Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1895 — Page 3

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

NEW LESSON FROM THE FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. Weighed in the Balance and Found Wanting—The Suddenness of God’s Judgments—A Thought as to the Forms of Prayer—Look and Li re. The Banquet of Sin. Since his going to Washington "Dr. Talmage’s pulpit experience has been a remarkable one. Not only has the church in which he preaches been filled, but the audiences have overflowed into- the -ad——Joining streets to an extent that has rendered them impassable. Similar scenes were enacted at- last Sunday’s services, when the preacher took for his sabject, “Handwriting on the Wall,” the text chosen being Daniel v., 30, “In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chal- • deans, slain.” - ~~~ -r—r— Night was about to come down on Bnbylon. The shadows of her 250 towers began to lengthen!; The Euphrates rolled on, touched by the fiery splendors of the setting sun, and gates of brass, burnished and .glittering, opened and shut like doors of flame. The hanging gardens of Babylon, wet with the heavyTlew, began to pour from starlit .flcrivers and dripping leaf a fragrance for many miles around. The streets a-nd squares were lighted for dance and frolic and promenade. The theaters and galleries of art invited the wealth and pomp and grandeur of the city to rare entertainments. Scenes of riot and wassail were mingled in every street, and godless mirth, and outrageous excess and‘splendid wickedness came to the king's palace to do their mightiest deeds of darkness. A royal feast to-night at the king's palace! Rushing up to the gates are chariots, upholstered with precious cloths from Dell an and drawn by fire-eyed horses from Togarmah, that rear and neigh in the grasp of the charioteers, while a thousand lords dismount and , women dressed in all the splendors of Syrian emerald, and the color blending of _agate, and the chasteness of coral, and the somber glory, of Tyrian purple, and princely embroideries brought from afar "fry-camels across HieTlgscrTTnia fry jhillgl of Tarshish across the sea.

Olien wide I lie gates :in<t ti»f tbo Come in. The chamberlains trnd cupbearers are all ready. Hark to the rustle of the silks, and to the carol of the music! See the blaze of the jewels! Lift the banners. I'lll the cups. Clap the cymbals. Blow the trumpets. Let the night go by with song and dance and ovation, and let that Babylonish tongue be palsied that will not say, “O King Belshazzar, live forever!” Alt, my friends, it was not any common banquet to which these great people came. All parts of the earth had sent their richest viands to that table. Brackets and chandeliers flashed their light upon tankards of burnished gold. Fruits, ripe and luscious, in baskets of silver, intwined with leaves, plucked from royal conservatories. Vases’, inlaid with emerald and ridged with exquisite traceries, filled with nuts that were thrashed from forests of distant lands.* Wipe brought from the royal vats, foaming in the decanters and bubbling in the chalices. Tufts oLcassm and frankincense wafting-their sweetness from wall and table. Gorgeous banners unfojjjjpg jjj the breeze that came through the open window, bewitched with the perfumes ofdiapging -gardens.. Knnitams- rising— up from inclosures of ivory, ip jets of crystal, to fall in clattering rain of diamonds and pearls. Statues of mighty men loking down from niches in the wall upon crowns and shields brought from sjibdued empires. Idols of wonderful work standing on pedestals of precious stones. Embroideries stooping about the windows and wrapping pillars of cedar, and drifting on floor inlaid with ivory and agate. Music, mingling the thrum of harps, and the clash of cymbals, and the blast of trumpets in one wave of transport that went rippling alqng the wall and breathing among the garlands and pouring down the corridors and thrill ing the soul? of a thousand banqueters. - The signal is given, and the lords and ladies, the mighty men and women of the land, come around the table; Pornrwst, the wine. Let foam and bubble kiss the rim! Hoist every one his cup and drink to the sentiment;. “O King Belshazzar, live forever!” Bestarred head band and earcanet of'royalbeauty gleam to the uplifted chalices, as again and again and again they are emptied. Away with care from the palace! Tear royal dignity to tatters! I‘our out more wine! Give us more light, wilder music, sweeter perfume! Lord shouts to lord, captain ogles to captain. Goblets clash; decanters rattle. There come in the obscene song, and the ■drunken hiccough, and the slavering lip, and the guffaw of idiotic laughter, bursting from the lips of princes, flushed, reeling bloodshot; while mingling with it all I hear, “Huzza, huzza! for great Belshazzar!" What is that on the plastering of the wall? Is it a spirit? Is it a phantom? Is it God? The music stops. The goblets fall from the nerveless grasp. There is a thrill. There is a start. There is a thousand voiced shriek of horror. Let Daniel be brought in to re’ad that writing. He comes in. He reads it—“ Weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

