1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



203 



flux is expected this year. Immicrrants are to 

 come over under charge of a commissioner, 

 and an agent at each end of the route will 

 manage their interests — one at Gothenburg, 

 Sweden, and the other at New Sweden. Each 

 male immigrant over twenty-one years of age 

 is to be assigned a lot of 100 acres of land, 

 which will be his at f he expiration of five 

 years, provided he has built a comfortable 

 house there, and has cleared not less than fif- 

 teen acres of land. The Swedes are exempt 

 from State tax until 1876. 



HOW "WALKING STICKS ABE MADE. 



Sticks are manufactured both from large 

 timbers of from two to six feet in girth, and 

 from small underwood of about the thickness 

 of a man's thumb. The timber, which is 

 chiefly beech, is first sawed into battens of 

 about three feet in length and as many inches 

 in width ; and from each of these battens are 

 afterward cut two square sticks, with square 

 heads, in opposite directions, so that the mid- 

 dle portion is waste wood. The corners of 

 each stick are afterward rounded off by a 

 planing process called -""trapping," and the 

 square head is reduced by a small saw to a 

 curve or rectangidar bend, so as to form a 

 convenient handle. When a number of sticks 

 are brought in this way to the exact size and 

 pattern, they are polished witli great care, 

 are finely varnished, and packed in boxes or 

 bundles for the market. Many sawn sticks, 

 however, are supplied with bone and horn 

 handles, which are fastened on with glue ; and 

 then of course there is less wood waste, as a 

 large number of them may be cut from one 

 batten. 



A very different process takes place in the 

 manufacture of sticks from small underwood, 

 in which there is no sawing required. The 

 rough unfashioned sticks, which are generally 

 of hazel, ash, oak and thorn, are cut with a 

 bill in the same way as kidney-bean sticks, 

 and are brought to the factory in large ba- 

 vins or bundles, piled on a timber tug. 

 There must, of course, be some little care in 

 their selection, yet it is evident that the wood- 

 men are not very particular on this score, for 

 they have in general an ungainly appearance, 

 and many are so crooked and rough, that no 

 drover or country boy would think it worth 

 while to polish the like of them with his knife. 

 Having arrived at this place, however, their 

 numerous imperfections are soon pruned 

 away, and their ugliness converted into ele- 

 gance. When sufficiently seasoned and fit 

 for working, they are first laid to soak in wet 

 sand, and rendered more tough and pliable ; 

 a workman then takes them one by one, and, 

 securing them with an iron stock, bends them 

 skilfully this way and that, so as to bring out 

 their natural crooks, and render them at last 

 all straight even rods. If they are not re- 

 quired to be knotted, they next go to the 



"trapper," who puts them through a kind of 

 circular plane, which takes off their knots, 

 and renders them uniformly smooth and 

 round. The most important process of all is 

 that of giving them their elegantly-curved 

 handles, for which purpose they are passed 

 over to the "crooker." Every child knows 

 that if we bend a tough stick moderately, 

 when the pressure is discontinued it will soon 

 fly back, more or less, to its former position ; 

 and if we bend it very much, it will break. 

 Now the crooker professes to accomplish the 

 miracle_ of bending a stick as it might be an 

 iron wire, so that it shall neither break nor 

 "backen." To prevent the breaking, the 

 wood is rendered pliant by further soaking in 

 wet sand ; and a flexible band of metal is 

 clamped down firmly to that portion of the 

 stick that will form the outside of the curve ; 

 the top end being then fitted into a grooved 

 iron shoulder which determines the size of the 

 crook, the other end is brought round so as 

 to point in the opposite direction, the metal 

 band during this process binding with inci-eas- 

 ing tightness against the stretching fibres of 

 the wood, so that they cannot snap or give 

 way under the strain. The crook having been 

 made, the next thing is to fit it, or remove 

 from the fibres the reaction of elasticity, which 

 would otherwise, on the cessation of the bend- 

 ing force, cause it to backen more or less and 

 undo the work. In the old process of crook- 

 ing by steam, as timber-bending is effected, 

 the stick was merely left till it was cold to ac- 

 quire a permanent set ; but in the new process 

 a more permanent set is given by turning the 

 handle about briskly over a jet of gas. The 

 sticks being now fashioned, it only remains to 

 polish and stain or varnish them ; and they 

 sometimes scorched or burned brown, and 

 carved with foliage, animal heads and other 

 devices. — Ghambers''s Journal. 



How TO Manage Sitting Hens.'— 1. Set 

 the hen in a place where she will not be dis- 

 turbed. 



2. Give a large hen twelve or thirteen eggs, 

 medium sized one ten or twelve, and a small 

 one eight or nine. 



3. Don't let the hen come out of the sitting- 

 room until she has hatched, but keep her sup- 

 plied with gravel, food and water. 



4. When chicks are hatched, leave them in 

 the nest for eight or ten hours. 



6. Don't meddle with the eggs during incu- 

 bation ; turning them once a day, and all such 

 foolishness, is apt to prevent the eggs from 

 hatching. — Soutliern Farmer. 



—A nttle Boston girl joyfully assured her mother, 

 the other day, that she had found out where they 

 made horses— "she had seen a man in a shop just 

 finishing oue, for he was nailing on his last foot." 



