BOBBING THE MAILS.
^METHODS USUALLY ADOPTED
BY CRIMINALS.
f. ' A PONOrClCK INRPKCTOU <11VKN
EXPERIENCES
Of Many Encounter* with People Wl«>
Vta the Mull* for fraudulent Pur
pour*—Poitofllra Robberies—IVHoa ol
a Woman Postmaster.
[Copyrighted, 1892, hy the International Press
Association.]
I am a postoftlco inspector, with
headquarters in n largo Western
city. This makes my nineteenth yent
in the service, and it is not strange
that during that period I have ac
cumulated some interesting knowl
edge as to the manner in which people
will use the mails for criminal pur
poses. The United States mails haven
peculiar fascination for criminals. It
offers an extensive range of oppotunl
ties for irregularity by tho public ns
.Ml ^aaai.ort.. _
SEIZED TUB NIOTIT CI.KItK.
well ns by its own employes. Tlio
most common abuse on tlie part of the
public is the claiming to have sent or
claiming not to Have received,
articles alleged to have been
mailed. This Is also a favor
ite with professional swindlers.
It is hard to catch tlie latter class.
This abuse is also popular between
friends and acquaintances. Not long
ago my attention was directed to nn in
teresting case. One of the parties re
sides in a large Western city. . The
other in a Southern city. The iattcr
was a woman who had cut quite a swell
as an adventuress. The Northern man
had been touched by her winning ways.
He sent her a railroad ticket and fc'fi to
go to his *eity. Both were sent by
mail. The woman claimed never to
have received them. Tho second day
after I was notified I found that the
ticket had been sold to a scalper which
was prima facie evidence that tho letter
had been received. But the adven
turess had covered up her tracks so
thoroughly that I could not arrest
her. This is a favorite trick with petty
adventuresses.
V There is a wide difference between
' the' exposure ot such transparent
< tricks as that and the burglary of an
office, which is generally done by ex
perts, whose plans are well laid and
all evidence destroyed. The posoffice
at Albuquerque, N. M., was robbed in a
very methodical way. When the postal
clerks had registered in from their
runs and gone to bed, at about 3 o'clock
in the morning, three burglars entered
the rear door of the postoflice, seized
the night clerk, a boy of 10, bound and
gagged him and proceeded to their work
very deliberately. The postpfllce room
had formerly been used'for a natlonal
hank and had in its rear a large vault
the doors of which were customarily
olosed and locked with a key. In the
rear of this large 'vault was a strong
safe, which contained the postoflice
funds, while the sacks of registered
letters awaiting outgoing trains were
put in the vault.
By dosing the front doors of this
vault the burglars were enabled to
work without noise upon the safe and
* by six o'clqck they had opened it, ab
stracted its contents, taken the regis
tered letters from the sacks by cutting
the latter open and had then gone on
their way.
Early in the morning the postmaster
engaged the local officers, .who were
assisted by detectives of the express
companies, but very little could be die
covered. When I reached the place the
only dew found was a blacksmith’s
sledge, which lay among the weeds in
the rear of the building. The owner of
this we found after a diligent search
to he a blacksmith half a mile away.
• Be remembered that the day before
the robbery a stranger lia.d been in his
shop asking questions and that the next
morning he found his shop door forced
open and some of his tools missing.
We next learned that this stranger
was the son of a ranchman living five
miles away and that he had gone from
Albuquerque to a small town
in Kansas. There we had him promptly
arrested and himself and his baggage
searched on suspicion, but as he gave a
straight account of his proceedings and
no stamps nor money were found upon
him he was released.
" The adjoining officers were thorough
ly advised of the details of
the robbery and the kinds and
quantity of the plunder, and a month
afterward word came from the marshal
Of Western Texas that a clew had been
found there. The inspector was in
that way put in communication with a
prisoner awaiting trial for murder in
El Paso. This prisoner told a fairly
straight story, to theeffect that he was
hiding in a house on the Rio Grande,
about five miles below Albuquerque,
on the night of the robbery, and in the
morning his friends, who were outlaws,
camiafti with a lot of stamps and postal
supplies, which the£ hid in the garden
a Jew rods from the river.
