ladies’ department. 129 
Cables 1 department. 
A FEATHER house. 
In a neighboring county, famous for fine poultry 
and neat housewives, I lately saw a comfort which 
I believe to be entirely local, but which needs only 
to be known to be universally adopted on farms 
where much poultry is prepared for market. In 
the case I allude to it is an appendage to the spring- 
house, but it could easily be built on any spot more 
convenient to those concerned, as it is the thing it¬ 
self, and not the situation, that seems to be par¬ 
ticularly desirable. 
Behind this spring-house (which, by the way, is 
one of the most tasteful affairs I know of), and 
joining, but not communicating with it, is a small 
room with two windows opposite to each other, 
placed high from the floor. A door at the gable 
end, with a pretty trellised entrance, overgrown 
with coral honey-suckles and wild clematis vines, 
which had clambered over the roof, and curtained 
noth window's. Inside it is furnished with a white 
wooden table in the middle, on either side of which 
is a low chair, with two large baskets near each. 
Into this room all the poultry is taken to be plucked. 
The feathers are thrown into the baskets—those for 
beds, &c., into one, and the refuse into the other. 
When they are filled, these last are carefully buried 
in the dunghill, where they become valuable ma¬ 
nure, and the slovenly and unsightly effect of 
feathers flying in all directions, or lying in heaps 
to breed vermin, is avoided. The best feathers and 
dow r n are put into bags,and hungup on hooks near 
the roof, until wanted. A stove should be added 
for winter’s use, and the pipe carried into the spring- 
house chimney. 
The operations were performed by the farmer’s 
daughters, as pretty and fresh-colored as the flowers 
blooming around them. They were dressed in plain 
dark cotton gowns, with large check aprons, and 
the neatest, primmest, whitest little caps (the mus¬ 
lin rather thick) tied under their chins, and drawn 
close down to cover and protect the hair from the 
down and dust. 
The house was pretty, the girls were prettier, 
and l fell in love with them all at once. 
Eutawah. E. S. 
TREATMENT OF CANARY BIRDS UNDER 
DISEASE. 
The most common cause of disease in these birds 
roceeds from a superabundance of food, which 
rings on repletion, or a state of being too full. In 
this case the intestines descend to the extremities of 
the body, and appear through the skin, while the 
feathers on the part affected fall off, and the poor 
bird, after a few days, pines and dies. If the dis¬ 
ease is not too far gone, putting them in separate 
cages, and confining them to the cooling diet of 
water and lettuce-seed, may save the lives of many. 
The process of moulting, which usually takes 
place five or six weeks after they are hatched, is 
frequently fatal to them. The best remedy for this, 
yet known, is to put a small piece of iron into the 
water they drink, keeping them warm during the 
six weeks or two months which generally elapse 
before they regain their strength. This malady, to 
which they arfe all subject, is often fatal to the fe¬ 
male after the sixth or seventh year; and even the 
male, though from superior attention he may recover 
and continue occasionally to sing, and survive his 
mate four or five years. He appears melancholy 
from this period, till he gradually droops, and falls 
a victim to this evil. 
The Canary bird is also subject to epilepsy, or a 
convulsion of the whole or a part of the body, with 
loss of sense, asthma, ulcers in the throat, and to 
extinction or loss of the voice. The cure for the 
epilepsy is doubtful; if a drop of blood fall from 
the bill, when laboring under this disease, it is said 
the bird will recover life and sense; but if the 
blood be touched prior to falling off itself, it will 
occasion death. If the bird recover from the first 
attack, it frequently lives many years without any 
alteration of note. Another cure for the epilepsy 
is to inflict a slight wound in the foot. Asthma 
may be cured by plantain, or hard biscuit soaked 
in white wine. Ulcers, like repletion, must be 
cured by cooling food. For extinction of voice, 
the cure may be effected by the hard yolk of eggs, 
chopped up with crumbs of bread, giving for drink 
a little liquorice-root or a blade of saffron in water. 
In addition to these evils, the Canary is infested 
by a small insect, if due attention is not paid to 
cleanliness. To avoid this, the birds should have 
plenty of water to bathe in, a new cage covered 
with new cloth, and the seeds with which they are 
fed well sifted and washed. These attentions, if 
troublesome, are nevertheless necessary to possess 
a thriving bird. When wild, all birds require water, 
and this is also necessary to the Canary. Z. 
TO CURE HERRINGS. 
Those who are so fortunate as to have eaten 
pickled herrings in Virginia, will have reason to 
thank me for the following recipe, which is still in 
common use in the “ Old Dominion,” where they 
understand perfectly what good eating is:—Boil and 
skim the pickle of your last year’s beef, returning 
it to the barrel, and take it to the water side. As 
the fish are taken from the net, be careful that they 
are not bruised ; pick out the largest herrings, and 
throw them alive into the brine. They die almost 
instantly, but not before they have swallowed some, 
which improves them much. Let them remain 
until the next day. Put a layer of coarse salt at 
the bottom of a dry, tight barrel. Take the fish 
out of the pickle, and lay them for a few minutes 
upon a board to drain ; then put in a layer of her¬ 
rings, cover them w T ith a thick layer of coarse salt 
mixed with a little saltpetre; then herrings, then 
salt, until the barrel is full, and cover with a thick 
layer of salt. Put the head loosely on the barrel, 
and if they do not make pickle enough in a fort¬ 
night add enough to cover them. They are better 
when a year or even two years old than at first. 
When wanted, soak some of them in pure cold 
water, three or four hours ; scale and pull out the 
gills, and dry them in a towel. Wrap each herring 
by itself in a piece of white paper nicely rubbed 
over with butter, and broil it carefully without burn¬ 
ing the paper. Observe these rules, and you will 
have a dish fit for an epicure. 
Eutawah. E. S. 
