Bemoraic atc Belletonte, Pa., March 12, 1915. El AAS MY DOG. I have no dog, but it must be Somewhere there’s one belongs to me— A little chap with wagging tail, And dark brown eyes that never quail, But look you through, and through, and through, With love unspeakable, but true. Somewhere it must be, I opine, Thsre is a little dog of mine With cold black nose that sniffs around In search of what things may be found In pocket, or some nook hard by, Where I have hid them from his eye. Somewhere my doggie pulls and tugs The fringes of rebellious rugs, Or with the mischief of the pup Chews all my shoes and slippers up, And, when he’s done it to the core, With eyes all eager, pleads for more. Somewhere, upon his hinder legs, My little doggie sits and begs, And in a wistful minor tone Pleads for the pleasures of the bone— I pray it be his owner’s whim To yield and grant the same to him! Somewhere a little dog doth wait, It may be by some garden gate, With eyes alert, and tail attent— You know the kind of tail that’s meant— With stores of yelps of glad delight To bid me welcome home at night. —Life. FROM INDIA. By One on Medical Duty in that Far Eastern Country. Just a Potpouri of Incidents in Get- ting Ready for the Home Coming. JHANSI, JANUARY 1st, 1914. Dear Home Folk: How nice it is to be once more start- ing homeward. Of course I will have two weeks longer here and then I'm off; it's all so recent I can scarcely realize it at all. I had three letters from you all last Saturday. I'll enclose in this the boxes’ size and contents, so you'll have no difficulty and will ship them direct to Philadelphia, if possible. There seems to be a little difficulty over just that point, but I have written Cook’s and am hoping to send the four boxes off within a week as all are packed and crated, so are ready to move on. I shall send keys for my trunks to you | but as I have only one for each trunk I will have one made as I am afraid they might get lost, so although I'll ship the trunks at once the keys will no doubt reach you long before they get there. This is New Year’s day and several of us went out to see the big New Year's parade. Of all the King’s soldiers, there was not a thing new in it all but, as Dr. ! G. remarked, it made one think of comic opera, and one of my English women friends remarked that the time of “God save the King” bored her and wished it could be changed for another—after we had listened to it for six times—now don’t you see how impressed we all were. It has been interesting to live in a military station and I am more than glad that I have had this opportunity to see it at close range, but long for city life once more; I wonder whether one is ever con- tent. Christmas brought cards and cards, more and more, until I don’t just know how I will acknowledge them all, but think I'll just wait and send post- cards from the most interesting point I find, to the most of them, for I just can’t write so many letters. Do hope you had a nice Christmas time; with the two children it would be merry indeed. The drought still continues; you i couldn’t imagine such dryness and then, | even the Christmas rains failed this year and now they have nearly six months of dry weather still to face. I have been given so many nice things, My “Parsee” friends gave me the most beautiful crepe-de-chine sauri—I think there are eight yards in it, and it will make a beautiful evening frock; it is just what they wear all the time, and now I have one. The mother of my babe also gave me the child’s picture and when you see it you’ll simply say it is a Jewish child, for it is quite fair. Today the people across the way are having all their Hindustani teachers and friends in to have tea and I hear the drum and the songs that mean the tea party is in progress, but although I was invited I think I’ve had enough dinners and teas for a day or two. I go to another din- ner tomorrow night and several next week, so they are not all over. Surely if I were to stay here longer I would be just as badly bored over dinners as tea parties now bore me, and I know I would not accept a single invitation. A nice brown minor bird is making a great fuss over a tiny pool of water he has just found, which the “Bishti” left while watering the ferns, a few feet away. From the noise the small crea- ture is making you would imagine it was a veritable gold mine. He evidently wants a bath but there isn’t enough water there for that and of course he won’t let me within ten feet of him, should I go and get him more water. Poor birdie! It’s hard lines to live in a dry country if one likes baths. I notice in the paper how food and stuffs are going up; somehow I wonder where it is all going to stop and how the poor people in America are going to get food enough to eat; surely it don’t cost seventy-five cents a dozen to produce eggs, isn’t there a big profit going into some one’s pocket? If you could get your food stuffs here you would indeed come more nearly being equal for the wage paid here makes our prices seem high, but your higher earning power would just suit