>» 
rJ 
making tlioir burrow, the hunter seizing 
them by the tail; in this case lie is obliged 
to tickle the creature thus secured with a 
stick to make it let go its hold upon the 
sides of the excavation 
iRobrs unit 
form of the peach, is greenish with a crim¬ 
son tinge, of small size, not over three-quar¬ 
ters to oue inch in length, and is very bitter 
to the taste.” _ _ 
Sand for Strawberries. 
Will such sand as is used for plastering 
answer fur strawberry culture as well as 
river or beach sand?—L. A. C., Ionia, Mich. 
Yf.s, if it does not contain too much iron 
or other mineral substance likely to he in¬ 
jurious. If it is to be used in growing straw- 
w jjj c li are not likely to produce heads in the 
open air, they may be lifted, and replanted 
in a cold-frame, where tbe slight protection 
< ivcu, with tbe additional heal which they 
receive through Ihe glazed sash, will hasten 
maturity- A very little care bestowed upon 
cauliflower plants at the proper lime, will 
not only prolong their season, but quite often 
insure a crop. 
itmicr 
for so great is its 
strength, and so resolutely does it struggle, 
that its tail has been known to break otf 
short in the hands of its assailant. Mr. 
Waterton informs us that the Armadillo 
burrows in the sand-hills like a rabbit; and 
that if on introducing a stick iuto the hole a 
A CHINESE FUNERAL. 
A Portland (Oregon) paper thus de¬ 
scribes tbe funeral of one Dr. Oae, who put 
an end to bis existence with opium. 
The deceased was coffined in his every 
day garb, with the addition of a pair of 
white stockings pulled over his shoes. The 
space within the coffin was filled with every 
conceivable delicacy, not even omitting the. 
opium pipe and cigarettes with which, in 
life, deceased had regaled himself. After 
some few heathenish ceremonies in the 
house, the cavalcade, headed by the most 
hideous bands, proceeded to Alder street, 
where a couple of altars had been erected 
for the occasion. On these altars an abund¬ 
ance of hog and fowl were placet), together 
with various titbits which delight the palates 
of the Chinese epicure. Immediately fol¬ 
lowing the hearse came two priests dressed 
in robes of flowing dial*, with a blue doth 
tied around their “ chignons ”—their tails 
being wound in a c oil to form that fashiona¬ 
ble appendage. Behind them came six priests 
of the lesser order, dressed in robes of a 
darker color, will* while weepers around 
tlioir beads, and laBl of all came eight men 
dollied entirely in white. Reaching the 
rendezvous on Aider street, a series of in¬ 
cantations of the most heathenish character 
were commenced. Every article of food 
upon their altars came in for its particular 
blessing, till at last the affair ended amid the 
llourisli of trumpets and drums. The pro¬ 
cession reorganized ns before, with the addi¬ 
tion of a number of Chinamen wearing 
badges of blue ribbon on their breasts. 
The furniture and other personal property 
of deceased was bundled into a wagon and 
conveyed to the cemetery, where, after all 
llie ceremonies were over, it was reduced to 
ashes. **► 
Some of the knowing ones claim that this 
was a Masonic funeral, conducted according 
to the Chinese understanding of tbe rites. 
Steam Tlireslievs. 
D. Moffitt, Rush Co., Inti., writes the 
Ritual New-Yorker :— " We are just, 
emerging from the heat and labor ot our 
harvest. The grain is not all threshed yet, 
but the steam thresher is making quick work 
of our small grain. We have twenty-two 
steam threshing machines in our county. 
The horse-power was laid aside some ten 
years ago, and is remembered as the rude 
implements of yore. A twelve horse power 
engine will thresh 800 bushels of wheat, per 
day; at seven cents per bushel it is a re¬ 
munerative business in the possessor of a 
machine. Farmers would pay ten cents per 
bushel rather than adopt the horse-power 
system again. The cost of feed for eight, or 
ten horses for two days’ threshing (which a 
steamer will do in one day) amounts to more 
than the fuel that, the engine consumes, by 
one-half. Four men accompany tbe steam 
thresher; one man and a yoke of oxen to 
haul water, of which the engine consumes 
about 150 callous tier hour. Oue cord of 
GARDEN NOTES, 
Tohncco amt Garden rnseets. 
I will give you my opinion as to some of 
the beneficial effects of tobacco. A strong 
decoction, made by boiling tobacco stems in 
water and sprinkled over them freely, will 
destroy all vermin that injure cabbage. It 
also greatly accelerates the growth of the 
cabbage, for the tobacco stems contain a 
large amount of niter, which, in this liquid 
giate, is a very ready fertilizer. A Iso sprinkle 
die same decoction over any kind <d young 
plants or vines, and yon will witness the 
same beneficial results. To destroy the. cat¬ 
erpillar it lias no equal. I take an iron or 
brass boiler and boil a lot of tobacco stems. 
I then make a swab by tying some woolen 
mgs to n stick of suitable length to reach the 
nest. Then I dip it. into the liquid and apply 
to the nest, and rul* till I break up the saute. 
