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__ __ -H. I. RUSSEEL, Tox 'Publisher. | > A FARM AND FIRESIDE JOURNAL. VOL. IX. . Farm Hopics. ''He that tilleth the land shall be satisfied with bread.\-[Proverbs 12-11. ; Eeminiscences of Farm Life of Olden Times, Stories, &c.---No. 18. \Written expressly for Tig Orszc0 Fanxxn, S uy ata e HARD TIMES; THEIR CAUSES. 'The cry of hard times is as old. as is clv- ization.. mmfifilmuwmmer—Hompemncflr—wm— actu- fathers, than it is to the present generation. Really the peoplé as a mass to-day know * nothing of the hardships of their grand- fathers in some years of hard winters and short crops. Before the days of railroads, the lack of a supply of hay or grain in ome locality could not be supplied as now from another part, where a pleaty prevailed. Causes beyond human control ofter gave our fathers great trouble and much loss. An untimely frost apd a heavy hail storm would sometimes severely afflict a locality ora neighborhood, and in such cases in «convenience and suffering was the result. Bo, too, an uncommon hard winter would produce serious results The winter of £885 or 6, we think the inner, was one that told fearfully among the farmers of a part of Broome, Cortland and Chenango coun- ties. The winter was so severe that the crop of hay and grain was early exhausted on many farms. | By¥the.middle of Febru- ary hay was from twenty to twenty- five dollars per ton, and the first of March thirty dollars was freely offered. Cattle by this time were many of them dying for want of food,- logge Cort And«rye -were.-sorth from one—£115? lar and three-quarters, to two dollars per bushel. Not many farmers had any to sell, and but few were benefitted. by the high prices of hay Or grain. Some men, how- ever, seem to be lucky in all such times. Such was the case with Judge Wheeler, our employer. He sold off his stock the previous and reason fail- ed to buy the usual amount. 'The result was many tons of hay anda large quantity of grain sold at those high prices. Bo destitute were many farmers of fod- der, that in March they would leta pur- chaser pick his choice among their cows or young stock at three dollars per head. We being the one who weighed most of the hay, and measured the grain sold, had an opportunity to learn fully the destitu- tion for many miles around. No hard times in modern years can com- pare with that winter, The best lnborers were anxious and willing to labor all the hours of daylight at any kind of work Lor from twenty to twenty-five cents per day. - No striking for higher wages in those times. Neither was there any of our mod- ern kind of tramps. We well remember many men of means who set the destitute at work as a tatterof charity, often labor- ing at that of little or no use to the employ- er. - We romember hearing often by Judge Wheeler remark \that the best nid. which could be given the needy and desti- tute, was work, and prompt and liberal pay for it; as that enabled them to preserve their independence and manhood. | But that the giving of ald to those able to work, was almost sure to make of such lifelong paupers.\ - Half a century of close obser vation, has convinced us of the soundness of this theory. In those days, too, the poor people, if trusted to grain, or meat, or house rent, were almost invariably sure to pry as they mgreed. Many were the bushels of grain we have so measured out to laboring men, to be paid for in work the following hay: | the entire human race. Ing and harvesting, and we remember no | unfulfilled promise, during s number of years. - Now, \we are sorry to be compel} ed to ray it,\ not one-half of such debts, even though they may have prevented act- atal starvation, would ever be paid. time. - The other was the soul of punctu- ality. - Henever disappointed a customer if unavoidable. If sickness or other cause prevented having work done at the time, he would always so Inform and explain to his customer by writing or sending him the true reason. - Buch cases, however, seldom occurred. He, too, demanded the same punctuality in his customers. t metas- Mark the result, - Within twenty years the prompt man had a fine home and was the ally rich. | His competitor, never keeping his promises, his customers thought. they too, might be dilatory in payment. And as a result, he was always in bad credit, always in want of money, andalways poor. We may talk largely and learnedly-of luck and Providence, our observation has been, we make our own luck, and control .the the providences meted out to us, nine times out of ten. We could, from our personal acquaintances, give a long list of like Hus, trations, including subjects from nearly every trade, employment and condition in life. Bome men never complain of hard times. We have known many such,. The truth is they never experience them. The way they avoid them is by keeping at all times in a condition not to be cramped. by them. When they do occur, such men rest or wait quietly for them to pass. In good times they prepare for the bard ones, which are always sure to come,. ..An old man once in our young days remarked \that men get in debt in good times, and pay them invariably in hard ones.