Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — FACTS FOB FARMERS. CARRYING FRUIT WITHOUT BRUISIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FACTS FOB FARMERS.

CARRYING FRUIT WITHOUT BRUISIN.

{helpful suggestions for THE AGRICULTURISTS. iMuch False Economy in Farmin* — Hen-House for Summer or WinterPail for Feedin* Calves—Simple Device for Pullin* Posts—Notes. For Feeding Calves. ▲ trough fastened into a pen Is not desirable for feeding calves, as it cannot be as thoroughly scalded out as it should be. Moreover, pouring milk into any receptacle In a pen in which there is a calf is hazardous business, the operation usually resulting in

spilled milk. An arrangement with a feeding pail is shown in the illustration from the American Agriculturist The back board is hinged to the front of the on the side marked a. The pall can thus be set into the holder on the outside of the pen and the holder swung a quarter of the way round and hooked, thus bringing the pail inside the pen. When removed, a button keeps the calf from getting his head out through the opening. Such a contrivance can easily be made by anyone handy with tools, and will be found a considerable saving of time as well as feed. Tuberculin on Healthy Cows. Careful tests were conducted by Prof. James Law last winter at Cornell Experiment Station. “Taking all in all, there is nothing in the records of temperature that would indicate, either at the time of the test or later, that tuberculin had in any way proved inimical to the general health. The decline in milk production which followed Is claimed to have been not more than the natural falling off. No effect of tuberculin was observed on Increase or decline of fat in the milk.” Professor Law concludes: “So far as there is evidence before us, everything points to .the harmlessness of a single test dose on a sound animal system, even if such dose were repeated several times.” For Pullin* PostsA horse, boy and one man, with the device illustrated herewith, can pull up 250 posts a day. Take a 2-lnch oak plank, b, 10 inches wide and 3(4 feet long, and cut a V-shaped notch in one end. Set this lifting plank against the post, c, as shown in the illustration. Fasten a log chain, a, to the post near

the ground, and pass it up over the end by allowing it to rest in the notch d at top. Hitch the horse to the chain, let him pull sjeadlly, and the post comes out without difficulty. When the ground is very soft, as we often find it in early spring, the operator will experience considerable inconvenience from having the plank driven deeply into the mud by the great pressure. This can be obviated by placing a short, stout plank upon the ground in such a position that the lower end of the upright may rest upon it—A. A. Rieff, Minnesota. False Economy in Farming. A man who understands his business Is Farmer Streak, but somehow he never seems to get ahead very fast He is considered a saving man, too. If a friction match is wasted, Streak will lament the loss, although it does not seem to worry him that wood enough for several cords of matches has been used each year in driving the sap from the green stove wood which half the time is the only kind he provides. A quarter’s worth of powder for the boys to celebrate the glorious Fourth he considers a sinful waste, but ten times that amount consumed in his pipe Is nothing of the kind, says the Massachusetts Ploughman. He rakes the hay field as with a comb to secure the last wisp of hay, but he loses dollars in its value by cutting too late in the season. Of things bought at the store not so much as a pinch of salt is wasted, but last year he alowed to decay enough early apples to have paid his taxes, although the fruit would have sold readily in Boston. Papers, books and church dues he has never felt able to afford, but he has a little mortgage on his farm as the result of endorsing a note. That is Farmer Streak; careful with cents and careless with dollars. Do you know him?

Culture of Beans. The bean leaf is easily injured by contact with soil, and especially - that which is wet The blossom is still more sensitive, and It is almost Impossible to cultivate after the bean has blossomed without getting eomq dirt on the blossom and making the beans rusty. If the work is thoroughly done up to blossoming time, the crop will ripen and will have stew rusted beans. No work should be done in the bean field while the bean leaves are wet with either dews or rain. The'Potato Bug’s Diet. Many people who are not botanists do not imagine that the potato and the tomato are at all related. But the potato beetle is a thorough botanist, at

