Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-09-03
RURAL NOTES.

IT is a good plan to burn potato vines
after the tubers are dug. That will
dispose of the potato rot fungus if there
is any upon them.
This is about the time of the year to
SOW white turnips. There is plenty of
time to secure a good crop before frost
comes.
In France dealers sometimes give an
irritable or wicked horse two ounces of
laudanum in pint of brandy, to calm
its nerves before being shown.
In view of the late ravages by grass
hoppers in the Pacific states, it is pro-
posed to import and naturalize the mi
gratory quail of Southern Europe there.
Ii is bad practice to pillow up pastures
for re-seeding, The older the pasture,
as a rule, the better the grass. If pas
ture fails to top dress it will we'll decom-
posed manure.
The stems Of all fruit trees cannot be
too frequently washed, as by this means
old dead bark, which affords a hiding
place to many noxious insects, will be
removed, as we'll as moss and fungi,
which absorb the juices and consequently
hasten the decay of the tree.
IN showing how extremely sensitive
butter and milk are to foreign odors,
and how rapidly they absorb them, DR..
Nichols states that he has known q
choice pan of butter spoiled by farmer
walking into the dairy room, with his
cow-stall boots on, covered with animal
excrement.
In selecting an animal for breeding or
fattening, obtain one having large chest
the part containing the lungs, heart
and the larger blood vessels, all of which
have an important function to perform
in the process of nutrition. 1t is we'll
known among cattle men that animals
with small chests do not fatten readily,
and they are remarkably susceptible to
the influence of exciting causes of dis
ease.-Chautauqua Farmer.
PASTURES which are not closely grazed
send up seed stalks early in summer, the
ripening of which exhausts the soil and
plants, and prevents the animals from
reaching the fine grass beneath. By
passing the reaper, set ten or twelve
inches high, over the pasture as soon as
these stalks are thrown up, all the above
mentioned bad effects are prevented,
and handsome, even surface of green
heritage is presented to the eye.
ANOTHER enemy to wheat-growing is
reported in the shape of weed some.
what resembling cookie. In some parts
of the east it has become so abundant as
to cause serious alarm; especially so in
North Carolina, where it springs up 81
simultaneously with the grain, and nearly
smothers it. 1t has white blow, and
bears numerous pods, in each of which
are four seeds. The people have given it
the name of "Dutch cockle."
A HEAVY loss in the decay of out
buildings, roofs, gates and fences and
tools, would be prevented in a cheap
way by the use or crude petroleum. 1t
is more efectual than paint, IS it enters
the pores of the wood freely and does
not cost over tenth as much. It is
rapidly put on with whitewash brush
by common laborer, the only care re-
CURED being to cause the wood to soak
in as much of the oil as practicable, and
to spill as little as may be convenient on
the ground.
PROF. HARRINGTON, in summary of
the experiments begun in 1870 by the
Maine agricultural college to ascertain
which has the greatest value as food
for swine, cooked or unlocked meal,
says: "We have, by an experiment
which has been continued from three to
four months of each of the nine years
since its beginning, obtained evidence
that all the money and labor expended
in cooking meal for swine is more than
thrown away"
AND now comes genius from Sweden
who claims to have invented machine
for separating cream from milk, by
which means fresh milk is put in at one
end, cream drawn out of one hole and
skim-milk of another at the other end.
| This little institution only costs 1925,
and requires but two men to run it.
It is said that it does it's work perfectly,
and only leaves three tenths of one per
cent. of cream in the milk-which is an
additional reason why everybody should
get one.
A GOOD practice adopted by some
farmers to escape the ravages of the corn
cut-worm, and which is applicable to
any place where this insect is trouble
some, is the adoption of the following
rotation: Wheat, clover, corn: barley,
clover. The wheat is sown on well in
verted clover sod, pulverized with
Shares harrow or two horse cultivator
by passing several times; the clover pre-
ceding the corn is we'll top-dressed with
autumn manure, which is turned under
with the clover just before planting; the
barley year may be spring wheat, or
peas, but most farmers who adopt this
course object to oats.
IT is said that thick lime whitewash,
hinned with strong tobacco juice, and
pplied to young fruit trees in the fall,
an efectual preventive against their
being gnawed by rabbits. A pailful is
sufficient to cover 200 trees. We have
seen so many orchards ruined by these
pests that it is with some emphasis that
we say, don't neglect some protection
either this or something else-for your
young trees. If they have been un-