Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — HOME AND THE FARM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME AND THE FARM.

A DEPARTMENT MADE UP FOR OUR RURAL FRIENDS. Farmers Don’t Credit the Farm With Its Earnings—Good Plan lor » Poultry House —Starving Orchards Winter Care of Cows, Etc. The Credit Side of the Farm Ledger. Too many fanners are inclined to grumble over the lack of cash receipts from the farm, but they never dream of giving that farm credit for the supplies used from it by the family, and why not? If they filled a salaried position in a store or office they would soon discover that the cost of living was a greater bug-bear than the Jack of cash now is.

I am acquainted, savs Waldo F. Brown, with a farm valued with stock and implements at $5,00(1. It is an upland farm with fifty acres of good plow land and the remaining forty acres m fairly good pasture land. The buildings are plain but commodious, and in good repair. The family supported on this farm averages about eight, and the furnishing of the wants of the family is made of the first importance and what they do not need is sold. The cost for labor runs from 8250 to $350 a year. A small herd of Jersey cows are kept and two or three Poland China sows that are bred for two litters a year; two brood mares and a driving horse make up the the live stock. As the heifer calves are raised, there is usually a cow or two to sell each year, a horse or colt and from ten to twenty pigs. Aoout half the farm is kept in grain and cloyer, and from fifteen to twenty aerjes sown in wheat each fall, and five to Seven in oats qach spring, to furnish food tor growing stock. Three acres are devoted to garden and truck.patch, and fifteen acres to corn and potatoes. Thebe is a permanent pasture of -blue, grass containing twenty-five acres and five acres near the barn and hog house divided into small lots for the purpose of keeping the various kinds separate. It is the policy ot the owner of this farm to buy no food hut a few tons of bran and a few hundred pounds of oil meal each year, but to keep stock enough to consume what is grown. The cash income from the farm is from various sources, the sales including each year’s live stock, from one to three hundred bushels of wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, clover seed, hay, butter, fruit, and usually a surplus from the garden and poultry-yard. From au inspection of the hooks 1 find that the sales from this farm have in some years of drought and short wheat been only between four and five hundred dollars, and in the more prosperous years they have amounted to nearly one thousand dollars. I was most interested in the credits given the farm for what it furnished the family. The items which were given were as follows: “Rent of house and outbuilding at sl6 a mouth, S2OO. Reep of family horse at $1 a week for the year, $52. Bread stuffs, $35. Meats, Including hams, lard, and beef for the winter. SOO. Poultry and eggs, SSO. Fruits, on an average, SSO. Vegetables, including potatoes of both kinds, S6O. Total, $507; and as the interest at 6 per cent, on the $5,000 invested would be S3OO, it will be seen that these amount to a little over 10 percent” From many years’ experience keeping accounts with my own farm, 1 do not believe that a single item in the above statement is charged at too high a rate, and if the owner of this farm should sell it and rent as good a house and keep a horse ana cow, and live in as good style and as comfortable as he now does, he would likely pay out twice as muph as the interest he would get for his money, and the chances are he would not find as safe an investment for his njoney at even 6 per cent interest.

Country Roads. r*rm and Fireside says that good country roads would make it possible for the farmers to take advantage promptly of the highest market, no matter at what season of the year. They would save him days and weeks of time which he wastes every year wallowing through the disgusting mire of dirt roads. They would reduce to a minimum the wear and tear on wagons and carriages. They would lessen the expense in keeping horses in working order, and few horses would be required in the country to perform the farmer’s work. They would require less to keep them in repair than do the dirt roads. They would make it easier for a team to pull several tons over their smooth surface than to draw a wagon through the mud. They would afford ready communication with the outside world at all seasons of the year. They would save the larmer many vexations and nervous strains. They would practically shorten the distance to the local market They would increase the demand for country and suburban property. Starving Orchards. The question “Are orchards starved Dy corn growing?” was asked by one of the agricultural papers, and the following is one reply received: “Oorn feeds upon phosphoric acid, potash, and ammonia. Trees require the same thing, but rather more of potash and phosphate of lime than they do of ammonia. I have no doubt that the corn does not. harm the trees, except by taking from the soil food which they need; but I do not see how one can get any sort of corn under trees. They may get a growth of stalk, but there cannot be much nutriment jn it, for corn' requires sun to develoD the starch and sugar and other feeding elements of which it; is composed. We thLnk that if corn is planted thickly, eten for fodder, that it is not so valuable as which is planted more thinly with a chance for the sun to strike in and develop it. Corn grown in the 6hade must be like grain grown under trees, all “fizz and no food.”

