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SNOW FLOWERS. I awoke one winter morniog. And I found ray garden white With a host of shining blossoms That havl not been tuere au nignc. All the barren ground was covered And the naked branches quite. For the angols in the night-time, Plying softly X-MMflTTro, I o-iiug to the gates of heaven Spirits from t'.ie earth be'.ow, Had let fall upon my garden Lovely garlands?flowers of snow. ?Minnie Irving, in New York Xews. A DETECTIVE'S STORY. I was in the active employ of Pinker'' ? rn >nrl T f rvnV mV full WUli 1V1 lliaut JVUJ3, uuu * ?vv J share of risks incident to detcctive work, but the very first ease assigned mc had more pe.'iMn it tlian any four others combined. I had done some ''spotting" and " h: dowing," and had helped on two or three cases, when I was sent to Milwaukee to lo>k after,an embezzler. The case was stated in a nutshell. A Mr . Pierce, a widow of wealth, and a woman who trusted her servants altogether too much, received one day from the Ea^t by express a paek tge of money amounting to $14,000. >hj had b en in the habit of sending her butler to the I bank to make deposits for her, and now and then to draw ra ?ney on her written < nler. He had been with her for several \e.r~ as a 3 rt of m;n o'all work in the house, and she had found him strictly Lone>t. Slu gave hi:n ihc money to dev . -t ? fVirt.it i fooi* nf I lipinir t>mntcd J "* c? "l IK- was not -e n after he left the house. He di'l not o 10 the bank, and for time or lo :r clays .Mrs. Pierce and others labuivd under the belief that he had bcvD r >' b-d and murdered. The hunt for Ji s dtuil body was going on when I rcudiM Milwaukee. The name of the butler was John Lar.c and he was des.ribod to me as a sandy-hair d, red-faced man, we:ghing oue hundred and sixty pounds, and wearing a saudy m.>usta!-he. His hab:ts were declared to b above reproach, j nnd Mrs. Pierce indignantly resented my suggestion that he might have run away. So did tiie local dete:ti- e who had the case in hand. ' I held from the fir.^t to the theory that he had run away, j He had been told to hurry back, lie cou'd reach the bank in a walk of fifteeu minutes, having only two or three turns to make. It was at 2 o'cl:ck in the afternoon. and he could be in no personal dangir. No one could be found who had seen him between the house and the b.ink, although he was well known. But the bjst clue was found in Lane's room. There was a handful of sandy hair in a paper under the lavatory. There was another paper spotted with lather, in which were euough bristles to make a mousta he. Ikhind an old trunk was a bjttle which had containe I hair dye. Mrs. Pierce rcceiwd the money about 10 o'clock in the foreuoon, and she remarked to F ane that she would have "him deposit it after dinner. He waited on the table at noon, and there was no < han?e in his appearance, but between that tirao and two he shaved off his moustache, cut oil a lot of his hair, ap- j Tklir./l tVio rlwn <inH \' re rnmpm. ?ered that he was muffled up as he went out, leaving by the side door. Now came the hardest part of the work. When you know which way a criminal is 1 eading it is quite easy to keep his trail, but when you can't say whether he is in New York or Omaha, or that he may not be hiding within two blocks of you, it is quite a d ffcrent matter. From the servants in the house I learned that Lane had always declared he hated the very s'ght of cities and towns, and ho had no enre for fine cloth s and society, lie a'so had a great * horror of the water, This seemed to ar^ue that he would not head for Europe, as I at first feared. It was well knowu that he had a holy horror of the West, having read of savage Indians, prairie fins, grizzly bears, lattlcsnakes. Ac. That 3eemed to argue that ho would not fo West. Would he g> North or .South? was helped out of my dilemma in a curious way. I had been at every steamboat offce and railroad depot, meeting with no success, and was standing in front of the Serond National Bank when a farmer-looking man accosted me with: " What do you say about this bill? I Fay it's good and the old woman says it's bad?" It was a five h<j had, and the "c!d woman " sat in a wagon on the opposite side of the street. ' Why does she suspect it to be bad?" I asked, as I surveyed the bill. 4 Well, it wa< give to me four or five days ago by a chap who rode out home with u*, had supper, and then cut across to the railroad station. I .shouldn't have charged him over seventy-five cents at the most, and his liberality seems <|ueci." ; I was dead certain from his first words that I had got track of my man. We went into the bank to satisfy him that ; the bill was all right, and then crossed : to the wagon. I want to tell you that i couru:y ) eopie are neau ana snouiaers above the average city resideuts in the matter of observation a::cl in remember-: ing what they see. Well, one reason why I suspected , thi3 man,"' said the wife, "was because his hair wasdieadfullv hag-led ard then dyed. Such botch work yoti never saw. ' His hair was ail in streaks of black and red, and he'd got the dye on his ears and , ne k." The fellow had tried to play smart in leaving the city by one of the highways, , but accident had revealed his trail. He had taken the train at a station about fifteen mik-s away, and he had four days ' tne start ot me. incnrst move was to run out to the country stat ou at which ' he hrd taken the train. I there found j th.it he had made many inquiries about" the northern and western pait of the fet*tand had finally purchased n ticket for Fond du Lac. The description of. him was good, and I was about to buy a ticket for the same place and take a train due in half an hour, when in came a boy who had been there on the evening when i ane bought his ticket. He was a lad who helped around the station, and it was plain that he had a good deal of na- j tive wit. "Yes, that chap bought a ticket for | Fond du l.ac, but I don't think he went ' there," replied the lad when I began to question him. "What makes you think he d d not." i ' Because." he answered, as hcha.ided (io-vn a fjldei fion the rack, 'he w..s s-tudyini: ilii-i toutc. which goes to Port- ( age cityT I think he meant to take this t folder along, but dropped it. bee howl he li3s marked it with pencil." .