Read Ebook: The Chautauquan Vol. 05 March 1885 by Chautauqua Institution Chautauqua Literary And Scientific Circle Flood Theodore L Editor

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REQUIRED READING FOR MARCH.

TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE;

OR, THE POISON PROBLEM.

The history of the temperance movement has demonstrated the sad futility of palliative remedies. We have seen that the malady of the poison vice is not a self-limited, but a necessarily progressive evil. The half-way measures of "restrictive" legislation have resulted only in furnishing additional proof that prevention is better, because less impossible, than control. The regulation of the poison traffic, the redress of the unavoidably resulting mischief, the cure and conversion of drunkards, in order to be effectual, would impose intolerable and never ending burdens on the resources even of the wealthiest communities, while the advocates of prohibition would forestall the evils both of the remedy and the disease.

But we should not overlook the truth that, in our own country at least, the poison plant of intemperance springs from a composite root. In southern Spain, under the dominion of the Saracens, the poison vice was almost unknown during a series of centuries. The moral code and the religion of the inhabitants discountenanced intemperance. The virtue of dietetic purity ranked with chastity and cleanliness. An abundance of harmless amusements diverted from vicious pastimes. Under such circumstances the absence of direct temptations constituted a sufficient safeguard against the vice of the poison habit; but in a country like ours the efficacy of prohibition depends on the following supplementary remedies:

That the prescription of alcohol for remedial purposes will ultimately be abandoned, like bleeding, blue-pill dosing and other medical anachronisms, is as certain as that the Carpathian peasants will cease to exorcise devils by burning cow dung, and we can somewhat promote the advent of that time by patronizing reform physicians in preference to "brandy-doctors," as Benjamin Rush used to call them, and by classing alcoholic "bitters" with the prohibited beverages. It is mere mockery to prohibit the sale of small beer and permit quacks to sell their brandy as a "digestive tonic," and obviate the inconveniences of the Sunday law by consigning their liquor to a drug-store. Does the new name or the admixture of a handful of herbs change the effects of the poison? We might as well prohibit gambling and permit musical lottery drawings under the name of sacred concerts. Till we can do better we should permit druggists to sell alcoholic bitters only on the certified prescription of a responsible physician, all such prescriptions to be duly registered and periodically reported to the Temperance Commissioner of a Board of Health. Nostrum-mongers will probably continue to fleece the ignorant to the end of time, but they must cease to decoy their victims by pandering to the alcohol vice.

The union of temperance and athletic education has, indeed, been the ideal of many social reformers, from Pythagoras to Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the secret of their failure was a mistake that has defeated more than one philanthropic project. They failed to begin their reform at the basis of the social structure. He who fears the hardships of such a beginning lacks, after all, true faith in the destiny of his mission. Perseverance and uncompromising loyalty to the tenets of our covenant is to us a duty, as well as the best policy, for as a moral offense treason itself would not be more unpardonable than doubt in the ultimate triumph of a cause like ours. There is a secret which almost seems to have been better known to the philosophers and patriots of antiquity than to this unheroic age of our own, namely, that in the arena of moral contests a clearly undeserved defeat is a step toward victory. In that warfare the scales of fate are not biased by a preponderance of gold or iron. Tyrants have reached the term of their power if they have made deliverance more desirable than life; the persuasive power of Truth is increased by oppression; and if the interests of a cause have become an obvious obstacle in the road of progress and happiness the promoters of that cause have to contend with a law that governs the tendencies of the moral as well as the physical universe, and inexorably dooms the unfit to perish. The unmasked enemies of mankind have no chance to prosper.

And even where their disguises still avail them amidst the ignorance of their victims we should remember the consolation of Jean Jacques Rousseau in his address to the Polish patriots: "They have swallowed you, but you can prevent them from assimilating you." Our enemies may prevent the recovery of their spoil; they may continue to devour the produce of our fields and of our labor, but we do not propose to let them enjoy their feast in peace; whatever their gastric capacity, it will be our own fault if we do not cause them an indigestion that will diminish their appetite. "All the vile elements of society are against us," writes one of our lecturers, "but I have no fear of the event if we do not cease to agitate the subject," and we would, indeed, not deserve success if we should relax our efforts before we have secured the co?peration of every friend of justice and true freedom.

That deliverance will more than compensate all sacrifices. Parties, like individuals, are sometimes destined to conquer without a struggle; but the day of triumph is brighter if the powers of darkness have been forced to yield step for step, and we need not regret our labors, our troubles, nor even the disappointment of some minor hopes, for in spite of the long night we have not lost our way, and the waning of the stars often heralds the morning.

