84 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



I 



A lot planted as described will afford suffi- 

 cient fruit in their season for any family, be- 

 sides increasing the value of the land, and be 

 a credit to the owner. Any land owner can 

 have a lot like this if he wants it, and another 

 advantage to be gained is the growing of 

 small fruits while the bushes are small. I 

 have yet to find any one who has commenced 

 the growing of fruit but will become s(J in- 

 terested that he will be constantly increasing 

 his stock. It is a duty we owe to ourselves 

 and our children to make home pleasant, and 

 I tell you reader, we cannot afford not to fix 

 up our homes, and if you have not thought of 

 the matter it is time you had, and so this very 

 spring commence, and if you have children 

 get some small fruits of some kind and give 

 them to them Show them how to ]ilaut and 

 care for them ; tell them how in course of 

 time, with proper care, they will bring forth 

 fruit ; and it will do you good to notice the 

 interest it will awaken in them, and they will 

 soon try to have the nicest door-yard and 

 garden in the neighborhood. Come, let us 

 wake up and try and make home pleasant, 

 and the children will not want to leave home. 

 —Northivestern Farmer. 



CONSIDERATIONS OF IMPORTANCE 

 IN FEEDING. 



A good feeder is not necessarily the man 

 who, having an abundance in his crib, throws 

 into the feeding-box according to the abund- 

 ance in hand. To build up a living organism 

 with success and without interruptions, hence 

 with profit, is something different from what 

 the average farm hand is capable of doing cor- 

 rectly. As regards economizing food, much, 

 of course, depends upon the market value of 

 this, yet not so much as might at first sight 

 appear, because corn at a low price is likely to 

 go hand in hand with low-priced beef. And 

 when beef is low in price, no man can make 

 much profit in feeding. This condition, it is 

 true, may be better under this state of things 

 than it would otherwise be, through the mod- 

 erate prices on articles he is compelled to buy, 

 as low-priced corn and meat are quite likely 

 to be accompanied by moderate prices on 

 some, if not all the necessaries of life. 



One of the principal factors in the gain made 

 by a fattening animal is comfort. Discomfort 

 makes war upon the vital forces, and these 

 being sustained only through nutriment con- 

 sumed, it follows that the less the discomfort 

 the less the waste of food. Hence, to reason 

 that, as winter is over, animals can now be 

 left without shelter that have heretofore had 

 protection, is wrong from every point of view. 

 The outer hide and hair, protected through 

 the winter, will be doubly sensitive to cold 

 and wet if e.xposed during storms in early 

 April. Comfort is the criterion as to probable 

 thrift, and any weather that a domestic ani- 

 mal can not remain out in without showing 

 discomfort, it should not be exposed to. 



Animals in the natural state — we refer to 

 domestic animals having their freedom upon 

 the farm — eat regularly and with a degree of 

 moderation, hence are not liable to the reple- 

 tion which comes to the feeding beast induced 

 to eat immoderately. While artificial stimu- 

 lation may, under certain conditions, and 

 withiu certain limits, prove helpful, still we 

 can not always be assured that no disorder will 



occur to interrupt nutrition. Artificial condi- 

 tions, when brought to bear upon the living 

 animal, so change it from accustomed influ- 

 ences that, so far as the fattening beast is con- 

 cerned, it requires good management to insure 

 that it will go througli to the end of its short 

 journey, the butcher's block, in good, healthy 

 condition, and yield a profit. 



All men who feed stock can not be expected 

 to study physioloay, though its principles are 

 brought into requisition every day, and it is 

 really as necessary that the living machine be 

 understood, that they may conduct their bus- 

 iness successfully as that the engineer, to be an 

 expert with the engine, be minutely acquainted 

 with its every part. One of the lessons easily 

 learned in every feeding lot is, that the chil- 

 ling weather of early spring tells upon exposed 

 cattle more than the dry, frosty air of a cold 

 winter. If shelter, dry bedding and pains- 

 taking care are required at one season more 

 than another, that time is very likely to come 

 iu the early months of spring. The mercury 

 may not run low, but the vitality of farm ani- 

 mals will go down in the scale more rapidly 

 when the atmosphere is charged with a damp, 

 depressing chill than when the mercury is 

 well down below the freezing point and the 

 air clear and dry. 



While by analysis, and through experience 

 in feeding, it has been often proved that corn 

 leads all of the farm-grown grains in making 

 flesh, still it is equally well-known that as the 

 extreme cold disappears a mixture, made up 

 of the lighter grains, shorts, and bran, with a 

 little oat meal added, will bring better results 

 than corn alone, though, chemically, it may 

 be superior to the combined foods. 



