THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



135 



the clay put a shallow coat of soil— just enough 

 to grow blue grass, and sow blue grass seed ; 

 or instead of this, sod around the platform. 



Since the introduction of the rubber but- 

 tons, I prefer a chain piirap to the suction 

 pump proper. I do not know that the suc- 

 tion pump is not the lightest and easiest, but 

 it is the most liable to get out of repair. The 

 rubber buttons make the chain pump the 

 fastest pump, as it will throw a stream of 

 water the full dimensions of the tubing and 

 also a continuous one. 



Up to within a few years ago it was the 

 universal practice to put a flat rock in the 

 bottom of the well, and upon this rest the 

 tubing. I can commend the later plau of nail- 

 ing flies out from the tubing to keep it in the 

 centre of the well and suspending it from the 

 top. The lower end of the tubing should 

 reach within about a foot of the bottom of 

 the well. 



Where any considerable amount of water 

 is to be raised for stock it will pay to get a 

 wind-pump. The entire cost of such an out- 

 fit need not exceed $100 or 812-5. These wind 

 pumps have now been reduced to almost per- 

 fection. They are self-regnlating, and troughs 

 are manufactured which will allow the water 

 to escape as fast as it reaches a certain point. 

 With such appliances a supply of fresh, cool 

 water can always be kept before stock with- 

 out manual labor. — W. Press. 



GREEN MANURING. 



Plowing under green succulent growth for 

 manure is less common than it once was. 

 Forty years ago this was the method in West- 

 ern New York for growing the wheat crops 

 which gave this section its celebrity. Clover 

 was the green manure used, and alternate 

 wheat and clover crops made the ordinary ro- 

 tation. 



Summer fallowing, which included plowing 

 under a rank growth of clover, did not give 

 way until the weevil about 1854-5 and 6 

 made, for a time, wheat-growing impossible. 

 Farmers were driven into mixed husbandry, 

 and when they again took to growing wheat, 

 it was after oats or barley. A few years 

 later it was found that with superphosphate 

 as good or better wheat could be grown after 

 these grains as were ever grown by summer 

 fallow. Those who tried summer fallowing 

 again, found that its results were uncertain 

 unless the phosphate were also used. If 

 phosphate had to be purchased, the majority 

 of farmers preferred to buy a little more and 

 make a spring crop before sojving wheat, 

 which very often paid better than a crop of 

 wheat on the best summer fallow. 



One supposed advantage of the naked fal- 

 low, with clover ploughed under, was in free- 

 ing the land of weeds. This was only par- 

 tially true. Our land under hoed crops is not 

 more foul than it was forty years ago. With 

 some kinds of weeds, as red root, it is clearer 

 now than then. Nor does the ploughing 

 under of clover permanently enrich the soil. 

 The decomposing clover itself is helpful, but 

 an equal or greater advantage may be had by 

 passing it through animals and spreading the 

 manure. We cannot make the manure go so 

 far nor spread it so evenly, but this is more 

 than offset by the profit on the feeding of 

 clover hay, which yields a fair return if fed to 



fattening stock in winter, with corn or cotton- 

 seed meal. 



There is likely to be a revival of green 

 manuring, but it will hardly be of clover nor 

 for wheat. We cannot aflbrd to take the 

 growth of two years to make one wheat crop 

 while in hot competition with Western grow- 

 ers. Besides clover is too valuable for feed to 

 be plowed under. Other crops will pay better 

 than wheat, and other green manures will 

 take the place of clover. One of these is 

 winter rye, and its advantage is that its 

 growth is made in fall and early spring, so 

 that it can be turned under in time for corn, 

 potatoes and beans. Kyc is not as valuable a 

 green manure as clover, but it is better than 

 nothing and its only cost is the seed. On corn 

 or potato ground that would otherwise be naked 

 during the winter, rye protects the soil from 

 washing by rains or blowing off by the fierce 

 winter winds. Its decomposition makes the 

 soil light and porous which is an advantage 

 for either corn, potatoes or beans. This ex- 

 treme friability of soil, caused by decompos- 

 ing a rank growth of clover, is not favorable 

 to wheat. Unless the fallow was plowed 

 early in June, so as to allow the soil to com- 

 pact before wheat seeding, the clover was apt 

 to do as much harm as good. Those who 

 summer fallow for wheat now cut or feed off 

 the early growth of clover, relying on the 

 roots to make a rich seed bed. 



