The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-02-05
OUR RURAL ! TOPICS,
] J tn,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers.
KEEP THE YQuss STOCK THRIVING.


consequence is that every Spring thousands of
barnyards are disgraced by the presence of
shaggy, skinny, loose-jointed, halfstarved
young animals. It Is true that if they live
through the Spring, these will make very
rapid growth on the fresh pastures of Summer;
but the Improvement in their condition, great
as it is, does not suffice to bring them up to
the weight and quality they would have at
tanned in corresponding period if well fed
every day of their lives, as all stock must be
to give the most profitable returns. The adj
dition of few cents worth of grain each day
during the Winter will result in the addition
of several dollars to the selling value of the ami
| NAL in Spring, and practically furnish much
more profitable market for the grain than can
| be found in the offices of grain dealers.
One great good result from keeping stock in
good condition, it is always readily salabie
| The butcher will want to buy such animals at
| good price, for the supply of fairly fattened
| young cattle is never large enough to meet the
| demand. Buyers for the great markets are
always looking for such animals and will give
| their owner little rest until trade has been
made; but he whose stock is half. starved has
| but one market-that for light stockers."
| Thus he is at the mercy of single class of
buyers and usually entirely without any of
| the advantages that competition gives. He is
| the slave of the market, and not its master, as
| he might be.
| The gain from system of full feeding does
| not end here. The farmer who sells the raw
| product of his farm, rapidly reduces its fer
| tilty. Apparently he sells only bushel of corn
| for twenty cents; really, he sells part of the
| fertility upon which he depends for his per-
manent income. If he feeds his grain, he
| keeps for himself the profit railroads would get
| for hauling the bulky product to market; he
| husbands the riches of his land, and even in
creases their store by converting mineral
| constituents of the soil and the chemical ele-
meats of the air into forms more readily
available for food production. When the results
of his labor and capital are ready for sale, they
| are in condensed form, upon which cost of
| transportation is comparatively light, and for
which there is an er-ready demand.-Prairis
Farmer.
| HOW TO CURE HAMS.
The process of sugar-curing hams is as fol-
lows: The hams are trimmed and rubbed with
salt and left to drain on a bench for day and
night They are then wiped dry and placed in
| a clean barrel, and each one is rubbed with
salt as it is put down. They are packed as
closely as possible. A pickle is made as follows:
For each one hundred pounds of meat seven
pounds of salt, two and one-half pounds of
brown sugar and two ounces of saltpeter are
dissolved in hot water, and the liquid is boiled
short time being skinned if necessary. It
is then cooled, and when cold is strained into
the barrel through dguble cloth on the meat.
the pickle. 1t is best to head up the barrel and
pour the pickle through hole in the head,
and then cork it tight. Otherwise, a loose head
should be put on the meat and weighted down.
and a cover put on the top of the barrel. After
two months the hams may be taken out, well
wiped and rubbed with ground black pepper,
and then smoked. AS substitute for the usual
smokehouse, the following is suggested: Smoke
a barrel thoroughly with maple or hickory
chips (raise the barrel an inch or two from the
ground to furnish draft, and when smoked
sufficiently, sweep out inside and give it
slight rinsing with cold water. When you
have thus prepared it; pack tho hams and
shoulders in, flesh side up, and pour over them
the pickle in quantity sufficient to cover them
and your work is done.- The pickle extracting
the desired smoky flavor from the barrel, will
carry it through the whole mass of meat, and
much more equally, or evenly, than by the
usual process of smoking, as the flavor viii be
as strong In the center as at the surface of the
ham. In addition to this even favoring of the
meat this process will be found to be much less
troublesome and labOrous, avoiding the risk
of falling into the fire, of burning smoke
house, or into the hands of thieving neighbors,
besides escaping the filthiness which is insepa-
rable from the common way of smoking, and its
consequent waste when preparing it for the
table, as the meat is every way as clean when
taken from the barrel as when placed in it.
by pioCeSs dii TIC GA pciise, aHu tTOu-
bic of bagging the hams after making, to
keep them from the flies, is obviated, as they
may be kept submerged in the pickle till
wanted, or the last piece is desired for the
gridiron, pot or pan. Be sure to smoke the
barrel very thoroughly if you would have
strong flavor of smoke in your meat.-Colman's
Rural World.
NoTELErs.
In the great majority Of farmers diaries
No 1ahn of m riy for nd
and making the butter is a large item in its
cost. Unless the farmer is able to get some
thing more from the milk than butter he will not
make much from his dairy. Hence the necessity
of keeping pigs TO work up skim milk into pork,
and at the same time to retain in the manure
heap the most valuable elements of the milk so
far as maintaining fertility is concerned-N.
\. Herald
- Potato and cornfelds, where water is liza
BILE to stand during the Winter should have
burrows run through them to take the surface
water off. 1t will greatly help the Spring work
in fitting such fields for seeding to have this job
done in the Fall. 1t will also be much better
for the succeeding crop
Nothing is SO attractive around a farm
house as a flock Of evenly marked and hand
some plumaged fowls. They are an ornament
to the dooryard and interest and profit to the
owner, while a flock of mongrels is only an eye
sore to all beholders If the boys and girls are
dltOWCu u buldll HOck OF me Luclf own,
to care for and to make from them all they can,
you will find that they will make them pay.
There is little use for the inexperienced
person TO flatter himself because he can man.
age few fowls very well that he can pursue
the poultry business successfully without CIV
ing time and close attention to all the details
connected with it.
The man who doesn't wish to keep cow
at loss should know what she is worth to him.
TO this end keep record of her yield. Such
record would open good many eyes.
Look out for small wastes. Put all the
cornstalks under cover, feed all the soft apples,
save all the hard ones for use in the family, for
sale or for stock; put the sound pumpsi MS where
they won't freeze, so they can be fed to milch
cows and other stock; give up whisky and to-
bacco and turn everything Providence sends
to the best account Thus do and sweet will
your slumbers beAPrairie Farmer.
The most rapid increase in weight in all
animals is while they are young. 1t is gain in
size rather than the laying on Of the fat that is
required. For this purpose the oily, fattenng
foods are not so well adapted as those contain
ing more albuminous and bone-forming ma
terial. Milk is the natural food of all very
young stock, and for promoting growth it is for
a time alone sufficient. If economy suggests
change it should be to some food containing
flesh Notwithstanding elements, and as easily
digested as milk.
- Fifteen years ago Jendert De Brazen, a
Hcilander WAS a poor gardener near Kalamazoo,
Mich, trying to n,ake living off some
marshy land he had purchased. After other
things had failed, he experimental with celery,
aud c no rin hat II