Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1886-09-02
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD
TOPICS OF INTEREST THE
b FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE.

crop next year. All the buds for fruit
must be in the plant this season, and
therefore early planting and good care
are necessary now in order to insure a
full crop.
"a correspondent who has tried field
corn soaked in poison and placed in
the drain for killing molcs, found the
corn untouched In another expert
ment he placed grains of sweet corn in
a strong solution of arsenic in the rum
ways and succeeded.
Fresh, cut-green grass makes the
best mulch for either currants or goose
berries. 1t lies close to the ground, and
will keep down weeds better than any
thing dry or coarse like straw. Goose
berry bushes need to be on moist
ground and have their roots kept cool
as possible by heavy mulching.
There is very little gained by turning
under crop of timothy al green ma
nure. Its roots do not run 80 deeply as
hose OF clover, and the crop, even when
used as green manure. does not anne
liorate the subsoil. 1t is, besides, more
valuable fora hay crop for market than
either clover or any other grass.
A gardener who has an early piece of
ground remarks that green peas for the
early market are q safer crop for mod
crate but sure proihs than any other.
The homegrown peas have the prefer
ence over those Slipped from the
South. They can only be grown profit
ably where cheap labor can be had in
picking them.
Much of manure dropped by cows
yarded over night in the barnyard is
wasted. Unless the yard is well lit
tered the liquid cxcrement is lost, and
the solid droppings dry away until
much of their value is gone. Throwing
the manure in heaps and applying a
little dry earth to the heap daily will
prevent loss.
So long as cows will eat grain or meal
it will pay to give them some daily.
If it don't, they are probably not worth
keeping anyway. Good cows will grow
poor when kept on grass alone and in
full flow of milk. And when the pas
ture fails they will have no reserve sup
ply of flesh and fat to keep them in
condition for milking next winter.
House plants that have been planted
in the border need to be carefully
watched and supplied with water;
otherwise in dry time they will suf-
fer far sooner than plants with their
roots unconiined. AS these make their
growth they will also need some care in
pinching and training with reference
to their future forms.
Ants can be trapped with pieces of
coarse sponge sprinkled with sugar.
Place the bits of sponge near the ant
holes and visit them several times q
day, picking them up quickly and drop
ping them into pail of water carried
for the purpose. Persistence in this
course for short time will clear ants
away from lawn.
Cows often chew corn cobs, not for
their nutritive value but for the min
eral they contain, just as they will chew
old bones. In such cases wood ashes,
or, better still, ashes from corn cobs,
will be eaten as grecdily as salt. Ashes
for cows when ON green feed corrects
acidity of the stomach. and a few sup
piled occasionally will do good.
The farmer who rises early and gets
his team out while dew is heavy on the
grass or soil gains increased fertility
to his soil by his earliness. Dew con-
tains a considerable amount of am
monia, and this turned under by plow
or cultivator is absorbed in the soil.
When the grass is plowed under wet
with dew there is an additional ad-
vantage from the greater readiness of
wet grass to rot quickly.
The eneven depth at which drills
deposit seeds on hillsides sometimes
shows curious results. The lower side
of the drill weighs down the tubes, and
on mellow soil carries the seed three or
four inches deep. Going down a hill
has the same effect. In. going up the
hill the seed is drilled shallower, and
travelling in this direction the grain
always comes up quicker and stronger.
Altogether the drill is not q satisfac-
tory implement for seeding hillsides.
It is a curious fact, and one that has
led to much disappointment in breed
ing for the dairy, that milk and butter
production is most commonly trans
mitted through the male line. This is
the time when cows should be bred to
have them in full flow of milk next
spring, and If the cow herself is a good
one breed to bull that comes of equal.
ly good strain, and the heifer calves
will probably be valuable for the dairy,
Horses hard at work in warm weather
need water frequently. If a handful Of
oatmeal is thrown in a pailful of water
and one or two swallows given two OF
three times between morning and noon
or noon and night, it will stimulate
them to renewed exertions and keer
them fresh all day. This sort of stimu.
lation has no bad after effects, as does
that which men often take in the har.
vestfield. The work of harvesting with
self-binders is now as severe for teams
as cutting grain was in the old times
for men when done by hand labor, and
1t is a time when grain feed for horse.