The Portland daily press., 1878-04-24
AGRICULTURAL.
Agricultural LIENS.


pletion OF the 21st day.
Thirteen hundren and thirty-five parts o
turnips are equal to 100 parts of wheat,
Ore thousand parts red clover contain 76(
parts water, 1879 woody fibre. 35 gum, 81 sug
srs, 20 albumen, IA starch, 10 earthly matter
and one of wax.
When cream is sent in a separate state to
London it is packed solid in bottles prepared
for the purpose, and kept cool by grass OF
cabbage-leaves fastened around the bottles.
Those who study to get large results from
milch cows are careful to keep the animals a:
quiet and as contented as possible, avoiding
excessive travel and labor, also all dsturbin!!
causes of fear. anxiety or solicltude.
In Prussia it is sad the potato is cultivated
with peculiar success. AS the stalk grows,
the earth is heaped up, leaving only three
leaves at the top; roots are thus greatly in
creased, while the produce is said to be as
tonishing.
One hundred pounds of turnips produce one
pound of flesh. An average acre of turnips
yield 800 pounds of gluten. albumen and cas-.
Elm, producing muscle; 600 pounds of gum,
sugar and fat, with $3.50 pounds of water,
producing fat.
Deficient food, or what amounts to nearly
the same thing-food which does not furnish
the requisite quantities of the nutritive ele-
ments required by an animal to meet the
wants of It's system-is prolific source of
loss to the owners of livestock.
The most essential requisites in fowl
house may be briefly stated. They are warm,
dry sheloer; pule air, which is dependent on
a capability in the house of being readily
cleaned; supply of the requisite perches
and proper arrangement of nests for the
laying and Matching hens.
The roots OF clover have natural tendency
to decompose after having produced the plant
in perfection, and it is the effect of decompo-
sition that renders crop of clover so good a
preparation Jor the growth of wheat. Decay
ever furnishes regenerative food, while the
roots pierce and divide the soil, loosenng the
ground.
The mules of Morocco excel even those of
Spain. Some of them are as large as a full
sized horse. Flooding, patient, sure-footed
and docile, they carry the traveller at the rate
of four miles an hour, through a long day,
with lew halts aud little sustenance. They
are found to carry heavier weights than the
camel, and to travel faster. The price of a
mule ranges from 500 to 5000.
The Chief use of clover in England exists in
being cut green Jor soiling all sorts of grazing
animals. and for this purpose it has no supe-
rior, 410 parts being equal to 100 parts OF best
hay. The heritage is cut every morning in
quantities sufficient for a day or half days
consumption, aud gwen in fresh state to the
animals, confined in yards that supplied with
latticed racks constructed for the purpose.
The English milk can has holes in the lid of
the can, through which air is admitted to the
milk. The milk supplied to the city of Paris
is generally acknowledged to keep longer than
that supplied to London onsumers, and this
has been attributed to the fact that the for
mer is Theoretically closed in the can during
trans nnfhQr anfhprifv OF foe bot
the real secret of the matter with the French
dairymen was that they mixed bicarbonate of
soda with their milk, which served to avert
decomposition.
Pasluring is means of inducing fertility.
1t is computed to add 20 per cent. to the fer
tility of first.rate soil. This arises from two
causes. A large percentage of what is grown
upon the soil is returned to it in the droppings
OF the animals which Craze upon it. In the
second place, when broken up by the pillow,
the sward is converted into food for the til
lage crops, and is believed to be equivalent, in
the case of well set sod, to more than twelve
loads of dung on the acre. Ia this way sheep
husbandry hos been known to enrich lands
rapidly, and to operate still further in this di-
rection where meal, beans or oil cake is ted to
the grazing animals.
The fax plant has been cultivated in Brit
ain, aud in most civilized countries, from
time immemorial, both for its fiber in making
thread, and for the seed yielding a valuable
oil. The stock or stem, in which the fiber
exists, generally grows on good soil two or
two and half feet high; and on its panicled
top, when the plant is full grown, blue flow
ers appear, in which capsules. containing gen.
light brown seeds, are ripened. Two varie-
ties of fax are used on the continent of Eu-
rope, the Spring and Winter kinds, sown in
April and October. The difference is small,
and the latter is only known in snowy coun-
tries, as in Austria, where the Springs are too
late tor the first variety. The Rega seed is
much preferred.
Concealed hooks about the poultry-yard or
its neighborhood have great attractions to
many hens; and but for chances of accident,
better clutches may be expected than from the
most artificially constructed nests; In fact
many of the most successful breeders prefer
having the nests formed on the ground BY
placing little soft straw in a slight hollow.
1t cannot be denied that the secret places Sc.
lected by the hen herself for incubation, pro-
duce larger number of strong, dealthy
chickens than the best constructed nests in
the hen house. Whatever care may be tax
en- in keeping eggs, their vitality is better pre-.
served when they are allowed foreman in the
nest. Perhaps the periodical visit of the hen,
while adding to her store of eggs, has a stim-
ulating influence. The warmth communica-
ted in the half-hour during which she cccu-
pies the nest, may have tendency to pre-
serve the embryo in vigorous state.