The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1878-05-04
Farm Notes.

of two parts of common squills
and three parts of finely chopped
bacon is made into stiff mass,
with as much meal as may be re-
quired, and then baked into small
cakes, which are put down for the
rats to eat. Several correspond
ents of the German Agricultural
Gazette write to announce the
complete extirpation of rats and
mice from their COW stalls and
piggeries since the adoption OF this
simple plan.
Four or FIVE hundred feet of
portable fence, upon every farm
would work wonders in q single
year. 1t is so very convenient it
is surprising that our farmers are
so slow in discovering its merits.
The cost is not considerable and 1T
can be made at leisure hours or
during rainy days, when the soil
is too wet to be worked. Anybody
who can use hand saw and ham
ruer can make it, and, once made,
it will last for several years, even
if inferior material is employed IN
its construction. Stationary fences
need be made only upon road sides
and possibly upon the boundary
lines of the plantation.
Strawberries. - Some of our
readers will be asking themselves
''Shall 1 plant strawberries now or
wait until summer or fall ?" We
say plant now. This will insure a
full crop for next year. 1t it be
deferred until late in the season, a
partial crop will result next year.
Select your plants, which may be
known by their 6brous, whitish
roots, while those of old plants are
longer, darker and more stringy.
For home use, use manure with
out stint, almost any kind. Ashes
and bone dust are excellent; but
barnyard manure will suffice. The
rows should be two feet apart and
the plants some fifteen or eighteen
inches apart in the row. Upon a
number of plants We last year tried
the effect Of a combination OF al
the manures at hand, but we also
applied liquid manure bonntifully.
The result was surprising growth
of leaves such as we have never
before seen in the strawberry, and
very large berries, but fewer than
those borne by other plants not SO
treated. New Yorker.
Says the Country Gentleman
In sowing either vegetables or
flower seeds, there aIe some lead
ing requisites which must not be
overlooked. The soil should be in
right condition, or dry enough to
be well pulverized, and not left wet
to form clods. 1t is better to defer
work some days than to be annoy
ed the whole season with a baked
soil or hard Jumps. Much de-
ponds on the previous condition of
the ground; if old manure and
vegetable mould have been fully
applied and well mixed in, they
will tend to give IA fine and friable
soil.
In sowing the seed of vegetables
three chief cautions must be at
tended to: LIST, to have a fine mel
low soil; I'd, to cover shallow, and
not too deep; aud Sd, except for
the hardest sorts, to wait till the
soil is warm.
|. The Importance of a finely
pulverized soil is obvious.
2. The more shallow the cover
ing, provided the moist condition
of the seed is preserved, the soon
er and more certainly the plants
will come up. Seeds must have
the three requisites of growth of
air, moisture and warmth. If
buried deep they cannot get air.
As a general rule, they should not
be covered deeper than four or five
times their diameter. We have
known seeds of different kinds
buried by ignorant gardeners sew
eral inches deep when they should
not have been over an inch, or an
inch and a half at most They
were beyond the reach af air, and
did not come up; the scotsman
was denounced for fraud. In one
instance neighbor had buried his
beet seed four or five inches deep,
with great care, and none made
their appearance, to his disap-
pointment. The remaining seeds