least a* far as members of the adto> num family are concerned. egg plapt is included in his depredations, and gardeners who grow either tomatoes or egg plants near where the potato is grown must look out for the ravages of the beetle. The early potato vines die down early in July, and the horde of beetles from these are obliged to seek other plants on which to feed. a Farm House Ventilation. The cellar must be ventilated directly into the base of the chimney. The kitchen chimney is best, for it always has a draft both summer and winter. This is easily arranged by having an opening eight inches square near the bottom, which will also serve as a means by which soot and ashes may be removed from the chimney. When repairing my house some years ago, I arranged it in this way, with the result that the cellar is entirely purified from the close and unwholesome air that seemed to pervade it before, especially during the winter season. In fact it accomplishes, to some extent, ventilation of the whole house, for by this means the cellar air never ascends to the rooms, but instead the air from the house is drawn downward into the cellar and finally passes out through the chimney.

A Summer or Winter Hen-House. Here is a device for converting a summer henhouse into a winter one, and vice versa, which is simple, cheap and effective. The house is built in the usual way, the walls consisting largely of Ix 3 vertical strips 2 Inches apart. The device is for closing or opening these 2-inch cracks at pleasure. It is applied to an end wall, for example, as follows: Go inside the house, cut other Ix 3 strips of proper length, set them up against and coinciding with the corresponding strips of the wall, the top end of each being cut to correspond with slope of roof, and lacking about 1 inch of reaching the rafter to which the wall strips are nailed. Fasten 8 or 10 of these strips

securely into a frame or sash (see cut), by nailing the battens bb along their ends at top and bottom. Then nail on the cleats a a at top and bottom to hold the sash in place. The strips of the sash now coinciding with those of the wall, the 2-inch cracks between them are open, but by sliding the sash to the left 1(4 inches the cracks are closed. The sash c in cut is slid back or closed, d is open. The cracks may thus be closed or opened, entirely or partially, at pleasure, by sliding the sash back or forth. Have a Few Sheep on the Farm. Every farmer should have a few sheep in order to save much of the material grown that should be wasted. Sheep will eat a great many plants which cattle reject, and they graze close to the ground. Young and tender weeds are delicacies to sheep, and they therefore assist in ridding the fields of such pests. A small flock of mutton sheep should be kept, if for no better purpose than to supply the family with choice meat. Springs for the Fruit Wagon. In large commercial orchards it is well understood that the jolting of fruit when carried in the solid, springless box wagon causes Injury, entailing great loss to the selling value of the fruit The cut from Farm and Home Illustrates a simple method of arranging springs with a wagon body sufficiently sensitive for the carrying of the most delicate fruit The springs may be made of vertical coiled wire, securely fastened to the cross piece which is attached to the underside of the body of the wagon and held in place by uprights at the ends. Fruit

may easily be drawn for miles and but little bruising occurs when thus supported and carried. Notes. The stable should be protected from flies and insects with wire screens. If this is done, the animals will secure more rest and afford a larger profit. A kicking cow, or one that requires much labor and attention when being milked, should be gotten rid of. Such cows are nuisances and make the dairyman's work disagreeable. Oats when cut In the milky stage (before the grain is ripe) make an excellent ration for horses. The nutritious matter is arrested in the stalks, and both straw and grain are relished. A cow will shrink in her milk because of lack of a supply of drinking water sooner than from any other cause, and it may be safely stated that insufficient water when the cows are In the pasture is a very frequent occurrence on farms. Market gardeners find that the pea crop returns as large a profit as any that can be grown so easily. They sell It while green, and for the very earliest get very high prices. The pea is hardy, and the farmer who has light, warm soil has as good a chance as the marked gardener. — : To have thistles appear in oats is to have a risk of losing the oats or raising more thistles. The remedy is to go into the oat field and cut out every thistle with a knife. If the thistles are too numerous to do this, then the best thing that can be done is to plow the crop under and kill out the thistles by putting the land in potatoes or keeping the field clean by eultlvation.

FEEDING PAIL.

A POST-PULLER.

A CONVERTIBLE HEN-HOUSE.