The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-20
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is not only hardy, but, like the merino,
capable of foraging over large surfaces
and securing large portions af its food.
If there arc cattle on the farm that
must be sold to reduce stock to the level
of fodder supplies it is we'll to give them
the best pasture, and perhaps grain be-
side, until they are fat enough to slaugh-
ter, for the surest market will be for
flesh.
There is greater loss of water on un-
cultivated soil than when the soil is
broken up and rendered tine. Stirring
the soil breaks the capillary tubes
through which the water is drawn up by
the heat and evaporated, and the loose
soil prevents this acting as mulch.
Sound potatoes dug in dry weather
need little drying, and if it is required
let it be in dry, shady place, where it
is as cool as possible, and rs soon as they
are dry they should be stored in cool,
dark place. Potatoes should be handled
carefully: rough handling is more or less
injurious TO them.
In selecting dairy COW the most i'm
portant point is good constitution, in
dicat; by large lungs, stomach, and di-
gestive capacity; she should come from
a good milkang family; the eye should
be bright, the muzzlc broad, nostrils
thin and large, chest and lips broad,
legs fat, uider broad, milk veins large,
and head small.
Professor Stewart says: Apples are not
only not ob:e :tionable, but are beneficial
to the health of the cow, and improve
the flavor of her milk-with the qualii-
cation that they are properly fed. A
moderate quantity of apples, say six or
eight quarts to COW per day, will assist
in the digestion of her other food, and
their favoring will improve the taste of
milk.
The best time for cutting clover is
when it is in full blossom. All grasses,
also, should be cut for hay before the
growing state is over, because when this
is past, the juices or sap undergo chsmi-
cal changes which unfit them for food,
and the fiber becomes dry and indlgesti-
BILE. Good judges understand the nature
of hay, and will not willingly buy it if
overrire. AS q contemporary remarks:
"Clo2er hay is the farmers best crop, all
in all, if we'll cured and cut in i S best
state. The more clover, the more stock /;
the more stock, the more manure; and
the more manure fed on the farm, the
more crops"
1t is surprising to any one who has
not noticed the fat before how mu b
more water sows will drink that have to
give m TX to lot of sucking pigs than
is needed by others fattening on the same
feed. There is sound philosophy under
lying the prevalent practice of giving
slops and other thin, watery or milky
stuff to the sows with pigs. They will
make gaod use even of dish water,
though this is apt TO be salty and to ne
cessitate plenty of plre water afterward.
The milk supply of breeding sows kept
in pens during hot weather is very apt to
be curtailed by lack ofdrink. Of course,
plenty of good food is also necessary, or
the sow will dc>line so much in flesh as
TO be permanently injured.
An item in an agricultural exchange
advises the collection Of fallen apples
daily as a. means OF destroying the cod
ling moth. If this advice is given to
pigs running in the orchard it is all right,
but if, presumably, it is addressed to
readers it is faulty. The worm in most
apples that fall is ready to leave its re-
ccptacle by the time this accident occurs.
In nine cases out of ten it has left the
apple within an hour after it has fallen.
Whoever consigns the apple to dcstruc-
ton with the notion that a wolm is
the; eby being de troycd is sadly de.
ceived. Sheep are better than pigs for
this business The pig is naturally lazy,
or ought to be, and does not get up early
in the mornings. Sheep. on the con-
trary, will browse around during the
n 'ght and be ready to catch the apple as
soon as it drops.
Probably in no way can farmer more
cheaply and certainly add to the value of
his land than by sowing timothy Sc ID
with the fall seeding of winter glain. 1t
never fails to make catch, while clover
sown in the spring often does. The
danger, indeed, is in getting too much
grass, so as to in; ;ure the grain. To pre-
vent this, delay sowing the grass seed
two or three weeks OF until the grain is
we'll up. In the meantime, roll or harrow
the surface if the grain has been drilled
in. This will prevent the grass seed
from all falling in the same rows with
the grain, and this give each a better
chance Timothy is rarely if ever winter
killed the first season. The first crop is
thus a pretty safe one. When it gets
older it is liable to be in 'urcd by insects,
and especially by the white grub, but
this is never present in new seeding.
One singular fact about clover is that
q sod of this plant plowed late in the
summer or early in the fall for wheat
cannot BE- we'll seeded with clover again
in the following Spring Seed will start
all right but will die cut before the grain
is harvested, so that unless seeded with
timothy the fall before the surface will
be bare of valuable grasses. Were it
not for this fact a two years. rotation,
clover and wheat succeeding each other
alternately, would be popular in places
adapted to wheat growing. This was q
common rotation fifty or more years ago
with wheat growers, but in those days
the clover was plowed under in June
and thoroughly worked until wheat seed
ing time. Even then, however, with
this early plowing the clover did not
catch as we'll on fallow ground as it did