Connecticut western news., 1879-07-30
FARM AND GARDEN.
SOME PRACTICAL NOTES,

4>' AsS WuO Td1Seu 1dBG year O,OUU DuSu- els of wheat on 13O acres of his 500-acre farm, keeps eight teams of horses and mules for agricultural service, and feeds corn only, as no oats are grown.
 The farmers of Montgomery County, Ohio, in club assembled, recently, "re- solved that one of the causes of the fall ure of seed corn is that it was not thor oughly dried on the cob," and therefore it was the sense of the meeting that corn for seed should be selected and put aside early in the fall.
 MT. Henry Hoster, Fayette, N. r., has thirty acre field of wheat, after wheat, promising yield of forty bush els to the acre. Rural Home says: "The first crop of wheat was sown on summer-fallow, lined with 100 bushels, unslaked, per acre. The stone is drawn ln piles of 100 bushels, where it is left to slake, and afterward spread from the hind end of a wagon, driving toward @ stiff wind. With this crop he drilled in one bushel each of salt and plaster"
 Shall we prune tomato vines? This depends on circumstances. If the land is rich and the seasons short, yes; if the land is poor and the seasons long, no. In the majority of cases which have come under the writer's observation to- matoes will ripen more fruit if the vines are occasionally pruned. In cool eli mate, If the vines are large, more fruit sets than can be ripened. have never been able to increase the yield of cu- cumbers or melons by clipping off the tips of the vines. Finer melons or squashes can often be produced by pinching the tips of the vines O few leaves in advance of the last fruit which has set. This prevents other fruit from setting, and aids in throwing the nour- ishment into the fruit which has started to grow.
 -Charring the lower end of posts has long since been recommended to pre- vent rot, but we do not know whether it is of sufficient value to justify the cost. Dipping in boiling coal-tar would prob- ably be of little benefit, as the timber ! would season and crack and water would enter the checks and thus go all through the wood. If the posts were thoroughly seasoned before the application it might do some good, but it is doubtful whether it would be of sufficient use to pay for the outlay.
 Corn meal alone is not the best feed tor yoa1ng chickens, but it may form part of their supplies. "Cracked" corn is better than meal, and in all cases the corn should be mixed with its weight of good sweet bran, and the mesa mois- tened with scalded sour milk. Oats, barley and wheat make good feed for young poultry, but should be ground coarsely. Potatoes boiled and mashed with oat, barley, wheat or corn-meal added, and the whole scalded with sour milk and placed in shallow troughs, is as good as need be, but it must not be fed to young chicks in wet, sloppy state.
 There is nothing better to mix with your pulverized bird manure to prevent Aoo AOooAhS3 uA1A SOOO hl1a OII0I 1Oan OI muck from swamp. Neither of these will injure the manure, although of course it will make 1t worth so much less per barrel if you desire to sell it. Only sufficient loam muck should be added to absorb the moisture in the manure, and it may require from peck to bushel. If the bird manure was thoroughly dried before pulverizing it would not heat.
 -Evaporated apples, 50 called, are prepared by aipatented process of drying by currents of heated air in a suitable apparatus. The process is much supe- rior to the ordinary drying. But as good dried apples may be produced by drying in common brick oven, heated only partly enough to bake bread when the bread is taken out baked, is about the right heat.
 All the desirable qualities are not found in their fullest developments in any one breed of fowls. For size, Brahmas, Cochins, Dorkings and Ply mouth Rocks are good, being the largest. The Brahmas and Rocks are also good layers and good nurses, quiet in dis position and altogether pleasant and profitable. The so-cslled laying breeds are smaller in size, more active and rest less, and poor sitters, but produce many eggs. aIAmong these the, ,Leghorns, Ham, burgs and Houdans stand high, and the Polish should also be classed with them. If one wishes to make a selection from the large breeds, he would do we'll to choose Brahmas or Plymouth Rocks. Of the layers, he may take his choice, but the Polish are the quietest.
 Loss of bark, if entirely around the tree, or nearly so, will be ultimately fatal, and there is no help for it. If part of the bark only is gone, make thick plaster of cow-dung and clay and cover the injured parts of the stem with it, and then wrap a piece of bagg1ng or carpet around it, finally smearing the covering with the plaster. The soil may then be heaped around the protected part to keep it moist. If the wood has not dried the bark may recover, but if the wood has dried and split hope is lost. Some pear-trees of the writer's, injured in this way three years ago, have finger ed until this year, then blossomed pro- fusely, as final effort, and died very soon afterward. A serious injury to the bark is rarely recovered from.
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