is not lined on the inside, and is no warmer than 
matched siding will make it. The building, 
. however, is situated in a warm and sheltered 
place. The grain fed is corn and oats. Hot 
water is furnished to the fowls twice a day. 
Mr. .Sherwood says they gather around the 
water as soon as it is taken to them, and drink 
it gTeedily when quite hot. He feeds them 
apples every day or two, and they also have 
meat scraps, lime, coal-ashes and broken 
oyster-shells. The result of this attention to 
his liens is, eggs enough in winter to buy all 
the groceries and to supply his family with all 
they require. Mr. Sherwood says beus will not 
lay well without some sort of green feed. 
Jersey Butter Will Keep. 
We are now eating butter from a four-gallon 
crock, which was made in August, exhibited at 
the Schenectady Go. fair in September, where it 
won the first prize, and now it has all the 
aroma andexcellcnce of fresh-made. This goes 
to show that Jersey butter lifts superior keeping 
qualities, and this is because of its natural 
hardness, ou w hich account it can be so tightly 
and firmly packed as to be almost proof against 
hot weather and impervious to the action of 
the atmosphere. 
Sepnruiiug Breeding Animals. 
We are now separating the breeding sows, 
putting each one in a pen by herself. They 
will begin to farrow iu a month, and they should 
not be allowed to run together any longer. 
Much damage is done by leaving them together 
until near pigging time. They knock each 
other about and injure themselves. When 
pigs are born dead, it is always caused by a 
strain or bruise. Sometimes the iujury is so 
slight as to kill hut one pig, but this will ofteu 
cause fever and iullaiiimaiion which may destroy 
them all, or so affect the others as to make 
them puny and weak. On no account should 
a sow with pig be struck or roughly treated, 
because a slight blow or jam in the right place 
will surely destroy pigs. Their peus should be 
kept dry and clean, to prevent rheumatism, to 
which hogs are subject. They must also have, 
at least a month before farrowing, green or 
laxative food, such as roots, apples or bran— 
milk will do very well, but it ought to be mixed 
with hrau. It does not make so much differ¬ 
ence what sort of bran it is, if it. is only coarse 
enough to produce freedom from constipation, 
which is the cause of sows being “ crazy” aud 
eatiug tbeir pigs. Clean corn is the worst kind 
of feed for a sow with pig. This has been 
often repeated, but the warning is so often un¬ 
heeded that its repetition is necessary. Sows 
in pig do not want fat-producing foods like 
corn, but lighter aud less stimulating, such as 
we have mentioned. Strong feed will make 
too much milk before the pigs come, and this 
will cause fever and dry up the udders. Keep 
the strong feed until the pigs are at least a 
week or ton days old, before giving it to the 
sows. 
Watching the Trees. 
We have had so much suow aud such big 
drifts thut we shall lose scores of trees unless 
we dig them out before a thaw. Where the 
trees are not banked up iu the fall, it is not too 
late to tread the snow down around them 
firmly, aud thereby prevent them from being 
destroyed by the mice. This precaution is not 
necessary unless the trees are situated near a 
fence or plat of grass, as the field-mice are not 
ofteu found iu a clean field. For this reason 
we did not bauk our pear orchard last year. 
of our stomachs. Others would have us change 
our wheat bread for that made from rye; 
others, again, try to induce the public to be¬ 
lieve that there is virtue in nothing but oat¬ 
meal. It is a curious fact that as civilization 
veuient food supply upon social habits may 
be noted the fact that since canned goods have 
been put upon the market, the system of living 
in “ flats” in the cities, has come greatly into 
vogue, and is constantly spreading. This is 
seedlings will be better than, or even as good 
as, the mother tree, yet there is a greater prob¬ 
ability of more of them being of superior qual¬ 
ity than if seed were taken from fruit without 
reference to its quality. Sow it in rows in rich 
and well-prepared soil as early iu the spriug 
as the weather will permit. It is somewhat 
slow to germinate, and lor this reason some 
prefer to sow it in the fall aud protect the 
rows with spent tan bark or manure during 
the wiuter. During the first summer, nothing 
further is required than to keep the plants 
clean by 1 1 and-weeding and the vigorous use of 
the hoe.#Tlie following spring, they should be 
classified and transplanted, all the strongest 
plants being set out by themselves. To increase 
their vigor, as well as to procure a straight 
stock, about half of the previous year’s growth 
should be cut off over a bud that points di¬ 
rectly upward. Plant them about one and a 
half feet apart in the uursery row, leaving 
space enough between the rows to use the 
horse, cultivator. If there are ouly a few hun¬ 
dred plants, it is advisable to set a stake to 
each, to which they should be tied. 
