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v FOR THE FARMBR. Tapping Maple Trees. Tapping should first be done with a five-eighth bit, boring not to exceed one and a half inches ; after which as the sea‘ son advances, the holes should be reborcd with a three-quarter bit, by which the flow of sap will increase quite equal to a new tapping. I The best spiles are made by taking blocks of pine, or any soft wood, one foot in length ; rive them into squares of one inch ; then shave one side, leave a head of four inches, through which bore with a small bit ; crease the lower end, and taper the end to suit the hole. These spiles can be cut off at the second boring, and if well cared for, will be good for sev- eral years. At the close of the season house the spiles and vessels, placing them bottom up ; then plug the holes with maple_or bass woodâ€"these being the bestâ€"by riv- ing, as for the spiles. Shave one end and insert in the hole, always taking care to saw it off so that the plug can be driven fast inside of the inner bark. By this treatment the bark will commence closing over and the tree be preserved from de- ca . ’17 have bored out the plugs of trees treated in this way the succeeding year and found the flow of sap equ l to a fresh wound. yet Would not reco mend the practice. aâ€"â€"-:â€"= When to Move Bees. Spring is the best time in the year to move bees. The combs are not heavy with honey, there is no hot weather to melt the combs or suffocate the bees, the combs are tough with broad, and there are but comparatively few bees in the hives. A spring wagon is the bet to carry them, but a lumber wagon can be used if plenty of straw is placed under the hives and the driver is careful. If the top of the hive is covered with wire cloth, it will aflbrd sufficient ventilation early in the season ; in hot weather both top and bottom of the hive should be Covered with wire-cloth. The frames should be nailed at the ends to prevent their slip- ping about. When bees are moved only a short distance, there is usually trouble from their returing to their former loca- tion. If the distance that they are to be moved is very short, it can be accomplish- ed by moving them only a few inches each day ; if the distance is several rods, the bees should be fastened in their hives, then disturbed by drumming upon the hives, after which they can be carried to the new location. Before releasing them, however, a board should be leaned against the front of each hive. Then as the bees come rushing out, they strike their heads against the board, which causes them to notice their new location and take “bearings”as they leave for the fields. Remove as many landmarks as possible from the old location, and if no- cessary, keep smouldering, smoking fires burning for a few hours upon the place previously occupied by the hives. Kitchen Garden. If seeds have not been already secured, order them at once. It is poor economy to use dc ubtful seeds. Throw away all such and start with the best. Beets, spin- ach, onions, parsnips and round peas may be sown very early, as a slight frost will not injure them. Beans, cucumbers and all others of the melon family, tomatoes, etc. , are tender and must wait until “corn-planting time." Cabbagcs and other plants still remaining in window- boxes or hot-beds, must be planted out of if the weather will allow. . . . .In for- mer months We have advised planting an asparagus bad. Begin now by sowing seeds to raise plants. . . .In sowing seeds of all kinds, be sure that the soil is brought into close contact with them ; this is especially important, should the sowing be followed by a dry time. On a large scale this is done with aroller ; with small quantities the soil is patted down with the back of the spade. . . .The con- test with weeds begins with the season. Where early cabbages have been planted, go over the soil with a rake every day or two, to keep the weeds under. A rake with long, sharp teeth, is an efficient weeding implement in light soils. Rules for Breeding Horses. A successful breeder of light horses has adopted the following rules, which may be followed with profit by breeders of any kind of horses : 1. Determine exactly what it is you really require to produce, andhaving done so never lose sight of it. 2. Procure a young mother that has ar. rived at maturity and is healthy, roomy, well-shaped, round, large-sized, with good temper and good action, and re~ member the better bred the more is that possesses those qualities the more valu~ able she will be. 3. The dam, as a general rule, has more direct influence on her offspring as regards health and size than the sire has. 4. The cifspring bred from greatly dis- similar parents in either size or character should never be used for breeding pur- poses ; their offspring wzll certainly prove to be mongrels of nondescript character. That the parents should be as similar as possible is a rule the neglect of which has ltd to more disappoint- ment than almost any other rule 1 know of. 5. The sire has more direct influence on the bones, heart, tendons, and nerves of the foal than the mere ; consequently nothing but blooded horses will produce stout and fast horses. 