Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1878-04-11
A. 2I;JLTu I A..
ITO W TO E URN 4 BA RN.

if Il few simple directions are followed.
Use an old fashioned tin-lantern at
night, through whose roughly punched
sides only the minimum of light can
penetrate, and whose door must neces-
sarilv he open to enable you to see
any thing. Set it down in the bed
ding while you 60 up in the hay-loft
to throw down feed, and the chances
are good that your hungry horse or
risky cow will kick it over, as Mrs,
O'Leary's did in Chicago, and set the
barn on fire. If you have not tin
lantern, carry a candle, or open lamp
and use it in the same way. II the
night is windy, fee! your way out to
the barn the best way you can, and
light your candle inside with matches
and lit the match ends take care OF
themselves-they are small affairs
anyhow.
On rainy Gays, make the barn your
rendezvous for smoking, and whiting
and talking politics with intelligent
neighbors who have leisure hours on
their hands as you have. Do not be
stingy with your pipes and tobacco,
and keep plenty of matches laying
around loose, SO they will be handy
to fire up with. A few social after
moons spent in this way will not I'M
likely, enable you to get the barn
burned.
Never lock barn door. Padlocks
are EXPENSIVE, and wooden peg will
keep the thing shut ]rst as we'll as
forty padlocks. B,sides that, there
are poor people constantly on the
road (''tramps,' they are called by
unfeeling, well-to do people, who
have nice, comfortable homes OF their
OWN who need nights lodging as
wei, as other folks, and who Will be
attracted by the hospitable appearance
Of an unlocked barn door. These gen
tlemen are not, as an average thing, a
literary turn of mind, but Il ey do
sometimes carry short pieces OF can
dies in their pockets, with which tc
look over scraps of newspapers, and
other things, in the interior Of barns
where they spend their nights, an"
they almost invariably have supply
of matches with Which to light then
=, ipes as they take "nightcap" smoke
on the haymow before closing their
gentle eyes in slumber.
Never clean up your barn. 1t IL
wolves great deal Of labor TO lie par
ticular about the barn-in sweeping
the floor and cleaning up the stalls,
and fastidously disposing Of the rak-
ings and droppings, and odds and
ends, which accumulate and make a
pleasant carpet for the feet, il left
alone. All this refuse when it becomes
dry is easily ignited, and offers han
dy food for incipient fires, which may
be kindled by an ambitious match,
dropped during the day and stepped
on as you pass through at night.
Do not ray attention to those hy-
perscientfic people, who are everIast-
ingly talking about spontaneous com
bustion in haymows. Never mind if
your hay is wet; you do not want to
be all the year waiting for it to dry.
Nov it away, tramp it down; let it
dry at its leisure; scout at the idea Of
moisture setting hay on fire. A ri
dIculous newspaper reporter the other
day actually printed an item about
an extra high tide setting a warehouse
on fire, because the water reached
some lime stored in the cellar Just
as if water could set anything on fire.
AS with your hay, SO with your
grain. Suppose it is damp, what
harm will it do? Don't fool away
your time IN drying it, put it in the
bin, shut it up tight, and go to bed
like a wise man, without firing your
self with over-particularity.
These directions, all of them, or
part OF them, faithfully adhered to,
will beyond doubt enable you to get
your barn burned. -Faym and FIR
side.
CABBAGE CULTURE IN GARDENS.-l
The failure in gardens so frequently