The Osceola times., 1876-07-01
THE PLANTATION.

says: If you use purchased potash re-
duce 1t 30 you can bear your finger in il
half minute or more without tingling
sensation. Ii you can obtain good soft
soap from the refuse grease and lye OF
ashes saved up dry, then take it and re-
ducc it (the soap) down, not to suds, but
20 that it will not be ropy when used
by soft whitewash brush. Use it freely,
and it matters net materially just when,
but say at any time most convenient
until the middle of July but after that
time it is perhaps better to wait till the
next year before applying it.
FIGHr VERMIN.-A very important
duty Of the poultry breeder is to see
that his chickens are free from YER
min. Sprinkle sulphur continually
over the chickens, roosts and houses
the latter two occasionally washed
with kerosene. II you find the slightest
symptoms Of the presence of vermin, get
rid of them Immediately. Sometimes
careless breeders will lose whole settings
Of eggs simply by not occasionally sprink-
ling the hen and nests with sulphur, or
other good insect powder, 80 that the
poor hens unable TO stand the dreadful
pests, have forsaken their nests. A care
ful breeder will never allow the subject
Of lice among his poultry TO trouble him,
but will see that he has none of it,
So. Poultry Journal.
WHAT CROPS LEAVE IN THE SOIL
Experiments made in Germany, by DIR.
Weiske and other savants, show that
the stubble and roots in the earth, of
crops that have been harvested, add 10
the soil much more nutritive value
than is commonly supposed. These
experiments fully explain the great
value of clover rs preparatory crop for
wheat and for all other crops that are
not manured with nitrogen, potash and
phosphates.
The clover of single acre has been
found to leave nitrogen enough for one
hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat.
phosphoric acid enough for one hundred
and fourteen bushels, and potash enough
for seventy. eight bushels. Moreover, it
is found that most of this valuable
material Is left in the best possible con-
dition for use. Whether the nitrogen of
the clover comes wholly or partly from
the soil or from the air, il is certainly
AIKEN from condition in which it is of
little use to most crops, and is converted
into an available one, so that, practically,
the clover is creator Of nitrogen in the
soil, as it is also an efficient purveyor of
potash and phosphoric acid.
SWEET CoRN.-Mr. J. NJ. Hayner
of Lebanon, southern Ohio, raises
over five hundred acres of sweet
corn annually, and disposes of his
immense crop by first drying and pack
ing it in barrels. The process is very
simple. The fresh ears are steamed for
five minutes TO "set the milk, the grain
is then rapidly removed from the cob
with cutters having concave faces. 1t is
then spread on perforated zinc tables,
and heat applied for four or five hours
from long furnaces, the grain being con-
stantly stirred during the process of
drying. II 10 then packed in barrels of
three bushels each s.for shipment.
Great care is required to have the corn
just at the right age, and have it dried
just enough to keep well. Four bushels
OF fresh csrn on the cob make one
bushel dried, the wholesale price OF
which is twenty dollars to twenty-five
dollars per barrel. The drying -hous,
employs fifty persons. At fifty bushcl,
OF this corn to the acre, 800 acres would
yield $4,000 bushels, which when drict
make $3.50 bushels, or 2,0S3 barrels
which at twenty dollars per bushe
amounts to the handsome sum of forty
one thousand six hundred and sixt,
dollars. l"
On THE CULTURE OF PUMPKINS. -
w. II. White, the well known agricul
turist, still holds on TO the good oil,
practice of raising pumpkins for stock
and he writes to an agricultural paper
giving his experience, as follows:
| remember how, in my younger davs
agood supply Of nice yellow pumpkin
was produced by every farmer, furnish
ing vegetable which found place il
domestic cookery as well as goodl,
supply for milch cows, fattening cattle
hogs and other stock. Why the produc
is less priced at the present time iif it i
less prined) ! am unable to say; onl,
know the fact that pumpkins are les
cultivated then formely in large sections
Probably the more general introduction
OF the squash as substitute in donfesti,
and family use is the principal cause O
lessened culture of the pumpkin. Tn,
squash being 20 much preferred for .
table dish, lessons the desirability of the
pumpkin for similar purposes. Still the
latter is the more sure and easily grown
crop, when treated similarly. Pumpkins
were always planted among corn, and a.
arule there was an equally good crop OF
each, as if grown alone, and / find that
similar results may be had now with
good culture. Perhaps our corn can not
be planted as close in the row where
pumpkins are planted among as where
alone, but the quality Of the grain and
fodder is superior to the close planted.
and the yield in bushels, per acre. is
nearly or quite as great; and then we
nave several tons of pumpkins. which
are excellent food for any kind of farm
stock, and the following year no differ.
ance will be perceived in lessened pro-
ton.
perfer To put in the pumpkin seed by
sticking them after the corn is planted
and begins to come up, then | can dis
tribute the punkins as choose over the
he'd. A gcod way is to stick the seed
IN every other row, and every third hill
IN the row, or more space can he given il
desired: This mode of culture infer,
that dwarfsh, or rather low growing
'arlety OF corn is cultivated, such AS is
rown in our New England towns.
As an exclusive crop, the writer has
grown and seen cultivated, small patches
OF half to several acres, with quite uni
form success. and there IL little douh,