Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-05
FARM NOTES.

The best tools are the cheapest because
they accomplish more and cause less wear
and tear and swear than poor tools.
Give verbenas rather rich but light
soil if you wish to have vigorous plants
producing an abundance of large trusses
for flowers.
Make harness fit properly and horse
can wear it without distress, provided that
it is also kept decently clean and COM
fortasly soft.
Prepare for sowing rutabagas. Large
crops are secured by sowing in drills IS
inches apart and thinning out. One pound
of seed to the acre.
The land that will maintain 20 common
bred COWS will maintain 20 well-bred ones,
and the annual profit from the latter
will be considerably more than from the
former.
It is the same with an animal as with a
steam boiler = the more complete
the combustion of the food
or fuel it gets the more satisfactory
will be the result, because there is less
waste.
Overladen fruit trees mature their fruit
while it is fet small. Pick off % before
much growth is made, and 3 may grow
to as many bushels as all would if left
growing.
RESOURCES Of the soil do not end abrupt
ly at four or five inches in depth, yet there
are hundreds of farms where all beneath
is terra incognita because no effort has
ever veen made to explore.
The best mode of treating grape-vines
that do not grow is to cut them off near
the ground and allow new shoots tospring
up, which may be trained the same as
new vines and which will be productive.
Mp off the ends of grapevines, thin out
the pears and apples, remove early peas
and prepare the land at once and SOW
turnips, fodder corn or something else.
Cut back the tall shoots os- blackberries
and raspberries, and pinch off the later
ais.
The practice of pegging down ever
blooming roses so that they will cover
mpletely the surface of the bed, is well
known to produce very pleasing results.
1T is said that pegging down dahlias
proves quite as satisfactory Gardeners
monthly.
If you have thin; fiat stones at COM
mand-say as thick as roofing slate, or
somewhat thicker-try mulching a few
strawberry plants with them. Tin ans
wers the same purpose. Shingles are
good, but inclined to warp. A patented
clay tile is sold III some places, but stones
are cheaper and better.
Much of manure dropped by COWS
yarded over night in the barn yard is
wasted. Unless the yard is well Uttered
tbn mir pp51t is no
id droppings dry away until much of
their value is lost. Throwing the manure
in heaps and applying little dry earth
to the head daily will prevent loss.
There is much difference in the quality
of paris green, much that is sold being
so heavily adulterated that it is imposs-
IDLE to decide how much to apply. The
impure poison is believed to be injurious
to potato vines, perhaps because of its
impurity being stronger than it should
be. The high-priced paris green is the
cheapest.
The best ground for peach orchard is
a light sandy soil that has been planted
for several years with general crops. Do
not plant on ground rich enough to pro-
duce onions, peas spinach or lettuce, for
trees Will be liable to make a late autumn
al growth, and produce unripe wood that
will be winter-killed.
In planting cabbages, etc., with the
dibber, be sure the soil pressed firmly
around and in close contact with every
fiber of their roots. A too common prac-
tice is to merely close in the soil round
the neck of the plant by a surface appli-
cation of the point of the dibber. The
plant is thereby left hanging, as it were,
in the hole.