The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-05-09

If you wish to raise good many fowls
you must keep them in separate small
flocks Large numbers do not flourish
well together.
Lime is an excellent fertilizer on clay
soils on account of its power to render
of the clay, and also to make it more
porous.
Nothing is more deceiving than good
bred horses legs. They may look small
to the eye. but when handled you often
find that your fingers do not meet as cas-
lily as you expected.
In putting manure on land for onion
sets see that it is well rotted, and do not
manure too heavily. Sow seed early, after
making the land fine. The secret of
good onion growing is fine filth.
Do not forget that swine require green
food as other animals If you do not
wish to turn them loose feed it to them
in the pen. That which they get in ordi-
nary ''swill" is sometimes not enough.
Any soil that will produce the ordinary
farm crops will produce the small fruits.
Work the land deeply by the use of a sub
soil plow, and make it reasonably rich by
the application of some fertilizer. Make
the soil fine and mellow by repeated har-
rowing, but use heterogeneous manures
sparingly.
In order to have good supply of good
currants put tobacco stems on the
ground under the bushes and put them
there now. You can get these stems
Of the manufacturers in your nearest
town. They will kill the worms. With
good bushes we have found any coarse
tabacco, dearer than the stems, to pay.
The more thoroughly decomposed the
manure the more available it is for plant
food. If not thoroughly rotted in the
heap, it must undergo that process in the
soil. Plants do not derive any benefit
from the solid portions until they are re-
duccd by mechanical and chemical influ-
cnces, and the most insoluble portions
sometime remain for long time dormant
and inert, unless the process of decay is
fastened by proper management of the
manure heap.
Manuring in the hill before planting
tor melons and other vegetables is often
unsafe. But little manure should be
used, and then it should be thoroughly
mixed with the soil. If applied in guam,
tity, and especially if put in in lump it
soon dries out unless it is very thor
ou9hly decomposed. Some manures are
too strong for young plants. We have
known young melons to turn yellow and
die when two inches high when planted
over hen manure.
A flock of sheep will work up more
valuable pile of manure from the same
feed than any other stock. In winter
their tread is not so heavy as to prevent
light fermentation )f the manure pile,
which is thus fitted for imme liate ser
vice. In summer they deposit their drop
pings more evenly than any other grazing
animal during the day time, and at night
will select some dry poorknol to enrich.
The Spanish proyerb is true which says
1.-The foot of the sheep is golden"
In many experiments with wood ashes,
the benefit derived is often due TO the
small proportion of phosphoric acid
which they always contain rather than to
the potash This is especially true in
cases where leached ashes have proved
nearly or quite as helpful as those I'M
lcached. The potash is very soluble, and
most of it is taken out by teaching, while
the phosphate of lime remains, and is
only Liberated by the action of carbonic
acid in the SOIL and thus is always avail
able as plants need it.