Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1892 — HOME AND THE FARM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME AND THE FARM.

A DEPARTMENT MADE UP FOR OUR RURAL FRIENDS. - To Make Money at a Dull Season—A Cheap and Handy Feed Cutter—Arrangement for Sorting Potatoes—Should Have a Good Lawn, Etc. A Good Sheep Shelter. A successful sheep raiser shelters his flock in the convenient shed shown in our illustration. The only bought lumber is for the ends. The frame is

made of posts mid poles, hewed only near the mortises and tenons, and sloping gently hack to a low and tight stone wall. The forward pitch is steeper and shorter, reaching to within four and a half feet of the ground, lhe roof is made of slabs and poles covered with long swail grass, two feet deep at the eaves and eight feet at the ridge, and built like a stack to shed rain. The posts stand on flat stones to prevent decay. Board eaves troughs carry the water to the sides to prevent a mudhole in front, and the ground slopes away from the shelter. The shed opens to the south, allowing the sun to shine in, but excluding the prevailing winds, fluring lambing time, one part of the shed is boarded up close and warm for ewes and young lambs. Movable feed racks extend from the front to within three feet of the: back wall. The manure is not cleaned out until spring. Abundant bedding is used, and the dry compost thus made is a rich fertilizer. This shed is twentyfive by sixty feet, and will easily hold 100 sheep.—American Agriculturists.

Sorting Potatoes Made Easy. Make a box 12 feet long and 4 feet wide, like the illustration, with three

partitions, the back piece shoulu be about 4 feet high, the next 3 feet, and the next 1| feet ‘high. Nail pickets on for screens. Put them rather close together on the first incline, and further apart on the second. This sorts them in three grades. Shovel them on the top or first incline and poke them down,’ and you have them sorted in three grades.— Practical Farmer.

Money at a Dull Season. If one has a shop, hen-house, tarn or tight shed with a southern exposure and glass, he can put in a secondhand stove at a cost of $1 or $2, keep the place warm with waste wood, which abounds On most farms, and start plants for the gardens of his. neighbors and of those in the surrounding villages. These will include cabbage, tomato, pepper, egg, celery, and other plants. If the room is not the warmest it makes no difference, and if the plants grow slowly thev will be hardier and give better satisfaction in transplanting. At 6in high these seddings will be ready for sale and should command 25c per dozen at least, if sold in little boxes filled with earth. The boxes of thrifty plants can be readily sold from house to house or left at the stores on commission. The grower will be astonished bv a neat little sum from no apparent outlay. A room 10x12 is large enough for a starter. If it is dark, insert some sashes, which many be made cheaply. Have the sashes 3x6ft and let the middle supports for the glass run lengthwise only. When setting the glass let it lap, but be sure that it does not extend over the next pane more than | in. To make these plants the best for looks and growth, sow the seeds in fine, rich soil and transplant them an inch apart at 1 inch high. They will not be retarded long and will grow more rapidly than ever. Before being finally placed in the boxes for sale, they should be transplanted a second time into boxes and beds and 2x3in apart, Nothing is more important for their appearance and after-growth than two or three transplantings.

Protect the Sheep. w The tendencies at present are for more sheep on the farms, and more should be kept, especially on dairy farms. The great drawback has been the cur dogs, and if it were not for these a great many more sheep would have been kept. The Legislature should zlve us a good fair dog law, but until we have it we must devise some means to protect ourselves. One good way of protection ■’ is to fence in small fields with chicken wire or woven wire fences. Another Is by the use of portable hurdles which may be moved every day or two. Still another way is by the use of bells on the sheep’s neck, using one to every eight sheep. These will not only scare the dogs wheir they get in with the sheep, but will give alarm, owners should have a good rifle handy and send all dogs that are found in the flock “over the river.”— Farm ane Home. Wintering Geraniums. For the last five years, says a correspondent, I have kept my bedding geraniums in the cellar over winter, and the plan has proved a very successful one. The plants are left in their beds, covering them at night to protect from frost till the approach of severely cold weather; then they are dug carefulllv to preserve the roots. At least two-thirds of the tops are cut off and the plants closely packed in strong, deep boxes with the roots well covered with earth which is sifted and packed among them. After being thoroughly watered the boxes are placed in the shade for afewdays, and stored in a dry cellar till spring. They require no further attention than an occasional watering. When remov ed from the cellar in the following April or May the plants are co«*

