The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-02-17
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Fnrm Hints md Helpn.

BiouO Liz l66u Will nave TeD-
dered them very liable to in6ammatory
diseases. Garget, milk fever, abortion,
and such troub .es, affect well fed COWS
more than others. The blood needs
cooling by laxative food. One quart of
oil cake meal, mixed with bran scalded,
and given as o drink once day, will be
useful. No corn should be given for
several weeks before calving. Bran or
middlings will be more cooling and
healthful, but if good hay is given, very
little grain of any kind will be needed.
Caution now will prevent trouble here
after. When the calf is expected, the
COW should be turned into loose stall,
OF into quiet stable alone.
II cuts are found upon sharp shod
horses, about The feet or pasterns, wash
the wounds with warm soap and water,
and then apply pinch of salt, or lit
tie compound tincture of benzoin, which
will cause them to heal rapidly. Neglect
OF this precaution may cause quittor or
some other trouble, which will break out
by-and bye, when the horse is needed
for spring work. Sharp shod horses
should not be permitted to play together
or with other animals. A kick from a
playful horse may cause serious damage.
Colts and yearlings should be tied in
their stalls and taught proper discipline.
They should be handled gently, and fed
well aud regularly. Give young stock
of all kinds the best of food.
When rough, shreddy wool appears in
the fieoces, or the wool drops off in
locks, the sheep are net healthy, or the
food has been too dry and heating. Stop
the corn meal, and give some linseed OIL
cake meal few potatoes will be useful
if roots are not to be had. Give salt
frequently and freely. Keep nursing
ewes by themselves, and give scalded
bran or oat meal daily. Sugar beets, or
potatoes, sliced and sprinkled with n
quart of middlings or bran, for each
eve, will produce abundant and rich
milk. Keep lambs where they will have
plenty of sunshine. Pick off ticks by
hand; this may be done very rapidly by
using pair of small, sharp pointed scis-
sors; part the wool, and when tick is
found clip it in two.
Sows may now be turned to the boar
for pigs i'll June. Sows expected to pig
soon should have warm pens, with cut
straw or chaff for bedding. Rails fixed
around the bottom of the pens, six in
ches above the floor, and the same from
the wall, will prevent the young pigs
from being crushed. In the South pigs
need no more shelter than rough roof
i'll wood lot. There is no better place
for pigs than small piece OF woods well
fenced, where they may run and make
their own beds of leaves or earth.
Straw beds, and especially bed of ma
nure, will cause irritation of the skin, ii
not skin diseases, aud encourage para
sites.-Ageicultrist.
The Ice House.
A neighbor came to us few years
since, late in the autumn, and said his
wife and children wanted him to build
an ice house, aud he should like to
gratify them, but didn't like the idea of
pecking through frozen ground in order
to do it, and wauted to know if he
couldn't store away enough ice in his
barn or shed and protect it so that it
would last for one season, and then he
would dig out a regular ice house. We
told him that we had kept ice for our
selves and neighbors for years in the
hay of an old barn, and desired no bet
ter place for keeping it. He went home
aud partitioned an old shed into an ice
house, which answered the purpose SO
we'll that the Irregular" ice house was
never built. If no barn or shed room
can be spared for the storage of ice,
then cheap structure can be built on
the surface of the ground, tie size to
correspond with the size of the family,
twelve feet square and eight feet high
being ample for family of ten or a
dozen, as it will contain thousand
lbic feet of ice or thirty tons. If nc
regard is had to the looks of the struc
ture, it may as well be covered with
rough hemlock boards as with shingles
for all that is required of the roof is tc
keep out the sunshine aud rain. The
more circulation of air above the ice the
better it will keep. Neither is there any
necessity for double boarding the sides
Plank are better than boards for the sid
ing, and when plank are used, posts and
studs are superauous. Fooring, o
course, is unnecessary, as sawdust is thu
best possible flooring, and should be
strewed over the surface of the grount
to the depth of five or six inches as {
nonconductor of the heat of the earth
If the ice house is built near the dwell
ing house, good taste demands that i
should be shingled and also sided will
planed stuff so that it may be painted
uOb Dc u W li'
premises, but we prefer to store ic
somewhere near the barnyard, so that i
may be washed in the watering trough
of the cattle before being taken to tn
house for use.
Water for Cows.
DR.. Crafts, of Bnghamton, N. Y.
said to the Vermont dairymen's asso
citation that COWS prefer warm water T.
cold, and therefore often pass by
stream of pure water and drink in pool
Of surface water. Mr.. Hawley referre'
to the ability of cows to sift out ba'
matter from their food, SO that the sam
food affects the milk of different COW
differently, but there is no safety il
feeding bad food or water. Rotten po
tatoes are bad for COWS, the putrefactiv
germs in them often remaining undevel
oped until they come in contact with tn
air in the milk. DR.. Crafts said that waite
which is covered with green slime, fro
spittle, is not stagnant, and that, as
general rule, it was safe to drink waite