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"The World is Governed Too Much." hENRY L. BIOSSAT, Business Manager. ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1889. VOL. XLIV.-NO. 22. THE LAST MEMORY. The windows are darkened, and dim is my sight In the gathering twilight of age; And now Ican scarce read the story aright That is written on memory's page; Though all of life's visions are vanishing fast, One shines like astar in its place; In the gloom that the present throws over the past. I remember my mother's sweet face. I pray that my sad heart this treasure may save Till my soul is released from its strife; Each year cometh on like a conquering wave, Sweeping over the waters of life. Resistless and mighty, from deep unto deep Eternity's flood moves apace; Though its tide hurries all to oblivion's sleep, I remember my mother's sweet face. loe patient. God knoweth what ripens the grain And when it is ready to reap; Down into my heart mercy falleth like rain To quicken the seeds that are deep. The lessons of patience, the stories, the prayers That I learned in my mother's embrace. Would lone since have grown to a harvest of tares Had I failed to remember her face. I listen and wait in the shadows that fall O'er the deep on eternity's shore, But out of the stillness I hear a voice call That sounds like an echo of yore. Throcgh the watches of night I shall not be alone, Nor afraid of the dawning of grace; Though all else I loved into darkness has flown, I remember my mother's sweet face. -Irring BIlyhcller, in N. Y. Ledger. HARVESTING FEATHERS. The Way It Is Done at the Kenil worth Ostrich Farm, It is No Easy Task to Gather the I'recious Crop-Some of thie Dangers and Dimoulties Attending the Operation. A pluck at the Kenilworth ostrich farm having been announced, a party of visitors took the train from Los Angeles for the scene of this unfamil- F lar form of harvesting. The ostrich farm, which is situated about seven miles northeast of Los Angeles, oc cupies a very pretty valley at the foot of one of the coast ranges, not far from the Burbank station, on the Southern Pacific railroad. The ostriches are confined in a num- I ber of largecorrals, in which the birds a have free room to run about, scoop out their primitive nests, and make them- c selves generally quite at home. Four of these corrals are occupied by pairs of full-grown imported birds, at the r present time occupied in laying eggs. c In other corrals are young birds, natives of California, which appear to be quite as healthy and promise to be as fine as their African parents. n Plucking the birds is by no means an light undertaking. The one thing which makes ostriches manageable at q all is that they can not either fly or leap, or if they can they are not aware of their powers. Hence, an ordinary post and rail fence five feet high is p sufficient to confine birds standing, f perhaps, seven feet high, even when p they are making the most desperate u efforts to escape from the hands of I their spoilers. But if they can not fly c they can run and kick, and a kick from b one of their great strong legs is an ex- c periment which nobody cares to try. Thus in catching them it is always ti necessary carefully to avoid getting in W front of them, for they can only kick f straight forward. p When plucking is to begin three men ai enter the corral and approach the ni birds. They try to get the one they W wish to catch up into a corner, but as b the bird soon sees that his best chance aI lies in keeping in the open, he races m first down one side of the corral and then up the other, making it appear rt as though it were an almost hopeless Ce task to catch him. His strides are in enormous, but his great feet and the ti: muscles of his thighs are so strong p that he comes along with a strangely easy, springy gait, in which very little n is seen of the foolish awkwardness oC which is the first characteristic to di strike strangers when they see the e1 bird at rest. th After several quiet vain attempts to al reach the bird as he runs past, the il quickest of the men throws himself up- h on one of the huge wings, and the first af Stime, perhaps, finds himself sprawling til i on the ground, with a handful of broken ot feathers to reward him for his pains. pl SSoon, however, somebody is fortunate qt enough to get a good hold, and by the to time he has been dragged half way n( round the inclosure the other two men Ai also are to be seen firmly attached to sh Some part of the body or wings of the a bird. Then a sack is rapidly produced th from the belt of one of the men, and he slipped over the head and long neck, fu at the lower end of which it is loosely th 7 tied. This greatly facilitates matters, tw and it is now no very difficult