52 



THE LANCASTER FARME!^ 



[April, 



acres, but he has been remarkably successful, 

 and his success has, observes the Topeka 

 Farmer, in spite of droughts, verified the re- 

 peated statement that more grain can be 

 raised from a well-tilled field often acres than 

 from forty acres poorly tended. 



Farmers who co-operate together in buy- 

 ing and selling should endeavor to make 

 arrangements with the workingmen of the 

 cities, whereby either party may be benefitted 

 from the transactions. All that is needed is 

 organizatioa, and there is no reason why an 

 organized body of farmers may not get larger 

 prices for produce and at the same time 

 cheapen it to the consumer. Tlie working- 

 men are always ready to organize for such 

 purpose, and the farmers should profit by it. 



TuE parts of animals generally used for 

 glue-making are the paring of hides and 

 skins from tanneries and slaughter-houses 

 known as glue pieces, fleshing, pelts from fur- 

 riers, hoofs and ears of cattle, horses and 

 sheep. Animal skins in every form, when 

 unacted upon by tannic acid, are excellent 

 material for the glue-maker. It is said that 

 the parings of oxen and other tliick hides 

 make the best glue. Fish-bones, the core of 

 horns, sinews and animal membrane are all 

 utilized for the same purpose. 



Dr. Gilbert, of England, the long-time 

 associate of Sir J. B. Lawes in the Eotliam- 

 stead experiments, thinks the clover 

 failure in this country, generally attributed 

 to insects, is really due to clover sickness — 

 condition of the soil in which clover refuses to 

 grow. He believes the insects which are gen- 

 erally credited with the failure only come in 

 because of the feeble growth of the plant. 

 This opinion, coming from so high an 

 authority, is worth investigating. 



Wool waste from the shoddy mills in 

 Franklin, Mass., is used and valued quite 

 highly for agricultural purposes. It is com- 

 posed of the short fragments and fine dust 

 gathered under the machines that prepare the 

 most valuable portions of the wool for use in 

 manufactures. The grease from the scouring 

 mills is quite another substance, containing a 

 large percentage of potash, we believe, while 

 wool waste is valued chiefly for its nitrogenous 

 elements. 



Mk. John G. Lemmon has reported to the 

 California Academy of Sciences the discovery 

 of two or tliree varieties of indigenous pota- 

 toes among the mountain ranges along the 

 Mexican frontier of Arizona. Tliey grow 

 abundantly in high mountain meadows sur- 

 rounded by peaks attaining a height of 10,000 

 feet above the sea level. The tubers were 

 about the size of walnuts. Mr. Lemmon 

 brought home a supply which will be care- 

 fully cultivated. 



Andrew Burnett, of Wellesley, who 

 raises considerable quanties of flat turnips for 

 feeding to his milch cows, writes as follows : 

 "AVhen I grass down on well-manured lands 

 the middle or last of August, I sow quarter of 

 a pound of white flat turnip seed to the acre 

 with the grass seed, harvesting the turnips 

 after about three months growth. Too much 

 seed is commonly used in raising turnips. I 

 should use less than one pound of turnip seed 

 to the acre if I were sowing nothing else at 

 the time." 



A TON of London sewage contains only 

 three pounds of solid matter. 



It appears from Pliny's description, that 

 tlie rhododendron of the ancients, so poison- 

 ous to animal life, was what we call oleander. 



An Ohio farmer names the Mammoth 

 Pearl as the potato to take the place of the 

 Peach-blow, against which charges of deteri- 

 oration are made. 



The drought has so seriously aflected the 

 wheat crop of Australia that farmers of this 

 country need not fear from Australian com- 

 petition the coming year. 



Salt is used to destroy the onion maggot 

 with partial success. About the 1st of July, 

 sow two bushels to the acre ; the salt also 

 hastens the maturity of the crop. 



Everything points to another period *in 

 England of live stock contagion. Both foot 

 and mouth disease and pleuropneumonia are 

 appearing in unexpected places. 



The tendency of modern practice in man- 

 uring with commercial fertilizers is to use 

 readily soluable and quick-acting manures, 

 but to use them sparingly at a time. Little 

 and often is the rule. 



A GOOD guide for feeding grain to cattle is 

 one pound to each hundred of their weight. 

 Most animals eat in proportion to their 

 weight, and an animal weighing 1000 pounds 

 may receive ten pounds of grain per day. 



Martindale Catkins, a discouraged 

 fruit-grower in Western New York, is dig- 

 ging out a fifty acre apple orchard, planted 

 twenty years ago. It has never borne but 

 one full crop, and then tlie price was too low 

 to pay for picking. 



