Up in the hardwood where the sun
glints through the almost leafless
branches, where the pure air braces
up the office-worn toiler, just w'here
the breezes come with odors of the
pine and fir balsam mingled, till one
forgets all but the joy of living, is
where the deer cross in the early
morning and late in the afternoon;
this grand piece of wilderness is just
the place for a nature-loving man to
be alone! Hardly that, for he has the
company of a multitude and though
the languages spoken are not found in
books, they are all clearly understood.
The words come in sighs from the
glorious tree tops, in the twitter of the
birds, the harsh croak of the raven,
the call of the hungry wolf, the growl
of the prowling bear, the chatter of
the squirrel, the shrill cry of the fierce
lynx, all telling the story of life,
struggle for existence, of fierce rage
or hunger’s wail, with an occasional
outburst of joyousness from a feath
ered praise-griver who has his home
in the glorious trees.
he calls, "gather for the run. Help!
help! to encircle, confuse and pull
down that we may drink the warm
blood and eat the tender flesh. Come,
ye hungry wolves up out of the
swamps, come with your quick, soft
step and terrible swiftness. Run now
with all your speed, for our feast is
ready!”
For once in the darkness you start
back through the forest, back to the
: cozy camp fire, back to the dinner
| that no p'ace else can give, for it ’s
: made of the flesh, the spirit, the Joy
of the wild, which surrounds you.
j Back, with a heart full of silent but
■ melodious song, for the sight of a
I wolf, a couple of shots that did not
j harm him, but sent the whole pack
j whirling back into the swamp, saved
the beautiful doe this time and she
j now is browsing far up in the beech
; growth, perhaps a day or two later to
| fall a trophy to your skill when the
i desire to kill blurs the picture which
j to-day obliterated the thirst for blood
I and all your gentleness held sway.
• * •
Here Is where the mad rush and
roar, the strife and toil, the gas and
smoke-charged air of the town have
no place. With what an effort your
own cry of joy in freedom of the
wild and the exuberance of life is re
pressed lest it startle your feathered
antlered and furry coated entertain
ers who keep either out of sight or
rifle shot. Are you out to kill? If so,
base butcher, you do not get from
these wild woods, these almost impas
sible swamps, these winding brooks,
these grand hills, the shady valleys,
the beautiful mirror sui faced lake,
the great gifts they bear for you and
which are yours in profusion if you
will but stand quietly among them
and receive. O! glorious day of sun
shine, of cloud, or of storm in the
midst of these glorious places! The
» »
The sweet air of morning, before
the sun has scattered the frost crys
tals from the branches, even before
the god of day rises to smile on the
earth is giving your blood a start and
yesterday's picture is fresh in mind
Silently you thread your way among
the billows of branches in and out
among the trees, to a favorite spot
The long miles are left behind and it
seems but a few minutes before you
stand watchful, silent, cruelly expec
tant. your eyes piercing the openings
as the gray dawn lets more and more
light into them, forgetting yesterday,
for now it is the blood thirst that
rules. Ah! scarcely visible, yet sure
ly there among the branches you see
the antlers of a buck, pausing while
he sniffs the air, throwing forward
the sharp ears for danger signals til
Great Spirit Is here, and your own
should be in harmony with It, that
you may receive a gift of patience,
pure joy in living, a reinvigorated
body, and a soul-song that shall
soothe you many hours otherwise dull
and careladen. Come out from your
sordidness! Shake off your burden
some cares! Let the weariness of
the daily grind fall away, draw in
your lungs the health-giving air, “re
joice and be exceeding glad,” for a
day of unequaled joy is before you
and proffered by nature’s bounty
without even a request on your part.
Look! peering out alert for sound
or scent you see the head of a beauti
ful doe, a picture no artist could re
produce. The pallet never bore such
divine colors as she stands partially
concealed in—What a shot! No! No!
let the beautiful creature go for this
time. It would be a sacrilege indeed
to ruthlessly destroy the view you
have. Blood shall not spatter it, nor
the rifle crack echo your almost un
governable desire to kill. Go in
peace, little maid of the forest, barm
is very near, but held in restraint:
this time you are safe, but next time
the cruelty of man may govern and
you be the sacrifice to it.