job to fem steer the strange-looking creature into mi a corner of the corral which has been fet prepared for its reception. Here the ar fence has been strengthened with ed strong deal-boards, and another heavy fou board is all ready to be swung around Le in such a way as to inclose the bird and his captors in a small corner, in which no great amount of struggling is possible. we The first bird plucked was an old wi s-ale. The young birds for the first th Stwo years of their life are all the same tr >gay color which the females continue th Stheir lives, but the males, after on are about two years old, become mi handsome. They turn quite coi , thus making a very handsome mi g for the great white plumes mi h adorn their wings and tails. th they approach any one who is look- an a t them their beautiful bright hoi breasts remind him forcibly of ain t plumes. But when the black tw Sthea come to be plucked they are ant d to be only black at the tips, and see S here they seldom reach perfect tha 'kis, except in the mass. The per hts1e 5lUly are of a dark brownish mil tips. Occasionally, but very rarely, ht a truly black feather is found, but nearly all the black plumes and tips sold in the stores are dyed. Only the s, wing and tail feathers are pulled, the curly-looking little tips on the breast he which arouse the cupidity of some of the ladies being left untouched. The three men who have hold of the ve bird force him up tight against the corner of the inclosure, and the one of them who is doing the plucking-in this case the proprietor-stands on the ,p, side away from the wing on which he is going to commence operations. He ,tn raises the wing and, drawing it toward him over the body of the bird, he se-' lects the feathers which he considers 'rs marketable and, grasping them one by one firmly in his hand, gives them a of good hard pull and out they come. First the great white plumes, then the smaller whites, and then the larger blacks. It must be a somewhat pain ful operation for the bird, as the be feathers have a tight hold, and the wing bleeds more or less at most points from which several feathers adjoining " one another have been drawn. Every now and then a renewed struggle on the part of the ostrich, and an effort not always unsuccessful, to shake off the sack which is over his head, hears witness to his not relishing the situa tion. As fast as the feathers are pulled, and this is done very quickly, they are "s handed over the fence to a man stand ing close by with a box. Then the ladies have their chance. The amount of discussion which is required before the on-lookers can decide which of the feathers is most worthy to be chosen to remind them of the occasion is sur prising. First, nothing less than one of the great white plumes at the end n of the wing is good enough, and as these are selling to-day at from one t t dollar to two dollars they are cheap enough. But when looked at in the hand it is found-surprising fact!-that t the feathers do not grow curled and washed, and ready to be worn on hats, and presently a smaller feather of white and gray prettily blended is t espied falling into the box. These vary in price from twenty-five to fifty cents, or in the case of very fine ones t reach one dollar; but just as the pur chase is on the point bf completion, and the fair buyer's hand is searching among the small coins in a lengthy r purse for one of just the right dimen- d sions, she becomes aware that her next neighbor has secured quite a pretty little feather for ten cents; "really quite good enough to keep as a me mento." And so the struggle ends and c economy is triumphant, a Meanwhile the two wings have been plucked and the tail, which produces t feathers shorter than the best wing fi plumes but much wider-such as are used for the best tips. Then the sack is removed, and the board which in closes the party having been swung t back, the bird is set loose, a queer, curtailed-looking monster, shorn of t his glory, but probably in a day or n two much more comfortable--in hot weather at any rate-for being freed from the burden of his great, heavy t plumes. Care has to be taken again, t] as the sack is removed, that he does not reward his tormentors with a kick, which, if well delivered, would easily break a bone, but his inability to kick any except straight in front of him makes it no very difficult matter. Then the chase is renewed, and the royal consort is, in her turn, humiliat ed by having her proud head enveloped in the sack, and so the game goes on till all the birds which are ready for a plucking have been dealt with. It is very hard work on a hot day, at ci not only have great agility and consid erable courage and perseverance to be ri displayed in catching the birds, but sI even