Correspondent Country Gentleman: I notice that your journal recently gave currency to the "saltpetre method" of extracting stumps, and W.H. White also recommends it in your columns. His method is to bore a hole in the stump in the fall of the year, fill in the hole with saltpetre, plug up till the following summer, then fill the hole with kerosene and fire the stump. It is alleged that the saltpetre and kerosene will so saturate the stump that it will be entirely consumed, roots and all. This recipe has been floating around the press for years. It is usually credited to the Scientific American, but that paper has several times denied its paternity. The uselessness of the process can easily be learned by trial. There are few more inflammable substances than pitch and turpentine. The roots of pine stumps are saturated with these, but it is impossible to burn them out. The addition of saltpetre would not help much. Yet there are seasons when the soil and air are so dry that hard wood stumps may be burned out without either saltpetre or kerosene. We had such a year in 1881, when corn and clover standing uncut in the field were burned. In some instances the curbing was burned out of wells during terrible forest fires that raged in Michigan. If tried in such a season the recipe would undoubtedly be successful. In any ordinary season it is "no good." * * * * * No matter how wretched a man may be, he is still a member of our common species, and if he possesses any of the common specie his acquaintance is worth having. * * * * * [Illustration] FARM MACHINERY, Etc. GREAT SAVING FOR FARMERS. THE Lightning Hay Knife! (WEYMOUTH'S PATENT.) [Illustration] Awarded "FIRST ORDER OF Merit" at Melbourne Exhibition, 1880. Was awarded the FIRST PREMIUM at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia, 1876, and accepted by the Judges as SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER KNIFE IN USE. It is the BEST KNIFE in the _world_ to cut _fine feed_ from bale, to cut down _mow_ or _stack_, to cut _corn-stalks_ for feed, to cut _peat_, or for ditching in marshes, and has no equal for cutting ensilage from the silo. TRY IT. IT WILL PAY YOU. Manufactured only by HIRAM HOLT & CO., East Wilton, Me., U.S.A. _For sale by Hardware Merchants and the trade generally_ * * * * * SEDGWICK STEEL WIRE FENCE [Illustration]