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THE FARMERS OF
TK3IR DEPLORABLE
IN HINDOOSTAN.
Hardly Any ( lothing—Living in
Uts—Tbeir Agricultural
ments Very Crude.
The density of the population of India,
Bays Frank Carpenter in the American
Agriculturist, can hardly be compre¬
hended. In some of the provinces
through which I traveled there were
12S0 persons, by actual statistics, living
on each cultivated square mile. A square
mile is a section of land, and it would
makc four of our farms of a quarter sec-
tion each. The average of popu ation in
the United States is six people to each
such farm, or twenty-six acres for each
person. In these Indian provinces two of
persons had to exist . off the products
every acre and .120 persons got their
living out of each 16’0-acre farm. In
some of the districts the people are actual so
many that th^ population loses its
increase and remains the same from year
to year. Everywhere I found the farm¬
ers terribly poor, and everything con¬
nected with them was managed on a
starvation basis. The masses wore
nothing but two strips of thin cotton
cloth, and eighty out of every hundred
people went barefooted. About Calcutta
and in Bengal, which contains some of
the richest soil of India, starvation
looked out of the dusky faces of the Hin-
doos, and in the 2000 odd miles which I
traveled through North India I did not
see one man or woman who had calves
on his or her legs as big as the biceps
muscles of the arms cf a healthy sixteen-
year-old American boy. The laboring
people are skin and bone, and it is won¬
derful how they work all day under the
broiling sun of the tropics, with only a
little bit of rice or gruel to eat and noth¬
ing but water to drink. In the opium
districts I found farmers feeding their
children opium to take away their hunger
and to reduce their sensibility to the
cold, and nowhere did 1 find the average j
farm-house better than the American
pig-pen, and the majority of the farmers
lived in low huts made or mud bricks
dried in the sun.
The fanners in India do not live upon
their farms. They exist together like
bees in little villages, and vou see these j
villages dotting the landscape on every
side. They are made up entirely of these
mud huts, and you find in them no street
lamps, no big school-houses, no town-
council halls, and none of the surround-
ings of the American town, The huts
are from six to fifteen feet square, the
roofs of which are thatched with straw or
oovered with thin earthen tiles. There
ire no chimneys, and the smoke finds its
way out of tho door or from under the
eaves. Some of the better houses have
low mud walls around them.
The Hindoo farmer's wife seldom has
a cooking-stove. She cooks upon the
floor, and the floor is of mud. The walls
are unplastered. The family have no
chairs, aud the chief piece of furniture is
a rough wooden framework, over which
cords are tied, forming a bed. The huts
are so small that these beds are put out-
side during the day, and the beds are sel-
dom more than four feet long and three
feet wide. The farmer and his family
lie spoon-fashion upon them, in the same
clothes they wear in the day-time. If
they would stretch out their legs they
would have to hang them over the side of
the bed.
There are no barns to be seen in the
fanning country of India, and in the past
the wheat has been piled up on the
ground until floods and rains have de¬
stroyed much of the crop. This will,
however, be changed this year. I was
told by our consul at Bombay that Chi¬
cago men had recently come to
India to build a vast elevator, w T hich
would result in the wheat being better
taken care of and would increase the
amount exported to Europe. rude
The farming tools of India are as
as the dwellings. The plow is little
more than a sharpened stick, and it is so
light that the farmer carries it to his field
on bis shoulder. His furrows are mere
Rcratches on the surface of the ground,
but he goes over the field so often that
the soil is thoroughly pulverized. In
addition to his plow he has a hoe and a
mattock, and these implements are the
same as those used by his forefathers
centuries ago. His whole farming out-
fit could be bought for $10. He har-
vestssome of his crops with a sicWe, but
the most of the wheat is pulled from the
ground, and the stubble is always saved
for feed for his cattle or for fuel. Noth-
ing that can be burnt or eaten is ever
wasted, and the weeds are saved for the
cooking-fires.
