Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-04-20
FARM AND HOME.

and cross between the Durham and
Alderney.
IT is lamentable that so few farms
have a supply of small fruits. Many
farmers never have berry of their OWL
raising, while the most hardy and gen
orally the best fruit, the common rec
cherry, isnot at all plenty.
A NORTH room in a house properly
ventilated, is better place to keeI
milk in the 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 be-
fore skimming.
A co, OPERATIVE dairy farmers asso
citation in New South Wales comprises
about 800 producers, who supply about
5000 kegs of butter per month, besides
other products for sale. The company
in 1881, sustained the wholesale prices
of butter at rate of from 25 to so pei
cent higher than it was the year pre-
vious.
Poor care, shelter and food will in q
few generations make scrubs of the
finest pure-bred stock, and chickens
| shlC Ilp SACSpkiOIlS W Ino Iul0. uI6-
boed scrubs are little better than ma
tives, and the farmer who raises either
will always be poor. Breeding the best
stock, and keeping it in the best man
ner possible, pays the largest.
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
germinate, and if covered with two in
ches there will be no growth. The
kinds thus experimental with were red
and white clover, timothy and orchard
grass.
KEEPING bees in the old-fashloned
box hive is entirely out of date. The
trouble with it is that the internal eco
nomy of the colony can not be regu-
lated, but the bees must be left to do
pretty much as they please. 1t is a
fact often preached but seldom prac-
ticed, that bees need management and
care the same as horses, cattle or poul-
try, or any other kind of farm stock.
EGGS are an article of cheap and nu-
trious food which we do not find on the
farmers table in the quantity which
economy demands. 1t is probably be-
cause they do not understand how valu-
able eggs are for food. One pound of
fresh eggs is worth as much for food as
two pounds of beef. They are easily
| digested if not damaged in cooking, and
may be eaten with impunity by chill
dren or invalids.
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 elphantis, and is occasioned
by damp fowl houses or exposure. It is
caused by a minute parasite which bur
rows under the scales of the fowls leg.
The best way of removing them is to
grease the legs with a mixture of sui
phur and lard several times. Some use
kerosene, but this is liable to make
their legs sore.
Most poultry-keepers know that fowls
possess an individuality, and that they
could tell their feathered pets among
strangers as readily as they could tel
their own horses, among a drove OF
strangers. Not every one, however,
would be willing to swear to the identi-
ty of chicken as of a horse; and yet
in a case in Connecticut, woman test.
fled that "she knew her turkeys by
their walk, their countenance and their
manner of roosting."
The lafv@ Of a small spotted insect
called the lady bird feeds upon the
aphis and other insects, devouring vast
numbers of them. The lady bird is
the gardner's friend, and they should
never be killed if it can be avoided
These little beetles are usually red OF
orange yellow, with small black spots
some kinds have only three spots
others have as many as nine. They
are very common, and many has been
the crime that has been laid to them oil
which they were entirely innocent.
NOTHING will better promote a good
yield Of wheat, cats or barley, for in.
stance, next to an appropriate fertilizer
than the use of roller in pulverizing
the lumpy soil and settling the mold
about the plant roots. After our rainy
spring our fields of springing grain viii
naturally become cloddy as dry wealth,
er approaches, and evenness of growth
and ripening may both he promoted by
using the roller. In new lands, where
stumps are troublesome, short rollers
with strong heavy frames, are prefer.
able.
CHARRED corn is excellent to feed te
hens in order to increase their egg-lay
ing capacity. 1t is not desirable to feed
it as their general food, but a portion
of it every day will be found benef.
cial. Char the corn on the cob pretty
thoroughly, taking care not to reduce
any part of 1t to ashes. Then feed the
hens their usual rations, which had
better always be of mixed food, and
then throw al ear or more of parched
corn, according to the number of fowls
on clean feeding place and let them
pick at it at leisure.
THE proprietors and tenants of those
farms where the crops were short last
year, may now be seen hunting in the
fence corners for plows and cultivators
that have there endured the winters
storms. Thrifty farmers take good
care of all implements. A tool-house
or room is as much q necessity on q
well-conducted farm as barn. Tools
left in the field all winter, or left Out
doors anywhere, are likely to give out
when put to use again, and at time
when it will be very inconvenient to re-
pair them.