The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-08-11
FARM NOTES.

growing COW peas Tor turning uuuer,
poor soils can be made to yield good
crops.
A FRENCH chemist reports that water
male slightly salt, and TO which, when
boiling, bran in the proportion OF Que
quart to every gallon has been added,
has been found IN series of experiments
TO increase the yield of milk 20 per cent,
ii given to the cows as their ordinary
drink.
Ir is a startling fact, and one worthy
of serious consideration, that the people
of the United States are clearing off
thirty five acres of timber for every acre
that is planted with forest trees. We
have reached that point in denuding our
country OF its forests where it becomes
the duty of every landowner to plant
! trees.
CULTIVATE frogs, toads and lizards.
Put them in your gardens, and as the
evening approaches they will hop from
their hiding places and snuggle down in
some convenient spot near the gutter,
or where they know there will be plenty
of food. The ants, reaches, mosquitoes,
etc, they consume in the night is mar
velous, and thus they keep down the in
sect pests.
FRENCH journal recommends fire
test for determining the qualitE of seeds.
Samples are placed, one mt time, upon
live Goals. III the combustion is slow
and quiet, it may be safely decided that
the seed contained diseased germ but
if the seed turns and leaps about, pro-
ducing a dry sound. it may be inferred
to have good germinative qualities.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Husband
man tells hew to raise sixty bushels of
oats per acre, as follows Plow the
ground in November; be particular to
turn it all over then In winter give a
light coat of manure; spread evenly,
from five to ten loads per acre, according
to fertility of land. Early in spring, as
soon as the ground is dry enough, SOW
them and work them in with cultivator
going over, and then across level the
ground by going once over with har-
row, aud roll if desired, thus getting
them in early. A late snow storm will
not hurt them. If not put in the ground
early the ground gets hard.
THE eye of steer, when prominent,
bright and clear, with mild and gentle
expression, is an indication of health,
with quiet disposition and good feed
ing quality. Ii the eye is dull and
sunken the capillary circulation will be
defective, and the functions of nutrition
imperfectly performed, and there will
not only be deficiency in the ability to
fatten, but lack of strength and con-
stitutional vigor A restless and wild
expression of the eye indicates pre-
dominance of nervous action and uuquiet
disposition that is not compatible with
good feeding quality.
PROF. BELL, of the Michigan Agri-
cultural College, says that the young
tree must be treated very much like "a
hill of corn therefore, raise hoed crops
in young orchard. He also, like most
intelligent horticulturists, says it is a
good plan to keep young trees mulched,
to prevent rapid evaporation from the
soil, keep the surface mellow and pre-
vent the soil from freezing and thawlng
IN the winter, and from becoming over
heated In summer.
WALDO f. Brown writes, among other
good suggestions, the following in the
american AgricuLturist The keeping
of old cows long past their prime is an
other thing which largely reduces the
profits Of the farmer. We have found
quite large per cent. of cows whose
wrinkled horns and generally rundown
condition show that they have long since
passed the point OF profit. A few years
ego these COWS would have sold at full
prices for beef, now they will sell only
for Bologna at two cents per pound.
Thus cows have, in majority of cases,
been kept, not because they were favor
ties, or even because they were profit
able, but from sheer carelessness and
want of forethought. Another fruitful
cause OF loss TO the farmer is attempting
to winter more stock than he has feed
for. Instead of estimating his resources
in the fall, and knowing that he has
enough feed even for hard winter, he
gives the matter no thought, and March
finds him with the choice of two evils,
either to sell stock or buy feed II he
chooses the former, he will often sell
for much less than the animals would
have brought four months earlier, and
if the latter, will usually pay much
higher price for feed than if il had been
bought In autumn. Too often he scrimps
the feed, hoping for an early spring, and
80 soon as he can see grass showing a
shade of green around the fence rows,
or in some sheltered ravine, turns his
stock out to make their own living. This
brings one of the most potent causes of
Improbable cattle raising; namely,
short pastures. The farmer who is over
stocked in winter is almost sure to turn
his cattle on his pastures too early in the
spring, and this generally results in
short pasture all summer, and, conse-
quently, the stock do not thrive as they
ought. and in addition, the land which
should be greatly benefited and en-
riched is injured, for the development
OF the roots in the soil must correspond
to that of the tops, and if the latter are
constantly cropped short the roots must
be small. The benefit of shade is lost,
and the land is trampled by the cattle in
their wanderings to fill themselves. so
that it Is in worse condition than il n
crop of grain had grown on it. From
oll these causes combined. there is a
large aggregate of loss, aud it is the ex-
ception to find farm on which one or
more of them does not exist, and yet.
without exception, they may be classed
rs preventable," if thought and prac-
teal common sense are brought to bear