644 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. 27 
FARMERS’ CLUB—DISCUSSION. 
The Evolution of Mr. Terry’s Farm¬ 
ing. 
DOES CHANGE ALWAYS PROVE FORMER 
FOLLY ? 
W. I. Chamberlain, Ames, Iowa.— 
At a certain farmers’ institute in Wis¬ 
consin the Hon. Hiram Smith, that ven¬ 
erable man and successful dairyman, now 
deceased, had been giving the cash results 
from his dairy of grade Jerseys, for the 
butter sold at gilt-edged prices. Of course 
he gave some credit to the Jersey blood. 
He had scarcely sat down when an Irish¬ 
man in the crowd rose, and in the broadest 
brogue said: “ Misther Schmitt 1 Three 
yars ago, I was at a fairmers’ matin’ and ye 
sid as how ye didn’t belave schtrong in the 
Jairsey koo; and now I’m in a fairmers’ 
matin’ agin—and ye schpake and say as 
how ye do belave schtrong in the Jairsey 
koo I Now, phf wat I want to know is this— 
phwich won o’ thim two min am I go’n to 
belave— Hiram Schmitt now, or Hiram 
Schmitt three yars ago ?” He sat down 
amid a storm of laughter. Hiram Smith 
slowly rose, with snow-white hair stand¬ 
ing “ pompadour ” fashion all over his 
head, his shaggy white eyebrows overhang¬ 
ing his twinkling eyes, and his index 
finger pointing straight at the offending 
Irishman. He was a fit figure for the sculp¬ 
tor’s chisel. Slowly and distinctly he said : 
“ If I’ve lived-three years longer, 
-and don’t know any more- 
than I did then,- I’d better have 
died three years ago /” And now the storm 
of laughter and applause was almost deaf¬ 
ening. It was a keen retort, partly true, 
partly misleading. No doubt Mr. Smith- 
all of us—should learn something in three 
years. No doubt, however, great changes 
are wisely caused sometimes quite as much 
by changes of circumstances as by increase 
of knowledge. 
This amusing incident has been recalled 
by two or three sentences in The Rural 
of Aug. 16. On page 525, after speaking of 
his present unquestioned success with 
small fruits, Mr. Terry says : “ I am per¬ 
fectly willing to confess that I made a fool 
of myself the first 18 years of my farm life. 
During all those years I knew nothing 
about what it was to have all the choice 
berries I could eat for two months or 
more. I never knew fully until this year. 
When I look back I feel as though it would 
be a pleasure to me to kick myself; but as 
I cannot do that, I will try to make just as 
many farmers as possible see this matter as I 
now do.” Also, on page 531 of the same num¬ 
ber, Mr. Terry says: “We depend solely 
on clover to keep our farm up; if you 
will add good tillage, the return 
of the wheat straw.as well as the manure 
from what-clover is made into hay. * * * 
We were [in our early farming] too crazy 
after stable manure, but little by little the 
wonders that could be done with clover 
were found out.” 
Mr. Terry often states things strongly 
just to shock people into life and thought; 
and he usually succeeds. But it seems to 
me such statements as the above are unfair 
to his former self. That former self was 
just as earnest in search of light, truth, the 
best objects of pursuit and the best methods 
of pursuing, and in proclaiming the truth 
and light as he then saw them, as his present 
self is to-day. Almost at the first he re¬ 
solved to do everything in his farming “the 
best he knew how or could learn how.” I 
believe he stuck to that resolve as closely 
then as now, and that his letters ever since 
he began to write were as useful and inspir¬ 
ing to those on the plane he then occupied, 
as they are now to those on his present 
plane. 
From the first I have closely observed his 
work and writings, with the joy and pride 
of friendship. His farming seems to 
me to divide itself into three periods. 
First, the period of clearing, grubbing, 
stone-picking, draining, manuring and 
debt-paying. Then he worked hard, used 
few expensive luxuries, saved, paid, en¬ 
riched, laid the foundation for success. His 
wife, strong, healthy, willing, dextrous, 
saved the fearful expense and waste of hired 
help in the house, and reared young chil¬ 
dren. They worked together wisely and 
well, a strong, willing team. Second came 
the period of money-making and building, 
when his farm was at last ready for his wise 
rotation of wheat, clover and potatoes. I 
remember just where we stood and how he 
looked when I said to him ; “ Why don’t 
you raise wheat and potatoes ? Your farm 
is better suited to both than mine;” and his 
reply < “I have not got around to it yet.” 
