Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1879 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

Give the potatoes ashes, lime, superphosphate, bone flour or piaster. Chopped > onions, with a iittie ginger mixed in, is said to be a sure cure for chicken cholera. American honey in the comb has become a popular article of diet in England and very large shipments are’ made. ■ A radish two feet in cirouraferanoe and thirty inches in length has been raised by Mr. ForireU, at Exton, in Chester valley, Penn. According' to the estimate of the President of the State Vlnecultural Society, there are now 60,000 acres iu California covered wish viueyards.

Cider may 6e preserved and kept sweet by putting it in wine bottles,adding a teaspoonful of white sugar to > each bottle and corking tightly. The corks should be tied down. j When eating game that has been killed with shot be careful not to swallow any of the lead. A number of instances have occurred where persons have teen fatally poisoned from thin cause. Vick says in his Monthly that the trailing arbutus will grow almost anywhere if transplanted at the proper time, which is from October to the be*iuning of December, when the flower buds are formed. In the green-house or fernery it will bloom, of course, earlier than ont of doors. The Hartford (Ky.,) News says that. in the garden of a Mrs. Caleb Crow,, at that place, a peach tree is bearing a full-grown pumpkin. The paper says: “This tree We none of its natural fruits this season ; but, ueverleas, there; hangs the healthy growing . pumpkin;, just ss it had growu from the blossom* to its present size, which is considerably larger than a man’s head.” When once you have determined 1 to fatten an animal for beef let the process be as quick as possible. Any stint in feeding at such times will tend to make the meat tough and diy, Stallfed animals will fatten more rapidly than others, and younger, animals require richer food than older ones. Iu winter fattening do hot forget that much depends upon the warmth of the stable. The warmer the cattle are kept the less food will be needed. A farmer ean not work his farm safely without knowing all about his soil. Every field should be . studied as to the effect of certain methods with fertilizers upon it. Then the owner can act with reasonable eertainty. The plan of experimenting with fertilizers should be followed un in successive years, until the character of each field is known. This is the best season to experiment upon fall crops, aird no. time should be lost if it is to be done; a . year will thus be saved, A novel system of agriculture has for a number of years been practiced: on a farm in Hertfordshire, England.. The owner, Mr. Prout, instead of,' harvesting the crops himself, divides* the fields into lots- when the grain, begins to ripen, and the cropp are soldi upon their roots at public Auction. No live stock is kept, and the fertility of the soil is entirely kept up by artificial manure. For the thirteen years since 1866 the average expenses of running the farm have yearly amounted te $16,500, and the net income for the same period has yearly averaged 16 per cent of that sum, or $2,640. It has thus proved a decided success, while numberless farms cultivated by the ordinary method have been barely able to pay expenses, and many have run behind hand. t That part of Mason’s prairie in Idaho which extends into the distance from Craig’s Heights was set on fire one day about two weeks ago, and in less than an hour great clouds of smoke arose as a warning to the herdsman of the vicinity. A hundred thousand sheep were grazing at various points on the plain. The sheep-men of prie accord drove their flocks toward the heights. A wind-storm having caught the fire sent it sweeping far and wide. The herders pushed their flocks withthe wildest desperation. .The sky t*ehind was aglow with flame, and the - prairie looked like a sea of red billows inundating the whole background. At what seemed the critical moment the wind shifted a few points, but the panic did not abate until the heights had been reached by the last herd. The men then sallied out to save as much . as they could, and for five days fought . a continuous battle with the flames,. succeeding at last in subduing thepi. As Christmas comes this year btr Thursday, the following quotation from an ancient MS. in the British Musuem is pertinent for publication at the outset of winter as a prophecyof coming events the approachiug year; If Xmas day on Thursday be, A windy winter ye shall see: ] Windy -weather In each week, i And hard tempests, strong and thicks The summer snail be goad and dry, Corn and beast shall multiply s That year Is good for land to till; , - Kings and Princess shall die by skill; If a child born that day shall t»e, h, a PPen right well for he, Of deeds he shall be good and stable, Wise of speech and reasonable: whoso that day goes thieving about, He shall be punished without doubt: ‘ And If sickness that day betide, It shall quickly from thee-gltde.