Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1875 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

—To destroy insects that work on the roots of house-plants, put a few of carbolic acid in a pint of water and pour around the roots. ■ * —4 correspondent of the Baltimore American writes that he prevented his horses from having the epizootic by an expectorant treatment, and friends used the same means with success. He dissolved one teaspoonful of crystal chlorate of potash in a bucket of water, this amount making a morning dose for four horses. Another dose was given at night. —Chicken Pie. —Cut up a chicken, boil it until tender, take out the meat, simmer down the gravy to a pint, add three pints of milk and one-half pound of butter, two tablesptxinfuls of flour, a ’little salt; bring the gravy to a boil; line a tin pan with a crust made by taking one-fourth as much butter as sour milk, and a little soda and flour, to make a nice paste; line the tin pan, putin the meat, i>our over it the gravy, put on a top crust, leave a vent, and bake two liours and a half. •—Alter the fall of the leaf is a good time to notice any irregularities of growth of orchard trees, and this may then be rectified in a short time, always bearing in mind that in the case of large limbs being removed the wound should',>be covered with some preparation to keep out the weather. Gum-shellac dissolved in alcohol, or even cow-dung bound- on the parts exposed, answers the purpose. A handsomely-formed tree is not alone valued for its appearance to the eye, but it is in reality more useful, as the crop of fruit is then usually more evenly distributed over the tree.'— N. Y. Tribune. —A wash might be invented suitable to be put on the stems of trees that would prevent the attacks of mice in winter. But there is always more or less danger of in- , juring the trees by direct application of offensive materials. The more general and belter practice is to wrap the stems with paper, cloth, or bark, and apply coaltar or some other substance of a similar nature to the outside. Old coffee sacks, bass mats, or even a strong kind of paper, will answer for this purpose. The soil should be banked up over the lower edge ol' the wrapping, to prevent the mice from crawling under, and the stems of the trees covered one or two feet in height. Coaltar is probably the cheapest and most effectual material for this purpose* as mice will not trouble it. —Prairie Farmer. —ftrurcehiltig Ae rare- of tfae feetthe Scientific American very truly says: Many are careless in the keeping of the feet. If they wash them once a week they think they are doing well. They do not consider that the largest pores are located in the bottom of the foot, and that the-most offensive matter is discharged through the pores. They wear stockings lrorn tire beginning to the end of the week without change, which become perfectly saturated with offensive matter. 11l health is generated by such treatment of the feet. The pores are not repellants, but absorbents, and this fetid matter, to a greater or less extent, is taken back into the system. The feet should be washed every day with pure water only, as well as the armpits, from which an offensive odor is also emitted unless daily ablution is practicedStockings should not be worn more than a day or two at a time. They maybe worn one day, and then aired and sunned and worn another day if necessary."