I' RURAL MAIL DELIVERY J p| The Marvelous Growth and Popularity gg ifr K '!> \ O . o^ 8 . 'I *C \W- °o V f(grm mm P to the present Hi W time there has re Ka i been nothing in | tho history of the I postal service of States," says the annual report of the first assistant po s tma ster-gen eral, "so remark able as the growth of the rural free delivery system." The daily delivery of mail at the far mer's door,'by the Federal Govern ment, is no longer an experiment. In the words of the report, the system has now "to be dealt with as an estab lished agency of progress, awaiting only the action of the Congress to de termine how rapidly it shall be de veloped." The current month finds rural free delivery of mail in success ful operation from 383 distributing points radiating over forty States and one Territory, while other districts from Maine to Texas are anxiously waiting for those regular visits from Uncle Sam which mean so much in a variety of ways. ItDRAI. CABRIKR, BOWLING GREEN, OHIO. (Twenty degrees below zero.) This country is learning that ethical considerations like these are most in tensely practical, aud that a study of such problems is what the country needs for a truly larger growth. But figures are deduced in the report to convince those to whom figures are the only tangible evidence. So the report sets forth that whenever the Bystem Las been started properly, it has been followed by these results: Increased postal receipts. More letters are written and received. More newspapers and magazines are sub scribed for. So marked is this ad vancement that many rural routes al ready pay for themselvos by the addi tional business they bring. Enhancement of the value of farm lands reached by rural free delivery. This increase in value has been esti mated at as high as $5 an acre iu some States. A moderate estimate is from $2 to $3 an acre. IVIERI NO J SUGAIS PLANTfcBS IN LOUISIANA*" DtUVEfIING MAIL IN ARIZONA 7ma^ A general improvement of the con dition of the roads traversed by the rural carrier. In the Western States especially the construction of good roads has beeu a prerequisite to the establishment of rural free delivery service. In one county in Indiana a special agent reports that the farmers spent over S2OOO to grade and grAvel A road to obtain rural free delivery. Better prices obtained for farm products, the producers being brought into daily touch with the state of the markets, and thus being enabled to take advantage of information hereto fore unattainable. In the communities -where it has been tried free delivery is considered the greatest boon that the Govern ment ever has conferred on them. One Missouri farmer has calculated A SCENE NEAII LAFAYETTE, IND. that in tho last fifteen years he has driven 12,000 miles going to anil from the postoffice to get his mail—all travel that is saved to him by the free de livery system. In the lust report of the First As sistant Postmaster-General there are some striking illustrations. There is, for example, a scene at a country store, twelve miles from Lafayette, Ind., from which point three rural letter carriers start daily, each making a circuitous drive of twenty-five miles or more, without passing over the same road twice. At the particular point photographed four cross roads meet, and twenty or more families, most of them living half a mile from the store, have each put up an individual letter box of galvanized irou, lettered with the name of the person for whom it is in tended. RURAL DELIVERY MAIL BOXES IN" VIC TORIA, ILL. Into this box the carrier, whose hour of arrival is known, and scarcely varies ten minutes, winter or summer, drops the letters and daily papers for each family, and collects in return their mails which are deposited iu a Government collection box, placed in position at the same spot. The farm er's children, or such idle hands as he can spare, gather up the mail and carry it to the honse, and the farmer is thus spared a drive of twelve miles to the postolfice, which he would hardly feel justified in undertaking in the most favorablo weather more than twice a week, and then at muoh per sonal inconvenience and pecuniary loss. Under the rural free delivery system he gets his mail and his paper daily without cost of tune or money. and he is gratified—properly so —for the recognition which the Govern ment lias given him in bringing the mails so near to his door. Kural free delivery carriers, as a rule, "put on frills" in Indiana, which State, next to Ohio, has the lion's share of the existing experimental ser vice. Most of them provide them selves with regulation