Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1879 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

In shingling use but a single nail, and put that one near the edge. Seven cords of dry, hard wood have a heating power equal to eight cords of green wood. Bund staggers in hogs is caused by the exposure to storms and changeable weathey*, sometimes by sudden change to rich and abundant food. The treatment, says the Louisville CourierJournal, is to give at once to a me-dium-sized hog a teaspoonful of calomel. Cut a slit in the forehead to the skull and fill it with salt and pepper for counter-irritant. Dash cold water over the body. Injections are used, too, with good result. Wastes on the Farm-x-H speaks well for us that no sensible person engaged in productive industry is proud of his wastefulness. Young persons who may have never earned a dollar, but spent their thousands, think it a small matter to talk about wastes and savings, but their parents doubtless thought and talked much about such matters. Whether the remark often made by business men, that farmers, as a class, are shamefully wasteful, is true or not, we shall not discuss. We would rather suggest that since farmers and their methods are open to the observation of every passer-by, farm management becomes a matter of general interest, at least of general criticism. Every man, woman and child passing through the country feels competent to criticise the methods of the farmer. His work is done in an open field, before the public, and its merits or defects are looked upon in open day. It is not strange, then, that among the farming ’ millions there should be seen waste and want of care. Perhaps, however, if all other branches of trade and business could be exposed to the same wide inspection and criticism, fully as large a per cent, of waste and untidiness and want of care would be seen. Since, however, our good name and our pockets are interested in this matter of wastes, we may as well begin in the fields and see if the condition and shape of them can not be improved, so as to require less labor and yield better crops. That seems to be the bottom principle, by which all our operations must be tested. We ought also to look at the appearance of the farm. That is an important factor in adding values. Then, to properly lay off our fields, we must look at the profits and appearance of the farm— profits first, however. It would be foolish m a farmer to spend all his energies and proceeds of his farm on its embellishments, as it would be in .the manufacturer, to spend more than his profits on the ornamentation of his factory. Each should regard good taste, so as not to offend the public eye, or ear, or nose. If he can afford to go further, and please these public organs, he may become a public benefactor as well as money-maker. We want a public sentiment among farmers, and manufacturers, too, to lift them up, so they may desire to be more than mere money-makers, and even to aspire to becoming public benefactors by helping to elevate and correct public taste. We have observed that when a farm is well laid off and managed, so as to make each field and pasture-lot most productive at the least cost of labor, that farm is a pleasing sight. We may notice, too, that the majority of our farms do not come up to that. We may, this spring, do much toward correcting losses and. improving the farm. We have just added an acre of excellent land to one of our fields by a very small outlay of fencing and labor. The produce of that acre in one year will pay for the outlay. This is at a bend in a creek which former owners kept moving back from, changing the old rail fence, which is easily washed away, for an up-and-down board and wire fence, which the water may cover and not wash away if the fence runs parallel with the stream. We have straightened our fence row, improved the shape of our field, and added more than an acre of valuable ground. One-fourth of this may occasionally overflow, but the fence will stand, and the other three-fourths has been redeemed from weeds and underbrush, and the other fourth will soon fill up so as to not overflow. A few years since we took in three acres by a similar change of fencing. The result is, we have about four acres of land under cultivation in the same field, and yet the shape of the field is so improved that the labor of cultivating the entire field is not increased. The fence-rows are straightened, they are easily kept clean, and the amount of fencing is diminished. In addition to these gains, we have increased the yield of produce, and improved the appearance of the farm. This is merely suggestive. There are not many farms in the timbered States that have not some ungainly, unprofitable nook or corner, that a very small outlay of time and labor will greatly improve. It is wasteful to allow valuable land to lie idle. The taxes and interest on invested capital are constant forces that tell against us. Many thin points of land, washy and rough, yearly growing less valuable, may be brought into timber land. Where now only barren, seared hilltops are, may soon be seen sightly slopes, covered with profitable trees and green grass. Our earliest pastures may be made in such lands. Grass starts much sooner among young groves than on bleak hillsides. The fertility of the soil may be increased in this way. In corners, on hillsides where we never expect to plow, locusts are perhaps most profitable. Care should be exercised in locating a locust grove, since where the plow strikes a locust root a sprout is sure to start, and they are hard to exterminate. By a careful study, too, of the character of our soils we may arrange fences so as to throw land suitable for a special crop into one field, and such as is profitable only for pasture in another field. One piece may need more frequent changes in rotation than the other, and if fences are arranged with this in view another point in economy is gained. Good judgment must be used in this, that the cost of fences does not exceed the gains in cultivation.— Farmer 8., in Cincinnati Commercial.