Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1873 — FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

—Should any water stand upon the surface of the orchard, surface drains should be opened. —House plants usually suffer more from dust and a dry atmosphere than from any other cause, an (1 the only remedy is to shower often, and to occasionally sponge the foliage of the smooth-leaved plants, such as camellia, ivy, etc. —ls ahy pHihlng is io bb dlinb, It is better to select mild days during early winter than to delay until spring. When large limbs are removed, the wounds should be covered with a varnish of gumshellac, or. with melted grafting-wax. _Select from your poul t ry t he hens and cocks you intend,to keep, and fatten the rest. If you wisfi eggs in winter, provide with warm quarters, ahd feed more or less animal food. ’Keep the hen-house clean, and see that the hens do not want for water. ■ . —Do not allow bean-poles to remain exposed to the -weather. With shelter they may be made to do service for several seasons. Pea-brush seldom lasts more thon one season, though, occasionally, with care, it will do the second spring. —lntroducing Queens. —Take a frame partly filled with comb and honey, and put on side and bottom bars the same •width as top bar. Tack wire cloth. over , both sides and over mortises in top bar. You thus have a wire-cloth cage tlie size of a frame, with plenty of honey in it. Put the queen in with a few-bees, insert the frame in the center of the hive, and in thirty-six hours you can release her with perfect Bee-Keeper's Magazine. —A correspnddnt of the tieman recommends the following as an ink for zinc only, that will endure for years, cuts slightly into metal, has a black color, and is as legible after a dozen years as when newly written: “Take one part verdigis, one part sal ammonia, half part lampblack, and ten parts of water; mix well and keep in a bottle with a glass stopper; shake the ink before using it. It will keep any length of time. Write it on the label with a steel pen, not too fine pointed. It dries in the course of a minute or two.!’ Horses’ Manes and Coats.—Middy Morgan, the horse-woman and stock reporter, says: I give the following recipe, which I have personally proved to be efficient in restoring a healthy growth of hair on the tails and manes of horses: Corrosive sublimate (hyd. bichloride), oxymuriate o£ mercury, each four grains in one ounce of distilled water. Wash the parts where the hair is thin with warm water and soap, then rub dry with a linen cloth, and immediately after rub. in some of the above liniment. If the hair has been rubbed off by the animal’s own endeavors to allay cutaneous irritation, then dress with the following ointment: One ounce of_finefloursulphur,one ounce of pulverized saltpeter, made into a soft ointment with fresh butter or fresh rendered hog’s lard; rub in at night and wash out in the morning with warm water and soap; repeat three or four times. If the hair is scant from natural debility of the capillary organs, then simply use cold water applied with a sponge; avoid all combing or brushing, and cleaHi the mane and.tail as the Arabs do, with a coarse flannel rubber.

—A National Convention of Swine Breeders waSheld at Indianapolis, Ind., when the following standard as to what constitutes the most perfect/ hog -was adopted: It must have a small, short head; heavy jowl; short, thick neck; ear small, thin, and tolerably erect, but not objectionable if '’slightly drooping forward; bottom straight from neck to flank,and.well down to knees in brisket; 1 of good length frbm head to tail; on the back broad; ribs rather barrel-shaped, and must be slightly curved in the back, from the shoulder to the setting on of the tail; the tail small; the ham long from the hock to letting off at the loin, and broad and full shoulders, not. , too large, but enough so to give symmetry to the animal; hair smooth and evenly set on;,skin soft and elastic to the touch ; legs short and small, and well set under and space between broad; good depth between bottom and top; good, quiet disposition; weight hot to exceed three to four hundred pounds gross at twelve to eighteen months. Such a hog should measure as many feet from the top of the head to the root of the tail as he does around the body, and’will measure as many Inches around Jhe leg, below the.kfiee, as -• be does in feet around the body,. and the depth of the body will be four-fifths of the height, t ■— * —The most successtul breeders of horses, cattle, sheep or swine, know from experience that although they may possess the best breeding animals, they will not be successful in producing superior stock if a continual growth of young animals is not kept lip. In order to begin in time at this indispensable preparation fqr success, the brood mares, cows, ewes and sows are most carefully , and suitably fed

while with young, and as soon as the young animals make their appearance they are-taken .the. greatest care of, the danis being suitably red While suckling, and when the young ones a? 6 weaned they are not supposed to want for food or drink a single hou'r. By this means a continuous or rapid growth is kept up, jfflOMUAfiLmb.. and heavy weight nt an early age. When brfceaihg animals are hot properly fed and comfortably sheltered jn ; Tyjhtet, the bad eflect of such treatment is not Confined to their own want of condition —it is qjiafed by their progeny, and can never be remedied. When young stock are not fed well and comfortably sheltered in winter, ihglr growth .becomes stunted, and no subseqiieht amotint of good treatment dan repair the damage. Young animals may suffer for want of proper provender in summer and dutuflin, as vVfelf. aft in wipter, and when this happens it stops continuous growth and, prevents ultimate success in the objects of thg breeders. .