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3. $. 3, + vcrx old‘Mple. We will relaf8-some of \ orlc of witcher; for hre-would-often find+ H. I. RUSSELL, Publisher, VOL, IX. Farm Hopics. \e that tilleth the land shall be satiated with bread.\-(Proverbs 12411. m2 Reminiscences of Farm Life of Olden mum. smrlu, doow=-No. 1%. Written expressly (or TaE Grszeo Fares, Lia Miln- -In a former paper we hinted at thestill prevalent belief in \witches\ and leagues with the devil, which had not disappeared in our boyhood days. . When we reflect that witches and witch- craft was believed in by the clergy and made a part of the religious creeds of the early settlers of the New England States, it is not strange that even some remains of such bigoted superstition. should continue even until this late day, by the ignorant and superstitious. It will be remembered that no less than nineteen persons were executed in Salem, Mass., about the close of the sixteenth century for being witches, and that the clergy of that day were the chief man- agers in the. matter. . Adiegrace to the name of religious teachers hard to itradicate or wipe out from New England's history. Fortunately these latter times are not much troubled in our portion of the coun- third of the present century had still many firm bellevers-in witches. | The frst witch . stories we ever remember hearingwere the different experiences of the effects of witches upd\ the family of the relator ns seu aad wife, both then the as he fold them in our presence near- ly sixty years ago. His first was that he had a fine pair of horses, and that the witches used to ride them nights. Often in the morning he would find them wet with sweat from their hard night's riding. He knew it was the \witch-balls\ around his barn and fields. At other times the witches would milk his cows and often for days together in the morning no milk would be obtained, the witches having taken it all. His carts and wagons were by the witch- es put in all softs of places, | One morning he found his wagon upon the ridge of his barn and not a sound bad. been heurd nor could a track be found of any persons who could have put it in that perilous condi- tlon. At other times his cream was bewitched and no butter could be churned. Every effort being of no avail. He finally, he affirmed, obtained the mastery over them. He put a silver sleeve button into the churn and it stuck by its eye into the bottom of the churn-dasher, and from that time there was no more difficulty in obtaining butter from his milk or cream. But the very first time he put the button in the churn a certain old lady was struck blind. He nailed old horse shoes up over his barn door and securely locked the barn and hid the key in the bible, and from that time his horses were let alone. | He yarded his cows close by his house and kept a bible laying in the window 'next their yard, and after-that, so long as he took such _ precau- tion, they no longer milked his cows. Finally he cut the story of the witch of Endor from his bible and burned it with brimstone, and the witches were ever after stayed from harrassing him. You may imagine our resolution as the old white haired man told those stories with all their particulars with as much sincerity and serlousness as he would have related a death and funeral of a dear friend, and be- sides all was confirmed by his equally sin- vere wife. While hearing the story and the cure, we mentally resolved if we ever lived to have horses, wagons, cows, and churns, we would look out for s liberal supply of old horse shoes, allver sleeve buttons, bibles, and brimstone, and remember the best manner for their use, in staying the witch ea. ~~~ Ohi father was a reticent, tober sort of f gaga ~- man, but we notlced that Mr. Bently's seri- ous witch stories, put a peculiar sort of twinkle in his eyes, and a slight grin upon his face, which hardly agreed with the se- riousness of the solemn occasion. When our witch-believing visitors were gone, we lost no time in asking all sorts of questions of the strange things the witches had performed for the annoyance of that poor old man. Our father laughed, aud said Hf wéever saw Mr. C-- and F--- and G---- three middle aged men living about two miles from Mr. Beétly's, we- would see the live horse riding, cow milk- ing, wagon climbing witches, who had played so many tricks upon the witch be- Heving old man and his wife. That explanstion took all the poetry out of those wiith stories, and has temded to reriously impair the novelty of all we have evar heard staza~ Letting the churn with the cold creminstand a few hours in a warm rooms, foo, we