places and lower in others, so as to bo more 
nearly level. Those who work a road go as 
near to the road line as they can well, and 
not. undermine the fence, leaving the banks 
often very steep, as in the section (Fig. 2 ). 
If the ground be stiff, stony and gravelly, 
with trees, shrubs and grass growing upon 
the surface, such a bank will often tmin 
antics. T heard of one being kept in a cago 
with a Canary, and the two remained on 
very excellent terms, eating and drinking 
from the same dishes, at the same time, 
without, ever quarreling. When 1 was nine 
or ten years of age, I remember quite dis¬ 
tinctly of a white mouse that escaped from 
T aml for a l'>ng time would, every 
night scamper up and down my mother’s 
->ed after she had retired, keeping lierawake 
a good part of the night. Many efforts wore 
made to effect Its capture, but all were vain, 
till one night it was discovered behind a 
trunk Crack, oraek, crack went its poor 
itile bones, as the trunk was pushed back 
against the wall, and unfortunate mousey 
now a shapeless mass, rvas thrown into the 
street to make a dainty meal for some home¬ 
less pussy. 
Generally the first pets kept by children 
they are soon neglected for the more highJy- 
pmed Rabbit and Pigeon. Their great de¬ 
terrent to popularity is their “mousey 
smell." Of course they smelt “mousey" 
It is their natural odor, which no degree of 
domestication will ever remove. A recipe 
to subdue this objection I now give: Take an 
empty tin baking-soda box, pierce it with 
holes by means of an awl, and fill it two- 
thirds full of chloride of lime or carbolic 
disinfoctive powder; nail the box to the 
upper part of the cage, and I will warrant 
no bad odor will ever be perceived as long 
as this remains in their cage. This same 
recipe will effectually neutralise the bad 
right bdor emitted by any animal. 
until White mice are very prolific, producing 
1 will from four to twenty young at a birth, and 
n the having litters monthly. 
A " O0(I ca K« them may be made out of 
1,1 fin « m Pty starch box, fitted with a second 
story, connected with the first hy means of 
stairs, I once saw one made entirely of tin, 
and a very beautiful cago it was, with its 
little tin apartments tenanted by mice of all 
ages, from the hairless babe to the grey- 
coated grandfather. 
isses- Tlie bost food on ^ich to feed white mice 
will 13 whettfc flmir ftnd cracker dust, given alter- 
fj rin uately, with oatmeal once or twice a-week 
little 0coft>,ionallr K 1 ™ !l crust of stole bread, oats’ 
canary seed, &e. Raw moat fed to them rust. 
lawny inmspensame in tne animal economy. 
In the muscle, and in the blood corpuscles, 
potash is an essential constituent.; but in the 
fluid portion of the blood potash is actually 
injurious, and if injected even in small doses, 
produces death. Soda salts, on the other 
hand, can be injected with safety, and their 
presence in the blood is essential to the 
continuation of vital processes .—Journal of 
Chemistry. 
THE USE OF GERMAN POTASH SALTS. 
Ever since the introduction of the Strass- 
furt Potash Salta it has been a problem with 
agriculturists how to use them, and every 
contribution to practical knowledge on this 
subject, like this of Mr. J. ,1? H. Gregory’s of 
Marblehead, Mass., in the Country Gentle¬ 
man, is worth having. 
I took twenty-eight barrels of hen manure, 
about an equal quantity of good soil, twelve 
barrels of bone, ground and steamed, end 
three barrels of the variety of the Strassfurt 
or German Potash salts known as muriate 
of potash ; an article containing a larger per 
cent, of pure potash than that variety 
known by the name of “kainit." These 
different materials having first been made 
me, were piled in alternate layers, and then 
after heat had developed— forty-eight hours 
—the whole mass was pitched over and thor¬ 
oughly mixed together. After a second de- 
v e i .prnent of heat it was again shoveled over, 
and each ingredient was very thoroughly 
incorporated in the general mass. I used 
this compost for cabbage, putting from one 
o two quarts in each hill, covering it with 
soil and planting the. seed thereon. After 
time had passed sufficient in the ordinary 
course to show the young plants, and no 
plants appeared, the hills were scratched 
into, when the seeds were found simply 
sprouted. After a few days longer and still 
no plants appearing, the hills were again ex¬ 
amined, when it was found that the sprouts 
were dead. On another piece side by side 
talnnf a/ 1 il. _ . . 1 
WHY OPEN DITCHES ARE NOT DRAINS. 