^o he had. lie could run up to Water- | town and go through by way of Beaver j Dam. He hud marked the time of ar- j rival at the junction and of the arrival j at I'ortago, and it could Dot be that he \ would take all that trouble to throw auy j one of! his trail. There wu? no one a ter i him, a: d he could not argue that the i boy would hold the marked folder I against him. I therefore chauged my route l to Portage city, and at Jhe junction I ! !?0t t ark of my man. He had no ticket, | but ha I aid his faro in cash. It was ! m ? night, and the state of his hair had not j been noticed, but the conductor de-' r#n?'a drjinoml annejirance. and ' said that he had changed a 420 bill for j him. He might go no further than Pea verDam, and I got oft there and looked around for a few hours. No trace of him had been had, and I was at the depot to take the train, when a conversation between two voung m.n became interest-; ing. " \ ou ought to have told somebody," . protested one. 'Yes, and been laughted at," replied the other. I "And he had ten thousand dollars'" ; "Ves, double that." 'And he was counting it on the bed?" j "Yes." "I'll bet he was a robber." J "May be, but he was off early in the . | morning. Well, so long, To:n?here's ' the train." I The one who had seen some one count; ing money was going west by my train, ) and 1 schemed to ge; a scat with him and J draw him out. He was a porter at one of the hotels iu Portage, and he had seen i a guest answering Lane's description ! counting such a lot of money that itco.-! ered half the bed. The porter had made his observations through the keyhole of the door, and, being ashamed of himself, had hesitutcd to goto the landlord. The mm had arrived without baggage, but had there purchased a valise,and his ner- \ vous manner aud the sight of so? much j money iu his possession had led the porter to finally conclude that there was a mystery there somewhere, although he had not spoken of it to any one around j the house. The man had purchased a suit of coarse clothes, with hat a>.d shoes j to match, and in leaving had taken the highway leading toward Oshkosh. lie , had p'.ircha ed another bottle of hair dye ' in Po:tage, but had apparently given his red hair up as a bad job. lie not only j left the bottle in his room, but by means I of soap and water washed off what dye j he had put on at Milwaukee. Lane had given the landlord to under-1 stand that he was a hard working youog | man who had started out to look for a ! job, but he had dep irted witho.it fixing j on anything definite. I did not believe lie would go t > Oshkosh. lie was acting j like a man who reasoned that if he could hide himself away in th:1 country for a> few weeks his crime and his ident'ty | would both be forgotten. To catch the j embezzler without capturing his swag j would have been no credit to me. He had several days the start of me, and had j by this time got a job of some sort. I procured a rough suit of clothc3, hired a horse, and set of on his trail. As he had gone on foot with a large valise in his hand it was easy to hear of him along the road. He headed toward Oshkosh for five or six miles, and then turned directly north. It was in the fall of the year, and the roads were in bad condition, but he made twenty-four miles that first day. not stopping at all for dinner. He went to the northeast for six miles, to the north for ten miles, and then he t urned due west, almost on a line wiA 1 a Crosse. and went eight miles before j stopp'ng at an inn. I had only made the same number of miles on horseback, but j as he had t<> lie by the next forcnoouon j account of the rain, while I had good I weather, I gained half a day on him. lie proceeded toward 1 a Crosse for ten miles more, and then went north two miles, and stayed over night with a farmer and ; talk.d about going to workin a suw mill, j Next day he headed due west, and j reached the Wisconsin Hivcr at a hamlet j Called Little Bend. It was on the sixth ' day after he left Milwaukee that J[ located him, and he had then been at work j in a saw mill for a day and a half. 11 entered the hamlet on foot, as he had | Hone, havinar a few extra elothe> in a ' bnndle, and it was soon known to the ' seventy-five or eighty population that I! \va9 in seaich of work. The owner of I the only store in the phue also kept a sa- J loon and tavern, and, under pretense cf, being footsore and used up. I remained j idle Tor tw? or three d;iys, although the . mill owner was short of hands and desired me to go to work at once. It may be thought strange that I did not at once arrest I ane and have done with it. Had I overhauled him en route that would have been the pl:in, for the money would have been in his valise. He j had taken board at the taNern. and dur- I ing my first half day there I had found i his room open and his valise unlocked, j There was nothing in it which any one would waut to take away. He had, like ] a sharp man. taken his money out and | planteJ it. He could not justly suspcct j that I was afierhim, for after three or ' four days I went to work alongside of j him and held him at a distance. He tried hard to get acquainted with me, ! but I was taciturn and unsocial. He j gave me an opportunity to ask him ques-! tions, but I refused to profit by it. 1 j admitted, for a purpoae, that I left Mil- j waukee four or five days beh'ud him, and after seeming to reflect for a while, he asked: "Was there any special news when you left?'" "I don't remember," ' No murders or robberies?" "There was a mystery of some sort, I believe. Somebody drew a lot of money out of the bank, fell into the hands of sharpers, and they were looking in the river and lake for his dead body." 