The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-03-16
FARM NOTES.

nails in grease and they will easily drive
into hard wood.
GEEsE.-It is said that geese will
thrive better, and their flesh be more
delicately favored, if fed upon raw po-
tatoes, than upon any other substance.
BARLEY AS FooD.-In England in
ferior barley is generally ground into
meal for feeding cattle and pigs, and
nothing surpasses its value when boiled
as a mash for horses after hard days
work
KEEPING ONIoNs.-To keep onions
through the winter, head them up in
barrels and stow them snugly together
in an out-building or barn, where they
can be kept cool and dry, and cover
with hay or straw to prevent too hard
freezing.
BURNT Corn FOR Fowls. - Corn
burnt, on the cob, and the refuse
which consists almost entirely of the
grains reduced to charcoal and still re-
tanning their perfect shspe-placed be-
fore the fowls, is greedily eaten by
them, with a marked improvement in
their health.
AN Iowa farmer, writing to the Home
stead, gives as his experience that an
exclusive diet of corn is cause of hog
cholera. He claims that the hog
should be treated to a variable diet like
any other animal, and that corn is not
n complete article of food, the hog re-
curing suitable food for converting
into bone and muscle rs well as fat.
THE Ox-EYED DAIsY.-The ox-eyed
daisy has become great pest in some
sections of the country. Those who are
troubled with this weed should bear in
mind that it is propagated by seed and
not by the root, and, to rid themselves
of it, they have only to NOW before the
seed is ripe. 1t may require two sea-
sons to rid field entirely of the inno-
cent-loolling flower.
Mr.. II. RoEsE states, in the Deutsehe
Gaertner Zeitui1g, that, of fifty varieties
of potatoes grown by him, Early Yer
mont was the earliest, best and most
prolific. He recommends it as partic-
ularly adapted for "purring;" that is,
the largest tubers may be taken away
without injury to the remaining ones,
which, if carefully covered, and without
disturbing the roots, will continue to
grow.
LOOK out for damage from mice if
you have trash of any kind heaped up
around your trees. Many valuable
trees are lost every winter by not at
tending to this little pest; he girdles
the trees at the ground, and you may
not know anything about it until next
summer, when you find the tree in q
dying condition. His time for doing
his destructive work is when there IL
snow on the ground.
= THE Shropshire downs possess beau
tiful symmetry of FORM fine quality and
early maturity of all their parts, Wig
orous constitution and grand muscular
proportions. They are first-class shear
ers, carrying a fine compact coat, valu-
able at ence for wool and protection
from chilling sleet storms. They stand
close herding in large numbers remark
ably well, the ewes are good mothers,
and twin lambs are not unusual. -RlL-
raj Nebraska.
PROF. ;. Il. MAYNARD, of the Massa-
chusetts Agricultural College, says
Il know of no other reason why the POI
tato fail to produce its true fruit, the
potato balls, than that the power of re-
production by seed has been weakened
by the forcing process they have been
subjected to for the past ten years by
the propagation from single eyes, cut
tings, etc. Other plants, the verbena.
for instance, after having been propa-
gated several years from cuttings, pro-
duce very few if any seeds"
The knack of getting a supply of
eggs summer and winter is to keep the
pullets of the early spring and summer
hatch. Feed them all they will eat
clean of the best and most nutritious
and producing food, and such SIM
pie condiments rs pepper, ginger and
mustard, to stimulate them. Kill of
the hens before they mott in their Sec
ond year, and keep none but young
hens. OF course, under this system of
forcing for egg production and flesh
there is no valid objection, as it is not
intended that their eggs should be set.
How TO HUsK AN EAR OF Corn. -
Catch the ear with the left hand, thumb
toward the butt, and the little finger
about opposite the tip of the corn mot
the husk). Insert the husking- peg so
as TO take not less than one-half the
husks, bring down with quick motion,
giving them a sharp pull at the butt
close the left hand around the remain
der of the husks, at the same time
Grasping the ear with the right hand,
thumb toward the tip and little finger
near the butt, and break off by pressing
the tip of the ear from you with the
thumb, and at the same time bring the
butt toward you by n short, quick jerk
with the fingers, still holding to the
husks with the left hand. 1t takes fewer
motions by this method than the other,
and every motion takes time. a person
unaccustomed TO this way may at first
find it difficult to bring the ear out clear
of husks, but by carefully following the
above directions and a little practice
there will be no trouble that way. Let
Mr.. Brown try this way long enough to