Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — HOME, FARM, AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM, AND GARDEN.

Talks with the Farmer, Orchards!, , Stock-Breeder, Poulterer* and Housekeeper. j Hints on House Decorations, Kitchen Economy, and the Preservation of Health. —J :: ' AGRICULTURE. < Beets as a Field Crop. Good crope of befets'niiiy "be growif on' any laud rich enough and in suitable tilth for corn. Drilled in rows two feet and eight or ten inches apart, ranch of the work may be done by horse hoes. But the thinning must be done with the hand hoe, and uitiess properly attended to in time the beet crop will not amount to much. W'ee/il In Granaries. Excessive avarice usually defeats itself. The form which it takes in keeping wheat in granaries from year to year, will certainly in time breed worms, which destroy far more than the farmer can hope to gain by rise in price. While we insist that the farmer should use his best judgment and consult his own circumstances in selling grain, yet at some time during the year every vestige of his crops should be cleared out of the granaries, anti then the latter should bo thoroughly cleaned. Improved Quality in Crops. Dr. Goessman has called the attention of fanners to the important fact that the use of a liberal quantity of manure will not only enable them to secure larger crops but also crops of much better quality than could be obtained if the plants were poorly fed. This is a matter which should lx? carefully considered. With many crops quality is of greater value than quantity. A moderate yield of high grade will probably give a larger cash return than an increased crop of defective quality, and in all respects it will be more satisfactory to the grower. But there is no need, of choosing the alternative, for the heavy manuring which does so much to insure a fine Quality of products will also produce a large yield per acre. Farm Machinery. A correspondent of the New York Tribune,in an extended article, las this to sav in relation to farm machines. t Considering all the machinery now used by our best farmers, it is found indispensable to have some person on the farm who is a nia--chlnist On all farms some one person is usually better informed on machinery than others. It is a good plan to give such a young man every opportunity to study machinery and to see the different kinds of machinery, in operation. He should make something of a specialty in that department He should make it a special point to visit fairs where machinery is exhibited and visit all trials of machinery in his neighborhoodj and learn from every source possible all that he can about the operations of different machines. It would be very easy lor a young man naturally inclined toward machinery to make his services of great value on a farm fiy becoming thoroughly informed. I have in mind a young man who made himself an expert by working with machinery on his own farm in the East. He subsequently went West and was employed by a large manufacturing company to look after the machines over a largo territory at a largo salary. Here is a good opening for any enter-, prising young mechanic. While the improved machinery of the present is doing very much for the farmer, it requires an increased capital, and the exercise of considerable judgment in the selection of machines. If the farmer should buy every improved implement offered to him, he would soon have more than he had storage for, or had means to pay for. Therefore, looking at the business in any way we can, we must see that the farmer requires more’thought, and requires to be better informed than in olden times. Consider the one question of keeping up fertility of soil, which in olden times scarcely occupied a moment’s' thought. Now it is a great question, and perhaps our greatest study. The farmer who can judge wisely of the requirements of his soil must be a close observer and something of a student I cannot say I regret that the agriculturist of to-day requires more thought "anil study, for it is‘desirable for people to make their work intellectual, and not so Jargety phytni'al aR titiwns -firthe past. Mental work develops and ennobles' us, and wo should all trail with joy the advent of intellectual farming- _____ Farm Notes. A concise writer says of birds: Ido not believe there is one of them but’dbes more good than harm; and of how many featherless bipeds can this be said? The London Agricultural Gazette is authority for the statement that ‘'one hundred horses are slaughtered each week, the flesh cut into steaks -asid soid as beef in the poorest neighborhoods of Manchester, England.” A wise observer has said: “Ten successive wheat crops will plaster a mortgage on the farm, under which the owner must abdicate. ” Tn otner words, ten successive wheat crops will run the owner heavily in debt It is not