FOOTNOTES

"Education is the cure of ignorance," says Judge Pitman, "but ignorance is not the cause of intemperance. Men who drink generally know better than others that the practice is foolish and hurtful." "It is not the most earnest and intelligent workers in the sphere of public education that make their overestimate of it as a specific for intemperance. While they are fully sensible of that measure of indirect aid which intellectual culture brings to all moral reforms, they feel how weak is this agency alone to measure its strength against the powerful appetite for drink."

SUNDAY READINGS.

SELECTED BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.

Repose now in thy glory, noble founder. Thy work is finished; thy divinity is established. Fear no more to see the edifice of thy labors fall by any fault. Henceforth beyond the reach of frailty, thou shalt witness from the heights of divine peace, the infinite results of thy acts. At the price of a few hours of suffering, which did not even reach thy grand soul, thou hast bought the most complete immortality. Banner of our contests, thou shalt be the standard about which the hottest battle will be given. A thousand times more alive, a thousand times more beloved since thy death than during thy passage here below, thou shalt become the corner-stone of humanity so entirely, that to tear thy name from this world would be to rend it to its foundations. Between thee and God there will no longer be any distinction. Complete conqueror of death, take possession of thy kingdom, whither shall follow thee, by the royal road which thou hast traced, ages of worshipers.

The essential work of Jesus was the creation around him of a circle of disciples in whom he inspired a boundless attachment, and in whose breast he implanted the germ of his doctrine. To have made himself beloved "so much that after his death they did not cease to love him," this was the crowning work of Jesus, and that which most impressed his contemporaries. His doctrine was so little dogmatical that he never thought of writing it or having it written. A man became his disciple, not by believing this or that, but by following him and loving him. A few sentences treasured up in the memory, and above all, his moral type, and the impression which he had produced, were all that remained of him. Jesus is not a founder of dogmas, a maker of symbols; he is the world's initiator into a new spirit.... To adhere to Jesus in view of the kingdom of God, was what it was originally to be a Christian.

Thus we comprehend how, by an exceptional destiny, pure Christianity still presents itself, at the end of eighteen centuries, with the character of a universal and eternal religion. It is because in fact the religion of Jesus is in some respects the final religion. The fruit of a perfectly spontaneous movement of souls, free at its birth from every dogmatic constraint, having struggled three hundred years for liberty of conscience, Christianity, in spite of the fall which followed, still gathers the fruits of this surpassing origin. To renew itself it has only to turn to the Gospel. The kingdom of God, as we conceive it, is widely different from the supernatural apparition which the first Christians expected to see burst forth from the clouds. But the sentiment which Jesus introduced into the world is really ours. His perfect idealism is the highest rule of unworldly and virtuous life. He has created that heaven of free souls, in which is found what we ask in vain on earth, the perfect nobility of the children of God, absolute purity, total abstraction from the contamination of this world, that freedom, in short, which material society shuts out as an impossibility, and which finds all its amplitude only in the domain of thought. The great master of those who take refuge in this ideal kingdom of God is Jesus still. He first proclaimed the kingliness of the spirit; he first said, at least by his acts, "My kingdom is not of this world." The foundation of the true religion is indeed his work. After him there is nothing more but to develop and fructify.

"Christianity" has thus become almost synonymous with "religion." All that may be done outside of this great and good Christian tradition will be sterile. Jesus founded religion on humanity, as Socrates founded philosophy, as Aristotle founded science. There had been philosophy before Socrates and science before Aristotle. Since Socrates and Aristotle, philosophy and science have made immense progress; but all has been built upon the foundation which they laid. And so, before Jesus, religious thought had passed through many revolutions; since Jesus it has made great conquests; nevertheless it has not departed, it will not depart from the essential condition which Jesus created; he has fixed for eternity the idea of pure worship. The religion of Jesus, in this sense, is not limited. The church has had its epochs and its phases; it has shut itself up in symbols which have had or will have their day; Jesus founded the absolute religion, excluding nothing, determining nothing, save its essence....

But in proportion to the exaltation of the soul, and also in proportion to its purity and spirituality--the very opposite extreme or condition; in proportion to the impressibleness and moral sensibility of a man's spiritual nature, he has direct communion with God, as friend with friend, face to face. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." There are thousands of instances--they occur in every church where there are eminent Christians--of men and women who come to such a state of spiritual purity and spiritual openness that they talk with God as friend with friend. There is the direct operation of the Spirit of God upon their soul. Not that they less than any others are blessed by the spirit that applies the Word; not that they less than any others are subject to the indirect operations of nature and society; but there is, over and above these, also, for those that are able to take it, this direct inspiration of God's soul. Whether it be by thought, I know not; or whether it be by moral feeling, I know not. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the spirit." I do not know the mode of divine agency; but of the fact that the human soul in its higher spiritual relations is open; that there is nothing between it and God, as it were; that it palpitates, as it were, under the conscious presence of God, and is lifted up to a faith and a truth that are not possible to it in its lower realms--of that fact I have no more doubt than I have of my own existence.

