Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-10-24
FARM AND GARDEN.

and dry.
THERE has been less hog cholera this
year than for may previous ones.
"GREAT Farmers on Small Farms"
is the motto of New England paper.
Nor many decades ago tomatoes were
known as love-apples, and considered
poisonous.
PROFESSOR CARLIN, of the agricul-
tural department at Washington, says
the sorghum sugar prospects are very
promising.
AT the Champaign, ILL.,, Sugar Works
they are successfully burning the bag
asse, AID it furnishes two thirds of the
fuel necessary for the furnaces.
AN Indiana farmer reports that his
800 currant bushes, with almost no
culture, Melted him at the rate of $1OO
per acre, which he considers sufficiently
encouraging to warrant trimming and
cultivating for another season, hoping
to do better.
The peach-grOWers of Delaware esti-
mate this years peach crop one third
less than last years. 1t is thought that
the $4,000 acres of peach orchards that
are between the Delaware and Chesa-
peake and Cape Charles will yield In the
aggregate less than $500, 900 baskets
for the markets and the Gamers.
A New YORK farmer declares that the
wheat, oats and barley which he dragged
last spring, in some doubt as to whether
he was not doing more harm than good,
yielded 80 per cent. more grain than
that not dragged, though the latter was
on the richest QnH hpak Cyronp1
A CORRESPONDENT of the Country
Gentleman reports a new enemy to the
potato in the shape of weevn which
preys upon the stalk, entering it near
the ground, consuming the pith and
causing the stalk to dry up and die.
The editor advises burning the affected
vines ana roots, as soon as the insects
work is noticed.
The New York Times reminds farm
ers that smut is rapidly increasing, few
crops being free from it. A solution of
four ounces of blue vitriol-sulphate of
copper-dissolved in a gallon of water
for each five bushels of seed, which is
stopped in it until it is absorbed, has
been found the most effective to destroy
the minute spores which produce the
fungus
APPLES are among the most nourish-
ing and healthful of all vegetable foods.
Besides containing a large amount of
sugar and other carbohydrates, they
contain vegetable acids and certain arc
matte qualities which act powerfully in
the capacity of tonios, antiseptic and
refrigerants or cooling foods. When
mellow they prevent debility and ssindi-
gestion. They are no doubt very ser
v1ceable IN averting many ills.
IT is always best to pack different va
rieties of apples by themselves rather
than to mix up all sorts in a barrel.
Most purchasers have some preference
IN regard to varieties. People who would
not buy at all, or would pay an inferior
price for barrel of mixed fruit, would buy
readily and at O good figure barrel CON
tanning only their favorite sort. After
the varieties are all separately packed,
the odds and ends may be used at home
or for local sale, or may be packed and
shipped, and marked mixed.
Fowls swallow their food, broken or
not, and 1T enters the crop or first stom-
ach and remains in it until it has become
softened more or less, when a small
duoAlAOJ 1o a OALlIO3 JISG grains 1uu ILL.,
to grist-mill, is forcedinto the gizzard,
among the gravel stones. This gizzard
is a strong, muscular stomach, and plies
night and day when there is grist to
grind, similar to bellows contracting
at times, thus forcing the gravel stones
into the grain and breaking it into frag-
ments and trlturating the whole mass,
after which 1t is IN suitable condition to
be digested.
RINGING grape vines is a process to
increase size and earliness. It is done
by cutting circle around the old wood.
preventing the return of sap to the root.
If the bark is entirely cut through an
enlargement of the vine will occur on
the side next the new growth. The vine
is not injured by this process, for only
the parts to be cut away in thefall prun-
ing are subjected to the process of ring
ing. The grapes, however, are not as
good in quality as where ripened natur-
ally. It is a trick of fruit growers to
make the fruit look better than it really
is.-COJn10n' Rural World.
Coz. F. d. CURTIS writes to the New
York Tribune that he has tried all kinds
of experiments in killing Canada thistles.
~ O60Q1uS heavily WlGn CLOVER ana now
ing it, is one of the BEST The poorest
way to kill them, and the best way to
spread them, is to put the land in hoed
crops. Every little broken joint makes
new thistle and starts a new bed.
Hence the less they are distributed the
better, unless the ground is plowed so
frequently that they cannot grow at all,
and this extra labor is so out of Joint
with ones inclination that it is seldom
DONE"
CRoTcHED or forked fruit trees of any
kind, says an exchange, can be kept |
from splitting down by twisting together
one twig from each of the main branches.
These twigs thus twisted together will |
in five years grow into a solid branch
that cannot be broken. Twigs which |
grow from the lower part of the branches
are preferable for this purpose. If
there are no such twigs on the branches
water sprout or "sucker" should |
be allowed to grow; or one may be started
by nicely inserting coin into slit be-
tween the bark and wood and socurelV |