uniforms, at their own cost, and furnish special wagons, with pigeon holes and other postal appliances—all for SIOO a year, horse hire included. Out in Arizona, where in the genial summer sunshine the temperature oc casionally rises to 110 degrees and stays there, the rural carrier rarely wears auy insignia of Ins dignity, ex cept his badge, which is a nickel plated arrangement made to lit any kind of hat. Instead of comfortably riding in a specially constructed postal wagon, he as often as not mounts a bucking bronco, or diives him to a backboard, with only an umbrella fot shade. But he makes thirty odd miles ' a day, nevertheless and the Depart meut Las just issued orders to cut down this particular route from Tempe, five or ten miles a day, chieHy out of consideration for the bronco, because A CARRIER AT CRAWFORDSVITjt,E, IKD. tlio carrier can probably sleep as com fortably iu his saddle as auywhere else. The hardships sometimes encount ered by the rural carriers are shown in the photograph of a rural carrier iu Northern Ohio returning from a trip when the thermometer was forty de crees below zero. Yet, though the First Assistant Postmaster-General reports that there are several girls acting as bonded rural carriers, few instances are recorded of their failing to make their daily trips, either in the coldest storms of winter or the blazing heat of summer. One question which has received grave consideration by the Depart ment is the insecurity and improper character of the mail boxes put up. On this subject the First Assistant Postmaster-General says: In the early days of the service, when neither Congress nor the Post office Department, as then organized, held out any hope that rural free de livery would prove more than a tran sitory experiment, extreme careless ness was manifested as to the kind of receptacles put up as rural free de livery boxes. Tomato cans, cigar boxes, drainage pipes up ended, soap boxes and even sections of discarded stove pipes were used as mail boxes, and were frequently placed in hedge rows or other inconvenient spots out of reach of the carrier. The Department has entered upon a systematic effort to correct this con dition of things, and a recommenda tion is made that the Government pro vide uniform boxes and maintain them, charging a moderate rental. Kaiser'd Great King of State. Whenever the Emperor of Germany is engaged in an importaut function, either imperial or royal, those near him notice that should he by any chance take the glove off his left hand he wears on the middle finger a largo ring—a square, dark-colored stone set in massive gold. The story is that the ring is an old heirloom in the Hohenzollern family, dating from the time when the ances tors of the Kaiser—the Margrafs of Nuremberg—followed their leaders to the capture of the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslems. Margraf, of Ulrich, who lived in the thirteenth century, was an adventur ous prince, and it is believed that the ring which the Kaiser nov wears came into Ulrich's possession after a hard fought battle under the walls of Jerusa lem. It belonged to one of Saladiu's successors, and iu some unexplained manner it found its way onto the fin ger of the German Knight. Home one of the Nuremberg Mar grafs obliterated the sentence from the Koran which originally adorned it and engraved a Latin cross in its place. A Hard Thine to UiMl*r*t«ncl. One of the hardest things to under stand iu this workaday world is how so many incompetent men get such desirable jobs.—Puck. l>uei All the Talking Hri-nnir. A clever woman can always give a slow man the impression that he ha.i ."aid a lot of bright things himself. - Chicago Record. | AN OmCER'S_DARINC EXFLOIT, &riga<lier-Goneral J. l f ran klin 8011, .Single Hamloil, Whipped Seven Filipino?. Official repoits received at Wash ington show that Brigadier-General J. Franklin Bell, Colonel of the Thir ty-sixth Volunteer Infantry, who is also a Captain in the Seventh Cavalry, DIUOADIER-OENF.RAL I. FRANKLIN BELL. has performod one of the most bril liant exploits of personal daringduring the war in the Philippines. This special act, of gallantry was performed by Bell, who was then s Colonel, near Porac, Luzon, when he was in command of some scouts ahead of the regiment. Just as the day was dawning the party encountered the enemy's patrol, consisting of one Cap tain, one Lieutenant and five privates. Colonel Bell was iu advance of his men and spurred on hie horse. The enemy was confused, and the men sought to run away. Colonel Bell pushed ahead alone and uusustained charged the seven