The National tribune., 1886-02-25
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers.
MAKING THE BUTTER COME.

| have a COW, apparently good animal, and it
takes from five to six hours hard churning to
bring butter?-J. ID. BAKER, Glenwood, N. Y.
We might suggest to Mr.. Baker that probably
a change of food might have the desired re-
| suit. Probably the animal does not get sutfi-
cient food of nature calculated to bring butter,
but of course this may not be the cause. We
| have frequently similar complaints. The iol-
| lowing from correspondent of the New York
| Times, which, while we do not indorse it, mis- ight
| still be worth trying:
! mo one has seen more trouble than / in
| churning, for / churned two days once, and my
neighbors said the butter would never come. |
found churning alone would not bring the but
| ter, so l crumbled about two pounds of butter
| in pieces and put it in the churn with the
cream. When had churned it few minutes
| that butter was cream with the rest. But IN
| about 20 minutes the butter came, and L have
| tried it once since, when / thought L had
! churned long enough and find it saves many
| hours of laborious work"
| PLANTING BLACK wALNUTs
To THE EDITOR: l saw in a recent issue of
! THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE a communication
from Mr.. A. White, giving his plan for the plant
| ing and cultivation of the black walnut. With
| your permission | will give you my ideas, and,
as they have been carried into practice by my
| self with great success, think they may prove
| of value to others In the first place thoroughly
| prepare the ground as for corn crop. Then (in
the FalD lay the ground out i'll checks 16 to 20
feet apart at the crosses of which plant two nuts
and right by them place stake of sufficient size
| to be distinctly visible. Should the weeds then
get up ahead of the walnut plants, which they
in all probability will, the stakes will clearly
denote the crosses, so that there will be no fear
| in cultvating, of hoing up the plants in mistake
! for weeds. When the walnut plants have
reached the hight of from six to eight inches 1
IL 4
| times be thoroughly worked and in the imme-
diate vicinity of the plants kept entirely loose
| and free from weeds. / have not only followed
| this plan with success myself but have seen
1 it tried by other persons with uniformly good
] results.-V. w. JACKSON, Independence, Kan.
KEEPING THE COWS CLEAN.
Great care should be taken in bedding in
| Winter time, and cleaning the stables. Unless
| extra pains are taken, foul-smelling stables will
| be the result; consequently the milk will be
| more or less affected. l am we'll satisfied that
| filthy stables and filthy habits of milking are
| the chief causes of so much poor butter ben g
| made in the Winter and Spring. l am we'll
aware that butter made in Winter lacks flavor
! and color, but with proper care it can be made
| sweet and clean.
Very much depends upon the feed the cows
| eat; in order to have color, cornmeal, with
beans and oats. fed literally, and q little oil
1 meal added, is about as near perfect rations as
| can be given in Winter, with plenty of good
| bright timothy hay and a mixture Of clover. 1t
| is quite a common sight to see, in this part of
| the country, cows in Winter time with their
hips loaded with manure, their bags ditto, also
| their backs covered with hay seed and dust
| The brush and card arc never seen in the COW
stables; to them the cows are total strangers.
| Now, this is all wrong. As q rule, the cows are
| well fed, some have bank barns, but there is
want of care in grooming and handling. 1t
| pays TO card aud brush the COWS daily. They
| look better and are better. and certainly the
milking can be done more cleanly.-C0r. Dairy
| man,
NoTELETs.
- The time to straighten crooked rail fence
is when the field is in sod and it is intended to
| piow for some hOed crop the following season.
| 1t will usually need one or two years pretty
| thorough tillage to get rid of bushes and weeds
| from fence corners. Extra care should be taken
| to keep down weeds in the outside rows, in or
! der that the entire field may be seeded down at
once. Crooked fences may be taken down and
bushes grusbed out during open weather in the
Winter, leaving less work to be done in the
buster time that will come next Spring
- A correspondent of the Western Rural
| claims to have discovered by the aid of a pow
erful microscope the cause of the disease known
| as potato scab. He finds the liquid portion of
| a scabby potato swarming with living organ
| isms,-microbes,-but whether cause or effect he
| is yet uncertain. He believes salt a partial
| preventive, and that rank, green manures invite
| the disease.
- A farmer of experience in wool growing
says that there is more money in growing wool
| at even 20 cents per pound than in loaning
money at 10 per cent. interest.
- Good machinery and sharp tools, all in
good repair, are most necessary to accomplish
7 farm work in the most effective manner and
| with the least outlay of labor.
- A writer in the Bsekeepers' Journal says
| that as an offset to the records of horses and
COWS, he had a colony of bees that produced So
pounds of honey in three and half days
| - Every dairyman should test his cows, if
| he has not already done so, to see which ones he
| should keep and which to get rid of.
| - Never put coarse manure close around
young trees in the supposition that such ma
| teral will be useful as a mulch for Winter pro-
lection, or you will be apt to find your trees
| girdled IN the Spring from the mice that con-
| gregate in the litter.
"A constant supply of pure drinking water
| IS equally important with food for chickens.
An expensive drinking fountain is, of course,
| the best method of securing this but the home
| made, small, shallow tin dishes are the next
| best thing. Is Is true that fowl or a chicken
will often drink dirty water even when clean
| water is at hand, but this is no reason why
| they should be compelled to do so.
- The escaping ammonia from the manure,
| unless Stables are kept Clean ana pure, causes
| sore eyes and throat troubles in the animals
| sheltered in them. If the odOr is unpleasant
! TO persons entering the stables, you may be sure
| it is injurious to the unfortunate animals who
! spend much of their time there.
The watering trOughs are liable to get full
| Of filth and rubbish, and will need attention
every day. The water for horses should be as
| pure can be secured.
An English farmer writes: After all that
| has been ad dyanced in favor of other compounds,
| it is very doubtful for ordinary country work
| whether there is anything handler, cheaper or
! more effective than common coal tar for coating
! fences and other wood it is desired to protect
! from the effects of the weather. Much how
| ever Will depend on the way in which this is
/ used. To cover moist wood with this substance
! whether it proceeds from the natural moisture
or atmospheric dampness, is very bad policy.
To insure anything like success in the matter
Of durability the wood to be operated upon
must be as dry as possible. This, of course, is
equally true of paint but it is of tar that we are
now speaking. When the wood work to be
coated is dry as can be, and the tar applied
hot, there need be little fear that it will fail in
| its purpose.
| - One OF the first steps in fighting insects is
| to cut down and burn all worthless fruit trees,
| thus reducing the number of breeding places.
| "A horse is not fully matured until six
years Of age. Immature animals are often
overtaxed and their future usefulness discount
| ed Young horses should not be worked too
hard if they are expected to live to green and
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