were assured had msde the batter come readily when the sleeve button was pat Into it, sed ratural causes had produced the blindness of ald Sealth. We readily accepted our father's wmmwaym econf He was A FARM AND FIRESIDE JOURNAL. COOPERSTOWN, N. Y., SATURDAY, MARCH edge available. our old friends all in: the shade. paying lis addresses to- a fine young lady living in a small village upon the Ononda- go river, and made his visits on horseback, Several miles of the way was through a hemlock forest. | He had a rival in his love affair, but our neighbor seemed to be re- delved with marked favor. well, was fair looking, and besides he had | saved mmmfimy.”TTfiditRfii—hls father was a well to do farmer. Things were looking bluefor the rival. Ed., as bur neighbor was familiarly called, was evi- dently winning favor. qualities, he was a firm believer in witches. ¥d.'s rival was the son of an able farmer also, and he lived about half the distance nearer the residence of the object of both their love. | We will call Ed.'s rival Joe, but are not sure as we are right. at his wits\ end to devise some way by which he could rid himself of his rival, and break up his monthly visits to his lady love. Joe learned of Ed's firm belief in witch- craft, and set himself about devising some scheme by which he could make such knowl- Early one Monday morn- ing, soon after Joe obtained such informa- tion, before the dawn had lighted up the eastern horizon, Ed. came riding home < ”Tmmwwmmxe .-zate. of.speed, ' his horse-panting with heat, aud his rider's Among Ed.'s other He dressed Joe was volved and the whips played a lively \tune upon Ed.'s head,. arms, and body; while the rumbling nolse made by the revolving rollers, could casily be construed Into a similarity of the witches' air navigating chariot. No sooner had the horseback riding lov- er received his whipping and fled at the highest speed of his frightened steed, than :the-boys- took down, carried: which should reveal their night's doings. aided Joe in playing his joke. among the old inhabitants. of \haunted houses,\ \spectres &c. _| nights, when'he is home.\ R into: the woods, split up and burned, every vestige of their work, carefully leaving no mark They left the hat where It fell, so as to ex- cite no suspicion, and it being a juke of too serious a nature for publicity, years pass- ed before the real source of Ed.'s whipping by the witches was known, and we now doubt whether many ever heard as much of a description of the matter as we had on our ride with the very cousin who had Should this description of Ed.'s court ship come to the sight of the old residents of the vicinity, it will be readily recognized; but we doubt whether the way the thing was done, ever being much known, even Ghosts rnd witches have alike worked upon the morbid superstitious fancy of the ignorant, and imaginary, of all times. Even now we have still relics of these oft explained and exploded follies, in the form was frightened nearly to death. ciently collected and calmed to be able to talk, he related his adventure as follows: upon ' his-head, face, arms und on the wane. About this rime Them rest commis face, arms and body marked and ridged, the | and his forehead streaked with blood, _ He: He roused up the family and when suffi- He was returning through the dark hem- lock woods, his horse picking his way, it being so dark that no object was visible, when his horse started ahead, and a roaring like the rumbling of the wheels of a car- riage was heard in the air over his head, and at the same moment the whips came body, and continued to flagellate him con- tinuously for several rods. - He lost his hat in the melee, and rode home the remaining distance as fast as possible, This was in short his story: The fact of his being whip-marked all over hils face, arms and body, was evident, and undeniable. - That his horse had been hard ridden could not be doubted. The family council, consisting of. parents, broth- ers, and sisters, together with a witch-be- lieving maiden aunt, after learning all the facts in the case; decided that Ed. had beeu accosted and whipped by witches, that they rode in the witch chariot in the wir, and that Ed. in his nightly visits, was evidently thus in some way offending them, and they were merciful in their chastising him, and sparing his life. It was also advisable that he no more make trips to the Onondaga river, as such nightly excursions were the sole cause of | the disaster. 