The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1912-05-02
FARM BURROWS.
Farmer and Stockman.

we should try to enjoy the gooe
things the season brings and overlook
few little things like muddy roads
muddy yards and the like. Most o.
us have been wishing for the kind Of
weather that makes nice, clean mud,
anyway.
There is, perhaps, nothing better
than an earth floor for horses if it is
kept level and dry, but whether the
foor is Of earth, plank or cement the
honest work horse deserves a soft
bed of clean straw, especially when
the work season is on.
In speaking of floors, it would be
interesting to hear from those who
have cork brick for covering the &C.
ment floors of their dairy barns.
Some of them have been in use long
enough to show their worth by this
time.
A few extra hame clips, cockeyes,
and whiffletree hooks and other odds
and ends will save time if they are
kept where they can be found in a
hurry when they are needed.
Fence posts less than five inches in
diameter may be sharpened and are
handy for repairing and for putting
up fences that are to be taken down
again, but a heavy post put down
three feet and we'll tamped will hold
the fence upright and do its share to-
ward keeping the stock where it be-
longs.
One Of the many things that the
farmer of today needs is a wire
stretcher that will handle woven
wire. An ordinary stretcher will not
pull up string Of woven wire tight
enough to make it "sing," and a
woven wire fence that is not we'll
stretched and braced to stay that way,
is no fence at all.
No renter or land owner should be
satisfied without the very best con-
tract than can be written and should
try to live up to its terms, but where
stock farm is rented there are so
many things that enter into the bar
gain that it is impossible to prevent
quarrels and law suits if either or
both of the parties are looking for
trouble.
Those who rent their farms on the
cash-rent plan are waking up to the
fact that a long-term lease to a renter
who keeps live stock and hauls the
manure to the fields, is worth more
to them than the "soil robbers" and
a few are going so far as to keep the
buildings and fences in good shape
so as to encourage the renter to keep
as much live stock as possible. AS a
rule, wise men make wise moves.
We have had an fashioned
winter followed by an fashioned
spring. Is not this a pretty good
sign that we will raise an old-fashion-
ed crop of the old-fashioned bumper
kind, especially if the season con-
tinues to be old-fashioned to the end?
Some of the "know-it-all" fellows
tell us that harness oil will rot the
leather and do more harm than good,
but many of us know by experience
that this is not true, especially if a
good grade of oil is used. It seems
that there are good many people
cannot help talking rot"
Fifty years of costly experience
should teach US that no amount of
grading or dragging can make a good,
permanent road in places where water
stands on both sides of the grade a
good share of the time. The only
way to make decent road, in such
places, is to cut bitches that will carry
the water away or, better still, lay a
string of thing and underdrain them.
No set of road tools is complete
without few King drags, and they
should be placed in the hands of
farmers who have the know-how and
willingness to use them. The town.
ship trustees should also have the
and willingness to see that
hey are paid for their work. If ex-
,erience has taught us anything it
las taught us that we must not ex-
,ect something for nothing even in
Dad work.
Test your seed corn, test your
ows, test your seed grain, grass
eed, and plows. We are living in
testing age, but there is no use get