490 
AMERTOAl^ AGRICULTURIST, 
[November, 
A German Mailing Box for Plants. 
We reproduce lor the American Agricultwist, en¬ 
gravings from the “Gardener’s Chronicle” (Eng.), 
of a box used by Germans in mailing plants. The 
box consists of two pieces of pasteboard, which 
are dipped in hot water and brought into the form 
shown in the engraving, by shaping upon a mold. 
Fig. 1. —MAILING BOX OPEN. 
Within the box is a loose frame made of four 
pieces of thin stuff, fastened together at the corners 
(fig. 1). The plant is placed within the frame, 
and the halves of the box tied together by a string. 
We would suggest that the box might be greatly 
improved by giving its interior a coat of shellac 
Fig. 2.— MAILING BOX CLOSED. 
varnish. This would not only make the box stiffer, 
but by rendering it air tight and non-absorbent of 
moisture, would greatly aid in preserving the 
plants it contained. Figure 2 shows the box closed. 
Law for Farmers. 
The Farmeb’s Liability to his Hired Men.— 
In a former article the law regulating the relation 
of master and servant, so far as appiieable to the 
hiring of farmhands, was briefly stated. We now 
consider the obligations of the farmer to hired men, 
which are independent of the contract of hiring. 
The Employer’s Duties. — There are certain 
general duties of a master to his men, which, if not 
faithfully performed, render the master liable for 
the injury resulting to the men from such failure: 
1. To exercise due care in the hiring and reten¬ 
tion of employees. 2. To exercise due care in the 
purchasing and retention of machinery. 3. To ex¬ 
ercise due care in keeping his buildings and prem¬ 
ises in safe and proper condition. 4'. To exercise 
due care not to expose his men to other than the 
ordinary risks of the business for which they hired. 
These general duties of the last group fall natur¬ 
ally under the following heads : 
Injuries by Careless Fellow-workmen.— One 
of the risks which a workman assumes when he 
engages in any employment, is that which arises 
from carelessness on the part of his fellow-work¬ 
men. If two farm hands, both presumably compe¬ 
tent, are set to work together, and one carelessly 
injures the other, the injured workman has no 
claim therefor upon the master. But if the master 
failed in the first duty above set forth, i. e., if he 
hired a man whom he knew to be incompetent, or 
if he did not exercise due care to ascertain that the 
man was competent, then he, the master, would be 
liable for injury suffered through such incompe¬ 
tence by another workman, without fault on the 
part of the latter. To illustrate : Suppose a farmer 
hires a careless boy, and sets him to driving a 
spirited team ; if the boy by his carelessness allows 
the team to run away and injure another workman, 
the farmer will be liable. He has here failed in his 
duty to exercise proper care in the selection of his 
employees. But if he had used the caution of an 
ordinarily prudent man in selecting a person com¬ 
petent to drive the team, and the man so selected 
had still proved careless and allowed the team to 
run away and injure a workman, the master would 
be relieved from liability for the damage done. 
Injuries by Defective Machinery, Buildings, 
Etc. —The second and third duties of the master 
require him to exercise eare in the purchase and 
retention of machinery, and in keeping his build¬ 
ings and premises in a safe condition. If he fails 
in these duties, and such failure results in injury to 
a workman without negligence on the workman’s 
part, the master is liable for the damage done. 
But here it must be observed that if the defects in 
the machinery or buildings are open and perfectly 
apparent to the workman, so that by the exercise 
of care on his part he can avoid the dangers arising 
from them, he cannot recover damages if he is in¬ 
jured in consequence. By engaging in the employ¬ 
ment he voluntarily encounters the dangers which 
he can see, and, by prudence, avoid. Many of the 
defects, however, in machinery and buildings, are 
of an unseen and latent character, and not appar¬ 
ent to the ordinary observer. The servant does 
not, and cannot be expected to investigate at every 
step to knovv that he is treading on safe ground. If 
he is injured by reason of such a defect, and the 
defect is known, or ought to be known to the em¬ 
ployer; that is, if ordinary care and prudence on his 
part would have discovered the defect, the master 
is liable. This is well illustrated by a case in New 
York, where a portion of a mill fell because the 
timbers land supports under it were allowed to be¬ 
come defective. The Court held that ordinary care 
on the part of the owner required him to find out 
such defects and remedy them, and that failure of 
this duty rendered him liable to the injured opera¬ 
tives (24 N. Y., 410). Where latent defects are 
known to the servant, and he calls the master’s at¬ 
tention to them, and the master promises to repair 
them, that is sufTicient for the servant. He may 
then continue at the work, and if he is injured the 
master will be liable (106 Mass., 282). 
