The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR AddrvM communications t Agronomist, 73 Adelald* t Hoir I Get the Best Work Out of My Few Horses. Of all the laks on the farm, it has been my experience that one of the worst la the poor use of horses. There re three reasons for this: The use of too small or too poor quality horses, the use of too few horses in the team, and the use too few days in the year of the horaea kept. It" hac been said that the average number of hours per day worked by farm horses is three. This does not mean that the days worked are short, but that the horses stand in the barn or roam the pasture two -thirds of the time. Maybo you think you are not out anything while your horses are on What Wakened Tumpty Toad. Tumpty Toad sat on the garden walk sunning himself. It was a day, and Tumpty Toad was ^ ay an umpy oa wa ly potatoes continued, ana i i feeli much too Bleepy to move . he road art ot w>> , pasture, or that you are only out the, feed white they are standing in the, ay> a " ! table, but on closer analysis you will fu " davs - see that this is not the case. kept the team on the road P*** month. In the latter part of tne ( month the corn was cut, and put i the iik>. October was given over to digging and delivering l*te potatoes, and a team ww on the road part of this month. November was given over to fall plowing, and the other four month* were spent hauling milk with one team, while the other did chores (the manure was hauled every day). As will be seen, the work was con- tinuous, there being no very slack times nor any times when we were overworked. I never kept exact track of how many days the horses worked during the year, bait they were in the harness a part of nearly every good wj>en tw<) mogquitoell llg , hted , eaf near h u head, . f . " 240 The cost items of keeping a horse are: Feed, interest, depreciation, shoe- ing, and veterinary bills. In addition, there are repairs to harness, though this is not a strictly horse cost, and some men labor. Of these costs, the idle horse is just as subject to those for interest and depreciation and vet- erinary bills as the one that is work- ing. He is also subject to the feed and shooing coots, though to a less extent. As to depreciation on harness, this wears out about as fast hanging in the stable as when in use. Comparing the cost per working hour of a horse working 1,000 hours per year with that for one working 2,000 hours per year, we get figures as follows: 1,000 2,000. Items of cost. hrs. hrs. Oats at 40c per bu $36.00 $45.00 Hay at $18 per ton ... 60.00 54.00 Pasture 6.00 2.00 Interest at 6% on $250 15.00 15.00 Depreciation, 10" a year on $250 25.00 25.00 Veterinary bill 5.00 5.00 Shoeing 25.00 35.00 days or more a year. Since then I He darted out his long tongue again and the big fat fly followed the mos- quitoes down Tumpty Toad's capacious throat. And that was the very best place for them all, if you ask mel Tumpty Toad winked at the nastur- tium leaf, where the mosquitoes had gat. "I'm not as sleepy as I look," said Tumpty Toad. have bought another 100 acres and a tractor, and now I am just making a change in my type of farming. I am substituting hay for potatoes for the money crop. When the change is completed, the year will be about the same in the spring and farll, but in the summer it will be as follows: The latter part of June, cutting artd drawing alfalfa; July, cutting and drawing timothy and clover; the lat- ter part of July, second cutting ol alfalfa; August, harvesting grain and third cutting of alfalfa. I started with four horses that would not average 900 pounds apiece. I soon found that they were no good for business, and bought a pair weigh- ing 1,300 apiece. Later I bought an- other pair weighing about 1,500 apiece, and still later I exchanged the lighter ones for horses weighing about 1,600 pounds apiece. I had always heard about how sTow big horses were getting around corn- ers, and about how working on soft ground bothered them; but I have never found that to be the case. I did find that it takes no more grain to feed a big horse than a small one, and Total . . $171.00 $181.00 1 >ut little more hay Why? Well, a on a Tumpty Toad only blinked an eye at them. They would have tasted good no doubt, but hardly good enough to be worth the effort of putting out his tongue. Now Tumpty Toad couldn't help hearing what the mosquitoes were saving. It seemed easier to listen than to move out of hearing.. They weren't sleepy, he learned, in spite of the heat. They were merely hungry. "And nothing biteable in fright,^ said one crossly, "but that old toad." "You don't call him biteable," said the other. "He's too tough for my taste." "Hush," warned the first "He may hear us." "No danger," returned the second. "Can't you see he's asleep?" Tumpty Toad kept his eyes shut. Not that he wasn't annoyed. No one likes to be called tough, even by a mosquito. "Here oomes somebody tender," said the first mosquito suddenly. "Aha," said the second with satis- faction. And both mosquitoes fell silent. Tumpty Toad could hear them sharp- ening their bills. He