mother upside down, throwing a few shovel¬ 
fuls of dry earth among the flannel strips, 
shaking the earth well in, and after letting it 
remain a few minutes shaking all out again, 
the little earth that remained adherent com¬ 
ing off on the chickens, and thus benefiting 
them in another way. This, and the lamp in 
cold weather, was all the care required, be¬ 
yond that of the newly-hatched chicks, which 
was rather a pleasure than otherwise, A rail 
fence in front, of the mother prevented the 
chickens using it after reaching a certain 
size, but they were still allowed access to one 
un warmed. 
“The few difficulties found in starting had 
been easily overcome. The two essentials 
were first, that the chicks were immedi- 
FLORICITLTURAL NOTES 
Night-Blooming Cactus .—We find the fol¬ 
lowing in one of our daily exchanges ; don’t 
know the authority A lady in Nevada 
City has a botanical curiosity in the shape of 
a night-blooming cactus. The plant is round 
and about six inches in diameter. Once a 
week it blooms, a stem being thrown out 
from the body of the cactus about eight 
inches long, upon the top of which is a beau¬ 
tiful white flower, the size of the top of an 
ordinary teacup, the aroma from which fills 
the whole house. The flower begins to un¬ 
fold itself about seven o’clock in the evening, 
at nine o’clock is in full bloom, and remains 
so until six o’clock in the morning, when it 
begins to close up, and by noon has entirely 
disappeared. The flower upon its stem only' 
blooms once, and but, one stem is thrown out 
at a time. 
Seedling Erythrlna .—Please tell Florence 
B- the seedling j Erythriva about which 
she asked has withstood the doubtful treat¬ 
ment of an ordinary living-house remarkably 
well : and several freezings only injured its 
top slightly. I think, from my limited ex¬ 
perience, that plants grown from seed, in 
cool climates, are hardier- to say nothing of 
the pleasure one derives from watching over 
a choice specimen from its babyhood.— Rose 
Geranium. 
REARING CHICKENS ARTIFICIALLY 
Mrs. Frank Cheshire, an English lady, 
has reared all her Light Brahma chickens 
this year by artificial means. Mr. L. Wright 
gives the following interesting account of 
Mrs. Cheshire’s apparatus and mode of 
treatment: — “ The greatest practical diffi¬ 
culty In keeping any non-sitting breed of 
poultry, like Leghorns, is that of obtaining a 
sufficient number of hens from other sources 
to hatch and rear the broods, which in a 
large stock iB sometimes a serious obstacle. 
From the introduction of two such valuable 
races of non-sitting poultry as Houdans and 
Leghorns during late years, the need of a 
really practical incubator is more felt than 
ever ; but oven in the absence of this, much 
can be done to remedy the inconvenience by 
bringing-up the chickens artificially, or with¬ 
out the hen, leaving her to hutch a second 
brood, and then dismissing her. We were 
exceedingly interested to sec, in May, 1873, 
the working of the artificial system as thor¬ 
oughly and entirely carried out by Mrs. 
Frank Cheshire of Acton, Middlesex, so 
well-known for her fine stock of Light Brah¬ 
mas. We saw there up'wards of seventy 
chickens, all brought up under an “artificial 
mother,” as one brood. They ranged in age 
from three months to three days, but there 
was no fight ng, or tyrrauy of the strong over 
the weak ; not one had died (more than we 
could say of our own), and there was not one 
sickly or discontented chick in the whole lot; 
while we were most of all interested to ob¬ 
serve that the birds were larger for their age 
than our own ; and that the trouble, was nil 
compared to that of a dozen hens with their 
broods, to which we went back with a most 
discontented mind. 
“The ‘mother’ was about 4 feet 6 iuches 
long by 16 inches wide ; the top, or heating 
portion, consisting of a flat tank about 1 inch 
deep, with the top soldered on, and having 
only one inlet for pouring in water, or im¬ 
mersing the bulb of a thermometer to ascer¬ 
tain the temperature. 
Lice on Setting Hens, it is asserted, may 
be exterminated by mixing tobacco stems 
with a little hay and lining the nest there¬ 
with. It. is w 7 orth trying. 
WATER FOR SHEEP 
Alderman Mechi writes the Mark Lane 
Express It is a great mistake, and the 
cause of much suffering and loss, not to sup¬ 
ply sheep with water, especially milk-giying 
owes. During the drouth of 186* many flocks 
I know of a 
ateiy taken irom me nen, so as never to miss 
and fret after her; and, secondly, that for 
about two days they needed keeping in a 
box floored with dry earth, with a small 
mother at one end, so that they could not 
wander away from it. This was “the pre¬ 
paratory school for young gentlemen,” its 
sole object being to teach them to know the 
apparatus and how to go under it. As soon 
as they were perfect in this lesson they were 
turned down with the others, the wiiole being 
treated as one large brood, and agreeing per¬ 
fectly. Mi's. Cheshire's snail mother con¬ 
sisted of an ordina ry India rubber foot-bottle 
filled with boiling water, and placed over 
canvas about 10 inches square, stretched on a 
frame, and furnished with flannel strins as in 
were ruined by want of water, 
striking instance where the animals wasted 
and were sent to .Chelmsford market in evil 
condition, the owner being ignorant of the 
cause. The dealer who bought them “fora 
song” first examined the whites of their eyes, 
tlii nking they must have the rot or jaundice ; 
but seeing all right so far, he found that a 
supply of water was the only, restorative re¬ 
quired. Grass, in a succulent st ate, contains 
70 per cent, of moisture, but when dried, 
very much less. The same remark holds 
good for clovers, <tc. When we give cake, 
corn, mult-combs, bran, &e., which we al¬ 
ways do, it becomes absolutely necessary to 
provide water, or the animals will not thrive. 
