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'Ilorc Brain Power on the Farm. About the best use a. farmer can make of himself is, to devote tl'le present long nun..-" n, V winter evenings to an increase of hi} mental activity. Farms differ in their productivenese, mainly according to the amount of intelligence that is brought to 'thelr cultivation. Brain-power may be increased by a thorongh knowledge of the present condition of the farm, and its worth as a machine for making money. What crops have paid, and what have been raised and sold at a loss? What per cent. has it paid on the capital invusted '1’ In the cane of the gain, What secured it? Was it the manure applied, or the fre- quent tillage, or the extra amount of reinfall’l In the case of loss, was it the went of fertilizers, was the crop choked by weeds, or was the seed poor, and the crop damaged by the planting? This ac- ‘ counting for failures is as profitable as bragging over big crops, without making any record of the process of obtaining! them. Brain power may be increased by plan-5 nlng improvements. There may be sev- eral acres of peat-swamp or bog-meadow, producing only brush and beg hay, hardly worth cutting. There is a good outlet, and it can be drained three feet or more deep. Cipher out the cost of drainage, end of making it produce three tons of clover or timothy to the acre. Would not the sight of the waving heads of the grass be more pleasing than the cat-tails, flags, and skunk-cabbages, that now waste their sweetness upon the desert air 'I‘ There may be an acre of swale, underlaid‘ with hard-pan, over which ferns, weeds.i and aquatic grasses run riot during the‘ whole summer. Is it not time the botw tom was knocked out of it, by tiles laid' three or four feet In the ground, and the Iuperfluous water compelled to go through ‘ these, instead of creeping lazily over thej surface? It can be made the best grass land on the farm. Why not make it so, 1 and handle the dollars that come from maximum crops 7 Brain power can be 1 Increased by reading and digesting the instructive contents of agricultural pa- pers.â€"[Wm.‘Clift, in American Agricul- turist. Curiously enough, the term “hired nan” is only applied to a man that works on a farm. as though other men were not hired. There are many grades of hired men. A good one is cheap at high Wages, and a bad one or an )ud:fl'erent one is dear if he works for nothing and boards himself. nuring our law (had dollars’ w per acre. Try ing spring. ( bone fertilizer htl. Sow it FOR THE FARMER. How to Grow onions. The Hired Man A correspondent of a London paper writes : Of the one hundred and twenty three thousand square miles which Nor‘ way contains, only three thousand five hundred are pasturage, and only nine hundred and eighty are under the plough. The consequence is that not only corn, but also butter and meat, have to be im- ported in large quantities. From what has been said it Will be inferred that the country is more pastoral than agricultural. Yet one sees very few cattle when passing through the country in summer. The reason is that at that season, as in Switz erland, the peasantry drive their cattle up to the mountains and themselves live in “ saeters," or picturesque huts of solid timber. Much of the agriculture in Nor- way is of the most primitive character, small wooden ploughs, held by boys and drawn by men, being still commonly used ‘ in many parts of the country. The prin- l= cipal crops grown are oats, barley. rye. _ and potatoes. Flax and hemp are also ‘ ‘ successfully grown in southern parts. The chief grain region is the valley of . Lake Mjosen, where the growing of wheat 1 has sometimes been attempted, but not ‘ with marked success. If it does not produce as great a. growth of onions as the two tons of raw bone manure, I am greatly mlsfaken. On my own farm we sow the nitrate two or three times during the growth of the oni'ms, 1 never saw a finer growth (f onions than uuvv- .._V. we had last 379;; anti produced in the Barn way. There was not, one scallion in ‘ hundred thousand.- [J oseph Harris 1: American Agriculturlsb. hay crop. though by no means heavy, is widely difi'used, and it is gleaned in what wopld generally be deemed im- possible placesâ€"on narrow ledges a thousand feet above the sea and in deep valleys where there is very little sunshine. The hay is dried in a peculiar fashion. It is not spread over the field, but is hung out, as in some parts of Switzerland, on fences or hurdles. Rows of posts are set up in the fields, and from these lines of cord or wire are stretched at a distance of one foot or eighteen inches from one another. Ou thrse lines the hay is hang and it remains there in wet weather as Well as dry. In wet weather the moisture drips to the ground. In fine weather the sun beats on the outer layers and the wind passes through the interior. and whatever the state