The National tribune., 1896-10-22
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers


Winter Food for Fowls.
No other food is so absolutely necessary
for the production of eggs in Winter as tho
greenwood ration. The coping of hens dur
ing the cold months is modern and rather
unnatural condition of things Our fore
fathers never considered it necessary to
house flock at any season of the year ex-
cept at night, and then only in cold climates
In the South. where the average tempera-
ture is mild throughout the year, fowls are
left generally to themselves and roost in
trees or on fences-any place where they can
be higher at night than their providing
enemies
Modern poultry culture has improved on
all this, and to-day the successful breeder,
whether for egg production or fancy points,
houses his stock comfortably and confines
them closely to their coops during the VIM
ter months. 1t is therefore necessary to
supply them with all the variety Of food
they would otherwise gather, If left to their
own inciinations. When the Spring comes
and your fowls are let out for the first time,
watch them and you will see how eagerly
they will rush to the nearest grass and de-
your ravenously every blade.
Everything that is of a vegetable nature
is worth storing, therefore, to supply the
place of the natural green article so much
enjoyed by them-small potatoes, turnips,
mangei-wurzels, cabbage, dried clover; in
fact, anything of this nature that can %
successfully kept over during cold weather.
The small vegetables and clover hay can be
boiled or steamed and added to the morning
mash, and the mangels and cabbage can be
fed in the raw state. Many of our most
successful egg farmers feed the last two as
separate midday ration, all the hens Will eat
up clean, or suspend cabbage about two
feet above the litter in coops for them to
jump and peck at, thus giving additional
exercise in procuring tempting green
morsel.
The Cherry Orchard.
Perhaps no variety of small fruit finds .
more ready sale than the cherry. 1t is
grown in comparatively few gardens where
ii might be proftably produced. Prof L.
III. Bailey, the noted New York horticulture
ist, in speaking of the setting and culture OF
the tree says:
"Since the cherry attains large size, the
limbs spreading 20 feet more and the
roots reaching long distance, it must be
given plenty of room, and / am convinced
that 80 feet each way is the proper distance
to set sweet cherries I have seen trees %
feet apart with their main branches inter-
lacing, and the trees were allowed to assume
a pyramidal form instead of spreading
habit. At 80 feet each way an acre contains
so trees.
THE cherry orchard will require little
pruning after the first two OF three years,
and before that time The tree can be made 20
assume any desired form. / believe, how
ever, that in general the pruning should be
such as to give he tree a low-spreading head
with trunk about four feet high and with
the top built out on three 10 five main arms.
We have pursued this method on the Wind
sor and other varieties, and the trees, instead
of growing in the usual spire shape, assume
an apple tree form. After the first two or
three years no pruning is needed, except to
remove the dead branches and to keep the
superfuous branches from inter-crossing.
The advantages gained from this form Of
tree are of great Importance. First, the
body of the cherry tree is less apt to be in
iured by the hot sun, which causes it. especi-
ally on the side of the prevailing wind. to
crack and split, exude sap and finally die.
The low-spreading head shades the trunk
and large branches and obviates this diff
Guilty tn great extent. In western New
York this difficulty is not so serious as it is
on the black lands farther west.
g. second advantage, of equal or greater
importance, lies in the fact that, If allowed
to grow upright, the limbs reach the hight
of 80 to 40 feet in % years. making it very
difficult to gather the fruit and to spray the
trees The bearing branches are always
found toward the extremities of the limbs,
and the time which men lose in going up
and down long ladders is of no small account
to the fruit grower"
Farm Notes.
The roads would be much better if wide
tires were used on all wagons, as they do
not cut up the roads, but rather serve to
pack the gravel. The State of Pennsy lyania
has law exempting from certain taxes
those who use wide tires, and as metal
wheels are largely coming into use it is
probable that in the future nearly all wagons
will have wide tires.
Among the fruits that are seldom seen
On farms may be mentioned the ounce.
Ounces bring good prices in market. and
they are never plentiful In some cities it
is difficult to obtain them. The ounce can
be grown as easily as pears or apples on suit.
able soil, but will not stand neglect. It
offers favorable opportunity to those who
have room for ounce orchard.
Pedigree does not give quality, but pedi-
gree enables one to know to which family
an animal belongs. In establishing herd
of cows the bull should have pedigree en-
bracing cows noted for their excellence, as
he may be capable of transmitting the merits
of his ancestors to his offspring. To use
males with no pedigree, or which are from
families with no records, is to accept chances
in breeding which may prove disastrous.
Pedigree is the guide, and should influence
every farmer who purchases an animal.
If manure is intended to be used in the
orchard let it be applied to old trees instead
of around the younger ones. Many old
orchards can be renewed by careful pruning
and heavy manuring, and it is an advantage
TO use an old orchard if possible, as it takes
many years to bring up young orchard to
the bearing capacity of one that is estab-
lished. Good orchards have been permitted
to become useless because of neglect in not
manuring the land, and as orchards paw
better than some crops it is profitable to use
manure on them.
Experiments at the Pennsylvania Station
show that as corn approaches maturity the
amount of nutrition it contains and the di-
gestibility increase rapidly, the total yield
of the digestible food by the matured crop
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