was almost curious enough to open his eyes. Still he felt so lazy! And he could trust his ears to tell him who this tender somebody was. For steps were coming along the walk, a big, grown-up pair of steps not the tender ones decidedly and a little, uncertain, toddling pair. "Funny toad," said the baby. Tumpty Toad felt a soft little tickle down his back. He didn't jump or wriggle away, for he knew that the tickle was the baby's finger stroking and patting him. He sat very still, not to frighten the tickle away. "Nice, funny toad," said the baby. "See if it doesn't want a fly," said a big, grown-up voice that belonged to the big, grown-up steps. . fV,.h ~>r K, t 1701 QOS I Bma11 horse dom S heaVV W0fk mUSt Cost per hr. worked 17.01 9.05, wopk on hja The above figures, while they do not 1 i s at ease doing the same work. hold for every community, are as fair As to using more horses in the team, to the 1,000-hour horse as to the 2,000- hour one. You see that the cost is there is no reason why many farmers in the East cannot do what is so corn- nearly double for the horse which j monly done in the West drive four- works the smaller number of hours, horse teams. Applying the figures to a crop like! By letting one man do all the milk- potatoes, on which about 100 hours oft ing with the machine, and the other horse work are used, we get a differ- ence in cost of production of $8.05 per acre, which, though not large, is worth saving. To get the best use out of your drive the four-horse team, we are able to do a lot more work than otherwise. I use for fitting a six-foot double-disk harrow. Three horses are needed to pull a six-foot single disk if it is set horses is a problem in farm manage- j up to where it ought to be. Foui ment. Perhaps the best way I can will pull a double disk as easily as illustrate is to give my own exper-; three the single one, ami do twice the ience. When I started farming I had! work. And the work is more smooth- four horses. The farm consisted of.ly done. 140 acres, of which 42 acres were j Many people wouhj say that this woods. Three acres of potatoes were , intensive use of horses would be hard raised, and seven of corn, and the ( on them, rest was in hay and oats. Later 1 1 the case. In reality, the opposite is Regularity is of more im- My Grain-Tight Hayrack. I have found that it has paid me to make the floor of my hayrack of good material. At the time I made this on* (four years ago), flooring of the ordi- nary yellow pine cost about $50 a thousand. A good rack builder told me that it would be the very best thing to get edge-grain stuff for the flooring and to get narrow piece*. So I bought four-inch edge-grain flooring at $65 a thousand. I am very glad that I did it, as my rack has to stand out part of the time, and where other newer but cheaper racks are cracked open, so that grain can't be hauled loose, mine is still in good shape, and edge-grain stuff does not sliver up, when shoveling on the floor, as regu- lar flooring does. This is another case where economy consists in paying enough to get high- grade material. It goes against the grain to do thia sometimes, but I have never bought a quality product yet that I regretted afterward. Here is an idea in fastening the floor of a rack down that worth while I blind-nailed the whole top, and find that it pays. This means slanting the pails, and I feel that this will partly prevent their pulling out, as they do when put in straight from the top. A neighbor who has just made three racks used screws on the last one. This serves the same purpose, as the screws do not work out either. A lot of farmers have found that the hayrack with a tight bottom and a set of sideboarda makes a fine boXj for loose grain hauling. E. Rogers.! OLD CHUN TneTobacco of Quali ty My "Birthday Book." Do you ever forget when your cow is, going to calve, or when your sow is going to have pigs? I have, and I sometimes used to put it down on the calendar and in my notebook, too. Then, usually, the calendar would be used for something else, or I'd lose the leaf out of the notebook. Now I THE SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON That was thoughtful surely. Tumpty have found a much better place to Toad was almost excited enough to] keep these records, and that is in a open his eyes. Still he felt so lazy! j breeding book. And he could trust his nose to tell him when the fly was near. The mosquitoes stopped sharpening their bills. "Ready?" asked the first. "Go!" said the second. Tumpty Toad heard the hum of their wings as they passed. It was a hun- I have lined it so that there is a space for the name of the animal, the date bred, the sire, the date con-; is doomed to^punishment. Belshazzar, ception takes place, and the date birth may be expected. A year or so ago I had two cows in his profa'nity and punishment, is that were about two months late in an instance cf this, freshening, and I felt pretty sure that I. The Cause of the Handwriting, 17-23. JULY 16 4 The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel 5: 17-28. Golden Text God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Eccl. 