Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-04-21
FARM AND FIRESIDE.

FARM AND FIREsIDB.
GOATS AS FARM STocK.-A correspon
dent Of the Country Gentleman, signing
himself "a. A., Erie, Pa, says:
"Who can give any knowledge of profit
in goats as farm animal? Thousands of
acres Of pasture, both at the East and
West, would be improved by sprinkling
Of goats. They love shrubs and weeds
more than the sweetest grasses. They are
ravenous scavengers of all foul heritage
which is distastefuI to cattle and sheep.
In small numbers, the cost of their keep
would be practically nothing, while an &C.
tual benefit to the farm would be confer
red by their consumption of brush and
weeds. In the farmyard and fold they
would thrive on the leavings of common
stock, and put out of the way what is
troublesome in the manure and engenders
foul seeding OF the land. Who Of your
correspondents can give us his experience?
What value have they in the market? I
have no reference to fancy animals, but to
common goats, which would thrive with
out care. Would they be defense against
dogs among sheep? Who knows Of book
on the goat2"
We have had some experience with goats
and have given some attention to the SUBJ
ject in past days. The truth is, we are
friend of the goat, although he has some
bad habits, which appear to be constitu-
tlonal. We can answer the questions pro-
pounded, upon personal knowledge and
satisfactory evidence. First, as food. in
market, a kid is worth as much as lamb,
and the flesh is superior, but weighs less.
Second, they are sure defense against
dogs, if raised with the sheep so that they
grazs together. The dog that tackles a
irst-class Billy goat will get the worst of I
the fight. We had one that whipped two
good, large dogs. The bucks are all brave,
and will form line in front of the does
and sheep, and will face any lot OF dogs
They improve the health of sheep, cattle
and horses. Every Aock-masJer ought to
have supply Of goats. He has bible au-
thority for the practice, and they need only
be separated at shearing time. A goat is
''leaf-feeder'' by preference, and eats
more plants than any other animal. is rare
~ subject to any disease, and, like mule,
rarely DIES. His skin is much more valu-
able than that of sheep, as it makes ex-
cellent leather of various kinds, and if
Angoras are bred and crossed, in three
years the fleece is as yaluable.-Lynch5urq
Advance.
BONE DUST AND WOOD ASHES. -An In
diana farmer gives the following result of
an experiment with the above named fer
tilizers. He says SCI applied 900 pounds
of dry, unleached ashes to the acre, and
sowed wheat on that, and the result was
only six bushels to the acre. Adjoining
this tract drilled in 200 pounds of bone
dust, and the three acres produced twenty
bushels to the acre, being an increased
yield of fourteen bushels over the tract
sown with wood ashes. The following
year 1 used 500 pounds of bone dust on the
plat where had previously sown 900 lbs
of ashes. and the result was forty bushels
of wheat to the acre, being double what
the bone produced alone. This experiment.
satisfied me that ashes alone or bone dust
alone would not give me yield that paid
to my satisfaction. The acre with ashes
yielded six bushels, the acre with bone
dust yielded twenty bushels, but when the
two were combined, harvested forty
bushels. This shows what experiments
and small expenditure of money will do
for the progressive farmer. y
PREVENTION OF HOG CHOLERA is it
difficult to prevent an attack of hog chole-
"a when it is prevalent, as this disease is
very contagious. The only hope for sue
cess in preventing it is to keep your hogs
in healthful condition, give them some
mixed food and not wholly corn, some
wheat, bran potatoes, turnips, or even cut
corn-fedder or hay, stepped IN hot water,
with bran mixed, would be useful. Give
each one twice a week a teaspoonful of hy-
posulphite of soda in their feed or dissolv-
ed in water and mixed with milk, or if this
connot be secured, give the same quantity
of sulphur. Cleanse the pens by burning
sulphur in them, and sprinkle the floors
and manure with copperas dissolved in wa
tern. Y. Times.
A CORN CRor.-Last year Mr.. W. W.
l.
MI. Frank Burke, his tenant. to plant one
and fourth acres of good land in corn,
SO that the rows would be 81 feet apart,
and when thinned the corn would stand
one foot apart in the row. On this land,
Notwithstanding the dry season, % barrels
OF corn we're gathered, which was Is 25-100
barrels per acre. The corn was shelled
and each barrel ran over three gallons,
making production Of 10 45-1OO barrels
to the acre.-Blue Ridge Echo.
1T requires about 5000 young fish to
stock pond of ono acre in extent. OF
fish weighing from one to two pounds
1000 to the acre is liberal estimate, and
these will require artificial feeding unless
the pend is very rich with food producing
vegetation.
NEVER set hen in a box above the
ground or floor of the chicken house if pos
sible to do otherwise, as the eggs dry too
fast and lose their vitality. Much better
success may be expected if the nests are
made on the ground.
THE opinion has generally prevailed that
a little bran mixed with meal would pro-
duce more pork than clear meal, but in
some experiments lately tried it was found
that clear meal made more pork than
mixture of bran and meal.
THE production Of small fruit is often
very profitable in the vicinity of villages.
The cost of marketing is small and good