328 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



To make sweet wine, as soon as it is pressed out add five grains of 

 salicylic acid to each gallon of must ; let it stand in a vessel about fifteen 

 hours to become clear, then draw the clear must off and put it on the fire. 

 As soon as it boils bottle or can it in air-tight jars, and it will keep for years 

 in perfection, just as fresh as when first put up. The salicylic acid should 

 be rubbed up into paste with some of the must, or cut with alcohol before 

 putting it into the must, or it will float on the top. This acid is not put in 

 to keep it, but for the purpose of settling and making it clear It may be 

 boiled and -skimmed, but it will never become so clear and good as with the 

 acid, neither is it as quickly and readily done. This is our method and one 

 that we have used for years, and found every way satisfactory. — Orchard 

 and Garden. 



V t \9 



BURDOCK CUTTERS. 



JT^HE accompanying illustrations are from the Country Gentleman, show- 

 ing two instruments that are useful in the work of destroying this 

 very noxious weed. The one at the top of the illustration is made 

 by the use of an old spade handle and a piece of an old wagon spring. The 



blade of the other instrument, shown 

 at the bottom, is a wide piece of an 

 old wagon spring, twenty inches in 

 length, sharpened at both ends. A 

 block of hard wood, sevtn inches 

 long, is bolted to the centre of the 

 ^ blade, to hold the wooden handle 

 forty inches in length. With this 

 latter instrument, it is claimed that 

 „ „ ^ burdocks can be removed at a rapid 



Fig. 74.— Burdock Cutters. ^ 



rate. 

 The writer has been fighting burdocks during the last summer with a 

 tool that has worked well. It was simply a solid iron bar about one inch 

 square and about four feet long. This was rounded at the upper end for a 

 handle, and flattened at the bottom into a chisel shaped blade about two 

 inches wide. With this a man could destroy a large number of weeds in a 

 day, and very effectively ; for with a single blow they may be cut off an inch 

 or two below the surface of the ground, so that there will be no chance of 

 their throwing up new shoots. In our opinion there is no weed so hateful 

 about dwellings or in pastures, as the burdock. It clings to one's clothing, 

 it becomes matted in the manes of the horses, and in the tails of the dogs 

 and cows, and is only removed with the greatest difficulty. W^e place this 

 and the Canada thistle in the same category, and make it a special point to 

 allow neither one to perfect its seeds anywhere about the premises. 



