Banks County journal. (Homer, Ga.) 1897-current, September 09, 1897, Image 3

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yyyyy Clover Heed. If tlie farmer wants a crop of clover seed, he should cut tho first crop ns early us possible, says Hoard’s Dairy man. The clover plant is a biennial. That means that it takes two years for it to blossom and seed. Now, if the first crop is allowed to stand until it blossoms, and the seed commences to form, there will be but very little seed in the second crop. The point is, to turn all the seeding instinct and power of the root into the second crop. Hence, the necessity of cutting the first crop much earlier than is usually done, when it is cut for hay alone. Preventing Egg-Eating. If an egg is broken tlie.hens will eat it, and it is by eggs being broken that the hens learn the vice, as they never eat eggs unless they first find one broken. The only way to prevent the hens from eating eggs after they once begin is to make a nest with a top, compelling the hen to walk in to reach the nest, and have the box raised ten inches from the floor, so that the hen cannot stand near the box to eat the eggs. When she goes on the nest she cannot do any harm, as she must come off and stand up to eat the eggs. little* For Chicken Raiser*, f P. H. Jacobs, in the Poultry Keeper, gives a few rules that should be often referred to by chicken raisers: Ten hens in a house 10x10 feet are enough. The yard should be at least teu times as large as the floor of the house. Ten weeks from shell to mar ket is the time allotted a broiler chick. Ten cents a pound is about the aver age price of hens in market for the whole year. Ten cents should feed a chicken ten weeks, and it should then weigh two pounds. Ten months a year is usually the highest limit of time during which a hen will lay. Ten hens with one male is about the proper proportion. Ten quarts of corn, or its equivalent, should feed a hen ten weeks, if she is of a large breed, but ten quarts for three months is a fairer proportion. Ten pounds is a good weight for males of the larger breeds, one year old. Ten eggs is the average number to each pound. Ton flocks, each consisting of ten hens, are enough for an acre. Ten chicks, when just hatched, weigh about one pound. Ten hens should lay about 1000 eggs during tbe yedr. This allow s for some laying more than 100 eggs each, while others may not lay so many. Moulting. From July to December is the moult ing or shedding period for the poultry. It takes about one hundred days from the time a hen first commences to moult until the process is completed. Some hens will commence to moult much earlier than others, thus finishing be fore the cold weather sets in. This is very desirable, as hens seldom lay during the moult, or the larger part of it, therefore if they commence early, thus finishing early, it will be a deci ded gain, for then they can be gotten in a laying condition before cold weather, and we all know what that means. The feathers are composed largely of nitrogen aud mineral mat ter. The first process is the loosening stage, when the feathers loosen and drop out, at times leaving the bird almost naked, thus cold and disease (from exposure) are apt to follow. Hens should be carefully housed if the weather is at all cold or damp. When the new feathers commence to come in it causes a great drain on the hen’s body, especially of such sub stances as goes to furnishing nitrogen and mineral matter. Corn, -wheat, etc., furnish the hen principally with car bon (fat), etc., while grass, bugs, worms, etc., furnish the nitrogen and mineral matter. Thus we see that the foods best adapted to the moulting sea son are the nitrogeneous foods. It will be seen from the above that at this period the hens should have unlimited range, so that they can themselves gather a good supply of such articles as they need.—The Epitomist, > - ; Lifting Large Kocks Out of the Ground. Field boulders are usually buried either w holly or in part in the surface of the ground. To pull such a boul der out of the ground requires an enor mous amount of power, unless much hand digging is given beforehand. The sketch herewith shows a way to lift the .stone as it is dragged out by a team of horses or oxen. The inclined WAY TO MOVE HEAVY STONES. stick can be placed as near to the boulder as is practicable aud as it rises to the perpendicular it of course lifts the stone. The bight of the j>rop will depend upon the size and depth of the stone. The knack of “knowing how” to do such things often saves a vast amount of work.