396 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 12 
AS WE GO TO PRESS. 
" LONESOME ." 
A few weeks since, we had an account 
of the doings of our western horse, Big 
Frank. The old fellow is still hard at 
work on the plow and Cutaway, and 
hasn’t made a complaint thus far. The 
rheumatism has not been heard from 
since that last hard attack, and we are 
glad to say that Frank has proved to be 
a big, honest, clumsy and willing old 
thing, ready to do his duty at all times. 
Since those notes about western horses 
were written, some of our western read¬ 
ers have come to the front with their 
side of the story. Here, for example, is 
a note from a Kansas man : 
Horses, in most sections of the West, represent 
good blood and breeding; they are good servants, 
hardy and free from disease, yet it is a fact that, 
when they are taken from one point to another of 
different climate, they suffer more, apparently, 
in becoming acclimated than the people do. 
When western Kansas was being opened to settle¬ 
ment, the horses from eastern Kansas had to be 
carefully used the first season, or get seriously 
sick, and many died; but after the first season, 
they were as tough as any, or if moved in the fall 
to their new home, they were ready for the spring 
work. The same result of changing horses to 
the East is expected. It is not corn fat that hurts 
them; homesickness for their mates may be a 
more reasonable cause of ailment. a. h. o. 
Lawrence, Kan. 
Our observation shows that there is a 
good deal in that idea. Big Frank is a 
perfect baby about being left alone. If 
we hitch up Major and take him out in 
a single harness, Frank will cry and 
grieve almost like a child, and will worry 
and fret until his mate comes back. 
When old Major gets in sight again, 
Frank will brighten up and look like a 
new horse. There can be no doubt about 
it—horses are often homesick, and I be¬ 
lieve that this homesickness often runs 
them down and changes their nature as 
well as their capacity for work. An or¬ 
dinary horse buyer, looking at Frank 
with Major away from him, would make 
quite a difference in the offer he would 
make, if he saw them together. 
Now, of course, you know that men 
and horses are much alike in their ways 
and doings. We have seen lonely men 
and women, and observed their work 
and actions. Some of them were in 
crowded cities—others were on lonely 
farms far away from human society. It 
doesn’t make much difference where one 
lives ; if there are no kindred minds and 
hearts ready with words or thoughts of 
kindly sympathy, we are lonely and 
homesick. Life loses its best fire and 
hope. We are weak both in our labor 
and in our thought. We fail in our duty 
to God and man. Hunger of the heart! 
Hunger for home and its cherished sym¬ 
pathies and associations ! That is the 
worst of all diseases. 
But time is short and you are waiting 
for the point. Here it is. I have seen 
sad and lonely people in country homes, 
and I have, also, seen bright, happy and 
cheerful folks in farm houses far away 
even from the sight of the neighbor’s 
lamp at night. These happy families 
had something pleasant to think about. 
Friends, absent and unseen, were con¬ 
stantly talking with them and giving 
them words of cheer. These friends 
talked in ink. Sometimes it was a pri¬ 
vate letter which Uncle Sam had carried 
over the mountains and across the val¬ 
leys from the other side of the country. 
More often it was a book or paper 
through which the author talked right 
straight to the hearts of these happy 
people. Why, I wish every boy and girl 
in America could read what Prof. I. P. 
Roberts says to young farmers in his 
wonderful book on “ The Fertility of 
the Land.” Such men are friends of 
these happy farm folks. They speak 
words of cheer. You put down the 
book or paper with a thoughtful look on 
your face. There are pleasant things in 
your mind, and you go about the dull 
and commonplace things of life with 
something that is a little higher and 
nobler sounding in your ears. Life, you 
know, is something like an old fiddle. 
Constant use makes the strings sag, and 
the notes are dull and off the key. 
Thought and ambition come along and 
screw up the strings, and how they do 
strike up loud and clear ! You would 
hardly recognize them. 
Why, see what this man up in Ontario 
says : 
Taking four agricultural papers this year, and 
finding vours the best, I send the inclosed ques¬ 
tions for you to answer through The R. N.-Y. I 
separated them so you could dispose of them as 
you might see fit. I am just working away these 
times hoping for better, and am trying to get 
some help from your paper. The questions are 
from different members of my family. I have 
five boys reading your paper, and your hints will 
do good. 
