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| k > sip* ►s UK J. i \ it ft*?* *: * c ✓ TO KEEP PIGS STROKO AND HEALTHY Pigs can be kept neither healthy nor growing without plenty of good succu¬ lent food. The natural food for pigs in the wild state is grass, the masts of the forest roots and bulbs of plants. Its necessity is well recognized by nature in providing the hog with a rooter. Even after generations of domestication, with an ample supply of sustenance, this pro¬ clivity to root remains a prominent cliaracreristic. Farmers who during the winter months at least twice a week give one feed of potatoes, beets, artichokes or turnips, find that the pigs not only relish, but derive great benefit from them. Brood sows are especially helped by a liberal supply of food diet; indeed, it is almost compulsory in order to in¬ sure strong, healthy pigs and a natural farrow.—New York World. WHEAT BRAN FOR LAMBS. Some writers are becoming eloquent of late in the praise of wheat bran for sheep. We have seen its benefits de¬ monstrated for other stock. The edition of the Sheep Breeder and Wool Grower in an article designed to advocate “gen¬ erous feeding' 1 makes this plea: “It is hardly too much to say that generous feeding of a lamb all summer and all the fall will create a constitution where only a poor ond existed to begin with. We have often wondered to see how a cosset or some lamb that had had extra attention, and was about twice as large as the average of the flock, iu au¬ tumn when (lie trying season of parasites, diarrhea, and other troubles of sheep life came on, would go through every¬ thing—-pouring diarrhea*, rains, fogs, slushy Iiim irr^sL paperskin, all around - without a particle of injury. His mag¬ nificent vitality, created by months of liberal feeding—all his life, in fact—car¬ ries him unharmed through evils which lay waste the average flock. The farmer ought to begin at once with his lambs, if he has not already, giving them all the wheat bran they will eat up clean once a day at least, better twice, and if there are any weaklings remove ihem to a smaller flock and give them extra at¬ tention—feed for that priceless vitality and force, that constitution without which a sheep is about the poorest piece of property in the line of live stock.” BEEF CATTLE. With the farmer one of the principal advantages in keeping cattle is that a better opportunity is afforded of using up the roughness. To do this to the best advantage it is necessary to provide a comfortable shelter so that during growth, at least, very little grain will be needed where a variety of crops is grown. A good suppl y of rough feed may be readily secured, and this can be fed to good thrifty cattle, At present prices it requires the very best of management to realize a fair profit from cattle. To let them make a slow growth so that three or four years is required for growth, and then when they are ready for market, must be sold as low-grade cattle, what will be realized for them will not pay the cost of raising. With cattle as with other stock one of the items necessary for profit is a steady growth from birth to maturity. It is, of course, an item to secure this at as low a cost as possible, and in wintering good sheltering is necessary to lessen the cost, for the reason that less grain is needed. That is, if cattle are comfortably shel¬ tered in winter they con be kept growing steadily if they are well fed with rough¬ ness—hay, stiaw and corn fodder. Cat¬ tle will thrive better with a good sheder in winter with hay alone than they will with corn alone. Supplying bran in addition to roughness will be of material help, especially if the roughness is first run through a cutting box. Feeding racks should be provided so as to lessen the waste as much as possible. It should be remembered that the value of the feed is the same, and the work necessary to properly care for them is the same, whether the cattle are of a good grade or are scrubs, while there will be a very considerable difference in the gain secured in proportion to the food consumed. At best, under present conditions, the margin of profit in feeding cattle is small, and everv advantage should be taken to increase them. Selecting a good grade, giving them comfortable shelter and care, so as to maintain a steady growth, are all important,—St. Louis Republic. FARM ANI) GARDEN NOTES. Do not expect eggs when the hens are moulting. Keep fowls of the same size and dis¬ position together. When possible to avoid it poultry should not be killed when they have full craws, especially for market. The kind of food giveu hogs plays a large and important part as to whether the profits shall be large or small. The most objection to peafowls and guineas is their noise. Otherwise they are very nice fowls to have around. A small allowance of bone meal in the food will be beneficial to young fowls that are afflicted with leg weakness. If necessary to give sulphur to the poultry do not feed too much at once. A