« NOTES OF INTEREST ON AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. cr A Perfect Food for Chicks —Storing Celery — How to (row Crimson Clover. Compost ing Frequently Unprofitable—Etc., Etc. A PERFECT FOOD FOR From the time that tne emerge from the shell until they have assumed a comfortable suit of feath ers, feed nothing but Graham bread, soaked in Iuke-warm water until soft, pot sloppy. Give plenty of pure wa- ter, keep the chicks free from lice, and barring accidents—about hun- dred per cent. will reach the frying Never feed raw meal of any kind to very young poultry: it causes diarrhea and dysentery. When I be- gan to raise chickens, 1 fed raw corn meal mixed with warer, and thought myself fortunate if half of those hatched lived to become large enough A. J. Leland iu the Epi CHICKS. chicks one stage, for table use. tomist, STORING CELERY. Large celery growers are careful fo is quite and store their celery only when it free from the frost. For keeping a lon dinary system practiced is to pack it in on high, cover with straw or other coarse litter, moisture of dew r time the ov 2 in {renches dry ground, and increasing the covering falls, When to be sols ery should be house, fourteen built on high ground, the basement be ing dug down to moist earth, the walls double boarded of the filled with sawdust and roof can be of matched 1 with papers and shingles with a dow at one end and a door at the otl or Wooden square can be placed rpart. Narrow compari inches can be made whic dery is stored in a special to sixteen feet wide, each side the on bert being The wards covered post, space Yoon leaves win- im iil twelve foot nts chimneys eight Inch sixteen wide. along the sides, into snugly packed, with between the bunches, HOW TO GROW CRIMSON CLO VER. clover in factory son. It is not a he of kill it ar drive it to results hot sun midsummer will either a head when only two or three inches high It is tire and in late fall, a cold-weather plant. in that it fall way guited to sawing may hold 2 and winter. We as a catch from August until May, making room for another suited to holdi summer. the ground during the use 1 sav 1 ry then crop, ore better ng the ground during the Grown in this way, crimson clover Is of great value to the farm. but we do not advise tl cut and cured for hay. It ri time somewhat out of season baymaking, and, on the consider it better suited for ploughing under as green manure or for ing hogs or sheep. On our farm we use th catch werop, usually sowing it he stand corn. At the last cultivation of the corn we go through and broadeast about twelve pounds per acre of the crimson clover seed, then run the cultivator through the corn as usual, thus working the seed in. Aft <r the corn is cut the clover grows along through the fall and winter. We also sow the seed after early po tatoes; after digging we work the ground with the Cutaway harrow, sow the clover seed and then roll. It is not necessary to give any very care ful preparation of the ground in pre paring it for crimson clover seed, but you will make a mistake if you under- take to sow the seed in the spring, be rause it is not adapted to spring sow ing. and will certainly prove a disap- pointment.— Rural New Yorker, b— YOMPOSTING FREQUENTLY UN. PROFITABLE. On my farm of eighty-six acres | have handled annnally for ten or twelve years 150 to 200 tons of ma nure. Much of this is obtained from neighboring towns for the hauling. The crops grown in a regular three year rotation are corn, wheat and clo ver, 1 have given a good deal of thought to the plan of composting, and three or four times have compost heaps. My aim has always been to put the manure when possible on the fields as hauled. When this has been inconvenient or impractica be at a for safe whale, Ws we pastu: ig clover ax a in tl SOW or for other reasons, 1 have resorted to composting, My plan in building the compost heap bas been to make it circular and four or five feet high. Drive the wagon around it as the ma pure is being unloaded. it. If I found there was danger of burning 1 hauled water and applied it when necessary. On one heap of ninety large loads I put at different tindes fifty barrels of water. This heap was built in a corner of a field where the manure was to be used, This all entailed hard work, and a good deal of it. Making the compost heap in the barn lot, I ean haul to It any time and with any load that can be hauled upon a good gravel pike, 1 do not compost because I think it profitable, but as a makeshift or mat. ter of convenience. When I dump the manure in the barn lot, I seatter shell ed corn over ity for my brood sows, In gathering the corn they fine the ma- nure and compact it so that it never has to he watered. The other stock in the lot, horses and cattle, help with the tramping, I would In no case consider it profitable te gather road or They contain too much sand and grav el. 1 sometimes gather the leaves from four acres of timber and put them