The grinding of meal for the family is
done in the same pristine way as dc-
scribed in the Scriptures. The women
move two stones about one over the
other, and the grain is crushed between
them. There are no roller patent pro-
cesses in the East, and throughout India,
China, Japan and Egypt I saw no mills of
this kind in use. It is generally sup-
posed that the East Indians subsists en-
tirely upon rice. This is a mistake.
Only about one-fourth the population of
India are rice-eaters. In the northern
part of the country wheat is largely
used, and millet is ground up every-
where and made into bread. Millet is
in fact the staple food grain in India. It
w raised throughout nearly the whole of
mottos ta n.
^__
.i p, evet^i o ri n . . , a
rerv ouiet life Her eyesight has « .} become .
•°° '
WISE WORDS.
Temptations are a tile which rub of!
the rust of self-confidence.
Through the wide world he only is
alone who lives not for another.
4 person who forgives without forget-
t j n „ 3S nob ] er than he who forgives and
forgets. and injus¬
Sometimes, to unkindness
tice, silence may be softer than even the
soft answer which turneth away wrath.
Sincerity is to speak as we think; be-
lieve as we pretend; act as we profess;
perform as we promise, and really be
w hat we would seem and appear to be.
They who have never known prosperi-
j. y can hardly be said to be unhappy; it is
f rom the remembrance of joys we have
]ogt that the urr0 , vs of affliction are
pointed. exasperated against
When classes arc
eac h G ther, the peace of the world is al-
ways kept by striking a new note, In-
stantly the units part and form a new
order, and those who were opposed arc
now side by side.
lie that will give himself to all manner
of ways to get money, may be rich; so he
that lets fly all he knows or thinks, may
by chance be satirically witty. Honesty
sometimes keeps a man from growing
ncb > and civl hty ^ rom being W1 ^y.
If one is so weak or so sympathetic
that he must have a confidant, let him
choose one, and one only—the most
faithful, the most reticent, the one with
the most tact and quickness of apprehen
sion, and then trust him or her uureserv-
edly. much under¬
There is no duty w T c so
rate as the duty of being happy. By be¬
ing happy we sow anonymous benefits
upon the world, which remain unknown
even to ourselves, or when they are dis¬
closed surprise nobody so much as the
benefactor.
Russian Fruits.
The extreme cold to which vegetation
in Russia is subjected has effectually
killed many varieties of fruits -which are
t°° tender for the climate, It has been
commonly found that the fruits which
can exist and thrive under these adverse
conditions when brought to a milder
dime like the United States, prove of
great value, not alone retaining their
hardihood, but also apparently display-
ing gratitude by an increase in bearing
capacity. Among the plants obtained
which have proved of especial useful-
ness in this country can be named the
Russian cherries, plums and apples in
considerable variety. In portions of Russia
« ver y available spot is given up to the
production of fruit. At \aldimir, cher-
rics are a specialty, and orchards of 10,-
hOQ to In,000 trees (or rather bushes,
for the cherry dogs not attain great size
there), are not uncommon. The tem¬
perature often falls as low as fifty-eight
degrees below zero. During tho short
summers Moscow and the cities of
Southern Siberia are overwhelmed with
this luscious fruit. Simberisk, located
in the dry steppe region, 500 miles south
Moscow, on the black prairie soil, is a
literal swamp of apple, pear and plum
trees. A peculiar characteristic of fruit
growing is the extreme provincialism in of
the business. Varieties grown one
province and very common and popular
are utterly unknown or known by an en¬
tirely different name in another locality
comparatively a few miles distant. The
apple tree is usually small in size, bushy
in its habits of growth aud loaded with
showy and excellent fruit. The same
growth characterizes the ravages of in¬
sects. Apples are set as closely as the
American method of setting grapes;
cherries and plums are not more than five
feet apart. This region, as is well
known, is 1000 miles north of the line
stretching in the United States from
Newburg* on the Hudson, to Des and
Moines, Iowa. The dry summers
the cold winters make the average life of
these trees short. The true ironclads
have the foliage and habits of the wild
apples found on the bluffs of the Upper
Volga. The trees are low and scrubby,
but rich in their production of good
fruit .—New York Herald.