His thorough preparation seems to me to 
have been necessary to his complete success. 
Seven thousand bushels of potatoes on 24 
acres, were possible only from a natural 
potato soil well stored with fertility. Two- 
thirds of his arable land in potatoes, was a 
hard cropping not continued long. One- 
third (his present amount) is permanently 
possible with clover, I think, because the 
land now at least is rich and all roughage 
is returned as fertilizing matter. Third 
came the period of enjoyment. In the first 
period if he had grown and used berries and 
luxuries as he does now, he would not have 
paid the debt, or grubbed the stumps and 
stones, or laid the tiles. He was single- 
handed. His children were a care and not 
a help. He was one then, not five as now, 
as seen in his beautiful picture, page 586, 
September 6th. For it is a beautiful pic¬ 
ture, the “ family picnic ” in horticulture ; 
instruction for the young people, pleasant 
work for the wife and girls.—Two sisters, 
seniors in our college this year, by the way, 
have taken the special course in horticul¬ 
ture, and expect to be partners in a nursery, 
greenhouse and floral business. Just the 
thing for women—ladies—say I. But to 
return. 
In the second period he could afford to 
use berries in abundance, but not to raise 
them. He often told us, correctly I still 
think, that he could not afford to stop four 
or five horses and two hired men from 
team work to fuss with berries. He bought 
them by the crate, or case, or bushel, fresh 
and nice, each day from a berry specialist, 
who could afford to raise them, and he and 
his family ate in abundance and paid for 
them with the more easily earned potato 
money, and had a surplus left. So he told 
me truly then. Third, came the period of 
enjoyment, when house and barn were 
built, children well grown, active and at 
home, and when he enjoys a literary income 
probably greater than the total for many a 
family of five. His j udgment now seems 
to me as wise as ever before, perhaps no 
wiser. Now he can afford to raise berries. 
It gives healthful, instructive and inspir¬ 
ing work for the young people. It makes a 
new line of letters and lectures possible to 
him and helpful and instructive to thous¬ 
ands of others. What will come next no 
one can guess. The possibilities of his 
family and little garden-farm are great. 
Several new specialties lie close at hand 
without disturbing the old. He has much 
bottom land just right for celery and 
onions, water and wind to irrigate the 
former if needed, and a son for a specialist 
in both. Big money in both. Barns just 
right for the best Jersey cows, wife or 
daughter for a specialist, two great cities 
close at hand with plenty of rich men as 
customers for top-notch, gilt-edged Jersey 
butter, at 60 cents per pound. Big money 
in it, no puttering, and a fine chance to use 
the clover and produce manure. Bees, with 
miles of White Clover, vast wood and 
fruit blossoms all around for “pasture,” 
and A. I. Root, the bee man, close at hand 
as friendly adviser. Money in it and health 
for any delicate lady as a specialist. Then 
there are poultry, grapes, peaches and- 
But enough. How great the benefit of 
showing that the “boys” (and girls) need 
not “ leave the farm, but find rich rewards 
in partnership on the home place in in¬ 
tensive agriculture and horticulture in¬ 
stead of scattering over the arid West in 
search of “more land”—and siroccos. 
There are plenty of profitable specialties on 
the home farm if it is a good farm, with 
good brains to run it. 
At present Mr. Terry “draws the line” 
on butter and eggs, and whatever he has 
not yet tried. Naturally, too, for whatever 
he does try he makes pay. We only hope 
that 10 years from now, when perhaps he 
will have reached some of the above or 
similar things on his wonderful little 
garden-farm, he will not, even in hyperbole, 
“confess himself a fool the first 28 years 
of his farm life.” He is not a fool and 
never was, but all along an uncommonly 
judicious manager and observant farmer, 
who has grown from one condition to the 
next higher by wisely adapting himself 
to his actual present environment. And 
his practice and preaching have all along 
been helpful, because as an earnest student 
of better things he has preached what he 
was then practicing, always with this 
proviso, (perhaps not always stated with 
sufficient clearness and emphasis): “ What 
I now practice I now think wisest for me 
with my present family, farm and circum¬ 
stances. If yours are similar, use my ways 
as far as they fit. But at all events study 
your own self and circumstances and act 
on your own intelligent judgment.” That 
is always wise advice. That has, I think, 
always been the core and purpose of his 
writings. But, like Mr. Beecher, he is an 
enthusiast and a fervid writer, abounding 
in hyperbole. When Mr. Beecher preaohed 
on the “divine love,” for example, he for¬ 
got the “divine justice,” and vice versa; 
and men called him heterodox. “ This one 
thing I do,” depicts the two men as it did 
Paul and all enthusiasts; and the en¬ 
thusiasts move the world. Only let us re¬ 
member that change does not always prove 
former folly. It may simply mean change 
of conditions and wise adjustment to en¬ 
vironment; the very law of life and 
growth. But why tempt the question: “ If 
you are sure you were a fool then, how are 
we to be sure you are not one now ? ” Said 
the Romans: “The times are changed 
aud we are changed with them,” of which 
the terser English is: “ Circumstances alter 
cases.” 
