Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — REAL RURAL READING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REAL RURAL READING

WILL BB FOUND IN THIS DEPARTMENT. Benefit or Finutr’i Clubs— Randy Arrangement for Taking Gp R.rb Wire—‘Selling Part of the Farm—Live Stock and Dairy—Horticultural Notes, Etc. Reel for Taking'Gp Barb Wire. According to a reader of the Practical Farmer a convenient reel for taking up barb wire may be made in the following manner: Take a pair of cultivator wheels, make an axle to flt, out of 2x4 oak, 30 inches long. Side pieces should bo 14 inches by 2 inches, 4 feet long, o£ hard wood. Bolt to axle securely. The.uprjghts Sfibhld be 2 inch by 4 inch pine, securely bolted to side pieces, aud high enough to reach above wheels. The-

cross bar may be 1J inches square, ends rounded for handles. The whole (see Fig. 1) should be well braced, as it must be strong. For windlass axle (Fig. 2), take oak, 1} inches square, 26 inches long, tit crank on one end; for reel, take barb-wire reel, cut hole through it square to, tit axle.

To take up wire, fasten„end to reel, take cross bar in left band, turn crank with right. The cart is propelled bv winding wire on reel; when one reel is full, slip off and put on another. The Former’s Club. Every town should have a farmers’ club! Every farmer should attend it faithfully. ** well-conducted schoolhouse club stands next to the agriculture paper as a means of disseminating useful knowledge among the farmers. The club can deal with tho local Issues of the particular section of where it is held, while the paper must needs be more or less cosmopolitan. It is a simple matter to have a club. A few good, earnest, active members are all that is needed. There is very little need of a lengthy constitution, or of wasting time over obscure points of order. There needs to be a chairman, who shall preside at the meetings, and a secretary to give the required notices of the gatherings. Long papers, as a rule, are not desirable, but if every one will go prepared to bring forward a single subject, the program will be full, and the meeting an interesting one. Occasionally some one from another piub may be invited to speak at some length, and it is a poor meeting that will let him sit down with all his ideas unchallenged. The club should be attended by the whole family, and not simply by the men folks. The women are as able as any to make the evening interesting, and often more so. Removing; the Gape Worm from Fowls* When the gape worm becomes established in the throat of a chicken, , according to the American Agricul- , turist, death will result, unless, the ; worm is*Bobn removed. One plan is | to introduce some liquid substance in the throat that will kill the worm, or cause it to loosen its hold upon the membrane of the throat. For this purpose, kerrsene or turpentine are the common remedies, being applied with a feather which Is dipped in the | liquid. The shickeu’s mouth is held

HORSE-HAIR LOOPS FOR GAPE WORMS. open with one hand, and the feather introduced into the throat with the other, being given a twirl between the thumb and finger, thus putting the oil on all parts of the throat Such applications usually add to the inflammation of the throat, and death is often hastened thereby. A better plan is to loop a hair from the mane or tail of a horse. A simple loop is shown at Ain the illustration. The three round dots ard bits of wax co hold the hair in position. At B, several loops are placed in the end of a small split stick and held together by wax or thread. These loops are introduced into the bird’s throat, when by twirling, the worms are Loosened and qs some of the mucous in the ,throat will attadh to the loop the loosened worms are readily withdrawn. The operation takes about a minute and saves the life of the chicken.

Keeping; Apples. I have had the care of 500 bushels of apples each successive season for forty years, says a correspondent in the National Stockman. I have found a cool, moderately damp cellaT the best place to keep them. After rejecting all unsound fruit I store immediately In cellar, if it is a cool one: if not, in an out-building constructed of heavy lumber, the object being to keep them cool. They must be cool if expected to keepi Warmth hastens ripening, and eventually decay. When there is danger of freezing remove to cellar. I have kept them on shelves, in barrels, In small, medium and large boxes. I have succeeded best In’ using boxes holding about ten bushels, having kept them until May with a loss of only three bushels in 500. In a continued experiment of sixteen years I saved one-third more using the ten-bushel box than with barrels. The reason is Obvious. The quantity is large enough to prevent them from becoming thoroughly cool, yet large enough to remain in that •condition, while small boxes or barrels become warmed through with every mild change of' atmosphere. In using large boxes it s difficult to get the fruit cool throu; bout Clover. The farmers of the 1 fiddle States are accustomed to spe ik of clover seed as the cheapest f< rtillzer they can use. It is. Carefi f experiments have been made, she ring that an

