Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1880 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

A correspondent of Vick’* Monthly says that one spoonful coarse-powdered saltpetre to a pail of water will destroy potato-bugs, squash-bugs, and other insects. For roses it is uiuiaißapsed. For maggots that work at the foots of squash vines, pour about R ‘pmtr'of tile liquid at the root of each vine as soon as the pests indicate themselves. A whole afternoon of the recent convention at Lansing, of the Michigan Sheep-breeders’ and Wool-growers’ Association was given up to a debate on the question of washing sheep, and the result was an almost nnanimous verdict to the effect that the practice is not opjy useless and barbarous but unprofitable, taking into account the often fatal effect on fine animals thus shocked by being forced into the water. A Massachusetts farmer says ttat he has planted the following crops, all with good success, after the early peas have been marketed and the vines pulled : Squash, horse-radish, cabbage, ah kindd of turnip, sweet com, tomatoes, sfnhKch,’ rye for fodder, clover to plow under, com fodder and string beans. By getting two crops from the land the peas do not cost much,* except the cost of the seed, picking and marketing. The second crop is the profitable one, as' there lsDuf one coat of manure applied for both crops. ‘ v *• ? i Sowing Rye in Corn. — If farmers will - sow one-half bushel of winter rye to thp acre in their com, and plow it ih the last time, it will not only have a tendency t® choke out the weeds that start up afterward, but there will be no danger of dry murrain among cattle from eating too freely of dry stalks, as the rye will remain green through the winter, and will be eaten by stock in preference to com fodder. It makes a desirable feed for all kinds of stock, and aids materially in the quality and quantity of milk produced, besides proving a saving of from one to two tons of hay for every acre sown; and last, but not least, it affords a green crop to plow under in the spring, which will renew and enrich the land.— Rural World. Working the Soil. —The working of the soil, in connection with the application of manure and special fertilizers, works wonderful results. The great universal solvent is the oxygen of the atmosphere, and while but a small per cent, is free in the atmosphere, the earth is full of it, while that which is free in the atmosphere is ever ready to enter into and J make new combinations in the soil. Hence, one great object of tillage is to let in this oxygen, that it may produce those changes necessary for the production of plant food. Cultivation also aids in the escape of water, where there is too much in the soil, for, while a certain amount of water aids in the decomposition of the soil, too much water shuts out the oxygen and prevents decomposition. Stagnant water is antagonistic to plant growth. Water in a state of motion not only conveys food to the plant but conveys heat both to and from the land, equalizing the temperature. Prof. Stockbridge. To Cure Foot Rot In Sheep.— The preparation of the foot is just as essential as the remedy, for if every part of the disease is not laid bare the remedy will not effect a cure. A solution of blue vitriol, as strong as can be made and as hot as you can bare your hand in, even for a momont, having the liquid three or four inches deep, or deep enough to cover all the-affected parts; then hold the diseased foot in this liquid ten minutes, or long enough to penetrate to all the diseased parts; put the sheep on a dry barnfloor for twenty hours to give it a chance to take effect. In every case where it has been tried it has effected a cure, and I have never given a sheep medicine internally for foot rot. This remedy I call a dead shot when the foot is thoroughly prepared, but a more expeditious way, and where you don’t hardly hope to exterminate the disease, but keep it in subjection, is this: After preparing the feet as for the vitriol cure, take butter of antimony, pour oil of vitriol into it slowly until the heating and boiling process ceases, and apply with a swab. This remedy works quicker, is stronger than the vitriol, and is just as safe, but its mode of application renders it less sure. —Ohio Farmer. Destroying Weeds. —The remedy for noxious weeds is thorough cultivation. If a piece of ground is full of briars, milk weed, couch grass, Sodom apples, Canada thistles, sorrel, toad flax, or other miserable stuff that so often tries the mettle of our good farmers, let them put the ground in com a couple of years or so, keeping the cultivator going continually, and especially going in the earliest parts of the season, and the toughest character among these weeds will fail to stand the ordeal. If the hand hoe can be spared to go in among the hills of com occasionally, where the teeth of the harrow canhot reach, or to cut off here and there one which the harrow may miss, a bad case may be cured in a single season. But, if this cannot be done, a couple of successive years with a sharptooth cultivator among a com crop will generally do the business for the worst case that ever was. Let any one who has a weedy field* before him resolve, another season, to put the whole tract m com and keep clean, and he will soon give up all the common ideas of smothering out with deep layers of earth, cutting up in the full of the moon, putting salt upon their tops, or the many other recommendations started in the interest, it is believed, of laziness, but which really call for more trouble and hard work than a thorough and systematic cleaning, such as we have indicated, does.—Ocrmantoivn Telegraph.