Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-11-28
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.


| LADY CLIFTON, dam of the. celebrated
trotter, Lucy, died recently, aged q
lyears. at Vincentown. n. j., having
been bred and raised by her then
owner, Job Butterworth.
CAPT. PERRINE's experiment with 6
floating apiary on the Mississippi wa!
not much of a success. He WAS lit
tie behind time in ascending the stream
and the honey collected was generally
Of a dark color.
WITHIN radius OF two blocks in the
neighborhood of Yates avenue and De.
| catur street, Brooklyn, 80 COWS are
kept. The residents have complained
to the board of health Of the stencil
arising from the stables.
AN honest farmer sent some hand
some game and black Spanish fowls to
the Kingston (Ont.) exhibition The
judges washed the birds and it came
out that the former were painted and
the latter had had their legs hlacklead-
ed.
The milk business of Sheffield, Mass,
is arke-the creamery having shipped
in September to New York, 1859 boxes
of one quart and of two quart cans, land,
besides, the farmers shipped 2,2I1 40
quart cans-the freight charge being
81 ,665.
FARM property in New England is de-
preciating sadly, as witness an adver-
tisement in Springfield Mass paper
of farm two miles from the railroad
station, containing thirty seven acres of
good land. with buildings which cost
81 900 when they were erected in 1873.
An offer of $4,000 was then refused
for the property, which will now be sold
for $4,000, . good part of the pur-
chase money remaining on mortgage.
AT the New York state fair there were
exhibited some sheep bred from COM
mon Merino ewes and the Cotswold
ram. The feeces of the first cross
measured five inches in length, and the
wool was as fine as the Merino, and as
easily combed as that of the Cotswold.
The wool of the second cross, as long as
that of the pure Cotswold, was still as
fine as Merino wool. The carcass of
the cross-bred makes excellent mutton,
and is nearly as heavy as the pure Cots
void.
! A CORRESPONDENT of a Canada paper
makes the following suggestions on the
subject of weaving colts: Put the colt
and its mother in stable; tie both
side by side in manger In a wide stall;
have nothing between them; give them
an adequate supply of nutritious all
ment for a few days and the thing is
accomplished. [ prefer this way be-
cause it prevents fretting on the part
of both the mare and colt, and, as an
Irishman expressed it, about two pigs
in the same pen, the one encourages
| the other to eat; SO that the colt is not
reduced in condition, as is too often the
case during the weaving process. This
mode of treatment helps to halter-break
the colt, too, if it has not previously
been done.
J. B. WALTER, a veterinary surgeon,
| addressed the Colusa San, as follows:
Every horse that runs at the nose is not
glandered; eight cases ont of ten it is
nasal gleet accompanied with farcy.
There are several in this county, and it
is also contagious. Mr.. Cleek lost all
his mules and two COWS with this dis
ease. | have treated thirty-two cases
in this county, and eighty,three in Te-
hama county, successfully. The symp-
toms of glander are as follows: The
gland of the neck becomes hard and
swollen, painful, and adheres to the
jaw bone. The matter runs from one
nostril only, generally the left, and the
membrane of the nostril becomes
liberated. When horse presents all
these symptoms he should be shot. In
any other case he can be doctored with
every chance of success. [ wish to
make these few observations to calm
the fears of horse owners and stable
men who believe the exaggerated re-
ports Of the San Francisco press on this
dreadful disease.
CORN AS FUEL.-The american Agricul-
tot7ist says: "Some journals, whose con-
ductors knoy very little about corn
growing and other things in the west,
make their annual outcry in regard to
the extensive consumption of corn for
fuel, which they consider a great and
inexcusable waste. Suppose the Ne
braska or Minnesota farmers were to
sell two tons of corn for s., and buy
half ton Of coal for the money, and the
corn was at once taken TO a distillery
and turned into whisky, would this be
any better? The farmer would proba-
bly, have to make two journeys of ten
to twenty miles each with his loads, and
be out of pocket at least Sc by his trade.
The fact is, corn is an excellent fuel,
and, although it may seem at first sight
to be wrong to burn up an article of
food, yet it is but mere sentiment
which overlooks the fact, that to warm
ones self by fire, and to do the same
by the consumption of food, are in the
end precisely similar IN effect. If
more warmth can be procured by con-
Stunning in a stove dollars worth of
corn than dollar'ss worth of coal, it is
legitimate use-of the corn" i r.
FARMERS SHOULD THINK.-There Is no
business with which 1 am acquainted
which affords greater scope for thought,
or which is more provocative of reHec-
ton, than farming. The careful farmer
must be daily meeting with subjects
which challenge thought and require
the most profound study. Farmers
ought to be the most thoughtful class of
people in the country. The balancing
of cause and effect in business where
in a thousand causes are operating de-
mands more thought and a more phil
osophical mind than any other business
whatever. 1t is possible for farmers to
get into the ruts, and go IN the beaten
track year after year, without thought;
but such farmers. are not successful, and
each year are becoming less so. When
ever farmer gets out Of the ruts-.
ceases to do things because it has always
been the practice-he necessarily has
to think. 1t is pretty safe to say that