The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-10-16
FARM NOTES.

Good clover hay is a perfect fodde
for sheep.
There are IS, 900 registered American
Short-horns.
A little salt in the soft food Of fowl
will be relished.
Colonel Curtis thinks a cross of tn,
Percheron stallion on native mares
makes the best farm animal.
There is horse still in the harness
in the City of Mexico that was taken
there by Gen. Scott's army.
Secretary Schafier, of the Iowa Agri
cultural Society, says there is gener-
al complaint OF apple trees dying.
An Illinois farmer raised 80 tons Of
sugar bcets last year on eighteen acres
at cost of less than $3.50 per ton.
Three or four tons per acre is not al
uncommon yield for Hungarian gras,
on rich land, and it makes excellent
hay.
The Ncw ENGLAND Times maintain!
that it is better TO cut grass at nigh
than in the morning. 1t claims tina
grass is cured but little the first day in
either case.
M. w. Callahan, in the Southern
Poultry JourRat, tells of a duck hatch,
ed from a guinea-egg-a fowl that was
perfect guinea in form and plumage,
but its head, with comb and wattlcs,
was that Of common cock.
The american CuttiCatOr says that
the cut-worm has an aversion TO salt
peter, and that solution of one table.
spoonful to gallon of water has so fan
proved sure preventive. 1t is applied
with dipper, aud poured on the plants
and all around the hill.
A squarc-built, well-muscled horse,
says the Stock Breeder, will stand more
work and more hardships than two
lank, loose-jointcd ones, and not re.
quire as much food as one of them. A
half-breed Norman is worth fouI
scrubs in the harness or two in the
market.
Public roads in France now measure
IL, $50 miles, OF which Z, 250 are border
ed with trees, while 4, 800 miles are be-
ing planted, or will be shortly. On
the remainder the soil is unfavorable
to trees. The number of trees already
planted amounts TO 2,67S, SOB, chiefly
elm, poplar, acacia. plane, ash, syca-
more and lime.
To prevent hay-stacks firing, scatter
a few handouts OF common salt between
each layer. The salt, by absorbing the
humidity OF the hay, not only prevents
fermentation and consequent heating,
but it also adds salty taste to this
forage which all cattle like; beside, it
stimulates the appetite and assists their
digestion, and SO preserves them from
many diseases.
DIR. Peter Collier. late chemist to the
Department OF Agriculture, has lately
imported from various points in Asia,
and from Natal, Africa. seventy-three
distinct varieties of sorghum, none of
them which seems identical with any
of the many sorts already introduced
here. In those dry countries sorghum
is preferred to corn, because its deep
roots enable it to grow well, after once
getting Il start, where maize would
parch up; and its seed is considered
quite rs nourishing and valuable as
that OF maize. The value of the stalk,
in addition, is being developed here by
superior mills and management.
An exchange remarks that in "no
way can land be improved faster than
by judicious pasturing. This does not
consist in allowing the stock to eat the
grass oil until the sod is bare and
brown, and eXhausting the grass
nlants or in EXTRACTING all tho sinh
stance from the soil. Enough growth
should always be loft on the soil to
protect the roots from tho action of the
scorching sun rays. This slight
growth will keep the ground moist and
mellow, and the grass will really make
larger growth and more pasture than
when cropped too closely. In fact to
pasture sod SO closely as to expose
the grass roots to the action of sun and
frost is poor management"