428 Traxsactioxs of the American Ixstitvte. 



small fruit culture to rusli in, expecting to get rich. Fully one-half 

 of those who cultivate the small fruits would make moi'e progress if 

 they should hire out for a year to some good nurseryman at fifty 

 cents a day. 



Things Useful to Know. 



Mr. R. Clymer, Franklin, N. Y. — An iron kettle, which had been an 

 unsightly nuisance for twenty years, in consequence of having a crack 

 a half an inch wide extending from edge to apex, and a hole 

 through the bottom one and one-half inches in diameter, was mended 

 thus : The crack was stopped by hooping the kettle with heavy band 

 iron as you would hoop a barrel ; a^nd the hole was filled with melted 

 zinc, enough of the metal being allowed to run through below, and 

 enough to remain above to form a good head upon each side. The 

 kettle is now used for boiling feed for hogs, and it is " amaist as good 

 as new." Small sand-holes in pots and kettles can generally be 

 stopped by inserting in them rivets or burs, such as tinners use for 

 uniting the seams of stove pipes, and battering down the ends, li the 

 hole is not large enough to receive the rivet, enlarge it with the end 

 of a file or other suitable instrument. An old basket, whose bottom 

 had caved in, except upon one side, was thus mended. A piece of 

 sheet zinc was cut into strips three-cpiarters of an inch wide, and six 

 inches long, and the strips thrust under the horizontal splints of the 

 basket so as to reach three inches past the break, and the ends bent 

 back so as to clinch around splints at each extremity, and the old 

 basket, with careful usage, will do service for another course of years. 

 To stop holes 'and cracks in tin pans, a little preparatory fixing is 

 necessary. Get li^lf a pound of solder, and granulate it by pouring 

 it melted into cold water, in as small a stream as possible, and holding 

 the ladle as near the water as you can. Next prepare a flux by dis- 

 solving some bits of zinc in an ounce of muriatic acid. With a dull 

 knife scrape a bright surface around the hole in the pan to be mended, 

 apply a drop of the muriate of zinc, lay on a grain of solder, and 

 touch it with the hot copper soldering tool, or any hot iron will do, 

 or even a candle held under the })an will melt the solder and fill the 

 hole. "When you go to the cobbler's to get a shoe mended, notice 

 how he makes his " waxed ends " and how he fsistens on the bristles, 

 then purchase at the hardware store a ball of shoemaker's thread, 

 black wax, harness makers' awls and needles, if you prefer them to 

 bristles ; make up a lot of waxed ends, and when your harnesB breaks, 



