Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-03-02
The farm aud fireside.
SALT AND ASHES FOR ANIMALS.

seems to do injury is where cattle have been
long without it, and then giving them all they
are inclined to consume. I am willing to own
that it is temporarily injurious, not because
the article is of itself bad, but because OF
taking too much at one dose.
The proper way to feed salt is to place it
where the stock can get at it as they please,
and take what they are inclined to eat. Never
mix it with their food, so that they are COM
PEELED to take it whether they want it or not
More and better butter can be made from the
milk of cow when she has full supply OF
salt than from one entirely deprived of it, and
having an irregular supply, and it also takes
less time to churn the cream.
Nature requires salt as an aid in preserving
health. 1t assists in digestion, as well as III
many other ways, which I need not here men-
tion. For cattle at pasture Jumps may be laid
in any convenient place where board can be
fixed to shelter from the rain, and still allow !
the stock free access. At the barn the Jumps
can be placed under the shed, OF in some other
convenient spot.
But often times stock seem TO require an al
kali as WELL and that is most conveniently
supplied with wood asheS which horses, cat
tie, sheep and swine will greedily devour, when
they have an opportunity. These should also
be supplied where the stock can have access to
O
good sound wood and kept dry.
When desirable to keep cattle at pasture,
and there is no shed to shelter the ashes and
salt, a convenient trough may be fastened be,
tween two posts, on top of which are fastened
two planks or boards as roof to shelter from
rain. The posts should be long enough so that
the trough may be eighteen or twenty inches
above the ground, and there must be room
above, between it and the roof, to allow free
access to the salt and ashes. This answers
for all stock except sheep and swine, which
can have the troughs lower. believe that if
aconstant supply of salt and ashes is provided
where all kinds of stock can have access to
them, very much less disease would be known
among farm stock. have never known bots,
collie or worms in horses where ashes and salt
were thus furnished.
SOWING SEEDs.-The time will soon arrive
for general seed sowing, and hint or two in
regard to it may not be out of place. Much
that is sown never appears, and the seedman
is charged with selling old or poor seeds.
Sometimes this may be so, but very often it is
the sewers own fault. There is much more
art in sowing seeds successfully than people
suppose, and yet it is very simple when under
stood. Many seeds are sown too deep, and yet
if not deep enough they will dry up and not
grow at all. The depth must be determined
by the size of the seed and the character OF the
soil. If the soil be light and sandy, there is
not so much danger of the seeds rotting from
deep sowing as if the soil be stiff ;and even in
stiff soil the depth will have to be determined
by the condition of the SOIL Suppose we are
to sow a piece of oats, in land that is liable to
become clotty. and this is the distinction be-
tween light and heavy land. If we can roll
the land after sowing it would not matter
much about sowing deep but the seed would
have to be narrowed in pretty well if left in a
clotty condition unrolled. Indeed, if the seed
were sown on ground simply first narrowed
and then rolled, in such land as we have de-
scribed many more seeds would do we'll then
if narrowed before rolling. In other words,
shallow sowing, if the ground is well pulver-
lied and pressed firm, is more favorable than
deep planting with a rough surface Finely
pulverized soil, with well-pressed surface, is
indeed the very best conditions for success
with all seeds and the shallowest kind of SOW
ing, so that the seeds be firmly imbedded in the
soil, is the essence of good seed-sowing
n.antoun Telegraph
How FARMERS MAY SAvE.-A distinguish
ed railroad man of Georgia says that the
farmers of that State have it absolutely in their
power to reduce the earnings Of the railroads
if they would raise what they consume on their
own farms. This statement contains enough
substantial truth to attract the attention of
every intelligent farmer in this State. 1t is
evident to every man of common sense that a
very large proportion of the earnings OF rail
roads in this State have been derived from the
heavy shipments to our farmers of provisions,
fertilizers, farming utensils, machinery and
many other articles of like character, most of
,;nJ,. toI1 no p6
farmers themselves if they would only deter
mine to do so. BY Our system of farming,
however, our planters have gotten III the habit
of importing nearly everything they use, thus
placing upon themselves the double burden OF
first purchasing what they need at ruinOus
prices abroad and then paying freight rates
to the roads both on what they send out from
their farms and on what they must import,
and there is no doubt but that this double
drain upon them must work dlsastrouSly to
the farming interests of the State. The only
certain remedy for this state of affairs is to be
found in our fS mers producing diversity OF
crops, instead of concentrating all their ener-
gies upon one or two leading articles, and pay
ing more attention to the ''home supply" de-
partment of the farm. If our farmers will
adopt this system of farming they will soon
cut off at least onehalf Of their present freight
expenses, and will vastly increase their own
independence.
Corn vs. CoTToN. writer in the South
ern Farmers Monthly says: ''In my vicinity
planters are paying one dollar buShel for
corn on credit payable out of the next fall
crop. If cotton should sell at cents net it
will require IA 81 pounds of cotton to pay for
one bushel of corn. If a man can exchange
his 1000 bushels of corn for cotton at these
figures he will get II, $40 pounds of cotton for
his crop of corn, or about 36 bales OF cotton
in other words, we send 36 bales of cotton up
North to pay for the corn that one man can
make. Is it any wonder that we are as poor
as a church mouse? And Bill Arp is about
right when he says: Il am afeerd we are a
nation of FOOLS There has long been an i'm
preston up North and even in the South, that
we cannot raise stock to profit that we have
no grass; can't feed stock; that the flies are
too bad; that we have too many diseases
while the fact is we have more and better
grasses than the North has. We can raise
hogs, cattle sheep, mules and horses for one
half the cost it requires up North. And to
fatten stock for market it can be done with
peas even on the poor land of Georgia for less
money than it can done in the North and,
while we are raising stock, we are improving
our lands instead of wearing them out. l am
well aware there is a strange fascination in
planting cotton. We see in the spring $40
bale, and ten bales of cotton to the hand,
but from some cause we can't see the expense
attending the making of the crop"