Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-05
FARM NOTES.


Give the young lambs all the oats they
can eat as soon as they shall be old
enough, so as to force them in growth
for early market.
/ In pruning roses, cutting back closely
! produces, as rule, fewer blooms of finer
| quality, while ffom those not too closely
pruned will be obtained larger quantity
of smaller flowers.
| When busting the fowls with insect
! powder put a newspaper under them: one
can in this way gather up some of the
powder for use again, and will be able to
| see also its destructive effect upon the
| insects.
| A small allowance of green food is
highly relished by stock of all kinds this
season, but where green food is scarce a
| few sliced roots will serve as substitute.
They act as an appetizer, and thereby
| promote health.
! It is we'll known that CRAFTS from bear
| ing trees will come into fruit earlier
than trees from seeds, and on the same
principal gardeners secure early toma-
toes by keeping root cuttings of toma-
toes over winter in green houses, which
cause them to bear earlier than those
from seeds when planted outside.
The potato crop is one that usually
pays. The average value of crop should
not be less than $50 per acre clear of ex-
pen5es, though more can be made by Sc
Letting proper seed and giving good Gull
tiyation. The early crop are less liable
to insect attack than the later, but for
winter keeping the late crops are better.
In selecting young peach trees for
spring transplanting, examine them care
fully as the borer is often found in them.
A healthy young tree should have very
smooth bark, plenty of roots, and show no
signs of puncture. Diseases of trees are
easily brought on the farm by not giving
proper attention to the source whence the
nursery stock is obtained.
Some OF the best friends of the farmer
are the parasitic insects. The iehneu-
mon fly deposits its eggs in caterpillars,
and the tomato worm seldom escapes.
The eggs soon hatch, and the Larvae eat in
to the worm, avoiding the vital parts until
J the little parasites shall have been full
fed, when they will come cut and spin
cocoons on the body of their victim.
The old peach blow potato is nearly ex-
tinct. As a late crop it is one of the best
varieties introduced. It should be re-
vived by growing the seed in a new locali-
| ty. 1t is we'll known as variety that has
luxuriant vine, producing its tubers only
after the vine growth has been fully com
| pleted. The early rose is also departing,
| yet there are but few new varieties of
| early potatoes that EXCEL it in quality,
and many others of the old tried varieties
have been unequalled. By carefully Sc
| Letting the seed they may yet be retained.
| The greatest disadvantage under which
farmers labor is the poor working of a
! large area of land. The farmers who
make money are those who cultivate no
more land than they can work in the very
best manner. An average of $50 per acre
is not difficult to reach with the most
thorough culture, and the use of all the
labor saving appliances, together with the
feeding of sufficient stock to utilize all
the coarse fodder and consume with profit
purchased concentrated food which will
produce valuable return in manure.
But to manage farm in this manner re-
quires complete education and training
in the business, as well as the practice of
farming; and here is where the proper use
and Office of the agricultural colleges come
in. So far it is difficult to see how the
farmers have been benefited adequately
by these institutions, even the very best
OF them; while the worst and most useless
of them are deception and fraud upon
the agricultural interests, giving no re-
turn for their rich endowments of the
public money.