6. Breeding too early is quite incom patible with hardiness of constitution and lasting qualities. Hence I believe the mere should be at least four years old be- ore she is put to the horse. THE HAINANESE. A Chinese (‘ommnnily That the Room of French Council “as Not lblslurlwotl. It is a year or more since the French first made thorn threats of taking the Chinese Island of Haitian, which, from its lying Opposite and commanding the ports of the Tunquin delta, would, if it remained in foreign hands, render them insecure in their eastern possessions. it was said at the time that its occupation by the French would be contrary to an existing treaty with England, but it was afterwards ‘found that, though there was such an understanding in regard to Chu‘ sail, a small island off the mouth of the Yangtse, there was nothing of the kind in any way relating to Hainan. But the French appear to have dropped the sub- ject entirely. Islands with their long line of coast, their numerous harbors and their districts that are comparatively in- accessible are difficult to take and hard to hold. There is no doubt that Haitian could be more easily subjugated than For- mosa, for the reason thatit is nearer their base, while it would be more difficut for the Chinese to defend it. But still it would not fall into their hands without an effort. Eventually the French will have it, and it will prove a valuable ac- quisition. The wall of King-chung-foo on the island is crenelai ed forty feet high on the outside in certain places, but in the inside sloping and covered with a jungle growth of bamboo, banyan and other shrubs to the very top. At inter- vals of every few hundred yards along it is a small smooth bore cannon of remark- able peaceful aspect. No doves were dis- covered building their nests therein, but in my walk along the parapet numerous litter of pacific pigs were seen dozing in the very openings of the crenelles. Not a soldier was observed in making the cir- cuit of this ancient and formidable fortiâ€" fication ; the dragonâ€"guarded yamin of the Taotai had a fly-haunted, somnolent air ; in the streets business proceeded lazily, and over all the grove-like openings of the capital city, the very spirit of sum- mer peace and quiet, seemed to hold its beneficth reign. Our cortege, with which we made the circuit, was composed of scarcely more than a dozen aimless hoodlum and inquisitive urchins, and we left the place impressed with the idea that if the inhabitants thought of danger from the French it was still as an intangi- ble effort of the imaginationâ€"as some- thing so far off as scarcely to be consider- ed, or if considered, amply provided against. A Cool Woman. If any woman who reads this paper, should be thrown into the water by the capsizing of a boat, let her recall the fol- lowing story, and refrain from embracing the first man she meets on coming to the surface. Earl Malmesbury, his wife and his bro- ther were sailing one moonlight evening on the Lake of Geneva. One of the party, pulling on the halyard, slipped it out of the block. The earl’s brother climbed up the mast to adjust it, and his Weight capsized the boat. In a moment all the party were in the water, and the brother became entangled under the sail. “Don't be afraid,” said Lady Malmes- bury, with wonderful coolness, to her husband; "I Won’t lay hold of you, but tell me what to do.” The bro her, having freed himself, came up ; and the calm woman, put- ting a hand on the shoulder of each, was held up by the two men for a. quarter of an hour. Then a watchmakcr, who was rowing his wife, came to their relief. The lady was taken in the boat, and the two men clung to its stern, while the rescuer row- ed his boat to the shore, a quarter of a mile away. If the countess had not shown cool courage, if she had grasped her husband, both would have been drowned by her struggles. W The Locomotive in Winter. A locomotive cab in winter is a dreary place. itis bad in daytime, but on a winter night, when the snow flies fast, the locomotive cab is a good place to keep out of. Even in the day it is impossible to see anything if a snow storm prevails. The rails run right up into the air. Nothing can be seen ahead but a jumping- ofl‘ place. The! windows are frozen up or covered with snow, and from innumerable cracks and. crevices around the floor where it joins the boiler come draughts that bite and sting. The engine caWs like a crowâ€"haugh, haugh, now fast, now slow, according as the drifts cover the track or uncover it for a brief space, and when it strikes a drift it throws the snow in blinding clouds all over itself, just as the spray flies over a vessel ship- ping a sea. The track is rough, for the frost has disturbed it, and the engine lurches ahead, staggering to and fro like a drunken man. There are few more impressive spec- tacles in this world than a powerful loco- motive lsboring through a heavy snow storm. To the observer beside the track it looms up through the gloom tremen- dous and awful. The locomotive seems the embodiment of the Death Angel, moving swiftly and noiselessly. The snow has muffled the whirl of the rolling friction of the wheels on the rails, and the train glides by like the unsubstantial pageant of a dream. With its black breath, its snorta of fire. its hoarse voice, it is truly Apollyon, the destroying angel, and the man must be uuiinpiessible in- deed who does not feel a thrill at its advent. A Missouri man tried to ride a mule across a creek thirty feet deep. The man was drowned; but the mule crossed in safety, walking on the bottom and breathing through his ears. GRAINS OF GOLD. Honesty sometimes keeps a man from becoming rich, and civility from being witty. Arnold speaks of “earning genuine manhood by steadily serving out the pe- riod of lnyhood.” The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. Methods and details of management are of slight importance in comparison with the central purpose of the nation. It is good for us to think that no grace or blessing is truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed someone else with it through us. Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to pre- fer the latter. We often think we are of great impor- tance in certain people; that they must be thinking of us and our affairs ; that they watch our actions and shape their course accordingly. In general it is not so ; we are quite mistaken. It is untrodden ground to us, but He knows it all by personal experience ; the steep bits that take away our breath, the stony bits that make our feet ache so, the hot, uliadelcss stretches that make us feel so xbuustod, Jesus has gone through it all before us. The nation has a life of its own as dis tinctly defined as the life of the individ- ual. The signs of its growth and the period of its development make the issues declare themselves -, and the man or the political party that does not discover them, has not learned the character of the nation's life. It is oft: n thought that it is easier to find out what with our meansit is possible to do than what is really the best thing to be done. Yet the truth is exactly the reverse. The latter is a simple conceptim.' the former a very complex one; the laticr requires only a stretch of imagination, the former must take account of a hundred disturbing elements which can be neither fathomcd nor foreseen. The sunshine of life is made of very little beams that are bright all the time. To give up some‘hing which giving up willrprevont unhappiness ; to yield, whom persisting will chain and fret others ; to go a little around rather tliancome against another; to take an ill look or a cross word quietly rather than resent on return it ; these are the ways in whichclouds and storms are kept off, and a pleasant and steady sunshine secured. The greatest men, whether poets or his~ torians, live entirely in their own age. Dante paints Italy in the thirteenth cen- tury; Chaucer,‘ England in the fourteenth; Masamio, Florence in the fifteenth ; Ten~ tori, Venice in the sixteenth. If it be said that Shakespeare wrote perfect his- torical plays on subjccls belonging to the proceeding centuries. I answar that they are perfect plays just because there is no care about centuries in them, a rogue in the fifteenth century being at heart what a rogue is in thenineteenth, and was in the twelfth, and an honest or knightly man being very similar to other such at any other time. , _ __.___.-- A Fiery Red Sky and a Ball 0 Fire; ' An unuaal meteorological phenomenon was Witiicssed in the mid-Pacific Do: an from the deck of the British bark Inne- wick, which arrived at Victoria, British Columbia, recently. Captain Walters, of the bark, gives the following account of it : “ At midnight on February 14, in lati- tude 37 ° north, longitude 170° 15 west, the wind began blowing stiiily from the south-southeast, and the vessel was run- ning before it under short sail. An hour later the wind had increased to a terrific gale, and the sky became intensely black. At 5 am, on February 25, I was sudden- lv aroused by the first mate, and going up on deck, I found that the sky had changed to a fiery red, as if the entire heavens was ablaze. Five minutes after I reached the deck a large mass of fire shot out from the heavens directly over the vessel, and as it fell into the sea fifty yards in our lee, it was accompanied with a hissing 7nd an exploaion, the report being so heavy that it shook the vesel from stem to stern. This ball of fire had hardly disappeared when the mate cried out, “My God? What is that 9” and pointed to our leeward, where there was a conic tower of white foa to rapidly approaching the ap- parently doomed vessel. The rumbling noise from the advance of this volume of water was deafening. Suddenly our sails were struck flat aback, and it seemed that the masts would be taken out of the vessel, but we filled away again and were gratified to see the white foam column passing us astern. Our first fears were intensified when a sheet of flame ran down our mlzzrn-mast, and from the rigging shot out great sparks of fire. The sky continued its glaring redness until daylight, and then everything re- sumed its normal Ci ndition. _. _. _._...___ Born at Forty Miles an Hour. 011 the express train from New Haven which reached the Grand Central depot, New York, the other day, there was one passenger that did not pay any fare. The conductor did not even ask him for his ticket, and did not threaten to stop the train and put him offâ€"with the aid of a brakeman or two. The passenger did not make his appearance until the train was in the vicinity of New‘Rochelle. In fact he was not born until then. The mother was Annie Brown, and she lives in South Brooklyn. When the train reached New York she was taken to Belleâ€" vue Hospital in an ambulance. INTE RESTING ITEMS. A Budget of Readable Paragraphs from all Parts of the World. A perfect skeleton, to which was at- tached a ball and chain, was litely un- earthed twenty-live feet below the surface of the'earth, near Savannah. Parisians ate 13,000 donkeys, mules and