The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-11-14
AGRICULTURAL.

1
MODEL FARMING IN MIssoURI.-From
an account in Colendn's Rural World of
the farm property and practices of l.. A.
d. Crenshaw, Of Greene county, Mo-, we
CLEAN a few hints, which some of our
readers similarly situated may make
valuable to themselves. The cultivated
land is 900 acres in extent, and is in
closed with Bois dare hedge and good
rail fence with large, strong, WELL hung
gates at all the openings. The crops on
this farm this year, as usual consist of
corn, wheat, oats, and timothy. OF these,
Mr.. @. finds oats least profitable; of
wheat grown on the farm this year, there
were about 1000 bushels; corn, 10000.
withstanding such huge piles of
corn and hay, Mr. @. has none to SELL
fortunately, he never has corn to sell.
He feeds his corn, hay, etc., on the farm
to his mules, horses, cattle, and hogs Of
the latter there are large numbers They
are fed all the time, summer and winter,
and killed while yet pigs, but of most
hog-ish weights--several hundred pounds.
In this way he makes bacon-ham that
excites admiration at the table, and takes
the premiums at the fairs, as well as the
highest price in market. By this con-
stant feeding of 80 many hogs he realizes
10 cents per bushel for his corn at home,
and quite as much or more when fed to
mules, besides heavy barn-yard crop of
manure, which gives back to his fields
and meadows 10 per cent. of the lands
value. Last winter 1000 wagon-loads of
manure were hauled from the barn and
field lots to the farm. Here is point in
Mr.. C.'s example worth remem bering and
worthy of imitation, and here is an
other We were much interested in a
grove of black walnut, from six to ten
acres, planted l2x12 feet, and cultivated
two years. The nuts were planted fifteen
years ago the trees are now from 80 to
40 feet high, forming most compact
and beautiful grove. This should sug-
gest to all the propriety of planting
trees in the prairie lands.
THIRTY YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH
CATTLE.-Thirty years experience in
feeding cattle teaches me, says Tribune
correspondent, that where they are kept
in yard and supplied with clear spring
water for some time they will lick up
and swallow small quantities of subsoil
earth when they can get at it. If
| Vh6y udNc dCCcoo w WopOi ihuNiO
muddy by freshet or snow thaw, they
water, and it will not injure them ; but
stagnant water, with decaying vegetable
matter in it, is always injurious to them,
and think have known them killed
by drinking it. have drained all such
ponds on my premises, and think it
pays. 1 give what salt my cattle want,
which shows that it is not for salt they
lick up earth. In their natural condi-
ton they have to drink turbid water
during freshets, and it is doubtful
whether they will continue a long time
healthy without getting to the bare
earth. The hog in his natural condi-
ton, living in forests, has to swallow a
portion of decayed wood or leaves with
his food, and when domesticated and
fed on grain he seems to crave some rot
ten wood. Lyell, the English. geologist
who visited the so-called salt Gcks OF
Kentucky, says they are not salt to the
taste but does not tell whether there
had been an analysis to test the chemi
cal nature of the earth at that place. II
is said the wild graminivora of thai
country eat so much of it that if it haC
been salt it would have killed them. L
is likely there is lime in some of it
: forms that the cattle get instead of chew
ing bones, limestone, or oyster shells, a
they often do.
3 OYSTER SHELLs.-Oyster shells, wh'
burned, produce a lime exactly simil
e to that from majority of the pure lin /,
1tones. Any animal matter they IL
contain, of course, is destroyed by Il
e heat. and the simple caustic lime, VIII n
very small proportion of phosphat e
|. lime, remains. They may be burnet
e putting them in co1iical heaps, with co
or wood for fuel spreading over t.
|. heaps damp leaves, straw, or sods, al
e covering closely with few inch IS
earth. The heap should be fired al
/. burned slowly, air being given as eed'
g by means of vent-holes at the bott ON
sustain slow combustion. If the. hes
e falls in at any place. as it burn dow
more shells should be added until IL
e hole is filled up, damp leaves thrown o
and covered again with earth. Thr
/. days are sufficient to burn heap OF D.
to /, 900 bushels. When they are burne
the lime should be spread immediatel
e or while in a caustic state, on plow'
land, and harrow in, or on grass Ian
e and harrow drawn over it to insure
even distribution.
GET READY FOR WINTER.-Gath
l. up all the odds and ends, make all nect
d sary repairs, finish painting and gla
r ing, clean out the furnace and stow
IS pipes, sweep the cobwebs out of the CT
is lars, sweep the floors, clean up the fielC
is cut away the brush from the fenc
Is bury surplus potatoes, turnips and bee
J. bank up the celery, and get ready I
r winter.
"a SEA SIcKNEss.-Mr. Bessemer's ori
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