A Warning:, Meanwhile the Medes, who for two years had been laying siege to that city, took advantage of that carousal and came in. I hear the feet of the conquerors on the palace stairs. Massacre rushes in with a thousand gleaming knives. Death bursts upon the scene, and I shut the door of that banqueting hall, for I do not want to look. There is nothing there but torn banners, and broken wreaths, and the slush of upset tankards, and the blood of murdered women and the kicked and tumbled carcass of a dead king. For “in thut night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.” I go on to learn some lessons from all this. I learn that when God writes anything brt the wall a man had better read it as it is.'* Daniel did not misiuterpretpr modify theTiahdwritlhg on the wall. It is nil foolishness to expect a minister of the gospel, to preach always things 'that the people like or the people choose. Young men of Washington, what shall I preach to you to-night? Shall I tell you of the dignity of human nature? Shall 1 tell you of the wonders that our race has accomplished? “Oh, no,” >4>u say. “Tell me the message that came from God.” I will. If there is any handwriting on the wall,itdlthis'lesson: “Repent! Accept of Christ and be saved!” Mmight talk of a great many other things, but that is the message, ahd Iso declare it. Jesus never flattered those to whom he preached. He said to those who did wrong, and who

were offensive in his sight, “Ye generation of vipers, ye white sepulchers, how cau ye escape the dampation of hell!” Paul the apostle preached before a man who was not ready to hear him preach. What subject did he take? Did he say, “Oh, you are a good man. a very fine man, a very noble mad?” No; he preached of righteousness to a man who was unrighteous, of temperance to a man who was a victim of bad appetites, of judgment to come to a man who was unfit for it. So we must always declare the message that happens to come to ns. DaiP" iel must read it as itis. A minister preached before James I. of England, who was James VI. of Scotland. What subject did he take? The king was noted all over the world for being unsettled and wavering inhtejdeas,__What did the minister preaeh about to this man who was James I. of England and James * VI. of Scotland ? He took for his-text, James i., 6: “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” Hugh Latimer offended the king by a sermon preached, and the king said, “Hugh Latimer, come and apologize.” “I will,” said Hugh Latimer. So the day ' was app6inted, arid the king’s chapel was full of lords and dukes and the mighty men and women of the country, for Hugh Latimer was to apologize. He began hrs ■ sermon fry saying, “Hugh Latimer, bethink thee! Tliou art in the presence of thine earthly king, who can destroy thy body. But bethink thee, Hugh Latimer, that thou art in the presence of the king of heaven and earth, who can destroy both body and soul in hell fire.” Then he preached with appalling directness at the king’s, crimes.

