Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1879 — Orchard Work. [ARTICLE]

Orchard Work.

The Rensselaer papers have less reading matter to the square inch than any papers that come to our table.— Delphi Sun. The Sv» is to be congratulated uponthe excellence of the rest of its exchange list—upon the good company that endures it, as it were. Truly Excellent.—Probably the largest and handsomest specimen of country newspaper wmrk ever produced in the state was the recent holiday number of the Northern Jndianian, published at Warsaw* by Gen. "Reub 7 Williams. It was a mammoth double paper of eight pages, having ten long broad colutnus upon a page, or containing eighty columns in all. It was a first-class advertisement of the city where it was issued, spoke volumes for the enterprise of the proprietor of the establishment, and reflected high credit upon the men'who did the work. It was tasteful in design, a mo'del of typographic neatness, and will bear the scrutiny of the craft. It is not too much to say that in thia , respect its excellence equals the productions of the largest and best printing houses in America, or probably in the world. And as for the subject mailer, that was par with the efforts which long since accorded to Gen. Williame a conspicuous place in the front rank of country journalism.

Vbkt Ancibmt.—lf credence may be given to its own recent statement the (Woodland Register is not only the oldest newspaper of Indiana, but it is also one of the earliest established in the New World, for it claims that "it was founded iiT 1 775’’ or one, year before the promulgation ofthe Declaration *of Independence. Al. J. Kitt, a Revolutionary celebrity and favorite of Washington, LaFayette, Franklin and Patrick Henry, became identified with the paper in editorial capacity about three years after its birth and still maintains that relation without perceptible diminution of vigor. From its earlier numbers it has wielded a powerful influence in shaping the monetary legislation of the world, persistently -advocating the doctrines which spewed forth Continental shin-plasters, Wiljcat

currency, French nMigiiati*, Confederate script, an 4 lastly recommending the flat fallacy. It has not said much recently a boat repealing tpe resumption net, and possibly may be willing to let the government experiment awhile with an honest, practical effort to redeem its financial obligations. But it’s an old uni ■ Travel Suspended.—On last Thursday afternoon the train left the Rensselaer depot to make its customary diurnal round trip to Monticello and back. It was loaded unusually heavy with live stock ears filled with fat hogs, at the rear of which was attached the baggage and express car, and the passenger coach behind that. When thdy reached Pleasant Ridge station, four miles southeast of here, snow was drifted on the track so that the locomotive conld not pull the train through. Detatcliing a couple of the stock cars the engine moved on down to Bradford, leaving the other cars with stock and passengers on the track in the midst of bleak prairie pasture to weather through the night as best they might, with a fierce wind that shriveled the mercury down thirty degrees below zero breaking around the cars like pitiless waves over a wreck. Ten or a dozen large fat hogs perished in their quarters. The passengers, half a dozen men, got a substantial supper at the house of John M. Gwin, a hospitable farmer near by, pressed into service a load of coal from a neighboring school house, and went back to their little narrow gauge coach to wait for their engine to return for them. They waited, watched, told anecdotes, sang songs and played cards the long cold night through; A prominent democratic politician of White county, a whole-souled, genial,good fellow, and tjiree jolly companions, are reported to have five hundred square honest games of Old Sledge that night, without lotting a valuable, without cheating, without swearing ah oath, and without a drop of spirits. This is the report as we get it, naught exaggerated, naught diminished, and naught set down in malice. We wouldn’t vouch for the accuracy of the details of the card story on a Mack of bibles as large as St. Peter’s at Rome or the Capitol at Washington, nor is it insisted that those who are familiar with democratic attributes, propensities, customs and habits shall pin their faith, trust or belief implicitly to it. If there was neither cheating, betting, swetfring or drinking done in a company of democrats with circumstances as related, it is phenomena as remarkable as would be for a leopard to change his spots or anr EiTriopiah BTs skin “at plihSufe/ Morning came and st five o’clock the locomotive Rowland Hughes came screaming down the track and brought the passengers back to their starting-point. From Rensselaer these engaged passage in a sleigh for Remington, where they might board trains on the State Line division of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis road for their several destinations. Returned.—James Nickell, of Hanging Grove township, returned from Kingman county, Kansas, a few days since. He had been out there to visit his father-in-law, Mr. Charles Boroughs, who was a resident of this county many years, and who moved from here to his present home about a year ago. ’While there Mr. Nickell met quite a num. her of people who had migrated from Jasper county —among them I. N. McCurtain, Jasper Kemp, W. L Morgan, Frank C. Moore, Ogle. Yeoman and others. All were boasting good health and a reasonable degree of satisfaction with their new surroundings. Crop? were not first class the past season; corn suffered from drought and was light in consequence; grasshoppers, too, proved troublesome to the fields of young growing wheat this last fall, doing extensive damage it is feared. Snow was covering the country six or eight inches deep wnen Mr. Nickell came from there) but he was so favorably impressed with what he saw and heard, and what he anticipates will be in the near future, that, it need not occasion surprise if ho ihoves out there in a year or two. -

Th* American Agricwllurief Mg gea|s.t|iat Ujbe time of tear to seiegta n 4e ’wWnSw* 4 no risks. Nothing is more discouraging than.^o. cull!vate trees fiv'e or eight years, and, when they begin to bear, fiodtbey are not true to pam.C. It is a disaster for which lliei'C is ho and while to gel trees direct from * nursery of reputation 1 may cyst t» few dollars more than to buy front a peddler, the difference is nothing compared with the risk of ordering from, unknown and irresHQpetbXuaf.lU*-” * * ‘4n making selections for an orchard,the question should not be, what are the best varieties, but what are the best varieties that can be grown in your locality/’ * * * “For family use, the orchard should edntain varieties from the earliest to the latest, the greater number of trees being of good keeping kinds.” * * * “Protect youngjlrees from large animals, by catc of fences and gates. Trap or showr rabbits; smearing the trunks with blood or raw meat of any kind will keep them off. Tramp light snow around young trees so firm that mice cannot work beneath it. If cions have not been ent, do it now in a mild spell, label and store in saw dust, moss, or sand, and keep in a cool place. Make channels to carry off surface water, wherever needed. Cart out manure to the orchard.”