Newspaper Page Text
To Protect Fruit Trees From
Rabbits.
Editors Tennessee Agriculturist :
Your orchard should be thorough¬
ly cultivated in low growing crops—
melons, cabbage, potatoes, turnips,
peas, &c., never in tall growth that
obstructs sunshine or air. No crop
will pay you better than the cow pea,
tilled jii: t as you would corn in
checks ; planting at least half dozen
peas in a hill. Trie pea will cover
the ground, protecting it from the
hot Summer sun and enriching the
soil, while the yield will be enormous.
Allow a portion of your peas to re¬
main on the vines during Winter ;
also have a turnip patch in your or¬
chard for Spring greens. These two
articles furnish the food that the rab¬
bit is especially fond of, and when in
the orchard the rabbits will livo and
fatten upon them, never interrupting
your trees. I fiud this remedy cheap
and certain. Instead of driving the
rabbits away I enoouaage them to
remain in the orchard ; finding it
quite convenient to knock one over
when I want a broil.
Respect fully,
W. Crutchfield.
Harrowing in Corn .— A native
of Dinwiddio county, Virginia, writes
to the Eared Messenger the advan¬
tages he finds in harrowing corn, in
preference to hoe covering or cover¬
ing witli the plow, lie says :
1. It effectually destroys the young
grass and weeds just putting up be¬
tween the rows. 2. It pul» the land
in good condition by breaking the
clods and pulverizing the ceming entire sur
face. 3. The young corn up
on a level instead of on Ibe furrows,
is not so liable to injury from heavy
rains. 4. The oorn can be ploughed
at an earlier stage of its growth with¬
out being covered up, and also can be
ploughed much closer. It is the
practice of seme to harrow just before
or about the time the corn comes up,
and while I have followed that to
some extent myself with good results,
yet I have adopted the plan of put¬
ting in with a harrow for the following
reasons : It, saved the work of cover¬
ing the corn by other processes, and
it renders the harrowing a certainty—
as it often happens that when the
harrowing is deferred until after plant
ing, heavy tains or a press of other
matter, causes it to be “indefinitely
postponed.”
Grape Vines —The Ohio Farmer
speaks of a gentleman residing near
Cincinnati, who says that for twenty
five years if lias been his practice to
let grape viuos run on trees, and
climb higher and higher if they please
He invariably has a large yield of
grapes. He declares that he feels
considerably elated when he contrasts
his viues with those in his neighbor’s
vineyard. “While on one of his
vines there will be thousands of
bunches of grapes without five miu
utes labor in a year, those little pipe
stem vines tied to stakes and requir¬
ing constant care only produce a lew
bunches."
Slicep as Weed Exterminators .—
It may uot be known to farmers in
genera), that it is a common practice
in some parts of the country to turn
sheep into the potato fielc^ for the pur
pose of eating down the weeds. The
sheep will not touch the potato vine.
This pasturing with sheep is advan¬
tageous, when the crop is a late plant¬
ed one, so that the hoeing cannot lie
completed until after the haying or
harvesting is finished. At the grow¬
ing season it is the farmer’s aim to
keep down the grass and weeds, so
that they may be covered by the cul¬
tivator and hoe, when these are used.
Pasturing with sheep will attain this
object. Early planted erops, the
cultivation of which is completed in
the early part of the Summer, fre¬
quently become grassy and weedy,
before the time of digging, when the
size of the tops precludes cultivation.
In this stage the sheep are economical
wceders. It is hardly necessary to
mention that the feed thus given to
the sheep, makes a double profit,
inasmuch as it costs absolutely nothing
while labor is saved, and weeds pre¬
vented from seeding.
Antidotes for Poison. —Commer¬
cial oil of turpentine is a good anti¬
dote to poisoning by phosphorus. The
two substances form a compound in
the stomach resembling spermaceti,
and this can readily he removed from
the system.
Laudanum or' other anodyne is
sometimes taken by mistake or other¬
wise in excess. Swallow strong coffee
or the whites of several eggs instantly.
All these things are to be done while
the doctor is coming. Let every
family remember that sweet oil, tbo
whites of eggs and strong coffee an¬
tagonize a larger number of poisons
than peihaps ail other things to¬
gether.
If laudanum, or any other poison
not burning the throat, is taken aud
is promptly discovered, the best plan
is to get it out of the stomach instant¬
ly, which is done by stirring a table¬
spoonful of ground mustard in a
tumbler of water, and drinking it
down at once ; almost before it is
down the whole contents of the
stomach begin to be ejected.
------------
Health hints. — hail's Journal of
health gives this item Both the
brain and the body of the young are
feeble and watery, and capable of but
little endurance. Witness how soon
little children got tired of one thing,
even of rest. The mother is always
complaining that she can’t keep her
children quiet a minute ; put them at
anything that they really desire to
do, and before you know it they will
be off at something else ; it is because
no organ of the brain, no muscle of
the body, is strong enough fur exertion
except for a very short time. Hence
both brain and muscle should bo
alternated frequently ; the overwork
of one is as unphilosophical and as
criminal as the overwork of the
other.
Sabbath days are quirt islands on
the tossing sea of life.