The En<Lx>f Sin. Another lesson that comes to us tonight: There is a great difference between the opening of the banquet of sin and its close. Young man, if you bad looked in upon the banquet in the first few hours you would have wished you had been invited there, and could sit at the ..f ea_st.__J!Q.h, the.grande uro f Belshazzaris feast!” you would have said, but you look in at the close of the banquet and your blood curdles with horror. The king of terrors has there a ghastlier banquet; human blood is the wine and dying groans are the music. Sin has made itself a king in the earth. It hns crowned itself. It has spread a banquet. It invites all the world to come to it. It has hung in its banqueting ha ll the spoils of all kingdoms, and the banners of all nations, it- hns from Its wealth, the tables and floors and arches. And yet how often is that banquet broken up, and how horrible is its end! Ever and anon there is a handwriting on the wall. A king falls. A great culprit is Arrested. The knees of wickedness knock together. God's judgment, like an armed host, breaks in upon the banquet, and that night is Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. Here is a young man who says: ■ “I cannot see why they make such a fuss about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is exhilarating! It makes me feel well. I can talk better, think better, feel better. I cannot see why people have, such a prejudice against it.” A few years pass on, and he wakes up and finds himself in the clutches pf an evil habit which he tries to break, but cannot, and he cries out, “Q Lord God, help me!” It seems as though God Would not hear his prayer, and in an agony of body and soul he cries out, “It biteth like a serpent and it stingeth like an adder.y. How bright it was at the start! How black it was at the last I

Her& M a. man who begins to read loose novels.. “They are so charming,” he says. “I will go out and see for myself whether all these things are so.” He opens the gate of a siiifnHife. He goes in. A sinful sprite meets him with her wand. She waves her wand, and it.is all enchantment. Why, it seems as if the angels of God had poured out vials of perfun;.? in the atmosphere. As he walks on ho finds the hills becoming more radiant with foliage and the ravines more resonant with the falling Water. Oh, what a charming landscape he sees! But that sinful s-ftfite, with her wand, meets him again. But now she reverses the wand, and ajl the enchantment is gone. The cup is fu.l of poison. The fruit turns to ashes. All the leaves of the bower are forked toagues of hissing serpents. The flowing fiuintains fall back in a dead pool stenc'jful with corruptions The luring,.songs become curses and screams of demoniac laughter. Lost spirits gather about_hhH= and feel for his heart and beckon h‘ip on with "Hail, brother! Hail, blasted iqirit, Hail!" He comes to the front door where he entered and tries to push it back, but the door turns against him, and in the jar of that shutting door he hears these words, “This night is Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.” Sin may open bright as the morning. It ends dark as the night!

Death at the Banqqct. I learn further from this subject that death sometimes breaks in upon a banquet. Why did he not go down to the prisons in Babylon? There were people there that would like to have died. I suppose there were men and women in torture in that city who would have welcomed death, but he comes to the palace, and just at the time when the mirth is dashing to the tip-top pitch, death breaks in at the banquet. We have often seen the same thing illustrated. Here is a jfoung man just come from college. He is kind. He is loving. He is enthusiastic. He is eloquent. By one spring he may bound to heights toward which many men have been struggling for years. A profession opens before him. He is established in the law. His friends cheer him. Eminent men encourage him. After awhile you may see him standing in the American Senate, or moving a popular assemblagebyhis eloquence, as trees are moved in a whirlwind. Some night he retires early. A fever is on him. Delirium, like a reckless charioteer, seizes the reins of his Intellect. Father and mother stand by and see the tides of his life going on to the great ocean. The banquet is coining to an end. The lights of thought ajd mirth and eloquence are being extinguished. The garlands are snatched from the brow. The vision is gone. Death at the banquet! We saw the same thing, on a larger synle, illustrated in our civil war. Our whole nation had been sitting at a national banquet—North, South, East and West. What grain was there but we grew- it oj our hills? What invention was there? but bur rivers must turn the new j»heel apd rattle the strange shuttle?" What warm furs but our traders must bring them from the arctics? What fish bi.tour nets must sweep them for the market? What music but ft must sing in onr halls? What eloquence but it must speak in our senates? Ho, to the Rational banquet, reaching from mountain to mountain and from sea to sea! To prepare that banquet the sheepfolds and the aviaries of the country sent their best treasures. The orchids piled up on the table their sweet

