Connecticut western news., 1873-03-07
Farm, Garden and Household.
Experiments in steaming Stalks.

] was able to procure lot of cornstalks ot four cents bundle. These cut up with Q Daniels cutter. I procured Q large kettle and six half-hogshead tubs, at a cost of about $20. I stamped the tubs full of cut stalks, mixed with bran, and poured over each tub-fuQ 20 gallons of boiling water, spreading an inch of bran over the top to keep down the steam. The COWS ate the mixture clean, and throve upon it, preferring it to hay. l should think it went twice as far as long stalks. 0ln order to economize on labor the next winter 1 procured steamer, which l placed several rods from the stable, connecting 1t with gas-pipes laid under ground to Q box in the stable holding 70 bushels. This I filled with stalks and bran, thoroughly wetting it, and turned on the steam. l kept on the steam five or six hours, and then it was not as sayory mess as the scalded stuff. In neither case did I discover that the cows either gave more milk or kept in better condition than they did upon uncooked food. The only gain was in their eating the fodder cleaner. The experiment satisfied me that the butts of stalks were worth full as much as the leaves for fodder if one could only soften them so as to get the COWS to eat them. To steam good hay or fodder which COWS will eat up clean without being starved to 1t Is worse than labor thrown away. One-half of the saving on the corn stalks can be ob- tained by simply cutting, with one tenth as much expense as it takes to steam. Then the uneaten portion of the stalks makes splendid bedding and hghtens up the manure finely. In fact, for the sake of the manure it pays to cut stalks, for every farmer knows what o nuisance long stalks are in manure. It is proper to state that did not have water convenient to the barn, but had to bring it in milk cans on a sleigh from a spring some 20 rods distant.
 I saved about 10 bundles of stalks per day, one-half to be credited to cut ting and one-half to steaming. Could have procured more stalks the saving would have amounted to but 20 cents 9 day, but as I could d not do so it saved me aooAt $1 worth of hay. Since that time I have been able to procure more stalks than needed. From this experi- ment I have arrived at the following conclusions:
 l. It does not pay to steam unless one has every convenience of water and labor-saving apparatus, and then only for large amount of stock.
 2. It does not pay to steam good sweet hay or any fodder which COWS in good condition will eat up clean.
 3. It does not pay at all where labor is high and fodder is cheap.
 4. For the ordinary farmer it will not pay to go to the expense of fitting up steaming apparatus.
 5. Where it pays at all it is only in exceptional cases, and will not do to depend upon as general rule. - 4 Farmer.
 Does it Pay to Cook Feed for Stock?
 We will state that our farm contains 700 acres, and we generally feed 100 head of cattle on grass in Summer, and we fatten each Winter about forty head of cattle in stable. We raise from forty to fifty acres of wheat, twenty to thirty of oats, twenty of corn, and three or four acres of Swedish turnips. Our en- zine IS fve-horse, boiler something more, with engine attached to it's side. And this threshes our grain, cuts and steams the fodder, pumps the water, saws the wood, and does the churning, and thus Is very handy to have on the farm.
 We have three steam boxes, holding 100 bushels each, and one of these filed with cut straw and chaff, with 200 pounds of bran, worth 75 cents per hundred, evenly mixed, moistened with water, packed in solid, and well steam ed, will feed sixty head of cattle three times for one day, all they will eat. Fattening cattle are fed extra. In this way we can feed all our straw and corn stalk and poor hay, if we have any, with little grain or bran, turn it all into quick active manure to stimulate new crops, and can keep much more stock, and at one-third less expense than in the old way. Our stock comes out in better condition in the Spring, and we have no doubt, from our own experience, that there is saving to us of fully one-third in the cost of winterine ou1 animals. In feeding hogs we find that two bushels of corn ground and cooked is little better than four bushels of shelled corn. We have proved this by the best test we can giveit. We have nc hesitation in saying that our confidence in the economy of this mode of feeding strengthens with each year S experience and we believe it is destined to be prac ticed much more extensively in the flu ture.-LiUe Stock Journal.
 Goal Ashes for Sandy Soil.
 l. A. Fries asks the Rural NeaO- Torke, if coal ashes are of any value to apply on yellow, sandy soil. Very little, w think, exceptin case unfermented manure is applied with them. They are bette for stiff clays, where the object is t, change the mechanical texture of tn, soil. They are useful to throw int, privy vaults as asdeodorizers, and then us, the manure, thus deodorized with tn, ashes, on any crop desired. They ar, excellent, also, as an application to gras lands-especially where top-dressings o manure are given.
 Shoats in a Barn Cellar
 A Maine farmer manufactures manur that is, mixes it-by keeping fou shoats in his barn cellar where he feed them raw sugar beets and a quart O corn put down with the manure ever morning. He says: G The way they 'g for 1t (the corn) is perfectly lovely The manure is rooted, re-rooted an, rooted again, until it is worked up a fine as old manure. The stock is bedde every night"
 Costly Pork Making
 It is said that corn, as it is generall fed to hogs in Iowa does not net tn farmer 15 cents per bushel with por1 at B per 100 pounds. If the corn wa boiled with pumpkins, beets, sma potatoes etc.. the corn might be mad to net double. In the dairy regions where corn is generally worth $1 pc bushel, farmers contrive to fat thei family pork with very little corn.
 Extracting Honey in Gold Weather.
 Mrs. Tupper says "Our way of e,