Clover is more profitably plowed under a 

 year after seeding and in preparation for 

 some hoed crop. The increased crop of corn 

 or potatoes will give a good profit on the 

 clover, with much less labor than would be 

 required to cut and feed it. Since the advent 

 of the clover worm this plowing under of 

 clover has become a popular mode of utilizing 

 it. The practice is wasteful in one sense, 

 from the fact that, if left, the clover root 

 would become larger and penetrate the sub- 

 soil more deeply. But, as it is pretty certain 

 that if left alone, the clover worm would de- 

 stroy the crop, it is better to destroy at once 

 this;enemy than the crop it feeds on. — Win.J. 

 Fowler in Press. 



CAUSE AND CURE OF CONSTIPATION. 



Insutflcient supply of water or of succulent 

 food is probably the ultimate cause of 

 three-fourths of ihe cases of ordinary con- 

 stipation. The appemte for liquids which, 

 under strictly normal conditions, would regu- 

 late the supply to the demand, is, under the 

 ordinary conditions of civilized life, largely 

 controlled by habit, and habits are often es- 

 tablished by thoughtless concessions to con- 

 venience. Habit has quite as much to do with 

 the taking of food at stated times as appetite 

 has ; the latter merely coming in to decide 

 how much shall be taken, and this decision is 

 often based upon the quality of the food and 

 the time allotted to the process ; and too 

 much liquid taken with the food so embar- 

 rasses digestion as to cause inconvenience ; 

 and thus not only is a bad habit prevented, 

 but a still worse habit of taking too little 

 liquid is liable to be fallen into. So, too, with 

 drink proper, or water taken at other than 

 mealtimes. The appetite for it is often not 

 strong enough to break through the occupa- 

 tions of the time, and, by habitual neglect, 

 soon disappears altogether. Any one who is 



3ufl[lciently observant of his lesser instinctive 

 wants will find that, after the first stages of 

 digestion and absorption, a glass of water is 

 particularly acceptable, and the most accept- 

 able time will vary with the rapidity of the 

 digestion of the individual— generally from 

 one to two hours after the meal. The other 

 times for taking water will depend largely 

 upon tne amount of exercise, since these are 

 chiefly to supply the waste by the lungs and 

 the skin. — Br. tSquibb, in Ephemeris. 



One of the speakers at the meeting of the 

 board of agriculture, recently held at Lowell, 

 urged the importance of having pure air in 

 the barn at time of milking, and stated that 

 "cows ought not to be carded before milking 

 and the barn swept up," giving as a reason 

 that ''it filled the air with particles of im- 

 purities and bad odors." This maybe cor- 

 rect, and it perhaps often causes an unpleas- 

 ant taste in the butter that the farmer is at a 

 loss to account for. For as we have said in a 

 former article milk absorbs bad odors more 

 readily than most other sub.stances. 



Thus it would seem that the farmer, by the 

 very act of trying to keep his barn swept and 

 clean puts it in the very condition required to 

 taint the milk. But the question arises, if 

 the cow cannot be cleaned and the barn 

 swept just before milking, is it good policy to 

 milk the cow before she is clean and the barn 

 swept,? This would certainly be v(jry unde- 

 sirable; in fact we cannot help thinking it 

 would be almost impossible to milk an un- 

 cleaned cow, without injuring the milk by 

 the hairs falling into it, and also whatever 

 loose particles of dirt might be on the milk 

 bag. As a rule the farmer cannot clean his 

 barn and card his cows early enough in the 

 morning and leave time enough before milk- 

 ing to air the barn, and have all the flying 

 particles of impurities settle. There seems to 

 be but two ways to avoid this trouble. First, 

 by carding and cleaning the cows in a shed 

 before milking, then return them to the barn 

 to be milked. Second by cleaning the cows 

 in the barn, then leading them to warm, 

 clean room to be milked. The last would 

 seem to be the best method. 



This is a matter for serious thought to 

 those farmers who desire to make gilt edged 

 butter they can sell for a dollar a pound. If 

 as the speaker remarked, tobacco in the 

 mouth of the milker will eftect the milk, it is 

 no wonder that it is so difficult to make first 

 quality butter. We have for sometime enter- 

 tained the idea that farmers as a rule, have 

 not given attention enough to pure air in the 

 barn and the milk room, but confess had not 

 thought much of the consequences of the bad 

 breath of the farmer or we should have urged 

 him to abandon onions as well as tobacco. — 

 Massachusetts Ploughman. 



CLEAN DAIRIES. ' 



Every farmer and farmer's wife, says the 

 Oermantoion Telegraph, conducting a dairy 

 with the surest aims to success, knows that 

 perfect cleanliness and ventilation are the 

 most important requirements to be observed, 

 and cannot receive too careful attention. 

 Some of the largest and most profitable of 



