Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1891 — RURAL TOPICS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RURAL TOPICS.

INFORMATION FOR THE HUSBANDMAN AND HOUSEWIFE. Some Practical Suggestions for the Farmer. Stock-Breeder. Poulterer. Nurseryman, and Housekeepers. THE FARM. Magnitude of Truck Farming.

H E census office has published highly interesting statistics of truck farming in the United States, as disti n g u I s h e d from market gardening, which is conducted so near to the local market that the farmer depends on his own team for Transportation. The average truck farm is situated at a great distance from the market in which its produce is dis-

posed of. It is a new feature introduced within the last few years, except the little which used to be possible by canal. It is the modern railroad that has rendered possible the truck farm, and this partly accounts for the fact of its neglect in previous census compilations. Not that there was no truck farming in 1880, but the volume of it was vastly less than now. It is estimated that upwards of SIOO,000,000 is invested in the industry in the United States, the annual production being three-quarters of this amount, or 876,500,000, realized from 534,440 acres of land. In the work are engaged 215,765 men, 9,264 women, and 14,074 children, who are aided by 75,868 horses and mules, and use nearly $9,000,000 worth of agricultural implements. The industry is carried on in nearly all the States, but the principal districts are a narrow belt on the South Atlantic coast and along the Mississippi Valley. The more fertile soils are chosen; labor and the railroads do the rest. The big cities are the'best customers of the truck farmer, the wants of the people in the smaller centers of population being to a large extent supplied from the immediate neighborhood, and they take less per capita of that grown in other climates than their own. What they do take of the latter is mostly obtained from the dealer in the city, and in this respect Chicago drives a tremendously large business in catering to the truck wants of the people over an important part of the United States. In reality the trade embraces a much greater variety and takes a far wider range than appears to have been included in the cen-, sus statistics, which deal mostly with vegetables,unless the melons be supposed to belong to some other category. The merchants of Chicago draw hither the fruits of Georgia, Florida, the West India Islands, and Central America, the peaches and berries of Illinois and Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri, apples, grapes, and pears from New York State, strawberries from Baltimore, oranges, lemons, grapes, peaches, and pears from California, and cranberries from the marshes of Wisconsin. And the range of their distributive work is almost equally wide. They send Northern produce to the Southern States and vice versa, and the extent of their trade with the Southwest may be inferred from the estimate made a few years ago that the railroad strike in that section, by cutting off trade beyond St. Louis, reduced for a time the shipping business of South Water street by nearly onefifth.

Few people have a correct idea of the effect this business has on transportation. In tlje season for most of the fruits special trains run each day from the producing districts to this city, the peaches and strawberries load down the boats which ply regularly between Chicago and the ports on the opposite shore of Lake Michigan, and hundreds of persons are employed here in the work of receiving'besfties thousands who find employment in handling the material at other points while it is being collected and distributed after having been raised by an army of workers. And, as previously stated, all this is of modern origin. The vast increase to human comfort permitted by the enjoyment of the products of other areas than those which surround the consumer, and the concomitant benefit to the many who in this direction minister to the supply of what may be called necessary luxuries to their fellowcreatures, is the outgrowth of the present generation, which, by making railroad transportation far-reaching,speedy, and cheap, has permitted the interchange of commodities on a scale that would never have been dreamed of by the people of fifty years ago.— Chicago Inter-Ocean. A Good Smokehouse. I have noted hundreds of smokehouses, from the hollow log to the elegant brick affair, says a writer in the Ohio Farmer, ranging in price from a dollar or two to a hundred or two dollars; and have seen nothing in my experience that would compare favorably, either in utility or economy, with the kind I invented and have used for years. It is easily constructed ana so cheap that any family can have a new clean one every time there is occasion for use.

