Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-08-27

wealthy resident of New York City, but
is an enthusiastic admirer of blooded
cattle, and the owner of Darlington,
one of the best appointed of Eastern
stock farms, on which are some of the
most valuable of American Jerseys.
The superintendent of the University
of Wisconsin Experimental Farm states
that for the three years past he has
grown lima beans without poles or
stakes by persistent pinching back after
they reached the desired height-about
that of common bunch beans. He is
confident the crop is very perceptibly
earlier, and thinks it has increased in
quantity, the plant being checked in
it's growth of vine, expanding it's energy
in full production. The Fruit Recorder
states that on it's farm some are so
treated, and they were loaded with fruit.
PROF. FORBES has been prying into
the private affairs of an humble, famil-
| lar, yet not very well-known friend of
the farmer and finds that rama halecina
is great eater of insects. In eight of
these common spotted frogs, caught and
examined by Prof. Forbes on the
Michigan Agricultural College farm,
the following percentages of food were
found: Insects, 80 per cent; injurious
moths and theirlarv@, Ii per cent; car
abid beetles, "a per cent; weevils OF
the strawberry crown girdler, 3 per
cent. and injurious grasshoppers, Is per
cent. Besides the 80 per cent. of in
sects proper there are 5 per cent. of
spiders, per cent. of slow bugs and 10
per cent. of vegetable matter.
LAST March the Misses Fanny and
Edith Balthis of Clifton, Ill, received
over 100000 Italian silk-worm eggs,
which were in due time Matched on the
hanger system. Assisted by Jenny L.
Balthis, the girls gave the most assidu-
Gus and untiring attention to the
worms, through all the stages of their
development, until now they have
many thousands of most beautiful CO.
coons. The hangers fill the parlors,
and In fact SO many rooms that they
come near monopolzing spacious
house. Great credit is due to the
young ladies for being first to demon
strate so successfully that raw silk can
be easily produced in Iroquois County
from the leaves of the Usage orange.
We take the following items from
the Iowa Agricultural Report: Farm
ers are awakening to the fact that a
small farm well titled is better than a
large farm half TILED. Stock and grass,
dairy products, ETC., have taken the
place of wheat growing, much to the
benefit of farming interest,"
ments in the methods of farming con-
sist in a more general rotation of crops,
blowing deeper, carefully saving all the
manure and judiciously applying it, ex-
tending the area of grasses and giving
more attention to the care of stock and
the making of butter and cheese
Farmers have commenced thing under
draining) their lands, and to a good
advantage, farming less acres and doing
it In better manner. The dairy inter
est is securing marked attention;
creameries are increasing and doing a
prosperous business. Improved breeds
of stock are increasing"
The construction of diffusion ma
chine for making sorghum sugar is to
be begun at once at Wilmington, Del,
Congress having appropriated $4,000
for the purpose. The Agricultural De-
partment will send the machine, when
finished, to Kansas for experiment, as
there is great deal of sorghum in that
state. The system of diffusion is one
in which the cane is steamed, the juice
being passed along through number
of jars called battery, until the cane
is thoroughly exhausted of saccharine
matter. Until last summer all, the
Government experiments were in the
line of cutters and crushers, but the
best of these was only able to express
sixty per cent. of the juice from the cane,
the rest being lost. The diffusion sys-
tenn, as used in France in the manufact-
ure of beet sugar, was tried on small
scale with such remarkably satisfactory
results that Congress was asked to pro-
vide means for larger trial. The new
machine will have a capacity of 100 tons
day.