traits. The presses burst out with new wines. To sit at that table came the yeomanry of New Hampshire, and the lumbermen of Maine, and the Carolinian from the rice plantation,-and the Western emigrant from the pines of Oregon, and we wercall brothers—brothers at afranqiret Suddenly the feast ended. \\ hat meant those mounds thrown up at Chickamauga, Shiloh, Atlanta, Gettysburg, South Mountain^What meant those golden grainfields, turned into a pasturingjground for cavalry horses? What meant the cornfields gullied with the wheels of the heavy supply train? Why those rivers of tears —those lakes of blood? God was angry! Justice must come. A handwriting on the wall! The nation had been weighed and found wanting. Darkness! Darkness! Woe to the North! Woe to the South! Woe to the East! Woe to the West! Death at the banquet. Sudden I have also to learn from the subject that the destruction of the vicious, and of those who despise God, will be very sudden. The wave of mirth bad dashed to the highest point when theinvading ~Jarrny hfnE eth rough ■ It was unexpected? Suddenly-, almost"always, comes the doom of those who despise God and defy the laws of men. How was it at the deluge? lt came through a long northeast storm, so that people-for days before were sure it was coming? No. I suppose the, morning was bright; that calmness brooded on the waters; that beauty sat enthroned on the hills, when suddenly the heavens burst, and the mountains sank like anchors into the sea that dashed clear over the Andes and the Himalayas. The lied Sea was divided. The Egyptians tried to cross it. There could be no danger. The Israelites had just gone through. Where they had gone, why not the Egyptians? Oh, it was such a beautiful walking place! A pavement of tinged shells and pearls, and on either side two great walls of water—solid. There can be no danger. Forward, great host of the Egyptians! Clap the cymbals and blow the trumpets of victory! After them! We will catch them yet, and they shall be destroyed. But the walls begin to tremble! They rock! They fall! The rushing waters! The shriek of drowning men! The swimming of the warhorses in vain for the shore! The strewing of the great host on the bottom of the sea or pitched by the angry waves on the beach —a battered, bruised and loathsome wreck! Suddenly destruction came. - One-half'"ltour KeTbre they conid not frav-e btfret-ed'it; ' Destroyed, and without remedy—' •_ I am just setting forth a fact which you have noticed as well as 1. Ananias comes to the apostle. The apostle says, “Did you sell the land for so much?” He says, “Yes.” It was a lie. Dead, as quick as that! Sapphira, bis wife, comes in. “Did you sell the land for so much ?” “Yes.” It was a lie. and quick as that she was dead! God's judgments are upon, who despise him and defy him. They dome suddenly.

A Simple Prayer. The destroying angel went through Egypt. Do you suppose that any of the people knew that he was coming? Did they hear the flap of his great wing? No! No! Suddenly, unexpectedly he came. Skilled sportsmen do not like to shoot a bird standing on a sprig near by. If they are skilled, they pride themselves on taking it on the wing, and they wait till it starts. Death is an old sportsman, and he loves to take meh flying under the very sun. He loves to take them on the wing. Oh, flee to God this night! If there be one in this presence who has wandered far away from Christ, though he- may-not have heard the call of the gospel for many a year, I invite him now to eome and be saved. Flee from thy sin! Flee to the stronghold of the gospetlNow is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Good night, ray young friends! May you have rosy sleep, guarded by him who never slumbers! May you awake in the morning strong and well! But, oh, art thou a despiser of God? Is this thy last night on earth? Shouldst thou be awakened in the night by something, thou not what, and there be shadows floating in the room, and a handwriting oh the wall, and you feel that your last hour is come, and there be a fainting at th? heart, and a tremor in the limb* and a catching of the breath—then thy doom would be but an echo.of the word of the text, “In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.” - Oh, that my Lord Jesus would now make himself so attractive to your souls that you cannot resist him, and if you have never prayed before or have not prayed since those days when you knelt down at your mother's knee, then that’ to night you might pray, saying; Just as I am, without one plea But that thy blood was shed for me And that thoii bid st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come! But if you cannot think of so lopg a prayer as that I will give you a shorter prayer that you can say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” Or, if you cannot think of so long a prayer as that, I will give you a still shorter one that you may utter, “Lord save me, or I perish!” Or, if that be too long a prayer, you need not make it. Use the word “Help!” O r , if that be too long a word, you need not use any word at all. Just look and live! ,

Transpiration Through Clothing.

