The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1910-07-21
. FARM BURROWS.


A mail carrier told me, the other
day, that if ever his route was in.
spected in a critical manner the pa.
irons would lose their mail service
because of the bad roads. He said
almost every man on his route was
.eagiiHH" dragging, because they claim.
ed ii didn't do any good. Some men
do not know Improvement when they
run across it in the road.
The apples that took the first prize
at the Worlds Fair in Chicago were
grown on gravel prairie that would
not grow either grass, grain or vege-
tables without fertilizing or some kind
of irrigation. The trees were ferti-
lized by burying dog salmon at their
roots. The dog salmon runs up the
creeks of Washington to spawn and
die by the thousands, the farmer
hauls them to his orchard and ferti-
Lies the apples, plums and pears with
them.
About the most unsatisfactory crop
| ever tried to raise was buckwheat.
Two seasons with the crop was
enough for me, the last time a mix
ture of rain and hail threshing most
of the seed out on the ground just as
the crop was all but ready to be har-
vested.
A wheel hoe has saved much more
than the two dollars it cost in work
in our garden this year. II is said
that the up-to-date farmer will not
have any tool unless it is on wheels
and has a seat. The wheel hoe is on
one wheel, but it has no seat. The
man who does not like to work off a
seat was never intended for a gar
dener.
| have never been so successful as
| have this year in getting rid of
ground squirrels that have generally
given me good deal of trouble by
taking the corn after it is planted.
This year purchased a dimes worth
OF strychnine and dissolved this in
water, adding three or four table,
spoonfuls of sugar. | then took a
pint of corn, soaked it in the sweet,
poisoned water, allowed it to swell
for twenty-four hours and then scat
tered this corn between the meadow
and the cornfield and adjacent to the
holes of the squirrels in the middle of
the field. AS result | have failed to
find single hill that has been dis
turbed by the squirrels and | haven't
seen a squirrel since the day that
corn was put out
For the last fifteen years | have
spent time enough keeping less than
forty rods of hedge trimmed to build
and keep in repair all the fences on
the farm Hedge trimming comes
Semi-monthly during the growing sea-
son. If anyone can tell Burrows of
an easy way to kill hedge, let's know
of it right away.
Last night my attention was called
to paragraph in which writer ex-
planned that the dog was of little val
lie in the city and certainly of even
less value in the country. That man
must be city resident himself, and
wonderfully ignorant of the farm at
that. One of the best helpers on this
farm is Collie. If | lived in the city
| would not have use for the Collie,
but on the farm he saves steps al
most every hour of the day, contrary
to the way my paragraphing friend
puts the usefulness of the city and
country dog.
| find, after several years expert
ence in running farm machinery of
about every kind, from moving
machine to a hay loader and from
corn binder to manure spreader,
that it pays to keep the oil holes we'll
cleaned out and taking oil, and to use
a heavy grade Of oil. If you are not
particular about keeping the oil holes
and cups clean, however, better use
a thin grade of oil, for the bearing
will be sure to get little of it, even
if it must soak through dirt to get
there. Dirty oil holes wear out more
farm machinery than actual labor.
A neighbor Of mine is a firm be-