holding them in the corner while 4 the plucking is going on involves an a almost continuous struggle, more or di less severe. The operation takes per- H haps twenty minutes for each bird o after it has been caught, and in this w time some 200 to 250 feathers of vari- sl ous sizes are pulled. Each bird is o0 plucked twice a year, the plumes ro- 1. quiring agrowth of about seven months bi to reach perfection. The feathers, if to not retailed on the premises or in Los th Angeles stores, are sold by weight. A bh short time ago they went as low as $50 a pound, but they are now going up, at the wearing of ostrich feathers in hats th having again become fashionable. A f full-grown bird will give rather more s than a pound of feathers between his w two plucks, but as they are voracious s feeders there is not much profit to be of made out of keeping them. when a feathers are fetching low prices. They , are fed mainly on alfalfa, supplement- hi ed by corn and al most any vegetable fu food that comes handy.-Los Angeles a Letter, in San Francisco Chronicle. Dakota's Morning Air. st Persons coming to Dakota will do we well, in the fall or winter, to rise up it with the sun on any cool morning, and ici they will be well repaid for their ar trouble. As the sun is peeping over mi the horizon, if the morning is clear, th one can see for ten, twenty and thirty fu miles, according to the levelness of the un country. One can see timber thirty til miles iaway as if not more than six as miles away, raised high in the air, so sh the sky can be seen between the mirage pr and the earth. Elevators and barns, go houses and timber, seem to be mount ainous in size. even though they are twenty miles away; the air is so cooi rei and clear that people and stock are fre seen with the naked eye mudh better inE than with opera or field glasses, and thi persons talking with each other two the miles away will be 5distinctly heard. the Dakota is a wonderful country,.--Du n. as ly SOUNDS OF NATURE. s Wnsl Whose Interpretation Needs No Ancient or Secret Art. The sonata has been called the most 18 perfect form of piano music known, st and in that, although Haydn and Mo ot cart exceled, Beethoven is the chief of all the composers, and all that can be le said by a single instrument has been. le written for the voice of the piano. But f alithough it takes a Beethoven to make on the theme and its variations one, and ie although it takes the first of mechani e cians and designers to elaborate the e instrument that is to give them musical expression, and although it takes pa e- tience and skill and talent, and some ' times even genius to be able to use 'Y brain and fingers so as to interpret the a thought of Beethoven, yet there is an ' other music, unwritten, and to be `e played on no one instrument, and it ir takes neither genius, nor mechanism, 1- nor industry to hear and feel and in 16 terpret these unformulated strains of to nature-that music which exists every. 's where throughout creation, which has g its tone in every object, which re Y sounds where the sea touches the shore, n where the snow sifts through the air, where the voice strikes the hill side, where the leaves stir against one another, where the wind wings and the stars soar through space. To read this music one needs no ancient or secret art, no written page. no instrument e nothing but a soul. One can not crit icise it; one can not sty its time is inm e perfect, its measures are incorrect; but one can watch its themes develop al most as easily as in the music rendered e by the player where the left had keeps the time and marks the measure, the "leader of the orchestra,"as Beethoven e himself said, while the right hand wanders away at its own sweet will in s all subtle freedom of variation to re turn to it again. P One hears the melancholy in the wail ° of the rising wind at twilight, when I the trees murmur together in sadness; one recognizes it, marks it deepen and strengthen, diminish and die away; one hears the joy of a sea-breeze in s the sunshine singing in over the crested ridges, and sighing itself soft ly away in full contest as it washes up s the sand; one hears the hum of happi ness any summer morning blending in a rich chord with the murmur of bees, the flutter cf idler insect, the soft rustle of boughs, the singing of the distant birds; one gets the note of in effable sweetness and sadness in the sound of evening bells strained through reaches of air and floating over water, of arial remoteness and alien indifference in the far-off fleeting of the echo; one gets the voice of con quest roaring on its way in the cry of the wintry storm; for in every thing, from the resonance of granite to the whispering of a breath,the stroke of the stone-cutter's hammer, the