Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTURAL TOPICS.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOB OUR RURAL READERS. ttow to Keep Sweet Potatoes—The Care of Tulip*—Convenient Hoisting Apparatus—Caring for the Corn Crop—A Furrower and Marker, Etc. Substantial House for Swine. As many farmers have requested a description of my hop-house, I will answer the request through the American Agriculturist, writes A. H. Sheldon. The house is built for eight brood sows in the spring, or fifty pigs

PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF PIGGERY. in the fall, and furnishes plenty of room for this number. The size is twenty feet wide by twenty-four feet long. The pens are each six feet square, making the alley through the center eight feet wide, giving plenty of room to drive a load of corn under cover of the roof, to unload in the fall. Four of these pens are on each side, and one swill trough, eight feet long, answers for two pens. Over each trough is placed a swinging door three by eight feet so that any litter which may be rooted into them can be easily cleaned out, and the pigs can also be shut back until the swill is poured Into the troughs, a great advantage as kny feeder knows. There are little doors from each pen into the aliey. also into the yards on the sides of the house. These yards should have a board floor, unless the ground is very sandy and well drained. A small pen near a hoghouse becomes a mortar bed, after every rain, and the object of the small yards outside is to give early pigs sunshine and more chance for exercise than a six by six pen affords. Over each pen under the upper roof is a small window to admit air and light. This slides on the scantling which supports the lower roof. The outside posts are only four feet high, and the center posts eight feet. The roof is boarded and shingled. The house is inclosed with No. 4 boards, then paper and drop-siding are put on to keep out frost in winter. Large doors at each end can be

opened when occasion requires, but for every day use a small door, thirty by seventy-eight inches, is placed at either end. A well and pump should be placed where most convenient so that no delay will occur when feeding time comes. There is hut little trouble to provide places for grain and meal, but a bountiful supply of water is quite as important and often neglected. The cost of the house with lumber at twenty dollars per thousand, and shingles at three and and one-half dollars is about one hundred dollars. Several loads or sand or gravel may be profitably dumped into the pigyards each year.

Keeping: Sweet Potatoes. Regard must be had to the proper growing and handling of sweet potatoes in order to insure success in their keeping. They should be grown on soil suited to them, and early enough to fully mature in season, and when harvested handled without bruising. They should be planted early enough to mature before frost for tubers of frost bitten vines are doubtful keepers. Dig them when the ground is dry, if possible, that they may be dry and clean. Then lay them in a dark, cool room, or at once store them away in a frost-proof cellair or storehouse. The best manner to store them here is to put them in broad,shallow boxes (shelves will do). These may be placed one above another with a small space between them to give better ventilation. A light 00-vorine of dry sand or earth, •will to itheir preservation, as it will serve to keep the potatoes at a more uniform temperature, and absorb the moisture arising from them. The place of storage should be dry and ihave a uniform temperature, and that at about 35 or 40 degrees. Potatoes which have fully matured are thus stored in shallow Layers, and kept fabily above frost and moisture will seldom fail to keep well.

Feeding t'omtoritheVwt Profit. I am convinced that it pays, especially when steamed, to grind corn and cob for cattle, writes an experienced live stock and dairy man. I am not quite clear whether corn or oats is beet for sheep; I know corn is good. For store sheep, two fair feeds of it daily with plenty of good straw are sufficient; for fatters, hay with three feeds of the mixed meals, and dry bran with plenty of water. For cows—not using ensilage—l prefer cut and steamed cornstalks, with corn meal and bran, half of each by weight, liberally sprinkled on. In the absence of the steamer, I put on the cut stalks, slightly moistened, a regular ration of corn meal; some prefer it put on dry. For fattening steers I prefer the scalded fodder plentifully basted with corn and oat meal. Ihe meal will do well enough with hay and no doubt with ensilage. Corn thus ted, with close care, 1 have found to work wonders. Colts—except • fillies—will keep well on coarse fodder with a little corn twice a day. SMnrtng the Corn Crop. Corn should be cut for fodder as Boon as the kemels*begin to glaze on most of the larger ears. At this time if no frosts have occurred the leaves are mostly green, and if put in stocks

