so large and firmly grown or em¬ 
bedded in both that it supports one of the 
trunks, after it was cut at the point, of separa¬ 
tion near the slump; and, more curious, the 
trunk cut is dead up to the point of joining 
with tbe[other tree, but above that place it is 
alive and growing—see Fig. 254. 
Almost within gun-shot of the above, is a 
bay tree, both top and bottom growing in the 
ground, and the branches growing upright, 
making a complete arch (see Fig. 255). When 
in bloom the sight is grand. 
Ihe union of two saplings about five inches 
in diameter, and in growing condition, is a 
case I will watch with much interest. A 
holly and red elm are firmly united about 10 
inches above the ground, both 
seemingly having thrown out 
a growth of wood to effect the 
union. They twine about each 
other, without touching, from 
this point until a hight 
of ten feet is reached 
when a second union is made 
similar, to the first. From 
this second place of joining 
they grow separate and are 
distinct (see Fig. 256). Each 
place of union seems to in¬ 
crease in size every year. 
An immense cypress grows 
with two separate trunks to 
the hight of 60 feet where they 
join and have but one top, 
which is about 30 feet 
high. Above the point of union is another 
curiosity (see Fig. 257). How does the sap 
from two distinct trees flow into one top? 
Baton Rouge, La. r. g. b. 
[It is a mere case of grafting, and half-a- 
dozen separate trees might be made to unite 
and form a single top, if the trees were closely 
related and the operation were performed 
while they were young. In the case of Fig. 
254 the portion of the trunk below the uniting 
stem is necessarily dead, having no sap to sup¬ 
port it. If in pruning trees we do not cut 
close to the main stem, the stump left must 
perish unless buds push at once, so as to give 
leaves to support it. Hence the instructions 
in pruning often given, “cut close to a bud. ’ 
Sap can not flow where leaves do not exist to 
induce sap movement.— Eds.] 
Fig. 257. 