Give them the opportunity [of judging for 
themselves by an always available supply, 
and they will exercise a proper discretion in 
the matter. An Iron water cart is on most 
farms an indispensible requisite. When food 
is too wet, and “sloppy,” dry cotton-cake or 
com is a good and profitable regulator. Tur¬ 
nips and mangel* are disproportionately wa¬ 
tery as food for animals, tioncc the losses 
occasioned by them, especially with breeding 
sheep. They contain fully nine pints of water 
to one pint of dry food. Ninety per cent, of 
water is too much : 65 to 76 per cent, iu pas¬ 
ture grass is the more natural and proper 
proportion. The human or animal frame 
has 75 per cent, of water, just as good grass 
has. Meat is dear as food, because it contains, 
in the lean portions, 76 per cent, of water. 
No wonder that bread and cheese are found 
far more economical. 
SHADES AND SHELTERS FOR PLANTS 
i u jure 1, is a shade for pot and border 
plants. Take two wooden hoops, one about 
two-thirds smaller than the other, and four 
straight, stakes or deal laths ; lack them 
either inside or outside of the hoops at equal 
distances apart, the stakes to be cut off flush 
with the hoop at the top, but at the bottom 
the hoop may lie fastened at some distance 
from the ground, according to the -dzo of the 
frame. The bottoms of the stakes should be 
pointed so as to fasten the frame more firmly 
into the ground. Having the skeleton thus 
made a covering will suggest itself, which 
must be of some opaque material -as light 
thin canvas, or wa terproof calico ; even paper 
coverings are not to be despised. The illus¬ 
tration will show that it is a very sininle and 
This tank extends all 
over the mother, and is kept in position by a 
wooden frame, which supports it at about 6 
inches high, at the front, and some inches 
beliind. Under the lower or back edge, 
occupying some 2 inches of the under side, a 
flue extends the whole length of the tank, 
which is provided with two chimneys, one 
at the end or corner near the lamp, the other 
at the further extremity of the flue. This is 
necessary for such a long, horizontal flue ; 
for without the first chimney the carbonic 
acid would flow back and put out the lamp 
when first lighted, though it will freely travel 
to the further chimney when the flue is 
warm ; moreover, if the night be warm the 
first chimney alone may be left in operation, 
but if cold, the heated air is compelled to 
puss along the whole length of the flue. The 
tank has a partition soldered in it, round 
which the water circulates, and by this 
means the temperature hardly varies in any 
part. The lamp is merely introduced under 
the end of the flue. Any good lamp will do, 
but Mrs. Cheshire’s was the most simple 
and yet most perfect in its action which 
could possibly be. A piece of small brass 
pipe was put through a loosely-fitted cork 
(loosely-fitted to give air) in a common glass 
bottle partly tilled with benzine. This bottle 
is laid on its side oa the ground, and a wick 
being passed through the pipe, the nearly 
horizontal position of this simple wick-holder 
enables capillary attraction to draw sufficient 
fluid through such a length of pipe (IS inches 
if required), that the most explosive Liquids 
can be used without the slightest danger ; 
moreover, such a wick trims itself, as if 
drawn too far out the surplus is at once burnt 
ofi, and a small and neariy smokeless flame 
produced without any trouble whatever. 
This lamp is better trimmed twee in twenty- 
four hours, but will burn tolerably for even 
the whole of that time without attention. 
“ Under the tunk fits a frame which slides 
in and out, on the top of wliich canvas is 
stretched, to which arc sown the ends of 
strips of flannel or felt carpet—about 2% 
between it and the ground. It is easy to see 
this is a very effectual shade, and useful also 
for protecting individual plants in bloom 
from being injured, or, perhaps, destroyed 
by spring frosts. 
Figures 2 and 3 are made to protect large 
plants of Rhododendrons and various other 
choice spring flowering plants, or even whole 
beds of plants. To make it, select .a sufficient 
number of stakes according to the size of the 
plant, to stand 8 or 4 feet apart, and high 
enough that when the top is put on it will be 
a foot or more clear of the shrub to be pro¬ 
tected, and the stakes are driven firmly into 
GARDENER’S NOTES 
Trophy Tomato .—Last spring I procured 
from Bliss & Sons a paper of the Trophy 
Tomato, 1 selected some of the most thrifty 
plants, placing them iu that portion of my 
garden nearest the kitchen. 1 planted in a 
row four feet apart, digging- a hole about a 
foot deep between each two of the vines ; into 
this, during the summer, I have thrown all 
slops. While the plants were small I pinched 
out the center buds, after two or three weeks 
I did this again, and, when they throw out 
fresh growth I repeated the operation ; this 
made the stems grow Large and strong, and 
the plant quite bushy. I then staked them 
-with “ bush.” . Of course the tomatoes did 
not come on quite so early by this “pinching” 
process, but they ore ripening finely now. 
(July 30 th) and each of my seven bushes is 
loaded with tomatoes that will not average 
much less than a pound in weight. The 
amount of fruit will average a bushel to the 
plant. So much for gardening on a small 
scale and for large results.— Aunt Lou. 
Fig. 3. 
the ground. A circular frame of wicker¬ 
work {fig. 2), made of willows or any other 
green pliable -wood, is put. over the top and 
fastened to the stakes by rope yarn, and as 
long as there is any danger from frosts this 
framework is left over the plant, so that 
when necessary a covering may be put over 
it, winch is generally garden mats or canvas. 
These shelters (fig. 3), may be constructed of 
any shape, and are very light and durable if 
taken proper care of when not in use. To 
make them is profitable employment for the 
garden men in wintertime, and the materials 
are inexpensive. 
