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311 Potatoes to Pigs. Potatoes which are damaged by rot or other causes may be fed to pigs with good results. The pig, so far as its relish for the potato is concerned, seems indifferent as to whether it is diseased or not, and experience snows that swine thrive well on potatoes showing considerable disease and without injury to the health of the animals. The best plan is to boil the potatoes and mix with corn meal. Food for Plants Plants require food and drink and they have their preferences as to the kinds desired. If improper foods are supplied the plants will refuse them and seek in the soil for something the farmer has not supplied. When the food is suitable, the plants will make rapid growth and thrive, but when they are sickly there is something wrong with the food. Farmers can > learn how to feed their plants as well as their animals.?The Epitomist To Protect Corn From Birds. A young Vermont farmer has sue cessfully used tne following meinoa 10 ^et rid of crows and blackbirds, which "were destroying his corn crop: Take a mixing spoon full of liquid coal tar, have it warm, then mix it with about one-half bushel of seed corn. Mix thoroughly. .Then dry by mixing in land plaster or wheat middlings. It works better if mixed a few days before planting. Too much tar may cause a little inconvenience in planting. If the planted brush gets coated soak It out in kerosene. To Fight Weeds. The following rules for keeping % . down weeds and thereby improving crops: 1st Practice rotation. Certain weeds follow certain crops; when the weeds get too strong change crops. 2nd. Change the method of cultivating. Plow deeper or shallower, or nse a different harrow or cultivator. 3rd. Cultivate frequently with light surface tools. 4th. Sow clean seed. lliu. JL7UU t ICC ?f CCUO j. uu vw vv v.u vu the manure pile or anywhere on the farm. 6th. Hogs and sheep will clean up the weeds on foul fallow land. It is said that a weed will not germinate after a sheep has cropped it?G. H. .Sammis, it; ?* JBive Your Horse More Water. "Water should be before horses at .-*11 times when indoors,and at least no . meal should ever be offered and nightlights ever turned out until every -animal has had his chance at as many brimming "buckets as he Will take. "The shy drinker may be tempted by many artifices, like mixing a little molasses, or salt, or oatmeal, or flaxseed jelly, or bran, etc., etc., with the water, and constantly varying the flavor. , Horses may even have all they want right after feeding, provided they have not been deprived of water for some time previous. Many shy drinkers, like shy feeders, who are generally nervous, take all nourishment best at night j when it is dark and quiet, ana morn- | - ling finds the empty manger and buck- j et which it had seemed, by day, almost nauseated them.?Frank M. Wars in The Outing Magazine. *" J"' The G^eat American Hog. The possible profit that may result from intelligent hog breeding on a large scale is worthy of serious thought on the part of farmers, says . Farming. v With the right conditions of food supply and market?the two important factors?it may prove to be the very thing that the farm is best adapted to. The hog has always been a "fixture" on American farms. The early settlers raised a few that lived on the refuse of the garden dairy, and kitchen, and in turn provided the family with meat during the winter. The modern "American Hog" supplies, in his various products, many of the wants of the . oivilized world, not only the hams, pork, lard, bacon, but also illuminating onH JnVip|/?atln<r nllc fifimhs hmchpii buttons, knife-handles, and various .kinds of ornaments. The hog is really one of the farmer's * most profitable crops, and is worthy of more attention; he is useful to the dairyman because he will eat the byproducts of the dairy; he is useful to the grain farmer because he wiLl convert the grains and grasses of the farm into money; so from either standpoint he will show a profit. The more care you devote to him the better he will pay you. One must get the idea out of his head that anything is good enough "for a hog; the fact is that nothing is <oo good for him. Jersey Cow's Butter Record. Probably the blood of the Jersey is ? -?? ?. ? ? ? ?ii ? j * > J ^ J /\m/v V\ I ?V> _ I more generally umuseu auu iuui c U15U- 1 ly prized in the butter-producing districts of the United States, as well as ^mong fatnily cows in the country at 2arge} than that of any