Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1877 — Little Things in Farming. [ARTICLE]

Little Things in Farming.

The whole success of a fanner hinges upon timely attention to little tilings. This mainly makes the difference between thrift and poverty, and should ever be borne in mind by the farmer who would succeed. Remember the old adage, “ For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a man was lost.” In the case of household and other expenditures: It is a little thing to keep a daily memorandum of every pecuniary transaction on the farm, and then a half-hour spent on Saturday evenings in posting the same in a book' would enable farmers at the end of the year to know just how they sjood with the world. Yet we doubt if there isone man in ten who cultivates the soil ever makes an entry in a b<mk, and ter the want of it his account runs up fearfully at the store, and many articles of luxury bought (and which might just as well have been dispensed with) which such men find themselves unable to pay for at the end of the year. Debt accumulates, the farm is mortgaged, and finally lost for want of a little paper and ink. It is a little thing to return a tool to its place after using, yet many have no such place, nor even a shelter for their farming implements or tools, but leave them lying about where last used -tiw plow in the field, the grubbing-hoe in the swamp, the log-chain in the woods —and everything scattered about here and there, causing as much or more loss of time in hunting them up than it would take to do the required job. Many do not even house the more expensive implements on the farm, the reapers and mowers, and we have even seen threshing machines being left out in the weather with no better- protection than so many old plows and harrows. The consequence is, the parts made Of iron and steel grow rusty, the wood-work decays, and thus a machine which would lasfToi- tlnfty ycars “with proper care is used up in less than five. It is a very little thing to turn a nnt on a screw that is loose, yet for the want of a little tightening the nut is and the loaded wagon breaks down on its way to market, and a whole day probably lost for both driver and team. It is a very little thing to keep a horse properly groomed, yet, for (lie want of it, filth accumulates in his fetlocks, the skin cracks, the horse becomes lame, and the use of the animal for weeks, and probably*months, is lost ’ Ventilation is a small affair, yet, for the want of it in stables, the stock suffer, disease is engendered, and, even if death does not ensue, the services of Such animals are often lost. Above all, it is a very easy thing to deal fairly with your fellow-men, and thus acquire a name for honesty, which is better than “precious ointment.” Many cheat a little in the measurement or in the represented quality of what they sell, and thus get a reputation ter meannesß, if not dishonesty, which stands much in the way oj success here as well as salvation hereafter.—.SaZh'more Sun.

Few people are aware of the damage done by wild geese on the wheat fields in California. Tliey .come in and pull up the young wheat by the roots, and eat A, roots and all. It is stated in thqUjftn Francisco Bulletin that, on one ranche alone’, 6,000 geese have been killed this season, and in the County of Colusa alone, last season, the damage done by the web-foqtyd fowls was estimated at $200,000. A whole family was lately poisoned by eating geese which had been eating corn soaked in .strychnine. The California and Laughing geese. Quails, also, have become so plentiful, in many places on the Pacific coast, that they are poisoned by thousands, as they destroy the grape Hnt >1 ftyrpiitpi* nui.suncc hfb tli c ground squirrels, which are nearly as bad as the grasshoppers this side of “ The Divide.” - Great country this—for plaguey nuisances. “Till He eometh, till He eometh,” is the beginning of a- beauttfuUittle song which is sung in a West Side Sun-day-School, and there is one young man who puts his best notes on the first words of this particular piece when he sees his favorite coming in at the door His favorite’s name is “ Tillie.” —Chicago Journo'- . ■ —At his own request, the late Gen. IL KForreilwm j®fl4a IfetWed • erate uniform.

Mara’ Moom. When the telegraph announced thej discovery bv Prof. Hall that onr neighborir ig planet had two satellite), and the dispatch was read next morning at ten thom*nd A meric an breakfast tables, what think yoff W®B the et joct upon tile hearers! - Borne colloquy similar t o the following was auro to occur: Mara inas two moons, heyt Paaa me the milk, nitty. .ntrsyige, isn’t ft, that astronomers never »aW tOW n before. Another chop, please. I wonder what they’ll discover next! These corn cakes are excellent. What's the latest from Europol” We have become so accustomed to star ding discoveries and announcements, that we take them as a matter of course. Even truth.must appear In flaming colors to make herself .seen. The virtues of Dr. Pierce’s Holden Met’ical Discovery and Pleasant Purgative Pellets h ave been tested in ten thousand households, whose inmates will tell you that thev consider fa io discovery and intrixluction of these reined! 's of far greater importance to the world than the moons of Mars. Shipman, 111., Juno 13, 1876. Dr. R. V. Ptenci, Buffalo. N. Y.: Dear Sir-lmA fall our daughter—aged 18— was fast sinking with consumption. Different physicians had pronounced her case incurable. I obtained one-half dozen bottles of your Golden Medical Discovery. She commenced ; improving at once, and Is now as hardy as a j pine-knot. Yours respectfully,

REV. ISAAC N. AUGUSTINE.