Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-10-12

mealy nor agreeable to the taste. If dug
early, it may not be best to store them
the cellar at once, lest they .ither 'lnis-
ture and rot They may be spread III
cool shed or barn. and covered with straw
until the weather becomes cool enough to
put them in the cellar with safety. The
shrinkage of potatoes between the time
of digging and the following spring,
amounts to from ten to twenty per cent,
and this should be taken into account in
marketing them. Freshly dug potatoes
are three fourths water, but evaporation
slowly takes place during the winter and
spring, reducing the watery portion and
rendering the tuber of greater relative
value as food. The old method of storing
potatoes in pits is nearly abandoned,
though it may still be practised in newly
settled portions Of the country. We can
well remember when the "potato hole
was an institution on almost every farm,
and it was regarded as good method Of
keeping them through the winter. 1fwell
stored, they always came out nice in the
spring, but that was before the days of
the potato rot, and the system might not
prove as satisfactory now.
A good potato cellar should be dry, capa-
BILE Of being made perfectly dark and of
being quickly and thoroughly ventilated.
If the cellar is thoroughly dry, the tu-
bers might be stored upon the floor, but
this is not generally the case, and it is
usually best to construct bins whose floor
is raised somewhat above the cellar bot
tom. Board partitions may be used to
separate varieties there is much less dan
ger OF rot in this arrangement, and
greater opportunity is given to pick them
over in case rotting should begin. Tenn
perature is one of the factors in keeping
a potato. The terminating power of a
potato is injured, if not destroyed, when
exposed to temperature below thirty
degrees, and it commences to grow at
temperature above fifty degrees. Then
range, or better still, from thirty-two to
forty degrees, ought to furnish sound po-
tatoes until spring, and that would sprout
freely. A light sprinkling of lime upon
potatoes when stored is preventive
against potato rot Potato rot is para
site fungus, and the lime destroys the
germ.
A recent bulletin of the New York ey-
pertinent station discussed the feeding
value of several noxious weeds. The
analyses of common plantaiu showed very
little difference in nutritive value from
timothy "aud hence the great objection
to pantains must be that they occupy
more space in growth than would the
same nutrtive value in the form of grass.
Ox-eye daisy hay possesses some nutritive
value, but is inferior to timothy. "If we
compare the yields per acre of the daisy
aud timothy, the discrepancy becomes far
more marked through the difference in
the weight of crop. Upon the whole we
must consider the daisy of no advantage
to farm, but only to be endured when
it cannot be eradicated."
A little care bestowed on forests richly
noyo When M other work ia pressing,
in the fall or early winter, we like to go
through the woods and trim out the dead
er dying trees ; we also trim up the pines
and other trees by cutting off the lower
branches close to the trunk. This hast
ems the growth of nice saw-log free of
knots. Underbrush of considerable
growth is also cut out. In this way VIC
get years supply of firewood and hard
ly miss it from the wood lot. We prefer
to do the cutting before snow comes as it
can be done to better advantage, and the
wood can be sledded out when convenient
during the winter. This method COM
meuds itself especially to owners Of small
farms and wood lots, where little econo-
mics of this sort are among the things
that help to make farming pay.-Ncw
England Homestead.
The old questions about estimating the
capacity of silos, the weight required,
etc, are now being repeated. A ton of
ensilage IS generally estimated to occupy
about Sc cubic feet of space, allowing for
shrinkage and setting, or about 40 pounds
to foot. About the amount of pressure
needed to keep ensilage in good condition,
there are varying opinions. The expert
ence of several farmers last winter WAS
that if the corn was packed solid when
the silo was i6lled, comparatively little OF
no weight was required. Most siloists,
however, consider heavy weighing essen
tial. This must be governed by common
sense, for the deeper the slo the greater
its own weight and the less .the pressure
necessary. Six inches to one foot in
depth of stones have been used. Barrels
can be used fer absorbents behind the
cows in winter.
Il Fifteen and ten cent butter is thus re-
feIred to by correspondent OF the Cc-
darburg wis NeWs j.: "If an architect
and builder should say to man who
wanted fiue building put up, that he
never used lime, level, plumb, square, or
rule, he probably wouldn't get the iol
even of the most ignorant But it is nc
more absurd to attempt to frame a fine
building without the use of the proper
tools. than to attempt to make uniforml,
fine butter or cheese without the Use %
the Thermometer. But that is the wa;
the most Pf ten cent and shilling buttel
is made The mass of the butter sold
goes for half price, year in and year out,
and at all seasons of the year, largely
caused by being churned at the wrous
temperature, by persons too stinsy or toe
stupid to invest thirty cents for II Souo
thermometer. A variation of five degrees
from the standard spoils, or greatly i'll
lures, either butter or cheese, while it il
. common to not guess within ten or tifteei
degrees, when feeling the Temperature
!, with the hand. The unconscious condi
! ton of the body and the state of the at
mosphere, aud our exposure to great hea
. or cold, leads even experts astray. An,
unlike most men, wheu it does lie, it lie
! only very little, and does but littl
. harm.
: Country maidens are now holding guessin
,nutchas They sit ont in the garden an