Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1883 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

One of the best farmers in Maine is Miss Sarah L. Martin; of South Auburn. She carries qn a farm successfully, and pays much the raising of fine stock.' T, A practical farmer recommends the growing of two crops of buckwheat in succession as a means of exterminating wire-worms. They will not eat buckwheat, and are starved to death. The experiments of Wolfe and others at German experiment stations show that a horse weighing 1,100 to 1,200 pounds would eat from 22 to 271 pounds of hay if no other food were given. With grain 20 to 25 pounds was usually eaten by working horses of that weight. Lighter horses would not need quite so much, but we can find no data of experiments with horses weighing less than 1,000 pounds.— Country Gentleman. Sheep are one of the best kinds of stock to keep in an orchard. After a little practice they will pick up fallen fruit quicker than hogs, and this is often very important, as the codling moth worm generally leaves the apple soon after it drops. But, with either sheep ‘or hogs, sufficient food must be supplied, or the trees will be barked. The food thus given goes, however, where it will do the most good, in the production oi the largest and fairest fruit. A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer gives the following about the peach tree borer: “The beautiful .blue fly, resembling a wasp, which lays its eggs just at the surface of the ground in the stem of the trees, may be seen occasionally at this time pursuing its alloted task. The simplest remedy, or rather preventive of its attacks, is a piece of stout wrapping paper a foot wide wound around the stem of the tree just above ground. A little dirt should be drawn up around the bottom of the paper, while the top can be tied with a cotton string,” If the farmers of the country who own worthless dogs—curs without any breeding—could be induced to destroy them, and substitute one well-bred shepherd pup, not more, to each farm, the wealth Of every farming community would be vastly increased in many ways. Farmers soon find the collies saving them many a step. Eager and anxious to learn, willing to do anything within his power, the young dog needs only a wise and patient restraint and intelligent direction to become the most useful hand oh the place.— Cotton Plant. By carefully weighing a small sample •of wheat, counting the number nf kernels in such sample, and multiplying by the number of times the weight of such sample is contained in the weight of a bushel, we have found that of good plump kernels there are from 650-.000 to 750,000 in a bushel. Accordingly one bushel of seed to the acre will allow from fourteen to seventeen kernels to the square foot, or one plant to every third inch in either direction. If all the seed grew this would be quite thick enough, as one plant often sends up a dozen or more stalks.— Tribune and Farmer.

Training Horses. —Except for breeding purposes, cattle, sheep and hogs are sold by weight for a value determined by the human food they represent. But with the horse the case in different, for his worth is dependent upon his style, action and general purposes. Viewed in this light it would seem that farmers do not realize as much as they might from the sale of their young horses were a different course pursued. The young horse, but half broke, is sold to the city buyers, and after a few weeks’ fitting it is again sold, often for double the original price. Why should not the first owner fit the horse for market, and thus secure at least a “dividend” with the city dealer ? With the other stock they are soon killed and sold out pound by pound; but the horse is made a servant of and is among men for years, hence his greater value. There is no reason why the farmer should not teach the colt and young horse some of the habits of trained horses, rather than to pronounce him “broke” when it is not possible to drive him along a straight road, and find soon after, that in a coltish freak, the wagon and harness was “strung,” and the driver had a broken leg or arm.— Cleveland Herald. Digestibility of Stock Food.—G. Kuhn"fias compared the of' three samples of hay and three samples of wheat-bran, when fed drv, to that of the same fodders variously treated. Moistening of the hay or bran immediately before feeding with a quantity of cold w’ater insufficient to satisfy thirst of the animals (steers) hail no recognizable effect on the digestibility. Moistening the bran with cold water twentyfour hours before feeding had no effect on its digestibility, providing the quantity of water was so limited that the amount drank by the animals did not fall below 50 per cent, of that drank when the ration was given dry. When the amount of water nsed to moisten the bran largely exceeds the limit just mentioned, indications of a decreased digestibility of the crude proteine of the total ration were observed. Treating the bran with boiling w\ter tw’entyfour hours before feeding caused an undoubted decrease in the digestibility of its crude proteine, which was greater the higher the initial temperature, and the longer the action of the heat continued. The other constituents of the bran were unaffected. Giving the bran stirred into water as drink, along with dry hay, had no noticeable effect the digestibility of the total ration, compared with tliat observed when similarly prepared bran was mixed with the hay. The experiments gave also the interesting and important result, that the extent to which the same fodder is digested by the same animal may vary at different times. A new source of error in digestion experiments is thus . brought to light, and one which must receive serious consideration in all future experiments and lead to new caution in accepting the results of old ones, especially in the ease of concentrated fodders, since the calculation of the digestibility of the latter is based on the assumption of unaltered digestibility of a coarse fodder for two consecutive periods. These experiments are worthy of notice also for the care

and conscientiousness with which the limits of possible error are taken account of in the discussion of the results. They afford, in this respect, an excellenf example of really scientific investigation, and contrast favorably in this particular with many agricultural