are about in the condition most desired by the 
moles. Then with a knife I open the grain at 
the germ and put in as much strychnine as 
will lie on the point of the blade. Then close 
the opening with a slight pinch of thumb and 
finger. It is better to keep this operation a 
secret and put the grain away in a tight box 
whore none else can find it. Find the ridge 
over the mole’s road, and, making an opening 
with your finger or a stick, drop two or three 
of these “doctored” grains into the road. 
Press the soil geutly together, and repeat the 
operation at intervals of 12 to 20 feet. There 
are seldom more than three moles that run the 
same, road, and often there is but one. There 
will be uoue after this treatment. When the 
greedy little rascals eat this prepared feast, 
they will quickly be chauged into fertilizer 
and left where they will do the most good. 
Kingston, N. J. j, P 
Farmers could help the sheep business by 
eatiug more mutton. If they would eat less 
pork and raise more mutton sheep, they would 
make more headway than they do trying to 
get help from Congress. Out here for years 
sheep were raised for wool alone. Sheep were 
allowed to (lie of old age, while the herders 
ate salt pork brought over the plains from 
Chicago. Not much economy in that. Wool 
mutton never can beat pork in the markets, 
aud yet good mutton brings a higher price 
than any other meat. The sheep industry of 
this country can be helped by the more gen¬ 
eral introduction of mutton rams. The 
farmer may not get so much for his wool, but 
he will get more for his sheep, and his meat 
bill will be lessened. s. h. r. 
El Paso. Colorado. 
Good butter is still made on the farm, in 
spite of all the creamery folks may say. Our 
butter has won fame for us. People always 
begin a butter article by saying that every¬ 
thing should be “scrupulously clean.” That 
is too suggestive of soap aud no end of scrub¬ 
bing. I want to keep soap out of butter¬ 
making as far as possible. We make butter 
in a cellar. The floor is just as the diggers 
left it. The walls are of stone. They get a 
coating of whitewash at intervals. Hot water 
is freely used in cleaning, but never soap or 
sand. It is better to clean frequently with 
very hot water than to wait, till soap is needed. 
The tin pans are scalded out every day after 
the skim-milk has been poured out. and then 
put out iu the sun. The wooden pails and 
tubs are scoured once a week with salt. Our 
butter is packed iu tubs. These tubs are pre¬ 
pared by being filled for 24 hours with sour 
milk. This removes the taste of the wood. 
Then they are washed and scalded. This sys¬ 
tem of cleanliness is simple, but it has been 
sufficient with us. It is carefully carried out. 
Neglect of any of the details for a day or two 
would luin the business. Our pastime is a 
field of June Grass with a stream muulng 
through it. We have carefully cut. and dug 
the weeds out until there are none iu sight. 
Weeds spoil good butter. The best butter 
“color” is found in a field of June Grass. Rye 
sown in early September makes a fine feed, 
aud the butter made from ic is excellent. It 
comes on early in Spring before the grass, and 
that helps the dairyman. a. e. s. 
Clay Co., Kausas. 
The feue 
not half as badly off as you might be. Poor 
crops, wet weather and the rest of it are bad 
enough; but they might be worse. We loca¬ 
ted here four years ago. Just as we got our 
vineyards and orchards into good shape the 
Apaches came down on us, killed a man and 
turned our beautiful place into a wilderness. 
We got things growing and down they came 
worse than before. The Government won’t pay 
for the work of these human wolves. If a mad 
dog got away f coin its keeper and caused dam¬ 
age, the keeper would have to pay for it. The 
Government is supposed to keep these red dosg 
in cheek. It ought to pay for their damage. 
Marcopa Co., Arizona. s. L. 
The books tell us that the onion is a shallow- 
rooted plant. I believed them until I investi¬ 
gated the matter for myself. Examining a 
freshly dug onion, I noticed that the roots 
went straight down. To satisfy myself I dug 
around a fine large onion and found that in 
spite of the books the plant sent its roots 
down. I dug to the depth of a foot and the 
roots were still going down, though too fine 
to follow. ’ G. §_ H 
Charleston, S. C. 
wHAT strawberry shall we raise? Growers 
are all at sea ;is to which variety to pin their 
faith to. Sbarpless is the great favorite here, 
but it is the worst failure of all on our sandy 
soil. The small fruit craze is getting serious. 
Where will it end ! Little money in the busi¬ 
ness? yet many are rushing into it. Some¬ 
body will be badly left. Wait till these new 
plants sell for as much per thousand as they 
now bring per dozen. This advice is taken 
inch wide and about one-and-a-half inch 
long. See Fig. 286. To the bottom of the 
barrel are fastened s*ven blocks of wood 
shaped as shown at A. When the cans are 
set in the tank they are turned until the 
flanges slide under these blocks, which hold 
them securely in position, and down to the 
bottom, whether they be full of milk or con¬ 
tain only a small quantity. When they are 
r uk some years past I nave been raising 
the “Shanghai” or big “English” clover, and 
I like it well. I pasture till about June 20, 
after that the clover will grow to a good size 
for hay aud be ready to cut after wheat is 
harvested and the weather is generally favor¬ 
able for hay-making. If the entire crop is 
not used for hay, it will be worth as mueh as 
common clover for seed. Plowed under green, 
it is worth more than common clover. That 
is my estimate of it. w. m. 
