The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-04-09
FARM NOTES.

A New York paper says the milk sold
in that city is a "white lie."
Utilize rough lands for pasturage and
the smoother meadows for hay.
The cranberry crop of this country
last year was the largest ever known.
For horses with diseased or tender
feet the bare earth is the best floor to
stand on.
A rat-proof corn-bin may be made by
lining the inside of an ordinary bin
with No. 4 wire.
at takes $50 bushels of potatoes to
make ton of starch" Costly starch
with potatoes at 80 cents per bushel.
The venom of bee is acid, and the
application of an alkali is tho best
antidote. Strong tobacco juice is also
good.
A tree is not post. The post re-
quires small hole and deep; the tree a
broad hole well filled with rich, friable
earth.
1t is said that borers can be kept
away from apple and peach trees by
driving nail in the tree near the
ground.
Oatmeal in America and oatmeal
abroad mean two different products
Here it is broken oats. Abroad it is
gpaasnd <>~ts---
Propositions to cultivate silk as an
industry for profit here should be treat
ed as visionary and akin to humbug-
Western Farmer.
A fine horscman, who Is also a poul-
try raiser, says that his best driving
animal consumes daily as much grain
as his forty-one hens.
Strong brine is reported to be taking
the place of alcohol for preserving spec
linen fruits. They keep size as well
and preserve their color better.
1t has been determined that 8. 100
pounds of products, including grain.
cobs, and stalks, is equal in nutritive
value to 9,612 pounds of hay.
"Butter-making as practiced on many
farms is an absolute waste Of the raw
material" No! The butter is good for
wagon-grease and boot-grease, If I'M
sailed.
A Minnesota farmer has been feed
ing his mich cows amber corn, cut
when green. He is gratitied with an
increased flow Of milk and better
quality of butter.
A writer in the Beekeeper's Journal
says that, as an offset to the records Of
horses and cows, he had a colony of
bees that produced fifty-five pounds Of
honey in three and half days.
Instead of putting fertilizers on the
wheat crop to help the grass, the plan
kinds should be put on the grass year
or two before it is plowed for wheat or
corn.
Judge II. c. Jones, of Ohio, says q
contemporary, appears to think that
there is not to-day 'Short-horn herd
to be found i'm the United States having
Il sufficient amount of the seventeen
blood to be matter of any Importance
for good or evil"
The wages of farm hands in Switzer-
land, exclusive of board and lodging,
average for males about $56.25 u year;
for females, 5000. In the United
States the wages of the farm hands, in
Guiding board and lodging, average
from $500 to $500.
Connecticut gives State bounty of
10 cents for any person planting, pro-
tecting and cultivating elm, maple,
tulip, ash, Eastwood, oak, black wal
nut, hickory, pear or cherry trees, not
more than sixty feet apart, for three
years. on any public highway.
An experiment was lately made at the
Michigan Agricultural College Farm to
see how much hay equal lots of Merino
and Southdown sheep would eat up
clean. The result showed about an
equal consumption, although the South
downs averaged nearly fifty pounds
heavier than the other sheep.
The Rural NeW Yorker in reply to q
correspondent who wants some device
to keep crows from the corn field, says
it has found that crows do much more
good than harm among the corn. II
recommends the scattering of a few
quarts of wcll-sOakcd corn about the
field just as the planted corn is coming
up.
In New Mexico, where sheep are kept
away from habitations, it is always the
custom to have many goats with the
ewes and billy-goats with the rams.
They are fine guides, protect the herd
against dogs and coyotes, and give the
herders a little milk for their coffee.
But around towns or fields, especially
in the neighborhood of orchards OF
planted fields, the goats are q nuisance.
They not only jump fences themselves.
but also teach the sheep to do likewise.
Thus far the evidence before the Brit.
ish Ensilage Commission has been en-.
tirely favorable to the use of ensilage,
especially for dairy cows. DIR. Voclcker
candidly conceded in his evidence that
little practical dependence can be placed
upon chemical analysis for the feeding
of animals. He believes that food may
be ever so good, yet. if the animal does
not like it, it will not make good meat
From the high attainments of this wit
ness it will be well for some Of oul
chemists to bear his evidence in mind.
All kinds of stock cat and seem tl
relish their feed better when it is slight
| ly sailed, and it is good plan to sea
son the feed for the stock Just the same
as for human use. This method hal
several advantages to recommend u
among which may be reckoned ths