Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1868-12-08

Though grain may not be sold,
In panics you feel no alarm
Wheat is as good as gold.
Pick up your whip, and bid your team
Drag on the noble plough,
And do not let that idle dream
Becloud that youthful brow.
In years to come when children roam,
You'll take them by the arm
And say you'd better stay at home
Upon the good old farm"
Muck AS AN ABSORBENT. The
Maine Farmer SAYS: "Mnck per-
forms at least a twofold Office as a
manure. When dry, it is a powerful
absorbent. Nothing within the farm
erS reach is so good for that purpose.
1t not only absorbs liquid substances,
but retains whatever is valuable with
great tenacity. Neither sand, nor
lime, nOr plaster, nor clay nor saw
dust are so good for this purpose as
muck. 1t will absorb ammonia from
all liquids that generate it.
In the next place, it has direct ma
nurial properties when it has been
dug and dried a sufficient length of
time. Good muck-for there is as
much difference between different
kinds of muck, as among men-will,
after being dug, produce rank crop
OF weeds. This is, perhaps, as good
a test as we can apply to the quality
of muck. Muck acts well as a me-
chanical divider of other manures,-
Mixed with green or coarse manures
and allowed to ferment, it becomes
dark, fine and of even mixture, and
easily soluble for the use OF vosota
ton. A cask of lime with cord of
muck, is an excellent manure for po-
tatoes on a dry pasture land. We
have tried it repeatedly with great
success. The same mixture with
twice the amount OF barnyard manure,
is excellent for corn. A man who
has a good muck-bed, easy Of access,
and a good barn cellar or a wet barn
yard, has the means at command OF
making a good farm. Industry and
perseverance will make for him big
manure heap, if he attends to it at the
proper time. The great practical
mistake farmers make in the use of
muck as a manure, is their too great
haste to receive the benefit of it
Muck, after being dug, will continue
to improve in quality for years. Now
is a good time to dig a quantity
Throw it out Of its bed in a stack or
row, and let it lie. A few loads in
the barnyard, so as to mix with the
droppings of cattle from day to day,
will make good pile of valuable ma
nure. Let the boys have their share
of the labor to do in working over
the muck with their manure, and il
will tell on that piece of corn next
year.
We may add here that muck is
composed largely of carbonaceous
matter, and we are one of the believ
erS that the roots of plants take up
carbon in the form of carbonic acid
as food for plants. Under whatever
name it may be called, it has a direct
manurial power.
CoLTs NEED CARE IN WINTER
Care is essential for the proper win
tering any kind of stock, but espe
cially requisite in the case of colts
Some allow colts to struggle or
among cattle and sheep and store
hogs, deeming them competent tC
fight their own way through, no mat
ter how rough their treatment may
be, nor how much they may be rob
bed at the stated periods of feeding
They, be sure, when thus treated
manage to worry through, but it is a
the expense of that development whicl
the season should bring to them. =
The aim should be, when colts ar
weaned, to keep them from falling
away in flesh, but this cannot be az
complished by hap-hazard manage
ment. They require shelter durin
storms, and suitable food and plent
of it, till the return of the season o
verdure shall enable them TO rang
in search Of that is congenial to thel
and promotive of their development
Colts, like their dams, find an occ'
sional application of the card agree;
BILE, aud it is certainly healthful.-
Rural Neao Yorker.
PLoUGHING IN RIDGEs.-No OF
but those who have had experien'
in low lands, can have an idea of hu
great is the loss to crops from sta
nant water about the roots. Y
most of us have land which we mu
work, and yet can not afford to undo
drain, tor want OF sufficient capital,
from some motive other than a wa
oil iaith In its proitableness, if ,
could only get at it. Now, if su
land be ploughed up into narrow ri
ges, At serves very much the same D,
pose as an underdrain. To be 81
1T is but temporary purpose, for