The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-12-18
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
USEFUL HINTS FOR WINTER
READING.
Advantages Of Flowing Under Stubble Instead
Of Burning It-lIow to Kill tho Pestif-
er0us Red Ant-Agricultural
and Household Notes.
PlOW It Under.

in short time the land will become
hard to pillow and will require more
work to get it into a good condition
for planting. Because in burning off
wheat or oat stubble or IN raking and
burning the corn stalks, the soil will
seem loose and friable in blowing i'm
mediately after, many are led to be-
lieve that burning in this way is bene-
fetal. Just how long the plan of
burning off each year to clean up the
fields can be followed before the effect
will be noticed, depends largely upon
the amount of vegetable matter in the
soil. There is not a very large
amount Of manurial value contained
IN dry stalks, weeds or trash, so in
blowing them under the effects is
mechanical rather than chemical 1t
is for the effect upon the soil rather
than the amount of plant food that
they contain, that they should be
plowed under rather than be burned.
One of the advantages of fall blowing
is that all the trash on the land can
be plowed under, and in doing this
, the soil will be kept loose and more
friable. If turned under in the fall
in good season, large portion of
it will rot during the winter. so that
they will not Interfere with the pre-
paration and cultivation of the crops.
With cultivated crops OF any kind
trash or coarse manure if on or near
the surface, will interfere consider
ably with the cultivation; and for this
reason they should be turned into the
soil sufficiently early to give them
plenty of time to rot before it is neces-
sary to cultivate, unless cultivation is
so shallow as not to disturb them after
blowing under. Instead of being an
item to clean up and burn all of the
trash possible in order to have clean
land, the better plan is to manage the
blowing as far as possible so as to
turn under in such a manner as to de-
rive the largest amount of benefit
and at the same time interfere the
least in the work necessary with the
! NlODo. W Hull UuO p1Ctl1 Aoo OOO1 1O1~
lowed OF burning up everything until
the character of the soil has changed,
in many cases it will be advisable to
use straw or stalks as litter in the
sheds, stables or feed lots and then
haul out and apply to the land, plow-
ing under as soon as possible in order
to supply or put back vegetable mat
ter, and in this way aid to loosen the
: soil. If it cannot be done in the fall,
in many cases it can be done during
7 the winter and while earlier results
could be secured by applying in the
, fall and blowing under, considerable
7 benefit can be derived if done in the
. winter, blowing under whenever the
= soil will admit
How to Kill Ants.
Ordinarily in households the red an
is not nuisance from the actual los:
which it causes by consuming foo(
products, but from its inordinate
faculty of getting into things. 1t il
attracted by almost everything in the
house, from sugar to shoe polish, an(
from bath sponges to dead cockroaches
It seems to breed with enormous
fecundity, and the incidental killing
Q off of thousand or so has little effec
upon the apparent number. A house
badly infested with these creatures i
almost uninhabitable. They form
d their nests in almost any secluded spot
between the walls, or under the floors
S or behind the base boards, or amon{
the trash in some old box or trunk, OF
in the lawn or garden walk just outsid,
the door. In each Of these nests sew
+ eral females will be found, each layin!
. her hundreds of eggs, and attended by
a retinue of workers caring for tn
II larvae, and starting out from dawn til
dark on foraging expeditions in long
d single files, like Indians on the wal
path.
4 Our first recommendation is to fin
the point from which they all come
d They may have built the nest in som
accessible spot, in which case a littl
70 kerosene oil will end a large part, if nc
4 all, of the trouble. If the nest is i
the wall, or under the floor, and tax
ing up board will not bring it With
reach, find the nearest accessible poin
&c and devote your energies to killing tn
~ ants off as they appear Where tn
r. nests are outside nothing is easier tina
= to find them aud to destroy the inhab
=, tants with kerosene or bisulphide c
~ carbon. The nests are almost Away
h. in the vicinity OF the house Tho ant
. are peculiarly susceptible to the actio
~ of pyrethrum in any form, be it PEI
~ sian or Dalmatian powder or buhacf
40 and free and persistent use of tn
.. powder will accomplish much. DIR.
u V. Riley.
Better Highways. 1-a
10 One OF the things that should be di
cussed by farmers clubs during th
winter is the topic of better highway
A lively public interest in good higl
- ways must precede any effective AZ
III +ion Wa cnn NIT hone for hettc