Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1909-01-29
SOME NOTES
0fInterest to Farmers and Truckers

Seaweed is a valuable fertilizer. The
Irish peasants prefer it to manure, and
the farmers of the Orkney islands for
merly let farmyard manure accumulate
unused on account of its inferiority to
seaweed as fertilizer.
One of the most remarkable instances
of vitality of an animal was brought to
light in Rockingham county. when two
steers which had been penned up in an
unused tenant house, one for forty-two
days and other forty four days without
either food or water were discovered.
The steers were still alive and, it is be-
iieved, will recover from their long fast.
Scaly Legs on Fowls.
If fowls have scaly legs, try this:
Into quart of warm water put table
spoonful of kerosene. Wash the legs
well with soap and water and dip them
into this emulsion. Do this several
times week. The disease is stated
to be contagious and fowls having it
should be isolated. A good ointment is
one part of sulphur to ten of vaselene.
Rub this into the legs freely. repeat
about once week.
Ploughing by Gas.
Richard Eppes, of Prince George
county, this State, tells in the Southern
planter of his work with a gasolene
enline (the one he uses is constructed
to run with either gasolene or coal-oil,
in ploughing. Mr.. Eppes states that
he used disc plow, the discs "a inches
In diameter, cutting a swath 9 feet
wide by inches deep at the speed
OF two miles an hour. He broke so
acres in "a working hours at a cost for
labor and fuel II cents per acre, doing
the work of 20 horses, one man and a
helper being the entire force required.
1t has the very decided advantage over
horses that it does not get sick, does
not have to be fed, except the oil fuel,
and needs no rest or grooming. If the
operator chooses he can, by having
night shifts. run night and day, if the
light is available. Judging from the
experience of Mr.. Eppes his engine and
ploughs are as far superior to the old
horse-plough methods of farming as
the gasolene motor is superior to the
row-boat. The first cost of such a
machine is of course considerable, but
if it will do what he asserts it has done
in his hands, the first cost is a trifie.
Here, in our level and stoneless lands.
such work would be singularly easy of
accomplishment, and the results i'm
portant.
Planting Fruit Trees.
Much of the success in planting fruit
trees lies in the method. When we
consider that tree has to get its roots
into the subsoil as best it may, and tina,
this subsoil is usually hard and sterile,
it is evident that help in the starting OF
the tree may be given by making the
hole deep and filling in with good soil.
A man in Virginia some years ago raised
the largest pears that have ever beer
grown in this country. exceeding ir
size these of California. He dug hole.
for them six feet square and six feet
deep, filling the holes with rich sol
earth. The trees grew like magic
They did not have to bore their wa,
into hard and sterile earth. A writer
some years ago undertook to transplant
small walnut tree that grew in .
sunken grave mi an old cemetery. TIL,
tree was very small, but he dug an,
dug to find the roots, and finally en-
deavored to pull it out of the ground
succeeding in this, but found to hi
r surprise that the roots had apparentl
gone to the bottom of the grave. TIL
soil was loose and the roots found i
easy to follow the way down to depth
! that they would not and could not hav
done under ordinary planting. A ger
tleman in A.bemarle county some year
ago planted an apple orchard, usin
large nursery trees for the purpose
thinking that the larger the better an
simply scraping hole for them.
neighbor, planting at the same tim,
J dug what his rival called little well,