The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-09-26
AGRICULTURAL.

POUU WhereW1th 10 IMPROVE Ills neru'
Let us SEQ how this thing figures up.
He raises ten steers of what the drover
denominates scallswag sort, and sells
them at three or four years old, or pos
sibly he feeds them six years, when they
will realize four cents per pound on 800
pounds weight, which is equal to S32
per head, or $500. 1t is safe to say that
the cost of these cattle will not be less
than the price received, go that there
will be no profit to the feeder, if there
is no loss. Another farmer raises ten
grade short-horn steers, which at three
years old are sold at eight cents a pound,
and weigh 1000 pounds each Their
money value is $3.50. They may have
cost $640 to feed, which is double the
cost of the scallawags, and then there is
a profit of S640. This will represent a
small part only of the gain made by the
use of thoroughbred bull; for at least
he may be expected to sire 25 calves per
annum during six or seven years, and
his services will thus be found worth at
any rate not less than $4,000 to $4,000
on this basis. Here is nothing counted
to his credit but the simple profit on
beef alone, and that is based on the tan
gible and stable foundation of q market
report. There is naught extenuated and
naught set down in hopes which may or
may not be realized. Some farmers
have said that this result is hopeless for
them, that they cannot expect to gain.
one cent per pound extra from drover
for better quality of stock. 1t is true
that there are such farmers, and that
they say this, but it is strange if this is
not a prejudice born of a want of en-
ergy and business tact How can beef
differ in this respect from wool or pork,
butter or cheese, or corn or wheat, all of
which bring prices exactly in ratio
with their several qualities. Drovers
who come across such men will "fool
them to the top of their bent" undoubt-
edly, and will persuade them that good
stock has no more value than poor, if
possible; but it is hard to believe that
in this age of newspapers such farmer
could be found. at is naught, it is
naught, saith the buyer, but when he
hath gone his way, then he boasteth )"
and drovers are often such buyers, bat
it is o farmers own fault if such buyer
ever have a chance to boast over bar
gain of this sort made with him.
TAREATENED Potato FAMINE.-The
English papers are full of uncomfortable
fears of "a possible obliteration of the
potato crop" One says that "every-
where disease is showing itself and
spreading rapidly. There is one excep-
tion to this in districts impregnated
with arsenic Query, sulphurous vapors)
from smelling operations, and where the
disease is said to be not prevalent" A
member of the Central Chamber of
Agriculture writes that he recently
carefully examined number of fields
in the potato-growing district around
Long Sutton, in Lincolnshire, and found
that already three-fourths of the tubers
(by weight) are diseased, while the mis-
Chief is still in active progress. The
testimony of many growers in the
neighborhood is that scarcely any sound
potatoes can be discovered throughout
whole fields, and the general anxiety is
to know not what may be the probable
amount of "ware" for the market, but
whether enough produce will be forth
coming as seed for next year. He has
not the slightest doubt that the same
condition of the crop prevails over the
entire tract of potato country between
Boston and Wisbeach, and that the
yield. if anything at all, can be little
more than a return of the seed planted
The CONSERVATION among the farmers
who pay, high rents, and apply to their
land very large quantities of artificial
manure, may be imagined, seeing that
the loss can scarcely be under els OF
perhaps e20 per acre. Disease appears
to have smitten the crop in all parts o.
the kingdom.
We are indebted to Henry Stewart
for this definition A standard shinglt
is four inches in width at the lower
, edge, and quarter of an inch thick
The best quality are square at the butts
of even thickness, with parallel sides
and shaved or sawn of an even tapel
from butt to top, and quite free from
) knots. A thousand shingles are con
| tanned in bunch. the band of which il
, Just so many inches in length as mul
tlplied by the number of courses counted
on bot, sides of the bunch will mak'
} 1000 times four inches. Thus, so course
, ION each side) with band 40 inche
long will make 1000 shingles.
' The author of "The Farmers Alminax
: thinks it is nothing but fun to raise oats
!, "All you have to do is to plow the LAM
deep, then manure it well, then sprinkl
!, the oats all over the ground, one in
place then worry up the ground with
, drag all over, then set up mites to keel
the chickens and woodchucks out O
them, then kradle them together with
kradle, then rake them together with
. rake, then bind them. together with
) band, then stack them up with a stack
: then thrash them out with fiail, thel
clean them up with mill, then stoy
{ them away in a granary, then spen
. wet days and Sundays trapping for rat
and MICE"
f The new potato which Mr.. Bliss ha
t on the programme for early introduction
i; and for which the originator was paid
q small fortune, is found by the writer c
t "Notes from the Pines" in The Amerl
= can Agriculturist. to be ten days ahea
4; of the Early Rose, and fully as pre-
t ductive.
The latest patent contrivance designe
to stop runaway horse is pair
binders, by which the driver, on pullin
a cord, instantly and effectually blind
: folds the unruly quadruped.
1t is estimated that last year tn
chinch bug infested to a greater or les
s extent 10000 square miles OF territory
\ and did damaua m the axtant of NOR