Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-08-03
SEASONABLE FARM NOTES.

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A GOOD mulch is a better preventive
against drought than watering.
GIVE the cabbage worms sprinkling
of ground pepper. A pound of pepper
will answer to $50 plants.
Fowls dry-picked suit the dealers bet
ter than scalded ones. The flesh retains
it's color better and keeps longer.
In raising chickens don't forget to
guard against lice and rats. OF the two
lice are the most dangerous.
FARMERS of Armenia, n. Y, have
sown. as an experiment, mostly on wheat,
a carload of salt, costing So and $40 per
ton.
NANCE in dogs, pigs and horses can
be cured by applying an ointment of
whale oil and sui phur, and should be at
tended to on its first appearance, as it Is
contagious.
The great advantage of all the i'm
common "scrub" sort is that they con-
vert a larger proportion of the food they
consume into animal products and these
usually of better quality.
AT the Michigan Agricultural College
oats are sown early In August, between
the rows of raspberries. The oats, ex-
plains Professor Beal, present better
appearance than weeds, serve as q mulch
during the winter, and in the spring
leave the ground quite clean.
If feed is scattered under the currant
bushes and the hens allowed to scratch
and pick there they will keep the ground
loose and all the grubs that are in the
soil. If this is done there will no
trouble from the currant worms that in
fest bushes where the grass is allowed
to grow.
PROF. KEDzIE, of the Michigan Agri-
cultural College, is reported as recon-
mending a mixture of skim milk and
brine as wash for outbuildings, barns,
roofs, etc. Besides being durable, cheap,
easily applied and impervious to water,
it renders the wood practically infamma-
BILE.
The growing tendency in this country
toward more live stock, more beef, more
hogs, more butter, wool, cheese, ETC.,
must be encouraged. Every farmer
should begin now to prepare his pasture,
and be ready to seed it down in blue
the cattle, horses, sheep and swine can
harvest of their own accord.
SMALL focks of sheep can be kept on
the. farm with advantage. The meat is
healthful and nutritious and can be
grown more cheaply than beef, while it
ought to be used more largely by farm
ers, who now rely on pork as the stand
ard meat for the table. Sheep-raising is
not so exhausting to to the soil as grain
raising, and on land much worn will be
found one of the means of renewing such
lands.
AFTER trying for number of years al
most III vain, says a farmer, to raise
good celery on ordinary dry garden soil,
I finally borrowed the use of little
patch of reclaimed swamp land-deep,
black muck, well drained but moist, and
for the past two seasons have grown on
it very fine celery with but little labor.
So [ shall never again attempt to grow
this vegetable on common garden soil
without some cheap and easy method of
irrigation.
GEN. HARDING, speaking for Tennes-
see, considered Hungarian grass to be
the best forerunner of Timothy. He
recommends that this be sown in sum-
mer and harvested In August or early in
September; and That imothy be sown
upon the stubble and narrowed in. The
Hungarian grass, he thinks, destroys all
weeds and gives a certain compactness
to the soil, necessary to secure a good
stand of timothy.
ONE objection to fall blowing is that
the high winds blow away the light
mould on the surface, so essential for
the crops. 1t is now recommended to
SOW, after blowing, green crop to form
mat to hold the soil In place and shell
ter it. In spring pillow under. It is an
admirable plan. Straw and fodder
mulching fed upon the ground viii an
swer this purpose in a measure. Plowed
under in spring they make all excellent
fertilizer.
The advantages of spreading manure
from the wagon as it is drawn out are
saving of labor and more even dis
tribution of the double salts (ammonia,
potash, phosphates, etc. in the soil by
rain. If the manure is heaped on the
field and gets a heavy rain before
spreading, the ground under the heaps
receive an uneven share of the best part
of the manure, which not unfrequently
render these parts barren for a season or
two.
IF clover is cut when it should be
that is when in full blossom-if very
prolific and stout it requires good deal
of labor to cure it properly, but it is
labor that pays the farmer we'll to be-
stow. Neither one or two days sun,
even when it is properly spread, will
suffice, but it is better to put it in cocks
the second day after it has been cut, and
let it cure in the cock. In this way it
will cure evenly, and there will be no
danger that it will become moldy or that
it Will heat in the stack or NOW.
SAYS the Gardeners Monthly: "Our
readers must remember that only recent
ly has it been clearly demonstrated that
dead branch on tree makes almost as
great strain on the main plant for
moisture as does a living one. It is one
of the most important discoveries of
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