of from thirty-six to forty hills each and well tied at the top, the fodder will cure in good condition. The juices in the stalks will be sufficient to ripen the unmatured ears, so that husking may commence in earnest in about fifteen days. In dry sunny weather it will pay to leave the cornfodder spread on the ground for a day or so to dry out and harden, more especially if to put away in large bulk. It will also be found a good plan to sort the corn when busking, removing all silk and husks from the best, while the small ears, and that intended for immediate feeding, may be hauled without this precaution. If the best corn is cribbed without removing the litter it will make a fine nesting place for rats and mice. When husking corn-fodder many persons jerk the husks so spitefully as to remove them entirely, and being loose and short they are not bound in the bundle but left in the field to become weather beaten, dirty and useless as fodder; hence, caution should be exexercised on this point. The best ears should be selected for seed. As the stalks contain a vast amount of moisture they should not be placed in large stacks or in close barns until late in the season as they will he quite certain to heat and mildew, unless a layer of dry hay, or straw, he placed between each layer of bundles.

Planting and Care of Tulips. The bulbs of tulips are solid, fleshy, from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and rather irregular in shape, as indicated in the accompanyeng sketch. They should be set

about three inches j deep and six inches apart,in rich, wellpulverized and well-drained soil.. The best time to prepare the bed is in September or October. At this season the bulbs ‘are entirely dormant and may be

obtained from any florist. After planting, a few mixed flower seeds ofhardy annuals may be sown over the bed. These will come into bloom after the tulip flowers fade, and will prove interesting and attractive. Those who are fond of bedding plants can plant the bed with Geraniums or Petunias after the bulbous flowers fade, if suen a display is preferred. They are of such a character that they will thrive in almost any soil or situation, and bloom satisfactorily if they have but half a chance.—Farm and Fireside.

A Remarkable Apple Tree. According to a report of the Committee on Fruits at the State Fair meeting of the Ohio Horticultural Society, Mr. Pierce of Miami County, presented an apple grown upon the sole surviving tree of one of the earliest orchards planted in that county, the tree being now about two feet in diameter, and still vigorous and very productive. It is supposed to be upward of eightv years. The specimens were large, of very bright crimson color with numerous small white spots; very smooth and attractive in appearance- It was stated that the first specimens began to ripen in July, at which time there would he many apples not larger'than hickery outs on thetree, whichwould ripen in succession until picking time, in the fall, when there would be quite a proportion which would keep till January. Some of the specimens shown were fully ripe, while others were quite green. The quality was so poor that the majority of the committee would not recommend it for propagation, but its sine and beauty were such that it wauld doubtless meet a Teady-sale. One Man Can Volt The cut explains a practical method for i®ne man to hoist grain, such as com, eta, into the corn-house in a bushel basket, says a'correspondent of Farm and Home. Two ropes are neoessary; one on the bottom of the basket, as well as the hoisting rope.

The tottom irope will invert the basket every rime, inside of the granary, and between the two mopes the basket returns oat of the window automatically. This enables one man to stand on the ground and put a large number of baskets of grain out of sight in a very few minutes.

Ai»ut dotting Hen*. There will surely toe trouble with a setting hen if other fowls are permitted to lay im toer nest. There will be objections on the part of the breeding hen for wtoieh she is not to be blamed. And in the struggle it is certain that some eggs will be broken, when it is probable that one of the hens will eat the broken eggs. The setting hen will be apt to leave the nest when it is occupied by the intruder, and she may not return, when the eggs may cool and the chicks either die in the shell or soon after they emerge, from weakness. The only satisfactory way is to have a separate place for the brooding hens and to keep each one in a separate pen, from which she cannot get out, and to feed and water her in it. The pen should be three by two feet, giving the hen room to stretch her legs when she comes off to feed. The next box should be low and be well soaked with kerosene when it is prepared for use. This will insure freedom from lice to the hen and save a world of trouble and disappointment and consequent vexation. Choice of Breeds. The man who goes out hunting for the best breeds of live stock without any references whatever to his environments is hardly up to snuff. The best breed is largely such simply because it is best suited to some particular purpose, and whether or not that purpose is well filled depends upon kilAl surrounding* Let the

