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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Advocate, 1900-2-15, Page 2enQe essaw AANCE. ee---e--edeeneee.-J(Ifiefel c.werRANCE eeiNTE ee--neegZee-Te-'F'iesit COPYRieselln I6S BY erfeie fee,UTMOR. CHAPTER I. Tem mamas on mums. -0(Ihave great lawns for you, Mary, tNptaiu Conway has been here." "Captain Conway? Yesl And what 'did he want mother? *What news did he bring?'' Mary Hamilton took off her black .etraw hat as she spoke end pushed the 'Feair away from her forehead with a tveary estare. Mrs. Hamilton busied eterself -with the simple tea table, assidu- ously arranging plates, setting the tea- spoons straight in the saucers, laying the butter knife at an exact angle and emoothiug away an infinitesimal crease in the white cloth. s "He—be--he infecTo itigge—stion 'nee, Mary," she began nervously. ; "A suggestion Mary Hamilton sat 'down and eyed her mother expectantly. I eeleou don't mean that he proposed to !Fon, mother l" she exclaimed. ' "Something very like it,'' replied "Mrs. Hamilton, still keeping herself 'eery busy with the table. For a moment there was silence be- itween them Mary Hamilton sat look- ing with astonishment at her mother, rand at last she spoke. "1 suppose it wouedn't be a had thing in the mere way of money. moth - she said elowly. "But—but--oh, talother, dear, you could never bring yourself to do it!' For the first time Mrs. Hamilton Jatrned and looked etraight at her daughter "My dear child," she ex - "You can't mean that you would We Trie to marry Captain Conway!" claimed, "you don't understand( There is no question of my marrying ;Captain Conway. It is—at least he )fsever—besides. my devotion to yonr !poor father's memory should have kept you from jumping to any such concln- ;mime. Captain Conway is a good man, land any woman might be honored in marrying him. But my heart is in the grave. and—and. besides, he did not propose—he does not propose that I should consider the question of becom- elag his wife." Mary Hamilton stared open eyed at tear naother. "Dear mother," she said gently. "I am tired tonight. The chil- dren were very troublesome today, and ehe rooms seemed more stuffy than visual. I feel confused. Do tell me just what Captain Conway did suggest to Mrs. Hamilton began to pour out the tea, with a vehemence which showed how perturbed in mindshe was. "Your poor father always said that I was in- judicious in telling news," she cried in honest self abasement. "I ought to have Eeon that you were tired. Here is ,Four tea, darling Drink it at once and have another cup to go on with. The tenth is. Mary, Captain Conway has flueried nie till 1 hardly know whether eta stending on nay head or my heels, and—and I never gave a thought to your being tired out with that hateful echoot. Oh, to think that my daughter ohould ever had been a board school mistress, not one remove from a na- tional school. and your father a clergy- man in holy orders!' "My dear mother, do explain your- self, ' said Mary, a fearralnense of com- ing evil gradually overspreading her. "Oh. my darling.'" cried the older -woman, "it's all over now—all the !drudgery, all the pinching and the nip- ping! f've said little or nothing because Fon were slaving your youth away in that„horrid, degrading school, bra now may speak, now I may say how bit- terly and cruelly i have felt it all. the humiliations, the—the"-- "Dear, there can be no degradation or humiliation in honest work," said Mary patiently and yet with a dignity which sat becomingly on her tired young face. "And what do you mean ety its being over? Not surely that Cap- tnen 'Conway wants to marry me." Yee, yon! And. oh, my darling, it Teas made me so happy," Mrs. Emil - tea cried, "almost delirious with hap- -M' dear mother," cried Mary, bolt- eng a piece of bread and butter with what was almost a convulsion, "you can't mean that you would like rae to faaarry Captain Conway!' "Why not?' asked the mother blank - Ly wf couldn't do it I" declared the girl 0,i3ratly. eeejenicIn't do it!" Mrs. Hamilton's wereeemagese altnost to a scream. "Couldn't eflo ! "Why, dear heaven, surely you enoeld i€ ;or dream of flying in the face Pietevidence by refusing hitn!" wenertainly I woulcl!" "Hes is rieh e" cried Mrs, Hamilton. "Ile is old enongh to be my father,' Mary "And 1 doubt if he is rich.' "Captain of one of the largest steaffn fethiee afloat, ''' flrotested Mrs. Hamilton "110 ie eNCe&C...1.1.1gly well Off, He ct n proeide for you :idequately. He has : n excellent poeition''— "I don't— cuulcln't—never could love hini Mary buret out "Perbaps not; but you an respect him!" cried the mother. "I don't know that I should even do that much," Mary returned. Then she suddenly chisped her halide together and looked appealingly at the excited wain - an opposite to her. "Oh, mother! Don't you understand why I cannot do this thing? Have you been so unbappy in our little home that you want to sell me to the first bidder? I've been so contented in working for you. Elas it all been for nothing?" "Working for me! Mrs. Hamilton exclaimed indignantly. "Working for me. indeed I And what have