The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-05-10
FARM NOTES.


whether in the shape of wood ashes OF
In the form Of sulphate Or niuriate, Is
special fertilizer for melons.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Ne,c En-
gland Farmer says that where the land
is new and rich in mineral elements
there need be no fear of black knot in
plum and cherry trees.
ABOUT $4,000 cattle, one for every
two acres Of ite surface, exist on the
Island Of Jersey, it being not quite
seven miles each way if it were square.
It also exports one COW for every ten
acres of the surface.
PouLTRY per pound, let the breed be
what it may, will cost very near the
same. One bushel Of corn will produce
nine to eleven pounds of poultry. 1t
makes no difference whether Leghorns,
Plymouth Rocks or Brahams eat the
corn.
A WRITER says that he has never
failed to cure garget by the use Of beans.
He feeds one pint Of bean meal, mixed
with other meal, for four successive
days, and has found that quantity suffi-
cient to cure the worst cases. He thinks
If cows were fed with bean meal several
times year they would never be
troubled with garget.
A FRENCH chemist claims to have
discovered method of overcoming the
danger threatening vineyards from the
ravages of the phylloxera. His process
is to inoculate the vines with the phenol
poison. The phylloxera do not attack
plants thus treated, and are extirpated
for want Of food. The vines are in no
way injured by the inoculating process.
Or orchard grass the late Mr.. Stan
ton Gould says in his treatise on
grasses: "The testimony that has been
collected from all parts of the world for
two centuries past establishes the place
of this species among the very best Of
forage grasses, and the interests of our
graziers and dairymen would be greatly
promoted by its more extended cultiva-
tion."
! Mr.. Z. GREINER, in the Farm and
| Garden, says that the easiest and quick
est way to destroy the weeds that gen.
orally start about the time when the
potatoes are up, so that the rows can
be seen plainly, is by thorough use of
harrow or drag. He places great en-
phasis upon this, and deems it far more
effective than the cultivator and hoe, at
less expense.
The value of fish pomice depends on
its dryness. When pure and dry, or
comparatively SO. it is rich in phos-
pilates and nitrogen, containing from 4
to per cent. of the former and to I
of the latter. If spread on land in o
crude state the phosphate is not imme.
diately available, because being in the
bones, it is not soluble until they
decompose. - Massachusetts Plough
man.
As TO fertilizers, there is nothing
equal to wood ashes, says Hiram Sib
ley, and they should be sown broadcast
immediately after planting corn, or ap
piled literally about the plants as 500:
as they are up. Corn is q potash plant
but requires the phosphates. Fertile
ers should be sought which contain
both, and, when sown broadcast, the,
may be used unsparingly with profit.
WHILE, in degree, the heat of al
animal is produced from its food, ant
therefore warm stables and steamed
food and warmed water seem econom
ical, yet is doubtless true that animal
are often greatly refreshed by drinking
cold water. The thirsty man does no
warm his favorite beverage, even if it
effect be recognized in the saving Q
food. The human system seems to re
quire cold drink at times.
MIXED husbandry is the only sure wa
to success in farming. Repeated crop
ping with a single cereal will bring
waste of the plant-food elements in tn
soil that will, in the end, so reduce tn
yield as to entail certain loss upon tn
land owner. This fact will do more to
ward forcing the Dalrynples to cut II
and dispose of their immense land area
than anything else, though they ma
not now see it in that light
NOTHING is more generally useful o
farm than sweep or tread hors
power. 1t can with proper machiner
be applied to many purposes, sawin
wood, cutting feed in winter, and grint
ing grain for stock. A good hors
power will thus save each year man
times the interest on its cost. and wit
proper care will last many years.
small steam engine will answer the sam
purpose, but most farmers have hors.
that must be fed whether worked {
not.
AN old Quaker writes to the Cincil
natl Gazette, in reply to a questio
which had appeared in the Gazette
"The old Horace Greeley saying wa
PLANT one more acre of corn To it
would give the emphatic answe
Don't Now, the reason: There
scarcely farmer who does not plant
larger acreage than he can profitab
attend to, and the result is that thr,
acres hardly crop out SO much as OF
acre ought to, and we hear of twent,
thirty or forty bushels to the acre whe
it ought to be from sixty to 100 bus
els. and, if the time spent on TWEEN
acres of corn were spent on ten, and Il
manure dribbled on the twenty we
!. judiciously used on the ten, there wou
be ten acres to be put in grass, set
enriching itself, and at the same tin
making splendid pasturage for hal
score of yearlings, beside realizil
fully as much corn rs in the old-sty
way; and, instead of plowing the co
only two or three times, we had bett
pillow it six times. Now, know wher
of speak. During drought, sever
years ago, certain farmer bid his DO
pillow the corn seven times that summs
and, while the neighhors' cribs we
very lean that year, his crop was 3
largest ever gathered on that farm"
The gilt-edge butter of the prese
day, that which commands the highe
price, both in this country and
Europe, is but slightly salted. L
popular taste is in the direction
I fresh parcels. The greatest drawba
/ in the production Of butter of Il
! character is its lack of keeping qua
ties. 1t commands fancy price, y,
j. if not consumed at once, raneidity
=, de,eloped. and ii must he sold at /