\ Buch is truly the case, Most men when times are good venture into scimmm, make purc‘lms‘ es;cincur\ obligntionsy'and~take-risks; thay; in dulT or bard times they could. not be in- duced to undertake. Too many in every conununity know the result of such risks. Why do we not learn lessons from such cases and observations} Why, too, do we not learn from things of nature all around us? It is not the fiful stream, purt the year- torrent -and part dry, that is valuable, or useful. It may run: as much water in the year as the steady, un- changeable fountain, but it is fitful and use- less, while the steady continuous rill may give employ to thousands. * Hard times to-day are produced by greatly different causes, as a general thing, than they were forty or more years ngo. They originate now almost wholly among the manufacturing interests. Then the farming community, Now mostly from curable causes. 'Then from natural uns- voidable ones. It is a fact that one-half of the popula- tion of our country is directly or indirectly interested in agriculture in some form, but strange as it may appear, astrikeseldom oc- curs among farm Juborers. 'They, too, as a class, are far less paid for thesyme hours' work, thin mechanics, miners, railroad men, manufacturing operatives, and still we can cull to mind ao instance of a strike among them. ~ Agriculturists have taken less pains to consolidate or act in unison, or to demand favorable legislation than any other class. They, too, have borne the burthen of taxa- tion in every state in the union from its organization to this day. 'They are now, and ever have, and ever will be, the founda- tion and base, upon which all else of socie- ty, and even government must: stand, and yet they remain as a class, as calm and quiet as if helpless and dependent. No strikes, no excessive strife for unearn- ed wealth, no desire to live at the expense of others, and at the same time they feed that burst. Bo too it is the swelling human frogs that do the bursting. It is that, class who cause much of the suffering in all our country. Who can by any system of mathematics calculate the misery caused within Otsego, Schoharie and Delaware counties, by the bursting of the two banks in each within the past twenty years? And \twiat but such inordinate swelling burst them? Never will such institutions be safe until -the-misappropriation of the money of oth- ers in speculation is classed with, and pun- ished like, any other kind of theft, or. lar- ceny. It is every way as much & crime. And yet how easily such scoundrels are al- lowed to escape, A grand thoroughfare 1s continually kept open for 'the lirger of the Canadsg, and in late years it has been thronged. 'The criminals escape and the poor confiding victims suffer in want. As a class farmers who are out of influ- ence of speculating suffer little, If they confine themselves to farming in useful things they are usually all right. No rich- es can compare in permanency with those in the soil. Fertile banks of earth seldom withhold a fair and liberal rate of interest to their owner. If rightly cultivated, their annual dividends are sure, Such wealth in soil is safer than gold. No deep vault, or strong safe is necessary to secure ite safety. No burglar can run away with such wealth, It offers to the highwaj’rmnn no enticing temptation. Its owner, even if a statesman, like Cincinpattus of old Ro! man times, ora Washington of our own land, enjoy unalloyed pleasure in its culti- vation. At their death they leave their Lostnitry enriched=and= benefitted. by such Soll Sivod wealth. wort ree nim r Whoever improves the soil and adds to its productiveness is his country's benefac- tor. He adds to the benefits of his race. Whoever wrongly impoverishes the soil is robbing in advance his posterity. He is living upon their substance. He is leav- ing them a reduced inheritance. He is using what fusty: should be thebs; and should be transmitted to them, increas- ed and improved. What avails it to leave to coming generations a good government, noble institutions of learning, fine manu- factures and works of art, and at the same time asoil worn out, unproductive, and desolate? Hard times is no new cry. Itis as old as is the desire for wealth, It has been proclaimed in every language, and writ ten in every tongue. It has ever been made an excuse for thousands of shortsight- ed miscarringes in business, and failures of success. It makes an ensy excuse for many delinquences. It is ever a ready way to gccount for lack of gumption and diligent porseverence. If people would abolish their inordinate desire to obtain wealth rapidly by specula- tion and other illegitimate means, and