Connecticut western news., 1883-06-13
FARM AND GARDEN.
CURING HAY.

one and the Hte-glv1ng power ot the oth- CT are both lost. Hay requires but little drying. It requires curing. Its living principles should be preserved. We once cut large quantity of clover hay when the bulk of the blossoms were fully open, but good part of them were just opening. The clover lay from 10 in the morning to in the afternoon, when it was raked and gathered into cocks, containing about 200 or 300 pounds. In that state it remained near ly a week. It soon grew warm, but in such small bulk it could take no harm. It simply cured; the moisture escaped slowly, and when the cocks were thrown open few hours before the hay was drawn to the barn, the unopened blooms were gradually unfolding. The grass was still alive. Thus it went into the barn. There it again became warm, but only very moderately. In. the winter the hay was green, and the blos- sons retained their natural color. The immature ones had fully opened, and were pressed out in their natural color, as the botanist preserves them in his herbarium. The hay was still grass, but dried And it was grass when 1t was fed, and 1t made grass butter through the winter and came out of the mow with the delicious odor which might have spent itself over the valley instead of be- ing retained in the hay had it been ex- posed to the sun in the field. And this is the way in which we would have the young farmers learn to make their hay. so that it shall be cured grass, having ali its juices left, but only freed from their water; all the sweetness remaining, and the nutritive elements, in fact color, scent, and tenderness the grass as it fell before the scythe of the cutting-bar.
 THE VALUE OF SWEET APPLES.
 Our orchards are gradually being de- prived of sweet fruit in behalf of semi acid and sour fruit. Here and there in the old mountain orchards may be seen few of the famous " Cooley Sweets, , so celebrated as @ cider apple, and hard by is the Fliar," another well-known cider apple, but rather tart in flavor. In the newest orchards but few if any sweet apples are planted. Occasionally few Golden Sweet or Tolman's Sweating are planted, and the orchard has variety at least. The question may be asked, why sweet apples are not grown. Is there no sale for them? The Golden Sweet is fine summer apple, and is ex- cellent for baking, and ordinarily sells well, though not in such quantities as sour fruits. It will pay the farmer to plant Golden Sweets simply to fatten pigs with, and we have seen as nice pork fattened on apples as on meal. This season there has been good demand for sweet apples, with none to supply it. Children are usually very fond of sweet apples, hence the large demand for them in our cities during the winter. In Eng land sweet apples sell moderately we'll at the auction sales, and if the real value of them was understood, more would be sold. For culinary use sweet apples oc- cupy an important place. They cannot be used for pastry. but for baking they are far superior to sour fruit. A dish oi bread and milk with sweet apples sliced in is great relish oftentimes to the farmer as he comes in from the field. While do not recommend extensive planting of sweet apples, believe that every farmer, and even those who mar ket fruit, should plant few trees of Tol mans Sweating, or Golden Sweets, ol some other of the well-known varieties. Sweet apples are not liable to decay; il fact, we think they keep much better than sour ones. The farmer who is for tunate enough this season to have a goo6 supply of them can obtain 8 good price at almost any fruit stand in our cities Sweet apples when ground in the cider mill make the very best of cider, which commands tine highest prices. A farmer on the mountains of western Hampde1 has large quantity of sweet apples ani makes one cheese from them and sell, the cider in this city, the product bring ing him quite an advance over that mad, from sour fruit. -Spriagfeld Repu6 | Acd1o.
 l BLACK GROWS AS BIRD KILLERS.
 MT. M., practical fruit grower ant l farmer of Western Pennsylvania, tool great pains to foster and protect insect
 eating birds in his orchard. As natrl
 ral consequence his fruit was the fines
 and most free from worms ill that region
 and commanded a good price and read,
 sale. He related with pride that annu
 ally, after the leaves fell and expose'
 the birds nests each tree had its nest
 and some two or three. But the summe | of 1882 ushered ill new order of things
 A pair of crows, attracted by the splen
 did feeding ground, seemed to perma
 nently settle in his orchard, resisting a
 attempts to drive them off, always keer
 ing out of range, but never failing to re
 turn At last MT. M. s son discovere
 by accident, not twelve feet from tn
 ground, a well-secreted nest full C
 young thieves, to which the old one
 had been feeding all the eggs and yoln
 birds in the orchard, till the real pr,
 tectors of the fruit had decamped, leav
 ing the trees to the mercy of the canke
 worm and codling moth. The result was
 the leaves were riddled and the apple
 inferior and wormy. It is needless to sa
 that the growth of some young crows wa
 promptly stopped and one crow nes
 kicked to the ground with satisfaction.