out here and leave a lit- tle margin in your pocket. Strange we can’t run these things to suit our ideas. The tea-party is over and the people are coming home, which means the sun | empire from the frontiers of Hungary to is going down and I must be off to see how the hospital folk are doing. I won't have many more days to go down there, fortunately, for I still have a woolen gown I want to finish so I'll be quite | busy up until my last day here; but I| don’t want these people to say I neglect- ed a single thing. Now I am going to wish you the nicest kind of a New Year, and may the best wish you want come true. (Continued next week.) The Fuel Value of Wood. The fuel value of two pounds of wood" is roughly equivalent to that of one pound of coal. This is given as the re- sult of certain calculation now being made in the Forest Service Laboratory, which shows also about how many cords of certain kinds of wood are required to obtain an amount of heat equal to that in a ton of coal. Certain kinds of wood, such as hick- ory, oak, beech, birch, hard maple, ash, elm, locust, longleaf pine, and cherry, have fairly high heat values, and only one cord of seasoned wood of these spe- cies is required to equal one ton of coal. It takes a cord and a half of shortleaf pine, hemlock, red gum, Douglas fir, syc- amore, and soft maple to equal a ton of coal, and two cords of cedar, redwood, poplar, catalpa, Norway pine, cypress, basswood, spruce, and white pine. Equal weights of dry, non-resinous woods, however, are said to have practic- ally the same heat value regardless of species, and as a consequence it can be stated as a general proposition that the heavier the wood the more heat to the cord. Weight for weight, however, there is very little difference between various species; the average heat for all that have been calculated is 4,600 calories, or heat units, per kilogram. A kilogram of resin will develop 9,400 heat units, or about twice the average for wood. Asa consequence, resinous woods greater heat value per pound than non- resinous woods, and this increased value varies, of course, with the resin content. The available heat value of a cord of wood depends on many different factors. It has a relation not only to the amount of resin it contains but to the amount of moisture present. Furthermore, cords vary as to the amount of solid wood they contain, exen when they are of the stan- | dard dimension and occupy 128 cubic feet of space. this space is made up of air spaces be- tween the sticks, and these air spaces may be considerable in a cord made of twisted, crooked, and knotty sticks. Out of the 128 cubic feet, a fair average of solid wood is about 80 cubic feet. It is pointed out, however, that heat value is not the only test of usefulness in fuel wood and since 85 per cent. of all wood used for fuel is consumed for do- mestic purposes, largely in farm houses, such factors as rapidity of burning and ease of lighting are important. Each sec- tion of the country has its favored woods and these are said to be, in general, the right ones to use. Hickory, of the non- resinous woods has the highest fuel val- ue per unit volume of wood, and has oth- er advantages. It burns evenly, and, as housewives say, holds the heat. The oak comes next, followed by beech, birch, and maple. Pine has a relatively low heat value per unit volume, but has other advantages. It ignites readily and gives out a quick, hot flame, but one that soon dies down. This makes it a favor- ite with rural housekeepers as a summer wood, because it is particularly adapted for hot days in the kitchen. The fuel qualities of chestnut adapt it particularly to work in brass foundries, ; where it gives just the required amount of heat and it is therefor in favor. Coast- wise vessels in Florida pay twice as much for Florida buttonwood as for any other, because it burns with an even heat and with a minimum amount of smoke and ash. The Love of a Dog. For several years a small businesslike dog sold newspapers to hundreds of people in Boston every day. The little dog, so loving, patient and faithful to his crip- pled master, was always to be seen near Park Street subway entrance, trot- ting around with a paper in his mouth, until a sale was made to a regu- lar customer or a stranger. The money must first be deposited in a small leather pocket attached to a collar with bells which the dog wore, before the paper was to be had; then the dog would re- jan to his master for another paper to sell. Silently, yet persistently this dog of business approached the men, women and children with the latest news of the day. Patrons dropped their pennies in the pocket about the dog’s neck and hur- ried away, more thoughtful and consider- ate of others because of this friendly morning greeting. Often the shopping people and children would linger tor a friendly talk. It was not an unusual sight to see from fifty to 2 hundred per- sons waiting their turn to buy and say a few kind words to the intelligent little worker. Each week the dog earned about $25 for his master, who in return shared his fire, his food, his bed, his heart with his companion. Such love and service were as the love of David and Jonathan.