Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-01-30
FARM AND GARDEN.
Be mindful of past mistakes.


HOUSE plants are not to be kept too
wet.
SMOKING should be prohibited in barns
and stables.
NEVER clean horse in the stable.
The dust fouls the crib.
KEEP all the family interested in the
farm and it's improvements.
The strawberry was introduced into
England from the Continent in 1880.
FIFTEEN hundred barrels of apples
were recently shipped from New England
to London.
AN old horticulturist says mulching is
as beneficial to raspberries and black
berries as for strawberries.
AN Indiana fruit grower puts moles in
his strawberry patch to destroy grubs.
He says they do it thoroughly.
THERE is said to be a demand in Iowa
for unsalted butter. In Europe sailed
butter is considered an inferior article.
A MAN who will allow frosty bit to
be put in horses mouth ought to be
debarred the use of that Invaluable
animal.
The average yield of beets per acre
in Germany is eighteen tons. It re-
quires about ten pounds of beets to make
one pound of sugar.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Germantown
| Telegraph has cured rust on his black
berry vines by applying few handfuls
of salt to the surface of the ground I'M
mediately above the roots.
A GENTLEMAN seeing many of his
squash plants wilt and die last season,
mixed two teaspoonfuls of kerosene in q
pail of water, throwing enough on every
hill to wet the soil and stems. Every
plant so treated lived and prospered.
AT q recent meeting of an Ohio farm
ers' club the members stated that when
potatoes fell lower than DO cents per
bushel in price it did not pay to sell
them, as greater profit could be derived
by feeding them to stock, by which
means. transportation was saved, while
the manure was also an item in the mat
ter.
A BALTIMORE paper says that city
alone put up the past season IA, 400, 900
cans of peaches, 1900, 900 cans of peas,
300, 900 cans of string beans, and 100,-
600 cans of pears, g, 900, 000cans Of toma-
toes, 1000, 1000 cans of fruits and other
vegetables. This is an immense amount
of what may be called new industry.
Maryland seems\to take the lead of all
her sister states in this growing indus
try.
THE structure of wool is by no means
a simple one, or one easily made out.
Instead of consisting, as cotton, of a
single hollow cell, whose walls consti-
tute the only variations of structure, all
woods are built up of countless minute
cells, variously arranged according to
the rapidity of growth and other causes,
but forming long cylinder, not always
of the same diameter from end to end,
and consisting of three entirely distinct
parts.
A GOOD food for laying hens is said to
be one part ground oats, one part corn
meal and one part of bran. Mix with
boiling water, first adding little salt
and teaspoonful of copperas water for
every ten hens. Give this in the morn
ing, and at night feed whole corn and
wheat. Parching the grains once or
| twice week is also very beneficial.
Give little meat and ground lone, as
well as pounded oyster shells, at least
three times week.
A DAIRYMAN once told the American
Dairyman that he introduced new COW
into his herd, and of course the F'lea-
der took hook at her, which she very
unwisely resented, and tussel ensued,
In which the other COWS soon Joined, and
ID a few minutes all of them were in a
fJ1rI roC hot ho hi
clubs and all their strength and shout
COW was dead. We have always found
it a good plan to keep an eye on the
herd when new COW is first turned in
with it.
PROF. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan
Agricultural College, has been for sew
eral years carefully observing the hab-
its of bees, and probably knows more
than any other man in this country
about the busy little insects, takes no
stock in the common opinion that bees
recognize their keeper, and thinks that
the only reason that they are more like
~ to sting a stranger is that SO the latter
is more nervous and so jerks his head or
makes other quick motions which are
offensive to the bees and sure to meet
quick reproof."
FRENCH shepherds find that salt dis
solved in water and sprinkled over the
rations of sheep gives them an increased
relish for their forage and contributes to
their health. A French writer states
that the proportion used is about one
pound of salt to twenty head Of sheep,
but he does not say how often they are
thus fed. He also states that in very
wet weather one and one-half ounces of
green vitriol, dissolved in eight parts of
water, are given to sheep, and that it is
especially advantageous to house-fed
stock.
AMONG the reasons why it should pay
to breed Southdown sheep more gener-
ally, these are given: They thrive the
best of all breeds on snowy, arid or
rocky pastures; are less liable to disease
than any but Merinos; can be kept in
large focks; the fleece is abundant, of
medium fneness, and preferable to any
other for certain kinds of goods, and