The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-01-26
FARM NOTES.


development of swine.
KEEP sheep dry under foot. This is
even more necessary than roofing them.
BREEDING from immature animals is
a great mistake. 1t is the foundation
of degeneracy.
KEEP the poultry busy il you wish to
keep them in health, and make them
scratch if you wish for eggs; but keep
them quiet and well fed if you wish to
make them fat
In England inferior barley is gener-
ally ground into meal for feeding cattle
and pigs, and nothing surpasses it's
value when boiled az mash for horses
after hard days work.
The habits and modes of care of those
persons who succeed with poultry can
always be studied to advantage, even il
not copied. There arc some such in
nearly every neighborhood.
Col. Ed. CURTIS, in the New York
Tribune, claims that cattle wintered in
warm stables will consume only half
the feed they will require if they are
allowed to stand shivering in the yard.
In looking over the sheep industry it
will be found that the small fiocks have
succeeded much the best. This is in
great measure due to the fact that
focks get the best attention, thrive bet
tor and are less liable to accident.
ORANGE county On. W farmers say
that the COW has been moro profitable
| with them than the fast horse. A very
few fast trotters have brought much
money into the county, but it has usually
gone to secondhand buyers rather than
growers of the stock. The good dairy
COW brought her income into the pocket
of the farmer.
j. J. III. GREGORY, of Marblehead,
Mass, carefully collected the castings
of worms daily for one season, over
given area, and they measured nearly a
quart to the square foot, or enough to
raise the surface of the land half an
inch. He also, by experiment, shows
that an acre of land may contain six
tons of worms.
A MEMBER of the Oxford (Ohio)
Farmers Club claims that it is no trick
| to raise 500 bushels and even 1000
bushels per acre of mangold wurtzels,
III good season on good land, with the
same labor needed to raise an acre of
potatoes. The roots should be pitted
just AZ winter closes up the ground,
and kept in the pit until March.
AUSTRALIA has 80, 900, 900 sheep,
against 80, 900, 600 in this country. The
wool yield of Australian sheep has been
very light; but the improvements made
by importing American breeding stock
are rapidly bringing it up. Some fine
wool breeders have shipped rams to
Australia at 800 to $500 per head. and
the crosses from these fully double the
original wool-clip of sheep.
Corn will shrink from the time it is
huslled from the field or shock, in the
autumn, liz weii-protected cribs, from
20 to 30 per cent. by spring; that is,
100 bushels will shrink to 20 or 50 per
cent, according to how dry it was when
husked and put in the crib. Sound
corn will shrink 20 per cent, so that
80 cents per bushel as it comes from
the field is as good as 70 cents in the
spring, says the observer.
ARBA CAMPBELL, of Oswego, Y. Y,
has grown four wheat crops in success
ion by putting in with the seed 200
pounds of superphosphate and go
pounds of German potash salts. That
the land retains its fertility under this
treatment is shown by the fact that the
last crop of wheat was fully as good as
any. This is very we'll as an expert
ment to show what can be done 1t is
still q question whether the land would
not improve more rapidly and the prof
its be greater with an intervening crop
of clover.
COOP walks can be cheaply made by
digging trench two feet in width and
six inches in depth, filling in with
stones, old mortar and brick, then COW
ering them with coal ashes. A still
better walk can be made by cutting elm
or other logs foot or more in diameter
into one-foot blocks. These should be
set to half their depth i'll narrow
trench. To prepare the blocks econ
omically, a power drag-saw should be
used. With such walk, barnyards
can be made passable. Good walks
have very much to do with rendering
farm life pleasant and attractive.
VERY many men are now working
land that does not pay for its culture.
Teams are worked down, much is paid
for hired help, hands are boarded
when the whole crop will scarcely pay
the wages and value of board, throwing
in the use and keeping of the teams,
the implements and the land. We know
tlss is so. What is the remedy? Work
fewer acres. Double, quadruple what
you have done for each acre worked;
curtail expenses by hiring less help,
feeding less teams, using less seed,
wearing out less plows and harrows,
but taking fewer but more profitable
steps on fewer and more fertile acres
and lot the rest lie idle, or sell it,
| Practical Farmer.
AN old turkey-raiser gives the follow
ing experiment: Four turkeys were
confined in q pen and fed on meal,