Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1878 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

Around the Farm. Lice on Stock. —Calves and yearlings, and cows and oxen as well, when nfested with lice, should be freed at once by rubbing the skin with a mixture of sweat oil and kerosene in equal parts.— Exchange. The earlier grass lands are topdressed in the autumn the better for the next year’s grass. There is no better place for fine manure than grass land, especially where in the rotation the meadow is regularly brought into tillage crops. Two or three quarts of water —“ as near ice-cold as it is possible to get ” added to the cream toward the end of churning, will, says Col. Curtis, in the Weekly Rural, “cause the butter to gather a great deal quicker, and come hard and firm.” The temperature of his cellar is 64 degrees, and the water used as above probably two degrees colder. The following are the steps of quick transit in the upward march of cattle improvement: The produce of a common or “ scrub” cow by a thorough-bred bull would be a half-blood; this halfblood and a thorough-bred again coupled would produce a three-quarter-blood ; the next cross would be seveneighths, and the next a fifteen-sixteenths. The Grub in the Head.—Some months ago Mr. Crabb, of Oakville, Napa county, told me his remedy was to bathe the head with spirits of turpentine. I have been experimenting recently with several sheep afflicted with the above-named disease. After bathing the head well between the ears, I poured one teaspoonful into each ear. Relief was manifested immediately. In a few days they were perfectly well.— Letter to San Francisco Chronicle. Goats Versus Rats.—lt is a very prevalent opinion that rats will not stay where goats are kept, and, if this is a fact, we must say we respoct their judgment. We cannot say from our own knowledge as to this, but a friend who some years ago took a farm that was overrun with rats assures us that they have disappeared since some Angora goats were brought on to the premises. Our own farm was at one time infested with rats, but they disappeared upon the application of vigorous measures, although no goat was upon the place. So the question has two points of view, and may be considered a doubtful one. —American Agriculturist. The German way of prolonging the enjoyment of fresh currants is to train the plant in tree form, and when the fruit is ripe—not dead ripe—inclose with a cone of tall straw, not thick enough to exclude air, tying at the top. In the absence of straw, cloths may be used. A correspondent says that the adoption of this plan enabled him to pick delicious currants so late as October. The Prairie Farmer reminds its readers that the same result is secured by setting the bushes on the north side of a high fence, in the shade of trees, not forgetting to give some liquid manure during the season of growth. Mr. B. H. Warner, of Livingston county, N. Y., says, in a letter to Rural Home, that the fertility of his farm, and many others, has been kept up by plowing under clover, by laying blind drains, by use of improved implements, by free application of plaster, and by feeding out (mostly to sheep, which were sold off before grass-time in the spring, horses and cattle enough being kept to inn the farm), all hay, straw, corn-stalks and coarse grains raised (and more, if required), and using the manure in the right time and place. Has bought no commercial fertilizers until the last two years—these years w’ith good results. Every Minute.—So much may be accomplished in the spare minutes! If the farmer, while he is waiting for his dinner to be'“ dished up,” would nail on that loose paling to the garden-gate, or do five minutes’ work on the doorstep which needs repairing, or tack up the vine which the storm has beaten down, he will feel none the worse for it when he sits down to dinner, and yet the piece of work will give him satisfaction every time he thinks of it. More than this, the mended gate wall keep the chickens from destroying the garden, thus saving him dolla rs of money and hours of time. The mended step may save some members of the household a heavy fall, and perhaps broken bones. The vine over the window gives an air of refinement to the house. The lesson can be applied in-doors as well as out. The woman that is quick to observe little things that need doing, who mends garments as soon as possible after they are torn—who does not think it too much trouble to get her needle and thread and sew a rent up in an odd five minutes—will never have her mending basket piled up so high it half distracts her to look at it. The old adage, “ a stitch in time save* nine” is as true as ever it was.