'The father and the hired | man were started In the morning to travel over the same road, bible in hand, to find if possible the last hat. - They had traveled ouly about two miles, when they met s horseman with the hat in hand, which he said he had picked up in the middle of the road in the thickest part of the hemlock woods, The fir of the beaver hat also bore the whip marks upon its front, and had evidently been knocked off by them. All these things to the family, were con- clusive evidence of the work of witches. i ghosts as often as possible. We must tell a single ghost story and with that we will bid adieu to witches and ghosts, It will be remembered that in u former paper we described-a field of whuxt we raised 'by means of 21132131- leached ashes. One side of that fiekt Bor dered on s burying ground, In this bury: ing ground had often been seen a ghost. We suppose all ghosts are white, and this was of the common color. Many nervous persons had seen it walking among the graves, and yarious versions had been giver of its netsand- doings: - One night our informant had Imen down the river past the burying ground to spend the evening with his best girl. - We might as well remark right here that more ghosts have been seen by returning lovers, during the small hours of night, than by all else beside, In fact late hours spent in love- making, seem favorable for raising up ghosts, - The one under consideration was of the common kind. He was returning home a fine starlight morning, und us he neared the burying ground, he saw the ghost moving among the tombstones towards where he was pass- ing. - He puthis legs to their most speedy use and run for dear life, On arriving home he quictly sought his room, crawled into his bed, and laid and cogitated in his mind the matter of his vision until called to a late breakfast. In two weeks he had promised to visit his loveagain. During that time he managed to bring the conversation upon the subject of | Happily his mother was n sensible rort' of a woman, and assured him that if per- j sons would only approach the ghosts, they could always account for them from natur i al causes, - That no such thing existed oth- ; erwise. - These assurances gave him some courage, and he resolved he would person- ally Investigate the next ghost. He several times thereafter passed the burying ground, and no ghost appeared. He began to think they had forsaken their The man Ed. was a bachelor, sud a firm belfever In the correctness of the decision of the family council, when we know him, many years after the occurrence above de- scribed. So far as we know, he and the family lived and died in such belief. We however had a different version of the matter. Witch stories, as well as all others, can usually be told in different ways. One time we were riding with a son of an old resident over the road, wheh be gaye this description of Ed.'s whipping. The hemlock woods had then disappeared, a fine road was there, and fields of grass sud grain burdened the highway on each He said to me, \you have heard of Ed- B- being whipped by the witches in their serial carriage, I suppose.\ We answered in theaffirmative. . \Itoccurred abouthere. Joe, his rival, learning by some mesos his strong beef in witches, and witch craft, determined to make his knowledge useful. He made alot of long light rollers and bored them full of holes, and inserted long one Sunday after Ed. had passed to spend the evening with his giri, by the aid of his t rolters- sczoss the road upon the limbs, on the éast side of convenient hemlock trees. He bad six or eight such rollers. He then had & rope which be wound once around nesr the end of each roller, extending it from one to the other, then wast to the ground, where he had a windlass and crank. Aithe windjam the rope also passed once carefully spfced fogether. To theecd of able figmer of sAtanted years who kad s | 3 uMWvflth’Mfmm HaRk. wig whips. He watched his opportunity and | sround it and them the diatk ends were the windlass he €. crank. By turning mmshwmmm former haunts, - Finally one Monday morn- | ing in October, after spending most of the ‘nlght with his girl, he as he neared the | { grave yard, resolved that nothing, no mat- | ter what might occur, he would not look toward it. - He would thus miss the ghosts, | If as numerous as tombstones. . Alas for the weakness of well-formed resolutions unle«s kept sacredly, - He turn- ed his eyes towards the old haunts, and there stood his dreaded ghost, He trem: bled with fear. - His courage, \Bob Acres\ like, began to coze out his fingers ends. He stopped to look and to consider. It was white. It was big. It was smong must be a ghost. So he cogitated. Soon it began to move. Then it appeared double, or like two ghosts attached. | 'Then it less ened to one. - Finally the one seemed much smaller. During all this suspense and watching he could not rid his mind of 'the words of his mother, \that if persons would approach the ghosts they could always account for them from natural causes.