St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-27
FARM NOTES.
Points and Facts That May Be of
Value to the Tiliers of the Soil.

In many parts of France fuel and
food for stock are so scarce that Shep-
ards cut off the small branches of trees
tie them i'll bundles, and place them in
the sheep pens. After the sheep have
eaten the leaves, the brush is used for
building fires.
a prize POiled-Angus steer recently
butchered IN England weighed, at two
years ten months and twenty days of
age. 1856 pounds, having made a gain
OF l.S5 pounds daily from birth. lie
dressed Is per cent of live weight.
Scrubs only dress about 80 per cent.
On account of agricultural depression
in Great Britain farm laborerS are not
generally employed during the winter
as they formerly were. AS a conSe-
Quence large numbers of them come to
cities to obtain something to do. AS
the cities are crowded few of them sue
ceed in obtaining employment and their
condition becomes distressing.
The potato crop of the United States
in 1887 aggregated 134, 900, 600 bushels on
an acreage of 2,300,000, which was a
yield per acre of fifty-siX bushels. In
the last eight years, 1883 was the "ban-
ner" potato year. In that season the
yield was POS. 164, 1926 bushels, raised
from 2,27S,275 acres, which was yield
of ninety-One bushels per acre.
The statistics from the Michigan
labor bureau show many million dollars
in mortgages on the farms of that state.
In one county nearly half the farms are
mortgaged, the total reaching nearly
one-fifth of the assessed value of all the
farms i'll the county. 1t is said that
other counties are in much worse con-
dition.
At Toronto, O., James Williamson
captured live crow in his corn field.
On the way home with it hundreds of
other crows came to the rescue and at
tackled him. He first tried to run away,
and then to defend himself with club,
and was finally compelled to seek shell
ter in shed, where the besieging
crows kept him prisoner for more than
all hour.
AS an evidence of the value of shelter
for animals, PrOf.Sanborn states that he
got one pound growth on steers fed hay
alone in barns, and outdoors no gain,
fed in the same way. Prof. Shelton
made a difference of gain on pigs of fifty
pounds, sheltered, above those I'M
housed. Prof. Morrow had 164 pounds
difference in gain per calf between
housing and exposing.
An English paper says: 1t appears
that parents i'll this country who are
sending their sons to the United States
or Canada have not yet been sufficiently
warned against the folly of paying
premiums to English agents who offer
to place the. young men with respect
able farmers. An Iowa farmer writes
to the Field to point out that the major
ity OF his class will have nothing to do
with the system referred to and that it
. a cor Nf% IoE
ers whose names are on the agents
books.
Col. B. T. Johnson, of Champaign, es-
Inmates that the farmers of Illinois lost
S50,00O,0 900 by the drought during the
past year. Besides the direct loss, their
condition has been injured by the ne:
cesSity of disposing of many young ami
mails. Preparations have been made for
planting peach trees near the line of the
Illinois Central railway, all the way
from Illinois to Louisiana inclusive. If
they do well the prospect is that peaches
will soon be as plenty in this market as
Strawberries and melons have been dur
ing several years.
According to the Miles City Stockman.
fifty years ago the average weight of
beef cattle was 800 pounds, now it is
1,400 pounds. The increase is due to
bIiO lIitlOuuStlOli VI pulO-UICo SlOCk dllu
the more careful breeding as well as
the much better feeding of the produce.
1t is now as common to have animals
1900 pounds as it was to have them
1.2O0pounds, and the increase in weight
is fully one-third. The improvement in
far Western stock is still greater, and
nearly double in weight since the large
introduction of Polled-Angus, Hereford
and Shorthorn blood into the herds.
The wheat crop in Spain in 1886 was
S6,004, 1876 bushels, and the maximum
crop of wheat in Spain for the five
years ended with 1886 was 1886, 1874
bushels. The population of Spain Dec.
81, 1877, was 1864, 345. The Spanish
estimate of the wheat crops has not
been made on an accurate basis. Crop
reporting for that country is compare
lively new. Spain has been an i'm
porter rather than an exporter since
1881, and for the past five years the i'm
ports have been quite prominent. The
wheat crop of 1887 is reported to be
more largely deficient than for many
years. SPANS required net imports in
lsS7-S will probably exceed 100000
bushels.