St. Louis and shipped to Toledo in January. Several bushels were thrown into a barrel, which was then filled with water, and when the oil-cake had become dissolved, about a quart of the fluid was poured over the quantity of middlings, cut hay, or whatever fodder was given each animal at one feeding, great care being taken not to give too much, in order not to cloy the appetite -a result which follows if caution is not observed in this respect. The consequence was that the cows grew sleek, were perfectly healthy, gave more milk and required far less food than before-a very desirable result at that time, as the winter proved a long one and feeding had to be kept up until the middle of May.

So long as I continued to remain engaged in the dairy business, I never again gave up the use of oil-cake, although it became difficult to obtain the cotton-seed oil-cake, and I tried linseed oil-cake, using it in the same manner, with good results, although I prefer the former, but would always use the latter when that is not obtainable. When fodder is scarce and dear, the value of this experiment is great, indeed, especially in winter, and I would advise all who are engaged in the production of milk for city markets to give it a fair trial, well convinced they will not regret it. So far as regards an increase in the quantity of cream, I cannot say from experience, though it is alleged to produce cream of better quality and of increased quantity. Those who sell milk and keep cows for this purpose cannot fail to derive great benefit from the use of oil-cake in the manner above described, as it is saving of money, while it also serves as an aid in making it.

NEATNESS IN MAKING BUTTER.

It is admitted by butter makers of extensive experience that impurities and noxious odors in the atmosphere, where cream is rising, will injure the flavor of the butter. We recollect that a neighbor killed a skunk, more than one hundred rods distant, and the offensive and pungent odor from that dead animal was wafted during the entire day toward the pantry in which there were several pans of milk. The butter made of that cream tasted so offensively of the odor of that skunk that it could not be used for culinary purposes. X. A. Willard writes on this subject that "when milkers are allowed to come directly from the stable to the milk room, it will be impossible to keep the latter place sweet and clean for the time being."

There are hundreds of butter makers, we are aware, to whom the importance of this single point cannot be too strongly urged, since they often consider many little things of this kind, in regard to dairy management, too insignificant to merit attention. But in butter making, the observance of little things is often the great secret of success.

There is no doubt that immense quantities of poor butter are made from the milk set in improper places. The kitchen pantry, the living room and the cellar

used to store vegetables and other family supplies will impart peculiar taints to the milk and cream, in such a degree as to be destructive to flavor, even though the butter in other respects be skillfully handled. Dairy rooms so situated as to catch the odor from the pig sty, the cess pool or other decomposing filth cannot be used for making good butter. There should be a freedom from filth and impurities of every description about the milk house, and the milk should be delivered by the milkers in an ante-room, or some point outside the milk room, and from thence conveyed to the place where it is to be set for cream. In this way the fumes and the litter from the stable may be kept from the milk room.

The causes of poor butter are various, the most important of which are lack of cleanliness, the want of proper dairy utensils, the need of a good dairy room or place for setting the milk, neglect in manipulating the cream at the right time, unskillful working, packing and storing the butter, and, finally, lack of knowledge in a part or whole of the processes required for making a prime article.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

CANNING FRUIT.

When fruit is heated in open vessels, and the air is full of delicious aroma, your fruit is fast losing its best quality. This is why it is best to fill the jars with fruit before cooking. Another reason why it is best to heat in jars, you avoid crushing, and the liquor is rich and clear. In canning peaches or pears, it is very satisfactory if you have retained the small or broken pieces for present consumption, and only filled your cans with large and shapely quarters. The same with grapes and berries. If you wish to realize the exquisite flavor of each fruit, do not spoil it with poor sugar. It is a good way to put what nice white sugar you wish to use through the day into the porcelain kettle in the morning, with a little water, and bring it to boil and skim it, and when your bottles or jars of fruit have been heated, fill up with the hot syrup. For lack of anything better, take a large copper wash boiler, place a piece of straw matting or two thicknesses of paper over the bottom, and then arrange the cans, as many as it will hold, and keep upright. You may need some twigs beneath and around them to keep all firm and in place. Fill with warm water to the necks of the jars, cover them with lids and put on the boiler-cover to keep in the steam. Berries need but a few minutes of boiling heat. By this method, if you do leave them a trifle too long, they are not spoiled by being boiled to pieces. Green corn is very nice cooked with sliced ripe potatoes, two or three hours, slowly, on the back of the stove, and seasoned with sweet cream, salt and pepper when warmed for the table. Corn and tomatoes are better when cooked in the porcelain kettle, and should be canned and sealed up in bright tin cans.

THE VALUE OF A DUST BATH FOR ANIMALS.

The almost indispensable necessity of an ample supply of dust for animals in winter is understood by very few stock growers. All sorts of animals delight in a dust bath. Chickens that have easy and continual access to it will never be troubled with vermin, either in their houses or on their bodies. Cattle delight to stand in a dusty road, scraping it up with their fore feet and flinging it over their backs. The cheapest and most effectual cure for lice on cattle is to

scatter a quart of perfectly dry dust along the spine, from the horns to the tail. In winter, when they cannot get it, many animals become covered with vermin.

