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a A FARM AND FIRESIDE JOURNAL. -~-~Yarm Lopes. _ -- =~ z= of Farm Life.of Olden Tings. Stories, &c.«=-No. 9. Written expressly for Taz Orezao Fanx®n, ' ay u. naks.- per is designed twholly for the boys. Men who were never boys of , courne réllifiin from reading it. . We have seen many who act as if such was the case. A year or so ogoa little four-year- old grandson was making considerable our knoe and said to him; 'when I was a little Boy like you, I kept pretty still when T was visiting my grandpa.\ He looked full in our face, and®with all g little boy like I is?\ ''Yes, ery much the pol same kind,\ we answered, and suppose all pou 5 boys tinder -like circumstances -to be con- . a sidembly alike. | This we know so in our f *'! ease, but our period of boyhood was great- ly abridged from natural causes, weobtain- f than the average of boys. That was prob- ably somewhat our misfortune, as we were expected to act the part of a man in appear- ance, while still a large, green boy in years. - gfimqwflymdmnlyuflWtMy our years. of the boy with our early life that we pro molse, and we called him to us, took him on possible honesty, asked: \Was you ever a ing our growth and stature much earlier Not a beardless youth, for at fourteen we had abundant use for a razor; and weighed one hundred and forty poum'is, and ot eight- cen had as heavy a beard as any man ought to have at thirty, and at nineteen, weighed one hundred and ninioty pounds. © This had fts advantages and its disadvantages, . Its advantages were, it gave us position and work never ordinarily entrusted. to a boy, and its disadvantages were, it just so much shortened boyhood 'days, and demanded of us judgment and experience In advance of We somehow managed to mix so much ‘gefixerandflluuncmstfilmxe our rate of reptd transit, the thing so desired,. ~-Noooner was sport during fall, but we hever owned a dog and were not fitted for such gum“ 'Spenring fish was a fine pastime, at whick we were an expert by torch light, Our experience on skates 'was very lim- ited. In fact it was confined to a single trial. When a boy, until about a dozen years old, we had not tried ona pair of skates. No good pond was near, and. we! never had an opportunity, When about that age wa went to visit a friend at the river. boys were going upon the mill pond for a fine time. The ice was firm and smootti. We saw them skate for some time and finally it was proposed that we should join in the sport. It seemed very easy to see those glide around who were used to it, and we did not object to trying the fun. My friend securely fastened his skates to my feet, and then assisted me to a stunding position, The the . iden. broached. than we all started off for the horse sled. It was of all wood,-with quite wide, smooth runners of hard wood.. 'We took off the box, leaving only the floor and the four short stakes, . The-thills would: lay down. flat ufion the top-of-the sled. . Our united | strength soon had it at the very top of the hill. The snow crust was smooth and hard. . No stone or stump was in the way. We pointed the thing in the way we want- ed to-ride- and one held it in position untlt the other three were seated, then giving It a good start, himself jumped on, We were one of the hind boys, the two older brothers being in front. 'The heft of the sled and its load soon gave it gredt spéed. Before we were half way down the hill, our hats were taken off by the strong- wind- created. by the rapid flight of sled and boys. The snow had drift. ed into the edge of the brush woods so as to cover the fence, and - the crust extended two ar three rods into the woods. . Qn we went with a speed 'we could hardly breathe, down the hill, neross the level land, over the fence into 'the woods, geross the crust into the deep snow and finally brought up against a big tréesome six or eight rods in the woods, with sufficient force .fo land us all-in the frozen snow, two upon. free, completely burying us all. - We soon crawled out as best we could. - Not one ob us but what wwpgsxling’ngdjleeding from the whip ping and scratching we had received from: the brush in our rapid stride into its thicket. Our bare heads and necks were filled with the course snow, which | was so deep us to require our best united effort to get our sled back, a lift at a tige, which labo- rious effort soon warmed us so that we need- ed neither hats or mittens for comfort. After along continued struggle we final our bekd down. We had at once and un- intentionally started a series of unanticl- pated scientific investigations, We were viewing stars astronomically, and making phrenological bumps