Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-04-22
Aorie1ltmrat department.
Facts for Farmers.

Early plants may be started in egg
shells. When ready to be put outside
simply plant the shells in the ground.
The roots of the plants will break
them.
On all beds for early vegetables the
clods must be crushed. The soil for
a garden should be fine, especially
where small seeds are to be used.
The rake is the best implement for
garden use, and in preparing the
seed-bed too much raking cannot be
given it.
Some of us, says an exchange, are
trying to make money out of sheep
by poor care, poor breeding and poor
er feeding, and trusting to luck. The
time has been when this might be
done, but we cannot risk it now.
Luck has gone back on US, played
out. and we too, shall be worse than
we are now.
Finely ground bone is better for
very heavy soils than snperphos-
pilates, but a proportion of super
phosphate should be used also, in
order to provide food early, as the
particles of the bone are given off
slowly. About one part of super
phosphate and three parts bone-meal
is an excellent mixture.
Joseph Harris tells in the american
Agricuzturist how he would fit his land
for prize oat crop. He would SOW
half ton of potato or corn manure !:
it doesn't matter which. Then, on
separate acres, he would SOW all the
way from 200 to 500 pounds of nitrate
of soda or sulphate of ammonia.
Get good seed. Buy of responsible
dealers. Never buy poor seed to
save little in expense. If you are
afraid of the quality, test them. Get
your seed in good time. Select stand
ard varieties rather than novelties.
Get a sufficient number to keep up a
good variety, but at the same time
avoid getting an excess.
Now that the weather is warmer
do not feed the hens except at night,
the object being to compel them to
hunt and scratch for their food dur
ing the day. BY so doing they will
keep in better laying condition, the
eggs will hatch better and the health
of the flock be promoted. The great
obstacle to success with poultry is
overlooking, especially in summer.
The custom of roughly preparing
the land for corn is being discarded.
Experiments show that it pays to re-
duce the soil for corn to as fine con-
dition as for garden crops. The land
cannot be worked over too thorough
" before putting in the seed. If the
soil is we'll prepared the work OF
differentiation will be easier and
the corn will better endure drouth.
A pig narrowed in March or April.
if kept growing from the start, can
be made to dress 800 pounds al
Christmas. But little grain will be
necessary, as fat will be of no advan-
tage. The first thing to do with
pig is to make it grow, so as to secure
the size and frame upon which tc
place the fat later in the season,
Glover is an excellent food for pigs
after they are three months old.
One of the worst and most hopeless
features of the present Improbable
dairying is the fact that so few of oul
dairvmen know just what they are
doing and whether all of their COW:
or any of them pay cost. So many
farmers fail to keep accurate accounts
of their operations that it often takes
them years to ascertain positively
whether they are gaining or losing b,
their operations and by what ones
they gain and what they lose.
Roll the lawn and have it as smooth
as it can be made, in order to more
easily use the lawn mower later IL
the season. This is duty frequent
" neglected early in the season, ant
entails labor in moving. Seattle
lawn grass seed on the bare place.
and rake it in. An application o
wood ashes over the lawn is excellent
} and it contains no seeds of weeds. l
fertilizer is to be applied use super
phosphate, about one bag to one
fourth of an acre.
| The Pekin duck, introduced iron
China few years ago, is one OF tn
largest varieties, and under goo
management most profitable. 1t
color is pure white, which makes 1t
feathers popular. 1t is not very hardy
and IS especially susceptible to inJur
from wet and filth. If allowed unre
stricted run, in the water in col
weather the ducks will go lame an
become nearly worthless. Kept dry
, they produce a picking of feather
every six weeks during the war;
weather.
, Cattle Chewing Bones.
, Cattle sometimes chew bones, be