ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 327, 5 September 1879, Page 3

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

The reason why bone manure is so valuable is "that the great utility of bones as a manure arises from the large amount of phosphates which they contain. On all pastures which have been long fed the phosphate of litne is exhausted. Itis constantly taken from the earth in the grass to form the bone, the muscle and the milk of animals. Of the earthly matter in bonce nearly five-sixths consists of phosphate of lime and magnesia. Nitrogen is also abundant, and of course ammonia. A few bushels of bone-dust will often quite restore old, worn-out pastures. The ashes of all grains are very rich in phosphate of lime, which gees to prove the importance of furnishing this element for their use. A Presbyterian Minister, on his way home from attending a meeting of Presbytery, saw one of his members lying in a ditch. "Ah ! John, John," said the minister, " you have been abusing the mercies." "There is one thing clear, Mr A," said John, " the mercies have abused me." Meeting John, on another occasion, under the influence of strong drink, his minister said, " I have frequently told you, John, that whisky is one of your greatest enemies." " Did you rot," replied John, " exhort us, last Sabbat, 1 .!, to love our enemies?" " Did I exhort yon,' , replied the minister, " to swallow your enemies ?".

I It is narrated that once in a coloured Methodist meeting in America, when all hands were crying " Glory," there came such an, appalling, hideous roar, such an awful yell that it " shibbered the windows." '• Wh'—wh' —-who makes dat Boun, dar?'' cried the clergyman;. aghast, among his frightenedjflock. Out from the crowd pressed a gigantic negro, seven feet high, built like Hercules, with a bull neck, which emerged from a red flannel shirt, his only upper garment. '' Dat was I, bredren," cried this promising convert, proudly ; " but I'ae only preparin' fur to make ready fur to begin fur to shout." Scarcely had he uttered this ere fifty strong hands seized him, and hurled him headlong through the door into the darkness. " Bless de Lor\ we don't wan , no sitch converts as dat 1" gratefully remarked the clergyman as he vanished. The first walking match on record must have been when Satan went up and down on the earth. Don't see it. Why, yes : peripatetic Lucifer— walking match, eh ? The villain who perpetrated that wouldn't be going around Luc-if-er proper spirit prevailed in the community where he lives. The people of Healdsburg, California, have a very stringent way of dealing with the larrikin, or, as it is called there "hoodlum," nuisance. The fire-bell is tapped every night at nine o'clock, and all lads under age who do not at once go home are subject to arrest under the city ordinance. "That man," said a wag, " came to this city forty years ago, purchased a basket, and commenced gathering rags. How much do you suppose he is worth now ?" We gave it up. " Nothing," he continued after a pause, " and he owes for the basket."