THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
try, was unknown to them; men from the 
peasant classes, with little or no education 
from the schools, and little experience in busi¬ 
ness; yet with all these disadvantages, the very 
large majority of these men have not only 
lived, but have become comparatively rich; 
certainly rich compared With the position llu'V 
could have hoped to have reached in their na¬ 
tive lands. Thousands on thousands ot farms 
urchased at $1,25 per acre, have grown to be 
worth $20 to $50 per acre, and in the interval 
have comfortably supported their owners. The 
streams of immigrants from other countries, and 
from older States of this country, have no other 
explanation so good as the fact that, in the 
general past, success has been the rule and 
failure the exception with the farmers of the 
West. Au accumulation equally rapid I do not 
expect in the future, unless iu comparatively 
limited regions. 
So, then, the present is ;v present of hard 
times to farmers, and the past we cannot hope 
to lie reproduced. Is, then, the outlook a dark 
one ? I do not so sef It, bnt confidently expect 
a steady, though not raped improvement in the 
condition of the farming class of the West, and 
that, in any considerable series of years, agri¬ 
culture will be loimd to give as good returns to 
those who intelligently anil persistently give 
their attention to it. as will any of the great in¬ 
dustries of the country. 
Tliis is not a mere blind assertion, but is one 
made for what seems to me sufficient reasons. 
And first.1 give much weight to the broad prop¬ 
osition that, in the nature of things, a great 
industry, one absolutely essential to the inn nun 
iwee, will nothing remain in depression, in any 
free country well adapted to it. Farming is 
the basal industry of the world. We cannot 
conceive of circumstances in which it will not 
be necessary for a very large part of the race 
to be farmers. The Most, is well fitted for the 
produetiou of the great agricultural staples. 
The conclusion seems ft natural aud inevitable 
one. 
Again, it should be remembered that, bad fts 
times are aud hare recently been for fanners, 
thev have only shared these hard times with 
men in other callings, and that, many other 
businesses have suffered more than has agricul¬ 
ture. Not only is it true that farmers are not 
the only men who have suffered, hut it is also 
true that this is not the only country that has 
snffered. British farmers are to-day in a worse 
condition than are those of America. For all 
this depression there are causes, aud it can 
hardly he that these causes are to continue to 
act with equal force. W«r can dearly see some 
of the causes which brought disaster to the 
business interests of this country. Many of 
these naturally followed the war. The road 
out of the mistakes that wore made, aloug 
which the unavoidable losses of that period 
have hud to be made up, lias been a long and a 
hard one. Many have fallen on the way. But 
we are getting to the cud. It is very hard for 
the many who have lost, or will yet lose, their 
homes; but with their places taken by men 
with more means ami who will secure their 
farms at unusually low prices instead of unusu¬ 
ally high prices, the country will be iu a better 
condition. 
Still, again, there is very much encourage¬ 
ment in the fact that, bad as times have been, 
there lias not been a year, including this year, 
1878, with its remarkably low prices, in which 
farmers who were out of debt have not made 
at least a small profit. Not alL farmers have 
done this, but some have; and if this has been 
true during all this time of depression, it surely 
gives good promise for the future; unless we 
give up iu despair aud say that gloom aud dis¬ 
aster aud distress are to he the permanent con¬ 
dition of the country. 
This is not the place for a discussion of na¬ 
tional financial problems or policies; but 
whether the policy of the Government has been 
wise or unwise, it seems reasonably certain 
that the fluctuations in our currency are about 
at au end. and that iu the future we cau have 
a surer basis ou which to make calculations. 
If this prove true, the owners of unemployed 
money will seek to invest it. I believe many 
of them will invest not only iu form lands, but 
in farming operations, aud I cau see no reason 
why investments in good farming lauds in the 
West should uot he almost absolutely safe and 
certain of giving a fair profit, at the prices at 
which they can now lx* bought, This invest¬ 
ment of capital will bring relief in many ways. 
In the past. Western farmers have, gener¬ 
ally, looked mainly to the increase in the sell¬ 
ing price ol their lands as the source of profit. 
The inevitable tendency of the great tracts of 
low-priced lands in the West rapidly filling up 
aud rising in price, bus been to make iainiois 
careless us to their term work. Especially in 
the older portions of the West, a change must 
come. In the future, profits from farming will 
come more from the farm products, and the in¬ 
crease in selling price of the land will grow a 
less and less important factor—hence great 
profits are not to he expected. No sure busi¬ 
ness can give great profits for any long time ; 
else it would certainly attract to it an over 
large number. 
