Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1881 — AGRICULTURAL ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Refuse Salt.—Refuse salt and brine from the pickle barrels should be sown broadcast under fruit trees. Wood Ashes. —Where this can be purchased cheaply enough it will pay to procure a quantity and scatter it liberally under the fruit trees. Singular Grafting.— A tomato vine has, with some difficulty, been grafted upon a potato. It was uone simply as a matter of curiosity.

Early Lambst^—April lambs are best. Lambs that come after the first of June seldom grow thrifty or amount to much. If intended for fairs or breeding stock February and March lambs are necessary. Sulphur fob Roup. —Roup will sometimes yield to the following treatment: Open the affected fowl’s beak and with a tube? which may be formed of paper, blow half a teaspoonful of sulphur down the throat. Three applications have been known to cure. Wheat. —See to it that your land is well prepared before sowing wheat if you desire a good crop. Roll before sowing if the land is clayey, roll after sowing if it is' sandy. Do not make the mistake of thin seeding. Use about two bushels of seed to the acre, and drill in rows five inches apart. Storing-Cabbages. —Leave them in the ground as late as they can be pulled up by the roots, then pull them up and pack them in level beds, six feet wide, with alleys between of the same width. During the next two or three weeks, or until the ground freezes, cover them gradually with soil until it -is six inches deep. It is of the greatest importance that the final covering should be delayed as long as the season will permit. Quality of Wool. —Amateur sheepgrowers are not all aware that the wool of sheep grows most rapidly in cold weather, and that any chec-k in the quality and amount of feed at this time injures the quality of the wool. When sheep are well fed in the winter the wool starts to grow, but should any starving take place the wool fiber would have a weak place in it, and render it entirely unfit for combing wool, which brings such a good price in our markets. It could ouly be used where poor grades of wool were used, as in coarse blankets and carpets. New Method of Ringing Pigs.—Certain Poland China breeders at Rushville, Indiana, give their method of ringing pigs, that, with iSnr years’ trial, has proved far superior to the old method. The ring should never be put in the gristle. If by any means it should be too deep iu and feels solid iu the gristle, cut the ring out with nippers and put in another that is loose in the skin. Then the pig will suffer no pain, will go right off to eating, and the pig or hog can not root with the ring in the center of the nose, nor do they ever tear out as in the old way. Produce of an Acre. —An Ohio farmer sends to the Practical Farmer an account of the products of an acre lot, which, he says: “I have cropped for several years as a truck patch, planting it in potatoes, sweet corn, and vegetables, until it became foul with weeds, particularly those meanest of pests, button weed, red root, and foxtail grass. It was becoming so foul I could not get only half a crop, so I determined to eradicate the pests. In the spring of 1879 I plowed the ground and sowed it in oats, and at harvest cut and threshed eighty bushels of No. 1 oats, for the beginning. Then, again, I plowed and sowed it in buckwheat, and from thie planting threshed eighteen bushels of fine buckwheat. A third time I plowed it about the middle of October and sowed it in wheat, and cut and threshed from this third planting twenty-five bushels of No. 1 wheat this season. But this is uot all. I sowed this same acre in clover this last spring, the first week iu March, and by the' middle of August cut two and a half tons of fine clover hay. All these crops within sixteen months. But still the ground is not exhausted, for at the present writing there is a fine crop of pasture six inches high. Fat Bacon.— The English object to our hogs because they are too fat. and we are advised to feed them more barley and less corn. <*This, says Joseph Harris, is all very well; but if our hogs are too fat (which I very much doubt), the way to correct the difficulty is not merely by feeding less corn, but by introducing better breeds and adopting a better system of feeding and management. A large, lean hog does not furnish the pork or bacon which either the American or English market requires. Large-boHed, lean hogs are not scarce. If the improved breeds are too fat it is because we do not manage them properly. We may have to let them get more growth before we fatten them. Instead of selling them at nine or ten months old we may have to keep them till they are fifteen or eighteen months old. Keep them in a thrifty, growing condition. In the summer and autumn the food will consist principally of grass or corn fodder; in the winter we can feed corn, bran, ensilage, &c. The point is to keep the pigs constantly gaining till they are shut up to fatten. In this section a good plan would be to have the pigs come iu‘May, June or July. The sow and little pigs should run out every day to grass. The sow should have slops, or anything that would favor the production of milk. Feed her liberally. As soon as the little pigs are old enough to eat give them some cooked or soaked com, or oat or barley meal, with all the skimmed milk you can spare. Noth* ing is so good for little pigs as milkSnccess in raising pigs probably depends largely on feeding liberally tft the pigs areraree or four months old. Let them have the run of a grass or clover pasture, and after harvest they will do well on the wheat stubbles. The cost of raising pigs in this way is very little. In the winter they will need richer food. They should have dry, warm quarters, with plenty of clean straw. Where cows or cattle are fed grain or oilcake, or where the new system of ensilage is practiced, the pigs "will to a considerable extent pick up their own living. In my case we give them warm slops twice a day during winter. They may seem to be getting too fat, but this will not hurt them. I like to see them in good condition when turned out to grass in the spring. And till the grass is abundant and nutritious I should feed the pigs night and morning with the same food thev have had during the vr‘* ter With good pasture well-bred pigs that have been properly cared for during the winter will keep fat and thrifty with little or no extra food. They will be in a healthy growing condition, and can be fattened in' three or four weeks at any time deemed desirable. An exchange prints an article headed “How Oilcloth is Made.” We have read it through carefully, bnt have failed to find the information we seek, which is to know how oilcloth is made so allfired cold ?— Rome Sentinel. What’s the use sitting all day in the house with a tad cold or hacking Cough when Dr. Bull’s Cough Syrup will cure you in a short