Connecticut western news., 1909-07-22

by hundreds and thousands or boys and girls, passed away a few weeks ago at his home In Boston.
 The old saw "A stitch In time saves nine' finds illustration in a multiplied geometrical ratio in the destruction of pigWeeds and purslane before they go to seed, matured plant of the for mer producing as high as 5O,00O seeds, while a purslane with room to branch cut in leisurely fashion has been kLown to yield 175,OOO seeds.
 A fourteen-year-old bOy-we wish that the news item gave his name raised, fed and fattened for exhibi- tion the champion Hereford steer at the recent Denver stock show. Get the boys on the farm interested in raising stock of this type, and there will be little need of writing articles on how to keep the boys on the farm.
 The wisdom of adopting a more largely diversified type of farming, in cluding dairying and stock raising, in
 
 gradual decrease in the wheat yield of tue state during the past twenty-five years until for 1908 it averaged but 12S bushels per acre. The fool on the run ought to be able to understand what these figures mean.
 In a botanical garden at Philadel- phia is cypress tree which is said to have been set as early as 175O. Though dead. 1t is still standing. It has a di- ameter of eight feet at the base and is six feet through thirty feet from the ground, just below the point where it branches. It is estimated that 1t con- tains 10000 feet of lumber, worth $50 per thousand, giving the tree a con- mercial value of $500.
 Professor Cyril G. Hopkins of the University of Illinois, recognized as one of the great soil specialists in the United States, has expressed the fol- lowing view, which ought to be framed and hung up beside "In God We Trust in every farm home in the land: ITO permanently maintain a profitable system of agriculture is our most important material problem, not only in Illinois, but in the United States"
 All kinds of poor folks in the large cities sledding along on their marrow bones financially with little or no op- portunity to get work, and a great horde of farmers all over the great central west also on their marrowbones begging for help to assist them in garnering bumper crops-first thought would seem to suggest that matter would be simplif1ed all around if these two marrowbone delegations could be got together.
 While the mole now and then makes an unsightly ridge across the lawn and often mellows things up in the gar den, 1t is not for the purpose of mak- ing trouble. He is a relentless enemy of worms and insects, being especially fond of the white grub, which plays havoc in the strawberry bed or kills the roots of the lawn grass and gar den flowers. Like some other much misunderstood members of the bird and animal kingdom, he should be enemy.
 Several southern experiment sta tions have made tests of cotton seed and cottonseed hulls as a fattening ra- tion for cattle. At the North Carolina station 1t was found that 784 pound steers made an average gain of IS pounds per day for 100 days on a ra- tion of five pounds of cotton seed and twenty pounds of cottonseed hulls. At the Arkansas station TOO pound steers made an average daily gain of 1.97 pounds during ninety day feed ing period, receiving a ration of three and a half pounds of raw cotton seed, eleven pounds of -cOttonseed hulls and nine pounds of cowpea hay.
 The animal husbandry department of the Wisconsin experiment station has lately published some interesting statistics along the line of economies effected in the use of the silo as an ad- junct in stock feeding and dairy opera, HOns. In the matter of economy ill storage space 1t is cited that eight tons of silage can be put in the space occu- pied by a ton of mixed hay, 400 cubic feet, the former containing 2,560 pounds of digestible dry matter as against 960 pounds in tlfe ton of hay. The cost of handling the crop of corn in the shape of silage was found to be less than with any other method used. $7 per acre on the basis of a twelve ton yield. In no way was the flow of milk of the dairy herd so well kept up during dry summers by the use of slage. In the feed lot 1t was found that silage fed steers sold at S4.95 per hundred pounds, while those fed no silage brought only $4.7O. For every hundred pounds of gain 1t was found that All pounds of silage fed saved IS pounds of graiWSand 156 pounds of al- falfa. At the close of the experiment the silage fed steers showed a profit of $40 per head, while on the same grade of steers fed no silage there was