si Bema Nite Bellefonte, Pa., February 14, 1919. The Lode Tree Sentinel: or, Ghosts on the Firing Line By Sergeant Arthur Guy Empey Author of “Over the Top,” “First Call,” Etc. Oo-0-C Mr. Empey’s Experi- ences During HisSeven- teen Monthsin theFirst Line Trenches of the British Army in France ht, 1917, by The McClure Newspaper (Copyright, by Ie Ns One sunny afternoon our gun's crew was sitting on the fire step of a front- line trench, just in front of Gomme- | court wood. i Happy Houghton was busily engaged | in rigging up a flash screen to hide the | flare of our gun, which we were to ! mount on the parapet that night. | Sailor Bill was sewing a piece of | khaki cloth over his tin hat, because | the night previous, while on sentry | £0, standing in the moonlight, with his | head over the top the rays from the | moon had reflected from his steel hel- met and a couple of German bullets | had knocked up the dirt within a few feet of his head. As was usual with him, Hungry Fox- | craft was wrestling with a tin of bully | beef, while “Curly” Wallace was hunt- ing for cooties. i Ikey Honney, with our mascot, Jim, was sitting on the fire-step, his back i | Bending Double Under the Weight of the Ammunition. leaning against the traverse of the fire- i bay, picking mud out of his harmonica | with a sliver of wood. Jim seemed | happy and contented, not knowing the fate in store for him. Two days later poor Jim was killed by a German bul- | let and we buried him behind the lines, ' placing a little wooden cross at the head of his grave. After working a few minutes at the harmonica, Ikey would pause, put it to his lips and | blow into it; a squeaky, rattly noise resulting. Then, with a deep sigh, he would resume the picking process. : I had just finished a letter home and ! was sighing for the time to come when once again I would be able to say “hel- | 10” to the old girl with the lamp in her right band guarding New York har- bor. Although it was warm and sunny, the floor of the trench was about three inches deep in soft, sticky mud. On my right I hegrd a low mutter- ing and a splashing in the mud, and around the traverse, into our firebay, carrying a box of ammunition on his shoulder, came the most weird-looking soldier I had ever seen. As he passed in front of me he turned his gaze in my direction and a cold shiver seemed to run up and down my spine as I looked into his eyes. They were un- canny; a sort of vacant stare, as if the owner of them was looking into the Great Beyond. As this soldier stag- gered through the fire-bay, almost bend- ing double under the weight of the ammunition and passed from view around ue traverse, it seemed to me as if the Grim Reaper ha“ alked througi. Shuddering a little, I instinctively turned my eyes in the direction of the rest of the crew. They were also staring at the traverse around which the gleomy-looking soldier had dis- appearea. My heart sank to zero and I had a sinking sensation in the region of my stomach, and on the parados in front of me, like a moving picture on a screen, flashed a cemetery, dotted all over with little wooden crosses. I felt queer and uneasy. Curly Wallace, in a low, half-fright- ened voice, exclaimed: “Blime me, that was ’Aunted Jerry's brother, the one who clicked it by the old lone tree. If you blokes want to get the creeps you ought to ‘ear ‘im talk. Some o’ the fellows claim that it's unlucky to get 'im started. They sye that one 0’ 'is ’earers is sure to click in within a few days’ time, but if you fellows want to tyke the chance, I'll go over to ‘is section, which is occupying the second firebay on our left, and see if I can get 'im to tell | up gainst the skyline at night. ! back to | ¥' know, out there in the blackness us about ’is brother. But, now mind, this fellow is a little balmy in ‘is nap- per, so don’t myke fun of ’im.” I confess that I was glad to be rid of him, but my curiosity overcame my fears, so I asked Curly to go ahead. The rest of the crew weakly assented. and Curly went after Jerry's brother. In about twenty minutes he returned : with him. Jerry’s brother came over and sat on the firestep next to me. He sat silent for a few minutes, and then, in a thick, piping, high-pitched voice spoke: “So you want to ’ear about Jerry, do | you? They called him ¢’Aunted Jerry,’ but he weren’t ’aunted; he could just see—’e could see into the future; could sort