Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1894 — DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

TOPICS OF INTEREST TO FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. A Wood-Cutttng Device Which Dlapen.e. with the Hired Man*. Aid—When to Plant btrawberrie.- -A Self-Closing Gale How to Get Rid of File*. A One-Man Saw. A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker has constructed a wood-cul-ing machine, by the use of which, he says, he can put up five cords in ten hours. The machine is illustrated herewith and will be readily under-

stood. The poles or rods make a frame for the saw to swing on. Another rod fastened to a bolt at the top of the frame plays inside two pieces of board. The saw is made fast to the lower end of this rod, and then It will swing back and forth. You can have a horse for the wood, or drive stakes into the ground with the tops crossed, so as to hold the logs. In this machine, the stakes are nine feet long for the sides and ten for the other. The pendulum on which the saw is fastened is eight feet long, and has holes bored in It so that it can bo easily ra : sed or lowered.

Planting Early Potatoes. The potato plant after it comes out of thl ground is very tender, and the slightest frost nips it,, but in cold soil it takes often two weeks or moro for the shoot to come above the surface. It is necessary, therefore, for the very earliest crop that the feed should be in the ground while frosts are still expected. It does no harm even if the surface soil is slightly frozen after the potato has been planted. This freezing mellows the surface, and when cultivated it will be found in line tilth. Much however, depends on the condition of the seed. That which has been prepared by cutting and drying a few days before putting in the ground will be up before that which was cut just before being planted. The planting of early potatoes should always be deep enough so that the whole surface can be harrowed once or twice before the plants are up. This early cultivation of the soil greatly Increases the vigor of growth when the shoots come up. It directly aids growth by increasing the amount of available plant food in the soil . To Rid a Room of Flies. Flies are the pest and worry of all tidy housekeepers, and how to rid a room of them is an unsolved problem to many. This is quite easily accomplished by taking advantage of the flies’ habit of flying to the window or place from which light is admitted, and to accomplish this,

darken alLthe windows with a heavy shade, or any material, cutting a hole in one of the shades, over which is firmly pinned a sheet of the common transparent fly paper, and, if possible, have this located at one of the east, south or west winnows, from which the most light may be obtained. It will be nut a short time ere the flies in the room will be sticking to this paper in their effort to be near the light For Feeding Dry Bran. For feeding bran in a dry state to fowls or young chicks take a flower pot, cut a piece out of the top on each

side, four inches .long and one and one- quarter inches deep, turn it bottom up, and break a hole in it large enough 10 p.ihr the bran

in. Get a cheese box lid about four inches larger in diameter than the top of the pot set the pot in It, bottom up, pour in the bran and you will have a self-feeder and no waste of bran. The Care of Meats. “Meat should not be left a moment on the kitchen table; it is to often left longer than that by maids busy at something else. 1 do have the paper taken oft, which paper is made for the purpose and supposably free from impurities, for it is a not on of mine that tearing it from the moist meat starts the juices again. The package is put on a plate and set on the Ice. “Chops that are cut off spoil very easily, and Im moist or very warm weather it is well to smear them with salad oil very thoroughly 10 keep them, even from night until morning. Other meat in large pieces, joints and the iiku. is safest treated to a rubbing of vinegar if it Is to be kept over pignt. If, with all one’s care, meat in exceptionally muggy, sultry weather gives out a slight smell, and shows discoloration, it may be perfectly sweetened by wash-

