448 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 17 
Short Stories. 
Great Bible Reader. —The Portland 
Oregonian tells of a man who has read 
the Bible through 11 times. This is the 
explanation he gives for doing it: 
I will tell yon how I came to read it through 
the first time. An old circuit rider who used to 
visit my father’s house when I was a boy, one 
Sunday preached a sermon from the text, “For 
a man shall be judged according to the deeds 
done in the body.” I asked him if that text was 
to be found in the Bible, and he said, “Of course 
it is.” I said I did not think it was, and he pro¬ 
posed that we both read the Bible through to 
find It. We did not find it, but I found so many 
things which interested me that I kept on reading 
the Bible till I have gone through it 11 times. 
A Good Paper —The R. N.-Y. of May 
13 is splendid. Those two pension let¬ 
ters on page 360, revive old memories. 
Under Short Stories, on page 359, the ex¬ 
periments described with compressed 
air, are very interesting, and highly in¬ 
structive. While this seems to be one 
of the great industrial changes now tak¬ 
ing place in the world’s history, let us 
all take notice of the wonderful progress 
going on among the new inventions, 
and the great interest now being man¬ 
ifested in the public eye in the line of 
new remedies, and ways and methods of 
treating diseases, by magnetism and 
electricity. r r. 
Indian Territory. 
“Old Home Week”—T he Mirror and 
Farmer says: 
Gov. Rollins, of New Hampshire, has conceived 
the idea of having an Old Home Week, when all 
the people born in the State will be invited to re¬ 
turn and once more look upon the scenes that 
were so familiar in the days of their youth. Many 
of those people have returned to the 8tate fre¬ 
quently in the past, but they would come with 
more intense Interest if they had reason to expect 
that they would meet old schoolmates who at¬ 
tended the district school with them, but who 
had spent their lives in other sections of the 
country. There will come fresh to miDd the walk 
to the schoolhouse and the noontime experience 
eating the dinner under the old tree, long since 
removed, and the thought that one may sit once 
more in the old desks with others who sat there 
50 years ago, will arouse an interest in coming 
that has never been experienced. 
This would be a good idea if it could be 
carried out. Bring the wanderers back to 
the old homestead. It will bring new 
life and new business into the State. 
A Runaway Horseless Carriage — 
The introduction of horseless carriages 
has been responsible for many peculiar 
situations. The other day, the driver of 
one in New York left it for a minute, 
and an inquisitive stranger who wanted 
to see how the thing worked, accident¬ 
ally started, but, like John G,lpin, he 
couldn’t stop it, and it immediately pro¬ 
ceeded to run away with him. After 
being chased a long distance by the 
driver and several policemen, it was 
finally stopped in its mad career. In 
Philadelphia, the police arrested the 
driver of one without lights, and after 
locking him up, were in a quandary as 
to what to do with the thing. If they 
left it in the street, some one might 
steal it, and they would be responsible. 
Not one of them dared attempt to run it, 
and the driver refused to have anything 
to do with it if he was to be locked up. 
Finally it was agreed that he should be 
released for the night if he would run 
the machine into a yard, which he did 
much to the relief of the police. 
Cheap Horses. —In talking with a 
horse dealer the other day, he attempted 
to explain why good horses have in¬ 
creased so rapidly in price. Among other 
things, he said that the exports of horses 
have greatly increased. He sajs there 
are as many horses sent out of the 
country now as were formerly used on 
the street cars, and that a better class of 
horse is demanded for this export trade. 
We find on looking up the figures that, 
in 1898, we shipped abroad 51,150 horses, 
which were valued at $6,176,569. In 1890, 
there were sent abroad only 3,501 horses, 
which were worth $680,410. It looks, 
therefore, as though there is something 
in this argument. The indications are 
that our foreign trade in horses will be 
very greatly increased. In March of this 
year alone, there were exported 6,101 
horses, valued at $677,814. The people 
on the other side of the water evidently 
want American horseflesh, provided it is 
put up in suitable packages. The great 
danger to the trade is that the mistake 
of 10 years ago will be made up in breed¬ 
ing an inferior lot of horses, but even if 
Ibis be done, the indicat’ons are that 
first-class animals will always command 
fair prices. Let an eastern farmer try 
to buy a good horse this season if he does 
not believe this 
Protits in Wastes. —The National 
Provisioner tells this little story ; 
A packinghouse chemist once valked up to a 
country abattoir owner, drew his attention to a 
little stream of water running past his place and 
said : “ You’re letting a fortune run to waste In 
that ” After going over his tanks, vats, and 
other crude paraphernalia with him, he con¬ 
vinced the slaughterer that he was saving his 
cax>ital, but throwing away his profits. “And 
I’ve been doing so for years,” the man replied. 