—American Agri culturist. How to Grow Pickles. Before we can think of pickling cu cumbers we must grow them, and that is not always an easy matter, especial ly where the blight (leaf-blight, bacterial blight) is a sure annual visi tor. This disease often (perhaps usually, here aud in many other local ities) sweeps through the patches, first taking a plant here aud there, and con tinuing its attacks until every plant in the patch," long before the end of the season, has succumbed. The way is to plant on strictly new soil, prefer ably some sandy or mucky loam,rather moist than otherwise, but thoroughly drained. Persistent spraying with Bordeaux mixture seems to have good effect in keeping foliage healthy, aud if Paris green is added to it, in keep- ing the beetles in check. Good culti vation and repented hoeing are abso lutely necessary, but the vines in these operations, as well as in picking, should be disturbed as little as pos sible. It is the large number of marketable pickles which is wanted rather than large size of the individual pickle. The size most in demand is three inches in length. The more promptly we pick the three-inch size, the more pickles the area will furnish, and therefore the greater the returns and profits. An experienced grower says in Michigan Farmer: “The larger the number grtyvn on a given territory the more profit, hence they should be picked very close. The bulk of the crop should be of the smallest or medium size. Those over looked can be utilized, but the fewer the better, and none must be allowed to mature. Care must be taken to dis turb the vines as little as possible; in this regard children with their bare feet are preferable to grown people, and our experience leads us to believe that children can, quite as easily as grown-ups, be taught to pick them clean.” A Handy Farm Holler. The ordinary farm boiler, or set kettle, is unhandy from the fact that the contents after each boiling must be laboriously dipped out. The cut show's a boiler that avoids this difficul ty, for the boiler itself is made of sheetiron (the heaviest to he obtained), A SET KETTLE. and rests upon the top of the brick work, so that it cau he raised and re moved. It has a haudlo at one end and a lip at the other, so that it can bo emptied directedly into pails or tubs or car, be pulled off the brickwork upon a wheelbarrow and wheeled away to the barn or hog house. A light cover sets upon the top when over the fire. If the boiler is to be used out of doors, it should lie made of galvanized iron to prevent rusting. If the boiler is very large,an iron rod can he placed across the middle of the opening in the brickwork to support the bottom of the boiler. This arrangement will be found convenient where food is often boiled for stock.—New York Tribune. Dairy Dots. Taste decides the merit of butter. Color is subservient to taste in but ter. Quality is of more importance than quantity. Bad w'ater will make impure, un wholesome milk. It is uncleanly to wet the hands while milking, and should always be avoided. To improve the milking qualities of a dairy herd, use bulls only from the best milkers. Dairy heifers should always be han dled familiarly from the first and there will be no trouble. The chief advantage of the creamery system is cheapness of product from the saving of labor. No dairyman can make uniformly good butter unless his cows are fed liberally w ith wholesome food. Dairying has one advantage in that its products are always in the line of food, and hence always in demand. Proper management of the dairy gives the farmer a continuous income, something he does not have with most lines of farming. Feeding and general care and man agement have as much to do with in creasing the product of the cows as breeding or blood. If the air is warmer than the cream, the purity of the cream and the fine flavor of the butter will be impaired by exposure to it. After cream becomes sour the more ripening given it the more it depreciates, and the sooner it is skimmed and churned the better. The milk cans, pails and other ves sels should he kept clean by first wash ing in tepid water and then scalding thoroughly in boiling water. Clean pastures, with good clean water and proper care, is the surest preventive of bitter milk. Weeds, especially ragweed, cause bitter milk. Iu a majority of cases kicking cows are made so by cruelty and harsh words. To have gentle cows it is essential to treat them kindly from the time they are calves.—Agricultural Epitomist. Go pliers Destroy a Canal. Ail Oklahoma City enterprise has been ruined by the gopher pest. It was thought that the rapidly flowing North Canadian River could be used to operate all the mills that could be placed ou its banks at Oklahoma City. The fall was nearly thirty feet and it was expected that 2000 horse power would l>e developed. A canal five miles long was constructed, at an ex pense of $40,000. It was diked part of the way and the river was crossed twice. The canal is twenty-five feet wide and four feet deep, and when four inches of water was let iu at the head gate an electric light plant and a large flouring mill were run with ease, but au unsuspected enemy soon caused disaster to the enterprise. The banks of the canal were of porous, sandy soil and gophers attacked the dike, the holes which the animals burrowed widened into crevasses and the sandy discs were easily swept away, causing constant and expensive repairs. Finally the entire canal became wrecked, and farmers are now plowing up the right of way and the canal is gone, _ _ . - COOD ROADS NOTES. The ltosd Question In Arkansas. Road overseers, do you know that you are sending countless souls to eternal punishment? It may be that you are. Men, women and children in Johnson County are cussing, people in the Indian Territory are cussing, some in Kansas are cussing, and now and then we can smell the essence of profanity from Illinois and Indiana— in fact, the entire Western Hemi sphere is cussing by sections about the condition of our roads. Mend the roads for the Lord’s sake as well as for your own. You know yon travel the same roads that these other people travel and may become profane your self.