insurgents with his pistol. He scattered the party and compelled the surrender of the Captain aud two privates under aeloseaudhot tire from the remaining four irsur gents, who were coucealed iu a neigh boring bamboo thicket. In the report it is stated that this feat was one of several heroic acts performed by Col onel Bell during the present war, and that the wonder is that Bell still lives. Colonel J. Franklin Bell entered West Point from Shelbyville, Ky., in 187-4, aud graduated into the cavalry service. When the Spanish war be gan he was a captain in the Seventh Cavalry. At the beginning of the war Le was sent to the Philippines with General Merritt aud had charge of the Bureau of Military Information. He was subsequently appointed a Major of Engineers aud then a Major aud Assistant Adjutant-General of Volun teers. When the Thirty-sixth liegi aieut was recruited, Major "Bell was appointed to be their Colonel. Time and again the conduct of Colonel Bell in the Philippines has been commended by his superior of ficers, and he has been recommended 'or medals and for brevets. At the :aki»g of Caloocau last February, while our troops were shelling the town, Bell, then a Major, led a com sany of the First Montana Regiment .u a clever aud audacious outfianking maneuver whereby they penetrated .he town and arrived unexpectedly the enemy's left flank. The enemy, nitwitted as well as outfought, fled irecipitately. Natural Curiosity. The living tree horse here sketched « a natural curiosity to be seen in the vicinity of Datchet, near Windsor, England, says St. Paul's. It is formed >f four topped elms, which stretch THE LIVING TREE HORSE. over a space of 150 feet and grow tc the height of sixty feet. The topi have never been touched by the shears, or otherwise influenced than by na ture's own hand. Woulil Nurse Him llriMir, They found her hurriedly packing a valise. "Where are you going?" thej asked. "To the Transvaal," she re plied. "But I thought you didn't believe in women going to war?" "1 Jon't; but if you think I am going tc let any of those red-cross women nurse my Harold back to health if he is wounded you are mistaken. I'm going to be there myself."—Golden I'euuy. A Venerable Church. The Second Unitarian Church ol Boston recently celebrated its twe hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Samuel Mather was (he first ministei this ehurcb. Afterward Increase aud Cotton Mather filled the pulpit, ind it was here that Emerson served his only pastorate. The Chinese Flag in Washington. The Chinese Embassy is the only one iu Washington that flies the flag of a foreign country^ Queensland is being gradually ron rerted into a large orchard. The Aus tralian orange iu particular has a great future, as it ripens at a time when Spain, Italy and California cannot provide the fruit. CAA'AAAAAts- tAAA , I FARM AND GARDEH.I Silage for Fattening Cattle. At the Ontario Agricultural college they fed three lots of two steers each as follows: Lot 1 had 57 pounds of ensilage each; Lot '2, 31 pounds of en silage and !> pounds of hay; Lot 3, 43 pounds of roots and 11 pounds of hay. Each had about 12 pounds a day of grain, consisting of ground peas, bar ley and oats. Lot 1 weighed 2789 pouuds at the beginning, aud in 146 days gained 555 pouuds or 1.9 pounds each per day. Lot 2 weighed 2735 pounds at first and gained iu same time 448 pounds, or 1.53 pouuds each day. Lot 3 weighed 2672 pouuds, aud in the time gained 537 pouuds, or 1.84 pounds a day. The gaiu by feeding only ensilage and grain was not much larger than that ou roots aud hay with graiu, but all estimates indicate that the silage is much more easily and cheaply produced, the 57 pounds requiring less land and less labor than the 43 pouuds of roots, to say nothing of cost of the hay. Dry Storage for Fruit. A cellar or any other place where mould or mildew appears on the walls or iu any part of the room is too damp for the successful storing of fruit. Brush it up, clean it thoroughly, give it a thorough ventilation, and if it cannot bo made dryer by such treat ment, warm it uutil dry, for, although the fruit should be kept coo!, it is bet ter for it to be too warm for a little while than too damp all of the time. One way of drying the air in a cellar is to place a pan of unslacked lime, or more than one if the cellar is verv largo or very damp, at such a plat e that it will absorb the moisture. When the lime has slacked by the moisture, chain'e it aud putin an other. This will dry the air without greatly raising the temperature. This will destroy the moulds and other fungus very quickly. It