Various

“ Good fortune—Providence, perhaps—so guided Jule's ice-raft that it struck and lodged against the "jam," just as the horrified watchers on shore expected to lose sight of the lad forever in the falls. "If it will only hang there!" muttered scores, scarcely daring as yet to speak a loud word.
They could see the cake, with Jule on it, heaving up and down with the mighty rhythmic motion of the surging torrent; and all ran along down the banks, to come nearer. The boy stood in the very jaws of death. ”

“ There are too many men engaged in dairying who can see nothing in the business beyond the factory dividend; men to whom filling the milk pail and the can are the Alpha and Omega of life. To such men such a thing as an ambition that their county, town, or neighborhood shall attain and hold a reputation for being the banner cheese district of the State or nation, is as thoroughly unknown as the configuration of the bottom of the Dead sea. ”

“ Wisdom uttereth her voice in the streets, and he who will not hear her ought to be drummed out of the camp of dairymen. As a rule, a common carpenter puts more thought into his business in a month than many dairymen do in a year. Indeed, it would be difficult to point out a single branch of human industry, of one-half the magnitude which the manufacture and sale of cheese has reached, carried on in a manner so slipshod and slovenly as dairying.
The banker, the columns of whose ledger fail by one cent of balancing, spares neither time nor money in searching out and correcting the error ”

“ In schools children are taught from the works of men. These works are arts, and since art is but the imitation of nature, all education is but imitation of that which the farmer boy has the chance of seeing before it becomes second hand. There is no place that has greater facilities to give observation its full scope than a farm. All farmers can, with the aid of the right kind of books and papers, be reasonably well educated, and most of them have a better comparative knowledge than they think they have. ”

“ A wise and careful system of agriculture might have left our fields still fertile and productive, so an economical use of the forests might have made them a perennial source of wealth. Fortunately the injury is not beyond a remedy, for it is easier to restore a growth of timber than it is to bring back fertility to a barren soil. It is easy to care for what is left and to replant and renew the growth, and even to do this better and more quickly and with more and quicker profit than nature has done it. ”

“ It may be theorizing and visionary to talk of a time when the spirit of co-operation shall have driven such fellows out of the dairying business, to betake themselves with a pick-ax and spade to the ditch, but that such a time may come ought to be the earnest prayer of every thorough-going friend of co-operation in the land. ”

“ It is easy, too, by a wise and practical use of the forests that are left, to so husband them as to take regular harvests from them as the farmer regularly harvests his fields or selects the fatlings from his flocks. He does not gather in all these at one fell swoop, taking the fat and the lean and the young and the old, as the fisherman gathers all into his nets, and as the lumberman has felled the woods, but he selects those that are ripe and carefully rears the rest until they are ready. ”

“ If you can save up and rot a supply of poultry manure and leaves, you can have the very best manure for a good onion crop.
Another important point in raising a good crop of onions is to have good seed and sow it early. The first favorable time in the spring must be taken advantage of, if you would have the best success with your crop. As good seed is necessary in any crop, so it is with onions. Test your seed before risking your entire crop, as by the time you plant once and fail, and procure seed and plant again, it will be too late to make a good crop. ”

“ Lamer thought no damage was done to strawberry plants.
A pomologist gives the following excellent advice in regard to maintaining the fertility of fruit lands: "Encourage the utmost variety of vegetable growth near and upon your orchard lands, and never rob the soil of its honest dues. Give judicious and thorough cultivation and pruning; and with our generous soils and climate, I do not believe the child is yet born that will live to see our orchards languish on account of poverty of soil, or any necessity arise for the importation of fertilizers." ”

“ It is a profitable business, or men would not engage in it, and the superhuman effort that is being continually put forth to increase the value, by making as perfect an article as human power can produce, establishes conclusively the assertion that there is always a profit in doing well. I am glad to observe that in the cheese industry of the United States and Canada, the light of this truth has to some extent aroused the slumbering dairymen. ”

