The Portland daily press., 1884-11-05
Agricultural Notes.
GREEN WINTER FEED FOR HEN

A small piece of rye sown late adjoining
the hen yard will be run over during open
weather in winter, and will furnish some
green food for fowls at a season when it is
one of the things needed for egg production.
The rye will not cost much, and will be
worth more than the expense for seed to
plow under as manure in Spring.
GOOD CIDER VINEGAR.
The good apple crop ought to insure bet
ter quality of vinegar than we have had in
the market for few years past. There is
nothing that will make better vinegar than
undiluted cider properly fermented from
sweet apples. 1t will not make so quickly as
where more water il added, but purchasers
of vinegar generally prefer to have it pure
and do the watering themselves. A still
worse evil in most vinegar sold in cities is
adulteration by the use of poisonous acids.
Low-BRANCHING FRUIT TREES.
Most of the old orchards are so tallIthat it
costs about as much to carefully gather the
fruit as it is worth. The trees are tall, not
because they are old, but because the COM
mon practice years ago was to trim the
trees up to allow as much grain or other
crops as possible to be grown under them.
We have learned better now. A large tree
is worth much more to be branched so low
that much of the fruit, when well loaded,
can be picked from the ground or by short
step ladder than it is when all the branches
are high. The crops grown in bearing
orchard rarely pay more than cost of plant
ing, cultivating and harvesting. The fruit
crop is injured much more than the value of
any possible crop grown on the ground.
PREPARING FOR COLD WEATHER.
The work of covering perishable vegeta-
bles and protecting stables and barns against
severe cold should be done before the cold
weather comes. Neglect of this precaution,
which may seem almost too plainly needed
to require exhortation, is the cause OF mil
lions of dollars being lost every year. Late
as severe weather may be delayed certain
class of farmers will be always found un-
prepared for it.
CHEAP AND LIGHT LADDERS,
The best ladders are made by taking tall,
strong young spruce, cedar or tamarack
from swamp, split or saw 1t in halves, and
then bore holes at suitable distances and In
sert good hardwood rounds. Such ladder
will be light in proportion to its strength, so
that one that is twenty Or twenty five feet
long can be easily raised by one man. Every
farmer should have at least one long ladder
for use on stacks and in going on the roofs
of farm buildings in case of fire. The Fall
is the best time for getting out the material,
and the work of construction can be done
under shelter during the winter.
z CRATES FOR HANDLING POTATOES.
One of the best devices for harvesting po-
tatoes, apples and corn is set of wooden
crates holding one bushel each. They are
made by mailing Stats fourteen inches long
on endboards twelve inches wide and twelve
inches high, thus making as nearly bushel
of potatoes or corn as can be of even meas
ure. The proper method is to pick up the
potatoes and leave them in the crates as
gathered, afterwards following with a wag-
on, and one man lifting the crates into it as
the team is driven along. With good crop
of potatoes or corn, these crates will pay for
themselves in a single season.