REV. DR. TA IMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject : "The Dark Side of City Life.
Tfxt:
flight.'-
"Arid th darkness He called
-Genesis i.. 5.
Two grand divisions of time. The one of
sunlight, the othr of shadow; the one for
work, the other for rest; the one atyp?of
everything jrlad and beautiful, tae other
used in .ill languages as a type of sadness
and affliction and sin. These two divisions
of time may have nomenclature of human
invention, but the darkness held up its dusky
brow to the Lord, and Hebaotiz?! it, the
dew dripping from His fingers as He gave it
name, "And the darkness He callei night."
My subject is midnight in town. The
thunder ot the city has rolled out of the
air. The slightest sounds cut th night
with s-uch distinctness as to attract your
attention. The tinkling of the bell of the
street car in the distance and the baying
of the dog. The stamp of a horse in the
next street. The slamming of a saloon
door. The hiccough of the drunkard. The
shrieks of the steam whistles five mile
away. Oh, how suggestive, my friends
ttidnight in townl
There are honest men passing up and down
the street. Here is a city missionary who
has been carrying a sc uttle of coal to that
poor family in that dark place. Here is an
undertaker going up the steps of a building
from which there comes a bitter cry which
indicates that the destroying angel has smit
ten the first born. Here is a minister of re
ligion who has been giving the sacrament
to a dyiDg Christian. Here is a physician
passing along in great hast-, the messen
ger a few steps ahead hurrying on to
the household. Nearly all the lights
have gone out in the dwellin?. That lighl
in the window is the light of tha watcher,
for the medicines must be administered, and
the fever must be watched, and the restless
tossing off of the coverlid must be resisted,
and the ice must be kept on the hot tem
ples, and the perpetual prayer must go up
from hearts soon to be broken. Ob, the
midnight in town! What a stupendous
thought a whole city at rest'
Weary arm preparing for to-morrow's
toil. Hot brain being cooled off. Rigid
muscles relaxed. Excited nerves soothed.
The white hair of the octogenarian in thin
drifts across the pillow, fresh fall of flakes
on snow already fallen. Childhood with its
dimpled hands thrown out on tha pillow, and
with every breath taking in a new store of
fun and frolic. God's slumberless eye will
look. Let one great wave of refreshing
slumber roll over the heart of the great
town, submerging care and anxiety and
worriment and pain.
Let the city sleep; but, my friends, banot
deceived. Tuere will be thousands to-night
who will not sleap at all. Go up that dark
alley and be cautious where you tread lest
you fall over the prostrate form of a drunk
ard lying on his own doorstep. Look about
you lest you feel the garroter's hug. Look
through the broken window pane and see
what you can see. You say, "Nothing."
Then listen. What is it? "Gol help us!''
No footlights, hut tragedy ghastlier and
mightier than Ristori or Edwin Booth ever
enacted. No light, no fire, no bread, no
hope. Shivering in the cold, they have had
no fool for 24 hours. You say, '-Why don't
they beg?' They (!o, but thejy get nothing.
You say, "Why don't they deliver thorn
selves over to the almshouse?" Ah, you
would not ask that if you ever heard the
bitter cry of a man or a child when told he
mu-t go to the almshouse.
"Oh," you say, "they are the vicious poor,
and therefore thiy do not demani our sym
pathy." Are they viciou?? So inuc'n more
need they your pity. The Christian poor,
God helps them. Through their nignt there
twinkles the round, merry star of hope, and
through the broken window pane they see
the crystals of heaven, but the vicious poor,
they are more to be pi tie ?. Their last light
has gone out. You excuse yourself from
helping them by saying they are so bad they
brought this trouble on themselves. I re
ply, where I give 10 prayers for the inno
cent who are suffering I widgive 20 prayers
for the guilty who are suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees a vessel dash
ing into the breakers, comes out from his
hut and wraps the warmest flannels around
those who are most chilled and most bruised
and most battered in the wreck. And I
want you to know tuat these vicious poor
have had two saipwree ;s shipwreck of the
body, shipwreck of the soui shipwreck for
time, shipwreck for eternity. Pity, by all
means, the innocent who are suffering, but
pity more the guilty.
