Connecticut western news., 1874-09-25
Farm, Garden and Household.
Walks and Talks on the Farm.

Walks and Talks on the Farm. A D1FFERENcE.-Ac choice well-bred and well-fed steer, weighing 1,500 tbs., is worth $1OO in Chicago. The freight on him to New York is $8.25. A com mon, inferior steer, weighing 75O fbs., is worth in Chicago $2O, and the freight on him to New York is $4.12. The freight on two thousand dollars worth of the good steers is $175; and on two thousand dollars worth of the inferior animals, $412.5O. Let us make the railroads do the fair thing, if we can, but in the meantime, let us not neglect to improve our herds of cattle, sheep and hogs. f'}s
 SEEDING DowN.-I have always said that winter wheat was our best crop to seed down with. This believe is also the general opinion of our farmers. But this year have wheat on one-half of field, and barley on the other half. I seeded the whole field this spring with clover, sowing a peck per acre. The young clover on the wheat is only fair, while on the barley it is superb. "Yes," said the Deacon, "I never saw handsomer field of barley, or hand somer patch. of clover" It is worth something to get such confession from the Deacon. l have not thrashed yet, but expect forty or fifty bushels of barley per acre.
 MANURMa.-Last year manured the east side of my wheat field. The ma- nure was rich and well routed. We put on only slight dressing, but the effect was very decided. When we were cut ting the wheat, one of the men who were binding after the machine, and who did not know that only part of the field was manured, remarked: elf it was all as heavy as it is on the east side, we should have something to do. The straw is perhaps no longer, but the heads are larger, and every one of them is full of grain" think the thrashing machine will show this to be true. I have frequently heard farmers say, when discussing the question as to why we cannot raise as good wheat now as formerly, " it is not because our land is poor. We can grow straw enough, but the grain is not there.' So far as my observation goes, we seldom get too much straw. But whether this is true or not, feel sure that little rich manure is precisely what many of our wheat fields need, to enable them to yield good crop of grain.
 THE SrAoK.-As men usually build a stack, they walk around the outside more than in the center, while the cen- ter ought to be kept full and trodden solid, so that, as the stack settles, the inside or roof shall not settle as much to lessen the labor, you should, in building the outside layers of the stack, take pains to get the largest forkfuls ot straw, and not waste your strength in placing a thin layer of straw around the outside of the stack. It is like carry ing water in 8 two-quart pail. You move 150 pounds uf your own weight to move 4 pounds of water. Every year before commencing to thrash, the ques- tion arises, "How long and how wide shall we make the stack bottom p This year we made it 36 feet long, and 20 feet wide. The machine stands about feet higher than the bottom ot the stack. After we had thrashed 4O2 bushels of wheat, the stack was 24 feet high, with an average width of 25 feet, and an average length of 38 feet. The stack, therefore, contains p, 800 cubic feet. And if we calculate that each bushel of wheat gives 100 pounds ot straw, there is 20 tons of straw in the stack. This is not far from my old rule of calculating, that each ton of straw requires about l, 1000 cubic feet of space. "But you won't leave your stack with out topping it off," remarks the Dea- con. No, l have got about tons more straw to put on top. And it has got to go up there whether 1t will or not. By Monday morning the stack will have settled at least four feet, and propose to carry the walls up four feet higher hey &hnr1 L good steep roof, it will hold it all, and we shall have 28 tons of straw in g stack, the bottom of which is 38 feet long, and 20 feet wide. It is of course much labor to top off high stack, but there is great advantage in getting as much straw as possible under one roof,
 Why Farmers Keen Poor.
 correspondent says "After long observation I have come to the cenclu. sion Shat great majority of the farm CTS who are poor might have made money. If you inquire into their busi. ness habits, you will find that they al ways sold the best and kept the poor est. For instance, if they have too many sheep on hand, they pick out the best to be sold If you ask them why they do so they will say,-
 Because they bring twice as mucI as the others, and am hard up just now, for money. know that it is not good plan, and do not intend to fel low it always,
 "I think the habit of selling the bes, very poor plan for any man, don't care what his circumstances may be, ] have man in my mind now, who al ways sells his poorest sheep for more than twice as much as the average farmer gets for his best. have seer farmers in the fall pick out their bes pigs to fatten, because they would mak. few more pounds of pork than tn, others. This call poor economy Probably no ten of the best would mak, one hundred pounds of pork more thar would have been made had they takel ten of the poorer. By making this on, hundred pounds of pork extra the, think that much is gained. They ar, very much mistaken. By reversin, their rule they might make ten time &hof