Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-09-08
How TO MAZE gr,r-,r-, .

have any other. We take the color nf W
osHS SUR oundings, and are happier, more
suiaole, stronger to labor and frmer to en-.
oss. hnen those surroundings are PLEASING
anu N g0oo taste. To possess these impor.
1an. quau.lss they need not be extensive
arue oeau1! Is cheaper than We think. The
nrs1 cnsrm OF home, within and without ia
uu.oosn heatness, and this is the result of
habit, not outlay. 1t is otter cbeoaes 49,
filth. Paint the house if Won ON - tuah
whitewash; but in any case let j. no.,
thorough repair. Let there be NO -
shingles, or dangling clapboards, or $50
hanging on broken hinge. These hints 8.
vor thrift as well as taste. Let the honsa
be sufficiently shaded This will paw in com.
fort, wear of furniture, and lack of flies r.
you cannot afford green blinds, you can al.
ways afford green tree or two, that costs
nothing but labor and patience, and will shell.
ter you from the sun in the summer and the
wind in the winter.
Plant vines of some kind about your prem.
Use, they are indispensable to grace thew
show that nature takes kindly to your home
and has thrown her arm round it. You need
not resort to costly climbers; woodbine and
clematis may be had for the gathering, and
grapes and hop-vines may be so trained as
to combine beauty and profit. Let your turf
be smooth and firm as velvet, and enforce
the death penalty upon weeds with an un-
sparlng hand. No man, rich or poor, can sf-
ford to raise weeds. They choose the richest
spots, where flowers, or fruit or vegetables
might grow, and send abroad their seeds as
missionaries of evil into every nook and cor
ner Il-kept places always have their vege-
table Five Points, where sin and misery are
mlmeked IN pigweed, burdeck, and nettles.
A very few flowers will suffice a monthly
rose IN the window, morning glory over the
doorway, bright border between your kitch-
en- garden and the street; these add to the
picture just those touches of color that make
it pleasant to the eye. With half dozen
cheap and common kinds, your wife will take
care that something is always in bloom.
But flowers are gross feeders, and if you
keep no domestic animals, you fancy, per-
haps, that you have no manure. You were
never more mistaken. Every human dwell.
ing is a centre of fertilizing agents, mostly
wasted as times go, rich enough to make the
whole plot around it blossom like the rose.
Tell the soil that you have nothing to give it
Give it what you have and it will laugh in
your face. The suds from the laundry is a
store of liquid wealth. Never waste drop
of it in drains or sewers. It is a floating
currency promising to pay roundly in grass,
home bank, which never suspends payment
These grassy slopes are greenbacks whose
issue is as good as gold. Carpet sweepings
are manure in a concentrated form. Dug in
to your fower-borders, they weave richer
pattern than the one from which they were
worn. The old bones that deform the prem
ises, if buried beneath the grapevine, will
be "health to the bones" of all your friend.
Old boots and shoes, those the most un.
slightly wrecks, are the favorite food of the
raspberry and its palatable kin. Tainted
brine, if such unhappily is yours is a treas
ure for the plum trees and the asparagus bed;
slacken lime with it, and it will make rich
dressing for any garden soil. Every house
hold should have its compost bed, be it only
all old packing box, where woollen
rags, bits of paper, apple parings, refuse of
vegetables, Stops from the kitchen, chips and
saw-dust, are storing up the elements of
glorious growth. Let not yours be one of
the homes where all these bright possibili-
ties arrive only at "burning instead of beau
ty." We have named but part of the fer
tilizers of every household. Generally speak
ing, whatever is offensive to sight or smell is
urging the appeal to our revolted tastes
bury me, and I'll do you good.-.Spra,gfeld
Republican.
FARMERS, Posi- YOURSELVES ON THE MAR
KETs.-To grow good crops year after year
may show that the farmer is skillful in his
calling, that he knows upon what soil to
plant when to plant, how to manure, and
how to cultivate. But if he would gain
wealth, unless he do it blunderingly, he must
from some source learn the condition and
prospects of the markets. If he does not
this he is more or less at the mercy OF the
buyers, having no real voice in fixing the
price of his products. Nor can he greatly
blame the buyer for purchasing low 1t is
the law Of trade to buy as low and to sell at
as great an advance as possible. The farm
er does this so far as he is able, and no man
will drive closer bargain when an opportu-
nifty is given than the farmer himself. The
great markets of the country for agricultu-
| raj produce of all kinds are as a general
thing something entirely beyond his control.
The amount produced and the demand for
his article at home and abroad, govern prices
in the main. There are local differences
caused by the difficulty or conveniences for
handling and shipping. But beyond a fair
remuneration for the transaction of the bust
ness, including of course freights, &C., there
should be no difference in the price Of any
agricultural product, between country ship
| ping points and the great commercial centers
| like Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Louis
| When more than this is made it is done
through the ignorance of the producer, or
the Willingness to run the risk of fluctuations
of the market by the country purchaser who
holds his grain for a change.-Frairie Far
nler.
THE "CoRNEL1Us" PLUM.-When we came
to Wisconsin, nine years ago, our opinion Of
the native wild plum was anything but favora-
~ ~ Lnf1
perior to the wild crab apple, which is about
as miserable fruit as Nature ever produced.
| Of late years, however, our opinion Of the
wild plum has become greatly modified. Our
| friend J. Fl. Bridge, of Jefferson, and several
others, have brought us samples at different
times which for size and delicacy of favor
rival the majority of plums grown and cult
waited in eastern orchards. But our senior
(Col. Bintliff) has now in his garden several
wild plum trees which are worthy of notice.
Trees not more than two inches in diameter
and six feet in height contain at least bush
Ell of plums. On single limb, abont one
fourth of an inch in diameter, we noticed
about sixty plums within ten inches, many of
them an inch in diameter and all Of good,
fair size. These plums are of a rich reddish
purple color, and their favor is delicious
Col. Bintlif calls them the " Cornelius Plum"
because the variety originated On the land of
n. Cornelius, Esq, mile west of this vii
lage, who, we understand, has grove of the
trees. Col. B. thinks SO highly of them that
he is grating them into the egg plum stock,
and otherwise propogating them as fast az
possible. So far as we know, it is one of the
most desirable plums which this climate affords
Monroe Serstiad.
SAVING SEED CoRN.-f there is one thing