Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-21
Farm, Garden and Household.

the hand and snuff into the nostrils
Two applications a day will soon pro
duce good results.
To WASH CALIoo.-To prevent calico
from fading while washing, infuse three
gills of salt in four quarts of water; put
the calico in while hot, and leave it TIL
cold. In this way the colors are rem
dered permanent, and will not fade by
subsequent washings.
HELEN CAKE. Two cups of sugar,
three cups OF -four, one cup of sweet
milk, half cup of butter, three eggs,
two teaspoonfUls of cream tartar, one
teaspoonful of soda. Beat the whites
of eggs separately. Make half into
fruit cake by adding spices and fruit.
A. RIDDLE asked the Club whether it
would injure pear trees to cut of the top
when they grew too high. A. S, Fuller
said it would not iniure them any more
than cutting off limb. Mr.. Smith said
he had severely injured pear tree by
cutting off the top in the spring, after
the growth had started, but since then
had topped others in the winter without
injury. Trees should be pruned when
young, so as to prevent this unsightly
and inconvenient growth.
TREATMENT OF SOFT CoRNs.-A small
piece of sal-amoniac dissolved in two
tablespoonfuls of spirits of wine, and
the same quantity of water. Saturate
Il small piece of sponge or linen rag,
and place it between the toes, changin :
it twice a day. This will cause the skin
to harden, and the corn may be easily
extracted. A good remedy for soft
corns is common chalk rubbed on the
corn every day, and piece of cotton
wool worn between the toes affected, to
prevent pressure; the chalk appears to
dry up the corn.
SURFACE MANURING.-Dr. Voelcker
says that on clay soils manure may be
spread on the surface of plowed ground,
and lie even six months without losing
any appreciate quantity Of fertilizing
value. At the same time he advocates
the blowing in of long, coarse manure
for its mechanical effect on heavy soils,
but when no alternative is LETT, he says
it is better to spread manure at once on
the soil rather than leaving it in heaps.
Our own experience, during several sea-
sons, has shown that manure spread on
the snow during winter, when it could
be hauled economically on sleds, has
given us better crops of corn, potatoes,
hay, etc, than when spread at any other
time.
TIMBER PLANTING I'm the Farmers
Club, A. S. Fuller, in reply to queries
from New Hampshire. said that black
walnut might be very proftably grown
on the rocky waste lands of New Eng
land The nuts should be kept moist
through the winter, and in spring plant
ed in nursery rows, whence they might
be transplqpted at one or two years old
One-third Of the tap-root should be cut
off when transplanted, which would cause
a growth of fbrous side-roots. The
Ailanthus tree was not to be recon-
mended for planting, for though it grew
very easily and quickly, the flowers had
an abominable scent, and the limbs were
so brittle that light winds even would
break them off. The Chestnut was far
preferable in every way.
SPRING WORK. The first work in the
spring, when the snow begins to melt,
is to let off any water that accumulates
on the surface No matter how carefully
the dead burrows and outlets may have
been made in the fall, there is always
more or less to be done in the spring, to
provide free egress for the water. A
few hours work with hoe and spade. at
this season, will often let off thousands
of gallons of water, which otherwise
would soak into the soil and keep it wet
and cold for several weeks. In letting
off shallow pool of water, the easiest
and quickest plan is to commence at the
pool and make a little furrow with hoe,
letting the water follow you. But where
the wateris in deep basin, with little APP.
parent fall from it to the outlet, better
plan is to commence at the outlet and
dig with spade up to the basin and
in order to be sure that you lose no fall,
dig the ditch deep enough to let the water
follow you up to the basin. In this way
we have rarely found basin that could
not be drained. There is nothing that
people are so often deceived about as
the amount of fall to land.-Agricm-
turiSt.
GRUBs IN CATTLE.-A correspondent
writes to the Farmers Club that his
stock was much troubled with grubs in
their backs-as many as a hundred and
fourteen had been taken from yearling.
His nei9hbors' stock were just as bad.
They were poor, rough-coated and weak.
What should he do for them, and how
should he prevent it in future2 Mr..
Dodge said these were MARBLES. They
were the larvae of the cattle gad-hy,
which deposited their eggs in the skin
of the cattle, along the back. When
not numerous they did no harm, and
cattle seemed to suffer only when they
existed in great numbers in the skin,
when the irritation made the cattle poor.
They could beremoved by pres sure but
it should be remembered that if killed
and allowed to remain in the skin sores
would be caused which would be worse
than the grubs. DR.. j. V. G. Smith
said an application of teaspoonful of
carbolic acid in a pint of alcohol, with a
piece of aloes the size of walnut dis
solved in it, applied on the animals
back, would doubtless prevent them
from depositing their eggs. Prof. T.
H. Cotton said in the South these grubs
were known as wolves, and the common
pine-tar, mixed with lard, was rubbed
on the backs of the cattle as a prevent
i've. The tar contained volatile sub
stance similar to and just as efectual as
carbolic acid, while it is not poisonous
at all.
STATIsTIos.-French journals speak OF
the effects of the war on the mortality in
Paris, in which city the average num-