horses last year. The Academic de Medccine has awarded a prize to an asâ€" sayist who strongly recommends a more general use of such diet. It is hardly to be wandered at that Frenchmen prefer adult-3de Wines to Seine water. ' Le Journal de Micrograp- hie gives a long list of the dead animals taken from the river in 1884, and among the items is one of 3,927 dogs. In Ceylon, says the Tropical Agricul- turiat, a patch of four acres planted with cardomoms, yielded $6,000 in one year. The statement may be worth the atten- tion of those whoare trying to raise dates, olives, and tea in California and else- where. A rich citizen of Lemberg, noted for his gallantry, died recently and left by his will 1,500 ficrins to the h-mdsomest wo- man in the town. The will says that the judges of the fair contestants must ignore the question of mortality in render- ing their decision. A sprinkling of tholadiee who attended the last court ball at Berlin wore criuo- lines. 0.1 the Princi-ss Frederlch von Hoheumllern rests the rcsponsibili.iy of reviving the use of what a Frenchj )urnal, referring to the matter, calls the "hor- rible cage." For nearly a year, it is said, Hi ere has not been acrimmzil case before the Diz- trict Court in Douglas county, Ne'vada, and the last case in the Justice’s Court was on the 17th of last November. The county gaol has long been empty, and the officers whose duty it is to settle all dis- turbances find nothing to do. Florida oranges are being exported from Boston to Liverpool in large quantitie'. A lot of some 100 boxes, which were shipped some three weeks ago, arrived in gono condition, and was leJ at satisfac- tory prices, although they came in com- petition With the Mediterranean oranges which are sold in E'=glaiid at low prices. The Edinburgh Town Council has de- cided to place memorial tablets on all spots of historical int-crest in that city. The first place to receive this mark of a:- t9nion is the site in Chambers street (for- mally College wynd) of the house where Sir Walter Scott was born; and it has also been decided to erect amemorlal stone over the grave of the novelist's father in Grey friars’ Churchyard. A flea, one sixteenthof an inch in length can jump adistance of twenty inches. This is .20 times its length. The com- mon grey rabbit jumps about nine feet clear on the level ground. In proportion to length a horse to jump as far asa rabbit, would have to clear 64 feet at a jump. There is no quadruped that has such powerful muscles in his quarters as the rabbit, and none excel him in the muscles oi his loins and back. At Leicester, in England, ten persons, the first batch of 5,000 to be prosecuted were charged the other day with non- compliance with the Vaccination acts The defendants pleaded guilty, and ex- pressed their willingloss to pay any fine, but were determined not to have the operation performed, because it was use- less for protection and very dangerous. Each parent was ordered to have the operation performed in a month. These precautions are exciting a. very bitter feeling. The Pall Mall Gazette siys : “ There is agreat field for the philosophic epicure in the United States. Boston beans may be dismissed at once as delusions, but soft shell crabs, terrapin, canvas-back ducks, bluefish, and the pumpano of New Orleans are all wonderful delicacies, par- ticularly when one gets them {at Delmoni- co’s. Indeed, the two most remarkable bits of scenery in the States are undoubt- edly Dalmonico's and the Yosemite Valley, and the former has done more to promote a good feeling between Eng- land and America than anything else has in this century." Statistics which have just been pub- lished show that out of 150,000 Germans who in the course of last year became liable to military service, considerably less than one and a half per cent. were illiterate. Of the,Wurtemberg recruits, every one, without exception, could both read and write: and it was only in the Eastern provinces and districts of Prussia that anything approaching to an unsatis- factory educational averago was observed. Elsewhere the proportion of illiterates per 10,000 recruits ranged from two among the Badaners to seven among the Saxons and eight among the Bavarians. Constantinople is about to be deprived of the benefit of an ancient institution. The Government have given directions to its oflicials to prosecute the magicians. denouncing them as common cheats and rogues. Whether the court astrologer is doomed remains to be seen. Constanti- nople has always enjoyed a good supply of magicians, the best being from Mor- occo, and many of them are blacks, which is a fut-the:- recommendation. The ma- gicians, whose studies can be seen in manya street, have been found of the greatest benefit being, preferred to doc- tors, doing a large business in love charms, and finding more thieves than the police. A Skye terrier, owned by a gentleman from Baltimore, proved one day recently list it could feel ashamed of a dishonest act. The master had always treated the terrier wellâ€"in fact, it had never been punished. On the day in question the gentleman was at his table. The little Skye saw a outlet near the edge of the board, and yielded to the temptation to steal the meat. The outlet was slyly seized and taken under the sofa. The gentleman pretended not to see the act of theft. But the conscience of the little terrier soon got. the better of its hunger. It brought the outlet