Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1877 — USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE.

Ashes. —Do not allow ashes of any kind to be wasted. It will pay to haul leached sshee several miles, when one has his own team and a laborer at fair wages. Coal ashes, when spread around berry bushes of snvsort,or around grape Tinea, will aid materially in producing large and fair fruit.— Gardener’t Monthly. Improvements. —Look about the premises for opportunities to make improve, mente. If everything has been done to your liking, all right. But in most instances one can discover in what res pest several improvements can be made. Would It not Improve your surroundings to grade up with mellow dirt some of the low places about the house and barn and to put out a few more shade trees? Stains on marble can usually be removed by a mixture of one ounce of soda, a piece of stone lime the size of a walnut, quarter of a pound of whiting* and the some amount of soft soap. Boil these together ten or fifteen minutes, and then put the mixture on the marble while hot. Leave this on twenty-four hours, then wash off with clean warm water, and polish, first with soft flannel and then with chamois skin. —Ohriitian Union.

Lawns—As soon in the growing season as the ground is sufficiently dry to admit of its being worked without injury to its fertility, make new lawns and repair old ones. A mellow and rich surface generously seeded is ail that is requisite to produce a dense growth of grass. If the surface is uneven, it is sometimes more economical to fill the depressions With rich dirt, and sow in the bare places, than to spade or plow the plot and reseed where there is a tough sod. Timber.—ls trees were cut down last autumn, or during the winter, do not allow the logs to remain unsawn or not spilt until warm weather. To render tough timber still more tough and firm let the boards or plank or other pieces be placed in water where they will soak through and through. If allowed to soak a mouth all the better. Then remove the lumber and “stick it up” properly, and good timber will be hard and tough and worms will never work in it.— Exchange. Many complain that birds strip the buds off their gooseberry bushes. Never prune until the bushes are bursting into leaf, and you will always have heavy crops. It Is a good practice to get work as forward as possible during the winter, but some discretion should be exercised as to the right and wrong subjects to be dealt with, or more harm than good may ensue. As regards keeping birds from destroying buds the best remedy is powder and shot. All kinds of guards, except close netting, are useless.—Horticultural Exchange.

Docks.—ls one is located near a pond of water he can raise a hundred ducks at a small expense. To prevent laying the eggs in water, or dropping them where they are liable to be lust, keep the ducks confined in a spacious yard until after they have laid, or until the after part of the day. Duckß are so fond of remaining in the water that they will often drop their eggs in a deep pond or in the running brook. After a duck has laid a given number of eggs, and wants to set, let her be tethered at the margin of the water until she will not return to her nest. After a few days, if fed generously, she will commence laying more eggs. Kindling wood is always in demand. No one need fear that more will be prepared than can be consumed in an economical manner. Hence, cut every old hoop into short pieoes and split up every piece of worthless board aQd pile them up neatly beneath some shelter. .Never allow old boxes, old tubs, old barrels that are ever ready to tumble down, nor other rubbish, to accumulate in the cellar, attic or barn. Reduce all such useless articles to kindling wood, and thus keep the premises clear of old things that will never subserve a better purpose than fuel. Wood cut and split fine and properly dried is often more convenient and economical In hot weather than coal, especially when one needs but little fire.— N. T. Herald ,