the chest is caused by the habit of sucking 
the thumb in infancy and early childhood. 
The weight of the arm on the. thorax of the. 
child during sleep produces depression of 
the ribs in the line occupied by the arm when 
the thumb is placed in the mouth. As this 
is a very important effect of “ thumb-suck¬ 
ing” never hitherto pointed out, 1 think it 
desirable to place tins thing on record for the 
benefit of other observers.— Brit. Med. Jour. 
Remedy for Corns mid Bunions .—Squeeze 
out the juice of two good lemons ; put it iu a 
bottle, add oho dozen small pearl buttons- 
old ones will do us well as new ; shako the 
bottle well a few times until the buttons tire 
all dissolved, when it is ready for use. Apply 
with the finger to the com or bunion twice a 
day until ft cure is effected. I have never 
known it to fail of accomplishing the desired 
result. It is very penetrating. Keep closely 
corked.—M bs. H. S. B. 
Qlyce.rite of Lime, used in burns is said by 
Dr Breyne to soothe the pain and to prevent 
inflammation or diminish its intensity; it is 
prepared from recently slaked lime, ouo 
part; glycerin, fifty parts ; chlorinated hy- 
cut a piece of good muslin an inch larger all 
around than the frame. Stretch this over 
the frame, on the beveled side, as tight ns 
you can, tucking it down on the under side. 
Then lay on the paste and put on theehromo, 
as before. In pasting on the chromo, lay a 
smooth cloth over it and use a cold smooth¬ 
ing iron. If you mount on glass, varnish is 
os good as glue. When mounted on card¬ 
board or glass, or on canvas and tacked to 
the stretcher, the chromo is ready for tho 
frame.” 
GRAPES FOR WINTER 
SUNDRY DOMESTIC SUGGESTIONS 
It is only a few years since grapes were 
hardly thought possible out of their “regular 
season,” which, with late-ripening Isabella 
and Catawba, rarely exceeded one month in 
time. These old-fashioned varieties are very 
fair keepers, and, with care, can be kept till 
December or January; but they never were 
so kept in the olden time, at least not in 
quantity sufficient for marketing. Now, 
vs ith the earliest-ripening varieties, begin¬ 
ning with Hartford Prolific, Adirondack and 
Groveling, the grape season commences by 
the first of September. With late-keeping 
varieties, like Diana, Salem, louft, Rogers’ 
15, and Barry, we can have u succession 
of this beautiful fruit till March, April, or 
May. Only the apple extends through a 
larger season, ami when vineyards become 
as common as orchards only the apple will 
rival the grape as a popular dessert for six 
to eight months in the year. 
Our best-keeping grapes are the new va¬ 
rieties above named, and of course these are 
not very plenty yet. Wo have had Salems 
in good condit ion in May, and at this date 
tho Barry (Rogers’s 43), on the same shelf, 
are decidedly better than Salem. They 
won’t keep till May this year, because they 
are too good to keep; but I believe it pos¬ 
sible to save them In good condition for des¬ 
sert until the'first strawberries are in mar¬ 
ket. “Belting the year” with luscious 
fruits, aside from apples, is an achievement 
of modern fruit growers as wonderful and 
as important to the progress of civilization 
as that of putt ing a girdle round the earth, 
HOW TO KEEP ORAPES—VARIETIES. 
There is t o great, art in keeping the long- 
keeping kinds of grapes till late in winter, or 
even until spring. The fruit must be picked 
ripe, dry, clean, and cool, and kept in a cool, 
dry place. On the upper shelf of a dry cel¬ 
lar is tho best place. If the bunches are 
packed in dry sawdust to exclude the air, it 
will prevent them from shriveling; but on 
shelves in a cellar they will generally be 
moist enough to suffer little damage. The 
value and pleasure of having grapes for the 
table through the winter will amply repay 
the trouble needed to secure the luxury. 
