Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1877 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

Around tho Farm. “A farm,” says the Kentucky Live Stock Journal , “is the best material possession in the world.” A writer in the Massachusetts Ploughman says: “I have given ten years’ trial to the cultivation of the raspberry. My experience is that the only way to get one’s expenses back is to sell plants at .$1 per dozen.”/ A horticulturist furnishes the following recipe to preserve all kinds of grain from the ravages of cut-worms, birds, etc.: One pound sulphate of iron, one ounce aloes. Dissolve in water heated to ninety or ninety-five degrees, and pour over one bushel of grain.— Ohio Farmer. A dairyman remarked that before sitting down to milk a kicking heifer he put a “ snap ” attached to the end of a rope into her nose, and tied tlie rope to a pin put iuto the scaffold girt over the manger, slightly elevating her nose, and she stood as quietly while she was milked as the most gentle cow in the stable.— American Cultivator. Many young fruit trees, especially pears, are burned to death during the hot season. Even when the ground is kept wet and their roots are moist enough, young aud newly-set trees upon which the bark is thin and tender are cooked by the sun as by a fire, and the branches and trunks die while the roots remain alive. This nmy often be prevented by winding the trunks with cloths, which shuts out the sun.- Mirror and Farmer.

I filled a hall'-hogshead with rainwater, and put into it one-quarter pound ammonia and one-quarter pound common niter. When the strawberry plants were blossoming out I gave them a sprinkling of tho solution at evening twice a week until the fruit was nearly full size. The result was double the amount of fruit on those where the Up uid was applied to what was obtained nom those right alongside upon which none of the liquid was applied. —Frail Record. Rows of grape-vines should ruu north and south, so that every leaf may get the sunlight either in the forenoon or afternoon. This is more important in September than during the heat of summer. If the rows run east and west, the vines shade the entire ground and hence you lose a large part of the heat, and the moment the suu disappears there is no stored-up heat to carry the vines through the nigh,,.' This in time of frost 'K of great” importance.— MassaHfiusefts Hoard of Agriculture. We have learned to jest at gapes by making free use of camphor. We give to a chicken in a very bad case a pill the size of a small garden pea. As soon as we see symptoms of gapes we give the birds water to drink which is strongly impregnated with camphor, thus giving to the chickens that which was a favorite medicine with our great-grandmothers, “ camphor julep.” The treatment seems to explain itself. The gapes or “gapiug’ rr i?hcaijsed by the presence of small red woriWin the windpipe. No medicine can reach them unless it does so by vapor. An hour after the chicken has swallowed the pill it smells of camphor. Camphor is a very strong vermifuge, and the worms die.— London Cottage Gardener.

J. M. Haynes, of Lebanon, Ohio, finds a sweet-corn crop more profitable than a distillery. He raises over 5.00 acres of this crop annually. The drying house employs over fifty persons. The fresh ears are steamed five minutes to “set the milk;’’ tlie grain is then cut off rapidly with cutters having Concave faces; then spread on perforated ziue tables, and heat applied four or five hours from long furnaces, stirring constantly • then packed in barrels of three bushels each for shipment. Great care is required to have the corn just at the right age, aud to have it dried just enough to keep well. Four bushels of fresh corn on the cob make one bushel dried —the wholesale price of which is S2O to $22 per barrel. At fifty bushels of corn per acre, 500 acres would yield 25,000 bushels, and give over 2,000 barrels of dried corn, which, at S2O per barrel, would be $40,000. — Nebraska Farnirr.

About, the House. 1.0, Monday is llie “ washing-day,” A« all good housewives know, Memorable of dishes hashed, And clothes as white, as snow ; And Tuesday is the “ ironing-day,” ’Mid cold, or fog, or heal; And Wednesday is the “sewing-day,” To see the clothes are neat ; And Thursday is a leisure-day ; And Friday brooms begin To sweep away the household dirt ’Fore Sunday’s ushered in ; And Saturday is" “ baking-day,” Pies, puddings, cakes and bread, And then the weary week is done, And we may go to bed. When boiling poultry never put a fork in the lean part of the meat, as it allows the juices to escape. A Sure Cure For Corns.— Bathe in a strong solution of soda, pare off close aud touch with carbolated iodine; repeat the application of iodine next day and a cure will speedily follow. „ It is stated that spirits of turpentine, sprinkled through the house once a week, is a sure preventive against scarlet fever and other diseasrs. It is also stated that it will keep moths out of carpets. To purify cess-pools and sinks, dissolve a few pounds of copperas in a bucket of water, and pour into sinks or vaults of water-closets, aud it will neutralize unpleasant odors and destroy deleterious exhalations. To Keep Away Moths.—A small piece of paper or linen, moistened with sjiirits of turpentine, put into a bureau or wardrobe for a single day, two or three times, is said to be a sufficient preservative against moths. A small, dish of charcoal placed in your meat larder will keep the articles sweet and wholesome almost as well as iee. Charcoal is a great disinfectant. Occasionally used for cleansing the teeth, it will sweeten the breath when nothing else will do so. Canaries. —To exterminate lice from canary birds, use hollow canes for perches; shake out well mornings into a cup of water, ami you will catch them all. Two parts canary, one rape, and one part hemp seed is the best food. The canes used are pipe-stems, ordinarily called tobacco stems. Cracked Hands Cured. —None but a laboring man, who has suffered misery while using an ax, or pounding with other tools, can rightly appreciate this article. For years, when young, I suffered at some seasons untold bitterness, caused by dry cracks on hands and fingers. I tried every so-called remedy I could hear of, but in vain ; and, being obliged then to labor each successive day for an honest livelihood, I wan bound, as with an iron chain, to such sufferings as almost made life a burden. At last a fyjend told me to put common copal varnish into the oracks, Mid it wou]<] eure them. Although my

faith was very weak, I tried the prescription, and, to my great joy, sure enough, in forty-eight hours my h ands were as well as ever. It does not save from fresh cracks, but it never fails to entirely cure the old ones within two days. I kept a small bottle of the varnish, with a sliver standing in it—cost ten cents—always handy, and with its help my hands are nearly well. For knowledge of this simple remedy I would not part for many dollars. I have given it to many others for many years, and have never known of its failure to effectually cure in all such cases. I don’t know that the subject can be considered agricultural (perhaps it is only cuticultural), but there are probably farm readers of your paper who will be glad to get tlie information.