\ His mother knew what she said, or she would not have so stated, for she always spoke the truth. be- hesitated. Helooked in all directions to see what else he could dis- cover. - Boon be saw a dim light approach- mg from the same way he 'had come. He stood in his tracks, perspiration profusely Bowing from every pore. | Soon the light was at his side, carried by a young woman neighbor. “WWW | enterrd. She r | the ghost, with apparently ns Title fear as x thge would face a RMSen Battery. _| lurge quantities, ; Harrow the ground thoroughly and mark the graves. and tomb-stones--It surely | - who had been out watching with a sick Amaming all the calmthess possiSle be called ber sttention to the ghost. She at ance broke into a hearty laugh and with mfookdormhah’ehtwm I do not.\ Atthe samiatime ce Ted the wayto the gals, fmylng \we wil As she neared it, so that the light could fall fairly upon it, she gave a whew, whis- tle, and said \why Tom, that ghost is ped- dler Smith's old white peddling horse, he uses the burying ground as his pasture Tom, after telling his ghost story, assured his hearers that be bad never since waited for the courage of a young girl to wake up sufficient bravery in him to inves- tigate imaginary ghosts, and to always account fof them from natural causes. Cabbage Bnising. Written Expressly for the Orezco BY iL a. HUBBARD, This is an old, important and growing Industry. The cabbage is s salt water plant and flourishes to the greatest perfec- tion in the vicinity of the sea, or other large body of water, but it is one of the most widely cultivated of all garden vege- tables, and proves very profitable on a great variety of soils if its cultivation is under- stood. - Germany is, I think, the largest cabbage producing country in the world, and we ali know or have heard that the Germans are very fond of saur-krout, and besides growing enough to supply themselves they export large quantities annually, The lar- gest cabbage fields in this country are on Long Island and near Chicago, where there are two thousand acres under cultivation-- one hundred and ninety acres in one field- 'but stumge-to any, onty iftric -ofctite bage is sold. in Chicago, it being shipped green and manufactured into saur-krout in mense factories, and shipped torall parts '5f the south and east. For stock-feeding, as well as for human food, cabbage hold a high rank, and large growers who cannot dispose of their sur- plus, can feed it to their stock with good results. It should be fed to milch cows immediately after milking, but in not too The mising and cultivation of cabbage is comparatively simple. In the first place you must procure the best of 'seed. Large quantities of the cabbage seed sold in this country are imported, but such seed is dear at any price. Always get fresh American grown seed. If you want early cabbage, the seed should be sown in a hotbed in March and transplanted to the open ground as soon as the weather will permit, but for general crop, sow the seed in the open bor- der about May 1, but it is much cheaper for a person who does not understand growing plants to buy them, as most mark- et gurdencrs and seedsmen keep them for sale at low prices. Select a piece of loamy ground on which there has not lately been grown any of the cubbage family, plow under twenty loads of well rotted manure to the acre (barrow in on the surface if it is greensward)or sow tive bundred pounds of good commercial fertilizer to the acre and harrow in. Salt 'and lime are very beneficial to cabbage. ! out three by two feet for the large varieties, and two and one-half by one and one-half | feel. for the small varieties. Selecta cloudy \day or just before m rain to transplant; | puddle the plants in thick mud, and most of them will live, whether it rains or not; have some one to dropthe plants, take your E dibble and go to work; cultivate them early and often aod we think they will thrive. Do not be afraid of green wortns, they are | fast disappearing, but to avoid them plant “u large fields and dust the plants with cither sait, ashes, lime, plaster Pryenthum | or Cabbage Pest Powder; gather the crop i before freezing weather and store in pits or ; cellars and don't leave the leaves on the | ground, for many times they amount to as much as all the bay you could have got off | of the land; and to sam up, #e would say, if you do not now raise cabbage, try a good big patch and supply