If this item appears untimely to some read¬ 
ers, I will merely remark that a largo major¬ 
ity of farmers have to begin at the begin¬ 
ning, and now is just the time when they 
need to be thinking what kinds of grapes to 
plant the coming spring. Here is our list— 
six kinds for early and six for winter : 
Early. — Hartford Prolific, Civveling, Dela¬ 
ware, Concord, Adirondack, and Isabella. 
For [.ate mid. Late-Keeping .—Salem (best), 
Barry, Iona, Diana, Catawba, Rogers’ 15, and 
Rebecca—the last added to the list chiefly as 
’ the best-keeping white grape. 
Of the second list, Salem and Barry are 
about as early as the first list, and are good 
eating as soon as they begin to color. If re¬ 
stricted to one or two varieties, these would 
be my selection, though almost any of tho 
others it would be hard to spare. And ho it 
understood that 1 give this commendation of 
the Salem and Barry grapes, not alone for 
quality of lruit, but for hardiness, healthful¬ 
ness and productiveness of the vines. Among 
thirty or more varieties, these two stood tho 
severe winters of 1*71-2 and 1S72-3 as well aa 
any, without any protection, and made a 
larger growth of wood and produced more 
fruit than any other varieties. 
Western New-York. 
Boiling Beef with Pork.— I ahvajs try to 
keep my e ves and cars open when I go among 
my friends and neighbors, and seldom meet 
one from whom f do not learn something. 
One thing “new under tit© sun,” at least to 
me, is the mode of boiling beef with pork 
intermingled. With a long, narrow, sharp 
knife, make an incision in the beef length¬ 
wise of the fiber ; press into it closely a strip 
of fat pork, which should not. lie more than 
one inch square. At intervals of an inch or 
two, make other incisions ; fill with pork as 
before, and boil as usual. This beef is more 
palatable, particularly to those persons who 
like a “streak of fat and a streak of lean,” 
and withal is quite showy when cut in slices 
to be eaten cold. 
Renovating Half -worn Clothes. —A few 
weeks ago a new suit of clothes was consid¬ 
ered indispensable by the head of our family 
who had unfortunately been caught in a ' 
shower, giving Ids good clothes rather a di¬ 
lapidated appearance. But not having more 
means at our command than our necessities 
demanded, and having determined to econo¬ 
mize in every possible way, I concluded that 
if sponging and pressing would restore them 
it should be done and proceeded accordingly, 
sponging the collars and other soiled parts, 
with hot soapsuds, followed by clear, warm 
water; then dampening the lining of each 
garment and pressing carefully on the wrong 
side, placing a dean cotton cloth, free from 
lint, under the iron. The result is that “ our 
husband” is quite satisfied with his old 
clothes, and has even been complimented by 
persons of taste, on the “nice fit,” of his 
“ new suit.” 
Something about Rag Carpels. —Not long 
since, while cutting a piece of rag carpeting 
to suit the rooms for which it was designed, 
I was much annoyed by its “ propensity” to 
unravel, wasting at least an inch at each cud, 
which to my economical mind was not at all 
pleasant. So 1 “set my wits to work” to 
devise a better way, and have found that by 
stitching it on the sewing machine, on each 
side of, and very close to the dividing line, 
or where it is to be cub off, no wastage will 
occur, aud the edges may then be bound with 
narrow binding, as other carpeting. Some 
ladies whom 1 know supply their weavers 
with old yarn which is woven in at stated 
lengths, according to the size of the room 
whicli the carpet is Intended for. As the 
yarn will not unravel easily, it may be cut 
there and hemmed or bound, as preferred. 
To Cook Dry Field Peas. —Having had 
rather unsatisfactory results from cooking 
dried peas, until 1 adopted the following plan, 
I venture to give it to the readers of the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker, although it is not new, 
perhaps, to ail of them :—Wash the peas and 
soak them over night in cold water. Put 
them on next morning to parboil in fresh 
water and let them boil half an hour, adding 
one-fourth teaspoonful of saleratus to one 
gallon of peas ; then drain off the water aud 
rinse teem thoroughly in two waters, that 
every particle of alkali may be removed; 
then put on to boil again, adding pork or 
beef for seasoning. They generally require 
to be cooked slowly three or four hours. 
