THE LANCASTER FARMEH. 



i05 



RAG CARPET, 



I shall have to make a now carpet this 

 spring; that means lots of tedious woric and 

 nearly as much expense as hemp or wool ear- 

 pet ready made. But I have the rags aeeumu- 

 lated during two .years (the worn-out gar- 

 ments of a large family), and, then, mother 

 sent me a lot last fall. I have not myself 

 much time for cutting and sewing, so a 

 neighbor oflered to cut and sew for live cents 

 a pound. I expect my carpet will cost at 

 least twenty-live cents a yard when finished. 

 But I expect it to wear about three times as 

 long as a store carpet costing twice that price. 

 I shall get roarse Pittsburg chains of good 

 color— red and yellow, I think— as those 

 colors are least likely to be made tender in 

 coloring. I will ask the weaver to warp it 

 one or two threads of each alternating. My 

 filling will be striped. I don't think it pays 

 to color much, and it is not necessary, if one 

 is a little careful when purchasing new cali- 

 coes to get good colors. The present style of 

 indigo-blue calico makes nice carpet rags 

 when woven. White rags I color silver, drab 

 or purple as follows : For five pounds of 

 goods allow one teaspoonful each of alum and 

 logwood. Boil well together, then dip the 

 goods one hour. If not dark enough, add 

 alum and logwood in equal parts. I made a 

 carpet for my stairs two years ago. As my 

 way of having stair-carpet woven was new in 

 this neighborhood, it may be new to some of 

 the Bural ladies. It was as follows : I select- 

 ed the brightest rags. The chain was brown, 

 and some of the chain was woven in every 

 half yard, for hemming. The stripe consisted 

 of center, two-thirds yellow ; each side ten 

 threads black and white check half an inch 

 square (plain drab would be as pretty), then 

 three shades red, three threads each, com- 

 mencing with the darkest ; two threads pink ; 

 three shades green ; three threads each ; two 

 threads yellow ; three shades blue, three 

 threads each ; ten threads drab : two inches 

 of binding chain. Each stripe was about 

 half a yard long. Cut in the middle of the 

 binding chains, sew selvages together, hem 

 edges, and the stair-carpet is complete, and 

 we like it better than the old way of kveaving 

 half a yard wide. — Rural iVew Yorker. 



In front of Maggie Mitchell's cottage, in 

 Park avenue, near Elberon, a robin, plumed 

 and large, was enjoying a solitary feast recently 

 in the middle of the road, when a pugnacious 

 sparrow alighted alongside of him. The spar- 

 row chattered and flapped his wings as if to 

 invite the robin to leave. The robin evincing 

 no disposition to retire, the sparrow forthwith 

 proceeded to perch uiion the robin's spinal 

 column. The contest was brief and bloodless. 

 The robin came to the conclusion that that 

 was no place for him. 



Hardly had the victorious sparrow turned 

 to taste the sweets of his triumph when there 

 was a shai-p whirr, and a thrush darted 

 through the air, swooped down upon the 

 sparrow like an avenging angel, and the 

 feathers began to fly. The sparrow chattered 

 as if calling for assistance, but kept on fight- 

 ing like a Turk. The thrush made no noise. 

 For a minute the fight was maintained with 



great obstinacy and with doubtful results. 

 The sparrow, in point of size, was over- 

 matched, but in agility he was the superior. 



The birds rolled in the dust, pecking and 

 clawing at each other. The sparrow at last 

 gave indication of weariness, but when two 

 others of his species clattered up, like reserve 

 fire engines after a third alarm, his courage 

 revived. 



But now the thrush resorted to strategy. 

 He darted away, thus separating his antago- 

 nists. He then spread his wings, and like a 

 flash of lightning, dashed into the nearest 

 sparrow, stretching him out in the dust. The 

 other assistant sparrow displayed no longer 

 any enthusiasm to continue the contest. The 

 simrrow that first got into the fight, seeing 

 one of his comrades prostrate and himself de- 

 serted, flew up into a tree, and gave vent to 

 his feelings in chatterings. 



The thrush, finding himself the sole sur- 

 vivor of the fight, helped himself to the repast 

 discovered by poor robin, and looked uncon- 

 cernedly as his stunned and prostrate foe 

 gathered himself together and flew away. 

 While the thrush was in the road not a spar- 

 row interfered with him, although there were 

 ten or twenty in the vicinity, watching his 

 movements. 



