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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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£axm Copies* 
ABANDONED FARMS. 
(Continued from Page 804.) 
list. The State Commissioner sent me a 
circular and I filled it out; but stated that 
it was not an abandoned farm though it 
was for sale. I took it for an investment 
and for the timber. It has been occupied I 
suppose for 100 years. It is not worn out. 
It is productive and well located two 
miles from a railroad depot, church, etc. 
My health is poor and hence I would be 
glad to sell. There are various reasons for 
the abandonment of farms hereabouts. 
1. Our young men do not like to work on 
the farm. 2. Help is scarce and wages are 
high. 3. Our farmers do not keep their 
farms in a paying condition. They spend 
too much time riding about. They must 
all hi\ve covered buggies, etc. 4. Some of 
the farms are run out. 5. Many are too 
far from a railroad and a market. If we 
had a lot of thrifty Germans and Swedes, 
however, they would do well. 
Grafton County. 
FROM W. A. RUSSELL. 
Why are the farms deserted in our town? 
Twenty years ago District School No. 3 
had, during the winter term, between 60 
and 70 scholars; now there are only five. 
Where are the people gone ? One by one 
they have sought the commercial centers, 
until their old homes are nearly deserted. 
Most of them, like myself, thought farm¬ 
ing too hard, or too dull a life, and now as 
the fathers and mothe: s pass away, no one 
of the family is ready to take their places. 
Twenty years ago the farmers never 
thought of buying grain, but to-day they 
can do so cheaper than they can raise it. 
Then corn and potatoes brought good 
prices, and if the farmers had a surplus, 
they could readily dispose of it at a good 
profit. Yet to-day, if a man is willing to 
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, he 
can do so here on the farm, and no man 
gets more out of life than the independent 
farmer. 
Middlesex County, Mass. 
FROM O. R. ALEXANDER. 
A great deal has been said about aban¬ 
doned farms in Vermont lately. I do not 
know of any on this side of the Green 
Mountain range. I think the time is com¬ 
ing when more of our young men will re¬ 
main at home and stick to the farms. Our 
Champlain Valley is one of the most charm¬ 
ing places to live in in America. The scen¬ 
ery and soil cannot be surpassed and our 
society is first-class and our schools are ex¬ 
cellent. No blizzards or hurricanes visit 
us; nor are there any thieves or burglars 
to speak of. 
Chittenden County, Vt. 
(£ucnjiul)m. 
A SUMMER OUTING IN THE NORTH 
CAROLINA MOUNTAINS. 
II. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
'Hie “ Land of the Shy ; ” the Blue Ridge 
and blue flowers; Mount Mitchell; a 
lonely grave; a high fountain ; railroad 
gymnastics. 
From Salisbury on to Asheville the 
country was charming. Wheat was being 
harvested, there were more and better 
houses, the smart hotels at the stations had 
quite a Northern look, and wealth and 
thrift were apparent in various ways. All 
the time the train was climbing higher into 
the mountains, the blue of the distant hills 
being of a most soft and exquisite hue, ow¬ 
ing, possibly to the deciduous character of 
the trees with which they were clothed. 
The fleecy clouds were floating much near¬ 
er, and we had entered the “Land of the 
Sky.” Miss Fisher (Christian Reid) who 
writes gracefully of Southern life, lives in 
Salisbury, and one of her books which she 
calls “The Laud of the Sky,” is a light 
and amusing account of the experiences of 
a party making a tour in the mountains. 
From the time we were well in the 
mountains confusion reigned in my mind 
as to our whereabouts. Mountains were 
everywhere, a great brood of them, and 
there were no distinctive peaks, or ridges 
to my eyes. But to the natives, this was 
the Blue Ridge, that the Great Smoky, 
yonder the Nantehalah, afar the Blacks, 
and everywhere the Appalachian or Alle- 
ghanian Range. It didn’t particularly 
matter, and to assure myself that I was in 
fact somewhere, I mentally classified 
everything as the Blue Ridge. A new, 
curious and very blue flower, growing in a 
tall spike flourished in abundance by the 
roadside, and I asked the car conductor 
what the people called it. He said he had 
never heard a name for it, and after some 
further talk he gave it as his opinion that 
the mountains had been named Blue be¬ 
cause of the abundance of this flower. 