'il'm!" he coughed, and that ended I our conversation, though I did not fail ! to notice the look of gratification which j crept over his face That he had hidden ' the treasure was certain. That he would { visit it sooner or later was dead sure. 1 ! watchcd him closely during the day, and i 1 saw that he was nervous and preoccu- j pied. I expected he would go out to in- j spect his treasure at night, and I took > my precautions that he should not es- j cape me, but he made no move, lie went j to work on Friday noon of one week and ! I on Thursday of the next. When Sun- j day week came it was a bright, warm j day, and I made up niy mind nut to loose j sight of him for an hour. There were several acres of logs in the yard, and j alter breakfast I went to the mill,climbed j up in the attic, and had the yard and ' the hamlet under my eye. At about 10 ! o'clock Lane came down into the yard, j wandered about in an aimless sort of way, though all the time keeping his eye* open, aud by and by I >aw him inspecting a huge log lviDg near a thornapple tree, which was the only tree or bu.-h in the yard. 1 had been hauling logs with the cattle to the bank and \ dumping them oil for the elevator or car ! to carry them up the incline into the ; mill, and had noticed the big log. It h id been there'lor years, ana was worm-: less. Now that I saw ( anc in the vicir.- i ity I ru.ide up my miud that lie had hidden hi i money close by, aud I slipped out and went for a ramble in the woods. That night at midnight, without anything having happened to create suspicion on Lane's p.irt, I dressed myself and crept out of the tavern to make a hunt for the money. On my way out 1 paused at his door, and he Was breathing like a man fast asleep. I had my revolver and a pair of handcuffs ready to take with me, but misied them after I got outside. Everything about was so quiet that I set off, thinking to be back with the money in a few minutes. The big log lay within twen'.y feet of thf bank. There was a ho low m one end, out no money, ine i ~4 other eud was solid. I climed over it and passed around it, and had just dis- J a Vinltr>T<r hnil hften the I base of a biff limb, when I got a blow on the neck which rolled me over and over for ten feet, before I could get up Lane was upon me. He wa9 a good deal the larger and stouter man. but he could not hold mc still. I could roll under him, and, while his objcct seemed to be to clutch my throat, I-gave him two good blows in the face and got to my feet. Not a word was spoken by either of us. We stond for a moment gasping for breath, and then he rushed at me like .in enraged bull, and we both clinched. He handled mc almost as if I had been a boy. and it wasn't over a minute before we were on the bank above water twelve feet deep. There was a thin skim of ice over it, and the man who went in there could not live long. In a boxing match match I could have got the better of Lane. In such a clinch his brute strength was a terrible advantage. His object was, of course, to pitch mc into the river, but I hung to him so well that he was bafled. We were still struggling on the brink, when a great slice of the bank gave way and we went into the ice cold water, both having afirmho'.d, but I on top. Lane must have had his mouth open, for he began to strangle at once, and if I ever worked had for three minutes it was to save him. lie was unconscious when I got him to the bank and pulled him up, while I was as good as frozen. By a liberal use of my voice I arou3cd three or four men, and we got I.ane to a Hotel, and worked over him for half an hour befoie l.e opened his eyes. Then I tacked him up, gave him a big drink of hot \vh:skcy, and went out and got the money. He had spent about *40 of it. Not a word did he reply as I told him who I was whs he was, and showed him the money. Not a word did ho utter all the way back to Milwaukee,and it was only after Mrs. Pierce had refused to prosecute him and he was turned loo3e that he sullenly muttered : ''I was just fool enough to argue that no detective living could overhaul me." ?Neic York Sun. How Valentines Are Made. A factory in this city has, during the past ten months, turned out 15,00i),000 comic and .*>,000,000 sentimental valentines. The many operations through which toy books and valentines pass before they are ready to be delivered to the retailer are interesting. The first floor of the factory is occupied by paper cutting and embossing machines. The paper on which valentines are printed is received from the manufacturer direct, and is not in condition for use. It must be cut in pieces, 42 l-'2 feL't, and on which aie stamped sixteen comic valentines. After being cut the paper is taken to the second flo;<r and printed. Three hundred out < { the four hundred employes in the factory are women nnd girls. While the majority of the work is done K? oL-111.^1 loKftp onmn rfmpntfl are operated wholly by inai h.nery. <-n the 9i\th or top floor half a dozen artists draw the pictures used in valentines and toy books. After a drawing is made and photographed the negative is coated with a solution and exposed to the sun. The negative is again coated, this time with lithographic ink, and placed in a basin of water barely deep enough to cover it. The iDk is washed off, except that part of the plate on which the drawing has been photographed. The negative is then ready for the etcher. The etching process is too well known to bear repeating here. After the drawing has been etched on a zinc plate it is ready for the press. The operation by which rough zinc is made smooth is interesting. The zinc is placed under movable emery papers, which are changed half hourly. , These papers vary from hard to soft. The constant friction of the emery wears away the zinc, so that in time it becomes as smooth as glass. Seven papers, differing in quality and thickness, are used in the operation.?Brooklyn Eaqle. Breaking Balky Ho se*. A correspondent