Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-06-26
AGRICULTURE.

~ 4SIAONG WdIlS lIOul 10 COW : LSdl,
take bottleful of soft water and put in
to it as much alum as the water will dis
solve, and wash the warts twice day af-
ter milking. They will soon disappear
under treatment.
CURING hay in the cock is preferable
to sun-drying. The sweating and fer
mantation improve, and prevent heat
ing In the NOV Or stack. The writer
prefers to put up hay, after the dew is
off, IN moderately large cocks-four
feet wide and higb-after it has lain
spread in the sun for one full day. It
may thus stay safely Tor a week, if ne
cessary, and hay-cap will protect it
from twenty-fOur hours rain. The
day that it is drawn in. man should
start early and open the cocks, to get a
final airing for two or three hours before
it is taken up.
In regard to the production of but
ter, a correspondent of the Ohio Farm
er says that ne feeds his COW on all the
good hay she can eat, one bushel of
turnlps and four quarts of bran each
day, keeps her in comfortable quarters,
and never allows her to drink very
cold water. Daring three months end
ing March 90, from her milk were made
1O3 pounds and 10 ounces of butter.
She has a calf II months old, and is
giving more milk now than during the
Winter. Her owner feels assured that
he can produce from her 500 pounds
butter per annum. The milk is al
ways scalded when it comes from her,
which operation is believed to improve
the quality and increase the yield OF
of butter. The breed is not stated.
RECENT investigations threaten to up
set some popular notions. 1t has long
been supposed that early cut hay is
more valuable than that cut later. IF
the judgment of the COWS were a test,
there would be no question about it.
They will leave the river hay and even
refuse to eat it at all, if they can pro-
cure that which is cut earlier. In the
writer's dairy the milk falls off more
than 10 per cent. when the young hay
is changed for that cut two weeks later.
This is sufficient to support the general
opinion, in spite of chemical analysis,
which go to show that ripe hay is heav-
Ter, more bulky; and contains more nu-
tritiOus substance than that cut ea1ller.
Perhaps the operations of the chemist
can extract more nutriment from ripe
hay than can the cows stomach; but as
young hay feeds more proftably, it
seems best to cut early.
The DEMAND FOR SHORT-HORNs.-A
correspondent of the Ohio Farmer
writes: The demand for shorthorns in
Ohio is good. Young males are rating
from 800 to $500 to farm ers, for the
purpose of crossing on natives and
grades, and TO those who buy to use in
thoroughbred herds at much larger
sum. Breeders say that the inquiry for
young animals of both sexes never was
greater, while the number of young
males suitable for use is really scarce
result explained by the great demand
for this class within the last few years
in the improvement of western cattle.
Hundreds of young bulls and females
but many more of the fOrmer-have
been shipped to Texas, Colorado and
New Mexico. Another reason for the
scarcity is the demand for our beef
from abroad. This demand is confined
to first quality, and this had induced
many to grade up their cattle. The
improvement in this respect is mani
fest, and has done much to develop the
sh orthorn interest.
| HAVE found the following way to
tighten wagon tires to be successful:
"Apply leather rings between the shout
ders on the outer ends of the spokes
and the corresponding portions of the
felloes, which may be done as follows:
Procure 8 number, of small pieces of
leather, from an inch and half or two
inches in diameter, with a sharp knife
and compass, or with cutting punch,
make round holes in the centers of
these pieces. and make q straight cut
from the hook to the outer edges of the
pieces, so as to form open rings. The
holes must be made of q size that will
nicely fit the lemons on the outer ends
of the spokes Place fulcrum on the
top of hub, on which place your lever,
with its short end under the felloe, near
a spoke; Lave an assistant bear down
on the other end sufficiently to raise the
felloe and expose the shoulder and
tenon of the spoke, open your leather
and fit it nicely around the tenon, hold
ing 1t to its place while your assistant
relaxes the lever by blow or two upon
the tire. Having repeated the process
with sufficient number of spokes to
make the tire all right, trim off the pro-
jecting leather even with the surface of
the spokes, and your task will be done.
If your pieces of leather should be
spongy, hammer them down some be-
| fore using"
FREQUENT CAUSES OF DISEASE IN Pics.
The disease which affect these ami
mails generally originate from their be-
ing kept in loathsome and uncomforta-
BILE situations, inhaling the most infec-
tious exhalations, and being at one
time stinted with food, and at another
| fed tc the extreme. The hog, although
wallowing in the filthiest mire, and
sometimes fed upon the most disgusting
food, both animal and vegetable, and
often when in decomposed state, does
not always do so with impunity. We
are convinced that many animals OF
this class are annually lost from the eff
fects of improper food, or from living
in an atmosphere surcharged with
poisonous effiuvia, the product of ami
NAL or vegetable decomposition; and
we think that owners of pigs often
make great mistakes in not paying
more attention to the quality of their
food and the condition of their lodg-
ings. Decomposing substances, both
animal and vegetable, grain that has
undergone change from long keep
ing or exposure to damp, and which is
loaded, perhaps, with the spouries oil
poisonous fungi, brine from the meat
tub, these and other similar su distances
| are often given to MOS as food and In