The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-01-14
FARM NOTES.
Edited by John C. Edgar Dnval, to whom all
Communications for this column should be ad-
drcsscll

y.
Communications for this column should be ad-
dressed.
THE KITCHEN GARDEN.
"a good garden is half IA living,n
quotes the Texas Farm and Ranch,
and says: The truth contained in it
could hardly escape recognition by
any good farmer or farmers wife.
A good garden is to the family liv-
ing what a good wife is to the farmer.
It is the "better half" There can be
no good living without a good vege.
table garden, and there can beuO good
farming without good wife; for if a
farmer has bad wife he will degene-
rate into a scrub, and if he has no
wife, he was q scrub to begin with.
A good garden is more than half a
living. In the City of New York
there are more than 10000 people who
eat only vegetable food and they en-
joy health and long life far beyond
the average, and are lacking in no
mental equipment for the duties of
life. Fresh vegetables are not only
necessities, but luxuries also, and in
both these characters the best the
earth affords. The poor in cities suf.
fer for need of them, but that farmer
who does not have them upon his
table every day in the year is mex
cusable.
SPECTACLES FOR HORSES.
There can be no doubt that many
horses are shOrtsighted and that
much of the shying attributed to cuss-
edness, is really due to shOrtsighted-
ness. When this becomes better un-
derstOod, we will doubtless hear of
e iuine optic specialists, ana meet
"sweli" teams embellished with gold
trimmed goggles.
This is suggested by the invention
of London horse trainer, who has
constructed magnifying glasses which
he fixes before the eyes of the horse
for the purpose Of making the animal
adopt the high stepping action so
much admired by city folks.
1t is thus described: "rhe frames
are made OF stiff leather, quite enclos.
ing the eye of the horse and the
glasses employed are deep cOncave,
and large in size. The effect produced
is tOgive the ground in front of The
horse the appearance of being raised;
the animal therefore steps high,
thinking he is going uphill, or has TO
step over an obstacle in front of him.
If the system is persevered with when
the animal is young, the effect is said
to be marvellous"
COTTON WITHOUT LINT
This may seem an anomaly, but it
is I. fact. A Carolina planter one day
discovered a plant in his field unlike
any surrounding il or any he had seen
before. 1t contained an extremely
heavy crop of bOlls which did not
rpen and display lint. An examina-
ton showed that they contained no
lint to display, but only seed of large
size and rich in oil. 1t is now pro
posed to grow this variety tf it can
be so called) of cotton specially for
OF and meal. Some enterprising seeds
man may be expected to attempt to
boom this freak of nature, but L fail to
see where profit can come in. The
cost of cul ivation will be the same as
the old variety. There would be some
saving i'm cost of harvesting, but I'M
less the yield of seed WAS trebled or
quadrupled, and its value increased,
the crop could hardly beat the old
and now generally condemned lint
variety, which supplies both lint and
seed.
And even if the increase of seed Is
large enough to make its culture pay
able, it must re at the expense of the
soil. Such plant would impoverish |
the soil very quickly. The heavier the
crop of seed the greater the demand
on the soils fertility. The seed ele'
ments come from the soil, while those
of the lint are almost exclusively de-
rived from the atmosphere. OF course
this extra drain on the soil could be
MT by the application of fertilizers,
but the inexorable law of dollars and
cents will forbid, till the value of cot
ton seed and its products have been
vastly increased.
WEATHER PREDICTION.