would tinually purchasing abroad things which { we could just. as well muke at Bome with our unemployed labor, such a thing as; bard times would never be known. in our like ours, with its unlimited resources and ) abundant sources for profitable industry, it § is a national disgrace that our people should while in health, and with no natural mis- fortune, be heard to complain of hard times with a true cause for them, No such state of things need to exist at i Supposing the farmers of our country | should do as some other classes do, and boycott such and such organizations and! individuals? Suppose they should do so to | the extent which they might, and refuse to | either buy or sell to any but their own | all. We bave looked thoroughly for the past ten years for the cause of the great panic of 1878-4 and its | effects the follow: ing years, and can divine no other than a great causelesg scare. | Bo serious was the scare that three billions of dollars would Our liberal laws for the benefit of the | class. How long would those dictating | not to-day compensate our country for the poorer class of our people, have tended to} foster dishonesty, among those so disposed. { word or promise; and too, in all cases4o | live on air? How long would bank stock, the disadvantage of the poor. . A man who | railroad stock, manufacturing stock, have has gained a reputation of being strictly honest and reliable, is in these days in the direct road to distinction, preferment and wealth. - No more desirable reputation can be attained. And yet how easy to RC- if all are properly organized and balanced. complish. How few seem to realize tbe} Butthe one which holds the key to the fsct. Many men sand women, too, by their | Their feeding works will operate when all practice, say to those granting them f8YOT|the others have been compelled to stop. and credit: \you may trust us, but we will ; It is well for the exacting, the insolent, and dead beat you if wem”nndsuchsddomgmgant. to study our census rolls for a fail to do it. But such things alwaystesct | while It may reveal more than is antic+ Tike an old musket the man Of PeTSOR] pated. It will show beyond peradventure, ty receive the | that the agricultural interests of our coun- the gun proves | try are paramount to all others combined. who fires such shots, \hardest kick. His end the more dangerous of the twa. 'The trath is that when Benjamin Franklin penned the proverb \that honesty is the Hard times to farmers who are out of 'best policy,\ he expressed an undeniable, debt and own farms, affects only what they uncontrovertible and eternal truth in a few have to sell, not what they consume. Th words. It ever bas been, aud ever will be nutritive qualities of grain, beef, potF, or tree. The prompt. honest man, always poultry, reftain the same whetherit stings eranmands the patronage sad the purses of all those who traly know him. To Eosirate, we knew two fallers to | and live willin themeei+cs, they are proof start business daring the decade of 183017 against modern ordiiitty bard Umes, which a village si the same tine. Both were are odtaide of thoes The grow as- and safety of there im; . workmen-and stozs- readily promise every- body, Tot was pever friched on swell to the size of Ché GL, was the one 1 | l } ordérs, organizations, monopulics, Of Se] it caused, and the valuesit sunk. It organized rulers, be able to stand Lheir}smn was purely imaginary, as Ume has Anstead of improving their regard for their hand? How long would they be able to . fully proven. Unwise, excessive specula- a marketable cash value? In a country like ours these things are worthy of thought. It is true that all classes of society depend upon each other, staff of life, has the long end of the rope. They are affected less by a panic than any other class, six cents or six doliats per pour 2. So far as they consum@ their own. productions, cropesind To the fabs Trog Ahat undertook to tion its sole cause. Had our government, instead of turning looge a host of employes to swell the idle throng, started some work which would have put one or two hundred thousand men in a position to have earned a liveli- hood for themselves snd families; the ef- fect would have been magical. | Relief would have come at once. | The medicine would have stayed the disease at. its start, Instead of the destruction of the best bus- iness houses in our country and losses that no time can repair, no such failures for lack of confidence could have occurred. Those institutions which were able to weather the storms and raise to near their former value, are proof positive of my position \Witness the Delaware and Hud- son Company, whose stock at one time sunk to twenty-eight cents, while at Pe same time their unmined coal at twenty-five cents per ton, was worth more than all the detits against the company. It is etrange that men of common sense, with mwmmdwewmflbefm‘emm should become so utterly void of Jadgment and confidence. Men are up and down like the mercury in a Usermometer Oneyear up among the nineties, sero or below, while and eSzcts are unchanged and soto. -COOPERSTOWN, N. Y., SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1886.) Only a few years ago more than one-haif the hop-growers in our county were sure hops would never again touch a figure be low 75 cents per pound. 