Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1883 — FARM TOPICS. [ARTICLE]

FARM TOPICS.

Watermelon seed, properly washed and dried, is worth $5 per bushel. DamJ* moss is said to be an excellent material in which to pack winter vegetables to retain their freshness. Black corn has been raised in Livingston county, N. Y. It is described as being as blaok as an African, as sweet as sugar, and retains all these attributes when cooked. Ik England inferior barley is generally ground into meal for feeding cattle and pigs, and nothing surpasses its value when boiled as a mash for horses after a hard day’s work. A pah. of milk standing ten minutes where it is exposed to the scent of a stro ag- smel ling stable, or any other offensive odor, will imbibe a taint that will never leave it. In England ensilage is receiving considerable attention, as possibly affording some measure of relief from the distress caused by bad harvests and too keen competition from more fortunate lands. Those who have tried it thoroughly say that apples packed in dry sand remain until spring as crisp and seemingly as fresh as when first gathered. The same is said of potatoes. The sand is used year after year. It has been demonstrated by one woman—Mrs. Joseph Squires, of Redding, Ot. —that bee culture is agreeable, easy and profitable work for women. She took 800 pounds of honey from eighteen hives this season, and is so well pleased with the business that she has increased her colonies largely. The cheapest way to get a supply of pie-plant is to sow the seed and select the best specimens among the seedlings for setting out in permanent rows. It takes a year longer to get the plants, but they have more vitality than old ones and are better in other respects. Japan clover is a small yellow variety, and adapted to all kinds of soil. There are several kinds of Japan clover, one of which takes possession of the ground gregariously, to the exclusion of 'other plants, forming dense and beautiful swarth. It is short in growth, will thrive on light soils, and suitable to this climate. There have been several cases of death the past season in lowa by bulls. The Jersey bull is probably the most dangerous. Bulls are always treacherous and dangerous, no matter how mild or tractable. So long as you can keep him ignorant of his p6wer, he is tolerably safe. But let him once break his rope or pull away by force from his keeper, or if he sees you dodging or shying from his movements, he at once knows that he is master and is no longer safe on the farm. Usually horses drive at pleasure all of the cattle, including the bull. But let him once drive a horse, then no horse ever after is safe in the yard with him. If a bull once breaks a weak or rotten rope, then the strongest is no longer any obstruction to his will. It is the same with fences. If he Can break down a poor or weak fence, he soon learns to disregard the strongest. A famous recipe for curing ham* was that of Mrs. Henry Olay, who used at one time to send several hogsheads of “Ashland hams” every year to Boston, where they commanded high prices among the wealthy Wings. For every ten hams, medium-s’zed, she took one pound of saltpeter, two pounds of brown sugar, three and one-half pounds of fine salt, mixed all these together and rubbed each ham well wi!h it. They were then packed in a tight box, where they remained in a cool outhouse for three weeks. They were then put into the pickle sub, which was nearly filled with a picklff strong enough to bear an egg. After the hams had remained in this pickle for nearly three weeks they were taken out, rubbed by hand with salt, and then hung, up to dry in the air. They were then taken to the smoke-house, where a fire was kept up with green walnut branches for three weeks. Each ham was then sewed up , in canvas, whitewashed, dried and then whitewashed again. They were then packed in hickory ashes—leached ashe3 of course —or otherwise the fat would have been absorbed. The Mark Lane Express, of London, having circulated questions respecting draught horses among a number of great.firms, etc., employing them, obtained much information in reply. To the question, “Is there any breed of heavy draught horses which, more than another, is especially adapted to heavy work in paved towns ?” the Southampton Dock Company replied: “With twenty-five years’ experience we find that the Belgian an l English breed horses are best adapted for heajßjjf work on paved and rough roads; ings are always preferred, and roan the favorite color.” Messrs. Courage, great London brewers, object lodieavy flesh legged horses for work on the stones. As to heavy-legged horses, opinions are divided. Mr. Wallis, of Dublin, who horses the express wagons for several leading Irish railroads, says that the English and Scotch horses are much more easily managed than the Irish. One authority pronounces in favor of the mixed Belgian and English horses so far as price, power and durability are concerned, but most are decidedly in favor of the breeds of the United Kingdom. The feet of foreign breeds will not, they say, stand the stones. In many instances, remarks the Country Gentleman , it is better to set out trees to form orchards in autumn. The advantages are, better selection from the nursery before the best are selected, and the work may be done more deliberately and carefully. The earth will become more perfectly settled about the roots, and the trees mat e an early start when spring arrives. The drawbacks are, more exposure to sweeping winds by the trees, which are somewhat weakened by removal, if set in exposed places, and danger of the trees being whipped about by the wind, unless long roots have been well taken up with moderate-sized trees or security against wind effected by small mounds of earth, or by staking. Another drawback, coming from neglect, is the .hardened crust of earth which forms during the long interval between setting and growing; but this crust is easily broken, and the soil made mellow late in spring. There is still another difficulty which is generally overlooked, but which may be guarded against. Nurserymen are often compelled to begin early to fill orders, and before the natural fall of the

leaf. These leaves have not entirely fulfilled their functions in rounding' and ripening the wood. Partly tender trees are thus not so perfectly prepared to resist the intense cold of winter, and the tips of the shoots may be killed. With hardy trees like apple trees this deficiency would scarcely be any detriment at all, but with peaches some attention may be necessary. Thay may be carefully heeled in, partly covering the stems, and closely filling all interstices among the roots; to be set out early in spring, and after transplanting, and before the buds have opened, all the one-year shoots should be out baok most of their length, the degree of shortening depending partlv on the amount es good roots which have been secured with the trees. On the whole, it is quite as well or better to set trees in autumn, if the abovementioned care is taken.