The Penn's Grove record., 1882-04-01
Agricultural.

Poor shelter, care and feed will. in a
few geneI %stions, make scrubs Of the
finest thoroughbred stock. Thorough
bred scrubs are but little better than
native scrubs, and the farmer who
raises either will always be poor.
Breeding the best stock and keeping
1t in the best possible Ii pays the
largest profits.
Never set a hen in a box above the
ground or floor of the chicken-house.
il IT is possible to do otherwise, as the
eggs dry too fact and lose their vital
ity. Much better success may be ex-
pected if the nests are made upon the
ground.
WHAT HENS NEED.-Green food,
lime, cooked meat, fresh water are all
necessary for the production of eggs In
winter. Why? Because In the spring
and summer the birds obtain these by
foraPing. Hens must be in good
health in order to lay eggs.
Vegetables are as much a necessity
to them s to US. Unless able to obtain
green food of some nature, your poul
try cannot keep healthy.
Lime you must give them, either in
the form of powdered oyster shells,
old mortar or plastering. Where they
have limestone water to drink, it
would not be necessary, but they must
have it in some form.
FERTILIZIEG VALUE OF CLOVER
A speaker in q Western agricultural
assembly recently, referring to the ex-
haustion of prairie soil, by continuous
grain cropping, said he knew of a field
that had borne corn and wheat for
seventeen years without manure, and
had become so poor that the crop did
not pay for harvesting. Tue owner
seeded it to clover, which grew well.
He cut three crops of clover hay, then
reversed the soil, planted corn-with-
out manure-and get a crop as good,
or better, than the land had ever pro-
duced in the years of its greatest natu-
raj fertility The experiment sh ,ws
that clover does have the power to
draw fertilizing materisl from the air
or from the subsoil, or probably from
both. 1t is ip accord with our o WI
experience for many years.
PLAN THE CAMPAIGN.-Spring is
apt to come on US suddenly, and
work will crowd. Everything seems
to want doing at once. We have not
thought out our plans for the seasons
campaign, and often much time is lost
because when we get to it, we haven't
done. If we had taken time by the
forelock and plsnne1 out the Springs
work completely, as fast as one thing
was done another could be begun.
The farmer has plenty of leisure
during our long winters, t, plan for
the coming season. He can decide
what to do. He can locate his corn
fields, and his wheat and oat fields.
If old fences are to be moved, or new
ones built, if a new building is to be
put up, or alterations made in old
ones, he cen arrange for it all, and
plan such work in such a way that
there will be no conflict. By a careful
and systematic way of doing business,
very often half the time can he saved
that would be used If no forethought
was taken. 1t pays to plan to save
time and labor; thereby we ave
money.
During the winter, all the prepare
tions for Springs work can be made.
Go into the shop where you store the
machinery you use on the farm, and
look it over carefully. You will find
that the pillow needs a bolt, or possibly
a moldboard, or a coulter. May be
one Of the handles is badly fractured.
If you put in the bolt then, and a new
handle, and remember to purchase the
coulter or the mold board, the first
time you are in town and put them on,
when 1t comes time to use the pillow
it is ready for use If you wait until
Spring opens, the time for blowing
will find yoa obliged to devote perhaps
a whole days work to putting the inn
plement in proper order. You will be
in a hurry, and perhaps slight the
work. If it had been attended to in
winter, you would have pleuty of
leisure to do 1t well.
Corn may be shelled for seed. Wheat
can be cleaned. Changes can be made
in machinery, where the change will
result in Improvement of the work to
be done, or making the doing of it
easier. If you will only take the
trouble to think over the hundred and
one things to be done when spring
comes, and check off q list of those
which can be done in advantage of
the season, you will be surprised. If
you 60 to work and do these things
now, when spring is here, and the
activity of the eason sets in, you will
be surprised to find how much easier
YOUR work seems to be than 1t does
when eve ything is in confusion, and
you DON'T KNOW "hae W uo hSAt. ~
will ave time aud vexation, end you
will do your work better, because it
has all been thought out and arranged
beforehand. If we decide to-day what
we will do tomorrow, when tomorrow
comes all we have got to do is to go to
work. We Eavn't got to work and
plan at the same time; and every
farmer knows the planning Is often
the hardest part of the work. If a
farmer has work enough for two or
three men to do, a systematic arrange
ment of what is to be done, in advan-
tsge Of time to do it, will often save
one mans work. / know this to be
30. because / have tried it, and / i have