feeling the jar, alighting on all four feet at 
the same instant, ready for flight or battle." 
He says it never attacks man. 
Dr. Rtchardson says:—“It swims well 
and will cross the arm of a lake two miles 
wide." Within a few years, two of this spe¬ 
cies have been killed near here, on the Ver¬ 
mont shore of Lake Champlain. One was 
shot, when discovered stealing a domestic 
goose, the other was treed by a dog and then 
shot. 
The skin of the Lynx is sold for two or 
three dollars. It is used for muffs, collars 
why vintners with practical experience 
have long advised to choose a particular 
state of the atmosphere. The intention is 
to prevent, as far as possible, the direful ef¬ 
fects of thiB air. It happens in this way: 
The weather being clear, there is a percep¬ 
tible evaporation on the surface of the wine 
racked, aud this evaporation allows no real 
contact between the air and the wine. In 
cold weather the evaporation is not so 
strong, and the consequent loss of wine Is 
diminished; in cloudy, damp, rainy weath¬ 
er, there would hardly be any evaporation, 
and the air coming in close contact with the 
wine might, determine a dangerous altera¬ 
tion. 
Racking the Wine of Good Yearn. —The 
wines of such years, and more especially 
those of choice vines—and by choice 1 mean 
such as Elsinburg, Delaware, Iona, ('yutbi- 
ana, Norton, etc., In contradistinction with 
the coarser varieties, such as Isabella, Con¬ 
cord, Ives, Martha—contain much sugar. 
They must consequently contain a lesser 
quantity of lees. I feel disposed, oil that ao- 
oount, to modify my ndvloe in regard to 
these wines. Their constitution does not 
require two rack lugs the first year, like 
those I have mentioned beforehand, except 
in particular circumstances, the March 
racking will be sufficient, provided it com¬ 
pletely frees them from their deposit. 
In the following rules are oondensod the 
necessary conditions which alone can insure 
a successful racking: 
1. All vessels, pails, buckets, through 
which the racking is done, must be clean 
aud sweet. The energy with which tartaric 
acid aots on metals, should forbid the use 
of anything but wood. 
2. It must be done in clear, dry weather, 
and. as far as possible, during a north wind, 
as it is then only that the deposit of the lees 
can be complete. 
.3. Avoid this operation in damp, rainy 
weather, and while strong south winds pie- 
vail. 
4. Never rack during a thunder storm. 
At such time those parts of the lees that are 
lightest rise through the wine, and cause a 
fermenting action always to be feared. 
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS-VIII, 
THE CANADA LYNX 
Lynx Canadensis.-CEOFFROY. 
The Canada Lynx exists, though in mod¬ 
erate numbers, North of the great lakes and 
East of the Rocky Mountains. It occurs, 
though sparingly in some of the New Eng¬ 
land States, and in Northern New York. 
VINEYARD NOTES, 
aud the like. The flesh is white and some 
say like rabbit, and as good; but it must 
take a keeu appetite to relish the flesh of 
this cat-like animal. R. 
Hay Lynx or Wild Oat; nose, obtuse; eyes, 
large, bright: teeth, very strong; ears, 
acute, tipped by a long, slender tuft of 
coarse hairs; a broad ruff of long hairs sur¬ 
rounds the throat aud reaches the chin, 
shorter in the female; body, robust, thick, 
heavy; thighs, strong; legs, thick, clumsy; 
feet, thiok, heavily made with strong, white 
claws that are not seen unless the fur be 
put aside; toes, soJiairy as not to show in 
the tracks, which are round, and with no 
mark of nails, except when made in run¬ 
ning; uails, curved and acuminate; tail, 
covered with hair, slightly turned up, short¬ 
er than head: hair, woolly; under fur, 
dense and soft, on uuder surface thinner 
and longer than above, all mixed with some¬ 
what rigid hairs, two inches long. Faoc and 
around the eyes, light gray; general color, 
gray above, a little clouded with irregular, 
darker spots; under surface, dull white; 
broad spots of dark brown on inside of foie 
legs and along the belly; upper surface of 
tail to near the tip, and extension of thighs, 
rufous; yellowish-white beneath ; tip of tail 
and t uft of ear, black; ruff under throat, 
light gray, mixed in center with long tufts 
of black hair. 
Tills Lynx is more retired than the Wild 
Cat, keeping, chiefly, far from the habita¬ 
tions of even remote Rettlera. It lives in 
the depths of the wilderness, in extended 
wooded countries or in new grow ths of burnt 
I districts. Like all animals of prey, it is able 
to support a long fast without injury. It 
feeds on grouse, wild geese and other birds; 
on the Northern hare, gray rabbit, squirrels 
and other quadrupeds; and sometimes, 
when pressed by great hunger, attaoks larg¬ 
er animals; farmers in the wilder portions 
of Canada complain of it s carrying off their 
lambs aud pigs. 
