THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Mixed Grain. The Ontario experi- 

 ment station, as the result of two years' 

 tests, finds that a combination of barley, 

 wheat, oats and peas, all sown together, 

 produces 244.05 pounds of grain to an acre 

 in excess of the average yield obtained by 

 planting the same grains separately. The 

 yield of straw is also larger. 



Restoring Fertilizer. Every crop 

 taken from the land removes a certain 

 number of pounds of the three essentials 

 -^nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. 

 If it is not replaced the land suffers to the 

 extent of that draft upon it. The intelli- 

 gent farmer will seek the most effective 

 way to restore that loss. 



Nut-Bearing Trees are beginning to 

 attract a larger share of attention. They 

 become profitable as producers after seven 

 or eight years and are all the time grow- 

 ing into value as timber, so that in twenty - 

 five or thirty years they will prove them- 

 selves among the most profitable of farm 

 products, if cultivated as such. 



Low Priced Nursery Stock may not 



be cheap stock in any sense. Give first 

 attention to quality; find the best, then 

 buy it as cheaply as you can. Don't 

 buy it at all if it is not good. There is 

 hardly any worse investment to be con- 

 ceived of than to put money in poor 

 trees and in the cultivation of them for a 

 term of years. 



Spraying Potatoes. By the use of 

 Bordeaux mixture, at the Vermont experi- 

 ment station, the total product of potatoes 

 in 1892 was increased from the rate of 169 

 bushels per acre from an unsprayed plat 

 to 400 from a sprayed plat. Other sta- 

 tions report similar favorable results. 



The Experiment Stations are per- 

 forming a large amount of careful consci- 

 entious work for the benefit of the farmers 

 generally. The latter should not only 

 appreciate it, but good judgment dictates 

 that they should take every po?sible ad- 

 vantage of it. 



A Hint to Potato Growers. A Con- 

 necticut man made a simple and effective 

 spraying machine by mounting a ten-gal- 



lon keg on a wheelbarrow and inserting a 

 wooden faucet at each end. He sprays 

 two rows at a time as fast as he can walk, 

 making it an inexpensive operation. 



Exchange. It may be better to ex- 

 change good sires, either of cattle or hogs, 

 after they have proven their quality, than 

 to kill them, if it be necessary to introduce 

 new blood into the individual herds or in 

 localities where they have done general 

 service. 



Keeping Potatoes ll n a suitably con- 

 structed building potatoes may be kept an 

 entire year, or longer, without deteriora- 

 tion, under cold storage. There is no 

 necessity for potatoes to become shriveled 

 or sprouted if kept dry and cold from 

 the start. 



Good Cows command the best prices 

 of any animals raised on the farm, and the 

 demand for them is steadily growing. It 

 follows that it is in this direction in which 

 the enterprising farmer ought to turn. 

 The more emphasis there is put upon 

 "good" the better. 



A Canadian Fruit Grower experi- 

 mented with two of his cherry trees by 

 spraying one of them. From the sprayed 

 tree he gathered 130 pounds, which he 

 marketed for $9.25, and from the other 

 he got but eighteen pounds, which brought 

 him $1.20. 



Sub-Irrigation a Failure. After five 

 years' trial on the experiment station farm 

 at Logan, the practice of sub-irrigation, in 

 every way that it has been tried, has proven 

 a failure, and about the same results have 

 been obtained at stations in other states. 



When to Cut Grain. Experiments 

 show that grain harvested in the milk or 

 dough makes better yield and better qual- 

 ity than when allowed to ripen on the 

 stalk. It will also gain weight frcm the 

 straw while standing in the stack. 



Escaping Frost. Prof. Kedzie, of the 

 Michigan Agricultural College, says that 

 tender plants and fruits of all kinds, if 

 thoroughly watered late in the evening 

 when frost is expected, will escape un- 

 harmed. 