o’ tell what was agoin’ to ’appen. ’E could talk to the dead, and they told ’im. °'E always ’ad spirits around ’im—ghosts, you call ‘em, but there ain’t no such thing as | ghosts — they're souls awanderin’ around; they're about us now”— slowly eased down the firestep away from him. “Jerry used to talk to the dead; ’e would sit in a cemetery at night while in rest billets, and receive messages from them what can't speak no more. “Sometimes, 1yte at night, T can ‘ear | far aw’y, voices callin’ to me, but as yet cawn’t understand ’em, but I will —I will.” My blood began to curdle. Curly Wallace, placing his hand on the speaker’s knee, softly said: “Righto, mate, we know you can see far beyond us, but tell us of ’Aunt- ed Jerry and the pome ’e wrote the day before ’e clicked it at the lone tree.” Jerry’s brother nodded in a compre- | hending way, and reaching into the ! pocket of his tunic drew out a creased and muddy piece of paper, which he opened out upon his knee, and then, in an unnatural, singsong voice, which sent shivers through us, recited the | following poem: Between the lines, In No Man’s Land, With foliage gone, and trunk that’s torn, A lonely sentry takes his stand, Silently watching from morn to morn. On starlit nights, when moon is bright, And spreads {its rays of ghostlike beams; Against the sky, that tree of blight A ghastly hangman's gibbet seems. When night is black, and wind’s faint sigh Through its shelltorn branches moans, A call to men, “To die, to die!” They answer it with groans and groans, But obey the call, for “more and more,” And Death sits by and grins and grins, And watches the fast-growing score, The harvest of his sentry’s whims. There they lie huddled, friend and foe, Ghastly heaps, English, Hun and French— And still those piles forever grow, They are fed by the “Men of the Trench.” No wooden cross to mark their fall, No tombstone theirs, no carven rocks, Just the Lone Tree with its grim call, ‘Which forever mocks and mocks. When Jerry’s brother had finished, a dead silence ensued. lighted a fag, and out of the corner of my eye noticed that Sailor Bill was uneasily squirming on the firestep. Letting out a sigh, which seemed to whistle between his teeth, our “guest” carried on: “Jerry weren't much at cheerful writing, because ’e ad a calling. ! Even back ‘ome in Blighty, ’e weren’t much for lights nor fun. 'E took af- ter our mother. The neighbors called er 'aunted, too, but she weren't. She { could see things, like Jerry. “This ‘ere lone tree sentinel Jerry writes about was an old tree in No { Man's land, about a 'undred yards from | our front-line trench. + well knocked about by bullets and . shell fragments. It made a pretty good It was pretty guide post, stickin’ sort o’ lonely like Re- connoitering patrols and bombing pare ties used it to show ’em the w'ye their trenches, because, it’s easy to lose your w’ye, unless you ’ave spirits a-guidin’ you. “Lots of times English and German patrols would meet near the lone tree, and many a ’and-to-’and fight would tyke place around its roots. “At that part o’ the line it were pretty ’ot, what with the rifle and ma- chine-gun firing. The only time there would be a lull in the firing was when 3 reconnoitering patrol was out in front, and then, as you know, you couldn’t fire for fear of a ’itting your own blokes. All around the lone tree were scattered many bodies, mostly English and German. Some of ’em sa been a-lyin’ there for weeks, and when the wind were a-blowin’ from the German lines towards us it were sort of unpleasant in our front line. “Every time the captain would call for soldiers for a reconnoitering pa- trol, ’Avnted Jerry, as you call ’im, always pat ’is bloomin’ nyme on the list. It got so that after a while ’e never asked if ’e wanted to go; the captain would just naturally put ‘is uyme down as agoin’. “In our dugout, Jerry would tell me ‘ow many dead were around the tree. 