Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-07-13
SEASONABLE FARM NOTES.

|
way.
CULTIVATE the corn. Do not wait for
weeds to appear. The stirring and
change, so to speak, of soil is as i'm
portant as the destruction of weeds.
TURKEYS are very useful In destroying
insects, and Of great service in orchards
In destroying windfalls, and in prevent
ing the growth of worm-eaten fruit.
CALVES should have a run in a good
piece of grass. The valHe of COW de-
ponds so much upon the first years
growth that the calf should have the
best of feed, that the mature animal may
be the most profitable.
An old gardener says, with regard to
cultivating onions, that if care is taken
to draw away the earth gradually from
the bulbs until they are quite uncovered,
and only the fbrous roots are In the
earth, you will never have scullions, but
very large, sound onions.
TOMATO plants should not be grown
too rapidly, and if they begin to run
should be transplanted, so as to induce
stocky growth. Some gardeners take
pains to pot them, but this is not
generally done, as it is expensive and
troublesome; repeated checking by
TRANSFORMING induces early maturity
and early fruiting.
TIE much abused dragon flies are per-
fectly harmless to human beings; they
neither bite nor sting, but destroy vast
quantities of mosquitoes, flies and other
insects. They can be brought into the
house to catch flies and mosquitoes
which duty they perform if unmolested.
While In the Larvae state they perform
the same good work.
BUCKwHEAT may be made profitable
upon piece of rough or newly cleared
ground. No other crop is so effective in
mellowing rough, cloddy land. The
seed In northern localities should be
sown before July II; otherwise early
| frosts may catch the crop. Grass and
| clover may sometimes be sown sue
cessfully with buckwheat.
A COMPOST heap containing animal
matter of any kind should be made as
follows: A foot in depth of soil and
| sods or vegetable matter mixed; a layer
of the animal matter well sprinkled
| with lime as before, and then a foot of
earth sods and vegetable matter. The
heap should be well packed and tramped
and made fat and hollow to hold the
rain, and to preserve moisture.
The thick scales which appear on the
legs and feet of fowls, more particularly
those of the large Asiatic breeds, are
caused by parasitic scab mite which
burrows in the skin. 1t is similar to the
sheep scab mite, and acts in precisely
similar manner. 1t can be destroyed by
putting the feet and legs of the fowl in
can or jar of kerosene oil and keeping
them in oil for a minute, until it
pepetrates under the scales and kills the
| insects.
| EVERY farmer should see to it that no
hay or fodder of any description is
wasted. There is no old hay of last
year left over, owing to its scarcity, and
the unusual high price it commanded
| during the latter part of winter and
| spring. The dry weather through May
this year will cause light crop of hay
again this season, and consequent high
prices. There is a large area of land in
the west that could not be plowed in
time for corn, and most of it will be
available for millet or Hungarian grass.
| All such ground should be used to
furnish supply of some fodder crop.
IT is a good plan to tie about tomato
and cabbage plants pieces of cardboard
| to prevent the cut worm from severing
| the stem near the soil. It is easily done
and is better protection than mounds
OF earth which, it has been said, cut
worms cannot climb up. This idea is a
mistake. We last season placed twenty
| five cut worms In O hole about eight
inches deep, the sides of which were
nearly perpendicular. We watched them
at intervals during two hours and found
that, though many attempts to escape
were Intellectual, some we're successful.
| Rural NeaO Yorker.
Our farmers, says the Rural New
| Yorker, seem to be more ID favor OF SOW
ing Timothy as well as clover in the
spring on wheat, instead Of with wheat
in the fall. By this change wheat ac-
quires a stronger growth in the fall and
is III better shape to stand the winter.
Wheat is often injured on our farm by
Timothy sown in the fall. We are con-
| fdent of it, for the experiment Of
Timothy and no Timothy upon the same
field has been tried. Timothy is to
wheat a weed as much as dock,
radish or sorrel, and robs it of needed
nutriment in the same way. When
Timothy is sown in the spring, the
Timothy is crowded and its growth re-
tarded, while the wheat is benefited pro-
portionately.
81 APPLIED IS pounds of dry, un-
leached ashes to the acre and sowed
wheat on that, and the result was only
six bushels to the acre. Adjoining this
tract 1 drilled in 200 pounds of bone
dust andthe three acres produced twenty
bushels to the acre, being an increased
yield of fourteen bushels to the acre over
the tract sown with wood ashes. The
following year 80 pounds of bone dust
on the plat where had previously sown
600 pounds OF ashes, and the result was
forty bushels of wheat to the acre, being
double what the bone produced alone.
This experiment satisfied me that ashes
or bone dust alone would not give me a
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