at the same moment, It was guining knowledge rapidly, but un- der difficulties. - As soon as sufficiently re- covered from our sudden search for knowl- edge, we unbuckled and took off the skates. That completed our education in that di- rection. We resolved that if we ever Lagain-trled the experiment- of- standing_on | skates, that we would excuse our body with a feather bed, and our head in pillows; s0\ that if we fell we would not produce an Feurthquaie; or endanger-the destructionof- so much ice. We had an experience some two or three years before, equally impressive, but of a different kind We started one winter's morning, after a night's thaw and rain, for school. It was very icy, and the water run in brooks or stood in pools in the street, Our mother tried to dissuade us 'COOPERSTOWN, N. Y., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1886. Lent to most every body, but. more especially uge farmer has to sellis xery dow, com- | pared with the last three or four years, but He had skates, anda number of f [frat move we made our feet went up and [* | aitlon': and there in over-production-in-man- pose to relate to our boy friends some of our sources of fun. In those days one © could not go to a hardware or notion store nnd buy a sled, ora wagon, or A cart, or if wheelbarrow, as to-day, there being no such things for aule. - Nor do we remember | ever baving a sted or wagon until we our- l self made it. But that must have been j practiced at- an early age, as at seven we TC- member having a good sled, made of bard» | ly got our sled and ourselves out of the bushes, secured our lost hats, took the sled home by the shortest route, and returned home' with several ridges raised on our faces, necks, and arms by the whips, cach feeling as though we had rather overdone the business in trying to get an undue amount of fun out of riding: down hill Qur aim ever after was to look out for & from going, but we never even then let small obstacles deter us from duty. We had about a mile and a half to go if by the highway, something like walking one-half mile on three sides each of a square, | Just as we turned the first corner we had to go down a short, steep hill. | It was all ice, and the water was running arapid stream down the street from both ways out of the one it intersected. - We started boldly down the wood boards of our own manufacture. strong for all boy uses. to asort of a mixture of prin and prim Robinson Crusoe, the Farm-yard Journal pronounce the long words. us a visit, bringing as a gift those books, looksare now distinctly remembered. given to what a few years ago was that reduced none of its charms. the snow strong enough to hold up a man J fashioned way of toboggan riding, then w self forward, partly between them, in position to: rear, we are sure. ridebard to years our senior, and two of ® At| cight we had a wagon with plunk wheels | nod-oxletrees of-hard wood, sufficiently Onir father always. allowed us to use his tools, and we commenced our trade very | young. Handsleds, wagons, bows and ar- rows, and croseguns were curly in life plenty, and always a source of enjoyment, 'The spring after we were five years old, while | bunting hena-nests, we | fell and broke a leg, and that season was devoted mers. - We had followed our mother and nunts with our book to learn to read about thepictures, so that when confined with the broken leg we remember we could read «nd other like stories, with little help to [--- -- ---At that -ago;-soom-after -our -thigh-was- brokens our maternal grandmother made which we read and re-read with much pleasure. It was the only time we ever saw the mother of our mother, and her ''Toebogganing\ is the popular name now called rosesting,\ but we boys used to know the exercise as \riding. down hill,\ and it had fust as much pure fun in it sixty years ago as it has to-day. Tree, itthen was per- formed im a more primitive way, but to us Wein early years bad snow more uni- formly during the winter, and seldom one passed in which there was a time of several weeks' duration but what we had a crust on making just the perfection of a time for \riding down hill.