_ Breach ot 1 rust. ^ ~7~
^
An old man who was blind was being
led down Marietta street by a dog just at
the time when the sidewalks were most
crowded and the roadway was full of ve-
hides. Long experience had taught the
blind man to trust his four-footed guide,
aud he went along feeling certain that
he would be led into no danger. Sud-
denly a tempting bone, a few feet from
the sidewalk attracted the dog’s atten-
tion. He looked at it wistfully for a
moment, and then, unable to withstand
the temptation, he weut after it. Un-
conscious of danger, the blind man fol-
lowed the dog. and before any one could
put out a hand to save him he was under
the feet of a passing horse. The driver
pulled up his team just in time and the
blind mail escaped with his hat knocked
off. Remorse must have immedkately
seized the dog for he led the blind man
back to the sidewalk and refused to lock
at the bone again .—Atlanta Constitution.
■ • ■— —
Power of a Growing Tree.
There is a black birch tree near Y'ork,
Me.,says a correspondent of the St. Louis
Republic, only about thirty-five feet high,
two roots of which have been able to lift
a granite boulder, computed to weigh at
least twenty tons, about twelve inches
from its original resting place.
The tree is still growing and the rock
continues to be raised and pushed up-
ward and sideways at the rate of about
inch • yaar.
THE FARM AND GARDEN.
ASHES AS A FERTILIZER.
Ashes are too much wasted by many
farmers who do not seem to appreciate
their importance as manure. They arc
among the best fertilizers that can be ap¬
plied either directlv to the land or mixed
* hcocflcial
,vith the compost. They are
to all crops, and this has been found to
apply even to coal ashes, which, in them-
selves, have but little manurial value;
but the reason that even these are so
useful is that they absorb and retain
moisture. Independent of the postash
that wood ashes retain and which makes
it such a valuable manure, an application
of i? renders the ground porous and
keeps it cool and moist. Farmers cannot
be too careful to save it and spread it
over their lands. Upon sandy lands we
consider it equallv as valuable, pound
for pound, as *mauo. bushels of wood
About one hundred
ashes per acre is a fair proportion to ap-
ply on light soil .—Connecticut Frmer.
THIN PLANTING FOR ENSILAGE.
Corn grown for fodder, either as en-
silage or dried for winter use, should
always be planted or drilled thinly
enough to permit the formation of some
ears. What distance apart this wili be
must depend largely on condition of the
soil, that very rich tending to produce
some ears when drilled quite closely in
rows far enough apart to tun a cultivator
through while the plants are small. It
is not necessary nor advisable that the
ears lie large for 1 odder, as they will be
harder to cure if dried, and more diffi-
cult to out up wuh the ensilage cutter,
attle eat this richer food much moie
thoroughly than they do corn fodder
grown so closely as not to form ears.
The grains of corn also in this ensilage
are perfectly digested, and do not come
out while on the manure heap, as they
do when corn is fed dry. An addition of
bran ’ wheat uud dIm / s or bar ! e > s P ro « ts
improves the ration . for cows givmg milk,
but ,s *f!' s uecessar than w, tb rhc
-
fodder. .
P 001 ' e U thickly , , grown corn
A merican Culticator.
ECONOMY IN FARMING.
Improved farming implements and
labor-saving machines are now' so com-
mon that the farmer that is content to
plod along with only those of the long-
time-ago pattern is seldom to be found in
any good farming community. I cer-
tainly would not discourage any one from
getting the best farm tools for his use, as
they will usually be found the cheapest in
the end; but there is such a thing as
overdoing this business and investing
more in implements to w ork with than
one will be able to realize from their
use. Before a farmer runs in debt for
expensive machinery he should estimate
the amount of monev his crops will prob-
ably bring him; and'if he is at all wise he
will not pay more lor labor-saving raa-
chines than their use will be worth to him.