Pass on through the alley. Op an the door.
lOb," you say, "it is locked." No, it is not
locked; it has never been locked. No burglar
would be tempted to go in there to steal
anything. The door is never locked. Only
a broken chair stands against the door.
Shove it back. Go in. Strike a match.
How look. Beastliness and rags. See thosa
glaring eyeballs. Be careful now what you
say. Do not utter any insult, do noc ntter
any suspicion, it you valua your life.
What is that red mar:; on the wali? It ig
the mark of a murderer's hand! Look at
those two eyes rising up out of the darkness
and out from the straw in the corner com
ing toward you, and as thev com? near you
ycur light goes out. Strike another match.
Ah! this is a babe, not like the beautiful
children of your household, or tbe beautiful
children trailing around these altars on bap
tismal day. This little one never smiled; it
never will smile. A flower flung on an
awlully barren beach. O Heavenly Shep
herd fold that little ou9 in Thine arms!
Wrap around 3ou your shawl or coat
tighter, for the cold night wind sweeps
through.
Strike another match. Ah! is it possible
that that young woman's scarred and
bruised face was ever looked into by ma
ternal tenderness1 Utter no scorn. Utter
no harsh word. No ray of hope has dawned
on that brow for many a year. No ray of
hope ever will dawn on that" brow. But the
light has gone out. Do not strike another
light. It would ba mockery to kindle an
other light in such a piace as that. Pass out
and pass down tiie street. Our cities of
Brooklyn and New Yor and all our great
cities are full of such homes, and the worst
time the midnight. Do you know it is in
the midnight that criminals do their worst
work?
At half past 8 o'clock you will find them
in the drinking saloon, but toward 12
o'clock they go to their garrets, they get
out their tools, then they start on the street.
Watching on either side for the police, they
go to their work of darkness. This is a bur
glar, and the false key will ssoa touch the
store lock. This is an incendiary, and be
fore morning there will be a light ou the
sky and cry of "Fire I Fire!" This is an as
sassin, and to-morrow morning there will be
a dead body in one of the vacant lots. Dur
ing the daytime thesa villains in our cities
lounge about, some asleep and some awake,
but when the third watch of the night ar
rives, their eye keen, their brain cooJ, their
arm strong, their foot fleet to fly or pursue,
they are ready.
Many of these poor creatures were brought
up in that way. They were bora in a thieves'
garret. Their childish toy was & burglar's
dark lantern. The first thing they remem
ber wsb their mother bandagiDgthe brow of
their father, s.ruck by the polica club. They
began by rob om z boys' pockets, and now
they havs come to dig" the underground pas
sage to the eel ar o! the banlc and are pre
paring to blast the gol 1 vault. .
Just so tons as there are neglectei chil
dren of the street, just so long we wju have
thtse desperadoes .Some one, w;shing to
raaice a good Christian point anl to 'juote a
passage of Scripture, exoectm; to get a
Script jrai pasa'ge in answer, said to one of
these poor lads, cast ou: and wretched,
"When your father anl mother forsake
you. who taen will take you u;o?" and the
boy slid, "Tneperiice, the per lice."
In the midnight gambling does its worst
work. Wnat though the houri be slipping
away and though the wife be waiting in the
cheerless hom-;? Stir uo the fire. Brins on
more drinks. Put up more stakes. That
commercial house that onlv a little while
azo put out a sign of copartnership will
this season be wrecked on a gambler's table.
There will be many a money till that will
spring a leak. A Member of Congress
gambled with a Member-elect and won
$120, WO. The old way of getting a living is
so slow. The old way of getting a fortune is
so stupid. Com let us toss ud and see who
shall have it. And so the work goes on,
from the wheezing wretches pitching pen
nies in a rum grocery up to the millionaire
gambler in the stock market.
In the midnight hour pass down the streets
of our American cities, and you hear the
click of tha dice and the sharo, keen tap of
the poolroom ticker. At thesa Dlaces mar
chauc princes dismount, and legislators tired
of making laws, take a respite in breaking
them. All classas of people ara rohb9i by
this crime, the importer of foreign silks and
the dealer in Chatham street pocket hand
kerchiefs. Tha clerks of the store take a
hand after the shutters are put up, and the
officer? of the court wnile away their time
while the jury is out.
