MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 223, 14 October 1873, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

How TO Bbbak 'Em. — The Couulry Gentleman luggests a way to prevent bens from eating their eggs. It is to fill an egg with a solution of pepper, and put the egg back in the nest. A Danbury man has tried this, and says it works like a charm. He put a pretty good dose of pepper in the egg, and placed it in the nest of the criminal. Pretty soon the hen came around and took hold. It was a brindle animal, with long legs, and somewhat conceited. It dipped in its bill and inhaled the delicacy. Then it came out doors. It didn't gallop out, wo don't mean, but it came out — came out to look at the scenery, and see if it was going to rain. Its mouth was wido open, and the feathers on the top of its head stood straight up. Then it commenced to go around the yard like a circus-horse. Once in a while it would stop and push out one leg in a tone of astonishment, and then holler ' Fire,' and start on again. The other hens came out to look on. Soon the hens from the neighbourhood came OTer the fence, and took up a position of observation. It was quite evident that the performance was something entirely new and unique to them. There is a good deal of human nature in hens. When they saw this hen dance around, and hare all the fun to itself, aad heard it shout ' Fire, 1 and couldn't see the conflagration themselves, they filled up with wrath, and of one accord sprang upon it, and before the Danbury man could interfere, the brindle hen with the long legs was among the things that were. He says the receipt is effectual. 'Rapid Pickling of Meat.— Roll the meat in a mixture of 16 ounces salt, \ ounce saltpetre, and 1 ounce sugar, so that all parts may be completely salted ; then wrap closely in a piece of cotton cloth previously well scalded and dried, and place in a porcelain or other vessel. The cloth is essential with small pieces, to retain the brine formed in contact with the meat. Alter about 16 hours, however, some brine will drain off into the bottom of the vessel, and it will be necessary then to turn the meat, still wrapped up, daily. A piece of six pounds, treated in this way for six days, then unwrapped and boiled, will be found quite palatable and sufficiently pickled. For larger quantities the cloth may be dispensed with, since the brine formed will be sufficient to cover the ma*s, provided the pieces are closely packed, and any unavoidable cavities filled with stones. A Dresden engineer proposes a method for increasing the durability of railroad ties, by nhich, he considers, they may be made to last four times as long as at present. The sleepers, of whatever kind of wood, are first allowed to dry for some tune in air, then are artificially dried in a hot chamber. They are ne^t introduced, while hot, into an impregnation apparatus containing heated coal tar, where they are impregnated thoroughly under pressure. Then they are eoa^d with sifted sand or conl ashes and allowed to dry. Every finsuro is carefully filled ; the nails used in fixing the sleepers are first dipped in hot eonl-tmr, and any part of the work which may be exposed is carefully coated. The inventor further states that wood thus prepared has been also used for housebuilding purposes, and with excellent results. The Levant Tunes relates that Mr J. L. HaHden, C E , Ottomun engineer of the province of Aleppo, who had charge of the electric light and other display* on a rccont fete night at Constantinople, on awakening the* next morning nits dwnni«d at discovering that he was total! \ blind— thu rrsu't, there can be no doubt, of watching the cl<^< ti io ii«;ht, which »as one of extraordinary power. Hii raed.cul .itlundant bnppily has reason to hope that in the coureo of time the patient* sight will be restored.

The Gazette dcs Campajtiet tayi Unit M. Hucjjhe has succeeded in" changing the common cowslip from its natural yellow to *n intense purple by merely transplanting it into richer earth. The color of pi mts cm be readily varied by mixing certain substances with tiie toil. Wood charcoal will darken the hue of dahlias, petunias, and hyacinths. Ombonate of soda turns the last mentioned flowers red, and phosphate of soda alters greatly the shades of many plants. Some men seom to be sent into the world for purposes of action only. Their faculties are all strung up into toil and enterprise ; their spirit and their frame are alike redolent of energy. They pause and slumber like other men, but it is only to recruit from actual fatigue; they occasionally want quiet, but only as a refreshment to prepare them for renewed exertion, not as a normal condition to be wished for or enjoyed for itself. They need rest, not repose. They invigorate and reflect but only to estimate the best means of attaining their ends or to measure the value of their undertakings against its coat ; they think, they never meditate. Their mission, their enjoyment, the object and condition of their existence is work ; they could not exist here without it ; they cannot conceive another life as desirable u ithout it. Their amount of vitality is beyond that of ordinary men ; they are never to be seen doing nothing; when doing nothing else they are alwajs sleeping. Happy souls [ Happy men, at least ! — Enigmas of Life. The Sawke's Bay Herald gives the following from it* Wellington correspondent :— " On the whole, T believe, he (Mr Vogel) is, more or less a paragon. Now-a-days all parties like him and respect him, and those who attack him do it without vice or acrimony. His Minister of Justice, however, they say, will be the death of him. I allude above to the passion for legislation on various matters which that gentleman has been to all appearance manifesting. Thi* supposed disposition of his drew