your family, your stock, and your neighbors, and see if you don't think it pays. Mickel Farm. New Lisbon, N. Y. ---@e+4---- Temper-flare im the Bairy. Taipei-stun e is one of the most import- ant things in the management of the dairy. By neglect of it, one meets with the great. est difficulties. In the winter these dif ficulties often quite prevent the making of butter, or if the butter can be made at all, the quality | is Inferior and at. times so poor ss to make it unsalable. Winter dairying, upon this account, can be made easier and more profitable than summer dairying, because the temperature can be better and more cheaply maintained by means of fire in the datry-room in cold i + 'The standard temperature for setting milk the year sround is sixty-two degrees. | It is useles to try to secure this extra tempera- ture without a thermometer. The first thing to be done by the butter any season {atom bouse, afife in meehmtn new -in the evening,. ~cab~| wimmer thaw it real v vos, weather than by 166 tn the hot weather- Butter Making. There is a famous lady butter maker, if we may be allowed the expression, who gave a lecture. on butter making {6 Eng- land the other day, and we think some of the points she made are worth calling at- tention to. She says it is a matter of some amazement that with all the progress that has been made in butter making within the past few years, how many women now work butter with their hands. We do not take much stock in the objection that there is a certain amount of perspiration exud- Ing from the hands all the time, because, the hands are always reasonably clean, but the heat of the hand is objectionable, unless the butter is worked at a tempera- ture that is sufficiently low to prevent the hand from melting it, and then the butter will be so hard that it will require too much working to get the buiter milk out and salt into it; but one point this lady makes that we do approve of when she says: 'Those dairymaids who use their hands ought not to wear finger-nails,\ un- less they are enthusiastic manipulators of the manicure. But it is a good rule that should be enforced on suy farm, that the hands must never touch the butter. Again she warns against the too common practice of testing the temperature of the cream at churning time with the finger. When the outside air is cold and the body chilled, the cream will feel several degrees is caused by . the mdlml change and the 'if the outside alr is hot and the body heat- er than it really is, thus in either instance greatly misleading the butter muker and bringing untold misery and labor upon the unfortunate person who has to do the churning, which is always trouble enough without added discomfort. tempering the cream is a good and novel one. She snys: \Do not put cither hot or cold water into the cream, but use a tin cylinder or long, narrow bucket, and fill it with warm water if the cream is too warm, then immerse'this bucket of water in the cream and move it around, thus stirring up the cream while a thermometer is held in it until the correct temperature is reached. Just to think, this expert lady recom- mends making Butter without salt, remark- ing that she was then making butter on the Normandy method$withoutsalt. | She said that butter made on that plan, if thor- ough cleanliness had been attended to, would keep unsalted for a month. That is high art in butter making, and shows the ideal all must work in. She preferred unsalted butter, though tastes differ, and whenever the marKét required butter to . be done with brine in preference to dry | salt, to a gallon of water; the brine to be added to the butter before it leaves the churn and just after the grandular butter has been thoroughly washed with frosh water. This lody seems anxious to im- press upon her hearers the importance of light or non-salting the butter, and says, roferring to Normandy butter, that it has driven all but the very finest Exiglish make out of our own markets, owing to its ex- cellent keeping property. | It came unsalt- ed by sea, then land cartinge, and after passing through several hands in the regu- lar course of trade it was sold by the retail dealers, pure and fresh as when it was sent out by its foreign makers. --{Agriculture. Manangement of Bees for the Month n of March. -- a Generally speaking this is one of inactiv- ity amongst bees. As the days lengthen the hopes and enthusiasm of bee-keepers awaken, and some preparations are made for future ovents, At the north the bee keeper will remain quiet andther month, while at the South the spring cleaning out and examination must be made, Bees commence to breed in February and March, and when they do begin they may be seen | , seeking for water every fine day, In ten days after they begin, if the hive is exam ined, patches of sealed brood may .