Risks not Incident to the Employment.— As 
has been stated, when a man engages in any kind 
of business he voiuntarily assumes all the ordinary 
risks and dangers incident to that business. Thus 
a sailor takes the chances of wind and wave, a mi¬ 
ner the risk of being choked by fire-damp, a builder 
that of falling from the scaffold, or a painter the 
chances of getting the painter’s colic. All these 
ordinary risks are presumed to have been con¬ 
sidered in making the contract of hiring and the 
compensation to have been arranged accordingly. 
If an injury results from one of them to the work¬ 
man, it can only be regarded as an accident, and 
the misfortune must follow him (28 Vt., 59). But 
the employee does not undertake to run any risks 
not incident to the employment for which hired ; 
and if he is put to other work, and is there injured 
without fault on his part, the master is liable. To 
illustrate : Suppose a farmer hires a man to work 
on a farm ; the man after working for a time on 
the farm is, without any new contract, put to work 
in a saw-mill which the farmer also owns. Not being 
used to the work, he is injured by one of the risks 
incident to the latter employment, the farmer will 
be liable for the damages caused by the injury. It 
is true the man could have refused to work in the 
mill when requested to do so; but his primary 
duty was obedience, and he undertook no addi¬ 
tional risk by obeying the master’s orders. 
Treating Diseased Fowls. 
In nine cases out of ten, and often in the tenth 
case also, an axe properly applied, with the aid of 
a chopping block, is the best medicine that can 
be given a diseased fowl, and it prevents that one 
from spreading contagion. Unless t^e bird or 
birds are very valuable, it seldom pays to doctor 
them when they are ill, as it is tedious and trouble¬ 
some, while the results are always uncertain. 
Among fowls under proper care, it is seldom that 
disease makes its appearance. Disease is the re¬ 
sult of a cause, and if the cause be removed, the 
trouble will not spread, provided the diseased 
fowls be at once separated. If what is expended 
in dosing and care, as well as what is lost from 
disease, was devoted to making better sanitary ar¬ 
rangements, and in preserving cleanliness and 
purity in and aiound the poultry houses, much 
more satisfaction would be the natural result. 
A Spring Wheelbarrow. 
The Illustration shows a readily and cheaply con- 
strui^ted spring wheelbarrow. Instead of the spin¬ 
dles of the wheel passing through the ends of the 
handles or side pieces, straps of spring steel— 
old pieces of steel tire or springs will answer, are 
fastened to the under side to receive the spin- 
A WHEELBARROW WITH SPRINGS. 
dies. The pieces of steel are bent downward, to 
give the necessary spring. Any blacksmith can 
soon change an ordinary wheelbarrow to one of 
this kind. It is often desirable to have some spring 
in the barrow, as in hauling fruits, when too much 
jarring will be apt to do injury. 
Rabbits in Australia. 
One of the greatest obstacles the Australian far¬ 
mer has to meet is the multitude of rabbits, which 
have increased to such an extent, that their num¬ 
bers are beyond all computation. How to get rid of 
the I'abbits, is a problem which presents itself to the 
Agricultural Societies, and the Colonial Legisla¬ 
tures. Moderate bounties, about eight cents per 
head, have been offered for their destruction, but 
the evil shows no manifest abatement. The prin¬ 
cipal methods of killing the animals are by poison, 
by suffocation, by “ nesting,” or digging out, and 
by trapping. The poisons most commonly used are 
arsenic and phosphorus, applied upon oats or other 
grain. But as the rabbits will not eat the poisoned 
AN UNEXPECTED TICTIM. 
food if any other is to be had, this method, 
though it destroys many, is somewhat uncertain. 
Suffocation is effected by the means of the fumes 
of bruning sulphur. Several contrivances have 
been invented for forcing into their burrows, the gas 
produced by burning brimstone, and killing the 
inmates by wholesale. Digging out is more labori¬ 
ous than the other methods, but is very effective, 
as a score or more of rabbits, old and young, are 
often secured in one hole. A dog is in attendance 
to give chase to any of the animals that may at¬ 
tempt to escape. Trapping, though one of the 
slowest methods, is more like sport than the others, 
and for this reason is attractive to many. The en¬ 
graving on opposite page presents scenes incidental 
to the trapper’s pursuit. In figure 1, the trapper is 
starting out with a back-load of traps, one of which 
he has set in figure 2. In figure 3, the trapper 
is visiting his traps by night, while a view of the 
trapper’s camp is given in figure 4. Australians 
are on the look-out for methods of utilizing the 
fur, skins, fat and flesh, that by rendering the 
trapper’s labors more profitable, may make the 
work of destruction more rapid and thorough. 