always the darkest green in the growing wheat that gives the best harvest. A slaty-blue cast indicates a soil too wet, a dark corn-green, soft h©ivy straw. The true wheat color is a lightish green, .even-in its color 6v6f the field. C/iicayo TribuneT"' The trucksters about Cincinnati make quite an extensive use of brewery waste, or slops,; for fertilizing purposes. They seem to look upon it as being of considerable value. Some of them composite it with stable manure and similar materials, while others spread it thinly over the land in the same condition as taken from the brewery, and work it thoroughly into the soil by plowing or otherwise. Of the action of clover when plowed under as a green manure a correspondent of the Country Gentleman says: “Clover is not manure, but by its growth, and especially by itsdecay, it renders soluble for plant-food matters which without its aid might remain insoluble, thus indirectly ameliorating the constitution of the.so.il on which it acts. Any vegetable • growth, green or dry, buried in the earth alters some of the inorganic matters with Which-it comes in contact in decaying, and to that extent slowly improves by increasing solubility. But it does add something, inasmuch as it provides an assimilator for atmospheric nitrogen.” STOCK-BREEDING. Take Care of Your Horses. Aged and able old horses are the result of human care , and usage. This is exemplified from an English source as follows: “A gentleman had three horses, which severally died in liis possession at the ages of 35, 37, and 39 years. The oldest was in a carriage the very day he died, strong and vigorous, but was carried off by a spasmodic colic to which he was subject A horse in use at a riding school in Woolwich lived to ba 40 years old, and a barge horse of an English navigation company is declared to have been in his 82d year when he died.” Lif/ht Stables. The Boston Cultivator is Sound in its elate' that animals to be healthy must, have light stables. If stock is to spend twenty or more hours out of each twenty-four in the stables, the latter should be so constructed as to allow as much sunshine as possible to enter. At the present lew prices of glass, daylight is a cheap luxury, and any farmer can afford to have plenty of windows on the. south side of his barn. If it was originally copstructed without them, as many of the older barns were built, it wilt be a good job some day to put them in. Such an improvement will make it touch more pleasant doing the work there in winter. If it is necessary leaving the barn doors open in order to have tight enough, in the average barn, to see to do the work, it will not be strange if the chorea are done as rapidly as possible, or left half undone, on a cold day. It is the more likely to be so if left to a hired man or a boy to attend to them. It will be another improvement tn farm economv when the phrase “as cold and dark as a barn, 5 ’ shall have lost its significance. Feeding Corn to Horses. Corn is the bane Of the farm horse, as it is. also of the horse doing any other sort of work, not because of not being sufficiently nutritious, but because it makes too mnch fat and not enough mus do. The horse’s , muscle wears away under exercise, but its disappearance in

nowise lessens the power for either draft or speed. On the other hand, well-iionrism>d and >nmwntu»ly iavwol«ed wjtbn deposit of . fat to keep them company, are muph more efficient for any purpose for which the horse is kept than when thsre te a load of fat to be carried. The trainer acts upotPthe proposition, and works the fat off, expei ioiieehnviugslibwii that the muec'.es, tru ned dowii by exo:c.se until fat accumulations are removed—fattening foods being mainly abstained from—give the "beat results in a of a np<e;ly hnrso. The | same rule will hold good /itli lhe work-horse, though modified by thadegrbe to which the movements of the letter ure slower than those of the former. If the. fanner b.ft i only corn for food, then lie will be wi<e to make sale of his corn, or the greater part of it, buying oatmeal instead. If corn be used in whole or in part the effect should be carefully noted as to the extent to which fermentation sets in, meeting this by-use of salt and ashes, atoned lessening the amount of com fed. It will be found that horse* fed freely com will eat earth when allowed access to it, as to a degree this neutralizes the acid generated in the stomach and gives relief. Com may rate as the natural food for fattening stock—sueh as are fe 1 for their flesh. All kinds of fattening stock are made ripe on corn, with the addition of an allowance of coarse feed lor fodder. Ripenosi .in a horse is a very different thing from ripeness in the fatted steer, for in one case it means full vigor of muscle with an absence of fat, and in the other an abundance of fat, no matter bow much, and as to the muscle, no matter how inefficient the work.