The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-02-05

Chopped onions, with q littls vinegar
mixed 10, naid to be sure cure for
chicken cholera.
Among all domesticated animals none
are more profitable than poultry, when
their products are properly disposed of.
Wood ashes make an excellent fertili-
zer for pear trees. Mixed coal and
wood ashes may also be applied with
advantage. For fruit trees of all kinds
ground bones are better than fermenting
manure.
A fruit grower in Tangipahoe Parish,
Louisiana, speaking of pear blight, says:
"This disease is on the increase in
almost every orchard in the South. The
cause is chiefly bad culture and no
pruning"
Draining Hollow.-To a drain de-
preston in field where clayey or hard
pan subsoil prevents the sinking of rain
water, and the lay of the land is un-
favorable for ordinary methods of drain
age, first dig a hole, as if for a well,
through the impervious stratum at the
bottom of the hollow, fill it up to the
brim with refuse stones, remove the
excavated earth 60 as to allow the sur
face-water free access to the pit, and
standing water will never injure the
grass or grain crop in that part of the
field.-We Dirie Farmer.
Winter Pruning.-It is not wise to
cut off large limbs from fruit trees in
the winter, but for twig pruning this
season of the year is the best. One has
plenty of time to do this work, and can
attend to it personally. T
George Parmelee, veteran orchardist
of the North, does all the pruning in his
hundred-acre orchard in the winter, and
has adopted this plan after an experience
with different methods in various locali-
ties, running through thirty years of
time. But one thing is true of his prun-
ing, that he does it 30 we'll from the
young planted tree to the largest in his
orchard. that no large limb is ever
taken off.
Prof. Steele, of Mobile, Ala, gives
the following instance of the profits in
the single small fruit, strawberries:
"In October OF 1873, a gentleman living
in the neighborhood of Mobile, put out
upon his farm 1000 strawberry plants
of the Wilson's Albany variety. They
cost him 81. Of these, 160 plants died,
leaving him $40 growing and in fair
condition. Last spring they came into
bearing, and from these $40 plants he
sold in the st. Louis market fruit enough
to bring him $64.02, besides having
sufficient left for home consumption.
Next spring they will be apt to do
much better than they did last spring."
Poultry Vermin.-The american Agri-
culturist says: Vermin are the greatest
pest to fowls. They are worse in the
winter than at other times, because the
fowls are confined more closely, and
have not opportunities to free them
selves Lice may be destroyed by
whitewashing the house and roosts with
lime-wash mixed with carbolic acid.
Fleas may be destroyed by thoroughly
greasing the roosts. Clean straw should
be supplied to the nests, and glass nest
eggs provided for early layers. A glass
covered coop will be useful for an early
setting lien and a young brood of
chickens.
Ashes on the Lawn.-In the place of
the unsightly lawns at this season of the
year, that we find about cities, covered
over with coarse manure, that scents the
whole neighborhood with its escaping
gases, we might have the same beauti-
full turf of summer, by applying ashes
as fertilizer. For a surface applica-
tion to grass lands, T. s. Colo, Secre-
tary of the Connecticut Board of Agri-
culture, says ashes are worth twenty
five cents per bushel. In almost any
city or village family, ashes enough are
made during the year to fertilize a
large lawn, and save the unsightly, un-
pleasant, odoriferous compound from
the stable usually applied for this pur-
pose. 1t is impossible in the aggregate,
as we have suggested above, to get too
much manure, but there are suitable
places for the various sorts.
There are some instructive lessons in
the sudden panic in wheat. The large
buyers, like Keene, can look complac-
entity on and see the market go down,
for they know that a full recovery is
only question of time. But the small
operators who followed the big Iish,
when they saw prices going up, and
gambled on still further dvance, find
themselves in most unfortunate fix.
1t is the same lesson that the lambs
learned in Wall street in December,
when the heavy operators, by dexter
GUS turn, were able to add few more
millions to their profits. The rush of
the small wheat speculations to get out
of the market will not unlikely send
prices still lower. They are even yet
higher in Chicago than will admit of
profitable shipment to the seaboard, and
the blockade in the elevators and ware
houses continues.-CSncinnat Gazette.
Next to man, the horse has a claim
to higher order of treatment than any
other animal. He needs pure air and
water, quiet and comfortable lodging,
exercise with alternate rest, salt always
within reach and variety of diet; but
especially regularity in feeding and
watering, and honest currying and hard
rubbing. Numbers of horses remain
thin, while consuming full quantity of
food-showing their food is not properly
assimilated. A change in his diet is the
remedy. One of the best possible feeds
is little cottoM-seed meal with equal
quantities of corn and oats ground fine,
and ali with cut hay or straw-a gallon
of the mixture three times a day is
usually enough. As long as he finishes
his allowance, the quantity can be
gradually increased, if necessary, but
never put in so much that he will stand
by trough with food or a rack with
hay or fodder. He will thrive better
with no more food than he will consume
clean. One of the greatest barbarities
of modernism is tight check-rein when
horse is stationary, or sitting long on
his back while standing. When tine
horse is not in motion, the rein should
be lowered, or the rider dismount.
~ "a G. FEE
- Topics for the IHousehsld. -'
PoRKERs from three to four months
old are the most delicate. and six month";