I done all these years? Look at my hands, work- ed to the bone, cooking, ecrubbing, sewing, contriving, making my own bits of clothes and never a place to show them in in this desolate wilder- ness of bricks and mortar! No one to associate with, living a pensioner on your bounty, without pleasures, inter- ests or change of any kind! And then to have your work thrown in my teeth, indeed "Oh, mother!" "It's all very well to say, 'Oh, moth- er!' But I'm speaking the truth. All these years I have struggled and striven tor you. And now. when you have a chance of letting me end nay days in peace, you turn up your nose at a man whom any woman might be honored by marrying." "You married for love yourself,' said Mary in a very low voice. Mrs. Hamilton caught op the words and echoed them in the high pitched, querulous accents of a thoroughly selfish and superficial person. "Married for love," she echoed shrilly. "Yes. and what did love ever do for me? I mar- ried for love. married on Me80 a year, drudged on it, slaved. toiled, almost starved on it Don't talk to tne about marrying for love, Mary—love in a cot- tage is a will-o'-the-wisp that leads many people aetray, and your poor fa- ther and 1 were among the number. Was it natural, right, proper, that he should die at 35, a wornout prema- turely old man, leaving inc helpless, homeless, penniless, to struggle on as best I could. to drag you up as best I could? That was what marrying for love did for him, poor fellow! He never would OGVD it. He died with his hand in mine—his last words 'The Lord will provide'—and now when provision has corue it is only to be rejected." Mary Hamilton sat still while this inconsequent torrent of recollection and vexation poured from her mother's lips. At the vision of the red faced, burly, bluff sailor being regarded as a provision sent by the Lord to take her from an independent life of honest 'work to one of degrading idleness, she almostlaugh- ed aloud, but she resolutely choked down the inclination and spoke quietly and reasonably to the excited woman on the other side of the table. "Dear mother," she said gently, "cannot you for my sake endure this life a little longer'? After midsummer we shall be better off. Even now we can well afford to have a woman in to do the rougher work—it has always been for you to decide how the money shall be spent For my sake, dear?" And why not for mine?" asked the mother fiercely. "Listen! He has laid all his plans before me. You will have a charming house and garden, a couple of good maidservants a handsome housekeeping purse, an ample allowance for your dress aud pocket money. There will always be room for me—I am to live with you—to give the benefit of my advice, tny experience in house- keeping and all such things. Yon will have as much society as you care to take—there will be no anxiety, no thinking about the rent or bow to get seven days' dinners out of a certain sum. You will have don't mother; please don't!' the girl cried. "I. know all these things are a temptation to you, poor dear. It . • must be to you just like opening a prison door and seeing a lovelyview over which you may walk forever on one condition But the condition, dear mother, the ondition1 Think! It is that of reaching the fair pathways over your own child's body. Oh, worse, worse—over her very soull It means the sacrifice of all that is best in your child's life—the giving up of her free- dom, her honorher ambition, of all her better self. Don't aelt me to do it, dear. Pray, pray don't I will work—oh, how 1 will work! How thankfully and grate- fully 1 will bring you every farthing that I make, so that you ntay be more content, lees straitened. Motherclear, speak for me! For my father's sake, say that you won't urge this upon me." But the words of appealglowing, passionate, hearth:11 as they were, failed to touch the shallow natrire of the woman who in her day had married for love .and had found the dinner -of herbs turn to dust and ashes between her teeth. She rested her head dejected- ly mien her hand and gave several long drawn sighs of misery, calculated to move the heart of a stone, "Dear mother!" , Intarnanred Mary from the other side of the table. But Mrs. Hamilton shook her head resolutely, No Mary, it'S LOUSE) your saying 'Dear mother l' It's'worth neat., ' mg; It Means nothing, I can't make you, niarey Captain Conway; indeed, I've no \vie -1i to do so. 1 Cali't melte you see went Is beet for you, although yOu, might trust yette own mother to give you good advice on such a oubject. I can do nothing but bear my disappoint- ment with resignation and fortitude. After all, it is only 011e IDOTO bitter pill to swallow, ODE 11101'0 drop Of bitterness in my cep of humiliation and self sacri- fice, 111 say nothing more, Mary, only —only—don't prate to me about love and devetion. I've proved the valne Of both today. And, after all my struggles to give you the best of education, it's heed, it's heartbreeking." A sudden thought tlashed across Mary Hamilton's mind of certain clerical charities which had from the time of her father's death provided her mother with the wherewithal of living, of