of the Allentown (Pen i.) New*, D. N. Kern, of Shimers vile, writes: Some time ago, while driving through Lehigh county, I met a man who had a very balky horse. I have been so lucky that I have never had a balky horse, but if I had one I would know hilf a d>zen ways how to star. h:m. First?Pat the horse on the ncck, examine him carefully, first one s'de. then the other; if y. u can get a handful of grass give it to him, and spe k encouragingly to him. Then jump into the wagon and give the word go, and he will genera ly obey. Second?Taking the horse out of the shafts and turning him around in a circle uutil he is giddy will generally start start him. Third?Another way to cure a balky hor*e is, place your hand over his nose and shut off his wind until he wants to go. Fourth?Then, again, take a couple of turns of stoat twine around the forelegs i just below the knee, tight enougn lor the horse to feel it; tic in a bow knot; at the first click he will probably go dancing off. After going a short di tance you can get out and remove the string, to prevent iujury to the tendons. Fifth?Again, you can try the following: Take the tail of the horse between the hind legs, and tie it by a c rd i to the saddle-girth. Sixth?The last remedy I know is a; i follows: Tie a st ing around the horse's ear, close to the head; this will divert 1 his attention and stait him. A Sheep's Big Jump. Abram Cretis, of (irant County, W. Va., sends to the South Branch Gazette the following account of a remarkable i leap lately made by a sheep. He says he was out the other day after a bunch i of sheep belonging to Amber Harper, which ranged on the mountain near Petersburg Gap. Six sheep ran around , the rocks over the precipice, and in , order to get them out the shepherd dog was dropped over the rocks to where j they were concealed. They all came out but one, which ap|.ea:cd to be frightened at the unexpected nppearanco of the shepherd dog, and leaped downjthe chasm and landed 15'.) to 173 feet below, ' strange to say, unin ured, except breath- 1 less for a time. We watched it in its flight and found that it passed the top3 < of several t:ill pines, leaving little tufts ] of wool as mementoes, and appeared to ] light in a top, when it was thrown back \ agiinst the mountain and there struck another top, and so on until it reached ] the ground. _ j Costly Books. j In one Broadway store you csn get a fair Shakspeare for !?3.7.">, or, if your , purse i8 large enough, you can go up to the stupendous figure of $3, *>00. This is the highest of the whole list. The catalogue of one house only quotes Scott in sets from sf.6 7 to $4.j0; Cooper, from $15 to $225; Carlyle, from .tit to $200; Dick- ] ens, from $8 to $175; Thackerary, from I 10.75 to $105; Irving, from $4.75 to ' $125, and Hawthorne, from $20 to $?0. 1 The sale of the expensive editions is, of course, limited, and the profit of each i set has to be large.?Ncio l'ork Ijttler. AGRICULTURAL TOPICS OF INTEREST REL ATIVE TO FARM AND GARDEN. Feeding Value of Outs. Hrh nnnfflin o lnrrrnr nrnrni fmn nf husk than any other grain; the kernel yields only UO per cent, of meal, the husk forming 31 per cent, of the grain. Butthe kernel itself contains some branny matter, and the meal has at least 11 per cent, of this s lb-tance, which, however, is largely digestible and contains a larger proportion of phosphoric acid :in the form of various phosphates. For feeding cattle oats are very valuable, but alone do not give as good results, as when mixed. This is due to the fact that a larger amount of the nutritive elements of the cats is digested when fed with other food. Oats contain 1)7 1-3 per cent, of organic matter and 3 1-2 per. cent of ash; the orgsnic matter contains 17 per cent, of albuminous or flesh forming matters, 6 1-2 per cent, of fatty matter, 53 per cent, of starch, sugar and gum, and 23 1-2 per cent, of woody fiber. This grain his been found most useful when ground with corn in the proportion of 3 bushels, or 100 pounds, with 5 bushels, or 300 pounds, of corn.?New Tor/c Time?. Best Varieties of Bees. At the recent meeting of the Michigan State Beekeepers' Association the ques- ; tion as to best varieties of bees was discussed. D. D. Wood, who had given 1 tne Syrians a triai, iouna ine.ii naru to handle and finally discarded them in i favor of the Italians. W. Z. Hutchinson had experimented with the Cariolan?, ( which he found gentle enough, but not ] 6up?rior to the black bees, which are his j preference 1 A. J. Root's remarks were listened to i with interest, inasmuch a9 having had i large experience it naturally follows he j ought to know just what he was talking about. In regard to t.he Cariolans, he | said that his colony of this variety was . strongest in the spring and began rearing j brood first, but it stored no surplus. > Many of his patrons wuuld have hybrids ( only, and he questioned if it was profit- , able for honey producers to breed for any pure face. Mr. Taylor agreed with the above remarks and said he felt certain that the time was at hand when apiarists must i j feed bees for business, regardless of color or markings. He had found Italians j very cross at time of hiving. ' ' Professor Cook said that no one variety j of bees posses-es all the good qualities), but that we must cross the best sorts and 1 thus eliminate the undesirable characteristics and promote the gcod ones.?New < York World. [ 1 The Uses of Straw. ? The value of straw is too little taKen 1 into account cither ou or oif the farm, s says the Farm, Field and Stockman. Too ? many farmers seem to act on the principle * that it should be fed to cattle. This is r the.least important of its uses. Its value 1 as food is so slight that cattle fed exclusively on straw would die about as ? soon as when fed on any such substance r as dead leaves, for instance, the only use 1 of which is to properly distend the c stomach. 