It should also he home hi uiiud that eotnpe- 
t ill on is constantly increasing, the number 
of farmers is becoming so large, and the ag¬ 
gregate crops so enormous, that where to find 
a market is not always easily answered. It is 
to he set over against this that the proportion 
of our population who arc not farmers is rap¬ 
idly increasing. Each successive census will 
show a larger part of the total population liv¬ 
ing in towns aud cities, and engaged in man¬ 
ufacturing. merchandising, or other callings 
making them consumers rather than produc¬ 
ers of farm products. If is also a hojxrfHl 
sign Unit not only arc our agricultural ex¬ 
ports rapidly increasing in quantity, but that 
they are in much greater variety than for¬ 
med v. We must continue to export largely of 
agricultural products, for our production is 
already enormously in advance of the possi¬ 
bilities of home consumption. It is au essential 
to prosperity that wc sec that we not only pro¬ 
duce. but that we produce those things which 
are most in demand by other countries and as 
many such articles as possible. The recent de¬ 
velopment of the export trade of meat ani¬ 
mals and fresh meats, and the great increase 
in the exportation of dairy products and other 
articles in which manufacturing skill is added 
to tiie ordinary work of the farmer, are most 
important steps iu a fight direction. 
These statements, if they be true, lead to 
some important conclusions. The ignorant, 
careless man ; the man without training of the 
inind ami without skill in life art. will tad suc¬ 
ceed in conditions where competition will be 
miii.h sharper than it lias been in the past, aud 
where lie must make his profit mainly, or 
wholly, from his farm products. He will not 
he well adapted for the nicer skill and the bet¬ 
ter business judgment necessary for the pro¬ 
duction of a greater variety of the higher forms 
of farm products. For such men success is not 
to be so generally the rule ; it may well he that 
for such men, failure will come to he the rule. 
More capital in money or skill or knowledge, 
or in all these, is to be needed for successful 
farmers in the rulure than has been needed in 
the past. 
I count it sure that young farmers well fitted 
for their work will, as a class, succeed as well 
as their fellows in any other calling; will re¬ 
ceive a good return in money, and will be 
honored aud respected by their fellows. But I 
count it equally sure that special, careful train¬ 
ing of the mind as well as of the body, some¬ 
thing more than the acquiring of mere me¬ 
chanical skill, is to be an increasingly import¬ 
ant element iu securing this success. 
Illinois Industrial University, chaq^lgn, Ill. ^ 
bauds high. He is kept in a warm stable ; put 
this down for 25 per cent, sat ing iu the keep¬ 
ing. The above is a stable diet and not calcu¬ 
lated for work. It is good for growing colts. 
A youug pig Rte too much corn, got too fat 
and constipated, atul was found In the pen in 
spasms. An injection of warm water was ad¬ 
ministered. w hich luviught away a few lu>np H 
of excrement very hard and dry. A table*] «><>n- 
fnl of castor-nil wns given aud the pig put into 
a Uot bath. The treatment was what the dis¬ 
order required, hut the constipation had goue 
on so long 'lift! inflammation ot the bowels had 
begun, aud the phr died. Another out* had died a 
few days before, but notuulit the skin beneath 
and around the body had turned black, owing 
to the in (lamination. The feed of the remain¬ 
ing pig- has been changed to barley meal, 
which is more laxative. Corn is too hearty for 
young pigs and too heating. Oats, n« ground, 
are far preferable, and barley meal is the best 
of all. 
The pigs got sick while we were at the great 
dairy fair in New York. There was so ranch 
mutual admiration and glorification at the Ex¬ 
hibition. that we are afraid the business of 
cheese making, and butter, too, will be over¬ 
done. The same week of the fair the New 
York market being glutted, had 91.000 cheeses 
thrown upon it aud only *20.000 shipped abroad. 
Poor cheeses are worth nothing, and are being 
piled up in the storehouses In vast quan¬ 
tities. Only the best are sent to Europe, 
and these are a small percentage of the 
whole. If we keep on stimulating production 
by big figures, big speeches, or big factories, 
we must at the same time manage to get the 
American people to eat cheese. This is the 
tiling to do to get rid of the cheese. Americans 
eat, ou an average, hut four or five pounds of 
cheese for each person in a year. Cheese is 
eaten now only as an appetizer or a dessert, 
whereas it should he eaten as a staple article of 
food. But how can we dyspeptics do this un¬ 
less the cheese is made differently ? It must be 
at least half digested by the rennet in the pro¬ 
cess of making, ami then our feeble gastric juice 
may finish it; but as it is now made, our digest¬ 
ing functions are unequal to the task. Soldiers 
may do It. but the army cannot eat up the. sur¬ 
plus eveu if cheese is made a ration. We have 
heard a great deal about cheese for the English 
market; let us hear and see something about 
dieesefor the American stomach. 
It was 28 hills of ebufas which produced^ 
half bushel of nuts, and uot 78 as printed. 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COI,. F. I). CURTIS. 
