The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-08
EFFECT OF DRAINAGE.

EFFECT OF DRAINAGE.
1t may appear to be contradiction,
but it is true beyond any doubt that
drainage greatly mitigates the evil
effects of dry weather. This is proved
in every case by practice as well as by
science. For drained soil is always
loose and porous and does not bake
hard in dry season. There is al
ways a circulation of the air in it.
The ground air comes up from below
and the surface air decends from
above, as the temperature and atmos-
pheric pressure vary. So that such
soil Is absorbent Of dews and rains
and of atmospheric moisture, and
never suffers in dry weather, nor
never suffers in wet weather, as un-
drained land does.
Few persons have a true idea of
how live stock increase. Geometrical
progression is very rapid way of ac-
emulation, and cattle increase in
that way. For instance it has been
figured up that with so per cent of an
nual increase, a herd of 100 two-year-
old heifers will amount in ten years
to 895 cows, 274 yearling heifers, 1853
heifer calves and 1927 heifers and
male calves. In five years more the
herd will amount to 1889 cows (all
over twelve years being left QUIT, 939
yearlings, 1895 heifer calves, and 1926
males of all ages. Such an increase
as this cannot fail to make live stock
rearing profitable wherever sufficient
grazing can be secured.
Sheep return to the soil, in manure,
the largest percentage of the manu-
rial value of the food consumed of
any other animal. According to ac-
curate experiments, made at German
experiment stations, where the food
given and the manure obtained were
carefully analysed, 95 per cent of all
the food consumed, in their manure,
solid and liquid. This is in accord
with the Spanish problem, that "the
hoof of the sheep Is golden" With a
view to the renovation of WORKOUT
farm, sheep is the most profitable
stock that could be kept. They pay a
the food consumed, and the largest in
manure.
BUTTER-MAKING AS A FINE ART.
One Austin Corbin, whcever he may
be whether dairyman or butter
dealer of Chicago, Boston or else
Where). is quoted as saying he looks
upon butter-making as one Of the fine
arts; and he adds that "no man or Wo-
man can make good butter without
the sensitiveness of good taste to rec
ognize what constitutes the excellen-
cies of butter. AS butter comes to
me and sell it for twenty or twenty
two cents pound; BIS sells little
higher; C.'s higher still; while DIS
brings thirty cents regularly. I have
been in diaries where the flavor and
working Of the butter was excellent:
but it goes down into the cellar and
stands several weeks before it is sent
to market. There is hole in the eel
lar wall where the air constantly en-
tiers, the temperature is con-
stantly changing, and the butter
changes, too, or gets tainted. If farm
ers will make their butter well, then
put it where it will keep, it Xxi; do
much better in the end. Perhaps the
soil of a mans farm is low, spongy
and wet; then the feed will be sour,
and you cannot get good butter out of
that, either dairy or creamery. The
flavor of the butter depends largely
on the flavor of the feed. In order to
make fine butter in the winter time
the utmost cleanliness must be OBJ
served; must wash the cows udder in
warm water and dry with cloth. If
the atmosphere is bad your milk will
be tainted. 1t depends upon circum-
stances whether it is safe to set your
milk down in an improperly cleaned
or an improperly ventilated stable.
As soon as the milk comes to the
exact temperature of the surrounding
air, it absorbs the impurities therein"
A Western lady states, as her expe-
rience as poultry raiser, that one
corn mixed with other foods, will pro-
duce fourteen pounds of poultry in
the form of growing cockerels. At
the same, it must be bore in mind that
something in addition to corn must
used as food. Confine a fowl in yard
with no other food than corn, and, as
all the wants of the fowl system
would not be supplied, it would soon
die in the midst of plenty.
THE BOYS ROOM.
Don't slight the boys room in fur
nishing your house. Perhaps they
are inclined to be rough. Then try
polishing their room and see if it will
not take some of the roughnes5 from
its occupants. Put on nice bedding
make the bed look well, and they will
have too much good sense to destroy
things. A carpet, washstand and
all things considered essential in other
sleeping rooms ought to be in the
boys room. Some of the fancy arti-
cles the girls have made and won
dered where In the world to put them,
would brighten up this dull place.
A piece of sandpaper with something
bright around tie edge, fastened to
the wall near the match-safe, with a
burnt match receiver below it, will
save the wall from being "all
scratched up by the boys" If but
tom comes off while they are dressing,
a box with needles and thread will
save running all over the house to
find some one to sew it on, but with
the material right at hand he can sew
it on himself. Make their room look
nice and you will not be troubled
with muddy boots tracking all the
way to the "boys' ROOM"
HINTS ON CAKE BAKING.
When cakes are made without yeast
or eggs, soda and powder being the
they require quick baking
in a moderately hot oven, and should
be drawn directly wien they are cone
or they get dry and tasteless. For
plain cake, made with one pound of
flour, etc., theItime to be allowed in
baking would be from forty to fifty
at the outside not more than
an hour. Yeast cakes take longer
say from ten to fifteen minutes-and
will bear to be left in the oven rather
over the time without injury. Very
rich cakes, IN which butter and eggs
take of course a much
longer time to cook; pound cake TAX
ing from an hour and half to two
hours, and bride cake three and a half.
On no account should the oven be too
hot when the cakes are put in-that
is, not hot enough to brown at once;
if so, in FIVE minutes the whole out
side will be burned and the interior
will stand little chance of being
cooked. The old plan of feeling the
handle of the oven door to test the
heat is not always successful. 1t is
better to sprinkle a little flour inside
md shut the door for about three min
ltes; if at the end of that time it is of
/ rich light brown, the cake may be
put In; but if burned the heat must
"a laQeanad