FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 161, 20 May 1873, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Dr. Sylvester says Le ha* no doubt that healthy trees maj be infected bj the poison of diseased ones, conve^d upon saw or pruning shears, and he advises that these implementsbo carefully washed m a solution oi carbolic acid after being u,eil about a blighted pear, or peacli with the yellow a. The cause of scabby feet m poultry is damp and dirt, or soinethin* by which the general condition of the fowl w weakened. The remedy is. to wash the ieet in a weak solution of sugar of lead or sulphate of miic, and, after wiping them dry, to smear them with lard mixed with a lew drops ot creosote. The fow 1 should have a little copperas dissolved in its drinking water, and a little gmfeer mixed with its f<Ted. When a farmur lose* a horse, a sheep, or any other animal, instead of throwing the eaictoc to the dogs and crows, or burying it, and in this manner losing it, let him throw o\er it a few handfals of slaked li ne and then from eight to tea tunes the Lulk of the amimul oi Jeartl . By thie-ineiws the fortilizin" cases which arc thrown off during the decomposition of the animal w ill be absorbed. He will then hare one or two cirtlbatU of man arc, w Inch will pay him fate times over for his pains. 111 Sweel potatoes as all root crop*, require a deep-ploughed, mellow, loose soil. Ihe rows or beds should be three leet and a half apart ; and the plants set eighteen inches apart 111 the rows. The cultivation should bo mostly by hand, with hoes, eveept one deep lurrow made by a plough between, the rows just before the plants are laid- by. The crop docs not succeed very well if the vines are buried in earth or otherwi-e injured. The ground, should be kepc loose and mellow, free from weeds, and the hills llat and not pointed i or heaped up. The roots when dry may be stored in bands. They keep beat in dry sand and 111 a warm place, and bhould bo allowed to dry in the sun a whole day before they are stored away. A temperature of 60 is a favourable one lor pieieving them. Small bins of about twenty bushels are I better than large ones, and dcy forest leaves or straw make ' good material to pack them in. # In feeding cows lor milk and butter, the following suggestions may be acceptable : Raise jour own cows, do nfl. buy them, strange animals are ill-tieatcd and often lrjurld. If you wish to get all the milk possible, teed high, and m two years "you can drive all the milk out of a cow' — on the contrary, feed moderately and many cows will hold out until tliey are 21 — several instances were .mentioned. Cows treated kindly will not be vicious. iS'o rule for feeding them cm be of universal application, their constitutions must be regarded as much as in the human race. Abundant testimony is given lon fodder corn, with a pnclercnce for sweet corn. One Fierd had been winteied on it thus far— cut with a hay-cutter --two quarts shorts and two quaits cobmeal added. Alter fodder corn is well cured pack closely 111 the barn, as cows w ill not eat it if it is too dry. One milk producer stated that ho could not make it pay to use the highest priced hay ; he preferred a poorer quality and more meal. In reviewing some dozen experiences, no allusion can bo found to the use of cooked food for dairy cows.