The weekly Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1872-190?, 1873-07-19
FARM AND GARDEN.

cations. IL WOulu Dt, IL ldIiHtIo Culti-
waited the earth as teachers develop the
head and preachers educate the heart.
| Teachers and preachers aim to train the
thoughts and feelings to truth and hap
piness. Farmers should train the earth
to produce such crops and fruits, and
such only, as are conducive to the best
health and highest welfare of human
beings. Then would their calling be
transformed from one of degrading
drudgery and interminable toll to one
ofrefnement and luxury. The germin-
ating seeds, the waving grains, the lus-
cious fruits, so suggestive OF the source
of all life and all blessings, and the
harvest season, so typical of resurrec-
ton and immortality, ought to make
the life of an agriculturist continual
pastime. And this would be the farm
er's life, if farming was managed as 1t
should be.
Farmers have unequaled advantages
for health, strength and longevity. The
statistics of disease and the tables of
mortality, however, are against them.
This is not due to their vocation. but to
their misuses of it. No class, as a
whole, is probably SO utterly reckless of
health conditions. So far as our ac-
quaintance with the habits of farmers is
concerned-andit has been extensive
it compels the conclusion, as a rule,
the dietetic habits of farmers are worse
than those of any other class who have
the means of choosing for themselves.
Fried dishes several times a day, with
several fried articles at each of the three
meals, is one of their common abomi-
nations dried beef, old cheese and
pickles are among the common relishes,
while lard and saleratus make their
richer dainties infectious and caustic.
We have seen on a farmers table fried
pork, fried eggs, fried potatoes, and
fried griddle-cakes for breakfast; fried
ham, fried hominy, and fried parsnips
for dinner, and fried sausages and fried
doughnuts for supper-all the frying
done in lard. No class is so troubled
with canker, erysipelas, tumors, cancers
and humors, as farmers; and the excess
sive use of pork, lard, fine -four, rick
cakes, and greasy pastry, are enough to
account for it In dietetic habits, our
farmers are sadly misled by the agricul-
tural journals, nearly all of which pan
der to their prejudices, and fatter their
morbid appetites by recommending and
commencing swine breeders and pork
eating, while they fill their kitchen
column with recipes for making rich
and palatable" buildings, pies, cakes,
and other complicated dishes, which no
stomach ever carried inside human
body could long tolerate without death
or dyspepsia.
The essential need of our farmers is
plain, wholesome food, properly cooked.
This would give them much more avail
able strength for work, relieve them of
many of the distresses and expenses of
sickness, add many years to their life,
and render old age green" and normal,
instead of dry and decrepid, as it is in
most cases under existing habits.
Science Of Health.
WATERING HOUSE PLANTs.-"How
often should house plants be watered:'
is question frequently asked by those
who have had little experience in their
culture. There certainly cannot be any
particular rule given to time, for some
species require more water than others,
and plants in large pots will need it less
frequently than those in small ones.
The temperature of the room has also a
powerful effect upon the evaporation of
moisture; if very warm, the plants will
require more than if it is cool. There are
however two very essential things relat-
ing to house-culture of plants which
should not be overlooked First. Never
apply cold water from cistern or well,
but let it be somewhere about the tenn
perature of the air in which the plants
are grown. Very cold water is sure to
check the growth of the plants. Second.
When the plants are watered, give the
soil in the pots a good soaking, and
then omit watering again until the soil
shows that it is needed A little at
time, and very often, is too generally
the practice with the novice.
CosT OF ABUSING Mich Cows
Harris Lewis, the eminent (Herkimer
county, New York dairyman, said lately
in an address to the Board of Agricul-
ture, that he had known a COW which
uniformly gave eighteen per cent. of
cream to her milk, to decrease her yield
to six per cent. in the short space of
twelve hours, merely from the excite
ment caused by the bad treatment of
brutal mixer. 1t was not guess work,
because he used graduated glasses to
test the matter. This shows pretty con-
clusively that it does not pay dairymen
to allow their cows to be i'll treated.
And in i'll treatment is to be included
anything that will alarm or excite them
fast driving to and from pastures,
worrying by dogs, yelling at them and
threatening demonstrations by boys, etc.
Civility and good nature pay, even
when bestowed on cows.-MassachuseHs
Ploughman.
FowLs.-In this age of fowls, we
think we cannot do our friends kind
er act than to tell them to feed their
fowls with onions. As the manure of
the hen house is the best for onions, so
onions, chopped fine and mixed with