Sometimes it is necessary to dip in several 
times if the nest is large. A touch of tobacco 
juice to a caterpillar is certain death to it. 
J. Lawson. 
I.iinn ItennN tu California. 
Cvrr. Jonath an Mayiiew of Santa Clara 
Valiev, has a field of one hundred acres in 
Lima beans. The crop is in a very promis¬ 
ing condition. The beans sell at about three 
and one-half cents per pound, when the com¬ 
mon white beans bring two and a-lmlf cents, 
and are said to he no more trouble to culti¬ 
vate or to market. 
tmi m rvi-A. m t ,1,0. 
berries in pots, the sand may be washed be- number of mosquitoes come out, the Indians 
fore mixing with the compost or other know Hint the animal is there; they then 
enriching materials. Gardeners usually prc- probe its windings with a long, pliant, rod 
for the purest sand they can get for mixing and dig down till they reach their booty. 
with their compost. -- 
THE WOODPECKER'S REVENGE. 
PI it him for Name. 
Will you tell me the name of the plums 
that you find inclosed in the box?— John. J. 
Todd, East Fairfield. 
Too much decayed for identification, but 
think it, is the Early Apricot. See Down¬ 
ing’s Fruits, page 911, or send us some more 
samples. 
Twenty yards from my door stands a for¬ 
est tree, in the top of which is a decayed 
limb with a hole in it, made by the birds. 
For four or five seasons, when spring opened, 
a pair of red-headed woodpeckers would 
make their appearance, take possession of 
this hole, and raise lip a brood of birds just 
in time for the cherries when ripe. About 
the sixth season, as usual when spring open¬ 
ed, a pair of these birds began housekeeping 
in this hole. Being in poor health,and much 
about house, 1 had a chance to watch them. 
After a few days of quiet housekeeping, 
along came a pair of *iiTgh holes, yellowish 
brown, with red head, the master bird. They 
drove out. the woodpeckers and took posses¬ 
sion themselves of the hole. III the tnean- 
POMOLOGIOAL GOSSIP. 
HABIT OF WORK, 
Early Purple Plum. 
Your kindly reply to my inquiry about 
tlic “Sea, or Early Purple” plum, in the 
Rural New-Yorker of June 10, is appre¬ 
ciated; but. there is a mistake somewhere. 
Yon suv it is Ihe Pranas manti/ao, while 
Downing (“ Fruit and Fruit Trees of Ameri¬ 
ca,” p. 921), calls it. “ Unwell's Early.” He 
may have been misinformed,however, as he 
was when he said the Chickasaw and Dwarf 
Texas Plum were the same. 1 would like 
to know “which is which.”— Dick Hopson, 
Sherman, Term. 
We hope that some of our Southern friends 
will send us specimens of this so-called Sea, 
or Early Purple plum, referred to by White 
in his “ Gardening for the Sout h.” We have 
long supposed that it was a variety of the 
Primus mardima, or Beach Plum, which 
grows wild along the coast of New Jersey 
and southward. Rut we may have made a 
mistake; if so, some, of our readers can prob¬ 
ably put us right on this mooted question. 
Per!laps Air. Hopson can send us small trees 
of each this fall; also a specimen of the 
Divurf Texas. 
and sell them.—T. G. S 
Woodman’* Hand KliovH Plow. 
Your artist did not get my idea by the 
rough draft I sent,. He lias made the “ dish ” 
the wroiaj way, as my plow is not like a dirt, 
Or grain shovel, but like a plow shovel. If 
he will place his hands together, top up, and 
let the lower edges (or little finger edges) 
down, lie. will have the proper shape, What 
I meant by “dish” was that the plow is 
dished from top to bottom, and not from side 
THE ARMADILLO, 
liberty of motion. The tail is enveloped in 
a series of rings; the legs are very short, 
thick and powerful, the toes are furnished 
■with strong nails for burrowing, a process 
which, in light, sandysoil.it accomplishes 
with surpassing rapidity. The eyes are very 
small, the ears large, the tongue long and 
slender, being capable of great extension 
and lubricated with a sticky saliva, by means 
of which it is enabled to pick up ants and 
similar insects, of which its diet chiefly con¬ 
sists, with readiness. Its mode of taking 
these is by touching them with its tongue 
and drawing it back into the, mouth. In 
addition to insects, however, it devours 
fruits, eggs, snakes, lizards, and especially 
the carcasses of animals. It is guided in its 
search for food, apparently, by its sense of 
smell. 
Among all the Armadillos there is not 
one which can roll itself up in the form of a 
ball, except tbe Mataco (see illustration) 
which is called from this circumstance the 
holita, or little ball. It is represented in Hie 
engraving as taken from nature, as not quite 
closed up, tbe limbs being gathered up inside. 
This is the ordinary attitude of repose. In 
South America the Armadillo is reckoned 
delicious food and therefore is eagerly hunted. 