Killing Sorrel. 
H. S. Hall, Talbot, County, Md.-A 
few weeks ago, a gentleman of Charleston, 
S. C., asked The Rural how he could kill 
sorrel, and the answer was: “ Drain and 
manure the land—one or both as needed.” 
Now, I have been fighting the pest for 
years ; and one small field of dry, loamy 
soil, set in peaches three years ago, and 
planted to potatoes every year since, has 
produced a luxuriant growth of it in spite 
of manures,fertilizers and good cultivation. 
Last fall I dug the potatoes in December, 
using a long-handled, round-pointed shovel, 
and took pains to turn everything under. 
Some time last June I plowed it for this 
year’s crop—it promises now to be a good one 
—and the sorrel was so big and rank that a 
heavy swath of it could have been mowed. 
Of course, during the period of cultivation 
it is kept back, but after the crop has been 
harvested it commences to grow, and in 
this mild climate grows all winter. By way 
of experiment, in another piece, I turned 
under an acre when the sorrel was in full 
bloom, and sowed the land to black-eyed 
peas. There is a big growth of vines, and 
the sorrel seems to be nearly smothered 
out. I shall soon turn this under and sow 
to wheat, and seed with clover in the 
spring. If this does not kill it ont I shall 
try an application of “ gas-lime,” which is 
said to be sure death to sorrel, and every¬ 
thing else for the time being. 
“The Women’s Work.” 
Dr. G. G. Groff, Lewisburg, Pa.— Mr. 
Terry’s remark about the good woman who 
did the work both of the house and the 
barn, brings to my mind a number of 
amusing instances, some of which may in¬ 
terest readers of The Rural. Years ago, 
my father told a new hand how he wished 
the pigs to be fed. When he had con¬ 
cluded, the man said: “ I don’t care to do 
the women’s work,” and only two sum¬ 
mers ago, when I told a boy to milk the 
cows he flatly refused, saying that, too, 
was “ the women’s work,” and that he 
would not do it. Some years ago, I was 
in the habit of visiting the home of a 
prominent man, influential in his county 
and in the State, having served several 
terms in the legislature. Whenever the 
husband or the sons desired to go away in 
the carriage, the mother groomed the 
horse, hitched him to the carriage, arranged 
the robes, and then held the bridle until 
all were safely seated. I think it was her 
custom to feed all the stock, which in¬ 
cluded a horse, cows, pigs, poultry, etc. 
This was a happy family ; the children 
were reared in a manner much superior to 
the average, and the husband was much 
wiser than the man who married a young 
girl in order to train her into a wife after 
his own tastes. The woman I have referred 
to, had been reared to such laborious out¬ 
door work. She liked it and I think found 
a relief from the more monotonous duties 
of the house. I have known other cases 
where women cultivated garden plots, or 
kept bees, for recreation. In my early 
years, I lived in an English community a 
few miles distant from a German settle¬ 
ment. We had relations in each place, and 
an old family dependent, an aged colored 
man, the last of the family slaves of the 
past, was accustomed to spend his time in 
passing from house to house visiting differ¬ 
ent members of the family. When at our 
place, he would be continually reciting the 
virtues of the German women who were 
then accustomed to assist in field work. 
“The English women are lazy!” he would 
exclaim, when my father would say: * The 
German men are so lazy that the women 
have to attend to the crops,” which would 
always greatly anger him, though it closed 
the conversation. 
Those “Germs” In Water. 