measured falling of the flail, there is music for the ear that can hear it; and even when the tones held in the heart of all these senarate objects of nature are not music in themselves, and struck together make not music, but discord, yet as the sound recedes it filters itself to harmony, for the discord dies before the sound does. and leaves only at last a sweet sonority swimming and failing along the air. -Harper's Bazar. SOME SHARK STORIES. They Are Good, But to a lltan Up a Tree They Look Improbable. Last night, in a company of con denial spirits, the conversation turned )n sharks, those scavengers of the sea. Their voracity, staying qualities, and ability to swallow any thing and every thing that came their way was dis cussed at some length. A young man who hadnever been to sea said he had read stories of monster man-eating sharks following ships for weeks, ac companied by an aching void which able seamen alone could fill with any degree of satisfaction-to the shark. He had also read of a sailor who was on deck one day grinding his knife, with a boy turning the stone, when the ship gave a sudden lurch, the whole outfit went overboard and was swal lowed by a shark. The sailor and his boy kept at work, sharpened the knife to a razor edge, cut their way out of the shark and were picked up by a boat lowered from the ship. The man-of-war's man said that story was a little too improbable, but that he could tell one himself within V the bounds of reason. "When our ship was in Honolulu," he said, "I was ashore one day in the launch, a small steamboat used for conveying ' officers and sailors to and from the c ship. We were lying at the dock and when the engineer attempted to start his engine on the return trip she re- 1: fused to work. Thinking, perhaps, that h a rope or something had fouled the 0 propeler, the engineer looked over the C stern and found that a monster shark a had swallowed the wheel, and though e we prodded the cuss with a boat-hook " it refused to disgorge the cast-iron del icacy. We then slewed the boat " around, and heading for the ship, a mile distant, we managed by jabbing a the fish with boat-hooks, to make it furnish motive power, and thus got h under way. The coxswain stood at the C tiller and steered for the ship, but just as we got alongside the vessel the shark gave a sudden lurch, broke the a propeler short off at the bearing, and B got away with it. -Chicago Herald. --A lady's paper gives the following a recipe for getting rid of the smell of fa fresh paint in a bed chamber or liv- a ing-room: Slice a few onions, and put W them in the middle of the room. After C( that it will be desirable to get rid of the smell of the onions. This can easily be done by putting on anothei Ii o~t ot painP THE TYPE-WRITER GIRL A Sweet-Brier Rose Among the Dul Weeds of Commercial Life. She is everywhere just now, and " she seems to like it just as well as we do ourselves. She beams at you with 'f business-like eyes from behind the ' plate-glass partitions of palatial of n fices. She taps the keys with dainty 't knowingness in all the large establish 0 ments of the metropolis, and paralyzes ancient clerks and decrepit retainers t- by the fluent ease with which she mas e ters details of trade. , She comes on you unexpectedly when you drop in down town to see '- how the market is holding together, or if that "sure thing" came in first at e Sheepshead. You hear a few con vulsive clicks; you look up, and there 9 she is-the inevitable typewriter! She t has penetrated to the inmost sanctum of the editor; she has wrung herself insiduously into the halls of the states man, and in the offices of the broker she reigns supreme. As Mark Twain said of the Cross of the Legion of Honor, "few have escaped!" she is everywhere, a recognized and admired fact, and has taken her place among the institutions of the land with the same unconscious grace and mag nificent calmness with which she draws her salary. The stock-broker's office is her favor ite lair. She glows out of its luxurious settings like a Klunder rose in a Wor cester vase, with an oriental screen at her back, and her tipped boots crossed effectively below her dainty skirt. She 1 smilingly looks up from under a well. kept bang, and the modern man feels g that he has not lived in vain. The pretty type-writer came like a shaft of light to the darkened intellects of the weary paragraphers and the funny men of the daily papers. The small boy was amoth-eaten monstrosi ty. The mother-in-law a decayed and undesirable nonentity. The almanac files were sere and yellow. Then it was that the public arose and kicked in its might, and demanded something fresh to laugh at. The wily joker was aghast, and cried out to the gods for a new idea. As if in answer