The Farm

Plowpoints that were thrown asido as useless while the ground was hard and dry last fall, will often last some time longer in moist, soft ground of springtime, mellowed by winter frosts and spring rains. Every farmer should keep by his manure pen a few barrels of piaster, and as often as once each week, should strew over the öontents a sprinkling of piaster, and tuis should continue during the entire winter in warm cellars. The Country Gentleman quotes President Wilder as saying that no plant is more beneütted than the strawberry by a constant supply of water, and his renpntfid advice is. "Give the strawberry water! water! water! and still a littlc more water!" Many farmers who secure for themselves all the labor-saving improvements, are slow in arranging similar helps for their wítbs. A reaper or mower is used at the most only a few days in the year. A creamer to make butter-making easier will be in use nearly or quite every day in the year, and the butter product will bring enough more to pay heavy interest on the first cost, besides the saving in labor. Rice meal is meeting witta much favor as a food f or milch cows wherever tried. It consists of the scouring of the rice kernels after the shell is removed, lts composition is nearly that of average oats or the best corn, in respect to albuminoids. It has three times the ash of oats, twice the fat, the same amount of fibre, and 14 per cunt less carbhydrate, but the latter are about eompensated for by the more fat. It comes done up in loose bags, and retails at abont $22 per ton The beet is one of the best of the early vegetables and should be found in the gardens Of farmers everywhere. The cultivation of beew is a simple matter. They require in order to cive the best resulta only land, thorough tillage, and absolute freedom from weeds. Sow as early in the spring as the ground can be got in good working order. Make the rows lö inches apart, and drop the seed an inch apait in the row. If sown very earlv, and especially if the soil is heavy and cold, ït is very üesirame u 3ow tho seed thick, say half an inch apart. Thin the plants before they begin to crowd each oiher, letting the plants stand from three to five inches apart in the row. A for;gn writer affirms that the potato disease, which is caused by a fungus, tirst attauks the tops of the plants, and is conveyed to the'tubew by means of spores washed into the soil by rain. To prevent the infection of the tubera he recommends running a plow between the rows so as to turu up a furrovv on ;he top of the hills, and then bencimg ;he plants over the furrow. ïhis causes the water which washes ths tops to run away from the hills. The furrowing should be done on the first appearance of the disease,and,as afurther precaution. the potatoes should not be dug for at least two or three weeks af ter The tops are entirely wilted. A trial of this niethod has given very good results. ____ Effects oí i'iasxer. The faot should be remembered, that piaster is in no sense a inanure, and in aud of itself has littlo or no valué as plant-food. Just how it helps we cannot say, and yet the fact is indisputable that on eertain plants on certain soils it does exert a wonderful inttuence especially on clover, peas, potatoes and sonietimes corn. Since. however, it is not a manure but a stinmlant, any increase of erop by its use only so niueh more and so much faster impoverishes the land, and unless we follow such a system of farniing that we put back in real plant-food a much greater amountthan ordinary af we remove in the increased erop, we shall find we are none the richer tor using piaster, but have only drawn our deposit f rom the bank so much the sooner. But by so farming that we use the increased erop of clover or other plams to feed the more stock and to make the more manure, then the ipplication of piaster will be the means :o protit. Olean Fields Produce Heavy Orops. Country Gentleman. There are two drawbacks in the methods largely adopted by the farmers of this country in the cultivation of their crops during the first half of the season. These methods involve a needless expenditure of labor, and permit an extensive growth of weeds. The surface of the soil is not broken or stirred often enough. A frequent pulverizaron would accomplish tvvo very important uses, naniely, the destruction of young weeds, and an increased growth of the crops. We havo shown on former occasions the importance of destroying weeds just as they are commencing growth, and even before they have reached the surface of the ground.when the minute and tender sprouts are broken by a touch of pulverizing implernents The experiment was tried a few years ago of passing the steel rake wcekly over a given mea? ured surface in the garden, and allowing alongside an equal area to becomo covered with a growth of weeds from six inches to a foot high before killing them. A record vas made by the watch ot tne time eonsumed by eacli method. During the wo nionths of grovvth it was necessary o pass the steel rake eight times over he surf ace; but this was done so easily and rapidly that only one-half of the ime and labor were consumed that were required to olear out once the tall weeds from the growing erop. The erop made one-half more growth by the first method, and the seeds of the weeds n the surfaco soil were thoroughly destroyed Dy the eight operations. A successful farmer, on whose rich fields about hfty busbels of corn per acre were obtained by ordinary management, assured us that by passing the cultivator once a week between the rows until the corn was as high as the horse's back, he jad increased the erop to between sixty and f eventy bushels per acre. A radical improvement would be made on many farms by the adoption of the practice of keeping the surface crust of the soil constautly broken, and by never allowing young weeds to see dayÜght. By thus clearing the farm of fóul weeds, in a few years the costly labor of hand-weeding would be nearly nperseded. To accompllsh this result it is necessary to secure the best modern toóla lor cuiuvauiig iu uiup. auo work should be oommenced before the young weeds reach the surface. Potatoes, for instance, are sonie weeks in the soil before coming up, and during this period the groiind should be kept harrowed, the operation being repeated as often as the young weeds in the soil have sprouted, the harrowing breaking the sprouts and killing the weeds just as they are starting to grow. ín this way the foul stuff may be materially reduced. The harrowing may be continued afcer the potatoes have reached the surface, and have grown sonie inches, without injury to them. Corn may be harrowed once before it comes up; and with a fine, slat-tooth harrow the operation may be continued every five days till the plants are nearly a foot high. This will obvíate the labor of hand-hoeing. After this the one hose cultivator may pass several times, running shallow so as not to tear the roots, setting the reversible teeth first to throw the earth away from the row of corn, and next time against the row, avery shallow ridge being sufiieient to cover the young weeds as they aro just appearing, for there will be no large ones if the to. We have adopted this course- of Hrst harrowing and then culti vating from and towards the row, and left the field as clean as a floor, without any handhoeing. The rèpeated stirring of the soil and keeping the crust broken, gave a handsome erop of eorn - decidedly larger than when the whole treatnient consisted of one or two dressings with the cultivator, and alaborious"hilling" with the hoe. In large lields, the one-horse cultivator will of coursfi give way to the twohorse walking or riding cultivator. In either case, such implements should be used as may be controlled perfectly and guided so as to run within an inch or two of the row of plants; and the importance of straight and even rows is therefore obvious. Thorough summer-fallowing is sometimes a matter of great economy in eradicating weeds and working out foul seeds. It may be weli to forego the valuo of one erop, when by so doing the j ground may be ehanged'from a hard aad weedy soil to a clean and mellow one, the work being done by the broad sweep of the harrow and cultivator, instead of the laborious process of handhoeing and hand-weeding. The advantage of the thorough mellowing of the soil not to be overlooked. Many farmers faü with summer fallows by not making thorough work of it. The ñeld should be kept constantly clean and mellow, and not a weed be seen ibove the ground. Plowing and using the modern harrows and cultivators, will do the work choaply, even it repeated as often as once a week, Clean fields, and heavy and satisfacrory crops, are incomparably better than the results of a hard soil and hard lumps, struggling with an overgrowth of weeds, and obtaining reduced products at heavy cost. It may be well to cultívate and plant fewer acres and do the work in the best manner.