The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1897-03-31
FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

NAhm AMI NAhDEN NOIEhs
Don't try to make silage do as a
complete ration. A little grain and hay
are needed with it.
Your hogs ought to have roots now.
II you haven't any lay the lesson to
heart and provide some next season.
AT this time of year one of the best
tonics that can be given flock of
hens is to place a rusty nail, or spike,
in the drinking fountain.
1t is about time to mate fowls for
early spring business. Winter is not
over but the fowls want to get familiar
with each other, to insure the right
sort OF eggs for Matching, and two or
three weeks will settle the matter.
Food alone does not and cannot
control the quality of milk. This
statement. however, does not imply
that proper feeding is not necessary.
But no amount of feed will transform
naturally inferior COW into a first.
class dairy animal.
An Indiana farmer says he has tried
corrosive sublimate for preventing
scab on potatoes, with gratifying re.
snlt. The sublimate is poison and
should be handled by careful persons.
1t does not iniure the hands, but is
deadly when it enters the stomach.
The Michigan experiment station
has conducted experiments to deter.
mine whether bees injure grapes. Ex-
perimenter Taylor concludes that not
only do bees not injure gropes, but
that by gathering the juice OF cracked
one they prevent decay and consequent
destruction of sound ones.
An Illinois farmer living in Jewell
County, has discovered that seed corn
soaked IN coal oil renders the growing
corn chinch bug proof. He plowed up
his wheat and planted the ground with
corn. The seed of FIVE acres was
soaked in coal oil and the other forty
was not. The bugs ate up the forty
acres and never touched the FIVE acres.
1t is worth a million if true.
On almost every farm there is a
shed that is fairly dry all through she
winter. In this shed throw dry leaves
or cut straw to the depth of ten or
twelves inches. Nail board at the
front of the shed, SO as to keep the
leaves or straw from being scratched
out, and in this litter scatter the whole
grain you intend to feed your chickens.
They will scratch for it the whole day
long, and, in this way, secure exercise
while getting their feed.
Professor Massey, of the North
Carolina experiment station, says that
sawdust would have to be rotted to the
state of perfectly black mold and then
be composted with lime before he
would seit for any manurial purposes.
Better burn it, if practicable, aud put
the ashes on the land. The evolution
of organic acids from the sawdust, he
says, would do more harm than the
mulch would do good. Sawdust is of
no value whatever on land till COM
pletely decomposed, and then acted
upon by lime.
Coal ashes are often scattered over
garden and field in winter under the
impression that they are valuable
fertilizer. As matter of fact, about
their only effect upon the soil is a me-
chanical one, having a tendency to
loosen heavy soils, rendering them
more friable, while their effect upon
soils already light and dry may be
wholly detrimental. However, un.
leached wood ashes, are a valuable
fertilizer for the orchard and all soils
deficient in potash. They have been
used on orchards and grass lands with
very gratifying results.