Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1891 — HOME AND THE FARM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME AND THE FARM.

A DEPARTMENT MADE UP FOR OUR RURAL FRIENDS. limping Accounts on the Farm—A Post Driver That Can bo Made at Hbme—Good Breeding Sense—Points About Boas—A Good Wator Filter. Book-Keening en tho Farm.

10 one who has not noted the results can fully appreciate the value of bookkeeping to the l farmer and his Ifainily, says a Jwritcr in Farm land Fireside. He l is not found complaining of hard times, because he discovers the small leaks and applies the remedy. He saves himself from em- ' barrassment and

his farm from the mortgage. His wife, keeping her accounts of receipts and expenditures for butter, eggs, poultry, dry goods, groceries, etc., acquires business knowledge and sagacity, and at her husband’s death does not find it necessary to call in a stranger to act as administrator, who like a leech, sucks the life blood from the estate—the joint earnings of husband, wife ana children—and finally, with the aid of lawyers and court fees, perhaps leaves the wife and children in absolute want. No, her knowledge of business principles enables her to administer her own affairs. The boy who is permitted to earn his spending money, and taught to keep his little accounts and compare receipts and expenditures, will the earlier learn the value of money and apply his wits to live within his income. Such a boy will not accumulate debts for his overworked father to pay; neither is he so likely to fall into fast company or fast living. He is educated for business, and will be able to hold his own in the battle of life. The girl who has her allowance and is taught to make accounts, will appreciate the value of a dollar and use discretion in its expenditure. A young lady once told her lover, when he proposed, that although she loved him she would not marry him until he had SIO,OOO. He was somewhat discouraged, but went to work to obtain the money and the girl. A few weeks later she inquired how he was succeeding. He replied; “Very well; I have saved $17.” “Well,” replied the lady, “I expect that will be sufficient; we may as well get married.” We hearso much in this day about practical education. But practical education is that which practically fits hoys and girls for the active duties of life, and any education which falls short of this is neither practical nor complete. Fit a child to earn a living and you do better by him than to give him wealth. Fit hftn to appreciate and care for property before he is safe to be entrusted with a legacy. A Post Driver. The accompanying plain engravings show, says Farm and Home, a most effective post driver and one that can be made entirely at home excepting the weight and hook.

A block of iron weighing forty to fifty pounds is required. Sometimes a chynk can be bought for a song second hand, but it will be cheaper usually to have it cast. Its essential features are a ring to hoist it by, and grooves in the sides in which to slide the tongues attached to the uprights. To have the dump self-acting the hook must he made of the precise pattern shown. Any blacksmith can reproduce it. The hook is pulled down to the weight resting on top of the post and siipped into its ring. As the weight is hoisted the hook-ring will be seen to remain at the lefthand end of the slot as in Fig, 1. When it has reached the height at which it is desired to drop the weight, the long tongue of the hook trips against a rod or slat extended across thi? frame for the purpose and is pulled down. This act lets the weight slide to the left and the hook-ring to the right in the slot, as in Fig. 2. The woight is instantly freed and falls heavily on the post. The driver wijrks on the principle of a railroad pile driver. Thirteen-foot planks are firmly biaced on the front ends of stone boat planks held together by irons and bolts eight feet from the ground sa they will not interfere with the p<j«ts being driven. When being diawn from one field or farm to another the boat planks are connected in front and behind by hooks made of heavy wire. This prevents their spreading. Two pulleys are made of double thickness of inch board with the edges chamfered before they are bolted together The grain of these boards is placed at right angles the one to the other to prevent splitting. One is hung at the top of the upright to receive the rope direct from the weight book, and the other at the rear end of the boat planks on a brace. A horse draws the machine along astride the fence row, and the posts are held in place by the uprights while being driven. Any hoy can raise the weight by pulllag on the rope at A. Good Brooding Sense. One of the most profitable things a farmer can do is to set squarely at work to post himself on the established principles of breeding farm animals. At the present time, and in the full blaze of the intelligence of the nineteenth century, we believe that not one farmer in a hundred has made such a study. It is mortifying,

in the extreme, that, there is such a vast amount of ignorance on these imDortant questions. Of all men on earth the farmer should be a wellposted breeder. Of all men on earth he ought to have a library well stored with what the wisest breeders have said or written. Yet 99. lOOths of our farmers are absolutely at sea on the question: How to breed a dairy cow? or: How to breed for mutton? or: How to breed a valuable roadster? Not only these, but there are plenty of other questions connected with breeding, such, for instance, as inbreeding to a certain extent. We* hear farmers every day talking against inbreeding, and declaring that no good ever came from it. Now had these men eA T er studied the question as they ought, had they read the history of all the leading families of our domestic animals, they would see that breeding potency has been always established by more or less of inbreeding. There is a mass of knowledge that the breeder must know if he becomes successful in breeding, which the average farmer seems to think is of no value to him. Yet he is the man who must raise the farm animals. He is the man on whom all progress, honor and profit to the community and State in this particular must depend. As he averages in knowledge and skill so will the country or State average. If the average farmer breeds from grade Sires, and has no clear, well-defined ideas of the tools he is using, and their effects, the result will be just as it has been. The low average of milk production per cow is due mainly to the low average of breeding sense and judgment among the farmers in that line. The average cow is just what the average farmer has made her. Certainly no man hut he is responsible for her. There will never come any reform, any improvement of the knowledge and fortune of the farmer, until he changes his habits, and becomes mere of a student. He must use his mind, and to his knowledge, enlarge his judgment, in short become a more intellectual man. With too many study and thought is distaseful. But every time they are punished for it. The mysterious forces of life, the deep problems that lie in the great question of breeding, never unlock their secrets to the man who will not think. If he would think wisely toward expression, he must study the experiences of others. Every sunken reef has been discovered at the expense of a costly wreck. The record of the reefs, as well as the clear water, constitute the literature of breeding as well as navigation. Wliy tho Boys Leave tlie Farm. The answer is self-evident—per-petual toil in good weather all through the busy season, and perpetual loneliness in bad weather and most of the winter season. The time when the farmers have leisure is, in half the country, the very time when they cannot get away from home by reason of their isolation and bad roads; yet such is the hunger of the heart that the boys revolt against this unendurable loneliness and even now often walk miles through the Dain or the snow to spend half a day in sitting around the stove in the country store. Already, in many sections, the young people of both sexes have broken through the barriers and established farmers’ clubs and little societies of one sprt or another; and improved roads have done much to aid this relief. But why should not this natural tendency he reasonably directed, and all ages and* both sexes enjoy their long winter evenings together?—John W. Book waiter, in the Forum.