— The Child's Hour. A Market for Rat-skins. Qe Europe has discovered a scheme for holding in check the prolific rat. Various industries have createda demand in Lon- don alone for rat-skins that amounts to very nearly two hundred thousand dol- lars a year, and there is every indication that the consumption of this material will increase. Book-binding, photograph frames, purses, and thumbs for ladies’ gloves are among the uses to which the skins are put. ; After the passing of the rat Act in Denmark last year, the great body ‘of unemployed laborers tock immediate ad- vantage of the bill, and the individual rat-catcher’s earnings averaged between seventy-five and ninety cents per day. It is estimated that the damage by rats in England amounts annually to many million dollars, so that any inducement to promote their capture should be en- couraged as far as possible. —=Subscribe for the WATCHMAN. A certain proportion of | | 1 The Great Sheep Flocks of Russia. | 1 In no part of the old world are there more immense flocks of sheep than in southern Russia, writes N. Tourneur in The Shepherd's Journal. There, where the plains or steppes stretch across the those of Mongolia—where the country is one monotonous level, with few trees and fewer hills—vast flocks of sheep roam, some proprietors possessing no less than from 500,000 to 600,000 of them. The number of sheep reared on the steppes increases year after year. But they are exposed to the most severe pri- vations, for the scorching heats of sum- mer and the freezing blasts of winter are alike tremendous, while the hurricanes | that burst over the plains are as bad as, either. During the tempests the animals make not the least effort to weather the violence of the storm, but run panic- stricken before the?wind, and are forced by thousands into the streams and ravines by which the steppes are inter- sected. Were it not for the use of goats, neither the shepherds nor their dogs would be of much service at these times; for the sheep can but seldom be brought to face the terrible winds of the great plains, or to march during a storm into the shelter of a ravine. But with every hundred sheep three or four goats are kept, and as these are easily brought to face any wind that will at all bear facing, they are used to lead the way boldly down the most rugged descents; and the sheep follow without much bother. The herdsman of a large flock or ottara is called a tschabawn. The tschabawn usually has one or two wagons drawn by oxen, in which are carried his provisions and cooking utensils, together with the skins of the sheep that have died and those of the woives he has been fortunate enough to kill. The order of his pro- gress is uniformly simple. The wagon or wagons lead the van, the tschabawn follows, and the sheep follow him. When he comes to good pasture, he does not leave till the grass has been eaten down: and even on the march his encampment for the night is often no more than two or three miles from where he started in the dewy morning. Five hundred to 60C ewes—and more— are in the ottara, and the tschabawn i draws the milk from them, and places it have a! in huge, shallow wooden bowls to be ex- posed to the sun, and made into a kind of cheese known as “brinse,” which is very popular in Russia and eastern Ger- many. Owing to the cheese being pack- ed in goatskins it has a rather peculiar flavor, which, however, one gets to like after a time. During the severe winter months the sheep are placed in shelter, but all spring, summer and autumn they are pasturing on the plains. So long as the weather is fine, and predatory enemies are absent, the life of a tschabawn and his three or four assistants is tolerably pleasant. Though they have to be continually vigilant against thieves and wolves. When the evening meal is done the shepherds and their dogs sit for an hour or two before their blazing fire of dry reeds and grass, discussing such things as their lonely, monotonous life may bring up. Then the arrangements of the night are made. The sheep are driven up as close together as possible, and the men and their dogs take their post round the ottara. Each man throws his furs, that serve for mattress and coverlet, on the spot the tschabawn has assigned to him, and between every two beds of the dogs and men the same intervals occur. There are as as many thick sheepskins provided as there are dogs; and as each dog knows his own sheepskin, all that is necessary is to lay it where the dog is to take up his post for the night. Thus, what with the men and the dogs, a circle of defense guards the ottara. More formidable than theives are the wolves, which are very numerous on the steppes. For fifty days and nights has a pack of them been known to hover around; and it requires all the watchful- ness of the men and their great dogs to ward off the voracious attackers. On the other hand, as a wolfskin is of much worth, the tschabawn and his men are usually eager to meet with such an enemy. It is the tremendous snowstorms of March the shepherds dread. The writer knows of an occasion on | the Otshakov Steppe, when, out of an ottara of 2000 sheep and 150 goats that were caught in the pelting, screaming snow-drift 1200 sheep were lost, and all the goats. The sheep are mostly of the Wallachian or fat-tailed breed, and the merino; though, of late, other strains have been successfully reared. In the fat-tailed sheep, the fat in or about its tail is considered most valuable, and brings a high price among Russians. New Experiment Station Won by State College. STATE COLLEGE, PA., March 11.