—Clarksville (Ark.) Herald. Value of Good Koa<l*. It has been urged by some that farmers living near the city are bene fited by bad roads in the more distant districts, because they can manage to get to town and realize a higher price for their produoe, while those living farther away are unable to reach the market. With a similar fallacy it has been stated that the country merchant is benefited by had roads because the neighboring are compelled to sell to them and take their goods in ex change. The increased value that good roads bring to a farmer’s estate will more than recompense him for what he con siders a loss iu the price of his pro duce, and in addition he reaps the ad vantage of purchasing his necessities at a lower price. It is the complete and free interchange of commodities within our own borders which brings the greatest good to the greatest num ber.—G. D. V. Rollo, at Cheboygan (Mich.) Institute. Ex-Vlce-Preslrient Stevenson’s Views. Adlai E. Stevenson, the ex-Vice- President, lives at Bloomington, 111., in the centre of a district the roads of which are notoriously bad, and it is no wonder that he should now be in favor of* good roads. The ex-Vice- President expressed himself quite strongly on the subject in the follow ing language: “I am in full sympathy with the efforts now being made to secure good roads throughout our country. This is a living question. There is little difficulty in getting from one large city to another, or even in crossing the continent, but the im portant question is how to get from the country home to the school-house, to the church, to the market. It is a gratifying fact that this subject is now undergoing thorough discussion in many of our States. Tho result will be beneficial. Like other important questions, it will work out its own solution. I agree with Governor Markham that "good roads mean ad vanced civilization.’” For Good Road* In South Carolina. The Board of County Commissioners of this (Richland) county are seriously contemplating an effort with the next year to macadamize the roads of the county. Recently they made an ex periment on 150 yards of road near the city to ascertain the cost of putting down such roads. While the official report of Captain Sligk, in charge of the county chain-gang, has not yet been filed, it is understood that the test proved most encouraging, Rich land County is in fine financial condi tion, aud she can well afford to start the work. The Board, however, is anxious to get the next reassessment of realty before going into the matter for the whole county, but by a very short additional tax being added next year the work can be begun and car ried on. Again, the bonding plan is opon and can be adopted. A steam roller will cost $1650, and a rock crusher, elevator, etc., will cost as much more. There will practically be no other outlay. Richland is fortunate in having a granite foundation. In the upper portion of the county granite can be secured at almost any price, and the cost of hauling will be noth ing. This is usually the heaviest item in the making of macadam roadi. The County' Board seems to be very much in earnest iu the matter.—Columbia (S. C.) State. Ituilrtlng Country Road* by State Ahl. At the Rock River (111.) Chautauqua Mr. Otto Dorner, of Milwaukee, de livered an interesting address on “How Shall We Obtain Better Roads?” He said, in part: “I am glad of au ppportunity to say to a gathering of farmers that the League of American Wheelmen pro poses to help them in bringing about a proper division of the cost of good roads, so that the city people, the capitalist, merchants and manufac turers, the wealthy corporations, rail road, insurance aud telephone com panies, in fact, every class of people, shall contribute to the cost of building them. “The League of American Wheel men believe that many of our country roads should be built by State aid; that a part of the cost of good roads should be paid out of the State tax, which would be levied upon all prop erty and all classes of people alike, so that every taxpayer shonld contribute a proportionate amount, according to to the amount of property he owns. We propose that the States shall help to build roads and divide their total cost between the people of the locality, who are most directly benefited, the