'They now see the wisdom of their prophecy. |_ ~ Many persons also now think the dairy interests ruined by counterfeit butter. It it, 'if\ the counterfeit is. a good as the real. If the farmers of our country would com- bine and agree that they would not pro- duce one-half the usual amount this season of the pure article, you would soon see who was willing to substitute the disguised gracse of dead hogs and horses for pure dairy buttef~ So too with hops. If the hop farmers would each destroy one-half their yards they might soon climb towards fiir remunerating prices again. One-half the meres of hops would be certain to double the price immediately. As soon as a particular kind of business is extra remunerative, everybody is ready to embark in it. 'The result is, down it goes. It is crushed by its own weight. As soon as down it is nbandoned, no matter how useful to the extent of actual needs. These men who are conservative and con- fident, and keep steadily on, save when prices are up, and are not frightened to change when down, are the ones who win, taking a term of years together, All hard times, except from unavoidable natural causes, may-legitimately be charged to undue speculation, and a desire to ob- toin wealth by unreagonably fair means. They are the reacting reward of our own folly. ---44-@-_-- A Good Way to Halse Calves. Take the calf from the dam wien 1:33; over three days old; better still, before It ever suckles. \ Give new milk from its own dam the first few days, gradually changing it to skim milk. Commence with light feed and increase the rations with age up to a generous feed, but carefully attend to temperature of milk when fed. There must be strict regularity as to time of feed- and tomporature of milk; two feeds ® day and 95 degrees for temperature, and the thermometer test is the only reliable one while the calf is young, Evenness of mess should be attended to closely. It takes but a slight change in temperature or quality to make a young calf sick, Get the calf on skimmed milk as soon as ! possible, but make the change gradually. As the calf gets slong to eight or nine weeks, ndd water to its rations, and feed skim milk and water until six months old. If the calf does well up to three weeks, begin to teach it to cat grain. The best way and time to feed a calf grain is to feed it dry, and immediately after the calf has drank its ration of milk; do not wait even three minutes. 'The best grain feed for young calves is rye and oats mixed-two pounds of onts to one pound of rye and | ground together. If the calf should show , cassia, by putting it with a spoon on to the i roots of the tongue, and bolding up its head while it swallows. ' This method of feeding and rearing calves l feed and care for the calf from birth until i maturity, so that it may not lose a day's growth, whether for milkers or for beef ‘ I never experienced any difficulty in feed- | ing akim milk from cows highly fed with | corn and cotton seed meal. -[Canadian | Breeder. « The first herd of cattle known on tho| continent of America was brought by Co- | Tum bus on his second voyage. From these ; and from other small herds brought by lat- | er Spanfsh navigators the wild cattle of | South America descended. In 1558 the Por- tuguese took enttle and hogs to Newfound- laud near Nova Scotiz. The Canadian cat- tle were {ntroduced in 1698. In 1620 Vir- ginia had 500 head of cattle. The most stringent laws were passed prohibiting the killing of any domestic animal. In New England cattle were introduced in 1624. It is said that for a time price was regu- lated by color, a red calf being cheaper than a black one, because it was more likely to be mistaken by the wolves for adeer and killed. To Leven a -The «im- plest and most effective way to get a grooved grindstone into its proper shape is to grind a dull spade upon it, holding the spade flat and square against the stome ata proper ty the stone can be leveled down and when the job is done the spade is sharp. No other implement about the farm will an- swer for this purpose as well as a spade- [Rural New Yorker. --- +4--- Perhsps there is more truth than is some- times realized fo the recent remark of a prominent dairtyman of Conpecticot \It was only s short step downward to add a Eittle color to white butter to plesse and deceive the public and help trade, bot the first tep bt down the tecsioncl te pus angle for grinding the tool. It will sar- . ! prise any one to see how quickly and nice. | r r He cormience and ezened the way foe allito [xt