* * •
See! what a leap! and how quickly
the picture is broken and you hear
the cry which the lean wolf sends
through the forest. “Come! come!”
I reassured by the silence, he majestic
I ally steps out. Now you are a wolf!
\ No artist’s sentiment fills your soul!
Silent, quickly, surely, up comes the
rifle, your eye runs along the barrel
until the front sight covers the right
spot, then comes the wicked crack, a
bound in the air, a dash in the thic
ket, and the deed is done. Leisure
ly you -go to the place where he dis
appeared, follow the blood which
spurted from his sides and soon you
come upon him stretched upon the
ground. The hunter's knife, an axe,
come into use and finally you stand
back with your blood-stained arms
and hands and look upon the beauti
ful creature as he hangs from the
poles, a silent trophy of your skill
and evidence that you. the lone wolf,
have made your kill but do not share
the draught of blood or the tender
flesh with the furry hunters of the
woods who dare not approach, lest
you have made a trap for them.
What days they are! Who would
live that life and not know them?
Who would miss a walk around Deer
heart lake in the crisp morning air
when once he had tried it? Come out
into the wild but not to kill wantonly.
Come to be near and love nature, the
wild, luxurious sweet scented woods
and their many colored and, widely
differing inhabitants. It will do both
body and soul good.
Detroit. A. E. M.
Warning to Sermon Stealers.
“Sermon stealers,” said a minister,
“ought to be careful. They ought to
read over several times the sermons
that they steal before delivering them.
“I know a young chap of 21 or 22
who preached a stolen sermon he had
not read over, and in the most Im
pressive part he found himself de
claiming:
“ ‘My friends, when I first came
among you more than forty years ago,
these thin white locks were thick and
brown, and this bent back,’ etc.
“Another sermon stealer preaching
in a village of about 115 souls said
before he could check himself:
“ ‘In the teeming streets of this
great metropolis.’ ”
Disappointed.
The beautiful society woman leaped
from her maroon touring car and
started to ascend the office building
occupied exclusively by lawyers.
‘‘One moment,” cried a dapper little
reporter with a green pencil and a roll
of paper. “What is your number?”
The beautiful woman started to
count on fingers clustered with rings.
“Let me see,” she said finally; “I
think it is 11.”
“Eleven? Er—I mean the number
of your machine.”
"How stupid! I thought you meant
the number of husbands.”
With a toss of her flowing white
veil she disappeared in an attorney's
office.
Senator Clark Buys Mine.
Senator Clark has bought for $1,
750,000 the famous Union mine, El
Dorado county, California, for which
the Standard Oil Company offered
$1,250,000 last spring. Former owners
of the mine lost the vein after tak
ing out $1,500,000 in bullion and sold
the mine for $1,400. The new own
ers found the vein again, and up to
date it has yielded $12,000,000.
Queer Reason for Decoration.
How some Europeans get so many
stars, crosses, etc., on the left breast
of their coast has always been more
or less of a wonder to the rest of the
world. Herr Heller has just had the
order of the Medijdi conferred on him
by the Suitan in consideration of the
shock to his system occasioned by his
having been an eye witness of the
attempt on the Sultan’s life on July
21.
Negro Was Roman Catholic Brshop.
Monsignore Gomez Pimenta of Mar
iana, Brazil, up to his death a short
time ago had the distinction of being
the only Roman Catholic bishop in
the negro race in the world. There
are numerous notable clergymen in
that church with traces of colored
blood in their veins, but Bishop Pi
menta was the only full-blood negro
bishop. ,
Hindoos Boycott Foreign Sugar.
The Hindoos are boycotting foreign
mi gar. A leaflet declaring that the
sugar is refined with bone dust and
ox blood has been distributed broad
cast by agitators.
Women’s Clubs Honor Leader.
Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Merriok,
the author and philanthropist of New
Orleans, celebrated her eightieth
birthday recently and enjoyed a re
ception at the Era club of that city
at which representatives of every
woman’s club of the city were pres
ent.
