MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1707, 25 February 1873, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Spinkß is not going to do any more in conundrums. He asked his wife why he was like a donkey, and she said because he was born so, and he says that the answer is very different from that. John Tyler got drunk the other night, and lay down near tbe sewer, on Fifteenth street, thinking he was going to bed In order not to soil the sheet**, he pulled off one boot and one stocking, and lay with his foot bare all night* Jack Frost was around that night, and gave John's great toe a nipping that may possibly result in its total deatruction.-San Francisco paper. The " Anglo- Australian in London." writing in the European Mail of Nov. 29, stntes that several letters have been re ceived by the friends of emigrants in New Zealand, which are calculated to make emigration to thafc colony popular here. Tbe letters concur in stating that, as regards wages, hours of labor, prices of provisions, and the delightful climate and character of the country, the writers find themselves in even more favorable circumstances than they were led to expect. One of the writers must have bad a very pleasant trip of it, for he tells his dear Mary " not to be frightened about the sea, because it is better than riding in a railway train." Another entreats bis " dear Nancy" to " come out and enjoy the good living." One, with an eye to business, asks " Jack to buy bim a new felling axe and a new half-hook," while yet another remarks upon tbe freedom ot colonial life by saying, " People here are all alike. There is no pride whatever." These very satisfactory evidences of tbe prosperity of the colony, and of its adaptability to pushing, hard working men, cannot fail of having a good effect. Shoeing Hobses. — It is almost impossible to get a horse shod without having the frog cut away. All veterinary Burgeons, all horsemen, all leading blacksmiths, agree that the frog should not be pared one particle — not even trimmed. No matter how plastic tbe frog is, cut it away smooth on all sides, and in two days it will be dry and hard as a chip. You I might as well cut off all tbe leaves ot trees, and expect them to flourish, as to pare away the frog and have a healthy foot. The rough, spongy part of the foot iB what tbe leaves are to the trees — the lungs. Never have a red-hot shoe put upon the foot to burn the level. If you can find a blacksmith that is mechanic enough to level tbe feet without a redhot iron, employ him. The burning process deadens the foot and tends to contract it. Storing Wheat. — M. Lovel has brought before the French Academy a plan of storing wheat in portable sheetiron granaries, in which a vacuum is > maintained equal to at least from 3 inches '

to 4 inches of mercury, this being fonnd sufficient to destroy all insect life (although a more perfect vacuum is preferred"), and to ensure the evaporation of any moisture in the grain. The apparatus is of cylindrical form, placed vertically, and with convex top and bottom. The top is provided with an opening through which an inlet of the grain is led, with a valved pipe through which the air is exhausted, and with a gauge hy which the decree of exhaustion is indicated. The grain is removed through an opening in the bottom. In one instance, where living insects were introduced in large quantities with the grain, it was found that they were all killed before doing mischief, and at the end of six months the wheat was found to be in as fine condition as at the outset. A Profitable Speculation. — The Australasian says these are rosy times for sheep-farmers. One of them not very long ago bought out his partner's halfinterest in a station for £50,000, and within a month sold the entire property for £127,000, which was not a bad profit for the period, and easily calculated. An American author has reason to believe that whenever the wages of the mechanics are raised to eight or ten dollars a day the workmen will not come at all, they will merely send their cardi».