Arthur S. Core, of Mount Vernon, N. 

 Y., grew two crops of potatoes last year on 

 the same land. The second crop was short- 

 ened by drought ; but in a good season he 

 thinks two crops may be made profitable 

 where laud is scarce. 



Professor J. I-. Budd says the scions of 

 Russian apples sent to the Iowa Agricultural 

 College were judiciously selected from varie- 

 ties grown in the latitude of St. Petersburg 

 and Moscow, and he prophesies their future 

 success in this country. 



There are almost a score of incubators in 

 operation at Hammonton. N. J., and there 

 will be more chickens hatched there this 

 season than ever before, the climate and soil, 

 as well as location, being specially apapted to 

 the raising of poultry. 



Soot contains a small percentage of nitro- 

 gen, used alone it makes an excellent top- 

 dressing for spring grain and grass, being 

 quick in its action without being too stimula- 

 ting. It has also the property of destroying 

 slugs on winter grain. 



Many so-called cases of pear blight arc due 

 to other causes than blight. Quite often 

 trees are said to be blighted from too much 

 manure, when, in fact, the heavy doses of 

 manure water would have killed an oak or 

 butternut as quickly as it killed the pear. 



It is bad policy to wash harness with soap, 

 as the potash injures leather. If the harness 

 becomes rusty rub off the dirt as well as pos- 

 sible with a soft brush and supply a dressing 

 of grain black, followed with oil or tallow, 



which will fasten the color and make the 

 leather pliable. 



In the Island of -Jamaica splendid cattle 

 are raised on Guinea grass, many weighing 

 2000 pounds or more after being dressed. 

 Thousands of acres in Guinea grass can be 

 seen in some parts of the island stretching 

 for miles of the hillsides and plaines, and 

 stocked with the finest imported cattle from 

 England. 



A shipment of 300 bushels of red-oak 

 acorns has been made to Germany for plant- 

 ing on untillable hillsides. This tree is found 

 to do well in Europe and its wood is valuable. 

 The acorns were gathered in Missouri at an 

 average cost of SI per bushel. The same 

 party has also shipped ISO bushels of pignuts 

 for similar purposes. 



A successful fruit-grower thinks many 

 apple trees are set too near together ; two rods 

 apart is near enough. The land for an 

 orchard must be kept in good condition. He 

 top-dresses his orchard once in three years, 

 principally with a thick coating of straw. 

 He allows hogs to run in his orchards, and 

 plows the land until the trees are so large as 

 to interfere with such a practice. Last year 

 he picked forty-five barrels of Greenings from 

 four trees. Orchards thrive best near bodies 

 of water. Trees should be judiciously trimmed 

 while young. Many trees are injured by 

 overpruning. Trees should be grated when 

 they are from one iuch to one and one-half 

 inches in diameter. 



Judge Eaton, of Ottawa, 111., notes, in an 

 article on the history of the Irish potato, a 

 fact which many farmers have observed, 

 despite the assurance by scientists that 

 " mixing in the hill is impossible ; " ''A curi- 

 ous fact connected with the growth of the 

 Irish potato, and which most farmers have no 

 doubt observed, is that they will hybridize 

 in the hill. Plant a red and a white potato 

 in the same hill, or so near together that their 

 bearing roots will intervene, and pare of the 

 tubers of either plant are liable to be marked 

 with red and white patches, or one-lialf may 

 be red and the other half white. This is an 

 interesting field for the investigation of some 

 one inclined to the work." 



In order to have successive crops of green 

 food for stock small pieces of ground should 

 be sown at intervals for that purpose. Some 

 sections will not produce grass in abundance, 

 but such difliculty may partially be avoided by 

 sowing peas and oats mixed, mustard, radish: 

 collards, kale, or anything else that comes 

 early. Though the quantity may not be 

 large, the green stuff will answer for a change 

 of diet, and serves an excellent purpose in 

 that respect. 



The orchard should be cultivated at least 

 eight years, or till it comes well into bearing 

 in any hoed crop or sown to buckwheat and 

 let fall back on the ground ; care should be 

 taken not to plow too near or too deep near 

 the trees ; when yon seed use red clover. It 

 is advisable to shorten in the branches two- 

 thirds the last year's growth, for the reason 

 that the tree has lost roots in being taken up, 

 and that equalizes the top and root. 



A BEE never gatliers pollen from more than 

 one variety of flowers on the same trip or 

 visit. If so, why is there such perfect same- 