'Ow ’e could count ’em in the dark, I don’t know, but ’e could see—'e could Bee. : “Sometimes in the daytime ‘e would rig up a periscope on 'is own, and sit on the firestep for hours alookin’ out in No Man's land at the lone tree, and the bodies around it. This sort 0’ got on our captain’s nerves, and ‘e gave Jerry orders not to use a peri- scope. After this order Jerry used to sit off by ‘’imself on the firestep 8 musin’ and a musin’! The other blokes laughed at ’'im, but I kuew what he were adoin’—'e were atalkin’ to the spirit of the lone tree. “Then 'e got sort o’ reckless, and be- cause it were against orders for 'im to use a periscope, ’'e used to, in. the I nervously . | bloomin’ daytime, stick ’is ‘ead over ! the top and gaze in the direction of the | lone tree. Bullets from German snipers ! would kick up the dirt and tear the | sandbags all around ’im, but none o® | ’em ever ’it im. No bullet ever myde could kfll ’Auvnted Jerry, as you call im, i | would pull ’im down off the firestep. | ! life, but Jerry weren’t afraid from bul- | lets. 'E knew, and so did I, that they couldn’t arm ’im. Then our captain— | doctors, to send 'im to Blighty. Jerry | was told about this the night before |e was to leave. 'E was greatly upset, | and did nothin’ but talk to the spirits | —the air was full of ’em—I could ‘ear | their voices, too. ! “That night about ten o'clock Jerry | was missed. The next morning ’e was | still a-missin’. For two days nothin’ Irish Rifles took over a sector of trench on our right. A lot of our blokes told and I described Jerry to ’em, but I weren't afraid for Jerry--I knew where ‘e was—’e were with ’is spirits. “That night an Irish patrol went out and when they returned they brought a body with them; said they'd found i it at the foot o’ the lone tree. It were | i Jerry, all right, but ’e weren't ’it no- | . where. Two bloomin’ doctors exam- , ined ’im, lookin’ for wounds. tain—'e ’ad brains, sponsible for ’is death. i | answer its call. 'E answered it, and | now ’e’s with the spirits ’e loved, and ' some time I'll be able to talk to ‘im. ’E’s with ‘em, all right, I know—I i know.” Just then Jim started to whimper; I guess if the truth were known, we all | felt like whimpering. | Without another word, Jerry's broth- | er got up, and, muttering to himself, i passed out of sight around the trav- erse. As he disappeared from view, Sailor Bill exclaimed : “Blawst my deadlights, but if =a bloke like that ever slipped in the i navy, in a fortnight’s time ’e would bloomin’ well be an admiral, because | ’e would be the only one left in the . blinkin’ navy. Gives me the proper I creeps. ‘Ow in ‘ell ’is company stands for ’im I don’t know. 'Ow about it, i Curly—why ‘’asn’t ’e been sent to Blighty as balmy?” I “TN tell you, Bill,” answered Curly. “This bloke only gets these fits occa- sionally "E's a d——d goed soldier— always on the job, and next te Cor- poral French and his brother ’Aunted Jerry, ’e’s the best scout for work in No Man’s land that’s ever put a foot in these blinkin’ ditches. It’s only lately that ’e’s been ‘aving these spells so often, and yesterday the sergeant major told me that ’e was under ob- servation and that it would only be a i short time before ’e was shipped : back.” | “Is it a fact, Curly,” asked Happy, “that this ’Aunted Jerry crawled out there the way his brother says, and that he was found dead without a “ &) Bo (2 id 527 QU] Fu hei 14 x RAN han 3 ——— Brought in the Bleeding Body of Jim. wound on him? If it’s so, he must have bad a bloody poor heart and died that way.” Curly answered: “It sure is so, be- cause I got it from a leftenant in Aunted Jerry's section.” Jim was still whimpering, on Ikey . ri>rves; he gave hi cuff on the side of the head. This was the first time a hand had been raised against Jim since he had joined us months back. He gave Ikey a pite- ous lodk, and sticking his stump of a tail between his legs disappeared from the fire bay. Two days later Ikey made up for that slap, because at the risk of his life, during an attack, he raced into No Man's land under heavy fire and brought in the bleeding body of Jim. All afternoon we tried to be as cheerful as possible, but our merri- ment was very artificial. Every laugh seemed forced and strained. Haunt- ed Jerry had sure put the “kibosh” on us. That night Curly, Happy and I were on watch from ten to twelve, and, be- lieve me, we never spent a worse two hours in our lives. There was not a word spoken among us. I was think- Ing of Haunted Jerry, and no doubt the other two were doing likewise. A few days later Jerry's brother was sent back to Blighty, and no doubt right now is in some insane asy- lum in Blighty communicating with Haunted Jerry and his spirits, This got sharn “The rest o’ the blokes in the trench | They thought they were a-savin’ his | 'e ’ad brains, ’e ’ad—said that Jerry : i was balmy, and gave orders to the ser- | | geant major to tyke ’im back to the | was ’eard of Jerry. Then the Royal | Twelve men were chosen, all ball | ’em about Jerry bein’ | missin’. A few of ’em got around me, i ‘E was | gymnasium and each threw three tri- | : dead, all right, and that bloomin’ cap- ; al throws without keeping score, and | ’e ’ad-—was re- | ’E ’ad tried to | tyke Jerry aw’y from ‘is spirits, 80 | | Jerry crawled out to the lone tree to | ; The Effects of Smoking on Accuracy in Baseball Pitching. Some time ago the Young Men's Christian Association College, of | Springfield, Mass., had tests made to | determine the effects of smoking up- on the heart rate and blood pressure. They revealed that the smoking of a single cigar by smokers and by non- smokers alike, increased the heart | rate, and made the individual un- ! steady in writing and less accurate in lunging at a target. An additional test has been made which adds to our knowledge of the effects of smoking upon the nervous system. Baseball ized | exercise. It requires accuracy, self- FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN. DAILY THOUGHT. Nothing finer has come out of the war than this line from an epitaph in a Brit- ish graveyard in France: “For your to- 1 morrow they gave their today." —London Truth. Fortunately the silhouette for | spring will not be radically different from that of the garment with which milady has already stocked her ward- robe. This means that some of the light-weight suits of winter and some | of the frocks which have been worn under winter toppers can be used for | pitching is a highly organ- , and intricate form of muscular | : control and prompt response of the ! i muscles to the will. | therefore, to make a study of the ef- It was decided, i fects of smoking upon accuracy in | | baseball pitching. These tests were | | held at Springfield College, under Prof. Barry’s direction, and recorded ' | by William A. Lang, a Senior student | who reported the study in his thesis. | Three types of tests were taken. | i players, upon whom the experiments | were made. Some were smokers, others non-smokers. In test “A” the following proced- ure was followed: The men arrived at the gymnasium at 6:30 p. m. Three trial throws were made by each man at a target 60 feet, 6 inches distance. The results were not recorded. This | was done simply to warm up. Then ' ten throws were made by each man, the results being recorded. Then they | retired to a special room, smoked one | cigar for which 30 minutes were al- | lowed. Then the men returned to the then ten throws which were recorded. The target was five feet square, the bull’s eye 1 foot in diameter, the cir- I cles six inches in diameter. Five | points were scored if the ball hit the bull’s eye, four points if the ball hit ; the inner circle, three points if the ball hit the middle circle, one point if | the ball hit outside the outer circle. Text “B” was the same except that | | the three warming up tests were not | taken, and 2 cigars were smoked in | | sixty minutes. In test “C” the method was the same as in test “A” except that no smoking was done during the 30 min- ute intervals. Here is the following tests of sev- en men: Totals Name Before After MPA. a a an hl 21 26 Mr. B 29 33 : 3 20 30 28 28 18 Not Know Where Term ‘Electric- ity’ Originated. _ Millions of people of today who are ly do not know where the term elec- tricity originated, and how people came to use the word universally to signify that power which performs {all the myriad wonders that we see | daily all about us. From Elektron, the Greek name for amber, is derived the word electricity, which is now extended to signify not | ies with silk, fur, ete., but other pow- | ers connected with it, in whatever | bodies they may be communicated. The attractive nature of electrified amber is occasionally mentioned by Pliny and other later naturalists; par- ticularly by Gassendus, Kenelm, Dig- by and Sir Thomas Brown. Very exhaustive experiments have been carried out by William Gilbert, a native of Colchester, and a physi- cian at London, who, in his excelient Latin treatise, “De Maguete,” pub- lished in the year 1600, relates a great variety of electrical exneriments, which were allied in nature to the properties by amber. He has disclos- ed several of the substances which had these peculiar properties of at- tracting