adjoining property owners whose land rises in value as a result of the im provement, and the State as represent ing the entire population. “This is not a Utopian plan; it is not a theory only', but lias been adopted in practice with great success iu New Jersey, iu Connecticut, iu Rhode Island, in Pennsylvania, and, iu a modified form, iu Massachusetts. New Jersey has become famous for the fine roads she has built. These were con structed by a State aid system under which their cost is divided abou.t as I have indicated. The farmers of New Jersey are enthusiastic ’ over this State aid System, and the towns aud coun ties are glad to pay their share of the cost of these roads so long as the State pays it part. The country districts in New Jersey are overwhelming the State authorities with petitions to as sist in the improvement of local roads, and the Legislature cau not appropri ate funds for the purpose sufficient to meet the demauds from the farmers. “The New Jersey Commissioner of Public Roads tells me that a large part of his time is occupied in listening to the pleadings of farmers that the roads in their districts shall be the first to receive the benefit of the Btate aid, “Our suggestion of State aid is now also being advocated by the leading representative farmers of the United States as the proper solution of this great road building question.” Sick Headache. In a talk on “sick headaches,” a doctor says that there are three things which must he attended to in order to relieve the pain. The light in the room must be darkened, so that the eyes, which are so sensitive during an attack of “sick headache,” will be relieved from any strain. The tem perature must be kept even, although the patient may prefer a lower one than is ordinarily comfortable. The hands and feet are usually cold, at least during a part of an attack of sick headache. When this period prevails, a hot mustard foot-bath, soakiug the hands in hot water, and putting a warm piece of flannel about the body, are often of inestimable service iu lessening the pain and shortening the duration of the attack. While employ ing these measures, a mustard leaf— such as your druggist sells in little tin boxes—applied to the back of the neck will be found to be a valuable accessory. Persons who suffer habit ually from “sick headaches” can near ly always predict the advent of an at tack; and if they can, an emetic of hot water, followed by a laxative dose of salts or magnesia, might save the pain they otherwise may suffer. It is, as a matter of routine domestic treatment, a good plan to wash out the stomach in the beginning of the attack, even when it has not been an ticipated. This may be done without much discomfort by swallowing enough lukewarm water to give the stomach a feeling of tension. The rejection of this clears the stomach of mucous and irritants which may tend to aggravate the complaint. Hent or Siinatroke. Direct exposure to the rays of the sun is not necessary to cause heat stroke. A hot damp atmosphere is more likely to cause it than a hot dry atmosphere. Anything that lessens the vital pow ers of the human body predisposes to sun or heat-stroke. A hot supper with wine, and a few drinks in the morning before going on a parade, has caused many a business man to fall prostrate under the influ ence of excessive heat. It is a dangerous thing for any per son not accustomed to marching to join a parade on a hot day. If it is to be done, eat very sparingly of animal food, do not drink any alcoholic liquors, wine or beer. Eat fruit freely aud drink an abundance of water. As soon as a person falls from a sun-stroke he should be taken to a shady place and his clothes removed. Apply ice water over his chest and body. Do not be timid about it; ap ply it boldly, freely aud persistently. Lose no time in getting a physician, but be sure aud keep up the cold ap plication until he arrives, as irrepara ble injury may result from neglecting the patient at this critical moment.— H. Duncan Stewart, M. D., in the Healthy Home. California’s Gold. Come down to the hard realities of arithmetic and the scales and Cali fornia will turn out probably three times as much gold this year as the whole of the frozen Northwest. Prob ably no part of the world will be more the gainer than California by these discoveries. An increase in the pro duction of gold is of little benefit to the world at large. The gold-finders create anew effective demand which is mostly supplied by producers iu their immediate neighborhood. The real gain to the world by the placers of California lies in the development of the agricultural, horticultural and in dustrial resources of this magnificent region, which otherwise might have lain dormant for another half-century. We cannot look for any such gain to the world by turning attention to the bleak, inhospitable shores of Alaska. It is true there are great industrial possibilities in the fisheries and the coal mines, and these no doubt will feel the stimulus; but the country ns a whole will never make good resi dence property. The Californians who go there will all come back to us to spend their money when they have made their everlasting fortunes.