— National Live-titock Journal. HORTICULTURE. Turnips in the Garden. A few turnips should be put in early for home use, but unless there Are facilities for marketing by the bunch it is best not to plant the main crop until June. Turnips growing m hot weather, especially in gardens heavily manured, are apt to be wormy and worthless. For the garden a little coal ashes in the drills is a specific against this. To Kill Plant Lice. Among the sure remedies for ridding plum and other trees from the green lice which infest them when the leaves are yoking and tender, is the following : gallon of soft water add one quart of soft-soap. Place the same over the fire and bring t« a boil Remove from the fire and add one p fit of kerosene oil, stirring until thoroughly mixed. When cold apply with a syringe or 'fountain pump which has an attachment for causing the liquid to take the form of spray. If soft soap cannot be readily obtained,' hard will answer. A cheaper and more simple remedy is to dissolve two tablespoonfuls or saltpeter in a little hot water, then add two gallons of cold water and apply in the same manner as suggested for the soap and kerosene mixture.— American "Cultivator. . ... . The Currant Worm. .. The currant worm, which has of late years proved so destructive to both currant" and gooseberry, by devouring the leaves, and, as, a consequence, preventing the growth of the shoots and the ripening of the fruit, may be quickly and easily destroyed by a thin dusting of white hellebore upon the leaves. It may be procured of druggists, and applied by means of a dredging box with fine orifices. Care should lie taken not to inhale the poisonous dust As soon as the worms devour the leaves with this thin powder they perish: and, where the work has been well done, thousands have entirely disappeared in a day. The greatest vigilance is requisite to begin this dusting before serious damage is committed, and a watchful eye should be kept upon the bushes for several weeks afterward and the remedy repeated if a second brood appears. The entire defoliation of currants and gooseberries for a single summer greatly injures the bushes, and if continued for successive years destroys them. Brief Notes. It is said that Paris green applied to rose bushes and grape vines infested with rose bugs will kill the insects as surely as it does the potato bug when used on potato plants. The application can be dry, mixed with water add sprinkled on in the’ same manner as for the potato bug. The farmer who sows celery neM in the open ground expecting to get a crop generally goes without this valuable relish in tlie winter, nnlekg he buys it in the market. Buy young pjjyite of JKime gardener and prick them out in , a fwd 'utrar large"enough to transplant. The middle of -July Will do very well for winter use, but if wanted in September and .October large plants should be put out the middle of June. . ■ '■ “ Squash-borer remedies tried with partial success at the New York experiment station: A solution of-one ounce of Paris green in eight gallons of water, applied with a wateringpot for a distance of two feet from the main stem of the plant Four ounces of copperas dissolved in one gallon of water, and a gallon of the solution poured about each plant for a d stance of four feet, has also been partially effective. The gardener of the Johns Hopkins estate in Baltimore County, Maryland, has cultivated figs for the past twenty-five years with success, having neVer failed to secure a crop. He gives the method of treatment as follows: From the 10th to the 2dth of November we dig a trench around the bushes, cutting away about half the roots they have made the late s'eason, when the bushes are growing vigorously, and less when they are not so robust, bending down the branches to the ground in the form of a cross . aiul.covering them with earth froil! the trenches from three to four inches in thickness, and in spring uncovering them from the Ist to the luth of April, lhey bear fruit abundantly, ripening about the list of July, and continuing to bear until November, and later if not destroyed by frost. POULTRY-RAISING. Poultry Hints. Henstwo or three.years old will not lay so large a number~of eggs as will pullets in the first twelve months after they commence to lay. In quantity, therefore,' yearlings will excel, but not in quality for hatching purposes. Chickens generally sell for as much at three months old during the spring .and summer as ;thoy do during the next winter at six to eight months old, as during the latter season the large city markets are over-stocked with poultry products. Fowls as well as chicks become quarrelsome if fed on raw meat. Again, cooking makes meat more nutritious. When raw it is rather harsh and crude compared with the more natural diet of worms and