290 
APR 27 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
latcranj. 
OUR FIRST FARMERS’ INSTITUTE. 
BY WM. ROSS. 
CHAPTER I. 
HE FARMERS’ INSTITUTE I propose 
to write about is not an institute held 
in some far-off locality, of which no one ever 
heard, or one which had its ri'e and progress 
in the imagination of a writer of fiction; 
but an institute in our own State of Ohio. 
Woodside, the county-seat of Excellent 
county,is a village of 1,200 to 1,500 inhabitants, 
that has grown to its present dimensions with¬ 
in the last 30 years. About that long 
ago the county-seat was located in Col. Wood- 
side’s fields where the beautiful town now 
nestles among the hills that surround it. 
Excellent is a county of hills and valleys, 
but a great part of it is what the farmers 
call “ strong lands,” and limestone in great 
abundance is distributed over the county. 
The sources of several branches of three 
different creeks are within the limits of the 
county. The bottoms along these are most¬ 
ly rich, being fed from the surrounding lime¬ 
stone hills. In its primitive condition the 
land was very heavily timbered with oak, 
magnolia, maple, beech, hickory, etc. Be¬ 
fore the age of railroads, all products had to 
be transported by wagon a distance of from 
10 to 40 miles to navigation. The early 
settlers were thus forced to produce such crops 
as would not be injured by waiting till such 
times as they could be taken to market, ead 
that always brought money at some price, or 
could,,be fed to the.stock, which could be driven 
to market on foot. Hence wheat, tobacco 
and hogs became leading products, and it 
ranked among the foremost counties in the 
State in tobacco, in the statistical tables. 
The laborious tasks of clearing off the tim¬ 
ber, cultivating among the roots, hauling 
long distances to market, and other toilsome 
duties incident to the earlitr times, made it 
desirable to the farmers to adopt such conven¬ 
iences as might be within their reach. They 
frequently built their stables on the banks of 
water courses, so as to be convenient to water 
for stock, as well as to get easy water transpor¬ 
tation for the manure that might accumulate, 
and eventually cause the removal of the 
stable before they were ready for tne event. 
The hog-lot, of course, had to have water 
ruuning through it for the same reasons, if it 
could be had, and it generally could. 
It is said the “world moves,” but it seems 
to be moving backward in the matter of con¬ 
veniences on the farm. The afore-mentioned 
conveniences are giving place to barns and 
hog-pens built back from streams, and the 
stock have to be taken some distance,or water 
has to be pumped from wells or cisterns. The 
farmers have, also, to haul the manure out 
and scatter it over the hill-sides, to get rid of 
it, which is hard work and very inconvenient. 
As the early settlers had to have the cream of 
the land to live on and pay taxes, it was very 
convenient to let the skim-milk run off and 
be carried away in the streams. But some of 
the present occupants are trying to stop 
these convenient washings, and to get grass 
to catch, and sod over the hill-sides. In many 
cases this is found to be a very inconvenient 
task to accomplish. This being the case, the 
subjects “How to Retain Fertility of Soil,” 
and “How to Renovate Worn-out Soil,” were 
very popular at our farmers’ institute re¬ 
cently held in Woodside. 
As this was the first institute we ever had, 
its history and how it was run are intensely 
interesting to some of our Excellent county 
fellows, though, so far as 1 know, it may not 
differ materially from other institutes. Some 
of the farmers had learned somehow, and we 
don’t know how, unless they had been reading 
agricultural papers, that such things as in¬ 
stitutes were being held in different localities 
in the State, and several times we came near 
catching the institute fever; for occasionally 
one farmer would say to another: “We ought 
to have an institute,” and the other would re¬ 
ply: “Yes, we ought.” Sometimes, too, the 
papers would say that we ought to have a 
farmers’ institute; but these mild symptoms, 
which assumed a periodical character, al¬ 
ways subsided without assuming alarming 
proportions, and so the institute always 
stopped somewhere before it arrived here. 
Woodside had a fever epidemic last fall, and 
the periodical symptoms of this one flashed 
up, and they kept on developing until we got 
it bad, or got it good, win hever way it was. 
CHAPTER II. 
