The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-10-06
Farm NOTES

IT ID thirty per g moro profitable
to premature and dispose Of fattening
cattle at two years old, than to keep
them up TO three years.
In sEI1EorN9 your seed wheat, or seed
for q rye crop, weigh q pint from the bin
or sack, and purchase that which weighs
the heavier.
ENeLIsH farmers have been very sue
cessful In growing wheat by the aid of
peat charcoal as a fertilizer, using at the
rate of 600 pounds to the acre.
IT SHOULD be remembered that it is
easier to deteriorate a crop by choosing
bad seed. or even by carelessly neglect
ing the selection of good seed, than it is
to improve upon q variety already ac-
k~nowledged 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, IS well
rs some of the poorest specimens.
1 KEEPING poultry for the sake OF the
eggs'.they lay, no hens should be kept
over after their second laying season.
Hens, as a rule, lay about an equal
number of eggs in their first and second
season, after which the product rapidly
decreases.
DIR. J. B. LAwEs says Experiments
conducted in a 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"
OF ALL poultry breeding the rearing
of the goose In favorable situations is
said to be the least troublesome and most
profitable. It is not surprising, there
fore, that the trade has of late years
been enormously developed. Geese will
live to a certain extent and thrive on the
coarsest grasses.
FARMERS in Great Britain suffered se-
verely during the first half Of 1881. No
less than 571 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
oo4o6 w winning AnA2OAu6 bOooOA
twenty per cent, bringing the number
up to $500, 600. Valuing them at So. so
each would make the total valuation of
sheep in the State of Texas $13, 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-
Tg -. . - 81
barely sufficient for proper nourishment,
animal tissue, with general deterioration
of the milk and also of the COW.
EXPERIMENTS with concentrated fertii-
izers are often spoiled just as crops are
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
it. The real truth of the matter is, that
it is not the plant just terminated that
needs the aid Of the ferti izer, but the
plant which already has a start and
needs helping on to the finish.
ENGLISH gardeners find q great diff
Guilty in the perishable character of
flowers when fertilized with pollen, or
excluded from it. One Of the orchids
will remain in good condition q month
or six weeks if not fortified, bat operated
on by pollen the flowers fade in a day or
two and the seed-pods elongate rapidly.
Hence it. is found important to exclude
bees from p~elargoniums to prevent the
petals dropping.
a GREAT snare OF the sneep raised In
Nebraska are q mixture of the Ootswold
aud Leicester. While further south IT.
Kansas, Texas and New Mexico are the
Spanish<M erino 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 a
cross between the Spanish Merino and
Mexican s
WITH regard to strawberries, we can
produce larger crops and 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, yet strawberry plants are apt to
produce imperfect blossoms, some being
pistillates and others staminates.
Through the planting in OF other vari-
eties in the same bed, though In rows
by themselves, q more perfect fertiliza-
ton may be secured.
WHEN clover is wanted to enrich the
soil for a succeeding crop it is better to
let it mature rather than to cut it 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 a 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 it has been
clearly demonstrated that a dead branch
on a tree makes as great a strain On the
main plant for moisture as does a living
one. 1t Is one of the most important
discoveries of modern botanical science
to the practical horticulturist, as by this
knowledge he can a v many q valuable
tree. When a tree has been tr~ansplanted,
some roots get injured, and the supply
of moisture in the best cases is more OF
less deficient. Any dead a or any
weak one should therefore be cut away
at once.
Son and season unquestionably hay'
much to do with the flavor of potatoes
The late ones retain their flavor ovel
winter and spring better than early
sorts. Prof. Roberts found that under
the same conditions small potatoes 1ol
seed gave the poorest results, the mid.
die part of large potatoes next, the seed
end next, and the stem end the best. a
whole large potato with q single eye i
the best possible seed. It takes a LITTLE
more labor, but q much better crop 1
secured by ~cultivating in rows or drill
rather han in hills.
In A BAD case of games give the CHECKER
q pill of camphor about the size OF /,
garden pea. As soon as any symptoms ar.
manifested, give the birds water to drinl
which, has been strongly i~mpregnatet
with camphor. The treatment seems +
explain itself. The gapes o. gaping j
caused by the presence in the windpip