Jtefore he would give me their names
htptvanted the government to pay him
Jffiough to enable him to defend bim
JSelf on his trial for murder. Ilia
figures were too stoop, and before ne
gotiations were completed with him lie
was tried and sentenced to be hanged.
Hut I went with a guard to the place
lie described and found a deserted house
which tallied accurately with his de
scription, and we dug up soil enough in
looking for die stamps, ,t c., to make a
Vdg garden, but did not find the valu
ables. Although the men had gone
awaj, later on two of them were se
cured and connected with the burglary,
but they were wanted also for a
dozen like offenses that had prior at
tention of the court.
Not very far from Lebanon, N. C.,
about the same time, we had a ease
that was peculiar in some of its feat
ures and ns sad as it was unusual. On
a starroute (that is, a route where the
mails are conveyed by stage or horse
back) running west from Salisbury,
N. C., there had been many thefts of
money from registered letters, and the
department and the people thereabout
were alike impatient to catch the
thief. All the postmastors upon the
route, about a dozen of them in all, boro
excellent reputations, and all professed
equal anxiety to have tho guilty pun
ished. 1 had been at work once on
this case without success, and tried it
again, taking every possible precaution
tlm second time to conceal my proceed
ings. With a good assistant I put up
at a farmhouse entirely off from tho
route, and where at our liesure we
completed our plans for carefully test-’
ing tho different offices.
The weather was very stormy, which
favored us, ns there wore few people
traveling upon tho roads, and thus we
were able to got around without the
inquisitive discovering that strangere
were in their neighborhood, which was
very thinly settled at best. It was
difficult then to decide which post
master wo should begin with, for
usuullv tho adjoining offices have to
co-operate witli and he in tho inspec
tor’s confidence, and if the guilty one
himself is one of the two go trusted of
course ho is put on liis guard.
The last one to he suspected would
naturally have been the postmistress
at Hilesville. Mlic had been a school
teacher, was of good family and had
not only the respect liut the confidence
and sympathy of tho people, because
her liusbaud was a worthless fellow
who was serving a term in prison for
larceny. Un my first trip I rode over
the route as a pretended book agent.
I sut on the old stage conspicuously
holding in my hand a flashily bound
book when we reached her offieo and
die came to the door and looked out
at me. I was watching her covertly
and did not fail to note that when she
turned to go into tho offieo she threw
>i quick look backward ut mo and spoke
in a low voice to the carrier, who was
coming out with tho mail sacks.
Half an hour later I said to tho driver
,n a joking way, “I believe I made
i good impression on that pretty post
al istress at lfilesville. I wish I had
diowed her my hook.”
“Yes,” lie said, “and she asked me
f you warn’t a postoffiee inspector.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Oh, ono of them fellers that go
I
w
didn’t LOOK GUILT V.
round catcliin’ up with the lame
ducks. There's ben a lot o’ stea'in' on
this road, and I wislu they’d do some
thin’ about it. I’m gettin' blamed for
it myself.”
I inferred at once that unless the
driver was a great deal smarter than
he looked and acted he was not to be
suspected, and from the quick suspicion
of the postmistress that I was an officer
that she herself was to be looked out
for. So when 1 related this fact to my
friend he agreed that we should first
test the schoolma’am’s office. The
last theft reported had been about ten j
days before our visit, so that another 1
was about due. We fixed our lines in !
the usual way, sending four registered j
letters through the schoolma’am's i
hands. Wo got them ten minutes
afterward. The earner made a very
brief stop. Nobody else had touched
the letters.
They came out to our hands so clean
and neat that we thought it impossible
that they could have been tampered
with. Wo opened them at once, how
ever, and were astonished to find that
all the four letters had been rifled.
Returning to the office we found the
stolen bills in the young woman’s
purse, and her usually sad face was
lighted up a little with the success of
her day’s work. Sliest once confessed.
