Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1878 — Hints for the Season. [ARTICLE]

Hints for the Season.

[From the American Agriculturist for June.] TOP-DBESSING FALL GRAIN. Grain fields that look unthrifty and yellow after the drying winds of the spring will be benefited by a top-dress-ing of active fertilizer; this will help the clover and young grass. Plaster is often very useful upon young cloverfields—frequently doubling the hay crop. Thus applied it will serve to produce a good crop to be plowed in upon distant fields, where manure cannot be easily handled. One bushel (eighty pounds) up to four, six or eight bushels even may be used to the acre as early as practicable this month. EARLY POTATOES, that have nob yet been planted, should be got in without delay. With this crop earliness is a great advantage where beetles abound. Pure Paris green is best remedy for the beetle. Last season we mixed it with plaster, which is much cheaper than flour, does not scatter so much when the wind is blowing, and adheres to the leaves equally well. As it is best to be prepared for the beetle, a supply of Paris green should be procured in readiness for his arrival. HORSES. Now, with hard work, teams require good care. Horses will come from the field in much better condition if they are protected from worry by the flies. The best protection is a thin sheet made to fit tho neck, with holes for the ears, and to buckle under the throat, and to cover the back, hanging loosely at the sides to give access of air beneath. It should be held by a crupper-band beneath the tail. Too much corn fed now is apt to produce irritation of the skin, and to make the animals restless. Cleanliness will be found a great comfort to them. (JOWS AND CALVES. Caution should be exercised in turning cattle on to the fresh grass. Young stock are especially subject to disease from over-feeding with succulent herbage. Black leg, black-quarter or carbuncular erysipelas, frequent at this season, is so caused. Where there is danger, a seton in the dewlap has been found effective to prevent it. To change the feed gradually, however, is the best preservative of the health. In-coming cows that have been well fed should be watched to prevent garget. To reduce the feed before calving, and to guard the cows against lying out during cold rains, will be safe. Every owner of a cow should possess a good book on the care of cattle. SWINE. Pigs given a run at grass will do best. The orchard, sown to clover, might well be appropriated to them in part. The effect will be beneficial in two ways; the pigs will have good grazing, and many vermin will be destroyed. If the pigs gnaw the bark, wash the lower part of the trees with some thin mud mixed with cow-dung. A feeding coop is useful for young pigs. In this some milk in a shallow pan may be given them without disturbance from older ones. SHEEP AND LAMBS. The most profit from a sheep is to raise a lamb that will sell for more than the mother is worth. This can be easily done by caring well for the earliest lambs. A lamb, 90 days old and well fattened, will often sell for $lO in the cities, and half that in country villages. A half-hreed Cotswold lamb, fed now with a little mixed oatmeal and bran, and suckled by a native ewe, will make an excellent market lamb. Lambs now being fed should be protected from cold storms, and the ewes should have some extra feed. POULTRY. Young chicks should now be oming forward. As a rule, those hatched this month, if in good breeds, will begin to lay early in the fall, and, continuing through the winter, will brood early next spring. The profit of feeding hens when eggs are scarce is obvious. The loss of feeding “dead heads ” through the winter, to lay only when eggs are plenty, is apparent. THINNING OF FRUIT. Those who practice this should begin as soon as the. crop is fairly set. Others may doubt its value, but no one who grows choice fruit for market can afford to neglect it. The experience of. a single season with two trees side by side will decide the matter. Let one tree ripen all the fruit that sets, and from the other remove three-fourths of the crop. Keep an account of the cost of thinning, and of the returns from the fruit from each tree. FRUIT-TREE DISEASES. The black rot is not confined to plum trees, but attacks cherries, and we have seen the same 1 or something very similar on nectarines. At its worst it is in the form of large black, ragged excrescences ; it begins by a small swelling and breaking away of the bark. Cutting off and burning all affected branches is the proper remedy. When the excrescences are not large and few, cutting them out down to the sound wood, and washing the wound with a solution of chloride of lime have been found useful. The blight comes without warning ; we only know of it by the death of the branch, several branches, or sometimes of the whole tree. Cutting back to the sound wood, if it takes the whole tree, and burning the prunings, is all that can be done.