Every farmer should gauge his expeudi-
tures by his probable income from his
crops, and not attempt to rival more
wealthy neighbors with larger farms in
the character and variety of his farm
tools, but, as the old saying goes, he
should cut his coat according to his
cloth. A farmer in moderate circum-
stances should also be careful about hiring
help and should firs) ask himself the
question if his hired man is likely to
yield him a profit over and above the
wages %„L. paid him aud a fair allowance for
hi S The profits to farming are
too small now to allow of any expendi-
tures that do not return an actual profit
in some way. World.
requisites for peaches.
Our best 'Method cultivators tre^ a«ree verv J nearly
ft orchard^ s o etmillv s ot ah^to danger
Allows w thail^ of
' -uu no ne u-er ever to se
( \ i:rin „ a rc ^ U la,- annual cron Most of
them Wlight, loose soil for this fruit,
hnd if not natU rallv fertile then apply
stimulants . A rich compost will prove
US( . f „ b but as a r;de m j nera | fertilizers
are pre f e rred in most soils. Potash in
Hom< form ; s dec idedly the best, most
economical and certain of all plant-foods
f or the jieach. In many instances trees
that showed incipient indications of the
disease were brought back to vigorous
health by applying this alkali to the soil.
Although highly advantageous to all
kinds of fruit, potash is even more valu-
a ble in peach-culture than in any other.
Thorough cultivation in a young orchard
j s indispensable to success; formation of
rootlets in the peach requires a very
loose, open soil, so the frequent use of
cultivator always makes itself visible in
accelerated growth and richer foliage.
Many orehardists believe that a free
growth will in a measure ward off dis-
ease. that fungal disorders more fre-
quently affect slow-growing trees than
those in vigorous health. Frequent cui-
tivatiou may be omitted when the
orchard reaches bearing acre, on the prin-
c iple that fruit is more plentiful when
growth is slightly checked, but so long
ls crops are gathered some equivalent
ought to be returned to the soil. I
think we may all agree that a young tree
growing energetically needs an annual
heading oaek of the leading shoots at
least; and whenever it becomes too
bushy, a condition such treatment is
liable to induce, the superfluous branches
must be thinued out. Another requisite
is thinning the fruit; large, finely colored
specimens are so much in demand aud
command ach a good price that the
comparatively little expense of thinning
is more than overbalanced by the re-
c-nnts. Each spring, if not twice in the
season, It pays well to hunt for an3 kill
the borers. A number of preventive
contrivances are in use, with more or less
advantage, such as tying tarred paper
loosely around them at the surface of tha
ground, heaping up soil, coal-ashes,
lime, etc .—New York Tribune.
the cake of rows,
*^ s an a( Ujunct in . producing . whoie-
some milk, sound food is of prime im-
portance to cows, and this must be ap-
portioned so that the requirements of the
body arc supplied. In this connection
*hc va ^ 1ic something approaching the
succulent quality of green grass cannot
he tco highly commended. Those who
have silos filled with corn, or clover, are
fight, ana the farmers who have a
^ ar K e crop of unsalable potatoes on hand
cannot market the surplus to bettet ad-
vantage than to give his stock a moder-
atc ration of potatoes. T hese will cor¬
rec ^ the feverish condition a cow is apt
to be in wnen kept on hay, straw and
corn. Water is such an important ele¬
ment in the auimal economy that it is
more necessary, if possible, than food.
