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FARM AND GARDEN.
AN INTKRKHTINI! IWMJDHIIION ON
“HAIM1NC* ANII FKKOIMI UATTI.K.”
IltflVrrnf Opinion* Kxprewind br *b«
ber» a Maryland Farmer*' Club.
At a meeting of the Deer Greek
(Md.) Farmers’Club an interesting dis¬
cussion was had upon “Raising and
Feeding Cattle.”
The question selected by Mr. Hays for
discussion was as follows: “At the
present prices of bpek oattle does it pay
farmers to raise cattle ?”
Mr. William F. Hays said he had se¬
lected this qnestion because in buying
stock oattle are too high, and in selling
fat cattle are too low. He wanted to
knowhow to overcome the difference.
His belief was that it would pay to raise
our cattle. As a general rule Hartford
county farmers buy a low gjade of stock
oattle and sell a low grade of beef cat¬
tle. Home-raised oattle are generally
fat, and a few to top off those we buy
will help to sell them. With proper
feeding it is no trouble to make a 3-year
old home-raised steer weigh 1,800
pounds. They should be kept growing
from the day they are oalved, and they
oan be sold any time. The proper time
is when they are 2} years old. It neces¬
sitates keeping a few oows. It has been
stated that the first year a calf costs $35.
It should weigh 1,000 pounds, and be
worth 6 cents a pound, or $25 profit.
The average Hartford county farmer
don’t make $25 a head on his stock oat¬
tle. The oalves should be allowed to
run with their dams until four months
old.
R. John Rogers remarked that one
trouble connected with raising our own
Btook oattle is that it necessitates keep¬
ing so much stock on hand. For in¬
stance, a farmer who grazes 20 head
must have 20 oows, besides 20 yearlings,
20 2-year-cdda, and 20 3-year-olds. With
proper pains no doubt you can raise bet¬
ter stock than you can ordinarily buy,
but you can buy good stock if you pay
the price they cost Now, grade cattle,
even when fat, are harder to sell than
good oattle. To oarry the number of
head of stock to graze 20 home-raised
steers you must have a great deal of
pasture and provender, and have at
least 60 head on hand all the time. Cows
require the best of core at all times, and
the cost of keeping each of them woald
fatten a steer. It requires good pasture
and plenty of grain during the winter to
raise good calves, and to do it success¬
fully thoroughbred stock is necessary.
John Moores thought it would pay
the average farmer very well to raise his
calves. One thing, however, had been
lost sight of in considering the subject,
whioh is the butter the cow might pro¬
duce, but iu raising cattle you cannot
calculate on making much butter. A
100-aore farm will run 10 cows. They
would average 4 pounds of butter a week,
or 40 pounds in all, a considerable item
in connection with the calf. Mr. Moores
said he raised only two calves a year,
and finds that in 30 years he has sold
$3,000 worth of cows. His gra<3e Jer¬
seys bring from $60 to $80, and are gen¬
erally sold at 5 years old. They come
in profit when 18 months old If farm¬
ers would turn their attention to raising
oows, calves, and making butter they
would make more money. It is not ea¬
ten tial to have thoroughbred Shorthorns
or Jerseys, but have good grades. It
would pay, however, to have a thorough¬
bred Shorthorn or Jersey bull. It will
pay to raise every calf dropped on the
farm, and they may l>e taken from the
cow when four days old. At 7 or 8
weeks old they will eat cob meal the
same as fat cattle. Iu raising oalves and
making butter employment is furnished
for every member of the family, which
is an important consideration.
8. B. Silver said he sometimes doubt¬
ed whether or not It pays to buy cattle
in the fall, feed them rough feed through
the winter and graze them the following
summer. His system is to raise calves
and during the lost few jeers be had
found that pajs better than buying stock
cattle. It brings in more ready money
and the outlay is much smaller. You
should have good grade oows and breed
to thoroughbred bulls. A home-raised
steer 2} years old will bring from $70 to
$75, without entra care or crowding.
Ho would not advocate growing a suffi¬
cient number to stock the farm. You
oan, however, stable five or six calves in
the winter in one box stall, and they
wil) eat n o more than one stee r.
Not What he Pretends to Be.
The Chioago Tribune says: I know
a woman in Chioago of more than com*
monly heroic stuff. In the late war she
rode through shot and shell to succor
the dying. She has all the graces
that become a woman and more of moral
courage then many men. She has long
been the associate of men high in the
Nation’s counsels, and recently accepted
a position of publio responsibility.