12: 14. (Rev. Ver.). Lesson Foreword Remember that j ''the palm of the hand." There would the Book of Daniel was written to ' be something gruesome and myster- minister comfort and encouragement ; ions in the visibility of part of the to men who, through persecution, were j hand. The Babylonian palaces were liable to fall away from their religious ; built of brick and the walls, to a cer- faith. In to-day's lesson, encourage- tain height, were plastered. Hence ment is given by showing that who- 1 the writing would be quite visible upon ever profanes the religion of the Jews, i the white background. Written. The gry hum. And it was headed straight my records were wrong. It caused in- In this section the reason for he * ..,.' . for the baby. Tumpty Toad opened both eyes wide. He had forgotten all about being sleepy. Close beside him on the walk, stooping to hold n big fat rly inviting- ly near his mouth was the baby. Such a gurgling, laughing dumpling of a baby. The first mosquito had settled on on* bare little foot, and the second was lighting on the fat little hand that held out the fly. But Tumpty Toad didn't wait to look at the fly. He darted out his long raised from 12 to 19 acres of potatoes,! portance with horses than are long, to on aml wi ^ thc first mos . and about 10 to 12 acres of corn, be- j vacations. The work horse that does a I qujto off thc M)y , s foot . twice and sides the hay and oats. The cultivated good day's work every day, gets fed crops take more horse work anyway,; regularly, and has few days off ex- and potatoes take a good deal of team- cept Sundays, lives longer and suffers im? to deliver. The result was a | less from disease than the carriage great increase in horse efficiency and,! horse used to, which did nothing for convenience, so I resolved to work appearance of the mysterious hand is out a better plan. 8e t forth. Probably some farmers would need; V. 17. The magician:; of Babylon word means properly "stamped." In Babylon the characters were stamped in them, while the clay was still soft. V. 25. The exact meaning of the words written is difficult to determine. This was the reason, of course, why Belshazzar was puzzled at them and why Daniel was needed to interpret them. The words, which are Aramic f , . . . Wi^ill* A II' T 1 / 1. 1 l.-i, I11V-J1 -! ^ n.1.0111 It a record for each of the kind of live- nav e failed to explain the handwriting am j no t Hebrew, appear to be the aml now Belshazzar offers Daniel an| names ^ three weights. Mene; is the attractive reward if he can do so, v.! Arami<; for the Hebrew weight 16. Let thy gifts be to thyself. Daniel j "mjnah." Tekel; in Aramic corres- rejects the gifts ami honor which thel,^,, to the Hebrew "shekel." Uphar- 5 has proffered him. Yet I will i8in; denotes the Hebrew "half -minah." read. No reward was necessaiy to i Although knowing the sense of each induce him to interpret what hadi wor a j n j tge if th king could attach stock kept, but I find one book suffi- cient for my purpose*. Most farmers figure that a cow's gestation period is nine months and a sow's four months. This of course, is not exactly correct. I find by carefully watching that in most cases they will baffled the others, come mighty close to the exact num-J V. 18. The most high; a title f re- ber of days. Two sows that I watched applied to God in the Old incidentally, in income. Then I rented first one t>0-aore farm and later an- a week and then pot in one or two hard days. other, without any increase in the I My horses were hard and in fine eon number of horses kept. In addition ; dition to work in the spring when to the 260 acres farmed with the four they had been hauling milk all winter, horses, I also had a team on the road und I would have half of my spring for several weeks, and took tho job of work done before some of the neigh- hauling milk in UK- winter when there bors had got their horses hard enough was too much snow for the trucks. I to stand a full day's work. My year was about as follows: i I do not mean that a horse should April, fitting land; May, fitting land ! never have a vacntion. It is excellent hooked the second mosquito off the! is not less than 280 days, except in farrowed within an hour of the 112 T. 09tam ,? n '-, It denotes His supremacy days expected. With cows the time no meaning to the words as- they stood in this connection. V. 26. Mene has in ite root the idea of numbering. Hence Daniel says that al . 