The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-12-09
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
LOOK TO THE FRUIT TREES.


mice and rabbits. As soon as snow covers the
ground their usual supply of forage is cut off
and the bark of the apple trees is very accept
able substitute. Mice girdle the trees under
the snow, but the rabbits gnaw tho bark for
two feet above the snow line. There arc sew
eral methods of saving the trees from these
pests and one is sometimes more convenient
than another. The trees may be smeared with
blood rubbed with piece of tainted lean
meat as high as the rabbits will reach, or a
mixture of COW dung, clay and superphosphate
of lime made into thick wash and brushed on
to the stems from the ground upward for three
feet. This mixture Is a specific against the
borers. which are so injurious to young trees.
Another useful application is thick lime wash
made strongly Odorons with carbolic acid. A
very simple precautiOn is to wrap the stems for
two feet above the ground and close to the
ground with newspapers tied ON in three or
four places with Irvine, so as to hold them
against rain and wind. This has the advantage
over tarred paper, so often recommended, that
it reflects and does not absorb the heat of the
sun reflected from the snow, which is some
times very injurious 10 the bark.
BREED FROM THE BEST.
Mistakes in breeding are many and various.
In many cases no selection is made with view
to get good progeny. Purebred animals, which
have cost their owners much money and care,
are rejected because a trife more is demanded
for their services or the price is perhaps double
or treble, or 1t may be less, than that of poor
scrub. And this Notwithstanding the facts,
well known in every locality, that the 300
dollar and 4O0-dollar colts come from sires
which cost for services $50 or 800, and the
five-dollar sires get only seventy fve-dollar
colts. It is the same with cows. The most
butter Is made by the dairymen who keep a
one-hundred-dollar or Observation-Disclosures
bull, and these dairymen go TO the station with
load of pals of butter, or to the creamery in
a handsome wagon with good pair of horses
before it, while the neghbor whose cows are
served by a vagrant bull which runs at large
rs not worth keeping up, takes his butter to
the store in basket on his arm, and the store
keeper shakes his head over il and says he has
plenty of il and can only take it in trade. The
same applies TO swine which make $50 pounds
of pork at two years old; to sheep which shear
two and half pounds of wool and make 30
pound carcass Of mutton; while the beSt-bred
Berkshires will make $50 pounds at nine
months old, costing for feed less than half the
wreiched wo-year-old; and the Cotswold or
Hampshire grades shear seven pounds of wool
and yield l20 pounds Of mutton.
GOOD DRAINAGE.
A most important work which should not be
neglected at this season is to examine the drains
and see that they are all working properly If
one drain is choked the whole system above it
may be endangered by the deposit OF silt in the
tiles. If the outlet is stopped the whole sys-
TEN is endangered. II a drain is found TO be
out of order it will prove how useful it is to
have series of inspection wells made in the
drains ut regular distances and in lines marked
by stakes at the fence rows across the fields.
These wells are placed ~ distances of 30 feet
apart on the lines OF the drains, and if the
drains are laid 81 feet apart the field will be
marked out into acres by the intersections ut
each fourth well across the field. The wells
may be made of wooden boxes eight inches
wide and sunk foot below the tiles, so as To
give silt basin, which will collect all the
sediment passing down. the tile entering at one
side and another leaving az the other side. In
case of a chOked drain the seat of the trouble
is easily located and the proper remedy may be
applied.
REMEDY FOR "HEAvEs"
A good horse authority says that heaves may
be durable or 1t may not as this depends upon
the altered condition of the bronchial tubes,
the lining membranes of which may be perma-
nently thickened, or the pneumogastric nerve
which controls the action of the lungs and
stomach may be permanently diseased. In such
cases the disease may be alleviated, but never
cured. Other cases are often cured in a short
time by mere change in feeding. 1t depends,
too, upon the origin of the disease, which is
sometimes hereditary and exists thus in mar
rOw-chested horses, which become diseased
through violent exertiOns and excessive action
of the lungs. There is no cure in such a case
as this. When it arises from the use of dusty
I linn alfx
from watering Immediately after feeding or
gorging upon dry meal, it may be frequently
relieved at once by giving moist cut feed or cut
roots aud permanent cure effected by few
months persistence in this regimen.
USE OF MANURE IN WINTER.
The best place for manure is on or in the
! soil, for il is then doing some good. In the
/ yard or in heap il is losing something, be-
cause as soon as il begins to ferment and heat it
is resolving itself into its original gaseous ele
ments, and these pass of into the air. In the
course OF three months this loss is considerable
/ But when the manure is spread upon the SOIL
and decays slowly, its elements are all absorbed
by the soil, and they are carried in by the rains
! In dry weather decomposion is arrested, and
| goes on very slowly, but whatever is set free
/ from the manure is held by the soil, which has
a strong affinity for all such matters. Hence it
| is good practice 10 use the manure as it is made
| upon Fall grain crops which need tOp-dressng,
| or grass fields, or clover or even other land
which is to be plonghed in the Spring. TOp-dress-
/ ing in the Winter has the important advantage
that it supplies food for crops in the early Spring
when they need it most, and when, from press
| of work and the condition of the soil, the
farmer cannot well cart out the manure.
| NOTES.
| "A COW in milk needs at least one ounce of
salt per day. Some of the salt goes into the milk,
some into the blood, some into various secretions
| of the system and some is used III supplying the
| requirements of the digestive organs and to
make up the loss from tneso in the urine and
dung Thus supply of salt is indispensable
| TO cows.
In cases of ingrowing horns, when the
horns turn in toward the head and endanger
tho safety of the animal, the ends should be
cut Off This does no harm TO the animal, as
the points of the horns arc solid. There is no
certain way of taking the bend out of horn
or of changing its curvature; the only way to
prevent the curved horn from penetrating the
eye or the skin is 10 cut it.
The annual milk crop of the United States
equals in value half the national debt. This
statement conveys an idea of the immensely OF
tho dairy interests of the country. OF what
| other product, either animal or agricultural,
can such a statement be madep
-"One-half the difficulty in making good
butter is the care of the milk, aud not in the
mode Of churning, says writer. From the
time the milk is drawn from the cow until the
cream is ready to be used the strictest care
should be exercised in keeping it clean and free
from exposure TO odOrs."
The profits of dairy farming are figured
hNrf aff ID