The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-04-05
FARM AND GARDEN.

feed 100 head of cattle on grass in sum-
mer, 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 engine is fve-horse, boiler some
thing more, with engine attached to its
side. And this threshes our grain, cuts
and steams the fodder, pumps the water,
saws the wood, and does 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 IS cents per hun
dred, evenly mixed, moistened with wa
ter, packed down solid, and we'll 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
stalks 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 expe-
rience, that there is a saving to us of
fully one-third in the cost of wintering
our animals. In feeding hogs we find
that two bushels of corn ground and
cooked is little better than four bush
els of shelled corn. We have proved
this by the best test we can give it.
We have no hesitation in saying that
our confidence in the economy of this
mode of feeding strengthens with each
years experience, and we believe it
is destined to be practiced much more
extensively in the future Lire Stock
Journal.
Mr.. MECH ON POULTRY. John
Mechi says, in the Gardeners Monthly:
Poultry is evidently dear food for the
consumer; but does it cost more food
to produce pound of poultry than a
pound of meat, live weight answer
decidedly not, but the reverse. For my
cattle and sheep don't eat worms and
insects, whereas fowls consume them
abundantly, and economic and apply
every scattered seed or kernel that would
otherwise be wasted. In another point
of view, is the cost of attendance and
shelter greater with poultry than with
cattles l reply not. AS to the pro-
duction of eggs, that depends upon the
quality of food administered, and the
accompaniment of proper warmth and
shelter. There is no fear of over stock
ing the market with either eggs or poul-
try; we consume daily 100000 of
foreign eggs! l generally keep from
300 to 400 fowls. They have free ac-
cess to every field during the whole of
the year. and although they help them
selves at harvest time when the corn is
in sheaf, l always get my best crop of
corn on fields adjoining the hen-house.
have this year two fields of wheat
drilled and only one bushel of seed per
acre. They come to within ten to
twenty yards of the fowl-house, and are
perfect plant, although the poultry
have been scratching and cultivating
the fields ever since they were drilled.
We are apt to forget that fowls, like
sheep, manure where they go. 1 must
say, used at one time to feel nervous
and angry when | saw them hard at
work on the newly-sown corn, but 1
soon learned to feel confident that in
sects were their principal game, and
that my well and deeply-d deposited corn
escaped
CULTURE OF CRANBERRIEs.-Whe
do all the cranberries come from, is a
question often asked; and, on investi-
cation, we are fairly astonished to wit
ness the rise and remarkable amount of
business transacted in this small fruit.
To those having low lands, useless for
any other purpose, the cranberry, once
planted, often yields the possessor
greater profit than any similar area of
other crops on the same farm.
The consumption of this fruit is ex-
tending rapidly into all parts of the
world; is becoming more and more a
household necessity. No tea-table is
now considered completed without it,
and on ship voyages it is of indispensa-
BILE utility. New Jersey raises the
largest bulk of cranberries in this coun-
try, employing about six thousand acres
for the purpose, the value of the crop
raised on which, last year, was $780,
900. The whole cranberry crop of the
country is estimated at about 81 $780,
900. Massachusetts, raises not less
than ten thousand barrels year. With
in the past five years Wisconsin has
made rapid progress in the culture of
the cranberry, and the crop in that
State this season is estimated at $780,
900. The average price per barrel of
this fruit is $40, Cape Cod cranberries
commanding the highest price. The
fruit raised on the Cape is the best of
its kind in the world. 1t is exported
largely to England, and finds its way to
the queens dinner-table
Do HORSES REASON For the last
two years l have driven my mare nearly
every day over the same road. About