—Offi- cials of The Pennsylvania State College were notified recently by the secretary of the United States Department of Agricul- ture that an experimental plant to deter- mine the cause and effects of explosions of dust in grist mills wili be located here. It will be operated in co-operation with the engineering experiment station and the department of mechanical engineer- ing. It will be the first large experiment of this kind ever attempted. Construc- tion of the plant was begun immediately, and when completed it will be fully equipped with milling machinery. Prof. J. A. Moyer, of State College, will have charge of the experiment. B. W. Dedrick, instructor in flour milling, will operate the plant, and M. P. Helman, an instructor in mechanical engineering, will serve as the technical expert. Aroused by the numerous grain dust oxplosions both in this country and abroad, the government was requested to conduct the investigation by the Millers’ Committee, of Buffalo, N. Y., where an explosion of grain dust in 1913 killed 33 persons, injured 70 others, and caused a property loss of $70,000,000. Penn State was selected for the experi- ment in preference to the University of Kansas, University of Minnesota, and the Michigan Agricultural College, all of whom sought the experimental plant. The tunic has gone—sad news for the incorrigible renovator—so has the short sleeve, and the long, close-fitting sleeves which are favored are set in flatly with a seam well upon the shoulder. The Magyar effect is to rest fora while. Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets are the best medicine for delicate persons. Their action is as gentle as effectual. They break up constipation without breaking down the person using them. Try them. —Put your ad. in the WATCHMAN. His Atheism Gives Way to Faith. The Novelistand Poet Lavredeau, who has Pro- fessed for all Religion Nothing but Sarcastic i Mockery and Scornful Hate, Retracts his Earlier Utterances in a Document which has been Pub- lished with Respect in the most Radical Papers of France. “I laughed at faith and held myself a wise man. But there was no gayety in : my laughter when I saw France bleeding and weeping. I stood by the road and looked at the soldiers. There they march- ed cheerfully onward to death. I asked: ‘What makes you so calm?’ And they began to pray: ‘I believe in God.’ . . How frightful and burning are the wounds of a people in which not a drop of that Mystery flows, as a healing balsam. How hard it is, on this national cemetery, to be still an atheist! I cannot, I cannot. I have deceived my- self, and you, too, who have read my books and sung my songs.” “France, oh France, turn again to the faith of your most glorious days. To forsake God is to be lost indeed. I know not whether I shall survive tomorrow. But I must say to my friends: Lavredeau dares not die as an atheist. It is not hell that dismays me, but the thought op- presses me: ‘Thereisa God, and you stand so far from him.” Rejoice, oh my soul, that I am permitted to know this hour when I can kneel and say: ‘I believe in God; ves, I believe” This word is the morning-song of humanity. Whoso knows it not, for him it is night.” Forestry Reports Shows Busy Year. Selling 1,500,000,000 board feet of tim- ber and supervising the cutting on sev- eral thousand different areas, overseeing the grazing of more than 1,500,000 cattle and 7,500,000 sheep and building more than 600 miles of road, 2,000 miles of trail, 3,000 miles of telephone line and 700 miles of fire line are some of the things which the Government forest serv- ice did last year, as disclosed in the re- port by the chief forester for 1914. These activities were all on the national for- ests, which at present total about 185,- 000,000 acres. There is need, says the chief forester, to increase the cut of timber from the national forests wherever a fair price can be obtained for the stumpage because a great deal of it is mature and ought to be taken out to make room for young growth. Unfavorable conditions in the lumber trade caused new sales of nation- al forest timber to fall off somewhat dur- ing the last year, though the operation on outstanding sales contracts brought the total cut above that of the previous year by 130,000,000 board feet. There was, however, a big increase in small timber sales, these numbering 8,- 298 in 1914 against 6,182 the previous year. Desirable blocks of national for- est timber have