The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-06-10
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.


GATHERING GLOVER SEED.-A cores |
pondent of the Farmers Journal gives the
/ saw an article in your paper
asking information as to the best way of
saving clover seed. have been expert
menting with this for the last six years
first with shippers, made for this pur-
pose, which / found, after several years
use, did not gather the seed clean enough.
/ then tried mower, but found l could
not get the clover up clean with rake,
as the second crop, which is the one
bearing the seed, is generally very short.
My next experiment was with self.
raking reaper, which proved quite
success, as it threw the clover off in
punches. Do not let the clover get too
ripe before cutting for seed, else a great
deal will be wasted. Cut when the heads
are handsomely brown, and the stalk
dead, Us there will then be scarcely any
waste, and the seed just as plump as if
cut later. When thoroughly dry, you
can cut Immediately, but if you fail to
do this, put away where it will keep
dry, as camp clover is very difficult to
hull, and at the same time impossible to
get all the bolls off the stock. In order
to secure a good crop of seed, the first
crop of clover ought to be cut by the
middle of June.
FALSE ECoNoMY.-We do not believe
that any of our readers are guilty OF the
following practices, but will enumerate
few that "Farmer's Wife," in the
New York Tribune complains of:
Stop putting lard in your butter; il
we must eat hogs fat, pray give it to us
pure, and not mixed with rapid butter.
Girls, stop dipping your fingers in the
bucket of milk ana wetting the cows
teats; of all dirty habits this is the
worst.
Wives, stop settirg the cream,jar in
the family living-room to make the cream
sour.
Husbands, stop hanging your socks on
that same cream jar to dry over night.
Women: stop putting your butter in
the back bedroom to stay till you are
ready to 60 to market.
Ladies, stop holding your noses when
you 90 into your cellar to attend to your
milk. Might as we'll smell the rat and
mould as to eat 1T daily in your butter
and cream.
Women, stop telling fibs when you
take your butter to the store. Did any
body ever know a woman to sell butter
of over week old? Stop coloring your
butter with annattO, and then asking
folks if they can't taste the blue grass
in it.
SPARE THE CRow.-Talking of crows,
a Bellair stage driver says the country
people are poisoning them with strych
nine, according to time-honored reli-
gious custom at this season of the year.
The fatal dose is administered by being
saturated in corn, which is scattered
around freely. Some of the crows die
on the spot, others fly away and somer-
sault in the sky, and others 90 blind
and die of starvation and the stomach
ache. An instance is cited of ore worthy
but wicked countryman gathering up
twelve hundred crows he poisoned, TAX
ing their scalps and reaping his reward
from the county authorities, six and a
half cents apiece-seventy-five dollars.
Crows, no doubt, perform a better part
for farmers than they are given credit
for. Nature furnishes scavenger birds
and animals adapted to the wants of
every climate. In South America the
condors perform this part, aided by the
buzzards, which latter birds are also an
important feature in preserving the SAN
itary equilibrium in the southern pOr-
tions of the United States. In Charles
ton, South Carolina, the buzzards are
protected by wise laws, which impose a
fine of five collars for every one slain.
l.. -, -, IN, Nha ri hot
they sit on the roofs of the market
houses on the watch to grab up every
bit of offal that is thrown out from the
butchers stalls. In the summer time,
the birds, being very numerous, do a
large part of the city's scavenger work.
In the same way crows, no doubt, are
beneficial to the country in this latitude,
as their name of "carrion crows" would
indicate, besides making themselves gen.
erallv useful in roofing out the grubs
that hatch insects and destroy the labors
of the farmer. No doubt if the crows
were properly encouraged to do 30, they
would be useful in destroying the potato
bug, lately so destructive in all parts of
this country. Who knows until we have
tried them.-BaltimOre Sun.
How TO Buy PROFITABLE PIGs.-A
man who was noted for always having
pigs which fattened easily, gave the fol-
lowing as the secret of his success:
always choose good-natured pigs. Those
that, when they eat, are constantly run
ming from one trough to another, and
knocking their shouts against the next
pig, l sell to my neighbors, who dent
know better than to buy such trouble
some animals, while my contented pigs
get fat" This is only putting into use
full practice the old proverb: Laugh
and grow fat"
GRANGE SwEETMEATS. - Soak the
oranges in salt and water over night |;
next morning wash them in fresh water,
and then put into preserving kettle and
boil them until broom-corn will pierce
them. Take them from the water and
crush them to paste with pestle in a
deep dish, removing all the seeds. Add
to this paste its equal weight of loaf
sugar. Then boil the whole until it is
just ready to candy. Pour it on to
plates, and dry it in cool oven; then
cut into squares. The best way to OBJ
tain their weight is to weigh the oranges
before cooking them, and subtract two
ounces from each pound to make up for
the shrinkage in cooking.
Usefnl Information.
The appearance of tortoise shell may
be given to horn by brushing it over
with paste made of two parts of lime,
one part litharge, and a little soap lye,
Al