Newspaper Page Text
PLANTATION TOPICS.
Stable Iloon.
Mr. J. Wilkinson, a rural architect
of much experience, has hit upon the
following plan for improving the con
struction of stable floors: The floor is
made level, fore and aft, but having a
gentle slope from each of the two sides
tc the center, or hall the width of the
stall. The planks are laid crosswise,
inclining lo the center, leaving ar»
opening between the ends in the cen
ter just wide enough for the urine to
drain through and into a metal gutter
•under the floor, which conducts it out
side the building to a hogshead or to a
manure pit. This prevents it from
being absorbed in the bedding, which,
otherwise, is wet, fetid and uncomfort
able to horses. The cleanline s of this
arrangement of floor over every other
should render its adoption universal.
The little slope in the floor is another
advantage, as it admits of the animal
lying as he always does, when he can,
in pasture feeds, i. e., with his back
up the grade. Then the floor, being
always kept dry, makes a good bed for
the horse, without litter, during the
summer months, besides being cooler
and freer from the ammonia which the
latter exhales.—Turf, Field and Farm.
High Farming.
We commend to our readers the fol
lowing article, which we clip from a
northern exchange.
The average southern farmer will
thoroughly appreciate the “wastes”
this writer speaks of, for he can but
see them every day of his life. Our
innumerable fences, put just where
they ought not to be, and left year
after year to become weaker as a pre
ventive against the incursions of stock;
the wet, sour places on our farms,
which if underarained would be the
richest land m the field, now left to
breed miasma; the idle people of the
country, black and white, men and
women, and youths; the impoverished
plow stock of the country, and the gen
eral lack of provender and shelter, all
tend to prove that we are systematically
opposed to any method that requires
the application of brains as well as
muscle to the recuperation of our lost
fortunes through the net profits of the
farm. But, as the writer says, we
must make haste slowly when we set
about ^applying the system of high
farming to our respective farms. And,
in our judgment, the very first step to
be taken is to erect comfortable shelter
for oar stock, and under them to use
every possible effort to increase the
manure bank. If we will practice this
habit, we will next learn it is better
economy to reclaim and manure wet
tracts of land, than to spread manure
on poor, dry spots. We have ever
found it the best economy to fertilize
the best land. It is far easier to keep
a rich spot fertile, than to enrich a
poor spot of land. With these two
steps taken, the road to high farming
becomes more accessible, and we can
more easily adopt such other methods
as the wonts of the farm suggest for its
improvement. But read the following:
, It is very plain that the high priced
lands of the east must be cultivated in
a method different from that by which
the cheap, but productive lands of the
west are cultivated. When farm lands
attain a value of 8100 to 8200 or more
per acre, there must be a suitable sys
tem of cultivation adopted, or fuming
upon them is not profitable. The aver
age crops here are far below what they
should be, and it has been proved that
upon fair soil, with suitable cultivation,
the crops grown are far in excess of
the average. We know, personally,
of seventy-five bushels of shelled corn,
forty bushels of wheat, seventy-five to
eighty bushels of oats per acre, grown
upon ordinary fanning lands by intel
ligent farmers. There is no discussion
on this point; its possibility is univer-
relate how this success has been
achieved, and bow it may be again.
The prevalent careless syBtem—if
system it may be called—must be
abandoned and a new one, commenced
in farm management, in which there
must be no wake of land, no waste of
material, and every possible advantage
must be seized upon. Waste of land
consists in having useless fences occu
pying ground that might be cultivated;
fr. having wet. undrained spots, that
are comparatively useless, uud using
land for pasture that might be made
far more productive by raising soiling
crops. Waste of labor consists in
plowing and cultivating land year after
year that is not sufficiently 'fertile to
produce a paying crop; m planting
and sowing crops and permitting them
to be overrun with weeds, and in raising
crops and not securing at the proper
time. Waste of material consists in
feeding poor stock at a loss; in neg
lecting the welfare of the stock by not
providing comfortable shelter during
the inclement weather, in using fodder
in uneconomical methods, exposing
manure, 'that important element m
successful farming, to the weather,
whereby its most valuable qualities
are leached away, and in attempting to
cultivate more land than can be culti
vated properly and profitably. High
farming consists in avoiding these and
other wastes, and the resulting losses,
and in cultivating the form in such a
way that the utmost profit shall be
realized from the land, the labor, and
the material employed. But the seri
ous question is: “ How shall this sys
tem be commenced?” This is asked
as well by the farmer who has sufficient
money wherewith to improve his farm,
as by one whose daily labor upon the
form only suffices to earn his daily
bread. It is as difficult a problem for
the one as for the other. We find by
experience that in this process one
must needs “ make haste slowly ” if he
looks for profit, and the closer he looks
to his own resources for materials,
instead of unwisely spending his money
for outside help or material, the more
economical will be bis progress. It is
also necessary that labor or money
shall be only expended in such a way
that it shall tell m the shape of profits.
