Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-03
Farm and Household.
General Farming Item..


General Farming Items.
The first seed to be planted in the
spring aside from lettuce and radish is
that OF onions. The success of the
crop will depend very largely on the
early planting of the seed. The growth
OF onions stops after the weather be-
comes hot and the soil very dry. They
must attain their entire growth and
become ripe before the middle of Au-
gust. Ii the seed is planted quite late
the onion will be small at the time the
condition OF the air and the soil puts
stop to their growth.
Many farmers bank up cellar-win.
dows, doors and all--early in winter,
keeping it twenty degrees warmer than
is necessary and having no ventila-
ton, and then wonder that potatoes
spront, and apples rot, and their
families, perhaps, are sickly. Build
cellar walls properly, put double glass
In the windows, plaster overhead and
use paper for carpet lining, and then
take little pains to cool your cellar
down to "a deg, at least, as soon as
you can in the fall, and to keep it
down, and have good arrangements
for ventilating, and you will be able
to keep early potatoes from sprout-
ing until about planting time, and to
keep apples sound till late spring.
Farmers in feeding horses give near
ly twice as much hay as city people
do, and yet city horses are in the best
condition for the road. Ny father
was never satisfied unless hay was
continually present in the manger. /
am satisfied that this is mistake,
and that grain is cheaper than hay,
and yet it is necessary to have hay or
other coarse fodder to keep the horses
IN good health. A wealthy farmer
l know does not give his horses par
ticle OF hay; he simply cuts straw and
mixes ground feed with it, and his
horses are in excellent condition and
do good service.
A heifer calf intended for COW, says
the National Stockman, should be
trained from birth with this end in
view, and be made tractable by suffi-
cient handling. II should be taught
to lead, to stand tied, and allow any
one to approach and handle at pleas
ure. A calf treated in this way will
make d gentle and valuable COW, and
one which will not kick over the milk
pail about the time it is filled with
rich milk. Such attention to the train
ing OF the young heifers will pay, es-
'pecially if they are intended for fam
lily cows.
The Chicago Times says: "To have
fine crop of large, rich currants, en-.
rich the ground, make it clean and
mellow, and thin out the brush. Cut
away the old stunted wood and leave
vigorous young shoots. Let them &C.
cupy equal distances from each other,
and give the bushes in some degree a
regular form. No fruit is more neg
lected than the currant, the bushes
being allowed to become enveloped in
weeds and grass, and the enfeebled
bushes allowed to grow into a mass
of brush. The difference in the size of
the berries raised in the two modes is
about one to four"
Speaking OF the rudeforms OF butter
making practiced in some countries,
DR.. Davenport states that in Brazil
they fill a hide with milk, and it is
tightly closed and then Justify shaken
by an athletic native at either end, or
it is dragged about upon the ground
after a galloping horse until the butter
comes. In Chill, the filled hide is
placed upon donkey's back, and he
is trotted about until the butter
comes. IN Morocco, filled goatskin
is rolled about and kneeded by wom-
EN- until the same effect is produced
Tumors consisting Of a whitish
granular substance sometimes form
in the flesh of animals. These are
easily removed, having no vascular
attachments to the muscular tissue
sAll that is necessary is to cut the tu-
NOR open by a free incision in the skin,
to turn out the cheesy mass, and divide
the thread which holds it to the muscle
1t is possible that the tumor may form
again, in which case the operation is
repeated. A dressing of tincture of
iodine and a daily dose of one dram
of iodide OF potassa will help to pre-
vent the return OF the tumor.
If there is one thing needed by the
farmers in the northwest more than
any other, it is barns, and good barns
at that. 1t is very well to stack hay
and grain out doors, but there are
lots of products on the farm that
should, after maturity, be stored in
barns. Next to alarge crop OF corn,
there is nothing so convenient on the
farm rs good barn. In the East
they are held in such high estimation
that farmers frequently build a good
respectable barn before the erection of
good respectable dwelling house.
Here the rule is reversed, and to such
an extent that sometimes barns are
never built at all.