Some days later while walking in Ashe¬ 
ville, 1 leaned over a garden fence where a 
young woman was gathering a nosegay and 
asked the name of a flower, new to me, 
which I saw growing therein. She did not 
know it, and when I commented on the 
blueness of her larkspurs, she said that she 
never before knew what they were called, 
and she had seen them from childhood! 
She probably wondered why any one should 
bother her head about the names of things. 
Before reaching Asheville, the railroad 
performs various engineering antics in get¬ 
ting across the top of the Blue Ridge, and 
particularly is this the case in getting 
around aud over what is called the Round 
Knob. In this place where the mountains 
and the rail track play at hide-and-go-seek, 
a hotel has been built, and by the damming 
up of a mountain stream, a fountain was 
established which threw up a stream 268 
feet high, which, in American parlance, was 
the highest water jet in the world. But it 
did not jet when we saw it, and from all ac¬ 
counts it seemed to have lain inactive for 
some time. When well over the Knob, Mt. 
Mitchell comes into view. This mountain 
with its well rounded top would not attract 
special attention for its hight, which is 6,711 
feet, 426 feet higher than Mount Washing¬ 
ton in New Hampshire, and there are 20 
other tops in North Carolina higher than 
Mount Washington. But it was on the top 
of this'mountain that Prof. Mitchell—who 
was a New England man and the first to 
ascertain and publish the fact that the 
Black Mountains of which this is one, are 
the highest land east of the Rockies—lost 
his life, and is now buried in a lonely, 
cloud-enveloped grave. It was his third as¬ 
cent to the top, and he went alone. As sev¬ 
eral days passed and no news came of him, 
a party, with an old mountaineer for guide, 
went in search of him, and found his body 
lying in a pool at the foot of a precipice 
some 30 feet high, over which he had prob¬ 
ably fallen in the darkness or obscurity of 
the clouds. His body had been wonderfully 
preserved by the pure air, and it was taken 
down the mountain to Asheville, for inter¬ 
ment. Some years afterward, it was 
thought proper by his scientific friends, 
that his body should permanently rest on 
top of the mountain which bears his name 
and is his monument, and with inconceivable 
difficulty, it was borne to the top, accom¬ 
panied by a cortege of scientific men, who 
were three days in reaching the summit. 
Now, quite a good many tourists an¬ 
nually make the ascent, which can be done 
on horseback, as there is a fairly good trail 
to the top, from which the view, if the 
clouds are off the mountain, is vast and 
magnificent. A young South Carolina 
woman told me she had thrice made the as¬ 
cent, once on foot, camping over-night mid¬ 
way up the mountain. Professor Mitch¬ 
ell’s grave is without name or headstone, 
but a wall of loose stones that surrounds 
his resting place, receives an additional 
stone or two from every visitor. When the 
projected railroad to the summit is achieved 
perhaps some further protection will be 
given to this singularly sad grave in the 
clouds. I^ear aud deer still abound in these 
mountains, as well as wild cats aud no end 
of “ razor-back ” hogs, and it is a custom 
among the mountaineers to roll a log on the 
top of a newly made grave, to prevent the 
body from being disinterred by hungry 
beasts. 
When within a mile or so of Asheville, 
the railroad sweeps along by the French 
Broad River, where it is joined by the 
Swanuanoa, and we caught a few pretty 
glimpses of this stream so celebrated for its 
picturesqueuess. But its waters were 
muddy, and for a mountain river I thought 
its charms had been overrated ; but it may 
be charming in spots, as it sweeps on in its 
course to the Tennessee. 
Asheville I would think must be pretty 
from any point of view from which it is 
approached. At all events, it seemed to 
me like an oasis of civilization and comfort 
in those mountainous wilds, and its pretty 
little new railway station, with its white 
fence at one side to keep quarreling hack- 
men at a respectful distance, was grateful 
to see, as we left the cars for another night’s 
rest. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Delaware. 
