Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1879 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

The crow destroys more grasshoppers than any other bird. He must, therefore, be one of the blessings in disguise we hear so much of. Experience with the Colorado beetle should prompt the early planting of potatoes; also, abundant manuring and good preparation of the soil. The latter often doubles the crop. A farmer who has tried it, speaks in the highest praise of gas tar for painting wagon wheels, stating that it tightens tires and spokes better than anything else that can be used. A little dry sand covered over potatoes when they are first put in the cellar will* destroy any unpleasant odor they may have. A sprinkling of dry, air-slaked lime will mitigate a tendency to rot. It is supposed that eating rich clover pai-tnres wet with dew or recent rains is dangerous to cows as producing bloat. But when dry there is but little danger, if the cows are not too hungry and unused to such food. Corn-cobs dipped into molasses and suspended from limbs in the plum trees has saved many a crop of plums for a Mere land farmer. He has done this for many years with success. The curculio will iay his brood into the sweetened

corn-cob instead of the plums. From six to twelve prepared corn-cobs are sufficient for an ordinary-sized tree. There is a well-known farmer living near Toronto, who, the Toronto Globe savs, is in a position to make the following proud boast: Last year four cows on his farm had eight calves, eight sheep had seventeen lambs; one mare had two colts; one goose had two broods of goslings, one of nine aud the other of eleven; and, lastly, his wife had twins, a boy and a girl. A most valuable remedy for hoaves, and said to be a sure cure: Forty sumac buds, one pound of resin, one pint of ginger, half a pound of mustard, one pint of unslacked lime, one pound of epsom salts, four ounces of gum guiacum, six ounces of cream of tartar. Mix thoroughly, and divide into thirty powders, and give one every morning in their feed before watering. Clover-fields will be benefited by the application of a bushel or two of plaster, as early this month as possible. There is no better place on the farm to put wood ashes than on clover. Circumstances already referred to are tending to make clover a more important crop than we have regarded it as a preparation for wheat and for green feeding. For this use some of the annual varieties may be sown.

A correspondent of Forest and Stream says: “Avery successful plan has been tried by placing in Mr. Crow’s way a number of grains with a horse hair run through them. He is bound to swallow one, and his note of alarm is soon sounded. It is impossible for him to dislodge the grain, and if he can be watched a sufficient length of time he will be seen to cut his own throat in scratching at it. His usual note is cliangod, and I can assure you that life to him is such a misery he could ‘even wish that he were dead.’ It has been noticed that after the note of alarm had been sounded, all the crows in the vicinity will leave that field and approach it no more that season. It is a simple thiner, yet all who try it will find it a success.” The Lewiston Gazette says every paper in the United States oaght occasionally to keep the fact before its readers that burnt corn is a certain and speedy cure for hog cholera. The best way is to make a pile of corn on the cobs, effectually scorch it, and give the affected hogs free access to it. This remedy was discovered by accident by E. E. Locke, Esq., at the time his distillery was burned, together with a large lot of stored corn, which was so much injured as to unfit it for use, and was hauled out and greedily eaten by the hogs, several of which were dying daily. After the second day not a single hog was lost, and the disease entirely disappeared. The remedy has been tried since in a number of cases, an 1 has never failed.