The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-04-08
Agricultural.

Gut two limbs from the same tree.
OF equal size, one in February, when
tae tree Is frozen, and the other the
following June, and the one cut in
June will heal more and better during
the season than the one cut in Febru-
airy. The best time to trim apple trees
Is from June to August.
IMPROVEMENT OF Wool. When
sheep have been washed in hard
water the fleece becomes harsh and
dry, and have an Objectionable hand
ling to wool-buyers. This is usually
avoided by washing the sheep two or
three weeks before shearing them
during this time the wool becomes
saturated with yolk again and RECEIVERS
Its softness and elasticity. The feeces
should be stored in a rather damp
place, and never where it is hot and
dry, as when stored in a dry place
weight is lost and the wool becomes
harsh and wiry.
A correspondent of the Rural Neso
Yorker gives the following as he
practical result of one seasons expert
ence with ensilage. He says: Late in
the season. Last year~We4 concluded to
give this method of preserving fodder
trial, and therefore, between July 1st
and 18th, plowed about twelve acres of
land from ~ hichevthes hay and W heat
had been tax en-, and sowed it with
corn, in drills % inches apart, using
three pecks per acre. We sowed it
withsa wheat drill and cultivated once
that portion sown after wheat. The
other received no cultivation. We
built two silos each 33x14 feet and Is
feet high, costing $500, and having q
capacity of about 800 tons. In Sep
TENDER we cut the corn with reaper
and got enough, to about half fill the
silos. Before the corn, we put in
about twenty tons of freshly-cut rover.
From this we feed all our cows and
sheep, averaging say II of the former
and l75 of the latter, from the time
they were put inthe barn until March
oath, besides 100 lambs which came in
January. We fed the cows four pounds
each of cotton-seed and corn-meal per
day and cotton seed to the sheep that
had lambs. The cows were more
thirty than they have ever been when
fed upon hay and grain, and the butter
was as yellow as Summer made. The
sheep did well.
The net results in dollars and cents
were about as follows: We estimate
the $50 tons of ensilsge to have cost
$3.50, and the extra cost of feeding it
was about $50. The hay crop being
short we would have been obliged to
buy, say, $500 worth of hay we sold
$500 worth, so we have $500 clear to
pay for the silos which we expect to fill
this year and to feed nothing but en-
silage. Having thus put the money in
our pocket, we do not trouble ourselves
about theories-whether there are more
albuminoids in ensilage than in the
same corn dried and cured as fodder,
or whether chemical analysis shows
much virtue in the material. So long
as eminent chemical authorities admit
that their analy tical process will show
little, If any, difference between the
nutritive values Of grass freshly cut,
and the same as bay, well cured, or the
same as hay cured after exposureto the
dews and rains for week, and while
a COW fed upon the first will make
yellow butter, upon the second white
butter and azless quantity, upon tbs
third scarcely any butter, we prefer
the practical test and leaving theoriz-
ing to others.
0g~s4as~ Geese. ra rTs FLF
We think more attention should be
paid to the rearing of geese than is
usual. One may often travel half
days journey in the country without
seeing flock of geese. Their flesh is
by no means to be despised when the
birds are young, and their feathers al
wsys command ready sale. f~aE
1t is an erroneous opinion, and one
without doubt generally prevalent,
that geese cannot be successfully Used
away from ponds and streams of water
Persons may soon dis abuse themselves
of this idea by visiting the suburbs
proper of the city of Chicago, when
the green patches about the tenems Mt
houses and shsnties are converted
into "geese FARMS" focks averaging
from the progeny of single goose to
that of half-a-dozen. One of the best
fiocks we ever knew, and which, for
the years we knew 1t, ran from forty
to fifty goslings each year, had for its
nearest water brook three-quarters
of mile away, and which the geese
never saw. Our own flock, when we
kept geese, had ample water facilities
in a river close at hand. Our friend
used to beat US and laugh at US, when
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