Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-01-02
THE FARMERS COLUMN,

THE FARMERS COLUMN
Practical Notes.
A STOCK dealer of western Iowa re-
Gently bought 10000 bushels of corn a,
Lemars at eight cents per bushel.
The agricultural papers generally ar
entering into a pretty free discussion on
the good quality of sorghum.
SOME of our best butter. makers CLAIM
that from the time the milk leaves the
COW till the butter graces the table
milk, cream and butter should be neal
the temperature of co. Farenheit.
GEN. L1TTLEDALE, who has a tarm
opposite Liverpool, England, keeps
eighty-6ve COWS and fifteen working
horves on the produce of eighty acres
of land. This shows what thorough
cultivation will do.
If chickens have cholera give them
wet food for few days, we'll stirred into
ono feed teaspoonful of sulphur, and
into the next about teaspoonful OF
powdered charcoal, and so alternate the
food for about three days.
LAUGH at scientific or book farming
just as much as you please, yet the mar
! who takes advantage of air, soil and fer.
tilizers, studies how to manufacture
grain and roots, meat aud fruits, out OF
these raw materials, is the one to sue.
coed.
ON heavy loans or clay, clover roots
penetrate the subsoil and open it to the
fertilizing influences of air and light. 1t
is rich, too, in nitrogen, and in the decay
of its leaves and roots it gives the soil
just what is wanted to grow a maximum
crop of any kind of grain.
BoUssIHCAULT prescribes the proper
temperature for churning to be $50 fol-
sweet cream, go for sour and 60 for
milk. About one-fourth of the total
amount of butter globules which exist
in the cream escapes collection, which
accounts for the rich taste of buttermilk.
FARMER read agricultural books and
papers, attend meetings devoted to your
calling, compare your crops with those
OF your neighbors. If you doubt the
propriety of q certain culture for GER
tain crops, and desire information rela-
tive to the field of your labor, write to
the commissioner of agriculture.
If iron be carefully sought for in a
whole plant it will certainly found,
though generally in very minute guam
tity. 1t is asserted that plants which
were blanched, and otherwise presented
sickly appearance, were rendered green
and healthy by the application of very
weak solution of an iron salt.
AT the late meeting of the National
Agricultural Congress at New Haven,
Prof. Brewer, in an address, claimed
that Connecticut had the honor of estab-
fishing the first professorship of agricul-
ture, the first agricultural experiment
station, the first importation of merinos,
and the invention of the cotton.g gin by
Whitney.
FAMILIES of farmers engaged in dry
ing fruits are reminded that so far heat
is not sufficiently intense to destroy in
sect eggs that may have been deposited
in the fruit when green or during the
process of drying. If put in moder-
ately warm oven for ten minutes all
parasites and their eggs would be de-
stroyed. In countries where fruits are
extensively dried this treatment is prac-
ticed generally.
THE east is increasing her area of
wheat. According to the Maine Farmer,
one farmer in Somerset county, Maine,
will have this year nearly 100 bushels
Of wheat where two years ago he had
but thirty, and in his neighborhood are
100 acres of wheat. In one neighbor-
hood in South Thomaston, 1000 bushels
of wheat were harvested this season
where, only six years ago, scarcely any
wheat was raised.
IT is reported that the Buena Vista
Vinicultural society, after losing about
5000, 900 in the manufacture of Califor-
MIA wine, has given up the business.
The cause, as given, is that the climate
and other conditions are not understood
with sufficient exactness to enable the
manufacturers of wine there to compete
with other countries. In the champagne
venture of the company alone, So, 900
was sunk, although considerable
sales were made in New York under
fictitious brands.
The Amherst, Mass. experiment of
raising the early amber cane for syrup
shows an average product of 160 gallons
per acre, though some pieces have yield
ed as high as 260 gallons per acre. The
percentage of sugar was found to be less
when fresh-cut and ground than after
lying for awhile before being ground {;
and it is hoped that improved culture
may increase the percentage of cane
sugar. The cost of manufacturing the
syrup this season has been Is cents 8
gallon, but, with better facilities for
making, the cost can be reduced one
half.
The Maine State Press says: "There
is not quite 80 much enthusiasm in
Aroostook over the beet sugar business
as would be justified by the prospect.
Nobody expects that the manufacture
of beet sugar will transform our farmers
into millionaires. Nobody contends that
at the price offered for the beets everv
farmer can raise them with profit. What
is claimed, however, is that if the beet
sugar manufacture proves successful it
will afford to some Of the farming Sec
lions of the state market that can be
supplied with fair profit"
TIE egg traffic of this country has
risen to an Importance which few COM
Prehend. The aggregate transactions in
New York city alone must amount to
fully $4,000, 900 per annum and in the
United States to $l8, O00, $50. The perish
able nature of eggs has naturally de-
tracted from their value as a standard
article of diet. The peculiar excellence
of eggs depends on their freshness. But
lately the process of crystallizing has
been resorted to, and by this process the
natural egg is converted into vitreous
substance of delicate amber tint, in
which form it is reduced seven. eighths