1884.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER- 



119 



in foreign countries, suggests tliat the economy 

 of transportation may lead to tlie preparation 

 of and trade in the condensed form of maize. 



Potato Rot.— Col. F. D. Curtis writes to 

 the N. V. Tribune that his father, 30 years 

 ago, when rot was troublesome, felt sure he 

 warded oil" the disease to a greater or less ex- 

 tent by sprinkling slaked lime on the cellar 

 door and spreading potatoes a foot thick, 

 dusting tliem every few inches with the same 

 substance. 



There is no profession whicli can be com- 

 pared in importance to that of agriculture, for 

 to it belongs the production of food for man 

 and for animals ; on it depends the welfare 

 and the development of the whole human 

 family, the riches of States, and all industries, 

 manufacturing and commercial. There is no 

 profession in which the application of correct 

 principles is productive of more beneficial ef- 

 fects, or is of greater or more decided influ- 

 ence. 



Milk as Food. — At the Vermont Dairy- 

 men's Convention Mr. Cheever, speaking of 

 milk as food with and without its cream, said 

 " The robust forms of the European emi- 

 grants who use it extensively in their own 

 countries refute the idea that milk is only fit 

 for l)abies. The per cent, of water in milk 

 is not so large compared with other foods as 

 is generally supposed. Lean meat is dearer 

 than milk as food. Whole milk is a more 

 complete food for animals or man than 

 skimmed milk, but the latter taken in con- 

 nection Willi fat used in cookery is quite equal 

 to whole milk. Skimmed milk is almost a 

 perfect food for pigs in summer. They will 

 live and grow upon it, but they need some- 

 thing more for fattening." Milk contains of 

 digestible substance, album-inoids 3.02, .5 of 

 carbo-hydrates, and 3.6 fat, and skimmed 

 milk about the same, with most of the fat re- 

 moved. 



There is an important difference in apples 

 with regard to their susceptibility to injury 

 from bruises. The Russet, and probably 

 other rich apples, will sometimes "dry up " a 

 skin bruise and continue to keep well, pro- 

 vided the skin is not broken, while with other 

 varieties the slightest bruise quickly hastens 

 decay. 



Apple Shipment in Freezing Weather 

 —Mr. G. F. Newton, of Ohio, mentions hav- 

 ing once sent 20 barrels to market in mid- 

 winter, " They were detained by mismanage- 

 ment in transit for over two days and nights, 

 on the track, and on the second day the mer- 

 cury went down to 12 degrees below zero. 

 There was no fire in the cars, but they went 

 through safe." The secret of this succe.ss, as 

 he thinks, was in the precaution he took to 

 " line each barrel with two thicknesses of 

 paper." 



The American A<jriculUirisl says the prac- 

 tice of strewing a large quantity of litter in 

 sheep-sheds causes the sheep much distress, 

 unless they have hard places to lie upon, 

 because their feet and legs get so hot. It re- 

 commends providing a few platforms like old 

 doors, which can be shifted about every few 

 days by turning over. These will be greatly 

 enjoyed by the sheep, and will promote both 

 their health and comfort. 



Mr. John M. Millikin sends to the Na- 



tional Live Stock Journal some interesting 

 statistics showing the money value of the ex- 

 portation of swine and their products — pork, 

 lard, bacon and hams — compared with that of 

 cattle, horses, mules, sheep and po\dtry, for 

 the years 187U-80. The total value of the 

 exportation of the latter is placed at $105,870,- 

 382, while that of swine is shown to be $180,- 

 087,720. This is a pretty sliowing for the 

 swine-breeding business of the country as a 

 wealth producing industry. 



If you have choice potatoes to keep for 

 seed put them in a box of sand in the cellar. 

 They will not sprout nor freeze. 



Abolish the feather duster. Use a cloth — 

 wii)e away the dust. Do you know just what 

 you are doing when you brush dust away ? 

 You disseminate in the air, and consequently 

 introduce into your own interior, into your 

 tissues and respiratory organs, all sorts of 

 eggs, spores, epidemic germs and murderous 

 vibriones which dust contains. 



An Oregon correspondent to 2'/ie Fruit 

 Recorder sows lettuce with cabbage seed, and 

 says he never had young plants of the latter 

 attacked by the black fly so long as they 

 remained with the lettuce. 



In planting early peas and corn the quality 

 of the future crop may be partly known by 

 observing the degree of contraction in them. 

 All peas and corn that seem shrivelled up, 

 with large indentations, will be tenderer in 

 flesh and contain more sweetness and |juice 

 than the plumper kinds. If good table varie- 

 ties are desired, it is advisable then to select 

 the wrinkled kinds. 



