The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-09-28
RURAL ECONOMY.
Saasonahla Hints.

TOMATOES are good for chicks.

ShCO r.
MONEY skillfully expended in drying
land by draining or otherwise will be re-
turned with ample interest.
The Prairie Farmer advises a summer
fallow as the surest and easiest means of
subduing Colorado thistles.
SWEET and nutritious grasses give a
richness and flavor to milk, attainable
from no other source.
BRANDY and salt, two-thirds brandy
and one-third salt, is good for all kinds
of gals, wounds bruises and infamma-
tory sores on horses.
In transplanting trees the hole should
not be proportional to the extent of the
roots as they are, but to the extent as
they may be and should be.
PROF. w. 0. ATwATER, in his lecture
on the "Scence of Cattle-feeding, says
that he believes in plenty OF good hay
for feeding, in science as well as practice
in farming, in brains as well as muscle.
A NEW ENGLAND farmer who uses
haycaps of home spun, soaked in alum
water, says they afford perfect protection
for weeks for grain shocks standing IN
the field.
If you have convenient trees, by all
means let your chickens roOst in them
during the summer and early fall. Their
condition when cold weather comes will
repay you your trouble.
EXPERIENCE teaches us that the way
to raise turkeys successfully Is to give
the whole charge of the flock to the
mother hen, giving her free range to go
and come at will.
REMEMBER that defective seed should
never be put in the ground, Defects
and imperfectiOns have a tendency to
propagate themselves, and are always,
in greater or less degree, transmitted.
A SOUND New Hampshire farmer says
no acre of land ever cheated him when
he mad treated it with a liberal hand.
Cultivation and manure will redeem
swamp or a sand bank.
SEEDS should be saved from the plants
ia the healthiest state, and those first
ripe are the best. Clean the seeds and
preserve only those that are full and
/ plump, throwing out those of light
quality.
Mr.. COBURN says March calves make
much better mixers than those dropped
| in June. 1t costs a little more to raise
/ these early spring calves on account of
/ the high price of milk and butter at that
season of the year, but the expense IS
more than balanced by the extra milking
qualities of the cow.
/ THE Massachusetts, PJoughnan has seen
! ten sOftshell eggs, each of which was
double the size of two ordinary hens
/ eggs, and larger than a turkeys egg,
which were taken at one time from
hen that was killed because she SEEM
ed to be suffering from an accumulation
/ of fat.
TOUCHING turnips as a food for dairy
cows, Mr.. Nathan Hart says: "Turnips
are worth % cents per busel to feed to
cows / refer to the common fiat or field
/ turnip. But as to their saving hay, |
do not think they do. | think they act
as an Alternative, and their use will cause
the COW to more perfectly digest her
food. 1t seems to be adapted TO the
wants of the COW, and produces good di-
gestion. feed just before milking"
THE practical fact is that in order to
/ the production of a crop, the soil must
contain either nitrates or ammonia in a
form capable of being dissolved in rain
water, and if this available nitrogen is
not found in the soil it must be supplied
| by appropriate manures. Organic sub
stances containing nitrogen always pro-
/ duce ammonia or nitric acid in their
decay, and therefore, an important
element in the manurial value of any
substance is the amount of nitrogen it
contains.
MULCHING is good thing in all de-
partments of plant growth. Newly
| planted trees always, and OftentimeS for
successive years. Raspberries, black.
| berries, currants, etc, do much better
when mulched, and it is very easy tC
pull up the few weeds that force them.
selves through the mulch Strawberries
need plenty of water at fruiting time
and a mulch is as good as spell of wet
weather. 1t also keeps the fruit clean
and the weeds down. Tomatoes when
allowed to lie on the ground are helped
by a mulch At this time of the wear
plenty of grass can be cut for the pur.
/ pose.
A GERMAN farmer sets a high value
on pigs as exterminatOrs of field mice
and other vermin. He believes that the
plague of mice 50 prevalent in Germany
is in great measure due to the present
| system of keeping swine penned up in.
stead of allowing them the range of the
fields, as was formerly the custom. He
states that careful observer may often
detect pigs in the act of swapping up and
| devOuring a gOod-sized mouse; besides
which they may have an extraordinary
keen scent for the nests, grubbing them
up IN search of the young mice, which
they eagerly devour.
PROF. BEAI, of Michigan, says: " In
our corntields are often large numbers OF
slender stalks bearing no ears, or very
small ones. These stalks have tassels.
and they scatter pollen, and are very
apt to scatter some on the ears of the
best stalks-On the very ears which we
shall select for seed The different ker-
nels on the same ears may have twenty
or more different male parents. Now,
theory and analogy at least tells Us, if
we wish to improve our corn to the
greatest extent, we must pay some at
tention to the pollen used. A much
better way would be to plant a piece of
! corn by itself on good soil, and test it
well, giving the stalks plenty of room.
Before shedding pollen, cut out entirely
or remove the tassels of all the poorest
stalks. In this way we not only select
seed from good females, but also from
those fertilized by good males"
ASIDE from hoed crops, one of the best
means Of cleaning land from weeds is by
/ the use of clover. 1t is true that many
clover fields are oyergrown with weeds,
] but this is where the soil hos haan