Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1894 — HEALRURAL READING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HEALRURAL READING

WILL BE FOUND JN THIS DEPARTMENT. Method of Constructing a Special Bonding hi Which to Evaporate Fruit—A Potato Planter That Can Be Made for •*— Cart for Slope. A Home-Made Fruit Evaporator. The process of evaporation Is the cheapest known method of preserving indefinitely, for future use or for market, such fruits as raspberries, blackberries, cherries, apricots, plums, or apples, says the Orange Judd Farmer. In a season of plenty, it enables one to preserve in a condensed and readily available form, fruit which would otherwise be sold at a low price, or allowed to decay, home Excellent forms of evaporators are upon the market, and may be obtained ready to set up for immediate use. However, when several acres of berries are to be evaporated, or fruit is evaporated for other parties, It is test to put up a building especially

for the purpose, and to a person skillful with tools the expense need not be great. The exterior of a convenient and cheap form of evaporator is shown in Fig. 1. This is large enough to evaporate 100 bushels of raspberries every twenty-four hour?. The building Is eight feet wide and twenty-two feet long. The sides and roof may be simply boarded up aud down, or finished as elaborately ps desired. If possible, locate the fruit drying house upon a sidehill. Build the foundation wall at the end farthest from the hill nearly five feet high. Make the side walls two feet thick which will give the enclosure a diameter of lour feet. For a building of this size a common box cast-iron stove, one foot square and two and a half feet long will, with dry wood for fuel, furnish all the heat necessary, but it requires almost constant attention, and the heat will not be uniform. Hence, if possible, put in one of the low-down, anthracite coal base-burners. An interior view of the evaporator is given in Fig. 1. The evaporator chutes are built,directly over the furnace room, and their size should cor-‘ respond'to the size of' the sie.es.. or. trays, the largest of which are ' four feet square When these are uniformly covered with a bushel of berries each, it requires considerable strength to handle them quickly, as the little drop doors should not remain open longer than is absolutely necessary, lest too much heat escape. The drop doois, n, are five inches wide, aud each space will admit two sieves. Tne strip to which the doors are hinged is one and a half inches wide. Two chutes are shown in the sketch. Often three are erected side by side. The wire for a four-foot square sieve of the best galvanized

material, costs about 75 cents. It comes in rolls of different widths. A long box about one foot deep will prove convenient to throw the evaporated fruit into direct from the sieves, from which it is readily shoveled into bags, boxes, or other receptacles. This room should be well lighted, and racks may be placed along the walls for holding picking trays, baskets and other things when in use. Homemade Potato Planter. J. N. Frye in the Ohio Farmer describes a potato planter which is very simple, and yet does its work completely. It consists of a frame supported on machine wheels, which can be bought for price of old iron. 'Wheels with a r.m of cogs are preferred. The shoe is made of quarter-inch Bteel, eight inches wide at heel and tapering off narrower, and is cut or bent of a corn planter shoe or hoe. The rear should be sjkead apart (the two being first

riveted together) so as to allow the potato to pass through to the ground. This shoe is supported by four braces riveted to the shoe and bolted on opposite sides of the frame, thus allowing it to swing. The chain, which can be taken up or let out at will, pulls the shoe and also regulates the depth of planting. The driver sits on the box, which Bhould hold at least onn bushel. ' The box is raised above the axle, thus allowing room for the driver’s feet, and makes it easier dropping. The markfer is adjustable and can be changed to either side without getting off. The plan'for getting the potatoes the proper distance apart is quite simple also. A short piece of fence wire with a ring bent on each end is bent down oveY the rim of the cogwheel; a bolt is placed through the rings and between two cogs, then the tap put no tight The number of