After being boiled until perfectly tender, 
they are sometimes baked, as beans, in a 
slow oven.—J ulia M. Wheelook. 
WHOOPING COUGH IN THE LAST STAGE 
A writer in the medical Journal, London, 
states that in cases of whooping cough in tho 
last stage—that is, after the third week—he 
has had one ounce of the strongest liquid 
ammonia put iuto a gallon of water in an 
open pan, and the steam kept U p by means 
of half a brick made red hot throughout, and 
put into the boiling water containing the 
ammonia, tho pan being placed in the middle 
of a room, into which the patients were 
brought as the ammonia steam was passing 
off. This method, lie says, was used in the 
evening, before bed-time, aud it proved so 
efficacious in abating the spasmodic attack, 
and after three or four days terminating the 
malady, as to establish, beyond doubt, the 
value of this mode of inhaling ammonia as a 
therapeutic agent iu tranquilizing the ner¬ 
vous system in tho whooping cough. 
HYGIENIC NOTES 
HOW TO POISON MOLES, 
i’UT some shelled corn in a vessel, with 
water enough to cover it, and strychnine in 
proportion to the amount of com — about a 
thimbleful to a quart of com is sufficient. 
Mix well and let stand twenty-four hours ; 
then put three or four grains in a place in 
their holes. Where there are trees or stumps 
it is best to put it around them, aa they work 
around them more than elsewhere. The 
best time for attending to tills is in February 
and March. They commence operations the. 
first warm spells in the spring, and if they 
are not attended to before corn is planted it 
is too late. You can generally find the mole 
at the very spot where you put tho corn, or 
near by, by tearing up the hole ; very often 
they die at the spot. N. G. Clement. 
Villanow, Ga. 
THE BREATHING OF FROGS 
Mb. W. Muller has been comparing the. 
amount of oxygen consumed by two species 
of frog — the green, edible frog [ltana earn 
lenta) and the ordinary brown frog IR. tem- 
poraria) — in order to ascertain whether the 
am ount; consumed by tho more voracious 
species was not the greater. From these ex¬ 
periments he has concluded that the brown 
frog consumes more oxygen than tho green 
frog. When hungry they consume less oxy¬ 
gen, but there is still the same difference be¬ 
tween the species. In the winter time, under 
water, they consume the same amount of 
oxygen os when breathing air. Frogs frozen 
in ice for eight hours nevertheless breathed 
at the normal rate after being released. The 
amount of oxygen consumed by the com mom 
mouse {Mas muscidus) is twenty-four times 
as great as that of the frog. 
DATES OF REAPPEARANCE OF BIRDS AND FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 
” wishes Rural readers 
Editors Rural New-Yorker : —As “Young Ornithologist 
would note the date of the arrival of birds and send report to the Rural, l send you tue 
dates of the reappearance of the most common species in this town for the past five years— 
notes taken at the time of the arrival of the main body of birds and not the first speci¬ 
mens seen. I also send the dates of the flowering of plants for the same period 
Tiotp.rl whan in full hlnnm. L. W, GOODELL. 
MOUNTING CHROMOS 
VINEYARD NOTES 
When reading a recent Rural New-York¬ 
er, I saw an inquiry about the “Mounting 
of Chromos.” Please find inclosed an article 
cut from the December number of the Na¬ 
tional Agriculturist and Bee Journal. I be¬ 
lieve the methods herein described on mount¬ 
ing chromos to be very good. Hoping Miss 
Jennie Page will find them satisfactory, I 
remain— S, I. Peters. 
“Chromos cud he mounted on cardboard, 
glass or canvas. Where they do not exceed 
a foot square, it is usual to mount them on 
cardboard or glas?. If over that size, on can- 
vas. The process iB simple and easily done. 
