Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1860-11-23
farmers Boys.


The following article, which We find in the
ValLey Farmer, Western Agricultural peri
odlcal, we commend to the attention of every
farmers boy. Parents should, also, point it out
to their sons, and if necessary read it to them
carefully, and then hand the article over to
them, without comment, unless the remarks be
of mild, pleasing nature:
f'ln the wild world there is no more impor.
t4nt thing than farmers boys. They are not
so important for what they are as for what they
will be. At present they are of bnt little con-
sequence too often. But farmers boys always
have been and we presume always will be tho
material out OF which the uobest men are
made. They have health and strength. they
have bone and muscle, they have heart and will;
they have nerve aud patience; they have ambi-
tion and endurance; and these are the materials
that make men. Not buckrams and broadcloth,
and patent leather and beaver fur, and kid
gloves aud watch seals, are the materials of
which men are made. 1t takes better stuff TO
make man. IL is not fat aud flesh and swag-
ger and self-concet; nor yet smartness, nor
hlppancy, nor foppery, nor fastness. These
make fools, but not men: not men such as the
world want. nor fueh as it will honor and bless,
1t is not long hair, nor much beard, nor a cane.
nor plpes nor Cigar, nor quid of tobacco,
nor an oath, nor a glass Of beer or brandy, nor
a dog and gun, nor a pack of cards, nur nov
eli, nor vulgar book of love and murder. nor
tale of adventures, that makes man or has
anything to 90 with making man. Farmers,
boys oug ut keep clear of all these idle, fool
ism things. They should be employed with
nobler objects. They have yet to be men of
the clear grit; honest, intelligent, industrious,
ambitious men who shall love their country and
their kind. With the means they possess how
easy for them to be in fact the frst class men.
They have land end stock and tools; they have
health and time aud mind; they have schools
and papers; they have books and perseverance
and the heart and hand for work. More than
this the y need not. Let them awake aud work
and read and study. 1t is not all work: nor
yet all study, that will make them men of the
right stamp. They must work intellisently
and study, with an earnest purpose of being
benefited, and then they will become what they
ought to be, the real men of the world.
FEEDING HENS IN WINTER.-The value OF
warm food, and variety OF kinds for hens. has
often been reiterated, but the following record
of experience is furnished the Am. Agricultur-
ist BY @ correspondents:
'I have twenty-eigbt chickens, large and
small, several of them fall chickens. obtain
cd but few eggs the fore part of the winter
nc: more than ono or two day. The feed
was corn and oats. liz January / rriea the
experiment of hot feed once day, in the morn
ing. AS soon as the FIRE was started in thu
cook-stove, put quart or SO of small posa-
toes in an old dripping pan, and set them in the
oven. After breakfast took quart or more
of wheat and buckWheat bran, mixed, On, il i'm
the sWill pail, and mixed into thin mush with
boiling water, then added about one Quart of
live Goals from the stove, and put in the pota-
toes hot from the oven, adding ali the egg shells
on hand, and sometimes little salt and sulphur.
These mashed together are fed Immediately in
a trough prepared for the purpose, made about
ten feet long, of two boards six inches wide.
nailed together, and two short pieces nailed ON
the ends, with narrow strip nailed lengthwise
on the top. and two bearers under. The object
of this was to keep tie hens out of the trough,
and leave room on each side Of the narrow
strip. AT noon fed six ears of corn cut up
in pieces an inch long; aud in tho evening oats
and wheat screenings about quart. Now for
the result. In abont week the number cf
eggs increased six fold, in about two weeks,
and since, they have ranged from twelve to
twenty eggs per day. The coolest weather made
no difference. When it was cold and stormy
kept them in the heu-house Oil day. and gener-
ally until 10 or II o'clock. Such singing over
the corn at noon I never heard from hens before
Ia concert of music that would have done any
lover Of eggs good to hear"