The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-10-30
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.


Many q good horse has been ruined by
injudicious haste in working him with a
full stomach.
Farmers should not forget that their
profits depend as much upon judicious
marketing as careful cultivation.
To stop hen from setting, put her in
the coop, and give her plenty to eat and
drink. Three or four days will generally
do the cure.
A Buffalo gardener has observed a
new enemy to the Codling moth, the foe
of apple growers. 1t is a black beetle
which eats the caterpillar and destroy
the chrysalis of the Codling moth.
Professor Harrington, in summary
of the experiments begun in 1870 by the
Maine Agricultural College to ascertain
which has the greatest value as food
for swine, cooked or uncOoked meal,
says: We have, by an experiment
which has been continued from three to
four months of each of the nine years
since its beginning, obtained evidence
that all the money and labor expended
in cooking meal for swine is more than
thrown away"
There are wet lands on most farms
that would be greatly improved by
draining; and now is the time when
farmers are most at liberty to attend to
such matters. Labor, too, is apt to be
cheapest now. Improve your land or
sell it. Do not keep worthless land that
is bringing you no interest for your
money. Aim to clear and improve some
field each year. If rightly done, it will
pay you the next year ten per cent. on
the sum invested. -Dorer State Press.
The Rural Ner- Yorker says that valu-
able grape vines, planted with great care,
are often left to take care of themselves
at this season of the year-when they
need care most. For the first two years
a good stout stake, say six feet long, is
all that is necessary for support. This
should be firmly set in TIE ground, and
the vines kept tied to it. Should other
shoots start from the old wood, rub
them off and keep lateral shoots pinched
back to one or two leaves. Remove all
injurious insects by hand, and dust with
flour of sulphur should mildew appear.
There is as vast difference between
the tidy and untidy farmers as between
the careful and careless housewife. A
glance at farm as you are riding along
will betray the character of its owner.
A farm needs its fall as well as its spring
cleaning. Cut down and burn all un-
slightly bushes that have been allowed to
oil
Besides detracting from the appearance
of field, they take from the soil what
is needed for crops. Now that the grass
is short, remove stones from moving
lands. You will thus save scythes and
Doyer State Press.
DIR. Nichols says, in the Journal OF
Chemistry: at is, under ordinary con-
ditions, advisable and advantageous to
| least twenty inches space between, SO
that air and sunlight can have free ac-
cess to the growing plants; but it is not
good husbandry to SOW thickly broadcast.
Plants depend for healthy growth and
nutrition upon actinic light and heat,
| and upon access of air. Any plant
| deprived of these agencies in its growth
is unsuitable for the food of animals"
Stumps.-The following method of
| getting rid of stumps is recommended
| by the Scientific American: In the
autumn bore hole one or two inches in
diameter, according to the girth of the
stump, vertically in the centre of the
latter, and about eighteen inches deep.
Put into it one or two ounces of salt
petre; fill the hole with water, and plug
up close. In the ensuing spring take
out the plug and pour in about one-half
| gill of kerosene oil and ignite it. The
stump will shoulder away, without blaz-
ing. to the very extremity of the roots,
leaving nothing but ashes.
| In planning barn, in no case provide
a manure cellar under horse or COW
stables. 1t is too much to ask, even of
brutes, to stand over the gases of manure
cellars. Put the stables in the basement
and on the ground, and provide for fire.
quently cleaning out the manure, that
your cows and horses may have some
reasonable enjoyment of life. Just here
occurs to me point in regard TO storing
carriages either over or alongside horse
stables. 1t should never be done. The
ammonia from the manure destroys the
varnish, and causes it to crack, and it
injuries harness. A carriage-house should
be well separated from the stables, and
if the wheels can stand on the earth
they will hold the tires in dry time
much better than on floor with all
under it.-George Geddes.
A correspondent Of the Country Gentle
man says that no dressing of manure i:
completely consumed by the crop tt
which it is applied. Soluble and active
manures produce their principal effect al
once, and are of little benefit to sub
sequent crops. Manures sparingly solu
BILE, and those which must suffer decom
position in the soil before they are o.
service to the plant, as bones and farm
yard manure will, on the contrary, pro
duce an effect over many years. Farmer
have prejudice in favor of the lattel