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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9255, 8 January 1889, Page 5

; Among the curiosities shown in the American department of a certain exhibition was a spring chicken from a Yankee boarding-house. The chicken was taken to the guillotine one morning, but, when the heavy knife fell on its neck, the fowl gave a squawk, and, after one or two pulls, jerked its head away, and made back to the coop. The knife had to be sent for repairs. The Chicago Herald tells how a Georgia farmer thinned out the rats which ravaged his corn crib. He got a three-gallon jar, and half filled it with water. On the top of the water he placed a thick layer of cotton seed. The seed, so he argued, would attract the rats as a pleasant place to play; and, of course, the moment they touch the seed down they would go. The trap worked like a charm. The rats came ; they attempted the frolic act on the seed with the deceptive foundation; and, to use Mr. Kilgore's own words, he "caught a gallon and a-half of rats the firsb night," running the water to the top. , Amidst the drudgery of farm life ; the husbandman is apt to undervalue the importance to the world of his occupation. The bright and shining ploughshare is the measure of a nation's prosperity, and may ,be regarded as emblematic of its. civilisation and refinement; for, let the ploughshare rust and remain idle, and the" fields withhold their fruits, commerce ceases, and all industries are ended; the merchant, the mariner, and the artisan are plunged .An J : a sepulchre of ruin. r Herein lie? the power and value of agriculture. Without it,, a nation's * silver and gold become tinkling cymbals ; its ships and workshops and all its equipages of wealth are empty tokens of prosperity. ; ■ --/-