to the long reiterated prayer, a silvery chime struck upon the blur red surface of his brain. There was a whirr, a whizz, a click, and the type writer stepped over the moss-covered threshold of his vision in all the fetch ing attractiveness of a gentlemanly collar and coquetish apron. No man is a hero to his type-writer. She knows too well the variable moods that mark him as her own. The morning's business-like severity, the afternoon relaxation, and the genial and inviting hilarity that grows with the day. She has heard so often the smothered 'some thing" which he says when the ticker marks another drop in wheat. She has seen the expression that flits across his face when a message comes over the 'phone to "be home early to night, as Aunt Penelope is coming on the 2:10 train." She sees and knows it. She says nothing, but she thinks a great deal, though she seems uncon scious, and there is a look in her eye sometimes that is an eloquent sermon in itself. She is not spending her young life in an office for the fun of the thing. She is working for what she shall eat and drink and wherewithal she shall be clothed. She has interests in life outside of her "'rate of speed," and is very frequently "engaged" to some other struggling young person with magnificent ideas and inadequate salary. She often loves him, too, in an im petuous, stenographic way, and shares his bright dreams of a little home somewhere in the dim and misty not far-off, that picture itself before her, as she clicks the keys until they sound like a melody of angels' voices. She is a sweet-brier rose that has bloomed among the dull weeds of com mercial life, and she thrives upon her own fragrance. May the soft rays of prosperity's sun shine upon her head, and the breezes waft peace and plenty to the busy hands of the pretty type. writer.-Once a Week. Where Every Body Smokes. Every one in Siam smokes-men, women and children. The people have no pockets, and their favorite place for carrying cigas and cigarettes is behind the ear, just as our Amer ican clerks carry their pens and pen cils. I saw a naked boy of four, yes terday, standing in a crowd smoking a cigarette. He was puffing away lusti ly at the weed in his mouth, and he had two others yet unlit-one behind each ear. He apparently enjoyed his cigar, and smoked, and spit, and spit, and smoked, as though it was an everyday matter, as I doubt not it was. His brown-skinned father, in a waist-cloth, stood beside him, and when he started away he picked up the still smoking youngster and set him astride of his hip, and thus walked off. Babies are always carried on the hip here, and not upon the back, as in China, Korea and Japan. This carry ing is done by the men as well as the women, and only the fewest of the men do any work.-F. G. Carpenter's Bangkok Letter. -Knowledge must be gained by our selves. Mankind may supply us with facts; but the results, even if they do agree with previous ones, must be the work of our own minds.-Earl of Bea consfield. --Some of the most powerful shots made fail to hit the target's oana1.-. PITH AND POINT. -l -Intolerance most intolerantly da. pounces intolerance. d -All passions are good when one re masters them; all are bad when one is h a slave to them. 1 -The family with a sixteen-year-old boy in the house has no use whatever for a twenty-four volume encyclopmdia. S--Somerville Journal. - -No young man with brains will ever expect to find a good wife in a young woman who is not first a good daughter. y -A man gets his "Lost" advertise ments free of all charge when it is his reputation that is involved.-Merchant Traveler. re -Curiosity must be awakened ere it 1e can be satisfied. And once awakened m it never fails in the end to satisfy it Iself.-Hugh Miller. sg -It is good for us if the contrary jr winds occasionally blow on us, for in after all it is they that make us strong Df as we sail the voyage of life. Is -There is nothing more universally d commended than a fine day; the rea g son is that the people can commend it e without envy.--Shenstone. -If you have great talents, industry e will improve them; if moderate abili ties, industry will supply their def-t. ciency. Nothing is denied to well-di s rected labor. Nothing is ever to be obtained without it.