1he feeding use of straw, r therefore, is only in connection with \ concentrated food. r But there are other uses of the straw t of cereal grains which render it an irn- c portant integer in farm economy. One t of thise is we covering of sheds. Another use to which it may be profitably r put, when cold and winds are severe, is i t in forming an impervious barrier by till- t ing a space a fool; wide between two j rough walls of sheds. _ These walls may ^ be made of any rough material, as slobs, f poles, but near enough together to prevent the pulling out of straw by the tmimals. Thus sheds and stables may t be rendered as warm as much more cost- j j ly structures. j 0 The use of straw is too much ignored j j as a means of comfort used as bedding | t for animals. Under sheds it should be i laid a foot thick, and in the yards not less thau six inches. In stables that are ! f - l_ I .1 ;j. .1 |J __i 1. _ l | U reguiariy cieancu 11 suuuiu uuu uc icsa , than six inches in thickness. Thus it . will fully soak up and hold the liquids c and retain them while spreid on the'l* land to be plowed under. It takes no ! Jmore material as bedding six inches in ' thickness than less, for only the ioile 1 ? portions need be removed. The added J value to the animals in conserving 1 warmth is not generally estimated. It not only keeps animals comfortable, . but as manure straw is valuable pr'.nri- c pally in proportion to the liquid manure \ it has soaked up. It will pay to use l b- v erally in the directions we have men- r tioned, and less so as a food in winter than is general^ practiced. t Farm and Gardei^Notes. c Lay in your stock of seed3 for spring 1 now. Kvery preparation should be * made before the busy season opens in 1,he { flnrinr* C Cow9 that have no bedding are cften injured in the knees by getting up or down, especially if the floors be wet and Blippery. Beets and parsnips may be kept J'rosh by packing in sand. This will preserve their flavor and keep them from drying up. c Lime is a purifier and shovld be u;ied t often as a w.ish to coops, perches and e nest boxes. Sprinkle^the place most frequented by them with'air-slacked lime. Kfjosene will cure the scaly legs on fowls. Annoint the leg3 once a week with kerosene for three or four weeks n and the legs will become perfectly clein. * Sheep will eat more, be more contented ? and thrive better on a new than an old j range. Frecjuent change of range for tliem is lmno.tant at this season of the ' year. |( Instead of selling old cast ir:n at lialf j ft cent per pound, place smill pieces near n the roots of gripes, currants, goose- t< berries and fruit trees. It is very bene- v ficiul. t A good way to kill out sorrel is to salt p the sheep on it. Care should be taken s never to allow the sorrel to seed, as it li can be carried to other points in the j g manure. a Do not sacrific2 your best lambs and j v ewes because the butcher oilers an e.vtra I 91 price, but retain :hem for breeding pur- v pos^s, first securiag a pure bred male lor " grading up. d Cooking feed for stock is a sub ect " much discus cd it presant, and as good . authority as Professor Stewart is reported as advocating it lor all kindii of domes- ? tic animals. ^ This is the season when the horses' n legs should be well looked after. On re- j, turning from a muddy drive wash ti.em e ?11 ? J ilnr flinmimhlv htr irmi. j.i vveu (Um cit uuuu uij ki.wiw-jj-.j c,? tie rubbing. s] Although a large tree can bo trf.ns- li p'anted to anew location, yet it will not h grow as rapidly nor as large as one thai e has o:cupicd the same piace since it o sprung from the tree. ci Ubo the soot from the stovepipes and a chimneys. It is excellent for flowers and p roune plants. Mix it with water, about 1 x .. ' ' V.t . . .. a peck of soot to a barrel of water, and anDlv with a watering pot. Cider vinegar may ba quickly made, when the cider is pare, by removing the latter to a high temperature and pouring from one barrel to another, to bring it into more direct contact with the air. A French horticulturist, M. Nobbe, has found that the seeds of the finest variety of grapes germinate more quickly thun those of commoner sorts, and that seeds fresh from the fruit germinate better th:in those which have been dried. i Of the varieties of ducks the Pekin stand confinement best, but they are not j as tame as the common kinds. They grow very large, often reaching eight or nine pounds each, and yield feathers of a white color and equal to those of the goose. The nearer the freezing point the cellar can be maintained without actually endangering the stored fruit the better for apples. Heat and light do more damage than cold. Alternate fr. e-cing and thawing will soon destroy fruit and veg ctai;iU9? | An exchange advises planting peach j trees closely, not over twelve to fourteen feet apart, and cutting back strong \ and putting only planted crops among them for a year or two, and then giving the ground to the orchard, keeping it j well cultivated. j The cherry is about the only fruit tree which can be recommended for shade in pasture along roadsides, as the hardy varieties of cherries are not affected by the tramping of stock or passing of vehicles, which would prove injurious to most other fruit trees. Those who fed their cows liberally | during the drouth, are now reaping the j benefits. Cows that are permitted to i run down in milk are exceedingly hard to get back to a good flow. In mostinjtances, however good the feed and how j much the quantity, the cows will not regain what has been lost. A North Carolina farmer has a silo built on top of the ground of heavy plank. It has double walls four inches xpatt, filled with earth to exclude the air. rh; ensilage is covcred with boe'ds and :he boards covcred with earth, m ordilary roof keeping off the rain. It is 13x10 feet, and cost only $50. Orchards may be pruned at any time from the present until the b :ds begin to swell, but the earlier the work is done :he better. Grape vines may also be pruned now and should be, lest the work oe deferred too late. In the early spring ;he vines will bleed too much and for ;his reason it is best not to delay this work. ( Flour of sulphur is the great remedy ;mploycd in Canada to check mildew on jrape vines, but the National Agricul;ural Society of France, in its session of i few weeks ago, brought into promileucc another re;r.edy, which M. Pasteur inys is so effectual that the inventor bould be discovered if possible, and a luitable reward conferred upon him. The remedy is a mixture of milk and ime and sulphate of copper. Iron is an important part of Hie blood, jiving its red color, but this does not iccessitate taking solutions of iron for ic.ilth. All well-developed vegetation :ontains some iron. It is the coloring natter of green leaves. In soils from vhich every trace of iron has been reooved seeds will germinate, but they will >e white. Pouring a solution of copperas >r sulphate of iron on the soil will change he leaves to a dark green color. A cross of the Dorking and light Brahna makes excellent capons. They should te hatched as early as possible and kept tntil full grown. The best time to sell s in February and March, during which >eriods the prices are often as high as ifty cents per pound, while choice capons vill wcygh from twelve to fourteen lounds each. The proper crosseu should ie used in order to produce large capons. .eghorns, Ilamburgs, black Spanish and ither small breeds are worthless as ca>ons. Only the large breeds should be ised. Without doubt the greatest and most :ommon lo3s in tsam management is from :ceping poor horses unable at any time o do a full day's work. It is the most lirBcult thing possible for many farmers o get the idea into their heads that a lorse capable of doing but little is valueess. An old. worn out horse will always ell for something, no matter how poor le may be, and always for a greater price n proportion to his value' when mosi worthless. For farm purposes, with the lear wages now paid to farm help, it Iocs not require much reduction from a ull day's team work each day to make ip the value of a first-class team in every espect. If possible celery should be stored in ho soil where the crop grew, for it is ound to do better stored here than in >ther, and different soil. For family ise, it would be an advantage if it could >y sufficiently protected just where it jrew, over diguing and packing away ilscwhere. And this can easily be done >y setting up boards along and two feet iom the row, and filling in the space >etween with leaves, or other litter, to ceep out the frost. Then it can be taken ip from one end as wanted, always retiming a good coat here, each time some s dug. In storing lsirge quantities, it vill be better to briDg it within a smaller ompass, but the protecting should also >e done, with a view to making the celry easy accessible at all times. Moon Blind. What with the glorious round full aoon, the electric lights, and the gas, he leading streets are as bright as," or eeiningly brighter, thau day. But one f Montreal's bravest young citi/cns (an rishman, of course) dare not stir out lone. He is moon b ind. A few yea-s go, having met witn a sau uomestic i 3S9, and influenced by his long and en- J oyable experiences as an amateur yachts- I nan on the English const, he cetcrmincd o try "two years before the mast. ' It j ras a case of "out of the frying-pan into he fire,'' or as the Dutch more comically iut it, "out of the rain under the eavespout." An A. B.'s life in the northern \titudes is too often little else but rumbling, swearing wretchedness, and ccidents of every kiud. When the j rind is fair it is an understood thing in : ' omc ships that if any of the night- ( ratch (except the lookout" and 1 'wheel") select a soft plank and sleep on 1 eek, the officer on duty when he passes ; ' ear always happens to look the other : ' ay. Our yachtsman one night curled ] imself in the main hatch in the full lare of a tropical moon. An old salt rokchim and told him he risked moon lindncss. II replied with a forcible laritime monosyllable and slept again. ' ^ext night he began tumbling over vcrything on deck and could not sec j ( ie ropes. The Captain said he was I ' Iiammiug and set a trap lor nun isauor- | ke) which nearly broke his neck. He ! as been moon blind, or twilight blind, ! * per since. It is said to be the first and j < nly ease of "moon blindness" on re-; 1 3rd at the Nautical General Hospital, j nd the second ever seen by the most exerienced physician at St. Thomas's \ lospital, London. ?Montreal Witness, j \ 0..-" - : ARTIFICIAL COLD.* NATURAL ICE SUPPLANTED IN MANY PLACES. Liqnid Ammonia Doing the Work of Ice ? How Ic "-Making Machines are Operated?Cooling Mixture for Dwellings. Within the last ten years the business i of producing artificial cold for the purpose of brewers, meat packers and the refrigeration of storehouses has attained | enormous proportion, not dreamed of when the business was in its infancy. An expert thoroughly familiar with the whole business estimates tl.at if it were not for the reirigerating machines in New York at present, it would be necessary to use 3,000 tons of ice a day, and this ! enormous saving in labor is attained by j means of apparatus devised chicfly within the last few years, brewers, who wera fifteen years ago the largest consumers i oi ice in mis c.iy, no longer wise icu at | all; meat ] ackers use but very little,and the whole enormous business of refrigerating food products, which now employs nearly *^00 firms in this city, is j made possible only by these machines. The artificial production of cold is of course no new thing. As far back as 1834 Perkins, nnd twenty years later Twiuing, made experiments with a view to producing ice by mechanical means. In 1855 Twining built a machine in Cleveland, Ohio, in which, by the use of sulphuric ether, about a ton of ico a day was produced. In 1850 Carre made icemaking a practical business by the invention of his rmmonia absorption machine, which produced a g: cut sensation at the Paris