Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — OUR RURAL READERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR RURAL READERS.

SOMETHING HERE THAT WILL INTEREST THEM. How to Make a Reservoir for Irrigation Purposes—Crossing Old Races of Fowls Not Always Profitable—The New Double Horseshoe-Notes. Windmill Irrigation. Wind-pump irrigation will be depended upon more and more wherever the rainfall is apt to be deflcient. The accompanying illustration taken from a photograph, represents a section of one of the many reservoirs in Meade County in Southwest Kansas which have been used satisfactorily for some time. The pump is larger thau the average in this locality, having-jt 12Inch cylinder, a 12-inch discharge»pipe and a 10-inch stroke; it lifts the water 14 feet at the rate of 175 gallons per minute.

The preparation of the reservoir Is most important, and in order to assist any who contemplate such an addition to their farm improvements, I wiU tell how I made mine. Select a site higher than the ground to be watered. Lay out the reservoir corresponding in capacity to the power of the pump. The pump must be capable of filling It in two or three days. Remove all sod, placing it beyond the limits of the walls. Do not use it in forming the embankment. Then plow and scrape, dumping where the wall of the reservoir is wanted. Continue until the work is completed, driving over the wall. Leave the inside sloping so the waves will not Injure it When the excavation Is of the desired size plow the bottom and pulverize thoroughly. Hitch a team to a block, road scraper or other suitable object turn in the water and begin to puddle by driving along one edge and continuing until the whole surface Is puddled. This will cause a precipitation of sediment which will fill the pores of the soil and enable It to hold water quite well. The bottom will then be 12 to 18 inches lower than the surface of the ground outside, but that much water must always be left in the reservoir to preserve the puddling, for If It gets dry or freezes the work must be done over again. If the reservoir is small, say 30x50x3 feet, some dirt for the wall must be obtained from the outside. An outlet can be made of four 2-lnch planks long enough to reach through the wall. Saw the inner end sloping and provide It with a valve made of 2-inch board, and on the same prin-

clple as the valve in an ordinary pump. —E. D. Smith, in American Agriculturist Sweet Potato Plants. The bedding of seed sweet potatoes in spring is quite a simple affair, yet it is highly Important in order to get the best results, that it be done right and well done at that. Make an ordl-. nary hotbed with any rapidly fermenting manure, directs Farm News, level it down, raking the top even; pile down your potatoes in center of bed, then place them carefully, one potato at a time, as close as possible without them actually touching one another. Then put above them six Inches of loose, dry earth, woods-mould preferred. The larger potatoes may be split In two, lengthwise, and laid cut side down, among the others. Water the beds every week (washing day) with good strong soapsuds, the stronger and dirtier they are the better for the potatoes. If a crust forms or bakes on the surface, keep it well fined (broken up) by hand. Don’t have less than six inches of mellow earth above them, or your slips may be too short to set out well. Never set out the slips in very wet weather, puddling the roots or watering them. If you water them, pour a little water In the hole with the slips, then fill in on top with dry earth.

Det Subsoilins Go Down Deep. The deeper we can penetrate down into the soil with the plow the more plant food we can draw up, and the greater quantity of water we can store there. Every rain storm now avails us very little, if the hard pan is formed a foot below the surface. It soon runs off, and disappears. The plant food that is buried up in the hard pan cannot be utilized by the roots of the crops, and a great deal of loss is experienced in this way. The question of Inventing a plow that will penetrate from two to three feet below the surface and stir the soil up thoroughly every spring is very important, and one that will have a direct bearing upon the future of our agriculture. Meanwhile, we must break up the hard pan beneath our plowed fields the best we can. Our present subsoil plows partly solve the difficulty, and many of them run so hard that it almost requires steam to haul them across a field of ordinary compactness. Crows and Growing Corn. Crows and the corn field do not seem to have been on intimate terms last year, at least with E. W. 8., who wrote the American Cultivator: “I planted four or five acres of corn on a field that had always been the favorite camping ground of crows. They annually pulled a quarter of the plants. Last year, after planting the corn and before it came up, I bought a 30-cent bottle of strychnine, dissolved contents in hot water and after cooling, added enough cold water to cover a peck of corn and let it remain in the solution two days. The corn was then sown broadcast over the field. The trows were constant visitors before sowing the corn, apparently expecting a rich feast as soon as the young plants