\ Take a good snow crust, a mmoonlight night, two or three boys, end us many or more girls, and if enjoy- ment could not be extracted from our old bave forgotion. | Take a long smooth hill, noncommudsflatnitslmeniw Thiatitbe vide could come safely to a stop, then seat two girls upon the sled, and owes le-it: softly, aud them ride at the speed of the wind for one- fourth orthird of a mile, walk beck and repeat the operation for an hour orf two, and all modern tobogganing was put far in forget. Ourself and our broth- boys of out respective ages, met h mesdow, which bad a fair good pluce to stop, #s well ns. to ride, for the stopping is sometimes the most danger ous partof the performance. Near our house was a fine slope that we utilized for summer as well as winter rid- ing. | By securing firmly the forward uxle, so that it could not turn, our wagon made a fine substitute for the sled. 1 thus required no guiding and would run straight in the direction started, It would rua some ten or twelve rods. . If by uny means we got thrown out, our Innding would not be as cool or soft as in snow, but we'recollect no serious injury from ac- cident, either to ourself or our girl friends, who often joined in the sport with us. Another pastime of boyhood was the catching of rabbitsand partridges in snares, We would for rabbits, make the frame part of our snare on a board, and securely th, where edge of the stream, slipped and rolled futo the water and was by it slid and rolled down the hill on the gmooth bed of ice about as quick as we ever went such distance probably about four rods. We hung to our dinner basket but its contents were gone. When we landed at the foot of the hill we regained our erect position, nota dry spot on our body, We viewed ourself a minute In disgust. - We wore all covered with the filth accumulated in the woter, and in a sad plight. | We were too mad to laugh, and looked too comical to cry. . We waded through the water, crawled through the fence und over the deep snow, gained the road and made rapid steps towards the place so recently left. When near home, our mother saw us coming, and ruouing out, caught our hand with the exclamation, ''Why, my,dear boy, ard Times Handling Fruits. [A paper read by J. M. Rockwell before the Hill-Land Horticultural meeting at Oneonta, Jan- uary 12, 18 and T4, 1886] . ~ ~~~ > - To grow fruit, and to'take care of It af- ter-it is grown; are- branches of the_ same.) subject, very closely connected, and yet the latter may, and often: does, become of prime importance, In the first case, we can assist nature, and she will help us.' In: the second, we are left to our own resour- ces 'The past season hie furnished-us a- supply of fruit in-great abundance, of all kinds, and if we have not been benefitted, it is because we have not known how to make the best use of what we have receiv- ed. Nature has done her part most boun- tifully. - Bhe bas not only given us fruit in great abundance, but of superior quality. Strawberries were an immense crop. 'The wild and the cultivated varieties seemed to vie with each otherin productiyeness. | Past- ures and: meadows were 'red: with-them; Garden beds of limited dimensions gave many families a duily feast of this most de- licious of all fruits, for days and weeks in succession. - On a larger seale our best cul- tivated fields yielded enormously, | All our markets were abundantly supplied with the cultivated varieties, while bushels upon bushels of wild strawberries were brought into all of our towns and villages, and marketed at some price. | But whot of all this abundance, and seeming ,éxcess of H ites should rui do%h to adesy figure, was to have heer texpected, and only those careful in the handling and skillful in marketing, 'dould realfzc~a fair profit. | and assorting, careful handling dffer pick- ing, plenty of good crates, and clean bask- ets were very essential. Getting the ber- ries in market in niee condition, and in as fresh a state as possible, was of prime im- portance, - Wild berries were hard to dis pose of at any price. The importance of sufficient help to pick the berriesas soon as ripe, conveniences in the shape of wagons and horses, and prompt conveyanceto mar. ket, became at once apparent. . A delay of a few hours even might prove disastrous, I have found these things of much impor- tance in marketing berries at home, and of course they would apply with equal, if not greater force, when shipped to a city market. I have never shipped berries to the city. | Hnving always found market at home for all I could raise. - Of the differ- ence in profit between city and home mar- kets, I have no means of. judging.. It would be interesting, if a comparison could be made. - Of varieties of strawber- ries for market, it may be well to sperk. I commenced with the Wilson and had good success with them. | I have them yet. It is a good bearer, handles well, and sells well. - But I am growing other kinds now, and some of them are more profitable on my grounds, will yield more and sell as well. 