This incident shows up a general state of many 
plants. 
There is a world of truth in that. It 
applies to many farmers as well. Many 
of them buy large quantities of Btable 
manure, and use it in the Spring. In 
the late Summer, the nitrates in that 
manure are rapidly set free. When frost 
comes, and the Summer crops are killed, 
the soil is full of the most valuable part 
of the manure. If the ground is left 
bare, these nitiates are washed out in 
the drainage waters, and often a good 
share of the firm’s profits goes with them. 
By keeping the soil covered with grow¬ 
ing crops, this great loss is prevented. 
Whipping Post for Wives. —Two w eeks 
ago, we gave some of the reasons why 
the whipping post has been kept up in 
Delaware. We said the wife beater de¬ 
serves a beating. There are two sides 
to all questions. A writer in the New 
York Sun thinks that drunken wives as 
well as wife whippers should go to the 
post. He says: 
A lorg experience, which has brought me into 
close contact with the working people of this and 
other cities, has convinced me, as it will any one, 
that there is far more need of the whipping post 
for drunken wives than for brutal husbands; in 
ihis assertion I feel confident of the support of 
every large employerof labor, as well as of every 
intelligent, observing man of the world. I have 
known of many instances of a good husband and 
father, returning tired and hungry from hisday's 
work, to find his wife lying in a drunken stupor 
on the floor, his children neglected, hungry, cold, 
and perhaps sick, and consequently compelled to 
prepare the necessary meals, and to care for 
home and children as best he could. This, too, 
has continued for years. With no redress at law, 
no hope of relief or reformation, and with misery, 
poverty, the degradation and ruin of his home 
and children ever before him, who can blame him 
if at times, provoked beyond endurance, he robs 
the whipping post of its due by administering a 
well-deserved thrashing on his own account ? 
This is one of the products of the town. 
The liquor people ought to take great 
pride in such productions ! 
Cow Pea Farming.— The Early Black 
cow pea seems to have succeeded best at 
the North, on account of its earlier and 
shorter season. Through central and 
northern Delaware, farmers have al¬ 
most all adopted the Early Black after 
trying many other varieties. This va¬ 
riety is an upright grower, and it does 
not sprawl over the ground like some of 
the longer-vined varieties. The sprawl- 
ers are useful in cleaning the land of 
bad weeds, for when they are sown in 
drills and well cultivated, not much of 
anything else can get a chance to grow. 
Some farmers find difficulty in turning 
the cow peas under. In Delaware farm¬ 
ers use a sharp rolling cutter and a 
chain. The chain iB attached to the end 
of the doubletree on the furrow side, 
and the other end made fast to the beam 
of the plow. The chain can be adjusted 
so as to bend the vines or the weeds for¬ 
ward, and all will be completely turned 
under. Delaware farmers, by the use of 
this device, turn under weeds that are 
nearly or quite as tall as the horse’s 
backs. Cow peas and Crimson clover 
have changed the character of farming 
on the Peninsula. Both crops do well 
there, and in good hands, produce won¬ 
derful results. 
Making New Soil. — Several yeais 
ago, the papers published an ingenious 
theory for improving soils and fertiliz¬ 
ing plants, The scheme was to crush 
and grind granite rocks, and use the 
dust as we now use fertilizer. The 
theory was that, as all soils were orig¬ 
inally obtained from rocks, by taking 
the unbroken rock and crushing it, we 
would obtain virgin soils, capable of 
producing any crop. It was easy to 
show the fallacy of this reasoning. But 
now, a friend in Montana informs us 
that one of the large orchard compan¬ 
ies in that State is using a rock crusher 
to pulverize the bowlders that encumber 
their ground. The crusher is large 
enough to pulverize into fine dust, 450 
loads of rock every day. The bowlders 
when smashed, are scattered or spread 
through the orchard. In that case, we 
assume that an effort is being made to 
establish an orchard where there is little 
soil. It may be that Borne special local¬ 
ity makes it a valuable situation for an 
orchard. It may pay, therefore, to 
crush these bowlders, and thus form the 
basis for a good fruit soil. By growing 
green crops in the crushed rock, and 
plowing them under, year after year, 
it would be quite possible to prepare in 
this way almost an ideal soil. What a 
singular thing it is that, out in the Far 
West, such practices should even be 
considered. We have a report from 
Nevada to the effect that, on some of 
the hardpan soils, it is not uncommon to 
blow a hole through the hard subsoil 
with powder or dynamite before setting 
out a tree or vine. We might think of 
such things as profitable near great 
cities where one could expect returns 
from such practices, but it hardly seems 
possible that it would pay far off in the 
Reeky Mountains. * 
HAND-HOEING POTATOES. 
