The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-07-09
FARM AND GARDEN.

Plenty of water ought to be within
easy flight of the apiary. Nothing can
be better than a running brook, as bees
delight slipping water from damp sand
and gravel. Where water must be
supplied artificially it will save the life
of many a bee if tho drinking vessels
are filled in early morning with warm
water.
The obstacles in the way of success
full bee culture are ignorance, care
lessness. being too eager to increase
the number of colonies, and cold
winters. A fair knowledge of bees,
faithful attention to the apiary, and a
thorough and timely preparation for
the honey flow. swarming, and winter
ing will make any man or woman a
successful beekceper.
Ashes are good for cucumbers.
They arc not only a fertilizer but also
repel bugs. 1t is question if the ash
of the wood consumed in the stoves DUR
ing the winter can be more profitably
disposed of than in the garden and
and orchard. Buy your soap. save the
bother with the "leach," and put the
ashes ''where they will do the most
good"
A horticulturist says: The rule for
pruning and transplanting is to cut in
proportion to apparent injury to roots.
Ii not much worse for removal cut but
little of the top away. Properly prun-
ed, good gardener will not have the
worst case of badly dry tree to die
under his hands. In nurseries where
these matters are we'll understood trees
"nevcr die"
Large hogs are neither fashionable
nor profitable. Bnt few hogs are now
bred that. when fully developed. weigh
over 700 pounds. The small boned
early developed hog. that weighs from
275 to 300 pounds at twelve months
meets the popular demand as the most
profitable, while those large hogs most
always develop later, and have to be
kept too long.
A writer in the Indiana Farmer
thinks that overwork and the abom-
inably early hours of rising ON many
farms are the great reasons why bows
do not stay on the farms. He thinks
it is crying abuse for farmers to drive
their business as if their only aim in
life was TO see how much work they
could get done in a day. and how little
rest and enjoyment they could get
along with.
Farmers who have been in the habit
of drawing potato vines to their barn.
yards to he worked up into the manure
had better omit the practice this year,
especially in places where the potato
rot had been prevalent. The rot is un-
doubte'lly produced by fungus growth
which originates in the leaf, and carry
ing this to the manure heap is the most
certain mode of spreading it over the
farm.
Corn fodder lacks the same constitu-
ents that the grain does, though not to
SO great an extent. Hence it is waste
full feeding to feed it alone, and it does
not improve the composition Of the ra-
tion to add grain. But such Il ration
gives better results than either the
fodder or the grain fed alone, as trough
feed helps the digestion of grain in
the stolnachs of cattle and horses.
A correspondent of the Canadian
Horttc"itnrist says he had tried several
we'll known remedies for mil,lcw of
goosehcrrics, vainly. and only succeed
ed in getting fine fruit after he had
dumped Il bushel of ashes from the
coal stove around a bush, when, find
ing the result cmincntly satisfactory,
giving full crop of fine berries, he
treated other bushes the same way
with equal success.
When the comb of = fowl is large
and bright colored, showing it to be
full of blood, and shaking with every
activity of the bird, she is in healthy
laying condition. With this condition
of comb you will discover the utmost
activity in your fowls, starting at
every sound or motion. The move
ments are not like nervous jump, but
with an elastic spring, showing con-
lition of vigorous health. On the con-
trary. if the edges of comb and wattles
are purplish red and the movements
sluggish there is disease and danger.
Breeds of COWS strongly predisposed
to milk production. says the Tribune
and Farmer will sometimes give milk
before the heifers have had their first
calf. The tendency is increased where
the young calves run together. in which
ease. unless precautions are taken,
they are almost sure to learn to suck
each other. A habit of this kind is cx-
trcmely difficult to cure; the cows hav-
ing learned it while young suck them
selves when they are in milk, and, un-
less very valuable, the best way to dis
pose of such is to fatten them for the
butcher.
If your hens are infested with in
sects, blow buhach, pyrcthrum powder
or Persian insect powder uhoy are
about the same thing) among the feath-
crs. DO this two or three times eyery
week. We believe it to be tho easiest,
simplest and safest method of ridding
the hens of this pest. Go into tho hem
house after nightfall and, taking them
ono by one in gentle manner. blow
the powder among their feathers
through :: Woodason bellows, or the
little insutllaters sold by most seeds
men; or rub the powder under their
feathers about the head and body.