THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



13 



Clippings. 



K is our desire to make these so full nnd varied that every 

 7T(('/fr o//;m? Farm AND Garden. 'C'l ihcutihhf takes 



no other paper can feel in a rrunsurf '■"' 



with nil the feadinp publicad 



Hinted 



From "Turf. Firld and Fa7-ni" X'lr Vorfc. 

 HOW THE THOROUGHBRED IS RELATED TO 

 THE TROTTING PROBLEM. 

 I do not advocate, that in order to get trotters j'ou 

 must breed a thoroughbred to a thoroughbred: but I do 

 claim that to get the proper bone to stand hammering;, 

 to get the requisite stamina, to get size, silken coats, 

 symmetry, and ambition, the thoroughbred is essential 

 as a foundation. Having these, it is not necessary to 

 breed further to the thoroughbred for a trotter, but to 

 cultivate the trotting action by breeding to sires and 

 mares in which it is strongly developed and that are 

 highly-bred themselves. The trotter of extreme capac- 

 ity must be rich in thoroughbred blood: and Governor 

 Stanford will, in the near future, demonstrate this fact 

 even more clearly than it is at present demonstrated. 



From "Dairy Farmer" Chicnpo, 271. 



One of the much-vaunted remedies for consumption is 

 now very largely sold in Chicago as an article of daily 

 diet— for the healthy as well as the ailing. It is the 

 "Kumiss." which originated in Tartary, where it is 

 made from the milk of mares. The following is a for- 

 mula for its preparation, given by a leading physician : 

 " One cup of buttermilk, very sour ; seven cups of fresh 

 milk. To stand in a slightly warm place near the fire 

 for twelve hours. Whip smooth, adding a little white 

 sugar in powder. Bottle, and let it stand for twelve 

 hours uncorked. Then cork, and wire. Keep in a cool 

 place for two or three days, when it will be fit for use. 

 Beware how you uncork, as it is often very much up." 

 There appears to be no reason why, if the article is 

 really as beneficial as is claimed, dairymen should not 

 make and bottle it in large quantities, and make It a 

 staple article of trade. 



From "Our Cotinfry Home" Qreenfleld, Mass. 



BELIEVES IN TWO LITTERS A YEAR. 



Many persons are of the opinion that it is the more 

 profitable plan to have sows rear but one litter of pigs 

 per year, and have those come early in the spring. An 

 Illinois correspondent thinks otherwise, and tells how 

 he does with Poland-Chinas, by saying : " Two years ago 

 my pigs were farrowed the last five days in March and 

 the first fifteen days in April. I crowded them all they 

 would bear until the middle of July, and then took corn 

 from them entirely until the middle of September. This 

 two months I had them running on wheat stubble and 

 clover fields, then I began feeding corn Jigain, all they 

 would eat, until the 12th of January. I sold at that 

 time, drove three miles to station and weighed, and my 

 bunch of 62 weighed 312 all around. I always raise from 

 100 to 125 pigs, and sell down to that number for breed- 

 ing purposes, and that always calls for the top of the 

 herd. My second litter is farrowed the last half of 

 September and the first half of October. I feed my pigs 

 sparingly during the winter season, until put on grass in 

 the spring. I sold them, 65 in number, the 22d of June, 

 and they averaged 265. I have two crops of hogs into 

 market before you get ready to feed yours. Now I have 

 577 pounds to another man's probable -lOO. It looks to me 

 as though it would be very expensive to wait until I see 

 my pigs more fully develop themselves before I fatten." 



From " Poultry Yard," Jlartford, nmn. 



LEGITIMATE BUSINESS. 

 The poultry business has long passed the trial stage 

 and become as mucli a legitimate one as any form of 

 industry that can be cited. Entirely apart from its fac:- 

 nation for the amateur (and in this word is embraced 

 old a new breeders), is its strictly business phase. Most 

 breeders go into poultry raising for two distinct causes- 

 love of the beautiful fowls and all that pertains to them, 

 and the desire of making some money. Of late years 

 many men have gone into poultry breeding on a large 

 scale, and with a definite purpose of making all the 

 money they honestly can by selling fowls and eggs. 

