Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1884 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

Oxi school district in ,Maine, containing eighteen farms, received over SIO,OOO for nipples last year. Investigation shows that of the fiber in hay and straw, from 40 to 60 per cent, is generally digested by ruminant animals. Cobn is to grow better if the rows run north and south, so that the sun will shine -equally on each side of the stalk. Thebe are'more than 200 breeders of Short-horn cattle in Michigan, owning at least 4,000 -cattle that .are worth $1,000,000. Mb. H. C.Pearson, of Pitcairn, N. Y., grows eight bushels of seed from three-fourths of apound of seed, having only twenty-nine eyes. The only paying sugar-beet manufactory in the country now is in . California. It has done a paying business for three years, and shows no signs of giving out. In Ireland the sod cut on boggy ground is piled up in heaps until dry, then burned into a species of charcoal. This is then pulverized and mixed with well-rotted stable or hen-house manure or night soil in equal proportions. Placed in drills where turnips or carrots are to be planted, it is said to make them attain a monstrous size. The experiment is worthy of a trial by farmers who can get the bog mold without too much labor ot expense.

Dr. Johnson, of Indiana, says: “In dairy products we in the West, - with our method of using fl v e acres of highpriced land to keep one dairy animal a year, can not compete with the intensified farming of the East, where they keep one animal a year on one acre of land, and that, too, of a natural fertility much inferior to ours, and, more than that, where by means of silos and ensilage now they are keeping two animals to a single acre. ” Prof. Arnold cays the points in favor of dairying are: First, a dairy farm costs 10 per cent, less to operate :han grain-growing or mixed agriculture. Second, the annual returns average a little more than other branches. Third, prices are nearer uniform and more reliable. Fourth, dairying exhausts the soil less. Fifth, it is more secure against changes in the season, since the dairyman d ies not suffer so much from wet, frost and varying seasons, and he can, if prudent, protect against drought. The hog, like the horse, has no extra stomach to store away food, therefore if fed but twice a day and what he will eat, he overloads his stomach, and if the food is not pushed beyond the point where it will digest, the stomach is filled bo full that a considerable portion jf the food fails to come in contact with the lining of the stomach, and thus a very large proportion of the nutriment in the food is lost. Experiments prove that a hog thus fed wastes more than >ne-half of the meal given him. We nave no -doubt the same is true of the mrse, when fed large quantities of hay .nd grain, aud fed but twice a day.— Massachusetts Plowman.

We do not say this hastily, but with the conviction derived from feeding late-cut timothy and bright oat straw. With four feed racks in your yard—two well kept with timothy, one with prairie hay and one with bright nat straw—the latter was first, and the others neglected until the last vestige of the oat straw had disappeared. It was the instinctive act of the turchin ' seated. He took his cake, pudding and pie first, and reluctantly finished ofa :iis dinner on the drier and lens-palata-ole bread and butter. Our late-cut aay was merely a “fill-up,” to give their ligestive apparatus the necessary distention so necessary to ruminants, and jhat is about all late-cut 1 £ is good for anyway.— Chicago Her alar The following are the pointe desirable in a practical farmer’s hogs:: Fine ihort nose, dished face, fine ears. good width between qy.es, eyes not too .promnent; a straight, broad back erf uniform width from shoulders to ham, short legs and fine bone. He should stand well up on his pins, fat at any ige, and, if well reared, make a weight jf 250 to 325 pounds at 11 months. Vow, does the foregoing description of i model farm hog fully describe «the well-bred Berkshire? I think all will igree that it does, and I am satisfied :hat if the reader mH notice the character of all the various breeds of swine he will find that the most popular ones ire those which come nearest to the rodel farmer’s hog presented above.— /or. Farmer's Review.

The dairy cow must be good for milk, butter, cheese and beef. To get her, we need a grade Short-horn heifer—the higher the grade the better. She must >e so fed and oared for as to produce a good growth of frame without excess of fat, and bred so as to drop her first calf at about 2 years old, the calf to be soon taken from her, and she milked by hand, and kept in milk as long .as possible. Her pasture should be well drained and supplied with an abundance of good grass and pure water. Her stable should be warm and clean, and her feed liberal; corn meal, bran, oil meal and early-cut hay are excellent for this purpose. lam not certain but hat feeding grain lightly the satire year. would be profitable. A bjfter quality of her product may be made sa -the farm than in the miscellaneous creamery. Increased fertility to tUg 30il is an incentive for keeping her OR he farm, and, finally, keeping such j cow is continually a source of pleasure ind profit to the owner.— Dairy and Farm Journal.

Huxsfi Galloway cattle are in de* viand in Montana. This breed is horn* 3M, but not otherwise remarkable • xcept tor hardiness. The mountain r wgec of Montana are very like, in < limate and topography, the section of coflaud where the Galloway cattle «. riginated. Tbs common harrow can be applied • *> many more purposes than its common • to of preparing the ground for seed- . g. It •s one of the best implements ftni <g manure after it has been "-ad b. oadcast, more thoroughly mix--4 A i the soil and making the - OMtri