The National tribune., 1885-01-29
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Seine Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers.
PROGRESS In FARMING.

| father tr0d! some are enterpr1Slng enough TO
keep up with the times and make use of all
modern appliances for carrying on the business
successfully and probably; but as we go about
the country, we see many who are content to
let things drift. so long as they can keep soul
and body together, by doing as their fathers
did. The most profitable farming is that
where liberal expenditures are made, not only
| for improved tools and machinery, but for fer
! tiiizers as well. The farm should be constantly
growing better. 1t should be the aim of every
owner of farm to improve the same little
each year, so as to bring the land into high
state of fertility and keep it so.
Lands so treated will pay far better than
those that are skinned year by year, until at
last they almost cease to produce. Nature cam
not be cheated We must treat the soil Hber-
ally if we are to reap reward. Let the
farmer be awake to his interest in every direc-
! ton The merchants and business men are
constantly pushing to keep abreast of the times,
ne matter how sharp the competition. Let the
farmer show something of the same pluck and
zeal. The more energy and enterprise he dis
plays, the larger will be his reward. Let what
ever is done be done well If the young men
| could find full scope for their energies on the
| farm, without the hindrance from their eld-
| ers we believe fewer of them would seek the
| cities for less honorable and profitable employ
| mems.
| This is emphatcally an age of Improvements,
| and the farmer has not been forgotten by in
ventors. They have done their part in pro-
! ducing labor-saving machinery and improved
| tools for the farmers use. Let him take hold
\ and use them. Better methods of farming
have been introduced; let the farmer adopt
/ them. Better breeds of animals have been
| produced; let the farmer obtain them, and, in
short, put forth his energies, as do vigorous
men in other callings, and then we shall not
i hear so much grumbling about the unproft-
ableness of farming .-Congregationalist.
THE PIG AS PLowMAN.
Farmers everywhere are influenced by the
construction of railroads and other means of
quick transportation but none of them more
so than those who grow meat a branch of
1 their farm operations. The pork-raisers in the
older States come in competition with the sw inc
| products of the prairie States where the pig is
a condenser of the corn crop, and among the
most economical methods of sending that cereal
| to market; yet, even with cheap freights. it
| will not do for Eastern farmers to abandon the
sty, ana look to the West for their salt pork
and hams. There are economies to be practiced
| in swine raising that will make the Eastern
| farmer successful in his competition with the
West. He has the protection of freights over
! long distances, which can never be very much
reduced The home market Will always be re-
munerative so long as pork products are in
demand His lands need manure, and that
which is made in the sty, and under cover, is
among the best of the homemade fertilizers.
| Herding swine upon pasture or old meadow
that needs breaking up, is not very much prac-
| ticed but is one of the best methods of raising
pigs. They are as easily confined within a
| movable fence as sheep, utilize the grass and
a
in stirring the soil that sheep cannot do. The
nose of the pig is made for roofing, and we
| follow natures hint in giving him chance to
| stir the soil. movable yard, large enough to
| keep two pigs, can be made of stout inch boards
| about Ia feet long and six inches wide. For
| the corner posts use two-by- four-inch joists
| Nail the boards to the posts six inches apart,
making four lengths or panels four feet high
! Fasten the corners with stout hooks and staples
and you have pen or yard IA feet square,
| which is easily maved by two men. If you
| place two 50-pound pigs i'll this yard they
will consume nearly all the grass and other
vegetation IN 1t IN three or four days, and
| thoroughly disturb the soil several inches in
| depth. When they have done their work sat-
| iSfactorly, the pen can be moved to the adjOIn-
| ing plat, and SO onward through the season.
The advantages of this method are, that it util-
ICES the grass and other vegetation, destroys
weeds and insects, mixes and fertilizeS the sur
face Of the soil about as we'll as the ordinary
implements of tillage. In the movable yard
| there is thorough work. Even ferns and small
brush are eflectually destroyed. Worms and
bugs are available foed for the pig. And it is
not the least of the benefits that the small
stones, if they are in the SOIL are brought to
the surface, whore they can be seen and re-
moved. The pigs snout is the primitive plow
aud crowbar, ordained of old. No longer jewel
this instrument, but pnt it where it will do
the most good, in breaking up old sod ground,
and help make cheap Professionalism Agric,d
tHrist
NOTELETS
-. That sheep are the best adapted Of all
live stock to assist in renoyating a rundown
farm and increasing the fertility of any lands
is generally admitted
= SOws from one to three years old bring the
best pigs, and are the most profitable breeders.
When older they get heavy and lazy. so that
with every care it is hard to prevent them from
killing their pigs.
- The american Dairyman insists that if the
dairyman wants to make 4 first-class article of
butter he must churn often. Never let the
cream get over three days old, no matter how
cold it may be kept. If cold it will get old,
fiat and frnky. If sour, the whey will eat up
the best butter globules. Churn as often as
you can.
"A correspondent who has been troubled
by coughing horses, says that from observation
he has become convinced that the manner of
feeding clover hay has been the entire cause.
His custom, like that OF many others, has been
to let the animal draw the hay down through
a rack, thus stripping off the fine dust, which
was drawn into the lungs in respiration and
produced the cough He believes the remedy
for this trouble to be in giving the animal his
feed in the natural way, .. e., allowing it to
gather the food from the level of its feet Since
changing his racks to hangers the writer says
he has had no further trouble with coughing
horses.
An occasional sprinkling with dilute
solution of carbolic acid will not only prevent
diseases among poultry but drive away the lice.
- 1t is an old proverb that the first point to
be learned in successful stock raising is never
TO allow an animal to lose flesh. The loss of a
pound is equivalent to loss of two, as the ami !
mai should gain instead of losing flesh.
- There is something wrong about horse
stable when the air there perfumes ones clothes
in few minutes. Plaster, muck, road dust or !
some other absorbent should be freely used |
The condition is still worse when the nose de- !
tects ammonia. There is not only a loss of !
manura value then, but harm to the eyes of !
horses and to harness and to the varnish of |
buggies and carriages. Change the bedding |
often and use absorbents freely.-N. Y. Tribune |
- The gizzard of fowls is admirably adapted !
for grinding the hardest grains, and it is well !
with meal and water or soaking grain for them |
is a waste of labor. Even young chickens |
thrive better on whole wheat or screenings |
than on meal mixed with water. The drink |
needed is better given separately.