^rbotiniltaral. 
Tiie pigs, we did not know it before, are so 
fond of parsnips that they have rooted ours all 
up, aud so we shall he short of this vegetable 
change in the spring. 
Is it, or is it not economy to feed horses corn 
in the ear ? We have practiced it for a num¬ 
ber of years, believing that the portion which 
was not masticated, and so passed out of the 
horses without being digested, was uot equal to 
the miller's loll. The toll is every tenth, and 
this with the waste and time spent in going 
to the mill, will make it fully equal to every 
eighth. Another tiling farmers do not think 
enough about; suppose every* tenth is not mas¬ 
ticated and assimilated by the horse, it is kept 
ou the farm: whereas, if it is lett at the mill, 
the farm is so much depicted ol plant food. 
We throw tiie whole ears into the manger and 
let the work horses bite the kernels off as they 
like. As soon as horses get used to eating corn, 
there is no danger ot its producing any colic 
or other derangement of tiie bowels, hut care 
must be taken not to begin too strong at first. 
Three or four ears of Flint corn are all a norse 
should have to begin a diet of this food. The 
Southern aud Western corn is lighter and is not 
so apt to produce colic. In the South corn is 
almost always fed iu the car. and so it is iu the 
West when fed at all. Corn is excellent feed 
tor horses to work on ; but uot so good for fust 
driving. They are more quid and tractable on 
com tiiau with any other grain, and will do 
more hard pulling and drudgery with less loss 
iu condition. Oats make a horse sprightly and 
active, aud hence should be fed sparingly to a 
colt. Oats have helped to make a great many 
balky, spavined, aud rnn-awuy horses. Corn 
makes them dull and slow, but strong. Corn 
is the best lor colts while bciug broken. It 
may he made lighter, and uot so heating by 
having wheat bran mixed with it. 
We tried it last year, aud it worked so well 
that we shall do the same thing again—winter 
the big colt ou oat straw aud buckwheat bran. 
He will keep fat on this teed and healthy. A 
rackful of straw three times a day, and four 
quarts of the. bran are ample. The bran is 
worth $12 a ton. und will weigh 20 pounds to 
the bushel. This will he 2.48 pounds for a 
feeding or 7.44 pounds per day r , which would he 
four cents and forty-six hundredths of a cent, 
certainly a cheap feeding for a colt seventeen 
EVERY-DAY NOTES. 
SAMUKl. PARSONS. 
Tree Hose*. 
Few plants are more generally admired and 
more persistently abused than Tree Roses. A 
natural inference from this would be that there 
existed in this case very had qualities mixed 
with very goqd ones. Doubtless this is true. 
But the trouble is that one class of people will 
persist in discerning only the good and another 
only the had. Perhaps this is no more than 
might be expected. Persons who fail to grow 
Tree Roses successfully, berate them. The suc¬ 
cessful—a small hand, we fear—aud those 
whose admiration is born of sight only, with¬ 
out experience, of course will praise them. As 
iu most cases, the truth lies somewhere between 
the two. True, good and shrewd men assert 
that three-quarters, yes. nine-tenths of all I ree 
Hoses sold throughout the country die the first 
winter after tiie season during which they were 
planted. This is doubtless a very broad asser¬ 
tion. one difficult to prove, hut there cau be no 
question that Tree Roses tail alarmingly 
throughout the Northern States. Now we. all 
of us, admire a Tree Rose when it is healthy 
and has developed a great mass of green Leaves 
and numerous large (lowers. On the summit 
of its tall stem the effect is certainly charming. 
Desiring Tree Roses, the questions therefore 
for us to answer and to act on accordingly, arc; 
Must we replace defunct plants every year? or 
cun we by any simple treatment preserve them 
healthy during a long period ? To the first we 
say unreservedly and positively, we need not 
replace them every year. To the second ques¬ 
tion, we say, yes. on conditions. Let us look at 
these conditions. The Tree Rose is grown in 
un uuuatural fashion. No Rose would grow 
naturally ou tlm top of a high stick, and it is 
only the art of man that can make it do so. The 
stem is, nevertheless, destroyed aud cracked 
by the sudden and intense suns of America, and 
the junction of the ciou and stock is severed by 
extreme cold the first winter their somewhat 
abnormal union is exposed. All this makes 
the Tree Rose u plant to he w ell looked after 
under the best circumstances. 
