Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1879 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

Oatmeal contains nearly 16 per cent, of flesh-forming constituents. Less wheat, but three times the area of corn, and twice of oats, has been planted and sown in Colorado this year, compared with last. “Pbof.” Henderson, of the Rural Farm, reqnests hs to state that he finds lamp-black, applied with a woolen doth, the very best substance for burnishing the brass or silver-plated mountings of harness. — Rural New Yorker. If you have any raspberries, the canes must be tied to the trellis or stakes. The young shoots that are now coming will be next year’s bearing canes ■nd should be taken care of; five or six may be left on each strong plant; the rest are superfluous. Radishes should now be freely supplied with water, otherwise they will be spongy and unfit to eat. To have a constant supply of this excellent vegetable, sow a short row every week, say every Saturday. They can be grown between the rows of cabbage and other vegetables, but water them freely. Quassia and soft soap is recommended for destroying aphides on roses and other woody plants. It is used by boiling four ounces of quassia chips for half an hour in a gallon of water. When cold and strained, add two more gallons of water and six ounces of soft soap. With this syringe the bushes. The man who farms his brains to their full extent year after year, and does not believe in occasional fallowings, will find at last that brains, like land, will run out.— Albany Argus. And the man who farms his land year after year without bringing brain power to his work will find that his land will soon run out. The unpretending but sweet little mignonette should be found in every flower-garden. Sow some seed in a pot or box; set the young plants in fourI inch pots, one in each, and train them up for window decoration. I have transplanted young plants very successfully in the garden by carefully shading and watering them till they began to grow. Peas growing over a foot in height should be supplied with brush on which to climb. Trim each brush with a hatchet into a flattened or fan-shaped form, sharpen the ends so they can easily be stuck in the ground and set a row of brush to each row of peas. In beds of two rows the brush should be set on the outside, the tops leaning a little toward each other.

Attention to little things about the farm, as in any other business, is what increases the profits. Plenty of eggs, a few chickens, a few calves, a colt or two help out wonderfully. If some of the perquisites arising are given to the children for the care bestowed, they will cheerfully help" in the garden, and thus another important item is added to the well-being of the family. Tomato plants should never be allowed to lie on the ground; they give less and inferior fruit, and it will ripen late if they do. The best way is to train them to a trellis made either of wire or of wooden strips. Every branch should be tied up, and, later, when a quantity of fruit is formed, the tips pinched off; you will then be surprised to see the amount and size of the fruit you can gather from a single plant. In lieu of a trellis, you can use low, spreading brush to raise the plants from the ground, but it is not so efficient. Recent analysis at the Connecticut Experiment Station of about a dozen different specimens of corn-fodder, cut at different periods, give the highest amount of albuminoids to that cut Aug. 9, of carbo-hydrates to that cut Sept. 25, and the highest digestible ratio to a sample that was harvested in 1877. Analysis shows a much larger percentage of ash in sweet corn than in the ordinary field varieties, which confirmed the general opinion that it is much more exhaustive than common field corn. As the stalk increases in age, its feeding value diminishes. American Cultivator. The use of salt in the care of farm animals seems to aid an economical digestion, and assists assimilation of the requisite normal amount of food; while it is also believed that it makes the flesh harder and gives the animal functions a more regular and healthy action. In England the average daily allowance of salt is for calves one ounce per day, 1-year-old animals three ounces, fattening oxen six ounces, and milch cows four ounces. Sheep, it is said, will never stray from inclosures where salt is kept for their constant use, provided, of course, running water is also found in the pasture. Any plants with soft, large, or hairy leaves are good absorbers, and are supposed to ward off malaria. The probability, however, is that, as a rule, such plants absorb much moisture by the roots, and give off much oxygen to the air, and hence they act in a two-fold manner—take up the moisture from wet soils, and thereby prevent much evaporation at the surlace. Among trees the willow is a good example of the power of absorption; so is the cottonwood. Nothing will grow near them, from the fact that their network of roots ramify the soil to a great distance, and prevent small plants from getting a due supply. An instance is given in the Journal of Forestry, England, where a bog in South Wales, not only useless, but dangerous, was reclaimed by planting it with black (Italian) poplar. The roots ramifying the ground is said to have allowed the water to precolate the clay, and the bog was naturally drained.