Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-09-26
FARM AND GARDEN.


that it is not easily exhausted. IF crop
ped too severely, nature interposes her
protest by lacking it's fertility in clods
until the land receives better treatment.
The railways are discriminating to
such an extent against dressed beef ship
pers IN favor of live stock men that the
former claim that their business is not
worth maintaining under the present
| freight policy.
| WINTER wheat is recommended by
some tobacco-growersa as being better to
pillow under as green manure than rye.
In certain cases the rye turned under
did not rot during the summer, and in
lured, rather than helped the crop.
CRYsTALIzED carbolic acid dissolved
and fed to hogs with bran slop is found
by Nebraska farmers sure cure for the
hog cholera. It mas been tried several
years and with uniform success. The
pure article resembles champion gum.
IS DO not, says Fuller, in his Small
Fruit Culturist, ''believe that there is
one acre of strawberries in thousand,
cultivated in this country, that yields
over one half what it would if the ground
was properly prepared before planting. :"
FRUIT GROWERS should remember that
black knot on the plum is most effect
ually cured by prompt use of the knife,
cutting away all diseased parts, which
should be burned. Gut below the af-
fected portions. If neglected, loss of
trees will surely follow.
SOME kinds ofgarden seeds-as melon,
beets and mangels-are good for num-
| IF al Al
summer IN cool, dry place. But the
bulk OF very small garden seeds are I'M
safe after the first year, and had better
be thrown away than sowr,
THE selection of potatoes for seed
should be made In the field when the
potatoes are dug. Select the fairest,
smoothest potatoes, with good eyes, put
in cool place, and on no account part
with them before planting time, if you
would insure good crop next year.
IT is a common fault with fruit grow
ers that they set too many varieties.
Three or four well-tested varieties of ap-
pies, pears or small fruits are worth
more In dollars and cents than twenty
kinds. It is pleasant to be able to ex-
hibit seventy-fve or hundred varieties
of apples at fair, but it does not pay.
SORGHUM for fattening cattle is highly
recommended by DR.. Kedsie, of the
Michigan Agricultural College It has
been found by SEINE who have tried it, he
says, to possess wonderful fattening
properties, and to produce beef of very
superior quality. He adds that the sorg
hum must be fed cautiously at first. The
seeds of cane are equal in value, pound
for pound, to oats or corn.
On soils that have been exhausted by
long cropping, phosphoric acid is usual
~ the element most needed. In such
cases some of the concentrated phos-
pilates are often cheaper for time than
stable or barnyard manure. But they
can not be used permanently unless
they supply other plant food than phos-
phate. There will come time when
something else will be lacking, and if
not provided, no matter how heavily
the soil is phosphated, it will not re-
spond with crop.
THE statement is made in the Iowa
Register that too much pruning is
worse than no pruning. When will
farmers learn to commence pruning
their trees when first planted, and prune
a little every year-just enough each
year to keep them In shape, and no
more-and not neglect them for years to
care for themselves through hardship
and grief, till finally, impatient that the
trees do not bear, they come to the con-
clusion that something must be done,
and SO go into them with an ak and saw
and butcher them to DEATH"
SMALL fruits are too often neglected
by the farmer. He is apt to think them
not worth the time they require for cul-
tivation. This is in most cases mis-
| take. Unless ones location or soil is
peculiarly uncongenial, no side crops
pay so we'll as small fruits. The labor
is not great if one starts right. The
most important and expensive part of
growing small fruits is the start. The
ground must be thoroughly subdued.
If grass or weeds abound in straWber-
ry or raspberry patch the cultivation is
difficult; but if proper start is made,
and the plants are set In good wide
rows so that the horse cultivator may be
used, small fruits will require little 9th
er care than the harvesting.
t. A MARKED feature of rural life in Eng
land at the present day is the substi-
tuition of permanent pasturage for till
age. Year by year the disproportion
| between titled and untitled land becomes
greater. In the whole of England there
are upward of 1900, 900 acres, and of
these in 1880 upward of 5000, OO0
acres were laid out In permanent
pasturage In 1880the untitled land had
increased to IL 900, 900, and the increase
| is now maintained at the rate of 4, 900, 00O
acres per year. Taking the whole of
I Great Britain the increase is even higher,
IL, OTIS, 900 acres only being untitled in
1870, as compared with IA, 821, 900 in
1882, while in Ireland the change is still
more marked. This is owing to foreign
competition in the cereal crops.
The English sparrow finds defender
in VIM. r. Smith, superintendent of the
government botanical garden, at Wash
ington, who is SAID to be an authority
on trees. He claims that to the spar
rows presence IN Washington is due the
continued existence of some of the finest
trees in the city, which would. without