“ A fine workman receives more pay for less work than one who does rougher work, simply because it is the minute parts that bring in the profit. This is so in the mechanical trades; it is so also in farming and yet many seem to be unaware of the fact. How numerous are those who leave out the minutia; mechanics learn a trade in a short time at least well enough to make a living by it. Many farmers have spent their whole lives upon farms and are still scarcely able to make a decent living; and the reason of it is because they have left undone those parts which would, if performed, bring in profit. ”

“ With these facts in view, how can it be expected that any amount of diligence on the part of a cheese-maker can atone for the unpardonable sin committed, day after day, by the heedless and unobserving patrons, of leaving a can of freshly drawn milk standing all night in an unwholesome barn or yard, until it has absorbed a whole family of pestilential odors, and then to carry it to the factory to corrupt and poison everything with which it comes in contact. ”

“ An interesting feature of the proceedings of the Tile-Makers' Convention was the brief reports of members regarding their business last year. About forty manufacturers reported. In the majority of cases the demand has been fair; in a few very brisk; in quite a number it was said that sales could be made only at a reduction in prices. It was easy to see that in some sections of the State the work of tile-making was overdone, that is, the supply is in excess of the demand. It was the general expression that prices could not be greatly reduced and leave a reasonable profit to the manufacturer. ”

“ If red hot knives sharpened to the highest degree had been run through my body constantly they could not have hurt me worse. I would spring up in bed, sometimes as much as three feet, cry out in my agony and long for death. ”

“ The law-maker and the tile-maker are necessary factors in this grand march of improvement.
Other valuable papers were read which we shall take occasion to publish at some future time.
Better Management Needed.
A little forethought on a farm is a good thing. It saves time, money, and much of the vexation that is liable to come without it. Like the watchman on a ship a good farmer must always be looking ahead. He must be quick in his judgment of what should be done at the present time, and he should have a good perception to show him the best thing to do for the future. ”

“ The air is literally filled with a vast net-work of wire, crossing and re-crossing in every conceivable direction, and over these, backward and forward, the thoughts of men are made to vibrate with the speed of lightning, in the elaboration and consummation of thousands of business schemes, and the air, as well as the buildings and streets, is full of human activity and enterprise. ”

“ Up to my ears in soft grass laughs the fat ox. Sweet pastures make sound butter. Soft hay makes strong wool. These are some of the maxims of the meadow. The grass seed to sow depends upon the soil and here every man must be his own judge. Not every farmer, however, knows the grass adapted to his soil. If he does and seeds by the bushel, or other measures, he is apt to be misled.
Including millet and Hungarian there were in Kansas this year 3,730,150 acres of land devoted to the raising of hay. The yield per acre was 1.61 tons, or a total product of 6,002,576 tons. ”

“ It is not only the commerce of the country that must suffer by a continuance of the system, but agriculture suffers still more; and it is not only the public who will gain by a change, but the example will be followed by the farmers, who will doubtless soon learn to take care of their own timber lands and plant more, and so the benefit will be general. ”

“ The seed that brings the largest and best flowers generally come from Germany, although some of our own florists save them themselves for several consecutive years. I was a long time before any fixed character was maintained in color in this flower, but now seed from certain kinds will mainly reproduce its like, hence are often so used for massing kinds of a color. The plant being a native of the cooler and moister parts of Europe is better adapted to their climate than ours, and hence as our spring weather is more nearly like their original climate than our other seasons, they luxuriate in it ”

“ We know of no business in which the necessity of combination is so great as that of cheese-making, and, what, let me ask, could be more desirable and praiseworthy than an association of cheese-makers, for the purpose of sending the swill milk of the country to the hogs, where it belongs, instead of making it up, as at present, for human consumption. ”

“ I find that those who have made most money out of this line of farming or stock-raising are those who, when they have secured a valuable brood mare that is sure of bringing a first-class mule colt, they not only keep her, but they take good care of her; and in this way they secure the very best results and realize the largest profits.
Where proper care is taken not to overwork or strain them, mares can always be profitably worked in planting and cultivating the corn crop, as well as cribbing it in the fall; fully enough work can be done to pay for what they eat and the pasturage. ”

“ The potato requires a cooler climate and moister soil than our latitude affords. Mulching tends to secure both. The result in every case has been largely increased yields of superior quality.
The old saying, no grass no cattle, no cattle no manure, no manure no crops, is as true to-day as when first spoken. Grass takes care of him who sows it. The meadow is the master mine of wealth. Strong meadows fill big barns. Fat pastures make fat pockets. The acre that will carry a steer carries wealth. Flush pastures make fat stock. Heavy meadows make happy farmers. ”

“ But there is a little lever in the mechanism that at the pressure of a man's hand will slacken its speed, and in a moment bring it panting and still, like a whipped spaniel, at your feet. By the same little lever the vast steamer is guided hither and yonder upon the sea, in spite of the adverse winds or current. ”

“ To raise a good crop of onions requires a light, loamy soil, worked into as fine a condition as possible, to render cultivation easy.
The greater part of the preparation should be done in the fall, and especially the application of the manure. Well rotted manure is the best, and that which is free from grass, oats, or weed seeds, should always be selected. Of course, if the manure is properly rotted the vitality of the larger portion of the seed in it will be killed, but unless this is done it will render the cultivation much more difficult. ”

“ To the dairyman naturally given to slovenly and careless habits, the restraint to which he might otherwise be subjected is practically removed when nearly equi-distant from his place of abode there are three or four factories, instead of one, and he knows that if rejected at one place, he can without inconvenience go to another, and thus it transpires that at five factories in every ten there will be found a conspicuous absence of thorough and inexorable discriminations which ought always to prevail in the receipt of milk for factory purposes. ”

“ Then, with poles and "prys," they would work upon the cracking mass until it floated clear and went whirling down the rapid current.
"Ahoy, boys!" called Jule, who was seemingly their leader. "Up yender's a big cake that only wants a shove! Come on! Let's set 'er a-going!"
No sooner said than done. Away went the noisy fellows to the projecting point of ice. A few smart jumps sent it creaking and groaning, as though still unwilling to quit its snug winter bed. One more jump, and the boys all ran with a shout beyond the place where the ice was cracking off—all save Jule. ”

“ It was perfectly apparent to any one familiar with the displays of previous years in this department, that the breeding of fine cattle in this country is, at the present time, attracting the attention and commanding the best and most intelligent care of not alone the farmers who have been bred to their avocation, but of capitalists, who comprehend the great money values involved, and who either of themselves or through their sons have set out to identify themselves with this great interest. ”

“ If farmers expect a good crop of corn they should not get seed from a southern latitude. No Iowa farmer would buy seed corn now that grew in Kentucky, Kansas, or Missouri. The only seed corn on which our farmers rely implicitly is that which they have gathered before frost came and hung up near the fire to be thoroughly dried before it froze. ”

“ He said that the purchase of the forests by the State might not require so great an expenditure of money as was anticipated.
In closing an article on "Forestry and Farming," the Germantown Telegraph maintains that the idea that farmers and land-owners generally entertain that they may not live to enjoy the advantages of the tree-planting, should be utterly banished from their minds. It will require only about twenty years to realize the most liberal hopes of success; at least it will add to the value of the farm by the fact that the amount of timber is to be increased instead of diminished. ”

“ No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and so long as there remains a slovenly dairyman in the business just so long our system will be incomplete and the working of co-operation remain imperfect. Perfect concert of effort, unbroken unity of hand with hand, in all the various details of the business, reaching down to the most unimportant items in the production of milk and the making of cheese, will produce in the long run the most profitable and permanent results to the individual as well as to the community. ”

“ A person signing himself a "Nobleman's Gardener," says in an English paper that it is a mistake to use poultry manure as a top-dressing for garden crops; for farm crops also, if the poultry and pigeon dung were in any considerable bulk. This, however, is not usually the case, and a hundred weight or two would not make much of an impression on a farm. The manure in question is a powerful fertilizer, containing ammonia, phosphates, and carbonate of lime in considerable quantity, also uric acid, all of which are valuable ingredients for the support of crops. ”