of the weather the hay is left there till it is ready to be housed. The hey is transported from the up- land regions by a novel contrivsnce known as the “ hay telegraph.” A rope or wire, sometimes one thousand feet in length, slopes down from the top of a precipice to the bottom of the valley. A bundle of hay is suspended from aring through which the rope or wire passes, and is shot down to the bottom with lightning speed. Bundles of brush-wood and fire-wood are sent down from the higher ground in the same way. The scythe generally used in mowing the hay is much smaller than that in use in Eng- land. In the Valdres route, however, near Odnaes, I no‘iced some attempts at what would be called scienti‘ic farming. In one field a mowrng machine was at work, and in another the hay had been spread out in the English fashion and was being turned over by a revolving rake drawn by a horse. Both machines were evidently of recent importation, and at- tracted the attention of the natives much more than of the foreigners. Whatever may be said of the Norwegians, it must be admitted that they are ingenious in devising contrivances which at once save their labor and take full advantage of the peculiar conformation of their country. Their timber-shoots are another instance of their laborious ingenuity. They make woo l-ways and slides which extend over hundreds of feet from the tops of the hills to the seashore. Last November while a. farmer was grabbing inafield near Prairie du Rocker, 111., his hoe turned up what. first appeared to be a piece of iron, but; when all the earth had been Foraped 03‘, the find turned out to be an iron pipe for smoking pur- poses. The farmer brought it; up to the city a. few days ago, and presented it to Mr. Charles Vincent, 3. liquor-dealer doing buainnss at Carondelet. Mr. Vin- cent) in. great relic-hunter, and on close examination the pipe was found to be one used by French officers and made in the year 1700. Itis of the same pattern as the clay pipes now in use, the pipe and stem being all of one piece This pipe was found within the inclosure of the old Fort Charters, which was occupied by the early Indian wars, from 1690 to 1720. Curiosity-seekers are now calling upon Mr. Vincent in large numbers to handle and gaze upon such an interesting relic. The pipe is in very good condition, and has been cleaned and burnished up, and now Mr. Vincent and his friends take turn about in smoking the pipe of iron. At the end of the stem there are a. series of grooves in the iron, in order thst twine or thread may be wound around so that the stem can be. held between the teeth without dlEC‘imeI't to the smoker, Modern thread has been put in the grooves and found to work just as well as if the grooves had just been made. The bowl and stem of this ancient piece is not clumsy and heavy, as some persons would suppose because it is made of iron. On‘ the contrary, the pipe is very light, and if the clay pipes were no thicker they would be quite fragile indeed. Several cash An Iron Tobacco l'lpe nnuh- nearly Two Hundred Years Ago. Modem threz grooves and f( if the grooves bowl and stem were refused. AN INTERESTING RELIC. Farmng in Norway. indeed. Sevefal cash to the owner, but all $22 50 lb 00 Scientific Gossip. Dr. ‘Berberich, of Berlin, has made a. new determination of the orbit: of Barâ€" nard’s comet, from three nmmal positions deduced from observations exteiming over three months. The aidereul revolution ii nnw f‘ und to occupy 1,958.9 days, or 5. 363 years. Mr. Demcker asserfa that the Russian Calmucks, like their brethren in China, are rapidly 105mg greasive apirit of t the levelling ay sto which they are nub; as well as the Chine deiden. Vuigt, Unnvz, commended lime for th They may also that the fi be potatoes; for the s: the third. hues of peas, : potato“ again. The Dutch Government has issued the first. part: of their (flicial report of the Kratua. eruption. It deals with the his- tory of the island prior to the occurrence, and the events of the cahastrophe itself The second part will deal With the scien- tific results of the investigation. TheRoynl Academy nf Turin announce a the foundation of a prize of the value of 12,000f. for the most useful and striking dincovery in anatomy, physiology. patho Icgy, the exact sciences. geography, or abavistica .320th from 1Q83 to Dec. 31. 1886. The members nf the Academy it.