If on cardboard or glass, have it just the 
size of the chromo after it is trimmed, lay on 
a thin coat of good, line glue, and press the 
chromo on smooth, being careful to leave no 
air bubbles. A coat of transparent varnish 
on the chromo finishes the job ; but we now 
add this coat of varnish before sending out 
the chromos. If the chromo is large—like 
the “Flowers of Paradise”—it should bo 
mounted on canvas. Take strips of wood 
one inch wide and half an inch thick, with 
one side beveled an eighth of an inch, and 
make a frame or stretcher the same size as 
the chromo when trimmed. The face of the 
frame is beveled inward so that the canvas 
shall touch only on the outer edge. Then 
Best Twelve Grapes .for a City Garden.— 
In answer to a question, the horticultural 
editor of the Rural World recommends the 
following “TwoConcord, 21vc9, 2Goethe, 
2 Massasoit, 2 Croton, 2 Maxatawnoy. If the 
list were increased to 24, he says that he 
would add 2 Rogers’ hybrid No. 2, 2 Wilder, 
2 Norton’s Virginia, 2 Louisiana, 2 Clinton 
and 2 Merrimack. This would give a succes¬ 
sion from the very earliest to lat est keepers. 
Of course, there are new ones that are better, 
but not sufficiently tried to warrant a full 
recom m emiation. ’ ’ 
Geos Guillaume, or* Black Burbarossu, a 
Keeping Grape .—This is highly commended 
by an Englishman as an excellent keeper. 
Cut and hung up in a garret (a small piece of 
wood attached) In the beginniugof October, 
its flavor in the middle of January was found 
excellent and the berries but little shrunk. 
He thinks it should not be Eeut to the table 
early, but kept on the’vine, or, if cut, hung 
up in a dry room for some time until its 
flavor is fully developed. It is not very pro- 
Average 
March 
March 
March March March March 
l(j 21 5 I 28 
30 Apr. 1 6 30 
Bluebird (Sialin eialU) . 
Robin (Tusdun rnirjratorius) .. 
Song Sparrow (ift-impiza mtslodla).. . .. 
Recl-Wlngufl Blackbird (Apetarhu Phomtenu*) 
Phobe Bii'h (XoilWniM fwcwji). 
Barn Swallow (HU-iot/lo hurdeonem) . 
King Bird (Tuncus C inrfraMwta)... 
die wink (Pin llo I’rythrupthAilmus).. . 
Whippoorwill hintruri/rrim) . 
Baltimore Orioio (icterus Baltimore) .. 
Cal Bird iMltno* Vanillin fish) . ......— 
May 10 
“ 13 
“ 14! 
i860 1870 1871_1872 , 1373 Average 
,pr.l5 Apr. 1 Mar2t! Apr.2J Apr.Hi April 10 
30 '• 25 Apr.13 11 28 r ‘ 30, “ 25 
“ 291 “ 20, K 101 “ 20 May 2 “ 25 
“ 29 “ 30 “ 19 “ 30; “ 2' “ 2h 
lay 1 “ 25; “ 21 May 8 “ 4] “ 80 
“ 1 May 2' “ 23> " 6 “ 8 May 3 
Skunk Cabbage ( Si/mptncarpus foetUlus).. 
Trailing Arbutus (ICpigwa rep/i/m. 
Red Maple ( Acer rubrum )... 
Liverwort (Ifevetica triloba) . 
Cow dip (Oaltl"i palnutrU) . 
Dwarf Pink (tJuustonSn ewrulea) . 
Rue Anemone (AitmiOm thaliitroUl>»),.. 
“ “ 11 memorotu). 
White Violet (Viola pnmul at folia) . . 
Earl) Saxifrage ($atnjr<‘<ia Ytnjinlemiia) 
Dandelion (Tara rncnm Dms-C'o-. in). 
English Cherry (Ci rasus Avium).. . 
Shad-Flower (Amekunehler Cana tit mix). 
Milkwort (Polyijala pniuUfotia) . 
Plum (Primus domestic a) . 
Peach IPersiea vulgaris) . 
Pear (Pm'us communis) . 
Apple (Purus mains),,-, . 
15 May 8|May 4 “ 10 
If. | " 5-i - 
20 “ 12 Mayll]Mayl5 
11 May25 
21 May20 
