Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-10-13
SEASONABLE FARM NOTES.

/ pOUduOoS Gll1S ulOutu us OH COIu uoAG.
They do best on cooked feed, and the
grain ought to be ground.
LATE experiments have shown that
seeds thoroughly dried are much slower
in producing plants than the undried,
while the crops yielded are considerably
greater.
GRASS seed may be sown few weeks
after the grain. Thrifty growing tim
othy of the grain if sown as early as the
wheat crop, and clover seed is best
sown in the spring after or with the last
snow.
This month offers the most favorable
time usually for the painting and repair
of farm buildings, and putting them in
order for the winter. A great part of
this work may be well done during this
month by the farmer and his boys.
IMPLEMENTS put away for the winter
should be painted or protected in some
way from the action of the air and mois-
ture. Paint or varnish for the wood
work, and varnish of two thirds rCsin
and One-third mutton tallow is excellent
for protecting iron and steel.
PLowING for spring crops may be
light and not likely to wash during the
winter. The ground should be left
rough to be subjected to the fullest ac-
ton of the weather, freezing, thawing,
wetting, drying, etc. Should crop Of
weeds come up, it will very likely pay
to harrow and pillow again.
A LITTLE extra feed brings cattle and
horses to to the beginning of winter in
good order. The tops of carrots, beets
and t11rnips may be fed to good advan-
tage, and there is great deal of sweet
ness In the October pasturage. Where
much corn is planted, there will always
be soft ears and nubbins, which are
best feet to horses and pigs.
The sowing of bushel of oats per
acre, with the winter wheat, has often
proved material benefit to the wheat
crop. The oats grow more vigorously
than the wheat and aid in catching and
holding the snow. The oats act as a
protection or mulch to the wheat. The
little food the young oat plants draw
from the soil is returned during the
spring when, being killed by the winter,
they rapidly decay.
RIDGE blowing of stiff clays is often
OF great benefit. It is done by turning
the burrows two and two together, so as
to leave the land uniformly ridged. The
ridges must runup and down the slopes;
9th erwise, in heavy rains, water will be
held by the ridges until it breaks
through somewhere, when there will be
danger of a GO wash out. This system of
winter following involves blowing again
In the spring, but shows it's good effects
In the crops.
Corn fodder by which we mean the
stalks after husking (not the leaves of
the corn merely stripped off, should be
bound in bundles, probably best done
with willow withes, and stacked up so as
to shed rain. Large stacks, well set and
firmly bound, may be left In the field
untilAeeded for feeding, without injury
to the fodder In fact, it is often
brighter and better when treated in this
way than in any other. In stacks, or in
sheds, it is likely to heat and mould, I'M
less it can be more thoroughly dried
than we can be sure of having it.
AFTER the roots have been re-
moved from the field, the sheep
should be turned in that they
may pick up the small, imper-
feet roots and the scattered leaves. This
Will accustom them to the change of
food that must soon come. IF early
lambs are not desired, then rams must
kept from the ewes, or otherwise be
| aproned or DRAFTED. 1t is an impor-
tant matter that the ewes that are to
bear lambs should be well fed, and be-
gin the winter in good condition. A
little grain fed to the ewes now will do
much to insure strong lambs.
EXTRA mixers should be kept to
breed from, their milking qualities
alone emitting them to the preference
1t it quite as necessary to raise the
calves of good mixers, in order to have
another race of good mixers, IS it is to
raise the colts of good trotters in order
to have fast horses. Extra dairy COWS
are always in demand. It is certainly to
be regretted that more care is not taken
to improve the milking qualities of our
COWS, and it is also q source of regret
that SO many of our farmers are in the
habit of disposing of SO many of their
young calves to the butchers.
The use of implements of husbandry
of imperfect construction, or in bad con-
dition, it is confidently believed, is a
greater annual tax to the farmers than
all the assessments imposed by law.
The hindrance to labor, loss in time,
the greater hardships of its accomplish
ment and it's less effectual operation by
the toggled chain, the racked cart, the
dull plow- point, the toothless harrow, the
broken hoe, the spade, the rake, If kept
in accurate account of each individual,
would present an aggregate of loss r.
proachful to many and criminal in the
most careless.
If pure water does not flow at the
barn, look into means for securing it.
Barnyard wells are convenient, but often
dangerous to the health, if not of animals,
certainly to men, who may drink at
them. If the water of some spring can
| be led to the house and barn, by all
means bring it down-use plain iron
pipes or enameled ones-not gal
vanized pipes. Zinc is slow poison,
but not quite as bad as lead. A well on
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