Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1880 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

From the American Agriculturist for February.] Better Stock Must be Kept. —The right stock, too, must be kept.in theright place. The choice and management of animals lefcjuire an accurate knowledge which nnufc come from outside of his own farm practice. A farmer cannot test these things for himself land run the rink off losses that would be ruinous to him. All this has been done and recorded in books and agricultural papers. Young Chickens. —Early chi/.kens, which can be reared easily if proper care is given, may be kept in a glasscoverea; coop protected at night by covering with straw. If severe cold is feared, beat a couple of bricks hot in. the ove o, wrap them in a piece of carpet, and! put them in the coop. A large can or jrug of hot water is also a very good warmer.

Y ebtkin.— The poultry house, if closely examined, may be found to swarm with lice. A gray, mealy powder may be seen on the roosts, in crevices, and in the corners and joints of the building. Take a common squirt can filled with kerosene oil and inject the oil intf» every crevice in the house. Repeat this process if it is found necessary, and very soon the fowls will be free from these insect pests.

! Keep the Good Calvjis.— As the cows oome in the best of the heifers may be selected for rasiing. There can be no better way to improve the stock of cows than to use a good bull and keep the best calves, well feeding and oaring for them until matnred. After they become cows a selection can again be made for breeding, and only of dairy cows may be doubled by this careful practice of selection. Grass in the North is not made as available as it might. An opinion prevails that grass lands can not bo kept in permanently good condition. Yet there are in many localities plots and tracts of grass that are very old and show* no signs of failure. What has been done once in this way can be done again. A permanent pasture or meadow is invaluable. Why can not we try to make and keep them? This is a subject worthy the most careful study. Geese and Ducks. —These are profitable birds in some cases, and may be kept where there is cheap grazing. Half a dozen geese will soon fill a good sized feather bed or a pair of pillows. The white ducks are perhaps equally useful in this way. Both of these wifi now begin to lay, but must be closely watched and kept up at nights, or they will drop their eggs abroad. The eggs should be gathered and kept in a cool but not cold place until they are wanted for setting. Fowls will need the best food if eggs are desired. Wheat steeped in boiling water, and given hot, and hot baked potatoes crushed with a masher, are as good food as can be given; water slightly warmed, with a small quantity of sulphate of iron (copperas) in it, iB useful. Allspice mixed with corn-meal mush is an excellent condiment, and by no means costly. Laudanum in tendrop doses has been found a remedy for the cholera, or poultry intestinal fever, which "has destroyed sy many flocks.

Values Are Increasing. —Every relic of the loug-continued depression —the seven lean years—now happily gone by, is passing away. Prices are advancing, and every purchased thing costs considerably more than it did a year ago. • The farmer wfio values his land and stock may justly put up the figures from 25 to 50 per cent. His income must be made to increase in proportion, and this must be done to a great extent by increasing in every possible way the productive value of his property. Why Can Not We Grow Larger Crops. —There are localities where it may pay to grow 6mall crops cheaply, where one may skin the land for a few years and leave it, just as in some places cattle are or have been killed for their hides and the carcasses left to decay. But every year these localities are growiDg more and more distant in the West, and in time land will be too valuable to be used in so wasteful a manner. In Central and Eastern localities the future prosperity of the farmers will depend upon the growth of larger crops by the expenditure of more labor on the land. To reach this end will be a work of time, but it will never be reached unless a beginning is made, and there was never a more propitious time to begin than now.

Grafting. —lf old trees produce poor or even indifferent fruit, and they are still sound and vigorous, they may be made productive and valuable by grafting good sorts upon them. This work should be done just as the buds begin to swell. If the tree is a large one, only a portion of it should be grafted the first season, beginning with the central part of the head. Great care should be taken that the grafts are of an excellent variety. It is a common notion amoDg those who do not think about the matter that the mere operation of grafting somehow benefits the tree. The grafted tree is in fact a new tree; all of the bearing parts of the old tree are cut away, and a new head is planted, eo to speak, upon the old one. Hence the new top or head will be of the kind that is placed there, and unless good kinds are selected grafting will be useless. There are men who go about the country doing grafting. Some are very excellent and others are bunglers, but there is no need of employing any one. Any boy who can make a willow whistle can learn to graft, and every boy should be able to do it.