other breed, says Farming. Many of our shrewdest dairy farmers have selected Jerseys as best adapted to their special purposes, not only on account of the persistent milk flow which they maintain, but because of tifcir uniformity of repr&luction, and d?DEN i their ability to furnish, under the : proper care, a large flow of rich milk f that tops the market and captures the fancy trade. The Jersey cow is a small animal, and therefore her maintenance ration is small, while a relatively large part -f/wH to nrofif. Ui. UUi 1WU ^^ w ? She is a persistent milker, often a ! perpet ial milker, and ordinarily not dry more than six or eight weeks in a year. She has an extremely long period of usefulness in the dairy. Five years covers the profitable work of the average cow. The Jersey is generally vigorous and at work when twelve to fifteen years old. Many are profitable when eighteen to twenty-one years old. She gives the richest milk, as nearly three thousand standard tests have proved. The recent demonstration at j the St. Louis Exposition is a notable illustration of this superiority. Almost all this butter fat can be recovered in butter or cheese. The practical value of this advantage is most appreciated by the dairy farmer. This Larger yield of butter and cheese is of the highest grade of commercial excellence. It tops the market. These traits of superiority are so - ? * * ^ j: flrmly nxea m ner ureeuiug xl fairly mated she can be relied upon to transmit them to her descendants. Keep Birds About the House. The value of birds to the farmer has only begun to be appreciated. Ninetenths of the land owners and gardeners do nothing to attract the birds or to feed them. Some of them are ready for a law to permit the killing of robins. However, a better sentiment is steadily growing. A letter tells me that the writer "has a way of providing nests for useful birds." She says: "I put up such simple things as old tin cans in my apple trees. A tomato can serves a bluebird or wren admirably. Leave the opening small; punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage; and you will find that a large proportion of them will be occupied." Many birds cannot find good nesting places. This is getting to be a serious difficulty with bluebirds, wrens, purple martins, and even the chickadees. "There are very few old trees left, into which they can bore and make nesting places that are safe and agreeable." A writer in "Bird Lore" says that he put up twenty cans and cigar boxes and found fourteen of them occupied by wrens and bluebird's. Will it not pay our boys and girls to make this experiment? I find that my catbirds have exhausted all really prime places for nests, and I must supply more. They insist on a thicket, such as is furnished by a big syringa bush. I begin to think that it is not the amount of fqod that birds can get, but suitable nesting places, that win them to us. "Bird Lore" adds a groan, because the old farm homes, where there . were lots of bushy trees and underbrush are being brought up and scoured up so that birds do not find their old safe retreats near our homes. This can be compensated by artificial nests. I have a tall stump of white cut leaved birch, in which the bluebirds have made a hole and nested; while on top I have a birdhouse in which the robins find a good home. One thi**- is certain. We cannot run our farms, and especially our orchards successfully without bird allies.?E. P. Powell. Agricultural Brevities. Feed and kill off your cockerels when about four months old. Vinegar diluted in warm water is the best liquid to clear stained eggs. Fowls much improve the character of the stubble land over which they range. Replace one-third of your laying hens every year so as to keep your stock young. The shepherd should not expect his sheep to drink water that he would be afraid to drink himself. The brood mare can do farm work and breed a colt at the same time but must not be overworked. When the colt is growing the hoofs should be looked to occasionally to see if they do not require trimming. Every grower should know what is the paying weight with him, what weight he can sell to bring him the greatest profit. That kind of husbandry in whi(;h ' - * l-l-J J 1 ?t ? - sneep or some kiiiu ao uul ngure ia lacking in a most substantial means of sustaining fertility. There is a better margin for profit in a well fed litter of pigs than may be found in any other like investment of money on the farm. The man who misses out on a little alfalfa