News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-04-26

Corn is the best crop for ensilage.
Glover and grass are better made into
hay, although there is, undoubtedly,
loss of nutriment in the drying of them.
Corn Yields more weight and bulk than
any other fodder crop, and is beyond all
comparison the best plant for the pur
pose. To secure the best quality of the
fodder it should be grown in rows three
feet apart and with four or five plants at
intervals of eighteen inches. As it is
desirable to have the grain ripened the
common corn of the locality should be
planted.
Plants, like animals, require food Tor
life and growth. A part of the food OF
plants comes from the atmosphere, the
rest is furnished by the soil. No ordin-
airy cultivated plant can thrive without
sufficient supply of each of number of
substances needed for its food. With an
abundance of all these, in forms in which
the plant can use them, and with other
circumstances favorable, the crop will
flourish and the yield be large. But if
the available supply of any one of them
be too small a large yield is inevitable.
If all the other conditions for a profitable
crop of corn, potatoes and other plants
are fulfilled in the soil, except that potash
is deficient, the crop will surely fail.
But if the potash be supplied the yield
will be abundant.
A hearty cow, fresh in milk, observes
the Neao England Farmer, and eating
dry food, will frequently drink five or
more ordinary pailfuls of water in day.
If this be taken into the system near the
freezing point it must be warmed by the
heat of the body, which heat costs the
farmer money, Just as the heat from the
wood or coal we burn in our stoves costs
money. 1t was long ago discovered that
heat saved by tight walls and roofs is
cheaper than the heat produced from hay
and grain. 1t is now being learned that
wood, coal and kerosene oil is cheaper
fuel for warming water for animals than
hay or grain. One feeder estimates that
during the present winter five cents
worth of fuel used for warming the
drinking water for his cows has returned
him $3.50 worth of butter.
Farmers are every year learning the
importance of sowing grass and clover
seeds very early. 1t it is best to seed
when the ground is frozen, and when
still further frosts may be expected.
The surface is then damp, and the fine
seeds are covered sufficiently to insure
their roofing after they terminate. 1t is
better even to tramp over the fields
through the mud than to wait for the
surface to become dry. Generally, how
ever, there are light frosts at night at
this season, and the sewing can best be
done on still mornings before the mud
has thawed. The reason why grass seed
sowing must be earlier now than former
" is because vegetable matter in the
soil decreases with continued cultivation,
and this prevents it from holding
moisture as long as it used to do. If
grass seed does not get rooted early it is
quite apt to dry out and perish when dry
weather comes.
Cutting tree down is quick and in
expensive way of dsposing of it. OF
course the stump IS left, but if sprouts
are burned off next July or August, it
will not sprout again to do any hurt, and
will in time rot out. Whoever tries grub |
bing out trees as means of clearing
land will tire of it. There are places |
where it will pay to remove a few and |
have valuable land at once available for |
other uses. But ordinary farm crops will |
not pay the expense 1t is poor little |
Tree that does not require three feet |
square to be grubbed over to get it out |
BY the root. This is Just one square |
yard. II it could be done for three cents
t would make the land thus obtained |
,ost $500 per acre. Some calculation of |
his kind is apt to come over man when
ne has been workinga whole day to grub |
out a tree. The next one he tackles will |
pc cut down in the old-fashioned way, |
md leave time to do the grubbing.