The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-09-14
FARM AND FIREsIDE.

cultural editor says: When the farmer L
has ascertained the kind of plant-food 5
needed for the intended crop and re- q
quired by the soil, he is then prepared 1
to apply his fertilizers with intelligence
and effect; and so far as it depends upon
the mere presence of enriching material
in the earth he will easily be able to
bring his land up to any capacity of
yield he may choose, being only limited
by the expense.
He will discover, however, that the
mere presence of m is not all that
is required, ever though it contains the
precise ingredients that are lacking in
the soil. The condition in which it is
applied has no small influence on the
effect it is capable of producing. If any
of the fertilizers are in a hard, concrete
undivided mass they must be pulverized.
If, in fact, they are not already in a
state of minute subdivision, they must
be brought to that condition before ap-
plying them. Some of the saline fer
t~ilizers are procured in a state of powder,
others in hard Jumps that need to be
crushed or dissolved.
But tie manure requiring most atten-
ton in this respect is that of the farm
yard. 1t is not a little remarkable that
in the very case where the process of re-
duction and disintegration is most of all
needed it seems to be most neglected.
The contents of the stalls and of the
compost heap, which from the variety of
materials they comprise need to be elab-
orately worked Cver and subdivided in
order to be thoroughly intermingled, are
yet frequently carted upon the land in
, rude Jumps and unbroken masses that
strangely contrast with the fine roots
and fbers through the pores of which
they have yet to enter before they can
nourish the growing plant. Few farmers
comprehend the Importance of attend
ing to this item in the preparation of
their fertilizers. Plants feed mainly at
the extremities of the rootlets, through
mouths too small to be seen by the
naked eye. The finer the manure is
made, the more easily it is dissolved in
water, and the sooner it passes into the
circulation.
The cultivator who intends to secure
a maximum crop, or even a tolerably
paying yield, will find it necessary to
attend to his fertilizers, whatever may
be the. kinds employed, and to reduce
them to a suitable degree of ineness
before applying them to his soil.
MILKING MACHMEs.-A writer to
; the North British Agricuturist says:
Allow me to state that 1 tried what l
believe to be the ordinary milking ma.
a chine, in a dairy of ffty-ive COWS about
nine years ago. 1 first ordered one, and
was SO well pleased with its apparent
efficiency that l at once ordered a few
e more, and the greater part of the milk
ing was done for about a week witt
- them, when 1 found that the yield o
It milk and weight of curd had been grad
lie ually decreasing the time they were il
D. use, so 1 at once put them aside and re
Il sumed hand-milking, when the yielC
lie soon increased to what it formerly was
This has been my experience of milkin
machines, and I consider their failur
a mainly caused by the total absence Q
is any mechanical action on the teats O
ne milk vessel, and not to the smallness c
to the tubes, as supposed by MI. Little
at john-a very simple defect which, if
existed, could easily be remedied. Th
young of all mammalia when sucking
e by butting with their nose and pulling
dc bring a considerable amount of mecha1
e. ical force to bear upon the teats an
* vessel. For instance, who has not oil
m. served a young pig when it could fin
ks nothing in the teat butt and rub wit
its little nose all around it till it got i
reward? In these days of dear labo
a when the most Indifferent class of dair,
maids car scarcely be got either for 10y
or money, the Highland Agriculture
To Society would be doing a duty TIL
Ia, would be highly appreciated by all dali
Ky farmers were they to offer a handson
lal premium to the inventor of thorough.
efficient milking machine.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES IN GE
zee MANY. Prussia contains four high
agricultural academies, with about eigh-
ish w~ell-paid professorships; forty-one less
'et colleges, all connected with model farm
led five special schools for cultivation
meadows, and for scientific study of ir
CATION; one special school for the
at clamation of swamp lands; two speci
ion schools for industrial agricultural O
md school for horse-shoeing; one school ca
for silk raising, bee, and piscicultur
of twenty agriculturalstation Qaborateris
re- for experiments and for garden cultur
ne three higher colleges and twelve 81
the ondary schools, in which the ~cultivati
of grapevine is made a speciality.
M All these schools are connected wi
foL- model farms, for the practical educati
of students. That of the Academy
let Proskau contains no less than "a
of acres of farming land, and IA, 200 &C
of forests. Bavaria, a country of 500
900 people, has twenty-six agricultu.
ny, colleges, 269 associations for the advan
rof ment of agricultural scientific kno1
fer edge, and the celebrated polytechl
:ca- school at Munich contains a separ;
in branch for higher agricultural instr
its ton. The small kingdom of Wurte
sat berg-pOpulation LOO, OOO-has sixte
colleges, among them the school
as Hohenheim, of European fame, a
are are seventy-nine educational association
Hesse-D armstadt, whose population
ury not quite $50, 900, contains nine agric
een tural colleges among them that of
ad- University of Giessen. Oldenber
ally population 20,0OO--has three colleg
sim. Saxe-Weimar, with 100000 inhabitar
ond SuppnrtS 6Yaan nrofaSSorCbipc in