Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-03-20
Farm Notes.

100 much water In the soil will prevent
cultivation. Now is the time to ditch,
while the ground is soft.
Peach pits may be buried in shallow
trench. The frost will reach them early
enough to cause them to crack
Ducks should begin to lay this month.
Give them warm, dry place at night, we'll
Uttered with leaves or cut straw.
Keep the barnyard well supplied with
material for absorbing the liquids, there
by rendering the yards dry and comfort
able
Chop up the cornstalks and put them in
the manure heap. If cut and
crushed they may be used as absorbents
in the pig-pens.
Early in the spring top-dressing of
100 pounds nitrate of soda per acre on
wheat will make it grow rapidly and yield
better grain.
If rye has grown more than usual Craze
it down with the stock 1t serves as a
change of green food, and as it is not adj
visable to have rye make mere growth
than the cattle can prevent, the rye will
be benefited.
The prize butter at the Bay State Fair,
Boston, was made from cows fed on cut
clover at night, pasture by day. and a
grain ration composed of two parts corn
meal and one part each of crushed oats,
hnseed meal and wheat middiings.
1t may save labor to allow the cattle to
have free access to the straw stack, but it
may be more profitable to cut the straw
and feed it with the hay. If you have
more hay than you can use procure
more stock, so as to feed the hay on the
farm.
Securing large yields of corn or pota-
toes in competition for prizes teaches the
farmer how best to cultivate and the
one to be considered. The cost of the crop,
not the yield, determines its value to the
farmer.
It is more important to mulch straw
berry beds in a mild winter season than dur
ing severe cold weather, as the ground is
subject to more frequent freezing and thaw-
ing. A mulch does not keep plants warm,
but assists in keeping them at an even tenn
perature, rendering them less liable to
changes.
The mild weather is of advantage to the
farmer in reducing the amount of food
necessary for stock. Young stock shoulG
thrive and grow and adult animals should
fatten very rapidly The regularity of
feeding and care of the stock should not,
however, be in any manner neglected.
Lime has the advantage of being bene-
fetal at all seasons, though its effects in the
soil may not be immediate. 1t never in
jures land, if properly applied and though
its results may be unsatisfactory at first,
yet the effects are lasting, the lime applied
this year proving beneficial in the future.
Lime is cheap and should be used free
ly.
The handspring of farming is the seed.
1t is more i'm ortant to secure good seed
than to prepare for. its reception in the soil.
The failure or the seed to terminate may
cost the farmer the loss of an entire crop.
The seed is something that the farmer
should carefully examine now, before
spring opens, by testing it in boxes of
earth under glass.
Flowing and preparing the ground for
corn may be be done at any time when the
ground is not frozen. The better the prep
aration of the ground the more plant-food
available for the young corn in the spring
This is an excellent time for turning up
the cut-worms, as exposure to frost de
stroys them. Flowing also permits the
frost to pulverize the colds.