Chinese Students in Japan.
Chinese students in Japan now num
ber more than 3,000, engaged in all
the studies available ut American
high schools, colleges, universities,
professional, technical and trade
schools.
■ . ■ ■■■-'
'
If we -draw a line through Tarsus
due north across the Peninsula of
Asia Minor, and another through
Smyrna directly east, the two lines
will intercept in the volcanic region
of Mount Argaeus, where the cone
pyramids and pure cliff dwellings of
Cappadocia are found, writes J. R.
Sittington Sterrett, an English tfev
eler and artist, who has recently vis
ited that out of the way country. The
whole region is of volcanic formation,
which (fevers a vast area extending
west to Selme and south to Soghanlu
Dere, and is composed of a deep layer
of pumice stone, tufa or peperine,
overlaid in the region of Tatlar by
rugged lava fields. The pumice or
tufa is of almost incredible thickness,
but the overlap layer of lava is com
paratively thin, not more than three
feet at any point. The tufa is so
soft that it can be dug away with the
thumbnail, so that only time and
patience were necessary to excavate
It into chambers of any required size.
It is known that a chamber 25 feet
long, 13 feet broad, and 10 feet high
was excavated by a single workman
in the space of thirty days.
In this region the troglodytes of
Cappadocia have the wonderful dwell
ings which were first described by
Paul Lukas, who traveled in Asia
Minor on the commission of Louis
XIV. His story was discredited, but
it is correct in every vital particular,
and he perhaps understated the truth
when he estimated the number of
cones at 50,000. The region was vis
ited in succession by Texier, Hamil
ton, Tschichatscheff, Ainsworth,
Barth and Mordtmann. but it is still
virtually unknown. The height of
the cones varies greatly, ranging per
haps from 50 to 300 feet. The tall
est cones usually stand in the center
of an eroded valley, but not always.
The process of disintegration by the
solvent action of water still continues,
of course, and in many cones the ex
terior wall has been worn away to
such an extent that the chambers are
laid bare. Such exposed chambers,
if they lie fairly in the sun, are used
for drying grapes and other fruit,
as they are safe against invasion by
animals. Often the cones are almost
perfect in shape and originally all of
them were crowned by caps of lava,
which were the primal cause of the
cone formation. The caps maintain
their position as they form one inte
gral conglomerate mass with the cone.
A TROGLODYTE VILLAGE—FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
very otten the doorways are quite
elaborate, and display an attempt at
architectural and decorative effect,
more especially in the case of cones
that have been turned into temples,
churches or chapels. On entering
the doorway of any of these cone
dwellings w'e find ourselves within a
spacious chamber, about the walls of
which niches and shelves for the
storage of small household effects
have been cut into the stone. The
stairways leading to the upper stories
are like wells or round chimneys, and
one ascends to an upper story by
means of ladder holes cut in the rock.
The floor between the stories are usu
ally thick enough to withstand any
weight that might be put upon it, but
occasionally the excavators miscalcu
lated the thickness of the floor, and
so had to make one lofty chamber in
stead of two. As many as nine stories
may occur in one cone, but most have
only two, three, or four stories, which
can be counted by the windows.
Great numbers of the cone dwellings
are used to-day as dovecotes for hosts
of pigeons, the eggs and flesh of
which are used by the cave dwellers.
The windows of such pigeon houses
are always walled in, holes being left
for the passage of the birds.
The natives of this region are still,
to all intents and purposes troglo
dytes, but if we leave out of consid
eration the fact that their dwellings
are at least partially underground, i
they differ in habits and customs in
no whit from the ordinary Turkish
villagers with ordinary humdrum sur
roundings. Sometimes the front of
the house is built of blocks of pum
ice stone, while all the rest of the
abode is subterranean, the cone or
cliff being used as an annex; but in
most cases a modern dwelling is ex
cavated, not in a cone, but in the face
of the bluff, and thus becomes a cliff
dwelling, properly so-called. This
is true of the business street of the
town of Urgub, where the front room
or facade opening on the street, is
the only room in the dwelling into
which the light comes. The other
rooms are in midnight darkness all
the year round.