 There has been a disposition to sneer at such under- 

 takings, and prophesy their failure. As if, forsooth, no 

 business that was not handed down from our grandsires 

 could be legitimate and profitable. Many a pale bank 

 clerk or " counter jumper " in a dry goods store who 

 looks down scornfully on the poultry raiser, might far 

 better, provided he has brain or energy left to do so, 

 drop his ill-paid and unhealthy calling for one as much 

 more profitable and substantial, as is poultry keeping. 

 This business is already an important one, as anyone 

 who will take the pains to find out what is yearly paid 

 for eggs and poultry, can learn. It is as much a legitimate 

 business as handling dry goods or keeping books. The 

 poultry keeper is his own master: does not get to work 

 on the notch of an hour; is not "whistled in and out" 

 like the workers in machine shops and factories, and 

 has altogether a pleasanter life than those who follow a 

 stated round of common toil. At the expiration of ten 

 years in the business, he will with ordinary care, have 

 more health, money, and comfort to show than the aver- 

 age workman in any branch we have named. 



From " Farmers' Review" Chicago, III. 



One of the embarrassments with which the new com- 

 missioner of agriculture was conlronted on assuming 

 his office, was immense stocks of seeds purchased by 

 his predecessor, but without the means of distributing 

 tljem— almost the entire appropriation for see^s had 

 been used in their purchase. Among other varieties 

 were several hundred bushels of early amber cane, 

 which for years has been grown in almost every county 

 in the United States, and is a staple with every seed 

 dealer in the country. There is abuut the same need 

 for its being distributed by the department of agricul- 

 ture that there is for a distribution ot red clover seed. 

 As a matter of fact, this whole system of seed distribu- 

 tion by the department is largely a humbug. Every 

 new variety giving promise of excellence is tested by 

 the seed dealers, and if found valuable, is grown to sup- 

 ply their trade. It is only as this is fully supplied and 

 they have a surplus, that they have any to sell to the 

 department. All new varieties are widely distributed 

 before the department can get a pound of them. The 

 seeds they do purchase are largely the old and refuse 

 stocks which the dealers dump upon a credulous agri- 

 cultural commissioner, reserving their new and choicest 

 stocks to supply their own trade It is to be hoped that 

 the practical common sense of Commissioner Colman 

 will lead him to put an end to the farce of seed distri- 

 bution. 

 From "Frairie Farmer" Chirnpo, 111. 



FANNY FIELD'S SENSE. 



I suppose I am as near sanctification as a poultry 

 writer ever gets in this world; but still. I do get mad 

 sometimes about the stuff that the chaps who hardly 

 know one breed of fowls from another, and who have 

 not yet mastered the alphabet of poultry-raising, tell us 

 about the different breeds, the care of chicks, manage- 

 ment of laying hens, etc. One man, who has had one 

 season's experience with one or two breeds, gets up. 

 puts one hand under the hind part of his coat, sticks the 

 thumb of the other hand into the arm-hole of his vest, 

 clears his throat, and with an air that would carry con- 

 viction straight to the wooden heart of a cigar-store 

 Indian, gravely informs the congregalion that the Brah- 

 mas are the "best fowls on earth." Next, another chap, 

 who knows more or less, generally less, about Brahmas, 

 gets in his work by remarking that he "never keeps the 

 Asiatics after they are a year old, because they never 

 lay as many eggs the second year as they do the first." 

 Before our digestive organs have fairly settled down to 

 work on this last chunk of information, another brother, 

 whose sitting hen came off with eleven chicks from 

 thirteen eggs, while the home-made hatching machine 

 only produced three chicks from one hundred eggs, as- 

 tonishes us by declaring that with his manner of caring 

 for sitting hens he could care for three hundred sitters, 

 covering four thousand eggs, in a "half-hour's time." 

 What everlasting nonsense! 



From " Home and Farm" Louisville.. Ky. 