the great institution wherein she had re- ceived her education feee of cot to her mother and because of the position in life which her father had occupied, but she said nothing; she felt that it would be useless. "So my dream ends," said Mrs. Hamilton bitterly. "It says somewhere in the Bible, 'Her children shall rise up and can her blessed.' It's a fallacy, nowadays at least; for veneration for parents has gone out of fashion." Mary Hamilton sat back in her chair wondering whether it would be best to let the storm pass in silence or not, Mrs. Hamilton got up from her place and went blindly toward the door. I say blindly because she went stumbling- ly and groped her way like a person whose eyes were full of tears. There were, however, no tears in her eyes, bett a strange sightlessnese, as if she had suddenly walked into a heavy sea fog. Then at the door she stumbled and feu, not the sharp fall of a person trip, ping by accident. but the huddled up dropping to the gronod of one unable any longer to keep her feet Mary sprang from her seat with a cry. "Mother—mother—you are ill!' she burst out. , The answer came thick and indist tinct. "Dying, dying! You have--kill- ed—nie l" The girl tried to lift the prostrate woman, but found herself powerless She sank upon her knees in an agony of apprehension. "No—no—mother; don't say that! Let me help you—only try to get rip! I'll do anything to please you—mother —mother!" CHAPTER IL DONE IN A MOMENT. When Mary Hamilton found that her mother had slipped into utter uncon- sciousness, she ran to their nearest neighbors and begged them to come in and aid her. So her mother was with no little difficulty lifted from the ground and carried np to her bedroom, and a doctor was quickly sent for. His fiat was given without the smallest hesita- tion. "It's a stroke, " he said, "but it might have been much worse; for .1. stance, if it had been on the other side it would probably have proved fatal al- most immediately. As it is, with care, your mother will probably recover and be quite or very nearly herself again." With care! Mary Hamilton's heart went down to zero as she heard the two little simple words which give hope to some anxious watchers of the sick, but which open out endless possibilities of unattainable needs to those who are poorly placed in the world. In her case it meant having an experienced person to tend her mother by day and night alike, for, be the circumstances cf life what they would, her work naust go On just the same. With the best intentions in the world she could not be in two places at once Yet., how was she to af- ford'skilled attendance for her mother? It was a terrible question to answer. At this point the advantages of the alliance which the sick woman had been pressing npon her daughter came proeni- nently into view. During the CUM'S° of the evening Captain Conway arrived, eager and anxious as to his answer, only to be naet with the mournful news that MTS. Hamilton had been seized with a paralytic stroke and was still unconscious. Elis first words were a suggestion. You will want a nurse.' "I shall want some one to look after my mother while I am away at my "Z can't tet vou," began Men/. work,", Mary admitted. "For tonight Mrs. Robinson has kindly promised to stay with me, and tomorrow I must find some nice, respectable person"— "I will send in a proper nurse at once," said the sailor, speaking in rough but kindly accents. ((Skilled nursing is hail the battle in such casea as these, I never did believe in make- shift nursing. It's the very—the very mischief." He had been going to use another word, but changed it out 'of deference to Mary with a very percep- tible effort over the substitution, "I can't let yott," began Mary, at which he fent up his hand imperatively, "Now, Miss Mary, none of that if you please. I'm your friend, and friends are allowed to enalte themeelves useful to 01104110111er in timee of trou- ble ell the world over. I'll take it all on myself and will account to your mother for the liberty I'm taking when she' S well enough to discuss such thinge. So now be off and will send in a suitable nurse at once. GoodnYi Good bless you, my dear!" He roughly pressed her hand and was gone ha a moment, leaving her stand- ing loolciug desolately after him, She shuddered as she thought of hina as her possible, nay probable, 'husband; he was so bluff and burly and grizzled, 'so loud of voice, so red of face, so dominant. He jarred upon every fiber of her being. tinted was useless to fight longer against fate, even in the pereon of a man who was utterly and entirely distasteful to her. She had struggled with all her might against the sacrifice of her soul's best mstincts, but to no purpose. The threads were drawing closer and closer around her, and if her mother recovered and still demanded the complete sacri- fice of herself against which she had so passionately fought she had given her word and must carry it through to the very end. (Te be continued.) PUMPKINS FOR COWS. Mow Every Part of the Vegetable May Be Utilized. Judiciously plamed la the cornfield, a crop of putnpkins can be ral.secl as a sort of double