The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-08-09
NEWsPAPER HUmOR.
WRITTEN WITH A SIX DOLLAR PAIR OF
SHEARS

l
SHEARS.
The Garden and Forest says that there
is no plant VIII CHI can be cultivated in
the United States with less trouble and
more pleasure than the water lily.
Prof. L. j. Budd says that the lilac
grated to the priYetis somewhat dwarf
ed in size,a and has no sprouts and forms
a neat rounded top that blossoms when
quite small,
Waldo F. Brown says that a young
man who intends to be farmer and has
no farm of his own will do better to
spend a year in learning the practical
part of the work than in college.
Early varieties Of apples and pears are
now ripening for marketing and home
use. The early varieties, II properly
handled, are profitable. They should be
packed before they have softened at
all.
George Lincoln in his recent talk be-
fore the bingham Horticultural society
says we undertake to grow too many
kinds of fruit. 1t is more profitable to
cultivate few that we are sure of than
many which have not an established
reputation,
The agricultural editor of the Vermont
Phoenix is one of the minority who dis
sents from the popular theory of re-
duced rainfall being due TO cutting the
forests. He claims that in New England
at least, the forests are actually increas-
ing,
But the average OF meat prices would
still remain low il it were not for the ma
tional habit which .centers consumption
on a sixth of the dressed meat "a twelfth
of the live cattle. A reform at this point
wonld do more to make meat cheap than
the cattle a thousand hills Philadel-
phia Press.
The Rural New Yorker published last
week number OF articles on the ques-
ton whether Il is possible to adopt sys.
TEN of patenting new varieties of plants.
The conclusion seems to be that such a
thing would be impracticable, but that
the national government should reward
by bounties those whose efforts produce
new and beneficial varieties.
Whether commercial fertilizers are
really plant food or only stimulants of
the soil, leave for Colonel Curtis to
theorize on. With them can raise corn
as cheaply as my neighbors on Ohio bot
toms, and beat them raising wheat and
grass. Without them would not have
taken my present farm as gift and paid
taxes on it. + VIM. Eldridge, in Country
Gentleman.
The Editor Of the Maine Farmer says
that one of his best fields Of grass this
season was a tract seeded with oats a
year ago. The soil was strong loan.
which several hay crops had reduced to
an Improbable yield. 1t was plowed in
the autumn and in the spring fifteen OK
cart loads of barn manure to the aci
were spread over it and the land stirred
up until it was as smooth as floor and
sowed with oats and grass seed. There
was good yield OF oats weighing 38
pounds to the bushel. This year the
grass gave fully two tons TO the acre
with promise Of more good crops to fol.
low.
1t is said that if you will take bright
new knitting needle and run it obliquely
into the milk and then draw it out slow
ly and carefully, if the milk is pure a
drop of it will adhere to the needle, but
il it has been watered none Of it will
stick to the needle. OF course in such an
experiment it must first be settled what
constitutes pure milk-thst is, how
much solids must it contain in order to
have q drop remain on a needle. This
test was suggested several years ago
and Is once more coming to the surface.
Will not some OF our experiment sta
tions take the matter up and settle it
with "bulletin I"- American Dairy
man.
Prof Sanborn in the last Mirror and
Farmer, thinks that the character Of pas
ture lands is an important influence in
raising beef steers, and that the poor
New England pastures stand in the way
Of growing the best high grade stock
here, Our very poor hillside pastures are
profitable for only forests. Good pas
lures he considers the cornerstone to the
most successful type of farming. To
overcome the poverty ofsNew England
pastures he recommends chemical ferti-
lization, yard manuring, feeding stock at
pastures, and alternating between fields
and pastures. Beyond this he advises
that rotation of crops include having
all arabic land in pasture from one to
three years in rotation. Even then the
summer feeding of good steers should
be prominent reliance.
In gathering the onion crop, unless the
stand is much evener than most people
secure, there will be quantity Of bulbs
too small for market and too large, ap-
parently, for sets. 1t is sometimes a
question as to what disposition shall be
made Of these latter. Having quantity
Of them on hand last spring used them
for planting my earliest onion bed, and
almost as soon as the new growth com
menced, they were ready for marketing
as green onions. They came in very
much sooner than those grown from the
smaller sets, and consequently brought
the best prices. A neighbor came over
as we were gathering the last from the
bed Of five square rods, and suggested
that "he guessed in the long run hogs
and corn would pay better than onions"
So taking out my note book, investi-
gated the facts, and found that the five
rods had yielded six hundred and eighty
lunches, worth net $27.20, or at the rate
of $50 40 per acre, This was as much
as my neighbor could reasonably hope
to secure from his sixty acres devoted to
corn and hogs, and l think the cost OF
production was rather in my favor
American Agriculturist for August.