There has been much complaint of soft corn in this section on account of planting foreign seed last spring, but it is all solid since the late cold spell.

Those who planted seed of their own raising and got a stand have fair corn, while much of that which was raised from Kansas and Nebraska seed was caught by the frost when in the milk.  Now we will be in just the same “fix” about seed next spring that we were last.  This county has lost thousands of dollars this year in the corn crop alone, all of which might have been avoided by going through the fields before freezing weather and selecting seed and properly drying it before it froze.

And now right here I want to say that the great secret of good farming is simply being punctual in attending to the small matters, and I “guess” Fanny Field would say the same about poultry.

  Z.L.  Thompson. 
  Iroquois co., Ill.

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Remember that $2.00 pays for the prairie farmer from this date to January 1, 1885; For $2.00 you get it for one year and a copy of the prairie farmer county map of the united states, free! This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.

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FIELD AND FURROW.

Says the Iowa Register:  One hundred bushels of corn will shrink to ninety in the crib, and to an extent more than that, depending on the openness of the crib and the honesty of the neighbors.

The agricultural editor of the New York Times says that no doubt many farmers who are intending to underdrain their farms would save money by employing an expert at the first to lay out the whole system and make a good beginning, and so avoid any possible mistake, which might cost ten dollars for every one paid for skilled advice.

The New York Times says that lime seems to be a preventive of rot in potatoes in the cellar.  Some potatoes that were rotting and were picked out of a heap of forty or fifty bushels were put into a corner and well dusted with air-slaked lime.  They stopped rotting at once, and the decayed parts are now dried up.  There is no disagreeable smell about them.

Cincinnati Gazette:  It is remarked that when young hogs are fed mainly on corn they stop growing at an early age and begin to grow fat; but that green food makes them thriftier and larger than dry grain.  In fact, it is better to prevent all domestic animals from becoming very fat until they have attained a fair natural size, particularly breeding animals.

A member of the Elmira Farmers’ Club recently expressed the opinion that bad results would always be found with wheat sown on land into which the green growth of any crop had just been turned, although it was believed that buckwheat was the worst green manure.  All green growth incorporated with the soil near the time of seeding will in all cases be found prejudicial to wheat.