THE HOUSEWIFE S DEPARTMENT. 527 



leadings of unbridled passion, is checked in the ardor of his temperament, or the I'rst time, per- 

 haps, by the timely recellectiou of her who with affectionate, mild voice, was wont to counsel 

 her son, " Do unto others as you would have Ihera do to you." 



The man of years, broken iu constitution and wasted with disease, while tottering on toward 

 the last home of the wretched, stifles the rilling murmur at his fate by the remembrance of the 

 tested faith, the cheerful resignation and meek submission of a long- lost mother. 



Even the hardened criminal, when in his lonely cell he sighs for the home of liis childhood, ^ives 

 his first thovight to the mother who endeared it. The man issoftened — he remembers ! What- 

 ever were her errors, whatever her conduct to others, she was always kind to him. The obdu- 

 rate heart is subdued. He weeps bit'er tears of contrition at his fall, and his voice is raised in 

 accents, long unpracliced, to breathe forth the prayer which was taught him from her lips. 



Cultivation of the Lettuce. — Mr. Forsyth gardener to the Earl of Shrewsbury, at Alton 

 Towers, tells us that in that county boiled lettuce is a common dish, and recommends an improved 

 mode of cultivation by which four crops a year shall be regularly-secured. He says: 

 ' •' Any lettuce will grow freely in the open garden after the 22d of March ; in any rich garden- 

 -oil, four seeds in a square foot are sufficient ; three crops in summer, olf the same land, may be 

 '■asily got. and if persons will go to the expen.se or trouble of transplanting lettuce, many crops 

 iiiay be had ; and as four will grow upon a square foot, and weigh, when young, half a pound eacn, 

 every square yard of soil will produce in the three crops in the season, half a cwt., which is 15 ewt. 

 to the pole of ground, or 120 tons to the acre." 



To Destroy Cockroaches. — If yonr correspondents will try the following simple plan, I will 

 warrant them that every beetle and cockroach will .shortly disappear, and that the kitchen will 

 not again be infested. Add about a tea-spoonfull of powdered arsenic to about a table-spoonfuU 

 of mashed boiled potatoes; rub and mix them well together, and then crumble about a third of 

 it, every night at bed-time, about the kitchen hearth ; it will be eaten up or nearly so, by the fol- 

 lowing morning. The creature is very fond of potatoes, nnd devouring them greedily, crawls 

 again into its hole and perishes. I had occasion to have some alterations made in the kitchen- 

 stove six months after I pursued this plan, and found hundreds of wings and dried mummies of 

 defunct cockroaches. Their disappearance was not attended with the slightest perceptible smell ; 

 and though five years have elapsed, not one has again been seen in my kitchen. In putting it into 

 practtce, any remaining crumbs should be swept up the next morning. 



F. H. HORNER, M. D. 



We have tried the foregoing, and found it perfectly effectual. [Downing's Horticulturist. 



To Drive away Rat.s. — Mr. Charles Pierce, of Milton, recommends potash for this purpose. The 

 rats troubled him very much, having eaten through the chamber .loor; they appeared in great 

 numbers, and were very troublesome, so that he felt justified to resort to stratagem and severe 

 treatment for their expulsion from his premises. He pounded up potash and strewed around 

 their holes, threw some under their holes, and rubbed some on the sides of the boards and under 

 part, where they came through. The next night he heard a squealing among them, which we 

 supposed was from the caustic nature of the potash that got among their hair, or on their bare 

 feet. They disappeared, and he has not been troubled with them since that time, which was 

 nearly a year ago. [Boston Cultivator. 



Sparrows. — It is proved that a pair of sparrows, during the lime they have their young to 

 feed, destroy, on an average, every week three ihou.sand three hundred and sixty caterpillars. 

 This calculation is founded upon actual observation. Two parents have been known to carry to 

 their nest forty caterpillars in an hour ; and, supposing the sparrows to enter the nest only twelve 

 times during each day, they would cause a consumption of four hundred and eighty caterpil- 

 lars ; this .sum gives three thou-sand three hundred and sixty caterpillars extirpated weekly from 

 a garden. Hut the utility of the birds is not limited to this circumstance alone, for they likewise 

 feed their young with butterilies and other winged insects, each of which, if not destroyed in this 

 maimer, would become the parent of hundreds of caterpillars. 



Preservative against Moths. — A small piece of paper or linen Just moistened with turpen- 

 tine, and put into the wardrobe or drawers for a single day, two or three times a year, is sufficient 

 pre.servative against moths. 



Q 



Dibber or Dibble. — This instrument for making holes in which to 

 insert seeds or plants, is usually very simple in its construction, being at 

 the best the head of an old spade handle. To secure uniformity of depth 

 in planting beans, &c., by this instrument, it is useful to have it perfora 

 ted with holes to receive an iron peg, at two and three inches from the 

 point, as in the following outline. It should be shod with iron ; for if this be kept bright it will 

 make holes into which the soil will not crumble from the sides. The crumbling is induced by 

 the soil's adhesion to the dibble. For planting potatoes a dibble with a head three inches 

 diameter at the point, six inches long up to the foot-rest, and with a handle four feet long, ia to 

 bo preferred. For the insertion of .seed, a dibble that delivers the seed has been invented by 

 a Mr. Smith. 



i^zT French beans, and some suppo.9e the garden pea, Lima beans, &c., may be preserved for 

 winter use by boiling them in corked bottles like gooseberries, for an hour or an hour and a half. 

 Before nsiiig, they are to be scalded iu water with a little salt. Celery may be preserved in the 

 same way and requires only half an hour. 

 (967) 