-Sir J. Reynolds. It -Young people should never forget d that they have in their brains, and e hands, while the power of brains and l" hands remains, actual money-yielding s capital more satisfying than bonds. Once a Week. a -The woman who creates by her ' work and smiles a happy home, and e raises a family of children to worthy e manhood and womanhood is the noblest L- work of God, and is more entitled to d the honor and praises of mankind than c the butterfly of fashion in the political t or fashionable world. i -Happy are they who, when sorely wounded in life, can turn to the natural world and find in every tree, shrub and t flower a comforting friend that will not turn from them. Such are not far from God and peace. Only mind, imagina tion and refinement can embroider the homely details of life. --Especially do we owe a consider ate manner to those less favored than ourselves; for with sweet flowers of courtesy we may do something to brighten an otherwise barren life. Even the degraded are quick to catch the gentle tone. None can withstand the power of this true fairy wand, whose spell we love best to invoke for "our own."-Elizabeth Eddy Norris. TROUT-FISHING SECRETS. An Ancient and Acute Angler Imparts Some Important Information. Fly-fishing is supposed to be so diffi cult of mastery that many are deter red from incurring the expense of an outfit which is of no use in ordinary angling. But let the veteran fisherman say his own words: "There is a secret in fishing for trout with the artificial fly, but it can be learned in half an hour by a man who has no prejudices and keeps his eyes open. I do not say all will succeed equally well, but any man who has 'gumption' and will take these hints , can't help catching fish, and he may fish all day, if he goes about the bdsi ness according to his own notions, and not get a single 'rise' for his trouble. , "First of all get the highest rod you can. If it is well balanced and has got the spring it is good enough. Don't bother with a lot of flies and use only one on the line at a time. Here are 1 four flies that will serve all purposes. 1 One is the red spinner; the second is the black gnat; the third is the coach man; the fourth and boss of them all is the red Palmer or red hackle, as it is indifferently termed. "Now for the secret. Take the red t hackle as the standard and you will understand. If you throw it out and just drag it al6ng the top of the water, 1 as most people do, what do you sup- 1 pose a trout will take it forP Why, I just for what it is-a bunch of hair, no 1 more, no less. You drag it along and the hairs close on the shank of the hook; it is just a dead mass, not re- t sembling a fly, or a caterpillar, or any I thing else. But suppose, instead of this, you work your wrist very gently I up and down, so as to let the elastic hairs of the hackle expand and close t with the stream, what thenP Why, the thing looks alive, looks like a I drowning insect, and the trout goes for it directly. It is the same with i winged flies exactly. There is no use a having wings to a fly if you simply a drag it through the water in one dire- I tion.t "Just one hint more," he said to the reporter. "If a trout goes for your a fly, don't strike with your arm as if I you meant to knock a mann's head off t with a club or slug a ball for three f bases. Just turn your wrist sharply and on the instant, for the trout blows c out the fly directly he finds what it is, I and it doesn't take him half a second I to do it. Fish up stream, use one fly, and that a red hackle, work your fly a in the water to make it look alive, ant i you will fill a basket while your neigh. 1 bors are tiring their hearts and souls I out and catching nothing. "Let me say, too, that.you can't 1 throw a Bfly too lightly on the water. i To do this you must keep your body I still throw with the arm, and the arm I only, letting oe spring of the rod do t the last part oT the cast. In this way z the fly is made to fall first-which i I every thing. Watch a novice and y6o will cease to wonder why he never a raises a fish."-8an FPirng Ohwr' SOUTH ERN AGRICULTURAL. I Suggestions for May. While May is still a planting month, a it embraces also the most important part of the period of cultivating the e main crops of the South, corn and cot ton. The farmer who has good stands t and his fields in good condition on the first day of the month, and pushes his work with skill, energy and good judg ment to its close, will have practically I won the fight, so far as depends on his efforts. It has often been said that a crop well planted on well-prepared land is half made. Such preparation f and planting involves good seed and liberal manuring, as well as good plowing and careful management of all details, and almost certainly re- e suits in good stands. The real objects of plowing and hoeing the crops should be kept steadily in view, and the means for their accomplishment should be adapted to she ends. It is an error to i proceed in the cultivation of a crop as c as if the only object were to destroy the grass and weeds; and yet these must be either prevented or destroyed b or the crop will prove a failure. Weeds and grass, these are not an unmixe g evil to some farmers, since the neces sity for their