The owner of such an abode can
extend his dwelling indefinitely into
the bowels of the earth, a feature
which is not without its advantage in
a land where the wise man conceals
the fact that he is wealthy. The in
terior chambers are used chiefly for
granaries and storage; even their
chaff, which is made to take the place
of our hay, is safely stowed away in
these dry and dark chambers.
The landscapes amid which the
modern troglodyte dwells are never
tame, and are often startling. The
modern troglodytic usages add to
rather than detract from the general
weirdness of the prospect. The soil
is fertile and produces vegetables and
fruit, chiefly apricots of superb qual
ity. Indeed, one of the old travelers
claims this region as the original
home of the apricot. Garden and
desert are often close neighbors for
the reason that the garden flourishes
wherever the stone hats rotted suf
ficiently; whereas the adjacent but
naked and unrotted stone is the most
barren of deserts. The real center of
these cones and troglodytic abodes is
the region about Udj Assaru, a huge
mass of pumice stone rising in the
midst of many branching valleys.
The Turkish name means the Castle
of Udj, but it is not known whether
Udj was the name of some princeling
or of a district. It Ts a mere shell,
honeycombed to the very pinnacle
with chambers sufficient in number
to satisfy even the wealthiest troglo
dyte.
It is very difficult to fix a date for
the origin of these cave dwellings.
They are taentioned by no classical
author, except perhaps Cicero; but
there is an allusion in the works of
I.eo Diaconus, who flourished about
950 A. D. Prof. Sayce, however, be
lieves that the cones of Cappadocia
were well known and inhabited in
the Hittlte period about 1900 B. C.,
a date beyond which we cannot and
need not try to go.—New York Times.
Altogether Too Outspoken.
Viscount De Belmont of Brazil was
dining In a New York restaurant.
Suddenly he put down his knife and
fork and uttered an exclmation of ap
proval.
“By Jove! A beautiful woman,” he
said in the demonstrative southern
way.
“She is my wife,” the viscount’s
companion murmured modestly.
At this the young man laughed.
“How fortunate I was,” he said, “to
praise the lady. Yes, I was far more
fortunate than an Oxford friend of
mine.
"My friend on the boat coming over
stood in conversation with an elderly
man on the promenade deck. Near
by a woman sat in a deck chair. My
friend, pointing to her, said with a
sneer:
“‘I wonder if that ugly old woman
is actually trying to flirt with me?’
“ ‘I don’t know,’ the elderly gentle
man answered mildly, ‘but I can easily
find out for you. She is my wife.’ ’’
Statue of Queen Alexandra.
The first statue of Queen Alexandra
on English soil will be erected in the
grounds of the London Hospital, to
commemorate the completion of the
rebuilding operations, which have cost
£45,000. The sculptor will be George
Wade, and the statue, which will be
of bronze, will be of heroic size. It
will cost £1,500, and of this sum
£1,300 has been - subscribed already
by the committee, the staff, and a few
personal friends.
laDiei 10 rarragut.
Through the efforts of Admiral Mc
Calla, a bronze tablet has been placed
on the house occupied by the chap
lain at Mare island navy yard, an
nouncing that the house was occupied
by Farragut, 1854-58, while he was
the commandant of the yard. He was
the first commandant.
Cost of Checking Crime.
London pays about $8,000,000 a year
to keep criminals In check; that be
ing the sum paid out ror her police
courts, prisons and prosecuting of
ficers.
TALE OF ‘BI'RVST “DEVOTIOff
Stories of affection and apparent
reason among wild animals have di
vided the “nature-writers” into two
schools. One believes that animals
act merely from instinct; the other
holds that the dumb brute feels and
reasons. In “The Life of a Scotch
Naturalist" Mr. Smiles quotes from
the journal of Thomas Edward the
story of how a little flock of terns
rescued a wounded companion which
the naturalist had shot.
I fired, and he came down with a
broken wing, screaming as he fell in
to the water. The report of the gun,
together with his cries, brought to
gether the party he had left, in order
that they might ascertain the cause
of the alarm.