in the barn Jot compost heap. Wheat straw which is not needed for bedding also goes through this heap. Clover haulm 1 scatter on the fields from which it was taken, and plow Going through the compost heap nothing the manure, Hence why haul it to the heap dry and haul it away wet, entalling cost and hard labor? By my system of handling manure, I have been able to increase my wheat, clover and corn crops. Be fore wwing manures in such quantities 1 put the land in proper condition to receive them. Upon one field that had never given, previous to my work on it, an average oi over eight bushels of wheat per acre, I have raised thirty-nine bushels one vear, and at other times twenty-five, ix and thirty-one bushels per acre. This was accomplished without a pound of commercial fertl lizer. My opportunities for obtaining manure off the farm have made it pos. sible to speedily bring the farm up to a state high fertility. Had these opportunities been limited, or had I been confined to the farm for the ma- nure supply, I would not made a practice composting, because | do not think the profit aceruing would outlay of labor required, whole strength of the argument favor may following state- ment. It the farmer to the refuse products of the farm,’ such as straw, to these Of have Of justify the The in of composting be in enables np the get leaves and weeds and coarse manure, into an avalable for plant food more quickly than could be herw form done ot ise, It be claimed that haul from the compost heap more fertility than pnt it, it an use these produc is KO cannot we we © much hence without gainers If not much is lost if these products we into labor, we are the prop riy { omposted, lost o the land in which cannot be are returned t their coarse state, out this It of ar Jusion is * uta crops composting does not culture of garden and tx 1 find it have a supply of composted John M. Jamison trriar Crops stock ro desirable to manure an Ag POULTRY NOTES, (sive the fowls fresh water hy a 1e hree times daily Feed ach #t. Whole corn is the best as early « Hens cal see to © food in very cold weather Feed and Do not thi carefully for * ! do no produce GUZH SHOW ooking ter to wit} Be careful frosted. No hen not frosted will lay Hens dur good flesh ¢ in Poor hens su should cold h and never lay. houses clean and wi ted during the day: up tight night and Do not complain if your to lay may do so occasionally, nature, Laying hens require more feed thm those that do not lay. Remember this and feed more of the kind of feed thut makes eggs. Cracked corn a good food for growing chicks of fair size provided plenty of sharp grit Is furnished, but not otherwise, Sometimes shutting hens off grain and feeding meal will canse them to lay. Bometimes a change of food will cause them to renew egg production. Farmers who have a pateh of wet land, marshy and almost useless, could get a little return by keeping geese. A few would get most of thelr sum- mer food from such a spot and will pay better in proportion to their cost than any other stock on the farm. he kept ing weather fer mu 11 ventila close everything drafts, hens fall They not Keep at avoid an egg each every day. but it's is Two Havana Pastimes The intellectual pastime in Havana Chess is played at all the clubs extensively, and nearly all busi. ness and professional men are devoted to the game. There are several chess clubs, and some of them have players with world-wide reputations. Some of the international chess champions have played here, and almost all of It is easy to get large subscriptions to secure the presence of a famous player from abroad. The last of the bull-fighting proba- bly has been done in Havana. During the war the bulls were all eaten, Aft er the raising of the blockade the pro. ject of Importing bulls from Mexico was discussed, but was finally aban. doned. Now it seems lkely that be fore any bulls can be provided the pastime will be forbidden. The na- tives expect to see their bullfighting abolished as a matter of course, and there probably will be no protest, The intelligent Spaniards understand that the United States will not toler ate the pastime. A Plant Once Sacred. The plant known ax vervain, whieh is not distinguished for its beauty, and which grows now-a-days utterly dis regarded, was so sacred to the Druids that they only gathered it for their di- vinations when the great dog-star arose, In order that neither sun nor mogn should see the deed. chess ———————— NOTES AND COMMENTS. Medals or valor have been conferred nurses in the war with Turkey, wasn't anything to do but decorate the cuse for such attention, A monument costing £40,000 is to be erected over the grave of a simple Kentucky private killed in Juan fight. The soldier was only one of many wealthy men who were pre pared to go to the front In any capa city. declares that the eye mountings of are the best ong, France, glass and spectacle American manufacture of such goods this company may have a