In prowling for food it moves stealthily 
and slowly and often crouches, and lies in 
wait for its viotim to pass or to come from 
its home, when it pounces upon it, from 
above. It breeds once a year and has two 
youug at a time. 
The Lynx is usually taken in a steel trap 
which it enters readily, Audubon says, 
“ when alarmed or pursued, it leaps in suc¬ 
cessive bounds, straight away from danger, 
and, if hard pressed by the dogs, takes to a 
tree. It is very strong, having powerful 
tore legs and claws, and can leap from a 
considerable bight to the ground without 
HOW TO FATTEN CHICKENS 
genial soils aim locaiiues me > jw; 
and a vigorous grower, but elsewhere it is 
exactly the reverse. For instance, in some 
pastures of Central New York, especially 
on the banks of the small lakes of that re¬ 
gion, we would not want abetter grape; but 
in New Jersey and in pastures of the Mid¬ 
dle and Southern States the Iona is almost 
a total failure. 
The Eumelau is an early variety that 
promises well, but it may not succeed over 
a wider range of country than the Iona. The 
vino is hardy and prolific wherever it grows, 
vigorous and healthy, and this is about all 
that can be said of any variety. A grape 
may be very desirable in one soil and not 
worth cultivating in another, even in the 
same neighborhood; one sort may succeed 
admirably and another fail iu the same gar¬ 
den. To learn this is one of the secrets of 
grape culture. ____ 
What Duds Give the Best Grapes.— 
The Pacific Rural Press says:—" We would 
mention a fact which has come within our 
observation and experience, which, if gen¬ 
erally true, is of sonic importance. It is 
this:—That the fruit bud from the base of 
the past year’s cane throws out larger and 
better developed grapes than either the 
Jirst or second. The grapes from these 
buds seem also better flavored, aud gener- 
We clip the following on fattening fowls 
from the Boston Journal of Chemistry:—It 
is hopeless to attempt to fatten chickens 
while they are at liberty. Tbev must bo 
put iu a proper coop; and this,'like most 
other poultry appurtenances, need not be 
expensive. To fatten twelve fowls, a coop 
may be three feet long, eighteen inches 
high, and eighteen inches deep, made en¬ 
tirely of bars. No part solid—neither top, 
sides nor bottom. Discretion must be used, 
according to the size of chickens put up. 
They do not want room: indeed, the closer 
they are the better—provided they can all 
stand up at the same time. Care must be 
taken to nut up such as have bepn accus¬ 
tomed to be together, or they will light. If 
one is quarrelsome, it is better to remove it 
ut once, as, like Other bad examples, it soon 
finds imitators. A diseased chicken should 
not be put up. 
The food should be ground oats; and may 
either be put up iu a trough or on a flat 
board running alonp the front of the coop. 
It may be mixed with water or milk—the 
latter is the better. It should bewell soaked, 
forming a pulp as loose as can be, provided 
it does not run off the board- They must 
SORE EYES IN SPANISH FOWLS 
In reply to the inquiry of your corre¬ 
spondent, T. J, W., Adrian. Mich., in the 
Rural Nkw-Yorker of Nov. lfith, I will 
give my experience with reference to treat¬ 
ment, not cause. I am an amateur in the 
poultry business, hence cannot treat of 
causes. I have about fifty Black Spanish 
chickens, one dozeu Light Brahmas, and 
about forty common, mostly a cross be¬ 
tween my choice stock aud common fowls. 
The Spanish fowls only seem inclined to 
disease, and this about the head. My first 
experience was with a laying pullet. On 
opening the chicken house one morning, I 
noticed her drooping; and upon close ex¬ 
amination found her head hot, right eye 
greatly swollen, with an offensive watery 
discharge. I at once restricted food and 
begun treatment. First, gently pressed 
the eye, to remove all foreign substance; 
then bathed the beud, neck and eye with a 
dilution of carbolic acid, (about ten drops 
to one ounce of water), saturating the neck 
thoroughly; also comb aud wattles; and 
lest there might be some difficulty with the 
throat (as I had read of roup) I prepared a 
similar dilution in another dish, and with 
a feather bathed her throat and mouth. 
This I did three times the first day, twice 
the second, and once the third, when she 
seemed quite well, but did not lay; in a 
few days the disease returned. Again I 
treated her as before, following it up for a 
week, which I should have done in the first 
place, so as to perfect the cure, aud she has 
not been troubled since, On the first morn¬ 
ing of her sickness I mixed with the usual 
morning feed of corn meal one-half tea¬ 
spoonful of carbolic acid, and gave to the 
flock as a preventive. 
My next case was a young cock. His 
trouble was confined mainly to the wattles, 
they being puffed out to their utmost ex¬ 
pansion, apparently heavy, as the chicken’s 
head drooped low. Wo opened the wattles 
aud relieved the little Buffcrer of about one 
gill of dark, watery, blood}' secretion, aud 
then bathed the parts affected with carbolic 
