The Advocate and news., 1898-01-05
Suggestive Paragraphs.

! Sot1~N'~'S
The American Sheep Breeder makes
good point in the matter of caring for
sheep. A bit of canvas painted on one
side with linseed oil costs only a few
cents, 1t says, though it may save a
sheep which cost a few dollars.
The National Stockman regards the
COW pea as one of the most valuable le-
guminous plants that we have for re-
storing the fertility of the soil. And as
money crop they are not to be de-
spised, as the seed Is generally as high
as beans.
1t is what the farmer sells at profit
that enriches him. And the more he
sells that way, and the oftener, the bet
ter he Is off. 1t is good business sense,
as a correspondent observes, for the
farmer to have something to sell every
week in the year or every time he goes
to town.
Exercise is good medicine for animals
as we'll as for men. Farm horses that
have little to do during winter months
ought to have stalk field or feed lot
to run in. It adds greatly to both appe-
tite and digestion to be moving in the
open air, and besides, it keeps the
muscles firm and ready for light work.
At the late convention of Iowa dairy
men 1t was suggested that the keeping
quality of butter is entitled to more
consideration than is usually bestowed
upon it; and it was proposed in the
discussion that rule ought to be
adopted requiring that butter entered at
the fair should have been kept at least
four weeks.
Modern conditions bring the people
closer together and make them more
and more dependent on one another The
Kansas farmer ships his surplus wheat
to Europe and TO Africa; he gets his
coffee from Brazil, Mexico and the
islands Of the Indian ocean, his sugar
from Germany and his shoes from Mas
sachusetts.
Converting corn into lamb is bust
ness encouraged by the great railroad
companies whose principal market Is
Chicago. They allow farmers to pur-
chase range lambs, bring them by rail
to the corn region in Nebraska and
Iowa and the States adjoining on the
south, unload them there and feed them
ninety or hundred days and then COM
plete their journey to market without
additional charge.
Farm Journal thinks hens that are
being coached" for eggs should not
be stuffed" Their food being of the
proper character their crops should
never be more than moderately full. 1t
is delusion to suppose that hens will
not eat more than is good for them. AS
in the case Of human beings when
tempted by appetizng viands, they will
gorge themselves and thus bring on in
digestion, and waste energy in the effort
to get rid Of the surplus.
AS a reason why keeping cattle has
always been regarded as necessary to
good farming, correspondent Of the
Wisconsin Agriculturist says that with
out the manure they supply 1t is i'm
possible to maintain the fertility Of the
farm, on which the whole business of
successful farming depends. Unless most
of the hay, straw and coarse folders
and grains are consumed on the farm,
converted into manure, and restored to
the fields, the farm is on the direct road
to sterility, which is as sure to come as
night is to follow day.
In preparing well-rotted manure,
French farmers place the manure pile
on slightly inclined plats Of packed
earth or cement, so arranged that the
teachings drain out into pit from which
they are pumped up and distributed over
the manure heap. 1t is usual to provide
two manure plats so arranged that when
one is full (when the manure Is eight to
ten feet high) it may be allowed to
ferment undistributed while the other
is used. The manure is carried from the
stables to the top of the manure heap
in whaelharroWs over an inclined plane