Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1894 — DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

TOPICS OF INI EREST TO FARMER AND iiOUSEWIFE. « flow to Constrac; t Wire guimsloo Foot Bridge—Selecting and Preserving Seed Cora—To Corn ‘Thump*” in Pigs—(ieneral Farm Notes. A Suspension Foot Bridge. Fix>t bridge in both mountainous and nearly level regions, acrossstreams from ten to one bundrtd feet In width, would often be a great convenience and save going around to cross on some public bridge. Since wire has become so plentiful and cheap there is no great difficulty in having foot bridges across almost any

stream less than on# hundred feet in width. Posts are set firmly in tne ground from four to ten feet back from the margin of the stream, as shown in the illustration, from a sketch by L. D. 8 nook. Against %hese posts is placed a strong piece of timber of some durable wood, around which are firmly secured the ends of the wire intended for the bridge support. A fifty-foot bridge requires eight No. Bor 9 gauge annealed fence wire placed from six to to eight inches apart, always remembering that the shorter and narrower the bridge the Jess weight In foot boards It will be obliged to support, consequently the more durable it will prove. The wires should not be drawn to tightly, but should have a curve of about ten inches In a fiftyfoot bridge. Make the floor of some light, durable wood one inch thick and four inches in width. Commence laying at one end, fastening each end of the board to the outside wire with a staple driven underneath. Place the boards one inch apart. The posts should be about four feet in height, over which are strqnghand wires firmly secured to anchor posts as shown. Short guy wires are placed every few feet and connected with the outside foundation wires; these not only add to the supporting strength of the structure, but prevent the bridge swaying in heavy gales. If heavy stones are placed near the posts for the cross timber to rest against the structure will prove more durable. Kapidly-growing trees planted near the posts may, in a few years, be used to replace them. Where the embankments are low, raise the end timbersso that the foot wires will be in no danger of injury by floodwood during freshets. If short sections of two-inch gas-pipe be used for all the posts and for the end crosspiece, and once in five years the wires are painted where they are wrapped around the end support, the bridge will prove good and serviceable for fifty years.—American, Agriculturist

Doing; Away with Pastures. A. B. Barrett thinks that pood farmers will soon adopt soiling almost exclusively in place of pasturage. That a steadier supply of food can thus te provided is unquestioned. Pasturing is wasteful whether there is abudnance of feed or not. Mr. Barfett believes that with good soiling one and a half or two acres of good rich land can be made to furnish feed for a cow a whole year, but in<. pasturing five acres are required for summer and one for hay for winter feed. The saving in this is quite evident, especially where the tax on every acre amounts to considerable. Now, in the fall, is the time to begin soiling, and to do it properly preparations should be maae so that the first feeding can be made in April and steadily thereafter. Winter rye is the first crop that should be planted. This should be put in in October or at the latest November, With good preparations of the soil and good seeding the rye should take a steady growth as soon as the first signs of spring appear The clover or grass seeds must be sown, too, and the rye will last until the grass ( is ready to grow up for eating. Clover or orchard grass seeds must be sown, too, for they give an abundance of good, rich, food. Early corn must be planted as soon as possible in the spring, and by the time the clover or orchard grass gives but the green corn should be ready for eating to take up the succession. Meanwhile the second planting of rye has been attended to, and wnen the corn gives out the rye will be ready for fall food. Thus, all through the summer, a succession of green crops has been supplied to the cows, and with a little preparation in another line, the same can be continued through the winter. Either beets or mangels, or silage should be grown for winter feeding, and this will complete the year. To grow,;J \ of these crops considerable planning is required, but after the succession is once practiced it is not a difficult matter to follow and improye upon it. Every available space of land must be utilized. —Hartford Courant. To Keep Trees from Breaking. Prof. W. E. Massey, Horticulturist of the North Carolina Experiment Station, gives the following in reply to an inqu ry as to the best method of keeping peach trees from breaking down. Peach trees usually breaa • down because of neglect in pruning and shaping the young tree. The peach bears its fruit on last yeti's shocts. If the growth is neglected the fruit-bearing wood gradually gets further and further out on the ends of the limbs, and the weight ot the crop has a tremendous leverage and splits the limb off. When we plant a young peach tree, of one year’s growth from the bud (the only age at which they should be planted,) we cut the stem back to

