Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1881 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

Oatmeal fob Hobses. —One of the best things in the world to give a horse, after he has been driven, is a quart of oatmeal stirred in a pail of water. It refreshes and strengthens him, relieves his immediate and prepares his stomach for more solid food. So says Joseph Harris, after twenty years’ trial of it. Mb. Hyde remarks in the New York Times, that if one wishes to cultivate his farm like a market garden, it may pay to plow in the coarse manure and harrow in the fine, but as a rule he would recommend the application of the manure to the surface of the soil This is nature’s method, and is the most successful for common practice. Crowding Fowls.—Poultry require plenty of house room, for crowding them on their roosts, or having illy built, dilapidated or damp houses is conducive to disease. If, on account of breeding more than one variety, because you have limited ground, or because you have fruits and vegetables you wish to keep the birds from, you nave to keep the fowls in restricted quarters, by all means give them all the exercise room you possibly can, and there is far more danger of giving them too little than too much.

Mb. J. 8. Woodward discourses in a late New York upon the care of stock during winter. He thinks that any man who lets his cattle stand shivering in the lee of a straw-stack, or old fence, or under an open shed, should be tied in the same place and be compelled to stay one night with the thermometer at zero and the snow flying thick and fast about him; if this does not convince him of the necessity of good warm stables, he is not fit to be called by the noble name of farmer, and the quicker he gets out of the business the better for it and himself. The Difference.—From actual experiments made, it is demonstrated beyond a doubt, that the grinding of grain adds one-third to its value for feeding purposes. This is a matter of a gooa deal of importance to the agricultural community, and in fact to all classes who have animals to feed. As far as dollars are concerned, perhaps it is not of so much moment in the Northwest, where grain is so cheap and so plenty, as it is in other portions of the country, where less grain is raised, but it is worthy of the consideration of those who have not full bins of oats and corn. Since the introduction of cheap'feed-mills, it is the province of every farmer to own one, with which all grain intended for the stock on the farm could be ground.

• Measuring Corn.—A number of rules for measuring corn have been published As a multiplicity of rules tend to confuse, the question itrises, why can we not have one good rule ? The reason is obvious. New com will not measure as many bushels to the foot or inches as old corn, on account of shrinkage. A crib of corn measured in the fall will not yield as many bushels to the cubic foot as when measured in the spring or summer. Corn in wagon, when first put in, will not measure as much to the foot as when hauled several miles. Hence the necessity of working by different rules under different circumstances. All rales are based upon the number of cubic inches in a bushel of shelled corn, which is 2150.4. If all corn shelled out the same, under all circumstances, it would be very easy to have one rule. As near right as any rule I have tried is twelve cubic feet to the barrel for corn in crib in the fall of the year, eleven and a half feet in spring time, and about eleven feet in summer; twelve feet as thrown in wagon in the field and eleven and a quarter hauled four or five miles. Smalt. Farms.—The French people have more ready cash in individual possession than any other nation in the world. It is not the wealth of a nation that makes the people rich, hut the general diffusion of ■wealth. This is the ease in France. The French are a nation of small farmers. There ore more land-owners in that country than in America. The farms are small; the majority are under twenty acres, and a very large number under ten. It may not be that is the only reason for the money wealth of these people; they are notablv eojnomical and thrifty. But the small farms' have something to do with it. The farmers in some of the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, where the farms are comparatively small, could well compete with the f’rench in their possession of money wealth. Almost every farmer has his hoard invested. These men have a habit of feeding a few head of beef cattle or a flock of sheep every winter. They sell little grain but wheat, and feed their fodder and coarse grain to purchased stock. They make more profit to the head of stock than is made upon large grazing farms, and their land is rich and high-priced, because of the large quantity of manure that is made in feeding stock. The consumption of meat is continually increasing, and with the extension of manufactures there are more mouths to fill every year, so that it is not probable the supply can ever become excessive.

Some Items in Farm Economy.—The arrangements of the buildings and the division of the farm into fields depends so much upon the character of the farm, the kind of farming, individual taste, etc., that it is out of the question to have a fixed plan that is the best one for all farms of any given size. There are certain general principles which should serve as a foundation for the arrangement, but the details must necessarily vary greatly. For example, if possible the barns should be upon a rise of ground where a cellar can be built opening to the lower ground at the rear. The fields should be so arranged that there should be as little fencing as possible, and so located that all fields can be easily reached from the lane. A long field has considerable advantage over one of the same area that is square—in the longer “bouts,” and therefore less time spent in turning, plowing, harrowing, sowing, harvesting, etc. A pasture close to the stable is always handy, and other things being equal, the orchard should not be put at the rear of the farm, where the wood lot had best be located. There is much Ihbor to be saved in having everything so placed—and this applies to the various details that seem trivial at first sight—that there will be no extra steps or turns in doing the every-day work of the farm. For example, many day’s work can be saved by having the pump in a handy corner of the barn-yard, where the stock from a number or yards may come to the troughs. If the matters of the farm are not already economically arranged, it would be well to make such changes of fences, buildings, etc., as to finally secure the desired end. By degrees the thoughtful farmer will improve his farm until it approximates to a model and therefore an economical farm.