The Grange advance., 1873-11-12
Farm Topics for November.

Farm Topics for November.
The interest Of farm during the month
of November concentrates in and around
the barn. The proper way of looking at
farming is to consider it chemical process
lasting through twelve months and repeat
ed every year. As soon as the growing
season terminates and the last Of the pro-
ducts have come in from the field. the con-
verting process commences. In June and
July the grass was cut: in July and part
Of August the grain was harvested and
threshed; during the past month potatoes
were put in the cellar, and the only crops
left in the field this month, and they must
not remain there long. are corn, roots,
swedes, mangolds, and in mild climates, late
cabbages. The harvesting of these last
products is the bringing up Of the rear
guard. During the growing season. the
whole energy Of the farmer is turned to-
ward creating and experimenting plant
growth. Now, 4he problem is to take
these products of the farm and using the
barns, yards, and stalls, to convert Ill that
is strictly food into flesh, and all that is
straw into manure; to derive from his
winter food, his barn and cellar stores, all
the milk, flesh and muscle for labor they
be made to supply.
Every good farmer, as he grows old in
the business, has his barns and >pt-houses
more and more convenient. The history of
most Of our barns is that-a p1angei was put
in here, leanto erected On that side, a
spout was rugged to exten& from the hay
cutter to the managers. and that after many
years. endeavor to make an old and badly
planned barn convenient, the thrifty farm
er abandons the ungrateful enterprise,
turns the old barn into cart-house or a
sheep-pen, and builds anew. No farmer is
= good one that does not use the hammer
and saw good deal in the month of No.
vember, unless, and these cases are very
few, he has barn that suits him exactly.
This is the month when farmers are con-
sidering the question ho,v much longer 1t is
best to feed their hogs. The thriftiest men
in this line, especially those east Of the
mountains. find it to their interest to
butcher the last of November When the
excrements of fattening hog freeze in one
corner Of his sty, and the snow and ice
must be shoveled out of his trough before
he is fed, nine times in ten he has stopped
gaining. The increasing cold stimulates
his appetite for concentrated food that is
to say, for corn, and he eats more Of it
than is we'll for him.. If he is excessively
fat and heavy he can take little or no exer-
else, and all that he does after cold wealth
er sets is to burn part of the corn as fuel
to keep him from freezing, and convert the
remainder into inside fat. In short, your
ham, and shoulder, and spare rib, is made
during summer and the early part of the
fall. and the lard is all that is gained by
feeding after the 10th Of November. This
refers, of course, to q climate where No.
vember brings ice from half an inch to an
inch thick, and sometimes snow.
If the work on a place is sd pit (hed that
span or two of far N horsesStand in the
stable most of the time froh N9>vmber to
April, their diet should have fpacikl atten-
ton. If they were grained q Though the
summer, their constitutions more or
less stimulated and fevered; and if the
farmer wants many years of service from
them, their winter dietshould be moist and
relaxing. Nothing is better for farm
horse than to give him half peck of car
rots every morning, unless he has had
hard work before him; swedes and man
colds are about as good, though not so
much relished. +
In the poultry -housethree rules will give
eggs all winter-a warmth that does not
permit their water to freeze; plenty of
lime, gravel, clay, and diet out of which
they can make eggs easily in January as
they do in June. They should have some
cabbage leaves for salad, oats and rejected
wheat, rather than corn, and some meat,
every day. The best absorbant to throw
under their roosts is dry garden dirt, and
there should be bushel Of it sprinkled
over the manure pile they are making as
often as once q week. 4
Before the snow falls t. lie farmer
should give up day to q careful collection
of all the materials heis likely to need in
farm carpentry. It isannoying and dis
oouragins when man goes into shop to