Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1887 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

T’otato growers in California are dated over the success of the plan of shipping potatoes to Chicago. Raw. onions, chopped fine and mixed with the food twice a week, are to he a preventive of chicken chdlera. The freshest eggs are heaviest. Placed in a; pan of water they sink; older partly sink, and stale ones float on the 'top. ; ~;~..2 —2— Pyrethrum is not poisonous to vertebrate animals, but a little of the dust blown upon an insect of almost any kind is sure and speedy death. Although the crops of fruit have not been large this season the prices obtained have allowed of a fair profit to those who produced two-thirds of an average crop. A force pump throwing spray is used by sonie poultrvmen in throwing whitewash and other lice killing liquid into the cracks and crevices of the poultry quarters. The small potatoes maybe cooked and fed to the pigs and poultry. Always sort out the potatoes and have them as uniform in size as possible before marketing them. The terms “Durham” and “Alderney” are no longer applied to cattle. The Durham is now known as the shorthorn and the, Alderney is now the Jersey and Guernsey. A cow 7 in milk should never be driven faster than a walk. Good cows have large and well filled udders, which cause pain to them if they are hurried or driven on a run. The’weeds must be killed, and the least laborious and surest way of killing them is to hit them with a sharp lioe the very moment they put their heads above the ground.

Fine manure for crops is more valuable than coarse. Hens can break up manure better, perhaps, than any one of the machines invented for the purpose. Scatter some wheat over the pile and turn them on. The original stock of the best occurs wild on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, in Greece, and grow wild in some of the islands of the Atlantic ocean. This is the common mangold of which there are two sub-species. 4 Saratoga, N. Y. , farmer reports that he keeps crows from pulling the corn lay scattering a few quarts over the field for them to pick up, and repeating it if necessary. The crows eat enough grubs and cut-worms to pay for the corn. New England iarmers attribute the disease known as weak loins in hogs to lying in hot-house manure. It is a rheumatic trouble, which may be cured by active and continued rubbing. It may also be cured by exercise and fresh air.

Run.green clover, rye, wheat, oats or corn through the feed-cutter, set to cut in half-inch lengths, ar d feed to fowls confined in yards. This is the soiling system applied to poultry-keeping, and works admirably, as those know who have tried it. The people of Siberia buy their milk frozen, and for convenience it is allowed to.freeze about a stick, which comes as a handle to carry it by. The milkman leaves one chunk or two chunks, as the case may be, at the house of his customer. Neglect to spread ditch-banks often gives trouble at mowing time, and makes unsightly places. A sharp spade to outline and to cut into blocks, a potato drag to haul out and a long-hand led shovel and corn hoe to finish up with are the needed tools. A practical farmer says that in settingposts where great solidity is required he uses gravel and small stones to fill around the posts and then runs in thin water-ljpe mortar,thus virtually imbeddingjhe post in rock, preventing decay and insuring solidity. ■ The black top Spanish merino is now being.extensively bred in West Tirginia and Pennsylvania. They yield delaine wool, and the carcass weighs about. 150 pounds. Breeders who have stuck to the Spanish merino for years are nowgoing pell-mell into breeding black tops. The value of the hen manure from a single bird for one year has been estimated at ifteen cents. At this rate the total value of the “manure irom all the poultry in the conntry in the country in 1180 would be $ 9,000.000. The total value of the ferti izsr3 manufactured during the same year was 523,650,795.