1 l , the earth and thus cloth the days of the Babylonian kingdom Him wun awe and reverence. God I art numbered. Its allotted time is baby's hand. Bite the baby, would rare cases. Calves have been carried they? for eleven months and have lived and ''Serves them right for being hun- gry," thought Tumpty Toad. of 330 days. R. E. Parents as Educators Preparing Our Children for Citizenship BY ALICK WINGATE FRARY Our children are given regul-.r in-! some for the little girl it would havs struction in citizenship in school, but been if someone had insisted on the and planting early potatoes, corn, and j if you can turn him out for two orj the Irwt that can be done for the-mj charm of offering a neatly made gift, oats; June, fitting for late-planted I three weeks in the spring or early there will not alone give them the | that Grandmother's pleasure need not tele potatoes, planting them, and cul-j summer, but t'his is all that I have urge toward helpful service in the, be marred by apologies. Organize-, tlvating corn and potatoes; July, ever found necessary, and even that community that they might have with! tions are too often hindered by the kprayimr, cultivating, and haying; ' can be dispensed with if the horses' the thoughtful co-operation at their, well-meaning but unskilled volunteer August, harvesting grain, digging and 1 are turned out nights for a month or! parents. The talks, songs and pag- : worker. The community life of the delivering potatoes, and one team on ! so, in addition to the usual feed of leant?, of school have served to widen future will be enriched by every child \ the road. In September digging of i grain and some hay. A. H. S. their vision and strengthen their grasp ( who has learned to take pleasure in' of tho dramatic events of the past. ! careful, finished Work. Fathers and mothers can help them to! "We require from buildings as from express their appreciation of the time ' men," \vrites Ruskin in "Stones of and country in which tdiey live in i Venice" "two kinds of goodness; first out of our cornfield until the weeds 1 term? of every-day service. To teach j the doing of their practical duty well, grew very thick. It looked as though them that they have an important then that they be graceful and Cleaning Weedy Corn. One season th? wet weather kept us The young foal will make more use of these summer days if he is kept in they would take the crop. part in keeping a happy, well-ordered j ing in doing it." This is one secret the -tal'i' during the day Fliej :ind ho 1 weather are not r-mtribulintr fac- tor* to a healthy and vigorous growth. The marc and foal sluliltd during tho duy, given a couple of grain feeds, i.i.i then turned out >' night, will do ! belter than the ones left nut all day. A ration of four-fifths parts of oats Ordinary cultivation would have home and that the atmosphere of a! of acceptable service, that the doer done very little, if any, good, so we community is the atmosphere of its, shall find joy in his work rather than hitched to the lister with one horse, I homes, is to-day a foundation for sub-| seek all his pleasure as a thing apart. ai.d ran n nhallow furrow between the rows, the dirt, of course, being tl.rown each wuy, covering the weeds. stantial citizenship later. To add to i This we can emphasize to our little, this a sense of responsibility toward a younger child in one's own family As soon as the dirt settled a little,! or a friend's or toward animal pets, we took the five-shovel cultivator and,! is at least to start the habit of con- the horse walk down the shl-' sidering tho interests of others. Just m, t h M P' - 8 e . c =v ^ u ,.<,,. u ., . . ,.,:. vl w , elr 'jow furrows, practically leveled the' to keep emphasizing these two points ' responsibility toward the community forms a good feed at this time. Careful breeders have probabiy nad their mres and foals in during the day since thc first of July. If the ttifres have been needed for work, a ttioderato amount has not hur! ihem and they are better off thup. they wmilil be if left in a pasture all dur- ing the day. The foals* are bite enough now BO that they do not need the mare. A Word of Warning. A word of warning, Garden Man, ,With pail or hose or sprinkling can: Pour liberal drink on garden land, .Or else, I pray you, stay your hand. lfor if you only wet the top thirsty roots get scarce a drop, grouml between the rows. I day after day so that they become a ! from the s-tress which is laid by happy gave, etc. Nebuchadnezzar'.- kingdom ! completed. with its splendor and prosperity -vat; y. 27. Tekel means in its root , by Daniel attributed to the providence "weighing." So Daniel declares that matured. Mares require an average of God. wnen weighed, Bel-shazzar falls short V. 19. Nebuchadnezzar is portrayed O f the standard. as a typical Oriental despot whose V. 28. Peres. There is a double play sway over his subjects was absolute, upon this word. It suggests in its Whom he would he slew. etc. "His root the idea of "division," and then personal will was law in all things" also it suggests "Presian*." Hence (Driver). In a capricious mood he Daniel predicts that Belshazzar's king- would have one subject executed and dom is to be divided among the Per- another elevated to honor. 