Connecticut western news., 1873-12-26
Farm, Garden and Household.
Orchard and Nursery.

Orchard and Nursery.
 Something can be done this month in many sections of the country to tighten the labors of the coming spring, and advantage must be taken of every favor able day that will allow outdoor work to be we'll and proftably done.
 Cions.-Cut from the growth of the past season before the wood freezes. Label each variety and store in fresh sawdust in the cellor, and look to them occasionally during the winter to see that they do not dry out.
 Pruning, except upon large limbs, may be done now. Young orchards, if looked after every year, will seldom re- quire any large limbs to be cut off j; besides, all the necessary pruning can be done at 8 time when other work is not pressing.
 Stocks for root grating may be lifted whenever the ground is not frozen, and heeled-in in dry place or in the cellar, ready for grating during the winter.
 Manure. Continue to cart out manure to the orchards whenever there is time to spare from other work. It is better for team to work little every day than to remain idle in the stable.
 Mice and Rabbits.-To prevent their injuring the trees, keep all rubbish away from the trunks, and whenever snow falls tramp it down firmly around the tree. Fresh blood smeared upon the trunks will prevent damage by rabbits, and paper, tarred or otherwise, or cloth wrapped around the base of the trunk will keep off mice.
 Heeled-in Trees.-See that they have drains to take away the surface water if necessary, and be sure that the roots are properly covered.
 Fruit stored in cellars will need look ing after. Take advantage of the mar kets to sell fruit when the prices are good better sell at once than wait un- til spring and lose half the fruit, even if prices are somewhat lower now.
 Fences.-Look after fences and gates, and have all closed and strong enough to turn stray cattle. A stray animal will do more damage in a young orchard in an hour than can be repaired in years.
 Seeds of stone fruit should be buried in the open ground at once if it has not already been done. In the spring most of them will have sprouted and be ready to plant in furrows in the nursery.
 Dairy Cows i'm Winter and Summer.
 Chester Hagen gives in the Wiscon- sin State Agricultural Society Report the conclusions of his experience for twenty years in that State. He says:
 The care and food of dairy are of as much importance as the proper se- lection of the COW; for even good COWS, unless we'll fed and cared for, are poor property, yielding little or no profit. They should always have good, comfortable stables in winter, and be literally supplied with the best quality of hay, with light feed (from one to two quarts) of meal each day. With this treatment, if fed and watered regu- larly, they will pass the winter in good condition, be fat enough for beef in the spring, and will not have to lay on flesh for number of weeks before they come to full flow of milk.
 To secure the most satisfactory re- suits, good pastures should be provided; the tame grasses, timothy and clover, are the best. A daily mess of ground feed through the summer will be found profitable and some provision Sowing corn or some other ere p to cutup green) should be made for drought or short feed in the falls Pastures should have plenty of pure water in them, easily accessible at all times. Shade trees or some kind of shelter from the scorching heat of the sun are essential to the com fort, and consequently to the profitable ness of the COW. When the weather is warm and the flies are troublesome, they should have a pasture to run in nights. At this season of the year they will feed more in the night than during the day.
 Good, careful hands at the milk pail are very essential in the proper man. agement of the dairy. Each milker should have the same COWS assigned him to milk regularly night and morning, and the milking should be done, as nearly as possible, at the same hour each day.
 It is eminently true that the better the care taken of the COWS, and the bet ter they are fed, the greater will be the flow of milk. The special aim of every dairyman should be to get the greatest amount of milk from @ given number of COWS, for in this they will find their SACoVCoV P2OAos
 Pumpkins for Stock.
 The different opinions of farmers as to the value of pumpkins for milch COWS and other stock, is believed to be the result of different ways of feeding them by 8 correspondent of the Ger mantown Telegraph. In a hurry to clean @ field, farmers will give thei1 cattle surfelt of pumpkins for day ol two, then for day or two perhaps none, and thus alternate feasts and lasts, and conclude pumpkins are worthless. The writer gives regularly, as long as they last, once day, from one to three pumpkins per head, never more, and finds them greatly conducive to health of stock, besides greatly in. creasing the quantity and quality of the butter made.
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