New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-07-04
Farm And Household.
Scraps of Agricultural Information.

Scraps of Agricultural Information.
Few persons have a fully realizing
aense OF value of wood ashes. A ton
of well saved ashes contains 200
pounds OF carbonate ofpotash, worth
$12, and 100 pounds of phosphoric
acid, worth Sc. This phosphoric acie,
may be called insoluble, BUTT is in an
organic condition and hence is worth
more than the mineral phosphates,
because it is more easily soluble in the
soil than these.
Potatoes keep best in pits in the
ground out of doors, where they are
cool and moist, but they must be pre-
served from too low temperature
by ample covering and from water by
choosing an elevated dry place. To
make a pit dig a trench three feet wide
and two feet deep, throwing the earth
on both sides; heap the potatoes to a
point or ridge and cover with long,
straight straw. bending the straw over
the top. Cover eight or ten inches
deep with straw and then with three
or four inches OF earth, leaving the
peak uncovered until cold weather,
when it, too, should be covered With
earth
Feeding with corn fodder is danger
Gus, and more SO when a horse is
vVearied with hard work in the field.
When green fodder is fed the horse
should have first a small quantity OF
dry hay Or cut feed only moistened
fand with an ounce ofsat mixed whit.
After the keen edge of the hunger is
taken off then the fodder may be Civ
'en, and will be eaten slowly and mas
tlcated thoroughly. A we'll masticat-
Led and sallvated meal will not fer
ment in the stomach and produce
collie.
SUNNI arizing the news OF theround-
ups. "The Rocky Mountain Hus
.bandman" concludes that at least
half OF the range cattle were starved
or frozen to death last winter. 'The
havoc was simply appalling" The
aoss seems to have been principally
cows and ninety-fve per cent of the
bulls. 1t is a sad story OF cruel suf-
ferIng wantonly imposed upon great
nerds turned loose On overstocked
reaches of shelterless country with
out other provision of food than that
supplied by the bleached and often
1ce-covered and storm, swept natural
grasses.
A correspondent OF the Country
Gentleman writes of Mr. j. M. Smiths
dorty-acre garden at Green Bay, Wis.
OF cabbage he has 100000. They are
going like hot cakes. this dry year, for
six cents apiece. Figure that up, you
800 acre farmers. and see if you can
come in sight OF it. But that is only
half the story, for many OF these were
raised after strawberries that gave
225 bushels per acre, and all this
without any rain to speak of! His
cash sales from the forty acres since
the 9th of May have averaged $50 a
day. Is he satisfied with this? Not
a bit it. He says he does not be-
aieve that even he realizes yet what
the land is capable OF doing.
It is not safe practice to shear
sheep in the fall where the winter is
cold and wet. The loss of tie fleece is
apt to chill the sheep and cause loss
of lambs as we'll as reduce the condi-
6icn or necessitate more food. 1t is
not wise to follow the California meth
cd where the dry and mild Califor-
MIA climate dose not prevail and
where the winters are cold and snowy.
We do not know OF a case in which
sheep have been sheared, even in the
Southern States, that has not been
found to be mistake, excepting when
the sheep are kept continually under
cover and artifcially warmed.
The farm column of 'sThe Central
Baptist" gives the appended hint
about poultry for the home table
to which might be added the advice
TO keep thefowl in confinement without
food for twenty-four hours before kill
ling: "The reason poultry, killed at
ghome, though young is not as tender as
that bought at the market, is that the
former is generally not killed until
wanted, and when eaten is still rigid
with death, while that bought at the
poulterer's has been killed at least
hours-more often DAYS Poultry
ought to be killed several days before
being eaten, dressed at once, and, with
3 few bits of charcoal in it, hung in a
cool place."