The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-07-02
FARM EXPERIENCE.
Iillet, next to clover. is consid-


cred the best forage crop.
1t Is said that a heavy crop of
clover will kill off the meadow
daisies.
Be very sure to cut the clover
hay before the bloom begins to fade,
or it will be very poor feed.
Don't forget that a blue grass
sod improves with age, and is about
the most valuable sod for fields in
tended for permanent pasture.
Manure is the best known agent
for adding to the productiveness of
the land and increase the yield of
the crops, and in this way enrich
ing the farmer. Then turning ev-
erything possible into manure is
simply the exercising of good
judgment.
Great caution should be exercised
in turning stock on a field of clover
especially if in bloom; as gorging
themselves with the green clover
may give rise to hoven, collie or 9th
er complications which would en-
danger the lives Of the animals.
Gardens and other pieces of ground
which have been MANFRED often
with coarse barn-yard manure will
be greatly benefited by a dressing
of potash and phosphate, but per-
haps caustic lime would be as good
a fertilizer as can be applied to
such ground.
In cultivating the potatoes the
last time if you hill them up at ali
make the hills broad and fiat, so
that water will not run off, but soak
in and wei them through aud
through. When the hills are made
high and sharp the water runs off
and the potatoes are liable to suffer
from drought.
Good tillage does not consist in
stirring the soil only often enough
to kill weeds, but in stirring il of
ten enough to keep it mellow,
whether there are any weeds to kill
or not. But more especially should
it be stirred often enough to never
allow the weeds to make their APP
, pearance above the ground. Weeds
should never be seen in a cultivated
|, field.
Heat and moisture, in germina-
|. ton, are the powers which awaken
the germ to action, and no plan
| food is needed at this stage of the
plants life except what the seed in
: itself contains; but as soon as the
plant begins to send out its little
rootlets it must have food in abun-
dance, of suitable shape for its as
similation, or it will starve, the
J same as an animal would if de
prived of food.
The folly of pasturing the mead
| ows soon becomes apparent, when
) we compare the difference in yield
with those that have not been pas
tured. The grass on the pasture
meadows gets late start, and the
dry weather catches it before it has
made near its growth. The soil is
packed and robbed of it's rightful
} and natural mulching and fertilizer
and consequently the meadow is
impoverished and the grass only
makes a half crop.
: High feeding, or feeding to ex-
r cess begets many dangerous con-
tingencies in the management of
the stock, and should be avoided as
not conducive to the higher success
, in stock raising, but on the other
, hand, too light feeding is equally
injurious, and is the feeding in most
common vogue. In reality the
stock interests of this country have
suffered much more from too light
feeding than from too high feeding.
The moving machine should now
be put in condition for active ser
vice and the knives repaired and
sharpened; unless the. machine is
reasonably good and of late pat
tern, it will be greatly to the adj
vantage of the farmer to replace it
with new one, of one of the latest
and most improved models. 1t
will not pay to; work with an old,
worn opt, heavy draught machine.
! The Indiana Farmer, 10 speaking
about the Management of the bees,
says: All excess Of drone comb
should be removed from the hives.
A very small patch is sufficient for
all practical purposes, too many
drones being detrlment to the col
Ony, acting as only so many idle
consumers. Avoid blowing your
breath among the bees while hand
ling the combs. They are inclined
to resent Objectionable features in
rather a pointed manner.
The spring calves should be
made to grow very rapidly all this
summer, and be in good condition
in the fall to start into the winter;
but this cannot be expected if they
are turned into the pasture, with
out feed, as soon as they learn to
pick little grass, as is too often
the case. They should have grain
or milk, or both, twice a day regular
ly all summer through, if they are
expected to make fine, large beeves
by the time they are two years old,
as they can be made to do.
DIR. Sturtevant, of the New
York Experiment Staten, says
that careful experiments have
shown that unripe tomoto seeds
will grow and give gain of fifteen
days in earliness over ripe seed
from the same plants. Peas and
corn fit for table use Will grow and
produce earlier crops than ripe
seeds, but plants from immature
seed are more feeble than those
from ripe seed. Earliness seems to
be in proportion to the state of
ripeness of the seed from which the
plants have been raised. The prac-
tical question to be determined is
how to combine both earliness and
vigor in the same plant.
Hog pens and runs should not
give off offensive Odors any more
than the stables and pastures of
horses and cattle, and if they do,
something is wrong in their man
| a0ement and cholera ia bkeIv tn