back, laid it at the feet of its master, hung its head in shame, and slunk away. Not long ago one of Barnum’s elephants was found to be in danger of losing his sense of sight. A surgeon who had been called to examine the huge animal declar- ed that if the elephant could be induced to submit to an operation the eye could be saved. Accordingly the poor animal was tied down, and some caustic ti'lld was drappcd into one of his ayes. He roared with pain, for the treatment was severe. On the following day the eye that had been treated was much better, but the surgeon thought he was going to have a terrible time in operating on the . other eye. Fancy his surprise to find that as soon as the great beast heard his voice he stretched himself on the ground and peacefully submitted to the painful ordeal. The elephant had simply recog- nized the skill and friendly purpose of his benefacrol'. The object that attxac's most attention from strangers in the neighborhood of the town of Butte, Colorado, is a team of tame deer. Those pets were caught when Very young, in the hunting grounds called the Big Meadows. Their capt R‘ was an indian namtd Buckhorn, a guide and lrappsr of the D gzger Il‘iiJ). indeed, Buckhorn is a man of a'ii'hoi'lty amang h’s people, being the head chin sf lhi Dig- gers in the Vicinity of Big Meadows. He ownsa drove of p ll s hm. pref» is to ride behind his deer. The animals are qiite d: cile. They have large aiitll rs, and as they hold their heads high, the room, when hitched to a buck-“loud waggou, present a very imposing appearance The harness does not contain a buckle or clasp ; itis mad»; of buckskin from halter to hams strings The deer are fleet of foot, of course. and it is the b )ESS of Chief Buckhoru that they can outrun any other team. An American lady who visited the store of a. dog mediate in Paris declares that tho never before had seen surh amusing sights. The place was not so mucha store as an establishment with halls and rooms richly fuinished. Ladies tripped -in and out all day long, most of the visitors having with them pugs or terriers. The pet dogs Were scattered through the rooms, each awaiting its turn. Many small mats and rugs were around the waxed floors, and every bit of carpeting of the kind was occupied by some pretty little creature. These dogs have various dresses. The robe used in the morning is a garment of dark blue cloth. It is called a paleton, and is lined with red flannel. From a leather collar little bells jii’g’e as its wearer walks along. Some- times a bunch of Violets is fastened on the left shoulder of the dog. On very C)ld days the pet is clad in scalskin of the same pattern, the collar being in fur mounted in silver. Wheels not Made of Pulp. “ The statement that the most delicate watch wheels are now made of paper pulp in Germany is a hoax, Ithink,” said a prominent jeweler and watchaker. “ I have been in the business over forty years and work on German, Swiss, English, French and American watches every week, repairing or taking them apart, and I have not seen a. wheel made of pulp, not even among the latest watches from Germany. Then from my knowledge of machni. ry necessary to make a watch and run it for several years I do not think that pulp by any process Whatever can be made hard enough to be of use. Brass and steel are chiefly used to make watch wheels. Platina is too hard to work and too costly, and. gold will not do for many reasons. Paper buckets and boats are made, but they have no special friction compared to that of a watchwlieel, which runs in cogs all the time. Suppose a process was dis- covered to harden pulp to a degree equal to steel ; then the question is, would it last as long as steel? 1 think not. Car wl eels are made of paper, but they run them merely on exhibition and not every day. Steel and brass are metals formed by natural processes during the course of many hundred centuries. Paper or pulp hardened by artificial means when not subject to constant friction may be equal to steel or brass for certain processes, but I imagine its durability would be un- certain. Hard wood, of course, can be used for a time as cog wheels in watches, and many other temporary tough ma- terials, but they are simply for exhibition and not utility. So many watches are made in Switzerland I wonder they have not substituted some cheap material for steel and brass, but I didn’t expect the Geruans ‘0 start at it first. Indeed, my firm opinion is that it is a mistake about pulp being used even for big cog wheels, much less small, delicate cries." M»â€" An Age 01‘ Too Much Reading. Prof. Blackie says he wishes himself back in the Middle Ages, when singing was the only sermon and the miustrcl the only teacher. We are running too much to books. The people don't come together any more. There are no more grand public reunions of the masses. A man buys a book or a paper, and, hurry- ing home, shuts the door and reads. Everybody reads. Enter a family circle nowadays and man, woman and child has his, her or its nose poked down between printed pages. It’s read, read. Absolute silence reigns throughout the house. It’s despairing. I sometimes feellike yelling and demolishing the furniture, when I get into such a solemn-visaged circle' as a sort of counter-irritant. These human reading machines are stuffed full of the sausage meat of literature. When the world. was the wisest it read no books. Its teachers taught from nature.