The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-10-16
evening State a|o,lrnat
RURAL READINGS.

VINEGAR-Farmers should be careful to
keep cider intended for vinegar from freez-
ing, as it is almost impossible to make good
vinegar out of frozen cider.
FAST HoRsEs.--English history records
a fact that our farmers would do well to pom
der Out of every thirty colts from thor
oughbrcd stock on both sides, but one
proves extra fast.
PRESERVING FARM TooIS.-Evcry
farmer should have can of linseed oil and
brush on hand, and whenever he buys
new tool he should soak it well with the
oil, and dry it by the fire or in the sun be-
fore using. The wood, by this treatment,
is toughened and strengthened, and rem
dered impervious to water.
LINsEED CAKE FOB CATTLE.-An
English correspondent of The Country
Gentleman says: "All our fatting cattle
get four pounds per head daily of lnseed
cake, when first put up, increasing the
quantity to eight or ten pounds to finish
off; this in addition to plenty of roots.
The very best linseed cake we get comes
from New York, Boston, and Philadelphia,
and costs here now $50 per ton.O
MIXING SOILs.--The farmer can, to
some extent, at least, modify the absorb
tive power of his soils by his mode of treat
ment. lie can do it bya judicious mixture
of soils. If his land is light, porous, san
dy, mixture of clay acts like manure upon
it. Such mixture may be even better
than the addition of peat muck, but the
addition of any substance that will increase
the power of absorbing and retaining lnois-
ture, is beneficial.
PROFITS OF UNDERDRAINING.--In q
discussion at the Farmers Club of Bucks
county, Pa, member stated that he
drained some land at the rate Of sixty
rods per acre, putting the drains forty
feet apart, and four feet deep. The work
was done in the most thorough manner,
and the increase in crops has paid the
owner at least twenty per cent. on the in
vestment-much better than if he had in
vested in bonds, or bank, or railway
stocks, as his money as doubled eDey toe
gears.
START THE HoGs.-The Kansas Far
mey gives this sensible advice The motto
for every farmer who would be successful
in fattening hogs, is, Commence feeding
carly" The practice that has prevailed so
long, to let the hogs run until the middle
of October, is erroneous, and we wonder
that it has lasted SO long. But it is one of
those customs handed down to us by our
fathers, and we have revered it, perhaps,
for that reason; but we can show our re-
spect in other and better ways that will not
cost us so much money.
SEWAGE lRRIGATIoN.--Dr. Spencer
Cobbod, of England, has microscopically
demonstrated the presence of thousands Of
entozoa in pork which has been fed upon
the produce Of lands irrigated with sewage.
The introduction into the human system of
countless entozoa, through the medium of
cattle fed upon sewage irrigation grass, and
swine fed upon other food similarly pro-
duced, is regarded as new danger with
which the public health is threatened. 1t
is the deliberate opinion Of DR.. Cobbold
that thousands Of cattle in England iare
thus rendered unfit to be used as food.
FLOWING MEADows.--A correspon-
dent of the Neao Eaglaad Farmer writes:
In 1864, built short dam and flowed a
small meadow of three or four acres, let
ting the water remain on all winter. The
ice carried the dam of in the spring, and it
has not been since rebuilt. The succeeding
summer [ found. the hay crop increased
from two ox-loads to five but the quality
of the hay was far inferior-most Of the
background grasses being killed out. Since
that time the crop has gradually decreased
till the present season, when have secured
the two oX-loads that it usually cut before
the dam was built.