She soon afterward died of a broken
heart, and upon her deathbed con
fessed, it is said, to having also stolen
the money for which her husband was
imprisoned and placed it upon him so
as to get rid of him.
His Lost Home of Clay.
Colonel R. -A. Crawford, who died re
cently at Atlanta, was laid to rest in
the old and tattered confederate uni
form which he had worn during the
war, and which, in its bullet holes,told
how near he had been to death from
the federal foe.
WATCHED-BY THE HUNTER.
Shrewd is oar bird; not easy to outwit
him!
Sharp is the outlooh of those pin-head
oyos;
Still, he is mortal, and a shot may hit him;
ine cannot always miss him if he tries.
' •—U. W. Holmes.
AN AERIAL CRIME.
There was a storm of cheers from a
thousand breathless spectators. The
balloon was going up.
Like a falcon suddenly unhooded
by the hunter it escaped to the sky,
darting upward In a straight line. Al
ready one could scarcely distinguish
above the rim of the baskot tho heads
of tho two aeronauts who ascended.
Leaning on the frail wicker bul
wark, thgy saw far down below the
mall terrestrial forms lessoning every
second and vanishing. What was that
mass of whito and gray things crossed
every w»J by black linos? Was that
the city? Yes, tho city they had just
loft, a city reduced to the proportions
of an ant hill. But right and loft, be
fore and behind, what a marvelous hor
rizon! There, far away tho serrated
lino of tho moifntuins, and on the other
sido tlie sea, tho vast, blue ocean
sparkling in a flood of sunshine.
Suddonly. in the profound silence of
tho azure, a woman’s voice resounded,
dear as a tinkling of crystal.
■•Oliver,” said she, "givo me your
bund!”
"Here is my hand, Laura," replied
n man’s voice.
“Thank you,” said tho fair voyager,
straightening herself and closing her
jyes with a shudder.
Tho man raised his head and looked
it his companion, who, very pale, sat
iown on a light bamboo soat. - ‘What
is tho matter with youP” he asked.
"I was afraid,” said she. “I was so
iizzy. But it is'over.” Sho passed
bor pretty, gloved hand across her
'-yes.
"Do you regret your notion?”
"No; certainly not. But a first trial
may surprise the nerves. Oh, I shall
?ot used to it. Don’t worry.”
He remained erect, looking at her.
3ho was charming in her tight-fltting
traveling dross, which revealod the
lines of a form harmonious and sifpple,
with a little masculine hat coquotishly
posed on her golden hair knotted in
the neck, and with tho dead pallor that
heightened tho effect of her blade eyes.
The young woman also looked at her
companion, whoso blond beard—heavy
and closoly trimmed—framed a manly,
noble face. Seeing him frown, she
said, in her turn, with her singing
voice:
"And you, Oliver; why do you look
so gloomy?"
lie did not answer, but, leaning
slightly over the side of the basket:
"Wo are going up too quick,” said he.
And soizing a rope which hung near
by ho pulled on it.
Almost instantly the young man had
a sensation of their movement being
retarded, then of a stop and at last of
descent.
••Are you going down for good?” sho
asked.
“No.” roplied Oliver. “Wo will go
up again preseiltly.”
“When?”
“When I choose. I have only to
close the valve which secures the, gas.
You see this rope I hold in ray hand?
That regulates our course.”
“And if it should break?”
“It will not break—it is firm. But
if by a kind of iniriiole it should disap
pear we should be lost-’1
“How?"
“The balloon is sufficiently inflated
to carry us to regions where we could
no longer breathe. We should be as
phyxiated.”
“Luckily it needs two miracles.'
That rope is double, is it not?”
“It looks to be double now, but in
reality there is but one. Lean out a
little. Do you see that ring high up
there? The rope passes through that
and these are its two ends which I hold
in my hand. They are tied, besides.
But it needs only a blow with' a knife
to separate them. See, now, here are
the two ends free. I have only to pull
one. The rope glides through the
ring and falls at my feet, and, behold!
we have started on the grand voyage!”
