Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-01-24
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD,
VALUABLE HINTS FOR FARMET

VALUABLE HINTS FUN rAh"ENc'
Use only grains from the middle OF
the ear of corn, rejecting the butts and
tips. Our experience has been that ears
from the butts are short and thick, while
those from the tips have fewer rows and
thin stalks. The grains from the mid
die OF the ear have larger germs and
more substance to nourish the sprouts.
The practice of picking the fruit
and putting it in heaps for few days
until the skin toughens, before barrel
ing, ia good one. Put the fruit into
the barrels with care, shaking it down
when half full, and again when full, so
that the apples will fit closely when the
head is pressed in by means of the bar
reling press. The opposite head should
be marked as the one to be opened.
Collect few barrels of dry earth,
road dust, fine dry dirt in the corn.
field or potato patch, or anywhere that
is most convenient. This is q handy
thing to have in the fall and winter
for sprinkling under the roosts and
on the floor Of the poultry house. 1t
absorbs ammonia, keeps down smells,
and keeps things ship,shape. 1t will
pay to attend to this when it can
be so easily done. 1t costs but little,
and is OF real advantage.
An old farmer, with large experience,
says that hickory cut.in July or August
will not become worm-eaten. He says
oak, chestnut, walnut and other timber
cut from the middle Of July to the last
OF August, will last twice as long as
when cut in winter. White-oak cut,
if kept off the ground, will season
through if two feet in diameter
and remain perfectly sound for many
years. Whereas, if cut in winter or
spring, it will become sap.rotten in
few, years.
The high price OF turkeys is due to
the cold, wet weather just after hatch
ing time last spring This destroyed
the young chicks, which at this stage are
very easily killed by cold ard damp,
The DEAFNESS Of corn is probably an
additional cause. With corn ranging
near dollar per bushel all summer,
it costs something to feed poultry, aud
especially such poultry as turkeys,
which rarely lay more eggs than are
needed for setting, 1t takes less corn
to make three or four pounds of pork
than one turkey or any other kind of
poultry where corn is the main feed
Wet lands should not be plowed
deep until they have been thoroughly
drained. Alluvial soils and deep clay
loans, where the surface and sub soils
do not materially differ, can scarcely
be titled too deeply. Thin soils, how
ever, should not be plowed below the
available plant food. 1t takes twice
as iluch manure to fertilize land when
it is plowed to depth OF ten inches,
as when it is plowed five inches; yet,
on the other hand, by blowing only
five inches deep, the soil will be ex-
hausted much quicker than when the
blowing is ten inches.
As we now grow corn it requires, upon
an average, four stalks to hill, to grow
four ears. If we could grow these four
ears upon one stalk, vast waste of
energy would be prevented, saying
nothing at present writing concerning
the possible economy of growing two
stalks, with eight ears, upon the same
space of ground. Again, if we could
manage it so that there SHOULD be no
disposition, upon the part of the plant,
to develop suckers, there would he
marked gain from their absence. Even
for fodder purposes it is questionable if
suckers are desirable, though more in
bulk could be grown to the acre, yet the
fact must not be overlooked that the
fodder should be uniform in ripeness,
so that sucrose, instead of glucose,
would be developed, the sucrose appear
ing in the mature stalks, and the glu-
cose in the suckers, because of their
different ages or stages of development.