The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-09-22
FARM NOTES.

THE amount of buckwheat raised in
most of the Western States is very
small and is generally decreasing.
In some instances "sprinkling lawns
with carbolic acid and water" has been
practiced with good effect against the
army worm in Connecticut.
VERY frequent news items about
CHASTITY deaths from goring by balls
preach effective sermons against horns,
and against careless approach to these
generally mismanaged and treacherous
beasts.
TIE general effect of lime is to rem
der available the plant food already in
the soil, without itself supplying any
significant amount. Lining cannot,
therefore, be successfully repeated, ex-
cept at considerable intervals.
The Gardeners Monthly says "Let
the laundry folks on every wash day
pour the boiling hot soap-suds about
the roots of peach trees. This will de-
stroy the insidious little fungus which
produces the 'yellows' and other dis
eases, and finish the larvae of insects
which are SO injurious to the trees"
CoAL-AsHEs do not contain much
plant food, and their value is mostly
mechanical. Wood-ashes are rich in
potash, one of the three substances the
most frequently lacking in poor soils
This potash is very soluble, so that
fresh ashes is a quick-acting fertilizer
Leached ashes have the larger part of
the potash removed, and they are OF
much less value.
A. b. SAYLEs, of Shoreham, VT,
whose butter took the first prize at the
international Dairy Fair, at New York,
says that to make good butter it is OF
the first Importance that the milk be
good, and for this purpose he has Jer-
sey COWS, which he feeds with Indian
meal, cornstalks, good English hay cut
early, red clover and Alsike clover. He
sets his milk in pans twelve inches deep
and immerses them in spring water
skins every twelve hours in summer
and at intervals of twenty-four hours in
winter He sours his cream and chsrns
it at a temperature of GA degrees; salts
it to suit the taste of his customers
sometimes using three-fourths of an
ounce and Mt other times an ounce to
the pound of butter.
Most persons, no doubt, have seen
hogs eating hay during the winter
months, in but small quantities it is
true, but still eating it. If clover be
cut when in fullest bloom, well cured
and stored away, the hay becomes q
valuable food for hogs, especially when
fed but little else than corn. To utilize
it, cut it in a cutting box, half to
three-quarters of an inch long, mixed
with bran, shorts or oatmeal, and moist
en- it with swill or even water; if made
scalding hot the better. Then let il
stand for q few hours before feeding
out. Any of the grasses, if cut in bloom
and made into hay, will answer good
purpose, but clover is preferable. Be.
side being valuable for food, hay thus
fed is a preventive of disease in hogs
full fed on corn.
WASTE OF FERTIL1zERs.-The dis
posal of garbage and refuse of all kinds
is always a troublesome question in the
cities. The cleanliness of the streets
and the health of the inhabitants de.
pend very mich on the promptness and
thoroughness with which the refuse is
removed. Dumping it in the water.
courses seems TO be the cheapest and
most efficient method get devised to get
it out of the way, and, possibly, in large
bodies of water will not contaminate the
water. Much good fertilizing material
is contained in this refuse, and he who
my 70 tntr e
it in proper shape to be transported
economically where it can be used tc
enrich the soil will do a good work
The time will come when some system
will be devised to save this waste. as
well as the sewerage of the cities, which
also carries away much that ought to be
applied to the soils of the neighboring
farms.
ALL the alkalies-ammonia, potash
soda and lime-in addition 20 furnish
ing food for plants, cause changes oi
base to take place with other substances
rendering some soluble that would 9th.
erwise be locked up, and for that reason
their very presence, outside of their in
trinsic value, is an advantage and gain
to the farmer. This is why lime makes
some light soils heavier and heavy soils
lighter, for the action of lime on the sol
Is to put great many other things al
work forming new compounds. But
potash Is really plentiful substance in
soils also, and the trouble is to reach it
If we apply lime we assist to set it free
and when we put manure on land We
add soluble silica, combined potash and
free ammonia. This is why manure
If we have plenty of its better fer.
tilizer than anything else, for it contains
all that is needed by plants; but all ma
nure is not alike, and we may often put
great deal of manure on land with but
little benefit, for if it has been leached
by rains, improperly cared for, or made
from useless substances, it will be more
In quantity than quality.