patch for the sows and litters has a new mile-stone yet ahead of him in his path of progress. An animal of a fixed and long-inherited type Till control the type of the offspring when coupled with an animal of ordinary character. The man who has a piece of ground large enough for a garden should most certainly improve it, and have a good supply of luxuries at a small cost. Circumstances and management have about as much to do to make mutton growing profitable as in turning the scale toward profit in any other farm product \ THE BAKER'S DOZEN. How the Extra Tale of Numbers Arose in Trade. Some persons, including a few encyclopaedists, are inclined to think that the baker's dozen originated when heavy fines were considered necessary to counterbalance light weights, and the bakers, in order to insure full weight, took the precaution to add an additional unit. Some have called it the devil's dozen, because thirteen was the number of witches who used to ride their broomsticks to the "Black Mass" of Satan. The baker's great book in the Astor library has another story of Its origin. Jan Pietersen, of Amsterdam, was a good churchman, but nevertheless he was afraid of being bewitched. On the last night of 1654 he sal in his bakeshop trying to 1-?' n out the evil spirits by priming himself with a glass of good spirits. Sales had been i brisk. There were no customers in the shop for the moment, and he sat back, meditating on the gains he would make on the morrow, when the fresh New Year's cakes were put on sale. He was startled by a sudden rap. An ugly woman pushed the door op At. "Give me a dozen New Year's cookies," she cried in a shrill voice. The shrillness of her voice did not mean anything to his slow Dutch mind. It only annoyed him. ''Well, then, you needn't speak so loud," said Jan. "I'm not deaf." "A d^zen!" she screamed. "Give me a dozen. Here are only twelve." "Well, then, twelve is a dozen." "One more! I want a dozen." "Weil, then, if you want another go to the devil and get it." The hag left the shop, but from that night Jan had trouble. The shop seemed to be bewitched. His cakes were stolen. Either his bread was so [ light and it soared up the chimney, or so heavy that the supports of the oven gave way beneath the burden. His wife became deaf, his children went wild. His trade took wings and settled in the shops of his rivals. Three times the old woman returned, and each time was directed to go the devil's sanctum. At last, in despair, the baker called upon St. Nicholas to assist him. The venerable patron of Dutch feasts delivered a lecture om charity, telling the tremblipg man to be more generous in the future. Then he vanished, and in his place stood the hag, who repeated her demand fr>r n-na mnra mVp .Tan acceded. whereupon she exclaimed, "The spell is broken; from this time one dozen is thirteen." Taking from the counter a gingerbread effigy of St. Nicholas, she made the subdued Dutchman lay his hand upon it and swear to give more liberal measure irf the future. Since that time thirteen has been called a baker's dozen.?New Yorlr Tribune. Safety in Railroad Travel. Increased safety in railroad travel , Is one of the urgent needs of the day. Railroads have never carried so many people, never run so many trains, never put on so many cars, never employed so many men, never covered so much territory and never been so popular as a means of getting about as today yet with all this has come greater danger to human life, more accidents. more serious accidents, more people hurt and more damages inflicted. The simple truth seems to be that the railroad managers are not sufficiently alive to the sacredness of human life. This is the most precious of all earthly things. It is something that, once destroyed, can never be replaced, and something the injury to which may lead to results of most serious consequences. There is a popular impression in Europe that railroad accidents are more frequent in America than abroad, because the American trains are run at a higher rate of speed. This contention is hardly borne out by the facts, since with the exce tion of one or two recently established trains, the fatest trains in the world are operated abroad. The numerous American accidents are due not so much to the rapidity with which American trains are run as to the carelessness with which they are operated, or the indifference with which the American public at large views the railroad. An accident that involves a Derson not an employe of a railroad