Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1879 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

The harvest in Italy fe a fadure this year. Over 50,000 bushels of potatoes have beau brought and shippJdiu Dubuque this foil. ™ ’Hie Maine Farmer estimates that at least 2,UUO acres of sugar bests were raised in that State this year their living by the turpeattn^’inUu^ ** , _ A strong decoction of paibh tree leaves to reported to be a specific for chiekeu cholera; dose, one-half teaspoon fill. > j j * At a recent potato show in England, where nearly L4OG plates were shown, a large number were of American varieties. The winter wheat crops in OsnfraUa. lU., to reported as being in exoeUenl condition, aud without Hemian fly chinch bug or oilier insect pest. Pennsylvania tuts eighty incorporated county agricultural societies thirtv's* representation in its State Board of Agriculture. French formers do not take kindly to scientific agriculture, as the savants understand the term. They cultivate

well and save in eyery posible item of ooe ** Bank upas high as possible around: young frees, both as a.protection agaiust mice and rabbits, and, in case a hard winter kills trees, to keep them alive above the bud. Mr. Bonner paids4o,ooo for Pocahontas, $36,000 for Rams, 33,000 for Dexter, $20,000 for Startle, $16,000 for Edwin Forrest, and $15,000 for Graftou. Total, $160,000. Mr. Soule, of Illinois, has, it to claimed, 200,000 dozen frogs of all ages on au acre and a quarter of land, which he to breeding for Um Chicago and Cincinnati market. TBaymawu, which hatches about 2,000 to the pint, was originally obtained from Lower Canada, and the frogs, which are known as the “gosliu frog,” grow to five and six times *he size of the ordinary frog. Scatter well-rotted oompo6t over the, lawn. Wind thick pasteboard around young trees and daub it over on the outside with gas tar to keep vermfri away. If your orchard or fruit frees stand on low or wetttoh ground backfurrow up to the trees, leaving dead furrows half way between. Give the fruit trees a liberal coat of whitewash to protect the bodies against sudden changes. An Eastern former reoently saw two men attempting to drive a hog by hto house, but the animal was so obstinate that they finally told the: former that, iflhe would for them, they would give him half of the meat. He aooapted the offer with alacrity and not only killed the hog but dressed it, after which the strangers drove away with their half. WheTp. however, he went at nieht to feed his hog he fouod-that tie had killed hto own property, receiving half of it for hto trouble. Over fifty patents have been obobtained for cow-milkere—thirteen In England and forty in America. These machines have been divided into three classes: First, tube-milkers; neooncL sucking} machines; third, mechanical hand-milkers. 'The first are tapers, the second suckers, and the third squeeserq and strippers. {• D. Gilbert, of Elkhart, HI. who exhipited the fat prize ox at the fat cattle show held iu Chicago lari December, gives his mode of feedingyoung animals as follows: “I feed my young cattle just enough to keep them strong through the winter months. After they are two and a half years old. commence feeding corn winter and summer until I send them to market. Attend to them closely and keep them improving from the time they are fed on oorn to the time they leave the form. Generally fed from eight to twelve months ou corn. Intend from this time to feed a year younger, and send one year sooner to market. Think I can get my steers at thirty months old to weigh 1,700 pounds. This course will pay much better than to keep * them until thirty-six to forty-two months, and get au average of 2,000 to 2,100 pounds out of the cattle.” The Cultivator says: “Fall plowing to practiced largely in gardens to work iu manure for the early orops of next year, such as onions, radishes, oabbages, lettuce, etc. Manure plowed under at this season makes the land work mellow and dry very early the following spring—points of very great importance to the early bird who wishes the first worm. In some of the sandy plain lands there will be hollows which* are apt to work wet in spring. It to a good plan, in the fall, to dig a hole in such places about four feet deep, so that the water in spring may rapidiv drain into the subsoil; the holes can be filled 1 in a few momenta in spring and tbeland be ready several days sooner than it otherwise would be.” T