Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1884 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

The milk of a cow, after her third or fourth calf, is thought to be richer than when younger. sorghum seed is relished Dy most au domestic animals, but its full value can only be obtained by grinding or boiling. The roots of fruit trees are mostly near the surface, and a top dressing of manure therefore soonest reaches :hem. A cutting of grape-vine of the previous year’s growth, will readily grow if two* or three eyes are on the portion under ground. The fact that dairying is rapidly increasing in the West shows that farmers jxe giving more attention to restoring lost fertility. Keeping cows requires more labor for the same amount of land ;han' growing grain, with improved labor-saving machinery to harvest the latter. A patch of sowed corn to me lea green, if needed, will help to bridge over a season of scarcity. Few farms can afford to go without this protection against scarcity in summer food for auimals. An apple in perfect preservation, although 96 years old, is in possession of a gentleman in Ulster county, N. Y. As it rounded up from the blossoms oi the parent stem in the early summer oi 1787, a bottle was drawn over it and attached to the branch, and after the apple had ripened the stem was severed and the bottle sealed tightly. It looks as fresh as when first plucked. Black raspberries may be planted either in autumn or early spring, using only tips of the fall’s growth, planting no deeper than they grow.- and, if set in autumn, cover well till spring. These should be planted about three feet apart, and, where plants are not too expensive, it is better to put two plants in the same ‘hill,” or very near, so as to secure a stand. The same is true of red raspberry and blackberry plants. Every fiock-ewner should improve his flock year by year bv the use of good bucks, and keeping the best ewe iambs, and disposing of the oldest sheep in the flock. It is very poor economy, indeed, to sell off the lambs every year and keep the old sheep until they are 10 or 12 years old, because the dock by this metin' 1 will not \ield as much profit as by a j .tdicions system of weeding out annually.— Chicago Journal.

If a woman is a farmer - *vLy not call her that and nothing else, just as we are dropping the word authoress for luthor without regard to sex ? But if she does not carry on a farm herself, as few women do, and if we must have a word by which to designate the person whose business it is to play second lidile upon the farm, tlie wife, mother or sister of the man who thrives by the alow, need we take one the very sound of which is so suggestive of littleness as is the word farmerine? It is enough to make a high-minded • oman throw up her chicken dough and pack off to the nearest village to •eoome an independent member of so- - riety by right of the proprietorship of a peanut-stand. The water which can be gathered from the roofs of barns and sheds ceded to shelter stock will, if carefully aved, be sufficient for the stock through the year. To accomplish this the cistern should be a large one, to hold the surilus of a wet season till a time of - carci y. With a basement barn the istem should be in the corner, where he bank of earth against the .wall is leepest, to prevent freezing. Then, nth a faucet in the lower part of the istern, a continuous small stream can >e kept running, adapting the flow to • he number of animals, so that the tub hall never be empty, and never, or ery seldom, run over. This plan k a ,reat convenience in winter, and more ban repays the expense by saving nanure, besides the greater thrift ol -.;he stock.— Chicago Journal. Early Potatoes. —Beside commanSug a high price, there are other coniderations that come in to make the arly crop of potatoes valuable. The .larly Rose continues to be as good as ~hed)est, not only for the early but the ate crop, and always fetches a remunerting price in the market. But there la his additional advantage in the early vop—it can be harvested and removed nd .the ground put in good order for ill -crops. The best turnips we have •ver known came out of a piece of round f-’-afc cleared of early potatoes, udeed, we do not know of a more rofitable arrangement of crops than to ave turnips follow potatoes. The round usually has to be pretty good or potatoes, but it is not essential that ie manure be very much decayed, iome, indeed, contend that long, trawy manure is all the better for a otato crop. The turnips, on the other and, must have the manure very well decayed, in order to give out its best ■'suits. Hence, after the potato has 'one with its fertilizer, there is enough ft for the turnip to thrive upon. v r heat and rye also thrive very well on and which has been previously well•lanured for potatoes. In all these cases he early potato has a great advantage -•ver the late one. They allow of a ixuch-earlier preparation of the ground or the subsequent crop. There is still mother advantage in an early potato, a this part of the country at least the •lant is subject to the attacks of the tem-borer. They usually commence heir ravages about the end of June, ’hey bore out the whole center pith of he stems, and before the end of July he plants are all dead, being dried up •store the potato is matured. In suen asee there are not often fifty bushels f potatoes to the acre, and of these alf of them are too small to be sab hie. By getting the potato early in ie ground and using varieties which ature early, the tubers are of pretty ood size before the insects get to ork, and thus there is a great gain, b seems to us we can almost do withit any more late kinds. We say nothig here of the depredations of the edQe, as it has been so completely met id overthrown as hardly any longer > be considered ae a serious injury to 2 ie crop, early or late.— Germantown . digraph.