Exhibition of 18(57. Carre's principle remains to-day that of the best cold-producing machines. Liquified ammonia, the product of the compression of gaseous ammonia at a low temperature, in evaporating and returning to its gaseous state requires an immense amount of heat, and will take it from any surrounding material. T he problem, therefore, was to compress the gas until it liquefied, and then carry the liquid ammonia to some place where its evaporation would absorb heat not wanted. Thus, if ice was desired, the liquid ammonia (ould be carried into a coil of pipe placed in a tank of water; the absorption nf bent bv the coil of nine would be such as to freeze the whole mass of water. If cold air simply was desired, a pipe carrying liquid ammonia, or any substance cooled by the ammonia, could be carried to the apartment which it was desired to cool. Carre's first machioe was simply a strong pump which compressed the gaseous ammonia to the point of liquefaction, and a seri< s of pipes or retorts into which the liquid ammonia was forced. Having absorbed the surrounding cold by its expansion the gas was returned to the compres ion pumps at:d reduced again into liquid ammonia All improvements upon the iAStem of Carre aDd Twining have been made chietly in the line of greater meshanical perfection of the condensing and expansion devic.s. .A perfect machine would lose no gas whatever, but w ould continue using the same gas over and over again. Liquid ammonia, an almost colorless liquid which boils at thirty-eight degree* below zero, is not dangerous to handle, and is a comparatively cheap product obtained from the gas which rises from aijua ammonia slightly heated. This aqua ammonia, of which vast quantities arc now uset^by manufaeturers of liquid ammonia for refrigerating machines, was formerly run into the sewers by the gas wotKS, creating a great Duisnnce. ^\uoiu half a million pounds of liquid ammonia arc now used every year in New York, returning <,uite an income to the gas works instead of spoiling the rivers. A glass of liquid ammonia resembles boiling water more than anything else. It the bulb of a thermometer is placed in it the mercury sinks to about sixty or seventy degrees below 7ero. If a little is thrown on an iron surface, the effect is just ns if water had been thrown on rodhot iron, and the cold is so intense that it is painful to place the hand where the ammonia evaporated: a drop of ammon'a falling upon the fle?h produces a blistei similar to a burn. At the brewery of George Ehret, the ice-house in use ten years ago was 1 ~?0 feet long, 50 feet, wide and 24 feet high.. It was not unusual for the stock on hand to weigh 20,000 tons, and the labor of handling was immense. Ice hid to be used in every part of the business?in making of the wort, the cooling of the beer, the cooling of the cellars. To-day rcfr'geratmg machines do the work which would require the melting of 3150 ton? of ice a day; do it far more perfectly, ar.d at a ^reat saving of money. One ' of the essential rcquiremrnts in the making of beer is an equable temperature. I Formerly deep cellars were dug, and ice < was resorted to. At present no cellar is i needed, and the whole brewery can be i coolcd to the exact degree needed and < kept at that temperature wholly regard- i less of the weather. There is scarcely a 1 large brewery in the country which now 1 uses ice. < Tnere are forty-two firms in the i United States engaged in the manufac- i ture of refrigerating machines, and an I average of one mschine a day is now set 1 up in the Southern States. In most < places the machines are intended to make l ice for sale to private customers. As vet, s it is rot possible for ice-making ma- < chmcs to compete with Ja;:k I'rcst i in the neighborhood, although it s costs only $1 a ton to make artificial ice, 1 where the plant is large enough for turn- t ing out seventy and eighty tons a day. t Machines a_e shipped not only to the ^ South, but to foreign countries. i It has been suggested that the day is 1 not far off when a cooling mixture? f free ing 1 rine, cold jiir, etc.?will be ^ supplied t"> every house from street j mains, in order to cool off the house in s summer, just ns steam is supplied for <? I warming purpo es in winter. Perhaps c the same coils which now serve for a steam in winter may be used for brine in t summer. Ore of our large apartment- f hnure< already has a system in use for all c the refrigerators, seventy or eighty in a number, in the building. A small coil c is in each refrigerator, and if actual ice i is needed forany purpose it is only nee- d cssary to place a pitcher of water very u close to this coil. For the purpose of fi keeping meat and food, such refrigerators arc infinitely p eferableto those in which ire is used, for tbev are always perfectly dry.?JVrw }' r'c l'ost. v b Striving to be Honest. t Woman ito tramp)?"You might saw ^ \ little wood for that nice dinner.'1 Tmmn t'AfnHnm mil ^ "'"'t v?~l"ji? j~? , jught not to throw temptation in the q svay of a poor raan." Woman?"Temptation?" Tiamp?"Yes, madam. If I were to saw some wood, the chances are I would ?nrrv oil the saw. I'm an honest man low. and I want to stay so."