Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1879 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

A solution of carbolic arid in 900 ports of water has been found effective for scab. A strong decoction oftohacoo is a good wash, also. A good remedy against the scale insect is to use a suds made of carbolic soap, and brush the affected parts with it thoroughly, leaving it dry thereon. A Michigan lady says that to kill insects she usee one teaspoenlhi of kerosene to a gallon of water and sprinkles it on the plants with a hand-broom. It destroys green flies and other peris. The manure of cown and pigs resists decomposition for a longer time than that of the sheep and horse—both the latter being dryer than the former, and decomposing more readily in the soil. Don’t forget your table com. A patch should be planted' every ten or twelve days until the beginning of July, and then you can Cat it ever day when the first crop is ready and continue to do so until sharp frost intervenes In October.

A successful dairyman feeds his cows night and morning the year round, and in each feed puts a teaspoonful of salt. He considers this method of salting cows preferable to the usual one of giving animals salt once or twice a week, and thinks his method adds largely to the amount of milk given. The English dairy formers get immense returns from their grass lauds by free use of bone manure.* One Cheshire farmer says that by this he can feed forty cows from land that formerly gave him product sufficient to feed only twenty. The English farmers believe. In ’’boning” the grass land especially. Charcoal, pulverized and mixed with water, is now highly recommended as an agent for relieving cattle suffering from any derangement of the stomach, such as bloat or hoven, etc. This should be remembered. There is no doubt of its efficacy, if abundance of concurrent testimony can be relied •upon. Large evergreens are very much out of place on the sunny side of a house, while they form au appropriate screen and windbreak aloug the cold and exposed sides of the building. Shade trees are often planted too near to our dwellings, and too thickly, so as to make the house dark, damp and cheerless.

An agricultural exchange says to kill ticks on sheep, throw in the bora yard a few small, thrifty, second-growth fir trees. The sheep will eat the leaves and small twigs greedily, and often strip off all the bark. The ticks will all leave the sheep in a few days, the strong odor from the oil of the fir driving them away. Rolling the meadows with a heavy l oiler will level the surface by reducing the hummocks, sinking stones and sticks or roots, and compact the soil about the roots, and so strengthen the grass. A light dressing, 100 pounds nitrate of soda per acre, for instance, will encourage the growth and add largely to the yield. The practice of washing sheep before shearing, says an Eastern sheep-raiser, is very disagreeable and unnecessary. Nothing is gained in the price of the wool; iu fact, the usual deduction made by wool buyers for unwashed wool leaves an advantage with the seller. The practice is dangerous to the health of both men and sheep, and may well be abolished.

New England has over 230 formers’ clubs, with 72,000 active members and library books to the number of 21,000, and iu the United States there are nearly 2,000 agricultural societies with 58,000 volumes iu their libraries, and with access to 360 different agricultural publications, all exerting a direct influence on the intelligence and future prospects of the tillers of the soil. . __ + Guinea fowl are among the most active destroyers of the Colorado beetle, a writer claiming that one guinea hen will protect an acre of potatoes. Whether or not they possets such a surprising capacity of gizzard, they certainly prey on the beetle, as well as many other insect pests. They lay more eggs than other poultry and their eggs are unaqualed for cake and other culinary purposes. A Vermont farmer recommends the use of sawdust as a bedding for cattle, to keep them clean and absorb the liquid manure. An experience of twenty years in using on a large farm shows that it does not injure the soil, being freely applied in this way. Some soils, no doubL would be improved by the addition or sawdust; others might be injured somewhat for a time until the sawdust decayed.