In Baden-Baden, when that city was the
greatest of all gambling places on earth, it
was no unusual thing tha next morning in
the woods around that city to fini tha sus
pended bodies of suicides. Whatever be the
splendor of the surroundings, th9ra is no ex
cuse for this crime. Tae thunders of eter
nal destruction roll in the deep rumble of
that gambling tenpin alley, and as men
come out to join the long procassion of sin
all the drums of woe beat the dead march
of a thousand souls. In one year in tha
city of New York there ware $7,0 JO, 000 sac
rificed at the gaming table.
Perhaps some of your friends have baen
smitten of this sin. Perhaps soma of you
have been smitten by it. Perhaps there may
be a stranger in the house this morning
come from some of the hotels. Look out for
those agents of iniquity who tarry around
about the hotels and ask you, "Would you like
to see the city?" Yes, "Have you ever seen
that splendid building uptown?" No. Then
the villain will undertake to shoar you what
he calls the "lions" and the "elephants"
and after a young man, through morbid
curiosity or through badness of soul, has
sean the "lions" and the "elephants" he will
be on enchanted ground. Look out for
these men who move around the hotels with
sleek hats always sleek hats and patron'
izing air and unaccountable interest about
your welfare and entertainment. You are
a fool if you cannot see through it. Thay
want your money.
In Chestnut street, Philadelphia, while I
was living in that city; an incident occurred
which was familiar to us there. In Chest
nut street, a youug man went into a gam
bling saloon, lost ail his property, then blew
his brains out, and before the blood was
washed from the floor by tha maid the com
rades were shuffling cards again. You sae
there is more mercy in the highwayman for
the belated traveler on wnose Dody he heaps
the stones; thera is more meroy in the froso
for the flower that it kills; there is more
mercy in the hurricane that shivers the
steamer on the Long Island coast than there
is mercy in the neart of a gambler for his
victim.
In the midnight hour also, drunkenness
does its worst. The drinking will ba re
spectable at 8 o'clock in the evening, a little
flushed at 9, talkative and garrulous at 10,
at 11 blasphemous, at 13 the hat falls off and
the man falls to the floor asking for mora
drink. Strewn through the drinicin
saloons of the city fathers. brothers,
husbands, sons, as good as you ara by nature,
perhaps tester.
in the high circles of society it is hushed
up. A merchant prince, if ha gats noisy
an i uncontrollable, is taken by uis fellow
revelers, who try to get him to bed, or taka
him home, where he falls flat in the entry. Do
not wake up the children. They hare had
disgrace enough. Do not let them know it.
Hush it up. But sometimes it cannot ba
hushed up when the rum touches the braiu
and th9 man becomes thoroughly frenzied.
Oh, if the rum touches the brain, you can
not hush it up. You do not sea the worst.
In the midnight meetings a great multitude
have been saved. We want a few hundred
Christian men and women to com9 down
from the highest circles or society to toil
amid these wandering anddestituta ones and
kindle up a light in tne dark alley, even the
gladness of heaven.
Do not go trom your wall filled tables with
the idea that pious talk is going to stop the
gnawing of an empty stomach or to warm
stockingless feet. Take bread, take raiment,
take medicine as well as take prayer. There
is a great deal of common sanse in what the
poor woman said to tue city missionary
when he was telling her how she ought to
love God and sarve Him. "Oa!" said she,
"if you were as poor and cold as I am, and
as hungry, you could think of nothing else."
A great deal of what is called Christian
work goes for nothing for the simple reason
it i.? not practical, as after the battle of
Anuetaai a man got out of an ambulance
with a bag of tracts, aud he went distribut
ing the tracts, and George Stuart, one of
the best Caristian men in this country, said
to him: "What are you distributing tracts
for now? There are 3000 men bleeding to
death. Bind up their wounds, and then dis
tribute the tracts."