It is absolutely essential to health that the emanations from the skin pass easily through the clothing. This—which is called “transpiration"—may be interfered with by an excess of clothing or by clothing of a very close texture. All who wear India rubber coats know how uncomfortable they are after they have been on a short time. Ordinarily proper clothing will not prevent transpiration, but an excess will interfere with it, and where too much clothing is worn it soon becomes foul, because the outside air cannot freely mingle with the gases from the body and dilute them. Some wear the thickest hud heaviest undervests which they can buy, and such people are generally the victims of frequent colds. Following the rule of light clothing fliey would be much safer from the danger of exposure were they to wear two light undervests instead of one very thick ifhd heavy. — —, _ -y : —__

The Evening Primrose.

One of the most singular peculiarities of the floral world is the evening primrose, which opens about 6 o'clock p. m. with an explosion not very loud nor formidable, but still quite perceptible to anyone who is watching the bud. It remains open all night.

THE FARM AND HOME.

MATTERS OF INTER EST TO FARM- / ER AND HOUSEWIFE. - Cheap Wheat la Valuable as Hay Feed —How to Take Care of Calves—lrrigating Side-Hill Land—Good Food for Poultry—Eat Cream. Wheat Worth 86 Cents as Hog Feed. H. F. E. Ludden, North Dakota, writes: On the first day of January, 1894, I had thirty-six hogs weighing on an average 154 pounds; fifteen of them were bred sows. During the year, says the Agriculturalist, I fed them 492 bushels of wheat. For four months they ran on a pasture consisting ofrye and barley, and during which time they had a small feed of soaked wheat. All the grain fed was carefully weighed. . In. September I. sold 2,500 pounds at four and a half cents, 5*006 {jounds inNovember at three and a half cents, and the retaainder in January, 1895, at three cents.l received for the thirtysix hogs and their increase $600.43. From January. 1894, to January, 1895, these hogs cost me $249.45. I received for the wheat $350.98; deducting the cost of grinding, the wheat yielded Hie 68 cents per bushel. If the price for hogs had been maintained, the November sales would have been four and a half cents and the closing sale four cents.' In that case the wheat would have had a value of eighty-six cents per bushel. The question does it pay to raise hogs on wheat seems to be an--swered by this experiment, extending over twelve months.

Care of the Calves. I should like to tell discouraged farmers what I did with two of those 200pound cows, writes one to the Country Gentleman. They were sold out of a dairy herd because they were not supposed to be worth keeping over winter. The second spring after, six weeks before dropping calves, the purchaser'began feeding the cows better. When the calves were dropped, he fed "<fri»m milk I'lWtiV frnm Hw nnw four weeks; it did not hurt them. Tlien gjive sweet skimmed milk, oilcake and oatmeal, with good pasture and feed till they were two years old. They calved, being milked, one ten, the other eleven months a year for three years. Milk, tested at Institute, went 4% and and the director said their mother must be extra good. Farmers try to raise cows for $25; these are worth $75, aqd cannot be bought for that. _____ Sidehill Irrlgrating. My farm is nearly all on a sidehlll, with a slope of about one foot in fifteen. Our ditch runs diagonally through my place, leaving about seventy acres under water. My delivery headgate is Just halfway from either end of the seventy acres, says a writer in the Agriculturist, and I run my laterals on a contour line east and west from the main lateral, which runs straight down the hill. The laterals are about 150 feet apart, and run on a grade of about one foot to a thousand feet. Then, to distribute The water over the land, I put in dams about every’ 200 feet, and cut the lateral about every fifteen, feet. It requires much more steady work for the man to irrigate on a sidehill-, but there is no danger of a crop being killed by flooding, of by standing water. My experience with alfalfa on a sidehill Is that it is far better than on level ground in that it is earlier and matures quicker.

