pairing for % gtrung. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Uncle MAHKr—I have been thinking lor some 
time that I would like to join the Uortlcultural Club, 
but I have put It off because J thought I was al¬ 
most too old—just out of my “teens.” Hut when I 
read the letters from quite a number of aged 
aunts, i concluded that the best thing for me to do 
was to write and see If you would accept me as a 
nephew. I have taken the linn a l for about three 
years, and like It very much. 1 raised a nice pink 
Geranium rrom the seed received from the Rural 
two years ago. The seeds that were sent me this 
year did not germinate on account of the dry 
weather. Two years ago 1 budded a flue Gen. 
Jacqueminot Rose on an old Rose-bush which I 
have had seven years, and which had never blos¬ 
somed. The bud grew, and this year it had a 
number of line Roses on It. l have also budded a 
white Rose on the same stock, which I think will 
live. It will be pretty to have the red and while 
Rosea blossoming on the same bush at the same 
time, i would advise all the Rural cousins to try 
budding. It is very easy, and I think all could 
succeed after a little practice. 1 have another 
thing which I would like to tell you about. This 
summer, one of my Geraniums blossomed, and 
after the petals had fallen off, a new shoot came 
right out from the cluster, and this grew, and, 
after a while, it blossomed. Is this anything un¬ 
usual? 1 have tried to make a little sketch so 
that you may better understand what 1 mean. 
And now, hoping to be received as your nephew, 1 
will say good-bye, ror a short time. 
Fair Jlaven, conn. Quinnipiac. 
[The above letter leads me to say a few words on 
:some 
Carious Rrenk* ollMniid* 
wlfleU perhaps may Interest the cousins. In an¬ 
swer to Qulnulpae (that must be Greek) I will say 
'that though It Is not very common for Geraniums 
'to push a branch through the flower-cluster, as 
was the case with his, still they have often been 
'observed to do so. Hut perhaps none of the cous- 
ilns have seen such a case before, and I have 
'therefore had an engraving made from the sketch 
it,bis new member of the Club sent me. At c may 
Fig. 1* 
be seen the seed pods of the old flower-cluster, 
from which the petals have long since tallen. Now, 
It, is generally the case with Geraniums in pots, 
that when the flowers fall, the flower stalk also 
withers; but In this case It has received new vigor, 
and Instead of withering has pushed olitthe shoot 
b. The artist thought, no doubt, he would im¬ 
prove the picture greatly by putting a Mower-clus¬ 
ter on top, which he did, and by so doing com¬ 
mitted a serious blunder. Hut l saw at once that 
It was an excellent Illustration of miataaes that 
are often made by persons who do not observe cor¬ 
rectly, and that It teaches a timely lesson of the 
necessity of seeing things " straight.” and 1 there¬ 
fore admit the picture. You must all by this time 
have seen what the trouble Is ; If you have not 
you will see It Immediately when you call to mind 
where the flowers of a Geranium appear, whether 
on the end of a branch or Jn the axil of a leaf. 
The artist put the flower-duster on the end of a 
branch, but In reality it, always springs from the 
axil of a leaf. It is of the utmost Importance to 
all students of the natural sciences, and particu¬ 
larly so to all botanists, that they should make 
correct observations. A botanist should see every¬ 
thing about a plant at once, and remember It. 
Such conspicuous poluta as whether a plant Is 
large or smatl, trailing or upright, anybody will 
notice, but the student should go farther and no¬ 
tice the position of the leaves, their shape, how 
the flowers appear and other peculiarities. 
But iamBtraylng from the subject. Another 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
curiosity, and one not so common as the above, Is 
shown In Fig. 2. It Is a spike of the common plan¬ 
tain, or rlpgrass, that 
grows along road-sides. 
It was exhibited at a 
meeting or a botanical 
club not long since, where 
all the learned doctors re¬ 
garded It as a great curi¬ 
osity, and thinking it 
might Interest the cous¬ 
ins, I have had It en¬ 
graved. It will be re¬ 
membered that generally 
this rlpgrass bears no 
leaves at all on the flower- 
stalk, but in this ease leaf- 
buds have been formed at 
the top of the spike and a 
whorl of leaves pushed 
■out. There are many other 
similar cases. I n the 1 lose 
we often meet with in¬ 
stances In which the stem 
Fro. 2. has grown through the 
flower and formed leaves and more flowers be¬ 
yond. Indeed, some varieties always do this. 
