Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1878 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—An agricultural paper published in Denmark gives a plan for assisting Nature in the manufacture of ice when the winter is mild. As it takes intense cold to make ice more than three or four inches in thickness, the Danish journal proposes to make holes in the ! tee, and by the use of portable pumps, flood the already frozen surface with a shallow layer of water., every evening, which speedily freezes. In this way the ice harvest can be forced to almost any extent. —The following bits of agricultural wisdom are from the lowa State Register: The manure pile is the savings bank for a farmer. A farmer should determine what is necessary to be done, then do it. Cultivate farms in summer; but cultivate the mind in winter. A farmer’s eye among his stock is worth more, than his hands. Labor is not only essential to sucoess, but to personal happiness. Do up the chores. Many of these days are good to chop up wood for next summer. Agriculture has heretofore been a battle in darkest night. Is it nearly daylight? Horticulture is the refinement of farming, and floriculture is the poetry of agriculture. Tne farmer is no ten-hour man. No shop or factory whistle calls him to work. He is his own freehiaii. Any man who leaves a business solely because itr is hard work is on the road'to destruction. No man can succeed in any calling unless he puts energy and enthusiasm into his business. r , ~ We never knew a farmer who kept out of debt, going into bankruptcy or complaining of hard times. There are 4,000,000 voting farmers

in the United States. Ask unitedly and you can get whatevor you ask. If our stock-breeders and speculators would not forget that they are farmers, there would be less cases of collapse. Talk of sweat of the brow. The farmer oats his bread by aching muscles, painful struggles and noble heroism. Many dollars slip out of the farmer’s hand, every year, that would not if he kopt a strict account of every cent he spent, and what for. A man who leaves a farm to spend his days in idleness, proves conclusively that he is not adapted to any business, and will be, sooner or later, a failure. ; Spend your leisure hours in making valuable improvements on the farm, or reading something valuable at home, instead ox spending it on goods boxes in towns. “Much jawey, Alfonso!” cries the Boston Post.