The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-06-23
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HOUSE AN-D F4RM.

HLASTER
have lad our doubts whether, in THIS iail,i
tude, the use of plaster as fertilizer should
be recommended. But from an experiment
reported by writer in the Germantown
Telegraph we think it is quite proeapie
that mixture of plaster and saltapplled as
dressing to our clover fields would prove
highly advantageous. Indeed, the use OF
salt, mixed with OTHER fertilizers should De
more generally used in climate like ours,
often hot and dry. Mr. A. B. Buttles, the
very intelligent agricuturist, of Columbus,
Ohio, reports that as a special fertilizer Tor
potatoes, he finds mixture of salt, lime and
ashes, the best preparation he has ever tried.
He uses eight bushels unleached ashes eight
bushels lime, and two bushels salt to the
shaking the lime in strong brine.
We adhere to the article alluded to In
the Germantown Telegraph:
This last year tiled an experiment on
field GALL clover which was intended for
hay. 1t was in thirty feet lands. To the
first land applied plaster, sown broadcast,
at rate of two bushels per acre, at cost OF
one dollar per acre to the second land
applied, in the same manner, two bushels OF
common ground SALT at the, cost OF ~ 50
per acre; to the third land applied, in the
same manner, mixture of salt and plaster
Zone bushel of each), at a cost of 81 10 per
acre, and SO on all over the field. Through
out the whole spring any novice in the art
of farming would have picked out every
third land as the best next the first ones,
to which the plaster was applied. Having
long been an advocate of plaster for clover,
/ was, very careful to note every circum-
icto hoy trifi mhI in
way affect the experiment, and am now
very thankful for this case, as it enables me
to communicate several important results
which otherwise could not have accounted
for. The time of sowing the substances, on
the whole field extended over two and
half-wceks; short time elapsed between
each patch of three lands. The result is
that find the same amount of plaster does
best when the clover is two or three inches
high, and when it is sown on the leaves
whenthey are wet with dew. The salt did
best when warm rain fell just after it was
sown The action of the mixture is plain;
we apply in one stimulant the four in
gradients most needed by clover, viz: sui
phuric acid, lime, chlorine and soda.
CULTURE OF YOU'VE ORCHARDS I see
asked through your paper, "How to treat
young fruit trees 2" Permit ME to answer
the gentleman through your columns.
The soil for an orchard must not be wet.
Rolling or hilly land is considered the best,
if not too poor Level land will do, if well
underdrained; if poor, manure well. Plow
deep, and harrow well before planting.
Mind and have your ground well pulverized.
In setting, let one hold the tree, while the
otl,o .th
full, it is good idea to pour a couple of
quarts of water around the tree afterward
filing up. Head your trees back WELL
Omitting this is the cause of SO many young
orchards failing. Orchards should be tend
ed in corn, potatoes, beans, cabbage or mel
ons, until they arrive at bearing size; after
ward SOW in your clover. Young fruit trees
should be washed with strong soapsuds at
least once year. May is good month"; or
April better This kills all young insects,
and keeps the bark smooth. Don't white
wash, this shuts up the pores of the bark.
1t is Just as unreasonable for a farmer to
think of raising crop of corn without
blowing it, as to thing of raising fruit trees
with no cultivation. 70 l1a2 el
l would not recommend large fruit tree
for planting. A two year apple or pear
tree will come in bearing as soon as three
or four year old.
GEORGE FREEMAN.
,TADMoR, o., May 80. ..
BIRDS AND THEIR UsEs-Baron Won
Tschudi. the well-known Swiss naturalist,
says: "Without birds, successful agriculture
is impossible. They annihilate in a few
months greater number of destructive in
sects than human hands can accomplish in
the same number of years. Among the
most useful birds for this purpose may be
classed the swallow, wren, robin-redbreast,
sparrow and finch.n The Baron tested
titmouse upon some ose-bushes of a neigh
Dor, which it ridded in a few hours of in
Vulnerable lice 4 robin-redbreast in the
same neighborhood killed eight hundred
flies in an hour A pair of ni2ht-swallows
destroyed in fifteen minutes an immense
swarm of gnats. A pair of wrens flew thirty
six times in an hour, with insects In their
bills, to their nests. He considers the spar
row very important; a pair of them in
single day carry three hundred worms or
| caterpillars to their nests-certainly good
compensation for the few cherries which
they pluck from the trees. The generality
| of small birds carry to their young ones,
| during the feeding period nothing but in
scots, worms, snails, spiders, etc. 1t is very
| evident, therefore, that no discharge of fire
arms should be allowed in the vicinity of
orchards, vineyards, and fiower-gardens, lest
useful birds be frightened away.-Hearth
and Home
| Coon AND BAD FARM STocK-There is no
fact in agriculture more fully established
than that it will not pay to keep poor
stock, when it is possible to secure that of
better quality The cost of keeping an in
ferior COW is precisely the same as that of a
better one. A good horse will always CON-
mand a better price in the market, or is
more valuable to its owner for his own pur-
| pose than apoor one. The cost of keeping is
the same. Why not, then,i raise the best
| horses !? There are breeds of swine that
| grow rapidly and fatten upon much less
| food, and in a shorter time than Others
Why not procure these improved kinds 2
The same may be said of sheep, poultry. and,
in fact, every kind of farm stock, and yet we
find thousands of farmers, in the face of
these incontrovertible facts, arraying them
selves in steady hostility to all movements
having for their object the improvement of
domestic farm animals. They cling to in
ferior stock with a pertinacity that is sur
prising. Q Journal of the Farm. i'- .7'
In order to introduce thorough bred stock
into neighborhood (if the first cost is an
obiection,) half a dozen farmers could unite,
and thus make up the amount necessary for
| procuring first-class animals. The time has
gone by tor numbering our farms any longer
with scrubs. Let us go in for having the
f.-f