The Mineral argus., 1884-07-03

grass make one Of hay. Orchard grass
produces a pound of hay to less than
three pounds of grass. Alsike clover
yields less than the red variety, but the
proportion of grass to hay is the same.
While it is advisable to secure as large
yield as possible, it is best to grow a mix
ture in order to secure quality.
A correspondent of the Country Gen
tleman objects to the smokehouse for
smoking meats. Every n knows that
this way of smoking befouls the outside
OF the meat; that by the breaking of a
string a piece is often lost, and that not
lntrequently the smokehouse furnishes
a contiagration. But how else can meat
be smoked? This correspondent says to
thoroughly smoke the barrel inside
with maple or hickory chips or corn
cobs, pack the pieces closely and cover
with prepared pickle.
One good agency for keeping the air
of the cellar sweet and wholesome is
whitewash made of good white lime and
water only. The addition of glue or
size or anything of this class is only a
damage by furnishing organic matter to
speedily purify. The use of lime in
whitewash is not only simply to give a
white color, but it greatly promotes the
oxidation of eff1uvia in the cellar air.
Any vapors that contain combined nit
rogen in the unoxidized form contribute
powerfully to the development of dis
ease germs.
Here is the way John 7. Ames, of
Mortified, Mimi, told the Dairyman's
association he put up hay: Apply a
mixture of two quarts slaked lime, and
M and one-half quarts of salt with a
little sulphur, to every loadofhay. He
stores his hay rather green, letting it
cure In the NOW.
The authorities of the iowa Agricultur-
al college make the following c~lassifi-
cations of the relative values of various
foods as milk producers: Corn. per 100
pounds, 80 cents, oats 60 cents barley,
30 cents; wheat, 65 cents; wheat bran,
10 cents; oil meal, SLAB; clover hay,
so cents; timothy, 80 cents; potatoes,
10 cents.
Several years since, L had a piece of
land so infested With cut-worms, that I
could not keep a stand of cabbage, as
the plants were cut down as regularly
at night, as they were set out in the day.
The next Fall l had the land plowed,
made it white with lime, plowed that in
nnggnntsllgp, and then sowed salt freely. The
rains dissolved the salt and brought it
in contact with the lime in the soil. L
again planted it in cabbage, and l did
not lose five plants from cut worms that
season.
An Illinois farmer writes to a scien-
tific paper:-''This summer, when my
own corn was two feet high, the light
ming struck it, killing a patch one hun
dred feet in extent. 1t seemed to kill
the ground, as neither weed nor spear
of grass has grown on it since. The
ground looks dead, and I believe it is.
Occasionally these spots are met with
all over the prairies. The people ac-
count for them as buffalo tramps, where
buffaloes c~ongregated in my time and
tramped until they killed the soil, but
from the above occurrence 1 account
for them as being struck by lightning.
A correspondent of the Rural New
Yorker describes the following method
by which an extraordinary crop of wat
ermelons was raised: Holes were dug
ten feet apart each way, eighteen inches
square and fifteen inches deep. These
holes were filled with well-rotted
manure, which were thoroughly incor-
porated with the soil. A low, flat bill
was her made and seed planted. When
the vines were large enough to run The
whole surface was covered to the depth
of a foot or fifteen inches with wheat
straw. The straw was placed close up
around the vines. No cultivation what
ever was given afterward; no weeds or
grass grew. The vines spread over the
straw, and the melons matured clean
and nice. The yield was abundant and
the experiment an entire success. This
is surely worth trying.
little People.