Who has an understanding so exalted, so richly gifted, as to be able to say what love is! Should I say it is a dew, I merely describe its refreshing power. Should I say it is a star, I but describe its loveliness. Should I say it is a storm, I but describe the impossibility of restraining it. Should I say it is a ray of the sun, then I but describe its hidden source. Should I say it is produced in the utmost depths of the soul, when the breath of heaven unites with the heart's blood of the new man, that it is the breath of the soul, still I should not have represented it, for I should but have said what it is in itself, not what it is to others. Should I say it is the light of the sun, that gives life and color to all creatures, still I should not have truly set it forth, for I should but have said what it is for others, not what it is in itself. Should I say it is a ray of the seven colors in a pure drop of water, still I should not have described it, for it is not so much a form as an odor, and a savor, in the depths of the human heart. Who has such a lofty understanding, such deep thoughts, as to be able to say what love truly is! The Scripture says--it is a flame of the Lord. Yes it is a flame, steady, bright, and pure; a flame which lights up and warms, and shines through the heart into which it has entered, and then falls on other hearts, and the more light and warmth it gives to others, the brighter and stronger it burns in our breast.

FOOTNOTES

Canticles, viii:6, German version.

STUDIES IN KITCHEN SCIENCE AND ART.

BY BYRON D. HALSTED, SC. D.

THE CABBAGE is a native of Europe, and grows wild along the sea coasts of England. The wild plant lives for two years, has fleshy leaves, and is so different from the cabbages of the garden as not to be recognized as their parent. Under cultivation this one species of plant has produced the Savoy, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, borecole, etc. A more wonderful plant and a more useful one is seldom found in the whole range of the vegetable kingdom. The Romans did much to extend the culture of the cabbage. In Scotland it was not generally known until the time of Cromwell. Much improvement has been made in American sorts of cabbages within the past fifty years. In the wild state the cabbage has a hard, woody stalk, but the fine specimens in market have only a small stem, bearing a large, compact head, of closely folded leaves.

The first essential in the successful growing of cabbage is the right kind of soil. It should be a sandy loam, with a gravelly, and not a clayey subsoil. Soil that is naturally wet must be thoroughly underdrained before being devoted to cabbage growing. The importance of an abundance of well rotted manure can not be too fully impressed upon the mind of any person contemplating the production of excellent cabbages. Much that may be here said concerning the preparation of the soil for growing cabbages applies with equal force to the other vegetables treated in this article. Earliness is one of the leading points to be gained in raising most garden crops. It is the man with the first load of cabbages that gets the best price in the market. There is a great deal of stress to be placed upon the proper selection of seed, but seed is not all. The young plants of the earliest sorts must be fed, and they require this food at an early stage in their growth, when chemical changes are only slowly going on in the soil. In other words, early crops need a far larger amount of manure for their satisfactory growth than crops started in midsummer, when the soil is rapidly yielding up its food elements. Early crops need to grow in cool spring weather, and therefore should be abundantly supplied with food in an available form. Mr. Gregory says in his excellent pamphlet on "How to Grow Cabbages," "If the farmer desires to make the utmost use of his manure for that season, it will be best to put most of it into the hill, particularly if his supply runs rather short; but if he desires to leave his land in good condition for next year's crop, he had better use part of it broadcast. My own practice is to use all my rich compost broadcast, and depend on guano, phosphates, or hen manure in the hill." This view of heavy manuring is confirmed by Mr. Henderson, in his "Farm and Garden Topics," when he says: "For the early cabbage crop it should always be spread on broadcast, and in quantity not less than one hundred cart loads or seventy-five tons to the acre.... After plowing in the manure, and before the ground is harrowed, our best growers in the vicinity of New York sow from four to five hundred pounds of guano, or bone dust, and then harrow it deeply in." The best sorts of cabbages for the early crop are: The Jersey Wakefield, which has a head of medium size, close, and of a deep green color; Early York, smaller, but quite early; Early Winningstadt, later, but an excellent sort. Among the best late kinds may be named: Large Flat Dutch, American Drumhead, Drumhead Savoy, and the Red Dutch. The last mentioned is largely used in pickling.