Guttings of the Quince should be takeu from 
one- or two-year-old twigs in the fall or early 
winter, made about eight inches long, tied iu 
bunches and either buried in a dry spot of 
ground or kept in moist saud In a cellar during 
the winter. By April the)’ will have a good 
callous formation—the fleshy outgrowth at the 
lower end from which the roots proceed. Set 
them in rows five or six Inches deep as early as 
the soil is fit to plant in. Stretch a line aud, if 
the soil is very loose, stick them into the ground 
to the required depth. If the soil is too hard and 
lumpy for this, open a trench with a spade, iu 
which place the cuttings, always taking care 
to tread the soil firmly about them. If well 
taken care of, a large proportion will take 
root. 
Layering consists in bending the lower 
braaches to the ground. Make an incision on 
the under side, and partially cover them with 
soil. When they have taken root they are cut 
loose from the mother tree and each is treated 
as a separate Individual. Both cuttings and 
seedlings should be treated alike after the first 
season. If desired, they can be used as stocks 
for Pear (as stated above) or for another 
Quince. 
When the plants are three or four years old, 
according to size aud vigor, they may be plant¬ 
ed in the orchard, where they should be set 
twelve feet apart each way. A moist, but well- 
drained soil is preferable, and the Quince 
should never be planted on very dry, sandy or 
gravelly land. With the Quince, as with all 
other fruits, the better the land and the more 
manure, care and culture are bestowed upon 
it, the better will be the result. 
Being half shrub aud half tree, the Quince 
has naturally a crooked and dwarfed growth, 
and, if left to itself, will send out several 
branches from below the ground. This should 
CIIAMPION QUINCE 
advances among people, the consumption 
of wheaten flour increases pari passu. As 
the poorer aud uneducated classes become 
better off and more cultivated, oats, barley, 
rye, buckwheat aud ecru are discarded as the 
staple foods, aud wheat is practically the bread¬ 
stuff and the staff of life. V'et the coarser 
grains are not without their valuable uses. 
Those who have habitually used the finest 
wheat flour, are glad to exchange—now and 
then—their “new process" for a little rye 
flour, oatmeal or buckwheat. This is iu fact 
a healthful change which would become move 
popular if the effort to make it popular were 
free from misleading errors. It never pays to 
overdo anything, as a writer in the Weekly 
N. Y. Tribune, recently has overdone the sub¬ 
ject of substituting rye flour iu place of wheat 
for broad, by giving the following very inac¬ 
curate analyses of the two grains, viz: 
Wheat. Rye. 
Starch. 71.2 Starch....61.07 
Gluten. 10.8 Uuui. 11 . u 9 
Su«ar. 4.8 Gluten. 8.48 
Gum. 3.6 Albumen. 8.28 
Bran (!■). — Saccharine matter .. 3.2s 
Water. - 8.0 Husk. 6.38 
- Acid aud loss. 6.42 
Total. 87.0 - 
Total.luo.oo 
Now where are the phosphates that are so 
much talked about, that build up the brain 
and the bone and for which we are advised to 
eat tiie whole flour, including the brans, both 
outer and inner ? Has rye uo water iu it while 
wheat lias eight per cent ? Of what kind of acid 
lias rye five per cent, or what Bort of an analy¬ 
sis is it that finds a loss of even a small por¬ 
tion of 5.48 per cent ? The analyses of wheat 
and rye and the flours from these grains, as 
given by the best authorities, Wolff «fe Kuop, 
are as follows viz : 
not without interest to those who supply the 
raw materials. 
THE QUINCE AND ITS CULTURE 
than the judges, aud sometimes hardly by 
them. This indicates that fruit growers aud 
owners of orchards generally, give but little 
attention to its cultivation, aud that people at 
large do not appreciate it to the degree it de¬ 
serves. 
In part, this apparent lack of appreciation 
may be due to the fact that while other fruits 
admit of being eaten raw as soon as takeu 
from the tree, the quince requires the man¬ 
ipulation of the cook before it is made palata¬ 
ble. But skillfully prepared, it is as healthy 
and delicious as uuy fruit, and as a preserve 
is an excellent variation for the table iu win¬ 
ter wbeu fresh fruitB become scarce. 