A large clean sugar or salt barrel is placed on a box that is wide enough for the barrel to stand on clear of the edges of the box and twice as long (or more) as wide, and eight or twelve inches high. Three or four auger holes must first be bored through the box on the end where the barrel stands, to allow the smoke to

anme through. Strong wire nails are to i bo driven through from inside close to 1 top of barrel. Place the barrel on the box over the holes and chink tight with clean clay mud around the bottom of barrel. Box stands on the ground. Hang your hams on the wire nails, some with short string, others with long ones, if you wish to utilize all the space in the barrel. Place a strong clean paper or canvas over the top of the barrel, and enough gunny sacks or blankets can be added to keep the smoke hi. A depression should be made in the ground under the front edge of the box, so that when the fire is made upon a piece of sheet or tin, the whole can be shoved under the box. Leave the fire close to the front end of the box. A half head of a barrel can be crowded down by the end of the box, closing the lire hole when the loose earth is banked abound it. The cut shows the half head in place. With this contrivance you need only to have the smallest possible amount of fire, and yet owing to the' construction, the smoke is bound to be reasonably cool even if there is considerable lire. If one is afraid thieves will carry off hams, smokehouse and all, cut a hole in the front end of the box to put the fire through, and place the smokehouse on the cellar floor. A New-Zealand Flood-Fence. The wire and picket flood-fence represented below is furnished us by Charles Goulter, Marlborough, New Zealand. The pickets are spur feet long, and of any convenient thickness. A hole is bored through each one, five inches from the top. They are then strung upon a steel-wire rope. When adjusted at uniform distance apart they are fastened in

by winding a flexible No. 8 wire around pickets and the wire rope upon which they are strung. The lower wire is attached to the outside of the pickets eight inches from the lower ends. At every fourth picket a strand of the flexible wire is wound spirally around the picket and fastened to the upper rope and lower wire to hold the latter from slipping off. The wire rope to which the whole is suspended is firmly attached, by staples or otherwise, to the posts on either bank of the stream. — American Ar/riculturlet.

THE HORTICULTURIST.

Mildew on tile Grape Vine. During the summer of 1890 experiments wore tried with various compounds of copper-sulphate, for the treatment of mildew of the grape. These experiments were carried on throughout the summer, with several kinds of grapes, In different localities, all under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture. The report of these experiments has just been published. The remedies tried for mildew generally produced good results. In some eases this was true with the remedies tried for black-rot, but not generally. The wide range of area over which the experiments were made and the different climatic conditions under which they were conducted, add much to their value. Comparing the various remedies used and the results obtained, the copper mixture of Gironde, or Bordeaux mixture, may be considered the best for mildew. It is made as follows: Dissolve in a wooden vessel eight pounds of sulphate of copper in fifteen gallons of. water; warm or hot water Is best. In another vessel slake ten pounds of lime in five gallons of water. When both the copper solution and the lime mixture are cooled to the ordinary temperature of the air, pour the latter slowly into the former, taking care to mix the fluids thoroughly by constant stirring during the operation. When ready to apply to the vines, again stir It thoroughly. A pump for this purpose is the best, but many use a common whisk broom. Care must be used to keep it from flesh and clothes. If strong enough to burn the foliage, dilute with water. The application should be made In cloudy weather, or late in the afternoon. This experiment, in which the labor was estimated at ten cents per hour, costs less than two cents per vine. Sulphate of ■copper costs from five to seven cents per pound by the barrel, at retail ten cents. Besides the benefit to the fruit, the vines were greatly improved by this solution; rich foliage and stronger growth of wood was produced. If this simple remedy will prevent mildew of grapes, the vineyardlsts of our country will consider the experiments a good investment.

THE DAIKI.

Solid* in Milk. The fact that milk is liquid in form deceives many persons as to its nutritive value, as well as regards the character of food needed to produce It Farmers know by experience that mangold or other beets, while often promoting a large flow of milk, either make it of poor quality or rapidly reduce the flesh of the cow. This fact is explained by the chemical analysis of milk, which shows only 85 percent of water, while the mangolds have 90 per cent. Fodder corn when green has 80 per cent of water, but it contains even less proportion of nitrogenous matter than the mangolds. Good milk is rich in two important and valuable elements. Its carbon is in the form of fat and is shown in cream and butter. Its nitrogenous matter shows when the milk is soured, making curd and cheese. Unless both these elements are furnished in the food, the milk can only be good at the exporise of the cow. Dairy ftotes* Good butter can be obtained only from sound milk—the yield of healthy cows and produced from suitable food and proper surroundings; and in proportion to the care observed to secure these essentials, will the success in making good butter depend. If you have ten or twenty cows in your dairy treat each one and care for each one of them as though she was the only one you had, and see if the jiairy don’t pay better than it has. But you say “I can’t do it, it takes too much time.” Then get rid of enough of them so you can. / Calves should be fed liberally with the best of food. They should be kept growing, for if they are stunted in

growth every part us them is stunted and the milk organs suffer the most. A poorly fed calf will make a poor cow. Give each calf a quart of corn meal twice every day. There Is no question about the advisability of dehorning, if it occasions the animal but litt'e pain and does not produce a serious sore. There are objections not altogether ill-founded to dehorning mature animals, but these objections do not apply to the use of chem-, leal dehorners oh quite young calves. When a cow is found to bp licking itself or another cow it indicates that the card and the brush are needed. The use of these instruments of cleanliness is indispensable for the comfort of the cow and the cleanliness of the milk. Where they are used every day there will bo no hairs in the butter.

