The National tribune., 1885-09-24
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
II
Agricultural Readers
HOG CHOIlERAlIN NEBRASKA.

HOG CEIOIiERAlIN NEBRASKA.
1t is reported that 25per cent. of the hogs in
Nebraska have died of cholera this year. As
the regular season for cholera has not come
around yet, it is quite. probable that 25 per
cent. more will go the same way unless the sure
and certain remedies are used. 1t is time, but
not yet too late, to put these remedies i'll action
The first is cleanliness. Thorough, universal,
allpervading cleanliness in lodging and in food
and water. The second is wholesome food
No one single food is healthful for hog, and
least of all offal. Corn alone may do for fat
tening if the animal has been well kept on
grass, and better if it has had some of the waste
milk, which supplies an excellent framework
of bone and muscle to spread the fat upon. But
| one remedy, or rather means of prevention,
| should be practiced at all times, and this is
healthful breeding. Weak constitutions are
bred as well as the better points If it were
not so. we might take no thought about it, but
the universal credit given to pedigree goes TO
show that strength Of constitution must be bred
| for as we'll as other points, or we shall not Sc
cure it,
LARGE SALE OF JERSEYS.
Information has reached the Farmers Home
Journal of the sale at Atlanta, Ga. of the we'll
known herd of Jerseys at Hill Dale 1t says: :
YESTERDAY the Hill Dale stock farm was sold
to Mr. Butler Woodward who has a large herd
at Dalton. The Hill Dale herd numbered 104
registered Jerseys, and Mr. Woodward is enti-
tied to the credit of having made perhaps the
| largest purchase of registered Jerseys ever made
at one time by one buyer. Hc paid for this
herd $4,000. The herd was one of the most
valuable in the country. 1t was headed by
Leonidas. one of the best bred Signals now liv-
ing, and for which $4,000 had been refused
The second bull in the herd is King kafcr, for
which the Messrs. Hill paid $4,000 when he
was a calf six months old. Signal Petro, an
other bull, they hold to be his superior in
shape"
RED CLOVER.
The most profitable agent that can be en-
ployed for increasing the fertility of those ex
hausted New England soils, adapted TO its
growth, is undoubtedly red clover. Several
years since the celebrated agricultural scien-
lists. Lawes &; Gilbert observed that, while soils
of their experiment fields in which potatoes,
cereals, and other crops were cultivated with
out manure, continually grew poorer in nitro
gen. that important element of plant food in IL
similar SOIL on which clover was grown under
the same conditions, increased in quantity.
Clover appears to be one of the few plants which
possess the power of appropriating to its use the
free nitrogen contained in the air. 1t will re-
quire the aid of manure some other fertil-
izer to start the first crop.-Erchdnge.
WATER IN THE SOIL.
As soon as rainwater enters the soil it be-
comes very different from its character when
falling through the air. If PARTICLES of soil
contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash in
soluble condition, the water at onceappr0prlates
these and holds them until drawn upon by
growing plants. Hence, frequent watering is a
partial substitute for nanuring. In moist
growing season, any soil except one absolutely
sterile will furnish considerable plant food.
Experiments made in growing trees in pure
sand kept wet by water procured by distilla-
tion, seem to show thai water in the soil has
some power in disintegrating and making avail
able the nitrogen which is also in the soil in
contact with the moisture. This seems TO be
the most plausible theory to account for plant
growth in excess of what can be explained by
the waste of fertility in the soil itself-Er-
change.
SAVING THE POTATO CROP.
The experience Of thousands of farmers last
year emphasizes the importance of digging pO-
tatoes as soon fully ripe Many potatoes
were then frozen by the cold snap which came
carly in October. This was by no means the
extent Of the loss. Some frost bitten potatoes
were put in heaps with the sound ones and
caused serious losses by rotting, aside from the
expense of reasSorting which this decay made
necessary. Exchange.
NoTELETs
- Lime is of great use to the soil under all
circumstances. 1t is usually applied in the
FAIL and it is better used because it dis
solves more rapidly in cold water than in warm
This fact is shown by the familiar instance of
the deposit upon the inside of a teakettle in
which hard water is boiled, which consists of
carbonate of lime deposited from the water rs
it becomes heated. The lime is always applied
after it is air Stacked in tho field, by being ex-
posed in small heaps until it falls to a powder,
when il is spread with a long handled shovel.
1t is convenient TO put the lime in heaps of one
bushel each two rods apart, which makes 40
bushels to the acre, and the lime can easily be
thrown 1G feet.
Rye is the first green crop for use in the
Spring as fodder. If sown at once and thickiy
it may be used for pasture during the Winter
where the climate is mild, especially in the
South, and will yield crop of grain afterward.
Or it may be cut green for sOiling before any
other crop is ready, being followed by clover.
Three bushels per acre of seed should be used
for this purpose.
A good hay press will make 100 bales of
200 pounds each in day. This kind of press
is known as the continuous press, not stopping
for the tying and ejecting OF the bale, but being
fed continuously, and pushing out the finished
bale at one end while the hay is fed into it at
the other The cost is thus not more than 81
per ton for bailing.
- Milet and Hungarian grass should be cut
when coming into blossom If left later the
stems become hard and the awns or bristles of
the head become stiff and sharp and are inju-
ri0uS to horses.
The profit on a well-kept flock of fowls
may easily amount to s. per head, including
the eggs laid and the chickens reared. The
non setting varieties can only be depended
upon for 81 per head.
Dry tanbarlk would be unobjectionable as
litter for poultry house or for the purposes of
manure, when mixed with the droppings. 1t
would make good absorbent, but it should be
renewed before it becomes foul.
Health and Harmony.