crop that will make a most excellent food for cows in winter, says a correspondent of The Ainevican Cultivator. The value of root crops is well known in helping to regulate the bowels of the stock when fed heavily on grain in winter. Pumpkins come under this same class, and they should be fed for about the same purpose. Nature seems to have desiguecl the pumpkins for the cornfield, for one can raise just enough to feed with the crop of corn produced on the same land. Ili addition to this, the pumpkins fur- nish excellent food for chickens. It is better for the stock to have the seeds removed, and It is better for the poultry to have the seed crushed, ground or broken. The feeding of pumpkins will largely decide their mer- its. To let the stock eat them in the tield is a great mistake. Gather them all for winter food and wait until other succulent food has disappeared. Then commence to feed the pumpkins grad- ually, increasing the quantity until the full diet is reached. One large pump- kin or two small ones per day for each animal is a liberal diet and sufficient to keep the system in excellent condi then. They should not be fed in large pieces at all, for there is dzInger of the cows getting choked with a big lump. Cows actually break off and loosen their teeth trying to break up pump- kins fed to them in large pieces. It is no difficult work to break the pumpkins up and then chop them fine with a sharp spade. Put them in a wooden tub, and In a few minutes a free use of the spade will reduce them to small pieces, which the cows can eat with relish. When first broken open, scoop out all of the inside part, thus remov- ing the seedswhich sometimes prove dangerous to the cows. Put the seeds and pulp in which they are buried into a sausage grinder and grind them up into small pieces. The seeds will thus all be crushed, so that the chickens can eat them without danger. They will also eat the pulp itself. This practice . is certainly recommended by the chick- ens. whicb enjoy the feast and look for- ward to the ground pumpkin seeds ev- ery day. Every part of the pumpkin is thus utilized, and one can obtain a tvinter's supply of good food for both stock and chickens from the cornfield without tnuch extra cost for labor. Those who do not plant pumpkin seeds freely in the cornfield lose far more than they realize and miss a chance to get a double profit from the land. Edam Cheese. "While tbe Edarn cheese is a familiar visitor on the table," said a grocer, not every one knows whence It comes' or how its cannon ball proportions and gay coloring have been achieved," says The New England Grocer. "The north- ern part of Holland is the seat of the Edam cheese industry and the conse- quent cleanliness of the relish is, there - fora doubly assuredle tnaking it the fresh cow's milk Is carefully strained and the rennet added. As soon as the milk curdles the whey is drawn oft and the curd, thoroughly kneaded, is press- ed into taiolds. "This process is repeated until the whey has all been extracted and the curd is comparatively dry. It Is then wrapped in a linen cloth and kept for 10 or 12 days until quite solid. Then the cloth is removed and the cheese put into salt lye. Afterward a little more dry salt Is sprinkled on the cheese until the maker thinks It is salt enough to insure its keeping. It is next put into a vessel and washed with whey and scraped to remove the white crust It is next carried into a cool room and laid on shelves, where it is frequently turned. "The ripening process lasts from two to three months, the round balls grow- ing the tine yellowish or reddish color peculiar to Edam cheese. The cheeses Intended to be exported to this country are rendered still 'more brilliant by dyeing the rind with a vegetable dye." Unprofitable Game. . , City Sportsrao.n—Any game here? Jerseyman—Plenty o' snipe. "Snipe! It doesn't pay to hunt them. Too small!" . "Too small ter cook?" "Too small to hlt."—New York Week- ly. A Careful Critic, The Playgoer—How do you manage always to look at a play from the two extremes? The Critic—Oh, I take turns looking through both ends of my opera glasses. —Philadelphia Bulletin. lelaineteene-Iedeelgineeel•-lelee-laineeelgiele-le DAIRY •• ...Some of the Little Phlegm That T Lewitt The appearance of the butter has a good deal to do with the sale of it. If the tubs are clean and bright, the tins evenly spaced and properly nailed on, the stenciling neatly done and every tub just alike on the outside, and if, when the buyer opens a tub, he finds the packing neatly done and the right quantity of salt evenly sprinkled over the circle, he is more apt to make a purchase, even if the flavor is not quite as quick as another lot that has a slov- enly appearance. The question is often asked, "What Is close skimming for a, separator?" Until we had the Ohlson test bottle, writes G. B. Lawson in The Creamery Journal, testing the sleimmilk was something like telling the temperature of the cream by sticking the auger into It to find out if tbe cream was cold enough for churning, as our grandmothers used to do. I remember the time when we used to churn and never thought