® W inter Care of Cows. According to the Indiana Farmer, there are several methods that may be adopted to keep up'the milk lfow and increase the butter yield in the winter, without adding greatly to the expense. Among them, wari the water the cows drink,and keep a constant supply before them; feed and milk at regular hours; 6ee that the

temperature of the stable Is at all times conducive to comfort. Sudden changes require constant watching, and the rations must conform to the circumstances. With the thermometer at zero, more food is needed to run the cow machinery to full capacity than in moderate weather, therefore diligence and care is one of the factors required for successful winter dairying. Whatever may be the accepted theory as to cows needing exercise, it is certain that the best place for them, in cold or stormy weather, is in comfortable stables with comfortable surroundings, and there they should stay as long as such a condition exists, and if their every want Is properly supplied no cessation in milk yield will occur. A Cheap Warm Poultry House. Here is a plan for a poultry house, which according to Farm and Home, is the cheapest and most practical house that can he built. The house should be located on ,an eastern or southern exposure and where there will be no chance for surface water to run in. Decide how many birds you want to keep and build your house accordingly, allowing five square feet of space to each bird. Use for silis 4x4 inch timber, for rafters 2x6 inch; and plates 2x4 inch, all of spruce. Use hemlock, hoards twelve feet long, planed fnjoie^ide,

for the sides and ends. Raving framed and leveled the sills begin at one corner of the front. Raw four feet off a Doard and use the eightfoot piece for the front and the four foot piece for the back of the house. Take two hoards of the same length and nail on the corners. To these nail the ends of the plates, and nail a board in the center of the plate to keep it from saging. Then nail the side boards to the sill and the plate. Remember to lav the plate flat with the sides on the same pitch as the roof. While boarding up the front, leave a place for the windows. Have the side boards come up even with the top. of the plate. The bottom end should touch the ground. After hoarding the sides and ends, leaving a place for a door and windows, take some thick building paper and paper the outside, putting on the paper up and down. Board over this with either hemlock or spruce matched boards, being sure not to have the joints come opposite each other. If you batten the cracks outside no wind can blow through.. Make the house eleven feet wide. Use planed and matched twelve feet spruce hoards for the roof, laying them crosswise with two rafters four feet apart Tuning lengthwise of the house. Cover the roof with tarred paper. Such a house ten feet long will keep twentytwo fowls.

More Clover Sowing. The best sign we know of that a farmer is waking up to the need ol better farming, savs the American Cultivator, is to see him prepare to sow more clover seed. It costs little and pays more for the money than any other farm Improvement he can make. Therefore it sfiould be always the first step. It will half furnish tne money and the fertility of soil necessary to take longer and more expen - sive future steps. We hold that clover should be sown with every grain crop, even though the stubble is to he plowed under the next Fall. Often the clover catch will be so good that the farmer will think it a pity, as It surely is, to destroy it. Then the gain will be all the greater, but the growth that clover will make between March and September is worth far more for manure than the cost of seeding. It is a much richer manure than most weeds which it will displace, and has the further advantage of getting most of its fertilizing properties except the mineral, from the air, and not as weeds, always draw them from the soil. For this reason clover among grain so far as we know never injures the grain crop, and wo have thought it often helped it.

Improved Dairy. Dairy progress is often merely the forerunner of progress all along the line, because the proper care and feeding of the herd gives a manure crop that incites to high farming. Discuss improved dairying at the institutes this winter. There is no greater room for improvement In any branch of agriculture. Notes About the Farm. Animals cenfined should be well bedded. Dirty heels are the beginning of scratches. First-class farming improves the farm every year. Turnips respond to manuring with crude phosphates. Food enough for only one steer will never make two tat. A deep silo preserves silage better than a shallow one. Ground bone makes a lasting and satisfactory fertilizer. Less acres and better crops is the tendency of the times. The philosophy of feeding is simple, but few understand it. The more bushels to the acre the less the cost per*bushel. Can you tell how much - your pork costs you per pound? , V The most nutritive part of the wheat goes with the bran. Small • pastures and frequent changes are good for sheep. Stop sowing weed seeds and you will have less weeds to kill. Sow orchard grass thick so the stools will cover the ground. It is better to your neighbors than to buy from them. ’ Beekeeping is recommended in connection with horticulture. There is money in mutton up to the full supply of the demand. Coarse manure is often effect 1 ve because of its mechanical effect Silage fed from the side spoil? faster than when fed from t£e top Begin small and work up Insteri beginning large and working down.

THE HOUSE COMPLETE.