- aelf are not. eligible for the prize. A valuable practical fact receives Ml- ditionsl support from experiments on the influence of sunshine upon the vitality of the germs of miCrobes, as condncrtd by M. E Duclaux. He cultivated Tyrothfiz amber in milk and Liebigs extract and found that the light of the sun is fifty more destructive than its heat. thus fully confirming its hygenic properties. A theory of solution has been brought forward by Mr. W. W. Nichol, of the Royal Society, Edinburgh. Solution of salt in a. liquid results from the attraction of the molecules of the l'quid for a mole- cule of the salt exceeding the atrraction (fzhe molecules of the salt for One an- other. Saturation ensues when these at- tractions are balanced. The theory ex- plains varieti-m of solubility with rise of temperature. M. A. Casali defects chloral hydrate in milk by this method : He shakes up the milk repeatedly with twice its volume of ether and strong putassa lye, lets the whole stand for some time in a stoppered vessel. draws off the clear etheral solution, and again shakes up the residue repeatedly with ether. The ethereal extracts are mixed and distilled. The chloral hydrate or the products of its decomposition will pass over and can be recovered in the distillate. The Society of Naturalists of St. Peters burg haVe received permission to send several of its members to join the Russian representatives on the Afgan Boundary Commission, with the view to the scien- tific exploration of Central Asia. The British cammlssion, which is now on the ground, has with it a geologist. a natura- list, and several topographers. There is, then, a good prospect of something ac- curate being made known to the world at large regarding a region of which very little has been described with precision. In concluding a lecture on labor and wages in America, before the Society of Arts, London. Mr. D. Pidgeon attacked the doctrine that tariffs on imports in- fluence wages, arguing that the move. ments of American and British wages during the last twenty-three years have been determined by some common cause which cannot possibly be due to the tariff. because in the two countries presenting the analogous phenonoma of wages the tarifl‘ was operative in the United States alone and had practically no existence whatever in Great Britain. M. Fordoz proceeds in this way to de- fect lead in the tinning and enamels of utensils. Having carefully cleaned the vessel to remove dirt and grease. he touches any part cf the interior with a drop of ritric acid, and evaporates any excess of arid by the application of a gentle heat. To the pulveruient spot he applies a drop of a solution of iodide (f potassium (five parts of the salt to 100 parts of Water.) If lead is present a. yel- low spot of lead iodide is produced. The stannic acid formed by the action of nitric acid upon pure tin gives no similar spot. The formation of toxic alkaloids in cholera patients was the subject of a paper by M. A. Villiers, read lately be- fore the Academy of Sciences, Paris. Taking the bodies of two cholera vitclma soon her death Villiers was able to cle- termine the presence of an alkaloid clearly characterized by its alkaline and chemical reactions. It was found chiefly in the intestines, though use in small quantities in the region of the horn, but it was completly abuent from the blood and liver. It is thought that its study may yield important results for the treat- ment of cholera. A French scientist has been studying the effects of altitude upon vegetativn, and concludes that fur A ach augmentaticn of one hundred yards there will be, as a general average, a retardation of four days ; Lhutis, other circumstances being equal, sun ca. hold u Mr 01' BI Charles H planted at. the sea hove around four 11y losing the warlik spirit of their ancesl Iling system of gove ey are subjw'ed in t} crop } III Ian improv ted 300 f6 Erwi :se 13‘ men mpire MN ate lev da} We'zk m Uhma. e and ag hora under rnmenr. )1 will ap a before a can: he fourth ted P1 iueaiar 881112 ah und unh- the “There are times,” said a wellknou n machinist, the Other day, “when nearly all machines get. cranky. The trouble 1: often a simple one, and is not infn qucntly owmg to the machinist nos knowmg his business But than is not always 15hr case. The very brsh mechanic in the World. gets hold of a. nu; sumetimes hhar is difficult to crack. A machine. no mat- ter of What kind, may WUIL perfectly fox (er of what kind, may Work perlect months. and than some day somi goes wrong With it. The machinist. at. it, exammea it, perhaps even talk,- pieces and puts in up again, but ( avail ; the rlnAcl'iiue remains like a. horse, which nothing will make go last. the machinist gets tired and home, sick uf pottenng with the tn 30m“ thing. “Ha Comes to work the next day, per- haps having forgotten the previous trouble, touches a handle here, drops a lintle oil in half a dozen places, turns on the steam, and ofl'she goes wnthonn a mur- mur, as If nothmz had ever happened. No, 1 can t explmu itâ€"-naither cohld he. The only conclusion to be drawn is that be omitted, on the occaslon of the stop- page, those little necessary touches of handles, turnlng of wheels. and droppings of oil. But there are other cases of I slightly different Qature” “For instance, I had an order a little while ago to make a paper-cutting ma.