Effect of Good Food. Eggs from hens that are fed largely on slops and refuse are not as good for cooking purposes as those which are laid by hens having a liberal ration of corn or wheat, and of the two, corn makes the richest eggs, says the Genesee Farmer, as it adds to the fat contents and gives the contents of the shell a consistency that makes It especially valuable for baking and kindred uses. A meat ration also adds to the value of the eggs, and it is because ducks are such ravenous hunters of frogs and the many insects on land and water that their eggs are preferred to all others by bakers and confectioners. Guinea eggs are specially rich in this quality, and are better for baking and making icing than those of almost any other fowl. The production of good eggs is a comparatively new Idea, and It has not been discussed half as much as its merits deserve that it should be. Eat Cream in Winter. Churn in the fall and eat the cream in winter, writes Mrs. L. J. P. Langley, of New York, to the Agriculturist. “Cannot afford it? No one has a better right to a good living than the farmer and his family, nor has anyone better facilities. There are four persons in our family. Imst fall I bad the milk of one fresh cow and two strippers to take care of. I could pack enough butter in one week to last four. Use sweet, new jars or put down in rolls, and cover with brine. Set in a cool, dry place where no foul air will reach ft. Continue packing entll enough to last until spring is put down. The boy who gets cream is more likely to stick to the farm than the one given skimmed milk. The farmer’s wife is notiobllged to chum all day. Try the experiment, and I am sure you will find it a success.” The objection to this plan is that the winter dairying is the most profitable for those who make butter for market. Keeping of Winter Squashes. The keeping of winter squashes requires careful management. They should be thoroughly ripened before taken from the vines, and the shell should be hard and well glazed over. Gather them before they are nipped I# frost. If left on the vines until they are chilled enough to change color, they will not keep well. Gather them on a sunny day, to be sure that they are perfectly dry. Handle carefully. If intended for winter use, they must not

be bruised, or the stem broken, as tfio slightest injury will increase the liability to.decay. Discard all the softshelled or unripe ones. Much depends on keeping them from moisture. Dampness and an uneven temperature are fatal to good keeping. If kept in a warm, damp cellar, they will soon rot. The best plan is to place them on a shelf or on the floor in a frost-proof garret. If stored in heaps, the under ones will send out the moisture, and cause the whole lot to rot in a short time.—M. E. Keqch. . Keep Stock Off Newly Seeded Land. When the established pasture fields during fall present a burned appearance, it takes considerable will power to resist the temptation to turn stock on to the newly seeded fields in which flie young clover and timothy present an inviting appearance, but the pasturing off of this new growth close to the ground will cause the whole plant to perisk if drou th prevails. The pastnring off of this fine top growth should be avoided, as it is just this mat that is required to protect the roots during the severe cold winter, and when frozen solid this growth of leaves and stalks pressed close to the ground prevents the daily spring thawing and freezing, such as would be the case were this covering pastured off. This top growth is notdost, but as the spring growth progresses, it decays, and is added to the fertility of the land.