To Drive Weevils from Earns .—
A writer in a French publication as- j
serts that bis father had, a long time ;
ago, his granaries and barns infested
with these insects {curculio grana
rius), so much so that they penetrated
into all the bins and grain stored
therein. lie plaecd an open cask
impregnated with tar in the barn and
then in the granaries. At the end
of some hours the weevils wore seen
climbing along the wall by myriads,
and flying in all directions from the
cask. On moving the tarred vessel
from place to place, the premises were
in a few days completely cleared of
these troublesome and pernicious
guests. The farmer who is troubled
with these insects may, as soon as he
perceives tin ir presence, imprcgnatr
the surface of some old planks with
tar aud place them as required in his
granaries. Care must he taken to
renew the tar from time to time in the
course of the year, to prevent their
return.
Field Carrots .—Having ploughed
and harrowed the ground, mark for
seed, twenty inches apart, leaving
drills two incites deep. So;fk seed
over night in water as hot as the hand
cax be held in ; drain and mix with
dry ashes until tin* seed will separate
Sow about, the lOlh of May. After
sowing, brush a little dirt on the seed
The row should be rolled nr stamped
hard, leaving the spaces between as
light, and loom* as possible. 'Hie ear
rots, if the seed is good, will appear
in about ten days, or about two weeks
sooner than by the ordinary manner
of planting. They should he hood as
soon as they begin to come up. The
previous rolling in the r<»w will
hold the small plants ho that the hoe
may cut close without disturbing
them. Repeat the hoeing in a week.
The weeds and surplus carrots may
now be easily pulled from the rows.
Ex.
♦ • ♦
The power of growing plants is
almost incredible. The roots of a i
tree will upset a massive stone wall,
against which they have grown, in¬
stead of giving way and striking into
the yielding soil. A mushroom a ill
lift a paving store rather than grow
out of its natural course.
Cultivating — An oicbard needs
to be kept plowed and thoroughly j
cultivated in order to produce the best
results, and during the lirat few years
after plant ing some crop may be raised ;
between the rows ; potatoes or carrots 1
are good crops for a young orchard.
----
In Russia a man and wife own !
their own property always separately,
aud instances have occurred of wives
suing their husbands for debt, and
are by no means uncommon.
--- — -
Cream of tartar biscuits are made
by mixiug oue tcaspoonful of cream of
tartar with sufficient 11 uir to make a |
batch, one-half tea.spoonful of soda
dissolved in the milk, with which
mix the flour. Addition of sweeten
iug makes them uicer; but with only
sweet milk they are very good, and
not dangerous to dyspeptics.
Cultivation of Corn .—We have
so fully entered upon the discussion
of this duty in our May and June
numbers, that we need say but little
thereon. This crop must be kept
clean from the time that is high enough
to work, until laid by—it will not do
to permit weeds and grass to contend
with it for the mastery, but the hoe
and the cultivator should be kept
busily employed, not only to keep it
clean, but at ilit* same time to keep
the soil in a proper condition to in
reive the fullest advantage from the
atmospheric influences and the nitro¬
genous supplices of plant food which
are derivable from the dews and rains
of Heaven. As remarked on former
occasions, the c dtivator and the hoe
arc the proper implements for this
purpose after the plants are f ur incites
high or more, as the. use oi the plow
is apt to lacerate the roots of the young
plant—the philosophy of this, we
need not repeat.— Ex.
Harvesting. —At the South, the
wheat harvest by this time is pretty
well over—as early as the first of
June the first wheat of the season
was in the Baltimore market, shipped
by Branch & Scott, of Augusta, (la.,
and was purchased by our enterprising
merchants, Messrs. T. W. Levering A
Me A tee, at the extraordinary price of
$5.50 per bushel —the first, lot was
received la>t year on 31st May, one
day earlier, aud sold at $3 per bushel
— ho much for energy and good man¬
agement! hi our June number we
have so thoroughly gone over the
whole ground, in our suggestions for
preparing for the harvest and the
cutting and securing the grain, that
we can add thereto at. the present
time. We, therefore, refer "our readers
to the remarks tin-rein made, to select
from them such as may be applicable
to their circumstances at the present
time.— Ex.
Cruel ,/okc. —Two practical jokers
in a Virginia town were left in charge
of numerous babies, on a special
occasion, while the mamas enjoyed a
dance, changed the clothes of the little
darlings, and arrayed each uiie in
strange habiliments. The motions,
after an hour or so of devotion to
Tcrpsiehorean delights, tq*.k their
baby \estrnents and the dear little
hums therein contained, and retired
to their respective and once happy
homes. On preparing the little ones
fur the crib, sexes had changed—girls
were boys and boys girls—and with
one universal yell the outraged ma
tcrnals set out on a baby hunt. At
last accounts, almost all had succeeded
in recovering the lost heirs; but the
wags keep out of the way of those
matrons as much as possible.
——- + •»+ ----
A Cure for Earache. —Then? is
scarcely any ache to which children
are sm ject so bad to bear, and diffi*
cult to cure, as the earache. Hut
there is a remedy never known to fail.
Take a bit of cotton batting, put upon
it a pinch of black pepper, gather it
up aud tie it, dip it in sweet oil and
insert it in the ear. Put a flannel
badge over the head to keep it wai in
It will give immediate relief.
— Household.