The young plants are obtained from seeds in various ways, determined by the numbers desired. When large quantities are needed for the early crop, the seed is sown in a hot-bed or green-house, about February 1st, for the latitude of New York City, and transplanted into other heated beds near March 1st. In this way fine plants may be obtained by the first of April. Many of the large cabbage growers prepare the soil, mark it in rows, and drop the seed in the hills where the plants are to grow. In this way much labor is saved, and there is the advantage of having several plants in each hill, to guard against losses from cut-worms. Cabbages quickly respond to good culture, and repay in large measure for every stirring of the soil, either with the hoe or the horse cultivator.

The most troublesome insect enemy is probably the Cabbage-worm, which in some localities has destroyed the whole crop. The mature insect deposits its eggs upon the under side of the cabbage leaves. These eggs soon hatch, and the green caterpillars begin their destructive work. No poisonous substances can be applied without endangering the lives of those who may afterward eat the cabbage. Hot water has proved effective in killing the worms, while not doing injury to the plants. Flea-beetles have done some damage, as also the Cabbage-bug. After the crop is grown the cabbages may be kept by burying them in trenches, heads down. Three facts need to be kept in mind: Repeated freezing and thawing cause rot; excessive moisture also induces decay; and a dry air withers the head and destroys the flavor. About a foot of earth is usually a sufficient covering.

Cabbage in the many forms it is presented upon the table is a most wholesome and agreeable article of food. The farmer's garden is not complete without a full crop of cabbages. Any heads that are not needed for the family table can be fed with profit to the farm live stock. Poultry in particular, need some green food daily through the winter season, and a cabbage now and then satisfies this natural craving.

TURNIPS.--The garden turnips belong to the same genus with the cabbages, and are therefore closely related to them. The turnip is supposed to be a native of England and other parts of Europe. It is not known when this plant was first introduced into cultivation, and its wild state is unknown. At the present time it forms one of the prominent crops in all countries adapted to its growth.

The remarks made under the subject of cabbages concerning the free use of manure need not be repeated here. Turnips grow freely upon a rich and mellow soil, kept clean of all weeds. They do not require as fertile a soil as cabbages, and when the earth is very rich, there is sometimes an excessive growth of tops, without a corresponding development of the roots. It is not necessary to say that cabbages are grown for their many thick leaves, while turnips are raised for their roots. Plants as a whole have many places for the storing up of nourishment. Sometimes it is in the stems, as in the potato; in other cases the leaves or roots serve as a store-house of accumulated substance. The plant makes these deposits, to be drawn upon at some future time, either for further growth of the same plant or for the early development of another. The root crops, for example, are naturally plants of two year's duration. The first season is spent in gathering and storing up substance in a large root. During the following year the starch, sugar, oil, etc., is withdrawn and used in the production of a flower-stalk, upon which the crop of seeds is finally borne, and after this the plant dies.

Turnips are mainly grown as a second crop, following early potatoes, etc. The soil should be made fine and rich before the seed is sown. Rutabagas may be sown from the 15th of June until the 15th of July. Yellow Stone, Aberdeen, White Cowhorn and Strap-leaved Red-top are sown in the order named, and from July 15th to the 1st or 10th of September. The seed is sown in drills, wide enough apart to admit of horse cultivation. The thinning of the plants in the row is of great importance. This work is best done with a hoe, the workman chopping out the turnips and leaving the plants about four to six inches apart in the row. In garden culture the rows need not be so far apart. It is very essential to keep the weeds down and the soil frequently stirred. The harvesting is simple. When growth is completed the roots are pulled, then the tops cut off and the turnips placed in root cellars or pits.

Turnips have an important place in a carefully planned system of farming. The root crop is a means of securing a large amount of most wholesome food for live stock, and at the same time it cleans the soil from weeds and prepares it for the growth of succeeding crops.

The leading insect enemy of young turnip plants is the Turnip-fly. If the seedlings can be protected until they get a good start in life there is no further trouble. Equal parts of wood ashes and land plaster scattered over the young turnip leaves is a good remedy. Air-slaked lime is also employed in the same manner.

