Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1891 — HOME AND THE FARM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME AND THE FARM.

A DEPARTMENT MADE UP FOR RURAL READERS. Another Consignment of Timely Suggestions for the Farmer, Housewife, Poultryman, Dairyman, Kltchenmald, and KStfery-

I'BE FAKM. Fighting the Ground Mole. Wherever the common ground moles take possession of light soils, free from stone, they become a great nuisance and do an immense amont of injury to lawns as well as small plants in the vegetable and flower garden. If we scatter barnyard manure in brills or trenches made for the reception of peas, beans, and other seeds, a mole is pretty certain to find it, and burrow under the entire row, lifting up or breaking off the roots of the young plants, causing their destruction. If a forkfull of manure is dropped in a hill for moles a mole will soon show us that he knows it and how to work in a •circle until every seed has been dried Up, or plant destroyed, and if the manure is spread broadcast then the moles travel in the same way, producing broadcast destruction.

It does not help us to be informed that the moles are only seeking their natural food, and have no desire or inclination to be mischievous, but they are all the same, and the food they seek is generally the harmless angleworm and not the larvae of insects as many writers have claimed to shield the moles from total condemnation. If a mole was very hungry and there were no angleworms to be had he would no doubt make a meal of white grubs, in fact, I have tested his taste for different kinds of food and have found that he preferred the augleworms, and would root up several square yards of lawn in seeking his breakfast. Traps are generally recommended as a satisfactory means of destroying ground moles, and if well made and of the right pattern, and then properly set, the mole stands but a poor chance of escaping a thrust from the steel points. Unfortunately my grounds are surrounded by farms that seem to breed moles as freely as they do the oxeye daisy, and so I have to defend myself against tresspassing moles as well as against the natural increase of the home stock. It is now about twenty years since I first began to use the modern mole-traps and I may say with fair success, for the number of moles caught every summer with them will average for the years named about twenty-five, or say 500 in all, but this slaughter has not exterminated the pests for we caught and killed thirty-three during last season. I have tried poisons of various kinds but with no apparent beneficial results, and even bi-sulphide of carbon poured into their burrows only drives the moles to new a few yards distant. The noxious insects have never given me half the trouble nor proved as great pests in the garden as the ground moles, and while I shall probably continue to use traps in order to keep the pests in check, I am anxiously looking for some better and more rapid mode cf extermination. — A. S. Fuller, New Jersey, in American Agricultufißt. A Convenient Poultry and Tool Bonne. On many farms the hens are allowed to lay their eggs about the barn, under it, or in a fence corner, and to roost wherever they can find a foothold, resulting in the frequent loss of eggs, and in the vexatious soiling of wagons, tools.

and the premises generally. It is also true that there is frequently no place in which to store farm tools. The plow is run in under the wagon, and the mowing machine occupies an end of the barn lloor during that portion of the year when not in use, while other tools find resting places, some within, and some out of doors. It hardly needs argument to showtbat such a course is both wasteful and inconvenient./ Such a condition of things may be remedied by constructing a building like that shown in the il-

lustration—a building that can be readily and cheaply put together by any one at all handy with tools. It may be placed on one side of the barnyard, thus affording a desirable windbreak. As shown, it may face either East or South. It could, of course, be made to face the West also That portion farthest from the barn is used for a henhouse, since windows upon two sides can thus be secured. This portion, if not the whole shed, should be battened snugly upon the outside, and lined with tarred paper on the inside. The floor should be as tight as possible and covered with four or five inches of road dust or dried swamp muck, on which" may be placed straw or other litter. The portion devoted to tools should have a dry floor to prevent rust. If this can be accomplished by thorough drainage and a thick coating of gravel it will much facilitate the running in of heavy mowers, plows, etc. The doors are also made large for this purpose, while the whole front of the tool shed may be thrown open by taking down the movable post between the two doors. A tight partition seperates the poultry house from the tool shed. —American Agriculturist.

