Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — REAL RURAL READING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REAL RURAL READING

A DEPARTMENT FOR OUR LOCAL AGRICULTURISTS. Farmers Should Carefully Consult the Markets—A Homemade Row MarkerVariety In Pasture —Cheap Feed Rack— Gooseberries and Currants—General Farm Notes. Consulting the Markets. To meet a demand for special product's, one must know what the demand is, writes a correspondent of an agricultural journal. The special requirements ot a market may be nothing better than a mere whim or caprice, but they must be met If a ready sale is expected. If the market requires brown-shelled eggs it is folly to offer those with white shells. Tho latter may l e just as good as the former, but so long as the former have the call they are the ones to lie furnished. Or if the market requires yellow legs and yellow skin on dressed poultry, it is unwise to oiler poultry with white skin and dark or white legs It is true that people do not eat the shanks of fowl-, and some of the best table fowls in the world have white, or dark shanks and a white skin, but .-o long as the fancy of the buyer demands the yellow color, that is the color to supply. One cannot afford to spend his time educating people out of their whimsical notions, if he expects to make money out of his trade. So long as no principle is sacrificed, so long us their notions can harm no one, not even themselves, the poultry rai er Is not hound to saerice his profits in attempting to remove the prejudices of his customers. He is raising fowls for businoss/not for fun, and must adopt business methods, always remembering there is some good reason for the public taste and fashion. A Row Murker. To insure straight rows in field or garden, the ground should be marked before plant ng. a convenient implement for this purpose is shown in the accompanying illustration, from the American Agriculturist. A sixinch pole twelve feet long, of red elm or white oak a has a tongue pinned below it and braced by an old arch of a two-liorse cultivator morticed through the pole and pinned above the tongue. A second pole b four inches through is attached to the Ar t by pieces of oue-fourth by one and

one-fourtn inch strap of iron passing loosely around the front pole, but bolted to the blocks e which are twenty inches long and six Inches through, and pinned above the back pole. The holes for the marker p'ns should be bored where needed. Wood pins need one and one-half inch holes, iron pins one-half inch. These holes should be so bored that the pins wjll slant back while marking. The pins d which fasten the back pole to the connecting blocks e should be made six inches longer for this purpose. A double tree can be attached to the tongue in the usual manner. By using a heavy back log, an excellent clod crusher, leveler, or weed and cornstalk breaker can be made. Fanner* as Speculators. “Talk about speculators,” said a produce dealer the other day; “tho;e Isn’t a greater speculator out than the fanner. If the price of any product goes up he never wants to sell; no matter how high the price, he always wants more. After the price begins to go down ho wants to sell, and usually gets a lower price than he might have obtained.” Unfortunately there is too much of truth In this statement The dealer in question c ted several instance* in support of his statement Every seller wishes to get all possible for his wares. This is natural and light, but it isn’t always easy to tell just when the right point has been reached. It is generally better to sell on a rising than on a falling market When an unusual higu figure has been attained, it isn’t reasonable to suppose that that price will be long sustained.—Rural NewYorker.

Gooseberries and Currants. Gooseberries and currants do best when planted on a north or east slope. Too much sun is not good for them. But both gooseberries and currants must have good culture and the worms must he killed as soon as they are hatched. They hatch out on the lower leaves about blooming time, or a little later. The grower must keep his eye peeled, for it only takes these pests about two days to strip off every leaf, and that means no crop. There are several broods of them in a season. The first coming before the fruit is formed may be killed with paris green; later broods with hellebore. The successful growth of any of these fruits for market demands constant care and attention, and also knowledge and skill.

Variety in Pasture. Farmers do not either for meadow and pasture seed down with sufficient variety to make the best feed. Only amateur wealthy farmers sow the sweet-scented vernal grass. Yet who has been over a field that has had even a little of this in haying time, who has not been delighted with its fragrance. It is good, too, in the hay mow, for the sweet perfume permeates the entire mass, and stock of all kinds eat it better. Besides, with a variety of grass there is sure to be a good stand, one succeeding where another has failed. It is far better to have a vaiiety of the best grasses in pasture than a scattering of timothy and clover and all the bare spaces filled with weeds. Over Manuring Grain Crop*. The fact that stable manure contains too much nitrogen and too little potash and phosphate makes it unsuitable for manuring the small grains. To furnish thj mineral elements that grain crjps require an overdose of manure must be given, and this makes an excessive growth of straw. If the stable manure is applied to corn and potato crops, the crops of oats, barley, or wheat grown