bolt* needed will depend upon the distance apart that you wish to plant New fasten a spring on the frame so that it will touch these bolts, and the dropper is told just when to drop Anyone who can handle tools fairly well can build this dropper. It will cost uot to exceed $2. How Flanta Get Nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most valuable element of fertility in soil, is tbe most abundant one in nature and is about tbe hardest odo to get in a form available for plant food The air we breathe is about four-fifths nitrogen, the other fifth being oxygen. In breathing we use the oxygen and dis ard the nitrogen. Pure oxygen would be too st ong, and we should be killed by breathing it, and nitrogen has been regarded as merely a diluting material. All attempts to secure this nitrogen from the air in a shape in which it would be available for plant food have failed, but it has been discovered within a few years that the leguminous plants, cloverst peas, beans, vetches, etc., can grow without being supplied with nitrogen if supplied with phosphoric acid and potash. It is now believed that the plants get their supply of atmospheric nitrogen through the agency of bacteria or microbes, very low forms of life, certain varieties of which are found where leguminous plants have been grown. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that crops of any of the leguminous plants plowed under when in full bloom will fertilize the soil and enable it to produce good crops sooner and cheaper than any known ageucy. For this reason those who own farms which are at all sterile in the North should grow clovers, and those in the South should grow cow peas. The study of farm chemistry is a very interesting one, and we hope to interest our readers in it in a series of articles concerning the myst ries of •green th’ngs growing” which we shall publish in future numbers.— American Farmer. Barrel Cart. Some time ago a correspondent of the Rural New Yorker told about his barrel on wheels, which he used for carrying swill and slops Irom the kitchen door. As a barrel cart affords a universally needed conven-

ience, the journal mentioned gave an illustrated description of an arrangement made in the West: As will be seen, tbe hpoks can be placed on any barrel. All the operator nas to do is to back up his wheels and “catch on.” It is a great convenience In hauling heavy barrels. The Importance of Thinning Crop*. I am satisfied that but lew farmers know tbe importance of thinning. They seem to think nothing needs thinning but corn. One bought some laspberries of me and said: “Come look at my vines and tell me what is the matter with them; they are a good kind but won’t bear.” Hooked and saw at once I said: “How many stalks have you in each hilly” He laughed and said about forty. I said; “What is the use of carrying your brains around wilh you if you don’t use them?” There are ten strawberry plants whe.e there should De one as a rule. One good, thrifty, well-formed blackberry or raspberry stalk is worth a dozen over-crowded, thriftless, limbless ones. I once planted a big potato whole to get big potatoes, and got a big hill lull of little potatoes. It would have been all the same if I had planted a big ear of corn whole in a hill and expected big corn. Potatoes should be thinned to one or two eyes before planting. Few farmers do it-. To thin my crop as I ought has taken more nerve than anything I have undertaken on the farm.—W. L. Anderson in Farm and Home.

Keeping the Grass N>ut of Corn. Says W. J. Kirk, of corn culture: “Commence working early and don’t stop until all grass an l weeds are destroye 1, for when cultivating the corn :s the time for the farmer to prepare his ground for the c o s of the futur . If the farmer has a grassy corn field at husking time he cannot expect his oats to be a full crop wth the grass ' choking them out, nor will his wheat be better, while his timothy ana clover will be a failure. He will wonder why, but it w 11 be ther. sultof not cultivating his corn mo e thoroughly, espec ally at the last working- It is economy to pay harvest wages at the last working rather than miss having cone it* ” - Farm Notes. Half a teaspoonful of sugar scattered over a dying fire is better than kerosene, and has no element of danger! There is no reason why every farmer should not keep bees Honey costs nothing, and is a valuable product, considering the price it usually brings in comparison with the small expense incurred in its production. A dairy writer says you ' bad better begin dairying with two cows and a strong desire to thoroughly-'learn the business than with ten coWs and a confident feeling that you cab succeed as well as old hands in the business. an apple grower thinks that !u setting an orchard we should get such apples as are best suited to our soil and climate, and are In demand ?n the markets, and not fill our orchards with only such as suit our taste at home. , Much is said of late about sterilizing milk before use. Better far to look more after the health and surroundings of the cows, that their milk he f ee from all objectionable conditions, in which case no germkilling process is called tor.

FIG. 1.--EXTERIOR VIEW OF EVAPORATOR

FIG. 2.—-INTERIOR VIEW OF EVAPORATOR.

HOMEMADE POTATO PLANTER.

CART FOR CARRYING SLOPS.