Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-12-08
THE FARM.

the room III the dwelling for them.
would gladly keep certain tender or half
| 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 it
were, until the return of spring makes it
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 o 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 if stored
in the cellar they sooner or later, during
/ the winter, according to the Sarietv. 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 of. When fruit is stored in a
room that is perfectly air-tight, so much
of the Carbonic Acid "a gas) given off
accumulates that candle is at once ex-
| tinguished, and man can not breathe
in the room. The presence Of Carbonic
Acid, as it indicates the absence of
Oxygen, aids greatly in the preservation
! of the fruit. The poisonous properties
of this gas are well known: when it is
mixed with the air in the proportion of
one part to four, such air is poisonous
and will cause death and much smaller
| quantity will cause headache aud a sense
of weariness While lighted candle
will serve as test for its presence in
| dangerous quantities, smaller and still
unhealthful proportion can not be so
readily detected When the cellar is
used to store fruit, it is not practicable
| to prevent the Carbonic Acid from diff
fusing itself through the rooms above.
1t is better to store the fruit elsewhere.
A cellar under grain barn or other out
building, or a detached cellar, should be
provided for storing fruit where practic-
able, as it is better both for the family
and the frRit.
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 strikingly
shown than in their appliances for pro
ducing vegetable plants, that is,
young plants which in their early stage
require special treatment, in order that
they may be ready to be planted in the
! open ground at the proper season.
| Where one Eps to supply only'enough
| plants for his own garden, he could gel
along with the old hot bed-a frame
placed upon heap of fermetng manure.
| Such plants have of late years become
articles of trade, and to raise them by
! thousands indeed by millions would
be almost impracticable by the old
methods. The placing of the manure in
| a trench, instead of in heap, was a
| great help; the use of fiat 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 the
/ improvements in this department oi
! 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.
i gether, while gardeners in the Older
| States have low propagating houses,
heated by hot-water pipes. Such houses
| are vastly more convenient than beds,
! but they at the same time cost many
times as much. In the houses, nearly
| all the heat is utilized, rs the pipes are
| surrounded only by air III the beds
| with fues about as much heat is wasted
as is used, the fiues being in contact
| wish the earth, heat is conducted away
in all directions equally, as much going
| downwards, where it is not needed, a.
! 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
| well convinced, in their own minds, as
to what a days work means, but they
| will be none the less interested in con-
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 az
! possible, how many pounds of force are
really exerted, on the average, in day.
by laboring men. The French physic.
! ist, Coulomb, determined. long ago, that
a man turning 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
| employed in ramming down paving
| stones did an amount Of work equal to
lifting 352 tons one foot. Haughton
| computes that walking on a 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 il
| appears that a man, of $50 pounds
weight, in walking one mile on level
ground, will do an amount Of work
equal to lifting seventeen and halt
tons one foot. Ten miles would amount
to nearly 1T tons, and twenty miles t.
rather more than 353 ions. On going
up hill the pedestrian cf course raises
his whole weight through the height
ascended. But even on level ground 3
soldier carrying sixty pounds weight
will lift nearly twenty-five tons one foot
in marching o single mile. In ten miles
he will lift 2+7I tons, and in marching
| twenty miles, thus loaded, which would
manifestly be very hard days work, ht
would lift 495 tons. Most persons vii
be ready 10 admit, with Professor
Haughton, that, as a continuous labor
ing effort, walking twenty miles day
without load, six days in the week, Is
fairly good work. But, as was Just said
twenty-mile walk repre- sents, undel
the very BEST conditions, 353 tons lifted
one foot. DR. Parkes in England. founc
that an ordinary days work for a ped
Ter was to carry twenty-eight pound.
twenty miles, which would represent al
amount Of work equal to about 400 tons
lifted one foot. In tins case the loat
was balanced over the shoulder. fourteen
pounds III front and fourteen pound,
behind DR. Parkes met with laborer
In rolling mill, whose ordinary dut1
was to ralse III pounds sixteen inches
5000. or 5000 each dav Taking the
larger number, his work would amount
to nearly 443 tons lifted one foot, ant
. 4 l l..