The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-05-10
Farm and Garden.


pect your fowls To make egg-shells
without something to do il with, any
more than you would ask a mechanic
to build house with no materials.
We have seen il gravely urged that as
wild birds do not eat oyster shells or
old mortar, therefore tame ones need
not. 1t is true that the egg-shells of
wild species appear to be always OF
normal thickness, but it must be re-
membered that they only lay normal
number. 1t will never do TO reason
too closely from nature, for none OF our
domestic animals are in state OF nature.
We advocate for hens bone-dust, burnt
bones, raw bones crushed, or pounded
oyster or CLAIR shells.
Turning CocS 10 GraSS.-ln turning
cows to grass, the question often arises
whether it is better to keep them con.
fined 10 a small Enclosure, until grass
becomes so large and plenty that they
can fill themselves readily and subsist
wholly upon it, or to give them the
range of the whole pasture, or large
share of it, and let them change gradu-
ally from hay TO grass, as the latter
slowly comes forward. These questions
annually occur to every dairyman, and
are answered, sometimes one way and
sometimes the other. They are ques-
tons that ought to be carefully consid-
cred. Those who favor the practice Of
keeping COWS yarded and entirely away
from grass till they can live upon it
wholly, urge that the appetite of the
cows is so much affected by taste Of
grass that they will so far lose their
relish for hay as not to eat enough to
keep up their flesh and strength, and
consequently are best Oft not to taste 1t
at all, till there is enough for them to
subsist on wholly. This is one view of
the question. Those who prefer letting
their COWS run over wide range and
nip the grass as soon as it starts, say
that it is better for them, or any other
stock, to change from dry feed to green
gradually and that the season for dry
food, always too long, is stretched to its
utmost, by prohibiting taste of grass
till it is plenty enough to live upon.
There is some force in this reasoning.
A sudden and radical change Of food,
either for man or beast, is always at
tended with i'll consequences. The
condition of the stomach and bowels,
and the quality of the digestive agents,
adapt themselves to the nature of the
food. To break up at once long
established order of things, deranges
all the operations of the system and I'M
pairs their functions. In turning milch
cows suddenly to grass, they are usually
made sick for several days. They be-
come unnerved and weak, and their
"a Oft otf &C a
work badly in the cheese-vat, for a week
or more. A diarrhea sets in, and the
loss OF flesh, by securing is often greater
than that occasioned by loss of appetite
for hay. | have always found dairy
COWS TO do better the season through,
to make the change from dry food TO
green gradual one. If there should
be any tendency to falling away from
scanty food, it is better TO keep them
up by the use of little grain than to
make too sudden change.-Live Stock
Journal
.Seours or Constipation in Young Pigs
To cure either the scours or constipa-
ton in the young, sucking pigs, the
proper way is TO treat the SOW, for we
have often noticed that food may be
given the SOW without injuring her
health in the least, but still injure the
health OF her offspring, the bad effects
of improper food being very readily
communicated through the medium of
the milk to the pigs. This is done by
giving the same food to the SOW that
you would to cure the same disease in
herself. Care, also, should be taken IN
feeding, not to make a sudden change
in diet, or feed heavily one day and do
the very opposite the next, for the
young porkers invariably show the bad
effects of such a course.
As to the sty, the great essentials are
that it be in a protected situation; that
it have good ventilation and an album
dance OF sun for sun is as necessary an
element to the health of pig as it is
of a flower or tree. 1t should be COM
fortably warm and dry, with two
apartments, one for the sleeping room
and the other for the eating room. A
small opening should be left, through
which the little ones can pass, and can
have a good run whenever they wish,
for plenty of exercise conduces TO their
health, rapid growth and develop