or not a passenger may be partly due to carelessness in railway management?American Home and Garden. Telegraphic New York. Few persons appreciate the im- j portance of the telegraphic business of the metropolis. More than 4000 persons are employed by the Western Union and the Postal Telegraph companies in Greater New York, and as many more perhaps in this vicinity in the industries dependent on the wants of the craft. The moneys taken in for telegraphic service in the financial district of New York?the receipts from Wall Street and the exchanges?are greater than the entire telegraphic receipts of the state of Ohio. The receipts of the cable companies alone exceed $7,000,000 annually. This city is the' headquarters of the New York Telegraphers' Mutual Benefit association and the Telegraphers' Aid society, of a flourishing telegraphers' insurance association, the GoM & Stock Insurance company, and a telegraphers' building and loan association with more than 1000 members. Here also is the Magnetic club, a social organization of those engaged in ti%^ business, and the Morse club, which has a banquet on the birthday of the founder of the craft and fails not on Memorial day to wreath his statue in Central Park.with flowers.? New York Pres? t SAVED HOBBS MUCH TROUBLE. Mean Trick Played by Wag on Good Samaritans. In the town of Newbury, Mass., there lived a man named Nathan Hobbs, who sometimes drank more than was good for him. One cold moonlight night two deacons were walking home from pTayer meeting. Hobbs was just aheid, and heard them coming. In a minute he was down at the roadside, where he lay like a log. The deacons rolled and shook him, but he didn't move. "Well," said Deacon Smith, "what I Grateful for Their Help. are we going to do. We can't let him lay here and freeze, and we can't carry him home; that wouldn't do." "I'll tell ye," said Deacon Moare, "we'll take him up to Mr. Flint's barn." So one took his feet and the other his shoulders, and they began their up-hill walk, wheezing and puffing away. Twice they laid him down and nearly concluded to let him lie there. but finally they reached the barn. They tugged him up into the haymow, and let him down. "There," said Moare, "I believe we have done our duty. Certainly he won't freeze, an' I dunno but it's going to take a week to sober him up." And the deacons started for home again. "Hold on, gentlemen," shouted a voice. They turned, and, there in the moonlight they saw Mr. Hobbs walking with rapid strides toward them. "I want to thank you gentlemen for your kindness," he said, "and if you don't mind I'll walk along with you. The deacons became suddenly mute, and the silence seemed to be getting so painful that Mr. Hobbs decided to take a short cut for home across the fields. Cold Has No Terrors for Him. Seth S. Patten of Alexandria, N. H., * ii-. 1?UU ?I? *1*1 + IS OII6 OX xne leniainctuic uieu iu uai vicinity. He works in his sawmill and about the farm clad in the same clothes as in August, trousers made of blue drilling, a cotton shirt and drilling vest, with no underclothes at all. On the coldest day this winter, when the thermometer registered 10 degrees below zero, he was reshingling his barn attired in this same fashion. Drawn by a King. This sketch was drawn by King Carlos of Portugal for the Paris newspaper Figaro. Bear Has Two Teeth Pulled. A performing bear traveling with a vaudeville company playing here this week was the patient in a case of dental surgery to-day. The bear has been out of humor for some time on account of toothache and the two troublesome teeth were removed by a local veterinary. The animal was strapped on his hank tn the floor and the trainer and veterinary set to work. The tusks were so firm that the job took an hour and a half. The animal performed as usual that evening. There is no similar case on the records of dental surgery.?Pottstown correspondence Pittsburg Press. Strangest Street in the World. The city of Canton possesses the strangest street in the world. It is roofed in with glazed paper fastened on bamboo, and contains more sign- , boards to the square foot than any street in any other country. It contains no other shops but those of apothecaries and dentists. Appropriately enough, it is called. Physic street. % C. ; ; . WOULD HAVE SATISFIED JURY. Circumstantial Evidence that Surely Was Most Conclusive. An extraordinary story is told concerning a Leicester lady's recent adventure with a supposed burglar and its surprising sequel. Two married