For instance, it is far more profitable
to have a good pig in a poor pen, so
long as it is sufficient for proper shel
ter, than to have a poor pig in a costly
pen, and the same with other stock and
their stables, and with crops and barns.
Curious Optical Apparatus.
The lecture was concluded by the
exhibition of a selenium eye, which
Mr. Siemens had prepared to illustrate
the extraordinary sensitiveness of the
selenium preparations. It consists of
a hcllow ball with two circular open
ings opposite each other, the one being
furnished with a lens one and a half
inches in diameter, and the other with
an adjustable stopper carrying a sensi
tive plate, which is connected by wires
to a galvanometer and one Daniell’s
cell. The lens is covered by two slides
representing eyelids, the ball itself
being the body of the eye, and the
sensitive plate occupying the place of
the retina. Having placed a white
illuminated screen in front of the arti
ficial eye, on opening the eyelids a
strong deflection of the galvanometer
was observed, a black screen eivine
hardly any deflection, a blue one a
£ eater, a red a much greater, but still
ort of that produced by the reflected
white light. The eye was thus sensi
tive to light and color, and, as stated,
it would not be difficult to arrange a
contact and electro-magnet in connec
tion with the galvanometer, so that
intense light would cause the automa
tic closing of the eyelids. The artifi
cial eye is subject to fatigue, and the
lecturer considered that this experi
ment might be suggestive to physiolo-
CLEANING LAMP CHIMNEY8.
Most people in cleaning lamp chim
neys use either a brush made of bris
tles twisted into a wire, or a rag on
the point of scissors. Both of these
are bad; for without great care the
wire or scissors will scratch the glass
as a diamond does, which, under the
expansive power of heat, soon breaks,
all scratched glass will. If you
18 upiver- gists as regards the natural conjoint
sally admitted, and it only remains to action of the retina and brain. *
wont, a neat little thing that costs
nothing and will save your glass, tie or
nail a piece of soft sponge the size of
your chimney to a pine stick. A bit
of sheepskin tanned with the wool on
and nailed to a stick also answers the
purpose as well.
A GERMAN RECIPE.
To wash colored articles, whether
silk, cotton, linen or woolen, without
starting any of the colors, grate a few
potatoes into cold water and wash the
article with the solution. After being
thoroughly wet with the potato rub on
soap and warm water to take out
grease. If the article is nice, like
merino or satins, strain the potato and
wash with the liquid only. Reserve
a portion for rinsing water, if there are
more colors than one.
VEAL CHEESE.
Take a shoulder of veal, take out the
bone, cut it in small pieces, with just
water enough to cover it; stew until
tender; take out all pieces of gristle;
mince it fine and return to the liquor
it was boiled in; then add one pound
of cold boiled pork, chopped fine, one
tablespoon of salt, one teaspoon each
of pepper and mace, some sweet herbs
and two well-beaten eggs; put all into
an earthen dish, with a mate on the
top, and bake one hour. To be eaten
cold.
BREAKFAST MUFFINS.
This recipe will be valuad by house
keepers as a dainty substitute for bread
at breakfast or tea: Two eggs well
beaten with a cupful of sugar and a
lump of butter the size of an egg; to
this add one pint of milk with a tea
spoonful of soda, one quart of flour,
and two tablespoonfuls of cream tar
tar; bake in muffin-rings on top of the
range, or in gem pans in a qu ; ck oven.
COOKING CHICKENS.
The following I consider a good way
to cook chickens: Divide nicely and
place pieces in a good sized kettle that
there may be plenty of room for gravy.
Cook about an hour, then add salt,
pepper and a large piece of butter;
after becoming perfectly tender add
flour thickening. Have ready a pan
of biscuit made with three cups of but
termilk, two-thirds cup of fresh lard,
one teaspoon of soda and a little salt.
