Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1891 — HOME AND THE FARM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME AND THE FARM.

A DEPAI'TMENT MADE UP FOR OUl: RURAL FRIENDS. mr - 1 ■ "■ ■ ■■ ■« Eom« Nhi A ppllmicv* for th« F«rnm'« W«U lor the Housewife. til* ItnckiuMii, the Dairyman, the Poulterer, anti tl»« Horticulturist—Notes. THE FAIUZ. Largest la: m In the World.

N THE extreme southwest corner of Louisiana lies the largest producing farm In the world, measuring 100 miles north and south, au d twenty-five miles east and west. Disowned and operated by a syndicate o f Northern capitalists. The 1,600,000 acres of tho tract were purchased from the State of Louisiana and from tho U. S. government.

At that time It was a vast grazing land for the cattle of a few dealers of the neighborhood, over .To.ooo head of halt-wild horses and cattle being thereon. Now this immense tract is divided into convenient pasture stations or ranches enisting every six miles. The fencing alone cost $50,000. The land is best adapted for rice, sugar corn, and cotton. All cultivation, ditching, etc., is done by steam power. A tract, say half a mile wide, is taken and an engine is placed on each side. The engines are portable, and operate a cable attached to four plows, and under tills arrangement thirty acres a day are gone over with only the labor of three men. Harrowing, planting, and other cultivation is done in a like manner. Therfr'is not a single draft horse on the entire place. Of course horses, arc used for the herders of cattle, of which there are 1(5,000. head. The Southern Pacific Railway runs for thirty-six miles through the farm. The company have three steamboats operating on the waters of tlielr estates, of which there are 300 miles navigable. They have also an ice-house, a bank, a ship yard, and a rice mill. — Spare Moments. A Cheap Wlieeltmrronr. Mr. P. Brugger, South Dakota, sends the Farm and Fireside a description of a cheap wheelbarrow that can bo

made by any farmer handy with common carpenter tools. The accompanying cut needs no explanation. The sideboards are made from planks six feet long and sixteen Inches wide. The bottom and end pieces are also made out of wide pine boards. No legs are needed. Wheat Culture. The principles of wheat culture are simple, but there are a few points that should be well learned. One is, that there should be a good seed bed. One plowing is sufficient, but the harrow and roller cannot bo too much used. The bed should be well compacted by the roller, and made very fine on top to the depth of two or three inches. The fertilizer used should be thoroughly mixed with this fine surface, not put below It with the plow, and, if It is home-made, should be old and line, so that it is at once available for use by the starting plants. Try to sow after a rain instead of before, and as soon after as the land will permit working; do not “dust in” the wheat and trust to luck for sufficient moisture to give it a start. Between one and two inches is the happy medium of depth at which to sow. and this can best be attained by having fegulating wheels upon each tube of the drill to ensure regularity of depths and to press the soil close about the seed. To ensure germination the seed must come into contact with the soil. If the ground is dry, or slightly cloddy, much' of it fails to do this under ordinary methods. Use good grain only for seed, clean and screen repeatedly, so that all foreign seeds and weak grains of wheat are east out. Put it through a strong blast, So that only the heaviest will remain. Repeated experiments have proven beyond question that it pays to use selected seed. Lastly, cut down your proposed area by a large percentage and put the extra labor and fertilizer on the rest, and you will reap a greater net reward at the end of the harvest.

Rainfall an a Kef-tlll seer. Nature’s method of irrigation is better than any artificial system of watering the earth, for the reason that rain supplies more than moisture to the soil. There is a solid basis of fact in the old proverb, “Snow is the poor man’s fertilizer.” And the same is true of rain. In the process of evaporation and condensation, passing through the air to the clouds, and thence to earth again, it gathers and conveys to the soil certain elements of fertility which are indispensable to plant nutrition! These materials in soluble form arc taken up by the root-feeders of plants, and so the plants derivfe nutriment as well as moisture from rainfall. No artificial system of irrigation can fully perform this most usesul office. In five years of observation at Lincoln, New Zealand, Mr. George Gray found that an acre of land receives anually (in 28.0 inches of rain) about 175 pounds of dissolved matter, including (>0.5 pounds of chlorine (being near to the sen,) 15 pounds of sulphuric anhydride, and more than 2 pounds of nitrogen. In a series of experiments Sir J. B. Lawes found that land at Rothamsted, England, receives annually per acre an average of 24 pounds of pure salt, 4 pound* of nitrogen in form of ammonia and nitric acid, and 18 pounds of sulphuric acid. Carbonic acid; one of the most powerful solvents of plant food, in varying q nan titles is brought to the earth by rain or snow passing through the air. This servos as both a solvent and fertilizer, liberating the lime and potash in the soil, preparing them for the use of growing plants. Blessed is the country in which nature does the work of irrigating the soil, for it gets both needed moisture and fertilisation.

A CHEAP WHEELBARROW.