Farm and Dairy.

Lake County Press, Issue 2185, 5 September 1907, Page 2

Farm and Dairy.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES, LAx-i Rights Keseeved.] Feeding Silage. SILAGrE is far superior to corn cured and fed in a dry form. Silage is all eaten up by the cow without any waste of stalks, as is the case when corn fodder is fed dry. Silage contains an equal amount of nutriment, and is much more digestible than the dry plant. It also assists materially in digesting the other foodstuffs fed in conjunction. Any good feeder knows that the more feed an animal will cat and properly digest above the food of support, the greater the profit, and as the succulence of the silage aids in the digestion, the extra amount of feed that the f .imal can use therewith results in the gaii T d the profit. It is generally considered i Ifrom twentylive to forty pounds of I j i • a daily ration for a cow or steer, a. from fifteen to twenty pounds per day for . uorse in two feeds, and about two and a half pounds for a sheep. In all cases silage should be fed fresh from the surface and the mangers kept clean. Frozen silage, if fed immediately after thawing, is probably as good as any, but if fed while yet frozen will sometimes if jure the animal’s digestion, and result in a shrinkage of milk. A cover to the silage may be made with hay or straw upon a light framework, with ropes and pulleys to let down from the top.

Making Hotbeds. It is very advantageous for anyone growing plants and vegetables to have an hotbed. The kind we alluHe to is the one where the heat is naturally produced by the fermentation of horse manure and other vegetable material, and when properly managed these hotbeds are very useful, as they produce a moist heat around the roots which encourages growth wonderfully. They are successfully used for raising young vegetable plants, also for propagating all soft wooded plants, and also for growing early frame cucumbers and melons. In case a great heat is desired, clear horse manure is used ; if a gentle heat is desired, which is generally the ease, other material, such as leaves, should be mixed with the manure to the extent of one half, or even mere. That insures a slow but lasting heat, and that answers the requirements of most plants. After mixing the fresh stable manure with the leaves, the whole pile should be stirred up and turned over at least twice, at intervals of two or three days, beforeicing placed in its destined position. If the manure is too dry, it should be watered, because dry material heats coo fast, but if it is too wet it will not heat at all. When the material is ready to use, proceed by filling the pit, or by making a heap the same shape as the frame to be used, but projncting out about eighteen inches all around, so as to make it possible to bank up manure up igainst the sides of the frame, that is, if the hotbed is above the surface of the ground. It is very important to tread the material down firmly and evenly as the bed is being built up. That will insure au even heat throughout, as well as uneveness. When the bed is formed and the size of the frame to be used determined upon, that frame should bo built in size according to the size of sash it is desired to use. llio thickness to give to these beds varies according to the crops they are intended to receive, also the locality and season. Where only a few degrees of frost is expected, the beds may be about ten or twelve inches, but where severe weather is expected the beds may be three feet or more high. In about two or three days, after the heat is gone down to ninety degrees, the bed is ready for use, and it iu covered with live or six inches of good soil and the crops started. Care ohould bo taken net to let occasional syringing on bright clays is very beneficial. A sprinkling of chimney soot all over the soil will prove a great iuvigorator and insecticide combined.

Labelling Fruit Trees. It is very provoking to find that the little labels attached lo some ol the fruit trees have disappeared, and that the grower is in some doubt us to the identity ol various trees. This is more especially the case when several new varieties arc planted and not properly labelled at the time ol planting, and it would save a good deal of annoyance f all trees had permanent labels attached to

them .hen first received. Labels may io made of various substances, wood, earthenere, hum, bone, ivory, and even leather, fur Iho purpose under notice the laics mould he of zinc, and either placed in the cround or attached to the branches. U here labels arc attached to the branches as oltcn as not they are so fixed as to damage tie

tree, la the sketch is shown the right and wrong method of allixing labels. The spiral way of fastening (lie wire shown at 1, is the correct method, while the wrong method is shown at. 11., where the wire is bound tightly round the branch, with the result that it is damaged as seen at 111. Copper wire is the best for this purpose, because it is more ductile and more easily bent than iron wire. The label should bear a number in preference to a name, and these numbers should be entered up in a book against the name of the variety, with particulars as to date ot planting, and 7 early notes as to the yield Ot fruit, etc. If this be carefully earned out, these notes wouldlic of great service in getting at the value of each tree as a fruit bearer. Alushrooms in Winters It is iu winter that mushrooms are most valued and command the best price. In the summer when other garden produce is so varied, they are not required, and they are more easily grown in winter than in summer, and that is also in favour of their culture at that time. During hot weather various insect pests are very apt to damage them, and they do not develop freely, but now they come up iu abundance and as fresh as possible. There arc very few growers now who employ iirc-heat in their culture, as artificial heat for them at any time is really not required. The grower should not attempt to grow mushrooms in the open air in the dead of winter, but if he lias a tool-shed, pottingshed, or a shed of any kind he ought to prove successful. It is important that the manure be moderately dry and sweet before making up the bed. If the manure is so wet as to

stick together it will not answer; but if two or three forkfuls are thrown into a heap and trodden on, and when shaken out again are as clastic as they were before being pressed, the bed may be made up at once. In making a bed, firmness is most important, as the spawn runs better in a firm bed and the heat is more equal. Spawn the bod when the temperature is between So and 90 degrees. Break the spawn in pieces two or three inches across and bury them in the b»d about two inches beneath the surface. A day or two after spawning place a layer of good soil over the bed—lf inches will do—and beat it down firmly and evenly, with the back of a spade. The bed should be covered with hay or straw from the day it is spawned until the last of the crop is cut. The sketch shows a bed made up under the bench in a potting shed, and all those having a shed should adopt this system of culture.