The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-05-02
Clipped and Condensed.


pear.
SOME men never think of wedding
out the inferior calves or pigs, but go
on breeding them and 80 perpetuate
their bad qualities.
The pure-bred hog has been bred for
the pen and cannot be turned out to
subsist on what may be picked up in
the forests or on old pastures.
If you keep your milk and cream in
the cellar along with turnips, potatoes
and rotten pumpkins, you ruin the
flavor and value of your butter.
CREAM sometimes becomes butter if
raised in pans at temperature too low
for the milk to sour. Milk in pans
should be sour in thirty-six hours.
CATTLE with the hardest constitu-
ton are the most profitable to keep.
They give the most at the pail, breed
better offspring, and require no more
feed.
EARLY beets, parsnips and carrots
should be planted as soon as the ground
permits. These seeds are slow in germi-
mating, and will not be above ground
too soon.
THE use of pruning shears, with long
handles, for trimming the ends of the
branches of trees, will enable one to
give shape and symmetry to the trees
and also to remove much of the useless
wood.
If the hens are confined, in order to
protect the garden, they must have a
daily supply of chopped grass. Too
much grain will cause them to become
overfat, and fewer eggs will be obtained,
The best reproducing food is lean
meat.
UNLESS the ground breaks up very
loose, the drag will not do the right
kind OF work. 1t may smooth the sur
face, but will leave clods underneath.
1t may require harrow or roller, or
both, but the ground must be thor
oughly pulverized.
The trouble with most farmers is they
do not depend sufficiently upon the
farm for subsistence; they have an idea
that they can buy many things cheaper
than they can raise them. 1t is all
right to buy if you can sell something
else and make the exchange.
IT is no gain in time to plant seeds of
tender plants too soon. In this climate
there is danger of light frost as late as
the middle of May, and the fine spring
weather should not tempt too early
planting, unless of varieties of vegeta-
bles that are not easily destroyed.
For the production of milk l find
oats and cOrnmeal good, but prefer
sugar meal. Four quarts each of meal
and bran and one-half each of cotton
seed and linseed meals make a good
milk.producing ration. Oats and pea
meal mixed are also good, says B. j.
Cole.
In all dairy sections it will pay for
the farmers to form clubs and purchase
a pure-bred male for improving their
dairy herds. The cost will be but a
small sum to each, and the expense in
Cured will be insignificant compared
with the increased value and efficiency
Of the herds.
A SOIL may be rich enough to grow
clover and yet not be in condition for
corn, as nitrogen may be lacking in the
soil, though the soil contains potash
and lime. When the clover sod is
turned under, however, the plant food
in the soil is then better balanced and
becomes suitable for grain.
PROFESSOR HENRY says steers can
not be fattened fully on corn alone with
profit, for the concentrated grain soon
burns out the digestive tract and the
steer comes to make poor use of his
food. Oil meal or bran should be fed
to tighten the ration. Bran is cooling
and lightens the heavy corn meal mate
rally.
The New York experiment station
decides that black raspberries can be
made a profitable farm crop when
grown for evaporating purposes and
gathered by the aid OF the berry har-
vester, regardless of the proximity to
markets. An average yield with good
culture is about seventy-fve to eighty
bushels per acre.
How much the sleek appearance of
cattle whose ration is supp emented by
silage can be justly credited to the sue
culence which characterizes well-pre-
served silage is difficult to deter
mine, but certain it is that cattle thus
treated are thrifty if, as all stockmen
insist, the hair is an unfailing token of
the animals health and condition.
CATTLE, if properly managed and
provided with sufficient shelter, can be
wintered on corn-fodder alone. With
the addition of plenty of good straw, it
will furnish abundant roughness for
idle horses and large colts. Do not de-
prive the stock of roughness, but en-
deavor to save all the timothy hay pos
sible, as it will be high and scarce in
the spring.
WINTER dairying affords employ
ment in winter. In this respect it
benefits the farmer largely, as it en-
ables him to utilize the most unprofit-
able season of the year. When on the
pasture the cows will give more milk
and butter, but the cost is greater, as
the labor cannot then be as probably
bestowed. The COWS will also be bet
ter provided for and can be tested more
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