The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-03-27
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD
whn. the New A.rIculrure Teaches. : ,


whnt the New Agriculture Teaches.
The following hints are taken from an
essay on "The New Agriculture by
DR.. J. F. Nicholas, distinguished agri-
cultural writer: "Apples carelessly
grown will bring poor prices but those
well grown and we'll cared for and
properly packed will bring best prices
even in these times. The best corn
will make the best meal. Some farmers
make their cider from rotten or other
wise worthless apples and put the cider
into ,musty casks. Such cider. how
ever, is of little value compared to that
made from good apples and put in clean,
sweet casks. Pork fed from slops and
kept in dirt and filth is not near as
valuable as that fed on good meal and
always we'll Uttered. Good food is al
ways worth paying for. A pan of
butter has been spoiled by the farmer
going into the milk room with his boots
covered with manure butter and milk
absorb odors rapidly. 1t is always best
to aim at excellence in. everything,
Fodder-corn is good feed if properly
grown, but it is not good when sown
broadcast and thick. 1t is as foolish to
say that either milk or beer can be pro.
duced from food which chemistry says
lacks the elements of which they are
composed, as to say that dung will pro-
duce plants If the minerals are lacking.
Fifteen COWS, allowed to stand out one
hour on cold day, shrunk in milk nine
quarts ice-cold water given to a COW
will shrink the milk cows allowed to
stand in water on hot day will also
shrink their milk. Cows never should
be allowed to stand in draft. A good,
careful man, placed in charge of badly
managed herd of cattle, has increased
the flow of milk to an extent sufficient
to pay his wages. Putting salt on the
hay NOW is o useless practice ; in this
case it has no curative properties. In
the old'agriculture the idea was preva-
lent that dung was dung from whatever
source produced that from meadow
hay being supposed equal to that
from the best hay or the best
of meal or grain. The new agri.
culture forbids farmers letting their wet
lands lie waste, but tells them if they
have finished their haying by the mid
die of July to go to work next day to re-
claim other lands. The new agriculture
teaches us the different amount of nu-
triton in the different kinds OF corn.
Under the old system twenty to forty
bushels were considered q good yield,
but the new one teaches us that seventy
or eighty will only be considered fair
yield 1t also teaches us that the nu.
tritive value of the cob is superior to
that of wheat or rye straw, and equal to
that of oat straw, besides containing a
much larger amount Of potash than any
of the straws. Eastern corn ground
with the cob is equal in feeding value to
the Southern corn without the cob but
to obtain the best results from any
grain it should be ground very fine.
The amount of potash taken from the
soil by the corn cobs is enoi nous.
Sweet corn makes the best fodder to
feed green TO cows" ....
stnrvinE Orchards.
A'ton OF dry, unleached ashes per
acre will furnish nearly the same ingre.
dients advised by the Scientific Farmer
for the fertilization of orchards, which
is two hundred to two hundred and fifty
pounds of bone dust and three hundred
to four hundred pounds of sulphate OF
potash per acre. This gives some seven
ty or eighty pounds of potash, fifty to
sixty pounds of lime Qrom the bones)
and ten to twenty pounds of nitrogen,
and some magnesia in the potash and
fertilizer, all of which are called for to
to nourish orchards on insufficient soil,
as the flesh of most fruits contain much
M sv,
with the fruity acids, and the seeds
phosphoric acid. Whether the ingredi-
ents required are applied in the formula
given or in the unleached ashes sug-
gested, it is recommended to SOW broad
cast and lightly harrow in, leaving it to
the rain to more thoroughly incorporate
with the earth. Such treatment has
proved successful in orchards showing
signs of decay both in this country and
in Europe. ...i.
Coal ashes and salt are employed with
great benefit on some soils, especially
in orchards bearing sour fruits. Or
chards, the soil Of which, from close pas
turing or other causes, is nearly desti-
tute Of hunaus, will gradually deteriorate
and finally die unless restored to that
state of fertility which is necessary for
the thrifty growth Of the tree and its
existence in a healthy and vigorous
state. Such orchards are greatly bene.
fted with top dressing of leafmold,
rotten chip manure, muck from creek,
broken bones, animal hair OF all kinds,
and similar material generally at hand
on farms, which can be applied without
other expense than the time and labor
When manures are used
they should be we'll decomposed; fresh
warm manures excite young trees into a
very rapid growth, but the wood is
watery and feeble. .... .., o.,
A dry soil, of but moderate richness,
is the one that produces and sustains
hardy trees; their wood is firm, the buds
plump and close together and the parts
well proportioned.- Home and Farm.
success with Strawberries.
II is becoming more and more O neces-
sity in the successful culture of the
strawberry to raise only the best varie-
ties and put them in market in the best
possible condition. We often hear the
cry that strawberries do not pay, and I
fully believe it; for under the common
mismanagement-letting the plants run
at will-weeds are allowed to occupy
space in the bed, and little or no care is
exercised in regard to manure. l pre-
fer, rather than the matted-row or the
hill system, to cultivate in the single
row, making the rows two and one-half
feet apart and the plants about eightor
ten inches in the row. This will give