Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1889 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

k 9 Eastern farmer recently ar. oonnsed his conversion to ensilage, and announced his intention of immediately building a “cyclone.” — Chicago Jour nal The chemist of the Agricultural Department at Washington says that the soil host adapted for the growth of sorghum for sugar appears to be a sandy loam. An authority says ‘here are $1,900,* 000,000 iuvested in the 0,000,000 miles of fenoes in the United States, and that they have to be renewed on an average in fifteen years. Thomas R. McConnell, of Scott county, lowa, soaks his wheat in vitriol water for twenty-four hours before sowing ns a cure for smut. He uses one pound of vitriol to twenty bushels of wheat. Very careful experiments made in New York last season, show that tho flat culture of potatoes produces the finest tuber and the largest yields. The best results followed the Dutch method of planting, which consists in keeping tJie surface level, planting a single eye in n place, covering it six inches deep (Fill allowing hut a einglo stalk to grow m a Dill, .which are a foot apart each vuy, A COURfitil’QNDi’.NT of the He view Juts practiced during several winters tne plan of keeping apples in dry saru, poured into tho tilled barrels after storing in the cellar, and finds it a ‘‘decided improvement” on any other ever tried, the fruit remaining till late spring “as crisp aud apparently as fresh as when first gathered. ” He does likewise with potatoes, and uses the samo sand year after year. The practice of some of the best farmers new is to keep pigs through the summer on green food, cut and curried tactile pons, with a little grain, aud what milk can he spared after butter making. Spring pigs are thus made to weigh 200 poi nds at 7 months old, and, sxcept fit tho last month, they get littla grain. The best time to self Buch pigs ts at the beginning of cold f weather, Obualiy in October. The Indiana Farmer says one of it* subscribers kept a record of the time employed in cultivating fourteen acres of corn last season in tho old-fashioned way, and finds he gave about two days to the aero. The yield was 800 buslieH over fifty-seven bushels to the acre He estimated the value of his crop at SB2O, and the labor expended on it at $l2O, and, deducting expenses, he olaim » profit of sl4 per acre. • Put dent Ohmer, of tlie Dayton Hortii ural Society, says he knew a man r. made a great success with an acre ot oof strawberries, gathering from i .ty to thirty bushels a day, and he .so elated with his suco£| that, ot. enlarging his fields, he sB “he would gather 100 bushels a day dl bust.” y>e “busted.” His single acre was whd attended to; hie Okie acres were necessarily more or l*g>JUMs>>uted. This scrap of history has 'many times repeated- —Chicago Jaurfafl. A farmer vouches for the fdttejving as a prevention of chicken eho|era: “Take v. tight barrel, saw in nto-Jn the middle, then wash it ou*good with hot that there is not a particle of bad flavor ci it. Then take two quarts of fresh lime and slack it, filling the tub or half barrel full of fresh water; when slacking, add one pound of alum to it and stir it good; let it stand until the sediment has settled and the *liquor is clear, and it is ready for use. When using it, take one pint of the clear liquor and add it to one pail of fresh water, and give your fowls to drink during summer months.’’ Ax exchange, speaking of the Central Ohio farmers, says: “They abandoned our old-fogy, antiqua'ed way of allowing every farmer to work oat and fool away iris own tax according to his own notion. There is a money tax, and the money is used by the lowest responsible bidder who agrees to keep the roads in repair/ At one time there were a good many toll roads, but the people aib gradually buying them out, so that nli roads shall be free. They go much further. They often tax the land a nfiio o? more back from a certain road up to »•-- high as $8 an acre, and make a gv,ou pike. This tax is in most cases very willingly paid. Several men assured .no that it raised the price of land from 20 to 50 per cent. They could kot be induced to go back h* dirt reeds, using ft foot or so of gravel on a well-gradoii •oundatior It is certainly a great ‘rent to liv-i where the roads are good ihc year rr T : ,d; and a farmer is there! % wrought rr - 'vjh nearer his neighbor u- i licov and the rest of -th* Soft (Joal women'WHO nvt near railroad tracks, or in the vicinity of factories which burn soft coal, may make clean clothes look as clean as if grass-bleached by pouring boiling water over them after they are washed, and letting them soak all night, scalding and rinsing them the next morning. The yellow tint is almost entirely removed by this process.