TO CONCLUDE.
It does seem to me that your magnificent offer of your Standard Time or Commercial Map—worth $2 itself—in connection with The Prairie Farmer, all for $2, ought to bring you hosts of subscribers, and that it does is the hope of
Diogenes.
Field and Furrow.
The best temperature to preserve apples, potatoes, turnips, or any other roots or fruits stored in the cellar, is just above the freezing point.
Stiff, hard clays intended for tillage in the spring ought, by all means, to be broken up in the fall. A light, sandy soil should, on the contrary, be suffered to remain unbroken.
A wholesale drug house in Indianapolis, tells the editor of the Drainage Journal that tile drainage has reduced the sale of quinine and other fever and ague medicines nearly sixty per cent.
The American Cultivator says that if barley has not germinated the fact of its having been slightly stained by wet is no actual detriment whatsoever; the grain is not really injured and ought to bring to the farmer just as much as the bright samples of equal plumpness.
Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, reporting in Bulletin LXXII. of the State Experiment Station his hybridizing tests during the past season with 135 different kinds of corn, incidentally mentions that "the red ears have a constancy of color which is truly remarkable; where sweet corn appears upon red pop and red dent ears the sweet corn partakes of the red color."
An esteemed exchange suggests, if farmers would go to the barn on a wet day and spend their time in making an eaves-trough for the barn or stable, and thereby carry away the drip which would otherwise fall on the manure pile, causing a waste of the elements of plant food contained therein, they will make more money that day than they could any fine day in the field.
American Cultivator: In winter, while the ground is covered with snow and the soil is frozen deeply, it is sometimes curious to note the effect of openings leading down to deep underdrains. The snow will be melted away by the warm air coming up from the unfrozen earth. Even in an uncovered drain three feet deep, a little straw or loose earth will generally protect the bottom from severe freezing.
Cincinnati Gazette: There are so many excellencies about the cow pea, and it is good for so many uses, that we advise our Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky farmers to be sure and cultivate it this year. Next spring, when all danger of frost is over, sow, plant, or drill more or less of these valuable peas, and, in the language of the elder Weller, "you'll be glad on it arterwards," and so will your live stock.
New England Homestead: Nearly level culture, hand-hoeing and slightly hilling but once, and keeping the cultivator running, was recommended at the Waterbury meeting as the best culture for potatoes. It was said that the second hilling induced a second growth of roots higher up on the plant which produced small tubers. If this is not done the additional growth will make large potatoes.
Cincinnati Gazette: During sundry recent visits to Tennessee, we noticed that a considerable share of the immigrants arriving were from Michigan. They are mostly of the second generation from the settlers from the East in that State—men in the prime of life, who are seeking cheap lands in a genial climate, where the pastoral, dairy, and fruit-raising pursuits to which they are accustomed may be pursued with perfect success. Michigan farmers are usually intelligent, practical workers, who understand their profession and like it. They, and such as they, appreciate the advantages they will enter upon in their new homes at the South.
New England Farmer: Prof. Goessmann, as Director of the State Experiment Station, has been analyzing a sample of rye hay, sent to the Station by Secretary Russell of the State Board of Agriculture. The sample was not cut till in full bloom, but Prof. Goessmann finds it compares well in nutritive value with a medium good quality of meadow hay. This agrees with our own estimate of well cured rye hay, judged by its effect in practical feeding to stock. Animals usually have to learn to eat it heartily, as they do many other kinds of coarse fodder which are inferior to the best hay. Rye should be cut before it comes in full bloom, to obtain the greatest feeding value from the fodder. It is then liked better, and a larger per cent will be digested.
Republican, Manhattan, Kan.: In traveling through a considerable portion of the country this week, we noticed that the wheat looked exceedingly promising. The contrast between the green fields and the dry grass and naked trees was cheering to behold. Cattle are in good condition; most of the farmers are provided with sheds or shelter of some sort to protect the animals, but we saw some small bunches of young cattle standing in unprotected enclosures shivering from the north wind; it is cruel to take them through the winter without so much as a wind break to turn off the scorching blasts. Surely every farmer can afford to build a wind break, at least a pile of brush and old hay, around the stock yards. The cost would be more than made up in the saving of feed.
They are growing some pretty heavy crops of wheat in New Hampshire. The Lebanon Free Press reports that Harlan Flint, of Hanover, raised this year eighty bushels of wheat on five acres of ground, and Uel Spencer, of the same town, 206 bushels from four and a half acres, while the town farm crop averaged forty-three bushels per acre. That raised by Mr. Flint was winter wheat, and Spencer's White Russian. A Meredith correspondent of the Laconia Democrat says that eight farms adjoining each other, in that town, have produced this year 524 bushels of wheat. Reports from all sections of the State show that a great yield of wheat has been secured wherever the crop has been sown. Perhaps by the time the prairie skinners of the Northwest have spread over all the wheat bearing land this side of the Rocky Mountains, they may begin the New England States and travel the continent over again.
Correspondent Farm and Fireside: There is nothing so much needed about many houses as good walks in paths that must be used daily. There is hardly an excuse for not having them when either brick, gravel, or timber can be had. A good walk through muddy yards can be easily and cheaply made by placing poles side by side, a short distance apart, and then filling the intervening space with gravel, or with broken corn cobs, or with sawdust. Oak planks will last many years, if turned over occasionally, and this also counteracts warping. One of the best of walks through a level barn-yard can be made by cutting off short pieces from logs, a foot or more in diameter, and setting them upon end in a shallow trench. Such a walk from the barn to the kitchen will always be clean, and there will be less to disturb the temper of the women folks of the household, to say nothing of the good effect upon the men folks who take pleasure in lightening the labor required to keep everything neat and tidy within doors.
AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS.
[Officers and members of farmers' organizations of all kinds are invited to send for publication in this department notices of meetings, time of holding fairs, and other pertinent information. We desire to make of it a weekly bulletin that shall be looked for with interest by members of clubs, granges, fair associations, and agricultural and horticultural societies.]
The Maine State Grange has elected the following officers: Master, Frederick Robie, of Gorham; Overseer, H.E. Gregory, of Hampden; Lecturer, D.H. Thing, of Vernon.
At a meeting of the Wisconsin State Grange resolutions were passed requesting the Legislature to separate the State Agricultural Experiment Farm from the State University, and to locate it in an agricultural district.
At the Vermont State Grange's annual meeting at Brattleboro, December 13-14, 1883, 72 granges were represented. For the first time since the organization of the grange its doors were opened to the public, and the State Board of Agriculture met with it. Worthy Master Franklin's address revealed a healthy condition of the Order in Vermont.
The meeting of the Massachusetts State Grange was an excellent one. Master Draper was again re-elected. The committees' reports and discussions revealed a hearty interest in and sympathy with the experimental station and the agricultural college, but the present system by which the college trustees perpetuate themselves was sharply criticised, and a change in the law was recommended. It was also "Resolved, that as Patrons of Husbandry, we recommend such a change in the law as will withhold the State bounty from all societies that permit liquor selling or gambling at their annual fairs."
The annual meeting of the Michigan Grange last month was largely attended. The Secretary's report showed the grange to be in good condition. The committee on the agricultural college recommended the admission of girls to that institution. Reports were adopted recommending the restoration of the duty on wool, so that it shall equal that on manufactured woolen articles; urged that taxpayers be required to make oath to their assessments; recommended the continued fostering of the sorghum industry; condemned the extortionate practices of many millers in the State, urging co-operative mills if necessary to remedy the same, and asks the appointment of a committee to draft a bill similar to the Reagan bill to remedy some of the evils of transportation.
Didn't No. 38 Die Hard!
New England Homestead: "The eminent men"—George B. Loring, Daniel Needham, Charles L. Flint, Benjamin P. Ware, and George Noyes—composing the late Massachusetts grange No. 38, couldn't appreciate what had happened to them when the State Master's action in revoking the charter of their grange was sustained by the National Grange tribunal. So Brother Ware hied him to Barre, last week, to bring the matter up before the State Grange at its annual session. No doubt the "eminent men" supposed that the presence of the Hon. Mr. Ware would alone be sufficient to cause the State Grange to tremble and humbly beg pardon for their Master's action in disturbing the serenity of this mutual admiration society. Alas, pride must have a fall! Judge of the consternation of these "eminent men" when the State Grange unanimously refused admittance to Brother Ware because he was a suspended member! Now if the honorable delegate from No. 38 deceased had known when he was "set on," he would have silently packed his grip sack and returned to the secrecy of the obscure agricultural newspaper office at 45 Milk street, Boston, the "headquarters" of the corpse of No. 38. But like all "eminent men" he made a grave mistake. At a subsequent session he induced a friend to move that he be given a hearing, but the grange again voted against taking any further action in the matter. This double rebuff was effectual. With his hopes dashed to the ground, the honorable suspended brother crept sadly away to the depot, and when last seen was trying to derive some consolation from his flattering picture as it appeared in the Homestead of December 15.
As our able contemporary, the Maine Farmer remarks, it was a triumph of principle, proving that the grange recognizes no aristocracy. Thus may it ever be!
A Grange Temple.
At its last meeting the National Grange determined to enter upon the work of erecting, in Washington city, a building in which the records and archives of the Order may be preserved. It is proposed to raise the money needful to erect such a building in a way which shall enlist the brotherhood at large, and yet not to be burdensome to even the least wealthy of the members. The National Grange asks each subordinate grange to solicit from every name on its roll a contribution of not less than fifty cents. The money so collected is to be kept separate from all other funds, and is to be used for no other purpose than the building of a Grange Home in Washington. The treasurer of the National Grange is directed to procure a book in which the names of all contributors, and the sums contributed, shall be properly entered. In due time a building-fund certificate will be prepared, containing an engraving of the building, and such other devices as may be agreed upon, and a copy of the same will be sent to every individual who donates the sum of fifty cents or more.
CLUB RATES.
To Our Readers.
THE PRAIRIE FARMER is the Oldest, Most Reliable, and the Leading Agricultural Journal of the Great Northwest, devoted exclusively to the interests of the Farmer, Gardener, Florist, Stock Breeder, Dairyman, Etc., and every species of Industry connected with that great portion of the People of the World, the Producers. Now in the Forty-Second Year of its existence, and never, during more than two score years, having missed the regular visit to its patrons, it will continue to maintain supremacy as a Standard Authority on matters pertaining to Agriculture and kindred Productive Industries, and as a Fresh and Readable Family and Fireside Journal. It will from time to time add new features of interest, securing for each department the ablest writers of practical experience.
THE PRAIRIE FARMER will discuss, without fear or favor, all topics of interest properly belonging to a Farm and Fireside Paper, treat of the most approved practices in Agriculture, Horticulture, Breeding, Etc.; the varied Machinery, Implements, and improvements in same, for use both in Field and House; and, in fact, everything of interest to the Agricultural community, whether in Field, Market, or Home Circle.
It will give information upon the public domain, Western soils, climate, etc.; answer Inquiries on all manner of subjects which come within its sphere; give each week, full and reliable Market, Crop, and Weather Reports; present the family with choice and interesting literature; amuse and instruct the young folks: and, in a word, aim to be, in every respect, an indispensable and unexceptionable farm and fireside companion.
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THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL
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