We want more common sense in Chris
tian work, taking the bread of this life in
one band, and the bread of the next life in
the other hand. No such inapt work as
that done by the Christian man who, during
the war, went into a hospital with tracts,
and coming to the bed of a man whose les
had been amputated, gave him a tract ou
the sin of dancing 1 1 rejoice before God
that never are sympathetic words uttered,
never a prayer offered, never a Christian
almsgiving indulged in but it is blessed.
Tuere is a place in Switzjrland, I have
been told, where the utterance of one word
will bring back a score of echoes, and I have
to tell you this morning that a sympathetic
word, a kind word, a generous word, a help
ful word uttered in the dark place of the
town will bring back ten thousand echoes
from all the thrones of heaven.
Are there in this assemblage this morning
those who know by experience the tragedies
of midnight in town? I am not here to
thrust you back with one hard word. Take
the bandage from your bruised soul and put
on it the soothing salve of Christ's gospel
and of God's compassion. Many hare come.
I see others coming to God this morning,
tired of sinful life. Cry up the news to
heaven. Set all the bells ringing. Spread
the banquet under the arches. Lat tne
crowned heads come down and sit at the
jubilee.
I
I tell you there is mora delight in heaven
over one man tuat gets reformed by tne
grace of God than over ninety and nine that
never got off the trade I could gve you
the history in a minute of one of the best
friends I ever had. Outside of my own
family I never had a better friend. Ha
welcomed me to my home at the west. Ke
was of splendid peronl appearance, and
he had an ardor of soul and a warmt.a of af
fection that made ma lova him bite a
brother.
I saw men coming out of the saloon? and
gambling hell?, and they surrounded my
friend, and they took him at tha weak point,
his social nature, and I saw him going down,
and I had a fair talk with him, for I never
vet saw a man you could not talk with on
the subject of his habits if you talked with
him in the right way. I said to him, 44Why
don't you give uo your bad habit3 an 1 be
come a Christian?" I rememoer now just
how he looked, leaning over his counter, as
he replied: "I wish I could. On, sir, I
should like to be a Christian, but i have
gone so far astray I can't get back.-'
So the time went on. After awhile the
day of sickness came. I was summoned to
his sickbed. I hastened. It took me but a
very few moments to get there. I was sur
prised as I went in. I saw him in his
ordinary clotnes, fully dressed, lying on the
top of the bed. I gave him my hand, and
he seized it convulsively aud said: "Oh,
how glad I am to see you! Sit down there."
I sat down, and he said: "Mr. Taimage,
just where you sit now my mother sat last
night. She has been dead 20 years. Now, 1
don't want you to think I am out of mj
mind, or that I am superstitious; but, sir,
she sat there la3t night just as certainly as
yon sit there now the same cap, and apron
and spectacles. It was my old mother she
sat there."
Then he turned to his wife and said: "1
wish you would take these strings off the
bed. "Somebody is wrapping strings around
me all the time. I wish you would stop that
annoyance." She said, "There is nothing
here." Then I saw it was delirium. He said:
'Just where you sit now my mother sat,
and she said. 'Roswell, I wish you would do
bettei I wish you would do better.' I said,
'Mother, I wish I could do better. I try to
do better, but I can't. Mother, you used to
help me. Why can't you help me now?'
And, sir, I got out of bed, for it was reality,
and I went to her and threw my arms around
her neck, and 1 said: 'Mother. I will do bet
ter, but you must help. I can't do this
alone P " I knelt down and prayed. That
night his soul went to the Lord that made it.
Arrangements were made for the obse
quies. The question was raised whether
they should bring him to church. Some
body said, "You can't bring such a dissolute
man as that into the church." I said: "You
will bring him in the church? He stool by
me when he was alive, and I will stand by
him when he is dead. Bring him." As I
stood in the pulpit and saw them carryinz
the body up the aisle, I felt as if I could
weep tears of blood.
On one side of the pulpit sat his little ch Id
of eight years, a sweet, beautiful little girl
that I had seen nim hug convulsively in his
better moments. He put on her all jewels,
all diamonds, and gave her all pictures and
toys, and then he would go away as if
hounded by an evil spirit to his cups and
house of shame, a fool to the correction of
the stocks. She looked up wonderingly.
