The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-11

February is a good month to SET mems LOT
early chickens. When these are wanted
see that every hen that wants to sit IS graf
flied.
Keep a rood supply of old mortar, or
crushed oyster shells, where your lows can
help themselves, and see that the graVei
box is kept full.
The chinch hug, SO destructive to the
wheat crop, and the bed bug both belong
ing to the same order. yet one mas wings
and the other is wiugless.
Grating may be commenced the latter
part of this month. If the weather IS MID,
especially cherry trees, which succeeded
best when grated early.
There is nothing that fowls will devour
more greedily than raw bone when 1t is bro
ken into bits. Mills that will break bones
can be had for a few dollars.
Should the frost come out during the
month the truck patch should be manfred
and p%loughed to save time and labor IN the
spring, when the busy season comes.
Reducing all the milk and cheese sold,
together with butter, to a butter standard,
the average product Of all the COWS in the
country is less than 703 pounds pei COW.
Buekwheat is recommended as the best
remedy for the wire worm. Two or three
crops SOWeu Ill SuCCcSSlOH VIII SolipI~tS'
starve them cut, as they will not eat it to
any extent.
Spring wheat should be sown early. A
cold spell may freeze the ground or cover 1T
with snow, but the seed is safe If the work
is done, and one may rest contented while
others are grumbling.
Greensboro Beacon DIR. Ed. Lindsay
carried the stomach, liver and spleen of Pc
+or yThitEolI TO (Nhanol Hill for ANALYSIS
last Thursday.-Greensboro is certainly
furnishing her quota of brides this season TO
young men from other towns.
An Indian farmer asks this pertinent
question: s'Is it not better to feed corn to
my COWS, every bushel of which will make
three pounds of butter, worth from Is to 20
cents per pound, giving 81 cents per bushel
for corn at my door, with the manure left
on the farm, rather than to sell it at 80 to
80 cents and impoverish my farm p
Keep the stables clean. Clear out the
manure every morning and scrape or card
of all the filth from the animals. The sta,
BILE should be made so warm that the ma
nure will not freeze at night. A lower tenn
perature will either demand a larger amount
of food or the animal will fall off in condi-
ton.
We loosen a wet soil TO facilitate evapo-
ration and roll or otherwise compress a
dry soil to retard it. When h0eing to de-
stroy weeds be careful to Tighten up your
own footsteps or you will find the weeds
quickly terminate there. The soil being
compressed retards moisture and facilities
termination.
If there is not sufficient rain to keep COM
post heaps moist water should be supplied,
even if it has to be hauled and poured on
them. Decomposition is arrested when the
heap becomes dry. A few barrels of
water from the we'll will soon start up heat
and decomposition in a dry pile Of COM
post.
The best place to keep eggs intended for
Matching is to wrap them in paper and put
| them down cellar in a covered box or bas-
ket. [ have known eggs to hatch after be-
ing kept this way for four weeks before
being set. If they have to be kept for some
time it is best to turn them once every day
OF every other day. But set the eggs as
soon as a hen can be had to take them.