Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-09-24

RURAL ITEMS.

Sulpher is highly recommended as g
deodorisor. The Maine Farmer gives an
insance of its effects in removing the
offensive odor from dairy house where a
skunk had been killed. saa....s
From carefully conducted experiments,
by different persons, it has been ascer-
taned that one bnshel of corn will make
little over 10 1-2 pounds of pork, gross.
A cultivator uses cut cornstalks as
mulch for his hills of strawberry plants,
and finds advantage in it that the mulch
ing material is free from seeds, and the
strawberry plants in the spring send up
fruit is kept from the earth and the soil,
and is cleaner.
In the summer, old potatoes should be
peeled and soaked in cold water several
hours before they are cooked. This
makes them nearly as dry and good as
when first dug in autumn. Old potatoes
should be put in cold water, with a little
salt in the pot. Boiling slowly-the slow
er the better. If the water stops boiling,
they are apt to be watery. A correspon-
dent of the Country Gentleman weighed
the hay that he had bought as ton by al
lowing 500 cubic feet, ond found it weigh
ed only 1880 pounds. The hay was
mostly timothy, with some clover and
white daisy. The hay was over base
ment, part two and part four feet deep,
pressed with straw, but on pitching he
found it was not as solid as he expected.
An Australian farmer recommends that
cows should be given twice day one
pound of maize siftings, two pounds of
chaff, and a tablespoonful of salt, well
dampened. He tried it two years ago,
being short of keep, and his cows, which
otherwise would have gone dry, doubled
| their milk and continued in milk all the
writer, and were fat and sleek.
| The Essex Banner asserts that small
quantities of sunfower seed, mixed with
the food of horse, will impart fine
gloss to his hair, while it is also cure
for founder if given Immediately after the
ailment is discovered. In the latter case
about Il pint of the seed should be mingled
with the oats or chopped feed, when a
cure will be effected. n.es7q
A distinguished poulterer says: "1t is a
well known fact to owners of poultry that
occasional use of onions, mixed and fed
to poultry with their other food, is one of
the best ways of keeping a yard of poultry
in health. | am afraid it has not received
the attention and use that its merits really
demand. am we'll satisfied that the use
of this vegetable would prevent three
fourths of the disease that poultry yard
is subject to-"
Many families about towns and suburbs
of cities, who have not pasture and con-
| lya For Or EQQn
a milking-goat to great advantage; they
are easily cared for, and not costly to
keep; may be fed on the slops of the
kitchen. If MIXED regularly twice day,
one will yield a sufficiency for a small
family. Goats milk is very healthy, very
noulishing and is often prescribed for the
sick during convalescence.
N5onehenge, in his work on the horse,
thinks putting lump of rock salt in the
n,anger for the horse to lick, is the only
safe and useful way of giving salt to
horses. He thinks given in this way the
l9rse viii thrive better for the season. He
says that generally pound of rock salt
will last horse nearly month. He has
not found that the use of salt increases the
thirst except when at first given.
poor farmer cannot conceal the fact
that he is a poor farmer. All his surround
ings proclaim the verdict against him
his horses, cattle wagons, harness, ploughs,
, fences-even wife and children bear silent
but unmistakable evidence against him.
On the other hand, all these things will
I testify favorably on behalf of the good
farmer. Every passer-by can read the
evidence pro and con. This fact alone
ought to stimulate every farmer to do his
best, for the sake of his own character, as
well as interest, for he may rest assured
that every passer-by win pronounce judg-
ment according to the evidence.