stockman study well ljis conditions as to grasses, grains, soil, climate, markets, eta, and he is not apt to make a mistake in the choice of breeds.— Nebraska Farmer. Treatment ot' the Garden. If possible all the weeds, grass and other stuff should be burned off the garden, and it should also be plowed late in the fall if possible. If this is done there is very little danger from cut worms and similar pests the following year, and a great many things can be sown in the spring that will have to wait until very late if the ground has to be plowed in the spring. Above all things the garden spot must be rich. The best manure and a great deal of it will be needed if there is to be a good garden, and pay for the work and care needed. A half acre of a good garden is worth ten acres of corn, and requires about the same amount of work. Sheep Shearings. V-shafed troughs are best for feeding grain. A lamb need not be despised because it is small. Sheep may be made the gleaners of the farm; the savers of waste. Give sheep plenty of water and salt and they will soon dean a field. To raise early lambs for market the ewes must be of good healthy stock. Ik raising early lambs is to be undertaken select out the breeding ewes in good season. Some breeders claim that early lambs grow faster, are healthier, and make larger sheep than late ones. One advantage with sheep is that if properly managed they eat their food cleaner than horses or cattle. Generally with wool shipped to market it requires a larger time to get returns than with almost any other farm product.

Water-Troughs. The best water-troughs for poultry are of wood, the usual shape, and made to hold a bucketful of water. The trough should be placed under a tree, or in some shady place. The objection to fountains is the tedious work of filling them. Troughs become slimy after awhile, but may easily be washed with soap-suds and an old broom. It costs but a small sum to make a trough, hence a new one should be made every year. The trough should be Ailed every morning, but should be rinsed well before Ailing. A Handy Tool. The back figure shows a piece of plank with cultivator tooth inserted. When you want furrows made, bolt one of these behind each runner.

Run a board across the rear ends of each runner and bolt it to each attachment to keep them down and in a line. When using it, toy a board from the main plank to the rear hoard and stand on it. The further back you stand the deeper the marker goes. I have used this for a number of years and pronounoedt a regular short cut marker and Sorrower.—M. Murphy, in Practical Farmer. Turnips Pevltry. A mess of turnips makes an excellent meal for poultry an the wintrer season, and especially ifor ducks and geese. They may also be used during the fall. Add a small qiiantitv of bran and ground oatefto the turnips and give the hens all they will eat, as such food is bulky, and mot -so liable to fatten them quickly asds the case when grain is fed exclusively. Hints to Hsuftekeepew. To prevent oil from oozing over the top of the burner, I;urn the wick down after the light iemut. At night, after a day's (traveling, rub the face thoroughly with vaseline or cold cream. The grease will prove a more effective cleaner than soap and water.

The thimble was first called the “thumb bell,” because itwasmsed on the thumb instead of tihe flngec, as.at present. The word soon •evolved into thumble. The word thimble iis comparatively modern. An ingeninus female has tort upon •the idea of a “dressalbum,” in which tiny cuttings of every gown belonging to its owner are to be chronologically arranged under the 4aites on \w,hich thev were purchased. Strawberries are so called •from ithe ’fact that they were aaoemtlv brought to market strung upon •straws. Raspberries are also called ifcom the peculiar rasping roughness of itheir leaves. Raspls-berry origiaaalLy. There is nothing more useful atoout the kitchen than sal soda. 14 will, dissolved in a little water, remove grease from anything,and there is nothing like it for cleaning hair brushes, which, by the way, should be cleaned more frequently than they are It is comparatively easy to exterminate black ants. The little red ants are, however, very hard to get rid of. A little powdered hellebore sprinkled around at night will as a rule quickly exterminate them. Care must be taken in using the hellebore, and in brushing it away in the mornidg, as it is poisonous. Powdered sulphur will frequently acewer the purpose.

GROUND PLAN OF PIGGERY.

HOISTING APPARATUS.

FURROW AND MARKER.