Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-04-19
SEASONABLE FARM NOTES,

Ny SCdUUy ShOCPs
IT is better to encourage a farmers
son to own a calf or sheep than re-
yolver or a setter dog.
The carrot is not as good as turnip
for sheep. Rutabagas are perhaps the
cheapest root to raise for sheep.
ONE variety of wheat, oats, rye, bar
ley and buckwheat is easier managed
than several, and generally gives better
satisfaction.
ONE early and one late variety of GU
cumber and squash can be raised with
advantage without much danger of mix
ing, as the time of blossomiug is diff
ferent.
Many of the most intelligent dairymen
in Illinois declare that they have OBJ
tanned their best pastures by leaving the
prairie sod and gradually introducing the
| best grasses and clover.
SLEEK idleness is not the best thing
| fer stallion during the season. He
may look better, but work and exercise
make his colts far better. Idleness is a
curse, specially and generally.
1t is very difficult to raise several
varieties of melons, pumpkins, squashes
and cucumbers on the same farm without
having them mix so that the seed will
produce fruit of mongrel character.
Mr.. E. ALLEN, of Agency City, Iowa.
has breeding mule. She has raised
three colts sired by horses, and is now
in foal by jack. These statements are
vouched for by several reliable persons.
The general effect Of lime is to render
available the plant food already in the
soil, without itself supplying any sigpif-
cant amount. Lining can nGt, there
fore, be successfully repeated except at
considerable intervals.
POPLAR will grow readily and rapidly
on any moist soil, and perhaps would do
well i'll portions Of the west, where it is
desirable to grow trees. AS it is used
largely in paper manufacture it's pro-
duction should be profitable.
A NORTH room in a house, properly
ventilated, is better place to keep milk
in summer than half the so-called milk
cellars in the country. To obtain the
most cream and best results, milk should
stand thirty-six hours before sklmming.
The grasses best for the production of
milk are those that are fine and sweet.
The grasses that grow on swamp lands
are poor for COWS that are giving milk.
The native grasses of the high prairies
are tolerably good, but the short Guilt
waited grasses are better.
A MAINE farmer says change OF seed
is the best cure for the dry rot in the po-
tato, and recommends a mixture of one
part cotton seed meal to two in bulk of
plaster of paris, sprinkled over the seed
before covering, as making them grow
healthy and smooth, and preventing
scab. He speaks highly OF the fertiliz-
ing value of the compound Also
KEEPING bees in the old-fashioned
box-hive is entirely out OF date. The
trouble with it is that the internal
economy Of the colony can not be regu-
lated, shut the bees must be left to do
pretty much as they please. It is fact
often preached, but seldom practiced,
that bees need management and care the
same as horses, cattle or poultry, or any
other kind of farm stock.
EXPERIMENTS prove, says the German
town Telegraph, that in order to insure
the best growth of grass seed it should
be very slightly covered with earth.
When covered to the depth of an inch,
only about one-half of the seed will ger
inmate, and if covered with two inches
there will be no growth. The kinds thus
experimental with were red and white
clover, timothy and orchard grass.
THEORETICALLY, barley is to corn as
eighty five to one hundred; that is, when
corn is worth dollar hundred, barley
is worth eighty-five cents. This is the
relative value of average barley and
average corn, when both are fed for the
simple purpose of sustaining life; but
this relation is liable to vary when differ
ent samples of the grains are compared,
since neither kind is uniform in value.
NOTHING will better promote good
yield of wheat, oats or barley, for in
stance, next to an appropriate fertilizer,
than the use of a roller In pulverizing
lumpy soil and settling the mold about
the plant roots. After our rainy bring
our fields of springing grain will natu-
rally become cloddy as dry weather ap-
proaches, and evenness of growth and
ripening may both be promoted by using
the roller. In new lands, where stumps
are troublesome, short rollers, with
strong, heavy frames, are preferable.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Ohio Farmer
has discovered remedy for the worms
that play SO great havoc among currant
bushes. The ordinary black ant is an
inveterate enemy of the currant worm.
He encourages ant colonies near the
bushes, and the result has been that
while his neighbors had few or no cur
rants, his crop was abundant. At one
time he took pains to destroy the ants.
This is another instance of the necessity
of knowledge of the habits Of insects
to the fruit-grower and to agriculturlsts
in general.
A CORRESPONDENT says his fowls have
white scales on their legs, and asks what
will cure it. The disease is known as
scaly leg or elephants, and is occa-
stoned by damp lighthouses or exposure.
1t is caused a minute parasite which
burrows under the scales of the fowls
leg. The best way of removing them is
to grease the legs with mixture of sui
phur and lard several times. Some use
kerosene, but this is liable to make their
legs sore.
IT requires but very small piece of