~ In strong hives larger patches, and on more combs than in weak ones. Bees cav- brood in three, while a swarm covering but three combs will have brood in-caly one. Here we bave evidence of the value of strong stocks. | If a hatch of brood be not obtained in March fill up theranks thinred through. flammabmnthdrim are cf's shor duration; aad where worker is willl the queem or mother bee will commence ying her eggs a mmoath WMMfiomiefid‘ comes. absence of heat in the hand. Then again, \the swarnt hung on & Manly?“ (ZA, the eream will feelS6vernl degrees coo meat] ering five combs at this season will have} | by deats, many -kives become 30 -work ix | g bees that they have a bard struggle to pall An early spring and ware early locall-{ pound of sugar dissolved in a- quirkof Fag water boiled will -make food - enough Aor ten days. Asa rule the middle: oflftn‘h [2 is carly enough to commerce feeding. ~~~ This month all the bottoms of the hives should be. thoroughly cleated. It ds 's . good time to make a change of the: nplsry Should the bee-keeper desire to change the position, better do it this month if {t must - be done, and even at the sacrifice of a few - old bees that will return to 'the old spot. Hives should have plenty of warm cover- ing about them for two moriths st least, and all the heat the hive can contain. A ° loss of heat tan loss of bees. In making the spring examination Itis a good time to make all queens backward in laying, and suspercede them with the first ° laying, and queensreared, or by introduc- ing -one known to be good. Without a 'good prolific queen the swarm is not worth working; beiter double it with another weak one and 'have it strong, than carry If bees domo cover at least three\ {mm by the middle of March, put two such to- gether the first favorable opportunity, re- moving the oldest queen. prove every spare hour in getting the surplus boxegand hives for the swarms in readiness. 'A little work now when the cares of other work are not pressing will save much :vexatious. trouble with the bees when swarming um old bee-keeper constructing a hive whfl head, and he admitted J he \took a hotion.\ One swarm decamp- ed just as his hive was about made ready to hive them, A word to the wise is suffi- cient. All plans whould be matured this . month und everything made ready. The prospects are of a most wonderful flow of honey, throughout the middle and South- erm Btates;-and-every-bee-keeper-should --__---1 aim to have his bees up to a standard of perfection to store it, and not let it waste on the \desert air.\ Do your part, fellow bee-keepers, by making ready all things needed to accomplish the resuit-attainable. Remember \what is worth doing. at allis worth doing well.\ In feeding carry out this motto to a letter, As the strength of the swarm increases seed a little stronger, and feed regularly. Price List. The Popy: Written Especially for the Orezao Fazanai I find in a recent issue of the Orstco Fanater a reprint from the Brewer's Guar- dian. 'There are two - things in it which I wish to briefly notice for the benefit of your many readers. 'The first is the pro- posal to grow the popy to obtain a supply of opium,. - This proposal, it is true, comes be slightly saited, she preferred it shouldumm the other side of the big pond, and I wonder if Old England has so soon for- | gotten the war she bad with Chinas few years ago because Chins refused to ex- change tea for England's Opium, and Eng. land said Ching must make the exchange, and they went to war about it. China maw the evil effects of the English opium upon her people; that opium drunkenness was do- ing a moro deadly work among. the Chi- nese than our life destroying whiskey is among us Americans, hence the refusal to 7 trade and the war. Now if the popy can be grown at a profit on land where. hops aro now grown, and at a largo_proft, then may old Otsego County and her surrounding sister coun- ties look out for a new. -enomy for tempet- ance men to fight. | Wealready have oplum eaters who are under its bancful influence, and it, like whiskey, has so complctfly de mayedgxekwmlaowumaubeymotdhfl continue its use. I have-fought rum in all of its terrible work of mbery, crime and death, for over fifty years, and I most ear- nestly hope and pray that the hop growers of this country will not adopt :f the sugges- tion made by our cousins on the other hide a! the zip-nut pmmbfipfi“. forced Mmyupm “his“: W are now sending about “Malina”
