Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1878 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

Around the Farm. The tubers of Jerusalem artichoke are much improved after taking up by being laid for a time on unslacked lime. —English Gardener. Six pounds of white lead added to one gallon of tar varnish, and applied as paint, mil prevent damp coming through walls.— American Cultivator. Last fall a few loads of manure were spread upon a meadow, and this spring the entire field was plowed and planted with com. A heavy coat of manure was spread on the plowed surface. The diy weather prevented the rotting of this manure, and the crop received very little benefit from it. On the spots where the manure was spread last tall the com was much better. — Moore?s Rural. Harness should never be kept in the stable where manure is constantly generating large quail irti?s of ammonia. This ammonia is rapidly absorbed by the leather, and the effect upon the leather is about the same as would result from saturating it with strong lye. In a word, ammonia rots leather, and hence keeping harness in the stable is sure to result in its damage, more or less. — Exchange. Mr. Chapman relies on the plentiful use of swamp muck over the roots as a preventive of the borer in peach trees, and he accidentally proved the curious refrigerating quality of muck in holding frost and retarding the bloom in the spring when dumped by the horse-load in the fall about the base of his trees. I hear that one of your strawberry growers has great faith in growing tansy around peach trees to keep borers away. That would naturally prevent attacks on the root with plow and spade, and implies a restful and conservative rather than an experimental cultivation.— Cor, Hartford Courant. We often wonder why farmers in this country do not use the cart more; it is far more handy for loading and dumping manure, soil, roots, etc., than a wagon, being more easy to load, and especially to unload. A cart can be quickly loaded and dumped, and only requires one good horse to draw it. In England carts are in constant use, being very popular in the harvest-field. We are glad to see that dumping wagons are employed on many of our farms. This loading manure from a barn-yard, and hauling it by wagon a few hundred yards, to be unloaded forkful by forkful, is a waste of time and labor, of both man and beast. —Rural World. The signs of a good-working ox are : long head, bread and level between the eyes, and the eyes full, keen and pleasant; forward legs straight; toes straight forward; hoofs broad not peaked; and the distance short between the ankle and the knee; these properties enable an ox to travel on hard roods; if the auimal turns his toes out, the strain comes on the inside claw, and when traveling on hard ground he will get lame at the joint between the hoofs and the hairfull breast; straight back; round ribs, projecting out as wide as the hip bones; these are the signs of strength and good constitution. The best colors are brown, dark-red and brindle. At I years of age the steer becomes an ox, and, having completed his Bth or 9th year, he should be fattened for the butcher.— Moore's Rural. About the House. Never cut broiling meat. The juice escape. Snow and long cooking will make tough meat tender. Substitute for Tea.— Alkatlirepta, homeopathic chocolate, is recommended by physicians as a substitute for tea, cocoa, etc., for invalids. Sour Stomach.— Eat a piece of salt codfish or a red herring for your breakfast ; avoid grease ; a piece of carbonate of soda about the size of a small bean dissolved in water is good. External Pile Remedy. —Carbonate of lead, one-half ounce; sulphate of morphia, 15 grains; stramonium ointment, one ounce ; olive oil, 20 drops. Mix and apply three times a day, or oftener, ns the pain may require. To Wash Corsets.— Take out the steels; use hot water; one teaspoonful borax to every pail of water; place the corsets on the washboard and scrub well with a clean brush, using very little soap; do not boil the corsets, but, if very yellow, bleach in the sun; rinse well; rub in a little starch and iron when quite damp.— Toronto Globe. Coed Feet.— Never go to bed with cold feet, nor try to sleep without being able to keep them warm. Cold feet show an unbalanced circulation. The very best thing to do is to warm them by exercise, if that be practicable. If not, try dipping them in hot and cold water alternately, and then using vigorous friction. — Housekeeper. To Prevent Potatoes from Rot.— Dust over the floor of the bin with lime, and put in about six or seven inches of potatoes, then dust with lime as before, then more potatoes, using about one bushel of lime to forty bushels of potatoes. The lime improves the flavor of the potatoes, and effectually kills the fungi which causes the rot. Cure for Incipient Consumption.— Live temperately, avoid liquor, take a daily sponge bath, wear flannel next the skin, and take every morning one-half pint of fresh milk from the cow, mixed with a wineglass of the expressed juice of green hoarhound. A person who has tried this remedy says that four weeks, iffee of the hoarhound and milk relieved the pains of my breast, and gave me the ability to breathe deep, long, and free, strengthening and harmonizing my voice, and restoring to me a better state of health than I had enjoyed for years. The remedy to must be continued for some time. Plate Cloths for Daily Use.— Boil soft rags (nothing is better for the purpose than the tops of old cotton stockings) in a mixture of new milk and hartshorn powder, in the proportion of one ounce of powder to a pint of milk; boil them for five minutes ; wring them as soon as they are taken out, for a moment, in cold water, and dry them before a fire. With these rags rul the plate briskly as soon as it has been well washed and dried after daily use. A most beautiful deep polish will be produced, and the plate will require nothing more than merely to be dusted with a leather or a dry soft cloth, before it is again put on the table.— Boston Transcript.

In England when a tramp, male or female, wants a new suit of clothing, he or she takes lodging in the workhouse or jail for the night, and before morning tears into small pieces every scrap of clothing upon the person. The officers, of course, cannot send them adrift in suoh a condition of nudity, but, after pro. vidiug them with cleas find autHcieot

clothing, they are taken before the magistrate and committed to six weeks’ hard labor to pay for the garments.— Dr. Foote's Health Monthly.