monopoly If it so desires, A Vienna (Austria) paper declares that very few persons in that city read poems, and fewer still buy them; that punblishers refuse to print them un less the authors pay all expenses, and for a store is to be stared at volume of poetry in that to ask a freak, book as at a the last government During twenty-five years the five ench, the granted thi 100 has twenty mtents 1.804, Edison fie has Thou M3, Ed Neurive inventors more in the whole number bein average 105 Thomas A. the head of the list received T11 patents, S04, Francis H, Richards, ward Weston, 274, Charles E ner 248, Charles J. Vandepoele, 24 and Westinghouse 217 -ii The Philadelphia ing the financial and tions of England have relations with the “if Englishmen England Is actually now living on the f hund SAvVihgs of una i stands ar Elin tsOrge Inquirer discuss industrial condi far United in England is describe in so as they Nintes, SAYS: the situation ns now is. of accumulated reds years' 4 wsmsion of the world's ma kets and earry when an ing trade, the in ited Slates wil ing reased fmmigratic {sreat Britain to the Un begin to bound set npetit have trolled France hat by , While humanity the its greatest al irgest 1 81 ext recor Is importation of in a It calendar ven is os A few bronze two Three cent million lion scattered over tl selilom one (Of it is very of them ploces Ome Arrgss the S000 one -half-cont not one has been returned to the government for coinage or is held by the treasurs A Philadelphia dealer in birds, and goldfish has a finny tribe imported which swims with the head down the water in nearly a perpendicular position. A woman stopped before the the other day, and after viewing the new variety went into the store and ordered the dealer to make the fishes swim with thelr he ele rated. The dealer became angry over wer interference with his business, and ordered her from the store. She formed the for the Preven tion of Cruelty Animals officials, ind an officer was sent to investigate, Ihe fish still swim perpendicularly. dogs new species of tix from Japan, in g#tore nis in No icty to The rapid progress made by Japan in ite industries daring the last few years was mainly doe to the develop ment which coal production has as sumed there and which facilitated the starting of so many establishmenis ind caused an increase of Japanese goods on the international markets The fears expressed by British and European manufacturers in regard to the sudden competition of Japan ase thout to vanish now, when it is stated that coal production has ceased to be ronsiderable in the Japanese Empire. it appears that there is not more than ne million tons of coal a year now nined in the whole country, and that nine-tenthe of this comes from the mines of Hokkaido and Kilensen which are reported asx nearly ex. anustied, The original plan prepared by George Stephenson and bis son for the iret line of rallway from Birming ham to London war sold the other lay in the latter ety. It bears the witograph signature of Robt, Stephen. son, I. R. 8. M. I’, president of the [nstitute of Civil Engineers, who died n1%50, and was buried fn West | minster Abbey. The plan, which is. frawn to the scale of four inched to! he mile, is all the more valuable see. | ng that the coples of it, which wero | fuly deposited in the Private Bill Dice at the time, were destroyed in ie disastrous fire which borke out at | the Palace of Westminster fn 1834, The bills relating to this great under aking were passed on May 6, 1883, turing tife reign of Willam 1V., and he work was begun on June 1 in the followjng year, Within the last three months a rep resentative of an American sewing machine obtained an order from an tnglish firm In Hong Kong for a con. dderable number of bicycles, made by the sewing machine company he rep resented, American exports of all kinds to Hong Kong are inereasing remarkably, Formerly kerosene and articles shipped there from here. To- day ever steamer and ship from Amer lea brings cargoes of American goods, This is a direct result of the war with Spain. Goods are shipped tw the United States forces In Mania by w of Hong Kong, which, as is generally known, is a mountainous island, hard ly a mile away from the of China, and in the possession thi British, The imposing of coast of quantities curiosity first, then demand, users of American bleyeles in Hong Kong will be chiefly men in the employ of the British government and English merchants who live there. he Russia's most kind cational, as rapidly | rallway Is rapid (strides, The traps-Casplan rallway, It branches, 1808 Internally, industrial, edu pushed Niberiau during has remarkable, refor: Progress been of nercantile every in been The with has as possible, advancing its two Afghan borders, is pletion; river to the Chinese aud approaching com y transportation is being ifr improved; everywl there | Where there is the i Out vigorous people The nn extended to t ti ia ere F than ever while