Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-06-24
and manure to the damage of what

and manure to the damage of what
ever is planted out, and wonder that it
does not grow more vigorously. We
have known farmers when setting out
grape vines, to dig pit and throw in
the carcasses of two or three sheep or
a bushel or two of old bones from
slaughter houses to each root, giving
only light covering of dirt, believing
that if bones are good for vines, the
roots would run down into the putrid
flesh or the dry bones, and feed
plentifully thereon.
Now, any one knows that roots or
seeds placed in dung hill, will not
thrive, and this should teach all that
manure only furnishes portion of the
elements required for the support OF
vegetation, and that bed of manure
or bones beneath tree or vine, is only
an impeachment to its growth. A pint
of bone dust will work greater benefit
to a tree or vine, when worked into the
surface soil, than bushel of whole bones
under the roots, and so will a few
shovelfuls of decomposed sods increase
the growth of any plant more than a
cart load OF manure put in beneath the
roots.
Digging pits, especially in clay soil,
and filling them with any material,
before setting out shrubs, is bad plan,
for this excavation will hold water as
we'll as a cistern, and the roots of the
trees or vines will several months in
the year have to stand in a complete
mud-hole. When setting out single
tree or vine, loosen up the soil no
deeper than the hard-pan, and work
in rich surface soil and loam-being
sure to get fine dirt around the fibrous
roots. When planting an orchard.
unless the ground is thoroughly
underdrained, dig no deeper than the
plough goes, then the drainage will be
sufficient to save the tree from drown
ing out. Never mix fresh barnyard
manure with the soil when planting
orchards or vineyards. and
Farmer.
Corn for Horses.
The Livestock Journal is averse to
feeding corn to horses. It says that
corn makes too much fat and not
enough muscle. The horses muscle
wears away by work as metal wears
away by friction. Fat wears away un-
der exercise, but its disappearance in
nowise lessons the power for either
draft or speed. On the other hand,
well-nourished and vigorously exercised
muscles, without a deposit of fat to keep
them company, are much more efficient
for any purpose for which the horse is
kept, than when there is a load
of fat to be carried. The trainer acts
upon this proposition, and works the
fat off, experience having shown that
the muscles, trained down by exercise
until fat accumulations are removed
fattening foods being mainly abstained
from-gives the best results in the case
of a speedy horse. The same rule will
hold good with the work horse, though
modified by the degree in which the
movements of the latter are slower
than those of the former. If the farmer
has only corn for feed, then he will be
wise if he makes sale of his corn, or the
greater part of it, buying oats instead.
If corn be used in whole or in part, the
effect should be carefully noted as to
the extent to which fermentation sets
in, meeting this by use of salt and
ashes, at once lessening the amount of
corn fed. 1t will be found that horses
fed upon corn will eat earth when al
lowed access to it, as, to a degree, this
neutralizes the acid generated in the
stomach, and gives relief. Corn may
be rated as the natural food for fatten-
ing stock-such as are fed for their
flesh. All kinds of fattening stock are
made ripe on corn, with the addition of
an allowance of coarse feed or fodder.
Ripeness in the horse is very different
thing from ripeness in the fatted steer,
for in the one case it means full vigor
of muscle with an absence of fat, and
in the other an abundance of fat, no
matter how much; and as to the muscle,
no matter how inefficient for work.
Live Filterers.
A curious experiment was shown a
year or two ago, in which a long glass
tube was filled with earth and sewage
poured in at the upper end. If the
tube was long enough six or eight feet.
the liquid issued from the bottom clear
and pure, it's Dissolved and suspended
organic matters having been oxidized
by the soil. If, however, before
pouring in the sewage a little dilute
chloroform were allowed to filter
through the earth, sewage subsequently
applied passed through the tube
without change, the oxidizing action
of the soil being completely suspended.
After some hours or days the soil
regained it's oxidizing quality. This
experiment was believed to show that
the oxidation of organic matters in
sewage was something more than a
chemical reaction, and that it depended,
at least to a certain extent, on the
presence of small living organisms
whose activity could be temporarily
suspended by anasthetic, and with it
the oxidation of the sewage.
This theory has now been confirmed
by additional observations, and the
little creature which converts into
fixed and harmless salts the putrefying
impurities of such sewage as it can
reach is believed to be a micrococcus
somewhat resembling the yeast plant.
Many and varied tests have been made
to determine the conditions under
which the disinfecting microbe lives
and acts, and good deal has been
learned about it's habits. 1t is found
that it tlourishes best, and is most
efficient, at a temperature of about
ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit,
nearly the temperature of the blood.
At higher or lower temperatures its
action becomes more feeble, and ceases
altogether near the freezing point, or
above one hundred and thirty degrees.
Experiments to show it's distribution in
clay soil show that it is most abun-
dant in the upper six inches but is
found to depth of a foot and half