'The Crescent Becdling is themost productive of any strawbery L have tried. Itis a very strong, rampant grower, inclined to take full possession of the soil, not even allow- ing weeds a chance. The berries are of good size and hold out well to the last. The Jersey Queen is the largest and finest in appearance, of any sort I have ever _ Written expressly for Tix Orezao FAnrxm,’ L2 st m, a. numBanp. - This is a subject that is now very appar- to the farming community, because the price of most everything which the aver- this is nothing 'compared with thirty years ago, when eggs were 10, cents a dozen, but- ter 12} cents a pound and many other things in proportion; while the things the fatmer had to buy were two or three times as high as they are now. | The reason why we think the times are hard, is because we hove just passed through a period of ex- ceptional prosperity, and the sudden change from high prices to moderate prices has nearly taken our breath away, but it must he expected, we cannot always enjoy per- jods of prosperity. _ During war times every thing was high, and following that, in 1878, we had a period of depression, and so it goes; and so it always will be, for 'after the storm comes the sunshine.\ We will now look into the causes of the present \hard times\ as we call them. The principal cause of the present embarrassment is over production, not of form produce, but things that are substituted for it. . Ole- omaergarine is substituted. for butter, and beer is now made of drugs and chemicals and but very little hops enter into its compo- ufactured articles, which oes not affect the furmerso much, which is the-egygerafthe shutting down of factories and of the nu- rous strikes that are constantly occurring. | During times of prosperity we are apt to get reckless, spending monty here and there, and dipping into projects beyond our means, not thinking or laying by for the rainy day that is sure to come. | If the farmers and laboring classes had saved the money that they spent for liquor, tobacco and many other luxuries which they could have done without, they would not think it was such hard times, for they would have something to fall back on, and this money would not be in the hands of capi- talists as It is pow, but it would be in the hands of those. who could put: it into cir- culation, If the man who bought a two hundred acre farm, with ten acres of hops updn it, and run into debt for nearly the whole, with nobody but himself to work it, expecting to pay for it with two or three big licks, bad contented himself by buying a smaller farm and keeping within his means, he would nof be hounded by cred- itors and be obliged to sell out to satisfy them, as he is now. Amother cause of the \hard times\ with furmers, in that they are more often the victims of sharpers and frauds than any other class of people. If the Oleo- margarine manufacturers were shut up or the article sold on its merits, butter would | raise in price at once; and if the manufnct- \ turers of beer were compelled to make it of healthful ingredients, hops would be in de- mand; and if the speculators und sharpers who now get their living by dealing in farm produce, thus many times keeping, down the prices; and if the many sharpers who wet their living: by bumbugging the rural what has happened to you, -have you- been drowned?\ \Not drowned, but not in just the right fix for school, guess I will study at home to-day,\ is our answer. A wash and a dry sult of clothes put all right with we could bend \down a. strong sapling to snare them up. | The snare was made with a noose in a strong cord, and so placed that the game by hitting the \spindle\ or stick fired for the purpose would spring the catch, and the bent sapling flying up would raise the rabbit by the neck, leg, or body, just which bappeoed to be in the right position. | Partridges were suared by their legs on the same principle. . We early made up our mind that it was a crucl, unfair way of taking game, and soon abandoned it. Skunks, an animal which some of our distinguished legislators undertook to pre- serve recently, by penal legislation, under the name of \polecat were in our bey- hood days numerous, and we own we nev- er yet harbored in our breast any particular friendship for them. Perhaps such pred- judice was the result of early associations. Between the years 1825 and 1880 we think fully one hundred of them wate dispatch- ed by us, in various ways, but mostly by traps. Our grandfather had a steel trap kept especially for such use. It always had to be kept a long way from the dwell ings, as the metal is extremely attractive to the peculiar odor of the skunk. One winter we caught forty during the winter mohths. It was a sclence business to do it and avoid carrying the smell. They ara the easiest animal to trap, known. If one is within reach, he is sure to