couples, occupying adjoining houses, were on very friendly terms, and one lady informed the other that she and her husband were to spend the evening at. the opera house. The lady delayed her departure to meet her husband, and put the poker in the fire to make it burn brighter. Just as she withdrew it, red-hot, she heard someone trying to open the front door. Going down noiselessly she saw a man's hand through the letterbox aperture, with an Jngeniouslycontrived piece of wire, with which the person was trying to pull back the spring catch of the lock. In an instant she applied the red-hot poker to the man's hand, rubbing it all over. The hand was withdrawn with an agonizing cry of pain. The lady greatly frightened by the incident, rushed into her friend's house next door for assistance. Then she was more astonished than ever to find her friend annointing the terribly burned hand of her husband.?London Mail. MRS. MULQUEEN GOT A BARGAIN. i And the Grocer's Comments Can Not Be Printed. At Thanksgiving time Lucius Hill, a leading grocer of Augusta, Me., found himself somewhat overstocked with J turkeys. On the evening before 1 Thanksgiving, as he. was going home to supper, he pointed to a particular bird that was somewhat below the others in size and amiearance. and said to one of his clerks, Fred K.: "You may sell that one for 15 cents," meanins:, of course, 15 cents a pound. When Mr. Hill returned from supper he saw that the turkey referred to was missing, and he inquired who had bought it. Fred informed him that he had, sold it to Mrs. Mulqueen, The Grocer a l-ooser. and she was much pleased to get even so poor a turkey for 15 cents. He had sold the whole turkey for 15 cents. Work That Kills. A visitor from South Africa described what is doubtless at once the most deadly and most highly paid kind of work in the world. "In the gold mines of Johannesburg, he said, "the miners suffer terribly from the dust produced by drilling into the earth. Getting into thj? lungs of the men employed in the work, It produces consumption, whicb often proves fatal in a comparatively short time. "This is so well understood that the miners in charge of the work are very nigniy paia; a luremau, m mvw UJ.O.J receive as much as ?1,500 a year. But even enormously high wages will not always tempt men to shorten their lives in this way, and this is one ot the chief causes of the labor difficult ty on the Rand. Wooden FloWer of Guatemala. One of ;he most remarkable botanical curiosities in the world is the wooden flower which is found in the crater of the Volcan del Fuego, or fire volcano, of Guatemala. It resembles a half-blown rose, with four distinct petals, curving gracefully from the point of Junction with the stem; The Guatemalan Indians regard the plant with superstitious reverence, and believe that it is indestructible. They have a tradition that when one side of the Volcan del Aqua, or water volcano, burst out in 1841 and let loose a raging flood of angry waters, a shrub of this plant was the only thing that escaped destruction. The Indians uflnnror Mn railSfi or ueucvc liiat vuv MV?> v v? prevent an eruption of the volcano. Making Mape. Four colors at most are -needed to distinguish the surfaces ot separate districts onvany plane map, so that no two with a common boundary are tinted alike. Od. this diagram A, B, and C are adjoining districts, on a plane surface, and X borders, in one way or another, upon each. It is clearly impossible to introduce a fifth area which shall so adjoin these four districts as to need another tint. / ' *' " . 't . v; ; V ;>'r _ - 4 A Smiling Face Pay*. There is a minister living out cf> the East Side who is a great joker. Ke loves 10 tell his jokes at the table, and, when he does so, the other mem* bers cf the family are expected to laugh. The minister has a son twen- . ty-one years eld, who gets awfully * tired of the jokes. Recently he got in the habit of scowling when his father would spring hi3 alleged witticisms. The minister noticed this and thereafter it was impossible for the sen to s?cure a second helping cf any of the food his father served. *As a result the son would sometimes leave the table hungry. One day the family had turkey for dinner and the son decided to get all he wanted of it, even > | if he had to laugh at his father's jokes. Soon after he had eaten his first allowance his father sprang a J pun and the young man laughed. It wasn't a simple laugh! it was a rear, which only ended when he fell orf . \;j his chair. When the son had pulled himself together again his father looked sternly over his glasses.