fng tt In water to which Is added a teaspoonful of borax, first cutting away all disco'ored portions. Let me add the caution that such meats should never be accepted fn>n» a shop, because one cannot be sure bow severe the taint is; but if perfectly sweet meat changes under a brief and careful keeping it is permissible to attempt this restoration, —New York Times Planting Strawberries. In the majority of cases, the spring of the year is the best season for planting strawberries When the plants are received from the nursery, they should Li'unpacked at once and spread out in a collar, to prevent heating, and in planting the roots should not be exposed to sun or air. The ground should be free from weeds, and well fertilized. The rows may be thirty inches apart, plants one foot apart in the row. They need to be freeuently cultivated to keep down all weeds, which are the strawberry grower’s greatest enemy. In the autumn, after the ground has become firmly frozen, the plants should be covered with leaves, clean straw, or corn fodder. Stable manure should not be used on these beds, because full of seeds. Strawberry beds should be renewed every two or three years it the best fruit is desired. Shallow Planting for Corn. There is constant temptation to plow deeper for corn than is best lor the crop The soil in spring is moist and the plow runs easily to a greater depth than it can be made to do towards fall. It is easier, too, for the careless plowman to put the plow down so that the handles shall hardly need to be taken hold of in going across the field. But that is not the way to make a good corn crop It the furrow is half turned and left on edge with enough loose soil to make a seed bed the sod will rot better than it will when a deep fur ow is turned flat and leaving a lot of cold subsoil on the surface. This does not make a good seed bed.. The grains of corn are checked almost as soon as they germinate, and do not recover until nearly midsummer. It is possible to get good corn with deep plowing if stable manure has been used, but it will not be as forward early in the season as the corn on land that is plowed shallow which has had no manure. lit Shut* Itself. This gate bits my idea of one that will shut Itself and open each way better than any 1 ever saw, writes J. J. Wagner in Farm and Home. A shows the irons for the upper hinge, B shows the lower hinge, which has double pinions, while C shows the catch driven into the post with the spring. To open and shut itself the

gate must be hung about four inches out of plumb, having the lower hinge, B, project out from the post that much farther than the upper one. It shuts then Just like a wagon rolling down hill. The lower hinge, B, must be eight inches from slot to slot. Pure and Cool Water for Poultry. Stone drinking fountains are the best for watering fowls having no access to a running stream. If placed in a shady place in the house, the water will keep cool longer in a stone vessel than in one of tin. Fresh clean water is as important for the health oi a flock of fowls as wholesome food. Currant* and Goo*eberrio*. These valuable fruits are grown with great ease, and need only to be kept free from weeds. New plants are readily obtained by making cuttings in the autumn, six inches long, which may be plantea at once, or kept in the cellar in moist sand, and planted In the spring. The plants need renewing evers six or eight years. Better fruit Is grown on young, than on old bushes. To secure large crops, the bushes have to be pretty severely pruned each year. The rust or mildew of the gooseberry is now quite completely controlled by spraying the bushes with a solution of potassium sulphide, one ounce to two gallons of water. Farm Note*. The comb of the fowls is a true index to their health. If the comb is bright red it indicates that the fowl is in a healthy condition, but it pale or dark it shows that there is something wrong. Management Is as Important as capital on a farm. With good tpanagement a farm should pay well, but there is no surer method of losing money than to invest it in a farm and pot know how tb nqanage.it. If you did not harvest an ice 'crop last winter makd a dumb waiter to work in your well thi# summer. Or make a simple windlass>to lower the eream and cutter down the well, the former to keep from getting too sour, and the latter to harden for market Crimson clover has not given as good results with farmers as was expected. The reason is that they cut it when in bloom, expecting it to grow again, when, in fact, It is annual and not a biennfial\,plant It should be sown in the fall in preference to spring The mechanical arrangement of the soil determines its fertility. The fineness of the soil is important The greater the tumber of soil grains in a given space the greater the amount of air space, because the small grains, being light arrange themselves more loosely than the heavier or larger ones.l

If you try the feeding of wheat, says the Philadelphia Inquirer, in order to find a better market than the mill or the warehouse oilers, better not feed it by itself, but dilute it with soaked corn or corn meal, This will make ,a ration which hogs will fatten on rapidly, and which cannot injure them.

DOES AWAY WITH THE HIRED MAN.

EFFECTIVE WINDOW FLY TRAP.

SELF-CLOSING GATE.