Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-05-16
Farm Garden and Household.
Cost of Homesteadsi

AS frequent inquiries are MADE OF
the price of securing homestead up
ON the public lands under the Home
stead act, we give the following figures
as to what it costs poor man to get a
farm in Kansas
For grant of 160 acres, valued at
81 % per acre, ga fees when entry is
made y 81 (fees on issue of certificate
For grant of so acres, valued at 81
% per acre, 81 fees when entry is
made y 80 fees on issue of certificate. }
For a grant of 40 acres, valued at ST.
% per acre, Sc Gee when entry is
made y 81 fees on issue of certificate
For grant of 80 acres, valued at
$3.50 per acre, $13 fees when entry is
made } 81 fees on issue of certiicate.)
For a grant of 80 acres, valued at
50. 80 per acre, IS (fees when entry is
made , 50 Gees on issue of certif-
cate.)
To sum up, 160 acres cost SIS; so
acres, SO /; 40 acres, 81. The 50. so lands
is that included within the limits of
the railway grants, and only open to
soldiers under the Homestead act. A
soldier must settle on his claim until
the time of settlement added to his
term of service in the army makes up
five years, which is the length of settle
ment required from settlers who have
not served in army or navy.
A Bug ExterminatOr.
Hot alum water is recent suggestion
as an insecticide. 1t will destroy red
and black ants, cockroaches, spiders,
chintz bugs, and all the crawling pests
which infest our houses. Take two
pounds of alum and dissolve it in three
or four quarts of boiling water /; let it
stand on the fire until the alum disap-
pears then apply it with a brush while
nearly boiling hot, to every joint and
crevice in your closets, bedsteads, pan
try shelves, and the like. Brush the
creyices in the floor of the skirting or
mop-boards, if you suspect that they
harbor vermin. If, in whitewashing a
ceiling, plenty of alum is added to the
lime, it will also serve to keep insects
at a distance. Cockroaches will flee the
paint which has been washed in cool
alum water. Sugar barrels and boxes
can be freed from ants by drawing q
wide chalk mark just round the edge OF
the top of them. The mark must be un-
broken or they will creep over it, but q
continuous chalk line half an inch in
width will set their depredations at
naught.
Washing White MerIno Stockings.
The following is the way to wash
white merino stockings SO that they
will neither shrink, get hard, nor lose
color. Melt good quantity of Mar.
settles soap Cor any white soap thai
Innc not contain Cn5ol in, T,ol
boiling water as you are likely to re
quire; let stand till perfectly cold
then wash your wooden things in it, anc
rinse them in clear cold water with 6
little blue in it. You must neither
wiring nor squeeze them, but stretch
them into shape dripping on line
covering them with cloth, in a room
where they will not be under the in
fuence of air, sun, or fire. If you
things are so soiled as to require wash
ing in two waters, both waters must b.
prepared in the same way. The fines
merinos, both white and colored, ma,
be washed in this way but if the colo
be delicate it is well to pat the thing
lightly between two cloths. in order
take off the superfuous wet. Fine sill
foulards treated in this way and irone,
while halfwet look like new.
Farm Life.
A farmer should be as much a bus
ness man as a merchant or lawyer
like them he requires brain as well g
capital, and more brain than is genel
ally conceived necessary. Many me
who, for the want of brain, or some III
known cause, have deserted rural life
enroll themselves upon the lists of do,
tors, lawyers and commission men
giving as reason for their departul
from "the most healthful, Il
most useful and the most noble emplo,
ment of man, that farming, did not pa,
Why, I would ask Is it not either fro
the want of head to plan successful
or of industry to carry out plans we
laid? There must be some defcienc
in such a man, for his neighbor liv
comfortably, accumulates and groy
independent in his maturing year
Any industrious man can make none
but the man of thought who looks fo
ward to the future, who counts his OF
lays, day by day, to see that he is n
overstepping his income, alone can sa
it.
Bitter Rot.
A correspondent tells the Praiy
Farmer that he found relief from bi
ter-rot in apples by driving ring
rusty single nails, in early sprin
as about an inch apart, in the stem in
below the branches of several trees
Another says: "The remedy trie
and which was perfect success, was
take common drawing knife and giro
about one foot; took all the outer ba
off. The trees were young and thrift
do not remember the exact time, b
think it was about the time they cal
out in full leaf" Mr.. Flagg remar
in comment: "Here, it will be notice
are two remedies, both of which see
to have been successful, that seem
have nothing in common except thi
both must have to some extent check
the vigor and perhaps threatened t
life of the tree. Are we to infer I'll
bitter-rot is caused by excess of luxu
ance in growth ?"
Lime n Manure.
In former times we applied lime
the soil, because we thought lime net
"a ed as direct food for plants now
m know that the valuable effects of Il
X fertilizer does not depend upon
being taken up by the plant. It is n
to find soil in which there is 1
enough lime, as measured by this star