teaspoonful in a quart of food is usually sufficient. The principal advantage in cooking 1- 2 /food for poultry is that^ if the right dod of a ration is supplied, the fowls will fatten faster. By giving a good range aud not feed¬ ing too liberally there will usually be no difficulty in inducing the poultry to take all needed exercise. Some bee-keepers prefer to have the bait sections iu the centre of the super, while there are others who think that it is best to have it placed in one corner. Dr. C. C. Miller thinks that one in the centre is as good as one in each cor¬ ner. By sowing some grain crop to occupy the land through the winter you will pre¬ vent the waste of nitrogen. This is es¬ pecially true if much manure has recently been applied. If to be plowed under in the spring, rye is the best grain that can be used. What does it cost you a quart to make milk? At the New Hampshire experi¬ ment station they found that from their best cow it cost about 1| cents a quart, aud from their poorest cow it costs more than 4J- cents. There is a chance for profit in one case and a surety of loss in the other. * Alternating hoed crops with grass, clover and cattle is a necessity for farm¬ ers who seek for permanent success. The only exception to this is where men cultivate so little land that they can and will manure it all heavily every year. Market gardening is about the only use that land can be put to and bear the ex¬ pense of such method. The Ears of insects and Animals. It would be quite natural, of course, to look on the side of the head of any living creature (providing he had a head) for the organ of hearing; such investi¬ gation, however, no odds how thorough, would be void of results in many in¬ stances. In the clam it is found in the base of his “foot” or feeler, In the moit of grasshoppers it is in the fore¬ leg, while several species of insects have it in the wing. Lobsters and crabs all have the auditory sac at the base of the antennas or feelers.—St. Louis Repub lie. The Waste of War. Just now the world is at peace, or at ! least the civilized world is more quiet than for a huudred years. Fft>m 1793 to 1815, the Napoleonic wars prevailed. 1828 between Russia j In there was war ! and Turkey. ' In 1830-1840, civil war prevailed in Spam and Portugal. carried ' From 1830 to 1847, war was on between France and Algeria. From 1854 to 1856 there was war b© tween England and France and Russia From 1861 to 1865, civil war pre vailed in America. In 1816 Prussia and Austria were in conflict. In 1866 Franco was at war in Mexico. In 1870-71, France and Germany were at war. In 1876 and 1877 Russia and Turkey were at war. In this century of conflict the loss in 'h'en is estimated at 4,140,000, not count¬ ing the almost unending conflicts in South America. In the Frauco-German war Mulhall estimates the losses of both Nations in killed, died of wounds, died ot sickness, and disabled, at 371,751; German, 133,- 751; French, 238,000. Of these numbers, 107,000 were killed or died of wounds; 60,000 died of sick¬ ness; 205,000 were disabled. The same authority thus estimates the losses in killed and wounded at the dif¬ ferent periods of the conflict. Battles. French. German. Total Woerch 32,000 11, DUO 43. 0C Mars le four,. .26,0(53 16.3 X) 42.200 Gfravelotte. % • • .28,530 20,100 46,603 Paris... • « • 3o, 000 13,300 43,100 Orleans, vjb 76.500 57,400 133,000 Total...... >r 193,000 118,000 311,000 The improvement in > war weapous is thus stated: The Germans in the war of 1870-71 fired 400 shots to every person killed, whereas, in the American war, it took 740 shots to kill a man. War costs more iu life; peace costs more in expense. The German army is not killing anybody now, but it cost iu 18S9 to maintain it 18,S40,0l)0 pounds, or $95,000,0U(J. The appropriation lor the army of the United States is one fourth of this sum, or $24,000,000.— Louisville Courier-Journal, A Good Word for the Tiger. The tiger is not such a very great mis¬ fortune to the neighborhood where he happens to have fixed his abode. His chase gives pleasure, excitement, and exercise to the many hard-worked offi¬ cials, whose lives would be those of un¬ interrupted routine were it not for this recreation. It is also of great assistance to the district officials, as it makes them much better acquainted with the people under their charge, and they get to know out-of-the-way places wuieh, but for this sport, they would never have visited. The tiger is a very necessary evil in India, and were it not for him, deer and wild boar would increase to such num¬ bers that the cultivation of the land would become an inmense hardship, and almost an impossibility; he keeps them within bounds, and relieves the ryot3 from watching their fields by night in the unhealthy localities. We are accustomed in England to hear constant war preached against this ani mal for its total extermination; but this ought only to be incases of the destruc¬ tive cattle killer or man-eater, and these ought to be got rid of at any cost. The villageis are always extremely careful of their good cattle, watching them well aud keeping them grazing on the border of fields where they are working, and would be very sorry if the tiger were exterminated; of course they themselves are often carried off by man caters. But tigers of this class are luckily very scarce. Tigers are still numerous in the State of Mysore, and panthers have often been killed in the city itself quite recently. I believe that in Mysore tue large it tigers in India are to be found. Some have been killed quit© lately by sportsmen measuring nearly ten feet six inches from the nose to the tip of the tail. There ire two kept by the Maharajah in tha courtyard of his cattle stables that measi#.