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Patea Mail, 19 May 1881, Page 4

BREEDING HEIFERSIt is best to bring heifers into breeding condition as soon as possible after they are a year old. The first calf should come at two years or soon after. To effect this the calves should be well fed after weaning, have good pasture in summer, with a mouthful or two of bran daily to push them forward. Unless the calf has been pushed in this way it will be slow in breeding until it is two years old. With 20 head it would pay to buy a young bull and keep him with the heifers. His attentions would do much to bring them into breeding condition.

POTTED POISON. A manufacturer of “ potted ” meats, sausages, and saveloys, &c., named William Henry Wills, of Birmingham was lately condemned to three months’ imprisonment for having in his factory several hundred-weight of diseased mutton and diseased horseflesh in various stages, from the raw material to the finished article in pots. Some of the meat was described as horribly diseased, and coloured with red ochre to give it a natural tint. The magistrate regretted that he could not inflict a heavier punishment. If the culprit could, as he deserved, have been dieted from his own materials during his imprisonment, it might have had a deterrent effect upon him and others, and ' prevented them from repeating such cruelty to their fellow-creatures.

SERMON ON MARRIAGE. As a sample of preaching extraordinary, we give the fall text of the exordiam of a sermon on marriage recently preached by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage:—“ Morning without a cloud. Atmosphere without a child. Foliage without a crumbling leaf. Meadows without a thorn. Fit morning for the world’s first wedding. It shall be in church, the great temple of a world, sky-domed, mountain-pillared, sapphireroofed. The sparkling waters of the Qihon and uie Hiddekel will make the font of the temple. Larks, robins, and goldfinches will chant the wedding march. Violet, lily, and rose burning incense in the morning sun. Luxuriant vines sweeping their long trails through the forest aisle. Upholstery of a spring morning. Wild beasts standing outside the circle looking on, like family servants from the back door gazing upon the nuptials. The eagle, king of birds; the locust, king of insects; the lion, king of beast—waiting. Carpets of grass like emerald for the human pair to walk on. Hum of excitement, as there always is before the ceremony. Grass blades and leaves whisperihg, and the birds chatter, each to his mate. Hush all the winds, hush all the birds, hush the noises of the waters ; for the king of the human race advances with his bride—a perfect man led to the altar a perfect woman—and tears of morning dew stand in the eyes of violets, and Adam takes the round hand that had never been worn with work or ijtung with pain into his own stout grasp as he says, “ This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Tumults of joy break forth, and all the trees of the wood clap their hands, and all the galleries of the forest sound with carol and chirp and chant, and the circle of Edenic happiness is complete ; for while every quail hath answering quail, and every fish answering fish, and every fowl answering fowl, and every beast of the forest appropriate companion, at last man, the immortal, has for mate woman, the immortal. Married, on the second Tuesday in May of the year one, Adam, the first man, to Eve, the first woman, high heaven officiating. Away with the coarse notion that marriage is is a mere civil contract. It is a Paradisaical, six-thousand-year-old Divine institution, and all the laws since Blackstone or before Blackstohe cannot appropriately marry two hearts unless the Lord Almighty has first married them.”

HOW A CYCLONE LOOKS. The recent terrible cyclone in Maconpin County, Illinois, is thus described by Engineer Cutter, of the Chicago and Alton express train, which was running at full speed, and met the tempest at Carlinsville. Mr Cutter saw on the prairie what he supposed t& be a straw or haystack on fire. As he

approached it he saw that it moved rapidly towards the track, and then realised that it was a cyclone of the most appalling character. It was a dark, funnel-shaped cloud, reaching from the ground high in the air, where it dissappeared into the clouds. It was black and dangerous-looking, and whirled with terrible velocity. Its voice heard even in the distance above the rumble and roar of the train, was frightful in the extreme. The cyclone seemed to travel at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and was so fast approaching that the moving train must in a moment inevitably strike it. Mr Cutter shut off his engine and applied his air brake just in time ; for despite the precaution, the train touched the cyclone’s outer edge. Mr Cutter describes the sight as the most horrible he ever saw. The air was dark and hot, as if coming from an oven. Everything in the pathway of the storm was demolished and crushed and annihilated. Barns, fences, sheds, telegraph poles, and everything at all fagile was swept up. Mr Cutter and his firemen crouched down in the tender, and for a moment feared that the whole train would be overturned. The cars were only held on the track by their safety. The passengers, who first wondered at the stop, with blanched cheeks and terrified countenances viewed the terrible monster of the air in its work.—Philadelphia Press.