Howard Co., Ind. 
Pick the Kicffer pear eight or 10 days be¬ 
fore ripening and put in a tight box or barrel, 
and keep in a dark room until ripe. Kept in 
this way they are quite good. Try this, and 
change your mind concerning the quality of 
this pear. My Japan chestnuts, grafted on 
native stock (pieces of roots,) are out-growing 
the trees I set at the same time. We get mostly 
“oleo” for butter here. If something is not 
done pretty soon, there will be neither “oleo” 
uor butter used, for oue does not need to eat 
the bogus article many times to make him 
“swear off” from tryiug to eat butter in any 
shape, I don’t think one-half the butter is 
used here now that there was before the era 
of “oleo,” unless one is near enough to get it 
direct from dairymen. j. m. m. 
Clay Co., Fla. 
to be taken out a slight turn loosens them. 
Each can should have two strong handles near 
thetop,and may have a cover or not,as desired. 
The tank is filled with cold water up to 
within two inches of the top of the cans, and 
changed two or three times a da)'. Some 
farmers run all the water pumped into the 
horse-trough through the tank by means of 
inlet and outlet pumps, or simple spouts. It 
is a convenient and economical method of 
changing the water, and should be adopted 
where possible. This simple apparatus will 
be found a great convenience to those who 
cannot afford a patent creamer, and it ans¬ 
wers a very good purpose in its stead. The 
tank should be set inside of some building and 
kept clean and sweet. fred. grundy. 
Christian Co., Ill. 
Re-engraved from the London Fanciers’ Gazette, 
g. 289. (See p. 464.) 
from a diploma I have secured from the dear 
school of experience. E, e. 
Beaver Co., Pa, 
How about the fruit man who sends fruit 
to market in a package which he knows is un¬ 
der size? I know men who have had the fact 
proved to them that their quart boxes hold 
only a pint and a half. Still they continue to 
use them. Does it make things right to say 
that others do the same thing? Do we reform 
the wcrld by imitating vice, or by standing up 
for morality ? j, l. 
Gran ton, Ont. 
THE CHANGES OF MILK IN CHURNING. 
■e problem is u great one. What 
fence shall we use? The old rail worm fence 
had much to recommend it, but as timber be¬ 
comes scarce, heavy fences must go. What 
makes the best substitute ? Board fences get 
out of repair too easily. Many people who 
thiuk a good fence adds something to the ap¬ 
pearance of a place, do not like wire. Many 
farmers about here are making slat fences. 
These give good satisfaction wherever they are 
tried. They seldom get out of repair, the top 
rail is never knocked off, and there is poor 
chance for the snow to drift. Short timber 
that could not be used in any other way can 
be utilized in making tho fence. Posts are 
Miss Treat, in her book on “Injurious In¬ 
sects,’ advises us to use Paris-greou iu attempt¬ 
ing to destroy the .Striped Cucumber Beetle. 
I thought that was good authority. 1 applied 
Paris-green, mixed one part with 10 parts of 
plaster, sifted over both young squash and 
melon vines. Result, total destruction of 
both crops, when too late to replant this sea¬ 
son. Miss Treat advises the use of Paris-green 
oue part to five parts of flour, yet my mixture 
only one-half as strong, destroyed my plants. 
Y ery poor advice this, to my mind. People 
who give such advise should keep it out of 
P rint - A. F. 
Mastic, L. I. 
At our Grange we are trying to find out 
why farm laborers are so scarce in California. 
YY e pay $23 per month, the year round, which 
we thiuk is far more than Eastern farmers 
have to pay. You say they are so many work¬ 
ing people m the country that arc praetically 
starving. Iat them come here and take the 
place of tho Chinese at good wages. We 
don't waut the Chinese here, aud we have 
good reasons for wishing them to go, but we 
would like white laborers in their places. 
Sonoma Co, Cal, c. n. 
You people talk about hard times. Y'r are 
gauou crocas are nemg displaced by the more 
compact, convenient and infinitely superior 
apparatus shown at Figs. 285, 286, They have 
not yet adopted the patent creamer, chiefly 
because of its cost, but this contrivance is a 
long step toward it. It saves a large portion 
of the labor now expended over the clumsy 
crook aud milk-trough system, is much 
cheaper, mid requires less than one-half the 
amount of room. It is simply a barrel cut in 
two aud having a faucet near the bottom to 
draw off the water, sec Fig. 285. It should 
have a elose-fittiug. light cover to exclude 
dirt, vermin, etc. The cans can be made by 
auy tinuer. They are seven inches in diame¬ 
ter aud sixteen inches long. At the bottom of 
ea?h £ re three flanges three-fourths to one 