acre of very good clover sod contains within six inches of the surface nearly 3} tons of clover roots, which would contain nearly 100 pounds of nitrogen, fifty pounds of potash, and more than twenty-five pounds of phosphoric acid. While not much New England soil would grow such clover, yet the half or that amount would be a liberal manuring, and farmers who will sow clover with their spring grain and grass seed, or upon the grass which was sown last fall, need have hut little feac of their fields running out if the clover gets a good hold. It will also pay to sow some of the thin places in the old meadows, first scratching them with a light harrow, to allow the seed to reach the earth. Sow upon a light snow, or after the straw’httMione and the ground is soft with the coming out of the frost. The spring rains will carry the seed down to the ground, and it will germinate and take root if the soil is good enough. TJhus a welcome addition may be made to this year’s hay cron, and at the same time the soil may bo made richer for other crops. Select Your Grass Seed. We read every day how to improve the quality of our corn and other seed plants by carefully selecting the very beat seed to plant. Any tyro in farming knows that is very important. Why not do the same with our timothy, clover, and other grasses. In passing through any field of timothy or clover one is sure to observe a great difference in the strength of growth as well as in tho length of the heads in different stools of tho same grass. It would pot be a difficult thing to do to go through the field and select a few quarts of tho most promising v seed. Hoy% hero is a chance for you to do a little intelligent brain work on the farm. Coax your father to give you the use of a quartorracre of ground next season, Select the finest heads of timothy you can find until you have enough to seed it. Then select the finest and longest heads from that tho next year and see if you cannot secure a much better quality of timothy than the old farm ever produced before. It Is a flue piece of work to do, and there are lots of smart hoys who can do it, too.

To Sot Egg* in Winter. Raise a sufficient quantity «of sunflower seed lor the hens to feed upon during the winter, and you will have lots of eggs. Tho host way to raise sunflower is to plant with potatoes; then you can also plant butter beans or lima beams, which will run up the stalks, and save the expense of poling. The sunflowers will shade the potatoes and make them grow better and ba much sweeter, so that these crops can be raised off ono piece of ground. Cut your sunflower up, when ripe, at the bottom of tho stalk, and set them up on theends, with their headscloso together, near your fowl yard, where the hens can run under the stalks and pick up ohe seeds as they fall down. All Around the Farm. Build as few fences as vou can get along with. Tiie sweet-brier is suggested as a hedge plant Hot-heds should not be permitted to grow weeds. Clover, corn, and almost any kind of stock go well togethor. Smaller farms and lntenser farming would bring more profits. Try bettor feeding and sco if your cows are doing their best.. There Is more money in 150-pound pigs than a 300-pound old hog. Give plenty of food and a good chance to exercise to all domestic animals The best sheep produces not only better mutton or better wool, but both. It Is no advantage for the farmer to keep poor horses because they are cheap. Feed a fair amount of grain and let the animal complete the ration on coarser food, The animal, tho feed, and the pr> duct vi the same, changed only in form or combination. Crops must be made, not simply grown. The farmer’s business is to combine the needed elements. WnAi the plant draws from the soil will of course be found in the plant, and may be returned..

Miscellaneous Keel pel. Massachusetts Indian Cake.— Three cups each of Indian meal and flour; ono cup each of sour mllk and molasses, sprinkle with salt; dissolve one teaspoonful of soda In mflk; mix all together. Bake In a moderately heated bake-kettle or oven. Rice Cohn Bread, —One cupful of rice, two cupfuls of sifted white meal,‘ three eggs well beaten, one tablespoonful of lard or butter, as much milk as: will make a stiff batter, a little salt. Boil the rice perfectly soft, and pour it hot over the’ meal; add the butter, eggs, and milk, beat it well and bake It in well buttered pans in a quick oven. Indian Bread. —Two cups of fine Indian meal, two cups of rye flour, two cups of graham flour, one cup of molasses, one-half cup of yeast, one .teaspoonful of baking powder, two teaspoonfuls of salt. Mix as stiff as yiou can with a spoon, using tepid Water, and when well mixed, turn ibto a well outtered bread pan and set to rise. Bake slowly three hours. Custard Cream. —Boil half a pint of cream with a piece of lemon peel, a stick of cinnamon, and eight lumps of white sugar. Beat the yolks of four eggs, then mix the eggs and cream very gradually together. Simmer it gently on the Are, stirring until it thickens, but removing it the minute it begiiW to boil. The addition of a glass of brandy beaten up with it adds to the flavor. Rice Custard. —Sweeten one pint of milk, boil it with a stick of cinnamon, stir in sifted ground rice until quite thick. Take off the fire, add the white of three eggs, beat well; stir it again over the fire for two or three minutes,then put it into cups that have laid in cold water: Do not wipe them. "When cold turn them out and put them into the dish in which they are to be served. Pour round them a custard made of the yolks of the.eggs ana a little more than half a pint of rniUc