will also sweeten the air, or destroy bad odors, which some fruits will absorb very quickly. Grapes that have been in a musty-smelling cellar will soon be come unfit to oat from this cause. I>ry Kartli as an Absorbent. As au absorbent in the poultry house dry earth is excellent. It is doubtful if there is any kind of ma terial that cau be put under the roosts that will work with greater certitude in neutralizing the odors and in tak ing up and evaporating the moisture. In fact, dry earth is altogether too good mi absorbent and moisture de stroyer, if one wishes to save the manure to use as a fertilizer. It has been fouud that iu a dry earth closet the same earth may be used over and over again. The dust burns up all faecal matter and even the paper usually found in such places has dis appeared. The same dirt lias been used over aud over in a dry earth closet for six years, being taken out aud dried each time the closet was cleaned. In another caso the dust was used over ten times. After both of these experiments the dust was analyzed and less than one per cent, of nitrogen found. Most of the earth that has beou so used is of no more value for fertilizing purposes than the dirt taken from the garden. When, therefore, we consider its use in the poultry house the value of the manure must be taken into consideration. If cleanliness is our sole object, then we need not hesitate about using dry dirt, aud we may feel sure it will prove effective. Some amount of moisture seems to be needed both to help the manure retain the volatile portions, aud, we may also presume, to keep germ life in a state in which it can develop. Certainly dust should prove to be a good germicide, for spores once falling into it would be as surely destroyed iu time as would the paper and other matter in the drv earth closet.—Farm, Field aud Firo aide. Preparing Hoes for Winter. Bees ought to be prepared for win ter before very cold woather sets in. When the fall honey crop is removed from the hive it is none too early to begin. In the middle states the be ginner will have better results by wintering oil the summer stands. Cel lar wintering requires more experi ence aud watchfulness, says F. G. Herman in the New England Home stead. The first requisite to success ful wintering is to have bees enough to cover at least four Langstroth frames. They should have from 20 to 30 pounds of good ripe honey. If lacking in stores they should be fed good granulated sugar, one cup aud a half of sugar to one cup of hot water making a syrup of the right consis tency. If you have on haud some ex tracted houev, add a few tablespoons ful, which will prevent its granulat ing. Bees will winter well on good sugar, which is about the only sub stitute that can be used. Unripe honey or honey dew often kills the beea in winter, as they cannot stand a long confinement ou such food. If the bees are iu a double walled chaff hive, nothing more is necessary. If iu a hive of single thickuess an outer case of some sort should be put over the hive, but in no wise close up the entrance. Bees need plantv of fresh air. The hive entrance should be left open full width, which will also prevent the combs from becoming moldy. On warm days during winter when the thermometer registers 50 degrees or more the bees wdl tly out for a cleausing flight, after which they will be able to stand another month of rigorous weather. With cellar wiutering I have had no ex perience, but the conditions necessary are tp have a well ventilated cellar kept dark, with an even temperature of about 45 degrees. Some time in November, light after the been have had a good flight, remove them to the cellar, selecting the time toward even ing. The bees should be handled a» gently as possible to keep them ftora tilling themselves with honey, for if will be four or five mouths before they will have a cleansing flight. II an even temperature, quietness, dark ness and ventilation are secured, suc cess is assured. liiirßO and Small Vegetable*. While on a visit to the Pacific coast I found onions and potatoes of enor mous size, aud the boast of the people is that they can grow larger vegetables than cau be grown elsewhere in the country. It is possible that more large vegetables aud fruits cau be grown in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California than can be produced in other sections. But there are fre quent specimens of vegetables in the middle west that are as large as any that can be grown anywhere. Large onions and very large potatoes are not desirable, however. I have seen | onions grown in Indiana that were as