It i 8 Sidd that a horse has lived for eleven
days w , t hout food, but that he cannot
cx j st more tban fi ve days un i es s supplied
w jth water,
Much has been said and written dur-
3ug a few years past, about giving cattle
warmed wa ter to drink, and there is no
quest i on but that cattle thrive better for
having water at a moderate temperature
i nstea d of drinking ice water. In
cold weat hcr there is a marked difference
3Q the general appearance of two herds
otherwise treated alike, if one lot
drinks ice water and the .other has water
j u re g U lar quantities at forty-five degrees
to fifty degrees; or even somewhat high¬
er. There are many devices on sale for
heating water. The small, drum-like af-
fa3r) so often illustrated during the past
two or three years, has most of the good
qualities, with the additional merit of
costing less than any other,
The value of shelter is so well cstab-
lished that little need be said on this sub-
ject, but value of sunlight and cleanliness
in the stable needs to be urged far more
than it is. The rays of sunlight readily
penetrate through glass and leave their
health-giving properties within, so that
no on <J need hesitate to use glass freely in
the winter quarters of cattle. An aid to
health and thrift in cow stables is the use
°f lime as a wash for all woodwork.
Lime is also destructive to insect life that
molest stock. What is known as “barn
itch, ” and also ringworms are diseases
caused by insects that propagate their
species and exist about the premises while
cattle are in the pastures, but are ready
to attack them when the stables? are again
used as winter quarters. As noted above,
lime-washes are partly successful in kill-
ing them, but it is well to burn a quan-
tity of sulphur in the stable. An iron
kettle with a few live coals in it, on
which a pound or so of sulphur has been
thrown, placed in the building after the
cattle have been driven out, answers the
purpose. The fumes will penetrate every
nook and crevice, to the destruction of
an y living thing.
The stables should be cleaned at least
once a da y ? if possible, plenty of'absorb-
cuts used, and as au additional purifier,
sand plaster may be used by sprinkling
freely about the stables and pens. If
plaster, or gypsum, is uot .at hand,
dry earth, in the form of road dust, may
be used instead, with good success. Tht
use a broom, both in the manger and
where the eat.le stand do mneh to.
ward making the stable tidy and fitting
the cow to furnish clean milk .—Dairy
Column.
farm* axd garden notes
r , u • Z 1 ° n !
Softnmmmg oxxtrinnmll^cuttmgout
g "*"*
Kee P your fence boards au(1 P osts un-
der shelter until you are ready to use
? em ‘ Then draw thcm out and use
1>Cm !ltonce - '
11 has 1)C <m learned that potatoes re-
( l nirc a due proportion of nitrogenous
and mi >ieral food, as has long been held
b y good larmers, and that mineral man-
” res a ^ one produce little result. The
bberal use of barn-yard manure which seems to is
b e justified by the large yield,
tb° u ?bt to offset the disadvantage of
” rearcr liability of disease. Continuous
” rowtb 01 " potatoes in the same land ap-
P ears to render the crop less liable to dis-
ease ? nstea d of more so.
While the artificial method of chicken
growing,hatching in incubators and reur-
ing with artificial mothers, is necessary
to growing broilers for market, it will
not supercede the old-fashioned method
for growing breeding stock. The arti-
ficial chickens are less able to look out
for themselves, and are generally smaller
and less vigorous than the same breeds
grown naturally. Some of the instincts
of self-defence are lost, or at least are
blunted, by dependence on methods in
which they are not necessary.
~The conditions different^from for o TO win:Tthe~'best
sorghum are those for
^rain ctod« should Mineral and nitrO^eneous
fnanures not be used, except that
the latter may be applied very early, to
opt the young plant started vigorously,
When a broad leaf is made, this will
draw from the air the carbon needed to
ma ke the sweet in the cane. If mineral
manures have been used, or too much of
the nitrogeneous late in the season, thev
cause so much more impurities to be re-
moved before either syrup or sugar can
be rid of the disagreeable taste which
they necessarily have before being puri-
tied.
WORTH WHILE.
It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song.
But the man worth while is one wr.o wifl
smile
When everything goes dead wrong,
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praise of
earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray.
When without or within no voice of sic
Is luring your soul away. r. V*.
But it’s only a negative Tirtue
Until it is tried by fire.
And the life that is worth the honor of
earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen.
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered to-day,
They make up the item of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage of
earth,
For we And them but once in a while.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
HUMOR OF THE DAY,
“Papa, what is a green grocer? 1 ’
‘ ; He’8 a grocer who tries to sell sugar
without sand in it.”