MEASURING GRAIN IN A BOX OR CRIB.

To get the cubical contents of any room, box, bin or crib, in feet, multiply the length, breadth and depth together. Each of these cubic feet contains 1,728 inches. A bushel contains 2.150 cubic inches. Divide 1.728 into 2.150, and we have 1,244. Divide the cubical contents in feet of any space by 1,244, and the quotient will be the number of bushels it will contain. For instance, a crib 20 feet square and 10 feet deep will contain 4.000 by 1,244, and we have 3,215 and a fraction, which is the number of bushels of shelled corn that the crib will hold. But, for all practical purposes, 1.244 is equal to 1.25, or one and a quarter, which is simply five quarters, and to divide by five quarters is to multiply by 4 and divide by 5, or which is the same as multiplying by 8 and dividing by 10, or cutting off one figure to the right. Hence, when the cubical contents in feet are known, multiply by 4 and divide by 5, or multiply by 8 and divide by 10, and we have the contents in bushels. If a barrel be 3 or 5 bushels, multiply by 3 or 5, as the case may be.

TO DESTROY STUMPS.

Some one, not long ago, started the idea that sulphuric acid would totally destroy stumps. An auger hole was to be bored in the top, filled with sulphuric. acid, and plugged. In a day or two the stump would be eaten up, even to the very roots. The experiment was tried and failed, only a portion of the stump, at the top, being affected. The following method is recommended by the Scientific American: In the autumn, bore a hole one to two inches in diameter, according to the girth of the stump, vertically in the center of the latter, and about eighteen inches deep. Put into it from one to two ounces saltpeter; fill the whole with water and plug up close. In the ensuing spring take out the plug and pour in about one-half gill of kerosene oil and ignite it. The stump will smoulder away without blazing to the very extremity of the roots, leaving nothing but ashes.

HOUSEHOLD MEASURES.

As all families are not provided with scales and weights, referring to ingredients in general use by every housewife, the following information may be useful: Wheat flour, 1 pound is 1 quart; Indian meal, 1 pound 2 ounces is 1 quart; butter, when soft, 1 pound 1 ounce is 1 quart; loaf sugar, broken, 1 pound is 1 quart; white sugar, powdered, 1 pound 1 ounce is 1 quart; best brown sugar, 1 pound 2 ounces is 1 quart; eggs, average size, 10 eggs are 1 pound; 16 large tablespoonfuls are pint, 8 are 1 gill, 4, gill, etc.

CEMENT FOR CRACKED HOOFS.

Mr. Defay has discovered a preparation by means of which sand cracks or fractures in hoof or horn may be durably cemented up. Even pieces of iron can be securely joined together by its means. The only precaution necessary for its successful application is the careful removal of all grease by spirits of sal ammonia, sulphide of carbon or ether. Mr. Defay makes no secret of its composition, which is as follows: Take one part of coarsely powdered gumammoniacum and two parts gutta-percha, in pieces the size of a hazel nut. them in a tin-lined vessel over a slow fire, and stir constantly until thoroughly mixed. Before the thick, resinous mass gets cold, mold it into sticks like sealing wax. The cement will keep for years, and when required for use it is only necessary to cut off a sufficient quantity and re-melt it immediately before application.-English Live Stock Journal.

TO CURE AND KEEP PORK.

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To have pork keep well for a long time, it is not only necessary to have good, sweet, wholesome pork to begin with, a clean, tight barrel, plenty of pure, clean, coarse salt, and a cool place for keeping it when packed. Pork will keep a year and longer, if it is first cut in pieces of uniform width, and the pieces, containing the most lean, separated from the rest, as it contains more blood to discolor the brine; besides, it takes brine more readily and will soon become as hard as old salt beef. Then procure a tight, clean oak barrel; scatter salt over the bottom to the depth of about one-half an inch, then, having cut the pork in strips of nearly uniform width, pack them on edge, with the rind next to the barrel, and follow round until the bottom is covered by a layer of strips so even and solid that no single piece can raise without bringing up the whole layer. Then fill up the interstices with salt, and spread it a half inch thick over the top layer; then pack another layer in the same way till the cask is full, or the pork all packed. On the top layer place enough clean, flat stones to keep it from floating after the brine is added. The brine may be added at once, or left a day or two, without the weather be too warm, then it should be added at once, as soon as the meat is cool. Old brine is as good as new, if it is perfectly sweet, but no better.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF HIDES.

At the National Convention of Tanners and Dealers in Hides and Leather, held in Philadelphia in October, the following rules for the classification of hides were unanimously adopted, and will therefore control the action of the whole trade, until otherwise ordered:

1. All hides having one or more grubs shall be thrown out and classed as damaged.

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