HOW TO MAKE SHAD SOUP. 



Choose a large roe shad, and have it care- 

 fully scaled and washed, but not split ; lay it 

 on I he side, on a board, and cut through the 

 skin and flesh, from the middle of the head 

 down to the middle of the side of the tail, in 

 a straight line ; make this cut with a sharp 

 knife, having a thin blade ; then cut through 

 the skin and flesh just behind the gills, from 

 the back of the head to the front ; next cut 

 the flesh from the bones, beginning at the 

 head, using the point of the knife, and press- 

 ing the blade flat against the large bone, in 

 order to avoid mangling the piece of flesh 

 which is cut off; each side of the flesh yields 

 two good-sized pieces, those from the back 

 being the largest; when all four pieces are 

 cut off, lay them, skin down, on the table, and 

 remove the skin ; do this by grasping the 

 smallest end of each piece firmly with the left 

 hand, and cutting down through the flesh to 

 the skin ; then gradually turn the knife- 

 blade flat, holding the back toward the left 

 hand, and, pressing it flat against the skin, 

 cut the flesh away from it. After the skin 

 has been removed, cut the flesh off the shad 

 in pieces about three inches square, .and pre- 

 pare them for the table. Next carefully re- 

 move the roe from the fish, without breaking 

 it, and lay it in cold salted water until it is 

 required. 



After the roe is put aside clean the carcass 

 of the shad and wash it in cold water ; then 

 cut it in two or three pieces, put it into a 

 saucepan together with the shin and fins; add 

 to it two quarts of cold water, a small onion 

 peeled and sliced, a level tablespoouful of salt, 

 a small carrot and a turnip peeled and sliced, 

 a stalk of celery or a handful of parsley and a 

 palatable seasoning of pepper ; set the sauce- 

 pan over the fire and boil its contents slowly 

 for half an hour. Meantime mix a heaping 

 tablespoouful each of butter and flour to a 

 smooth paste ; when the soup has boiled for 

 half an hour pour it intea fine sieve; carefully 



pick out all the Ijones and rub the fish and 

 vegetables through the sieve with a potato 

 masher ; put the pulp thus obtained back 

 into the saucepan, together with the soup 

 which has drained through the sieve and the 

 paste of butter and flour ; place the saucepan 

 over the fire, stir its contents thoroughly, let 

 them boil once, and then add enough milk to 

 them to make the soup of the consistency of 

 cream ; let it boil once, .season it palatably 

 with salt and cayenne and serve hot.— JuKa 

 Corson. 



A corresimndent asks : " Is the popular 

 opinion that buckwheat is an unusually ex- 

 hausting, crop to land correct V If so, is it 

 because of the chemical composition of the 

 plant ?" 



Farmers often speak of one crop as being 

 very exhausting to the land, or as more ex- 

 hausting than some other crops, as, for in- 

 stance, timothy is regarded as more exhaust- 

 ing than clover, and the questions above open 

 up a field of inquiry which is full of interest 

 to the farmer. 



The terra "soil exhaustion" is often used 

 to indicate simply the amount of material 

 which a crop withdraws from the soil. Ordi- 

 narily, however, it has a broader significance, 

 and is applied to the eflect which one crop 

 has ui)on the succeeding crop. Thus, because 

 wheat grows better after clover than after 

 timothy, farmers speak of timothy as more 

 exhausting than clover, and often explain the 

 difference by saying that timothy takes more 

 from the soil than clover; or, in other words, 

 the differenc lies in the different chemical 

 composition of the two plants. 



There are several elements entering into 

 the explanation of soil exhaustion as under- 

 stood in farm practice, of which chemical 

 composition is only one, and often a minor 

 one. 



The effect of the growth of any crop upon 

 the succeeding one is determined by the fol- 

 lowing factors : 



1. The chemical composition of the crop. 



2. The location in the soil from which the 

 plant draws its food. 



3. The feeding power of the plant. 



4. The residue which the crop leaves be- 

 hind in the soil. 



(1) There certainly is a difference in the 

 relative amounts of several kinds of ingre- 

 dients which different crops take from an acre 

 of land. This is clearly seen by the following 

 table : 



The continuous growing of sugar beets 

 would remove more potash from the soil than 

 the continuous growing of wheat. This fact 

 has made itself felt in practice. 



On the other hand, timothy has the reputa- 

 tion of being much more exhausting than 

 clover, a fact not accounted for by the figures 



