Farming Tidbits

Below is an excerpt from "The Centennial Cook Book and General Guide ©1876

TO PRESERVE GRAIN.
A discovery of considerable importance has been announced, with regard to preserving grain. To preserve and secure it from insects and rats, nothing more is necessary than not to fan it after it is thrashed, and to stow it in the granaries mixed with the chaff. In this state it has been kept more than three years, without experiencing the smallest alteration, 'and even without the necessity of being turned to preserve it from humidity and fermentation.

TO CORRECT MUSTY GRAIN.
Take a bushel of grain, and pour on it two bushels of boiling water. Let them stand until cold, then skim off the floating grains and husks, and discard them; drain off the water, and dry the remainder in a kiln. The musty quality rarely penetrates through the husk.

MIX STRAW WITH CLOVER.
Farmers who have straw or coarse old hay, will find a great advantage in mixing them in layers, with hay that is not thoroughly made; the dry stuff will prevent the clover from injuring by moisture, and it imbibes sweetness so that the cattle will eat it with a good relish.

EARLY POTATOES IN THE SPRING. A method how to get extra early potatoes in the kitchen garden. Plant the potatoes in the fall, about eight inches deep, put a handful of leaves in with each potato; then cover the ground with fresh horse-manure about six inches thick, and you will have potatoes before any spring planting.

REMEDY FOR FROZEN POTATOES.
In the time of frosts, potatoes that have been affected thereby, should be laid in a perfectly dark place for some days after the
thaFarmw has commenced. If thawed in open day, they rot; but if in darkness, they*do not rot; and they lose very little of their natural properties.

TO PRESERVE CARROTS, PARSNIPS AND BEETS ALL WINTER.
A little before the frost sets in, draw your beets or parsnips out of the ground, and lay them in the house, burying their roots in sand to the neck of the plant, and ranging them one by another in a shelving position; then another bed of sand, and another of beets, and continue this order till the last. By pursuing this method, they will keep very fresh. When they are wanted for use. draw them as they stand, not out of the middle or sides.

SIX REASONS FOR PLANTING AN ORCHARD.
1. Would you leave an inheritance to your children? Plant an orchard. No other investment of money and labor will, in the long run, pay so well.

2. Would you make home pleasant—the abode of the social virtues ? Plant an orchard. Nothing better promotes, among neighbors, a feeling of kindness and good will, than a treat of good fruit, often repeated.

3. Would you remove from your children the strongest temptations to steal ? Plant an orchard. If'children cannot obtain fruit at home, they are very apt to steal it; and when they have learned to steal fruit, they are in a fair way to learn to steal horses.

4. Would you cultivate a constant feeling of thankfulness towards the Great Giver of all good ? Plant an orchard By having constantly before you one of the greatest blessings given to man, you must be hardened indeed if you are not influenced by a spirit of humility and thankfulness.

5. Would you have your children love their home, respect their parents while living, and venerate their memory when dead—in all their wanderings look back upon the home of their youth as a sacred spot—an oasis in the great wilderness of the world ? Then plant an orchard.

6. In short, if you wish to avail yourself of the blessings of a bountiful Providence, which are within your reach, you must plant an orchard. And when you do it, see that you plant good fruit. The best are the cheapest.