No man can feed successfully until he has 

 learned to vary the food accoidingto the con- 

 dition of his animals, giving rest to the diges- 

 tive organs as occasion calls. When in good 

 condition it is safe to calculate that a fatten- 

 ing beast will bear a pound of grain per day 

 for each hundred pounds of its own live 

 weight. It will consume more than this in 

 cold weather, because no inconsiderable 

 amount is required to keep up a successful 

 battle with the outside temperature. From 

 early spring till grass comes it should be made 

 a rule tliat the gain be more rapid than dur- 

 ing the extreme cold of winter. That gain 

 can be made if due care be taken. The con- 

 ditions, in some important regard^ will be 

 more under control than heretofore during 

 the winter. 



There is a double inducement to exert great 

 vigilance in adding to the daily gain, namely, 

 (1) the gain in pounds at that time in the his- 

 tory of the beast when his weight upon the 

 scales is approaching his highest value per 

 pound ; (2) the advantage of the increased 

 fleshiness — ripeness — as an important factor iu 

 increasing the price of his weight per pound. 

 Then, too, the manure — and no farm any- 

 where is so good that it does not need all the 

 manure made upon it — is rich, hence valu- 

 able, in the ratio of the richness of the food 

 given and its quantity. The matured bullock 

 carries less away from the productive element 

 iu the soil than does the load of wheat or 

 other grain sold oflT the farm, dollar for dollar 

 of value. Yet he does carry something, in 

 fact no incoQSiderable amount of bone and 

 flesh elements ; but bear in mind that he 



leaves no inconsiderable substance behind 

 him in the form of manure, while the grain 

 and hay hauled off" the farm leaves nothing — 

 IS a dead tax upon fertility. It is the fact that 

 the steer provides for others of his kind to 

 follow after him that gives stock-growing one 

 of its most valuable features. That kind 

 of husbandry that will bring the most dollars 

 for the manual labor expended, at the same 

 time taking the least substance from the soil, 

 in view of the returns, is the sort that is each 

 year receiving greater attention from the 

 more intelligent class of farmers. — Live Stock 

 Journal. 



THIN OUT THE FRUIT. 



As the season seems favorable, the prospect 

 is that the trees, of all kinds, will be loaded 

 with fruit. Too much fruit is something un- 

 usual, for the market is never overstocked in 

 quantity, but too much inferior fruit is a 

 yearly infliction on all who buy. Pruning, 

 trimming and cultivating, while pushing for- 

 ward the trees in vigor and productiveness, 

 also assist in the development of a surplus of 

 blossoms, the stimulus causing the trees to 

 bend their energies in that direction in prefer- 

 ence to an excess of leaves, for the embryo 

 buds are alike, and diverge into leaf or fruit 

 as the conditions direct. 



Thinning out fruit seems repulsive to those 

 who are accustomed to seeing heavy clusters 

 of fruit on trees, and the operation appears 

 to be a wasteful one ; but, when we consider 

 that fruiting is but an effort of natural re- 

 production, it is to be wondered, rather, that 

 thinning is not more commonly practiced. If 

 the tree cannot propagate by seeding it will 

 endeavor to do so from the root by sending 

 out shoots. It either sends out shoots or fruit 

 buds, or both, and this must be accomplished 

 only with the material which the tree affords, 

 part of which is stored and part new, taken 

 directly from the soil at the time of blossom- 

 ing or a little before. This material is dis- 

 tributed to every part of the tree, the remot- 

 est Dlossom not being forgotten, and the tree 

 can only nourish according to its capacity to 

 supj.ly. Where the fruit is overcrowded on 

 the tree the fact is apparent that inferiority 

 of size must be the consequence ; and when- 

 ever the fruit is dwarfed the flavor and ap- 

 pearance is below the average, to say nothing 

 of the drain on the vitality of the tree, which 

 is thereby compelled to use its utmost en- 

 deavor in order to develop its fruit. 



By thinning out the inferior specimens, 

 leaving only that which looks promising, the 

 sap is directed into fewer channels instead of 

 the many, the fruit, being supplied with a 

 greater proportion of nourishment, grows 

 more rapidly, ripeus sooner, and is improved 

 in appearance and quality. Nor will the ac- 

 tual production be less, for the chauces are 

 that by measurement the quantity will be 

 more than if no thinning process had been 

 practiced, the chief benefit being the doubling 

 of the price owing to the superiority of the 

 fruit. Strawberries so treated have been 

 grown to such proportions as to readily com- 

 mand fifty cents per quart when inferior kinds 

 were not in demand, and pears have been 

 sent to our markets that sold singly at good 

 prices, while others were sold by measure- 

 mfent. Thousands of bushels of apples rot in 



