Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-05-17
Farm, Garden and Household.
Farm Notes,

Suel Foster destroys cankerworms by
shaking them down upon straw previ-
ously placed under the trees, and then
burning the straw.
Pieces of potash dropped in the holes
and runs of rats and moles will, it is as
serted, effect among these rodents a
speedy change of base.
A Kansas correspondent declares that
during the past season he learned "that
a COW, when well sheltered and watered,
can be kept on less than one-half of the
feed required when left to the exposure
OF the winter storms"
Peter Ferris, in paper recently read
before the Rochester Farmers Club,
suggested the formation in Western
New York of a Wheat Growers Associ-
alton similar to that for several years
past in successful operation among the
dairymen.
A writer in The Western Rural de-
clares that cut worms will not modest
corn treated in this way "Take good,
sound seed, put it in a tub or some
other convenient vessel, take l ] pounds
of saltpeter per bushel, dissolve it and
pour 1t over the corn let it soak until
the corn is swelled ready to sprout, and
then plant.
A machine may be altogether too
powerful. Jesse Bailey of Pleasant Hill
had one of ten-horse power, for thresh-
ing wheat, and while it was in operation
the journal became heated, set the straw
on fire, and burned to death five of the
horses, the machine itself, and large
quantity of wheat.
Whether sandy land teaches or not
depends upon the purity of the land.
Pure white lake sand will allow water to
pass through it without filtering it. But
II charcoal or muck or loan is added to
the sand in sufficientquantity any liquid
manure passing through it will lose it's
color. Sow clover on sandy land and
plough the first growth in, and the sand
is supplied with substance which alb
serbs fertilizing materials suspended in
water or liquid manure. Clover sup
plies carbon to the soil as well as nitro
gen,
How TO make Soft Soap.
Keep your ashes dry, and when put
In the hopper preparatory to making
soap, have from a half peck to a peck of
unslacked lime put in with the ashes,
Before putting the grease in, swing the
kettle off the fire and let i hang for q
few moments. If there is any potash
in it, take shove and take it out; fol
II there IS toe, much potash in it will
not make good soap. Pack the ashes
well, adding water enough to dampen
the;m. Then put three or four buckets
of water on each day for two or three
days, until you think it sufficiently
soaked, and lastly, pour ON boiling wa
ter to run the I've off. AS soon as there
has enoughrun off to commence boiling,
put your kettle over the fire, and boil
the I've as fast as it will boil, still adding
more lye as it boils down. Continue in
this way for whole day. By evening
it will probably be sufficiently strong..tC
eat feather in passing it three times
across the liquid. Now put the grease
IN, ell you think it will eat, still boiling
as fast as you can without it's running
over. Ii its eats the grease all up, ado
more. Leave the kettle to hang owe
the fire all night. In the morning i
there are any scraps of grease that az,
not eaten up, boil again for an hour O.
two, and it they do not dissolve tax,
them out. Then take q few spoonful'
OF the soap and set it away littl,
while to cool. When cold, if there i
no lye under it, and it appears free from
grease, set the kettle off, and hang an
other one to boil more lye. Managing
in this way, there can generally be mad
from sixteen to eighteen gallons of mic
white soap IN two days, and often in on
day and night By pursuing thi
plan, or similar one, any one can max
strong, nice soap.
Horticultural Hints.
When fruit trees occupy the ground
nothing else should-except very shor
grass. ....
Fruitfulness and growth of the tire
cannot be expected the same year.
There is no plum that the curculi
will not take, though any kind ma
sometimes escape for one year in
Peach borers- will not do much dan
age when stiff clay is heaped up roun
the tree foot high.
Pear blight still puzzles a great man
men. The best remedy known is
plant two for every one that dies.
Ii you don't know how to prune, don
hire man that knows less about it tina
you do.
Don't cut off a big lower limb, unles
you are a renter and don't care wis
becomes Of the tree when your time
Trim down, notup.
Shorten in, not lengthen up.
Ii you had an arm cut off, you woul
feel it at your heart-a tree will not on
feel, but rot to the heart
When anybody tells you of a garden,
that understands all about horticultul
and agriculture, and that can be hire,
don't believe word of it, for there al
none such to be hired. Such man CO
make more than you can afford to gi7
him, and if he has sense enough to III
derstand his business, he will also ha'
enough to know this.
Col. Curtis sent in the following
the decision arrived at by commit,
of the National Swine-breeders's Co.
vention as to what constitutes a tho
oughbred hog. This authority stat
that in the absence of any system
records by which pedigrees of swil
are kept, your committee can only gi,
an expression which, from the nature
the case, must be somewhat genera
Only such breeds should rank as tho
oughbred as are recognized in authent