The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-02-09
FARM NOTES.
SHEEP make up about three-fourths
of all the live stock in Great Britain.

SOME farmers nave learneu tndb leSS
work and more thought secures larger
returns at the end of the year.
PRICES asked by American breeders
of pure-bred polled Angus cattle are as
high MS $3.50 for COWS and 81 300 for
bulls.
FEED twelve pounds of buttermilk to
a thrifty pig weighing about twenty,
and it will increase his weight one
pound.
ANY intelligent farmer with his eyes
open can always learn enough to pay
expenses by visiting intelligent neigh
boring farmers.
Mr.. HENRY IVES, of Batavia, n. Y,
recommends oats as a good crop on
naked land, to be turned in as green
manure, and other parties state that
wheat can be used for the same purpose
with advantage.
THERE is one advantage of associated
dairying in the fact that, as farmers meet
at the creamery or cheese factory, they
compare notes and mutually learn of
each other. Farmers in the dairy re-
gions of any State have usually more
than the average intelligence and enter
prise.
In trees plantfood is stored up at
the end of the summer in the pith, the
pith RAYS and in the layer between the
wood and the bark The leaves which
fall in the autumn have lost nearly all
their starch, albuminoids, phosphoric
acid and potash, these having been
transformed to the stem.
PIG-wEED root has been analysed at
the New York Experimental Station
and found to contain 73 parts water,
2.24 of ash, .3S of nitrogen, 225 albu-
minoids or their equivalents, 800 car
bohydrates end 255 of celluloce. DR..
Sturtevant considers the plant of con-
siderable value for green manure.
OF all roots, except potatoes, beets
are most susceptible to frost. Carrots,
being mostly deep in the ground, will
stand considerable freezing without
much injury, provided they are left to
thaw in the ground. Parsnip and veg
etable oyster-plants are better for being
out all winter; and of parsnips espe-
cially only enough should be put in the
cellar for use when those outside cannot
be gotten at.
ALWAYS select good ears of corn for
seed-the best you can find. Take
them from stalks bearing two or more
ears. "A perfect ear" says the Ameri-
can Agricultltrist, "has all rows per-
feet, small butt end the cob we'll
tipped out with grain and covered with
husks, the kernel uniform and we'll rip
ened." A careful selection of ears is
one of the ways of improving the quail
ty of future crops.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Country
Gentleman takes sensible view of
the value of large or small potatoes for
seed. His opinion is that there is no
difference in any respect, except the
fact that the large potatoes furnish
more nutriment to the young plants at
the beginning. For sandy soils he re-
commends the planting of whole tubers
without cutting, afterward thinning out
all the plants in the hill to IA single
one.
The Farm and Garden gives the re-
suit of an experiment by New Jersey
farmer in manuring for peach trees.
1t was found that the use Of night soil
was special manure for them, giving
a deeper color TO the leaves, producing
larger and better fruit, and adding
vigor and growth to the trees 1t was
no chance discovery, but the result of
special trials and observations, III order
to learn the best manure with which to
treat them.
CATTLE, ripe and fat, weighing 800
pounds, bring the best price in the mar
ket and are produced at the least cost
per pound. 1t is very little trouble to
make calf weigh 1000 pounds mt
twelve months, but the same feed or
more Will not make a gain of more than
500 pounds the second year and the
third still less. The animal that will
arrive Mt the right weight Mt the earliest
age and yet be ripened so as to bring
the best price will he the most profit
able to both feeder and butcher, and
this perfection is what should be looked
for in all meat producing breeds,
whether cattle, sheep or swine.
THE peach borer is wasp-like insect
with transparent wings, and richly
ornamented body, banded and striped
with gold, which deposits its eggs about
the base of the trunk. The eggs hatch
out, and the Larvae bore into the sap
wood, and cause an emulation of gum
my matter which appears in masses
about the base of the tree. The larv@
seem partly to live on this gummy sub
stance and partly i'll the sapwood of the
tree Sometimes three or four are
found on the same tree, occasionally
girdling and destroying it, but always
inducing more or less of diseased con-
dition, and impairing its vigor. Alto
gether it is a very Objectionable and de-
structive insect.
A GERMAN paper gives the following
interesting method of starting plants
early: The seeds of peas. beans, GU
cumbers, etc, are started in frame,
and when little grown are lifted and
the roots dipped in n mixture of clay,
chopped moss, water aud loan, and on
withdrawal are sprinkled with fine, dry
earth. A piece of moss is then fiat
tened into the form of plate and lit
tie earth sprinkled on it. The prepared
plants are then placed on this plate, the
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