run into a steel tfap. No care is necessary, only to set the trap and leave it where the skunk will pess. He will be sure to be caught. Not one-half so caught will emit any odor If killed by a single blow. We used to dispatch them with -s long pole, so as to be {days at a mite andthen haul the trap Tor axod or two from the place before re- moving them and then by poling a thip or pleca of bark upon. the springs step up- in clods poutact Fick their » “We enjoyed a degree of health that the ordinary contagious . discases of children were but few of them ever taken by is, We were repeatedly exposed. to the mea- ales, and never took them until twenty- three, and then living io this county. We however took the mumps while young. They were prevailing in summer. An uscle was helping father hoe his corn, and he chafed me with the idea that we must have the mumps. . We protested we would not, as we bad no use for mumps, our face was all right without them., 'The next morning when w& awoke our cheeks swelled out on both sides like a chip- squirrel's with a week's provisions in his chops. \Ab sb,\ . says our uncle, \I thought you want going to have the mumps.\ \I shouldn't, if you had not sent therm to me while I was asleep,\ is my reply, - Bo long as he lived we never heard the last of having the mumps. One peculiar physical | festure of our boyhood and youth, until nearly forty years old, was, that we never sweat. No exercise, no matter how severe, would ev- ersiart perspiration. We could get hot, but not start moisture upon the skin. It was almost sa impossibility | to exercise sufficient to fée} a sensation of fatigue, We would like some of that extra. vitality now in our adyancing agt e a with?! and study. We always and always reed, more or less every Béfore we were fourteen we had read Seneca's works,_Goldsmith's History ofMP‘XsJ/mth'slmqujm Ins Ancient History. We had for years infxed work, play and reading, and fey #13 bear mixitg. 'of the weak and defenceless, Mixed with all the sports of boyhood. We never Hot was always ready to cxponie the cames . new r at gr speak of its productiveness, The Charles Downing and Green Prolific are both fine berries, attractive in appearance and sell well in market. - Next in order to thaBtraw- berry, is the Raspberry. | For the table the population, were squelched or given a wide berth, there would be more money in the farmers' pockets and less in theirs, and they would be compelled to work or leave the country. Farmers are not, as a rule, well educated men, but they should at least see that their oecupation is honored and protected in our legisiatures, and they should take pains to elect good men for such positions, and they should keep posted in regard to hombugs and sharpers and give them a wide berth every time, but when they have a chance to invest ten dollars honestly and have it double itself, they should do it at once, if they can; and lastly we would advise overy ; person who has a debt due, to get money together to pay it, and thus put money in circulation; also not to invest beyond their means, and to raise only those crops, which as a rule, bring a paying price. Itis not the crop which brings the largest gross profit that pays, it is the one that brings the largest net profit. We are pleased to note thkt from the present indications business will revive, al though it may not at onct bepparent to the farmers. | We bopethat they will sooner or later be enjoying prosperity, and that they will profit by the above Mickel Farm. New Lisbon, N. Y. Goop Latens.-A writer in London Live Sock Journal obtained from nine Brown Leghom bens in eleven months, 1,815 eggs or an average of 135per hen. 'Thereasons he ascribes for such grod results are: - Har- dy birds, cleaning of roosting house every morning, and nests every week, also white- mhhgthemmmghmxflieahthea period; a feld to ritiin; hot meal and house serapings early in the morning; dedi mixed whole corn at night before roosting. He finds the Leghorns 'bardy and good 'ta-i tiefood. #00 geos place of the Strastberry, while for evapor- ating the Black is preferable. | The Cutteler is a fine berry, good for the table and mar- ket. - Of the Blacks the Gregg is second to nove. - All I bavesaid in regard to careand not hardy enough to endure our winters. How frequently did we hear remarks sections of cur county, bat. there: Favorite, thit is the handsomest, be! ry baskets, 'They are a nico little pear. - | whether sold at _ home, or .shipped'to New T-havo not_tested it anficiently to Red Raspberry seems naturally to take tlt\ skill in marketing Strawberries, applies with equal force to the raspberry. | I am not growing Blackberries. - Have tried the Kit tatinney and it has proved a failure, | Itis Pears, the past season, were a large crop, and of fine quality. @ood varieties paid well, when properly marketed. Still hun- dreds of bushels were allowed to rot on the ground, or were fed to stock, simply because the grower did not know what to do with them - Peopleseemed to be fright- ened because they had such an abundance. like these? \I have so many pears, I do wot | 4 know what to do with them. I can't sell them and I can't give them away. A man would considet it an insult if Tshould offer: him pears, as a gift.