suppression, and the means employed for that purpose, as sure to the crop, to a degree, the stir ring and aeration of the soil that will d be necessary to a vigorous growth and development of the plants and a boun tiful harvest. The main object of cultivation should be to keep the surface soil, to b the depth of one or two inches, in a loose, friable condition, so that the a air may have easy access to the roots o of the plants, while at the same time ii the moisture is prevented from too rapidly evaporating. A shower of rain sufficiently copious to stand for a few h moments on the surface will cause the cl particles of soil to "run together," di just as if a handful of soil be dropped b in a glass of water and the ves sel briskly shaken a few moments. The running of the water on the surface, or the combined agitation by the successive falling raindrops, pro duces the same condition of the upper fr half inch of the soil as observed in the re glass. Now pour off the water in the aj glass, or permit the water to flow off from the soil, or sink into it, and the y( same result will shortly follow in both eo cases-the formation of a compact bi crust or cake. In both cases the par- ki ticles of soil have adjusted themselves to each other more closely, just as cc kernels of wheat or corn in a half .D blishel will do when shaken. In this of condition the soil is like a soft brick, "* or a lump of sugar, and will draw up the moisture more readily and rapidly to by capillary action. Any one can ea easily illustrate the principle of cap- c illary action, and the rule by which it is governed. Take two fo panes or pieces of glass; lay one on the. other, separating them by sev- fo eral thicknesses of paper along two opposite edges. Now dip the open edge of the combined glass in water th and note the rise of the fluid in the thin space between the surfaces of 'the two pieces of glass. Note further if the m thicknesses of the paper be reduced so as to bring the pieces of glass nearer m each other, the water will rise higher he and higher in proportion as the sur faces be brought nearer each other. w Now the particles of soil, when in the bi condition described just now,are much nearer together than the thickness of m a single sheet of the thinest paper, Je and thus form a series of very fine cap- t illary tubes, capable of drawing up the water many inches. Asthe water e thus drawn up reaches the surface, and even before it reaches the surface mi of the soil, it is converted into vapor tw and escapes into the air. If now we flf disturb or break up the close contigui- fa ty of the particles and thus destroy on the continuity of the capillary spaces or tubes, we to that extent prevent or on greatly retard, the escape of moisture a by evaporation. This is accomplished he by stirring the surface of the soil, and w forming it into a mellow, loose layer. In This layer may be considered as a nulch to the subjacentsoil in which the roots th are feeding, for it acts very similarly sh to a mglching of the usual materials, th in preventing undue evaporation. But not only does the hard, compact crust facilitate the escape of needed moiset ure, but it also prevents the free en' trance of the air into the soil. c We believe properly conducted ex- v periments would also prove that the stirring of the surface soil tends to facilitate the sinking of the super- m abundant water into the underlying subsoil and into the natural or arti ficial drainage outlets, after a series of aP too copious rains. v How to accomplish this repeated stirring of the soil in the cheapest and u most effectual manner is a problem s that has not been.solved by Southern farmers generally. The traditional "nigger and a mule." with a shovel, or gopher, or some similar implement, a requiring from three to four furrows t in a four-foot row, is a reproach P on Southern farming. The wingedP sweep, large thanks to David Dickson for improving and popularizing it, PE was quite a step in advance, followed fo by the heel scrape,which is a modified w form of the sweep, doing the same th work and costing less. But an ex- tr p.nding riding or walking cultivator cV ips the desideratum. We want a relia- re ble, inexpensive, simple implement that will clean out a three or four-foot p1 row at one trip. An implement having it but one share, as the Dickson sweep, )e or modification, the improved heel ui acrepe, can not do effective work If ta widotr than eighteen or twenty inohes, ii n41 eve9 93l1 o n 5in 94 Ii n* mellow condition and free from Ob structions in the shape of grass, litter, stones, etc. We want to reduce the size of the shares, or cutting parts, I, and increase their number. This, it with appliances for regulating width 6 and depth, give us the cultivator, of . which there are several patterns on s the market.