her entrance the Indian Russop sian hy he waters of Ox us revives the fears of that one-fifth of United IRE riant ipita ‘ "wr Colle § growing upon only T0000 (0 SEH (NNT dlowls if about 20,0000,000 pounds drink day her nations ost {wice a th ream of the fruit and vegetable of our di as a nat have it t frye ing on thie « ree eR a day, coTee with all manuer of acids, to 1 ue gestive ms distress We rashness | great apparatus brave to are a brave n our eat In no respect does audacity mons brilliantly than in our coffeedrinking nation, ing and drinking this reckless shine OF Every war has its unkoawn, gcarcely known, heroes, whose names are inscribed on no taolets of bronze bunt who waxed as valiant in proved as alert in resource or as pa ght noted commanders, Rehley and Shafter have their reward, but few think of the humble who sank into unmarked graves or in obscure corners dared tremendous risks. That fireman on the Castine, for example, was a hero if ever there was one, who, when during a run under forced draft In action, the loos ening of a holt at the farthest interior of .a furnace, let the steam in on the fire, thus deadening it. ordered the draft turned off, and fresh coal thrown on the fire. When the white fires were banked, he climbed in over the wet coal, treading on a plank, till he reached the place where the steam was rushing In, and tightened the bolt. and remedied the trouble. For th=ee minutes he remained in the furnace, when he was pulled out by his ship mates, and the gunboat resumed her course through the waters, at the for. mer high rate of speed, ns though noth- ing happened. That man deserves a medal if any sallor does Dewey, Sampson French and Our Own Army Mortality. The statistics of mortality among the French troops, recently published by M. Noel in the Revue Scientifique, show that the death rate of the troops in France amounts to 6.08; in Algiers, 12.27, and in the colonies, to 42.95 per cent, When we compare these statistics of an army at peace, and those of the mortality rate hmong our own soldiers in the war with Spain, which was something ke 2 per cent, including those who fell In battle as well as those who succumbea to disease, it is only fair to ask whether the great outery against the excessive death rate in our own armies is wholly war ranted.—~Medical Record, Vienna, Austria has trebled its pop ulation within thirty-five years, A SLEEPLESS MAGNATE. PECULIAR MALADY OF A FAMOUS WISCON SIN MILLIONAIRE, Elaborate Daily Routine Which Fostered Edward Bain's Insomnia Never Occupied or Wooed Sleep in a Reclining Position. For fifteen years Edward Bain, millionaire wagon manufacturer Kenosha, Wik, who died recently at Pasadena, Cal, pever occupled a bed or p by a reclin ing posture, Sitting bolt upright in a bigh-backed arm chair, or lying back in tilted at slight angle, he let head fall upon his breast and dozed away for the few minutes of half slumber which it seem ed body generally with having. Sometimes han thirty night, five, in ii the of wooed slee assuming a c¢halr which a his his was content he did minutes in this or ten frequent not sleep more the into course of a dividing gnatenes of minutes, and r io take There secured neat reven ising intervals walks about Kenosha, however, {15 bly an nights when he thie of sleep, possi © quota i at the end before ri a time, rising of t} relaxation laborious endeavor forgetfulness « +1 times a millionaire, his friends, he re to help him 3 ed against the virie never illarity of meth . e merciless self-disci brought on in the firs Dr. was destin companion. By in all probability fos Always a IVEICIAL, LE we di i 2} whith stant disease LBervous Bain Wagon poration at af CO : Edward Bain, th 1 3 xt ' Hag oeen never<en as ) ‘ biy attendant to a was hurried bath, then rubbed dressed in fresh and natiers igorously In was scrupulous to the last garments, attire he afl. After a light breakfast he walk- from the house a short distance ww » block, 1 where his buggy await f Kenosha, Mr land, fen part On the outskirt in od farms, cultivated one field to man in a without in owned large tracts of and he ie into for the most gates opening another were of the carriage or alighting. Bain drove t to farm, looking at every object, but never speaking to his tenants At 10 morning he was sot platform at the An Mr into the time Wells in tl ue sireet a wagon can Yor fre open nearly arin farin four hours Mr. yin o'clock every down on the Chicago and Northwestern depot employee took the rig home and and the attendant came Chicago. From 11.30 o'clock, of the train's arrival ar the street station, until o'clock afternoon, he was on board a car. He rode for one hour and forty five minutes in one direction, timing and then returning by the ~ o | the train which bore him back to Kenosha, During the street ear rides, My Rain sat always on the right side of the car. At the half-way point he secured his Junch, a glass of some mild beverage and a sandwich, When