As to hand-hoeing potatoes, the opin¬ 
ions of the people of this vicinity are 
divided upon the question. I know a 
man who, last year, hoed one-half his 
potatoes, and kept them clean; the 
other half, on account of pressure of 
farm work, he had to let go. Dry 
weather came on about the time he fin¬ 
ished hoeing, large weeds came up in 
the unhoed portion of the field, so much 
so that he thought he must put men in 
and pull them out. But time did not 
permit him to do so. He worried about 
it considerably, thinking that he would 
have a very short crop on that portion 
of the field that was not hoed. But 
when he came to harvest them, to his 
surprise, on the weedy portion, his pota¬ 
toes were much the better. He claims 
that the weeds were an advantage, shad¬ 
ing and holding the moisture in the 
ground. 
I cannot agree with him, as I think 
thorough tillage is very important with 
all crops. I am well satisfied that good 
tillage will retain and help to increase 
moisture in the soil. This fact was 
demonstrated to me last year with my 
farmer in attending corn ; in the field 
in which he kept the teams gomg almost 
constantly, the coin was better than 
where he went through only occasion¬ 
ally. He did not tend the corn to keep 
it clean, for it was already free from 
weeds, but for the purpose of increasing 
moisture in the soil. While this is so, 
will not this hold good for the cultiva¬ 
tion of potatoes as well ? 
However, I think there is a way by 
which potatoes may be planted and kept 
clean. Plant the potatoes two feet nine 
inches apart, and 16 inches apart in the 
row, using an Aspinwall planter. From 
three to six days after planting, culti¬ 
vate the rows lengthwise with an Iron 
Age cultivator. About one week later, 
go crosswise of the rows with a spike- 
tooth harrow. You need not have any 
fear of barrowing out the potatoes ; it 
will do no serious harm. Later on, about 
the time the potatoes begin to peep 
through the ground, spike-tooth harrow 
again crosswise of the rows; you will, by 
this time, have killed all the little weeds 
and grass by going lengthwise and cross¬ 
wise of the rows, and your field should 
be perfectly clean. Then cultivate again 
with the Iron Age cultivator, using the 
plows in front and p!ow from the row, 
and continue to use this tool frequently 
the rest of the season, adjusting the 
plows, cultivator teeth and shields as 
circumstances require. I am quite sure 
that, with a competent man to adjust and 
handle this horse tool, hceing potatoes 
will not be necessary, except in extreme 
cases. It might pay to hand-hoe portions 
of the field, but if the directions are fol¬ 
lowed which I have outlined, I hardly 
think, as a general rule, liand-hoeing 
will be necessary. 
I do not hoe my entire crop ; it won’t 
pay. Of course, I am somewhat gov¬ 
erned by the character of the weeds ; 
some are more troublesome than others. 
Where I find such, I try to exterminate 
them with the hoe, if I cannot other¬ 
wise. I note that our most successful 
farmers are those who raise a crop with 
the least expense, and this sbould be the 
motto, to cheapen the products of the 
soil. Those who work along this line 
are complaining the least of hard times. 
Mercer County, N. J. j. m. d. 
The Personal Side of 
PHILLIPS BROOKS 
In which his close friend 
BISHOP W. N. McVICKAR 
Tells of the early life and later triumphs of one 
of the most lovable of men, with characteristic 
anecdotes of this most distinguished clergyman. 
In this week’s number of 
THE SATURDAY 
EVENING POST 
Founded A°D! tj2 8 by Benj.Franklin 
Date of June 17. 
5 Cents. Now on the News-Stands . 5 Cents 
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA 