Its only refuge when pursued is its burrow, 
to which it immediately hastens; but on an 
emergency it endeavours to dig a temporary 
retreat as quickly as possible; if interrupted, 
as a last resource, it rolls itself up like a 
hedgehog and withdrawing its limbs beneath 
its bucklers, and bending its bead, Submis¬ 
sively wails Ihe event. It is said, however, 
that should a precipice he near, trusting to 
the protection of its armor, it will throw 
itself over it and thus often effect an escape. 
Mr. Darwin says that, M in the course of 
a day’s ride near Bahia Blanca, several were 
generally met with. The instant one was 
perceived, it was necessary, in order to catch 
it, almost to tumble off one’s horse; for, if 
tbe soil was soft, the animal burrowed so 
quickly that its hinder quarters had almost 
disappeared before one could alight.” Some¬ 
times they are surprised when in the act of 
preserve figs — running through, so many 
years—we were furnished with the following 
recipe, which we have followed since with 
satisfactory success: 
‘Pick the figs when thoroughly ripe, dry 
them on racks as you would other fruit, in 
the sun, for four or five days—or mail the 
water they contain is thoroughly evaporated. 
If there is any dew, cover them nights. Then 
place them in a vessel perforated with holes, 
liken colander, and dip them into boiling 
water for about one minute, after which 
again expose to the sun until Hie surface wa¬ 
ter has been evaporated. Then lay them 
into wood, tin, earthen or other vessels, and 
press closely' so as to exclude the air, and 
cover securely.’ 
“In this way we have preserved figs so 
that they were equal to the best imported. 
We would recommend all who raise this 
fruit to try the experiment. The scalding 
answers the double purpose of killing all in¬ 
sect eggs and softening tbe skin of the fruit 
so that the sugar will come to the surface as 
may be seen on the imported figs.” 
FASHION SITTINGS, 
to side. This little, simple implement is so 
excellent ns a baud cultivator, that I do hope 
you will have your artist “ try again,” with 
the foregoing explanation before him. If lie 
will get all ordinary farm shovel plow 
and look at it, he will have no trouble in 
giving your readers a correct idea of my 
plow. The other parts of his drawing arc 
admirable; but if the plow wore made like 
the drawing presented, it would shovel up 
all the soil in a pile, while it is intended to 
open a small furrow and throw up two 
small ridges, which covers up all weed seed. 
—Woodman, Stanford, Ky. 
NOTES POR NATURALISTS, 
Sexes of I lie Lobster. 
A correspondent of Land and Water 
makes an announcement, which is endorsed 
by the editor of that paper, to the effect that 
the sexes of lobsters can be readily deter¬ 
mined by the character of their claws, since, 
in nearly fourteen hundred specimens ex¬ 
amined, it was ascertained that in the male, 
the blunt, tufted claw is always on the left 
side, and the sharpest serrate claw on the 
right, a condition of tilings exactly reversed 
in the female. This, however, has been sub¬ 
sequently denied, anil the question of deter¬ 
mining the sex, by means easily understood 
by the laity, yet remains open. 
tilicoitrnire Small ftird*. 
TnE Canada Farmer says, after talking 
about wire worms:—“Our ail vice is, break 
up and fallow your infested fields, plowing 
often, and burning up the rubbish, and en¬ 
couraging in every way the farmer’s best 
friends, small birds. Make it an absolute 
law of your households that, not oneof them 
is to be shot or stoned, get your neighbors to 
do the same, and, believe us, not many years 
will pass before you will find your iuscct 
plagues enormously diminished.” 
Stenm Plow* ah the Prairies. 
Citas, Boynton, Memphis, Tcuil, writes 
Hie Scientific American “ The greatest 
difficulty in the problem of steam plowing 
on tbe Western prairies, will be the supply 
of water. A twenty horse engine requires 
about a bucket full a minute, and in most 
localities this will be hard to get. Some 
system of air surface condensers, will, I 
think, be found ft necessary appurtenance of 
any portable or traction engine for farm 
use. This can be made of tin plate, and 
need not be costly or heavy. A tin pipe 
four inches in diameter at the escape, and 
decreasing in size as it lengthened in a coil, 
supported by light frame work in an airy 
situation, could ho made to condense most, 
of Hie steam without much back pressure, 
ami thus save the water to he used over. 
On the Mississippi bottoms t his would not 
be neeessary, as water is always near.” 
The Wil<l Peach of Nevada. 
The California Rural Press says:—“ There 
grows in Nevada a species of wild peach 
which is exceedingly hardy and will live 
nearly everywhere that the sage brush can 
exist It, i s found especially frequent in Car- 
soil Valley, Hnmlioldt Valley and on the 
kills around Reese River, perhaps also else¬ 
where. This tree grows to about the bight 
of a man’s shoulder in the most favorable 
localities, but is frequently found not over a 
foot high. The leaf is small and thick, more 
like that of the plum. In the spring of the 
year the plains are covered with beautiful 
pink blossoms. The fruit has the perfect 
I 
I 