Dover, Kent County, November 19.— 
Corn is about all housed ; the crop is not a 
large one even in the most favored sections, 
and I don’t think I am far wrong in esti¬ 
mating that one-third of the whole corn 
area in the State will return but little more 
than the seed. We have not had four con¬ 
secutive fair days since April 15. Corn- 
fodder is much damaged and the loss in its 
feeding value will be seriously felt. Pub¬ 
lic sales are more numerous this fall than 
they have been for a long time. Many 
farmers are quitting farming for various 
reasons. Stock sells low, but feed of all 
kinds brings full value. Wheat has made 
a good start; not much difference can be 
seen between early and late-sown. Stock 
are still on pasture although being 
fed some in the yards at night. 
Late potatoes were a fair crop; there 
are some complaints of rot now. The 
present outlook for farmers is not the 
brightest. Prices for what we have grown 
are low and the demand light. There are 
not apples enough for the home demand. 
The factories will soon begin to put up 
poultry ; but little is being shipped as the 
prices obtained at home are about equal to 
those at the city markets. The ground has 
been slightly frozen a few times, but for 
the greater part of the time the weather 
has been warm and wet. Market quota¬ 
tions : Wheat, 70 cents; corn, 35 cents; oats, 
30 cents; hay, $10@$15 ; potatoes, white, 40 
cents; sweet, 50 cents ; pork, $5.50 per cwt.; 
poultry, nine cents@ll cents; eggs, 25cents: 
butter, 20 cents@25 cents. A. G. S. 
Woman’s Work, 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
N OWADAYS, when education is sup¬ 
posed to be the rule, not the excep¬ 
tion, it is a little surprising to find so 
many girls and women who cannot write a 
decent letter. No matter how prettily a 
girl writes, whether the round, flowing hand 
taught in the public schools, or the big, an¬ 
gular sprawl of fashion, she is no cor¬ 
respondent if she forgets to put her full 
address and date at the head of the letter. 
A great many do forget this, and at times 
it is particularly exasperating. Entire 
street and number, if in a town, or full 
post-office address in any case, should never 
be omitted. The date, too, is often forgot¬ 
ten, a very exasperating thing when any 
engagement is made, either for business or 
pleasure. As for punctuation, many a 
woman has no idea beyond a dash or a com¬ 
ma, unless it is the parenthesis. Colons 
and semicolons are entirely ignored. Noth¬ 
ing is more bewildering than to wade 
through a lengthy and indistinctly written 
letter where sentences are divided or ter¬ 
minated only by the dash, but several of 
our girl friends are guilty of this fault. 
Good spelling is surely within every one’s 
reach, yet many a woman is deficient in it. 
Judging from the many fairly educated 
persons who can never recollect the differ¬ 
ence between ei and ie, or the changes 
from a single to a double 1, we begin to 
think that Dogberry was right in saying 
that writing and reading come by nature. 
Such unfortunates might remember the 
clever scheme of the old Duchess of Gordon, 
who it is reported, said: “You know, my 
dear, when I don’t know how to spell a 
word I always draw a line under it, and if 
it is spelled wrong it passes for a very good 
joke, and if it is spelled right it doesn’t 
matter.” Unfortunately, it is the easy 
little words one usually spells incorrectly; 
people who write their “ thare ” will usu¬ 
ally look in the dictionary before venturing 
on polysyllables. In conclusion, while we 
admit that bad spelling does not by any 
means invariably imply lack of education, 
it certainly does show carelessness in any 
case, nor can we consider any woman fully 
educated if she is unable to write a well- 
composed, correctly-spelled letter in her 
own language. 
* 
* # 
We recently saw some individual salt¬ 
cellars which were both pretty and cheap. 