He had joined the action to the
word. The rope had fallen to his feet.
He coiled it with a turn of his arm and
hastily flung it intjo the void beneath
them.
The young woman started to her
feet, trembling and horrified. “Oliver,
what are you about? Are you mad?”
The young man looked her full in
the face and said very calmly: “I am
not mad.”
“Then what are you doing that for?”
“I have planned it all. I intend
that we shall die together, here in mid
air, far from that earth which I in
tensely hate since it is there you have
proved to me what you are, «since the
mire of which it is made has splashed
the idol that my superstition adored in
you.”
The stupifled girl made a gesture as
If appalled.
“Oh! do not protest,” cried Oliver.
“All feint is useless. I will convince
you in one sentence that* you are lost
to me—that you intended to marry
another. Yes, that fool, that insipid
Moreno, who has followed us from
Venice, whom we have found every
where—Milan, Florence, Rome, Lon
don, New York, Chicago. You made
me treat him os a companion. I have
shaken hands with him daily—imbe
cile that I am! Have I not been con
stantly the slave of your will, of your
caprices? You said you wanted to
wait till the time of your widowhood
was past. You made the disdainful
charity of this concession to the
usages of the world. When the two
years had rolled by you would engage
yourself to mo—you would marry me.
Touching scruple, truly! I was in
earnest—you were not. It was a
piquant role for you to play and you
have shown yourself a consummate
comedienne. You, for whom lova was
nothing but poetic aspirations, ethereal
(1 roams, Jlights into blue distance; you,
whose siren voioe, with its vibrant
melodies, sang to me the delights of
an infinite ecstaoy, of an ideal journey
into the blue heaven like the winging
of birds!
“Very well, behold your dream!
Here it is realized and you are going
to live in it until it kills you! See,
now, you aro caught in a trap of your
own invention. For it was you, last
night, who had tho idea of buying this
balloon from the aeronaut, who was
going up in it, and of raveling through
air with.. me. A caprice of
tho season, was it not, to
fitly finish our Now Year’s
fostivitius? It was my vengeance that
you offered me. I have seized it. And
now I deliver you to another venge
ance, that of the azure mocked at by
your poetical lies, to that of heaven
scoffed at by your sacrilegious ironyj!
“Ah, they will cruelly avenge themij
selves, those impassable judges! Do*
you know what punishment they will!
inflict on you? 1
“One tiay two adventurers of tho
air—too hardy— made the trial. They
were found in their basket, rigid and
frozen, thoir faces swollen and blood
running from their ears, oyes and
mouths.
“Behold the end that awaits you!
Soon, my charmer, a rod foam will
heighten the carmine of your lips, red
drops will simulate coral pendants
from your fine ears and your beautiful
eyes will weep tears of blood!’
THe young woman stoad erect, con
vulsively shuddering. “You would
not do that, Oliver! It is too horrible!
I cannot die that frightful death!”
Oliver folded his Arms across his
chest. “I would like to prevent it
now, ” said ho, ‘ 'but I have no longer
the power.”
She sprang upon him and tore from
him the knife he still held in his hand.
"But with that,” she cried, "one
ought to be able to cut that accursed
canvas. She looked up at the globe
of gas above them.
“Try it,” said Oliver, coldly. Cling
ing to the cordage she put one foot on
the edge of the basket and tried to
raise herself by her slender wrists. But
she turned giddy and fell back pant
ing. The knife, escaped from her
hands, tumbled over and over through
the air. She paused a moment—col
lapsed—crushed.
“See," said Oliver, mockingly, “the
noon sun heats the balloon and hurries
us along. We shall soon arrive now."
He threw back his head, looking at
the Bky as if hallucinated.
' Suddenly, while he was speaking,
the young woman made a gesture of
delight, despair brightened her face.
Slowly, softly she carried her hand to
her pocket and drew out an object
which she held from his possible view.
Then she quickly naised hor arm and
two detonations resounded.