about eighteen to twenty inches from the ground. When growth begins in spring, we rub off all the shoots except three or four at the top, which form the limbs for the future bead. These are again shortened back in the fall one third; and when the shoots are too thick Id the interior of the head and interfere with each other, they are trimmed out. Every fall the young growth ol the season is shortened back onethird, and care is taken to maintain an even distribution of young wood all through the head of the tree. The crop is thus distributed over the tree and no damage is done, if the tree is planted and allowed to take the natural shape it assumed in the nursery, the limbs will more readily split off than when formed by heading back. How to Preserve Root Catting*. It is quite common for those desiring new plants from cuttings, says the American Cultivator, to place them in a bottle of water, keeping the whole cutting, except a bud, submerged roots form. The practice of gardeners is to place the cutting in damp sand, and they claim that the sharp particles of sand rubbing against the smooth end of the cutting hasten the callousing from which the roots are started. No manure of any kind should be allowed to come in contact with cuttings. The first roots formed are very lender.and sappy. They will rot off as fast as they form if heating manure is placed near them. After the cutting has been well rooted it may be planted in richer ground, but even then the filling around the roots had better be sa: d than rich earth or manure. When the roots grow, they will reach the manure fast enough if within reaching distance, and this for a latge vine may be fifteen or twenty feet distant. Skim Milk Cheese. There is a great outcry In some quarters against either making or selling cheese from which any of the cream has been removed. Yet it is true that if all tne butter fats of rich milk are left in it when they go into the vat all above 4 per cent, go into the whey and are lost. The practice of many good farmers in making cheese for their own use is to skim each alternate mess of milk 12 hours after setting. Th s with milk in the pan would leave a good deal of cream to r se. Such skim milk was mixed with the new milk of the next mess. Cheese thus made was as rich and as good flavored as if a greater portion of cream was left to be thrown to the pigs, because the cheese could absorb do more. It is fraudulent practices of different and worse sort than these that have brought American cheese into disrepute in the English market. Thumping: Pigs. Pigs will “thump” in almost any internal disease; hence we could not decide from the statement received what the ailment would be, and no other material symptoms are given us. We have often stated that whenever a number of animals are sick on a place, and when deaths occur, that it is desirable, to have one or more of the carcasses cut open soon after death, and a careful memorandum made of the appearance of all internal organs. This, in connection with a short description of the symptoms exhibited by the animals during their sickness, would be a valuable assistance in forming a diagnosis of the disease. As it is now, we are sorry not to be able to give any correct advice in this instance—Prairie Farmer.

Currying the Cows. It Is as gratifying to the cow as it is toia horse to be groomed, brushed, and carried. Do it carefully so as not td grate the teeth of the currycomb on the cow’s bones where they are prominent, but the cow likes it all the better if curried heavily on her neck ana back. Good grooming will make the hair smooth and glossy, especially if with it goes guod feeding. It is impossible to get the most from cows that do not have the best care, and thorofigh grooming in winter is one of the most important points of good management. In the summer cows will rub themselves against trees and fences, but their hair does not get so full of dirt in pasture as it is sure to do in winter in the stable. Farm Notes. Some farmers make it a point to produce enormous hogs, and the weights are published as news, but it is doubtful if such hogs are as profitable as those that are of medium size. A Cornell experiment station bulletin, concerning raspberries and blackberries, says that the only remedy for red-rust is to dig up and burn at once every plant found to be affected. Cut away and burn all canes affected with anthracnose pits, and spray the plantation with Bordeaux mixture. Farmers are rapidly learning that the best way to rest land is to keep it actively at work betwesn sale cropfl, gathering fertility from the air by means of leguminous crops Whatever rotation is practiced, never let it be one in which a tteia is let to lie a whole season growing only weeds for future brow sweatings. A Southern farmer says if the tire of the wagon becomes loose pour a gallon of boiling hot linseed oil in a suitable vessel, and, with the help of an assistant, place the wheel directly over it and immerse the felloes wholly in oil. Apply on the hub with a'Vbrush. When dry repeat, after which give the who.e wagon a good coat of paint. In order to be wholly successful a farmer should make his plans fer a long time in advance of the day when they must be put into operation. The best way is to mature a plan of operations that will require soma years for fully carrying them out This brings better results than the changeable way that some have ot trying one way this year and another the next. .An eminent scientist claims that the time will come when all crops will be grown by irrigation, and that “water is king,” instead of cotton and corn. Irrigation is as yet in its infancy, but the improvements that are constantly being made in pumps and Wind mills will do more to regulate moisture than any experiment! to control the rainfall.

WIRE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.