Connecticut western news., 1879-04-23
FARM AND GARDEN,
FARMING THAT DON'T PAY.

this time of the year without a woodpile | large enough to last twelve months or to open the gates and let your stock into the fields as soon as few bare spots ap- pear or to keep it on short rations, so that when it. does go to grass two months from now, it will take half the summer to get thrifty and strong.
 It don't pay to leave the work of mend ing your tools and selecting and secur- ing your seed until the day you want to use them, thereby causing costly delay.
 It don't pay to SOW or plant poor seed because you happen to have it on hand.
 It wont pay to plant more ground than you can manure and take good care of.
 It don't pay to leave weak places in the fences in the hope that cattle won't find them and, if you keep sheep, it don't pay to let them run at large in the spring until they become tramps and cannot be kept at home by any ordinary fence.
 It don't pay to neglect COWS, ewes or sows when they are dropping their young.
 It don't pay to let the spring rains wash the value out of the manure that has accumulated in the barnyard this winter.
 It don't pay to let the hens lay under the barn, steal their nests and be eaten up by skunks.
 It don't pay to work with poor tools of any kind.
 It don't pay to put off any kind of spring work until the last moment, nor does it pay to work land when it is too wet.
 It don't pay to leave turnips, cab
 bages, beets, or even apples in the eel lar to rot and breed disease; for, if you
 have more than you can eat or sell, the
 stock will be profted by them.
 It won't pay to summer 8 poor COW
 simply because no one comes to buy
 her.
 It don't pay to sell a heifer calf from
 your best cows to the butcher, simply
 because it will cost moro to raise it
 than you can buy 8 scrub for next fall.
 It don't pay to leave the banking
 around the house until it rots the sills.
 It don't pay to be stingy in sowing
 grass seed, or to try to live without 8
 garden.
 Finally, it don't pay to provoke the
 women by leaving them to cut the stove
 wood or to carry it in from the door, yard, or to remind you every morning in having and hoeing that you must saw enough before you go to work to last through the day.-Aarror and Farmer.
 A CHAPTER ON ToADs.
 A writer in the New York Tribune
 notices the fact that many gardeners al- ready appreciate the valuable services of
 common toads for their insect destroying propensities, and afford them protection.
 while as many more, perhaps, are igno- rant of their usefulness. To the latter class it should be known that toads live almost wholly upon slugs, caterpillars, beetles, and other insects, making their rounds at night when the farmer is ) asleep-and the birds too-and the in. sects are supposed to be having it all 5 their own way. English gardeners un. derstand these facts so we'll that toads are purchased at so much dozen and
 turned loose, and the best of it is, the t toads generally stay at home, so the gar r dener IS not troubled with buying hi own toads over again every few days. The toad can be tanned, and will ever
 learn to know It's master, and come wher {, called; the writer has not only had sucE
 pets himself, but could give other, in ) stances of toad-taming that have come 3 under his observation. Toads can b.
 made very useful about the house, an6 r will do not little good in destr oying 3 cockroaches, flies, and other household l. pests. They are sometimes known tt t eat worms, which they grasp by the mid + dle with their jaws, cramming in the l. writhing ends of the unfortunate articu ,. lates by means of their front feet. In y sects are seized and conveyed to tht q mouth by means of the rapidly dartine a tongue, which always secures the victim a as it is about to fly or run away. 0 EARLY WORK ON THE FARM. :. There is 8 great variety and amour u of early spring work on the farm whicl If neglected now will have to be done a unreasonable times, and when the Il sowing of spring grains must be at tended to. The meadows should bt
 rolled down as soon as the frost is ou of the ground. The soil is then soft anG $ receives the desired effect of the roller
 making the meadows firm and smooth
 If delayed until later, when the land Ii e settled, the roller only half performs it ], offices, and the result will be rougl e meadows, broken moving machines n and vexatious delays in having time F, The fences should be relaid, removed ,- and adjusted as soon as the settled con 1T dition of the ground will permit. Barn t yards should be fixed and gates rehung Il so that the cattle can be kept wher k they belong, and not allowed to ru1 'e over the meadows and break up tn K ground and otherwise damage the earl, u starting of the grass. The summer :" wood should be cut up and made read . for use. These and many other thing o upon the farm should be attended 'e now. The farmer has some unoccupie, 'e time now, and if this work is neglecte at the time when it should be attended t 'e it will either be left undone or impose ad 's ditional burdens when he is over-hurrie le with other work-Bufialo Express. $ ROT IN GRAPES.