light bodies when agitated by a material. Amber was used by the ancient world as a jewel for decoration, re- lates the Electrical Experimenter. Its color and luster reminded the fan- ciful Greeks of the virgin gold which glistened in the hands of Pactolus: even as the brilliant metal itself had recalled to them the yellow sunshine. Afterward they applied the same name to the compounds of metals, which, when burnished, have a gold- en glow. They were all children of the sun Elector-reflecting in minia- ture its radiance. Thus in common with native gold and the silver-gold alloys, the amber, in Hellenic speech, came to be called “Elektron.” ORVISTON. Mrs. George Bixel is feeling much better. Lieut. Hume was home from Lock Haven for a few day’s visit with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Hume. The young friends of George Moyer gave him a big surprise on February 4th. An enjoyable evening was spent but the scribe was unable to get all the names of those present. Mr. L. Neff was over from How- ard, Thursday, to install the members in our local P. O. of A. Refreshments and general jollity followed the regu- lar business meeting. Mrs. John Hume and Carrol Brown told laugh- able stories and kept the rest holding their sides. Every one was willing to have it all over. Ward Keller has a dandy little en- gine that he intends using at the Cen- ter Brick and Clay works, removing the coal from the cars. It is a 4-horse power and runs with kerosene. He is quite enthusiastic over his venture and thinks, as others do, it will prove a decided success and eliminate a lot of hard work. Taught to Repress Emotion. Until late years the repression of any appearance of a strong emotion was carefully drilled into the mind and life of every Japanese child of the better class. There is much more freedom now than formerly, but the influence of past training is seen everywhere—in art, in literature, on the stage and in the customs of daily life. Artists paint the autumn moon, which every Japanese adores, but wrap the brilliant disk within a veil of cloud.—Ex. living in an electrical age undoubted-, ‘row hem of the skirt. the beginning of the spring season without any danger of making the wearer look passe. With the exception of the top-coats the usual garment outline will be flat and tapering, now and then broken by what is now designated as the “re- strained” tunic, that is, a tunic of scant fullness which does not materi- ally change the silhouette. case of a frock this tunic is sometimes a continuation of the bodice and in the instance of the suit it is, of course, | an attached portion of the skirt. The skirts of both frocks and suits are at all times quite scant, rarely being wider than a yard and a half and often narrower. A very slight fullness of the hips, i however, _ SE FARM NOTES. —One or two bran mashes a week for the horses that are being winter- ed largely on straw and cornstalks is good, cheap health insurance. —Stable manure or other fresh or- ganic matter should not be consider- ‘ed in the home-mixing of fertilizers. Manure in itself is a complete fertil- izer, but a poorly balanced one. —A temperature of 90 degrees F. is the best for separation. If milk is cold when separated, there is too much loss of fat. If the milk becomes cold it may be warmed by placing the ean of milk in hot water. It is preferable, to separate the milk soon after it is drawn and before it be- ! comes cold. | i | however, prevents | that upper tightness which was so un- | graceful in the skirts of several sea- sons ago. When the skirt is slashed, the opening is usually concealed by close-hanging panels or flat drapery which scarcely breaks the silhouette making a trip around the world, de- chaste line. follows the natural figure line, the on- | ly extreme feature of it being the nar- Shoulder lines —Horses should not be confir 2d to the barn during the winter on a liber- al supply of grain. It is far better to “rough” them through the cold months. They should be given the run of the yard or lot during the day. In the | This should be provided with a pro- tected shed, dry and well provided with bedding. —DMending grain bags is a job the farmer usually dreads. An easier and better method than the common way is to spread cold flour paste on the patch, put the patch inside the bag, lay a piece of brown paper over the hole, and press the patch