The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1878-12-05
AGRICULTURE.

SAVE THE STRAW. - II the wheat
sheaves are well stacked up, the straw
being i'm a bright condition, and If there
are no pressing reasons Tor selling the
grain at once, it will probably be found
Just AS good a way TO 90 back to the old
method of threshing on the barn floor
with fails. In this way n stack can
be brought Into the barn and threshed,
. as the straw Is needed for cutting up.
la cutting up straw Ii Is very much
more convenient 10 have 1t In bundles.
And when IL has been run through a
threshing-machine IL is, OF course, in nc
condition TO be handy put in bundles
again. Then 1t Is a question whether
%threshlng by machinery is not just about
rs expensive as by the fail. The
t%hreshers a so many cents per BUSH
ell, and the price is put high enough TO
idle time In bad weather, when
threshers and their teams can be earn
ing nothing-and OF course they and
their horses have TO be fed and taken
care of while the threshing is going on.
There is such a sudden increase TO the
labor of the women In the house; the
farmers horses have 10 be worked so
hard at the machinery /; and the straw
is generally so hastily and poorly
stacked again, and there is such a gen.
eral hubbub and confusion, that we
think, when the matter is carefully ex-
amined, that very little, ii any, gain
has ever resulted from the introduction
of threshing. machines. And when It
is remembered, besides, how much
winter labor can be given to those out
of employment by coming back to the
Hail, iJ would seem that farmers would
be glad to let the threshing-machine
have the gO-by. But when saving the
straw for feed shall have become the
universal rule there is another way for
such farmers TO pursue as do not choose
TO give up the threshing-machine. Let
the straw, too, be cut up by machinery
as fast as 1t is threshed, and baled in
like name as cotton is baled. When
thus baled up it can be put in piles,
either i'm the barn or in sheds, ready to
be used as wanted. In this way, too,
it would be in an admirable shape to
send any surplus to market. When the
cotton and sugar planters of the South
shall have learned what a splendid feed
mOiStened cut StrdW and corn meal is for
their mules and horses, there will be a
quick demand for these bales of cut
straw; and there would be this particular
advantage, that the bagging which in
closed the cut straw could be used the
second time in the baling of cotton.
RAISING CALvEs.-Mr. II. s. Rand a
successful breeder of Jersey stock, pur-
sues the following method with his
calves: They are weaned from one to
six days old and taught to drink. They
receive milk from the cow twice a day
until two or three weeks old, from
which time warmed SKINNED milk is
added in gradually increasing proper
ton, until, at the end OF five weeks, |
they get skinned milk only. In very
cold weather a little thoroughly cooked
corn meal mush may be stirred in. All
the skinned milk is fed to the calves,
the larger ones receiving it as long as it
can be spared after taking proper care
of the younger ones. If the season is
favorable they are tethered as soon as
weaned, and moved from time to time
upon clean, fresh grass. In winter
steamed hay and bran is the chief food
for such as are old enough to eat it. The
most convenient tether is a pointed iron
rod, fifteen inches long, with two rings
welded around 1t, n and a half inches
apart, near its upper end. Between
those a flat hook, which turns easily,
holds two feet of Chain, in which Is a
swivel link, and to this four feet of rope,
of an inch in diameter,
which ties to a head halter or leather
ctron