he reached lLenosha at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon the buggy was awaiting him at the platform. He climbed into it and made the same round of the farms he had made in the morning. He took dinner with his family In the evening and after the meal came down town, going either to the Grant House or to one of the saloons, He did not drink, but took a seat and talked with his friends and acighbors. Water Cress in Germany. “Practical Gardener” by Mrs. Wilhel. mine Seliger, appears in the Hartford “Dally Times.” Erfurt is not only fa- mous for seed growing the world over, but has a territory in which market gardening is permanent. It i= known as the “Drelnbrunnen” districts, Deep ditches or canals are carried over the territory through which cool water flows-and the narrow beds between the ditches are where the vegetables grow, The streams grow the water herossos, 1Pifty thousand bunches have been sold from this one tract In one genson, bringing in $2600 of our money-a little fortune in Germany. The water cress busisness was start. ed in 1865 by one Hans Hartzan, who rented the ground for a small sum. 18/0 brothers, named Matthew ach | Simon Engelhardt, toox up the smart made, and in 1687 ran the net-work of | ditches over the land. Old plants produce too hot and tooth. less an article, as all know who have had water cress in an American res taurant. In these Erfurt streams, the plants are torn out twice a year, and new plantations made from the young tips, The bottom of the shallow streams are heavily manured, the tips planted, and the plants kept down by boards until the have taken j hold. Of course, provision for keeping down the boards hax to be made. This boarding process is one of the essen- tials of enlture. The erisp, juley pro- duct would not be secured without it It bears the same relation to good wa roots ter cress as blanching does to good cel. With the tough. peppery stuff on American it wonder wa- ter popular.—Meechan's Monthly. ery. tablex, in no CTeRR is hot sss — » AAID AND A LOCOMOTIVE. lavestigated, and the Train Had to Back Up for the Lost Engineer. 16K the ily. Career, in letter of a Detroit ering] She is engag in and tells this ariegated experiences en ountered in traveling about the coun grown tired of sitting among * sleepy people in our car, and when little wav-station 1 101 ped 1 A 3 suaded the engineer to let 3 riage me MOnKLer ming to the pite and the big engineer laugh up' I sprang furnace Was 0 ‘stoke open the door orders It t stoki getting ng ekaninny act and ruin kid At th ad tliat nner, he coal bin had crawled in me, were back r engineer and fireman ctor what 1 thought » apologized, I have alse superintendent of the manding a they are warning new pair forth- trouble, ¢ not imke terkshire heard at Alder eastward. noticed in the Very rare the sound the reports are mistaken and thus cause 4a time when hay harvest is in progress. There is, however, a say- ing in the district that the “guns are worse than thunder,” and this be- they forecast, not a passing or but rather the approach unsettied weather. It is easy that a continuity of a uniform moisture-laden air stretching across that part of the country that is the cause of the phe- nomenon. The testimony of seamen and other trained observers goes to show that homogeneous moist air or mist is the readiest vehicle of sound: that dry air seldom or never conveys sound so readily, while an atmosphere of varying density renders all sounds capricious. to be the sound guns the ®t, These ere is Is an ast wind to help Occasionally for listant alarm | cause local storm, of generally to is prove it From a sheltered, quiet lawn the Aldershot guns had not been noted all through the late summer until far on in one afternoon in the middle of Au- gust, when their sound rolled out with great distinctness, the weather, to all appearance, remaining unchang- ed and the barometer standing firm and bigh, In the night, however, thunder was heard for some two hours, the first time for many weeks, and in the morning the guns were heard again more distinctly than be. fore. In this case sound bad been the clearest, and indeed the only telitale of a humid layer of the atmosphere | vrooding over the country side.~Con. {temporary Review, ——— - Love Customs in Barmah. Of all the marriag: rites of which lone ever heard those of Burmah bear iaway the palm for conciseness and Here it is upon the of courtship devolve, She sees a youth whom she deems ealeulated wo make her happy, and forthwith offers him a stick of candy. If be accepts her proposal he promptly eats the to ken of affection, and they are thereby made man and wife. There is no fur ther ceremony, aml no witnesses are necessary. In the act of eating alone this most primitive marriage, rite con. sists. But if, on the contrary, the youth is not willing, he assures her that that particular kind of not to his taste, and the
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