After surveying their wounded
brother round and round, as he was
drifting unwittingly toward the shore
with the flowing tide, they came fly
ing in a body to the spot where I
stood, and rent the air with their
A Brisk Trade in Sermons.
The wife of a Philadelphia clergy
man recently sold a box of waste
paper to a rag man, says Success
Magazine. In the box were a lot of
manuscript sermons of her hus
band’s. A month or so thereafter the
ragman again came around and asked
if the lady had any more sermons to
sell.
"I have some wraste paper,” said
she, “but why should you particularly
want sermons?”
“Well, mum, you see I did so well
with them that I got here a month
ago. I got sick up in Altoona and a
preacher there boarded me and my
horse for a couple of weeks for that
box of sermons, because I hadn't any
money. Since then he’s got a great
reputation in those parts as a preach
er. I’ll give ten cents a pound for
all you have.”
No Punishment.
A certain crusty squire in an Eng
lish midland county who had gained
unenviable notoriety for harsh deal
ings with his tenanta *>•■» • vlole*>*
screams. These they continued to ut
ter, regardless of their own individual
safety, until I began to make prepar
ations for receiving the approaching
bird. I could already see that it was
a beautiful adult specimen, and I ex
pected in a few moments to have it
in my possession, since I was not
very far from the water's edge.
While matters were in this position
I beheld to my utter astonishment
two of the unwounded terns take hold
of their disabled comrade, one at
each wing, lift him out of the water
and bear him out seaward. They were
followed by two other birds.
After having carried him about six
or seven yards they let him gently
down again and the two who had hith
erto been inactive took him up.
In this way they continued to carry
him alternately until they had con
veyed him to a rock at a considerable
distance, upon which they landed him
in safety.
altercation with a farmer named
Johnson. About this time a valuable
wheat stack of Farmer Johnson’s was
destroyed by fire, and there were not
wanting those who attributed the
cause to the squire himself. A few
days later the squire, when driving
to the market town, met another of
his tenants. After a few perfunctory
remarks, the tenant said: “Squire,
do you know anything about the
law?"
The squire smiled satirically. *■*
ought to, Bates; I've been a justice
of the peace for thirty years.”
“Can a man be punished for think
ing?” queried Bates.
“Certainly not.”
“Then, squire, I think you set fire
to Johnson’s wheat stack.”
—
Teachers in Philippines.
Dr. G. N. Brinck, deputy superin
tendent-genera' ef education of the
Philippines, says that the islands have
SCO American teachers, 5,000 native
teachers and more than 500,000 native
pupils, like Japanese in intellectual
readiness and keenness.
-
Choosing a Breed.
An erroneous idea seems to be com
mon to the effect that a beginner in a
given farming district should choose a
breed different from that handled by
his immediate neighbor if he is to
expect profit from the live stock breed
ing business. There is no more se
rious error than this. Success comes
from unity and combination or co
operation in business. Selfish rivalry
and unfair competition hurt both
parties involved. It is therefore best
for a young man to commence with
that breed of cattle, horses, sheep or
swine which has by some one else
been made a success of in the district.
If, for instance, several breeders have
long handled Shorthorn cattle to good j
advantage in a community, it would be
unwise for a beginner to start out
with Herefords or Aberdeen-Angus
cattle. There is nothing the matter
with either of the last-named breeds.
Either one of them may be handled to
advantage and at a profit, put where
another breed has become popular it
would seem wise to stick to that breed
rather than introduce a different one
as a rival.
It may be taken for granted that
where any particular breed of live
stock has long been bred to good ad
vantage the environment suits that
breed and may not so well suit an
other. At the same time it is certain
that friends of the established breed
are everywhere in that district and
that the name and fame of the district I
as the breeding center of a particular
type and breed of animals has become
widespread, so that buyers go there to
purchase animals annually at an ap
preciative price. Were a beginner to
start out with an alien breed in such
a district he would have to build up a
name for it and so in time command
the patronage of the buyer. This
would take much time and money to
achieve, and meanwhile trade would :
have come in had the beginner gone
into the same business as his neigh
bors. It is well when a district is
thus engaged in the production of one
or more good products or specialties,
'but it must be confessed that very
many instances might be cited where,
instead of harmony existing, breeders
are opposed to one another and each
engaged in different breeding efforts
and endeavoring to belittle and hinder
the efforts of the other.
