Connecticut western news., 1879-04-02
FARM AND GARDEN.
FARM NOTES AND HINTS.

| Ao AoA preserving eggs IS
 made by slakeing one peck of lime in a
 barrel of water, stirring, straining and
 then adding to it one peck of salt. The
 eggs are packed in barrels and covered
 with this liquor. 1 Yellow corn contains more oil than the white; the latter being the richest in starch. Therefore, yellow corn is pre- ferred for feeding animals, while the white is more desirable for human feed,
 Flax is an exhaustive crop. It takes from the soil considerable nitrogen, pot ash and phosphoric acid. It can be grown on newly reclaimed and drained swamp, or low meadow newly broken up, as 1t succeeds on moist soil.
 There is only one known remedy Tor potato bugs, which is, to make a mixture of one part of Paris green and thirty parts of finely ground plaster or rye flour, and sprinkle this over the plants. The beetles eat this and are poisoned.
 1 -Cow manure is the best fertilizer for strawberries. Peruvian guano has a good effect on them. Raspberry rows should be cultivated with a small culSi- vator drawn by one horse. Fruit can- not be expected if other crops are grown on the same ground.
 -Ducklings are reared with less trouble when the eggs are matched by a hen, as she makes the best mother Confine her with the ducks for few days, providing only water enough to drink. At first feed with bread or pud- ding made from boiled oat, barley or Indian meal. As soon as the ducks &C., quire strength enough to take care of themselves (which they soon dol give them run supplied with pond or river water.
 -J. Crane, Union, N. J., who has ex- perlmented as to the best breed of COWS for quantity and quality of milk the past four years, said to the members of the Farmers Club in Cooper Union, that he considered the cross of Aldernev and Ayrshire most profitable one. The progeny are healthy, easily kept and yield a superior quality as we'll as fair quantity of milk. Even when kept on coarse feed they remain fat and in good condition.
 A correspondent sent to the Kayasos Farmer diagram showing how, by planting corn in triangles instead of squares, an addition of seventeen per cent. can be planted on an acre, at three feet ten inches between the hills, to planting in squares. By planting the hills in the second row, opposite the middle between the hills Tn the first row. and thus alternating in each row, while the desired distance between the hills is obtained, the rows will be drawn much closer together, requiring the cultivator to work in narrow space to clear the corn.t
 ANIMAL FooD FOR PIas.-JamesJ J. H. Gregory, Marblehead, Mass, writing in the American Cultivator of "cheap win ter keep for pigs," maintains that until pigs reach weight of about 125 pounds their carnivorous habit requires indul- gence so that bone and muscle may be properly built up. After that he finds that they winter we'll on mangel roots mixed with little more concentrated food, as meal. The roots may be pulped or raw or boiled, but they should be we'll grown and sugary, not overgrown or raised on wet land. One other condi- tion of success is that the quarters be comfortable. For the younger pigs MT. G. has used variety of animal food, all with success, the change being induced chiefly by convenience of resort, or low price in proportion to nutritive power. The highest valte seems to be set on dried blood, if thoroughly dried so as to keep we'll. A sportsman friend found this the very best food to take along to the woods for his dogs. Pork and beef scrap from the butchers Obtained in large, well-pressed cheeses) boiled up with waste cullings of beans and thickened with meal, has been largely used.
 ASPARAGUS is good time now. to prepare an asparagus bed. Every gar den should have bed of this vegetable. The method of planting is as follows Dig bed, as large as can be spared, eighteen inches deep and spade in as much stable manure as possible. It must be made rich. Then open trenches six inches deep and eighteen inches wide across the bed, six inches from each other, from edge to edge, and set the roots, which should be procured fresh | from the nursery, in the trenches as close as they will go without lying upon each other, which will be about eighteen | inches or less apart. Then cover with mixed soil and manure and rake off smooth, giving g. good sprinkling of salt upon the bed. It will be three years before fair crop can be expected. The bed must be kept free from weeds.
 ASHES AND PoTAroEs.-C. B. F., Princeton, N. J., writes Please give the proper proportions of ashes and plaster to be mixed together for the pur- pose of applying to potatoes when planted. Would gill of the mixture be sufficient for one hill with one potato to the hill |? AnsaOer.-Mix in the pro- portion of tour parts of ashes to one of plaster. The amount to each hill de- pends on the condition of the soil and It's deficiencies. in the elements these ma- terials furnish. Drop the mixture in the hill and cover with an inch or two of earth before planting the seed on top of it, as it should not come in contact with the ashes.s A tablespoonful of plaster dusted on the young plant soon