Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-05-07


1t Is evidently true that good wheat
farming can not be done without sheep,
Tor their utility on summer-fa!Iow is
beyond question Willamette Farmer.
SoILING A COMING NECESSITY 4 new
departure IN the business of farming in
our country, especially in the older por-
tons OF 1t, may be expected sooner or
later, as like causes produce like effects
When land was cheap and labor dear,
labor was economised and land set
less store by; now the millions of our
own native population, and the aug
menting crowds that are gathering from
beyond the sea, admonish us to reverse
this policy and use as much labor as
possible in making the land as produc-
tive as it is susceptible of being made.
My theme is soiling; or, in other words,
cutting and putting their feed before
cattle, sheep, etc. This implies revo-
luton; but the more we consider it in
theory or practice the more it COM
mends itself as a true principle. In its
favor we claim the saving of fence
which amounts to the heaviest tax the
farmer has to pagan Increased belt
Of land to till; the prevention of nox-
ous weeds and briars along fences, an
insurance of cutting down or ploughing
under all substances before their seed
maturity; making very large increase
OF manureal material for litter and alb
sorbing droppings from stock; and,
most oil all perhaps, the prevention of
loss by cattle tramping and fouling what
they might ear. We are entirely safe
in assuming that by the soiling system
double the quantity ofstock can be kept,
and consequently great increase of
manure made to be applied to the hun
CRY soil. Many reasons might be added
to the above, but the object is to call
attention to this vital question and in
duce farmers to think it out for them
selves. All objections urged against its
adoption are trifling compared to adj
vantages; the principal one being adj
ditional labor, which is small when
fairly considered-an additional hand,
perhaps, say eight months of the year
Tor "A 15O-acre farm.
THE REASON Why BEES WORK IN THE
DARK-A lifetime might be spent in
investigating the mysteries hidden in a
beehive, and still half the secrets
would be undiscovered. The forma
ton of the cell has long been cele-
brated p,oblem for the mathematician,
whilst the changes which the honey I'M
dergoes offer at least an equal interest
to the chemist. Every one knows what
honey fresh from comb is like. IT is
clear yellow syrup. without trace of
solid sugar in it. Upon straining, how
/ " tn ~
appearance-it candies, as the saying
is, and ultimately becomes solid
lump Of sugar. 1t has not been sus-
pected that this change was due to a
! Photographic action; that the same
agent which alters the molecular
arrangement Of the iodine Of silver on
the excited collodian plate. and deter
mines the formation Of champion and
| iodine crystals in a bottle, causes the
syrup honey to assume a crystalline
| form. This, however, is the case. NJ.
Scheibler has enclosed honey in stop
pered TASKS. some Of which he has
kept in perfect darkness; while others
| have been exposed to the light. The
invariable results have been that the
summed portion rapidly crystallized,
while that kept in the dark has re-
NAMED perfectly liquid. We now see
why bees work in perfect darkness, and
why they ar so careful TO obscure the
glass windows which are sometimes
placed in their hives. The existence
Of their young depends upon the liquid
| ity OF saccharine food presented to
them; and if light were allowed access
to the syrup it would gradually acquire
more or less solid consistency; it
would seal up the cells. and in all
probability prove fatal to the inmates
OF the hive.
| GATHERING BUTTER IN GRANULEs =
Several correspondents. who inquire
about gathering butter in the granules,
says the New York Tribune, are in
| formed that the process differs from the
common method of gathering IN mass
chiefly IN dropping the temperature OF
the cream five or six degrees at the
! finishing of the churning, instead OF
| keeping it at the same temperature un-
til it is done. The mode of procedure
is this The churning goes on as usual
! till the butter is about to gather, when
| cold water enough Is put into the churn
1 to reduce its contents TO Of degrees or
So degrees, and the churning Is then
slowly finished. The water is generally
put in at two or three different times, at
intervals of few minutes. By reduc-
ing the temperature SO low at the close
oft churning, the butter, instead OF
! adhering in mass as is common, re-
curing the buttermilk to be worked
out, gathers in granules or pellets of
solid butter. At 81 degrees the gran
ules will be about as large as grams OF
wheat and at 56 degrees about the size