- " "Ahem! Henry," he said, picking'up the carving knife and fork, "pass me your plate and let me help you to 9 seme more of this excellent turkey.** ?Kansas City Journal. The Gray Wolf a Fighter. From a private letter written by Dr. Edward L. Munson, of Fort Assinfir boine, Mont., we are permitted to qucte a sentence or two which gives a notion of the pewer of the gray wolf, a matter that was referred to in an article recently printed in these ?~1" ?? ~ TW. VTunc^n oO v<5 " & fnrt? WlUliiiiO* Ju/x , iUUuwvu WI - r night ago I ran. into an immense old dog wolf which must have weighed 150 or 1G0 pounds. I had only three dogs with me as the rest of the pack was off after a jack rabbit. The dogs, all fine fighters, all started for the wolf, and he whipped them in one, y 4 two, three order, in less time than it > takes me to tell it One he threw ever a cut bank, crashed in the chest . -M of another, and gashed the third dog's throat. I do not think that he could have done up three 100-pound wolfhounds as easily, though these dogs of mine are all good fighters and sav- V^jgl age brutes, and one was an 85-poun4 '** staghound."?Forest and Stream. rags Sunday-School Attendance Record. The four children of Mr. B. Hall-' worth, jeweler, of Great Harwood,. * J England, have created a unique rec-" - ord by their remarkable attendance at the Congregational Sunday-school in that town, for a period totaling.fifty-one years. There was only one V ^ solitary absence during that time/that ''?4| being on account of illness. Alice Ann, the oldest daughter, aged twenty- ^ one, has never missed for fifteen years, and Clara, aged eighteen^ ^ james, agea sixteen, ana iu*cniDaxa,x ,<-< aged thirteen, have respectively a rec? ord of twelve, thirteen, and eleven s. /-S years' unbroken attendance. Cheap and Filling Food. Now these be the virtues of the ^- ^ cereals; they are cheap, easily swaJ? ^>$1 lowed and of moderate nutritive value. V;f| There is an element in the average hiK t v',;f? man mind, half puritanic; half stingy,^ .J/gg which is inclined to count as a virtue, [ the ingestion of any food which is not ^ ' especially attractive but believed ! be nutritious. In fact, to eat that ' | which is xbeap and filling is one of j the petty vices.?McClure's Magaaina v ^ Lacking in Styie. Tailor (standing off and inspeccir; - i him)?'You don't like that even ?.; suit? .Why, my dear sir, the fit is |j solutely perfect, every line. Cholly?I know It. It fits me too | well. 7 The other chaps will say I couldn't possibly have bad it mac/ ' *? CMn?o>n IV/ U? ITOl I KNIFED Ci)A? Knifed an Old Soldier. An old soldier, released from coffee ' at 72, recovered bis health and tells ' about it as follows: ? "I stuck to coffee for years, although it knifed me again and again. "About eight years ago (as a result : ^ I of coffee drinking which congested my liver), I was taken with a very severe attack of malarial fever. "I would apparently recover and start abotit my usual work only to snf* fer a relapse. After this had been-repea ted several times during the year I was again taken violently ill. "The doctor said he had carefully V j studied my case and it was either 'quit 0coffee or die.' advising me to take ^ TXnofMm ii-a "I had alwavs V i V^IHMI *+* - w r thought coffee one of my dearest \ friends, and especially when sick, and ^ I was very much taken back by the doctor's decision for I hadn't suspected ?<||jj the coffee I drank could rossibly cause p my troubles. \ "I thought it over for a few minutes and finally told the doctor I wou\d make the change. Pcstum was procured for me the same day and made (yi according to directions; well, 1 liked it .$ and stuck to it and since then I have been a new man. The change in health began in a few days and surprised me, and now, although I am seventy-two years of age, I do lots of bard work and for the past month have been teaming, driving sixteen miles a day. besides loading and unloading the wagon. That's what Pogtuni In the place of coffee has done for me. I now like the Postum as well as I did coffee. "I have known people who did not V, ^ care for Postum at first, but after hav* J * 1 I* OAMinl. ing ieamea 10 iuhkv u ing to directions, they have come to like it as well as coffee. I never miss a ? > chance to praise it." Name given bjr ; Tostum Co., Battle Creek, Micb. Look for the little boob, "The Boatl . | to Wellvllle," In pigs. :*