The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-01
Farm Notes.

Mint will grow from cuttings, but the better
mode of securing patch OF it is to set out the
roots.
Feed plenty of sunfower seeds to the hens
after they begin molting, as 1t greatly assists
them in that process.
Save the seed potatoes for next year by sc.
lecting from the most productive hills, and
which are free from blemish.
Nothing is more profitable to a farmer than
raising few ducks every year. The Pekin is
the most hardy and easily raised.
Farmers who change their crops every time
the market is low and go with the crowd into
something new are almost sure to fail.
If kept hoed and all weeds and grass sub
dued, raspberries and blackberries will con-
tinue to bear profitable crops from eight to
fifteen years.
When butter is gathered in the churn in
granular form it is never overturned. Pound
ing it after it is in lump or large mass is what
overchurns it.
To kill the tent caterpillar use lye injected
into the nest when occupied early in the morn
ing, a work that may be performed very rap
idly and cheaply.
Ashes sometimes cause the soil to bake, espe-
cally after rain. Run the cultivator over the
ground frequently where large quantities of
ashes have been used.
When the hyacinths are done blooming their
places may be filed with gladioluseS and tigri-
loose around them.
A bunch of asparagus, grown near Philadel-
phia, stood two feet high and was twenty-seven
inches in girth. The bunch comprised fifty
shoots and weighed thirty-one and one-half
pounds So says the american Garden.
Prof. Alvord hrs found that on he average a
COW whose milking season begins late in the
fall gives, under the same conditions, about
1000 pounds more milk than one whose season
begins in the spring.
Paris green in its capacity rs a remedy for
Goblin worm is now as necessary TO the Orcard-
ist as II is TO the potato-grower in its capacity
as a remedy for the potato bug Get your
spraying apparatus in readiness.
Ii has been demonstrated that while the
pinching back of the shoots of melons will in
duce the vines to throw out ater,ls, and also
produce larger number OF melons, the process
does not increase tho size of the fruit.
Ornamental plants may be so arranged as TO
spell words or represent forms. such rs stars,
crosses, hearts, etc, and the colOrs may be ar
ranged to correspond. In this manner very
pretty effect may be given flower garden.
Ducks and geese should never have access to
lawn. They pull the grass up by the roots.
As they are YOraciOus feeders, and not fastidi-
Gus, they can be made 70 do good service, how
ever, on fields that are covered with young
weeds.
1t is utter folly to say farming don't pay"
but il is a fact that profits are not as large as
they would be with more acute intelligence
employed in the business and withal, liberal
preparation, which Is a condition precedent to
full success.
The value of any kind Of farm stock is very
largely determined by its feeding the first year
OF It's life. Breeding counts for much, though
every successful breeder knows how greatly
the character of young animal is changed by
injurious or improper food.
Where weeds have grown up in a garden to
such n leiWht that they cannot he plOuohed or
spaded under, cut them down and let them dry.
After they have been well dried apply fire and
burn the surface OF the ground over, which can
be done with but little risk if a close watch be
kept over the fire as it progresses. The advan.
tages will be that the appearance OF the ground
will be better, the ashes will serve fertil-
izer, the seeds of weeds prevented and thous-
ands of insects destroyed, as well as saving
labor in the garden next season.
There are many good remedies for the de-
struction of the cabbage worm. Kerosene is
excellent, but it imparts its odor to tho cab
bage, which remains even until after the cab
bage is cooked. A sprinkling of pyrethum
over the plants is excellent, but it only serves
as a preventive, the difficulty being to reach
the worm after ii enters the cabbage without
injuring the cabbage. The white butterfly is
the parent of the cabbage worm, and il close
watch be kept and every white butterfly de-
stroyed, which is not difficult by catching
them, there will be no cabbage worms.
Nearly all the so-called improved breeds OF
sheep which claim prominence at the present
time 90 back TO the southdowns for their chief
merits, the same as horse pedigree, to be COM
plete, must finish off with a thoroughbred an
cestor. And if we look at the southdowns as
they were fifty years ago, and then at the
hampshires and oxfords and other breeds Of the
present which have been originated by crossing
we can see an improvement But it must be
kept in mind that the southdOwns have been
in good hands all this time, and their good
points have been intensified and the objection
able traits, il they ever had any, eliminated,
and there is no more reliable sheep for general
purposes at the present time.