the second or third years will need only mineral elements. This is especially true of winter wheat It is sown after more or less summer cultivation which has developed nitrogen from decaying matters in the spiL An Idea for a Feed Rack. Tnis feed rack, described in Farm and Home, is simply a square box, no bottom in, and open at topi It is 10 ft long, 3$ ft wide and 4. ft high. The letters A show the lower part boarded up 20 in. The letters B show the top board' Ixo in. The letters G are the upright boards Ixox4 ft. long, all well nailed together with wrought nails and clinched. Each side of the rack is made separately, then hooked together with book and

staples at each corner above and below. The feed is thrown in at the top Cattle reach in through the spaces between the boards Cto eat This rack is intended for hay, corn, fodder or feed of such kind. It is far better than the old X rail racks, as cattle do not need to roach overhead to eat and get their eyes full of dirt, but reach down, which is natural. Neither can they run over their feed and dirty and waste it if intended for sheop made the spaces for reaching the feed smaller or tho sheep will jump inside. Clean Cultivation of Small Fruits. Strawberries, raspberries, and other small fruit plants require frequent and clean cultivation to produce the best results. When grown In largo quantities, they should ho so planted as to admit of horse cultivation. On land free from stones, a caroful man with a steady horse and the use of the improved cultivators tho work can be so neatly and closely done that but little uso of the hand hoc Is required. The great point is to commence the cultivation early, when the weeds are small and easily destroyed with shallow stirring, which disturbs no roots.

Work for Rainy Day*. It is so often necessary to work over hours in pleasant weather that when a rainy day comes In summer tho farmer may profitably devote It partly to intellectual liup:ovcment. Ho can at least then tako time to estimate carefully wh:it needs to bo dono and plan as to the best way of dping it. This will require study and prove the best possible Intellectual exercise. It least requires as much executive ability to keep everything on a largo farm in order and working smoothly as it does to manage a manufacturing or commercial business. Rapid Cooling: of Milk. The housekeeper always sets milk in a cool place, not merely as she says “to keep It better,” but to Insure the more rapid separation of croam from the water and casein with which in milk it is always mixed. Tho creamery does this by enclosing the milk in ice, so suddenly cooling it that the cream rises without having the milk soured. Its process is patented; but tho idea is not, and explanation of the principle will helD housewives to make more and better butter, even though they cannot afford to buy a creamer. *.

Cause of Sour HUago. One of the principal causes of sour silage is cutting corn too green. Dr. Miles tell us that sour silage may often be caused by too rapid tilling, excluding the air, so that the temperature is not allowed to rise high enough to kill the bacteria causing the termentation. Oases are cited where slow tilling and loose packing have resulted In excellent sweet silage. It is probable, however, that the maturity of the corn has more to do with its acid condition than the manner of tilling. Planting Tree* In Orchards. The idea that by any care in management young peach trees can be planted In squares between the center of rows of fully-grown apple trees, and made it to grow, is a grave mistake. No matter if you “Intend to dig out the apple trees next winter.” The tree will not grow any better for that this yea”. If young trees are bought for such places, plant them In some rich location where they will have all the ground to themselves, and transplant In the fall or spring.

Sheep and Wheat. Where plowing is done for wheat, sheep are the best stock to keep on the plowed land to compact its surface. They will eat down weeds and the growth of scattered grain, and thus prevent any need of cultivation which makes the soil too light Their manure is scattered more evenly than that of any other stock. Sheep can be put on wheat in the fall to crop its growth with advantage to the crop. Poultry Notes. Dust is death to lice, and the fowls should have free access to it Once a week parch a little cracked corn quite brown and feed to chicks. Chickens, like sheep, • cannot te crowded together in large flocks without breeding disease and becoming an easy prey to death.

A Pekin duck lays from 120 to 150 eggs in a year, and it is not hard to make a pair of young Pekins weigh ten pounds when ten weeks old. They are a profitable fowl. Linseed meal is exce!lentrfor>poultry, containing, as it does, portions of nitrogen that is of benefit to fowls. It Is not intended as a regular daily ' food, but once a week is not out of place. The annoyance of having too many males among the flock of hens ought i to cease soon after the egg for early chickens are dropped and set Few people make anything from the lateset eggs, and the hens will produce more eggs If not made fertile than ',hey will if the rooster is always In their company. Great numbers of moderately good people think it fine to talk scandal; they regard it as a sort of evidence of theli ®wh goodness. - P. W. Faber

A HOMEMADE MARKER