Now there is a family where all the 
members are interested in obtaining new 
friends from outside. They will wait 
for these answers and talk them all over 
and discuss them. There won’t be any 
mental homesickness there. Why should 
there be in your house? Just answer 
me that ! Here is The R. N.-Y. glad to 
obtain your question or your problem, 
and only too glad to introduce you to 
some friend who will talk to you in ink. 
Be like Big Frank. Call out and make 
things lively when you need friends to 
bring help and suggestion ! The R. N.-Y. 
will cover almost any agricultural prob¬ 
lem, and we can furnish any book you 
call for. If you use tobacco and beer, 
suppose you use the money spent for 
these articles in one year for good books 
and papers. There’s a proposition for 
you ! We will agree to do our share by 
quoting you the lowest possible figures. 
Try it! Don’t be homesick for a drop of 
good ink ! 
ASPARAGUS IN INDIANA. 
How do you manage an asparagus bed ? 
It is a subject on which much has been said. 
I’ll now try to tell you how I do mine, 
And I’ve succeeded in raising it sweet, juicy and 
fine. 
The best place to plant is well-enriched ground; 
For early, have a wind break on the northwest 
around, 
Set it out in furrows, all mellow and deep, 
On ground nearly level, not a hill-side too steep. 
Eighteen inches in the row, and rows four feet 
wide, 
Is the very best way that I have yet tried; 
Keep putting on fertilizer from barnyard and 
store, 
And do not cut it back for two years or more. 
Now should you prefer the shoots tender and 
green, 
When seven inches high, cut them off smooth and 
clean; 
But I choose to have it all tender and white, 
So I cut below the surface when it first comes in 
sight. 
Of a new plan I’m trying, I’ll now try to tell, 
And as far as my experience goes, it succeeds 
very well; 
To keep the surface from crusting, and moisture 
to keep, 
I covered with rotten sawdust about three inches 
deep. 
And now the shoots come up so tender and white, 
That when you eat it, you’re bound to say, “ It’s 
clear out of sight.” 
I don’t know what is proper with you people in 
New York, 
But out here in Indiana, we eat it with a fork. 
Washington, Ind. J. c. a. 
SEASONABLE SCRAPS. 
There were two new departures from ordinary 
farming last season on our street, one by myself 
and the other by my next neighbor. As his has 
ended favorably, I will mention it first: In 1895, 
he turned under a field of sod that had lain for 
three or four years and was pretty well supplied 
with Blue grass, as old meadows often are, and 
raised a good piece of corn. In the spring of 
1896, instead of plowing, he cultivated and har¬ 
rowed till in fine tilth, and planted to corn the 
second time and had a good yield of 100 bushels 
of ears or more per acre. His experiment proved 
a success, although many disapproved of such a 
course. The old sod, also, will, probably, be well 
subdued. The sand is a high, gravelly loam. 
After reading the experience of Mr. Clark in 
seeding to grass alone without grain, I concluded 
to try the experiment. My field of five acres is, 
also, a strong gravelly loam and has not been in 
sod for, at least, 15 years. It was a peach or¬ 
chard for several years, then grew buckwheat, 
oats, tomatoes and beans. As soon as the beans 
were off last fall, I plowed, rolled and harrowed 
several times, and sowed one-half bushel of Tim¬ 
othy seed with the drill, with 200 pounds of fer¬ 
tilizer strong in potash and phosphoric acid, 
about September 14. It came up nicely, stood 
the winter, and now gives promise of a fine crop 
of hay. Being something new and on a much 
traveled road, it is watched with interest by 
farmers for miles around. w. j. b. 
Medina, N. Y. 
The midsummer meeting of the Indiana Horti¬ 
cultural Society will be held at Pendleton, Madi¬ 
son County, June 15 and 16. All members present 
will be entertained by the citizens. It is expected 
that there will be a large exhibit of strawberries. 
