News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-07
FARM AND GARDEN.


would build house only large enonoh'
to hold the meats Closely packed on slab
SheIves-exter lung from bottom to top
i ~l'louo floor, and the door should
10 a. small as convenience in filling the
louise will admit. Eight feet from this
dig fire hole two and half feet across
and two deep; place simple curbing of
2x4 around the top level with the sur
face. just inside of the threshold of
the meat room lay another wooden pipe
or log SIX inches square from the very
top of the pit to the house, so as to have
a rise of about one foot.
In filling the house do not let the
pieces touch each other and be careful
to lay each one with the skin-side down.
1t is much better to lay them in this
way on fiat shelves than to hang them
up. Build brisk fire in the pit and get
well lighted a large maple knot and then
close the pit with tight fitting shutter,
stopping the crack between it and the
cu-bing with earth. The house will in
stantly fill with smoke, the amount of
which you can control by means of
partially closing the opening of the tile
leading to the bottom of the pit.
If the house is tightly built it may be
necessary to make an opening to admit
air ard induce circulation. We have
kept meats in fine condition all summer
IN such house by making two ventila-
tors covered with wire netting, and ar
ranged so as to be tightly closed when
desired, and filling the house with fresh
smoke every five or six weeks.-W. W.
TRACY, Michigan.
AGAINST MICE IN ORCHARDS.
presence of mice in orchards is a very
serious cause of destruction in cold
weather-sometimes unsupported, if as
Mr.. Luper, of the Warsaw, ILL.,, Horti-
cultural Society, says, ''they often bur-
row about the trunk and among the
roots when the ground is loose, COM
pletely girdling them out of sight" In
such cases "winter killing" is mistaken
ly held responsible. Another speaker
declared that the sharp-toothed rodents
''kill more than freezing; another that
they skill thousands" Several proven
tives were suggested. By burying
near to the trees wheat grains soaked or
boiled in arsenic water, Mr.. Ames sue
ceeded in driving the pests from his
premises. Mr.. Piggot mentioned as sue
cessful the plan of removing the soil
about the stem, thus forming a basin
which after the ground freezes retains
ice; this is also accounted ga help
against insects" Mr.. Hammond re-
peated the reminder that a mound of
earth is quite sure; he is particular to
remove in the fall all grass and weeds
around the trees, and finds this general
ly sufficient in his own experience. Mr..
Walker, after losing a number, tried
rubbing the bark with blood, and mice
and rabbits now give him no trouble.
Tramping the snow hard after each
storm or drift is advised; another plan
is binding dead bent bark about the
stems, or the coarse ends of cornstalks
set upright.
The STEAM PLow.-In foreign coun-
tries, England especially, the steam
pillow has been used to some extent, and
few wealthy agriculturists of the United
States have one time or another expert
mented in the same direction. To this
number must now be added Mr.. Hiram
Walker, of WaIkerville, Mich, who lately
stationed portable engine on each of
two sides of 45-acre field and with this
power hauled back and forth through
the rich, mellow soil, free from stones
and stumps, two gangs of four plows at
tached to a wire cable and working al
ternately, turning burrows five to eight
inches deep, as may be required. The
capacity of this imported machine is
thought to be 16 to IS acres per day,
under the favorable conditions above in
Dictated, and five men are required to
run 1.-two engineers, two to follow the
plows and one to supply the fuel and
water. Whether the system is practi-
cable on the large level farms of the
West is a question for Time.
KEEPING APPLES IN WINTER.-It is
one thing to raise fair, sound, winter ap-
pies of the best varieties, and quite an
other to keep them so that they will
come out in April as crisp and tooth
some as in mid-winter. And it is not too
late to attend to those still kept in the
cellar or elsewhere. To be sure of
soundness, with no worm inside, or
blotch upon the skin, is prime neces-
sity for good and long preservation. A
fruit room of course will keep them well,
other conditions being all right, but the
average farmer who sold all his surplus
apples in autumn, and only wants few
barrels for his dessert and evening call
ers, has-no suitable place but his cellar,
and his handiest vessel is the second
hand barrel. Let the barrel then be
sound, with two good heads and per-
fectly clear-nothing upon the inside to
start rot. At the last asserting remove
every defective and bruised apple for
early use, and leave no hole or crack in
the head of the barrel. This helps to
preserve an even temperature. If kept
in cellar, let the barrel rest upon the
bilge, and not upon the head, and keep
dry. The cellar should have a door or
window, opening easily to give more or
less air, according to the outer temper
allure. With this convenience and a
thermometer, one can keep the temper
ature between thirty-two and forty de-
grees, and have fine apples in sprin1;.
Nothing but watching them faithfully
will do it.