She knew not what it all meant. She was
not old enough to understand the sorrow of
an orphan child.
On the other side the pulpit sat the men
who had ruined him. They were the men
who had poured wormwood into the or
phan's cup; they were the men who had
bound him hand and foot. I knew tnem.
How did they seem to feel? Did they weep?
No. Did they say, "What a pity that such
a generous man should be destroyed?" No.
Did they sigh repeutingly over what they
had done? No; they sat there, looking as
vultures look at the carcass of the lamb
whose heart they have ripped out. So they
sat and looked at the coffin lid, and
I told them the judgment of God upon those
who had destroyed their fellows. Did they
refer m? I was told they were in the places
of iniquity that night after my friend was
laid in Oak wood cemetery, and they blas
bemed, and they drank. Ob, how merciless
men are, especially after tney have de
stroyed youl Do not look to men for com
fort or help. Look to God.
But there is a man who will not reform.
He says: "I won't reform," Well, then,
now many acts are there to a tragedy? I
believe five.
Act the First of the Tragedy A young
man starting off from home. Parents and
sisters weeping to have him go. Wagon
rising over the hilL Farewell kiss flung
back. King the bell and let the curtain
fall.
Act the Second The marriage altar. Full
organ. Bright lights. Long white veil
trailing through the aisle. Prayer and con
gratulation and exclamation of "How well
she looks!"
Act Third A woman waiting for stag
gering steps. Old garments stuck into the
broken window pane. Marks of hardship
on the face. The biting of the nails of
bloodless fingers. Neglect and cruelty and
despair. Ring the bed and let the curtain
drop.
Act the Fourth Threa graves in a dark
place grave of the child that died for lack
of medicine, grave of the wife that died of a
broken heart, grave of the man that died of
dissipation. Oh, what a blasting heath of
:hree graves! Plenty of weeds, out no
flowers. Ring the ball aud let the curtain
arop.
Act the Fifth A destroyed soul's eter
nity. No light. No music. No hope.
Anguish coiling its serpents around the
oeart. Blackness of darkness forever. But
I cannot look any longer. Woe! Woe! I
close mv eyes to this last act of the tragedy,
iuick! " Quick! Ring the bell and let the
curtain droo. "Rejoice, O young man, in
thy youth and let thy neart rejoice in the
3ays of thy youth, but know now that for
all these things God will bring you into
judgment." a There is a w&y that seemeth
rigut to a man, but th and thereof is death."
EICH FORESTS BUKNED.
Many Turpentine Orchards De
stroyed in North Carolina.
The greatest forest fire; ever known in
Moore and Richmond Counties, North Caro
lina, raged a few days ago, in the heart of
the long leaf pine district. The trees had
just been bored and thousands of them wera
destroyed. Many people owning turpantine
orchards are ruined.
One man lost 2000 acres of trees. The fire
swept upon the town of West End and
nearly wiped it out. Threa large stores with
the entire stocks, the postoffice and several
dwellings were burned.
At least twelve turpentine distilleries and
scores of dwellings scattered throughout the
woods were burned and the roadbefl of the
Aberdeen and West End Railway was so
badly injured that trains could not run.
Great quantities of rssm were burned,
1000 barrels at West End alone.
The great He met Dam, near San Jacinto,
Cal., is finished to a height of 110 feet aud
is filled with water to a height of ninety
feet. The lake is nearly two miles long, the
widest place being three-quarters of a mile,
. . e -n -
maitina a suriaee area ox aeariv tjy
A BtaHEL OP ONION.
The weight of a bushel of onions
varies as they may be dry or damp an 1
fresh. Green onions will weigh fifty
six pounds to the bushel, but in the
spring the same cnions will weigh no
more than forty-eight pounds. The
largest onions weigh the most: the
small seed onions when dry weih
only twenty-four pounds to the
bjshel. The legal weight of market
onions, where tacre is any standard, is
fifty-two poucds a bushei. New York
Tribune.
SETTING AXLES.
