Fulton Journal

FARM NOTES.

A HoRSE FORK should be in every barn. In the hurry of haying, the cost of a horse hay-fork may easily be saved in one week, by rapid unloading.

Roots.—Early blood beets, and sugar beets may be sown early this month, Mangels will now require clean culture, and vigorous thinning. Rutabagas may be sown from the 1st to the 25th of this month, upon land that has not been prepared in time for earlier crops.

Frequent cultivation is essential to successful corn growing. The cultivator should be kept going this month through the corn and the root crops about once a week. It matters not that there are no weeds in sight, it is not alone to kill weeds that we cultivate and hoe, but to loosen the soil, and by that means to stimulate the growth.

SUMMER FERTILIZING.—The experience of the past few years has often shown it to be useful to give a light dressing of fertilizer to the corn, just before the last cultivation. This helps the earing, and renders many ears productive that would otherwise be abortive. The fertilizer should be worked in with the cultivator. A mixture of poultry manure, ashes, and plaster will be useful; or the prepared artificial corn fertilizer may be used in place of this.

ORCHARD Grass.—In a late season like the present, early grass for pasture or for cutting is unusually valuable. The great difference between grasses in earliness is strikingly seen when one has a field of orchard grass adjoining one of timothy. Orchard grass is too much neglected, and those who have never grown it may try it with great advantage. That it is the earliest to start in the spring, comes into blossom with red clover, and both are ready for cutting in the best condition at the same time, are by no means all its valuable points

Fodder Crops.—The rye ground cleared by this time may be immediately prepared and planted with fodder corn or oats, the latter to be followed with late turnips as the oats are cut for feeding; or Hungarian grass may follow the rye, and be cut off in time for sowing rye again next fall. A good plot of cabbages will be found useful for fall and early winter feeding of cows, and, if plants have been provided for, they may be set out on the rye ground, or some other piece of rich, moist soil.

Curing hay in the cock is preferable to sun drying. The sweating and fermentation improve, and prevent heating in the mow or stack. The writer prefers to put up hay, after the dew is off, in moderately large cocks—four feet wide and high—after it has lain spread in the sun for one full day. It may thus stay safely for a week, if necessary, and a hay cap will protect it from a twenty four hours' rain. The day it is drawn in, a man should start early and throw open the cocks, to get a final airing for two or three hours before it is taken up.

CorN.—Late plantings of corn may be made up to the middle of the month. Some early sorts, and some new varieties which claim to be extra early, may be tried as an experiment. It will pay very well to make late plantings up to July for fodder, planting in drills three feet apart, with about twelve grains to the foot in the drill. The largest kinds of sweet corn are the best for fodder. Triumph, Marblehead Mammoth, and Stowell's Evergreen are suitable for this purpose. The common opinion, that sweet corn is better for fodder than field corn, is well founded: but there is some difficulty in curing the stalks, which is easily surmounted, however, and which will be noted in season.

MowinG machines are now indispensable. The scythe may be used for cutting about fence corners when the wasteful zigzag rail fence is used; but so far as other uses go it may be hung up out of the way. In choosing a mower, the chief points to consider are, lightness of draught, strength and simplicity of construction. With these, one has economy in use, durability, convenience of handling, and ease in keeping in order—points of the utmost importance. There is one other point worth noting, which is safety in case of a runaway, or when mowing a rough field, and there is danger that the driver may be thrown upon the cutting bar. The cutting bar should always be well in advance of the driver, but never directly ahead of him.

HAY. Recent investigations threaten to upset some popular notions. It has long been supposed that early-cut hay is more valuable than that cut later. If the judgment of the cows were a test, there would be no question about it. They will leave the riper hay, and even refuse to eat it at all, if they can procure that which has been cut earlier. In the writer's dairy, the milk falls off more than 10 per cent. when the young hay is changed for that cut two weeks later. This is sufficient to support the general opinion in spite of chemical analyses, which go to show that ripe hay is heavier, more bulky, and contains more nutritious substance, than that cut earlier. Perhaps the operations of the chemist can extract more nutriment from ripe hay than can the cow's stomach; but, as young hay feeds more profitably, it seems best to cut early.