been appraised and put on the market and it is expected that these will find purchasers when condi- tions in the lumber industry improve. All told, the Government received $1,- 304,054.66 from the sale of timber on the forests in 1914. The receipts from all sources totaled $2,437,710.21. Required for Health and Beauty. It is surprising that it is necessary to repeat again and again that the health and beauty of the skin require that the blood shall be pure. If the arteries of the skin receive impure blood, pimples and blotches appear, and the individial suffers from humors. Powders and other exter- nal applications are sometimes used for these af- fections, but will never have the desired effect while the causes of impure blood remain. The indications are very clear that Hood's Sar- saparilla is the most successful medicine for puri- fying the blood, removing pimples and blotches, and giving health and beauty to the skin. It gives tone to all the organs and builds up the whole system. Insist on having Hood's Sarsa- parilla when you ask for it. Don’t take anything else. —_— Merit in Overcoming Obstacles. To seek to do only the easy things of life is a foolish and suicidal choice, for anybody, even a nonentity, can do these things. Let us care, rather, to do things, the overcoming of which will bring to us moral strength, a tested fortitude, and a wider experi- ence of the deeper meanings of hu- man life—Christian Register. Had It All Mapped Out. “You'll have some explaining to do when yqu get home, won’t you?” “No,” replied the member of congress. “I'm not going to explain. I'm going to let my constituents argue matters out among themselves and then take the side that seems to have the most ad- vocates.”—Washington Star. Trying to Suit. Old Gentleman— ‘Now, what are all you children fighting and making such a noise for?” Little Boy—‘Please, sir, the landlord gave us a dime each to fight and make a noise. He has got one of his houses let and the people complained that the neighborhood was too quiet.”—Stray Stories. Fully Equipped. Bennie’s mother found the young- ster fastening bits of cz idle to the backs of the geese. “What in the world are you doing, child?” she asked. “They've got honkers in front,” said Bennie, “so I'm fixing them up with tail lights.”—Youngs- town Telegram. Cfficiency of Arc Lamps. The use of arc lamps under high atmospheric pressure has been report- ed by Professor Lummer of Breslau, to give great increase in efficiency. Under 20 amperes, the temperature of the arc was raised from about 4,500 to 7,600 per cent, and the brightness. increased to 18 times the ordinary. When Friendship Fails. The more friends a man thinks he has the greater will be his disappoint» ment if he tries to prove it by putting them to the financial test. Might as Well See the Best. “I say, Mabel, if we aren’t going to buy anything let's look at something expensive.”-—Life. FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN DAILY THOUGHT. A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another by his words. Character is like bells which ring out sweet , music, and which, when touched accidentally | even, resound with sweet music.— Philips Brooks. | Ye full skirt will be in a double sense the outstanding fact of our new clothes. It is full as our fullest present-day tunics, but it isn’t going to be the dowdy nui- sance one might imagine, for it is piquantly short and delightfully free to wear, because as yet it has been given no hampering petticoats. Some may insist on having their own frocks longer than these first models, but short the skirts will still be. That’s why the far-seeing woman must make due provision for the prettiest foot- gear she can lay her hands on. There is a slight flatness back and front of the skirts, but some of them spring out at the sides in a paper-dollish sort of way that is rather fascinating. In the coats this fullness at the sides is even more notable. Short full basques appear on most of them, and pieces of material are let in at the sides to give this stand- out effect. “Where are our waists going to be?” is every woman’s most eager query before new fashions are launched. This year they are to be in the natural place— which gives some cause for alarm in view of the fact that our physiology makes tight-lacing possible at this point. But as yet the waists are loose and wide— so wide that thin women will per- haps take to padding their waists to make them wider. The threatened high collar comes in its most attractive form, being cut away comfortably and becomingly at the front. Often there is a square-cut opening, not low at all, and even then modestly filled in with lawn. Flimsies and fripperies have gone their way. All the new materials are rich, soft and snbstantial. Veilings and drapings are no more. Fngering the new mater- ials (especially irresistible are the silk gaberdines) one realizes that at last there may be a few neo-Georgian gar- ments to hand down to the museums of have been too flimsy and scant to be worth keeping once their own day was past. The woman who