“No,” said she, “I do not believe any
man was ever an atheist in the full sense
of the word. I crossed the ooean with
Bob Ingersoll once, and I asked him
about it. ‘No/ said he, ‘I have been
all over the ground. I have dreamed
myself into every conceivable frame of
mind—have scaled the hights and looked
beyond into the impenetrable mystery
of infinity; I have passed down through
the vale of despair and have wandered
on the edges of the abyss, and I do not
believe that conscientious and lasting
atheism is a condition possible to the
human mind.’ Iu evidence of this
let me tell you,” continued she, “that
I saw and heard Colonel Ingersoll my
self once on the field of battle”—she
named the battle, but 1 cannot recall it
_“when he was gallantly rallying a
regiment of broken and retreating sol¬
diers. He used no godless arguments
then, but, waving his sword aloft, swore
with all the vigor of an excited man,
and called upon the men with such
eloquence and force in the name of
their altars and sires and the God that
watches above them to turn back again
into the fight that with one accord
they accepted his leadership and turned
with a shout again to the charge.”
Under Each Arm.
Col “Fred.” Burnaby, killed at Abu
Klea, was in his youth passionately fond
of gymnastics, in whioh he excelled
above all his fellows. There used to be
in one of his clubs a colossal dumb-bell
iu a glass case with the offer of a heavy
wager that no man would hold it out at
arm’s length for the spaoe of ^sixty
seconds. The wager was never won,
though Burnaby made nothing of ao
oomplishing the feat. Among the many
stories of his physical prowess one re
lates to a period shortly after he joined
the Blues. The regiment was down at
Windsor, and a horse dealer .who had
come Into possession of a couple of very
small ponies had them taken thither by
command to exhibit them to the Queen,
Before going to the Castle he showed
them to the officers of the Blues, to whom
a happy thought occurred. Burnaby,
who was captain then, was in his room
on the first flight. With some trouble
tho ponies were got upstairs, and, the
door quietly opening, they trotted in un
announced. This was a capital joke,
and had a great success. But, as pres
ently appeared, it had a gloomy side.
The ponies had gone upstairs quietly
enough, but neither force nor entreaty
oould induce them to go down. The
hour approached at whioh they were to
be presented to the Queen, and the
owner was in despair. Burnaby settled
the matter off-hand. Taking a pony up
in either arm he walked down stairs and
set them in the coart-yard.
ROTATION IN OFFICE.
Postman—“What are you looking at,
gal?’’
♦ Jnk5*n* hn«
lntiuwluu he gits b thim ctofchai oh.”
Life.
HE NEPER SHED A TEAR.
Tko Keaoan a Houck IMomone I>row fit*
Balance from a Bank.
_
«.
tiight, a little party were talking of pa¬
thetic scenes upon the stage, and how
they were variously affected by them.
“For my part,” said a dapper young
man, “I never yet saw anything on the
stage that could moisten my eye. I
leave the crying to little boys and wo¬
men.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” said a bluff
old gentleman, an cfficer of one of the
railroads; “every time I hear a young
man talk as you do I feel like telling a
little incident that once came under my
notice in New York city. A party of ns
sat in a box, ‘Hazel Kirke’ was the
play. None of ns had ever seen it I
shed a tear quietly and unobserved, but
rough old General McRae cried like a
boy. He was president of a Georgia
railroad then, and was in New York on
business. He was a regular martinet in
his profession, stem and unrelenting.
He was an old bachelor, too, and so far
as is known never had tender feelings
toward woman or kin. He had lived a
life solitary and absolutely unsenti¬
mental. We were all surprised to see
such emotion in such a man, but none
of us said anything except young
George-, of Atlanta. He laughed
at the old General’s weakness.
“ ‘Oan you witness such a scene as
that with dry eyes ?’ inquired the Gen¬
eral, with all his old sternness of manner
and speech.
<(« Why, of course I oan. I could
laugh at it even as I laugh at you/
«(< See here, George-/ said Gen¬
eral McRae, with great earnestness,
'you are cashier of a bank in Atlanta.
In that bank my company has many
thousands of dollars deposited. Imme¬
diately on my return home every dollar
of onr deposits shall be withdrawn. You
may be an honest man, but I do not feel
safe with onr money in an institution
where one of the responsible officers is
a person who talks as you talk to-night/
“Upon his return to Atlanta the Gen¬
eral did as he promised. And luckily,
too, for in less than six months that
bank was nearly ruined by a heavy em¬
bezzlement by its cashier. Chicago
Herald.
A Case of Woman’s Rights.
