The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-02-24
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

A SHEEP and half to the dog is the
Kansas average-that is, LOG, 900 sheep
to rs, 900 dogs. HT
CofMIssIoNER JAMES, of Georgia,
finds that the sheep of that State have
diminished from 5l2,6l8 in 1870 to 319,.
82s in 1874, and attributes the decrease
to the circumstance that there are thirty.
one dogs to every one hundred sheep in
Georgia. The dogs last year killed %, ,625
sheep.
THE correspondent of Philadelphia
paper says the scald and rot are annually
reducing the cranberry crop in New
Jersey and that in 1878 it amounted to
125,000 bushels, which was diminished
to 10000 bushels in 1874, and about
10000 in 1875. Many remedies have
been tried, as lime, salt, sand, etc, but
all have failed.
BUSHES and trees cut early in the
spring, before growth commences, throw
up vigorous shoots; cut after their buds
swell, their vigor is much lessened, and
becomes less and less till the period of
cessation in gr.wth approaches, and that
is the best time to cut them-that is,
while still in growth, but as the terminal
buds are nearly ready to form. After
this, as autumn approaches, they are less
and less affected by cutting.
The reports from the agricultural dis
tricts are not at all encouraging. 1t
seems that the mild weather has pushed
the winter wheat forward to an inor-
dinate degree, and farmers in Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and in other States, thought
it advisable either to plow their fields
over again, or to let the cattle in to feed
on the sprouting blades. The result is
that, with prospect of short crop next
summer, holders Ofwheat in store through
out the country are raising the price.
A WRITER in the Indiana Farmer says
that strong, fresh manure is not usually
so good for fruit trees as gAOd clean cul-
tivatiOn without it; and that peaches
and apples grown with manure are less
sound, and have poorer flavor. When the
same degree of vigor can be impaired
to the trees with cultivation alone, the
fruit is better for it. This statement re-
minds us of the remark made many years
ago by w. A. Underhili (brother Of DIR.
Underhiill, of Croton Point, widely
known to grape growers), that in his
own vineyard he used no manure, but
cultivated once week till the grape
had formed and that these grapes were
better ripened and sweeter than those i'm
the Doctors vineyard, where manure
was used, and less cultivation given.
WE see it stated by New Hampshire
paper that the speediest way to cure the
epizootic and make horse thoroughly
happy s to give him onions. In proof
whereof the case of Portsmouth horse
is cited, which had very severe attack
of the disease, and his owner placed half
dozen onions in the crib with his regu-
lar food. The horse tackled three of the
onions Immediately, and by the time he
had swallowed them he began to cough
and sneeze and prance about, appearing
quite indignant, and refusing to touch
the remaining onions. For full five
minutes he wept at the nose, and then
he was cured horse. He has not had a
cough, sneeze, nor any symptom of the
epidemic since, but he did have the
courage to eat the onions remaining in
the crib the next day after the cure.
AS a general rule, the best market for
corn is undoubtedly in the stall and the
pig-sty. Yet there are exceptional cases
when grain may be sold with advantage.
But when it is best to sell it and when
to feed it on the farm, depends on the
price of the grain, the price of meat, but
ter, cheese or wool, the value of the
manure on each particular farm, and on
what it would cost to buy the manure.
In the case of pigs, seven bushels of corn,
properly fed, will give on an average
one hundred pounds of increase in live
weight. The manure from this corn is
worth twenty cents for each of the seven
bushels. When. therefore, ordinary
pigs are worth seven cents pound or
more, live weight, it is clearly better,
even at this price for the pork, to feed
our corn to pigs, than to sell it at seventy
cents per bushel. There are cases when
we can feed grain to cattle and sheep
with more profit than to swine when the
price of pork is low. And yet it is true
that neither cattle nor sheep will gain
as fast in proportion to the food consumed
as well-bred pig.