grubs, which are for the mostpart soft and easily digested. Chickens should have all the soft feed they can eat, but should not be fed so much that any will be left to sour. Wheat screenings and damaged wheat make Ji good food for fowls. Notonly should the chicks be fed well, regularly, and often, but they should be well cared for in regard to protection. -Let coops be furnished with board floors, so that the chicks can have a dry-place to gp to in case of raiiU-Have the coops supplied with good, tight tops, ho the rain cannot enter. Always feed early in the evening, solbat the chicks may be shut in by nightfall, out of the reach of tbe cold and dew. Do not allow the voung chicks ti*rua out too Boon with the hf-ri, but" keep them confined tor a few days after hatching.- " A frequent cause of chickens dying in the shell, m the process of hatching, is the want of moisture. Nests should be made on tuff that has been well watered. After ten days the eggs should be sprinkled with tepid'water every third day. There is not the slightest danger of injuring voung chickens in the nest by the use of sulphur to destroy vermin. Sprinkle the nest’and the eggs during the first weeks of incubation with four or five tablespoonfuls of powdered "sulphur. The fumes of sulphur will destroy any vermip that* may be lurking in the feathers of the under part of the fowl. To do this properly, pay a visit to the hen in the night and slightly disturb her, when by a natural instinct she will bristle up her feathers all over horbody. This, then, is the best chance for using the sulphur. Feed thrown carelessly to a flock of fowls is sometimes lost beneath grass or rocks, or is trodden under foot Its distribution is thus Very nneqnaL A feed-box, properly arranged, obviates all these difficulties, and should al--ways b.• used where fowls need daily and systematic feeding. There is no more fruitful source of cholera, and other poultry diseases, than water which has become stagnant or heated. Endeavor to have some kind of a trough or earthen vessel in a shady place, and

fill it with fresh water twice 05 ev»<n three | union a day. Toe firinking cups of hens with broods of chk keuM will need special attention, as, being shallow, they arc quickly emptied. ~ Poultry World. yLORICULTtJRE. jl Sunflowers. .1 r , It is not possible to grow sunflowers with profit except on very rich soil. They arc espe-" c ally exhaustiyq oL-ROtash, which, however, js largely retained in the woody stalks. Theie should l'e burned and till? ashes returned to the sol. The Russian sunflower yields more heavily than the common variety. i Flowers for a Shady Lawn. —~ J . IF'rom the Ladies' Floral Cabinet.] ' I go into a great many, front yards belonging to flower-toveni, who regreL. tliat they can not grow plants successfully on their lawns, or in borders that are shaded by trees. They do not wish tO-CJit down the pleasant shade that secludes them from the passer-by, but, oh, if they could only make a few flowers thrive! just enough to brighten the lawn and have now and then a button-hole bouquet without going to the florist for it! If I say a word lam told that they have tried all possible ways, have had fresfi earth brought 111, and often manure. Well, the sod is no doubt ntd by the rixits of the trees, and because there was no wonderful result the'first year, everything was given up in despair. Fcrhans the soil is sour and requires to be dug in autumn and exposed to a winter fallow of frost and wind when the trees are leafless. At any rate, have it deeply dug in spring, not just scratched on the surface, and give it a good dressing of manure to turn in with it. Th-n yot c»n have a bed of pansies, that grow large and velvety in the shade, but which wither in too much sunlight. You can plant some bnlbs of the Japan line.’, only you must be careful not to let fresh manure touch their roots, as it causes them to decay. A border of nemophila grows well .without full sunlight; so does “forget-me-not” and “London pride. ” Of the latter I remember once seeing a thick Iwrder along a shaded walk in a city garden, perfectly pinky white with blossoms, in hard, unyielding soil. A bed of fuchsias will also do' well iu the shade, and if one is careful to plant the tall sorts in the center, and grade down to the edge with the fairy or dwarf sorts they will certainly have a beautiful and graceful arrangement In autumn, when these plants have to be removed to the house, the bed can be filled with spring-blooming bulbs—the center with hyacinths and tulips, the border with crocuses, and here and there a clump of snowdrops and scillas. Along the borders can be planted primroses (Not “Chinese,” but the hardy variety,) polyanthus, auriculas, daffodils, and violets. In one city garden I know, there is a bed of ferns bqrdered by curious stones in the middle of the little