—San Francisco Examiner. Hoiv to Drink Water. A physician writing in the Sanitar ian thinks that the avearge person does not know how to drink water. Then he proceeds to give the follow ing advice: The effects produced by the drink iug of water vary with the manner in which it is drunk. If, for instance, a pint of cold water be swallowed at a large draught, or if it be taken in two portion with a short interval between, certain definite effects follow—effects which differ from those which would have resulted from the same quantity taken by sipping. Sipping io a powerful stimulant to the circulation —a thing which ordin ary drinking is not. During the act of sipping the action of the nerve which slows the beats of the heart is abolished, and as a consequence that organ con tracts much more rapidly, the pulse beats more quickly, aud the circula tion iu various parts of the body is in creased. In addition to this we also find that the pressure under which the bile is secreted is raised by the sipping of fluid. Novel Cooking Method. In Bosnia one of the Austrian bat teries had to go into action just as din ner time came oil, and the artillery men, resolved not to lose a meal, (Hit their meat into small trips, placed it on the breech of their guns aud cooked it by tbe heat of the metal. They found it delicious, and voted the bif stek ala cutasse ile cannon infinitely superior to beefsteaks ’cooked under the pommel of ’the saddle, Tartar fashion. The Kaiser ami Nansen. When Kridtjof Nansen passed the day with Emperor William, the Em peror introduced his children to his guest in a characteristic manner. After dinner the young Princes were called. They filed in and stood “at attention” in military style. “Shake hands with this gentleman,” sai’d the Emperor. “Look well at him. Some day you will be able to understand what his work is, and then you will be glad to be able to say you have met him,” A WHITE BUFFALO EOBE. JIM CASPION NEARLY LOST HIS LIFE IN CETTINC THE PRIZE. Ho Killed tlio Hiirtalo, One or the' Tliroo Seen Since Ison— The Rare Animal Was in a Stampede—Thrill in a In cident of the Far Western l’lains. “In living twenty years in the plains country beyond the Missouri in the time when herds of buffalo covered the prairie I never saw a white buffalo,” said Martin Wriugshy, formerly a Kan sas hunter and ranchman, in the New York Sun. “But it is certain that three skins at least of this rare animal were in existence at a time subsequent to 1866. The one best known is the stuffed skin of the white buffalo cow that stood iu the museum of the State House at Topeka, Kan., in 1881, aud probably is still in existence in care of the State. Th e second was carried at his saddle by Roman Nose, the Cheyenne chief, who led the grand charge against Captain “Sandy” For sythe’s band of scouts in the memora ble fight on the Arickaree branch of the Republican River in 1867, in which the chief was killed. The third, taken in 1871, was for ten years in possession of the hunter, James Cas pion, who killed the buffalo that origi nally wore it. Of where it went after be disposed of it, I have not the least idea. “Caspion was one of a party of three hunters who with a wagon train and saddle horses went, in October, 1871, out on the plains of western Kansas to hunt buffalo. On October 12 Caspion, with Sam Tillman, started out on horseback in the morning to look for buffalo, leaving the third man to fol low along in the wagon. In order to bring a greater range of country into view the two horsemen separated, keeping always iu sight of each other. Late in the afternoon, riding up the slope of a long ridge of rolling prairie and looking over the crest Caspion saw ahead of him twenty-five miles away a range of steep bluffs. Between him and the bluffs, the nearest buffalo being within long rifle range, was the great southern herd, which every sum mer fed northward from Texas and New Mexico, remaining iu Kansas and Colorado until the storms of winter drove them to the south again. There were tens of thousands of the beasts in view, as Caspion said, but what particularly caught his eye was a milk white buffalo feeding among the others at the distance of a mile away, its whiteness contrasting strangely with the dun tints of the beasts around it. “Having signalled to Tillman on the ridge behind him to come up he dis mounted and lay watching the herd over the summit, trying to think of same way by which he and his partner could get possession of the white buffalo’s skin. When at last he turned round to look for Tillman it was to see him riding for life back over the route they had come with fifty Cheyenne warriors after him. The chase was a short one. A shot crippled Tillman’s horse, and the Indians closed about him. The hunter emptied two sad dles before the firing stopped. Then with Tillman’s scalp borne aloft