Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [ARTICLE]

DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

TOPICS OF INTEREST TO THE FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. Few Crops That Pay Better Than Pota-toes-Dairy Cows Should IJe Liberally Fed A Straw-Staek Stable Caro of Trees—Motes About the Farm. Mineral Manure* lor Potatoes. There are but few largely grown crops which pay better when successfully grown than do potatoes. The crop requires a good deal of labor, and It must therefore have rich laud. But if stable manure is use l a; make the laud rich its fermentation in the soil increases the bacteria which pioduces the rot If the season he at all wet. In a very dry season the manure does noo rot. and by drying up under the furrow it often injures rather than helps the crop. Potatoes aro so largely composed of water that no manure should be used in growing them that can tend to make the land dryer. It is desirable to have tho soil as mellow as it can be got This a-clover sod Insures. Any further fertilizing that is needed may be given with commercial manures, especially those rich in potash and nitrogen. It is a crop that needs comparatively little phosphate. Probably the best compound for growing large potato crops is a mixture o. nitrates with wood ashes, or if ashes cannot bo easily obtained, with potash salts. Manured thus, the crop grows vigorously, and Its foliage keeps a dark, healthy green, which it could not do if stimulated by fermenting manure. The potato crop needs cool and moist ground. Mineral fertilizers tend to keep soil both moist and cool.

Although the phosphate itself is not largely used in the composition of the potato, the making of superphosphate requires the use of sulphuric acid or oil of vitrol. This is a powerful germicide or destroyer of the bacteria which causes fungus, blight, and rot Hence some portion of phosphoric acid should be in all potato manures. The potato manures that are made especially for this crop are, we believe, better adapted to potatoes than are any other, and their use will allow the application of stable manure to crops on which it will probably pay better. This subject of adapting manures to the crops to which they will do most good is one of great importance. It is a matter on which there is great need of thought, and which needs also not less the tests of practical experience.—American Cultivator. Liberal Feeding. There seems to be a strange lunacy in the minds of a great many farmers in regard to feeding cows liberally, says Hoard’s Dairyman. As a square proposition no dairyman can afford to let a herd of good cows get in a low condition. He not only robs himself of a chance for present gain but ho seriously cripples his future. It is just this constant tendency to hold a penny so close to the eye that a golden eagle cannot be seen on the other side of it, that cuts the sand from under the feet of the average dairyman. If we look around we can see everywhere evidence enough to satisfy a reasonable man as to the best policy to pursue. In all places it is the liberal feeder who makes the most money. His skeptical neighbor will say: “I can’t see how ho does it; he pays so much for feed.” Nevertheless, he does it. There has not been a day the past year that feed has been so high but what a dairyman with a qow that would yield three-fourths to a pound of butter a day, could richly afford to give her all she could economically consume. The trouble with the men who talk differently is that not one In a thousand has any figures to show for their belief. They have nothing but mere guesswork to stand on.

Care of Trees, A correspondent in Meehan’s Monthly Inquires whether branches which are now too low for convenience will get higher in time when the trunk of the tree lengthens. ‘‘lt is a general impression among those not familiar with botanical gardening that the trunks of trees lengthen, but this is not the case; the trunk of a tree, being once formed, does not lengthen a fraction, no matter if it lives to a hundred years, A branch from a trunk that is now, say six feet from the ground, will have the center of that branch still six feet from the ground, no matter how many years elapse. If branches are, therefore, now too low, they had better be cut off at once. Again, it is worth remembering in cutting off branches that they should always be cut close to the trunk or to any main branch, so that the wound may heal over. If the branch is very large, so that the wound is likely to take several years to heal over, it is better to paint it, in order to keep the water from rotting the wood until it is properly healed. More good trees are spoiled through leaving an inch or two of stump to a cut off branch than people have any idea of.” Marketing Fuilltlles. The value of land for farming purposes must always depend largely on its nearness to market The increase of railraids has brought for the staple grain products Western farms as near to market as are the best located Eastern farms. Not nearly so much progress has been made in Improving country roads as there should be. The necessity for good roads becomes more pressing as farming is intensified, growing each year larger products per acre than were once thought possible. The American Cultivator thinks a market gardener or small fruit grower cannot Well afford to be more than three or four miles from his market, nor that unless he has good roads at all seasons. A piece of bad road, especially if it be a hill, lessens the value of land lying farther away, and the better the land the greater will be the clif- ' Terence in price. It is this that makes it so difficult to improve some land. Hoads are so poor or the distance from its market is so great that after it is marie capable of greater productiveness its marketing facilities will not warrant pushing it for all that it might be made to produce. A Straw-Stack Stable. In grain-growinz localities the cheapest and moss comfortable stable