We now introduce two characters that fig¬ 
ure conspicuously in our story. They were 
familiarly known as Jack Edwards and Bill 
Bark. Mr. Edwards was a “well-to-do” farmer 
and kept sheep. He formerly lived in a rough, 
lonely place in an adjoining county, and bad 
once attended an institute in that county. He 
had purchased a small farm that was very pleas¬ 
antly situated in the vicinity of Woodside, but 
the land was badly run down. His family was 
small and he rented his old homestead, and 
now lives a half-retired life on his new pur¬ 
chase. He had had a foretaste of institutes 
and was hungering and thirsting after more, 
for he wanted new ideas to comfort him in 
working up his new purchase so it would hold 
grass, and he knew that a farmers’ insti¬ 
tute was the place to get them. Bill Bark 
had been a resident of Excellent county for 
nearly 40 years. He had obtained a fair edu¬ 
cation, was very fond of reading agricultural 
as well as other literature, and therefore was 
always pretty well read upon all agricultural 
matters. During the earlier years of his life 
he had been engaged in general farming and 
stock raising, and had reared a large family, 
which was now scattering off, as most fami¬ 
lies will. He had recently changed his residence 
to a little home in the suburbs of Woodside, 
where he and family could better enjoy the 
conveniences and advantages that contribute 
towards making life pleasant. Not keeping 
much stock now, he had more time at his dis¬ 
posal to read than formerly. He had held 
responsible offices in the county and had had 
a taste of the inwardness of politics. Several 
times during his life he had assisted to start 
and carry on new societies and companies, 
and knew what time and labor it required to 
lead such things to success, and they had as 
often failed as succeeded. He seemed now to 
have become disgusted with the whole public 
spirit business, and made it a rule to refuse 
whenever solicited to engage in any public 
enterprise. So he had let all the little flashes 
of institute interest pass by with almost stolid 
indifference. He preferred to sharpen his 
mind with the product of other minds, by his 
own fireside, as it came to him through the 
printing press. 
One day in October, about a month after 
the Woodside Fair, thtse gentlemen met on 
the sidewalk. 
“Someof us was a-talkin’. out at the fair, 
about gitten’ up a farmers’ institute this win¬ 
ter,” said Edwards. “ Do you know bow to 
go to work to get it up?” 
“ Is that so ? ” responded Bark. “ I had not 
heard anything about it. Tbe way to get it 
up, is to just go at and get it up, I suppose.” 
“I was talkin’,” said Edwards; “to 
James High, and David Color, and they 
agreed to open a discussion on hogs; and 
young Mr. Hinton will take sheep, and we 
wanted to see you if you wouldn’t speak on 
Market.Gardenin’. ” 
“Oh! yes,” said Bark; “I’ll help you out on 
that subject.” 
Mr. Edwards continued. “ As Sheriff Nee- 
lan’s President of the Fair and Judge Fores¬ 
ter’s Secretary, we wanted to git them to be 
President and Secretary of the institute, and 
they agreed to it, as it would help the fair 
some, and it would have some influence in 
favor of the institute.” 
“ I think Sheriff Neelan and Judge Forester 
have about all they can do without getting up 
institutes.” said Bark. “ They are good men 
for the places, but they are in politics, and 
after the campaign is ended it may be too 
late; besides, they have their offices to look 
after anyway.” 
“ We was tryin to find some one that would 
open the discussion on horses ” said Jack. 
“Do you know any one that would take that 
subject ?” 
“ Well, no,” said Bark, “ There is Joe Swap 
and Taylor Dicker. They can come as near 
seeing through a horse as anybody, if he is 
for sale or trade, but I hardly expect they 
would speak in public. 1 think the first thing 
you should do, is to get Judge Forester to 
write to Secretary Bonham, at Columbus, 
and learn whether you can get spiakers. 
The sooner that is done the better, as the In¬ 
stitute Committee will be arranging the work 
before long.” 
“ Well,” said Edwards, ‘ I’ll do that right- 
away.” 
This conversation seemingly began to fan 
up the smouldering coals of interest in public 
affairs, that had been lying dormant some¬ 
where in Bill Bark’s nature. He went to 
thinking the matter over. Judge Forester was 
a stoutly built, strong man, but at this time 
he had about as heavy a load of politics as he 
could carry. Sheriff Neelan was one of the 
tallest men in tbe county, but he was in 
politics up to his ears, if not farther. Bill 
had been there and he knew how it was, him¬ 
self. Both these gentlemen belonged to the 
same party, too, and political farmers, or 
farmer politicians, whichever they might be, 
of the other party would be soured, and how 
the placing of these gentlemen at the head of 
the institute would carry influence to it, was 
something he was unable to understand. But 
then, it was not his bantling, so he would not 
interfere, as he was determined not to come 
to the front in anything of the kind again, 
for he had had his full share of chagrin, and 
had even been sneered at for planting briars 
when he planted out his first raspberry patch. 
However, nearly all his neighbors have fol¬ 
lowed his example in this, now. 
(To be Continued.) 
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1889. 
PRICES REDUCED I 
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