- chme from a certain pattern” I made it. When in was put to work it was found that in cut the paper with a curve instead of straight. Now, of course Icould remedy that by amechanical application, and did. However, I also Went to work and made another machine exactly like the first in every respect. The second ma- chme in perfectly nuccesatul, Yet, if you take the two machines to pieces, and place every piece of each machine along aide of the other, l'll venture to my there's not a halr's'breadth of difference in them. Ican't account for the dxflS- culty with the first. I only know how to overcome it, and I did over- come it. “Now. here la a case of a. trouble I had with an inatrument, a mechanism of which I was not very well acquainted with. A short time ago my telephone Wouldn't work. I couldn’t converse through it at all. The only thing I heard was a terrible buzzing noise. I called up the operator at the central station, but he couldn't ac- caunt for it, and sent a man around. He came and looked at the instrument, got connected with the central, and Went “Presently I wanted to use It again, but I found the trouble was as bad as ever. A second man v as sent around to discover the cause. After a. while he found out that the connection with the ground ere had become disturbed. The wire was loosened, and only formed just sufficient circuit to convey sound. The shaking of away my engines and machinery caused a vibra- tion, which made the buzzing sound. The man reconnected the ground wire; the circuit was completed and strength- ened. and 1 now have no more trouble with the phohe: “Almost all the troubles with engines, machines and complicated instruments of all klnds, are caused by just some simple matter such as this. A thoroughly com- petent; man may overlook the cause, and another may walk up and ‘spot' is, in- stanbly.” ..._-. v, V “Watches are so small, and their mechanism is so delicate, that it requires a careful inspection to find the cause of any trouble," said a jeweler. “The causes of sudden stoppage are very vari- ous, but among the most frequent is want of oil. A drop of oil in a watch wrll laut from eighteen months to two years as a lnhrlcator. At the end of that time the works become dry, and considerable wear ensues. Still, the watch may run for five years before it stops. If a watch is brought to me I cannot always say in- stantly what is the matter. though I often have to make some statement to satisfy a lady or inconsiderate man. ‘ r .__4L‘L L- dSomeLimes I have had a. watch to ‘cure,’ and have taken ll: to pieces, but do all IwouldI could not get 11: right. Then I lay it on one side, and go to work on something else. When I come back to the watch It is just as likely as not: that everything will slide into place as easy as possible. Of course. the reason of my trouble has been a. little nervousness. 1 have been tired or anxious, or mv eyes or fingers have been: ,1 _ _‘L4L "Sometimes I have repaired a watch and hung it on the nick for a. few days, before returning it to its owner, in good working order. Then perhaps in two or three days, he brings it back, steppe; again. That is sometimes a. poser, but in such a case I put the watch in my pocket and carry it round with me for a few days. Hanging a. watch on the rack, which is perfgctly still, and of even temperature, is not a. fair test. By carrying it in my pocket I often discover the trouble, which is generally a very simple one." "Ever had any bother with my engine ’I" said Ed. Murray. an engineer on the Pennsylvania. Railroad. "No, I can't say I ever did, but I've heard old Jake Fin- lay, who used to run the express between Philadelphia and New York, tell a. queer story of a. trouble he got into once He was considered a. good engineer, and was undoubtedly a thoroughly capable man. ago, he was running his usual engine on the evaning express. He reached Tren- ton ss'ely. and stopped there twenty minutes for refreshments. The rest was over, the passengers all seabed, the line signaled ‘clear,’ the bell rang, and old Jake book ofi'the brake and turned the steam on. The engine gave a. sort of a. feeble kick, and the big driving-wheels revolvvd half a. dozen times, but didn’t grip the rails, sud the train didn’t Inmresllng Experiences ofa “Au-Inn!