One can stand it, perhaps, from an
enemy, but no man likes to be cut by a
barber .—New York News.
it does not seem right to have" charge an
enemy's battery after the guns been
p a i d f or .—Pittsburg Chronicle.
“Why do you call your parrot Hon¬
esty?” “Because Honesty is the best
Polly, see ?”—Philadelphia Times.
When you have chosen the proper w ay,
And the proper thing to do,
There’s sure to lie some fool to say:
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Racket J
—
.
“Give me the man who sings at his
work,” says a writer. He can have him;
Also the man who whistles at his work.
—New York News.
Scribblerus—“Did you like my .las!
book?” Miss Pert—“O, have you
written your hist one? I’m so glad l”—
Lawrence American.
The mouth of the .Amazon River i?
six hundred miles wide. Good gracious!
Suppose it took it into its head to yawn.'
—Philadelphia limes.
. , Do you believe in corporeaI punish ,
men t, Major?” J “No. I do not think
that peual tie3 should cver be inflicted p
su5ordiuate officers.”— Bazar.
Teacher of Political Economy—“You
™ a y mention an infant industry,
L ively Young Student—“Sitting still and
sucking one s thumbs. —Chicago Times.
“A little of everything, gentlemen,”
said the boarding mistress, affably, “in
the way of variety makes the spice of
life,” and she told the waitress to bring
on the hash.
“Blood will tell, sir. It is blood
makes the hero.” “You don’t know
what you are talking about. Hero, in¬
deed. Y'ou evidently never saw how
blood runs in a battle.”— Bazar.
John—“I started to read some of your
jokes last night, but before I «ot half
through I was most unfortunately inter¬
rupted.”Jack—“How was that?” John_
“I fell asleep .”—Yankee Blade. i
to^MsVn^e Patient_“T siv dnrtnr btk “ cnr . n ' i
a J__,. of
Docto It ig not hing serious, but I
wouId advisc ou? nevertheless to keep
your eye on it .”—Texas Siftings.
y ° U
lady s soup., >»
° m sir, bl r fmenta it • will w wash out What kind of fish, i^
* **** -^iladxlphia Inquirer. -
Scroggs—“Y’ou look rather downcast,
old man; anything of notehapnenedto-
(la y • Gnggs_“Ycs, mine for a thou-
sand fell due, and I didn’t have a cent
wtlica t0 P a y —Harvard Lam-
P°° n -
Miss Hyde Parker—“Do you know
Mr. Stone, the sculptor?” Miss Breezy
(of Chicago)—“Do I? Well, I should
twitter. I held his chizzles many a time
while he sculjicda burst of pa.”— Mun-
sey's Weekly.
Mr. Rising Fuffty—“Sir, supposing I
should ask you for your daughter's hand,
would ” Mr. Stockson Bond
— —
“What!!!!” Mr. Fuffty (retiring)—
‘ ‘But, of coure, sir, I ata only supposing,’
you know.”
Judge—“Can you give any reasons
why you can't pay your debts?” Delin¬
quent Debtor—“I have nine reasons,
your Honor; a wife, a mother-in-law, six
children and an empty pocketbook.”—
New York Tribune.
“Are you sure you are strong enough
for my work?” “Oh, j-es, sir, you mav
be sure as to that. Why, the last man I
worked for was bigger than you, and I
knocked him down and broke three of
his ribs with one blow .”—FHegende
Blaetter.
Mamma—“Y'on must put an end to it
at once.” Penelope—“Surely you would
not have me decline a man who saved my
life!” Mamma—“He may have saved
your life, my dear, but from what I know
of him it is the only thing he ever did
save.”— Life. I
Doctor (to patient)—“You are troubled
with stuttering, I believe. Patient (in¬
dignantly) — “No, sir, I—I—I—don’t
stu—stu—stu—stut—stut—stut—stutter
at all, but I sta—sta—sta—stain—stain—
stammer some, when I get excited.”—
BW. ington Star.