with a hot iron. If pepper is put in the paste, mice will stay away. The pressure of the grain in the bag tends to hold the patch in- : stead of pushing it off. —A Kentucky horseman, while | termined to find the equivalent of the On the whole the spring silhouette | English “whoa” in every country he visited. He was surprised to learn | that the Russian, the Persian, the are normal and sleeves follow the out- | line of the arm until th 1b is | Fi Show is same word, “whoa,” and that the word { was equally intelligible to horses of reached, where they widen into kimo- no or bell shapes. Suits are both belted and unbelted, ! many short box coats being perdict- ed. Belted styles usually have a nor- mal waistline. Waists have both nor- mal and long waistlines, while yet i others have no waistline defined at all. | | | | 1 | | { | {only its power of attracting light bod- ! There is a noticeable combining of the Directoire and the Moyen Age lines in one garment, especially in the stunning coat frocks which will be so fashionable for spring street wear. Conservative blouses have the three-quarter-length sleeve in the new models. French blue, league blue, bisque and beige, gray sunset and pas- tel shades of blouse are called for. ee blue and bisque are the most pop- ular. With back panels reaching to the knees, forming a skeleton coat, and the one-piece dress from a popular three-piece costume. Southern resorts are showing some smart black and white checked suits, with long lines. For the separate skirt the wrapped | effect seems to be the most popular. A New Note.—The new trimming of looped crocheted chains to take the place of fringe. Overblouses appear in increasing numbers, the shorter length being the most popular. Bell sleeves are used in the better grade of merchandise. Some suit men predict the blouse coat to be popular for the spring sea- son. Hat Lore.—Taffeta hats are the smart note at Palm Beach. Straw hats in henna are being worn considerably now. Silk and crepe hats, trimmed with straw braid, are seen very often on smartly-dressed women. Large hats are predicted for the younger set. ’ Bright colors will predominate. Elongated sailors, with navy blue rough straw brims, underfaced with satin and softly draped blue satin crown, trimmed with a long flat bow on the right side of the brim, extend- ing a little beyond at the front and back brims, is seen occasionally dis- played. Shades of brown are the leading color at the moment. Black, too, adds to the effect by the woman who has a severely plain suit or a black and white checked suit. It is a constant puzzle and an an- noyance to many women that while they have fine textured and pretty skin upon their faces the skin upon the rest of the body is unbeautiful. Frequently the pores of the skin are large and there is even at times a slight irritation and redness that is most unpleasant and disfiguring. If they but knew it, cool baths will often solve the problem. The skin of the face is kept in condition by the fre- quent washings in cold wate, and you will find that the cool ba... will con- tract the large pores of the skin upon the rest of the body in much the same fashion, and in a month’s time you will find a great improvement. Of course, the cool baths must agree with one, or more harm than good will be done. Best begin them while the weather is warm or by regulating the temperature of the water with hot water during the cooler weather and decreasing the amount of hot water until very little, if any, is used. Be- sides closing the pores of the skin, the cool morning bath will send the blood racing through the veins so that it will carry off the impurities and so leave the surface of the skin clear. The cool bath should last but about a minute, just long enough to get into the tub, dash or spray the water over one and jump out. A vigorous rub- down with a turkish towel should fol- low, and then a minute or two at least of exercise. If you know of no partic- ular exercises that you care to try, a little bit of old-fashioned jigging and kicking will get you into a glow, and you will generate “pep” for the day. If you wish to make puff pastry very flaky you brush it over with white of egg each time it is rolled. The white of egg should be _ very slightly beaten and should be lightly brushed over the pastry when it is rolled out; you then fold it in uiiree, and roll out again, brush