Open the biscuit and place them in a
deep dish or platter and turn the
chicken and prepared gravy over them,
keeping all as hot as possible.
A USEFUL DISCOVERY.
It is worth knowing that if one vol
ume of castor-oil be dissolved in two
or three volumes of spirits of wine, it
will render paper transparent, and,
the spirits rapidly evaporating, the
paper in a few minutes becomes fit for
use. A drawing in pencil or in Indian
ink can thus be made, and if the paper
is placed in spirits of wine, the oil is
dissolved out, restoring the paper to
its original condition. This is the dis
covery of Herr Furscher,
ANTI-CROUP CONTRIVANCE.
To mothers whose children have the
croup: First, get a piece of chamois
skin, make it fike a little bib, cut out
the neck and sew on tapes to tie it on;
then melt together some tallow and
pine tar; rub some of this in the cham
ois and let the child wear it all the
time. My baby had the croup when
ever she took cold, and since I put on
the chamois I have had no more
trouble. Renew with the
rionally.
WASHING LACES.
Mrs. Hume writes: Q. fo there
no more
tar occa-
any way to wash Valenciennes and
A"." We are glad to be able to give
yon an invaluable formula, which used
to be a secret process, for cleansing
Valenciennes and other laces to per
fection. Bear in mind the fact that
in making thread lace the operatives
keep the thread oiled to prevent its
breaking; that is what gives the yel
lowish transparent look so much ad
mired. Wash your lace as carefully
as you can, starch, iron, and fold it up
evenly; lay it in a saucer of olive oil
until it soaks up all it will, then squeeze
it, and throw it in boiling soapy water,,
which you have previously stained
with a little coffee. Let it boil up
ouce, take it out, and hang up with
the selvege uppermost till it is half
dry; then press with a half hot iron,
running the point upon the figures,
and picking out the edge with your
fingers. Lace cleaned by this method
looks folly equal to new.—Housekeeper.
Mischievous Charity.
Some years ago I picked up several
children in Chicago, and thought I
would clothe them and feed them; and
I took special interest in those boys to
see what I could make of them. I
don’t think it was thirty days before
the clothes had all gone to whisky*
and the fathers had drank it all up.
One day I met one of the little boye
for whom I had bought a pair of boots
only the day before. There was a
snow-storm coming up, and he was
barefooted. “Mike,” says I, “how’s
this ? Where are your shoes ? ” “ Fa
ther and mother took them away,”
said he. There is a good deal that we
think is charity that is really doing a
great deal of mischief; and the people
must not think because we don’t give
them money to aid them in their pov
erty that we don’t love them, for the
money would go into their pockets to
get whisky with. It is no sign that
we are all hypocrites and insincere in
our love that we don’t give them
money. I believe if the prodigal eon
could liave got all the money he wanted
in that foreign country he would never
have come home, and it was a good'
thing for him that he did get hard up
and had to live on the husks that the
swine ate. And it is a good thing that
people should suffer. If they get a
good living without work, they will
never work. We can never make
anything of them. God has decreed
that man shall earn his bread by the
sweat of his brow, and not live on
other people.—Moody.
Intemperance in Japan.—The
ruling vice in Japan is undoubtedly
drunkenness. It pervades all classes,.
though it is confined by force of public
opinion to the male sex. On a festival
of the third month women are indeed
allowed great licence, and in their ha
rems, from which on that day even
their lords are excluded, they may in
dulge to any extent in the 'forbidden
cup, but a woman of the lower class
who may be found drunk at any other
time, would be exposed to a severe beat
ing lrom her husband; were she of a
higher class, she might die by the
sword of her spouse. The only fer-*1
mented liquor used is, it is said, the
saki, distilled from rice, and differing
from the Chinese tin or shamshn in.
that, while it is weaker, it often con
tains much of the poisonous oil of dis
tillation. It is taken warm, and the
better kind is not disagreeable to the
taste. Few Japanese are fit for busi
ness in the evening, and in the after
noon many of the streets of Yeddo are
rendered unsafe by drunken retainers.
was some excitement in a
Pennsylvania Sunday-school the other
Sunday when a little boy, whose teacher •
had sent him home for her class cards
which she had forgotten, returned in.
breathless triumph brandishing a eu- -
chre deck, with the joker on top.