on a lance the Indians turned and came for Caspion. He had to run for it, and as he could not ride to right or left with out giving the Indians the advantage of being able to cut him off, he put his horse ahead straight toward the buffalo herds. “This naturally started a stampede. Caspion was well among the buffalo be fore the unwieldy beasts knew what had happened and got fairly to running. Then his horse was carried away iu the rush, aud the last thing the hunter saw, before the dust shut everything from view, was the Indians coming over the crest of the hill he had just left. After this it was all crowding, jostliug, and smother as his horse was hurried along in the press, and after darkness fell the buffalo still were going. At last he could tell by the ‘feel’ of the ground that they had come to a very rough and hilly country—the bluffs in fact that he had seen in the afternoon, The herd, unable to scale the bluffs, had to divide, most of the buffalo turning to the left, but some of them following the valleys between the eminence. Caspion’s horse was forced by the buffalo into one ol’ these valleys and carried along with the column that crowded the narrow defile. It was not so dusty there as it had been on the open plain, and presently when the valley widened, letting iu the light of the moon, be saw ahead of him the white buffalo. They came to a place where a deep ravine, worn by water, cut close against the side of the bluff. The buffalo that were nearest tbe hill side kept their footing. The others were crowded off into the ravine, and Caspion could hear them falling to the bottom. His horse passed the place safely, and as the valley widened be yond lie took this chance to rein his iiorse away from the buffalo and got from among them. Finding a safe nook among some great rocks, he turned in there and passed the rest of the night, with the buffalo pounding past him for hours after he had rolled himself iu his blanket. “In the morning light only two or three straggling buffalo were to be seen in the valley. But, looking over the edge of the ravine, Caspion saw scores of buffalo lying at the bottom killed or too badly hurt to get away. Against the bank was leaning the white buffa lo, a young bull with its leg broken. Tbe hunter climbed down into the gulch, shot the bull with his pistol, and took its skin. Having secured the tongue aud a cut of meat from the haunch to serve as provisions, Caspion rode along the valley until he came to where it opened out on the plain to the south. Five miles away was the main herd of buffalo which the baud of Cheyennes were attacking, riding in upon it from three sides. Coming to ward them from the eastward were the Indian women on ponies drawing poles behind them on which to pack meat and pemmican, showing that the baud was not a war party, but was out on an autumnal hunt. The Indians had killed Tillman and chased Caspi on, simply because they happened to run across them, and the chance to kill a white man was too good to miss. ■f*iey were busy now, and Caspion, circling widely to north, rode back to where the wagon was, without moles tation, though it took him all the day fco do it. The body of Tiliman was found and buried. Then the two sur viving hunters, turning to the north, continued to hunt until they had a load of buffalo and antelope meat and skins to take back to the settlements with them. “Oaspion kept the white buffalo skin live years, believing that its posses sion brought him good fortune. He sold it at last for $lOO while on a spree at Fort Lyon. The same year he was killed by the Comanclies in New Mex ico.” A DOCTOR’S "DON'TS." “Don’t take a hot bath and then get into a draught to cool oflf,” said Dr. John E. Thompson, “just because the mercury is up to ninety degrees, ami you think it won’t hurt you. It will. Take a spray or sponge bath prefera bly every time. Hot baths are weak ening, whereas a sponge bath stimu lates the superficial nerves and cools the skin. The hot hath, on the other hand, relaxes the sympathetic nerves, reaction sets in and the sweating pro cess begins. “There are a great many things peo ple can do if they do them properly. For instance, when a person becomes exhausted from the heat he immedi ately rushes up to one of the ice-cold soda wafer fountains and drinks water that is absolutely arctic in coldness. Now if he would take a mouthful of water, gargle the throat with it, and spit it out, and then take a swallow of water, his thirst would be quenched without deluging the stomach with a lot of cold liquid. “I am a great believer in hot water, taken inwardly, winter and summer. When I get up in the morning I drink a cup full of scalding water, just as hot as I can stand it. Then I take a little calisthenic exercise. Then comes my spray, and then I am ready for breakfast. I have an orange, a cup of black coffee, and now and then a soft-boiled egg. That is all I want, and a breakfast of this kind should be sufficient for most people, except day laborers, who want something