Whey and Buttermilk. Handling whey and buttermilk is a problem at butter and cheese factories. At the Lawrence factory for making fancy cheese, a pipe is laid from the factory to the top of a bill about fifty feet higher than the factory anil 3,600 feet away. On the summit are commodious and well-con-structed hogpens, with rooms for the attendants. The pens are comfortably arranged and easily kept clean, and in winter are warmed by steam heat. To this place all the whey and buttermilk is forced by a-steam pump, and a main from tlie village waterworks unlimited supplies of pure, fresh water for drinking, washing, ntc.» The hogs are bred on the place, and two crops ’Of 300 hogs each are raised and marketed annually.—Agriculturist. To Root Cuttings, There is a simple process of rooting cuttings which is by far the most convenient for amateurs, called the saucer system, says the Philadelphia Ledger. This consists in filling plates or saucers with sand, inserting the cuttings close together (an inch or so apart), giving wqter, so the sand gets Into a semillquld state, then placed In a sunny window of the dwelling-house or on the stage of the green-house, entirely exposed to the sun and never shaded. All that is further required Is that the sand must be kept in the condition of mud until the cuttings are rooted, which will be in from ten to twenty days, according to the temperature or state of cut--tings. Great care must be taken that they never go dry, or the whole operation fall. This is a safe method of rooting cuttings, and one that during hot weather is preferable to others. Crops for Green Manuring;. Several times I have tried plowing In buckwheat. It is another fraud. It sours the land so nothing will grow after it for years—and not even then until something is put on to correct the acidity of the buckwheat. Have plowed in rye and thought it paid to do so. Have four acres of cowpeas now in field and two acres of soja beans. In my opinion they are not worthy the Northern! farmers’ attention. I should rather try sowed com for a crop to plow under (or even bitter weed), which is sure to grow, and costs less for seed and to plant. The reversible Syracuse sulky plow will put anything under—be it rye, buckwheat, weeds or corn.

First-clnss Dairy Stock. The most salable farm animal to-day is a first-class dairy cow, says the Maine Farmer. We often wonder why more farmers back on the hilly, rough pasture farms do not make a business of raising heifers of good milking strains to supply milkmen in the milk producing counties. Let the milch cow pass the first two years of her life on cheap land, and not try to pay interest on costly land until she gives milk. Last year we told of a Massachusetts farmer who takes his heifers by rail to cheap pastures in Maine every spring, wintering them on grain-hay and oil and cottonseed meals. Wet the Fodder When Put in Bilo. Mr. W. F. Bealls, Martinsville, Va., says: “When the season has been dry, and the corn for silo is without moisture, we dampen It down by sprinkling it well with water as we pack it. With our arrangement of the cutting machine in the barn on the floor above the silo, we can feed from'the cutter direct to the silo. A man is in the silo to pack it as It comes, and to wet it well at about every twenty Inches packed - . We have done this for the past four years ,and never saw better silage or had cows do better.” Vnlne of Ground Rye. One of the great virtues of rye as a food for hogs Is that it is a grain possessing more of the elements of growth, rather than fattening properties, and the people now demand a bacon hog. The day of large, fat hogs is over, and there is a call for lighter and better developed pigs of about 200 pounds weight. Japan Clover. For land too dry for alfalfa, Japan clover has been found a good substitute, and in the South and Southwest it is grown to some extent for hay and fodder. It is good for pasturage and makes good hay if cut early, before the stem becomes woody.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY : —— TOLD. Magnificent Apple Orchard Reproduced from the Fruit Peel—Great Data age Done by Marsh Ftrea Strange Cause of Injury. - A Succeaeful Experiment. Fruit-growers over the State will probably be interested in noting the results of • an experiment tried on Mobtgomerj County by Tyre G. Whittingten, Mr. Whittington resides near Waveland-TOTTSTr" one of the first farms settled in Chat tion. I 'pon tins Tam for manvveapt was a magnificent orchard, which tradition purported had its origin in the kindly work of the historical “Johnny Appleseed,” of many years ago. The apples were splendid fruit, and their like was not borne more modern trees of nursery reg-/ dstry Several years ago, before tiie last few of the trees of this old orchard passed lawny, Mr. Whittingten gathered, jrttaie of the best fruit and planted (he seed. Ho carefully trained the tender sprouts, and when of the proper trraeTie.replanted a large orchard. As the trees were seedlings, his work wtm ridiculed by many, but Sir. Whittingten 'maintained that all the fine o/ehnrds of early Indiana had a similar genesis, and that his would be a ouccess. This year has demonstrated that he wns eminently correct. The young orchard bore plentifully, and the fruit is of a quality unsurpassed. The apples fire large, perfect and of splendid flavor. There are many varieties and most of them different from any known there before. Mr. Whittingten states that the l-rojBS-pollenization has brought out new varieties in his orchard. Those who have used only grafted trees are greatly struck _ by the success of Mr. Whittington’s seedlings.

