The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-12-23

to thus improve his stock and enhance
crease the demand is losing valuable time
and opportunities 10 Go,lbIe his capital in
few years.
The best fruit tree to grow on the lawn
Is probably the cherry. When well-estab-
lished it does well IL grass, though it is
best to NOW the grass as often as once
week. 4 closely-shaven lawn does not
drain the soil of moisture as when grass
IS allowed to mature. Au abundance of
wed decomposed manure is important
for the highest success.
Professor w. r. Lazenby thinks that
with potatoes, as well as with many other
vegetables, the list of varieties has become
so inflated as to battle all attempts at ac-
curate description. The only remedy for
this is to group the several varieties re-
sembling each other in their most proIni-
nent characteristics into class, and give
them one general description.
1t is enough to make any humane
mans heart ache to note how the aver
age farmer raises his calves. Not one calf
In hundred has fair chance for itself,
says HOard'S Dai1gmaa. The burning
sun on their tender. thin skins. tormented
with flies, given no food whatever that
their baby SJomachs can digest and as
simulate, they advertise the inhumanity
of the owner
Says the Rural New Yorker: "People
who use their noses for determining the
value Of manures or fertilizers are sure
TO lose money. because most of them be-
lleye that a horrible smell indicates
strength. 1t happens that the substances
that gives the worst smell are not as val
liable for plant food as water. Still the
folks keep on smelling for value"
Do not hoe weedy ground in wet
weather. This simply transplantS weeds,
and after one or two sirh operations they
provide themselves with mutitudes of
line roots that cling III the soil whenever
uprooted, and make it almost impossible
to kill the plant. This repeated trans
planting is Just what is needed by cabbage
and celery plants to make them live. DO
not try it on weeds.
Nitrate of soda is procured for its nitro
gen, which composes but small proper
Ion OF the whole. Soda is not of itself
considered a valuable fertilizer, as plants
appropriate but a small portion for
growth. Nitrate acid, however, not only
provides nitrogen in an invaluable form
TO vegetation, but being a powerful acid
assists in disintegrating and rendering
soluble many substances that remain in
an inert condition.
Year after year, writes an Illinois con-
tributor to the New York Tribune. our
peaches failed, although some German
itACA'o 1li5 III lIS SdlilG Cllnldlt III
varlably had fine peaches. We discov-
cred at last the secret of their success lay
IN the fact that late in the fall or in early
| winter they covered the ground about
the trees very thick with sawdust. This
prevented the trees from blooming too
early. At the proper time in the spring
the mulch was removed.
In favor of the dwarf pear. a writer
says it is admitted on all hands that finer
fruit can be obtained from the dwarf than
the standard trees, and as much of it
from the space occupied. The complaint,
which formerly was very general, that
dwarf trees were short lived is not cor
rect IN general sense. There are dwarf
pear trees now standing, planted out
thirty-ive years ago. which look as
thrifty and produce as abundantly as at
any period of their growth, and will
probably continue to bear for ten or tif-
teen years longer if left undisturbed and
properly attended to.
Wild carrots can more easily be de-
StroyeG late in summer than at any other
season. The work should be begun be-
fore the seeds are matured, otherwise
great deal Of trouble will be experienced.
They should be pulled up root and
branch and burnt in the fire. The plant
is biennial and difficult of destruction
when its gets q good hold of the soil 1t
propagates its Kind rapidly and crowds
ouI al otiiei pldHlS. one hundred plants
destroyed now before the seeds are scat
tered will kill thousand young plants
next season. American Cultivat0r
Some experiments in feeding thrifty
steers over three years old show that 100
pounds OF meal would give twelve
pounds gain, the hay not being counted;
but this in warm stables. We have known
cases where steers of the same age, fed in
the open air, could not eat corn enough to
gain a pound in a month-the weather
being very cold. We have fed ten-months
calves with corn and oats ground to-
gether, when 100 pounds would produce a
gain of twenty pounds, and when fed to
steers eighteen months old would pro-
duce growth of fifteen pounds. 1t de-
pends entirely upon the age and condi-
ton of the cattle