In setting axles for car: and carriages
the w heels should be a trifle wider apart
at the top than at the bottom; also
gather a little in the front tc prevent
pressing on the linchpin o; nut holding
the wheel on the axle. In the carriage
trade these variations from a straight
line are called the "swing
and
''gather." The Litter is the forward
inclination of the spindle relatively to
the general line of direction of the
axletree. The swing is the outward in
clination of the top of the wheel, and is
to meet the requirements of the conical
axle, so that the bottom edge of the
spindle snail ride about horizontally.
New York Suu.
LARGE AND SMALL FARMS.
Many persons souid better their finan
cial condition and relieve themselves
from much worry and vexation if they
would put the brains, labor and manure
on five acres that they now distribute
over forty. It is not true, however,
that every farmer can do better oa a
small farm than on a large one. It re
quires a diflerent order of intellect, and
in some ways a larger intellect, to suc
ceed with the small farm. Any success
ful gardener knovv3 that it re juires more
brains to market his crops proiitably than
it dees to raise them. In other words,
the small farmer, if he expeets profitable
returns for his work, mu3t have the
qualities of a successful merchant and a
skillful farmer. Chicago Times.
HOUSE POINTS.
Uess a horse has brains he is not
teachable. A horse that has bread ch
and fullness between the ears and eyes
will not act mean or hurt any one. The
eye should be full and a hazel color, the
ears small and thin and point forward,
the face straight with square muzzle and
large nostrils. The under side of the
head should be well cut under the jaw
with jawbone broad, ami wide apart un
der the throttle. The back short and
straight and square rump, high withers,
shoulders well set back, and broad bui.
not deep into the chest, fore feet short,
hind legs pretty straight, fetiock3 low
down, pastern joint short with a round
mulish foot. There are all kinds of
horses, but the animal that has all these
points is almost sure to be slightly grace
ful, ood natured and serviceable. Ten
nessee Farmer.
MANAGEMENT OF WORN OCT LAND.
There is a natural fascination about
the attempts to take what is seemingly
worthless and give it value. Either it
is this, or the fact that poor land can al
ways be bought cheaply and usually on
the easiest terms makes poor land sale
able when property that was certain not
to pay in years of any other character
could not find a purchaser on any terms.
But in most cases, cheap as the poor
farm may seem, that in a high state of
cultivation will be really cheaper, what
ever the price asked for it. The cost of
briuying up poor land to the point where
it will begin to pay is always greater than
is expected. The laud that is now pay
ing can generally be depended on to
pay under good management as we' I as
it has done. It has a recognized value
that can be determined. If the poor
land is bought it has to be experimented
with, and possibly money has to be sunk
before it can be made to pay. The old
saying, to him that hath shall be given,
and from him that hath not shall be
taken away what he seemeth to have, is
quite as true of laud as it is of people.
Fertility tends to make fertility even
more surely than does money make
monev. Boston Cultivator.
TO DRESS A BEEF.
A slaughtered beef may oe dressed in
this way: As soon as it is dead the car
cass Is turned on its back and the hide
is slit up the belly, without cutting
through into the interiors. The knife i3
passed from the brisket up the forelegs
to the knee, and this joint is separated
and left in the hide for the present. The
hind legs are treated in the same way.
The skin is then stripped off as far as
possible to the back and round the neck.
The carcass is then raised partly so as to
remove the skin from the rump and
down the back, and, as is necessary, it is
raised more until the head is free of the
ground, when the hide is completely re
moved, and the head is cut off. When
the carcass is half raised it is opened
and the intestines removed. It is then
hoisted up, and washed down with cold
water and left to hang until cool. It
may be desirable to split the backbone
at tbe shoulders and open tbe carcass to
hasten the cooling. When well cooled
! and quite stiff the meat is cut up, riist
into halve down the backbone and then
into quarters. It is then ready to haair
up, and may be further divided as may
be convenient. Meat that is to be salted
should be hung a few days before it is
' cut up. it keeps better far it, and any
bloody p-.rts, as about the neck, should
be well cleaned before the meat i pu: in
the pickle, as any blood in it will m ike
the pickle sour in the warm weather.