The plot for growing carrots should be nearly level, otherwise heavy rains may wash the seeds and young plants out of place. The soil should be deep, rich and mellow. Carrots are no exception to the rule that root crops flourish under high culture. When the barnyard fails to supply sufficient manure, it is well to use guano, superphosphates, and other quick acting fertilizers. If the soil is heavy, it is best to sow the seed in ridges made by a plow, thus enabling a horse-weeder to pass between the rows and not injure the young plants coming through the surface. Use seed not over one year old, and it is well to sow some radish seed with it, to come up first and show the rows, thus aiding in the early cultivation of the soil. It is of the greatest importance to keep the weeds down until the carrots get a good start. About six weeks after sowing, that is, the middle of July, thin the plants, leaving them four or five inches apart in the row. The carrots are dug and stored like most root crops. If grown in large quantities, most of the labor of getting the roots out of the soil is performed by horses. Carrots keep well in long piles, six feet wide at the bottom, and of any length. Ventilating holes need to be left at frequent intervals along the ridge of the covered heap. There are several varieties of carrots, some of them being earlier than others, while the size and general shape varies greatly. The Long Orange, Short Horn, Early Horn and White Belgian are among the leading sorts. Market gardeners are now favoring the shorter sorts, the endeavor being to get them turnip-shaped, and thus save much labor in digging the roots.

The Egyptian is among the best early sorts; it has a dark blood color, and much resembles a flat turnip in shape. The Long, Smooth, Blood Beet is considered as ranking first for general family and market uses.

The Mangold-Wurzels are coarse beets of large size, grown as a field crop for live stock. The White Sugar is a Mangold, free from much of the red coloring matter of the red sorts. These larger varieties of beets are very extensively grown in Europe for the manufacture of sugar, and it would add to our agricultural wealth if they were more frequently a part of a well planned system of rotation of crops in America. It may not pay for us to make beet sugar, but the use of the roots as a wholesome winter food for stock is profitable.

ONIONS.--The onion has been cultivated from early times, and its native country is unknown. As it is mentioned in sacred writings it is supposed that its home is in the far East. Onions thrive best on old ground, especially if it is a light, sandy loam. The onion field should be nearly level, clear of weeds, and liberally supplied with the best well-rotted manure; guano and superphosphates are excellent for onions. Deep plowing is not necessary. The amount of seed to be used depends upon the kind of onions desired. If they are to be pulled for early market, more seed is required than when they are to attain their full growth.

There are many varieties of onions grown from seeds. The Yellow Danvers, White Portugal and Weathersfield Red are well known sorts, representing the three prevailing colors. Onions are largely grown from sets, that is, bulbs that have ripened while quite small, and when set out grow and form large onions. The small size and early maturity are due to sowing the seed thick. From thirty to forty seeds are sown to each inch of the row. The sets are mature when the leaves begin to wither, and are then removed and dried. In planting the sets they are placed in rows about four inches apart.

The "Potato Onion" or "English Multiplier" is propagated by offsets. An onion of this class, if planted in the spring, will produce a cluster of small ones around it. These small onions will grow into large ones the next season. There are several sorts of onions that bear clusters of small bulbs upon the tops of the flower stalks, in place of seed pods. The "Tree," "Top," and "Egyptian" onions are of this class. These bulblets, when planted, produce large bulbs, and these latter, when set out the following season, throw up stalks bearing bulblets.

Onions are ready for harvesting as soon as the leaves droop and become dry. The bulbs should be well cured and placed in a dry, cool, storage room. The crop is sometimes badly injured by smut, especially when onions have been grown upon the same soil for many years. The onion maggot causes some destruction. Guano and unleached ashes, when scattered over the bed, have both proved of value.

The above is only a brief consideration of five of the leading garden vegetables. The first four, namely: Cabbages, turnips, carrots and beets, are to a great extent farm crops, well suited for live stock. The composition of these is as follows:

DRY MATTER. ALBUMINOIDS. FAT. STARCH, SUGAR, ETC. ASH. Cabbage 14.3 2.5 0.7 7.1 1.6 Turnips 8.5 1.0 0.15 5.8 0.8 Carrots 14.1 1.3 0.25 9.6 1.0 Beets 18.5 1.0 0.1 9.1 0.8

The turnips contain the least dry substance, and the cabbages are far the richest in albuminoids. The carrot leads in starch, sugar, etc., followed closely by the beets. There is very little poetry in any of the five vegetables here briefly described, though they may enter into the daily food of those who think of lofty things and write in the most elegant style. They are the humble, unobtrusive toilers in the gardens of the world.

THE PREPARATION OF VEGETABLES.

CABBAGE.--When young, requires an hour; winter cabbage, double that time.

TURNIPS.--When young, three quarters of an hour; winter turnips, two hours.

CARROTS.--When young, three quarters of an hour; winter carrots, two hours.

BEETS.--When young, three quarters of an hour; winter beets, four hours.

ONIONS.--When young, one hour; winter onions, two hours.

Add to your regard for these first principles a nice skill in draining all the water from your cabbage, turnips, carrots, beets and onions, and that most delicate of all cookery arts--the art of seasoning--and you can not fail of toothsome entr?es and salads.

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