Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1883 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

A Cincinnati Gazette correspondent feeds his hogs artichokes, and has lost none from cholera, although the disease is very prevalent in his locality. TTat.w a teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a gDT of milk is recommended by J. A. Hodge, in the Journal of Agriculture, as an excellent remedy for hog cholera. A writer to the .Breeders Gazette tbinlrn a lack of salt will account for many of the ills of stock. He thinks a trough constantly supplied with salt should always be kept in the pasture and yard. A good cow has a full eye, a small and short head, dished in the face and sunken between the eyes; a soft and loose skin, deep from the loin to the udder, and a square bag with teats a good distance from each other, and one which, when milked, shrinks to a small compass.— Chicago Journal. C. S. Magoon, in the Nero Hampshire Mirror and Farmer, gives the following method of removing rancidity from butter: “Butter has a grain the same as sugar, and the same result will be realized by stirring as with sugar, and it will become salvy. A better way to make it sweet after it has become rancid is to remove it from the tub and submerge it in a tub of sweet brine; then place with the butter a small sack containing one quart of salt, one teacupful of sugar and two ounces of saltpeter. To prevent rancidity soak in good tubs three or four days, using salt and water, changing every other day; then pack, press very hard and leave no space for the admission of air.” Many a person deplores inability to own a little greenhouse, even one which requires but a small amount of heat, so that the many odds and ends around the place might be safely preserved through winter, instead of having them die of frost. At very slight expense, this may be accomplished as follows: Dig* but a pit five or six feet deep, with sloping sides; place around this, on the outside surface, an ordinary hot-bed frame covered with glass sash; bank up around the frame with long stable manure, and cover all with old carpet or shutters of some kind to assist in keeping out the cold, and you will have a cheap and effective greenhouse of an humble sort. It is really surprising what tender plants can be safely intrusted in such a place.

The Michigan Farmer says the reason why creamery butter is better than the ordinary farm or dairy article is that at the factory there is enough to do to keep one or more persons employed all the time, and they are always on hand to perform each operation at the right time. They always have ice or cold spring-water, so as to control the temperature, and every opera* tion can be done at the best time. One reason why family butter cannot be made as good as that at the factory or dairy is that there is not enough milk together. With one or two cows, two or three days must elapse between the churnings, and in hot weather the cream cannot, under ordinary circumstances, be kept good for this length of time, and if cream is allowed to become over-ripe the butter cannot have a good flavor. Noticing the radiation of heat from a common kerosene lamp, it occurred to me that one or more placed upon a cellar bottom might serve to raise and maintain the temperature above the freezing point. Repeated trials have {>roved perfectly successful. One celar in which the temperature has often fallen to 27 degrees has been kept from freezing by the use of one or sometimes two lamps for a few hours at a time on the coldest days, the temperature having been raised to 35 degrees in a short time, with little trouble or expense. There has been no danger from tire, as it has not been found necessary to keep the lamps burning during the night. In this way, by the use of not more than one gallon of oil, I have been able to preserve fruit and vegetables in a cellar that in years past has been useless as a store-room except in mild weather. As fruit keeps best with me in a dry, cool cellar, the above method has s>roved very convenient for maintaining ust the temperature desired. — Cor. Mirror and Farmer.

The easiest way to get rid of the ma-. nure is considered the best. The English farmers have long been obliged to feed farm animals largely for the fertilizers they yield, and this has proved that covered yards are the most economical. These covers are not so expensive as might be supposed at first thought. Substantial sheds large enough to accommodate 100 head of cattle may be built at a cost all the way from SI,OOO to $1,500, according to the locality And price of labor and lumber. The roof may be made with three ridge poles resting on outside walls, and two rows of pillars. There should be ample provision for ventilation and the escape of the water falling upon the roof.. The original cost will not be many dollars per head, and the interest on this will represent the yearly cost. If this should be placed at $2 for each animal, it will be seen that this outlay is more than repaid by the increased value of the housed manure over that made in the open yard, and exposed to the sun and drenching rains. The saving of food consequent upon the warm protection of the animal has been carefully estimated to be at least one-tenth the whole amount consumed. In the saving alone the covered yard gives a handsome return upon the investment.

Some man unknown to the writer hereof has given to the world a saying that sticks: “Talk to your'cow as you would to a lady.” There is a world of common sense jn it. There is more — there is good sound religion in it. What else is it but the language of the Bible applied to animals “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” A pleasant word to a horse m time of trouble has prevented many a disaster where the horse has learned that pleasant words mean a guaranty that danger from punishment is not imminent. One morning a big, muscular groom said to his employer: “I can’t exercise that horse any more; he will bolt and run at anything he sees.” The owner, a small man, and ill at the time, asked that the horse be hooked up. Stepping into the skeleton, he drove a couple of miles, and then asked the groom to station along the road such objects as the horse was afraid of. This was done, and the horse was driven by them quietly back and forth, .with loose lines slapping on his back. The whole secret was in a voice that inspired confidence. The man had been frightened at everything he saw that he supposed the horse would fear. The fear went to the horse like an electric message. Then came a punishing pull cm the lines with jerking and the whip. Talk to /our horse as you would to your

sweetheart. Bo not fear but what he understands and appreciates loving tones, if not the wol-ds; while it is by no means certain that the sensitive intelligence of many a horse does not comprehend the latter. — Breeders' Gazette.