The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-05-12
farm 4otes.
MISTAKES IN TRIMMING TREES.


Apple trees should not be trim
med to a crotch with two or more
limbs. 1t is all right while the trees
are young, but when apple trees be-
gin to bear the crotch splits and the
tree is ruined. Train one leader up
straight and the branches from this
will be less likely to break off when
loaded.
NARROWING TIMOTHY.
An old timothy sod is often reno
waited by thoroughly narrowing with
a light harrow. It loosens the fine
soil near the surface, and thus cult
Yates the timothy roots just beneath.
Even in winter wheat, where timo-
thy seed was sown last fall, the tim
othy is not injured by narrowing in
the spring, though this is often an
objection against the practice.
HENS EATING EGGS.
The greatest egg producers are
the hens that are the most liable to
eat their eggs. 1t seems scarcely
possible for hens laying almost con-
tinuously to furnish the material for
the shells. The difficulty is worse
after a severe winter, during which
the fowls have been keptfrom getting
at the ground. When the ~egg-eating
habit is established no time should
be lost in getting rid of the hens
guilty of it.
GRAIN CHEAPER THAN HAY.
Of course more care is required in
feeding concentrated food, grain or
meal, than in feeding hay; but to the
extent they can be used the more
concentrated foods are cheapest.
The time has gone by when hay was
fed without stint because farmers
believed it cost little. With aver
age light crops of hay it is about the
dearest food that any stock "a eat.
But the growing of clover is so help
full to the soil, that this pays much
of the expense of sowing and har-
vesting it.
DEEP PLANTING OF PEAS.
Peas will probably bear deeper
planting than any other seeds. The
crop delights in cool, moist soil, and
deep planting insures these con-
ditions. We have found. however,
that making a turrow seven or eight
inches deep, filling in with a mixture
Of soil and superphosphate, and
planting the peas on this two inches
below the surface, produced better
results than deeper planting. If the
pea roots want to go down deeper
they will know how to do it, pro-
vided we have prepared the proper
condition.
CUT FEED N NEAL.
Most farmers have learned that
cut hay II even straw wet and sprin-
killed. with meal is better feed for
working horses than whole grain
and hay. In this shape the nutri-
ment in the feed is easily eaten
and easily digested. Horses do not
need water when eating, except as it
is put on the chopped hay to make
the meal stick to it. The meal being
fine digests perfectly, while much of
the nutriment in whole grain is lost.
Again, the wasted effect made in di-
costing the latter is so much de-
tracted from the strength which
should go to the work.
Y AS STOCK FEED.
There is altogether too little enter
prise among farmers in hunting up
new ideas. Visiting a wide-awake
young farmer lately, we found he
had been using ground rye mixed
with wheat bran as food for his
horses. His team was constantly at
work on this feed, looked we'll and
was kept at about t%wo-thirds the ex-
pense of feeding hay and oats. Rye
may be Objectionable for feeding to
breeding animals, On accout of dan
ger from ergot, but this limitation
makes it a cheaper feed than it
would otherwise be, and for work
ing teams and for growing hogs it
can hardly be excelled.
THINNING PEAR BLOSSOMS.
Some varieties Of pear are very
liable to overbear. The Seckel is one
of these, and as usually grown the
fruit is too small to be saleable. The
De Angouleme is another
variety which should be thinned
in blossom or soon after. TT