They were little tiny oval J apanese bas¬ 
kets, made of bamboo lined with red lac¬ 
quer ; they were clean, unbreakable and 
quaint-looking, having a very pretty effect 
on the table. It is surprising how many 
pretty little Japanese articles one may buy 
for the table, to give a relief from ordinary 
white ware. Butter or cheese plates, pickle 
and sauce dishes, dessert plates or salad 
bowls—any odd pieces—may be purchased 
in Japanese ware, and all are within the 
reach of small purses. Even when not in 
fine china, the quaint oddity of shape and 
design, or the brilliant coloring, makes 
it uncommon and decorative, to the very 
great improvement of a plain tea-table. 
PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS. 
OLIVE E. DANA. 
W E have been pondering over our 
Christmas gift-making some time 
already—the most of us—have we not? 
And some of us are no nearer decision 
thaD when we began to plan and ponder. 
It is some Dimes so hard to suit at the same 
time,one’s friend ,ones-self and one’s pock 
et-book. 
A gift should be tried by at least th ree 
tests—its own fitness, the recipient’s needs 
and tastes and the giver’s ability. How 
many of the presents we have given in oth¬ 
er years abide such testing? 
It is fortunate that hands as well as heads 
may help in the Christmas preparations. 
Fingers can eke out scanty funds and the 
gift into which love’s labor goes is doubly 
precious. Still, our labor is not always 
well spent. It seems to me that every gift 
ought to be so chosen that it will be and 
bring, of itself, no less than as the expres¬ 
sion of friendship or affection, some real 
help, solace, cheer, however slight. And 
the best gift is the most serviceable. I use 
the adjective, of course, in its broadest 
sense. After love, which is itself wise and 
tactful, it seems to me that judicious gift¬ 
making requires nothing so much as tact. 
The quality grows, too, by exercise. Shall 
we not try to use a good deal of it, and of 
its sister-virtue, pre-thought, in choosing 
our Christmas gifts? 
More and more, it seems to me in manu¬ 
factures, in fashions, in the growing realm 
of decorative art, skill, taste and energy are 
being freely expended on articles designed 
for common use. 
More and more artists and artisans seem 
to feel that talent and labor are well ex¬ 
pended if through their products men’s 
and women’s daily tasks are lightened, or 
their common life dignified or elevated. 
And, following the same trend, all the 
various womanly accomplishments vaguely 
defined as “ fancy-work ” are in demand 
not only that a few pieces of fragile bric- 
a-brac may be added to the furnishings of 
parlor or sitting-room or chambers, but to 
supply articles of real use, convenience and 
beauty for every department of house¬ 
keeping. 
Those skilled in needle-work ought to be 
the last to find it hard to prepare dainty 
and valuable gifts. If the friend or ac¬ 
quaintance one wishes to remember is mis¬ 
tress of a home, and covetous for its adorn¬ 
ing, there is wide room for choice. Just 
for the dining-room, numberless pretty 
and useful thiugs may be made. A linen 
table-scarf done in outline, with knotted 
fringe, is a graceful adjunct. Tray-cloths 
and carving-cloth are always acceptable, 
and vary sufficiently in design and in 
quality to suit all tastes and purses. Doy¬ 
lies and the fringed and outlined tea-nap¬ 
kins swell the list, while, if one desires 
something even simpler, a table-screen may 
serve the purpose. This, for a table of or¬ 
dinary size, is made of a width and a-half of 
cheese-cloth, two and a-half yards long. 
It has a hem, an inch and a-half in depth, 
fastened by feather-stitching, done on the 
right side. The screen has also a design in 
each corner done in outline. One lately 
done has simple designs taken from stamp¬ 
ing patterns, of creamer, sugar-bowl, cup 
and saucer, tea-tray, etc., done in red tam¬ 
bour cotton. It consumed very little time 
in the making, is convenient and tidy, and 
it may be washed. Table-mats, crocheted 
of heavy white cotton make an acceptable 
gift to the house-wife, who might also be 
gladdened by any of the “cozies” recently 
introduced aud now so much in vogue. If 
one has very little time or skill, a pair of 
handsome towels may be bought, aud 
worked with the initial letter of their fu¬ 
ture owner, or perhaps the monogram, 
done in outline or in solid embroidery, with 
washable silk corresponding in color to the 
border of the towel. 
In the way of pretty things to wear, also, 
