HINTS TO FARMERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2168, 5 February 1881, Page 3

HINTS TO FARMERS.

Petroleum is an excellent preservative of .exposed woodwork and tools. It penetrates the pores, and repays its cost many times •over. It is good for all farm buildings, .gates, tools and rustic work, and is very ■cheap. For storing onions, there is no better place than a dry, cool, and airy loft, where they can be spread oat thinly, and often looked ■over for the removal of those which may have begun to decay. Warmth and moisture are fatal to the keeping of onions, and much handling is almost equally so. How to Test Cows—The difficulty of establishing the value of each cow in the dairy is not os great as is generally supposed. The method usually employed is to weigh each coW's milk upon a spring scale as soon as it is drawn, and before pouring it into the general receptacle. A small record-book, containing the name of each cow and oolumns for date, weight of milk, &c, renders it a comparatively easy matter. To get a fair average through the year ono week's trial for each month is sufficient. In making tests for batter it is only necessary to sot each cow's milk separately and churn it by itself, whioh will give the yield of buttor for a certain quantity of milk. Sore Teats in Cows.—Take a fuE pail of cold water and wash and rnb the soros well. Cse the whole pailful of water before milking, whioh cools the teats or reduces the fever, and the cow will stand perfectly still. After milking, use half as much more .cold water, oleansing the bags and teats well, and in a few days the sores will be healed. This is not all the good you will receive. You will have clean milk, and that is the way to have clean butter. The Farmer's Garden.-—The common idea among farmers, that manure and labor spent on the garden is nearly thrown away, is absurd. The cultivated Held pays just as we invest labor and manure upon it. The gsrden,

I with more thorough cultivation, and & greater variety of crop*, pay* etill better. It brings its offering to the table, in some shape, every day in the year. . , . Accumulation of Manure in Stables.—A large mass of dung, unless frozen or kept near the freesing point, will undergo decomposition, and aires oft, besides steam, ammonia and other gases. These tend to soften and injure the hoofs of animals, and especially horses, that may be forced to stand continuously upon the accumulation of dung. These gases oause inflammation of the eyes, and injure the general health, interfere with the digestion, and reduce the rigor of the animal. There should be no mass of manure in any stable whe*e horses are kept. A clean floor and pure air are requisites for the best health of the animals.—" Amerioan Agriculturist. 1 ff , . ~ To Kill a Sheep.—The following is the usual method of dreising a Bheep :—The four lees are tied together and the sheep is laid on tho bench, with the head and neck projecting. The veins and arteries of the neok are cut with a sharp-pointed knife thrust through the throat. The carcass is turned on the back, the legs loosened, and tho skin divided from the root of the tail along the belly to the ohm, by running the sharp-pointed knife along under it, and outting nothing else. This is done very quiokly and easily when one is used to it. The skin of the legs is then slit in the same manner on the inside and up to the first slit. The knuckles aro then divided and the feet removed ; tho legs are freed from the skin, whioh is also separated from the belly and the shouldere and flanks. The sheep is then |hung up by tho gambrels on a orossstiok, whioh stretches them apart, and the skin is flayed off from the rump to the head. When tho skin is removed the belly is opened carefully and the intestines taken out without breaking them.