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Agricultural.
Renovating Old Carden9.
After a garden has been maintained
in the same place for many years it
sometimes loses its productive power, in
spite of repeated and heavy manuring.
Many kinds of vegetables refuse to
thrive, and it becomes necessary to
•change the garden-plat or infuse new
life into the cloyed soil by a period of
rest and a partial return to a state of
The location of the vegetable garden
is not always a matter of choice, and
frequently there is but one place which
unites the different requirements of soil,
exposure and convenience, and after
this has been permanently enclosed it is
annoying to arrive at a period when the
garden becomes unable to meet prompt
ly the demands upon it.
It has long been known that heavily
stocking an old garden with red clover,
and allowing it to remain two years
without plowing, will bring the soil
hack to its fertility and vigor. This is
sometimes done by farmers, but it is
hard to persuade a village resident to
adopt a remedy so far outside of his
usual course. As a substitute which,
under certain conditions, is even better
than clover, I would recommend plant
ing strawberries. One-half of the gar
den may be planted at a time, leaving
the other half for the raising of such
vegetables as still continue to flourish.
Plow at the usual time, and in April
plant strong plants of any very vigorous
variety, with perfect blossoms and de
sirable fruit, in rows thirty inches apart
and fifteen inches in the row. Keep
■clean and allow the runners to cover all
the ground. Late in the fall mulch
lightly with chopped straw, and in the
following spring pull up any weeds that
show'tliemselves. Under anything but
extraordinary circumstances—such as a
/very late frost or peculiarly unfavora
ble weather at blooming time—you will
/in June pick a large crop of berries,
4 which will be a trifle more difficult to
^ J pick than if they were in separate rows.
After picking remove all large or tall-
growing weeds that may have grown
and leave the plantation for another
. year's fruitage, mulching again in win
ter. The result will be a crop of ber
ries nearly as large as the first.
Immediately after bearing, the heavy
crop of old and new plants which covers
%e land should be plowed under and
tne ground planted to late cabbage or
Swedish turnips. The following spring
it will be in condition to grow a very
large crop of early potatoes, followed by
celery. After this the ground will be
fit for any garden crop, and the other
half of the garden can be subjected to
the same rotation. The result of treat
ing a garden once in ten or twelve years
to a change of this kind will be emi
nently satisfactory and profitable.—
American Gardener.
ful, while market-gardening in the same
hands would prove disastrous. Market
gardening is a remunerative business
when a man understands it, but it is far
from being an easy road to wealth for
those who have all the. details to learn.
—American Agriculturist.
Market Gardening.
Every season furnishes its crops of
unsuccessful merchants or mechanics,
who ask our agricultural editors if
•'market-gardening does not pay large
'profits, and if there is not a good
'Clutnoe in this business for an indus
trious man t? better his condition.
Judged by the high prices the average
citizen pays for his vegetables in the
large cities it seems to him there must
be money in raising vegetables. If he
could remove to the country, say within
an hour’s ride, he could attend to- his
city business without loss of time, and
by hiring a good gardener he could have
'-cheaper vegetables and fruits, and add
Something to his income by sending the
HU fid us to market. Nothing looks more
feasible on paper; nothing is more de
lusive in practice. Every business, to
be successful, requires a responsible
head, thoroughly acquainted with all its
details, and giving it his personal atten
tion. There are many points in market
gardening that can only be learned by
experience, and if a stranger to the
business undertakes it, he will pay dear
ly for his education. Some three hun
dred dollars to the acre are needed as
capital to carry on the business to advant-
je, even when a roan is practically ac-
nth it, and knows how and
; evaasadollar. The ques-
jation in refer-
irhat kind and
rrow ; what
Hedge Fence.
It makes but little difference whether
you plant Osage orange or hawthorn for
fencing in your farm. Either one
makes a good fence when properly at
tended to, and neither one makes a fenc
at all when neglected. The Osage
orange will make a fence in less time
than hawthorn, but it will cost more to
keep it in order, on account of its
thrifty growth, unless you let it take
its own course, as our worthy (or un
worthy) trustees do the one growing on
the burial grounds of onr country seat.
Said hedge is twenty-five or thirty leet
high, and where it is thin enough for a
cow to walk through they have put in
boards and nailed them to the stems of
the hedge. That kind of a fence I
would call a nuisance. The nice thing
about a well-set hedge fence is, you
always have a surplus of materials, and
the brush or trimmings will always pay
to gather and burn them ; whereas, in
repairing a rail fence you must always
supply new rails in place of those that
have rotted out.
