The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1911-03-02
FARM BURROWS.
Farmer and s tockman.


The corner post is to fence wha
the keystone is to an arch-prett
near the whole thing. The other dal
| saw a corner post that suited anG
that promised to last for about, ali
time. II was of concrete, very large
and slanting from a narrow top to five
or six feet wide at its base on each
side. II was apparently deeply set.
A corner post of this sort is quite ex'
pensive, but it would seem to be eco.
nomical in view Of its future saving
of time and material.
AS yet am a little shy in confidence
in concrete posts for ordinary field
fences. They make a handsome ap-
pearance when first set, but some
lines of fence l have seen failed to
stay that way. In some lines of fence
examined quite large portion Of the
posts seemed to have cracked just
above the ground. The reinforce
ment held them upright, but their
wabbly condition did not encourage a
belief in security. A neighbor who
tried a few as an experiment COM
planned that they seemed to rot or
scale off just above the ground. The
successful concrete fence post is sure
to come, but as yet it would seem
that the problem has not been solved
generally. The greater relative i'm
portance of the uses of concrete in
other construction work has occupied
the minds of those who are engaged
in its development.
The horse buyer says the prices of
horses will now be getting stronger.
They have been rather lower during
the fall and winter. l believe the ten
dency in the horse business is favor
able to remunerative prices for really
good ones, but it is my belief that
ordinary and inferior ones must suffer
a collapse in values in the not distant
future.
There is some satisfaction in having
a tip top good cow. l have just read
of COW competitive test in which in
one year one cow gave Is, 8O3 pounds |
of milk, while another in the same
herd gave 1882 pounds. But the
first yielded 5S4.l9 pounds of butter
fatwhife the latter fell to SIG. 27pounds.
1t has always been a source Of Won
der to me that some farmers are able
to raise any pigs. Ihave visited many
farms on which really valuable brood
sows were kept, with which great
pains were taken right up to farrow-
ing time, and then, in the most criti-
cal stage of the young pigs life, the
pigs were left to almost certain death
because of lack of proper sleeping
places. A pig will do we'll with a
small quantity of bedding if it be dry
and in comfortable shelter. A pig
that is compelled to sleep in wet or
damp bedding can never be expected
to reach the stock yards.
My neighbors are of many minds
with reference to the dog question.
The value of dog on the farm de-
ponds on the dog. l have little fox ,
terrier that never rests or lets anyone ,
else rest when there are rats to be
caught. That is his serious business
in life and he does it so we'll that the
rats he does not catch are pretty sure ,
to die Of nervous prostration. The !,
dogs work prevents loss of feed {
enough every year to buy horse. r
Some farmer who wants to have his
name written in the hall of fame has !,
only to develop some plant from i
which paper can be made. The de- f
mands for that grade used by news r
papers is rapidly exhausting the sup f
ply of timber from which it is made. :
So serious is the outlook that the +
United States Department of Agricul-
lure has established at Wasau, Wis.,,
an experimental wood pulp mill with
lie object of developing methods by :
which varieties of wood not hereto
lore used may be utilized for paper
making purposes.
It is my belief that no man who
raises hogs can afford not to raise
more or less rape. It affords as much
pasturage to the acre as any plant ,
hat grows, starts up as quickly as it
s eaten off, and keeps growing until ,
'rost It is not only cheap, but valu-
able in HELPING to oct the most out of