Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1878 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—Corn is cheap. Fatten and sell all poor and old cows, and get better ones for breeding and for milk.— lowa Stale Register. —One way for the farmer to make the agricultural columns of his paper permanent value to himself is to prepare a scrap-book into which may be transferred those bits of experience, statements of fact and suggestive paragraphs which seem to meet his own peculiar wants.—CAaZAam Courier. —Josh Billings, or some one else, said: “ No man will ever get to Heaven riding a sore-backed horse.” But, for all this, I observe a great many such horses, go where I will. There is a cheap, simple and efficient way to cure sore backs and old sores of any kind. Take white oak bark, peel the rose or outside off, add water, and boil it down till it is as black as ink. When cool, add to a gallon of the bark extract two ounces alum. Wash the affected part two or three times a day, until cured. —A M. Lang, Covedale Farm, Ky. —The old prejudice against “book and paper farming” has given place to the common-sense conviction that comparison of theories and experience are as valuable in home and domestic matters as in everything else. The old farmer who would try to enforce methods and practices in reference to plowing, harvesting, planting and threshing which prevailed when ne was a boy would be laughed at for his simplicity. It is beginning, at least, to be understood, that the more learned, logical, scientific and progressive the farmer may be, the better ne can enjoy his profession and succeed in it.— Prairie Farmer.

—Not long since we chanced to pass an apple-orchard which was laden with handsome Baldwins. The owner informed us that it always bore the odd years, and for this reason had netted him more profit than had been received from any other five orchards of the same size in town. As nearly every tree fruited this year, while the same kind of trees on the same kind of soil in a neighbor’s orchard bore no fruit, it was evident that it was not a mere freak of Nature, but the result of some treatment which the trees had received, and which had been lacking in the other orchard. We accordingly asked the owner what he knew about it, and he told us that he bought the farm after the orchard began to bear, but was told that when it was grafted care was taken to get the scions from a tree which bore in the odd year, and to set them in an even year, and that when the grafts first began to blossom every small apple which set in an even year was relentlessly picked off, while those which came out odd years were left to grow.— New Hampshire Farmer. —ls there any natural or necessary antagonism between culture of the mind and culture of the soil? One would think so, to observe the stubborness with which some farmers resist all efforts to improve the social life and manners of their households and neighbors. There is among the farmers an immense amount of common sense, of native mother-wit, sharpened by observation and broadened by reflection, and of the clear-headedness and sound-heartedness that come from healthful living and close connection with Nature. But a good many of them are very much afraid of what are called the refinements of society and the amenities of social life. But we are glad to see that the stupid, hard, treadmill, ox-like life of the farm—which for the past generation has been shriveling up the souls of men and sending their wives to the insane asylum or a kinder refuge in the grave—is giving way to enlightened progress in many sections. Farmers are beginning to seize upon all helps that promise to improve their social condition. Farmers’ clubs, debatingsocieties,' neighborhood meetings for sociality and comparison of experiences, brief winter vacations in the cities, and even a revival of the oldfashioned apple-bees, are adding to the social life of farming communities.— Golden Rule