Indian com, which all are familiar with, bears 
the tassels of male flowers on rail stalks, and the 
ears are set lower down in the axils of the leaves, 
but frequently there are kernels and imperfect 
ear* formed on top of the stalks among l he flow¬ 
ers on the tassels Instances might be multiplied, 
but this will be sulliclent ror the present. 
Uncle Make.] 
abbatb grafting. 
TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 
Two thousand years, two thousand years, 
Our barb o’er billowy seas. 
Has onward kept her steady eourse 
Tliro' liarricnne and breeze. 
Her Captain woe the Risen One— 
He braved the stormy foe. 
And still He yuidee Who guided her 
Two thousand years ago. 
Still onward rides our trallunt bark. 
With all her canvass set, 
In seme few nations still unknown, 
To plant her standard yet— 
Her flay shall float where'er a breath 
From human life shall glow ; 
And millions bless the bark that sailed 
Two thousand years ago! 
Not unto us, not unto ua. 
He praise or glory given, 
But uuto Him who watch aud ward 
nntb kept for her iu heaven ; 
Who uueUed the whirlwind iu its wrath, 
Hade tempests cease to blow. 
The. Lord Who launch'd our vessel forth, 
Two thousand years ago! 
Then onward, speed thee, brave old bark, 
Speed onward in thy pride, 
O’er Slulny seas and billows dark. 
The Holy One thy guide; 
Aud sacred he each plank aud spar, 
Unchang’d by friend or foe, 
Just as she left Jerusalem, 
Two thousand years ago I 
GRANDMA’S WOLF STORY. 
“Only one more story, about when you were a 
little girl, uod lived In the woods,” said Frank. 
Grandma drew off her spectacles and shut her 
book. She leaned her head back against the large 
easy-chalr aud shut her eyes, thinking. 
“ 1 remember, as If It were only yesterday,” she 
said, raising her head and looking at the children 
who had gathered around her. “ I was only seven 
and my little brother wasn't a year old. ‘ I’m 
going to the spring-house,'said mother, ‘and you 
must stay In the room aud rock the baby If be 
wakes.’ Ho r took my knlLLlng, lor 1 had learned 
to knit, and was very proud 01 the stocking that 
was growing under my arm. it was a cold day, 
late in the fall, and all the doors were shut,. Baby 
slept and I knitted for half an hour. Then he 
awoke and began to cry. As I got down from 
mother's great easy-chalr I thought I heard a 
strange noise outside. It wasn't Lion, lor he had 
gone off with father to the mill. Something 
rubbed against the door and made the latch rattle. 
1 felt afraid, and went to the door and fastened 
the bolt. 1 stood still, listening, with baby In my 
arms—lie had stopped crying—aud could bear my 
heart thump, thump, thump I 
“ All at once there came a cruel kind of bark, 
and then a snarl. A moment after the window 
broke with a loud crash, and f saw the long h-vad, 
open Jaws, and llerce eyes of a wolf glaring In 
upon me. An angel sent by our Father In heaven 
must have told me what to do. The wolf was 
climbing In through the small window, aud to have 
lingered but a second would have been death. 
Moved as ir by a power not my own, and without 
thinking what was best to do i ran. with baby la 
my arms, to the stairs that went into the loft. 
Scarcely had I reached the last, step ere he was In 
the room below. With a savage growl he sprang 
after me. As he (lid so 1 let the door, which shut 
like a cellar-door, fall over tbe stairway, and it 
struck him on the nose and knocked him back. A 
chest stood near, aud something told me to pull 
this oyer the door. Ho I laid tbe baby down and 
dragged at the chest with all my strength. Just as 
1 got one comer over the door the wolf’s head 
struck it and knocked It up a little. Hut before he 
could strike It again I had the chest clear across. 