large as an onion could be. The land was peculiarly fitted for onion grow ing, and the product was enormous in size. But lam under the impression that onion growing on that land was abandoned simply because there was no market for such large onions. | They were like the eggs of the ostrich, I a fine curio, but of no utility to the j average person. The market demands [ a reasonable sized onion and potato. In many of our hotels and restaurants, say nothing of private houses, a small onion only is used for flavoring pur poses. These places will not buy onions that are "overgrown." Nor will they buy potatoes that are over size. Usually potatoes are brought onto the tables of public eating houses whole, aud potatoes that are as long |as ycur foot can not bo used. It is a mistake to attempt to grow large onions and potatoes. Fruit is different. That can not be too large. From the cranberry to the apple, size attracts attention and wins the customer, especially if the fruit is well colored. At Lewiston, Idaho, I saw a Ben Davis apple that in any market of the world would outsell any apple that is grown. It was more than twice the size of the Ben Davis of the east, and was as beautiful as a picture. Irriga tion, climate or soil had made a new apple out ol' this very common and not highly appreciated variety. In growing fruit, therefore, next to good shipping qualities—for without these it is useless to grow fruit commer cially—appearance is the most impor tant thing. Of course, the quality must be passable, for the consumer would not buy fruit the second time, however handsome it might be, if the quality was so bad that he could not eat it. But quality is secondary to ap pearance. The large, handsome col ored apple, peach, cherry or other fruit are always the best sellers. The eye fixes the standard of taste aud is a regulator of the appetite.—B. F Brimsou in the Epitomist. l'lpiily of Space for Poultry. One of the greatest mistakes ot poultry raisers is to suppose that chickens do not require much space. A dairyman only keeps enough cows on his farm that the land is able to support. If one acre will support a cow, it is crowding them to have as many on the farm as there are acres, but if you put 500 hens on one acre the latter would be quite different. Laud is genei ally cheap enough for poultrymen to have ample room for their poultry, but as a rule they are always too cramped. Not more than 50 to 75 hens should be raised to the acre. A 50D chicken farm should con tain at least 8 or 10 acres exclusive of buildings. That is a larger space for each bird than most people provide, but it is not too liberal an arrange ment, as any one will discover after a few years' experience. Farmers cal culate their profits by the acre. If they cau clear from S2O to .S:SO an acre, they consider themselves fortunate, and they do not grumble at their hard conditions. Fifty dollars an acre would supply them with substantia! rewards for thinking themselves well blessed. Now iu the case of the chicken raiser we find that everything is in his favor for a comparison with any other class of farmers. Suppose 50 hens are raised to the acre, a profit of 50 cents a year on each bird would make fair farming. He would be clearing $25 a year per acre, which would be more than many farmers cau clear taday in raising either wheat or corn. But 50 cents a year clear profit is small in deed for respectable poultry, and a dollar a year is not too much to place to the credit of the average well-bred fowl. Here we have SSO an acre, aud alO or 20-acre farm stocked to the capacity mentioned ought to yield a good living income to the owner. The trouble with most of us is that we ex pect to make as much on three or four acres as another farmer can make on a huudred-acre farm. That is placing a handicap upon poultry rais ing that is hardly fair. One acre ju diciously cultivated should raiso enough food to keep 50 chickens a year, and that is about all we can ex pect from it. Let us goto work and cultnate the soil for chicken food as systematically as the farmer cultivates his land for corn aud wheat, and then we will realize larger profits and a sure income. The birds will no longer be crowded, aud fewer diseases will attack them. Both our pocket books aud poultry will be richer and better for expandiug the chicken farm iu this way.—Anne C. Webster, in American Cultivator. a Good Thing* Egotism is often a good thing in that it induces men to put forth com mendable efforts for the purpose of liviug up to what they think they are.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers