Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-11
Farm AND ORCHARD.
FARM WORK IN LowERy WEATHER
THE CHAMBERS.
Economy in Keeping the Best Breeds o
Stock and Feeding Properly-Wnlte-
wash for Poultry Houses.


During lowery weather, when the chief
operations of the farm cannot be prose-
cuted advantageously, there are always
incidental jobs that may be done, provided
the work is kept in mind and purpose to
execute is entertained, says writer in the
Albany Cttltiuator.
In many fields appropriated to pasture
more than half the ground is occupied by
large bull-thistles, rank ragweed or punches
of dry and tough grass that no animal will
eat. When one is in doubt as to what job
to do next, send helper with the horse
mower Tor grass scytbe) to cut down all
weeds and dry grass il the pasture fields.
In few days young and tender heritage
will spring up where the ground afforded
nothing but thistles and dry food that a
hungry goat would not eat.
When storms prevent going to the field
summon every idle helper to clean the
barn and carriage house. Let all the cob
webs be swept down. Take out the win
dow sashes from the frames, and wash
every part clean, so as to let in the light.
If the woodwork needs painting, fill the
holes and cracks with putty, and apply a
generous coat of paint. Women clean
house, why should not men clean barns
Send helper with good broom into the
granary and let him clean every bin, side
and corner.
When fruit trees of any kind grow too
luxuriantly clip off with shears or primer
at the end of pole, two, three or four
inches of the twigs that have grown the
present season. By arresting the growth
of the wood, the sap will be diverted to the
development of fruit buds, from which the
crop for next year must be produced.
Don't leave home on every lowery day
and fritter away valuable hours at saloons
and places of public resort when there is
so much work to be done about the prem
Uses. Make a memorandum of little items
of work to be done on rainy days. Sup
pose you should get wet little-rain will
not iDjure you. Your toes, fingers and
nose will not dissolve like sugar, nor deli
quesce like potash.
Grind and whet the grass scythes; grind
the axes and file the saws. Repair and
oil that harness, some parts of which have
long been tied together with strings. Re-
member that you can purchase new cock
eyes, buckles, rein-snaps, and every other
part of harness at hardware stores for
only few cents each. Purchase sad
dler's awl and some lacing-strings and take
a few stitches where lines, traces and other
straps have begun to rip. A stitch in
time will often save ninety-nine, and avert
runaway, and perhaps some fatal catas-
trophe, which might have been prevented
by few minutes work on a lowery day.
All implements that are to be used no
more during the present season should be
washed clean and wiped dry, and the IRON
work should be oiled to prevent rusting;
then remove the wheels, or certain parts,
and store them in the upper part of some
outbuilding, where they will be secured
and out of the way.
In most barns there is broad area Of
vacant room in the attic. Procure a few
stiff poles to extend from beam to beam,
on which lay some loose boards, and you
will have an excellent place to store many
tools and implements.
In many instances the weather-boards
have shrunk so that there are large cracks
between them. Now, when they are dry
and have ceased to shrink, remove them,
joint the edges, and replace them. Over
haul and reconstruct stable door that is
full of cracks.
Make cold-chisel out of an old fat file
for cutting off the nails. Heat one end of
the file in any fire to a cherry red color
(ro+ n xrb;+o haotN Tbar ooo1 about n,,a
inch of the edge end in cold water. That
edge end will then be too hard for a cold
chisel. Watch the different colors of the
steel; as soon as straw-color is seen at the
edge, plunge the entire file into the water,
and the edge will be hard and tough, and
will cut iron without breaking.
THE BEST BREEDS.
The breeds of cattle or other stock that
have been bred for years to certain points
and standard requirements, in order to
render hereditary those characteristics and
merits peculiar to each breed, have also
been bred subject to certain conditions
which are necessary adjuncts to the we'll
being of the animal, and to its success as a
profitable producer in the class to which it
is assigned. All pure-bred breeding ami
mails are now classified, each breed being
separate and distinct from the others, and
each excelling in.its particular duty as
signed according to the fulfllment of the
necessary conditions pertaining to its well
fare.
For the production of beef, buttermilk,
wool, mutton or pork, the breed is the
agent Tor machine, if the term may be
used), and the food the raw material from
which production results. Whatever the
food may be, its conversion into the desired
product is rapid or great according to the
producing capacity of the animal, and
whatever the producing capacity OF the
animal may be, its ability to perform the
greatest service is increased or lessened &C
cording to the adaptability of the raw ma
terial from which the product is derived.
1t is plain, then, that the farmer secures
the best results when he has provided
himself with animals suited for the
purpose, and provides them with the
food that contains the elements required
to yield the products which the animal is
best fitted to derive therefrom. The food
does not depend on its quantity for provid
ing the animal with the necessary mate
rial, but on its quality and kind. The
kind of animal and kind of food are the
two prime factors of production, and the
largest profits are obtained only when the
dependent conditions of using the proper
breeds and suitable foods are observed.
There is slch thing as extrayagant
economy. 1t is extrayagant to attempt to
economic by Withholding from producing
animal that which, if supplied to its fullest
limit, adds greatly to the article pro-
duced. Wintering stock in the barnyard,
and compelling the animals to secure the
greater portion of the food from the straw
stack, and by picking over the cornstalks,
may lessen the amount of hay and grain
consumed, bnt such economy only entails
a loss in some other direction. 1t is ex-
travagant to attempt to keep stock without
the aid of the best breeds, as it requires as
much shelter. land and feed 10 keen info