SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
257 
CEMENT CISTERNS FOR SYRUP. 
In view of the extensive experiments with Chinese 
Sugar Cane, the present season, and the probable scarcity 
of good syrup bari'els, a friend suggests the making of 
cement cisterns in the ground, for storing away Syrup 
until barrels or casks can be provided. We think the 
suggestion worthy of adoption, wherever the quantity of 
Syrup and the distance from market renders it necessary, 
and would state that the following process will be found 
simple, efficient and economical: 
First, dig a hole in the ground, of the requii’ed size, in 
clayey soil, and then, with a brush, coat over the sides 
freely with a thin cream of hydraulic cement and water. 
After this soaks in, make a mixture of one part of hydrau 
lie cement to two parts of good, clean, sharp sand, (with 
the proper quantity of water to make a thick mortar,) 
and apply from 1 to 2 inches, with a trowel, to the bottom 
and sides of the cistern, carrying the cement up within 
18 inches of the surface, when a course or two of brick 
may be laid on the cement wall, v/hen dry and hard. Ch 
this brick, timbers and thick flooring are laid across and 
covered with earth, leaving a convenient trap-door open 
ing of at least a foot square. The whole should then be 
covered with a tight-roofed shed, to keep the rains from 
soaking through. Such cisterns may easily be kept as 
tight and sweet as a barrel, and the uniform temperature 
of the earth will greatly aid in preserving the syrup. This 
is no new experiment. It has been successfully tried in 
Cuba, and, as the cisterns will do for rain water after 
wards, they may be adopted where barrels are scarce 
and syrup abundant. 
Bathing. — Once a week is often enough for a decent 
white man to wash himselfall over, and whether in sum- 
mer or winter, that ought to be done with soap, warm 
water and a hog’s hair brush, in a room showing at 
least 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Baths should be taken early 
in the morning, for it is then that the system possesses the 
power of reaction in the highest degree. Any kind of 
bath is dangerous soon after a meal or fatiguing exercise. 
No man or" woman should take a bath at the close of the 
day unless by the advice of a family physician. Many a 
man in attempting to cheat the doctor out of a fee has 
cheated himself out of his life; aye, it is done every day. 
The best, safest, cheapest and mure universally accessible 
mode of keeping the surface of the body clean, besides 
the once a week washing with soap, warm water, and 
hog’s hair brush, is as follows : 
As soon as you get out of bed in the morning, wash 
your face, hands, neck aud breast; then, in the same ba- 
sin of water, put your feet at once for about a minute, 
rubbing them briskly all the time ; then with the towel, 
which has been dampened by wiping the face, feet, &c,, 
wipe the whole body well, fast and hard, mouth shut, 
breast projecting. Let the whole thing be done within 
five minutes. 
At night when you go to bed, and whenever you 
get out of the bed at night, or when you find yourself 
wakeful or restless, spend from two to five minutes in rub- 
bing your whole body with your hands, as far as you can 
reach in every direction. This has a tendency to pre- 
serve that softness and mobility of skin which too fre- 
quent washing of the skin will always destroy. 
That precautions are necessary in connection with the 
bath room is impressively signified in the death of an 
Ainerican lady of refinement and position, lately, after 
taking a bath soon after dinner; of Surgeon Hume, while 
alone in a warm bath ; and ot an eminent New Yorker, 
under similar circumstances, all within a year.— Hall’s 
Journal of Health, 
POULTRY CHOLERA — SNAKE BITES, iVc. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— In the article I offer- 
ed you for your useful work, by the last mail, I omitted 
to state that, in the remedy for the fatal disease which has 
destroyed multitudes of Poultry along the seaboard, that 
after giving them Cayenne mixed in their food, and bleed- 
ing them under each pinion, if it does not relieve, we give 
them a teaspoonfull of the carbonate of ammonia three 
times a day, dissolved in whisky, which is one of the 
best remedies I have ever tried for Snake bite; by giving 
a tablespoonfull three times a day, applying a bottle of 
hot water pressed firmly on the wound, in the absence of 
a cupping-glass, as the poison can be seen ascending 
through the water, then apply a pallet of lint, well satu- 
rated with the tincture of ammonia; which has saved 
many of our most valuable hounds, and would be equally 
efficacious among our people bitten by rattlesnakes. 
When you reflect on the millions expended annually foe 
poultry, any remedy suggested, through your interesting 
work, of practical effect, will be of intrinsic value to arrest 
the fatal disease to which they have been subject for two 
years past along the seaboard. 
I send you two branches of a orange tree with two 
oranges and two blossoms, as most of our Orangeries 
have been ruined by the severe winter. 
Referring you to my article, by last mail, I would re- 
mark that our cotton began to form for blossoming about 
the first week in June ; and our corn is now tasseling. 
We have had fine rains, while I observe in some places 
the crops are dying for want of rain. 
Yours, respectfully, W. W. 
West Point, {St. Simon’s Island^') Jnne^ 1857. 
Gout in Fowls. — Editors Southern Cultivator . — In 
the May number of the Southern Cultivator, a lady wishes 
to know what is a cure for the gout (as it is called with 
us,) that is so prevalent among Asiatic Fowls ; but only 
when the cock is over three years old and useless ; then 
they ought not to be allowed to run with healthy fowls. 
I would recommend their being banished from the Poultry 
Yard, and their place supplied with young cocks. 
S. H. 
Lynchburg, Texas, June, 1857. 
AGRICULTURAL CLUBS IN TEXAS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— Some of the citizens 
of Jackson county, Texas, have lately organized an Agri- 
cultural Club, which is entitled, I think, to a passing no- 
tice in your columns. Many of the cultivators of the soil 
in this county are men of fine abilities, and much public 
spirit; and there is no doubt that their movement will 
result in something useful to themselves and their coun- 
try, and, perhaps, it may indirectly, in the end, prove of 
some little importance to the State. The rules of the Club 
are briefly as follows ; 
They meet once in two weeks, at the house of one of the 
members ot the Club. 
The forenoon is spent in examining the crop, garden, 
orchard, farming utensils, etc., etc., and discussing, as 
they pass along, the merits or defects of whatever they 
may be invited to inspect. 
After dinner, the Club is in session for two or three 
hours, and some question or questions are discussed, in 
an easy, conversational manner, in relation to some agri- 
cultural matter upon which some member desires inlor- 
mation. 
The fine for absence is fifty cents, and when a member 
has paid two fines the secretary is authorized to take the 
money he has paid, and order a good agricultural paper 
to his address. (I think some of the fines will reach the 
office of the Southern Cultivator. ) 