9 i a ns. In B.C. 539, Babylon fell before V. 20. His heart was lifted up. See Cyrus, the Persian, in whose empire Deut. 8: 12-17 and 17: 20. He had the Medes formed an important and become so elevated above his subjects influential element, in his pride, that he dealt arrogantly . ,. .. with them and forgot the obligations Application. he owed them as their king. His mind The n<?ble self-restraint of Daniel, hardened, etc. In this respect he was h' s purpose to "scorn delights, and like Pharaoh, Exod. 7: 13, 22. He at- " v e laborious days," the much derided tributed his success to himself and Puritan element in life, is in eternal overlooked God who gave it. As a conflict with the luxurious, Sybaritic result he became insusceptible to di- conception of life as a Sultan's feast, vine influences. He was deposed. The In this conflict through the ages there account of his deposition is given in h* v be n many battles, both lost and ch. 4: 28-33. won, and the war is still on. In the V. 21. Driven from men. Nebuchad- conduct of one's personal life, in eat- nezzar became insane and his insanity '"& Bnd drinking, and managing all unfitted him for human intercourse, human appetites and desires, and also His heart . . like the beasts. His mind in pu-blic life in the enactment of kws and disposition were reduced to the alwi statutes for the common welfare, level of the beasts,- irrational and ? h * re is urgent need of the Christian savage. Apparently Nebuchadnezzar interpretation arel enforcement of himself suffered the' hallucination that Daniel's p'mctke as opposed to Bel- he was a wild 1 jast. The wild asses, shazzar's indulgence. Driver characterizes the wild ass as To n 1091 f thos *W> r ^d th'*. the "an untamable animal which roamed present practical application is moat in the open p!ains;-to dwell with the assuredly personal abstinence from wild asses would thus be a special wine arwl other intoxicants, and the mark of wildtvess and savagery." They ' ul;1 measure of one's influence for to- fed him with grass. Apparently Kebu- tal prohibition, in the interest of pub- chadnezzar imagined himself an ani- welfare, and specially for the pro- mal, and so he was treated as an ani- tection of people with strong appetite mal. Hia body, etc. He dwelt in the anij werfljc win . ftnd helpless dvepend- open fields and shared in all respects ents injured by these. citizens, showing them as consistent- ly as possible that we do find joy in duties. Our children will receive their firm- est foundation in tho matter of their By this time the weeds had been; part of the children's lives is no small j example and persistent teaching on given such n good worrying that the task in itsolf. ordinary four-shovel cultivator waa put in the field, and the ground worked to H gnotl advantage where it would have been impracticable without pre- vious preparation. ie r ro a op, And, struggling upward after water, By hoe or draught are doomed to slaughter. Plow Points Wear Rapidly. Many farmers who are using trac- tors are learning that plow points wenr out more rapidly when propelled by the tractor than when horses pull the implement. This ia due to the fact that the tractor travels moro rapidity and the increased resistance due to speed wears out tho points much quicker. It therefore becomes necessary to sharpen the plow points mm i- frequently than is the case when using horses. the safe-guarding of the community However eager a young person may , welfare by the right sort of homes, bo to serve his community, his impulse Read thm Mrs. Kate Douglas Wig- wilft be dissipated or accomplish harm' gin's charming story "Mother Carey's rather than good unless his efforts j Chickens." Theirs was a home whoso are intelligent. In Maud Lindsay's , light could not by any possibility be tale of "The Giant Energy and the ! h id. Mother Carey gives the keynote Fairy Skill" (an effective story to in saying to her children when they read to children from five to ten) the ; move into the village of Beulah, "We fairy teaches the eager, clumsy giant must make it a home; as beautiful and to so direct his boisterous Impurse to j complete as we can afford. One real serve, that after days of patient effort home always makes others, l.nm sure he is welcomed as a helper instead of of Ov.it ! We cannot be happy, or being merely tolerated by thorn gen-' prosperous, or useful, or successful, 8POU8 enough to overlook his oare-; unless we can contrive to make the lessnesi. A ten-year-old who was , Yellow Houtto a home. The .river is crocheting a gtft for her grandmother! our river; the village is our village; remarked, "Even if it isn't done well; the people are our neighbors; Beulah Grandmother will like it beoaus* it's belongs to us and we belong to my work." How much more whole-. Beulah." Till he knew, etc. Reason was restored to Nebuchadnezzar wl.en he acknowl- edged the true God from whom he derived his kingdom. V. 22. Belshazzar had not profited by his father's fate; despising all these warnings he had committed a grievous sacrilege against Jehovah. V. 23. Betshazzar's sin was twofold: (1) he had taken the holy vessels which were dedicated to the service ot Jerusalem's tempte, and used them aa wine cuips at drunken carousal (2) In spite of Nebuchadnezzar's awful fate for failing to recognize the God of the Jews as the only true God, Bel- shazzar continued to worship other gods. Daniel reminded 'him that these other gods were "mere nothing*." II. The Interpretation of -the Hand writing, 24-28. V. 24. Part of the hand; literally, Short sermons catch the most sin- I :H Convenient plants.