Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1880 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

Plaster scattered over the floors of the fowl houses is a powerful absorbent, preventing the smell which arises from the droppings. Set your hens in the evening if you have to move them from the laying nests. They will be more sure to stick to their new nests. Farmers in this country were never more indifferent about selling their wool than they are this season. Nothing desirable can be bought in Wisconsin for less than forty cents per pound. In Indiana fine wool is held at fifty cents. In some parts of France rye is largely employed for green feeding, but of late farmers are substituting barley, which appears to be better relished by stock. It is sweeter and somewhat more tender. Its nutritive value is very different following the period of its development. When young, it contains but six part in one hundred drp matter, and twenty-one about fifteen days after coming into ear. The San Francisco Mural Press tells of a large farmer in Merced County, Cal., who is “a mechanical genius as well.” Among his recent constructions, in his own shops, are a grain-header that cuts a swath thirty feet wide, a canvas-sided dining-room wagon for thrashers, and a horse-feed car for thirty horses, with boxes around the outside for feeding grain, and a rick for feeding hay. Theke is no class of people now so hard to preach to as old church-goers. They were people of but one book, and that was the Bible; but they were thoroughly posted in it. They knew what a good sermon was. A congregation of farmers now is of about the same character as they were then. They are a good deal harder to satisfy than New Yorkers. You can’t give them any “chaff,” and, if a minister has a poor sermon, I should advise him not to preach it to them. ” — Exchange.

A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer gives the following sensible advice about pastures: There are thousands of acres of pasture that will require at least three acres to carry a cow through the summer, and it needs no argument to show that it will be profitable to expend several dollars per acre to reduce this to two acres for a cow. lam more and more in favor of mixed grasses and heavy seeding for permanent pastures. Where I sowed only clover, the third year the ground was bare; but where I sowed orchard grass, blue grass and timothy with the clover, it is better now than it was the first year. A deception successfully practiced on a number of farmers is known as the “butter contract.” A couple of welldressed fellows drive to the house Of the expected victim and make an engagement with him to take all his butter for a year at a high price. A written agreement is then made and in due time the “contract ” is returned in the form of a note held by a third party, which the farmer is bound to pay. The safest plan is to make no written contracts with strangers who thus suddenly turn up and of whom nothing is known. A correspondent informs us that, while on a visit in the fall to a friend, he was surprised to see the number of eggs he daily obtained. He had but sixteen hens, and the product per diem averaged thirteen eggs. He was in the habit of giving, on every alternate day, a teaspoonful and a quarter of cayenne pepper, mixed with soft food, and took care that each lien obtained her share. The experiment of omitting the pepper was tried, when it was/omul that the number of eggs was reduced effcli trial to from five to six daily. Our correspondent believes that the moderate use of this stimulant not only increases the number of eggs, but effectually wards off diseases to which chickens are subject.—Germantown Telegraph.

The common disease in cows and sheep which appears by watery blisters on the feet and between the claws of the hoof, followed by raw spots which are difficult to heal, is known as aphthous fever. Sometimes it is accompanied by similar blisters on the lips and tongue, when it is called foot and mouth disease. It Is fever, or blood disease, and is contagious and troublesome, but not serious, and easily submits to treatment, as follows : Give one pound of salts, and when that has operated, give one ounce of hyposulphite of soda, daily; wash the sore spots with water and soap, and dress them with an ointment, as follows, viz : Melt four ounces of lard and one ounce of spermaceti together, and one ounce of acetate of copper (verdigris), and stir thoroughly, and while still fluid add one ounce of turpentine and stir until cold. Keep for use. The ointment is excellent for any raw sores or galls, and may be usefully kept in any stable