The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-06-16
farm gotes.
COAL TAR FOR HEN BOOSTS.

IOSUdLCCs ~
lice it will at least prevent their APP
pearance if used plentifully on and
around the roosts. The boxes for
nests should be lined with tarred
paper. The odor from this will fill
the feathers of hens and repel YER
min.
SUPERPHOSPHATE FOR VEGETABLES.
English farmers first learned the
beneficial effects of phosphate on
turnips. 1t is equally good for cab
bage, either in seed bed or after
transplanting. For cabbage it has
a specific effect in preventing the
disease called club root, which is apt
to prevail where cabbages + grown
more than one year on the same
land.
WORKING BULLS.
In some parts of Europe bulls are
worked the same as oxen r with
us. If rightly handled and made
always to obey they can be kept for
service eight or ten years without
danger, and a yoke Of bulls will do
more work than oxen Of equal
weight. Our best bulls become
cross after they are two or three
years old, and are turned off to the
butcher.
CABBAGE EEL
Do not plant the stumps OF cab
bage to grow seed from. You may
thereby get cabbage seed that costs
nothing; but like most other things
got without expense it will be worth
even less than it costs. With a crop
requiring so much labor as cabbage
poor seed is a costly damage. The
best seedsmen + particular to Sc
lect the choicest heads and leave
them on the roots when growing
seed.
FEEDING VALUABLE cows.
Cows which give most and richest
milk need careful feeding, as excess
i've stimulation of milk glands causes
garget, and often milk fever. Many
a valuable Jersey COW has been de-
stroyed by trying to force an unnat-
ural butter yield. We believe in
good feeding of all cows, but where
the tendency is largely to butter
production a good deal of discretion
must be used in not giving too much.
HOLTSEIN CALVES.
Holsteins are not a diminutive
breed, and their calves, when they
have a fair chance, are always par
ticularly fine, because of the large
amount of milk the dam gives. But
if only the male is full blood, a grade
Shorthorn calf from a native COW
will be worth more for the butcher
than a half blood of any other breed.
The difference in value is still greater
if the calf is to be kept till one, two
or three years old.
CAKED BAG IN cows.
At this season COWS in full flow of
milk will need careful looking after
lest their bags become caked and
hard. Rubbing with lard will re-
lieve the sorene and will almost
Immediately be followed by an in
crease of milk, as nothing dries off a
cow faster than a sore and feverish
condition of the bag. In some cases
so much milk may be given as to
require milking three times a day,
morning; noon and night.
TILLAGE IS MANURE.
On rich soil thorough cultivation
will fora time take the place of extra
manuring. 1t makes all fertility
available, and therefore exhausts the
soil more rapidly. We have nipple
ments now at least one hundred per
cent. better for cultivating the soil
than those in use twenty, thirty or
forty years ago. This, perhaps, is
one reason why it is harder to main
tain fertility now than then. We
get larger crops by thorough tillage,
and this use up plant food faster.
ABORTION IN COWS.
Wherever COWS are kept in large
herds losses from abortion are COM
mon. If one COWS aborts, as is very
possible among many, the trouble
seems to become an epidemic and
goes through the herd. Among those
farmers remote from diaries who keep
only one or two COWS abortion is not
much more common than it used to
be. Thus in farming, more than in
any other business, there are draw
backs which prevent doing anything
on a very large scale, though this,
wherever possible, would doubtless