-Southern Cultivator is Facts for Poultry Raisers. Daily outdoor exercise or free range ' is the best advice we can give those s who want fertile eggs and strong a chickens. The past winter has been favorable for all kinds of poultry; the i fowls have been out on the bare ground every week. The non-hatching of eggs will not be as common a comr plaint as last spring. Hens that lay early usually set early; some hens are . s often broody after laying fewer eggs : than others. We could never succeed in making our liens sit until they were e inclined to do so. Some of them will sit standing if removed from their so customed seat. Last month we had a v pullet that was laying on an exhibition 8 coop in the hen-house. Becoming broody, she would not set where . we wanted her to. So we gave way to her whims, and let her have twelve eggs to incubate in a nest of hay with a cloth on top of the coop. She came off to eat about 1 every time any thing good was in or der; still she hatched out eleven of as healthy chickens as we ever saw. She was stubborn, yet she knew her own business better than we did. The best feed for young chicks is bread and milk mixed with a dough made from corn and oat meal well a cooked. If they get all they will eat of this feed five times a day at regular intervals until they are five are six weeks old, you need not worry to theii growth. Wheat well soaked in boil ing water is good for a change. The chicks hatched before warm weather do the best; they will endure the cold bettter than the heat ofthe summer - -St.Louis Republic. HERE AND THERE. -Hill up the clean subsoil around , fruit trees to the height of a foot, to remain all summer-as a protection against the borer fly. -Never go to town to buy unless you carry an equivalent to sell. Sell 4 for the cash, pay cash for what you buy, and keep out of debt as you would keep out of the fire. -Continue to plant sorghum, millet, collards (for stock) and late .ern. SDon't neglect the patches of cane and other side crops in your anxiety to "get over" your cotton. _ -Do not water your young plants too much. Some flowering plants-are easily killed itf water gets in the crowns. - -Don't breed too many kinds of fowls at the same time, unless you are going into the business. Three or four will give you your hands full. -The young onions must be well worked or the grass will soon crowd them. Fine weather promotes the growth of grass and weeds, and they must be kept down from the start. -Light Brahmas alone are not the . most desirable for broilers. They grow - too slowly. But cross light Brahmasa hens with a white Leghorn male, and we have a quick-maturing and plump bird. -Study to feed the plant, not to make the soil rich, if profit is the ob ject. Farmers should never overlook the fact that the object of agriculture is to make crops grow rather-than to enrich the soil. -An experienced New York dairy man, who has done business with twenty-five cheese factories for about fifteen years, has found it more sails.. factory to deliver milk to the factory once a day than twice." -When an intelligent farmer is once convinced that poultry can be made a paying branhob of his business he is usually not slow to take steps to-. ward improving his flock and provld* ing good quarters for them. -Keep your tools sharp, now that the work is pressing, A sman "with ,-. sharp tools can do more work in a day than can two men with dull tools. It may take a little time to sharpen the tools, but it will be labor saged. -When an animal appears to refuse s certain foods to which it has been so customed, change the food and give a variety, which will improve the ap petite and induce the animal to eat more. -No fartn is complete unless it con tains orchards. Not only should the apple be given a place, but all other varieties of fruit The small fruits.' .." should be grown esgplaily l for family use, and a large supply of atllt kinds should be canned for winter. -In every State where experiment stations have been established the farmers have been protected against adulterated fertilizers, the quality of the seeds is better, and the system of planting and cultivating erops im proved. -Every farmer should have an ex. perimental plot of his own. rh'li I-n. . formation gained of a prasdia 'kind will be invaluable. If every fanneriw'l': .- j the United States could be induced to try a few eperiments annually, agrit culture wopld snaemore rapid progR ress than amy ootl. f industry. -Do not b6 I MueA&to'riaiu asa pig from the crsbred Ittere. b. 1 it is a fne specimen. Themakleshould . be tfhoroughbred, or f~ierf will be .o uniformitytIn be o a he mins take of keeping or sossbred iSalee ii one that has learselyaide ln darn