“ “Jake thought the train was too heavy so he backed up ahttle to gain an im TRICKS 0F MACHINES. one wmter may WUIL perfectly for 1 some day something 1:. The machinist, looks perhaps even takr-a it. to , up again, but of no 39 romaius like a. balky many years I engme on rotible At petps. Then} he pufi iga‘m, to go forwaird, ' just: kicked again, bu moved. Jake got; ma» that it prn-yed on hi six months after he A Plucky Englishman Made and Rt'memlmrs his Early in 1875 a. party of eighty-five venturesome men was organizedm Ames, Iowa. to go into the recently discovered mining region near Deadwood, Dali. John, Johnston, aynnng man recently arrived from England, and Mr Cronen, then only 17 years of pge, were of the party. These two were thrown much together and became fast friends, They and two others look up a 2U0-yard mining claim in the neighborhood of the Nigger Hill mines near Spearfish, and at once began work. Their claims soon proved to be wonderfully rich in what was called “bas- tard quartz,” but there was no money in that for the miners. Mr. Cronen now laughinglv says that his stay covered a period of some fifteen months, and when flour began to sell at $2 a pound, with other provisions in proporation, and not a. dollar came from the mine, he began to look about him for a chance to get out. An opportunity did present itself, and he prepared to leave. He made his English triend a present of all hls right. title, and interest in the mine, and at once started for the confines of civilization, where there was more food and less “bastard quartz.” His course gradually led him east. and he at length became an operator in the Western Union Telegraph oflice in Chicago. Then he married, and settled down. The plucky Englishman stuck to Nig- ger Hill and Spearflsh despite all hard- ships and disasters. A short time after Cronen's departure he found himself the only one left in the Black Hills country of all the party who started out from Ames. His confidence in the country was so great that after the first pinch he succeeded in adding to his territory until he was the proprietor of about 480 acres. He afterwards became the proprietor and principal editor of the Dakota Register, a weekly paper published in Spearfish, but for years he was no richer than the other humble members of his new profession. About sixteen months ago the discovery was made that the despised “ bastard quartz ” contained from sixty to eighty per cent. of pure “ tin.” Mr. Johnston had not, during these years of struggle, forgotten his young friend, for a correspondence was kept up between them. On two occasions he had visited Chicago, had become acquainted with Mr. F. Randolph, Cronen’s desk- mate at the Western Union ofiice, and cordial relations sprang up between the three families Early last week Mr. Johnston arrived in the city accompanied by his wife. Seeking out his two friends, he quietly announced that the first im- portant installment of his fortune had come to hand. The hopes of ten long- years had begun to be realized, and while' he was already arich man. the foretaste was but an indication of what could be expected in the near future. A small in- terest in the mining property had been sold for $160,000 cash, and the principal proprietor was on his way to England. He wished his friends. Ctonen and Ran- dolph, to share with him the first plea- sures of afilaence. As one step in that direction he presented the former with a delayed Christmas gift in the shape of a certified check for $3,000. He also in- vited the two telegraph operators and their wives to accompany himself and Mrs. Johnston on their voyage across the ocean. The invitation was accepted, and tha desks of Cronen and Randolph are supplied with other men. Modern Egvptian Houses. The towns on the Egyptian shores of the Red Sea stand along the borders of the khors which come from the moun- tains back of them, and find their way thcough many shallow channels to the sea. These channels, which are dry' three-fourths of the year, are the passage ways or streets of the villages. The houses stand on the slightly higher ground between the channels ; they are scattered about in perfectly irregular manner. Thebetter classof houses are this constructed : First a framework is made of boughs and branches of the acacia trees. Thena wattling of straw is woven closely amongst the bougbs of roof and sides, so as to make a waterproof cover- ing for the interior. Around the houses of the chief men inclosnres of similar construction are made to keep prying eyes from peering into the sacred pre- clncta of the harem within. The huts of the poorer people are mere tent-shaped structures covered with skins of animals or with coarse matting. ROMANCE OF THE BLACK HILLS. A good story is told of a who was often very dry in and could not, as a. rule, 1 to get more than one dram the case he liked to hold i1 as l( was determlned to mm a fine morning." ‘ fine morning, I was found your impidence awaller my whusky. " mg as h bore nest) he stat osnbly c ywing t1 1 to tank fire W35 say u] ‘Id of a Scotch dry in the x_n rflhe steam fill]L ut the oid engine ; the train never ,an lass, and got ; for the trouble. éman to turn on obeyed, and with- )uble the engine ‘11 as if she were on a was -50 worried mind, and aboui "signed his poni- a what was the » had forgotten am: done, and rld to let her go, business. Jake bewinched. and 1, met him ape mPh‘n Suddenly Rich, Friends. 1d v6 made me the wmd This being his month One of his [2 him and 983k. “It's "nee tailor