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THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE.
JAS. A. WRIGHT, AGENT.
THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE.
Tiim—Three Dollar* a year, in advance
LITTLE BT LITTLE.
Spring has come around again and
with it the time for the general bright
etiing and cleaning np of the house.
The gentlemen may complain as they
will of honse-cleaning times. It
would be a sorry house for them, as
well as every one else, if there was no
house-cleaning. Still a good thing
may be abused by doing it in a bad
way. It is not wise or comfortable
to have the whole house under water
at the same time. Better take the
storm by instalments. There is noth
ing gained by this hurry and rush, and
bustle, this determination to have the
whole thing finished up at onco. It
is no mark of a superior housekeeper
either, though many imagine that
such energy and resolution are unmis
takable proofs of their superiority over
their more comfortable neighbors.
The highest style of housekeeping
is that which makes the wheels movo
on smoothly and evenly without a sud
'den jar like an earthquake every few
months. .
The cellar should receive early at
tention in the spring. All vegetables
left over from the winter’s store should
be carefully assorted and no particle
of decaying vegetable matter should
be permitted to remain there. Terri
ble fevers often afflicting a whole fam
ily, and frequently ending in death,
have resulted from a neglect of theso
precautions. Throw open tho outer
cellar door, and let the sunshine pour
into it if possible. Let the walls bo
thoroughly white-washed, every shell
and cupboard be neatly scrubbed, and
then yon will have the satisfaction of
feeling that the foundation of your
house is all right.
Then take whatever order seems
most convenient for the rest of the
house, only preserving the precaution
not to overwork yourself, and lay the
foundation for coughs, colds and rhue
matism for the next six weeks. There
is nothing gained by it. Better tako
a fortnight more for the process. It
don’t pay to hurry house-cleaning, as
too many housewives have found to
their sorrow. Hurrying and worry
ing kills more people than bard work.
Don’t be sparing of whitewash. —
Whether lime is high or low it costs
but a trifle at the most, and saves fur
more than its price on the doctor’s
bill. If your chambers are papered it
is a pity, but even then you can give
them a good, white coat overhead.
Now if the old paper on the family
room has grown dingy and smoky take
it off and put on fresh. It will cost
but a few dollars for some good, cheap,
light paper, and oh, how it will bright-,
en up the room, even if you have tho
plai neat-furniture in it. Don’t look at
the dingy old paper and say “may be
it will do for another year,” and go off
and buy an expensive spring bonnet.
Better far the plainest bonnet and
make the family room clean and neat.
If farmers families would ouly save
more where it could easily be dono,
and devote the sum to making home
cheerful and attractive, they would be
great gainers. When eggs are forty
oents a dozen, it wouldj be wiser to
send a few dozen to market than to
place a half dollar’s worth on the
breakfast table every morning. Yonr
family could better afford to wait a
week or two for the luxury, than to
live in dismal looking apartments the
whole year. A careful attention to
the poultry yard, in the early spring,
and a little self denial in the use of
eggs, would add many permanent com
forts and luxuries to the house, which
would give far more real satisfaction
than the momentary indnlgence of a
table Inxnry.
By the way, farmer’s wives often
use double the quantity of the ingre
dients they have, than is at all need
ful, under the miataken idea that the
eggs or the more cream and batter
they put in the finer the dish is.—
Nothing could be farther from the
truth.
The finest rice padding I ever tast
ed was made by boiling a cup of rice
pay rapidly, in a pan of new milk,
adding only a cap of raisins and a
iittle nutmeg. There was not an egg
or a spoonful of cream in it, but it
tasted like pure cream nnd rice and
rasins The addition of so many eggs
to what ever is made only renders it
thoroughly indigestablo and is no im
provement to the taste.
By a little economy and calculation
a farmer’s wife may add little by lit
tle to the substantial comforts of her
household without ever feeling the ex
pense. “Little by little” must be her
motto. If she cannot affjrd the ex
pense of a full set of oishes which she
feels she needs, she can gather it up
piece by piece, as she can afford it.