When a field or a garden plot receives 

 suitable cultivation and yet fails to be reason- 

 ably productive it is evident that some im- 

 portant element of plant food is lacking. If 

 manure has been applied in liberal quantities 

 and yet the crops are not satisfactory it will 

 pay to make a trial of other fertilizers. In 

 different sections of the field several different 

 fertilizers should be employed in order to 

 determine as quickly as possible what particu- 

 lar elements are needed to insuie the produc- 

 tion of paying crops. 



Whenever po.ssible, set turkey eggs under 

 a turkey hen. She sticks very closely to the 

 nest, rarely coming off, even to feed. Unlike 

 the eggs of other fowls, the eggs of the turkey 

 will not bear much variation of temperature, 

 and they must never become chilled. When 

 a turkey leaves her nest see that she is cooped 

 in a dry location, as the slightest dampness is 

 injurious to the young ones. They are also 

 very sensitive to filth. 



A f.vrmer who grows both wool and wheat 

 largely and successfully says that it is his 

 opinion that the reason why the yield of 

 wheat per acre in the United States is only 

 half as much as that of England, is because 

 in England the sheep are utilized in connec- 

 tion wiih grain growing, whilst here they are 

 thought of only as wool and mutton-makers. 



Plants require food of two distinct kinds: 

 food for their organic part, and food for their 

 inorganic or mineral part. From the stores 

 existing in the atmosphere, in the form of 

 carbonic acid and ammonia, tliey receive 

 partly the food which nourishes their organic 

 matter in the soil. That which nourishes 



their inorganic or mineral part comes solely 

 from the soil. Tillage operations tend to in- 

 crease plant food in the soil. 



Sheep, no doubt, are the natural residents 

 of high, cool plateaus and mountains ; for the 

 wool, a good protection against cold, is poor 

 shelter against rain. It is no use to attempt 

 sheeji farming on low, wet soils, for here all 

 the disea-ses of the animal are rife — foot rot, 

 scab, rot, etc. New England hiis been the 

 most successful in developing the Merino for 

 the lands are light and high ; though much 

 water falls there, it is in the form of snow, 

 which shaken off, does not penetrate the wool 

 like rain. 



All kinds of fowls are natives of warm or 

 semi-tropical climates. However long they 

 have been domesticated, they retain their 

 liking for warm weather, or at least warm 

 quarters in cold weather. In the winter 

 seasons will do bstter in close houses, even 

 with little ventilation, rather than exposed to 

 evere weather. When a young chick wi\' 

 rest under its mothers wings in a summer's 

 night at a temperature of 100, or more, there 

 is little danger of smothering an old fowl in 

 winter in a tight house. 



The Coventry Gentleman gives the three 

 essentials to success in sowing small seeds, 

 whether of farm crops, garden vegetable, or 

 flowers. They are — a finely pulverized cover- 

 ing, a depth according to the size of the seed, 

 and a moist surface until the plants are well 

 rooted. 



I have just cut back the stray branches of 

 a philadelphus— one of the fragrant old- 

 fashioned variety known as coronarius. (Can 

 some one tell me why these shrubs are called 

 eyringas?) There is a later flowering variety 

 which does better if left to itself, but this 

 mock-orange, when the old wood is sharply 

 pruned after blooming, develops masses of 

 foliage which break into deep shadows and 

 give a certain dignity of character which few 

 shrubs attain. Late in July last year I saw 

 the banks of a mountain stream in Northern 

 Montana fringed for miles with a native phil- 

 adelphus in full bloom. The pure white of 

 the flowers against the rank green of the 

 foilage and the graceful arching of the 

 branches toward the cool water which foamed 

 and tumbled below made a picture not to be 

 forgotten. There is a dwarf variety which 

 also comes from the Rocky Mountain region, 

 a compact little shrub with light green foihige. 

 I have never seen it in cultivation — except at 

 the Arnold Arboretum. It blooms abundant- 

 ly about this time and is one of the most 

 promising of our small native shrubs. 



It is late to speak of hardly azaleas— for 

 their flowers dropped ten days ago— and when 

 the flowers are gone there is little left to ad- 

 mire. In richness of color when in bloom, 

 however, these shrubs stand easily first. I 

 have found the azalea mollis as hardy as the 

 more common Ghent varieties and as the 

 flowers run through a diSerent range of color 

 both kinds should be planted. Azaleas are 

 provokingly deliberate in their way of grow- 

 ing. For two or three years after planting 

 you can hardly see them move, and, when 

 hope is almost dead, a shoot will take a sud- 

 den start some fine spring morning and grow 

 a yard before midsummer. Old plants— like 