In some small counties it is possible
to find almost all of the breeds of cat
tle represented, and some of the herds
are of first-class quality and breeding.
It would be better for all concerned I
had each of these districts or counties
decided upon a single breed of beef
cattle and a single breed of dairy
cattle, and its breeders then com
bined into a county association for the
purpose of furthering by every legiti
mate means the interest of the parti
cular breed handled. Buyers would
become plentiful in such a center and
quality would decide the values of
each man’s animals and the amount
of profit he would make annually as
compared with that of his neighbor j
engaged in the same business. It is
a difficult matter for a single breeder
to make a success of his animals in
a given district, and success only
comes after many years of patient
effort, wide advertising and consider
able expense.
In choosing a breed we would, there
fore advise the beginner to select one j
that is known to be suitable for the
district in which the stud, herd, or
flock is to be established—one that
has been proved suitable by long ex
perience of neighbors wno are engaged
in that production. If there is no such
breed in the district or if there is a
great diversity of opinion and practice
in the breeding of animals, the begin
ner will then have to study for him
self, but will do best to get his neigh
bors together and have them form an
association and take up the breeding
of one class of animals as a specialty.
As has often been mentioned here,
there is special need of uniformity in
district horse breeding. In too many
districts there is no concerted action |
for the rational improvement of horse
stock. Mongrels and misfits are still ;
being bred, wnereas one or two special :
types might easily be raised and sold i
annually at a profit, were breeders to
combine for such work.—A. S. Alexan
der in Farmers’ Review.
Rats in Hog Houses.
Rats are sometimes very trouble
some in hog houses, especially where
there are wooden floors. Generally,
they will work down through floors
and below the timbers underlying the
heavier structures. Here they will
make their nests and extend their
burrows, and it is practically impossi
ble to get rid of them. One farmer
tells the Farmers’ Review that he for
years had a great deal of trouble with
rats. They swarmed in his hog houses,
ate the corn in his corn crib, gnawed
holes through his floors, and, for all
that he knew, carried diseases to his
swine. He fought them with cats,
with dogs, with poison and with guns.
He could never more than reduce their
numbers. Finally, he determined to
get rid of them by entirely changing
the foundation of his hog house and
feeding floors. He had all the wood
torn out and in its place put large
areas of cement. He built two feed
ing floors of cement, one on each side
of his hog house. Wherever a rat
could hide, he tore out the wood and
put in cement. The rats were anni
hilated, and never again appeared on
the premises. This was because their
hiding places had been taken away
from them. He now says that he has
no trouble at all with rats.
Indiscriminate Mixing.
The greatest menace to the
breeding of dairy herds in
the past has been the indis
criminate mixing up of the blood ol
a number of breeds, including both
beef and dairy types. Beef and dairy
product prices do not always fluctuate
alike at the same time. There are too
many Instances on record in which
milk producers have been bred to bfc=f
sires with a slump in the butter and
cheese markets, and then these and
their progeny bred back again to dairy
sires with an Improvement in the price
of dairy prodr
Losses by Ditches and Gullies.
One of the noted weaknesses of
American farming is the tendency to
permit a considerable per cent of the
land to lie idle on account of gullies
and ditches. In countries where land
has been high in price ior a century
or more the land is more carefully
looked after in the way of keeping it
all in use. Habits of farming are hard
to break up, and the American farm
ing habit is not to put a high value on
the land even after the price in the
market has come up.
Ditches and gullies in fields can be
seen in every part of the country
where the land is rolling or hilly and
the rainfall is considerable. The old
open ditch is disappearing but slowly.