the sume time the natural and (me boges compouncs that mow threaten | General Management of Bees. In bee keeping, as in any other business, there is, or should. be, a thorough system of management running through the entire year, letting the detail of the work develop as the season comes around that requires its own 'special, care. A haphazard way of doing things will nevér .win any but meager returbs for our labor, and he who looks ahead and prepares for his work be- fore the time for the work, to be done, will find the results far exceeding those of the one who waits till the work needs to be done, and there bas to hurry in the' vain en- deavor to catch up. , The bee year, with me, begins in the eatly fall, for upon the successful winter ing of our bees depends very greatly the whason's flow of profits, for if the bees come out werk and sickly in the, spring it will take the best part of the honey sea- son to replace them. I carefully watéh my bees in August to see that each queen is doing her duty in brood rearing, and if I find a poor one, snip her head off, and replace with a young vigorous ong, or unite with a weak or late stock 'havinga good queen. Brood rearing should be kept up as late in..the fall as practicable and where fall flowers are abundant enough to keep the bee busy till the latter part of September, there will be no need of resort- ing to artificial stimulants, except the en- tire fall be too 'cgol or cloudy for the bees to gather, or the flowers to secrete honey. When we bave given our bees plenty of eatly-gathered, well-ripened honey, a good strong cluster of bees, and put them in a well-ventilated, dry cellar or rightly-built chaff hive on their summer stands, webhave taken the first step in the general manige- ment of the year, This done, we should trim up and pack away, ready for next year's use, all the fixtures used about the apiary, make up the bees-wax into founda- tion, and map out and think over our system for the coming season,. Bpring is the most anxious time of the whole year for the bee kecper. How are my bees coming out? is the burden of his thoughts. I keep mine in the cellar as easy as I can keep them quiet, till the first of April, if possible, usually taking them out from the 20th to the 25th of March. I carry them out at night so Vist they will begin to fly gradually the next day. As soon as they have had their purifying flight, and warm days come, I see that each hive is neat and clean and each stock having a good queen. I keep the hive as nearly airtight as possible, with warm, thick quilts on top, and ouly a small entrance. Then I let them severely alone till time for putting on surplus boxes, so far as internal disturbance is concerned. I have no need of opening a hive after the examination in the spring till white clover From five to six weeks ahead of white clover bloom I begin to stimulate egg-laying by the queen, by feeding each employ the industry of ourcountry in sup. j signs of too much looseness in its voidings, {stock at evening at the entrance of the plying our peoples' wants, and not be con- give it at once n tablespoonful of ground | hive, with two or three tablespoonfuls of thin, warm sugar syrup. This kept up regularly every day will bring up the en- tite lot of bees strong and booming, ready for surplus arrangements as soon as the country, except in small localitle®, ADU fof milkers I have learned by long expert- flowers secrete it, and I haye no need what- from local reasons, such as fire, di8688©, ppoe and testing of many methods, Since | ever of any other management to have my storms, and other natural causes, while the | (,,, practice has been adopted-some 10 hive full of bees. By the first of June, prosperity of other portions would soon } years-I have not had the slightest difficulty white clover time with us, we should lisve furnish the needed relief. In a country ;;, raising and growing calves. Always/an ample stock of sections or extracting stories ready to be put on at the first ap- pearance of white clover, and the main ob- ject now should beto see to it that each stock shall bave ample storage room. If you tan't give it in any other way, tier upone case above another till they have all they can use. Cramping the bees for room at the first flush of the honey flow is one | good way to bave many ewarms, and giving ample surplus room, with shade from too hot a sun, will tend greatly to check the swarming fever, I think as much, or more, honey can be gotfen by a moderate increae as by a total prevention of swarming, and I aim, when I bave about all the bees I Want, to increase my number of stocks about one-third each year. I have little trouble with keeping down swarming when I pinch out all green cells, give more room, and hive back such swarms as I do not need. By having several nuclel and giv- ing the old stock a new queen, after pinch ing out all the green cells, I have rarely any more