Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1873 — FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

—Plates of coarse salt, with a large spoonful of vitriol poured In daily, are commended as disinfectants. —A market gardener of Lake County, Iff., says that he has the most remarkable success in the use of salt upon his tomato plants. He applied It at various times during the season, and in every case its effect is marked in the increased growth of both plant aqd fruit. In some cases he lays the roots of back-! ward plants bare, sprinkles them with a tablespoonful of ordinary barrel salt, and covers with soil. Plants treated in this way take an immediate start, and develop the fruit. —Wm. A. Woodbridge, of Flay woods, Cal., writes to the Farm Journal as follows : “I see in the April number of the Journal an article on smnt in wheat, also a remedy. Now we raise any amount of wheat in this country, but never have it smutty. But we bluestone it,-as it Is called here. Takd a box or trough about ten feet long by two wide, and two deep; put in about 500 pounds of wheat; then take a pail, put in about one pound of blue vitriol; fill with hot water, and let stand until the stone is dissolved; then pour on to the wheat, and mix well until the wheat is well dampened with the solution ; then take it out in sacks and let it stand until dry before sowing. The farmers here all blue stone their wheat, and are never troubled with smut.” —Benefit of Plaster.—At a meeting of Rosendale (Wis.) Farmer’s Club, one member stated that he sowed plaster on a field May 20, and obtained three times the grass on this field more than on that where it was not sowed. He used to raise only one ton of hay per acre; now raised, by plaster, two or three tons per acre; always top dressed it on grass lands. In a discussion it was stated that when plaster was sown on clover, the clover all cut and hauled off, and the ground broken and sowed to oats, every cast of the plaster made in sowing it could be plainly seen in the field of oats. Also that when plaster was applied to corn, in the hill, the place of every hill could be seen in a crop of wheat which followed. In a drought, dew would be found on the ground where plaster had been sown, while all other ground was dry and haTd. —Where corn is worth' less than forty cents per bushel it will pay -well, even at the present low price of pork, to make the hogs fal before selling them. Packers want small, fine-boned pigs, but they want them well-fattened. Store pigs should be kept growing rapidly. The prospects are favorable for an advance in pork another year, and farmers, especially in the West, should feed their young stock liberally. Breeding sows should have as much exercise as you can make them take in searching for food. But, at the same time, they should be able to find as much as they need to keep them in vigorous health and good condition. For thorough-bred sows, which keep easily, and are apt to get too fat, the food should be of a rather bulky nature, such as bran, turnips, etc. Do not allow young and old pigs to run together. The young, growing pigs should have all the food they will eat arid digest. If they are of the right kind, that mature early, they must have good food, and plenty of it, while young, or they will not be healthy. —American Agriculturist. —“What shall I do for my hair?” is a question that comes to our sanctum frond various quarters every moDth; and were it as convenient to engraft artificial hair as to insert artificial teeth, hair doctors would be as plenty as dentists. No one is to be reprimanded for desiring a brilliant and vigorous growth of the hair, for it indicates a good vital condition;nor for envying a wavy or curling disposition, of the natural head covering, for it is useful as well as ornamental. But the health of the bodily integument and appendages are developed from the organs within; all vital structures are developed from the center to the circumference, hence the normal condition and integrity of the h air, as well as that of the skin and nails, depend on the general health. Stimulating viands and irritating condiments, the excessive use of salt, pickles, saleratus, etc., predispose to disease of the scalp and baldness. Many young persons injure and finally destroy the roots of the hair by frequent washes or oily preparations. These may produce a soft, glossy appearance for a time, but premature decay is the sure and not very remote result of their employment. —Science of Health.