The fact intimated in the title of this arti¬ 
cle may be a startling one ; it is nevertheless 
true, and it must bo within the experience 
of multitudes of the readers of the Rural 
that it has been demonstrated over ami over 
again. Who has not walked through a 
meadow, which some one, perhaps t he read 
Fio. 2. Rond bed. nutter, fenuo lino, unstable bank, 
many yeans; but if the subsoil bo sandy, 
mid especially if at Certain seasons It contain 
water, the road will act. as a drain, the 
water will flow out. along the bank, causing 
more or less crumbling and sliding of the 
same, thus exposing always a fresh surface 
and not permit the closing up of t he pores of 
t he soil by the vegetable growths alluded to 
as forming in the sides of ditches. The gut¬ 
ters, t co, by the sides of the, road, may carry 
considerable water at times, and will thus 
wash t he bank away continually. The result, 
sooner or later reached, is shown in Fig. :s. 
(Which, through a misconception of theen- 
Ptri. I.—Opou ditch—uo drain, 
or himself, has endeavored to drain with 
open ditches, treading close to the edge of 
the ditch in the almost vain hope of finding 
firm ground and dry walking whore the 
ground should be free from water if any¬ 
where? Was it found ? No, certainly, uot if 
t.h<* ditch was an old one—possibly, if it had 
been recently cleared out; and most likely, 
if the ditch had horn newly dug, the ground 
was dry every where in the vicinity of it. 
As soon as warm weather comes on after 
a ditch has been dug and the earth becomes 
somewhat heated, the water from the oozy 
ground of a decidedly higher temperature, 
green scum appears upon the surface and 
covers objects lying in the water or moisten¬ 
ed by it. Innumerable masses of fuugus 
growths, mold and lichens will be distinctly 
visible to the close observer, starting up and 
creeping over stones and soil and sand 
wherever the warm moisture prevails. They 
penetrate the soil where these conditions 
exist: natnsly, warmth, water ami nir Ti, n 
WHITE MICE 
M one exhibits cannibalistic habits, and de¬ 
vours the yt ung, give her an ounce of oak 
wood administered vigorously on the back of 
the head. 
A very beautiful variety of mice is pro¬ 
duced from the union of the brown and white 
mouse. The manner in which to effect this 
is to allow a female her liberty in a place in¬ 
fested by common mice. After runnim- at 
liberty for a few nights, confine her in a box 
separated from the rest, and await the issue. 
This plan generally proves successful at the 
firut trial; indeed I have never known it to 
fail, though sometimes the progeny instead 
of being “pled," are brown, and in even¬ 
way resemble the common mouse. Be sure 
and clean their cage once a-day.— Fanciers' 
THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
It is well known that herbivorous animals 
are fond of common salt, and this is a 3 true 
of wild animals as of those domesticated by 
man. Carnivorous animals, on the other 
hand, either have no liking for salt or show 
a positive aversion to it. Cats, for example, 
will rarely touch salt meat. This difference 
is not easily explained. The blood of both 
classes of animals contains a certain amount 
of soda salts, but the quantify of soda in a 
vegetable diet is not necessarily less than 
in one of flesh. A German experimenter, 
Herr Bunge, has been the’first to suggest a 
and it occurred to him that the greater sup¬ 
ply of potash must be attended with a 
greater waste of soda. To test this theory 
experimentally, he put himself upon a per¬ 
fectly uniform diet of beef, bread, butter, 
sugar and a small quantity of salt. When,” 
by daily analysis of the urine, he found that 
the quantity of soda and potash excreted 
had become constant, he proceeded to take 
such a dose of potash salts during the day as 
would raise the amount of potash in his diet 
to a level with that daiLy consumed by a 
herbivorous animal. The result was an im¬ 
mediate excretion of 'chloride of sodium in 
the iirin'e, the amhunt being at once increas¬ 
ed three-fold- Much potash was, of course, 
also passed. The experiment was repeated 
CANARY BIRDS, 
In Essex Street Salem (Mass.) according to 
the Register a man has a pair of canary 
birds that seem to he diligent, in business.' 
I’he record of this worthy pair for 1871 shows 
well thus far. On the 26th of January the 
mother bird commenced to lay eggs, and in 
four daysshe had four eggs in the nest; none 
of them were productive. On the 23d of 
February she commenced laying another 
four, which were, riot hatched. On the 25th 
of March she laid the first egg of the third 
four, two of which produced little birds 
which only lived a few days. On the 27th of i 
April she began.a nest of five eggs, four of ' 
which became birds. On the 26th <,f May } 
she laid the first of six more eggs, and five of 
them were hatched. On the 26th of June she 
commenced another hatch of five eggs, four 
of which were hatched. 0 i the 25th of July 
she began again and laid an egg daily for six 
days, and on these idle is still sitting. Thus 
we have a total of thirty four eggs, fifteen 
Offsprings,.thirteen living and seven of them 
singers, and six eggs to'be heard from. If 
anybody's canaries rnak j a better showing 
let m? he, r the story. g ’ 
