Connecticut western news., 1873-09-05
Farm, Garden and Household.
Notes of the Farm.


 A California local asserts that he "took home and ate turnip measuring two feet four inches in circumference, and weighing over nine pounds"
 There is. absolutely nothing in the schedule of premiums of the New York State Agritultural Society te encourage the jockeys, but prizes are offered for fast walking horses-an idea and an ac- tion altogether worthy of encourage ment. ...
 Most sensible is the Broome County Farmers Club, which meets once a month during the summer in different groves, where they have picnics or CO., operative dinners, when the men talk agriculture, and the ladies sing songs and read essays.
 A California correspondent asserts that squirrels are draining the resources of the farmers of that State more than all the "sack rings," "middlemen," railroad monopolies," and tax-gather- CTS combined, and that they will soon be wholly bankrupt unless the nuisance is abated. .e. ...
 A society of cooperative farmers of Union Lake Valley, Kansas, organized to purchase goods cheap and to protect themselves against monopolists, and they meet once in two weeks. They have experimental grounds where they have an acre of wheat, two acres of corn, and the like, the seed of which came from the Agricultural Department.
 The saving in cutting hay, straw, and of the consumption of both hay and hn ica oAo and is more perfectly digested, and it is the food that is digested, and not alone that which is eaten, which counts as nutriment. Cattle should be fed three times Q day. Little and often is much better than semi-occasional gorges.
 John P. Reynolds hopes "that beet sugar will some day be made in Illinois at cost of SIX cents or less per pound" but he asserts that it has not, as yet, been made there for less than twenty times that cost. He adds that he hap pens to own several thousand dollars of paid-up stock in the only organiza- tlon or enterprise or experiment which, up to this time, has practically demon strated anything on the subject of he will be glad to exchange the same for any yearling calf or colt, or Berk- shire pig.
 The present season has been doubt less prolific in failures of clover seed ! 1ngs, as almost all dry seasons are. To remedy the evil it would be we'll to | harrow the stubble and SOW the seed immediately, and then roll or brush the field with heavy brush harrow or Q | drag composed of half dozen heavy blanks fastened together with hooks or staples at distance of six inches apart. | Such an implement hauled across field l (edgewise, not lengthwise) will level l ana compact the surface and cover the | seed; A moderate dressing of active | fertilizer, or 150 pounds of plaster per acre, would help considerably.
 The question of deep blowing comes mp once Tn while, in England, by the | statement being made that all the fer | tllity of the soil lies within four or five | inches of the surface, and that to blow deeper will bring up the "cold stuff" :" | It does seem, however, that on cold | clay soils farmer is likely to be ruined | by blowing deep, but not by subsoiling, and It IS important to consider this diff ference. By deep blowing unfertile and dormant clay may be brought to the surface, but by subsoiling the roots of plants can descend deeper, and in year or so the cold clay becomes fertile, when deeper blowing can be done with great advantage.
 Bran and shorts are not sufficient food with which to fatten hogs. Indeed, the constant use of these articles in slops (and of other similar ones) is @ prolific cause of hog cholera which is directly traceable either to food deficient in some needed element, or indigestibility. but bran and shorts, scalded or cooked, with an occasional feed of grain. as barley, oats, or corn, and of roots, either potatoes or turnips, will keep hogs in health and fatten them rapidly. Occasional small doses of salt, sulphur, copperas, and charcoal, will very much aid in maintaining health. Pure water ln abundance to drink is absolutely needed even when fed upon slop food.
 Sheep Eating their Wool.
 Instances of sheep eating their own wool are quite common, especially du- ring the latter part of the winter and early in the spridg. Some have thought the habit resulted from the presence of small parasites, as minute as the red spider of some towering plants, which produce an irritation, and to aliay this the sheep acquired the habit of biting their own skin, and thereby eating it's own wool. It IS generally believed, however, that the habit is analogous to that of hens eating their own shells, and of the abnormal appetite of COWS for old bones, woolen rags, &c., and is caused by an exhaustion of the phos- phate in the soil. Old pastures and fields that have long been cropped are deficient in these clements, hence the absence of them in the feed, and conse- quent want of them by the animals. As a preventive, mix a small quantity. of bone meal with corn meal, and give them an occasional feed. Sulphur also has been found to be preventive of the habit, and many farmers keep their stock constantly supplied with it. It no doubt assists in giving healthy tone to the system. m.-Mai,ae Farnaer.