Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-10-25
FARM NOTES.


Give the hens leaves, cut straw, or
dry dirt, and scatter the grain in it,
so as to compel them to work. The
good scratcher is always a good layer.
A horseman of experience says that
the use of lard between the hair and
the hoof is an excellent remedy for
quarter cracks or other imperfections
in the hoof
More Clydesdale horses have been ex-
ported from Scotland this year than
during any previous season. About an
equal number were sent to the United
States and Canada. A large number
was sent to South America and to
Australia.
There are many indications that
Devon cattle viii soon be in fashion
again and within a very short time.
In most parts of Australia they are
preferred to animals Of any breed. In
being driven long distances to market
they lose less in weight than Herefords
and Short-Horns.
The skim milk and whey may not be
salable, but can be used for producing
pork. Pigs will always pay on farms
where skim milk is plentiful. and the
cost of the pork will be but little if
other waste material be used in feed
ing them. A growing pig will needno
grain at all before cold weather.
It is just as proper to keep rich milk
separate from that of an inferior quality
and secure for it an extra price as it is
to assert other articles on the farm. If
dairymen would make it point to sell
milk of the best quality only they could
secure a class of customers who would
not object to paying an extra price for
it.
Oil cake is the most desirable food
for young stock of all kinds-nothing
better for calves, colts, sheep, and
pigs. We have often found it to take
the place of grass in winter, in push
ing on the growth of colts, calves, and
lambs. It is just laxative enough to
keep the digestion in the best con-
dition.
Where no stock is kept, and manure
must be made for garden, an excel
lent mode of so doing is to begin with
q pile of dirt, upon which all the waste
water and refuse should be thrown.
1t should be covered to prevent
injury by rain. Each family wastes
enough every season to highly manure
a garden plot.
Probably the cheapest meat that the
farmer ever makes is the pork that he
makes on clover. Of course, reference
here is had not so much to the actual
pork which fills the barrel at Christ
mas as to the muscle and bone which
is laid for that fat. The summer
clover makes the frame, the old corn
fills it with fat.
The inexperienced breeder is often
puzzled to guess what will be the color
of newborn colt when it attains
maturity. There is always a great
change, but we believe that the final
color at full age is nearly always in
Dictated by the color of the eyelashes.
This rule holds good with many other
young animals, including young child
rem.
When too much milk is required to
make pound of butter the cost is
sometimes greater than the product.
It should not take over twelve quarts
of milk on an average to make one
pound of butter, though the quantity
in some dairies will be more or less
than twelve quarts. The feed allowed
will largely assist in regulating the
proportion.
While the collie dog is very useful
animal when taught to drive sheep and
cattle, yet he should never be allowed
to chase them or brighten them in any
manner. Cows naturally have an
aversion to dogs of all kinds, and when
they experience fear the effect is such
as to iniure the milk. Cows should be
brought from the pasture leisurely and
in no manner worried OreXcited.
Thought is necessary in breeding,
and every improvement that man
makes in his stock is evidence of the
improvement of his own mind. Breed
ing is an elevating and developing
business. 1t brOadens men, and it is
only broad man and a man Of intel
lect that can keep up herd. Try
breeding improved stock as a means
OF keeping the boys on the farm.
Among the prime requisites of a
good farm horse are: first, sufficient
size and weight to give the necessary
strength to perform the heavy work
required of him; and, second, good
bottom and endurance. The best
| farm horse is close-built and sinewy,
with feet of medium size, short back
well coupled, chest wide and deep,
limbs clean and bony, and with
docile and reliable disposition.
A farmer should select his seed with
great care. He can't afford to waste
time in sowing poor seed OF in Guilt
waiting or reaping the scanty produce
from it, and surely he cannot afford
the use of the land for such purpose.
Remember it costs no more to till and
harvest the ground necessary to raise
one hundred bushels of grain from
poor seed than it does from good seed,
while the produce from poor seed will
not sell as well as that from good seed.
When spokes and fellows shrink,
| and the wagon tires become loose in
consequence, it is the custom to have
the tires reset, at the usual expense of
so cents each. 1t is far cheaper and
better for the wheels to saturate the en-
| tire woodwork with hot linseed oil. 1t
can be applied with rag tied to a
stick. This fills the pores and causes
the timber to swell and fill the tire as
when new. With coat of hot oil
once a year or two there will be no
loose tires, and the wheels will last
much longer.
All green material, no matter how
bulky, will soon decompose if turned
under by the pillow or covered in the
manure-heap. Hence, now is the time
to turn under all green growth that
| may be unseryiceable, such as weeds,
y, IL Il. Z