It is easy now-a-days to match plain,
white queen’s-ware, or so nearly that
no one but a closo observer can de
tect any difference. There is a satis
faction in theso little acquisitions
which no one knows, who can afford
to spend money lavisly. Every new
pitcher, or vegetable dish, or cream
cup, gives anew pleasure, often great
er than that which another feels in
adding a whole set of six dozen pieces
to the china closet.
Begin fair with the opening year,
and use a wiso economy in little things ,
for it is on these the money goes the
fastest, and see how much you can
cheer and brighten your home in a
single summer.
It ie not worth while to expend a
great deal on what is merely for the
“eyes of other people." Not an ex
pensive pair of vases to be shut up in
the parlor, orgildod wall paper which
the children are seldom allowed to
peep at, but real substantial comforts
for tho goneral good, and worth some
thought and effort to obtain.
Os course there is an extreme to
which a few miserly souls have a ten
dency. The
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SOMETHING WOETH KNOWING ABOUT
GEAFES.
John H. Jenkins, of East Bethle
hem, Pennsylvania, gives to the Hor
ticulturist some observations on grapes,
which, if correct, are important to
every grape growor:—“Let mo tell
you how a neighbor of mine keeps Ca
tawba grapes until tho first of April,
as nice and fresh as the day tlioy
were gathered from tbo vine, so that
you may go and do like wiso with your
surplus. First, he gathers his grapes,
when fully ripe, on a clear, dry day,
ar.d lays them on the floor ol his attic,
there to remain eight or ten days.
They are then carefully looked over,
taking out all decayed berries, (these
will be few in number,) and placed in
boxes or barrels, in layers of one
bunch in depth, with alternate layers
of finely cut wheat straw, perfectly
dry. When full, the boxes and bar
rels are nailed up and placed in a cool
room, whore they are left until in dan
ger of freezing. (Usually about the
middle of Decomber.) When cold
weather comes on, he places them in
his pantry, (connected with the kitch
en,) where they remain until used or
sold. The atmosphere in tho pantry
is always dry and cool, and the tem
perature gradual, ranging from forty
five to fifty degress; and hero is the
secret of his success. I have eaten
Catawba grapos at his home in March,
having ar. appearance as fresh as the
day when they werere gathered, and
I know they were lucious. And now,
I have told you how he keeps them,
would you like to know how he grows
them ? His vine is the oldest in our
neighborhood of that variety; stands
on clay soil, with a subsoil as reten
tive of water as a wet sponge. It is
trained to the east and side walls of
bis bouse, and covers an area of at
least twelve hundred square feet. It
has never been manured except once.
Three years ago one bushel of unbro
ken bones were placed around it. He
prunes gently, and receives yearly
enormous crops of the most handsome
Catawbas 1 ever witnessed. I never
knew this vine to miss fruiting. For
the last three or four years its yield
has been from twelve to fifteen bush
els,”
WASHINGTON, WILKES COUNTY, GW,SWAY MORNING, MAY 3, 1867.
BOBBIE'S MOTTO.
“Those letters went down in time
for the morning mail, Bobbie, I sup
pose ?” said lather, as ho took his
place at the dinner table.
“Yes, sir,” said Bobbie, promptly
and cheerfully.
“That is right; I can always de
pend upon any thing I entrust to Bob
bie’s care, and give no further thought
to it.”
His father’s good opinion was very
precious to Bobbie, and he determined
to try harder than ever to deserve it.
Promptness was one of the leading
traits of his character. When be
went to learn his trade he was just
as noted for it in the workshop as be
had boon by the homo fireside. His
employer soon learned that ho was a
boy to be depended on, and so he took
him more and more into his confi
dence and favour. After a while he
began business for himself, and when
ever he gave his word his customers
always felt they could depend upon it.
He was very cautious and prudent
about making promises; but when
once they were made, he would put
himself to a groat deal of extra la
bour and trouble boforo he would
broak ono. It is not surprising that
pooplo like to deal with Bobert El
wood. It was’tho groat strife who
should engage bis sorvices, and so his
business rapidly increased, and many
workmen wore employed by him.