THE GARbEN.

Improved Garden Trowel. Sometimes a slight change in the form of an implement or tool will make it

more convenient and better adapted to the work for which it was intended. This is very prominently proven by simply grinding or filing away the end of a common trowel. All who have had experience in that line know how extremely difficult it is to cut off with the common garden trowel a weed that has a strong taproot. By using a trowel modified us shown in the engraving, the work is readily accomplished. Grind down until it is threequarters of an inch from

improved point, f io point, leaving the trowel, edge concave. It is plain that inpressing into the soil any root coming in contact with the trowel between the two points is readily severed. This does not in the least detract from the common use of the Implement but greatly adds to its usefulness. Should the concave surface be kept sharp it will prove more effective in every way.— American AgrlculiurM.

THE HOUSEHOLD.

Cure for Diphtheria. We publish the following because the experiment may be safely tried, and ft is worth trying. Diphtheria is becoming a dreadful scourge, and the writer of what Is here said saw the working of this cure in the hands of an English physician, at a time when the disease was prevalent in an English town. Speaking of the physician’s application, the writer says: “All he took with him was powder of sulphur and a quill, and with these he cured every case without exception. He put a spoonful of the flour of brimstone into a wine glass of water, and stirred it with his Angers instead of the spoon, as the sulphur does not readily amalgamate with water. When the sulphur was well mixed, he gave It as a gargle, and in ten minutes the patient was out of danger. Brimstone kills every species of fungus In man, beast, or plant, in a few minutes. Instead of spitting out the gargle, he recommends the swallowing of it. In extreme cases in which he has been called just in the nick of time, when the fungus was too nearly closed to allow the gargle, he blow the sulphur through a quill Into the throat, and after the fungus had shrunk to allow of it,, then the gargling. He never lost a patient from diphtheria. If a patient cannot gargle, take a live coal, put It on a shovel and sprinkle a spoonful or two of flour of brimstone at a time upon It, let the sufferer Inhale it. holding the head over it, and the fungus will die. If plentifully used, the whole room may be filled almost to suffocation, the patient can walk about in It, inhaling the fumes with doors and windows shut. The plan of fumigating a room with sulphur has often cured most violent attacks of cold in the head and chest,” Corner Hook-Mark. Take a bit of water color paper about 1 " elght inches long by three wide; double it at the top, then sketch some dainty

bit of flower or tiny child figure. When you have outlined It, cut It out carefully around the left side and paint in water color, working in a faint tint of background. Add a quotation suitable, such as ’‘Read, mark, and inwardly digest;” “Good books are good friends;” “Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen;” “To marke ye place in ye booke.” Then punch half a dozen holes down the right side, lace with a bit of silk cord or narrow ribbon, and you have a very cute book-mark, and slip on the corner of a page. How to Treat Sprain*. Few people know how to properly treat sprains, and yet sprains are among the most common of minor accidents. Put the limb at once in hot water until the pain and Inflammation have somewhat subsided; then bandage It snugly and keep in an elevated position when possible. Vinegar and water, alcohol and water, witch-hazel and water, or arnica make good lotions during the inflammatory stage. When the pain is all out, a little rubbing and passive exercise are good, and in two or three days a plaster of parts bandage may be applied, and when an ankle is affected the person may get around with a cane. By this treatment a rapid cure results. — Albany Press. ' Hint* to Housekeepers. When dress silk becomes wet, pat it between the hands to dry quickly. Apples that are not properly looked after will decay in the barrels very fast. If ribbons need renewing wash them in cool suds, made of soap, and iron when damp. Cover with a clean cloth and iron over IL To clean straw mtyfQng. boil three quarts of bran in one gallon of water and wash the matting with’ the water, drying it well.

DAINTY BOOK-MARK.