FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 37, 25 March 1875, Page 3

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

When a cow has been carelessly allowed to gorge herself with dry meal, the safest remedy is to withhold water, except in small quantities, to give a pint of linseed oil by the mouth, and injections of soap and water, until the bowels are evacuated. No food should be given until the stomach and bowels are freed. There ia no profit in feeding stock that is past its prime. It is waste of feed and money. As soon as any animal begins to fail it should be disposed of. Old cows, old oxen, old. sows, and old hens form the bulk ot the stock upon many farms. The young animals are sold off. This is the reverse of what is wise and profitable. Those who have had wheat or barley caught in the late storms and wet so as to cause it to swell, and to endanger its sprouting, should remember they can save it by planting it as seed, if they only have the land that can be made ready in quick time, and the grain planted for a hay crop ; this will save it, and give a good return for it also. When the hoof of a cow, ox, or sheep grows too long at the toes', it may be shortened by taking a pair of strong pinchers, such as are used by blacksmiths for horse-shoeing, grinding the edges sharp, and cutting away the toes, until they are reduced to a proper shape. Or a strong paring knife may be handled with care, but it is not nearly ss safe as the pincers. Animals with feet too long at the toe should be attended to at once, or lameness may result. Farmers do wrong to allow their ploughs to become so rusty that great labor is required to scour them. There is no help for it in that case, but to scour witb a piece of brick and sand and water, until the mould-board is bright. But if, when the plough is done with, the mould-board is covered with thick lime -wash, or a good coating of tallow, and put away in a dry place under cover, there will be no need to spend a whole day in scouring it when it is wanted for use again. Flesh and fat are made at half the cost of feeding in summer as compared with winter. Much food may now be gathered up, which costs little, and would otherwise be wasted. Boil the screenings from the thrashing machine with small potatoes for the hogs, and feed sound old corn, or, what is better, corn meal. Pork made with soft corn is not cheaply made. Keep the soft corn and nubbins for the store hogs. Now is tbe season to buy stock for feeding during the winter, to make manure. Farmers who are economical with their feed, and have some to spare, had better buy a few head of stock than sell hay or straw. But buy with judgment ; an animal well bought is half sold. A few loads of good well-rotted manure harrowed into the surface, or covered with a very light furrow at the second ploughing, is better than twice as many loads spread in the winter as a top dressing. Strong plants at the start are what we want. If there is food at hand, the roots from the sprouting seed find it and make a rapid growth, when is safety. Strong fibrous roots spreading far into the soil, are not so easily thrown out by frost, as weak puny short roots which have no hold. Thousands of young plants die for want of food in poor soil, long before any frost touches them. The manure and seed should go into the ground together. Top dressing in winter is an after expedient, useful when nothing better can be done. But it is better for the crop that it should not need it. Where no manure is at hand, 200lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre will give wheat a fine start. It may be followed later by a top dressing. Used for tethering, stakes are easily loosened or battered to pieces by driving them, and the tethering rope is frequently wound around them. If a strong iron rod be bent into the shape of a corkscrew, with a loop at the upper end, it may be screwed into the ground, and will then hold the strongest animal safely, while the rope cannot be wound round it. This implement will answer the purpose of a post to hold guy ropes for shears, or any other similar purpose, or to fasten the lower block of hay hoisting tackle, when working with the hay fork.' Indeed there are many; uses for this little contrivance, which will suggest themselves. One of its advantages, and hot the least of them, is that it is readily set in place,' and as readily removed, without the use of a hammer, to drive it or knock ii loose. A short stout stick like an auger handle put through the loop is all tbatisTieeded; ~ ~