looks out for immacu- late neatness in her costume will always be consoled with the knowledge that she looks her best. There is a certain at- which cannot be imitated in any way, unless the daintiness is really there. The woman who is particular about her home isnot always the best dressed, and it often happens that a woman whose home is very untidy looks stunning in her street clothes. The points in dress that most women overlook are veiling, foot- wear, gloves, hats and handkerchiefs. Take care of these and your costume will take care of itself. Don’t be too quick to buy what seems like a bargain in gloves, there must be some reason for it, and as a rule, you find it out to your large. Be sure that your glove is properly proportioned, and when you decide on a well fitting style, buy no other. Dust a little powder into your gloves before you wear them and smooth all the seams straight, have the lines on the backs properly over the center of the hands, and the fingers in the tips of the glove. Keep your hats in their respective boxes until you want to use them and re- turn them there when you take them off. Always brush them, especially if they are made of black velvet, or a dark ma- terial which will show the dust. Never carry a soiled, or even crumpled hand- kerchief. The only remedy for this is to keep a plentiful supply on hand, and to see that you are always in possession of a clean one. These are only “little things,” and it’s the little thing which makes or mars a gown. Several distinctly new lines are shown in some of the newest models. The fea- ture of one gown was an uneven hem line. The skirt was about four and one- half yards about the lower edge and was circular and fulled slightly into a hip yoke. The lower edge was curved up shorter on each side, so that it show- ed the ankles at side view. In front it dipped into a curve. There are closed boleros consisting of uttle sleeveless overwaists of velvet or satin worn over diaphanous dresses of voile or chiffon and having many ruffles on the skirt. An afternoon gown was made of moss-green chiffon with green velvet. A very odd thing was that one of the stripes, instead of being a band, was a vine of leaves. This gave great originality to the plaid. Prominent among the many economies practiced at the moment are clever little waistcoat effects. Many a last year’s coat and bodice are being brought up to date by a series of easily adjusted waist- coats, which unusually conclude in some sort of a distinctive collar. Given the simplest, plainest coat or corsagé—in fact, the plainer the better—a chic note is at once introduced through one or the other of these attractive little adjuncts. A cross-over waistcoat of striped Roman silk was introduced in a last year’s navy ratine coat,the rollover collar at the back fringed with monkey fur, additions that served lo invest a somewhat de mode suit with a quite particular cachet. Cut the tops from the peppers so they make caps that can be fastened on again. Remove every seed and place the peppers in fresh, cold water for an hour or two. This draws out the hotness, and the long- er you keep the peppers in the fresh water the milder they will be. Fill with a force-meat made from meat and rice. Ham and rice is especially good, and chicken and rice, well seasoned, is also relished. Mushrooms may be added to the filling. Put the caps on the stuffed peppers and set them in a pan in the oven. Pour a little hot water around them so they will not burn on the bot- tom, and brush well with butter. As they bake baste with the water and but- ! ter in the pan. ! ——For high class Job Work come to ‘ the WATCHMAN Office. posterity. For many seasons our gowns | traction about a neat. dainty costume | sorrow. Many bargain gloves have one | finger too short, or too tight, or too ! EE ————————————————————— i FARM { | —*“Nearly 5,000 tons ot oleomargarine i were made in Chicago oleo factories dur- ing November, 1914. This is a ten-per- : cent increase over a year ago,” —If the oat fields are infested with wild mustard next summer spray with iron sulphate when the plants have reached a growth of three or four inches, —Many say that the bull is one-half the herd, while others favor the cow. All in all it may be the man that feeds and milks who is the main spring of success in dairying. —*“The grass would streets if it were not for the tramp of the cowhide boots in the barnyard” is just as true now as when Uncle Solon Chase said it years ago. _—Raise the colts and heifers so that kicking and other faults will not crop out. Dangerous live stock on the farm have driven many a son from home and encouraged abuse and profanity in the hired man. —A veterinarian gives this advice on the shoeing of young horses: Don’t al- low young horses to wear a set of shoes more than a month. Have them re- i moved, the hoofs leveled and the shoes | reset if they are worth it. | —All kinds of quadrupeds, including | poultry, kept on the farm may be grazed ron rye. Its highest use probably is found | in grazing ewes in the early spring that are nursing their