lawn, and in corner beds there are some of the flowers I have mentioned and a bush of “sweetbrier” and a clump of lily of the valley to help make summer iragrant In a home where children brighten the hours it is worth while giving each one a certain bed or plant to care for. Perhaps at first they mav pull them up to find out where the “grow*” comes from, but after awhile they will learn to be careful and can be taught to give regular watering and intelligent care. Nb matter how small the lawn or how bare, it is possible, by enriching the land and giving it little attention, to bring some beauty into growth and make it amply repay for the outlay of time and money. THE HOUSEWIFE. Housekeeping. : ; —J An overworked woman may keep her house in order, but she adds little to the comfort of her home. Good housekeeping is by no means as rare as good hotiiekeepnig. It is'of far less importance A certain amount' of drudgery must be gone through with daily in any calling; about three-fourths of life is drudgery. One-fourth can be rescued from the toil and moil of the world by management and thought The most difficult and the most necessary lesson for a housekeeper to learn is that she must assert her individuality. It is useless to try to please everybody. Many things in our homes are done with “an eye ' single” to dur neighbors. Work must be pruned down and lopped off until it matches strength, for the latter re: uses to be enlarged by any amount of thought. It is a nice point to adjust the balance properly. It requires much giving up and letting go. What shall we give up? Ay, there’s the rub. Everything seems important. Things must be kept clean, there is no doubt about that ; but the number of things to be ■kept clean may be greatly dit gnished. But each must solve for herself tne question of simpljfyißg J.viug, Women’s fetters are largely self-made. Carvings, upholstery, brasses, bronzes, that cause frowns, backaches, irritability, and heartaches arc a poor investment of money and time. Things, more' than people, bring women to the verge of despair. The endless round of imagined duties causes chronic overwork among women, pro-duees-the maddest results upon them and those dependent upon them for rest and comfort. Sjliere is nothing in the world .1 dread,” said the Household Pnilosopher, “like a thoroughly exhausted -w/iiiian. No amount of personal comfort ever compensates for such a state of affairs.” Of course not. What constantly tired woman is capable of generous sympathy and readv help, or of companionship? Can she divide care and double joy? The better part of life cries out for warmth and tenderness ; but the women who should give it are blindly wasting themselves on material things, pushing the outside of the cup without a thought of the wine w thin. . Household Hints. Table tops covered with tiles make excellent stands for plants. A handful of silt sprinkled once a month on the tops of firebricks will prevent them from crae.iing. A pretty design for a lamp-shade, which must be painted iu lamp-colors or oil, is a spray of pink honeysuckle with moths flutteriug about it ; - —— I—— 1 —— In packifig - J)ottles in cas’s for transportation, India rubber bands s.ipped over the bottles will, prevent-breakage ami save consider r able in packing .material. . A cushion for a cain-chair is of pale blue upholstery serge, with a darned background of cinnamon-colored silk, having a branch of magnolia embroidered upon it m Kensington st.tch. A new design for a sofa-pillow is to have it gathered at one end and that end turned overand faced with green velvet and outlined and finished to represent a begonia leaf. It is quite unique and pretty. Small rolling-pins, gilded or covered with p'.ush or silk, and painted and embroidered, and bearing several gilt hooks to hold keys, are a pretty, decoration. Padlocks, similarly decorated, are newer, and are very dainty. A series of rounded corner shelves, though disconnected with each other, may be made to assume a very artistic look by being so proportioned as' to be lessened in size with the descent The under portions will look well if of concave form, with ribs radiating from the angle, and colored name what lighter. . ihaa_ the ground.’ “ J F —< A lambrequin that is both pretty and serviceable for the sitting-room is made of dark some twine, crocheted in a pretty, close pattern. It should lie one-quarter of a yard deep any depth to please the fancy. One made of dark green, with cardinal satin ribbon, is very handsoma _ A. curiosity table is a late fancy. AnyTmndl,pretty table may ba utilized for the purpose, and on it are" set bisque babies of all sorts, kinds, ages and dispositions, and each one must be a gift from, some friend, who will write her name underneath, where it doesn’t show. The table is usually covered with dark velvet, the better to show off the china. Among new furniture designs for bed-rooms is what appears as a fTameless chair, back and seat consisting of cushions, the seat raised a short distance from the floor by a rich, tasdeled cushion, projecting angularly in front, and thus having the appearance of beingdeose, though the three cushions are united together, the wall of the room serving as a supporting background. Painting (or rather etching) with ink in black, red, blue, green, or yellow on natural-colored sheep-skin, can be made use of for many purposes, such as cushions, dadoes, sofa-covers, etc. The pattern is first sketched on the leather, best of all with a pencil, as in case of an incorrect edge it can be more completely effaced with India rubber than the sticky blue of the tracing paper mediums. Then all the outlines must be carefully drawn with a fine steel pen

lin bjack ink. Ono must bo exceedingly cafoful I with this process, not to nlake spots either liy pressing too heavilv or catching the pen in (lie 1 leather, as ink-marks cannot bo erased. A skin with a smooth surface, that feels neither hard 1 nor'scratohy, is the best for the purpt'ise. After all the outlines are drawn, the filling up is paittled; a separate patnt-brrtrh tieing iMstessairy for every single color. A favorite dish with Cnbshs is liaked bananas. They.are prepared as follows: Nkin and split iu "ludves bananas;, not very ripe ones arc best Place in a dripping-pan. flat side down. Bprinkle thickly with, granulated sugar, and a mist of salt and powdered cinnamon. Pisco on top of each half a piece-of butter the size of a nutmeg. Pour half .a enp of water carefully into the pan: Brown in a hot ovon. _ Ginger cordial is made of four pounds of red or white currants; eight ounces of gtnger root, two ouncei of hitter almonds, one-half ourtce of sweet almonds, three lemons sliced, one gaUpi' <>f whisky. Mash theeitrranta, cut the ginger roots in small pieces, crack and split the nuts, pour the whisky over these ingredients, and let it stand for ten days; then pour it off carefully, add four pounds of loaf tugar, and bottle it. In the matter of window shades, Japanese bambodi shades, which are very decorative, but expensive, are lx‘ing supplanted by the novelty curiously called “antique” shades. These can be made to order in any of the colors now made in Holland shades 'The “antiques” are s mply com posed of very delicate third or half inch wide slats of: walnut, cherry or other wood, closely strung .together so as to exclude all light and rolled up like old fashioned “Venetians. ” COOKING SCIENCE. Hotv to Stew Oysters. Take twenty-five liearded oysters (fresh ones are always better than salt, for they do not shrivel in the cooking), strain them from the liquor, and put them in a bowl and add to them a spoonful of lemon juice. Then put the liquor of the oysters, together with the beards, into a Haucepan, adding a whole mace, four or five pepper-corns, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a very little grated nutmeg, and a piece of lemon-rind the size of a “nickel” Place the saucepan over the fire; let the liquor simmer very gently for fifteen minutes; then strain it, and thicken with a teaspoonfnl of flour, in Which an ounce of butter has been smoothly rublied Now add a gill of cream, and stir the liquor over a gentle fire until it becomes thick and smooth. Then put in the oysters, and let the pan remain only long enough for them to become heated through. Do not allow them to boil or they will shnvel and become tough. As soon as they are heated, have ready some slices of toast on a hot dish, and over'these pour the oysters, with their gravy, and serve immediately. .Pry . ■ Grease of every description is capable of being heated to a’ very mnch higher temperature than water; in fact, it can lie made almost three times as hot as boiling water. When fat is at its boiling point it is so hot that any article of food brought in contact with it is actually burned, and this is precisely the reason why, for purposes of frying, fat should always lie boiling hot. For any article of food, a doughnut, for example, dipped into boiling fat, is immediately covered all over by a thin crust of burned dough, which prevents the fat from penetrating further in and enables the rest of the doughnut to be exposed to a greater degree of heat than can be applied to it by any other process, without coming in contact with the fat, and the natural chemical processes go on inside with a greater degree of perfection than can be obtained by any other method. Perfect frying is the perfection of cooking, but so ’ soon as the fat is not sufficiently hot to create the burned crusts around the article fried, the fat penetrates it and absolutely prevents cooking from taking place at all. If the fat is not boiling, bubbling hot, the process that takes place is not cooking, but simply drenching the food with a tep:d fat and rendering it totally indigestible. It makes no difference how hot the fat is afterward, the mischief is done the moment the fat penetrates the inside. All perfectly fried food has a thin, crisp, brown outside'crust (which has in itself a rel-i-hing ta-te) and is perfectly free from the suspicion of fat inside, except what was intentionally put there by the cook. All housekeepers know that to fry well their fat should But they do not attend to it as scrupulously, as they would if they understood the true philosophy of it Boiling, bubbling fat cannot penetrate anything,’and cooks to perfection; tepid fat penetrates everywhere and does not cook at all, but actually prevents cooking. Any housekeeper who reads’ this and chooses to profit by it, need never put any greasy, fried, half-cooked, and ind.gestible food upon her table. The whole secret consists in having the fat boiling hot before the tilings are j>ut in. — .Housekeeper. VETERINARY SCIENCE. & Wen on Cow’s Teat. Amateur, Globe Village, Mass , asks for a cure for a large wen upon one of the teats of a two-year-old heifer, now giving milk. Whether a cure can be effected without surgical operation is somewhat doubtful. Enlargements of a similar nature have sometimes been absorbed by applying a paste made from saleratus and gum camphor. Place a tablespoonful of saleratus in a cup, together with a piece of gum. camphor about one-fourth of an inch square. To these add just enough warm water to form . thin paste. The wet saleratus will cut and dissolve the gum camphor ho that it can lie mixed with the former. Apply a little of this to the wen night and morning until it becomes so sensitive as to make it difficult to milk the heifer, then omit for several days, after which repeat the application. By persevering in this treatment for some time a cure may possibly be effected. Another remedy sometimes suc-cessfully-jMnployed is partially dried soft soap, which maybe scraped from the side of a barrel or tub'in which soft soap is kept Rub on the wen once a day for a few days. If the case isTobstinate after applying the soap a week or so, wash it off thoroughly with warm water, after which renew the applications of soap and continue until a cure is effected. Another simple remedy, said to be very effective,- is fine salt mixed with the yelk of an egg, using as large a proportion of salt as the yelk will dissolve. Apply this mixture night and morning, and continue until the wen disappears. Should neither of the above remedies effect a cure, better either dry the heifer and turn her out for beef,or have a veterinary surgeon perform an operation upon the affected part Fistula. In its first stages a fistula may sometimes be cured by making »n incision from below upward that will reach the bottom of the cavity and allow all the pus to drain out instead of burrowing in the muscles, but as the case mentioned is of three months’ standing, pipes .have doubtless already formed, and until those are destroyed a cure cinnot be effected The better way will be to call in a good veterinary surgeon at once and place the case in his hands, for i t ma y Im ■ 111 u t thi • epi no us process of some vertebra has been broken and failed to unite, in which case it will prebably be necessity to perform a surgical operation and remove' the diseased bone. The pipes can be destroyed by thoroughly cleansing them of pus, and giving a few injections of a strong solution ot carbolic acid, after which the pipe can be grasped with pincers and extracted. To .remove the pus a swab of suitable size made from soft cotton batting attached to a flexible piece of whalebone, or something, of a similar nature, will be necessary, and this must be of sufficient length ~to reach the bottom of the cavity. The lollowiug liniment is said to be very effective in destroying fistulous pipes: Currier's oil, five ounces; oil of spike, three ounces, and oil of vitriol, two ounces. This should Ims mixed in an earthen pitcher or bowl, from which it can afterward be turned into a glass bottle and corked First mix the currier’s liniment with the oil of spike, after which add the oil of vitriol slowly, otherwise it will foam and become so hot oh ti> break the dish. Remove all pus from the fistula with a swab, as above mentioned, then tale a piece of cotton batting-, twist it up loosely, pass a thread through it with a knot tied in the end, saturate this with the liniment and press it to the bottom of the fistula, letting it remain there until the following day when it should be removed, the fistula swabbed out, and another application of saturated cotton be made. This should be repeated until the pipe is destroyed, so tliat It can bo palled ont, after which cleanse the cavity and apply the saturated cotton daily until the sore heals.— American Cultivator.