A New Rending: Circle. , The growing abundance of literature is making it mrtre and more difficult'to select and to read with profit. Long ago admirable reading courses were devised which served a double purpose—subjects and books were selected after a true educational nian and studies were helpfully directed. Often these courses jvgrejong and expensive, preventing leisure and means for reading from.-K' eepting their good offices. Nearly two years ago a company of literary people devised the Bay View Reading L’ircle, to serve where the others had failed, and its short and low-priced course has become very popular. This year the circle makes a specialty of England and astronomy. The course requires an average of less than half an hour daily, and the books, which may be bought anywhere, cost but $3. It is possible for every place to have a circle. Descriptive circulars of the .course and telling how To organize can always be procured from the central office, which is located at Flint, Mich. Bingular Explosion of Cider. J. V. Ayer, secretary of the Brazil Brick and Pipe Company, and one of the most prominent citizens of the city, was seriously injured in a singular manner. He had bought some cider and put it In a tin can. The family drank of it, and : it made them all sick. He went out to examine the eideri’aiid field a lighted match over the hole in the can, when it suddenly exploded with a loud noise. He ivas badly burned about the head and face, and it is feared that his eyes were destroyed. It is believed, however, he will recover his sight.

Marsh Fires Again Raging. Marsh-fires have again broken out in the Kankakee regions, and are raging with unrelenting fury. . A dispatch says that the tire moved to the southeast at a rapid rate, burning over five acres of ground on an average every hour. Horses, wagons anil presses and buildings have been cremated. Until this fresh outbreak the fire Was thought to have been cheeked and that there would be no further destruction of property. All Over the State. Rollin Stibbins, of Kokomo, is dead, the result of a fall from a row. , William Colvin, of Jefferson County, has been sentenced to live years" imprisonment fpr horse stealing. His accomplice', Donohue, was convicted last spring. The public sahools have closed at Williamsport because of diphtheria, and religious services in the churches are forbidden. The suit brought against the Treasurer of the Richmond School Board by the Attorney General for a return to th# Stalo of the s.urplus school of 18*J3 has been decided bj- Judge Comstock in favor of the Attorney General. About 810,000 is involved. Henry Cook, 55 years old, a farm* r. living north of La Porte, committed suicide by hanging himself, Cooke was heady in debt, and this fact, together with chagrin over the arrest of his two sdin for alleged assault, furnished the motive for the deed.

While Henry Horn, an old man, living south of Plainfield, Was handling fodder, a few days ago, he ran a splinter of t stalk in his hand, causing a slight wound. Soon after inflammation set in, blood poisoning resulted, and his life is now despaired of. J'...-. After a hard night's fight the citizens •and the Pennsylvania Railroad section men succeeded in checking the marsh fire which threatened to sweep the villages of Hnmmond and* Davis. A half dozen people were badly burned, but they will recover. The damage is estimated at $15,000. Edward L. Schell, of Fort Wayne, taken to Peru to answer a charge of perjury preferred by Horace S. Barnard, growing out of the trouble between these gentlemen at Knightstown and Rushville, was held by Justice Fulwiler for Grand Jury action. An affidavit was'lodged against Barnard at Peru some weeks ago, the affiant registering as K. E. White. It is the claim of Barnard that Schell and White are one and the same. All the Welshmen in the mills of the National tin plate factory at Anderson v/ent out on strike. One cause is said to be the employment of Americans. The company denies this, and says that the mills will soon be started again. William Waltman, ej-prosecutor of Brown and Bartholomew Counties, owns an orchard jff fifty acres in Brown County, part of which is old enough to bear. Fronvseten acres this season he has picked 2,000 bushels of apples, which he sold to a Michigan buyer for tlirty-five cents Iter bushel, thereby realising SIOO sets