lambs, or in grazing weaned lambs in the autumn in the ab. sence of better grazing. Under some conditions it is a great aid in furnishing pasture to swine. —*“Little wonder that first-class maple sugar and syrup are scarce. Only one tree is tapped for every five people in our population. Counting both sugar and syrup, New York is the leading State for the values of its maple products, Ohio is second and Vermont third. But Vermont is far in the lead for maple sugar alone. The maple products of the country are worth over five million dol- lars a year.” | —A department called the Headwork i Shop, in which readers give each other the benefit of suggestions that have | developed out of practical experience. | One reader tells as follows about a new ! way to catch rats: i “When the rats have become acquaint- . ed with all the traps and dead-falls you | can think up for them, nail a small salt i fish on the wall about a foot above a tub i half full of water. Put two quarts of dry | oats on the water and your trap is ready. ! The rats will go for the fish first, and i ‘ when they want to come down they will | jump into the oats, and you have them.” —*“Horns were useful to cattle when they had to fight for their existence, but domestic cattle do not need them. Like a man carrying a weapon, the creature with horns is likely to be uppish and contentious. Hence, dehorning should be the universal rule, unless the cattle are intended for show purposes. The | time to operate is when the calf is young, j and the thing to use is caustic potash. Moisten the end of a stick of the caustic and rub it on the ‘button’ which has the intention of becoming a horn. Clip off the hair first. Care should be taken not to put on so much of the caustic as to cause it to flow off the button upon the skin. If used properly—and the operation | requires no great skill—no horn will de- velop.” — Lhe national farm paper published at Springfield, Ohio, is presenting the facts about the ravages of cholera, to- gether with the most practical sugges- tions as to how farmers can escape the greatest losses. On the subject of vacci- nation for the disease, the current article sets forth, as follows, the reasons why it is cheaper for farmers to vaccinate hogs when they are small: “To do the cheapest good job of vac- | cination, do it as soon as possible after | the pigs weigh fifty pounds. Give them | the simultaneous treatment at that time and, except in rare cases, the immunity will be good for life. The bigger the hogs are when marketed the less the vaccination will cost you in proportion to their selling price. “For example, we will say you vac- cinate a 50-pound pig at a cost of 35 cents. When that piggrows up to weigh 250 pounds you sell him for $17.50. The cost of protecting that pig against cholera is only 2 per cent of the selling price ac- cording to plain arithmetic. “Now suppose you vaccinate a 100- pound hog. That will cost you at least 60 cents. If you sell that hog at the weight of 170 pounds, and he brings $12, your vaccination has cost 5 per cent of the selling price, which is pretty high in- surance. It is so high that the expense would hardly be justified unless there was cholera in the neighborhood and you were in danger of losing your hogs.” —A ontributor tells the story of a South Dakota boy of nineteen who devel- oped a tremendous enthusiasm for a new automobile but did not have the nec- essary cash. Finally he and his sister and other members of the family deter- mined that they could make enough money out of hogs to buy a machine and this they set out to do. The sister fur- nished the capital, consisting of $150, and with this a boar and ten registered sows were purchased. The story goes on as follows: . “The next spring all of the sows be- came mothers. One«farrowed, -and raised ten perfect pigs; another only two, and the other seven varied from three to seven. At weaning time we had 54 young igs. P “The neighbors came to see them, and seldom left without leaving an order for from one to three. We decided on a uni- form price: $10 at weaning time and $1 for each additional week we kept them; also, our sales were to be for cash. “At first the pigs went slowly enough to be discouraging, but as threshing came on and the farmers got money they went fast, especially on rainy days when the ranchers couldn’t thresh. “By September 15th we had sold 39, and while our boar was on exhibition at a county fair we were offered $100 for him, which we accepted. “The total was at this time a little short of the required amount, but one Saturday morning two men came and took away five. : “It was a happy day in our family. Father and I drove to town immediately after dinner, and I ran out the long- wished-for machine. We all took a holi- day for a week and enjoyed it. ; “We have nine original sows, eight sows of the spring farrow and their Oc- tober litters. We shall keep them, as ; we realize that the purchase of a car is i only the first cost.”—Farm and Fireside. NOTES. grow in the city
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers