Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1881 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

A fabmbb of experience in wool-grow-ing has well said there is more money in growing at twenty cents a pound than to loan your money at ten per cent interest The grease which has become hardened by dust on the axles of machinery can all be cleaned off by the use of kerosene. Bunches of grapes were kept three mouths by an Austrian grower who dipped the ends of the stems in wax and packed the fruit in kiln-dried ground bark. Professor Riley says that kerosene or oil of any kind is sure death to insects in all stages and the only substance with which we may hope to destroy the eggs. Oils will not mix directly with water, but will mix with milk, fresh or sour, and then mayjbe diluted to any desired extent. Weak Eyes in Horses.—A gcod authority gives the following as a remedy for horses’ eyes that are weak, winking and inflamed: Take an egg and break the large end enough to admit the handle of a teaspoon; pour out the albumen or white; mix in all the salt you can until it is quite stiff, then set it in the center of a heap of red coals and let it burn until done baking; then when cool grind and blow a piece of it into the eyes once a day. ■ Purifying Rancid Butter.—One of _ur foreign contemporaries gives the following mode of clarifying rancid and tainted butter: "Let the butter be melted and skimmed as for clarifying; then put into it a piece of bread Avell toasted all over, but not burnt. In a few minutes the butter will lose its offensive taste and smell, but the bread will become perfectly fetid.” We have serious doubts with regard to the above process producing the result claimed. Still it is so simple that any one can try it. Keeping Milk. —Milk will absorb bad odors from the air quicker than almost any otheri liquid, therefore great care should be taken that it is net exposed to any condition where it will be likely to be damaged in that way. In manufacturing cream into butter, great care is necessary as to the quality of salt used, as great loss may be entailed by this alone. The salt is a very small item in itself, nevertheless it has cost manv dollars in the course of a year through the damage done by the use of an i: ferior article. Always use the best known brands and keep a close watch upon them at that. The use of firkins, pails or tubs made of any kind of wood that imparts an unpleasant flavor must be avoided, as, after packing, butter is very susceptible in coming in contact with any flavors of this kind. Preserving Pastures.—Among many propositions to renovate the pasture, one has been overlooked—management. It is the cheapest and most practical manure on the farm. The common plan is to have but one pasture, upon which the cattle must graze at nil times. If it comes to the bare sod during the seasons of extreme drought the stock must, continue to grub at the sod for want of better. This exposes the roots of the grass to the sun or injures or destroys the plant. Suppose we use our trees and shrubs in that way, the detriment to growth would be at once apparent. A good top on grass for growth is as necessary as upon trees. That one hundred acres of land in two pastures will keep one-third more stock than the same number of acres in one pasture has long been known to the practical farmer. The reason is that the stock can be removed before it has grazed the pasture too closely, before the roots of the grass are uncovered. A plan that will renovate hundreds of pastures in lowa is this: Let the grass have a good start in the spring, say four inches, before turning on the stock, and change pastures as often as the pasture appears to be closely grazed.— Prof. Knapp, in Homestead. Feeding Bees in Winter.—After an nnpropitious season bees are apt to go into winter quarters illv provided with stores. Well-informed and cautions apiarists, aware of this lack, feed weak colonies during the fall sufficiently to supply the need. It is never desirable to feed liquid stores, either honey or syrup, in winter, and not well to feed at all unless positively demanded. The best way to feed, if we must, is to put candy made from granulated sugar on the frames, just above the cluster. This will be kept warm, and can be taken, and will disturb the bees so little thab if it must be done, it will generally succeed. If the bees can pass the winter until March—and the stores needed during the cold winter are very light compared with those consumed later after brood-reanng commences—then we may feed either honey or syrup. Then the bees can fly occasionally anfkivill receive no harm from liquid food. Tjjlh food, too, will stimulate brood-rearing, and thus work a double benefit. The feeder wll need to be so constructed as to keep the food near the cluster or the bees will not ap propriate it, because of the cold No one should fail io use a division-board in wintaT and spring. Keep the bees crowded on to so few frames that all v ill be covered, and spring dwindling will do little harm.— A. J. Cook, Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. One Hundred Bushels of Shelled Corn to the Acre —Mr. Nathan G. Pierce tells the Arreriean Ciltivator how he raises one hundred bushels of shelled corn to the acre. He used for seed au eight-rowed corn which he has improved by careful selection, and believes it to be a good variety to raise, anywhere between Virginia and the Canada line. The ground s‘lected for planting was a good pie s of gravelly loam. It was well plowed about the iirsrt of May, harrowe 1, treated to a broadcast application of nine hundred pounds fertilizer to the acre; again harrowed faithfully, rendering the land fine and mellow; rows marked three fw»t apart, a small amount of fertilizer scattered to each row. May 10th, three kernels of corn planted in each hill, two feet apart in the rows; cultivated and hoed four times, allowing no weeds to grow; passed through the entire piece, cutting each hill down to two stalks; every sucker in each hill cut throughout the field. During the entire park .1 of growth tlirough the season the field was closely watched, every weed pulled and every ear of smut cut out At the proper time, after the corn had become hard, it was cut, Ixjnnd in bundles, and stooked. When dry it was drawn into the barn, where, with the assistance of a hired man, the corn was husked, weighed as husked, and found to yield one hundred and ten bushels of shelled com to the acre, allowing seventy-five pounds of ears to equal one bushel of shelled corn.