Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1892 — AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTURAL TOPICS.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR RURAL READERS. A Plaee for Everything—How to Unite • Good and Cheap Marker—Trnok Farming Statistics Dairy Suggestions A Filthy Well —Household Hints. Boys on the Form. The decadence of farming of late years is largely due to the undeniable fact that city life has offered greater attractions as well as greater profits to the young. While it is true farming does not require so severe and unremitting toil as formerly, can it be said that young people on the farm have been encouraged to find their pleasures and relaxation at home? This is the only way to make farm life attractive to the average young man. If on each holiday he goes to the city, it will naturally soon seem to him that city life is all a holiday while life on the farm is one of unceasing drudgery. It often happens that city bpys kept at work in stores, and only allowed to go into the country tor vacation, see only the holiday aide of farm life, and require a love for it that those brojught up on the farm too Often do not share. Why do not farmers take a hint from these facts, and make as much holiday as possible for their sons at home? It is time that the old rule, which made the boy hoe his row and run for water, while the men rested, was superceded by a practice which would give boys the easiest tasks, and the little investments that give largest profits, as the best means to interest them in farming and make this the occupation of their lives.— American Cultivator. A Farmer’s Workshop. I became tired of the old way of haying bolts, Screws, nails, rivets, wire,, buckles, eta, in boxes standing herb and there, oftentimes all sizes in the same box, just because there was no other place for them, says a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer. The bother and loss of time were great, as 1 had to open sometimes nearly a dozen boxes to And the thing I wanted. Thus necessity became the mother of invention, and the result was a ’’case” in which there is a place for everything, as shown in the cut The drawers are made of small, light boxes t (Vvhich can be had at the grocery stores) sawed to the right size, and then nailing a side, bottom or end to them as required. The lower ones are shallow for nails, etc., two or three inches deep; those intended for more bulky articles, as bolts, etc., deeper. For knobs, take common sewing thread spools and saw them in two. The half of one spool, with a wood screw through the hole of it and into the drawers makes the knob. For convenience drawers for screws, rivets, small nails, tacks, etc., are partitioned into two, three or four parts, and can also be taken out and carried to where wanted. A sample of the article or articles (size and kind) in each drawer is fastened on tbe outside of it by a double pointed carpet tack, and when anything Is wanted, from a quarter inch tack to a half inch bolt it is a pleasure and satisfaction to be able to put your hand on it in a moment A Good and Cheap Marker. One that is suitable for marking out cabbage ground, and for anything not co be planted deep. Take three 2by 4 scantlings, 3 feet long, bevel one edge, and turn up atone end like sled runners. On top of runners

(crosswise) nail three one inch boards, 12'inches wide, and as long as necessary to make the rows 2}, 3, or 4 feet wide, as may be desired. Attach chain or heavy wire to connect with whiffle trees; and fasten handles in rear plank, and the marker is ready. —Practical Farmer. Truck Farming. According to census bulletin No. 41, upward of $100,000,000 are invested in this industry, the annual products reaching a value of $76,517,155 on the farms after paying freights and commissions, realized upon 534,440 acres of land. There are employed in this industry 216,765 men, 0,254 wemen, and 14,874 children, aided by 75,866 horses and mules, and $8,971,206.70 worth of implements. Th 6 numoer of acres devoted to truckfarming in the United States is 534,440; value of products, $76,517,155. Kinds of leading vegetables grown on truck-farms of the United States: Asparagus is grown on 37,970 acres; beans, 12,607; cabbage, 77,094; kale, 2,962; spinach, 20,195; Irish potatoes, 28.046; beets, 2,420; celery, 15,381; cucumber, 4,721; watermelons, 114,381; other melons, 28,477; peas, 56,162; sweet potatoes, 28,621; tomatoes, 22,802,' and miscellaneous vegetables on 82,601 acres. Thu Bepslr of Fence*. Thereare many kinds of labor upon the fairm that require attention in season, and among them all, none more important than that of fence repairing. As soon as the soil is clear of frost all fences should be critically examined and all repairs attended to. To neglect this is one of the cases where “delay is dangerous,” the result of which may be the destruction or injury of some important crop, to say nothing of the influence that may be exerted upon animals in the line of leading them into habits of unruliness. Let the fences be attended t 6 and these dangers avoided. Dairy School* and Their Graduate*. Too many of, our cheese factories are officered by incompetent managers, The school teachers are required to pass a certain examination before they are allowed to teach. Is it a greater hardship to ask that our butter and cheese makers who manipulate millions of dollars’ worth of milk annually shall pass an examination as to their proficiency, and then secure to them fair living wages in return? The dairy, as a rule, needs bettor patronage and a more scientific and skillful factory and creamery management. What are our dairy

I ... ‘ ./ . ■ , schools for? Lei our legislators* nlake these schools thorough, furnish them a full equipment of teachers afld mechanism, with nominal tuition. Then it will be well tb require the manager of a factory or creamery to be a -graduate of one of these schools, and thus make them useful. i . To KHp .ri*a Off v’»wi. To have a cow continuaHy -flghting flies while milking is a great annoyance, and an agricultural exchange suggests that a phosphate sack be ripped on one side and put on the cow as shown.

The Bottom of the sack coniines the tail. The cow cannot switch; the flies do not bite. Results—comfort and cleanliness. Dairy Suggestions. “He that would get milk In the pall and butter in the churn must flrst put them Into the mouth of the cow.” Don’t fool away time in following any of the recipes for making a tiptop article of butter out of rancid grease. Feed the cow high, right along up to the time of calving; and if there is not a case of abortion, there will likely bo a dead cow from milk fever. Is there really any difference asks a correspondent, betweon the keeping qualities of butter made fromsweet cream and butter made from sour cream? Practically none. While it is desirable to keep butter sometimes, yet it is a fact that butter is made to be eaten and not kept. No doubt that there-will be enough butterine and oleomargarine at the World’s Columbian Fair to disgust a hog. Itwouldbea bright idea for some public spirited microscoplst to be in attendance to show the people of the world how the stuff looks when it is magnified. It looks very different when magnified by the microscope from what it does when it Is “magnified” by its manufacturers. K*laln( Turkey*. There is no use trying to raise turkeys unless you can give them a wide range. They do not thrive when shut upjn yards. Turkeys are hard to raise, but after they pass the critical period of “shooting the red,” they become very rugged, and can stand a great many hardships—m fact, can stand almost apything but confinement. One of the prime causes of the alarming mortality among young turkeys is dampness; it is fatal*to them. They must not be allowed out in the morning before the dew is off the grass, and they should be housed before the sun sets. Avoid dampness, and keep them free from lice, and there will be considerably less run. '