This would not have kept him back If 1 had not 
dragged another chesL over the door, and plied 
ever so many tilings on top or these, llow sav¬ 
agely he did growl and snarl! Hut I was safe. 
“Aud now I thought about my mother. If she 
should come back from the spring-house the wolf 
would tear her to pieces. There was only one 
window or opening in the loft, aud that did uot 
look toward the spring-house; and so there was 
no way In which 1 could give her warning, or let 
her kno w, If she had seen the wolf, that we were 
safe. For a long time the wolf tried and tried to 
get at us, but at last 1 could hear him going down 
the stairs. He moved about In the room below, 
knocking things around for ever so long, and then 
I heard him spring up to the window. At the 
same moment 1 heard my father’s voice shouting, 
not lar off. Oh, how my heart did leap for glad¬ 
ness t Then came Lion's heavy bark, wlflcb grow 
excited, and I soon heard him yelling down the 
road In the wildest way. The wolr was still In the 
window, J could hear him struggling and break¬ 
ing glass. Lion was upon him, when my father 
called him off In command. All was silent now, 
but the silence was quickly' broken by the sliarp 
crack of a rifle, which sent a bullet Into the wolf’s 
head, killing him lnstuutly. 
“ ‘Father, father!’ I cried from the loft window. 
He told me afterward that my voice came to him 
like one from the dead. He ran around to that 
side of the house. Mother was with him, looking 
as white as a sheet. I saw thorn both clasp their 
hands together and lift their eyes In thankfulness 
to God. When I tried to pull the chests away I 
could not move them an Inch. So father had to 
climb up by a ladder to the loft window to release 
baby aud me Horn our place of refuge. Mother 
did not know anything of our danger until she hud 
tlnlshed her work at the spring-house. Just us 
she came out she saw the wolf’s head at the 
window, and at the same moment father and Lion 
appeared in sight." 
“I wonder the wolf didn’t get you,” said Frank, 
with wide-open eyes, breathing deeply .—Christian 
At'vocate. ( 
-♦ 
BY THEIR FRUITS SHALL YE KNOW 
THEM. 
F. K. 
The religious beliefs and creeds of the world are 
now on trial, and by many persons they have been 
found wanting and retired with other matters 
which have been outgrown. The present unsettled 
state of religion has, perhaps, little effect on those 
of mature life whose convictions are not likely to 
be “ blown about by every wind of doctrine,” but 
with young people the case Is different. They 
have never thought over matters of conscience for 
themselves, but have simply accepted the faith of 
their fathers, on trust, and when the narrow 
creed9 they havs been trained In, are Intelligently 
assailed, they Immediately conclude that Chris¬ 
tianity Itself must be a lie, since particular church 
tenets have been proven false. 
so far as a man’s moral nature Is concerned, 
what matters U whether the opening chapters of 
Genesis contain a scientifically accurate account 
or the creation or are simply a pictorial way of 
accounting for the material world as wo and It? 
Why quibble with scientists and liberals over mat¬ 
ters of this class? The questions which are of 
vital concern to Christiana are not, whether the 
Bible Is Infallible a*ii Inspired, or whether Moses 
did or did not write the books ascribed to him, but 
was there a Christ and what were Ills doctrines? 
That Christ really lived we have the testimony 
of profane as well as of sacred writers; about that 
there can be no question. As to His doctrines, or 
Ills system of morals, it is: “Love the Lord thy 
•God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thy¬ 
self.” The whole duty of Christians Is thus epito¬ 
mized by Christ Himself. The man who consclen- 
Uously follow's the command, “ Love the Lord thy 
•God,” must strive to make himself more like the 
•object of his affectionate devotion; to elevate, 
refine and spiritualize his nature. To “Love thy 
neighbor as thyself,” a man may neither lie, nor 
steal, for by so much Is his neighbor defrauded 
out of the truth or of his property; neither may 
he covet and, least of all, can he give free reign to 
ills baser nature. For by his example he may 
tempt others to sin, and he does encourage wick¬ 
edness lu the already vicious. 
