The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-12-15
Farm and Garden.

it is advisable not To leave the pillow IN
the furrow or lying loose on the head
land, but to bring it home and house 1t
as carefully as though it were alive, and
would suffer from the inclemencies OF
the winter weather. In fact 1T Will
suffer, and so will the farmers pocket,
if it is exposed to the rains and frosts.
Before it is slowed away in a dry place,
it should be washed and secured, and,
when dry, coated with hot boiled linseed
oil. This will penetrate the pores not
only of the wood but the iron, and pre-
serve the one from dry-rot and "pow-
der-post" (borers which destroy dry
wood), and the other from rust. II
rakes, forks, scythesnaths, cradles, ETC.,
are thus treated, their elasticity is pre-
served and their durability increased.
Cost Of Raising CalveS.-There are
many operations on the farm that are
improbable in themselves directly, but
we can not avoid them, we must credit
them with share of the profit they in
dividually produce. Take, for example,
raising calves. We must raise them, and
yet no farmer expects to realize the
cost of yearling if sold as such but
when the yearling becomes a COW the
profit comes in. Nor is it necessary to
feed ten quarts of new milk to a calf
daily for 100 days, at a cost Of fifty
dollars. A farmer who does so (if there
are any SUCH is simply no farmer. He
may be an amateur or a fancy stock
man, who counts no cost. We never
fed a calf new milk for longer than
week, after which skinned milk,
warmed at first, with little linseed
meal, was successfully substituted.
THE Cost Of Weeds.-If there is one
thing more than another to which
farmer should feel a strong antipathy, it
is weed. Not only do weeds injure
the appearance of his farm, but their
production costs an enormous amount
of money. There is no doubt at all but
that our crops would be doubled in
amount if we could keep down the
weeds. They thus cost the country in
two years an amount equal to the whole
of our national debt An experiment
made by a noted English farmer gave
a. the result OF crop of barley on
good soil, well MANFRED, thirteen bush
els on unweeded land, and twenty-eight
bushels where the crop was weeded.
Were similar experiments made on our
farms, who can doubt that similar re-
suits would happen?
Florida AgricuLtwe.-T agriculture
of this State seems to be in bad way.
1t is stated that the sorghum raised
there is Of the poorest kind, the plant
not reaching height of more than
three feet. And now complaints are
made of the yield of cotton. So de.
generated has the crop become that it
requires seven pounds of seed cotton to
make one lint. Some of the bolls are
entirely barren of lint, producing only
seed. And the farmers Of the "Flowery
State" cry for better seed. In States
not so fowery, when farmers know they
want better seed they get it, and our
Florida brothers must learn to do the
same. Seed which has continuously
occupied the same ground degenerates,
whether OF cotton or of grain.
Warm CellarS.-A correspondent
writes: . If any of our readers wish to
keep their cellars warm-not warm
enough to eat and sleep in, but warm
from trost-they can find no better way
OF doing it than by FASTING four or five
thicBnesses Of brown paper, or old
newspaper, against the walls, and across
the joists Of the floor above. All cracks
and openings in the windows should
also he carefully pasted up. 1t will not
be found an easy thing to fasten paper
to stone walls, but if plenty of good,
strong paste is used, and the walls are
well swept down previously, it can be
done, and the difficulty will only be
with the first thickness. Paper, and
old paper in particular, has never had
its proper degree OF credit, and if we
knew how valuable it was we would
seldom kindle our fires with it if any
thing else was to be had. 1t is an ex-
cellent non-conductor of heat. and
when well made and Of average thick
ness it is among those substances which
air finds ii very difficult to penetrate.
Whenever, then, we wish to keep in
heat and keep out air, our old papers
will come admirably into play. Many
a poor man has shivered through a cold
winter night, when in his room there
were old newspapers enough, if spread
beneath his miserable covering, to have
kept him warm and comfortable"
How to Get Good EggS.-There is a
vast difference in the flavor of eggs.
Hens fed on clean, sound grain, and
kept on a clean grass run, give much
finer favored eggs than hens do that
have access to stables and manure heaps
and eat all kinds of filthy food. Hens
feeding on fish and onions flavor their
eggs according y-the same as COWS eat
ing onions, or cabbage, or drinking
offensive water imparts bad taste to
milk and butter. The richer the food
the higher the color of the eggs Wheat
and corn give the best color, while
feeding them on buckwheat cakes
makes the eggs colorless, rendering
them unfit for some confectionery pur-
poses.
Seed C0rn-Ears Of corn that have
been selected for seed should be hung
up in a dry, cool place. Taken promis-
cnously from the crib in the spring, it
is more than likely that the majority of
the grains will have become injured and
unfit for seed, and then the white grubs,