The hedge fence, if taken care of, is
an everlasting fence. I never knew
one to die that was taken care of. I
could show you hedge fences more than
a hundred years old, and good fence
yet—good enough to turn hogs of
horses. I would advise every farmer
that has a nice-laying farm to plant
hedge fence for road and line fences.
It don’t make any difference whether it
is hard froze, or wet from the last big
rain, you can trim hedge fence all the
same; in fact, winter is the time to
shape up the hedge fence. With a good
hedge fence around your farm you can
rest contented till morning, without
being afraid the wind will blow down
the line fence and let your neighbor’s
stock in on your fields of grain. I ad
mit there are other kinds of fence that
can be made quicker and cheaper than
hedge, but they will eventually rot out,
and then to replace makes them the
most costly of the two. Not so with
the hedge. It starts up every spring
and puts out its leaves, and appears to
enjoy life with the fresh grass and
growing grain. As for the hedge dying
out on account of thin soil, it is out of
the question when sod is put under and
subsoil on top; the leaves from the
hedge will keep the soil rich enough. I
Avould rather attribute the cause of the
hedge dying to the surplus of stagnant
water poisoning the roots.—Iowa Home
stead.
Farm Notes.
With slow-growing sorts like celery,
carrot, sag<\ asparagus, and even par
snip and onion, mix one-eighth of quick
growing sorts, like turnip and radish,
to mark the rows for an early weeding.
A writer in ’ the Farmers' 1 lieview
notes as a “singular fact” that all the
persons injured or killed by “dangerous
bulls” in Illinois during the past five
years were attacked between the months
of August and January.
With very careful management and
attention to the health of the ewes,
couplAl with personal attention at lamb
ing time, one hundred lambs can be
raised to the one hundred ewes. The
ewe flock should be kept in good heart,
»nd fed enough,
A writer in the Home and Farm
used about a quart of sawdust in each
hill of one plot of potatoes and none in
another plot. The sawdust hills yielded
nearly twice as much as the others, and
the potatoes were larger and smoother,
I). K. Shauer, in a letter to the lama
Homesteud, says that a simple, auje and
easily applied cure for lice on animals
is in give a few slices of onions in
their feed. They eat them readily, and
one or two feeds does the business ef
fectually.
During his recent travels in Eurojie
Professor Budd, of the Iowa Agricul
tural College, found a vast fruit region
in nothern Russia never before explored
where the mercury sinks to 50 J lielovv
zero, in which choice apples, pears,
plums and cherries were grown in un
limited quantities.
tjs worth the experiment of train-
vines of til* sweet potato t<
A recent write]
rows so treateq
greater coil
A correspondent of the Prairie
Farmer writes that he has tried fla
and hill culture ffir cucumbers, squashes
and melons. When hot, dry weather
came the plants in the hills began to
dry up, while those or level ground grew
freely. He thinks tlat cultivation de
cidedly the best, unless on wet ground.
Dusting of cucumber, melon and
squash plants with plaster early in the
morning, when the dew is on, has long
been practiced for checking the ravages
of the striped bug. A little Paris green
or London purple, however, either ap
plied in water or mixed with the plaster,
is a much more effective application.
If cabbages are set out one yard
each way nearly 5000 can be grown on
ofie acre. Such being the case, it is a
'profitable crop when successfuly grown,
as this vegetable not only sells well but,
on account of its keeping qualities, af
fords, green food in winter for animals
and poultry, to say nothing of the fami
ly.—Farm and Garden.
American Wonder is a seedling pea,
the result of a cross between the Cham
pion of England and Little Gem. It is
one of the earliest wrinkled peas in cul
tivation, of the finest quality and wonder
fully productive. Its great distinctive
feature, however, is its compact and
dwarf growth, seldom exceeding ten
inches in height.
In transplanting trees all the roots
which may have become bruised or bro
ken in the process of lifting should be
cut clean away behind the broken part,
as they then more readily strike out new
roots from the cut parts. In all such
cases the cut should be a clean sloping
one and made in an upward and out
ward direction.
possess the disagreeable taste and odor !
of gas-tar and it has lieen supposed the
fruit absorbed this volatile substi noe
from the air. Recent investigations
prove, however, that the odor and flavor
of the grapes are due to the fact tjiat
the sap of the vine absorbs them from
the soil. If disagreeable odors may thus
find their way into the grapes, why, by
a similar artificial process, may not
grapes, and indeed other fruits, be pos
sibly flavored to suit the taste, however
varied and whimsical.
From six grade Jersey cows Mr. D
B. Marden, of East Vassal boro Me.,
made, from January 1,1882, to January
1, 1883, 1318 pounds of butter, besides,
milk used in a family of four persons.
This butter was sold in Boston for
$178.04’ or nearly $80 to each cow. It
sold in summer for 34 cents per pound,
and in winter for 40 cents per pound.