for stock is made by ouildlng the straw-stack at the threshing time oa a platform supported by posts standing about 10 icet above the barnyard leveL The posts may be made lower if it is calculated to throw out the manure. Left to run ovef it at will, cattle, horses, and sheep will trample down a good deal of straw, which, with their droppings, will make an excellent manure. The trampling will keep it from heating to any great extent, and the liquid excrement will also be saved. When thrown out in spring the manure will accumulate to I a depth ot three or four feet The ; stable straw-stack may be indefinitely | extended by putting other posts near ; the stack, and covering with straw I the spaces between thorn. No man I who has plenty of straw need let ‘ cattle suffer from cold. Exclude the | outside cold, and the internal heat i from breathing and irom food will keep animals warm. '--'TV—- ' Repairing Hotted Posts. We never saw the expedient used | except by a careful, old-fashioned i farmer who was used when his grape j trellis posts rotted off to <Jlg down into the eartft to where the post was still solid, and then cut the post half into a foot or fifteen inches below the ground, and then fasten to this half an upright post of the height desired. If the post below was mostly rottecj ! off, ho used to reverse the post, putting the top side In the ground aud then mortice to it abp.ve (be surface. In this way he made oach post do double duty. The rotting off of posts is almost always Just at the surface, and by putting bolts through each half, and thus fastening them together, the end will last as long as did the original posts at the surface. —Exchange.

The Horse. Horses like skimmed milk and it does them good, If you breed a 2-year-old mare give her a rest the next year. Familiarity with objects is the only remedy tor shying by a horse. Straw’ will do for horse food, but it Is constipating. Look out for it Give the horses a few potatoes frequently; It will help rid them of worms. Never be satisfied with your horses if their coats stare and they appear dull. It is better to give stallions regular, but not hard work to develop vitality and energy. Professor Sanborn's experiments “seem to show that a rather large ration of grain for work horses Is an economical one.” Have soft, good-fitting harness. Be firm but kind in your treatment and the horse will become attached to you and do good service. Point. About Poultry. “Luck” in the poultry yard Is a rarity—it needs another letter, for it is “p-luck” that wins. The editor of Farm-Poultry says, “I don’t care a picayune for ‘points' if my fowls will only lay eggs.” Never be in a hurry to get young chickens to go upon the roost; let them make a sufficient growth to lly well. Meal, bran, and potatoes or turboiled anditnashed injabout equal proport ions makes a good feed for breeding ducks.

Separated and raised by themsolvcß pullets will be worth more for use than it allowed to run with tho cockerels. Ducks confined to yards will lay more eggs, and there will bo better fertility, than when they have an unlimited range. As ducks do not roost it Is not necessary to have high houses, yet at the same time If they are too low they will be inconvenient to clean. If you are keeping poultry.for profit, try and matjago them so as to have eggs to sell when prices are highest. This is usually during late summer and during the first and middle of the winter. Do not worry your brains about crosses for eggs. It is simply Impossible to get better layers than the heavy-laying purebreds. Cross breed ing is only intended for an Improvement in flesh producing qualities, and quick maturity. It is said by some writers that soft feed is one of the causes ot Infertile eggs. The writer has always fed a morning mash, and always felt proud of the fertility of the eggs from his stock. Most of the writers at the present day are working out thorles.

Mificellaiieoug Heel pen. Egg Drink. —One quart of cold water, a cupful of sugar, an egg, a teaspoonful of tartaric acid. Beat the egg to a froth, beat m the sugar, add tne other ingredients, stir wel‘ and drink at once. . Spiced Currants. —Use four pounds of sugar to seven pounds of currants, one teaspoon of cinnamon, one of cloves, one of allspice; boil half an hour, stirring enough to prevent burning. Especially nice with meat Cream Candy. —Two cups of sugar, a cup of water, a tablespoonful of cream of tartar. Boil without stirring until it will harden in water like spun glass. Add a small piece of butter, and work in a little vanilla as you Dull it. Nut Candy. —Two cups New Orleans molasses, three-fourths cup of sugar; boil until it will harden quickly in water. Add a piece of butter and a coffee cup of walnut meat just before taking from the Are. Four in shallow pans and check off with a knife. Plain Cakmels. —One pound of brown sugar, a quarter of a pound of chocolate, one pint of cream, one teaspoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of molasses. Boil for thirty minutes, stirring all the time; test bv dropping into cold water. Flavor with vanilla and mark off in a pan. Currant Jelly’. —Stem ripe currants, scald them in a porcelain kettle, do not let boil; strain through a coarse jelly bag and then through a flannel bag: allow a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. When the juice has boiled fifteen minutes, add the heated sugar and cook five mibutes longer. Take from the Are. let cool slightly, pour in glasses and set aside until col«