Connecticut western news., 1879-12-17
FARM AND GARD FEN.
CLEARING SLOUGH LAND.

tough sod, and digging out ditches to drain such land, much useless labor may be given that could be spared by skillful work. The spade is commonly used for this purpose, but as in dig ging dry ground this slow tool may be replaced to very great advantage by the blow and the horse shovel. In working in swamps these more effective tools may be made available in many cases. To cut off the tussocks with grub-hoes, while they are tough in the summer time, is very hard and slow work but if common horse-scraper is used they can be torn up, or cut off, with the greatest ease. The scraper should be furnished with sharp st3el cutting blade in the front, which may be rivet- ed on, or fastened with bolts, so that it may be taken off and ground sharp. If there are wet and soft places the scraper may be drawn by a chain of sufficient length to keep the horses upon dry ground. This plan has been tried by the writer with success, and with great saving of time and expense the digging of pond twenty feet wide along the edge of a swamp, was per- formed with one man, boy, team, and horse-shovel, as quickly as ten men could have done it with spades. In cutting tough swamp the blow may be used to break up the surface when the horse-shovel will remove the muck very fast. If the swamp is wet, and water flows in the excavation, the digging may still be done with the horse-scraper by adding to the length of the handles and using blanks upon each side for the man to stand upon, and blanks upon the inner side of the digging for the scraper to slide upon with it's load of muck. The muck may be thrown in heaps on the side of the pond or ditches, and 1t will be found convenient to leave it upon one side instead of continuous heap, as this will greatly facilitate it's final disposal in whatever way that may be.
 MANURE.
 From ninety-two hills of potatoes manured with wheat bran, at the rate of handful each, MT. Thomas A. Laing, of the Western New York Farmers Club, dug two and one-fourth bushels variety, Early Rose; quality, excep- tionally fine. An equal number of hills without such farinaceous help gave only three pecks, and many of the tubers were quite small. He says bushel of the bran, weighing about twenty five pounds, sufices, at this rate, for 100 hills; and an acre would require half 8 ton, costing $7. At the same meeting there were statements of experience in winter maturing. MT. J. Dewey has during the past five years, drawn from stables as fast as made, scattered at once over sod ground intended for corn, and found the crop decidedly superior to that from the surface manured in spring. "His boys were remarking yesterday upon how much better the corn was on the side of the field where they drew the first manure than on that where they finished" MT. Simmons likewise reported more satisfactory re- suits when the manure was spread at once than when left in heaps and spread just before blowing.
 BUTTER-MAK1Na BEGINS AT THE STABLE.
 The best butter-maker in the world will fail to get first quality butter if the COWS are milked in a dirty stable. It is not long ago that New Jersey farmer asked me how he could best market his butter, which he said was exceedingly good. He enlarged upon his high grade Attorneys and the quality of his pastures and water. Afterwards l went out to see COW I wanted to buy, and he sat down at milking-t time to let me judge of her flow. certainly never saw dirt1er pail of milk. Specks of dirt, dust, dandruff, hairs, &o., &c.,, peppered the top, and swashed about on the bottom as the pail was emptied. He got only | IS or 20 cents for his butter, and I think it was worth no more. Does not this filth flavor the milk, the cream, and the butter ? Most assuredly it does. This is only obvious filth the invisible and more potent volatile exhalations from the manure and the urine-saturated floors, and all the nal -odorous surround ings of most cow-stables, usually have a still greater influence. When milk is once contaminated, nothing can be done which will entirely do away with the effect. Part of the evil may be removed by thorough airing of the milk as it is cooled before setting. Shallow setting no doubt favors the removal of these odors, and seration during churning has an important effect. But, here as in many other things, the fountain-h head is the spot at which reform should be commenced. .-Agriculturist
 LIBERAL FERTILIZNG.
 "The liberal soul shall be made fat. !" This applies in remarkable degree te the fertilizing of one's fields. Up to g certain point, each additional dollars worth of manure is returned with prof varying from 100 to 200 per cent. But while there is a point beyond whicf manuring will not pay, there is also one below which it is equally unproftable' Each one must find this limit for him self. On my soil, which is light sandy loam, deep, mellow and warm, and one that does not readily dry out, 200 pounds of artificial fertilizer, or 10 loads of ma nure, per acre, makes but very little show but 600 pounds of fertilizer pel acre has paid for itself three times over A friend who farms A clav snil in West