“You reckon without your host, my
dear Oliver!” she cried with a laugh ot
triumph. “A good Californian never
travels without her revolver, and she
is right!”
Pierced through and through by the
two balls the balloon began to fall.
Oliver leaned over the basket-rim.
“So be it!” said he. “We are over
mid-ocean. Blue for blue, we shall
still die in the azure.”
The balloon was visibly losing gas.
The swiftness of its downward course
was startling, Oliver, himself suffo
cated, closed his eyes. And in the
silence of the empty sky the balloon
pursued its dizzy descent.
* * * *
My Dear Oliver—I have just heard*
about you. They tell me you are better.
I am glad. I am recovering alto. Cer
tainly you will learn this with pleasure.
• I have rewarded the fisherman who
picked us up in a dead faint, both of us,
and brought us in his boat to shore. Here
is a poor devil who can say without meta
phor that bis good luck fell from the skies!
Traveling, my friend, is decidedly too
dangerous in your company. I begin to
believe that some day or other you will
bring me misfortune. Excuse this super
stition—you know I have lived where they
believe in the evil eye, and allow me,
henceforth, to pursue alone my voyage
into blue distance.
Believe me, my dear assassin, without
too much bitterness. (
Yours, Laura.
.1 Czar Hotelkeeper.
•The most autocratic hotelkeeper In
the world is in Orland, Colusa Co. I
was preparing to go out one night,
when he said to me:
“Be back by 9 o’clock.”
“Why?” I asked.
1 'Because, I go to bed at that time,
and if you are not back you won’t get
in, that’s all.”
“Give me my key,” I said, "I won’t
stop in such a hotel.”
“Oh, ho! you won’t, won’t youP
Where else are you going? There is
no other hotel in this here town, no
other stable and no other store. You
can’t buck agin me. You be back,
now, by 8:80 p. m.”
I looked at the old brute, and con
cluded I had better stay. I sat down
and he came around and affably
questioned me. “Look here,” I said,
“I have to stay in your hotel, but I
don’t want to be bothered with you.
So keep your questions to yourself”
"I’ve half a mind to tell you Jo leave.
Can’t I speak to a man in*my own
house?”—Globe-Democrat.
Some Hope Still.
An editor at Sandusky has promised
to pray. Gentlemen who have consid
ered the profession without hope will
please revise their estimates_Colum
bus Dispatch.
A Sharp Cot.
A little girl, in order to prove that
it is wrong to cut off the tails of horsei
and dogs, quoted the scriptural injunc
tion, “What God has joined together
let no man put asunder. "—Table Talk.
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
A PLEA FOR PURE WATER AND
PLENTY OF IT.
Farm Animals Suffer for Lack of it—The
Orohard—How to Dress Calves
—Pork Pointers and House
hold Helps.
Pure Water.
Pure water ought to be where the
stock can get at it at all times, par
ticularly during warm weather, as it
very often makes the difference be
tween gain or loss. A half-dozen
times a day is not too often to offer
water to stock any time of the year.
During the »hotb weather of summer
farm animals suffer more from lack of
proper care in watering than they could
from neglect in the matter of food.
In truth, the best pastures and most ap
proved systems of feeding cannot give
good results when there is lack of at
tention or inadequate facilities in wa
tering. Keep water constantly be
fore them, advises the Ohio Farmer.
The best posted farmers take a bar
rel of water to the Bold when plow
ing. fitting land, cultivating, haying
or harvesting, or any work whero it
is necessary to be away from water a
half day, and offer the horses some
every hour or two, also bathing the
head and nostrils with a sponge. The
jug containing water for the men can
bo kept cool by setting in the barrel
of water. A barrel with one head
out, set in the wagon, then filled with
pure well water and covered with old,
clean blankets or gunny sacks, will
keep cool a long time. By watering
often, horses will do very much more
work without fatigue or overheating.
