The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1879-01-11
THE FARMERS COLUMN
Practical Notes.

A WRITER in an exchange saws: "I
laid in store of sod cut in pieces, for
my chicken house last winter. and
found it most valuable for the fowls.
| packed it in one corner of the house
and before spring the poultry had pulled
it all to pieces"
THREE HUNDRED gallons of castor oil
were produced this year in St. Clair
County, H., alone. The oil of Illinois
is said to be equal to that produced in
Levant, in Spain, Provence, Brazil, or
the West Indies, and it is steadily i'm
proving in quality. About twenty
bushels of beans to the acre is considered
a fair yield.
THERE would seem to be no end to
big crops this year. In the North we
have the largest live stock and corn
crops for many years, and now comes
along the South with an enormous cot
ton crop, amounting to 4,S11, 265 bales
against 4, 4S5, 423 bales in 1877. This is
the largest crop since that of 1S59-60,
the greatest ever known.
THE following is on the wing, which
if true, we shall have to tally one for
whisky: Some years ago | was told
that mellowing drink of whisky or
beer given to SOW that refuses to let
her pigs suck, would induce her to adopt
them kindly. A few days since neigh
Dor who had worried all night with a
valuable SOW, applied for assistance, and
advice being much cheaper and easier
than work, L urged him till he admin
istered half pint of whisky. 1t worked
like a charm. She received her eight
little ones with the usual porcine ex-
pressions of maternal satisfaction, and
has been kind mother ever since.
viii the readers of the Rural remember
this and keep on hand the said "half
pint" but don't drink it yourself, it
might have the same effect on your poor
self.-RuraL World.
ONE of the adiuncts to the workshop
of every farm ought to be a set Of tools
needed in mending harnesses, so that
the boys may, on rainy days, learn a
new trade, and save quite an expense.
With harnesses, a stitch in time saves,
not nire, but ninety-nine more. The
essentials are, two avis, needles, waxed
ends, AMI clamp to hold the piece to be
sewed. The last may be made out of a
couple Of barrel slaves fastened to a
block, and frightened by strap around
the middle. Some mending will nave
to go to the shop; but, in the course of
the year quite q sum can be saved by
merely sewing up the ripped and torn
places il the harness or padding. We
have found copper rivets, sold in half
pound boxes, of great advantage in
| III har u olF mob vote
come into play oftenest, though q few
three-qusrter inch ones may be needed.
-Erch0age.
This very old mode, among tidy far
mers, to make their apple orchards look
nice, utwhich for many years has been
Kext to abandoned, is coming into vogue
again, and discussions are being held as
to the propriety of it. The German
town Telegraph says: "What we know
about the matter ourselves is, that we
do not think that it makes much differ
so far as the health and productiveness
Of the trees are concerned, whether they
are White-Washed or not. In other
words, we do not think it pays. 1t
certainly has a tendency to close the
pores of the trunks, as well as that it
has an unnatural appearance. So far as
it is declared that the white-wash causes
the old bark to scale off and hiding
places of insects to be disturbed, and
this is about all that is clasmed for it,
how much better for every farmer hay-
ing an orchard, to scrape the trees
once year, or only every other year,
and follow it with a washing of whale oil
soap or carDOlic soap and water, applied
with a short broom. This would be sure
to dlsl0dge the insects, open the pores Of
the trees, and give them a natural,
healthy appearance This would do the
work effectually, and leave no room for
doubt or discussion. Whatever aid the
whitewashing of trees may be to their
health and productiveness, the best
orchards we ever saw, which bore full
crops for generation, were not white
washed, but 7craped and washed with
soft soap"
WE frequently come across remon-
strances against keeping harnesses in
stables, the reason given being that the
ammonia prevalent there rots the leather
and soon destroys the harness. Now
this is beginning at the wrong end TO
remedy an evil. We may talk and adj
wise, "year in and year out" about the
matter, but harness will be kept in the
stable in spite of all. Where else can
the majority Of people who keep horses
hang these trappings? A rich man may
have closet in which the harness may
hang safely from fear of ammonia and
all other dangers; but the average horse
owner will have his peg behind the team,
hpP1nSa n Of
disposing of the harness. But the
trouble would end if the production of
ammonia were prevented. Enter an
ordinary stable at any period. but espec-
tally In the winter, when every Granny
through which the wind can come in is
carefully stopped, and what an offensive
odor offends the nostrils and irritates the
eyes. Is this odor of ammonia, strongly
alkaline and irritaut, injurious only to
the harness? What of the horses, and
the tender membranes Of the eve, the
throat and the nasal passage? Do you
think they are less sensitive than oak
tanned harness leather, well creased and
preserved as it is? By no means. If
the prevalent odors injuriously affect
the leather, you may be sure the eyes
suffer, the throat and lungs are irritated
aud the nasal passages become infamed.
Then occurs the frequent moon-blind-
ness, ophthalmia, weeping of the eyes,
followed by inflammation, white specks,
then follow coughs, bronchitis, pneu-
monia, heaves, catarrh, nasal gleet; and
by--and-by, when the blood has become
poisoned by the absorption of diseased
matter from infamed and suppurated
membranes, farcy and glanders-dread-
full and fatal to man and beast, too