The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-12-29
Farm and Garden Notes.

Farm and Garden Notes.
No success in small fruit culture
without the liberal use of fertilizers.
Mark that.
THE dairy stock of the state of Mime
sofa, it is estimated, has increased forty
per cent in the last year.
THERE are many who forget that
first-class animal costs for its keep but
little more than one of much less value.
WE farmers ought to know more
about the nature and habits of the diff
ferent grasses, and then SOW them ac-
cordingly.
THREE or four strong canes to one
hill of raspberries are better than
dozen spindling and weakly ones. Thin
out judiciously.
OUR readers may be sure that we de-
sire to tell them the truth every time
If we do not know the truth, we shall
try to hunt it up.
THE man who truly loves his wife
will not see her waste her best days in
mere drudgery. He will not allow her
to work beyond her strength.
IT is not profitable to feed grain to
yearling steers on good pasture, if it is
designed to keep them another year
and fatten for the general market.
A GREAT many people are pious be-
cause they are afraid of the devil, and
great many politicians are friendly to
farmers about election time because
they are afraid they may lose their
votes.
THERE is no place in the average
farmers garden for any but entirely
hardy sorts. The farmer has to econo-
mize time and labor. He is too busy
to fuss with tender fruits, while there
are plenty of hardy sorts which will
give him fruit without extra fussing
No man can rise above agriculture.
To descend to the position of place.
man and politician is not rising above
the noblest occupation of man" Con-
gressman-elect Russell, retiring secre-
tary of the Massachusetts, Board of
Agriculture, never spoke more truly.
WHAT folly it is to lay out new vii
lagos in the country on the small city
lot plan, just as if there was no room in
this broad land of ours for gardens and
lawns! The mere grasping money
maker fails to see the great influence
ton and morals-or, more likely, don't
care.
THE Breeders Gazette says that
grade bull is better than scrub, bA
he is not as good as a pure-bred, and
if little of good thing is desirable,
why is not as much more as possible of
good thing more desirable? This is
all well, provided your grade and your
thorough bred are better than ''scrub."
They are not all so.
A BARREL of apples takes from the
soil as much phosphoric acid as bushel
of wheat, and as much potash as half
bushel. Now make a guess at how
much wheat would grow on the space
occupied by a tree bearing say five
bushels of apples, and then it will be
very easy to guess why the old orchard
does not bear better.
THE difference in the keeping of
apples a little farther north or south is
illustrated by the Ne,o England Farm
er's remark: " We have been as much
surprised when visiting Maine in mid
winter to find the Hubbardston None
such still hard and sound as Secretary
Gilbert has been to visit Boston in Octo-
Der and find them in eating condition"
THE Breeders Gazette believes that
the $4,000 or more expended in the
purchase and distribution of seeds by
the Washington seed-store serve little
good purpose beyond enabling con-
gressmen to delude their farmer con-
stitueuts with the idea that their inter-
ests are being looked after, when, in
point of fact, their interests are being
shamefully neglected.
GARGET is one of the worst enemies
of dairymen or breeders of dairy cattle.
1t seems generally to come from the
cows catching cold, which suggests the
propriety of preventing draughts on the
cow while in the stable, and bringing
her in if the weather is cold and wet, if
she has lately calved. Hot applications
with laudanum often relieve the pain,
and half an ounce of saltpeter in meal
will aid in the cure.
WHICH are the best agricultural
papers? is question many young farm
ers are asking at this season. Among
such good journals as the Rural New
Yorker, the Nelo England Homestead,
the New England Farmer and the