I quoted in my last letter from that of a friend in 

 Sorrento. Here comes one from his wife with a passage 

 so entertaining that you must have the reading of it : 



" Speaking of Rome reminds me of a most interesting 

 thing we heard a few days ago about the discovery of 

 the ashes of some the Caesars, and tlie curious use to 

 which they were put. You must know that Rome, un- 

 der the new government of United Italy, is undergoing 

 no end of modern improvements. A few days ago, dig- 

 ging down to renmve some old foundations to make and 

 widen a new street, the workmen came upon a sealed 

 chamber with urns full of ashes, and an old columbaria 

 (a chamber in which the ashes of the dead were kept), 

 wherein were some beautiful antique bronzes and vases. 

 These workmen were not honest enough to tell the 

 owner of this discovery, and they disposed of some of 

 the pieces at fabulous price.s. At last, the knowledge 

 coming to their rightful owner, he took possession, and 

 scholars discovered, from inscriptions, that the urns 

 and the great marble coffins were in the tomb of the 

 Roman Emperor Galba. Asking what had become ot 

 the ashes in the urns and coffins, the head workman 

 confessed that there had been a lot of ashes which he 

 did not suppose were of any value, and so he had taken 

 them home to his wife, who was a washwoman, and she 

 had made soap with them. The ashes of a Caesar to 

 make soap for a nineteenth-century washing! To what 

 base uses may we come at last!" 



Fi-om" Times" Cliirapo. III. 



COMMON-SENSE V IEW OF THE CHOLERA. 



A medical journal gives an extract from a lecture de- 

 livered by Dr. Hugo Engle, in which there are some 

 hints of universal importance in regard to cholera pre- 

 vention. After relating a number of instances in which 

 animals had died from cholera after having had some 

 canima-bacili injected in the upper portion of the duo- 

 denum, he proceeded to show how the king of Italy had 

 visited with entire impunity the cholera hospitals of 

 Naples. The reason of this is thus stated : "All his food 

 and all the water and wine he drank were sent to him 

 from Rome in hermetically-sealed bottles and boxes. 

 As he could not become infected by way of inhalation, 

 but only by the food and water swallowed, care was 

 simply taken to have the food and drink pure, and free 

 from camma-bacilli." 



Near the conclusion of his lecture the doctor gave 

 some practical advice which may be of use in this local- 

 ity in case we should have the outbreak which is threat- 

 ening us. He .said tlmt people should have their main 

 organ of digestion in the best possible order, and that 

 errors in diet should be avoided. The plain^'St food 

 should be selected, and every particle of food to be eaten 

 and water to be drank, boiled thoroughly, and in this 

 way there would be no danger of inlection. These are 

 common-sense views, and their application is substanti- 

 ally within the reach of every family. Cleaning the 

 streets will assist in preventing theTspread of infection, 

 but at the same time it will not keep cholera out of a 

 city. 



Fiom "Iowa State Urgister" Des Moines. la. 



DOING GOOD TO THE SMART ALECKS. 



■'Are you doing your neighbors any good ** " said a vis- 

 itor at the farm last week. "Are they adopting your 

 methods?" 



Our answer was. "Some are and some are not, but we- 

 are doing all of them good." 



For instance when seven years ago we brought to this- 

 farm the ancestors of mort; than half a dozen herds of" 

 thoroughbred hogs in the county and of a large propor- 

 tion of the grade hogs, for a good many miles around,, 

 we were voted^a foolish fellow who had more money 

 than he could take care of, and was trying to throw it 

 away. 



"I dot you vas von pig fool." as an honest German tolcb 

 us afterwards, "but now I see dot I vash de fool." 



When we commenced sowing grass seed, certain fail- 

 ure was predicted, but we notice that these prophets of 

 evil are " going to grass " as fast as possible. And then 

 we are doing lots of good in furnishing subjects for con- 

 versation in the neighborhood. Just now they are hav- 

 ing fun at our expense over our Russian poplars and 

 willows and Scotch alders, and they think the Ag. Ed. is 

 clear crazy when he hires men by the day to plant trees, 

 in a slough that a horse cannot cross. 



So we think we are doing a great deal of good and fol- 

 lowing the scripture injunction " Do good unto all men, 

 especially to them that are of the household of faith;" 

 we would say especially to the smart alecks. 