C. W. Good, Waynesboro, Pa.— Friend 
Terry, quoting Dr. Detmers on page 514, 
reminds us of what a set of simpletons we 
farmers are. We do not water milk and 
therefore should not feel guilty of any of¬ 
fence; neither need we fear the ignominious 
death threatened. But oh! how the gam¬ 
blers in stocks, in cereals and other products, 
and the manipulators of corporate property 
and the manufacturers of bogus goods must 
chuckle at.Mr. Terry’s quotation. A hotel- 
keeper once said in my hearing that he was 
doing the public great service by watering 
his whisky; but just think of his possible 
turpitude in killing the dear public with 
the fatal germs contained in the water I 
According to these high authorities we may 
account for the loss of life from intoxicants 
by charging the water with the fatality. 
Some one may say that the alcohol in in¬ 
toxicants destroys the fatal germs in the 
water; are we then forced to the conclusion 
that we ought after drinks of water to take 
intoxicants—or mix one with the other for 
our health’s sake? Let us farmers feed the 
watered milk to the persons who water cor¬ 
porate and other stocks; who make bogus 
butter and lard; who mix our soda with 
alum, our putty with marble-dust, our 
sugar with glucose, our prime pork with 
that from diseased hogs, onr syrups and 
molasses with much that is disgusting, in¬ 
cluding muriate of tin ; our bread with 
caustics; our flour with alum and other 
astringent and deleterious substances, our 
candies with earths and other matters, 
our coffee with chicory, etc. No I no 1 
let us as farmers abstain from defrauding 
our neighbors even with water from the crys¬ 
tal, rippling, pebbled spring. Let us sell all 
our products for just what they are, and 
then, free from blame before God and man, 
let us inaugurate and wage an eternal 
warfare on our enemies, the manipulators 
and diluters of stocks, the manufacturers 
and willful sellers of bogus articles, and 
even on the rascals who fraudulently pre¬ 
tend ignorance of the counterfeit nature of 
the goods they are handling. 
“Germs” will not Injure Butter. 
Henry Stewart, Macon Count, N. C.— 
Human nature is given to exaggeration. 
Hopes are excited, fears are magnified, and 
generally we are apt to go off half-cocked, 
as it is termed. Just now we are all in “ a 
state of mind” about microbes and the 
imminent danger of the destruction of the 
human race by the little germs which per¬ 
vade the terrestrial “ universe,” forgetting 
the fact that our ancestors lived to a good 
old age, and passed through all the dangers 
from these universal organisms, when for 
want of the knowledge we now possess and 
the generally more effective sanitary pre¬ 
cautions growing out of this better knowl¬ 
edge, they were exposed to vastly more 
danger than we are. Consequently there 
can be no danger to be feared by any 
reasonably informed person in regard to 
the newly introduced practice of diluting 
milk with water for the setting of it 
for cream. The same water has been 
drunk, and will be drunk, for years past 
and to come, without harm. And if it can 
be drunk safely it can be safely added to 
the milk without creating danger when 
the milk will not be used as food for 
persons in one case out of 10,000. It is a 
mistake to suppose that these germs will 
ever be concentrated in the butter. It is 
not their nature to live and grow in fats. 
Nitrogenous and saccharine fluids are con¬ 
genial to them, and should they increase in 
the diluted milk for any cause, they will 
remain in the milk and never concentrate 
in the fat or butter. Again, the butter is 
salted for use and salt destroys these 
germs. The ocean is wholly free from 
them and there is more salt in the butter 
than in the waters of the ocean. The latter 
contain only 3>£ per cent, of total mineral 
substances, of which salt is less than four- 
fifths, while the usual proportion of salt in 
butter is from four to six per cent. Hence it 
is borrowing trouble to be exercised in any 
way because of any supposed dangers from 
the very small probable Infection of butter 
under the worst possible circumstances. 
Moreover, it is hardly credible that any 
dairyman should use water known to be 
impure for diluting milk, and people are 
now generally instructed in regard to the 
preservation of the domestic supply of 
water from wells as a matter of the deepest 
concern. Upon these grounds I cannot 
afford any encouragement to the idea that 
any possible danger can arise from the very 
useful and necessary practice of diluting 
milk with water as an aid to the raising of 
the cream, which is an innovation worthy 
of the highest regard. One point more 
might be mentioned. It is that on this 
earth there is nothing absolutely free from 
the presence of these germs. They are dis¬ 
tributed universally, except over the cen¬ 
tral parts of the ocean and on the highest 
mountains. The air is a general store¬ 
house for them, and we cannot escape 