N
__
A case came up in the State Circuit
Court of Oregon where a woman who had
property in her own right was sued for
a butcher’s bill contracted by her bus
band. It seems, says a local paper,
that the effect of the law, engineered
through the Legislature some years
since ostensibly for the benefit of mar
r ied women, were to make them liable
for the support of their families if they
have property of their own, and if the
impecunious husband orders tobacco
or beer sent to the house the wife oan
be compelled to pay for it. Before the
law was changed the married woman
was not liable unless she made the con
tract herself. Under this law, women
who have money should be careful how
they marr y men who bave non e,
TnE Rsv . Elijah Kellogg, the distin
guished author and preacher, spent,
aay8 the Boston Courier , his early life
on H arpswell Island in Casco Bay,
^bere s tiU has a beautiful summer
reside nce. Instead of spending his
time in play w ith his companions when
a boy, he devoted every leisure moment
to the somewhat arduous task of drag
g i ng a heavy ox chain all over the island
to hear its musical rattle on the stones
and it8 soft “chink” i n the g rass.
j BKLIB y E in the colossal; a need deep
M hell md grace a3 high as heaven. I
believe in a pit that ia bottomless and a
heaven that is topless. I believe in an
infinite God and an infinite atonement;
in love and mercy; an everlasting cove
nant ordered in all things sure, of which
the substance and reality is an infinite
Christ.
ALL ABOUT POTATOES.
Information far Tfci Win Rat TSm.
Potatoes are three-fourths water. The
— rS'SM'SliSi
mineral matter held in solution in the
juices. The quantity of starch inoreaees
during the autumn, and remains sta¬
tionary during the winter.
The sprouts in potatoes should be re¬
moved as soon as they appear, since if
they are allowed to grow they exhaust
the starch, and render the potatoes un¬
fit for food.
Potatoes should be kept in a dry, cool
cellar.
Potatoes belong to the same poisonous
order as tobacco and nightshade, and
contain an acid juice which is unpleas¬
ant to the taste, and often renders them
indigestible. This lies in and near the
rind of the potato, and is drawn out by
the heat. When the potatoes are baked
it escapes in the steam if they are
opened at once, and when they are
boiled it is absorbed by the water.
Potatoes when first peeled are white,
but turn brown on exposure to the air.
For this reason they should be covered
with cold water as soon as they are
peeled. the
New potatoes are watery, as
staroh is not fully formed, and they
have a very thin skin, whioh may be
rnbbed or scraped off.
Boiled potatoes should be served as
soon as they are soft, and should be
skinned the moment the heat bursts all
the starch grains, which may easily be
determined by their soft texture when
pierced by a fork—else the starch will
absorb water, and the potatoes beoome
pasty and unwholesome.
To prepare the potatoes a la neige ,
select potatoes of a uniform size; wash
them and scrub them with a brush kept
for the purpose; pare them and put
them into boiling water, allowing one
quart of water and one tablespoonful of
salt for six large potatoes. Cook half
an hour, or until soft, but not until
broken; drain off every drop of the
water. When they are well drained mid
mealy beat them thoroughly with a fork,
add salt to taste, and serve at once piled
lightly on a hot dish.
A Womau with Brittle Bones.
A curious case which is now puzzling
Chicago physicians was reported to the
Chicago Medical Society. The patient
is a young woman whose bones are so
brittle that they break at the slightest
jar. She has been under treatment for
sixteen years, having been afflicted ever
since her birth. Over 170 fractures
have occurred in her life, and her ribs,
lges and arms have been affeoted. She
weighs about forty-five pounds. Merely
stepping from the sofa to the floor or
stumbling on the carpet is sufficient
to cause the breaking of a bone.
These fractures heal slowly. Her
doctor has had splints bound about her
leg for two years at a time. The doctors
think that her bones consist principally
of hollow shells. The broken bones
have knit together in uncouth shapes
and she is badly deformed. Her muscles
are well, developed, with the exception
of those which have been atrophied
through disuse. Dr. Blanchard has
made casts of her limbs, and intends to
preserve them in some medical institu¬
tion.
THE EXCUSE.
; A mottier took her little three-year
j old BOQ to an afternoon concert, and
j wtl en the first encore was given he was
frightened Jf and asked his mother why
th y did S o. she said, playfully, “Per
haps they are glad she is done singing/'
thought no more about it.
He seemed to be satisfied, and sat the
res t of the time reasonably well. The
ne xt morning, after his father had asked
the blessing, the little boy clapped his
hands in a very vigorous maimer, and
when asked why he did so, said, “I’m
dad he’s done; I want aome fts’.”