Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-22
FARM NOTES.

scours.
Bean growers in Western New York
use bean vines for stock food. They
are considered best for sheep.
! Can we cure weeds with such care
that they will make better fodder than
the best grasses poorly cured?
VIII any farmer kindly tell good
reason for stepping on the seed po-
tato after it is dropped in the hill or
/ drill?
j The Massachusetts legislature has
! passed an act forbidding the docking
of horses tails, with penalty of fine
and Imprisonment for violation.
! The future home of the baled-hay
industry lies in the Northwest. 1t
will follow wheat to the point where
the best product can be produced.
! State Entomologist Lintner, of New
/ York, says the destruction of vegeta-
/ ton by insects was not so great before
! the introduction of the English spar
row as it is now.
The Worden grapeis becoming quite
as popular as its parent, the Concord.
1t is earlier than the latter, hardy, and
fruitful to a degree which will please
any one who tries it.
In Niagara County, N Y, farms
sold at 800 per acre fifteen years ago.
! They can now be bought at from $40
| to $50, and almost every one in the
county is for sale.
| Florida has $12 100000 invested in
! the orange business, and the sales this
year were fourth of that big sum.
Ten years ago the fruit was a luxury.
| Now everybody eats oranges, which
are almost as common as apples.
! Three hundred and twenty-five sheep
were killed in one county in Tennessee
in one week by dogs, but the owners
had to make the best of it. The dogs
were there before the sheep came.
Recent sales of Jersey cattle show
/ that bottom prices have been reached
and the reaction from an unhealthy
| excitement is at its zero. 1t is a time
for farmers and dairymen to pick up
stock.
Z! The Nebraska State Journal observes
that ebay, when properly baled. is a
| very nutritious and palatable food"
That's good as far as it goes, but what
! kind of manger do you advise for a
man with a delicate appetite?
A Lewiston, Me-, farmer says he will
| give 81 cord for kiln-dried sawdust
! to put on his lands. He uses dry saw
! dust as bedding for his cattle. 1t
absorbs moisture, is dry, warm and
comfortable, and it becomes a valuable
| fertilizer.
! One heaping tea-spoonful of pure
| Paris-green to pailful of water for
| the potato beetle, or one pound to one
| barrel of plaster, if intimately mixed,
will kill as well as larger quantity of
the poison, which is liable to injure
the leaves more or less.
In England, Rye grass, rape and
| other forage plants are being doomed.
Little is said about these plants here
| "a good many wise men wonder why
not. 1t should be remembered that
corn is wonderful crop in this coun-
try; while in England it is merely a
plant to be experimental with.
If you would have fine melons, dig
wide holes; then mix a liberal guam
tlty of old farm manure with the soil
as it is returned. Compact the soil
and plant all the way from a dozen to
20 seeds, if you have plenty, and thin
out to two or three. Have the hills for
watermelons 10x10 feet; muskmelons
exc.
An Austin inventor has devised a
steel corn husker, which, drawn by a
team, picks up and husks the corn at
the rate OF eight to twelve acres a day,
according to the capacity of the team.
The team and machine move astride
the row, one horse on either side, and
every ear of corn large or small ia
picked up. Corn husking can now be
done just as thrashing is, lasting but
few days.
Last year we picked out six of our
best hens and put them into small
pen with a good rooster. We set so
eggs from this pen and 48 of them
Matched. This year we have tried Sc
Letting eggs from several yards where
several roosters run with large focks
of hens. The result is very disap-
pointing, as a large portion of the
eggs prove infertile. Hereafter all our
eggs for setting will come from
small pen of our best hens mated with
a rooster of good form and breed
Ratrdt NeoC Yorker.
Sweet or ripened silage can only be
made from fully grown and mature
fodder, the grain of which has begun
to glaze. The juices of such fodder
are more than water, and these juices
when the fodder is cut are SO charged
with starch, etc., that they tend to
preserve the fodder. and fermentation
can not 90 as far or attain so high
degree of heat as when less mature
fodder is sliced. The filing can be
more rapid with mature fodder and as
good or better results secured.
In the common practice of buying
cream by the gauge" it is supposed
that the product of cream IN butter is
uniform. In experiments made by the
Kansas Agricultural College, cream
was the one discordant element. In
the case of every cow employed, and
with each kind of feed, the milk Civ
ing the largest display of cream often
gave the least butter product, and the
reverse. As far as could be judged,
the character of the cream varies quite
as much as the milk does in its orr g
inal condition. Milk showing eight
per cent of cream gave larger yield
of butter than was obtained from milk
giving 10, IL, II or even IL per cent
of cream.
Many apple trees throughout the
west are annually destroyed by the
borer, which cuts its way into the solid
wood near the ground and before the