He had throe words printed in large,
black letters upon the walls of his
workroom, which, he told his men,
had made his fortune They wore
those words : —“Promptness, Energy,
and Dispatch;” and they will, with
the blessing of Ood, mako any one’s
who will practice them as
as Bobbie did down to the
took Iris first lessons, which
wealth and honour, when ho
Ms boy. 110 did not stop when
to do any thing, to cpmplttln _
H it snowed, or wus too hot, or he
tired, or any such thing. He
work and did it right away,
often back again beforo a
Her would have got through his
What is your custom, roader, in
this respect? If you would secure
Bobbie’s success, you must put in
practice his motto.
THE BOY’S BEBOLVE.
I would like to have ruddy choeks,
and bright eyes, and strong limbs.
But they, say that strong drink dims
tho eye, and whitens tho cheek, and
enfeebles the frame—therefore, I will
not drink at all.
I would like to have a clear mind,
so that I may able to think on great
things, aud serve God, and do good
to others, and prepare to die. But
they say that strong drink clouds tho
mind and often destroys it—therefore,
I will not drink at all.
I would like to have a peaceful
heart, and a quiet conscience, so that
I may bo happy while I am hero.
But they say, that strong drink fills
many a hoart with misery and im
plants in many a conscience a sting
—therefore, I will not drink at all.
I would like to have a quiet home,
and happy fireside, where I could re
joice with loving brotbors, and sisters,
and parents. But they say, that
strong drink makes ton thousand ho
homes wretched and miserable thore
lore, 1 will not drink at all.
I would like to go to heaven when
I die, thatl may dwell with Jesus in
glory for over. But they say that
strong drink keeps many from enter
ing into heaven, and casts them down
to hell—therefore, I will not drink
at all. —English paper. '*
ml a *
“Education.— Education is a com
panion which no misfortune can de
press, no climate destroy, no enemy
alienate, no despotism enslave. At
home a friend, abroad an introduction ;
in solitude a solace, in society an or
nament. It lessens vice, guides vir
tue, and gives at once grace and gov
ernment to the genius. Without it,
what is man ? A splendid slave 1 a
reasoning savage 1 vascillating be
tween the dignity of an intelligence
derived from God, and the degrada
tion of brutal passion*”
CUtTmilON OF COEN.
The Southron Cultivator, a recogni
zed authority bn Southern agriculture,
makes some Important suggestions in
the following article, which we com
mend to the serious attention of our
planting friends :
AS the corff'orop ol the past season
was so great s failure, it is expedient
to get anew Crop as soon as possible.
The gourd seed variety, though the
most valuable for this climate, is very
late, requiring six months before it is
ready for the mill; whilo some smal
ler varieties, as the King Philip’s, may
be ready for use in lour months,
and in favorable seasons, in nine
ty days. The past soason somo King
Phillip’s oofn was planted as an ex
periment by threo different persons,
April 1. On the 13th of July this
corn was dry enough to grind, while
the largo varieties were only in silk.
This variety can be planted much
closer, and thus makos ns great a
yield as the largo variety. As it ri
pens before the July or August
droughts, we may hope to have a
crop when the gourd seed is a failure.
While wo would not abandon the
large varieties for tho main crop,
would it not be well tor each farmer
to try a feW acres of some small va
riety. I ;
The corn crop is too important to
be abandoned, and we must enquire
what are the causes of failure of late
years; for the averago fall of rain is
not less new than formerly. ThU,
we think, ban be shown to be the
absence of vegetable matter [Aumt/t]
in the soil.
By observation, it has been found
that in contiguous fields of corn, culti
vated alike, tho results during a
drought five very different;
Wishing to mako a crop
bushels toillio aero, I
ly four at'ics. In them wus
row that hud grown up with AH'
It was fullof mould and now ]!H
"About balnm acre was half
one-quarter of an aero had ■ -
very rich with stable
ton years previous. The ' '
lions were very much
cured nearly all the field
with unfermented
portion, however, unmanured. It
was cultivated twelve inches doep—
in somo places turning up the clay,
which had but little fertility and no
mold. Soon after the soed came up a
drought set in, and tho corn ceased to
grow. It began to bo affected by tho
drought in the following ordor. 1. Tho
poor, unmarmred portion; 2. Tho re
cently manured; 3. The old manu
red ; 4. The half-wern, unmanured ;
5. The fence row, also unmanured.—
Tho lust appeared to bo little affected
by the drought. When the rain sot
in, the corn comraoncod to grow in
reverse order to the above. A second
and more severe drought sot in, du
ring which the corn tasseled. Ou No.
