The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-09-04
Farm, Garden and Household.
How to Make Manure ON the Farm.

How to Make Manure on the Farm.
As manure is the life of all successful
farming the neglect TO make, save, and
compost all vegetable and animal refuse
so as to save their organic elements
from waste, causes the most crying fail
ures of success in tilling the soil. 1
here give the formula of North Car
olina farmer who says he made more
than two hundred cart-loads of manure
at a cost of $50, which paid him better
than three tons of commercial manure
had done which cost him $780, The
compost was made of about half vege-
table swamp muck, one-fourth shell
mari, and one-fourth stable and farm
yard dung and ashes. He says 1
hauled last year vegetable muck which
had been dried two months to save
weight in carriage, this spread on my
barn-yard and mixed with it the shell
mari together with ten loads of forest
leaves and all the stable manure had,
adding sundry wheelbarrow loads of
hog-pen manure. This was worked
over three times during the winter, and
mixed each time with thirty bushels of
rotten wood ashes. To make this COM
post still more effective, he says bone
dust should be added to the pile, as
then it would soon become soluble,
and he might add that a few hundred
weight of sulphate of lime (ground
plaster) would also increase the efficacy
of the compost. But with his compost
he made three crops in one season, and
the last he says was better than the first.
He is of opinion that good commercial
manures, if properly composted and
applied to the soil, will pay triple the
outlay, as it enables us to make big
crops on little land, and without bring
ing in weeds.
Cream Seed.
AS a rule, those farmers who are the
most careful in cleaning their seed
grains, and the most Thorough in their
cultivation, have the fewest weeds to
contend with /; and such are the most
fully compensated in the end for their
pains. One of the most prolific sources
of the spread of weeds is sowing direct
ly from the threshing machine for
however well these machines clean the
grain for market purposes-and the
better classes of them do it admirably
still there is no power machine that
will clean seed in so thorough a manner
as to to fit it for sowing. This, how
ever, may be accomplished by careful
cleaning by the more modern fans, hav-
ing sieves adapted to the various sizes
and shapes of seeds, and perfectly con-
trolled by the blast given. With the
use of these we have often secured q
large advance over the ordinary market
price, on account of the seed been per-
fectly clean.
One of the most difficult seeds to Sc
parate from the grain is cookie and
chess and to do SO thoroughly, it is
necessary to have proper sieves for
separating these from the good grain,
since the specific gravity of these seeds
is very nearly that of barley, rye, and
wheat. In the case of chess, the pecu-
liar form Of the seed-being long, like
wheat and rye-renders it especially
difficult of separation. But with the
modern fans, but little difficulty will be
experienced in their separation, and the
value of the seed will be thereby much
enhanced.
Square Cheese.
Certain parties in New York, who
have manufactured the rectangular
cheese for two or three years past, have
been eminently successful, and the
cheese has sold for better price than
blldU EtCGlNcu JOI Vic uSuul IOull SlldD6.
That radical change in the shape oi
cheese, from round to square, should
meet with opposition and prejudice
was to be expected, but we see no good
reason why the square or rectangular
shape should not be as well received by
consumers as the others. Indeed, il
cutting, it has decided advantages, and
there is less waste and the pieces are in
q more comely shape for the table
Again, in putting up for market, square
packages are much less expensive than
round while they take up less space il
storing or in being carried to market
Some factories, however,, have entered
upon the manufacture of square cheeses
and have failed or at least, have had
much trouble in pressing, bandagine
and in the care of the cheese, and have,
therefore, pronounced against it il
strong terms.
So far as we can learn, the troubles
have come from imperfect molds used
in pressing, and from not understanding
all the processes and manipulations
which belong to the treatment of this
kind of cheese. No one should attempt
to make square cheese unless fully pro.
vided with suitable apparatus and spe
cially instructed in the manae ement ot
the cheese.-X. Il. Willard, in Rura
NeU Yorker.
How Fowls Feed.
Grain fed to fowls is received into
the crop, where it is slightly soaked
and then it passes into the second stom
ach, or pro- ventriculus (Vegetmeier)
where it is saturated with the gastric
juice, thence to the gizzard where it is
ground and afterward assimilated.
may add that it is this second stomach
which is the test of hunger, as fowls
crop may be pefectly full and yet the
bird be very hungry owing to some
stoppage in the channel between the
crop and second stomach. Your cor
respondent is however perfectly correc
that no grain ever passes ungrount
from healthy fowl, so perfect is the
operation of that beautiful muscular
machine which grinds even the pebbles
used in grinding the food.
Earth's Highest Spot.