What, howevor, is the course pursued and 
conditions created iu importing them, for they 
are not grown her*? Impatient purchasers 
demand their shipment from Europe iu fall, be¬ 
fore the growing wood is mature. They ar¬ 
rive in this country during late September and 
early 'October, are sold and planted, in many 
eases, the same fall, and die during the winter, 
as a matter of course. Wise buyers Obtain, 
later iu the fall, Roses grafted with hardy vari¬ 
eties i Remontants. Ac.l. keep them iu a dark 
cellar Ml winter, jual plant them out in the 
spring, pruned iu sharply. During the sum¬ 
mer. (hey moss the stem, and during the win¬ 
ter. bind it with straw disposed loosely about 
the head. Thus managed aud pruned sys¬ 
tematically every spring. Tree Roses may 
and do succeed. Do not on any account 
condemn them, btit look upon them as choice 
and beautiful plants which need and merit 
much careful treatment. 
Tree Pivoiilca. 
Most people know Pieonies and admire them. 
Their immense blooms present a mass of color 
that no other hardy flower can perhaps, sur¬ 
pass. They are hardy, moreover, farther north 
where the Rhododendron fails as wel! as many 
other rich-huod flowers. This ml mi ration is 
therefore well merited, hut is it discriminating ? 
Do people realize (hat one Patouy is not as an¬ 
other, and that there is a group of Tree Pico- 
nics, as different from the herbaceous Pseonies 
as nature apparently could make them, if we 
except a ear tain similarity in appoarauee. One 
is very slow-growing, almost dwarf; the other 
springs in » season to massive size. Owe is dif¬ 
ficult to propagate, difficult to transplant and 
choice iu the highest degree; the otiier is in¬ 
creased by division with the greatest facility; 
is easily moved, and is, moreover, well known 
to every one. Wherein lies the difference be¬ 
tween the two is consequently hard to define, 
and yet you would see a decided difference if 
the two were presented to you side by side. 
PerhapB no expression of it can be clearer than 
that afforded by their familiar names. One is 
dwarf, with firm, enduring wood*, the other 
herbaceous, or not wooded in the technical 
sense, but soft in flower and foliage branches. 
Experience, indeed, soon teaches distinctions, 
such as peculiar colors of the flowers and gen¬ 
erally, a more refined nature, if I may use the 
expression. 
The Tree P.-eony has many varieties beauti¬ 
ful in color and form, yet few learn the real 
beauty of these varieties, for nurserymen 
usually only sell Psconla Banksii. Although 
this is a good kind, one familiar with its ap¬ 
pearance alone can .ave little conception ol 
the more highly developed charms of other va¬ 
rieties rtf Tree Peonies. Pieonia Banksii, since 
great numbers of it exist throughout Europe, 
can he increased by division of the roots with 
comparative case. The, choice varieties are, 
however, too rare for the slow process of divis¬ 
ion. They must, therefore, he grafted, but 
this is difficult, aud the difficulty of the opera¬ 
tion will probably long keep the best Tree Peo¬ 
nies rare. 
One office, that of ornamenting small city 
lots, these Tree Pieonies are specially adapted 
to perform. They are dwarf, hardy and long- 
lived and very bright in color of flowers. It is 
to ho hoped that their employment may be¬ 
come generally popular. 
The French Mulberry. 
It pleased me recently to see that the Rural 
was offering in its free seed distribution seed of 
this attractive shrub. Scarcely anything is 
more admirable in its way. Of course, there 
is nothing very grand about it, but it answers 
the purpose of a moderate-sized shrub, tor late 
fall, so well that it must always be popular. 
Indeed, as people come to set higher value on 
ornamental fruit-or seed-bearing plants in fall, 
it must guilt still greater favor. Are Rural 
readers generally aware that two Callicarpas 
are grown in gardens, which are very dissimi¬ 
lar and yet sometimes confused ? The finer 
one, aud perhaps the one best known is Calli- 
carpa purpurea -the one to which my previous 
remarks ha Vi referred. The other is a large, 
coarser variety, somewhat exposed to winter- 
killing. but sure to come up again every spring. 
Although it is thus semi-herbaceous, it is well 
worthy of culture. 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
ABOUT HEMLOCKS. 
From our window we cun count over twenty 
different species of evergreens. We will sup¬ 
pose that one of our readers asks the question: 
*• Which would you prefer could you have but 
one? 1 ' Our answer is: “The common Hemlock 
(Abies Canadensis) and we give Ibis answer 
without any “ifs" or “auds.” There are 
many others that muy be preferred for a single 
reason or so. For instance, the Sun-ray Pine as 
we have culled it. t Finns Massonianu var.) is 
now as yellow as gold itself, excepting the 
tips of its noodles, which are green. The com¬ 
mon Balsam Fir during the entire winter main¬ 
tains a brighter tjrocn than almost any other 
conifer. The Mcn/.ies’s Spruce is of a sea- 
green color, or what is termed “glaucous ” by 
botanical writers, and is u fresh, pleasing 
shade. So. likewise is the Bcoteh Piue iu most 