1 the stalks were vory small; No. 2,
much larger; No. 3, but most of the
tassels uninjured ; No. 5, stalks good,
and no tassels destroyed. No corn
was raised in Nos. 1,2, and 3; on
4 a poor crop ; on five tho crop was
good.”
From this experiment, os from re
peated observation, we draw our con
clusion that the remote cause of failure
in this case was vegetable mold, almost
as much as the want of moisturo.—
The corn crop is one of clean culture,
and, therefore, lequires repeated plow
ing during Summer, thus constantly
exposing anew surface to tho sun, by
which much mold is decomposed into
its elements, and thus wasted. Mold
is one form of Gabon. When this is
consumed, the land is exhausted. The
inorganic elements of grain may be
plentiful in the soil, yet partial bar
renness may be the consequence, for
want of the organic to form the glu
ten, starch, sugar, oil, etc., to the
grain. Tho first indication of the
wearing out of a soil is its liability
to bake, and its inability to withstand
drought.
We frequently hear it said the cli
mate is changing and the droughts
are greater. The fact is, enr old lands
will not produce corn as they used to
do, while the new lands do well, and
stand the heat of Sommer. All new
soils are full of mold in a state of par
tial decay. By repeated cultivation
and exposure to the sun, much of it is
decomposed and formed into carbonic
acid gas, a part of which is consumed
by the plant, and much wasted in the
air. It is not possible to estimate
how much the crop consumes, but it is
thought that moro damago is caused
by the repeated cultivation than by
the removal of the crop, stalks and
and grain. The productive action of
mold is three fold—its change by decay
into gas, its power of absorbing gas
by the air, and by holding moisture.
Mold sustains vegetation; for it is
the remains of a previous living vege
tation.
All earths do not possess this power
of absorption. Clays and sands
do not. They may be cultivated and
watered by tho most genial of sea
sons; but no profitable produce can
be yielded until mold, in some form, is
applied.
Mold is also valuable as a non-con
ductor of heat—thus keoping the
roots cool, while the plant has tho
advantage of the light and boat of
the sun.
Thiß might load to tho inquiry :
From whence do plants draw moist
rue, other thau from rain? But time
forbids.
FBINTEBS, AUTHOBS, AMD NEWSPAFEBS.
Willis thinks that all authors
should servo a year in a newspaper
office.
Thero is no such effectual analysis
of style as tho process of type-sotting.
As he takoß up lettes by letter, of a
long or complex soutence, the compos
itor becomes most critically aware of
where the sentence might havo been
shortened to save his labor. Ho
becomes impatient
ifi!for | ’,rif i /.ch .'l c.uvris ■
Bill l of putting
■ HP ■
~ . ifcl
('four very
■ : i.- :
HF’l'v right, to have
■ l the < (iin;
- Hr'. ! nothiug of the
art punctuation, which is also
acquired in a printing office, and by
which a style is made as much more
tasteful as champagne by effervescing.
Journeymen priritors aro, neces
sarily, well-insrucled and intelligent
men. It is part of a proof-roader’s
duty to mark a “query" against
every passage in anew book which he
does not clearly comprohend. Au
thors who know what is valuable,
profit by these quiet estimates of their
meaning; and many a weak point,
that would havo ruined a litorary
reputation if left uncorrccted for tho
reviowors to handle, has been noise
lessly put right by a proof reader’s
unobtrusivo “qn ? ” Os most books
indeed, we would rather have the
criticism of the workmen in the office
where it was printed, than of the
reviewers who skim and pronounce
upon it.
Mr. Bryant, in speaking of news
papers, said : Books are the precious
metals in masses—newspapers coined
them for general use, put them into
the most convenient forms, and passed
them from hand to hand. Newspa
pers, he said, are the ushers of books;
who would know when a book was
published but for the friendly infor
mation of the newspaper ? lie added,
that ho bad been sometimes tempted
to regret that the wise, witty, or elo
quent things which appeared in these
“folios of four pages," as they are
called by Cowper, should not be in
scribed on more durable tablets,
instead of going the next morning to
wrap parcels, or 4 light kitchen fires;
but he was fully satisfied with their
fate, when he reflected that they had
first been read by thousands, and that
whatever was good in them had pas
sed into the general mind.