Premiums arc offered for fruits and flowers. A 
most interesting programme is presented. Jas. 
Troop, secretary, La Fayette. 
Much of the early-planted corn has rotted in 
the ground; it has been so cold. Wheat has been 
an almost entire failure—not a fifth of a crop. 
Oats will be short, rye half a crop. Markets 
dull; but little changing hands, as the farmers 
are holding their wheat and corn for better 
prices. Prospects for all kinds of fruit and ber¬ 
ries are very promising—were never better. 
Vandalia, Ill. H. N. w. 
September 1, last, I seeded about one-third acre 
and followed Mr. Clark’s plan as nearly as pos¬ 
sible with a spring-tooth harrow and plow. I 
first plowed, and then harrowed thoroughly, 
sowed about one-half bushel of Timothy and 
Mammoth clover seed. As I had no fine-toothed 
harrow, I rolled instead. It rained soon after, 
the seed came up and the grass completely cov¬ 
ered the ground. I then sowed 75 pounds of a 
complete fertilizer. This spring, nine-tenths has 
winter-killed, so I shall plow it up. What was 
the cause of its winter-killing in spots ? 
Herkimer County, N. Y. t. d. n. 
While good, reliable help is none too plentiful, 
it is not as hard to obtain as in former years. 
Very few Americans work on farms in this local¬ 
ity. Many of our young men are drawn to the 
cities owing to the better chance of advancement, 
shorter and regular hours of labor, and the 
pleasures and excitement of town life. Men are 
paid from $16 to $20 a month for eight months, 
which is 20 per cent less than in former years. 
Many men have had a horse and carriage kept 
for them, but now they use the wheel, and are in 
clover just the same. They are doing better and 
have less care than their employers. Farm ma¬ 
chinery has displaced many farm laborers, as 
very little extra help is needed now during hay¬ 
ing and harvesting; this change has come so 
gradually that laborers have naturally met the 
changed conditions. The saw mills and paper 
mills employ more men now than formerly; rail¬ 
road construction and manufacturing companies 
give employment to many of them when business 
enterprises are in a normal condition, but at 
present, many are without employment. d. u. 
Caldwell, Wis. 
(Continued on next page.) 
Tbe light in tha 
window after 
midnight but too 
frequently tells 
the old, old story 
of the awful tor¬ 
ture of approach¬ 
ing motherhood 
for some illy-pre¬ 
pared women. 
All too often 
death lurks on the 
doorstep. This is 
a story tnat would 
aeldom be told if women would but properly 
prepare themselves for the duties of moth¬ 
erhood. If a woman will take the right care 
of the organs that make motherhood possi¬ 
ble, approaching maternity will have no 
fears for her. Nature intended that all wo¬ 
men should bear children, and did not mean 
that this duty should be a cruel torture. 
Woman’9 own ignorance and neglect have 
made it so. 
All weakness and disease of woman’s re- 
? roductive organism are cured by Doctor 
ierce’s Favorite Prescription. It acts di¬ 
rectly upon these organs. It makes them 
strong and healthy. It prepares them for 
approaching maternity. It allays the dis¬ 
comforts of the expectant period. It makes 
baby’s coming easy and comparatively pain¬ 
less, and insures the health «f the child. 
All good druggists sell it. 
‘‘I have had three miscarriages,” writes Mrs. 
J. L. Shaffer, of Ney, Sully Co., S. Dakota. “ Last 
Spring I received one of your Memorandum 
Books in which I found your ‘ Favorite Prescrip¬ 
tion ’ recommended to prevent it. I took eleven 
bottles of it and have a bright boy five months 
old, which I owe to God and your medicine.” 
What woman does not wish to make her 
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with her family’s well-bein^ ? The greatest 
care of all is the fear of sickness. It i* a 
common saying amongst conscientious 
mothers: “ As long a9 the children are well, 
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million copies of thi 9 book have been sold 
for $1.50 each. Now there is an enormous 
edition to be given away. Send 21 one-cent 
stamps, to cover cost of mailing only, for 
a copy in paper cover. For cloth binding, 
send 31 one-cent stamps. World’s Dispen* 
aary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y. 
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