Looked at In a eomnon sense way Chris¬ 
tianity appeals to the noblest part, of man 
and stimulates him to be truthtuL honorable 
and righteous. Its most determined opponent 
cannot charge that Christianity degrades men. 
Can as much be. said for any oue of the various 
sj stems which are offered to us as modern Im¬ 
provements on the Christian religion, and whose 
founders and apostles expend most of their ener¬ 
gies In picking flaws in the old faith ? 
An avowed Agnostic—Agnosticism is the word 
now used to designate a hostile attitude to 
Christianity—has given to the world In a recent 
Issue of the British North American Review, a 
sketch or himself, for the express purpose of show¬ 
ing the actual outcome of liberal Ideas as exempli¬ 
fied In his own life. His most salient characteristics, 
by Ills own showing, are a colossal egotism, an in¬ 
tense seltlshnws, and a decided tendency to pan¬ 
der lo his most ignoble passions. Space will not 
admit of a review of Ills " Confessions” but as an 
example of his selfishness the following is given. 
He does not believe m mairirnony and so he per- 
suaded an attractive respucuiblo young woman to 
live with him, without the usual formal ceremony. 
They had been living together for sometime, when 
lie tell ill. The woman nursed him tenderly and 
patiently through a tedious sickness and when 
no was convalescent she pleaded with him to make 
her his wife before the law, and he refused, If 
be held the priest in contempt the magistrate was 
still left and he could without; Siicrl(Icing any 
principle have had a civil marriage, but no! Not 
even to please t he woman who liart sacrificed so 
much for him nor for the sake of his innocent 
little children would he consent. 
’That woman occupies a position which placeB 
her on a level with tue most degraded of her sex, 
and the children are dishonored from their birth, 
and fur what? To gratify the whim of a man 
whose god is himself. An application of the 
Golden Role of the religion we ure said “ to have 
outgrown” would have made that, woman a re¬ 
spected wife aud her children a blessing aud an 
honor. 
No clearer evidence or the measureless super¬ 
iority of the Christian religion over any system of 
morality invented by man, could possibly be 
given than this contrast between the lire of Christ 
and that or the Agnostic. 
Verily, “ by their fruits shall ye know” both men 
and systems. 
BRIEFLET8. 
Salt is a very important—not to say indis¬ 
pensable—article in the dairy. The Interna¬ 
tional Dairy Fair appreciates this fully. . . 
Are English sparrows useful birds or are they 
pests ?” Here is another irrepressible question. 
. . Dr, Hoskins says that a Chicago 
banker let the cat out of the bag when he said : 
“If the farmers were out of debt, they could 
hold their wheat and corn and derive the natu¬ 
ral benefit of the inevitable rise in prices be¬ 
fore another harvest.” . . . Nothing strikes 
us more unpleasantly than to find a believer in 
the Ctaristinn religion afraid of scientific stu¬ 
dies. How weakly grouuded must that faith 
bo which dreads increase of knowledge about 
any of the works of its God! . . . Calling 
each hog throe feet long that was packed iu 
the West the past year, and putting them in 
single file, they would reach 6335 miles, or 
from New York across ithe continent and Pa¬ 
cific Ocean, into China. —Drovers' Journal. 
What is the width of the Pacific Ocean ? . . 
. . Chicago wants the next World’s Fair, but 
perhaps the next world won’t have any.— 
Drovers’Journal. At any rate, Chicago had 
better wait until it gets there.—Land & Horae. 
At this rate there will never he auotber World’s 
Fair. . , . Everything is booming except 
the Ohio River. That is lower thau ever be¬ 
fore. ... A Utica boot-black who was 
driven out of that city, claims consideration 
here as a Polish refugee.—Syracuse Sunday 
Times. . . , Another way to settle the In¬ 
dian problem is to have all the white folks 
killed off—Detroit Free Press. . . . When 
a lead pencil drops from behind a man’s ear, 
it always lands on the point and the latter 
breaks off. If the pencil has no point, the 
pencil doesn’t drop.—N. Y. Star. . . . From 
Canada we learn that the wheal has made such 
a rampageous growth that some farmers have 
used tbe mowing machines, and others turned 
stock iu to eat it off. . . . The Farmer's 
Advocate (Canada) offers its patrons this queer 
bit of advice. “ November is said to be the best 
month to transplant evergreens. Try it!" We 
should much like to know who said that! . . . 