Peter Henderson says the best shading
he has ever used for the glass in green
houses or hot-beds Ls naphtha mixed
with a little white lead, so as to give it
the appearance of thin milk. This can
be put on the glass with a syringe,
very quickly, at a cost not exceeding
25 cents per 1000 spuare feet. It holds
on the entire season until loosened by
the fall frosts.
Some think very highly of the Shrop
shire breed of sheep—good for the pro
duction of mutton and what is known
as clothing or delaine wool. This sheep
is possessed of strong constitutional vig
or, produces a compact fleece, matures
early and has a beautiful form. It is
claimed that Shropshires do excelftntly
wellin large flocks, and the ewes are
very prolific, producing, it is said, 40
Iter cent, of twins. The ewes makegood
mothers, giving plenty of milk, and are
careful.
A correspondent of the Kansas Farmer
says he has been experimenting with
S irglnim as fodder for farm stock, and
finds one acre of it equal to an acre of
com. Ilis cattle eat it readily, consum
ing stalk and all, and it makes them a#
sleek and fat as corn-fed stock. lie
plants in hills, about double the quan
tity he would use if he were cultivating
for sirup, and when the seed is ripe cuts,
shocks and cures, same as cornfod-
der. If cut before frost he says it
will retain its sweetness all winter.
Professor L. B. Arnold says the
points in favor of dairying are : First,
a dairy farm costs 10 per cent, less to
operate than grain growing or mixed
agriculture; second, the annual returns
average a little more than other bran
ches ; third, prices are nearer uniform
and more reliable ; fourth, dairying ex
hausts the soil less; fifth, it is more se
cure against changes in the season, since
the dairyman does not suffer so much
from wet and frost and varying seasons,
and he can, if prudent, provide against
drought.
The reixirt of the Ohio State Board
of Agriculture for August and Septem
ber furnishes some figures respecting
dogs and their work which are most
striking. In 1881 Ohio contained 101,-
027 dogs, which killed 84,(>0fl sheep and
wounded 31,422, of a total value of $172,
oil—perhaps more money than all the
dogs in the State are worth. This re-
I>ort is from the books of the county
auditors as returned by township as
sessors, and is no doubt approxim
correct. Secretary Chamberlai
says that this furnishes a pr
t
Sham Butter and Cheese.
Can anyone tell what dairying is drift-
ng to ? We hear of all sorts of queer
monstrosities, from lai^d-cheese to cot
ton-butter. No man knows what he
eats it he buys it. Simulation is the
spirit of the age, and no end of science
and skill is employed to deceive. A
clever imitation is w r hat men prefer to
produce, and the public are led to de
vour. The simplicity of genuineness is
out of the running, as things go in the
world. The public must eat what is
given them, asking no questions. The
oleomargarine men have done a terrible
lot of mischief, and offal is the god
whom they delight to honor and exalt.
At all points they aim to circumvent
the dairymen and swindle the public.
The taste of the people is degraded by
the sham butter and cheese which seems
to be real. Men’s stomachs nowadays
are sepulchers for strange abominations
which they ignorantly rather than inno
cently swallow. This sort of thing is
leading them they know not whither,
and posterity will pay the piper. It is
no longer that which cometh out of, but
that which goeth into the mouth that
defiles. Meats and drinks of many
kinds are not what they pretend to be,
and there is a great deal of “tricks
that are dark” in what passes for dairy
goods.
Whose fault is this ? Well, in a great
part the dairymen’s, for they have
spoiled good milk. They have given an
opening for the shoddy men of the dairy
who are growing rich out of offal. The
law complacently lets men sell what
they like, and the sham is, often enough,
better than the real one. . Shoddy sells
well enough to be carefully made, and
so the makers of counterfeit butter and
cheese do flourish. Dairymen who make
inferior butter and cheese no matter
how. real the goods may be, are out of
the running entirely. If only the palate
of the public is suited, it matters not if
the article be real or pretended, so care
less dairymen can hardly “make ends
meet and tie.” But one thing is clear :
the makers pf really first-class cheese
and butter can hold their own and will
hold their own against the nefarious
stuff that is made in any and every
country. A wepding-out process is go
ing on, and goods which are mere simu
lations will take the place so long occu
pied by the products of mil that was
spoiled. If, then, the oleomargarine
business, the melted tallow and other
less creditable things, shall result in
bringing about a thorough reform in
dairy methods, we shall have reason
after all to be grateful to men for
whom few of us entertain feelings that
approach to respect or affection. But
let the public have fair protection, let
them know what they buy; then the
dairymen will win—if they want to;
and if they don’t the fault is their own.
The New Boy.
