The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-12-23
THE FARM.

would gladly keep certain tender or halt
hardy plants through the winter. For
such purpose cellar answers admirably.
Indeed. we know of florists who have
constructed cellars expressly for keeping
plants through the winter. 1t Is not
expected, nor is it desirable, that plants
in the cellar should grow. They are
merely to be kept-put to sleep, as 1t
were, until the return of spring makes 1t
safe to place them out again. Plants IN
the cellar, while they should never be
wet, ought not to get dust-dry, hence
they must be looked to occasionally dur
ing the winter months. American
AgricuIturist
FRUIT IN THE House. CELLAR. Many
who would not keep vegetables in the
cellar of the house, make that store
room for fruit without being aware that
fruit is really the most unhealthful OF
the two. Winter varieties of apples,
when gathered. are very hard; II stored
in the cellar they sooner or later, during
the winter, according to the variety, be-
come mellow and ready to be eaten.
This change is really the beginning of
decay, and the atmosphere is concerned
in producing it. Not only does the air
affect the fruit, but the fruit in turn acts
upon the air. Oxygen is taken from the
air by the fruit, and Carbonic Acid is
given off. When fruit is stored iii a
room that is perfectly air-tight, so much
of the Carbonic Acid Ga gas) given off
accumulates that candle is at once ex-
tinguished, and man can not breathe
in the room. The presence of Carbonic
Acid, rs IL indicates the absence of
Oxygen, aids greatly in the preservation
of the fruit. The poisonous properties
of this gas nrc well known; when it is
mixed with the air in the proportion of
one part TO four, such air is poisonous
and VIII cause death and n much smaller
quantity will cause headache and a sense
of weariness. While a lighted candle
will serve as test for its presence In
dangerous quantities, a smaller and still
unhealthful proportion can not be so
readily detected. When the cellar is
used TO store fruit, it Is not practicable
10 prevent the Carbonic Acid from diff
fusing itself through the rooms above
IL is better to store the fruit elsewhere.
A cellar under grain barn or other out
building, or detached cellar, should be
provided for storing fruit where practlc-
allie, as IL Is better both for the family
and the fruit
IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING VEGETABLE
PLANTS The manner in which our
gardeners have broken away from rou-
tine practice, and have devised methods
better suited to their conditions and sur
roundings, is nowhere more strikiugly
shown than in their appliances for pro
ducing vegetable plants" that is,
young plants which in their early stage
requse special treatment, in order that
they may Ice ready to he planted In the
open ground at the proper season.
Where one has 10 supply only enough
plants for his own garden, he could get
along with the old hot bed-a fra ne
placed upon heap of fermeting manure.
Such plants have of late years become
articles of trade, and TO raise them by
thousands indeed by m1hons-wouid
be almost impracticable by the old
methods. The placing of the manure in
a trench, instead of in a heap. was a
great help; the use of Hat of or shallow
boxes for sowing and transplanting; the
use of shutters instead of straw mats
over the glass; the employment of pre-
pared cloth as a substitute for glass, TO
protect advanced plants, are some of thu
improvements in this department of
gardening. One of the greatest innova-
tons is the substitution Of fire, instead
of manure, for heating the beds. In
some localities manure Is very scare, or
can not be had at all, and some substi-
tute must be found, hence in such places
beds have been heated by means of fire
for several years. At present, some of
the largest establishments, especially in
the Western States, use such beds alto
gether, while gardeners in the older
States have low propagatlng houses,
heated by hot-water pipes. Such houses
are vastly more convenient than beds,
but they ut the same time cost many
times as much. In the houses, nearly
all the heat is utilized, as the pipes are
surrounded only by air: in the beds
with hues about as much heat Is wasted
% is used, the flues being in contact
with the earth, heat is conducted away
in all directions equally, as much going
downwards, where it is not needed, as
passes upwards. Still, where fuel is
cheap, this is offset by so many advan-
tages, that heating by this method is
becoming general.
A DAYS WORK IN POUNDS OF Force.
Most farmers are already tolerably
we'll convinced, in their own minds, as
~ what a days work means, but they
will be none the less interested in coz
sidering some of the results of expert
ments which have been made by physic-
lists and Psychologists for the sake of de-
termining, with as much precision rs
possible, how many pounds of force are
really exerted, on the average, In day,
by laboring men. The French physlc-
list, Coulomb, determined, long ago, that
a man turning a winch performed each
day an amount of labor equal to lifting
374 tons to the height of one foot
and the English physicist, Haughton,
found, in his turn, that man habitually
II
stones did an amount of work equal to
lifting $50 tons one foot. Haughton
computes that walking on level sur
face at a rate of about three miles an
hour is equivalent to raising one
twentieth Of the weight of the body
through the distance walked hence it
appears that man, of $50 pounds
weight, in walking one mile on level
ground, will do an amount of work
equal to lifting seventeen and half
tons one foot. Ten miles would amount
TO nearly III tons, and twenty miles to
rather more than 353 tons. On going
MP hill the pedestrian of course raises
his whole weight through the height
assembled. But even on level ground
soldier carrying sixty pounds weight,
will lift nearly twenty-five tons one foot
In marching single mile. In ten miles
he will lift 247i tons, and In marching
twenty miles, thus loaded, which would
manifestly be a very hard days work, he
would lift 495 tons. Most persons will
be ready to admit, with Professor
Haughton, that, as a continuous labor
ing effort, walking twenty miles day
without a load, six days in the week, is
fairly good work. But, as was Just said,
a twenty-mile walk represents, under
the very best conditions, 353 tons lifted
one foot. DIR. Parkes in England, found
that an ordinary days work for a ped
Ter was to carry twenty-eight pounds
twenty miles, which would represent an
amount of work equal to about 400 tons
lifted one foot In this case the load
was balanced over the shoulder, fourteen
pounds in front and fourteen pounds
hnhinI n Do-lroa MT ...slL !. L. 49,