about using a thermom- eter, but that was with a little (lash churn on the farm, when we only made butter for home use. Now, with all the modern appliances, we can ten to a fraction of a hairbreadth how much butter fat we waste in the skimmilk am] also in the buttermilk. When the separators first came into general use, it used to be considered close skim- ming if only two-tenths were left in the skimmillt, and that was a great saving in butter fat from the old style of deep.setting by the gravity system unless you hat] plenty of ice to use in the water. But after the dairy school was started the professors found out that with a loss of two-tenths per cent of butter fat in the skimmille when a creamery received 10,000 pounds of milk a day the annual loss would be more than the price of the best sepa- rator on tbe tnareet, and that was too much for the patrons of the creamery to lose. Now, with the improved sepa- rators, the butter maker who cannot run them and leave not more than a trace of butter fat in the neck of the Ohlson test bottle is not running the separators as they should be run and as they can be if' they are properly operated. In doing close skimming there are three things that must be taken into consideration—feed, speed and temperature. As it is centrifugal motion that does the skimming, the higher the speed the better the skim- ming will be ttp to the rated speed of the separator. 01 course they can be speeded too high. but I find it IS a ' good plan to run them up to the full speed of the manufacturer's guarantee and keep them at that speed all the time the milk is running through tbem. Most makes of separators will do the best work if the nailk is at about 8C degrees, and at this time of the year, when you have the most strippers' milk, it is better to be higher than low- er. If you want to do close work, it is better not to feed too fast. Not many separators' will skim clean up to their rated capacity. It is better to keep under than to go over their rated ca- pacity. 1 saw some skin-m:111k tested lately that only showed one-third of a gauge on the Ohlson test bottle. As each gauge ma the test bottle repre- sents one -twentieth of 1 per cent, that Is skimming about as close as can be done with a•Imost any kind of separa- tor. The speed of the separator at tbe time was 5,000 pounds per minute, temperature of milk 80 degrees, and it was run through at the rate of 2,000 pounds per hour. Danish Butter. Professor eIarsliall of the Michigan Agricultural college has just returned from it three mouths' visit to Den- mark. He says, after alluding to the high reputation which Danish butter has In Efagland, "The high quality of Denmark's butter is dependent upon (1) cleanliness in milking and in all butter tuakMg operations; (2) pasteuri- zation of the cream, which is at the present time practically universal; (3) the rational use of starters; (4) careful supervision of feeds for milk cows; (5) the adoption of scientific practices in the creameries; (6) the stimulus offered by their butter shows; (7) the favora- ble location of the country; (8) the ab- solute control of export .trade." That last item, we think-, is of no small im- portance, and if the butter and cheese sent from this country had all been in- spected and the Imitations and ladle packed butter and filled cheese had been prohibited from exportation and only the best grades sent out our dairy product would now have had a good reputation fairly won on its merits. What a Creamery Doers. There are four creameries contiguous to Ackley, Ia., and The World of that place says of the benefit to a com- munity of a creamery: The operation of a well conducted creamery In a community where It was before un- known works a revolution In all direc- tions on the farm. It lightens the la- bors of the wife and daughter; It se- cures a month's certain cash income; It restores impoverished , acres; it means more and better pigs, more and better calves, a more equal distribu- tion of farm work all the year round. It will do more for a community than a new railroad and will without fail lift a chattel mortgage and down at the heel grain raiser into a plane of independence and comfort, while it and what naturally ,grows out of suet) a system of ngriettlture will vitalize his depleted soil' and In a few years double its productive capacity. This Is neither theorizing norfanclful spec illation, but a plain statemept of came and effect. It has been done and Is being done all over the west. PLANT FOOD EXPERIENCE. Union Is Streni.viii—Stable Manure For Warp and Fertilizer For Filling.. That "judicious use of high grade fertilizers pays, with the exception of such ruinously dry seasons as this last, W hen it would Make little difference what plant food was used," is the opinion of an American Agriculturist writer, who saye: lo nis, opinion, the best results are se - maven 03' combining both stable ma- eure ana fOl'tiliViel'S. My ideal way' where circumstances will permit is to plow in a lightdreesing of manure for he Wat'p aml harrow or rake in a top dressing of good concentrated fertilizer tor the filling. (liven a favorable sea - eon and circumstances, crops thus en- riched should be tuade to pay If they can be profitable under any conditions. I think this statement applies to all maeket garden crops and perhaps to the coarser field crops as well. The cost et getting the large quanti- ty or manure used by market garden- ers from city stables, even when locat- ed near cities, is very great, and the labor of overhauling horse manure and preventing' its burning or fire flinging and Olin applyiug to the laud when properly rotted is decidedly expensive. 