Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1879 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

Twelve years ago Texas sold but 75,000 bales of Last year it footed up 1,000,000 bales. In bad seasons businessmen anxiously look for crop reports. It gives them aTealizing sense that all wealth comes principally from the soil. Mr. Locentzen, Mootieello, lowa, is the inventor of a process by which cream can be canned, and kept sweet ~ and pure for an Indefinite length of time. i It is estimated that the bay crop oi the country, reckoned at only $5 per ton, is worth three times that of cotton, ten times that of wool, and twice that of wheat. The United States buys more and more Canada horses yearly. -In 1875 we imported only 214, valued at $28,955; while last year the number was 6,632, valued at $391,255. It is stated on what is considered excellent authority, that the cabbage worm, which has become so destructive in many places of late vears, can be destroyed by sprinkling lime water over the growing plants. It is stated that Indian corn charred into charcoal will make a valuable condiment for poultry. It will put the hens in good health and cause a general toning up of the system that will be seen in more and better eggs. The Illinois corn crop, a breadth oi almost 9,000,000 acres—nearly a fifth of the product of the United States—is well assured, and at least thirty bushels per acre may be expected, possibly thirty-one, or 275,000,000 bushels. Have a sharp spade Or thin chisel and cut under ground every plant ot burdock, poke weed or other biennial or perennial plant found growing in the fence corners or other places likely to be infested, and you will soon find youi yearly crop of weeds diminished. One of the plainest indications of unsuccessful farming is to see manure going to waste or unemployed. When this is seen there is no need of looking beyond the stable and yards to find out the condition of the farm or to judge of the success of its owner. Indian corn was first grown by Europeans of this country at the James River settlement iu Virginia, in 1806. In 1809 more than forty acres were growu by the'Vfrginia planters. Now the corn crop of the United States is one of the very first importance in agriculture. For a kicking horse fill an old sack with hay and suspend it from the lof t by means of a row?, in such a manner that the horse will be able .to kick it every time it swings against him. Let him kick until he stops of his own accord, and you will have no more trouble with him that way. A Maryland farmer, thinks he has found a “sure cure” for the Canada thistles. It consists in sowing the land infested by them with buckwheat early , in the spring, allowing it to grow till it*’ is in full blossom, turning it under and again reseeding with the same grain. The last, crop is harvested when ripe. The weekly (Toronto) Globe says tbe golden drop wheat is ra’sed there is naturally a spring wheat, but that it can be grown successfully as a winter wheat. That the grain is plump, and as large as tbe best samples of fall wheat; the straw is particularly clean, and has not been troubled with smut or rust. Probably the very best way to protect wheat in the bins from the weevil is to thoroughly fumigate the bins with burning sulphur. This should be done before the grain is #ut into the Nos, and repeated in the course of a m ath or so after the* grain is:stored. Some persons use lime and salt, but there is nothing better than sulphur. John L. Coleraih, farmer near Orwigsburg, Schulkiil county, Pa., found that an old granary which was being torn down was alive with tats. He built a tight board fence four feet high around the granary, and five men and three dogs killed .437 rats in about three hours. About half a dozen escaped. Their holes were not over two feet deep, and the grothul was fifty feet square.

A writer in a French horticultural journal relates this suggestive experienced After sunset I place in the center of my orchard an old barrel, the inside of which I have previously well tarred. At the bottom of this barrel I Elace a lighted lamp. Insects of many inds, attracted by the light, make for the lame, and while circling round it strike against the side of the barrel, where, meeting with the tar, their wings and legs become so clogged that they either stick fast or fall helpless to the bottom. Corns in a horse are different from those on the skin of a human being. They are first produced by blows or bruises, which start jnflamation and formation of matter under the sole, or cause a deposit of homy matter which presses painfully upon the sensitive inner parts of the loot. They are frequent in flat hoofed horses, the frogs of whose feet have been pared away so as to bring the sole to the ground and subject it to continued bruises from stones. The usual mode of shoeing is one that protects the tender spots on the sole from blows in traveling. This is to put a shoe of sole, leather under the iron shoe and stuff under the leather with tow, soaked in glycerine, to keep the sole cool and moist. If the sole is veiy tender the feet should be prepared for shoeing, by keeping them upon a puddle of wet elay for a few days, and by frequent dressing of cold water, and by giving the horse a cooling medicine, as eight to twelve ounces of epsom salts.