The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-11
Farm Notes.

Sour milk, whey and buttermlk are excellent
liquids for mixing with the soft food of poultry
A sick horse. that cannot be induced to lie
down in any other way, will often take to a bed
Of Clean bright straw.
1t requires ten cars to take $500 worth of
grain to market while the same value of butter
can be carried in half a car
There arc 100000 farmers in the United
States the next largest number engaged in
other pursuits being the miners and manufac-
turers, who number nearly 1000, COO
Crotched or forked fruit trees of any kind can
be kept from splitting down by twisting together
one twig from each of the main branches These
twgs thus twisted together Will in five years
grow into a solid branch that cannot be broken
Twigs from the size of a lead pencil to half an
inch i'll diameter can be used for this purpose.
One of the most successful of Illinois dairy
men keeps 100 cows, but never raises pound Of
hay He feeds his cattle corn fodder, cut
when in blossom, bound and set up till cured,
or till winter, when it is removed to the barn
He gets seven tons Of this dry fodder to the
acre, and claims ii is worth as much as the best
of hay.
Hon. Hiram Smith, who is high authority on
dairy matters writes to the Jefferson County
Union Winter dairying still promises to he
best, as the following ought to convince any but
tel-maker My cows gave four hundred pounds
of milk Il day when butter sold for u cents, and
fifteen hundred pounds when butter for 80 cents
pound. But, say many farmers, it requires a
warm barn for winter dairying. True. and
equally true is it that none but fools would have
anything else than a warm barn for any kind Of
dairying,'
The New York Times says ono of the most Sc
rous obstacles to successful dairying Is wet pas
lures. Land that is saturated with wator pro
duces unwholesome herbage the grass is rank
and sour and sometimes the heritage consists
wholly of sedges and other coarse plants that are
not easily digestible Such food cannot produce
mil a1l1t he from 11gb
will not mako good cheese or butter. But very
often The coarse, rank food produces disease in
the COWS. This is more especially the case with
ye&rlmgs and young cattle whose digestive pow
ers are not fully matured.
Probably more than half of all the weeds are
first brought to our farms in the grass seed
Suppose we were given a bushel of clover or
timothy seed containing only twenty seeds Of
ripple OF wild carrot or daisy; how much better
to burn it than TO SOW and go over the fields
time after time to pull out the weeds! 1t would
cost moro than ten times the price of the seed to
get the last Of these plants out 1t is far better
to refuse entirely those seeds with only few
weed seeds, and pay round price for those en-
trely free from them; and then on seeding down
land we should SOW plenty Of seed, so as to have
the surface fully occupied with tho desired crop.
New York Tribune
writer who does not take any stock in the
general claim that all honey is ''clover honey. "
saws: by far the larger portion of the whitest
pulest, sweetest and best clover honey is ex-
tracted from the blossom of the Eastwood tree. OF
linden as il is known in some localities. The
bees are often found even upon manure heaps as
well as upon the beautiful flowers, Hog manure,
for instance contains ammonia in considerable
quantities which is an essential element in
honey-making, and hence the bees eagerly seize
upon it. The bee is seen to levy upon the saps
eXuding from sugar maple from cornstalks and
from whatever yields starch, sugar or gum
Hence the bee is by no means confined to the
clover blossom in its search for honey"