Having practiced it for years, I know
this to be true; besidea the conscious
ness of having used “man's best
friend" right ought to be worth some
thing. What a guilty feeling one
ought to possess who has given horses
long drives, or obliged them to work
five or six hours until they are so be
side themselves with thirst as to drink
large quantities of water at a draught
Besides, it upsets the wholo animal
organization because of the forced
draft on the water already stored in
the system, and the best care iD other
respects proves futile. Horses will
not drink to excess at any time if it is
offered to them often. Another
thing—no matter how warm a horse
may be^ it is always safe, in fact very
desirable^ to give some wator. say six
or ten swailowa and more if the ex
ercise is to be coutin-ued.
As regards watering before and
after feeding, Prof. Sanborn reports,
after two carefully conducted experi
ments, that there is very little if any
thing in the theory that watering
immediately after feeding causes the
food to be washed or forced out of the
stomach into the intestines, whero it
will not receive the benefits from the
gastric juices of the stomach to aid
digestion. Prof. Sanborn concludes
that it “seoms advisable to water
both before and after feeding, ” which
logically means—give water when
ever needed.
The use of abundance of pure, cold
water In the dairy is plainly import
ant Cows giving milk not only need
water in lurgo quantities, but often,
and should always, particularly in hot
weather, be where they can help
themselves. About 85 per cent of
milk is water, and the process of
secroting the lacteal fluid is ever go
ing on; then there is the waste of
water by perspiration. and the
needs of the many functions of
the system to bo supplied,
at all times, if paying results
are desired. If the water supply is
deficient the cows bocome restless,
feverish and fretful. One day will
often show a marked decrease in
quantity, and a flow of milk once lost
not easily regained. A dairy cow
will show a falling off under circum
stances where an animal not in milk
may take on flesh. On the most arid
lands found in sections of Texas, do
mestic cows do not give hardly any
milk, while steers not un frequently do
fairly well taking on flesh during dry
weather. This shows that cows per
haps above all other animals require
more particular attention as to water
supply. In winter the water should
be slightly warmer for cows; though
where water is taken from deep wells
it is never cold enough to do any
harm. Hut water that is down near
the freezing point must have the
••cold edge taken off” if cows are ex
pected to make the best use of their
milk-producing powers.
Hogs require a great deal of water,
and it would bo better wisdom to givo
them pure, cool water than to stuff
them with foul •-swill" as so many
farmers do. Pure water, clean quar
ters and food make the best pork.
Sheep are neglected in the way of in
sufficient water more than any other
of the domestic animals. Formerly
it was quite a common belief that
sheep could get along without water
when on pastures and • oat snow" in
winter; but no one now who makes
sheep raising a profitable business
lets them go without good water and
plenty of it. Proper watering is cer
tainly more economical and humane
than losing the benefits from feeding
because of neglect in this lina
How to Ure»H Calves.
Calves from three to six weeks old,
and weighing about one hundred
pounds, or say from eighty to* ono
hundred and twenty pounds are the
most desirable weights for shipment
The head should be cut out so as to
leave the side of the head on the
skin. The logs should bo cut off at
the knee joint The entrails should
be removed, excepting the kidneys;
the liver, lights and heart should be
taken out Cut the carcass open from
the neck through the entire length—
from head to bumgut If this is done
they are not so apt to sour and spoil
during hot weather. Don’t wash the
carcass out with water, but wipe out
I With a dry cloth. Don’t ship until
iho animal heat Is entirely out of the
body, aDd never tie the earcaes up in
a bag. as this keeps the air from circu
lating, and makes the meat more
liable to become tainted.
Mark for shipment by fastening a
shipping tag to the hind leg. Calves
under fifty pounds should not be
shipped, and are liable to be seized
by the health officers as being unfit
for food. Merchants, tom are liable
to be fined if found soiling these
slunks for violatiort of tho law. Very
heavy calves, such as have been fed
upon buttermilk, never sell well in
our market—they are neither veal nor
beef. —Farmers Voice.
In the Orchard.
The value of advice for fruit trees
is generally proportioned to the
umount of territory which it is in
tended to apply to. When it becomes
so general that it includes all sections
of tho country, it is of little real value
to tho professional, although it may
do inestimable good to the beginner.