We are very hopeful of these chaps who do not believe- 

 in agricultural papers or books. 



They watch us very closely, and that is a good thing 

 for both of us. They learn to be close observers, which 

 is the first condition of progre.ss. If we.fail in anything^ 

 as we sometimes do, it makes them very happy, and it 

 is a good thing to be happy. When we succeed, they 

 will, in time, follow, and that is a good thing. 



We have watched this thing for thirty years. 



When John Wallace introduced tile drains on hia 

 farm thirty years ago, he was supposed to be crazy, but 

 the land is all drained in that neighborhood now. 



When he brought the first reaper into the neighbor- 

 hood, his old hands refused to work for him because he 

 was taking the bread out of their children's mouths by- 

 using machinery in the harvest field. 



We all laugh at the blunder now, but they were just as 

 wise as the man who thinks tree planting a foolish 

 thing, or are skeptical about blue grass pastures or octa- 

 gon barns. 



Frojn " Poultry Keeper" Chicafio, PI. 



POULTRY AND EGGS. 



It has been slated that the census returns placed the 

 poultry and egg production far in advance of the facts, 

 but we believe that only a part of the true numbers and 

 values are ever obtained. The Massachusetts Plough- 

 man has been searching the tenth census to see if certaitt 

 wild statements about the value of the annual poultry 

 products were warranted, and this is what it found : 



Until the tenth census was taken we had no reliable 

 means of knowing the number of fowls kept in the 

 United States, or the eggs they produced ; but in taking 

 the census of 1880 the poultry statistics were included. 

 The result shows that while the poultry interest is very 

 large. It does not overshadow all others, as was believed 

 by some enthusiastic poultry-producers. r 



The whole number of barn-yard fowl, not inclodlng 

 chicks, in the United States, in the year 1879. was 103,- 

 772.135; other fowl. 22,235,187; a total of 124,(XI7.322. It la 

 fair to presume that with the chicks raised for meat, 

 the whole annual product for poultry meat would be at 

 least 372,021.966 pounds, which at ten cents a pound, 

 would be 1537.202.196 as the yearly value ot dead poultry. 

 The number of eggs produced from the above number 

 of fowl was 456,910,916 dozens, which at 15 cents per 

 dozen, would be ?68,536,63", making a total income from 

 poultry in the year 1879, of ?105,738.833. 



Massachusetts contained in the year 1S79. of barn-yard 

 fowl 914,374, other fowl 48,654, total 962,928; the product of 

 eggs was 6,571,553 dozens, of meat 2,888.780 pounds, which 

 at 10 cents would be $288,878. The eggs at 15 cents would 

 be ?985,732, making the total value of the income from 

 the poultry in Massachusetts during the year of 1879, 

 §1 ,274,610. 



It is estimated that the laying hens in the several 

 States produce yearly as follows : 



Maine 89 eggs to each ben. 



Massachusetts, ... 86 " " 



Connecticut. . . . . S-S " " 



New Hampshire, . , 81 " ** 



Rhode Island, ... 76 " " 



Vermont 69 " " 



Pennsylvania, . . .62 " " 



Indiana, .... 60 " " 



Ohio 57 " " 



Tennessee 65 " * 



Kentucky, .... 52 " " 



Iowa, 61 " " 



Illinois 42 " " 



North Carolina,. . . 42 " 



South Carolina, ... 37 " " 



Louisiana 36 " " 



Thus it will be seen that theNorllkernand particularly 

 the New England Stales, get the largest number of egg» 

 from a given number of hens. This cannot be because 

 the climate is better adapted to the production of eggs, 

 but probably because the demand tor eggs in manufac- 

 turing districts is such as to bring prices up to a point to 

 make it an object to give the hens extra care and a 

 greater variety of food. 



In farming districts, away fVom manufactories, the 

 demand for eggs is limited, so the farmer gets all the 

 eggs he wants without giving the poultry any particular 

 attention : he only feeds them with any regularity a few 

 weeks before he desires them for meat. 



The forest products of the United States in the year 

 1^9 were $95,774,738, or |9,9G4,098 leas than the product of 

 poultry and eggs. " 