more formidable in the way of food. “For dinner, especially during the hot weather, I recommend plenty of well-cooked vegetables, and above all a plate of soup. I look upon soup in the nature of a well-meaning poultice for the stomach. “Eschew pastry, and if you should happen across a piece of pie for want of something better, take off the crust, eat the filling and don’t meddle with the dough. “Iced tea is a very nice drink, but it is very severe on the stomach, liter ally killing a good digestive organ. If you drink it at all let it be in small quantities. “For supper let us recommend clam boullion with whipped cream. It is nourishing and ever so much better than tea. “And now let me say something else. Drink plenty of water. People who drink plenty of water never suffer from kidney troubles. Lots of water keeps the glands in perfect order. Eating kills more people than drink ing. A i arty eater should drink large quantities of water, not at meals, but between meals. The recent- death of one of our late millionaires here was due to nothing else but hearty eating without drinking sufficient quantities of water. And in summer, more than at any other season of the year, every body should drink plenty of water.”— Dr. Thompson, in St. Louis Republic. Our Wheat Crop. Precise agricultural statistics may be possible in the next century, but they have not been obtained hitherto. The United States Government’s esti mate of this year’s American wheat crop is 450,000,000 bushels. But some ' private expert estimates go almost as high as 600,000,000. Bradstreet’s con siders 550,000,000 a reasonable fore cast. Full allowance having been made for the home demand, it is esti mated that we shall have about 160,- 000,000 bushels available for export. For the year ending June 30 we ex ported 140,000,000 bushels. The shortage in the European crop is esti mated by such continental authorities as Beerbohm to be more than 100,000,- 000 bushels, as compared with last year. The demand for the American surplus, therefore, is certain to be very firm, with the result of better prices than farmers have been ac customed to obtain for a number of years. An interesting development of our wheat trade is the rapidly in creasing demaud that comes from China and Japan, this being fostered in part by the chauging customs of the orient and the gradual improve ment in standards of living, and in great measure also by the marked pro gress of steamship navigation across the Pacific, which has reduced freight charges and has made wheat an avail able return cargo for the great steam ships that bring oriental wares to Puget Sound, Portland and Sail Fran cisco. When once we actually secure waterway across Nicaragua or the Panama isthmus there will be a large outflow of breadstuffs from the Mis sissippi valley to the orient by way of Galveston and New Orleans. —Review of Reviews. How Kill*. Last Saturday afternoon Will Pough (colored) was struck by lightning and instantly killed while at work on Mr. E. M. Tharpe’s plantation. The man was plowing cotton when the bolt struck him. The horse he was plow ing with was knocked down but not seriously hurt. Pough’sstraw hat was torn up, but there were no marks on his body. He was very limp, however, and it seemed that every bone in his body had been uujointed. A piece of the singletree was knocked off, but there was no other damage to the plow stock. Pough’s wife was standing about thirty yards away, and she was knocked down and considerably stunned by shock. When she got up her husbaud and the horse were both down. There were evidences that the horse had stumbled along about fifteen feet before he fell and carried the man with him.—Marion County (Ga.) Pa triot. The Sumac Industry. Sicily is the great producer of this commodity, used so largely in leather manufacture. Last year the one port of Palermo exported 446,000 tons, worth $2,120,000, or about the same amount as the previous year. As shown in a special article in our columns some months ago, the gather ing of wild sumac in our own country is not very profitable, trade preferring foreign on account of quality and cheapness. —American Agriculturist. WORDS OF WISDOM, Find a way or make one. Every thing is either pusher or pushed. The world always listens to a man with a will in him.—Marden. The only worthy end of all learning, of all science, of all life, in fact, is that human beings should love one another better.—George Eliot. A loving confidence in the God we have offended is the key to his heart, the key which unlocks the treasury of his grace.—Rev. E. M. Gouldburu, D. D. The are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach. —John Milton. If yon would he well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable im pression of you; if with a little mind leave him with a favorable impression of himself. —Coleridge. When God sends darkness, let it be dark. ’Tis so vain to think we can light it up with candles, or make it anything but dark. It may be be cause of the darkness we shall see some new beauty in the stars. —The Story of William and Lucy Smith. Restraining grace is an amazing work of God. It is more wonderful than his setting a bound to the sea, that it cannot pass over. Think what a hell every unconverted bosom would become if the Spirit were to withdraw and give men over to their own hearts’ lusts.