trouble with second swarms from stocks so treated. In taking off sur- plus honey it will help greatly If the see- tions are sorted in two'lots at the hive, best and second best, and we should always sim to never send awsy anything but s first-class article. See to it that each and viting, and our extracted honey pat in clean, sweet kegs, jars or pails. Pleasing the aye is one-half the battle in disposing of any product. And I would urge upon every bee-keeper to leave no stone untarmed possible in the homemarket. I bavesrock- ed faithfully to this end for nearly twenty years and the resull is that I cam never \raise enough honey to supply the desmand, each year my local miles grow large, and besides ahizping io eight diferent States to parties who pry my Jocal Esity Hierests.\ «A - | flow from an; cause. 'The provifl every section perfect scraped clean of all propalis, nest, and -( in the effort to sell every pound of heaney | ort fie - mer, when the pastures are worthless from a long drouth, feeds his stock with other. food, keeping them in good: order,. Sob . . whould be with the bee-keeper, keeping his - 'stocks strong so as to be ready for any honey flower that may come. Let this, then, be our motto: Doll our work in season, thoroughly and well. Having been requested to write onthe above topic, I have tried to 'do so, hoping work for the better, leaving to others to write out the details for the various periods of the season, as no one article could hope to bring all within its Himits,-[ Wil M. Kollogg, Onelds, IIL., in Bee-keepers' Mag» azine, Toe. Making, Saving and Applying Ma« nures A writer on theabove subject in the Na» tional Stockman concludes bis article with the following summing up: 1. Make and save all you can, having quantity in view, ~ 2. Enlarge your barns, house alf your stock, build a manure shed and stop all the wastes and leaks, 8. Study what your soil and the crop you grow need, and then, as best you can, feed so as to meet the demand. ' 4. Thorough acquaintance with process «of plant growth is necessary for judicious manuging. Apply ferilizers within reath of plant rootlets, be it theif nature to tun near the surface or down deep into the ground.\ 5, Thetime to apply manures must be governed by_ the method- of preserving-4t, to a RI CSBUH Be somcund. . avoid putting it off till a busy season of the year, when teams and hands are needed in cultivating and harvesting crops, - 6. Depend mainly on the barn for your manure supply. Stable manures do double or tripple duty; they not only supplant plant food, but have a mechanical of that fertiliz. ing qualities of the soil, a very important Item. - > 7. The problem of farming consists in making the soil increasingly fertile, Ms- nure is the formers' savings bank, and and if more of them would have large heaps of it everyspringtospread tipon their lands, instead of money at interest, they would prosper better in the end. 4, _--a4 +0 Grass Raising, It matters not how widely farmers may differ in judgment concerning the relative value and profits of raising different farm crops, all will agree as to the importance of raising standard crops of grass in ptefets ence to all others, as the foundation stone to all profitable farming, 'Therofore itis mot a matter of surprise when a farm be- comes run down from over pasturage, Of deficient in hay, that the first outery should be for more- grasa. - This is the first-great cry now among farmers everywhere, and he is rated the best farmer who cuts the greatest number of tons of hay, and can keep n corresponding number of cattle to the hundred acres throughout the year without the afd of foreign supplies.. Grain raising and pasturing may be made mutt« ally profitable for a time without a rotation of crops, but the time is certain to come when grain farming needs to be alternated with grass. The use of special fertillzéts, however liberally they sto applied, will not prevent, although it may delay, the entire impoverishment of the soil for atime, but the-result is always tho mame in the end. That the destruction of the fertility of the. farm is accelerated justin proportion to the weight and substance of the cropste: moved from the soil, and, the speed with which it is effected, is now admitted by all, and its fertility is extended just in propor» tion to the good judgment of the farmer engaged in cultivating it.--[Orange Coun- ty Farmer, _ The wet seasons of the past year or two in many places have raised s new dresd against weeds, which we trait nisy fead to a more effective warfare against theni, We refer to their hindering the drying of grain, by being themselves loaded: with _ moisture which nothing but long exposure - to sun and wind can m their in wet spels, when without tham ft-would - . soon be in order for the han: Bometimes| the loss thus entailed. has: amonnted to nearly the fall valee the crop. to have helped.some one to systematize his. .-...