\ | All this is owing to *\\ lacFof | knowledge of the know bow to do. {J fnecrop, and this was true of many other; vored and- most-salatlo-of-anything. season; Its beautiful appearance almost\. insures its sale at once. 'There was no \ unable utretqmn‘g‘them ats good price. .. I hive a few frees of Maddfums that mark» - et well, coming so early'in the season. Be- ing quite smiall, I usually retail them by - the quart, purtmg them- up in the etrawber- - I find a difference Tn choice of varieties, Yor I Have a good many Virgalimg which I put out on fts good reputation, as . ont of. the-best old standard sorts.. It does ° not seem-to bea favorite here, but shipped to New York sells up with the Sheldon, which is a good market pear, here, as well _. __ ns in New York. | The little Seckle, which sells so well in New York is not a favorite here. *The Bartlett sells woll-everywhere, although its peculiar flavor is not agreeable to -some-tastes. - Another-thing -I- {ave learned by experience, viz, that by actual trial, we kiow bottér what kinds to plants ~-~--* than wlien we tike th advice of others» When I set my pear orchard eighteen years ago, I was told that the Bartlett would not do well in this locality, | On the contrary E have no sort that does better, The: Bart lett comes into bearing eatly and Ugars Tall crops nearly every year. | For shipping to New York use half. , selecting and making first and second grades, as the case | ' may be. E* Of~ampples, as of:pears, there was dH immense crop, and ag Was' the case with pears; the quality was very much superior | ~ to the average, 'That great pest of.the ple orchardist, the coddling moth, has «aused\ very little injury to apples, consequently they are smooth and fair and keeping well I attribute our almost entire escape from the ravages of the coddling moth to the almost total failure of the apple. crop in 1884. IL. . this theory is correct, and the coddling moth has become almost extinet in our locality, the question of how to most effectually keep in check, one, at least, of the greatest enemies of the apple orchardist, becomes of vital importance. ' Another question al« so may be of interest. - Will our abundant crop of 1885 change, to any . great exfent, the bearing year of our orchards? I con« fess that what is called the off and on, or odd and even years, would simply be a puzzle to me, but looking at the matter in pnother light, viz, in the light of fruitful and unfruitful years, I think a reasonable | solution . of the question can be given, Many varieties of apples have a tendency to over-bear one season, and. nome, or scarce . ly any the next. | Other varieties bear more evenly every year. Several of our best winter varieties of apples have this tendency of excessive bearing alternate years. Per- haps the experiences of the past two years may give us some light on the subject. 1 have'not attempted to grow a great variety of winter apples, confining myself to a few of the most abundant beariug and most popular market sorts. | I have the Baldwin, King, Northern Spy and Greening, in the greatest number, I bave been deterred from setting NowtownPippins because of its rath. er fechle and slow growth. - Itip a very fine variety, and possesses such superior quali- tes. especially for shipment to foreign mark- cts, that I would like to grow it. I am told that the constitutional tendency of flow and foehle growth, is being overcome by grafting into stronger growing kinds, as some of the smaller Russets, Tollmas Bwest, &c. R In this section most of the apples have been used in some way.. For. our best winter apples I never have bad auy fear but that a fair market could bo found for them; carefully sesorted and-thoroughly--- - packed in good clean barrels, they will all be > wanted at home or. to be shippedito. £+#- . cign markets. The English market gov erns, to a Considerable extent; tho New Yorks market, leaving out of courses. profit or loss. - Good Baldwins, at Liverpool, would net a little over. New York, from which freight -a | York thust be deducted. , In s season like The fargeers
