The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-10-07
FARM NOTES.

tnem up 10 tufeo Jcdo'
In SELECTING your seed wheat. or seed
for a rye crop, weigh pint from the BIN
or sack, and purchase that which weighs
the heavier.
ENGLISH farmers have been very sue
cessful in growing wheat by the AID OF
peat charcoal as fertilizer, using at the
rate of 900 pounds to the acre.
IT SHOULD be remembered that it is
easier to deteriorate crop by choosing
bad seed, or even by carelessly neglect
ing the selection of good seed, than 1T Is
to improve upon q variety already &C
knowledged to be good. The down hill
road is the easiest travelled.
THE melon has been cultivated from
time immemorial, and yet there is no
other plant known that is so wonderfully
variable in its character. In the same
hill, and from the same seed there will
be produced some of the finest, as well
IS some of the poorest specimens.
IN KEEPING poultry for the sake of the
eggs they Law, no hens should be kept
over after their second laying season.
Hens, as rule, Law about an equal
number of eggs in their first and second
season, after which the product rapidly
decreases.
Dr.. J. b. LAwEs says: Experiments
conducted in laboratory, or under any
artificial conditions whatever, require to
be tested in the field before they can be
adopted as final, or have any value as
signed to them as regards the settlement
of practical questions of agriculture.
Or ALL poultry breeding the rearing
of the goose in favorable situations is
said to be the least troublesome and most
profitable 1t is not surprising there.
10 hoe IS lata
been enormously developed. Geese will
live to certain extent and thrive on the
coarsest grasses.
FARMERS in Great Britain suffered Sc
verely during the first half of 1881. No
less than 57l agriculturists had to de-
clare themselves bankrupt, including
farm bailiffs, millers and market garden
ers. In trades Immediately connected
with farming, sol have been forced to
give up business.
ACCORDING TO the best information.
there about 1900, 600 sheep in Texas.
This will in all probability be increased
during the coming lambing season
twenty per cent, bringing the number
up to 5,500,000. Valuing them at 81. 80
each would make the total valuation of
sheep In the State of Texas S13, 800, 900.
The observations of Dumas, Payen
and Boussingault have shown the fact
that a COW gives healthy milk in exact
proportion to the surplus of food beyond
what is necessary for her own mainten-
Rnce. If the animal is kept on food
barely sufficient for proper nourishment,
the milk produced must be at loss of
animal tissue, with general deterioration
of the milk and also of the COW.
EXPERIMENTS with concentrated fertil-
<,Fk III
injured or lost through wrong applica-
ton. Farmers are apt to think the
manure must be put close TO the seed,
else the plant will not get the benefit of
1t. The real truth of the matter is, that
II Is not the plant Just terminated that
needs the aid of the ferti izer, but the
plant which already has start and
needs helping on TO the finish.
ENGLISH gardeners find a great diff
Guilty in the perishable character of
flowers when fortified with pollen, or
excluded from il. One of the orchids
will remain in good condition a month
or six weeks if not fertilized, but operated
on by pollen the flowers fade in day or
two aud the seed-pods elongate rapidly.
Hence it is found important to exclude
bees from pelargoniums to prevent the
petals dropping.
GREAT snare OF the si7seqe9 In
Nebraska are mixture of the Cotswold
and Leicester. While further south IL
Kansas, Texas and New Mexico are the
Spanish Merino and Mexican. The lat
ter are better adapted to a warm climate,
produce fine wool and are more valuable
in every way than other kinds. The
climate of California is well adapted to
cross between the Spanish Merino and
Mexican
WITH regard TO strawberries, we can
produce larger crops aud finer berries by
planting several varieties in one bed
than by planting all of one kind
Though the variety may be perfect in
its kind, vet strawberry plants are apt to
produce imperfect blossoms, some being
pistillates and others staminates
Through the planting in OF other var-
cites In the same bed, though in rows
by themselves, a more perfect fertiliza-
ton may be secured.
WHEN clover is wanted to enrich the
soil for a succeeding crop it is better TO
let il mature rather than to cut il early.
When clover is grown for seed the roots
are the best developed and contain the
most nitrogen. That is the reason why
those farmers who precede wheat with
clover for fertilizer, first cut a crop of
clover early and then allow the second
crop to GO to seed, before blowing it in.
The roots and scattered leaves of clover
make most excellent fertilizers.
IT IS only recently that il has been
clearly demonstrated that q dend branch
on tree makes as great q strain on the
main plant for moisture rs does living
one. IL is one of the most important
discoveries of modern botanical science
to the practical horticulturist, as by this
knowledge he can save many a valuable
tree. When n tree has been transplanted,
some roots get injured, and the supply
of moisture in the best cases is more or
less deficient. Any dead branch or any
weak one should therefore be cut away
at once.
SOIL and season unquestionably have
much to do with the favor of potatoes.
The late ones retain their flavor over
winter and spring better than early
sorts. Prof. Roberts found that under
the same conditions smRu potatoes Tor
seed gave the poorest results, the mid
die part of large potatoes next, the seed
end next, and the stem end the best.
whole large potato with a single eye IL
the best possible seed. 1t takes little
more labor, but much better crop IS
secured by cultivating in rows OF drills
rather than in hills.
In A BAD case of gapes give the chicken
pill OF camphor about the size OF
garden pea As soon as any symptoms are
manifested, give the birds water TO drink
which has been strongly impregnated
with camphor. The treatment seems to
explain itself. The gapes or gaping is
caused by the presence in the windpipe
of small red worms. No medicine can
reach them unless 1t does so in the form
of vapor. One hour after the chicken
has swallowed the pill it smells of
camphor. Camphor is strong vermifuge,
and under the above treatment the
worms die.
IT Is noticeable feature In the pro-