Agriculture & c.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 219, 11 December 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agriculture & c.

BRIEF NOTES.

The spores of smut found in smutty grain are so small that 7,000,000 can be placed aide by side in the space of one square inch. A Michigan farmer exterminates Canada thistles in his pasture by salting his sheep in the thistle bed, placing the salt around the roots of these tenacious pests. Some interesting experiments have been made in France on the advantages of giving water to milch cows warmed, instead of in its natural cold state. At the Agricultural School at St. Remy, two cows were fed on the same food, but one was supplied with cold water and the other with the water heated to 113 deg F. The latter yielded one third more milk. Veterinary Prof. Comevin has obtained similar results.

The American Agriculturist states that a remedy for colic in hones, which has never failed, is an injection of from one to two quarts of cold water (not too cold), and that it is harmless, as well as giving instant relief.

Experiments have proved that garden plants watered with warm water make much more radid growth than those which receive a cold application. From SOdeg. to lOOdeg. is about the right temperature, or • few degrees warmer than the atmosphere. If the pastures are not supplied with shade trees, it will pay to pat up a shed to which the stock can retire and lie down in the heat of the day. The pastures should be good enough so that they will not need to spend the whole day in gathering their food. A cattle disease is reported from Southern Michigan in which the first signs of the disease is groaning, as if In great pain. This continues from twenty-four to forty-eight hoars, when they expire. Post-mortem examination shows the lining of the stomach entirely eaten away by acid. Pat sprigs of cedar in the nests of all your hens, and lay the cedar wherever there are any mites and yon will not be bothered with them long. For the sore head in chicks, give them, in their food, sniphnr once or twice a week ; it will cure all that have it and keep the others free from it. If fanners and fruit raisers more generally knew how easy it is to bad and graft, fewer fruit trees would be allowed to bear year after year the moat useless fruit, when, if the trees are growing vigorously, a little care at the right time mil make them produce th« most luscious and profitable fruit, A Western farmer tests the fertility of his millet seeds by throwing a small handfoll of them upon, a hot stove, when those seeds that are fertile will crack or snap. Those which do not snap will never germinate if sown. By this method the proportion of worthless grain is shown, and due allowance is made in the quantity need per acre.