—M’Cheyne. The universal reign of love, creating new economics, anew commerce, new politics, anew social life, supplanting greed of gain with passion for service, and mutual competition with mutual helpfulness, unreal as it seems to ns, immersed in the struggle and held by the habits aud ruled by the ideas of to-day, is yet the destined result and fulfilment of the centuries aud ages of divine teaching.—Philip Moxom. Creation is the organ, and a gracious man finds out its keys, lays his hand thereon, and wakes the whole system of the universe to the harmony of praise. Mountains and bills, aud other great objects are as it were the bass of the chorus; while the trees of the wood, and all things that have life, take up the air of the melodious song. —Spurgeon. High Heels Convicted Him. “I never see high heels on a pair of shoes or boots,” volunteered an old detective officer to a Star reporter, “but I am reminded of the capture of Atzerodt, one of the Lincoln assassin ation conspirators. It was the high heeled boots that he wore that brought about his arrest. It came in this way. Lewis <T. Weichman, the War Depart ment clerk, on the night of the assas sination of Lincoln, who was one of the boarders at Mrs. Surratt’s, gave considerable information as to the conspiracy. It was at first thought that he was in the conspiracy himself, but he managed to clear himself to the satisfaction of the authorities and was never prosecuted. With another de tective officer I went to Mrs. Surratt’s house about daybreak on the morning after the night of the assassination. Shortly afterward a man came to the house with a pick iirjd shovel. He was dressed as a laborer and sant fig- had been employed to do some digging iu the yard and wanted to see the lady of the house about going to work. Mrs. Surratt, who resided in H street, near Sixth Northwest, had been placed under arrest during the night. The make-up of the man was very perfect, so much so that for a time he com pletely threw us off from suspecting him. His story was very clear, and there were indications that there was work needed to be done in the yard. I told him to wait there, and later on I would see about the work to be done. He took a seat on a box, and it was then I noticed he had very high heels on his boots. On a further examina tion I noticed that the boots were not the boots that laborers wore, but were line calfskin, and showed that they had been polished the day before, though the rain during the night had washed much of the blacking off. This convinced me that all was not right, and I locked him up. In a couple of hours I ascertained that he was none other than Atzerodt, the man who had been selected by the conspirators to murder Vice-President Johnson, but who had failed in his purpose. As it was, it was his high-heeled boots which first directed my suspicions to him, and it was his high-heeled boots which hung him. When he was ex ecuted he wore the same high-heeled boots, and they were buried with him.”—Washington Star. Bullets of Solid Bold. Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the colonies, has received a dispatch from her majesty’s high commissioner at the Cape stating that in the fighting at Fort Martin, near Hartley, South Africa, on Satur day, the noted chief, Mnshingombi, was slain and between 400 and 500 of his followers were taken prisoners. The Government forces occupied all the positions at Marlies Kraal, where they captured more than one hundred prisoners. A dispatch from Fort Salisbury says that the British forces took the na tives completely by surprise. When a charge was made upon the stock ades the natives fled to their caves, in which they were afterward captured, Mashingombi’s maiu cave being de stroyed with dynamite. Mashingombi was wounded during the attack and died soon after being taken prisoner. Two bullets made of solid gold were found after tbe fight.—Washington Star. Eccentric Provisions For Death. Dr. and Mrs. Thayer, of Framing ham, Mass., had their coffins made ac cording to their own designs. For a long time the two coffins were finished and exhibited before either the doctor or his wife died. It took ten years to finish the work on the caskets, which were of carved rosewood, beautifully ornamented with silver. They cost $5OOO apiece. The doctor died two years before his wife did, hut she had his body placed in an ordinary coffin aud went on exhibiting the rosewood coffins and delivering especial lectures. She died not long ago, and left money for the building of an elaborate mar ble tomb where she and her husband are to lie side by side. It is to be lighted by electricity for one hundred years.—New York Tribune.