Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1884 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

An Eastern farmer recently- ammm nounced his conversion to ensilage, fti9' announced his intention of immediateJp'A. building a “cyclone.”- Chicago nal. 989 The chemist of the Agricultural DHB partment at Washington says that tiHS|| soil beat adapted for the growth JUS sorghum for sugar appears t* Im HB sandy loam. 9^9 An authority says there are $1,9009 000,000 invested in the 6,000,000 mil Jff§: of fences in the United States, and tiu9 they have to lie renewed on an averagju once in fifteen years. 99| Thomas E. McConnell, of Scojß county, lowa, soaks his wheat in water for twenty-four hours before BOtJv? ing as a cure for smut. He uses pound of vitriol to twenty bushels (flflß wheat. Very careful experiments made ffKgm New York last season, show that thHB flat culture of potatoes produces thHgH finest tuber and the largest yields. best results followed the Dutch methoJH| of planting, which consists in the surface level, planting a single eyS||| in a place, covering it six inches deeflfl| and allowing but a single stalk to groJH in a hill, which are a foot apart eaefl9| A correspondent of the Review has practiced during severaHH winters the plan of keeping apples iJH dry sand, poured into the filled barrelHß after storing in the cellar, and finds iH|| a "decided improvement” on any otheJH ever tried, the fruit remaining till latjg spring “as crisp and apparently as fresrßß as when first gathered.” He does likeHg wise with potatoes, and uses the saififlH sand year after year. The practice of some of the farmers new is to keep pigs througlJj| the summer on green food, cut and carHf|| ried to the pens, with a little grain, axkH9 what milk can be spared after butteflfl making. Spring pigs are thus made tJfl weigh 200 pounds at 7 months old, andHß except in the last month, they get grain. The best time to sell such is at the beginning of cold weathefßß usually in October. The Indiana Farmer says one of itiHg subscribers kept a record of the employed in cultivating fourteen of corn last season in the old-fashion&tJJ way, and finds he gave about two to the acre. The yield was 800 els, over fifty-seven bushels to the acre-HS He estimated the value of his crop afljl $320, and the labor expended on it at 9 $l2O, and, deducting expenses, befli claims a profit of sl4 per acre. J 9

President Ohmer, of the HaytonJi Horticultural Society, says he knew man who made a great success with anHi acre or two of strawberries, gatheringJj from twenty to thirty bushels a and he was so elated with his aucceaaJ that, on enlarging his fields, he “he would gather 100 bushels a day orßg bust.” He “busted.” His single acreßj was well attended to; his five acresHj were necessarily more or less neglected. J This scrap of history has been manyH times repeated —Chicago Journal. 9 A farmer vouches for the following™! as a prevention of chicken cholera “Take a tight barrel, saw it in two in J the middle, then wash it out good with9j hot water, so that there is not a particl© J of bad flavor in it. Then take twoß| quarts of fresh lime and slack it, fillingH the tub or half barrel full of fresh 9 water; when slacking, add one ponnd 9 of alum to it and stir it good; let it.fi stand until the sediment has settled I and the liquor ie clear, and it is ready H for use. When using it, take one pint fl of the clear liquor and add it to one fl pail of fresh water, and give your fowls 9 to drink during summer months.” , 9 An exchange, speaking of the Central 9 Ohio farmers, says: “They abandoned 9 our old-fogy, antiquated way of allow- 9 ing every farmer to work out and fool 8 away his own tax according to liis own 9 notion. There is a money tax, and the 9 money is used by the lowest responsible 9 bidder who agrees to keep the roads in 9 repair. At one time there were a good 9 many toll roads, but the people are I gradually buying them out, so that all B roads shall be free. They go much fur- fl tlier. They often tax the land a' mile fl or more back from a certain road up to fl as high as $8 an acre, and make a good fl pike. This tax is in most cases very fl willingly paid. Several men assured fl me that it raised the price of land from I 25 to 50 per cent. They could not be fl induced to go back to dirt roads, using fl a foot or so of gravel on a well-graded I foundation. It is certainly a great 1 treat to live where the roads are good I the year round; and a farmer is thereby I brought much nearer his neighbors, I nearer market and the rest of the '■ world.” 1

The mode of breaking steers in Kentucky is thus described: Get a strong post, eight feet long by two thick; plant it three and one half fo'et in the ground, well rammed; round or level the ton oi the post and leave a pin to it, or make a mortice and insert a strong two-inch pin of tough wood in it, perpendicularly at the top, six or eight inches long. Then get a tough sapling twenty-five feet long, measure off at the small end of it the usual length of a yoke, and bore the holes for your bows. Then bore three holes, or more if you choose, four, eight and twelve feet from the other end of the sapling, of the size of the pin in the top of the post, giving the shortest lever first. Draw your steers up, let them be young or old, gentle or wild, it makes no diffexence; yoke them to the end of the pole; • but, instead of tying their tails together, if you wish to avoid bobtail oxen, tie their loins together with a good rope, Wrap up their head halters, clear the front and let them go; round and round they will go with a rush; drunk—drunker, still they grow, until, groaning, down they drop. For a while they lie panting and looking wild; then leapas if suddenly frightened, and rush round and round again, grow drunk and drop again. Leave them, they will repeat the experiment, until, reeling, they will stop or stand. In a few hours you may lead them around by their halters. Uncouple them from the pole or yoke them to your cart, and drive them where you please with safety.