1-10CW much fertilizer should be used per acre ofcourse depends' upon the condition and fertility of the land. If I were to use without manure on the ttverage farm land, 1 would apply at least 1,000 pounds per acre for corn and 1,500 for potatoes and a ton, or even more for most vegetables. Less would answer for beans, peas, toma- toes, parsnips and possibly some other market garden crops, but for cabbage, beets, onions and other heavy feeders e ton is little enough, especially when to be followed by celery, lettuce, spin- ach or other fall crops. When supple- mented by the manure dressing, half the amount will do. I am basing my, estimate on high grade fertilizers, in dry seasons when ram is so long delayed and first crops badly injured or ruined by the drought the second crop receives the full benefit of the spring application of fertilizers. We had this fully demonstrated in a crop of celery after a first crop of beets and peas on a piece of. dry, gravelly soil, where eve have seldom attempted to raise celery. We liberally top dressed with a high grade special fertilizer aft- er plowing la a, light dressing of ma- nure. The beets and peas were in- jured by the dry weather, but the cel- ery was as fiue as any on the farm, and we feel sure we are indebted to the fertilizer for the good crop. I have raised good early cabbages on light soil, setting early and applying a handful of cabbage fertilizer when set; also again when hoeing. The applica- tion of fertilizers on the surface 02 the soil, harrowed or raked in, gives the crop a quick, healthy start and fre- quently brings it to maturity ahead of the usual summer drought. Nitrogen Needs Intelligent Tile. The resulth of wheat tests in Vir- ginia, considered by the station from all standpoints, "strongly emphasize the danger attending the unintelligent or lavish use of nitrogen. This con- stituent is far the most costly of any and the greatest care is necessary M its use. Whenever possible the ni- trogen required by wheat, and these tests, clearly show that on our soils at least it is needed, should be given by plowing in green crops, especially clover and other leguminous plants. Green or even dried vegetable matters supply it more cheaply than it can be bought ill nitrogenous manures.The best results of recent agricultural sci- ence teach us that the farmer should get his nitrogen through the aid of such crops and supply his mineral ele- ments, phosphoric acid and potash, by applications of standard phosphatic and potassic manures. Among the best of these are muriate of potash, kainit and acid phoephates of high grade. "The soil on which our !hats were carried on Is fairly representative of large areas in the southwestern and valley sections of Virginia and the calcareous districts of other states, and their resells therefore admit of wide application.ch that the farmer should In these regions depend, as far as his wheat is concerned, chiefly upon acid phosphate—dissolved bone black, ground bone, phosphatic slag, etc.; Inas' be substituted for it—to which he may add, with reasonable hope of some slightly increased profit, potash. "For his nitrogen he should depend upon turning under vegetable matter or, if convinced by intelligent observa- tion or careful tests that his soil imite- diately needs nitrogen, he should Pep - ply dried blood, tankage or nitrate `of soda, economically and cautiously." Price of Hemp Doubled. "It is estimated that since the block- ade of Philippine ports went into ef- fect American farmers, who consume an immense amount of,twine for bind- ing grain, have paid an Increase of from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 for that article, vvhile shipbuilding colenee „,.. cerns have also paid many millions of 4' dollars more for cordage than before, as a result of the scarcity of hemp. "Sisal, which is imported from Mexi- co, cannot be satisfactorily substituted for hemp, It is said, particularly when , the cordage Is to bo used for maritime purposes, one reason being that sisal evill not stand salt water. Hemp 15 new 14 cents a pound, as against 6 cents be- fore the blockade went into effect," says the New York Herald. Weed,Ont the Uuelents CroPlierl• The man who produces a eaelety of vegetables to sell, in the cities and towns needs to keep a' close account With each crop raised. By this method alone can he know what crops are etm- ning him into debt If he keeps strict account, he will find that he has. some useless creppers. These uselesS ;moppet's merely take the 'fertility from , the land eat up the labor of the feral- , ,, sr and Alva 'nothing In ret,ura.