down, naturally enough, numberless volhes of sarcasm and invective from the enemy. At last he could stand it no longer, and got up to make a personal explanation. It was an explanation with a vengeance ! It was, will it be believed, nothing less than thii, that, though be had brought down the bills in question, and though they had hia name at the back of them, he had neter id much as seen them till they were in print ' I leave your readers to conceive- of Mr Gilheu' terrier-like yelp of gratification as he seized on the unhappy admission, and eagerly pointed out the enormous absurdities it involved — an easytask, indeed, as what could be more absurd than the position of a responsible Minister who publicly declared himself thepuppet of an irresponsible wire-puller? It evoked, also,, the grave and dignified rebuke of Mr Stafford, who affects to come out, not in the character of a party leader, but, likeFox, of veteran and statesman; as well as the chorus of ■coldmg and derision from the minor performers in tho orchestra — from the growl of Mr Bunny's bassoon to the•queak of Mr Murray's, penny n lustle.'' Kipp always had an idea that he could invent a self-acting sewing machine ; and he did. He procured a steel-ribbon" spring about twenty feet long, and of sufficient power to run> a horse car. This he rigged on his wife's sewing machinewith a lot of dock work, and it appeared to him, when he finished the job that evening, that he had realized his hopesIf any sewing machine would go, that would ; so he wound 1 ' it up, ready for use in the morning, and" went to bed. At four o'clock Mrs Kipp roused him and told him to listen tothe burglars in the house. He listened and heard a most terrific racket over in the sitting room. It appeared to him that there must be a million or more burglars refreshing themielves with a prize fight,- so he loaded his gun, crept softly over, and peeped through a crack in the door- It was not burglars ; it was Mr Xipp's sewing machine. The peghad slipped, and that spring was having full play. It would ! rear the machine up on one end, and charge it three or fourtimes like a battering ram, against the glass front of the book case. Then it would wheel around and suddenly tear across the room, and butt up ferociously against the mantel piece ; and it would lie down and roll over oh the floor, and hammer the sofa, and boost the centre-table, and try to jam a bole through the wall, and endeavour to leap up on thachandelier. And as Kipp entered the- room it flew at him,, ■nd tore in and out between his legs, the wheel revolving, like fury all the time, and the spring gradually unwinding. And then Kipp retreated and waked the faxnly ; and got the mattress off the bed. Then they covered the machine and sat on it for a while, and finally pushed it out of the window into the yard, where Kipp piled boxes and ash-bar-rels and slop-buckets and fenee-pahngs on it to hold it still. But, all night, under the heap, it kept up a continual buzz, and snort and hum, so that the next door neighbour fired at it sixteen times with the impression that it was cats. Kipp. has sinco bought a new sewing-machine, and his wife runs it with her feet. He has abandoned the study of maciuneafor the present. Mr Mechi, the celebrated amateur farmer of Tiptree Hall, England, writes as follows on salt as a top-dressing : — "Common salt I have used the last twenty-five years at a topdressing, and am convinced of its advantages on drained and well-farmed land, especially on light land ; for where salt isused, the moisture of the air will be more abundantly appropriated and retained. About 5 o'clock, one fine summer's* morning, I noticed jJiat where the ialt had been sown the previous day every grain of salt had attracted to itself the dew, and formed on the surface of the ground a wet spot about the size of a sixpence, the ground being generally very dry. On our light lands it consolidates them, and makesthem esj.pcially firm and acceptable to the wheat plant, whose straw will stand firm and erect, although 4J to 5 feet long. It is also unfavorable to saline pianti, such as mangold, whose ashes contain 50 per cent, of salt. Like everything else, it has, lam sorry to lay, greatly risen in price. I observe that all crops seem to thrive well on land near salt water, especially where the land is drained. Lumps of rock, salt should always be placed in mangers for horses or cattle ; their instinct teaches them when to avail of it. The spring consolidation of light land, whtrt wheat is sown, by salting and heavy croi»killing, greatly benefits the crop ; very light hand hoeing should follow these operations, although frequently hoeing is scarcely required. Liebig, in his Natural laws of Husbandry, cap. xii., p. 335, correctly describes nitrate of soda and common ialt as ' chemical means for preparing the soil.' Referring to Ihe experiments, he says (p. 337) :—: — 1 In both these leriei of experiments, the crops of corn and. straw were remarkably increased by the addition of common, ■alt ; and it is scarcely necessary to repeat, that such an* augmentation could not possibly have taken place unless the soil had contained a certain quantity of phosphoric acid, silicic acid, potash, &c, capable of being brought iuto operation, but which, without common ialt, wasnot assimilable.' Liebig also lays (p. 840) : ' The grass of a. meadow which baa been manured with common salt is eaten by cattle with greater relish, and preferred to any other ; «o> that even from this point of view common salt deservesattention as a manure.' " A Chicago paper says : — " The windy beard of iEolu*. himself, and all his succedancous bags of atmosphere, beswept our segment of earth from long ere dawn of yesterday through a bitter twenty-four hours of extreme winteroes*. and physical and spiritual shiverings." — , ~S