The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-10-25
AGRICULTURAL.

PIGS AND PENS.-It is difficult to
say when the farmer may safely re-
mark, "sOul, take thine ease" Ger
tainly not until the hogs are fatted
and disposed of. This work is gener-
ally left to succeed corn busking, and
when the cold mornings of November
pinch the fingers, the hogs are hurried
into the rail pen and their appetites
tempted with frosty nubbins. Fat
hogs may thus be made, but not fat
purses. The more rapidly an animal,
a hog, can be fattened the
better for the farmers profits. And in
the fine days of September and Octo-
her hogs will take on weight twice as
fast IS later in the year. Neither is it
the part of wisdom to put them off
with nubbins and unsound corn. The
best of feed is the cheapest. Soft corn
may be given to stock hogs, and will
keep them alive through the winter,
but a supply of old corn should have
been kept over for fattening swine
and beeves. Nor is it profitable to put
up hogs in rail pens, i'm which large
portion of the food must be expended
in resisting the evil effects of damp
ness, cold, mud, and similar discom-
forts. 1t would be great economy TO
provide neat and sheltered quarters,
however rough, in which the animals
may be allowed to keep themselves
clean and dry, which they are natural
ly disposed to do. Early attention,
brethren, to all these things will result
surely in the production of cheaper
and more wholesome pork.
TIMELY THOUGHT.-It is too late to
prepare for the rigors of winter when
cold weather is upon us. The first
storm of the season is most injurious;
and the one from the effects of which
stock that may be exposed to it does
not readily recover. 1t is always
harder to regain what is lost than to
keep up steady progress, and, if we
would not lose ground by and by, it is
necessary to look ahead. Sheds and
buildings should be put into good
order, ready for occupation when the
first rain storm arrives. In October
this may be looked for, and at that
time the feed has fallen of, and the
system is already weakening and can
not stand the shock without a serious
check. 1t is now that this event
should be foreseen and provided for,
lest it come unawares and the stock,
most especially the young stock,
should suffer at a time when it needs
all the strength extra care can supply.
WASTED WATER.-One acre of
meadow that can be irrigated is worth
three acres not susceptible of such
treatment. A large proportion of
farms i'm the Eastern States might, to
a greater or less extent, be brought
under this system. Wherever there is
a spring flowing from high ground it
may be gathered into a small stream,
turned into a pillow furrow, and lei
back and forth across the lower lands
to nOurish the grass. Wherever a
stream has fall of a few feet there its
waters may be carried in lateral chan
nels, and made to overflow more or less
of the soil along its banks. Every
farmers should practice with an Ordin-
airy spirit level until he is able to
determine sufficiently well where and
how he can turn water upon his fields.
FAT AND FORTY.-A fat lamb of
40 pounds is worth in May in any
Eastern market $40. Fat lambs do not
come ready for market in the month
of May by accident. 1t is your calcu-
lating farmer who makes money in
this way, and just now he is taking a
long look ahead. He is selecting hearty
ewes in good condition, these he will
feed well and regularly, keeping them
gaining little until the time of drop
ing their lambs, when he may count
on having mostly twins, well-nursed,
and which will grow rapidly and be
ripe for the butcher at the time when
they will bring the highest price of the
season.
SICK STOCK.-Very often a farmer
or his boys may be heard relating how
that horse has put in the spring crops
without a mOuthful of grain, or in
alone, or how the cows were wintered
without any hay, or the sheep lay out
nights all winter, and kept 50 well on
corn fodder. Just as often the farmer
will boast that his team has hauled 80
bushels of corn up very steep hill, or
travelled ~ miles and went to blowing
next day, or the 3-year old colts have
"plOwed their forty acres this spring,
and have never yet smelled oats"
These bOastings are very common.
no direct ill-effects follow, but
by and by one of these horses falls lame |
most unaccountably, or the hide looks
tight and the hair stands up, and |
very mysterious is the mat
ter with the colts, aud the cows lose
their calves, or have the hollow-horn
Or foul foot, and the sheep are afflicted |
with many of those ailments which in
heir case often occur under the very
best treatment. Then one never hears
Of the remote and always-fOrgOtten
cause, and the farmer exhausts the
wisdom of his neighbOrs, and tries all
their nostrums, and as last resource,
writes to his agricultural editor, who is |
IS a matter of course, never instructed.
Now cures do not happen in SO many
rs five cases in a hLndre1 of sick or
disabled animals on a farm, and al
most invariably the trouble might
have been prevented had certain SIM
pie rules been remembered and acted
)n. Never starve the stock and then
over feed them. Feed regularly both
Is to times and quantities. Never
)verwork horses, and especially colts.
Feed young stock with the best and
most nutritious food, and lay fuunda-
ion for the drafts to be made on them
II the future. Administer at regular
stated times certain portion OF salt.
sulphur, wood ashes and powdered
or place these condiments
where they can be reached at least
weekly. Shelter all stock, old and
'Oung, in clean dry she IL, both during
he cold of winter and the heat of
ummer. In short, care for domestic
nimals reasonably and thOughtfully,
they are as subject to ali
he evil effects of exposure or neglect
# abuse as human beings.
SHIFTLESS SYSTEMs.-The losses
which most reduce the farmers profits
re those which arise from missed op-
badly laid plans, want of
for ossible contingencies,
nj other failures Resulting from poor
usiness habits. The husbandman
bove all others needs to take thought
,r the morrow. Harvesting, supply
tools, seed and other necessary
hings, should be considered before
and. Perhaps the most serious Pc
uulary wounds a farmer thus infiicts
n himself arise from want of prepare
ons for changes of weather during {
ne growth of his crops, their harvest
1g, or for the winter care of his stock.
farming in its bad sense is
either more or less than farming on s
ne basis of the best possible plan. The /
rst application of method is in choos-
lg rotation of some sort the next
in choosing the best rotation for the