Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-05-26

Farm and Live Stock Notes.
Spare the birds.
Plow the poultry yard.
Get around the bug poison.
Don't slight the young pigs now.
Hang the hen perches with tarred
ropes.
Where there are no plants weeds will
be plesent.
A good cow consumes no more feed
than poor one.
For late hatchings put an inverted sod
in the nest under the eggs.
Don't neglect the stable manures
through enthusiasm for artificial maner.s
the former are the most valuable by long
odds.
Rats sometim es destroy young chickens.
The latter may be protected by laying
down barrel, and getting the hen with
her brood to enter it for the night. When
in, stand the barrel up, and no rat will
enter. A clean barrel SHOULD be used.
For soiling, corn is one of the most val
liable of crops. 1t may be sown at inter-
walls of several. weeks. from now I'M
til August 20. 1t should be drilled
in to admit of culture while small.
Let the drills be about 20 or 80
inches apart. and with ten or twelve kerr
nels to the running loot. The land should
be rich. If it is a turned under sod, so
much the better. The corn will furnish
the best Of fodder for dry weather, or to
cut and cure for winter use.
Liberal Feeding for Hens.-Because
overlooking and waste is condemned let
not the poultry keeper get below lib
eral feeding. We have seen an owner
of fowls call up thirty or forty hungry
hens at night. and throw them q single
handful or two of corn, and then talk about
poultry not paving. Who can wonder ?
From nothing nothing comes A hen or
any other domestic animal is kind of
machine; furnish plenty of suitable food,
and a comfortable place, and they must
produce. But these lacking, eggs or other
products will also be lacking.
Pasturing versus Soiling.-Land that
has value cannot be managed to poorer
advantage for supporting live stock than
by pasturing. for the simple reason that
no matter how well stocked with grass,
the actual amount of food produced is
small. As much substance viii, grow on
one acre OF meadow, If allowed to grow to
suitable maturity, a. on three acres grazed
closely. the grass being cropped when in
its softest state. We know of one farmer
who commenced operations few years
ago on hundred acres by cultivating
forty acres and using the remainder for
grazing and meadow. Being shrewd
manager he soon learned better, and be-
gan soiling. At the present time he culti-
Yates seventy of his acres and by the soil
lug process, keeps more live stock and in
better condition on the remaining thirty
acres, than he formerly could on sixty.
Trapping Rats.-MiIlions of dollars
worth of property is destroyed annually
by rats, and it does sometimes seem
that we are unable to cope with
this evil as we ought. Great success
in destroying them has to our knowl-
ledge, been met by the use of q common
round wire trap, and the help of . cap
tive rat. Bait the trap in the most enticinp
manner, and then with putting it in good
place. wait patiently for the first one to
use as captive. After some waiting.
perhaps you win get q young rat into the
trap, and that done the rest Is easy. Treat
this one tor . week or two as You would .
pet squirrel. feeding it literally. 1t will
soon become quite accustomed to the