Connecticut western news., 1873-04-18
Farm, Garden and Household,
Notes on the Farm.

Notes on the Farm.
 It has been ascertained that it costs ,
 farming community two dollars 8 weel
 for every head of stock running in the
 road.
 A farmer in Tennessee keeps lO(
 goats, with which he contracts to clea1 land of underbrush, at a given sum pel ( acre.
 Three hundred acres under thorougf culture better deserve to be called { large farm than three thousand acres poorly titled.
 Whoever is to SOW grass seed should test the same by placing it for 8 few days between two locks of cotton kept warm and moist.
 The British Parliament has appointed committees to inquire aboutlabor, about diseases of animals, about game, about cattle and sheep, and about horses.
 The total agricultural production of Great Britain is estimated at $1, ,OOO,- OOO, ,O0O, showing 8 general yield from the 5O,OOO, 900 of acres under cultivation of only $20 per acre.
 Those farmers who used to haul their wheat from 30 to 60 miles to the Miss 1sslppi river say they do not make as much money, now that the railroads have come, as they did formerly, for the reason that elevators, railroads, and commission men charge as much as it used to cost to haul the grain with teams. Meanwhile they are taxed heay- fly to pay interest on bonds they have got in debt, and altogether their second condition is worse than the first.
 In these days COWS need careful at tention. They should be well fed, and the last thing to be done before going to bed IS to see that they are all right. When cows meet with 'sbad luck" at this season, among the things to be avoided by all means is the giving of the many nostrums recommended. The more intelligent farmers become the less will they torture their animals by fore ing medicine down their throats. An outward application of healing nature is quite different thing.
 The farmers of Franklin county. N r., lately held meeting to consider which kind of stock is best, and it was agreed that for milk and butter the Jerseys are decidedly to be preferred, but their milk will not make good cheese, which is new idea. The milk ot the short horns is not rich. To raise good calf the milk of three COWS is re- qu1red, and unless these cattle are well fed they are every way unproftable. Stlll, for beef they excel, providing they are fed high, and they will outsell the cattle brought from the West because the meat IS better. For breeding pur- poses the best animals should be select ed; and better grades are obtained from large herds because better oppor- tunity for crossing is afforded.
 The Agriculturaz Gazette of London states that in England about 30 pounds of mixed grass-seed is the usual ouan- | tlty sown with thin seeding of barley. Of buckwheat about bushel of seed per acre may be drilled, or rather more. soWn broadcast in the end of May. Po- tato tubers of fair size, planted two feet | apart, will amount to nine cwt. per acre. The ordinary planting is now 30 inches apart, and 10 or 12 inches apart | Tn the rows require about IT or IS cwt. per acre.
 Washing Sheep.
 In a late number of the Zrish Fdrna- CTS G0Semea plan for sheep washing is proposed which precludes the necessity ot gong into the water to perform this operation. A clear running section of water should be selected, and bench or platform of suitable dimensions placed ln the water next to the shore and about even with the surface. Place an- other one further out in the stream par allel to the first; place blanks across Dotn, at the ends reaching to the bank on these, Tn line with the stream, place other blanks to walk on and far enough apart to pass the body of sheep read i. ny between them. A sheep is brought forward and two men, placed there for lI Gne purpose, one on each plank, take the animal by the legs and turn it. back downWard, into the water and float it rapidly back and forth between the blanks, finishing off by sousinp down and up till the fleece is cleaned. The . sheep IS then restored to it's footing on the end platform and suffered to walk Nothing will so much conduce to the ' adoption of a system of working the { [arm as a wen-prepared map, hung where the farmer can see it every day. It will be sure to set him to thinking and planning how best to pitch his crops, and how best to work to save ' work. And once the farmer adopts a system of farming he starts on the road to success. It matters not that the sys- l tenn Is not the best that could be deyis- i sd; so long as it is system, it is infin- tely to be preferred to the haphazard practice of many farmers. We there ( lore advise every reader who owns a I arm to make at once, or have made, a t nap of it, and hang it up where he can I zee 1t every day. And having made it, i study it. .s 5' -. I