The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-11-10

use of common carpenters tools. Many
repairs about the farm can be made in
winter that will save cash outlay.
If some fellow would come along
with patent deodorizer having high
sounding name, and charge big price
for it, many people would buy it who
will not take the trouble to gather up
and store few loads of dry earth. And
yet, for all it is cheap, there is nothing
better
COLONEL CURTIS says: 81 had rather
choose hog that l have got to catch
to kill for my own use, than to eat one
of those helpless, fat things that could
not get out of your way, and if turned
on its back would stay there till it died.
This is ideal 'early maturity and it is
dyspepsia by the barrel"
THE venerable Marshall p Wilder
has just celebrated his eighty-eighth
birthday, and has not had that expert
ence of "labor and sorrow" of which
the psalmist speaks as the lot of those
who reach that age. There is no more
beautiful sight than good old man en-
joying the serene twilight of peace
full life.
A TARDY investigation of the rela-
tons of birds to agriculture has been
made by the ornithologist of the de-
partment of agriculture. The result
confirms the wisdom of the crusade
against the pestiferous English spar
row, says the Homestead, quite rightly;
but the sparrow is not half as big
nuisance as the so-called robin"
THE latest advices with regard to
European crops show that the harvest
is short everywhere except in Russia
and Roumania, and the stock of cereals
on hand in the former country is very
low. In France the wheat crop will be
100000 bushels less than last year.
The shortage is about proportionally as
great in other continental countries.
THE american Dairymdn says: {" Let
a drop of fresh milk fall into a glass of
pure water. If the milk promptly dis
seminates itself through the water, the
COW that yielded that milk is not with
calf, but if it sinks to the bottom of the
glass as it falls upon the water, and
does not produce but little of a milky
cloud, the COW is pregnant" Perhaps
this is so.
AN exchange says that visitors at
the Maine state fair appreciated the eff
forts of its officers to rule from the
grounds everything having the SEM
blance of gaming-table or of a game
of chance of any kind Their success
in this direction proves that all that is
needed to clean fair of these immoral
attachments is decision to do it, and
an effort to carry out the rules.
FARMERS should look out for a new
boom, started to bring into notice an
old breed of cattle; very good, but as
old as the old-fashioned Devons. The
new favorites are the Sussex cattle, a
breed as like the North Devon as two
peas are like each other, and as old as
this excellent breed. They are red in
color like the Devon, and make, like
them, the very best work oxen.
THE burning question of judges
and Judging" is the way the Michigan
Farmer puts it, in speaking of the mat
ter of awarding prizes at the fairs. 1t
will burn until the simple rule Of choos-
ing experts from outside the state, and
paying them, is adopted. Then re-
port with reasons for each award can
be demanded, and an exhibitor can
know why he did, or didn't, get prize.
IF the cost of converting wheat into
flour, and wool and cotton into the
cloths for which they are used (not-
withstanding the costly machinery en-
ployed) were as much in proportion as
the estimated cost of manufacturing
fertilizers, including profits, the prices
of them would be much higher than
they now are, says an exchange. But
buyers must be ready to buy fertilizers
for cash and be as good judges of them
as they are of flour, before that can be.
Much draining can be done during
the winter months, and there is no bet
ter time to remove useless stone walls
than on the snow in winter But one
of the best ways of employing the winter
months is in winter dairying, either
making milk for market or manufac-
turing butter, which, if good, always
sells at better prices than in summer.
Manure should also be hauled out in
winter on the snow or frozen ground
instead of leaving ii to be drawn
through the mud in spring.
THE Poultry World informs us that,
to bring an OK up to weight of
l 200 to l,400 pounds, fit for the
butcher, requires four years or longer
in the point of time. The beef will
pay five or six per cent upon cost Of
food and outlay-never over eight per