Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1882 — Farm and Workshop Notes. [ARTICLE]

Farm and Workshop Notes.

Chester white pigs have increased in price the past two years s Sepai ate all breeding ewes from the other sheep in the flock until after lambing. Orchard grass, though suitable for orchards, can endure more sun aud drought than blue grass. ? It is a mistake to allow sows to breed before they are at least a year old, as they are-uot sufficiently matured, aud pigs from such are sometimes too weak to live. Nearly all kinds of fruits do well on a mixture of superphosphate aud wood ashts. Lime is not suitable for strawberries, but excellent around apple, peach aud pear trees. If it is desired to change bees from oue locality to another the hives aud boxes should be changed before they are ready to fly out aud become accustomed to the new locality. Grapevines should be pruned as early as the season will permit. If deferred too late they will allow an escape of sap (bleed), even if trimmed a little wnile before it begins to ascend. Like the blackberry, the raspberry bears the fruit upou the cane of the previous year’s growth, which, after fruitage, dies, the new cane oomiug forward for the next year’s crop. By training a pet lamb to come at the call, and afterw’ards putting it with the flock, the owner can call his sheep wherever they hear him, as the pet will come, followed by theother sheep. For theln formation of those who vlue cows that give four pounds of butter per week: It is just as easy to have those that give double that quantity by using Jersey bulls for breedihg purposes. Fine flowers require thoroughly rotted manure and wood mould mixed, aud tomato or other early plants can be grown la ooxes, aud afterward transplanted with better results with such a mixture. One of the mauy cures for roup is to wash the head of the fowl with warm water and afterward bathe it with a solution [consisting of four grains of sulphate of ziuc dissolved in au ounce of water. In cold w’eather eggs for hatching should be collected daily. They freeze easily when exposed, but will retain vtlity for several weeks if gathered as soou as laid aud then kept at a uniform tempeiture. At a recent farmers’ meeting O. A. Judd said he had noticed that w’heu cows aboited the premature calves had uo bones, which led him to think that a deficiency of phosphate in the soil was one fruitful cause of that trouble. Dogs doing damage among sheep have been blessings iu disguise in some sections. The farmers weie compelled for security to hurdle aud house their sheep, the consequence beiug a greater profit from them and an increase of yield from the lands iu crops. Animals often show their excellence through their offspring in one sex alone. Imported Glencoe, one of the grandest thoroughbreds the world ever produced, was a total failure with his sous, but his daughters made good runers and brood mares, one of them being Pochontas (In England,) dam of Stock well, King Tom and Rataplau, and iu this country bis daughters were the dams of Kentucky, Asteroid, Norfolk, Gilroy, and hundreds of other good ones,