THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



             Disposition of Straw.
   My plan for more than twenty-five years has
been this, viz:-to get it all into my stock
yards in some way. For the last six years, I
have stacked all my grain in a yard of suffi-
cient size, adjoining my other stock yards. In
threshing, I am not particular where I run the
straw, provided there is a good place to stack
it well. The latter is a job I seldom trust to
boys or careless, awkward men. I aim to have
the stack no wider than can be topped out well,
and any length, according to the amount to be
put in it. Make the middle wider than the
bottom.  Clean away in some manner all the
chaff and straw that falls between the machine
and stack.  Keep a good hay-knife, and that
in good order.  Cut down about ten feet at a
time. There will be few, if any, frozen por-
tions to hinder, or break forks.
  With my horses and sled I aim to haul a load
every day through the winter, (large or small
according to circumstances) into my yards. I
have gates leading from my stack yard through
the stock yards. As the team goes through
the yards, the straw is rolled off by the sides
of the sled. It is loaded and unloaded in less
time than pitching off from a stack adjoining
a yard, and then carrying it about with a fork,
as dry straw is slippery to handle, after being
moved from where it is pressed in the stack.
In this way the straw comes clean and fresh
every day to the horses, cattle and sheep. In
addition to the other feed they get, they work
this over through the day. At night, a portion
of this straw that is left, which is in front of
the sheds, is moved under them for bedding.
In this way it is all eaten over before horses,
hogs, sheep, or anything else are bedded.
  It pays mne three times for moving it into my
yards.  First, for feed; second, for bedding;
and lastly, for manure. I am an out and out
anti straw burner,-a practice which is rob-
bing rising generations of their daily bread.
So much crowds upon my mind upon this sub-
ject of straw saving that it difficult to stop.
  If this is deemed worthy a place in the FARM-
ER, I may, at some future time call up the sub-
ject.



  C. K. Stewart in the last No. of the FARMER,
says "' Give us more about sheep." I am now
keeping a flock of fine sheep, the increase of a
flock I purchased in Ontario Co, N. Y., about
30 years ago. I may hereafter say something
on this subject.            LEwis CLARE.
  BzLOIT, April 7,1853.

              Double Plowing.
  Mr. L. Bingham, of Tafton, on page 138 of
the April No. of the FARMER, asks me some
questions in relation to this subject.
  My object was to raise a better crop that
year, and by deep plowing prepare my ground
for better crops in succeeding years, both of
which I succeeded in, except the year men-
tioned, when the chinch bug worked in that
ground more than that adjoining it.
  I raised beans, millet and peas on it that
year, and sod corn adjoining, where the prai-
rie sod was broken the usual depth. I think
the crop was enough better to pay for the ex-
tra or second plowing.
  My opinion is that Mr. Bingham will get a
fair crop of corn if he will get it in in good
season, by planting and thoroughly tilling with
cultivator the same as old land, although it will
come forward more slowly at first.
  If Mr. B. does not need the corn for feeding
purposes, I would recommend him to put in a
portion of it to white beans, by planting very
thick and not cultivating them. One of my
neighbors succeeded very well in that way the
past season.                LEwis CLARK.
BELOIT, April 7, 1863.

       Buckwheat vs. the Chinch Bug.
  MR. EDITOR:-I find in the short sketch
about Sorghum on page 152 of the April num-
ber a recommendation for keeping the chinch
bug from destroying the Sorghum. The first
recommendation is to sow late corn and oats.
The buckwheat I know from actual experiment
to be of no value, for I have seen the last green
leaf taken all round the buckwheat and that
not touched at all; and, thinking that many
might depend on that, in other parts, as they
had here, and find themselves mistaken. I con-



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