1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



303 



CELLAR FLOORS. 



The cheapest, best and most durable cellar floor, 

 which is also impervious to rats, may be made in 

 the following manner : Supposing the cellar wall 

 already laid, with a sufficient drain to the cellar ; 

 then dig a trench all around the wall on the 

 inner side, a foot wide and deep, connecting with 

 the cellar drain. In the centre of this trench 

 make a drain by standing two stones, bracing 

 against each^her, at an angle of about 45 de- 

 grees. Then fill up the trench with small stones, 

 to within two or three inches of the top ; cover 

 these stones with a layer of pine shavings, and 

 then with the earth thrown out of the trench, 

 levelling off the same with the floor of the cellar. 

 If the ground of the cellar should be gravel, 

 nothing further will be required ; but if clay, 

 make it perfectly smooth, and strew over it a 

 coating of clean gravel ; one load of thirty bush- 

 els will be ample for a cellar of twelve hundred 

 square feet. The cost of such a floor, estimating 

 the gravel at a dollar, will not exceed eight 

 dollars ; the cellar will be rat proof, and the 

 floor smooth-dry and hard. This is theory veri- 

 fied by experience. Agricultor. 



Hancock County, June 4. 



P. S. I have been planting about a quarter of 

 an acre with alternate rows of potatoes and sweet 

 corn,2i feet apart, distance between hills 3^ feet, 

 with a hill of peas between each hill of corn and 

 potatoes. The potatoes were started on a bed of 

 horse manure, and when from 4 to G inches high, 

 were set out in the hills, receiving at the time 

 what was equivalent to a heavy hoeing on the 

 20th ult. They will be ready for market by the 

 middle of next month, and the rows occupied by 

 them will be set out with Early York Cabbages 

 and Ruta Baga Turnips. The peas between the 

 corn will be off about the same time, leaving the 

 corn standing at 5 feet distance one way and 3^ 

 the other. The corn is intended for table use, 

 and when the ears are gathered, will be cut up 

 and used for green fodder. The result shall be 

 communicated if favorable, which is not doubted. 



This is economy, and of the right kind — prac- 

 tical economy. By a little calculation of this 

 sort, farmers and gardeners might make old 

 mother earth yield double for the support of her 

 children which she now does. — Rural Intelligencer . 



MEANNESS DOES NOT PAY. 



There is no greater mistake that a business 

 man makes than to be mean in his business. 

 Always taking the half cent for the dollars he 

 has made and is making. Such a policy is very 

 much like the farmer's, who sows tliree pecks of 

 seed when he ought to have sown five, and as a 

 recompense for the leanness of liis soul, only gets 

 ten v/hcn he ought to have got fifteen bushels of 

 grain. Everybody has heard of the proverb ofi 

 "penny wise and pound foolish." A liberal ex-' 

 penditurc in the way of business is always sure 

 to be a capital investment. There are people in 

 the world who are short-sighted enougn to be- 

 lieve that their interest can be Ijest promoted by 

 grasping and clinging to all thev can get, and 

 never letting a cent slip through their fingers. 

 As a general thing, it will be found, other things 

 being equal, that he who is the most liberal is 

 most successful in business. Of course we do not 



mean it to be inferred that a man should be 

 prodigal in his expenditure ; but that he should 

 show to his customers, if he is a trader, or thofle 

 whom he may be doing any kind of business 

 with, that, in all his transactions, as well as no- 

 cial relations, he acknowledges the evei-lasting 

 fiict that there can be no permanent prosperity 

 or good feeling in a community where benefits 

 are not reciprocal. — Hunt's Merchant's Maya- 

 zine. 



HORSES AND RATS IN PARIS. 



A correspondent of the N. Y. Spirit of the 

 Times gives an interesting account of the manner 

 in which tlie bodies of Parisian horses and rats 

 are usually disposed of. He says : 



Four hundred horses die or are killed in P^ris 

 in one week. There is a common pound, nux- 

 rounded by a stone wall, covering some ten acres. 

 According to some municipal regulations (there 

 is an 'ordonnance' for every thing in France) all 

 dead carcasses, except human bones, must be 

 brought to this general receptacle. The carcass of 

 a horse is valuable for the bone, the hide, and the 

 hair, to say nothing of the- flesh, much prized, 

 when fresh, in certain sausage manufactories. 

 But should you wait until the horse has actually 

 shuflled off his hairy coil, you might miss a bar- 

 gain — another of the trade precedes and purchases. 

 Hence it is important to buy the horse, as a dead 

 horse, befoi'e he is dead. It is a regular businefig 

 in Paris. You can tell these agents for the pur- 

 chase of dead horses at a glance ; the dre^s ia- 

 that of an English groom , save the vignette oa 

 the visor of the cap, representing a dead horse's 

 head and cross-bones; a memorandum book, a 

 pencil, a stamp, and a piece of caustic complete 

 his accoutrements. With scrutinizing eye he 

 travels the thoroughfares of Paris ; should a horee 

 go lame, break a leg or neck, should he show 

 symptoms of distress — in a word, anywhere or ia 

 any way evince signs of the many ills to which, 

 horseflesh is heir, immediately is an offer mficle 

 for the animal, deliverable when really dc.id. 

 The bargain concluded, the 'signalement' of the 

 horse and owner is carefully recorded, and a pri- 

 vate mark stamped on the inside of the foreleg 

 with the caustic ; the horse goes, perhaps rejoic- 

 ing, on his way for weeks, perhaps months, only 

 to be met with and identified after death, at the 

 public graveyard for horses. Novi^, except ia 

 cases of fresh specimens, as mentioned above, the 

 first operation on a dead liovse is to take offtlie 

 skin ; th'-n the flesh, to get at the bones. The 

 skinning portion is easy, and performed with a 

 dexterity and rapidity truly astonishing. 



I have seen in the enclosure .spoken of, at one 

 time, over one hundred horses skinned, or being 

 put through that process. The next point is to 

 divest the bones of adhesive and often putrid 

 flesh ; l)one3 are valued in proportion as they are 

 clear, neat, and free from other matter. To t;;ko 

 off the flesh by hand, is a tedious and difficult 

 operation. An ingenious Frenchman solved the 

 difficulty. He noticed tliat rats were very fond 

 of horse flesh ; he advised the authorities to colo- 

 nize the dead horse pound wit!\ these animals ; 

 the catacombs of Paris furnished them by thou- 

 sands. It was done, and now-a-days a dead 

 horse's carcass, put in over night, is liternlly 



