The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-01-01
FARM NOTES.

Early maturing pigs are the most
profitable.
American seed corn is being used in
Austria.
Butter color is made of marigold
petals in Norway.
Sorghum was introduced into this
country in 1853 by a F~renchman.
The sugar naples of Wisconsin are
said to be finding a mortal enemy in
the cotton insect.
In England it is thought to be inju-
rious to feed dairy COWS more than
t~wenty-eight pounds of roots per day.
Unders locking a farm may not show
very good management, but it is bet
ter to have too little stock than too
much.
Dynamite cartridges are now used
for telling trees. 1t has the advantage
over the old method of leaving no
stump.
If possible, let the pigs run in the
orchard. If only an hour each day.
They will destroy thousands of the lar
vac of the coddling moth.
There are 5000, 600 landowners in
France, the average size of the farms
being about ten acres. The best land,
outside of the vineyards, is worth about
$500 per acre.
Small fruit raising for market may
not pay many farmers situated incon-
vcniently to market, but every man
who owns an acre of land should raise
sufficient for his own family use.
An Iowa contributor to the Western
Rural killed quack grass by running a
sulky pillow over a field in the middle
of August. The pillow was set to cut
three inches deep. He says deeper
blowing is not successful.
The labor required in farming is be-
coming less irksome each succeeding
year, o. account of the help derived
from labor-saving machinery, and the
farmer who does not avail himself of
this aid is behind the times.
If every farmer would make it a rule to
pay no money without taking receipt,
buy no property without having the tt
tie examined by competent authority,
and 10 sign no papers for strangers,
sharpcrs would have fewer victims.
The city owners of fancy horses pre-
fer timothy cut when dead ripe. 1t is
then SO unpalatable there is no danger
that the animals will gorge themselves,
while grain is depended on to keep up
the horses strength. Earlier cutting
makes better hay.
10 prevent the splitting or bursting
of cabbages, J. j. H. Gregory recon-
mends to 60 frequently over the ground
and start every cabbage that appears
to be about to mature by pushing it
owe sidewise. Heads thus started are
said to grow to double the size they
had attained when about to burst.
Melons do not require frequent
change of land. The veteran Marshall
P. Wilder says that he has grown mel
ons on the same land for ten years; the
ground has a south aspect. He pre-
pares q compost of manure, soil and
guanO, which he spreads on the land
in addition to manuring in the hills.
Surface manuring he considers very
important. He has no trouble with in
sects, as he gets up in the morning be-
fore they do.
Following is the Country Gentle
man s way Ior ringing DullS: having
the ring. and the bulls head in a
stanchion or a good halter OH and tied
10 any convenient standard, take q
good punch made for the purpose that
will cut a clean hole through the nose
as large as the ring to be used. The
instrument can be placed carefully in
the ose of the bull without the .least
hurting or irritating, and when just
right, close the handles of the punch,
and the nose is perforated with a clean
cut the full size of the ring. If the
bull struggles, hold the punch still till
he stops; then loose the punch and in
sert the ring, which a be easily done
with the least possible pain and no
danger of making a bad job. as a per-
son would be likely to do with a hot