Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-03-19
Farm and Garden.

ana tudE dIteF SdtufdtlD8 the WdteF VIII SUI
gar quantity of salt may be dissolved, and
still the water will remain of the same meas
ure. So with employment; one may devote
to his profession as~much time daily as bis
health will allow, and he may also give to his
favorite amusement of agriculture or horti-
culture, either in the field or study, a fair
proportion of his remaining hours, with no
additional wear upon his system, and even
with positive advantage. One idea, whether
in morals, in politics or in business; the con-
slant devotion of any human mind to one
special object, always cramps and narrows
the mind. In spite of the wise old
sayings TO the contrary, / believe a man
may as readily understand two things as one.
| believe in the rotation of crops in the mind
as well as the soil, and that good, sharp
business-like merchant or lawyer may pursue
a science or art along with his daily pursuit
with advantage every way. Let me be I'M
derstood Ii is not that a farmer after hard
days work in hOeing or haying can, as some
may have imagined, sit down and be stud
ent in the evening. Severe physical labor,
producing fatigue, units the mind for hard
study during such fatigue, but physical labor
in an over-tasked intellect, and so the lighter
and voluntary attention to literary or scien-
tifc subjects brings recreation and rest to-
gether to one whose energies have been
throughout the day taxed and strained in a
particular direction.-COr. Country Gentle
man.
WASHING SHEEP.-MOst of the wool grow
ers in Vermont are decidedly opposed to
washing sheep. They think it often Injuries
them, in which / concur. When we see an
finals take the care sheep do to walk around
or jump over the water and struggle to get
out when taken into it, as sheep will, think
common sense teaches it is not good for them.
I Cd IN, H.
that in this climate we have sudden changes
of weather, and such changes often occur
when we wash sheep, rendering it cold and I'M
comfortable for them. Before they are dry,
they often take cold and sometimes and often
die in consequence, think.
Another reason for not washing is we can
shear earlier, anu in cold weather the wool
grows faster and protects the skin and we get
better clip than when shearing is delayed
for warm weather before washing. Often
when sheep are shorn late in the season, the
sun is so hot their skin is burnt, and some
times blisters; and in consequence the wool
grows very little for weeks. 1t may not be
as injurious as practiced by some in the cen
trail part of the State, viz make dam on
the little streams where the water becomes
warm in the sun previous to washing. Still
l think washing sheep a dirty job we might
dispense with, and it would be better for all
concerned, as the manufacturer has the wool
to cleanse in any case. If all would shear
without washing, our wool would, | think, find
a market and be bought on its merits, as it
should be, without any particular rule of de-
duction.
SEEDING OF GRAssES-If clover is sown too
early in the spring, there is danger that
black frost may nip the tender leaves
when they are in the double, before expand
ing into robust life, but as this possibility
cannot be certainly guarded against in early
sowing, it is best to put in the seed in season
for the plants to get start before the spring
drouth sets in, which is more likely to dam
age the crop, than probable bite of the frost.
Glover sown in the spring, is usually put upon
a field of winter wheat or a partially seeded
stubble field of the last year, it may also be
put in with the early sOwn oats, at the time
of sowing that crop.
Timothy seed, sOwn in the spring, should
be put in before the ground is done with the
spring alterations, of freezing aud thawing.
This may be sown upon winter wheat or clean
stubble; or may be put in with the early
sOwn oats, or other spring grain crop. Red
top requires warm lOamy upland soil and
yields a heavy swath of toerably fair hay,
but any soil which will grow red-top, will
grow red clover to much better profit. Flat
stalked blue grass, otherwise called Pennsyl-
vania blue grass, and bOtanically pOd cOnapreSSG
forms very firm sod for the hoof, and toll
cradle bite, on lean argillaciOus soils; but gen.
orally any land which will grow this grass
can be better occupied in par or in whole
with timothy or red clover, or both together
CORNISH MODE OF RAISING EARLY PoTATOEs.
-Sprouting the seed is now universally prac-
ticed wherever early maturity is desired
This is done in the following manner: An
airy light room or loft, with windows to be
closed in severe weather, has tiers of shelves
filling up all its available space. These are
often, from lack of room, too close to each
other, and foot from shelf to shelf may be
given as good average distance. On these
shelves the seed is carefully placed, each on
its end; one sack weighing two hundred
will thus require about thirty square feet of
superficial space. With due supply of light
and air, and the occasional removal of any tu-
Der showing signs of disease, they may re-
main till planting time comes. The great
object is to secure strong, healthy and we'll
cOlored shoots, about two inches in length;
the neglect of ventilation and a proper
amount of light producing weak, cOlorless
shoots, liable both TO injury in removing them
and to decay when planted. The earliest
crops are now invariably grown from sprouted
seed, and they are drawn good fortnight
in advance of former years, when autumnal
planning Was the fule.-JOHTH0t ~ I1OfttcH-
tire.
A CHEAP FIELD FENcE.-A good aud suffi-
cient field fence can be made in is inches in
width of boards, and 50 rods of fence to
1000 feet of boards. Set the posts and nail
the first board inches from the ground, then
make the spaces 5, 6, Z and 10 inches deep
towards the fence on each side. This brings
the earth within three inches of the bottom
board, and adds six inches to the height of
the fence, measuring from the bottom of the
furrOw, and the ditch or banks makes it very
unhandy for animals to get at the fence. This
makes fence 4 feet 10 inches high.
have several hundred rods of such fence.
The first was built five years ago. 1t has
proved perfectly safe and sufficient against
cattle that were unruly. 1t is not racked by
the wind like fence of wider boards. Four
teen-feet boards with one post in the middle,
take less number of posts, and make as
good a fence as twelve. | have used white
oak boards at about twelve dollars per thou
sand feet, and swamp oak split posts at cents
each.-Ge1aeSSee Farmer.
TREATMENT OF KICKING Cows.-A letter in
an exchange, from 81. c." Norfolk, CT,
says:
The following treatment which have tried
for some years has never failed to stop the
evil. Put strap around the body of the
COW just in front of the bag and buckle rather
tight. If the cow tries to kick draw the
Il i