ered with new shoots, and are gradually exposed to the sun till the time to again transplant their beds on the lawn. The stocks being large and strong, in a few weeks the beds are beautiful with foliage, and soon present a mass of flowers. Experiments With Potatoes In experiments at the Utah Station for various purposes, it was found that depth of planting did not materially affect the total yield of the crop. Also that when they were planted near the surface the tuberscontained 23.1 per cent more starch than when planted deep, and were therefore worth 33.5 per cent more for eating purposes besides being more palatable. Shallow tillage, and even no tillage was better than deep tillage, a fact which we hope will not lead to careless culture. Eight inches apart in the rows was found to be the limit of greatest production, as the yield of a greater or less distance diminished. Increasing the distance between the rows did not appear to decrease the yield. Close planting resulted in an Increase of moisture and a decrease of starch in the tubers. Planting nearer than one foot in rows three feet apart is not recommended. In the production of potatoes, quality should be one of the prime considerations, since they hold such an important position In family use.

Cheap Feed Cutter. The handy feed cutter shown in the engraving, has a steel knife made the shape of the old-fashioned grain sickle

but with wider blade. Two pieces of one -1 fourth b y one inch iron are bent in the same shape, and bolted t o pieces fastened to feed room wall. The irons should b e just far

enough apart, homemade feed cutter to allow the knife to pass down between them. The knife is raised, the sheaf placed under, and the cut made. The sickle must be kept very sharp to do good work. Care must be taken that the Angers are not caught and wounded while slicing the feed. Turnips and sugar beets may be sliced with this contrivance. The chief advantage in cutting hay is that grain may be mixed with the food. Sliced roots are much easier eaten by cows and sheep than the compact large roots. It is well to moisten chopped hay before feeding.—American Agriculturist.

Poultry Pickings. Give the chickens fine gravel and let them help themselves. If poultry are confined, if they are not,given a good variety they eat much that had hetter be let alone. In very hot weather see that the chickens have some chance to get into the shade. TooKotasun is not good. The nests and roosts should always be easy of access in order to make the work of keeping down the lice much easier. While chickens thrive best in small numbers or flocks, ducks seem to do better when a large number are kept tog ether. One advantage with geese is that they are hardy, easily raised and require less care and expensive food than any other class of fowls. On large farms there is no reason why the chickens’ runs should not be very large, as the ground can be put to few uses that will pay better. Working and Packing Butter. Butter for immediate use need not be worked as clean as that which is to be kept for some time. The nutty flavor of butter is caused by the formation of a volatile oil known as butyric acid and by the action of a ferment in the cheesy matter of the butter. If this takes place too quickly and there is too much of it present, the butter becomes rancid, while if the butter is washed very clean and all the buttermilk taken out, the action is delayed. To pack butter for keeping it should be salted (1 oz to the pound) after washing thoroughly, and packed in clean or new tubs. First scald the tub, rinse it with cold water, then with cold brine, and rub the inside lightly with fine salt. Pack the butter firmly to exclude the air, and to within a half inch at the topi Sprinkle with salt and cover with cloth a little larger than the top. Press this down and cover with salt, then put on the cover and fasten down tigntly. Keep the tubs in a clean, dry and cold cellar.

Hints To Housekeepers. A slice of tomato rubbed over the hands will remove berry stains. Carpets if well sprinkled with salt and then wiped with cloth squeezed out of warm water containing' a spoonful of spirits of turpentine to every quart, will look brightand new, and will not be troubled with moths and buffalo bugs To avoid duplicating wedding gifts in silver, it would be wiser to give a friend fine linen. Really fine linen to be used on special occasions will last a long time, and the happv bride who receives it will always bless you for aiding her in making her table handsome. For the distruction of the mosquito Prof. Riley, in his Lowell Institute lecture, recommends pyrethrum powder moistened, made into litt.econes, then allowed to dry, and burned in a close room. The effect is to stupefy or kill the mosquito. The professor does not think it is true that mosquito bites sometimes inoculate the body with malarial poison. To cook asparagus cut in half-inch pieces a large bunch of asparagus; begin at the top and cut till you reach the hard butts. Put these aside to flavor soup with, and put the tender pieces in a stewpan, with a little water. Cook for 15 or4o minutes, when the water should ibef nearly boiled away. Add a quart of milk, butter the size of an egg, bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, have two eggs well beaten; let it just stop boiling; stir in the eggs, which must be eriy scolded, not cooked hard.

A CONVENIENT SHED FOR SHEEP.