Put aside a little bucket of horse or cow man¬ 
ure. Water thrown upon this as needed will 
serve as the best of fertilizer for .house plants 
during tbe winter. Remember, however, that 
only healthy plants that get the sun need any 
manure. . . One orchard on the Hudson 
River contains ,38.000 trees and hushes. . . 
Geraniums for bedding next year can be kept 
in a frost proof cellar all wlnller, heel them 
in a box of light soil and. keep just moist 
enough to prevent sbriveliug. . . A good 
heating apparatus is now the most important 
feature of a greenhouse. . . The latest in 
Pansies is a variety with striped flowers. . . 
The Toad Flax—Litiaria cymbalaria—is a 
handsome, creeping plum that may tic used for 
covering grecuhouse walls. . . Get a wheel¬ 
barrow, if yon have'nl one ; it is an iudespensi- 
ble implement. . . A new process for cur¬ 
ing tobacco with water has been patented. . . 
No one objects to seeing the Indian summer 
here, but out in Colorado they say they would 
rather see the Indian somewher’ else.—New 
Bedford Standard. . . . Tito term “ imper- 
tinent " has been very properly applied to those 
who wish to regulate the style in which a 
farmer ought to live.—Ag. Gazette. . . . 
Good farmers are not to be easily frightened 
out of a business which they have followed 
with success: but unless they eau hire land 
cheaper and labor cheaper; unless they eau 
be free from vexatious covenants as to crop¬ 
ping, the nuisance of over-preservation of 
game and the constantly-increasing burden 
of laxatiou, they will cease to farm.—Idem. 
. . . For wheat, this is the very worst year 
within my memory.—J. J. Mechl, England. 
. . . Talmage is lecturing on “hluuders.” 
The greatest blunder of his life wub when he 
became a minister instead of a circus manager. 
Bangor Commercial. We believe that. . . , 
The Michigan Farmer appears in new type 
and a new title-head, a decided improvement 
upon its old one. It is growing as pretty as 
it has long been valuable. . . . The Prairie 
Farmer think* it would he a pity to drag Gen. 
Grant, from his present exalted place in the 
hearts of his countrymen down iu the mire of 
political strife. . . The best thing that 
Gen. Grant cat) do is to buy an Experimental 
harm and contribute uotes to tbe Everywhere 
departmeutof thcEtmAuNKw-YomncR. . . . 
The Western Rural remarks: “If you want 
to scud a hundred-weight of gralu from Chi¬ 
cago to New York, you will please pay forty 
cents a hundred pounds for doing it. In July 
last you might have scut it for fifteen cents a 
hundred. The roads have got the pistol to 
your head, and the only thing for you to do is 
to comply. . . . Insurance rales on the 
Lakes ended ou the 15th inst.; railroads, there¬ 
fore, will soon be raising their rates ou freights 
from and lo the West. . . •, A model routine 
farmer is Hie East Indian ryot, who abominates 
to move on to the level road of progress out ot 
the abysmal ruts sunk for him by untold gene¬ 
rations of ancestral ignoramuses. ... So 
obstinate is the ass iu using any bull—gener¬ 
ally the worst—on his cows, that'll is seriously 
proposed that all unlit bulls should be castrated 
by the Government; that proper bulls should 
be licensed aud branded, numbered and regis¬ 
tered, aud that all herds should be mustered 
and examined* once every two years, to pre¬ 
vent evasion in the use of the good males. 
. . Wherever hog cholera breaks out lu 
the West, fat-reuderiug establishments soou 
make their appearance, to utilize the diseased 
hogs. The hog-collectors for some of these 
arc accused of spreading the plague by drop- 
piug pieces of Infested pork where healthy 
swine eau find them, the eating of such mor¬ 
sels by souud hogs being the surest way of 
propagating the malady. 