over again with white of egg; repeat this the re- quired number of times, which is gen- erally seven folds and rolls. | allowed on country roads. Turk, the Greek, the Chinaman and the inhabitant of every European country stopped his horse with the every nationality. —At present high price of dairy cows it is an advantage both to pro- ducer and buyer to buy or sell cows with records. The buyer does not hes- itate to pay the price if records can be shown to justify. It is a mistake for any one to pay over $75 for a cow, grade or pure-bred, unless the records behind her warrant the price. Don’t count altogether on looks, investigate past records as well. The butterfat production tells the tale. —Oat straw gave nearly as good results in feeding horses at light work as timothy hay, was the conclusion of an experiment at the Missouri Experi- ment Station. In each case 1400- pound horses were fed 15 pounds corn and cobmeal and two-thirds pounds oilmeal daily. At the North Dakota Experiment Station it was found that horses when fed oats or bran and shorts needed about a fourth more grain feed when fed oat straw than when given upland prairie hay. —Excessive loads placed on wag- ons with narrow tires are exception- ally bad for any road. Tractors us- ing wheels upon which are cleats, or anything that will cut through or in- jure the road surface, should never be Disc har- rows, and in fact any cultivating tool, should be kept off the road. If it is necessary to move them along the road, place them upon a drag, stone boat, or haul them to the field on a wagon. If dragged over the road, they will scar the road badly, break | through the surface and start disin- tegration. No road is in such poor Sons as to warrant abuse of this ind. —Authorities on pork production say that a pig should never see his own birthday; or, in other words, he should be so fed as to go to market before he becomes a year old. The sooner a pig “makes a hog of itself” the better for the owner. When ac- count is taken of the saving of labor and the reducing of loss from disease by marketing animals at seven to nihe months of age, instead of keeping them for a year or more, the advan- tage is almost always with the more rapid growth. The self-feeder sys- tem which permits hogs to eat grain at will either in pastures or dry lots, is becoming more and more popular in the corn-belt States. Likewise the practice of hogging down crops. The idea many farmers have, and it is a good one, is to get a hog onto mar- ket as quickly as possible and with the least possible outlay for labor. —The most satisfactory method of applying all kinds of fertilizers has not been worked out as yet. This is especially true of the quick-acting fertilizers, like nitrate of soda. Ni- trate of soda is so soluble that it makes little difference whether it is applied on the surface of the ground or worked into the soil or put into the row with the crop. It is largely a matter of convenience in applying rather than the superiority of one method over another. It should be borne in mind, however, that when plants are small, nitrate of soda should be applied near the plant, in order that the plant may get hold of it and prevent it from being wasted. Of course, this only applies to culti- vated crops planted with drills. After the plants have attained good size, and the roots have occupied the ground pretty fully, nitrate can be applied broadcast with little chance of its wasting. —Wheatless Ration for Hens.—A dry mash, egg ration, as worked out by poultrymen at the Ohio station, is made up of ground corn two parts, bran one part, and meat scrap two parts. This mash when fed in con- nection with a grain mixture of corn and wheat gave an” average annual production of 140 eggs per hen. Oth- er mashes made up of the same ma- terials but in different proportions have not proven satisfactory as laying rations for hens. When a large amount of meat scrap was used in the ration fewer eggs were produced than when a medium amount was fed; similarly, when only a small amount of meat scrap figured in the ration, the egg production was unsatisfacto- ry. From the entire experiment the poultrymen have decided that a sat- isfactory ration for egg production should contain 12 per cent. of meat scrap, but wheat is not necessary for laying hens if the proper proportion of corn, bran and meat scrap is main- | tained.