If the farmer that owrns a few will
take his tape measure and find out
the amount of land kept out of use
by these ditches and gullies he will
come to the conclusion that it is far
cheaper for him to purchase tile and
abolish the open ditches. The land
actually comprised in the ditch is con
siderable, but to it must be added a
still greater quantity comprising the
unused parts along the edges.
The writer has in mind a meadow
on a farm devoted to mixed farming.
The meadow is cut crosswise by an
open ditch that takes the water from
a ditch by a roadside and conveys it
across the meadow into another open
ditch in a pasture. Whenever a wagon
has to be taken to one end of the
meadow it must be taken into the pub
lic highway again before reaching the
other end. Haying operations on one
side of this open ditch cannot be ex
tended to the other part of the field
without all the implements being
taken around the ditch. If this
meadow is ever plowed up, and it
should be, the amount of land lost
to cultivation will be large. The
amount of water going through this
open ditch is too large to permit of
the use of ordinary sized drain tile,
but the larger sizes can be used, and
if that is too expensive stone may be
used, which exists in abundance in the
neighboring pasture.
uue ui me most expensive ditches
that we know of exists in a 24-acre
pasture of a farmer that we know.
The ditch runs the length of the pas
ture and increases its length by not
running straight. It is about three
feet deep and the bottom is about
three feet wide. The rains of the
years have modified the abruptness of
the top and now the ditch is not less
than eight feet wide at the top. After
every rain there are innumerable cave
ins of the sides, and some changes Id
the windings of the channel. This
winding channel is largely the cause
of the cave-ins, as it sends the flood
waters with great force against cer
tain points in the sides, just as do the
great rivers In the west. It is bad to
have an open ditch in a pasture; it
Is worse to have it crooked and give
it the power of boring like an augur.
An Experimental Garden.
A seedsman and florist near
here, who has customers all
over the United States and
Canada, has adopted a most sen
sible plan for checking off his seeds by
means of an experiment garden on his
home grounds. He has a large tract
of land set aside for that purpose, and
though the vegetables grown there are
never sold, very seldom used and nc
seed saved from them, the owner con
siders it a paying crop. The seed is
planted at the proper time in spring in
carefully prepared ground, and close
watch is kept and a record made of
any that do not germinate properly.
The rows are eight feet long, each
one being plainly marked with a stick
bearing a number which corresponds
with that variety in the record kept
by the head gardener. All are cared
for, weeded, thinned and cultivated so
that the result of the crop when prop
erly cared for can be shown. When a
report comes from a customer
saying that a certain kind of
seed failed to grow, that var
iety is looked up in the experi
ment garden, and the seedsman can
tell at once if the complaint is well
founded, in which case restitution is
made. All varieties are allowed to
come to maturity to determine if the
sort is true to name. During the past
season 1,200 varieties of vegetables
have been grown in that department,
ranging through all the kinds of edible
ones and taking in grasses of all kinds,
grains, sugar cane, tobacco, asparagus
and rhubarb. There is also an experi
ment garden devoted to flowers in
connection with this. Though not so
large, it takes in all kinds, and, be
sides the usefulness of the plan it
makes a beautiful display in the gar
den.—Myra Bradshaw in Farmers’ Re
view.
Farm Help.
One of the greatest problems of
the day is farm help. Many a
farmer's success or failure depends
upon his securing men and women
:hat are intelligent and honest enough
!o do the work of a farm as it should
be done. This is especially true with
i man owning a large farm or with a
man that must manage his farm from
i distance. It will pay the owner oi
such a farm to pay a good salary to
i married man to run his farm and
fake an interest in it. Low compen
sation is always a cause of inefficiency
A. man cannot be enthusiastic in his
work if the compensation for that
work is so small that he cannot live
md save a little besides. A good man
Ls worth more than the average man.
Breeding Up Slowly.
It is absolutely necessary for
\ man with limited capital
:o breed up a pedigreed dairy
herd slowly and also much safer for
the man with means and little knowl
edge of the business. In both cases
there is opportunity to become fami
liar with the breed and individual
characteristics. It is better to grow
up in any line of animal breeding
than to jump into it.
The hen that is allowed to become
very fat will not lay eggs, no matter
hew carefully cared for and fed.