Pickled meat should be opened in the
prin.:. before the weather is warm, and
the pickle drawn ofl anl boiled, by this
. tae albumen w:r.e:i makes the pintle
sour will be removed by straining, a it
' will be become solid. More pickle may
be added.
FORMATION OK LAWS.
The gospel of the perfect lawn includes
deep soil, the proper grasses and frequent
mowing. In making a lawn too little
importance is usually placed on thorough
trenching or subsoiling an 1 enriching
the land. The surface should be har
rowed and hand raked until it i in the
finest condition. As to choice of seed,
this must vary somewhat with locality
and special conditions. Every seedsman
has his own special mixture, and a very
general one con?isu in red top and Ken
tucky blue grass, in equal proportions,
with four or five pounds of white clover
to the bushel. Tae ee 1 is sown broad
cast, when there is no wind, and lightly
rolled in. This in brief is the usual
plan.
A method brought to notice by J. B.
Oicott, of the Connecticut Experiment
Station, and described and discussed at
the last annual session of the New Jersey
State Horticultural Society, is as follows
Prepare the ground the same as described
for seeding down. Then a selected sod
of a fine variety of Rhode Island Bent
grass is takeu aud divided into single
plants of one or two spears and these are
in rows nine inches apart and also nine
inches between the rows, thus requiring
sixteen plants to the square yard. These
plants are pressed tirmiy into the soil aud
afterwards the whole surface rolled with
a hard roller. The after care consists in
keeping out every weed and plants of
white clover, etc.
In three or four months, it is claimed,
the ground will be entirely covered with
a short, thick moss of grass. During the
summer an application of from 200 to
400 pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre,
applied in from three to four sowings,
will give the plants a fresh start and cause
them to assume a bright green hue. If
these directions are carefully carried out
there will be no need of weedy lawus
and the general complaint that grass
cannot be made to grow under shade
trees according to the advocates for this
method. It must be explained that
Rhode Island Bent grass as usually seen
has long runners with the plants far
apart, somewhat like the strawberry run
ners, while in the peculiar variety in
question the plants cover the entire run
ners and show no naked steins. The sea
sou lor planting by th'i3 method may b
either from September to November, or
from the last of March to the first of
June. New York World.
FARM AND QA.RDEN NOTES.
Unless the hen leaves her nest over
night the eggs will usually hatch.
For foliage effect, the tulip and the
plane trees are among the finest.
Wheat and oats with milk and bran
mash are good egg-producing foods.
Potatoes, milk, chopped clover or any
thing that the hens will eat can ba used,
to make up a variety.
In Meehan's Monthly it is advised not
to cut an osage orange hedge until three
years after it is planted.
Have a good place for the goslings
and keep them away from the water un
til they are well feathered.
J. S. Woodward, the Western New
York sheep-:-rower, is an earnest advo
cate of sheep in the orchard.
Scientific experiments made by the
New Jersey Station emphasize the im
portance of muriate of potash for peach
trees. There are three prime causes of chicken
cholera overcrowding, especially in
warm weather; filthy quarters and un
wholesome food.
Those who have tried it say that Lo
rett's blackberry is an excellent, all-round
berry, being hardy, early, prolific and
of good quality.
What can indicate a poor man, a poor
farmer, more certainly than pjr fences,
poor pastures, and a poor, starved, neg
lected flock of sheep?
Capons are nearly always in demand,
whether large or small, au I can nearly
always be sold at profitable prices; but
the larger ones sell best.
Mr. McMillan, authority in such mat
ters, does not think mucn of ash and
beech trees for street planting, except
the white and European species.
In selecting breeding stock aim to
strike the 'happy medium," neither too
lare nor too lijrnt boned. The one is
coarse and the other is played out.
Some farmers declare fowls a nuisance,
and say they don't pay. This is where
they are left to shift for themselves.
Would the dairy pay the same way?
It doesn't matter which way you put
it clover and sheep; or, sheep and
clover. They always go together, an-1
both mean prosperity for the farmer.
One of the advantages of sheep manure
over all other barnyard manures is in in
freedom from weed seeds. No seed
will grow after going through a tbeep
fa