The Portland daily press., 1880-04-14
AGRICULTURAL.
What to Plant and Sow,

What to Plant and Sow.
We heard farmer remark the other day,
1.-The West will be buried in wheat next Fall
and flour won't be worth five dollars bar
rl II won't do to SOW wheat this year."
That man will have his flour to buy next
year. 1t may be low as he expects or it may
be high. but in either case he will have to
pay for it in money. Very likely some of
his neighbors have concluded that the West
will be buried in corn this year and that it
can be bought next Fall very cheap; so they
won't plant corn and next Fall when they
must have it they will have to buy; and so
on of all the other crops which are shipped
to us from the West. Now if this kind of
argument and conclusion is applied to crops
designed for the market, it is well enough,
for no one is wise in raising anything to sell
which costs more than it comes to, but we
hold it to be rule with very few exceptions
that farmer never makes mistake when
he raises any crop to which his land is
adapted, in sufficient quantities for his own
use, and that he ought to lay his plans to do
this regardless Of the probable cost or price.
The first aim OF every farmer, or al least of
every farmer working with small capital,
should be to produce upon his own land his
own family supplies. and to be able to say in
the Fall, Il have all the bread, all the meat,
all the vegetables. and all the fruit | shall
use for year." Having done this he is prac-
tically Independent and can snap his fingers
at the prices current and rest secure. 1t is
generally easier for a farmer to do this than
it is to get the money to buy even when
prices are low, and that prices will be low
none of us have, or can have, at any time, a
guaranty. By so much as the cost of mar
keting is, and this is considerable, any art-
Gle is worth more to use than it is to sell,
and consequently farmers can afford to raise
for their own use that which perhaps they
cannot afford to raise to sell; and if this
were not so most farmers cannot wholly take
the risk which is involved in relying upon
any one or two crops for the money necessa-
ry to buy all they want. There is no risk in
mans cultivating what he and his family
will want to eat, but when he devotes him
self to one crop, expecting that it will prove
profitable one he is betting against all sorts
of hazards of which he can know nothing
and against which he cannot provide. He
must take his chances against drouth, in
sects, storms and spectators not only at
home but abroad, and if any one of these
prevails against him he is swamped If he
has only his farm and stock to rely on he
cannot afford to make such a venture any
more than he can afford to go into the mar
ket and buy future" on the wheat crop.
There are other reasons which dictate the
same course, such as the advantage of know
ing that what one eats is free from adultera-
lions and cheats, and the satisfaction of hav-
ing the products of ones own hands and
the fruits of his own farm to rely on; but
outside of these there is enough to warrant
the unqualified advice to nearly every farmer,
'Plant and sow with view to preventing,
as far as possible, the necessity of buying
dollars worth of any farm crop next Fall"
ffarf hi will do fon 4 1n
ann to raise that which will sell at profit.
Mirror and Farmer.
Poultry.
We are all liable, especially in our poul-
try business, to make mistakes, few of
which we will notice in this article One
great error committed, is that of killing off
the best specimens and keeping the poorest
for laying eggs and raising chickens. Ifone
is needed for the table, nine times out of
ten the young pullet is selected-the largest
and most symmetrical goes into the poland
by the time the laying season comes around
the yard contains nothing but old hens and
perchance few pullets that are culls that
should have gone into the pot, instead of
the good ones. This process is repeated
from year to year. The old hens become
worthless as layers, sicken and die, bringing
uiCCdoO ih1C tilC ydiu lOl IL 10 Juot dS luuCu
in the nature of things for old bens to be
come diseased and die, as it is for old vege--
tables to decay and rot. Hence, after two
or three years of this kind of management,
If any are left on the farm, they are mere
dwarfs, having lost their vigor as well as
their identity as to the original breed from
which they first sprang. 1t is not to be
wondered at, then, that so many complain
that poultry is Improbable. And this is
only one of the errors that are committed in
poultry raising. The remedy for this par
ticular fault is very easy one. In the first
place, never kill off the choice pullets-re-
serve them for laying and breeding, and kill
the small and poor specimens as they may
be needed but, have no inferior bird in the
yard at breeding time.
~ We notice some yards full of old hens, be-
ing kept on account of their original excel
lenee, and because they are inferior to
younger ones for table use. This is great
error. Old hens are expensive to keep on
account of the amount they eat. They have
a tendency to get fat, then they stop laying
We have seldom found any profit in keeping
hens the third year, and believe it is better
to dispose of them at the end of the second
years laying. We don't, however, wish to
be understood as saying that hens cease al
together to lay at the end of the second or
third year, but what we do say is, that as
layers they are improbable to keep after
that time.
The plan we have adopted, and which we
recommend, is, as soon as moulting season
is over, to shparate the old hens and the in
ferior specimens of cockerels and pullets
from those selected to keep over. Keep
them in separate pens-not over a dozen in
each THAT is, the old hens) and feed them
all they will eat, changing food daily, giving
corn in the grain, boiled potatoes and meal
slightly sailed and peppered, cooked meat
twice week, with plenty of pure water, and
in very short time they will be in good
marketable condition; then either use them
or sell them in market for table use. Don't
undertake to keep them until the price suits
you, but sell them at once; for every penny
spent on them then is lost, and old fowls are
not commodity that will keep long when
in that condition.
Another great error is that of breeding in
and-in. We never do it, and always have
good, healthy chickens or exchange with
neighbor, getting new ones each season. 1t
pays us, and it will pay you. Try it.
Western Stock Journal.
Canning Fruits.
There are in fruits and cereals three kinds
of sugar: care sugar, glucose, and frucose,
all three nearly allied, but still each one has
peculiarities of its own, and yet one is easily
changed to another In'the growth and ma
turity of plants these are continually chang
ing. Cane sugar is easily converted into
glucose. When it is used for preserving
fruits, if the sugar is boiled with the fruit, a
large portion of the sugar is converted into
glucose, which is not so sweet as the cane
sugar, and the more acid there is in the
fruit the more sugar it requires, because the
acid aids in converting the cane sugar into
glucose. Cane sugar will not produce alco-
hol, but glucose will, and alcohol is very
frequently created in preserves, in which
case the idea is prevalent that there was not
sugar enough applied, when the fact is it
was not properly used. If the fruit is first
boiled, then the sugar brought to boiling
heat, and the fruit put into the sugar, less
of the saecharine principle will be required,
and the fruit will be better preserved.