AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
2 11 
some of the chickens. The children also 
supplied them pretty plentifully with chop¬ 
ped meat and tit-bits from the table. This 
year I discarded the Indial meal, and fed my 
chickens for the first week on a dry paste 
compounded of chopped hard boiled eggs, 
bread crumbs, and oatmeal. About the sec¬ 
ond or third week, I gave rice which had 
been boiled six minutes and strained from 
the water, with meal strown over it. After¬ 
wards I gave cracked corn, which I consider 
a very excellent food for young chickens in 
all stages of their growth : it is retailed at 
the same price as unground corn, viz: 88 
cents per bushel, at the present time in 
Brooklyn. There has been no loss among 
my chickens since the adoption of this diet. 
I may add, that I am careful in securing 
them against damp, and always keep them 
under shelter on rainy days. In fine weather 
the brood hens are confined in roomy coops 
in the garden, and the chickens are allowed 
to range about. I consider them good gard¬ 
eners in the full sense of the term, as they 
industriously pick up every worm and insect 
that can be found. Huldah. 
East Brooklyn, May 10, 1856. 
NOVEL METHOD EOR CLEARING A HOUSE 
OE RATS. 
A chemical friend of ours has recently de¬ 
tailed to us the following account of a novel, 
amusing, and at the same time effectual, 
plan adopted by him for freeing his house 
from these most unwelcome visitors—the 
rats. The house he occupied in Boston was 
one of a block, and when first tenanted was 
comparatively free from the intruders in 
question. After a time, however, for some 
unknown reason, they appeared at once in 
great numbers. They occupied every room 
and closet, marauded in the cellar, gallop- 
aded in the garret, and danced jigs nightly 
over every sleeping apartment, a la ten pins. 
Every expedient thought of was adopted for 
lessening their numbers, but without effect. 
Traps availed nothing—^the rats were old 
and wise—poison had no temptations, cats 
were defied. At last our friend bethought 
himself of summoning the powers of chem¬ 
istry to his aid, which he did as follows: 
Raising a small board in the garret floor, he 
opened a communication between the floor 
and ceiling beneath, which interior commu¬ 
nicated with the spaces between the side 
walls and the laths and plaster over the whole 
house. Into this opening he placed a dish 
containing finely pulverized black oxide of 
manganese, and poured over it a suitable 
quantity of strong hydrochloric (muriatic) 
acid. The floor-board was then replaced. 
The effect of the chemical mixture of black 
oxide'of manganese and hydrochloric acid 
is to disengage slowly in the cold, that most 
powerful, deodorizing, fumigating gas, chlo¬ 
rine. In common with all gases, it gradually 
diffuses itself through the air, but having a 
greater weight than atmospheric air, it accu¬ 
mulates at the lowest levels. The tendency 
of the gas liberated, therefore, was to pene¬ 
trate every vacant space between the walls 
and ceilings, and at last found exit in the 
cellar. 
It may be here stated that the quantity of 
gas so liberated can exert no injurious effect 
upon the house or its inmates—indeed the 
result is rather beneficial than otherwise 
upon the general health. In the case in 
question, the odor was not noticed to any ex¬ 
tent in the body of the house, but after a 
while was very preceptible in the cellars. In 
a concentrated condition, chlorine, itis well- 
known, is most offensive, irrespirable and 
destructive of animal life. It, at the same 
time, neutralizes and destroys all other odors 
and infectious matters. 
To return, however, to the rats. The 
chemical arrangement described had not 
been long in operation, when it became evi¬ 
dent that something unusual was occurring 
in ratdom. Meetings were apparently being 
held in hot haste, and messengers were de¬ 
spatched to and fro. “ All night long* it 
would seem,” says the narrator, “ as if Bed¬ 
lam had broken loose between the partitions 
of my house. The inhabitants were not only 
decamping, but were carrying their plunder 
and household goods along with them.” To¬ 
wards morning, however, all had became 
quiet—the rats had vamosed, big and little, 
and for a period of nearly three months not 
one was heard or seen on the premises. 
Now they are gradually returning, but as 
soon as they become troublesome, another 
invitation to leave will be extended. 