A great deal of the advertised ac
counts of wonderful trees and success
with them are from sections of the
country entirely different from where
tho purchaser lives, and if buying
from tho far-away nurseryman we must
take the trees as we get them. They
havo been accustomed, probably, to a
rich, heavy soil, and they are now to
be transferred to a light, poor soil.
In the process of digging the roots
have very likely been mutilated and
cut, and in the shipment to us they
have been injured in other ways. It
is moro than one can expect of the
best grown trees to respond quickly
and satisfactorily under such condi
tions. If tho trees are properly dug
I and shipped, and tho soil and climate
to which they are transplanted are the
same, wo may expect success from tho
trees. But those risks are generally
at the bottom of the widely diverse re
ports from orchardists concerning the
success aud failure of some of tho
finest varieties of fruit trees.
The propagation of a fruit tree is
tho simplest thing in the world if one
will study it for a year or two, and
when one considers this it seems a
wonder that there is not a small
nursery attached to every orchard.
One can buy a few trees to start with,
but after that his own nursery ought
to supply him with all the young seed
lings needod. It may bo occasional
ly that ho will want to add some new
variety to the orchard, add a young
seedling will have to bo shipped from
a distance: but as a general rule he
can depend upon his own nursery to
supply the orchard with new trees.
In this nursory tho starting work is
tho most difficult, and it takes so long
to raise the trees from tho seed; but
this may bo obviated by buying tho
stocks in bud. <Tr his root grafts from
the nurseryman. Along with these,
however, the seeds of new trees
should be planted. In this way the
old orchard will be replenished with
new trees constantly, and new or
chards bo planted whenever needed.
A homo-managed nursery affords
many good things. It accustoms the
owner to the needs and knowledge of
the trees from their youth up, so that
he will know how to manage them
later. He can prune the trees with
his pen-knifo when they need it every
year, and no heavy pruning then will
ever be needed. The very best trees
then can be selected for planting and
the old ones discarded. The trans
planting can also be done carefully
aud without injuring the roots or stock
of tho trees, and they will get a better
start in the orchard. In many other
respects the homo nursery is of im
portance, and so valuable is it that
many of tho orchards now exhibiting
dead and dying trees in them would
take on a bettor aud healthier ap
pearance if the owners grew their own
trees. When we buy trees from
commercial nurserymen we have to
cut them back at planting so that no
growth at all is expected the first
season.. This is obviated- however,
when the trees are taken direct from
tho homo nursery, for they put on a
good growth immediately, and from
tho date of their transplanting they
increase in size. — American Cultivator.
j Pork Pointer*. •
| Soaked corn is pood feed for young
! pigs.
A well-fed and cared for pig Is not
hard to restrain.
Pur a fresh water from the well is
better than running.
When fed in any one place a feed
ing floor becomes a necessity.
Young hogs will not make the most
profitable growth in.a dry lot
When hogs once get behind it is
hard to get them started again.
The boar should have abundant
exercise and a good variety of food.
A freshly farrowed sow should n6t
be fed too much rich food for a few
days.
A race of hogs on the farm will im
prove or degenerate according to the
owner.
Household Helps.
It is best to save all egg shells to
settle coffee.
Keeping a pan of water in the oven
will prevent fowl from scorching.
To freshen salt fish, lay it skin side
upt and always in an earthen vessel.
A holder attached to a long double
tape that may be looped around the
apron band saves stops and burned
fingors.
Finger marks may be romoved from
varnished furniture by rubbing well
with a very little sweet oil upon a
soft rag.
Norfolk jackets, changed a little,
but still Norfolk jackets, are made
with the pleats in the back stitched
down, but the throe on either side of
the front allowed to hang looser irora
the shoulder. \
A good way to ventilate a cellar W
to extend from it a pipe to tha'
kitchen chimney. The draught in
the chimney will carry away the
gases which would otherwise find
their way into the rooms above.