He was a bran new ofifee boy, young,
pretty-faced, with golden ringlets and
blue eyes. Just such a boy as one
would imagine would be taken out of
his little trundle-bed in the middle of
the night and transported beyond the
stars. The first day lie glanced over
the library in the editorial room, be
came acquainted with everybody,
knew all the printers, and went home
in the evdting as happy and cheery as a
sunbeam. The next day he appeared,
leaned out of the back window, ex-
pectorated on a bald-headed printer’s
pate, tied the cat up by the tail in the
hallway, had four fights with another
boy, borrowed two dollars from an
occupant of the building, saying his
mother was dead, collected his two
days’ pay from the cashier, hit the jani
tor with a broomstick, pawned a coat
belonging to a member oi the editorial
staff, wrenched the knobs off the doors,
upset the ice-cooler, pied three galleys
of type, and mashed his finger in the
small press. On the third day a note
«\tas received, saying: “Mi Mother do
want I V> work in sueh a dull place.
“" ' * ike a Good
The Workshop.
By means of a recent invention, bands
of steel, suitably tempered and hard
ened, are employed to transmit motion
from one pulley to the other, the faces
of the pulleys being turned, for this
purpose, perfectly fiat, and then faced
with a varnish of rosin, sliellaG and
asphalt.
A foreign manufacturer has figured
out, mathematically,, that in windmills
the most serviceable wind is one that
blows at a velocity of some twenty-three
feet a second. The fans of the wind
mill revolve, it is to be noted, with
nearly double the velocity of the wind.
The lowest number of days during any
year that the wind proved serviceable
was 180, and the greatest number 280.
In the production of French window
glass a mixture is used of 100 parts
quartz sand, with from thirty to forty
parts of dry carbonate of sodium, or as
much sulphate with charcoal, and thirty
to forty parts of chalk. Gennan win
dow glass consists of a double silicate of
chalk and potassa—100 parts of quartz
sand, fifty parts of pearlash, from twen
ty-live to thirty parts of chalk and two
parts of nitre. In many mixtures com
mon salt is an ingredient. One of the
first qualities of glass is composed of 100
parts quartz sand, fifty parts dry Glau
ber’s salts, 17£ to 20 parts of lime, and
four of charcoal.
Do not empty the boiler under steam
pressure, but cool it down with the
water in ; then open the blow-out tap,
and let the water pour out. To quicken
the cooling, the damper may be left
open and the steam blown off through
the safety valves. Do not, on any ac
count, dash cold water on any of the
plates. But, in cases of emergency,
pour cold water in before the hot water
is let out, and mix the two together so
aifto cool the boiler down gradually and
generally, and not suddenly and locally.
If a boiler is blown off under steam
pressure the plates and brickwork are
left hot. The hot plates harden the
scale, and the hot brickwork hurts the
boiler. Cold water dashed on to hot
plates will cause severe straining by
local contraction, sometimes sufficient
to fracture the seams.
An English mechanic gives the follow
ing for softening steel: “Heat your
steel to a dull red heat, hold it in some
dark or shady nook or corner until you
can just see the least possible tinge of
redness; then cool immediately in water
at the ordinary temperature, and you
will be able to file or turn it with very
little difficulty. I have tried this on steel
from the smallest sizes up to one inch
in diameter with success; beyond that I
have not gone. I do not claim that this
way is better than, or as good as, some
that have been given for annealing steel;
but there are times when the delay of
the ordinary process is extremely iffcon
venient, as in the filing of tuiavtag
tools of a particular shape, reanligat
ing steel when the skin Jfc taken
etc., and then this mode answers]
mirably.”
Common articles of hardware,
as screw eyes, hinges, handles, etc
polished by tumbling in a reyolvin
barrel. The tumbler is charged abou
half full with the goods, mixed with a
material selected according to experi
ence as best suited to do the work.
Small scraps of iron, sand -and gravel
with the attrition of the metal take
away the roughness and put a moder
ately smootflsurface to the work. Then
charge the work into a tumbler partly
filled with leather scrap or skivi^fes cut")
fine, mixed with crocus or any tin
polishing powder; after which it can
cleaned and brightened by an additio
tumbling in sawdust and lime.
u bove is a general feature of tli
of work. Almost every inanuf
has some peculiar system of
ment suited to the special kind,
made. Some use oil or water,
the work in lime water, and
ble in sawdust to dry a
The black oxide of iron
is much used were it a
little plumbago is sometim
into the tumbler to give th
shining black surface. A str
or keg on trunnions with a
for charging is the most su
light work.
*
¥
ittcbi
Western Shovel Mant
Pittsburg.—The q\
of the Western ShoveJ
Association JBiMhel
iai