Grindstone with Treadle Attachment. The great objection to running a stone with a treadle is the “jerky” character of its revolutions, making it difficult ,to give a true bevel or a sharp edge to the tool that is being ground, to say nothing of theinconvenience to the operator. The arrangement shown in above illustration largely obviates these difficulties. A flywheel is attached at sufficient distance

to one side to give freedom of movement when sharpening an ax or scythe. A wheel can frequently be found among the old iron of a hardware dealer, or can be purchased new for a small sum. It is important that it be of sufficent weight to give steadiness to the stone, and momentum to the revolution, so that little effort need be expended on the treable to keep the stone in motion when once well under way. The stone itself should, of courso, be hung perfectly true.

THE DAJKX. Good Butter Milk. With the introduction of patent machines, and the study of chemistry as applied to articles of food, butter making has certainly improved. A few farmers still adhere to the old notion that their old method is as good, if not superior, to the new-fangled notions. As an illustration of this I met a farmer a short time ago who was getting only sixteen cents a pound for his butter, while a few of his more progressive neighbors were receiving twenty-five and thirty. He thought it was all due to the trickery of the commission men, but the fact was, he ignored all the modern improvemets in buttermaking, packing and shipping. His butter when it reached the market was in a woeful condition, and the wonder is that it brought the price it did. Farmers have got to keep abreast of the times if they wish to succeed,and it is no use of interposing their whims and asserting that their ways cannot be improved upon. The modern methods of dairying are interesting and instructive. The best butter shipped to the large cities is carefully made after some systematic process. When the cows are milked, the milk is taken to the cistern, where it is strained into cans, and lowered into the cold water below. The water in the cistern should never get much warmer than 55 degrees in summer nor colder than 40 degrees in winter. The milkings should be about twelve hours apart, and the milk remains in the cistern between the milkings. The cans are then taken up and removed to the house, where it is skimmed at once. The cream is kept in some tin vessel until it acidulates, or commences to thicken. When new cream is put in the whole mass is stirred. At a temperature of 62 degrees the cream is churned to granulation. When the butter-milk is drawn off fresh well water washes out all traces of buttermilk. The butter is then ready to salt. Nothing but good dairy salt should be used, and if no more is put in than will dissolve there will not be much danger of salting the butter too much. The butter is held over by some for twelve hours or more for reworking before it is packed away; but others pack it solidly in tuba at once with a common butter ladle. Butter that is to be transported to distant cities should not be packed in prints, for it will get mussy and unattractive looking before its destination is reached. Good butter properly packed in tubs will answer all purposes, and will sell at a good price.-— J. D. Morrow, in American Cultivator. Procuring Better Cow*. We believe in the purchase of good cows, and also improvement by breeding from better Stock on the male side. But one method of improving the dairy is quite as important as either of these, is open to everybody, and without it all other improvement would be of little avail. That is to do everything to make your cows produce all the milk and butter that they are capable of doing. A cow while giving milk is at the same time bearing a calf. If her milk production is stimulated all that is possible she marks her calf with this characteristic. If she be neglected In any way she none the less surely marks her progeny for a poor cow, however she mav be treated.

THE HOUSEHOLD. Carina Nervous Headache. The ordinary nervous headache will be greatly relieved, and in many cases entirely cured, by removing the waist of one’s dress, knoting the hair high upon the head out of the way, aud while leaning over a basin, placing a sponge soaked in water as hot as it can be borne in the back of the neck. Repeat this many times, also applying the sponge behind the ears, and the strained muscles and nerves that have caused so much misery will be felt to relax and smooth themselves outdeliciouFly, and very frequently the pain promptly vanishes in consequence. Every woman knows the aching face and neck generally brought home from a hard day’s shopping, or from a long round of calls and afternoon teas. She regards with intense dissatisfaction the heavy lines around her eyes and mouth by the long strain on the facial muscles, and when she must carry that worn countenance to some dinner

