HINTS FOR FARMERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2148, 13 January 1881, Page 4

HINTS FOR FARMERS.

Crib-biting.—This is often a habit, but may be caused by a disease. Indigestion occasions a constant irritation and uneasiness, which may impel the horse to take hold with the teeth and stretch the neck as a means of relief. From this grows the habit of cribbiting and wind-sucking, which ceases when the cause is removed. As a remedy (says the “Philadelphia Weekly Press,”) give the horse in his food, daily, for a few weeks, one drachm of copperas and half an ounce of ground ginger, and feed him upon cut feed, with crushed or ground grain, and an ounce of salt in each feed. Watch the Weeds.—The only way to get rid of them is not to allow one to go to seed anywhere on tho premises. One of the worst nurseries for the pests is among the rubbish that is allowed by some farmers to accumulate around their buildings, or where the wash from the barnyard or other sources has killed the grasses. These must bo destroyed as well as those in the ground that is cultivated. To do this pull them up by the roota before their seeds ripen, and remove them to the hog-pen or the compost, heap. Cleansing Dairy Utensils. —There is a good fraction of the success in butter-making dependent on the proper cleaning of dairy utensils. Some appear to think it will do just as well to wait a few ho - ’rs before the milk pails are washed and scrubbed ; that the churn may stand a half or whole day before being washed and the germs of decay killed by heat; that the cream pail may bo used for several batches of cream before thorough cleansing, because sweotcream is going into it again; that the butter worker may stand until you want to use it again before scalding, because it will be then freshly cleaned when you use it, &c. There is altogether too much of this heedless way of carrying on butter making. Tho nitrogenous portion of milk (caseine) furnishes just the substance required for ferments, for the development of germs wholly inimical to pure milk !or butter. These ferments remain in the crevices of wood or the seams of tin vessels, and unless they are dislodged by immediate cleansing, it requires bailing or steaming for a considerable length of time to dislodge them. Every utensil after its use must bo immediately cleansed if you wish to prevent taints In your milk, cream or butter. Wooden pails are now discarded from use by the patrons of cheese factories, because few can be trusted to properly cleanse them. Weekly Press.” Compost.—Farmers who know the value of compost, and know how to make it, increase their manure pile. In this way (says the “ Philadelphia Weekly Press of loads are made annually, the material being gathered on the premises, such as forest leaves, cornstalks (including the roots), weeds, vines, loam from fence corners, muck from ponds and ditches, occasional sprinkling of lime through tho mass, layers of barnyard manure, and thus build up oblong squares and let them remain over winter. Splint in Horses.—A splint is an exostosis or enlargement on the shank bone, generally on tho fore leg, which may appear at any time. Among the causes are concussion and bruising, or knocks on the parts. Cold applications and blistering, or division of the periosteum or tissue covering the bone, are among the remedies used.