[The above from the Farm Journal, maybe 
a pretty effectual method in some cases, but 
not a very safe one. Chlorine is a suffoca¬ 
ting and deadly gas, if breathed in too large 
quantities. We should be very loth to go 
to sleep with the gas escaping any where 
about the house. The same result would be 
produced by placing considerable quantities 
of the common cheap chloride of calcium 
(chloride of lime) in open dishes just as is 
practiced in cleansing sick rooms. Burning 
sulphur, and even charcoal will have a simi¬ 
lar effect. If these gases are used, Jet the 
dwelling bo vacated by all human beings 
during the operation. If there are colored 
articles of clothing in the house not perfect¬ 
ly dry they will be pretty effectually bleach¬ 
ed if allowed to remain in an atmosphere of 
chlorine or sulphurous acid gas.— Ed.] 
Getting Ready for Marriage. —A strange 
fancy is exhibited in the case of a rich old 
spinster, who-died at Newtown, N. H., re¬ 
cently, leaving behind her the nice little sum 
of $38,419. She had been all her life get¬ 
ting ready to be married, and had stored up 
182 sheets, 63 coverlets, 50 blankets, 2 7 
beds, with 1,120 pounds of feathers, 54 tow¬ 
els, 24 table covers, and 43 handkerchiefs, 
while the whole amount of her wearing ap¬ 
parel did not exceed $10 in value. 
■ ■■ i—gpEgja——— 
Thu Express Messenger — A wide-awake, 
first-rate weekly paper, devoted to entertain¬ 
ing literature, agricultural and express intel¬ 
ligence, &c., worth ten times its cost. Pub¬ 
lished at $1 50 per annum, or $1 for eight 
months,by A. L. Stimson, Produce and Com¬ 
mission Merchant, No. 162 Fulton-st., New- 
York, 
THE LITTLE WINTER GRAVE. 
[The following lines though out of season, 
come home to our heart, and we put them in 
this corner that we may look at them again 
and again.— Ed.] 
Our baby lies under the snow, sweet wife, 
Our baby lies under the snow, 
Out in the dark with the night, 
While the winds so loudly blow. 
As a dead saint thou art pale, sweet wife 
And the cross is on thy breast, 
Oh the snow no more can chill 
That little dove in its nest. 
Shall we shut the baby out sweet wife, 
While the chilling winds do blow? 
Oh, the grare is now its bed, 
And its coverlid is snow. 
Oh, our merry bird is snared, sweet wife, 
That a strain of music gave, 
And the snow falls on our hearts, 
And our hearts are each a grave. 
Oh, it was the lamp of our life, sweet wife, 
Blown out in a night of gloom ; 
A leaf from our flower of love. 
Nipped inits fresh Spring bloom. 
But the lamp will shine above, sweet wife, 
And the leaf again shall grow, 
Where there are no bitter winds, 
And no dreary, dreary snow. 
Poetry Sobered Down. —I’m thinking of 
the time, Kate, when sitting by thy side, 
and shelling beans I gazed on thee, and felt, 
a wondrous pride. In silence leaned we o'er 
the pan, and neither spoke a word, but the 
rattling of the beans, Kate, was all the sound 
we heard. Thy auburn curls hung down, 
Kate, and kissed thy lily cheek ; azure eyes 
half filled with tears bespoke a spirit meek. 
To be so charmed as I was then had ne’er 
before occurred, when the rattling of the 
beans, Kate, was all the sound I heard. I 
thought it was not wrong, Kate, so leaning 
o’er the dish, as you snatched up a lot of 
beans, I snatched a nectared kiss. And a 
sudden shower made my eyes blind, and I 
neither saw nor stirred, but the rattling of 
the beans, Kate, was all the sound I heard. 
Wise Legislator. —A shrewd farmer in 
the Vermont Legislature declined answering 
the speech of a member who was remarka¬ 
ble for nothing but his pugnastic impudence 
and self-conceit. “ For, Mr. Speaker,” said 
he, “ I can’t reply to that speech, for it al¬ 
ways wrenches me terribly to kick against 
nothing.” _ 
The Mormons at Home, with some Inci¬ 
dents of Travel from Missouri to California, 
1852-3, in a series of letters. By Mrs. B. 
G. Ferris (wife of the U. S. Secretary for 
Utah). 300 pages. Price 75 cents. This 
is a book which will be perused with much 
Interest. 
A census taker once called upon the mo¬ 
ther of a family in California, or some other 
prolific country, and asked how many child¬ 
ren she had. The mother replied that she 
really could not tell, but there was this of 
which she was certain, “ the measles got 
among the children once, but there wasn’t 
enough of it to go round.” 
The Frost saw the pretty Flower, and 
sought to marry. “ Wilt thou 1” said the. 
Frost, and the Flower wilted. 