- - -
Mexico. —Mexican advices, via Ha
vana, represent that the Liberal
forces, 18,000 or 20,000 strong, have
formed a junction, and are besieging
Maximilian at Queretaro with 8000 :
that guerrillas are cutting off provis
ions from the capital, eto. Yera Cruz
and Puebla are besieged.
VOL. 11-NO. 2.
ALWAYS BEHIND.
When Farmer Milton’s boy went
after the cows, there was one, whe
was called“ Old White Fact” that al
waps stayed behind. No sooner were
the bars lot down, and the call made
Cos ! Cos ! Cos I than “ Brindle” and
Bright eyes" and“ .Broken Horn"
would stir their stumps at once, and
make their way to the road homo.
But “ Old White Face” would keep
cropping and nipping a bit more as
if no nobody had called for her, and
nobody wanted her milk.
Sometimes it was needful to go to
the very futher part of the pasture
and crack the whip pretty smartly,
before sho would stir a peg. “Lazy
old brute 1” muttored the farmer’sboy,
“ why can’t you come when you are
called for, as others cows do ? 1 have
to go after you almost every day.
Why can’t you come when you’re call
ed ?
“So I say,” said Farmer Milton,
who was just on the other side of the
fence, and hoard what be said “I often
call you in the morning,and you snooze
till 1 come up closo to your bed and
bawl out as loud I can. You used to
hear at first, and start at the first call,
but you thought you would lie still a
minute longer one day, and two minu
tes the next, the habit is very
hard to break.
“ And;there is another call, Tom, that
you have heard many a time. It is a
moro important call than mine. It is
God’s call 1 Have you not heard it
from yonr Sabbath-school teacher,
and from the minister, and from the
good books you got from the library.
Oh, my boy, if the poor dumb beasts
could speak as the ass in the Bible
story, she might say,‘ Obey your Ma
ker's call, my lad, before you beat a
poor old cow for not obeying yours.”
Tom drove the cows borne without
saying another word, and I hope be re
membered what Farmer Milton said to
him.
Whose Fault is it.— -“No use in
going to Sabbath-school; it don’t do
me any good," said a" boy making
this excuse for not being in his seat in
his class.
No good 1 Whose fault is it t Not
God’s for he has given you time—the
Sabbath day; he has given you a
place to go to—the Sabbath ohooll;
he has furnished you with two teach
ers, to instruct and persuade you to
do right, and the other, which is the
Holy Spirit, to help you to obey God
and keep his commandments.
No use! Whose fault is it ? Not
your conscience, for that still small
voice which God has put within you
often speaks to you; not your
thoughts, for you cannot help think
ing ; not your attention, for that goes
wherever you give it; not your mem
ory for that can never forget.
Whose fault is it ? Ah, my child,
if the Sabbath-scbool is not making
you a better boy or a better girl, there
is a terrible fault somewhere. God
gives you precious opportunities for
learning His will and walking in his
way, and if you lose these opportuni
ties, you will find out by-and-by it is
a heavy loss.
Rowland Hill, a sow years before
his death, made a visit to an old
friend, who said to him, “Mr. Hill, it
is just sixty-five years since I first
heard you preach, and I remember
your text and a part of the sermon.
You told us that many people were
very squeamish about bearing minis
ters who preached the same Gospel,
You said, “Suppose you were hearing
a will read where you expected a leg
acy to be left you, would you employ
the time of its reading in criticising
the manner in which the lawyer read
it? No, you would not; you would
be all ears to hear whether anythihg
was left you, aod how much. That iB
the way I would advise you to
hear the Gospel." This was advioe
worth remembering three-score and
five years. Because they have not
learned the lesson thus taught by
Rowland Hill, there are multitudes
who hoar the Gospel very much in
vam
Experience to most men is like the
stern lights of a ship; they illuminate
the space gone over.