party or evening’s amusement, it robs her c? all the pleasure to be bad ini it. Cosmetics are not the cure, nbr bromides or the many nerve sedAtives to be had at the drug shop. Use the sponge and hot water again, bathing the face in water as hot as it can possibly be borne; apply the sponge over and over again to the temples, throat, and behind the ears, where most of the nerves and muscles of the head center, and then bathe the face in water running cold from the faucet. Color and smoothness of outline come back to the face, an astonishing freshness and comfort is the result, and if a nap of ten minutes can follow, every trace of fatigue will vanish. The same remedy is invaluable for sunburn, and the worst case of this latter affliction of sensitive skins will succumb to the hotwater treatment. The cold douche should not follow in this case, instead, a light application of vaseline or cold cream, which prevents peeling of the skin as the hot water prevented inflammation. Nothing so good for tired eyes has yet been discovered as bathing them in hot water, and neuralgia in uine cases out of ten will yield to applications of cloths wrung out in hot water in which the the hand cannot be borne. — Harper’s Bazar.

Useful in the Kitchen. Ten common-sized eggs weigh one pound. Soft butter the size of an egg weighs one ounce. One pint of coffee A sugar weighs twelve ounces. One quart of sifted flour (well heaped) one pound. One pint of best brown sugar, weighs thirteen ounces. Two teacups (well heaped) of coffee A sugar weighs one pound. Two teacups (level) of granulated sugar weigh one pound. Two teacups of soft butter (wellpacked) weigh one pound. One and one-third pints of powdered sugar weigh one pound. Two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar or flour weigh one pound. One tablespoon (well-rounded) of soft butter weighs one ounce. One pint (heaped) of granulated sugar weighs fourteen ounces. One tablespoonful (well-heaned) granulated, coffee A or best brown sugar equals one ounce. Four teaspoons are equal to one tablespoon. Two and one-half teacups, level, of the best brown sugar weigh one pound. Miss Parloa says one generous pint of liquid, or one pint of finely chopped meat, packed solidly, weighs one pound, which it would be very convenient to remember. Teaspoons vary in size, and the new ones hold about twice as much as an oldfashioned spoon of thirty years ago. A medium-sized teaspoon contains about a drachm.

THE FIGGEKY. Point* on Pig*. It is well to remember that small pigs sometimes will not take the exercise they should. Especially is this the case in cold weather, and if the sow is in a shed or stable not having an adjoining lot there is also danger of this. It results in laying on an excessive amount of fat, causing thumps, which in case of s young pig is very hard to cure. This trouble can be avoided by compelling the pigs to take exercise. Hogs are uniformly profitable under the management of some men—often under a system that uses ashes as a diet, hard coal as aid to digestion, sulphur, carbolic acid and a dozen other things that are thought to contribute to a favorable sanitary condition. We are sometimes inclined to smile at this aggregation of remedies or preventives and to say that it is impossible to know, when so many things are given, which is valuable. But does not all this administering of various articles disclose the real and true cases of immunity from disease? Is it not the unremitting attention of tho owner? Seeing his stock often affords an opportunity for forestalling unfavorable conditions. —Indiana Farmer. It might be well for pig growers to remember that the profits in pork production are limited, and the only way to make them greater is by economical production, and this must grow out of better care of the animals and more system in feeding. It would be well for many men to start the crop of pigs this year with better treatment—quit dropping the corn over the fences into a mudhole, and feed on a floor,and use clean slop troughs when slopping. It is a waste, besides a fruitful cause of disease, to pour slop into a filthy, muddy trough. —National Stockman. The weaning of pigs is not always accomplished without a good deal of trouble and a loss of growth of pigs. These things quite often happen when the pigs are penned up during the weaning period. A much better way is to pen the mother up and allow the pigs to run at large. They will naturally go to the old feeding places where they can be given a suitable food. Young pigs thrive well if turned into an alfalfa lot, and the weaning pen ought to be located near a thrifty patch of lucern. —Field and Farm.

POULTRY AND TOOL HOUSE.

IMPROVED GRINDSTONE FRAME.