?Bazar. , Many Grand Army posts in Dakota are >eing "abandoned for lack of funds to t< i.cep them up. i; FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS. Foot-ball by electric light is the latest thing in Canada. It is very popular. Our country is bigger than China. We have 3,002,000 square miles, and China has only 2,000,000. A Pennsylvanian has figured it up and says that 23,000 divorces are granted in bUid V.VUUV4J auuuuilji The Roman cooks used to serve a pig broiled on one side and roasted on the other, at great ban ,u0ts. Chatsworth, 111., is proud of one of ita citizens, who at the age of ninety is cutting her third set of teeth. In Germany women go from house to house dusting furniture and tending to , drawing-room flowers and plants. It is a regular business. The web-formations which appears on grass, shrubs, etc., after dew fa'ls are the spinnings of the spider. They are there before the deposit of the dew, but are not observed. Of the colonies now forming the United States, the English nation settled seventeen, the Americans six, the Dutch one, the Swedes one, the French ten and the Spanish three. The largest bell in England i- known as Big Ben. It hangs in the clock tower of the new House of Parliament in London. The weight of this bell is more than thirteen tons, and is height its seven feet 10 1-4 inches, and itff diameter at the mouth 9 1-2 feet. An English wig maker has invented an electric hat, which he claims is a perfect cure for ner ous headaches and neuralgia. The appar tus consists of a small battery placed inside the lining of an nrdinftrr fiillr l?m with tVin flat term!. nals outside the lin ng. so that when the hat is put on a current of electricity passes between the terminals and diffuses itself all over the wearer's head. "Grape cure" is practiced in Fr.ince and Germany in the autumn, and is regarded as a cure for many diseases duo to high feeding. The patient is given a pound of grapes to eat the first day. This amount is added to until the person can est five or six pounds a day. The other food is gradually lessened, and the diet at last consists entirely of grapes. It cures obesity and many other complaints, and starts the person off on a new lease of life. Fruit is necessary in a rational diet, and of immense valne in dietetic medicine. Canton, China produces more than nine-tenths of all the fire-crackers U9ed tn the world. The principal manufacturers contract with the Chinese Government for the services of convicts, paying at the rate of three cents a day fnr ooph rnnvi t. All thft work is dona inside the prisons. The paper employed in the manufacture of fire-crackers is made of bamboo film, and is without doubt the strongest i aper made. Kach cracker is filled, rolled and pasted by hand. The powder is quite as powerful as our best blasting powder. The quantity of fire crackers consumed throughout the worldjs something amazing. During 1884 upwards of half a million boxes were entered in the United States. Kach box contained forty packages, making in all 20,000,000 packages. Our Government charges a duty equal to the cost of the goods in China. Maklnj Umbrellas. First of all, there arc more things necessary to the make up of an umbrella than one would suppose. There's the stick, generally of maple or iron-wood, ribs, stretchers and springs of steel; the runner, runner-notch, the ferrule, cap, bands and tips of brass or nickel; the covering of silk, gingham, alpaca, or the like; the runner guard of leather, the inside cap and the fancy handle, which may be of oxidized silver, horn, curiously carved wood, mother-of-pearl, or any substance that the cunning artifice can device or shape. The runner, ferrule, cap, band and such parts are manufactured elsewhere, and still another factory gets out the steel ribs which have supplanted the old rattans. 'I he goods for the covering are mostly made in this country, except the fine silks, which are almost oil imr>nrtf>d from Kr.tnre. Havinc (rot ten together the materials, how does the umbrella get along? The stick is turned, stained and polished, the handle is put on, the little brass cap on the end is riveted fast, and then two slots are cut in the stick which receive two springs, over which slides the thingumbob thatkespa the umbrella either up or down. A band is then fastened on in which the ends of the ribs of the umbrella arc to slip, when it gets ribs. The framcmaker then takes the stick, fastens the stretchers to the ribs, and strings the top cord of the ribs on a wire which is fitted in the "running notch." He then strings' the lower ends of the "stretcners" on a wire and fastens them in tlie "runners." nnd when both runners are se. urely fixed he turns it aver to the coverers. Around the room are hanging V-shaped wooden patterns, brass bound on the corners. The cutter lavs his silk or gingham very smoothly jut on a long co inter, folding it back ind forth until there are s'xteen thickaesses. He then takes one of these patterns, lays it on the pile of cloth, and with a keen-edged knife he slashes ;ruelly into the fabric, according to the pattern. These piece; are then carefully icanned by a woman, who rejects every >ne having a hole or f'aw in it. Then a ' nan takes the pieces and carefully stretches the edges. I'Dless the whole ength of the edge is poperly stretched he cover will not fit smoothly. Next ;he pieces go into the sew ng-room, vhcre they are sewn together on machines n what is called the pudding-bay stitch, "hen a woman sews the co er on the rame. keeping the umbrella half open vith a contrivance made for that sole mrpose. If sheis a good workwoman he can sew on a cover in five minutes, >ciidcs stitching on the t'e. The edges ?f the umbrella ar.* then smoothed with , fiat-iron. Oncc more a woman holds he umbrella up to the light and searches or flaws. If it be all right then the over is trimly fuldei round the stick ,nd into the salesroom it goes, to take its hanccs of being bought and going out nto the inclement world. And how long IOCS 11 littte SU U1IJJU kaut n IUIUJJ a J nu mbrclla to come into being.' Just about fteen minutes. ? Chicajo Mail. Explosive Shavings. An explosion in a mill in this city rherj shavings wore used for fuel has cen almost exactly reproduced in Boson, where a steam-power company's oiler house was demolished. The boilrs did not explode, but there was such apid combustion of shavings and sawust as to produce explosive effects, cvcral men were very badly burned, two f them fatally. The obvious lesson, hat greater care should be exercised in tie use of this fuel, is worth mentioning, liough, judging by experience, it is nofc kely to have much effect. ?Philadtlphia .edyer. Krupp's latest gun sends a ball two jns in weight through thirty-eight ichos of solia iron.