appeared above ground. For two days after not a crow was to be seen on that field; on the third day, two were seen to alight, but they made a very short stop. Not one was known to sample the corn and in hoeing not a stem was found pulled.” Crossing Old Races of Fowls. Fashion and the whims of showroom judges have Influenced one way or another the modeling of types and choice of colors for the fancy fowl, says the Orange Judd Farmer. Many old races,, when kept puro, are really fine in appearance and valuable in productive qualities; but often when two pure old races are crossed, the product of the union of the two seems, after the first cross, not so productive as either of the parent breeds, and the appearance of the cross is course, never to be depended on for any specially desired points. Tho illustrations that accompany this article present portraits of two old races .of geese—the

Embden, tae famous goose of the Germans, and the Toulouse, the splendid French breed, both grand races when kept true. In the third picture is shown a specimen which suggests, coarsely put together, the points of both, and probably the result of crossing both races. It fails to show tho characteristics of the breed, nnd we should judge would make a farmer poor'though it might win money for fanciers. -v Setting Fences in Spring. Spring Is the best time to make fences of any kind. The ground is soft for digging the holes In which to set posts, and after they are set there is time for the soil to compact before winter. If posts are set in the fall it is very hard to keep the fence straight during the first winter, as the posts will be lifted by freezing or blown over by heavy winds In early spring. When frost Is out of the boll the best made fall fence will need more or less care. It is better to leave the making of the fence until spring. It can be done before the soil Is fit to be plowed or work,ed In any way, and when other work is not pressing. Early Decay of Fruit Trees. Fruit trees planted when the country was new were much longer lived than those planted now. We well remember seeing old apple tree? that were never grafted, which had sound trunks and bore large crops of indifferent fruit when they were 50 to 60 years from seed. It Is not alone because they were seedlings that they were thus long lived. It was many years In some places after fruit began to be grown before the tree borer made Its appearance. When It did come tho older trees had hard, thick bark, which offered a poorer place for the borer eggs to be deposited, and so the older trees escaped. While the country was new snow lay more evenly on the ground, not only protecting the roots from deep freezing, but filling the soil with water as a reservoir against summer droughts.

A Donble Horseshoe. The accompanying cut illustrates a shoe that is specially adapted to horses for training and racing. It is made in two sections, one light, the other heavier. The light section is permanently nailed to the hoof, and the heavy section is put on while the horse is in training. It not only gives the weight desired in training, but preserves the

sharp edge of the light section, which Is needed to prevent slipping. It is claimed that this invention will also lessen the expense of shoeing, rendering It unnecessary to change as often as is done with the old style shoe. The illustration is taken from the Scientific American. Agriculture aa a Science. The science of agriculture is in a great degree founded on experience. It is therefore of consequence that every farmer should know what has been done and what is doing by others engaged in the same ocupation, and that he should impart to others the fruits of his experiments and observations. Sell Leghorns Early. A cross-bred Leghorn will produce fine broilers, and even a pure-bred Leghorn chick Is excellent, but they shoujd be sold by the time they reach twenty-four ounces, as they do not grow as rapidly as the larger breeds after they are eight or ten weeks old. A Pear to Beat Them AIL A California fruit-grower is reported to have originated a pear that will keep as long as the Baldwin apple. If the pear ranks as high among pears as the Baldwin apple does among apples, the originator has struck it rich.

IRRIGATION BY WIND POWER.

EMBDEN GOOSE. TOULOUSE GOOSE. EMBDEN-TOULOUSE CROSS.

THE DOUBLE HORSESHOE.