Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-02-04

u
The following by correspondent Of
the Country Gentleman, will be OF m
terest to our farmer readers
| The question is often asked why
cannot hens be made 10 lay - we'll In
the fall and winter, % in the spring
and SUMMER" We answer they can 70
. certain extent but they require, in
order to this end, to be we'll provided
With rarn. and comfortable lodgings,
clean apartments, plenty of food in all
its variety, consisting Of grain, vegeta-
bic and animal food, pure water, and
gravel. lime or broken oyster shells.
and dry ashes or mould to roll and
battle in.
Whether fowls are suffered to run at
large or are confined, there should be
accommodations provided for them, in
the way of house to roost and lay in.
Il is known that cold beDumbs fowls,
and retards their laying. Intense heat
is equally bad for them. Previous,
therefore, to getting stock of fowls,
comfortable place should be prepar-
ed for them. The accommodations
need not necessarily be expensive. In
selecting situation for this purpose,
regard must be had to dry and warm
situation. No animal suffers more from
damp than fowls. Hence, in order to
have hens lay we'll in winter, it is abso-
lutely necessary to furnish them with a
warm, dry room, where the vicissitudes
of the weather and storms will not
reach them. Some have been so care.
full in this matter, ourself among the
rest, as to dig into steep banks and
there form rooms for them, where they
can have proper heat, and always q
supply Of earth for busting. This place
faces south, with glass front to at
tract the heat of the sun. The roof, in
place Of being covered with earth, is
covered with plank tongued and groov-
ed, and lined with boards, and the space
between the rafters filed with dry tan.
Next to bodily protection, food de.
mands attention. 1t is profitable, and
no mistake about it, to feed hens with
animal food in winter. In the vicinity
Of cities, large TWINS, q, villages, this
can always be obtained, and at low
rates warm food, such as boiled pota-
toes mixed with meal or bran, given
hot, is also beneficial. If they do not
lay with care and attention, give them
very little cayenne pepper mixed with
their warm food.
Hens suffer in winter for want Of ex-
ercise. They will fly from the roost,
cat their breakfast, and are almost mo-
tionless, and 60 to roost again soon
after noon, especially if they have ra-
Their dark house, or the day be dark
and cloudy. We avoid this evil by scat
tering their grain in straw and gravel,
and letting them scratch-their natu-
raj propensity for living: This is
the best of remedies for such laziness,
as the exercise necessary to obtain the
food gives them keen relish for it.
ITEMS FOR HoUsEKEEpERs.-Do ev-
erything in its proper time. Keep eY-
erything in its proper place. Always
mend clothes before washing them.
Alum or vinegar is good to set COL
ors of red, green or yellow.
Sal-soda will bleach ; one spoonful is
enough for kettle of clothes.
Save your suds for garden and plants,
or to harden yards when sandy.
Wash your tea trays with cold soda,
polish with little -four, and with a
dry cloth.
Frozen potatoes make more starch
than fresh ones. They make nice cake.
A hot shovel, held over vanished
furniture, will take out white spots.
A bit of glue, dissolved in skim milk
and water, will restore rusty old Grape.
Ribbons of any kind should be wash
ed in cold soap-suds, and not rinsed.
If your Aat-iro are rough, rub them
we'll with fine salt, and it will make
them smooth.
If you are buying carpet for dura-
bility, you must choose small figures.
A bit of soap rubbed on the hinges
Of doors will prevent their creaking.
Scotch snuff put on the holes where
crickets come out will destroy them.
Wood ashes and common salt, wet
with water, will stop the cracks Of a
stove and prevent the smoke from es-
Gaping.
Green should be the prevailing color
of bed-hangings and window drapery.
The AMERICAN DESERT Mr.. WAL
lace, the special correspondent of the
.4'ta Californian, writes to that paper
from Great Salt Lake City Of the ru-
in and desolation on the Desert as fol.
lows;
1--WE started early in the morning to
reach place called the Sink, dist
ance Of forty niles. The first fifteen
we're slightly elevate |, and the road led
through a continuous bed of deep and
heavy sand. At noon we we're half way
across, and stopped to exchange ami
mails, which had been sent on for us
from Ragtown the night previous. The
road then is hard and smooth for tie
greater portion of the way, and the
plain around for thousands Of acres to-
gether isleaAess and'lifeless, white arid
plains, without water, upon which the
sun glares. And here, too, over the
whole forty, are the signs of wreck and
ruin which have fallen on unlucky en-
igrants in past years. Heaps Of bones
lie everywhere, and everywhere are the
iron remnants Of wagons. 1t is estima-
ted that ten thousand tons of wagon