Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1875 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

—Milch cows should be housed cold nights. If suffered to be on the cold ground they are chilled and will give less milK. It is economy to take the best care of cows and make them comfortable at all times. —Sheep and young stock should be protected from cold rams and long storms during the late autumn. Sheep, when thoroughly drenched by cold rains, suffer greatly from cold winds and often are seriously injured. —A correspond! * of the Prairie Farmer says eoal-oi .mps will be much safer to use if the H-/wl is loosely filled with raw cotton or before putting in any oil. Incase c < plosion or falling on the floor the bum.ig fluid cannot fly all over everything. —Plows, harrows, wagons and other farming implements should be stored un der shelter. More tools are destroyed by exposure to the weather than are worn out. A valuable farm cart, by exposure to the weather during one winter, will be damaged more than by three years’ use. —lt seems really wonderful to look back and note the rapid stride toward perfection which that lovely class o t flowers, double geraniums, has made. Avery few • years have elapsed since flower-lovers were elated by tlie advent of number one, poor as it was, and now we have them in almost all the tints that this flower is capable of producing.— N. Y. Tribune. —Varnish-brushes should never be allowed to touch water, as it not only injures the elasticity of the hair, but a resinous substance is formed in the hilt of the brush, wMfcL can never be thoroughly removed, and which will work out little by little when the brush is used, destroying the glassy surface which otherwise might be obtained.— Western Manufacturer. —Rock Cream.—Wash a teacupful of the best rice, and boil slowly until quite soft in new milk; add white sugar to taste, and then pile it on a dish. Lay on in different places lumps of Jelly or thick preserved fruit. Beat the whites of five eggs to a stiff froth, with a little sugar and flavoring. When well beaten add a tablespponful of rich cream, and drop it over the rice, imitating the form of a rock of snow. —The Joumal of Chemistry warns the drinkers of water of wells near dwellings to beware of the typhoid poison sure to be found sooner or later in those reservoirs if any of the house drainage can percolate them. The gelatinous matter often found upon the stones of a well is a poison to the human system, probably by its spores a fermentation of the blood, with abnormal heat or fever. Wholesome, untainted water is always, free from all color and odor. To test it thoroughly, place half a pint in a clear bottle, with a few grains of lump sugar, and expose it, stoppered, to sunlight in a window. If, even after an exposure of eight or ten days, the water becom'es turbid, be sure that the water has been contaminated by sewage of some kind. If it remains perfectly clear it is pure and safe.