© very little short of that.—Harper’s Ma¬ gazine. Glass beads were qaediums of exchange in the earliest ages. Properties of a Kentucky S.irin*. ^ Had Ponce De Leon, in his search for the “fountain of youth,” wended his way to Little Sandy, in Kentucky, and plunged beneath the placid waters ot Red Spring, he might not have had his days prolong until now, but most certain it is his color would have been changed to a bright crimson. On the Frese Hardin Farm the Red Spring is located, and for years has been used by old ladie3 in that vicinity to color their carpet rags; by the young ladies to color their dress goods aud ribbons and to blond me their hair, The water of this spring looks as clear as crystal, and is remarkably cold at this season of the year, much more so than the water of the wells in that vicinity. This water is much used at the approach of Easter Sunday to color eggs, and a strange thing about it is the di(Terence in color upon aiticles of different quality or substance. The hair it blondmes, colors egg 3 , ribbons, and dress goods a crimson red, the flesh of persons a light blood red. The color is permanent in both cotton and silk goods dyed by the water. The blondining of the hair gen¬ erally lasts about three weeks, whil» a person who bathes in its waters is given a coat that lasts about six weeks. Soap applied to any articles dyed by the water but strengthens the intensity of the color. People for miles around come and carry the water away in bottles, jugs aud bar¬ rels, to use in dyeing various articles. A mystery concerning a family by the name of Brand, whose numbers are quite large, and whose color has always been a phenomenon, is now explained, it is believed, by their having always used this water tor driukiug and bathing pur¬ poses. So long have they used it that its qualities seem to have permeate d their systems, and its effects are seen in their progeny to the fourth generation. They have known of this spring for years, and for a long time kept its qualities a secret, but it was divulged recently by a young man who had married into the families. •—Cincinnati Commercial Gazettl. The Hedtvood Tree. On the camping-grounds ofj the Bo¬ hemian Club on Austin Creek, and in the Armstrong tract ^ear Guemeville, one finds the lowland redwood in perfection. In such places there are often rings of great trees inclosing pits five or six feet deep, and thirty, forty or even fifty feet in diameter. Each of these pits is sup¬ posed to show wher3 the venerable an¬ cestor of the surrounding circle of trees once stood. Long before it fell, in¬ numerable sprouts grew from the yet living roots, Afterward, when the giant yielded, the rains washed new soil into the “bottoms” from the mountain sides, fo fill the deep chasm. For a cen¬ tury or so there was a struggle among the children of the fallen monarch, and at last only seven or eight remained, to become great trees of twelve feet in diam¬ eter set on the rim of the pit formed by the decay of the roots of the ancient tree, and each having a complete root system of its own. Other trees, seedlings of sprouts, grow up between them, and in few more centuries the process of form¬ ing another redwood tree ring will bo repeated about the largest of the second growth. Ring3 of this sort can be in all stages of formation in every and valley of the redwood country. Some very large rings still show the broken edges of the central tree’s roots projecting like the staves of a barrel around the hollow, overgrown with fern* and wild oxalis, or filled to brim with fresh spicy redwood sprouts. The green spires of the forest,three hundred feet high, filter tho air through their innumerable branches, aud shut out all but faint blue sparkles of the sky. The dust of one of the pio neers is underfoot, and a little tree last year’s growth is struggling to gam a place. The red-bronze trunks of tho trees stand like a wall, hiding the rise of the mountains, hiding the banks of tho river, though one hears the sound of flow, aud tho splash of little streams in thecanon3. Such groves this are the temples of the forest system.—Century. The exact physical centre of United States is the stone at Fort Kan., which marks the grave of Ogden, who died of cholera in 1855,