The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-06-18
FARM NOTES.

Ten cents per foot will purchase and
pay for putting up the best quality of
lightning rod. Any one paying more is
robbing himself or his family.
To RAISE cows for the dairy they
should not he allowed to become fat at
any stage of growth, and should be
brought TO calf before two years of age.
Every breeding develops large milking
powers.
EXPERIENCE of two seasons, one wet
and the other dry, is that prairie sod,
no matter how early turned, rots better,
is more free from weeds and grass after
a crop of flax, than uncropped sod broken
in May or June.
NOTHING mars the beauty of a farm
more than to see it surrounded by
great big, Overgrown hedge fence, shut
ting the farm out from view, and, on
the other hand, nothing adds more to
the appearance of a farm than to see it
surrounded by neatly trimmed hedge
OF the proper height.
WASH FOR Messy TREES" The fol-
lowing wash L have found efficacious
Heat one ounce of salsoda to redness in
an iron pot, and dilute it in one gallon
of water, and while warm apply to the
trunk. After one application the moss
and old bark will drop off and the tree
be quite smooth. "-P., MasoaUiUe,
IO,Ua.
The old practice among farmers of
annually scraping the trunks of apple
trees and afterward applying IL coat Of
whitewash Is not SO common nowadays
as it used TO he. Still the good results
following the labor will well repay one.
/ Underneath the dry and dead bark
countless numbers of vermin make their
! home when the bark is removed and
whitewash applied the destruction of all
vermin is certain.
HAVE had sweet corn rs field crop
since 1876, and am planter of twelve
to fifteen acres year. [ have also
furnished seed to large number Of
dairy farmers, and the acreage is now
counted in this vicinity by hundreds,
with an increase this year. The chemist
makes the value of sweet corn as about
nine to five for other sorts. We begin
to feed on the stalks about July 20 to
our mich COWS and pigs, and before
frost we cut up and cure for winter use.
1t makes the best of COW feed.-Asa c.
BOCer, Sand Spring, Pa.
WE have often read of thumb pots for
plants. An egg shell is a very mex
pensive one, and answers its purpose
well : break one end little larger than
you do the other, making simply a small
hole then fill with earth, and if you
wish to put plants in them, set in box
the height of the shell fill the spaces
with earth ; the plants start splendidly,
and can be takel. out and handled very
easily. As the shell is much lighter
than pots, they are more desirable for
shipping; fill the space with moss or
any light substance used for that pur-
pose.
Most of the ferns found in our woods
contain more or less starch, and when
properly prepared are extremely palat
able and nutritious, An attempt was
recently made in France to popularize
them as an article of food. The young
shoots of the common brake fern when
exposed above the soil to the air and
sunlight become exceedingly tieshy,
white and tender. A famous French
painter is known TO pride himself on his.
fern omelets, aud the hill tribes of Japan
1--we on fern all the year round In
spring they eat the tender leaflets, and
later in the season they eat the starch
extracted from the roots.
THESE suggestions as to managing
young bulls are given by the William
cite Farmer: To make first-class
animal he should run with the COW till
he is months old at least. If weaned
earlier, feed on new milk just from the
COW three times day till he is 6 months
old, then twice day till months, then
once a day for a month or so longer.
At an early day, say month Old give
him a little fine hay to pull at, aud later
let him have some oatmeal, n little oil
cake, vegetables, etc. increasing the
rations gradually as he grows older.
Weaving from milk should be gradual
and in pasture time. Ring his nose at
8 months and handle him from that time
on daily. After he is weaned, feed as
you would other cattle to keep them N
the best condition. Do not handle the
ring after it is put in until the wound is
entirely healed, and rub on his nose
mutton-tallow twice day.