Aside from the usefulness of the fruit, the 
tree is very ornamental, aud deserves attention 
for this purpose alone. The leaves are large, 
the flowers large aud showy, and iu the fall, 
the yellow fruit has a very presentable ap¬ 
pearance. While we do uot claim for it the 
same prominence given to apples and pears, 
yet we do insist that its qualities as a table fruit, 
entitle it both iu country aud city to more 
consideration than it is now receiving; and 
the price it commands in the market, one 
should think, would stimulate its cultivation. 
But little effort has been made to improve 
the Quince. Apparently but tew have thought 
it worth the trouble to select seed and raise 
seedlings with a view to improve the old va¬ 
rieties. The consequence is, that we are still 
growing the same varieties that were known 
centuries ago. In Europe quiuce seedJiugs 
are raised extensively in the nurseries, aud 
used as a stock ou which to graft the Bear. For 
trees that are to be trained iu dwarf form, it 
is preferred to pear stocks, because it has more 
fine roots, will grow iu places too wet and 
cold for the Pear, keep the tree small aud bring 
it to bear earlier. 
There ure three methods by which the Quiuce 
may be propagated: by seeds, cuttings and lay¬ 
ers. The propagation by seed is the most nat¬ 
ural and perhaps the simplest method, and is 
the only way iu which new varieties can be 
produced. Select the seed from the best vari¬ 
eties and only from the largest aud best-formed 
fruits. Though this does not insure that the 
NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS 
The Bushel Measure.—' There are bushels 
and bushels. Whafcis a bushel to one man is 
ofteu quite another thing to another. There 
are lew things more delusive and intricate 
than the bushel measure. Between the bushel 
of five pounds of meadow foxtail-grass up to 
that of SO pounds of lime or coal, there are as 
many other bushels as there are figures, and 
to make the matter worse, even a bushel of 
any particular thing differs in weight in many 
localities. Instead of being a help, tills meas¬ 
ure is a hindrance, aud the man remembers 
in the confusion of modem instances the 
trouble of his school-boy days from the un¬ 
certainties of our common measures. And 
now it ha6 been found that a bushel may 
be made less or more, by easy manipulation 
of the measurer. If a flat strike will leave 
a bushel weighing 57 lbs 2 oz, a round strike 
will cause it to weigh 57 lbs. D oz, and if a 
shock be given to the measure or it be shaken 
before being struck with a round ruler, the 
weight of the bushel will be about 68 pounds. 
Wbv should not all measures be abolished, 
and all commodities that are now measured 
be sold and bought by weight? If this were 
done the present confusion would be changed 
for a satisfactory certainty, aud the endless 
succession of disputes would be avoided. 
Rye and Wheat Bread.— There is scarcely 
any well established custom in existence but 
what some one with u hobby would have us 
believe that it would be better for us to abandom 
that custom. Occasionally we are advised to 
eat nothing but the coarsest flour, and the dis¬ 
ciples of Dr. Graham would make bran-chests 
Wheat.. 
Rye. 
W heat flour 
Rye flour... 
animal heat than wheat flour; therefore rye 
is better suited to laboring men or those 
whose circulation is quickened by exercise, 
while wheat is better for those who exercise 
their mental, rather than their muscular pow¬ 
er, aud for this very reason the more civilized 
a man becomes the more he hankers after 
wheat bread. 
Gannkd Provisions. —The business in can¬ 
ned fruits, vegetables, meats, soups aud fisli, 
has grown to enormous proportions. Iu one 
meat-canning establishment iu Chicago, 700 
persons arc employed and in the whole indus¬ 
try there arc not less than 350,000 people in¬ 
terested as laborers or proprietors. The list 
of canned goods now includes not only plain 
meats, fish, fruits &c., but such made dishes 
as baked beaus, dam-chowder, fish-balls aud 
plum-pudding. The great convenience of 
provisions tints packed, for what is known 
as *• light house-keeping," together with the 
use of gasaud oil cooking-stoves, has vastly in¬ 
creased the business of supplying them; and 
perhaps the larger proportion of them is used 
for army supplies all over the world where the 
active business of manslaughter is in progress. 
As a curious instance of the effect of a eon- 
c 
3 
If 
d 
CD 
< 
„ (J 
fl cop 
p2‘i»i'SS8fc< 
Fiber. 
14.4 
2.0 
13.00 67.6 
3.U 
14.3 
2.0 
U.lio fiy.2 
8.5 
12.6 
0.7 
11.80 74.1 
0.7 
14.0 
1.6 
10.50 72.5 
1.5 
